"During the past thirty years, people from all the civilised countries of the earth have
consulted me. I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among all my patients in the
second half of life-that is to say, over thirty-five-there has not been one whose problem
in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that
every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age
have given to their followers, and none of them has been really healed who did not
regain his religious outlook."
That statement is so significant I want to repeat it in bold type.
Dr. Carl Jung said:
"During the past thirty years, people from all the civilised countries of the earth have
consulted me. I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among all my patients in the
second half of hie-that is to say, over thirty-five-there has not been one whose problem
in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that
every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age
have given to their followers, and none of them has been really healed who did not
regain his religious outlook."
[*] Kegar Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd.
William James said approximately the same thing: "Faith is one of the forces by which
men live," he declared, "and the total absence of it means collapse."
The late Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest Indian leader since Buddha, would have
collapsed if he had not been inspired by the sustaining power of prayer. How do I know?
Because Gandhi himself said so. "Without prayer," he wrote, "I should have been a
lunatic long ago."
Thousands of people could give similar testimony. My own father-well, as I have already
said, my own father would have drowned himself had it not been for my mother's
prayers and faith. Probably thousands of the tortured souls who are now screaming in
our insane asylums could have been saved if they had only turned to a higher power for
help instead of trying to fight life's battles alone.
When we are harassed and reach the limit of our own strength, many of us then turn in
desperation to God-"There are no atheists in foxholes." But why wait till we are
desperate? Why not renew our strength every day? Why wait even until Sunday? For
years I have had the habit of dropping into empty churches on weekday afternoons.
When I feel that I am too rushed and hurried to spare a few minutes to think about
spiritual things, I say to myself: "Wait a minute, Dale Carnegie, wait a minute. Why all
the feverish hurry and rush, little man? You need to pause and acquire a little
perspective." At such times, I frequently drop into the first church that I find open.
Although I am a Protestant, I frequently, on weekday afternoons, drop into St. Patrick's
Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, and remind myself that I'll be dead in another thirty years,
but that the great spiritual truths that all churches teach are eternal. I close my eyes and
pray. I find that doing this calms my nerves, rests my body, clarifies my perspective, and
helps me revalue my values. May I recommend this practice to you?