Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ... iii. mysticism and the mystics. religious mysticism is an attempt to realise the presence of God in the soul. It is grounded on the fact that a direct intercourse between the human soul and God is possible; and its ultimate goal is the attainment of a state in which God shall cease to be an external object and shall become known by an experience of the heart. The mystic refuses to be satisfied with any substitute for God, or to stop with any "third thing" between the soul and God, be that so-called "third thing" never so exalted a representative of Him or means of showing Him forth. His aim is not to know about God, but to know Him. He cannot be satisfied even with what God has said or done in the past, for his consuming purpose is to have God himself. He rejoices in God's promises, but he sets a higher value still on his personal acquaintance with God and His character, so that he needs no longer to ask what the Father has promised, since now he knows what He Himself is, and he trusts Him even where He has not promised. Mysticism has always been a protest against formalism and authority; and it has always, when healthy, emphasised inspiration, spirituality and personality. Whenever Christianity has crystallised into an unvital system, either of authority or creed, and has proved in this form inadequate to feed or expand the souls of men, the mystic has come to proclaim a direct and living way to God and to announce communion with God as a fact of experience. Whenever the church has satisfied itself with performing the functions of a vicar to the distant, absentee God, dispensing grace through its few sacred channels, while leaving the human heart still hungry for its proper food, the mystic has come to declare the nearness of God, the...