Lesson 276 The Awakening

Army of Tennessee Chaplain David Chaltas

THE AWAKENING

He was a physician, medical doctor but felt a deeper calling.  He seemed to hear the voice of those known as ‘insane or lunatics’ and wanted to help in some way but wasn’t sure of how.  His opportunity came in 1792 by an appointment as chief physician of Bicetre insane asylum.  Philippe quickly introduced a new policy and innovative practices regarding those classified as lunatics.  Instead of harsh inhumane treatment, he removed the chains and shackles, replacing them with exercise and exposure to the sun.  He forbid bleeding, purging and other forms of cruelty and instead offered moral therapy with compassion, based on his observations and life work.  One particular account regarded a client who had been chained and imprisoned for twenty years for murder.  He had been deprived of the sun and was filthy beyond imagination.  He was a huge man with wild eyes. 

One morning Philippe decided to have the prisoner unshackled and to guide him to the top of the dungeon stairs.  Philippe was not sure how the man would react nor if he would be attacked, but he followed his compassionate heart.  Upon feeling the sun upon his face for the first time in years, the man fell to his needs in gratitude and wept at Philippe’s feet.  After several sessions the man was finally released back into society.

His approach did not sit well with locals who thought his approach was too radical.  They were used to lunatics and the insane being locked up away from society.  His method grew in popularity with patients, along with some staff members and peers, his reputation worsened amongst the people.

One evening after work Philippe was walking home when he was confronted by a mob.  Though he tried to reason with them, their anger grew into aggression and they began shoving him and hitting him.  All would have been lost if not for a well dressed man of above average size who waded into the mob with his cane and fought off the attackers.  He sheltered Philippe with his broad back and took him to the safety of a house.  Upon gazing at his rescuer’s face and the smile of unconditional love, suddenly it dawned upon Philippe that the man was none other than the one he had freed by his compassionate act of guiding him to the sun.  His words and deeds forever the way we offered treatment for the mentally ill.  “I cannot here avoid giving my most decided sufferage in favour of the moral qualities of maniacs. I have no where met, excepting in romances, with fonder husbands, more affectionate parents, more impassioned ... than in the lunatic asylum, during their intervals of calmness and reason.”

Though Philippe was a great man of vision and physician, there is one who is the greatestof all.  His name need not be stated but it is sweeter then the sound of birds chirping in the morning.  He cured by command and healed the body and mind of their impurities simply by his touch or voice.  Examples can be found throughout the New Testament.  Mark 5: 1-20 offered a vivid illustration as to His power.  “They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.  When he had come out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling in the tombs.  Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains, because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him. Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don’t torment me." For he said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" He asked him, "What is your name?" He said to him, "My name is Legion, for we are many."  He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was on the mountainside a great herd of pigs feeding.  All the demons begged him, saying, "Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them." At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea.” Note that the people feared and asked Him to leave!  Amazing how we address things we don’t know! 

Three other accounts of casting out unclean spirits are noted in the Bible.  Many physical healings are also recorded.  But of all his miracles, the greatest is the gift of eternal life.  Friend will you not embrace the Son-shine this very day?  His light will change you forever and you will feel the shackles and chains drop from your being, as you walk in His light.  Wishing to feel the light every minute of the day, I remain the old general.