Page:Swedenborg's Doctrine of Correspondence.djvu/178

172 health and knowledge to give faith in the moments when it can be received."

The so-called "faith-cure" demands treatment as distinct from "mind-cure." In this, prayer is the agency by which a new sphere is created, and this sphere is often strengthened by a cordon of prayers. Dr. Holcombe says of it:

If the healing of the body can be brought about through the states of the mind, prayer as one of the means which powerfully effect the states of mind, must be regarded as a means for accomplishing such result. As practiced by the "faith-healers" it is usually grounded in an utterly false and pernicious notion of the use of prayer, and induces states of enthusiastic persuasion which invite insane and deceiving spirits, whose sphere, if it dislodge the evil spirits flowing into the diseased parts, induces a far more serious disease of the mind. The notion is that the Lord has promised to answer the prayer of faith, and that if we are only firmly