Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/251

 SUGGESTION 233

may be, and often is, the result of moral inertia, or of a habit that has enfeebled the will, or of a positive inclination in a wrong direction. This is so often the case that one hesitates to say anything to encourage the deferring of action in response to an appeal. But it is nevertheless true that, if the response is one of thoughtless impulse, a mere nervous reaction under the power of suggestion, its ethical value is naught. The only antidote for an enfeebled will is to stimulate to voluntary action, the rational control of con duct; and an immediate motor reaction induced merely by suggestion only adds to the enfeeblement of the will. There is no curative power, no redemptive virtue in it. One is thus often precipitated into action which is subsequently deplored and can only with difficulty be reconsidered; or committed to a position from which he would gladly recede but cannot without self-stultification ; and so goes on through life embarrassed and morally compromised by the conscious ness of standing in false relations. This exactly describes the situation of thousands who today are enrolled as mem bers of Christian churches ; and, while it enables the churches to make a brave show as to numerical strength, is one of the chief causes of the comparative lack of power of organized Christianity. I make bold to say that the dis astrous results of this false psychological method are more general and more irremediable in the realm of religion than anywhere else.

The very terms of the definition as well as the whole fore going discussion imply that there is an art of suggestion. That art is, consciously or unconsciously, used in a great variety of circumstances in practical life. The huckster vending his wares, the politician seeking votes for his party, the lawyer pleading before a jury, the veteran in vice tempt ing his companion to go astray, the drummer seeking an order, the salesman behind the counter, the advertiser in the newspaper (perhaps this is the field in which the art is most systematically employed and most highly developed), and others in various lines of activity too numerous to mention

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