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PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
but changes of character resulting from religious crises and
conversions are of this order.
In the care of souls and in the practice of the art of mental
healing many opportunities are given to see such extraordinary
happenings. It may well be that psychological analysis, by
penetrating into the dark recesses of the mind, liberates some
hidden springs of life, and healing powers are seen to be in
action. But when all that can be done of this kind has been done,
something can still be lacking: something for which the soul of
the sufferer craves—a synthesis, a fuller, clearer vision, a power
of self-expression and self-realisation as yet not attained. But
when a deep spiritual crisis leads to a new surrender, these
greater powers break through. In the spiritual surrender the
gates are opened and the innermost being of the soul is flooded
with vitality. A power from without completes what
psychological help has begun and spiritual treatment has prepared.
Critical examination of what happens in such crises may
yield many different explanations of them; but personal
experience attests that they are the work of spiritual and
supernatural powers. Not by striving but by ceasing to strive, not by
the strength of human nature but by God’s grace, a man is
carried into the lock where he can be raised up—to continue
his journey.
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