FOOTNOTES

“A primrose by a river’s brimA yellow primrose was to him,And it was nothing more.”

“A primrose by a river’s brimA yellow primrose was to him,And it was nothing more.”

“A primrose by a river’s brimA yellow primrose was to him,And it was nothing more.”

“A primrose by a river’s brim

A yellow primrose was to him,

And it was nothing more.”

The same primrose to a Linnæus or an Asa Gray would reveal an unseen world. Conversely, there are some things which cannot affect our physical being except by the way of mystical experience. Striking instances of this sort have been suitably termed by von Hügel “psycho-physical.” They are possible only where there is extraordinary sympathy between the mystical and physical, the latter having been made very completely the servant of the former. Only the mystic, or the specialist in the use of the Mystic Sense, is eligible for such experiences. The tremendously real fellowship with the Risen Lord of the disciples was of an ecstatic or psycho-physicalorder. It degrades the Resurrection manifestations to overemphasize their physical reality as though this, rather than the mystical, were the important feature. Their dominant note is spiritual. The physical perception came through the mystical. The experience of the disciples could not be reproduced in after times with other men, for the necessary conditions were wanting. Here and there among spiritual giants there is a well authenticated psycho-physical experience, but it is of phenomenal rather than of spiritual or moral value. And yet it is within our power to see the Christ as really and effectively as the Apostles did, though not wholly after the same manner.

St. Paul did not begin his life of faith when he had his psycho-physical experience on the road to Damascus. He reached there a turning point in its history. He was converted, turning his mystic powers in a new direction. Those who were with him were not sufficiently developed to see all that he saw or hear all that he heard.[28]His vision of Jesus was momentary but his life of faith was continuous. If faith was at its beginning when Abraham madehis venture, it reached an illustrative and inviting climax when St. Paul made his. It was greater for St. Paul to espouse the cause of the Christ than to have a vision of Jesus. The phenomenal or extraordinary does not always culminate in such courage and devotion as his. It was because he was a mystic that he had his vision, not because he had a vision that he became a mystic. The Apostles who knew Jesus in the flesh had a lesser opportunity for faith than St. Paul who saw Him but once and then after psycho-physical fashion, and who never apprehended Him with all his bodily senses like those who saw “with their eyes” and “beheld,” and whose “hands handled” the Word of Life. It was fitting that St. Paul should give Christianity the impetus which made it a world religion. The highest development of faith has assigned to it the biggest undertaking. St. Peter with undeveloped intellectual gifts and faith based on sight could not do what St. Paul with highly developed reason and singular faith could do. The Risen Jesus Himself declared that faith dependent upon physical or psycho-physical experience is of a lower order than that in which the mystic sense is independent ofphenomenal action of the bodily sense—Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

The great multitude of mortals will always be outside of psycho-physical experiences. There is no religious loss in the fact. Rather the contrary. That which gives the soul its permanent hold upon moral and spiritual realities and regard for them in mystics is not their rare psycho-physical experiences, but the same exercise of the Mystic Sense in the daily round of commonplace religious duty which is open to every human being, with like wonderful results upon character. A phenomenal spiritual occurrence in the case of one who was not living a religious life would be a mere wonder, perhaps even productive of spiritual harm.[29]Such experiences are never to be sought for. If they come their peril is not less than their inspiration.

“The trivial round, the common task,Will furnish all we need to ask,Room to deny ourselves, a roadTo bring us daily nearer God.”

“The trivial round, the common task,Will furnish all we need to ask,Room to deny ourselves, a roadTo bring us daily nearer God.”

“The trivial round, the common task,Will furnish all we need to ask,Room to deny ourselves, a roadTo bring us daily nearer God.”

“The trivial round, the common task,

Will furnish all we need to ask,

Room to deny ourselves, a road

To bring us daily nearer God.”

It is a great barrier to religious effort among the crowd, for those living the life of faith, to give the impression that their experience is one of a series of ecstasies. It is no more so than is that of a student of science or higher mathematics. It is the life of faith open to all men which forms the religious life of the best men and the best religious life of all men—the constant placing of God before the Mystic Sense in a way not dissimilar from that in which the scientist approaches his hypothesis.

“Think not the Faith by which the just shall liveIs a dead creed, a map correct of heaven,Far less a feeling fond and fugitive,A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given;It is an affirmation and an actThat bids eternal truth be present fact.”

“Think not the Faith by which the just shall liveIs a dead creed, a map correct of heaven,Far less a feeling fond and fugitive,A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given;It is an affirmation and an actThat bids eternal truth be present fact.”

“Think not the Faith by which the just shall liveIs a dead creed, a map correct of heaven,Far less a feeling fond and fugitive,A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given;It is an affirmation and an actThat bids eternal truth be present fact.”

“Think not the Faith by which the just shall live

Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven,

Far less a feeling fond and fugitive,

A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given;

It is an affirmation and an act

That bids eternal truth be present fact.”

Though the Mystic Sense is not the sole religious faculty, it holds the primacy here as in every distinctively human activity. Used with reason its operation becomes reasonable or rational faith. Its opposite is not reason but sight, that is to say, the unaided findings of the bodily senses of which sight, being the most princely, is representative. Hence St. Paul’s contrast—wewalk by faith, not by sight. Even here it is hardly fair to say there is antagonism. Sight is the enemy of faith only when it refuses to be an ally. Sight sees, faith in-sees and therefore fore-sees. Sight has boundaries which it cannot pass. Faith has horizons which retreat as it advances.

Faith has become increasingly rational as the world has grown older and experience has been added to experience. Its explorations in the world of ideals have been more frequent and daring with the advance of time. Consequently the man of to-day makes his flights thitherwards with a fulness of assurance on rational grounds or grounds of high probability which would have been impossible to an Abraham. If the triumphs open to faith have multiplied, so have the deterrent forces holding it back or set in battle array to thwart or otherwise impair it. The commonest injury wrought upon faith is the deflecting of it from the worthy to the unworthy or less worthy. If a man’s Mystic Sense, acute in other directions, is dormant or sluggish in religion, the reason is usually to be found, I think, in circumstances analogous to those which make astudent ofbelles lettres, for instance, indifferent to science, or a philosopher careless of the exploits of commerce, cases of which are not wanting. The mind finds higher pleasure among certain persons in being exclusive and technical than in being catholic. So the Mystic Sense can fall short of its highest employment simply because there is not in its possessor the will to employ it commensurately with its capacity. The explanation why some men are not actively religious must be sought elsewhere than in the contention that they are short a faculty. The Mystic Sense, which by virtue of their humanity they possess, is not employed by them religiously from whatever reason—defective interest, prejudice, antagonism, environment. Nevertheless the same inner sense is pushed to its fullest activity in other directions. The faculty which by a daring leap fixes on the evolutionary hypothesis, or with imaginative subtlety suggests the plot of a novel, is the self-same one which enables us to say, “Our Father, which art in heaven.” The consideration of vicious men who are irreligious does not come within the purview of this discussion. Religion and vice are mutually exclusive,though piety and immorality are not, so that we have the anomaly of immoral character revelling in pious practices.

One thing remains to be said. The use of the Mystic Sense in religion, more perhaps than in any other sphere, cannot begin and end in individualism. It is requisite for each to submit the results of his mystic excursions and explorations to the conclusions of the most advanced religion. Mystic observation and experience must have the support and purification of universal mystic experience that will distinguish between the false and the true, phantasm and reality, and deliver the individual from eccentricity and extravagance. In other words, a church is more necessary than a chamber of commerce, a national government, or an academy of science. Mystic experience must be organized like all other experience. As the world grows older and man wiser, organization develops and broadens. National societies and alliances become international and a parliament of man seems a reasonable goal toward which to press. Human life in its individual aspect finds its fullest freedom in organization and not apart from it. The idea of the CatholicChurch is as old as Christianity. One Body, one spirit, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, said St. Paul before Christianity was fifty years old—and the use of the Mystic Sense independently of organized Christian experience cannot hope to reach valuable results. Reformers of religion are eccentrics and detract from their service so far as they ignore the religious experience of the ages by assuming exclusive positions or lifting a doctrine out of its setting. Our Lord never broke with the faith of His fathers. His last act was to partake of the Passover according to the law. It was the Jews who broke with Him. He came not to destroy but to fulfill. The only setting for any one part of the truth is all the rest of the truth. The only relationship big enough for any one man is all the rest of mankind. When at last the disturbed and broken Christian Church comes to rest in the large scheme of unity planned by its Founder, then the mystical life of man will gain a power and splendor which now is but a vision and a hope.

This concludes my endeavor to credit the Mystic Sense with that dignity andposition of importance which belongs to it by right. The attempt is crude and the brilliant vision which I had at the beginning of my task has become dimmer under the process of putting it into words. Whatever has been written stands as a contribution of thought and experience which cannot be of much value until it has been purified from the dross of individualism through the findings of religion and science, and lost in the great volume of truth to which I submit it with reverence and loyalty.

FOOTNOTES[1]It is only partially true to say that concept follows upon percept. Their action is simultaneous more nearly than consecutive. Conceptualism as a complete system cannot perhaps stand but in its origin it was a healthy reaction against both nominalism and realism, as well as a mediator combining the good in both.[2]Heb. xi:1.[3]Von Hügel,The Mystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, p. 264.[4]Mk. x:23.[5]Mk. x:24, 25.[6]Ψυχικὸς δὲ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ Θεοῦ; μωρία γὰρ αὐτῷ ἐστι, καὶ οὐ δύναται γνῶναι, ὅτι πνευματικῶς ἀνακρίνεται. 1 Cor. ii, 14.[7]“True priority and superiority lies, not with one of these constituents against the other, but with the total subjective—objective interaction or resultant, which is superior, and indeed gives their place and worth to, those interdependent parts.”—Von Hügel’sMystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, p. 114.[8]Tyrrell’sChristianity at the Cross Roads, p. 240.[9]Quoted byVon Hügel, vol. ii, p. 18.[10]Charlotte Perkins Stetson’sIn this our World.[11]The Mystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, pp. 57, 58.[12]Royce’sThe World and the Individual, First Series, p. 58.[13]SeeMacfie’sScience, Matter and Immortality, an admirable volume on this entire topic.[14]Darwin’sAutobiography.[15]SirJoseph Larmorin his Wilde Lecture (1908) quoted by SirOliver LodgeinReason and Belief, p. 172.[16]Reason and Belief, p. 181.[17]The Mystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, p. 265.The author quotesKant—“we can be mediately conscious of an apprehension as to which we have no distinct consciousness.” “The field of our obscure apprehensions,—that is, apprehensions and impressions of which we are not directly conscious, although we can conclude without doubt that we have them—is immeasureable, whereas clear apprehensions constitute but a very few points within the complete extent of our mental life.”[18]“Literature consists of those writings which interpret the meanings of nature and life in words of charm and power, touched with the personality of the author, in artistic forms of permanent interest.”—Van Dyke’sThe Spirit of America, p. 242.[19]“The wealthy class in Rome and all over Italy began to conform to that conventional code of propriety by which the rich seem always destined, in the progress of civilization, to become more and more enslaved, till finally they lost all feeling for what is serious and genuine in life. The new generation followed their example with alacrity, and preached the new conventions with a passionate vehemence which must have been highly exasperating to those of their seniors who were still attached to the simplicity of primitive manners. Amongst those who protested against this development there was, however, one prominent figure of the younger age, Marcus Porcius Cato, a man of rich and noble family, and a descendant of Cato the Censor. His puritan spirit revolted against the tyranny of fashion to which the golden youth of Rome wished to make him conform; he would walk in the streets without shoes or tunic, to accustom himself, as he said, only to blush at things which were shameful in themselves, and not merely by convention.”—Ferrero’sGreatness and Decline of Rome, vol. i, pp. 135, 136.[20]Kipling’sIf—.[21]Doncaster’sHeredity in the Light of Recent Research(1910), p. 113 ff.[22]Crashaw.[23]A hypothesis receives passively our quest: God moves to meet us.[24]Newmanin hisDream of Gerontiusendows the disembodied soul with perceptive powers analogous to those of the body, saying only the sense of sight. Thus:Soul.“I cannot of thy music rightly sayWhether I hear, or touch, or taste the tones.”... “How comes it thenThat I am hearing still, and taste, and touch,Yet not a glimmer of that princely senseWhich binds ideas in one, and makes them live?”Angel.“Nor touch nor taste, nor hearing hast thou now;Thou livest in a world of signs and types,The presentation of most holy truths,Living and strong, which now encompass thee.A disembodied soul, thou hast by rightNo converse with aught beside thyself;But, lest so stern a solitude should loadAnd break thy being, in mercy are vouchsafedSome lower measures of perception,Which seem to thee, as though through channels brought,Through ear, or nerves, or palate, which are gone....How, even now, the consummated SaintsSee God in heaven, I may not explicate;Meanwhile, let it suffice thee to possessSuch means of converse as are granted thee,Though, till that Beatific Vision, thou art blind.”The idea underlying the Beatific Vision is the complete apprehension of God by the complete man. Sight is chosen to denote this bliss because it is a princely co-ordinating sense, and our Lord spoke of the heritage of the pure in heart as being the vision of God, a heritage let it be noted, however, for now and not merely for hereafter. It seems reasonable to suppose that our powers of perception after death will be those mystic powers which we enjoy and use now, though then they will be rapidly developed as being our only perceptive powers.This suggests the investigation in progress of psychic phenomena by scientific methods. The result may lead to an increase of our knowledge regarding the nature of such phenomena. But I do not see how, if communication with the departed be possible at all, we can expect to reach, and be reached by, them except through the Mystic Sense. The invocation of Saints seems to me more in line with what is probable than some of the experiments of the day. Disembodied spirits presumably approximate the nature of God and can approach or be approached only after a purely spiritual or mystical fashion, excepting in those rare psycho-physical instances which are themselves contingent upon a highly developed mystical character and experience.[25]Progressive civilization may be said to have begun 8,000B. C.[26]Two things must be remembered in connection with the interpretation of Jno. xiv ff. In the first place, these chapters, bursting as they are with startling promises which the critic claims have not been made good, were addressed to a select and specially trained group of followers. For instance, Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, constitutes a promise that could not have been made to a heterogeneous crowd. It presupposes an understanding of the mind of Christ that keeps prayer within its appointed limits. A promise of this sort made to a St. John would be fulfilled, whereas it could not be fulfilled in the case of a man who thought that a prayer for the success of his lottery ticket, or the triumph of a competitive business scheme stained with dishonor, might be offered in the name of Jesus. In the second place, these chapters were written down and became accepted Scripture not less than three quarters of a century after they were spoken, by one who, in common with like-minded companions, had experienced the faithfulness of our Lord’s promises. These men knew them to be true, not merely because our Lord had said them, but also because Christian experience, had verified them. This is so of the entire Gospel record. That was remembered and recorded whichChristianexperience had verified.[27]Similarly His advent into our human world made it Divine.[28]Acts ix, 7; xxii, 9.[29]The miracles of Moses before Pharaoh are illustrative of that which abounds in history—wonders hardening further an irreligious life.

[1]It is only partially true to say that concept follows upon percept. Their action is simultaneous more nearly than consecutive. Conceptualism as a complete system cannot perhaps stand but in its origin it was a healthy reaction against both nominalism and realism, as well as a mediator combining the good in both.

[1]It is only partially true to say that concept follows upon percept. Their action is simultaneous more nearly than consecutive. Conceptualism as a complete system cannot perhaps stand but in its origin it was a healthy reaction against both nominalism and realism, as well as a mediator combining the good in both.

[2]Heb. xi:1.

[2]Heb. xi:1.

[3]Von Hügel,The Mystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, p. 264.

[3]Von Hügel,The Mystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, p. 264.

[4]Mk. x:23.

[4]Mk. x:23.

[5]Mk. x:24, 25.

[5]Mk. x:24, 25.

[6]Ψυχικὸς δὲ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ Θεοῦ; μωρία γὰρ αὐτῷ ἐστι, καὶ οὐ δύναται γνῶναι, ὅτι πνευματικῶς ἀνακρίνεται. 1 Cor. ii, 14.

[6]Ψυχικὸς δὲ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ Θεοῦ; μωρία γὰρ αὐτῷ ἐστι, καὶ οὐ δύναται γνῶναι, ὅτι πνευματικῶς ἀνακρίνεται. 1 Cor. ii, 14.

[7]“True priority and superiority lies, not with one of these constituents against the other, but with the total subjective—objective interaction or resultant, which is superior, and indeed gives their place and worth to, those interdependent parts.”—Von Hügel’sMystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, p. 114.

[7]“True priority and superiority lies, not with one of these constituents against the other, but with the total subjective—objective interaction or resultant, which is superior, and indeed gives their place and worth to, those interdependent parts.”—Von Hügel’sMystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, p. 114.

[8]Tyrrell’sChristianity at the Cross Roads, p. 240.

[8]Tyrrell’sChristianity at the Cross Roads, p. 240.

[9]Quoted byVon Hügel, vol. ii, p. 18.

[9]Quoted byVon Hügel, vol. ii, p. 18.

[10]Charlotte Perkins Stetson’sIn this our World.

[10]Charlotte Perkins Stetson’sIn this our World.

[11]The Mystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, pp. 57, 58.

[11]The Mystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, pp. 57, 58.

[12]Royce’sThe World and the Individual, First Series, p. 58.

[12]Royce’sThe World and the Individual, First Series, p. 58.

[13]SeeMacfie’sScience, Matter and Immortality, an admirable volume on this entire topic.

[13]SeeMacfie’sScience, Matter and Immortality, an admirable volume on this entire topic.

[14]Darwin’sAutobiography.

[14]Darwin’sAutobiography.

[15]SirJoseph Larmorin his Wilde Lecture (1908) quoted by SirOliver LodgeinReason and Belief, p. 172.

[15]SirJoseph Larmorin his Wilde Lecture (1908) quoted by SirOliver LodgeinReason and Belief, p. 172.

[16]Reason and Belief, p. 181.

[16]Reason and Belief, p. 181.

[17]The Mystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, p. 265.The author quotesKant—“we can be mediately conscious of an apprehension as to which we have no distinct consciousness.” “The field of our obscure apprehensions,—that is, apprehensions and impressions of which we are not directly conscious, although we can conclude without doubt that we have them—is immeasureable, whereas clear apprehensions constitute but a very few points within the complete extent of our mental life.”

[17]The Mystical Element of Religion, vol. ii, p. 265.

The author quotesKant—“we can be mediately conscious of an apprehension as to which we have no distinct consciousness.” “The field of our obscure apprehensions,—that is, apprehensions and impressions of which we are not directly conscious, although we can conclude without doubt that we have them—is immeasureable, whereas clear apprehensions constitute but a very few points within the complete extent of our mental life.”

[18]“Literature consists of those writings which interpret the meanings of nature and life in words of charm and power, touched with the personality of the author, in artistic forms of permanent interest.”—Van Dyke’sThe Spirit of America, p. 242.

[18]“Literature consists of those writings which interpret the meanings of nature and life in words of charm and power, touched with the personality of the author, in artistic forms of permanent interest.”—Van Dyke’sThe Spirit of America, p. 242.

[19]“The wealthy class in Rome and all over Italy began to conform to that conventional code of propriety by which the rich seem always destined, in the progress of civilization, to become more and more enslaved, till finally they lost all feeling for what is serious and genuine in life. The new generation followed their example with alacrity, and preached the new conventions with a passionate vehemence which must have been highly exasperating to those of their seniors who were still attached to the simplicity of primitive manners. Amongst those who protested against this development there was, however, one prominent figure of the younger age, Marcus Porcius Cato, a man of rich and noble family, and a descendant of Cato the Censor. His puritan spirit revolted against the tyranny of fashion to which the golden youth of Rome wished to make him conform; he would walk in the streets without shoes or tunic, to accustom himself, as he said, only to blush at things which were shameful in themselves, and not merely by convention.”—Ferrero’sGreatness and Decline of Rome, vol. i, pp. 135, 136.

[19]“The wealthy class in Rome and all over Italy began to conform to that conventional code of propriety by which the rich seem always destined, in the progress of civilization, to become more and more enslaved, till finally they lost all feeling for what is serious and genuine in life. The new generation followed their example with alacrity, and preached the new conventions with a passionate vehemence which must have been highly exasperating to those of their seniors who were still attached to the simplicity of primitive manners. Amongst those who protested against this development there was, however, one prominent figure of the younger age, Marcus Porcius Cato, a man of rich and noble family, and a descendant of Cato the Censor. His puritan spirit revolted against the tyranny of fashion to which the golden youth of Rome wished to make him conform; he would walk in the streets without shoes or tunic, to accustom himself, as he said, only to blush at things which were shameful in themselves, and not merely by convention.”—Ferrero’sGreatness and Decline of Rome, vol. i, pp. 135, 136.

[20]Kipling’sIf—.

[20]Kipling’sIf—.

[21]Doncaster’sHeredity in the Light of Recent Research(1910), p. 113 ff.

[21]Doncaster’sHeredity in the Light of Recent Research(1910), p. 113 ff.

[22]Crashaw.

[22]Crashaw.

[23]A hypothesis receives passively our quest: God moves to meet us.

[23]A hypothesis receives passively our quest: God moves to meet us.

[24]Newmanin hisDream of Gerontiusendows the disembodied soul with perceptive powers analogous to those of the body, saying only the sense of sight. Thus:Soul.“I cannot of thy music rightly sayWhether I hear, or touch, or taste the tones.”... “How comes it thenThat I am hearing still, and taste, and touch,Yet not a glimmer of that princely senseWhich binds ideas in one, and makes them live?”Angel.“Nor touch nor taste, nor hearing hast thou now;Thou livest in a world of signs and types,The presentation of most holy truths,Living and strong, which now encompass thee.A disembodied soul, thou hast by rightNo converse with aught beside thyself;But, lest so stern a solitude should loadAnd break thy being, in mercy are vouchsafedSome lower measures of perception,Which seem to thee, as though through channels brought,Through ear, or nerves, or palate, which are gone....How, even now, the consummated SaintsSee God in heaven, I may not explicate;Meanwhile, let it suffice thee to possessSuch means of converse as are granted thee,Though, till that Beatific Vision, thou art blind.”The idea underlying the Beatific Vision is the complete apprehension of God by the complete man. Sight is chosen to denote this bliss because it is a princely co-ordinating sense, and our Lord spoke of the heritage of the pure in heart as being the vision of God, a heritage let it be noted, however, for now and not merely for hereafter. It seems reasonable to suppose that our powers of perception after death will be those mystic powers which we enjoy and use now, though then they will be rapidly developed as being our only perceptive powers.This suggests the investigation in progress of psychic phenomena by scientific methods. The result may lead to an increase of our knowledge regarding the nature of such phenomena. But I do not see how, if communication with the departed be possible at all, we can expect to reach, and be reached by, them except through the Mystic Sense. The invocation of Saints seems to me more in line with what is probable than some of the experiments of the day. Disembodied spirits presumably approximate the nature of God and can approach or be approached only after a purely spiritual or mystical fashion, excepting in those rare psycho-physical instances which are themselves contingent upon a highly developed mystical character and experience.

[24]Newmanin hisDream of Gerontiusendows the disembodied soul with perceptive powers analogous to those of the body, saying only the sense of sight. Thus:

Soul.“I cannot of thy music rightly sayWhether I hear, or touch, or taste the tones.”... “How comes it thenThat I am hearing still, and taste, and touch,Yet not a glimmer of that princely senseWhich binds ideas in one, and makes them live?”Angel.“Nor touch nor taste, nor hearing hast thou now;Thou livest in a world of signs and types,The presentation of most holy truths,Living and strong, which now encompass thee.A disembodied soul, thou hast by rightNo converse with aught beside thyself;But, lest so stern a solitude should loadAnd break thy being, in mercy are vouchsafedSome lower measures of perception,Which seem to thee, as though through channels brought,Through ear, or nerves, or palate, which are gone....How, even now, the consummated SaintsSee God in heaven, I may not explicate;Meanwhile, let it suffice thee to possessSuch means of converse as are granted thee,Though, till that Beatific Vision, thou art blind.”

Soul.“I cannot of thy music rightly sayWhether I hear, or touch, or taste the tones.”... “How comes it thenThat I am hearing still, and taste, and touch,Yet not a glimmer of that princely senseWhich binds ideas in one, and makes them live?”Angel.“Nor touch nor taste, nor hearing hast thou now;Thou livest in a world of signs and types,The presentation of most holy truths,Living and strong, which now encompass thee.A disembodied soul, thou hast by rightNo converse with aught beside thyself;But, lest so stern a solitude should loadAnd break thy being, in mercy are vouchsafedSome lower measures of perception,Which seem to thee, as though through channels brought,Through ear, or nerves, or palate, which are gone....How, even now, the consummated SaintsSee God in heaven, I may not explicate;Meanwhile, let it suffice thee to possessSuch means of converse as are granted thee,Though, till that Beatific Vision, thou art blind.”

Soul.“I cannot of thy music rightly sayWhether I hear, or touch, or taste the tones.”

Soul.“I cannot of thy music rightly say

Whether I hear, or touch, or taste the tones.”

... “How comes it thenThat I am hearing still, and taste, and touch,Yet not a glimmer of that princely senseWhich binds ideas in one, and makes them live?”

... “How comes it then

That I am hearing still, and taste, and touch,

Yet not a glimmer of that princely sense

Which binds ideas in one, and makes them live?”

Angel.“Nor touch nor taste, nor hearing hast thou now;Thou livest in a world of signs and types,The presentation of most holy truths,Living and strong, which now encompass thee.A disembodied soul, thou hast by rightNo converse with aught beside thyself;But, lest so stern a solitude should loadAnd break thy being, in mercy are vouchsafedSome lower measures of perception,Which seem to thee, as though through channels brought,Through ear, or nerves, or palate, which are gone....How, even now, the consummated SaintsSee God in heaven, I may not explicate;Meanwhile, let it suffice thee to possessSuch means of converse as are granted thee,Though, till that Beatific Vision, thou art blind.”

Angel.“Nor touch nor taste, nor hearing hast thou now;

Thou livest in a world of signs and types,

The presentation of most holy truths,

Living and strong, which now encompass thee.

A disembodied soul, thou hast by right

No converse with aught beside thyself;

But, lest so stern a solitude should load

And break thy being, in mercy are vouchsafed

Some lower measures of perception,

Which seem to thee, as though through channels brought,

Through ear, or nerves, or palate, which are gone.

...

How, even now, the consummated Saints

See God in heaven, I may not explicate;

Meanwhile, let it suffice thee to possess

Such means of converse as are granted thee,

Though, till that Beatific Vision, thou art blind.”

The idea underlying the Beatific Vision is the complete apprehension of God by the complete man. Sight is chosen to denote this bliss because it is a princely co-ordinating sense, and our Lord spoke of the heritage of the pure in heart as being the vision of God, a heritage let it be noted, however, for now and not merely for hereafter. It seems reasonable to suppose that our powers of perception after death will be those mystic powers which we enjoy and use now, though then they will be rapidly developed as being our only perceptive powers.

This suggests the investigation in progress of psychic phenomena by scientific methods. The result may lead to an increase of our knowledge regarding the nature of such phenomena. But I do not see how, if communication with the departed be possible at all, we can expect to reach, and be reached by, them except through the Mystic Sense. The invocation of Saints seems to me more in line with what is probable than some of the experiments of the day. Disembodied spirits presumably approximate the nature of God and can approach or be approached only after a purely spiritual or mystical fashion, excepting in those rare psycho-physical instances which are themselves contingent upon a highly developed mystical character and experience.

[25]Progressive civilization may be said to have begun 8,000B. C.

[25]Progressive civilization may be said to have begun 8,000B. C.

[26]Two things must be remembered in connection with the interpretation of Jno. xiv ff. In the first place, these chapters, bursting as they are with startling promises which the critic claims have not been made good, were addressed to a select and specially trained group of followers. For instance, Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, constitutes a promise that could not have been made to a heterogeneous crowd. It presupposes an understanding of the mind of Christ that keeps prayer within its appointed limits. A promise of this sort made to a St. John would be fulfilled, whereas it could not be fulfilled in the case of a man who thought that a prayer for the success of his lottery ticket, or the triumph of a competitive business scheme stained with dishonor, might be offered in the name of Jesus. In the second place, these chapters were written down and became accepted Scripture not less than three quarters of a century after they were spoken, by one who, in common with like-minded companions, had experienced the faithfulness of our Lord’s promises. These men knew them to be true, not merely because our Lord had said them, but also because Christian experience, had verified them. This is so of the entire Gospel record. That was remembered and recorded whichChristianexperience had verified.

[26]Two things must be remembered in connection with the interpretation of Jno. xiv ff. In the first place, these chapters, bursting as they are with startling promises which the critic claims have not been made good, were addressed to a select and specially trained group of followers. For instance, Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, constitutes a promise that could not have been made to a heterogeneous crowd. It presupposes an understanding of the mind of Christ that keeps prayer within its appointed limits. A promise of this sort made to a St. John would be fulfilled, whereas it could not be fulfilled in the case of a man who thought that a prayer for the success of his lottery ticket, or the triumph of a competitive business scheme stained with dishonor, might be offered in the name of Jesus. In the second place, these chapters were written down and became accepted Scripture not less than three quarters of a century after they were spoken, by one who, in common with like-minded companions, had experienced the faithfulness of our Lord’s promises. These men knew them to be true, not merely because our Lord had said them, but also because Christian experience, had verified them. This is so of the entire Gospel record. That was remembered and recorded whichChristianexperience had verified.

[27]Similarly His advent into our human world made it Divine.

[27]Similarly His advent into our human world made it Divine.

[28]Acts ix, 7; xxii, 9.

[28]Acts ix, 7; xxii, 9.

[29]The miracles of Moses before Pharaoh are illustrative of that which abounds in history—wonders hardening further an irreligious life.

[29]The miracles of Moses before Pharaoh are illustrative of that which abounds in history—wonders hardening further an irreligious life.

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