to think it impossible to show people their mistake and sin without hurting them. “Is it possible to pull out a tooth with- out giving pain? Yes, cocaine and chloroform can allay physical suffering; but there is nothing of the kind for the soul.” Thus I thought, but then immediately said to myself, “No: there is a spiritual chloroform. Here, as in other things, the body has been studied thoroughly, but the soul has not yet been considered. The operation of cutting off a leg or an arm is done with chloroform; whereas the operation of mending a man’s soul is done without, and it hurts. That is why it often does not cure, but only causes a worse illness—that of ill-will. And yet there is a spiritual chloroform, and it is well known; it is always love.”
And that is not all: it is possible to perform a physical operation satisfactorily without chloroform, but the soul is extremely sensitive, and so every operation performed without the anæsthetic of love must always be disastrous. The patients know this, and that they ought to have the chloroform, and they always ask for it; and then the doctors are angry. “What do they want?” they say, as I have said many times. “They ought to be thankful to me for curing them, for cutting out their sores; and they say they don’t want to suffer. They ought to be glad of what I do for them—and they want more.” But the patient won’t listen to
