: Christian Mysticism by Inge William Ralph - Mysticism

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LECTURE

INDEX

LECTURE I

"Si notre vie est moins qu'une journ?e En l'?ternel; si l'an qui fait le tour Chasse nos jours sans espoir de retour; Si p?rissable est toute chose n?e; Que songes-tu, mon ?me emprisonn?e? Pourquoi te pla?t l'obscur de notre jour, Si, pour voler en un plus clair s?jour, Tu as au dos l'aile bien empenn?e! L? est le bien que tout esprit d?sire, L?, le repos ou tout le monde aspire, L? est l'amour, l? le plaisir encore! L?, ? mon ?me, au plus haut ciel guid?e, Tu y pourras reconna?tre l'id?e De la beaut? qu'en ce monde j'adore!"

OLD POET.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MYSTICISM

"Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is."--I JOHN iii. 2, 3.

No word in our language--not even "Socialism"--has been employed more loosely than "Mysticism." Sometimes it is used as an equivalent for symbolism or allegorism, sometimes for theosophy or occult science; and sometimes it merely suggests the mental state of a dreamer, or vague and fantastic opinions about God and the world. In Roman Catholic writers, "mystical phenomena" mean supernatural suspensions of physical law. Even those writers who have made a special study of the subject, show by their definitions of the word how uncertain is its connotation. It is therefore necessary that I should make clear at the outset what I understand by the term, and what aspects of religious life and thought I intend to deal with in these Lectures.

The second stage, the illuminative life, is the concentration of all the faculties, will, intellect, and feeling, upon God. It differs from the purgative life, not in having discarded good works, but in having come to perform them, as F?nelon says, "no longer as virtues," that is to say, willingly and almost spontaneously. The struggle is now transferred to the inner life.

As to the means by which this union is manifested to the consciousness, there is no doubt that very many mystics believed in, and looked for, ecstatic revelations, trances, or visions. This, again, is one of the crucial questions of Mysticism.

That perfectly sane people often experience such visions there is no manner of doubt. St. Paul fell into a trance at his conversion, and again at a later period, when he seemed to be caught up into the third heaven. The most sober and practical of the mediaeval mystics speak of them as common phenomena. And in modern times two of the sanest of our poets have recorded their experiences in words which may be worth quoting.

Wordsworth, in his well-known "Lines composed above Tintern Abbey," speaks of--

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