II

THE EXPERIENCE OF THE ETERNAL

In

THE “HE solution of every man's problem in life is ultimately an individual matter. the last resort it is some experience that takes place within a man's own soul, some saving reinforcement of his inner life, some silent but momentous uprising of inward spiritual energy which breaks the tension within him and opens again the pathway of action and growth. And if for any one life's problem never gets solved, but remains rumbling and heaving beneath the surface or subsides altogether, it is because he has not been able to open his soul to the liberating insight or reinforcing impulse at the timely moment.

It therefore is impossible for theology to furnish ready-made answers to the enigmas of life. At best it can only put men on the road to discovery. It may introduce them to the great

laboratories of the spirit, make them familiar with the resources there, place in their hands the apparatus devised by the original souls of the past, and help them to undertake their own experiments with as much wisdom and skill as possible. But this should be the limit of its endeavors. In times past theology has assumed to do more than this. It has conceived that its task was to compile an answer-book covering all the sums that man is set to do. And since in these days it no longer undertakes to furnish such a book of answers, it is much discredited in certain quarters. But after all it seems plain that to guide the actual spiritual researches of men, to no matter how small an extent, is the nobler though more modest task, and it is solely with such a purpose as this in mind that I have ventured to take up the theme of these lectures. Accordingly, after having discussed the most important methods of approach to human problems, as we did in the last lecture, our object now must be to fix in view one of the most fundamental of those problems, and then to ask what aid theology is able to render toward its solution.

The questions as to what are the true ends of life? what are the real and dominant forces of the world? what are the abiding realities in the flux of things?-these are among the most persistent questions that the human spirit asks. Every illusion outlived, every passion forspent, every futile endeavor or rude betrayal that we experience, forces from us such questions. They are unescapable, and in all save those who stifle them they engender a longing for the things that do not pass away. The more intensely moral the nature of a man the more insistently do such questions and longings arise. Are they not the most earnest souls we know who, in the midst of quiet conversation on the deeper meanings of life, sometimes break out with startling intensity, "Oh, if I could only know! I believe I can will and do gladly, but how I long to know surely what to do!" Perhaps there are few deeper glimpses into the moral yearnings of man's heart than those which such questions afford. Yes, we may thankfully say that the souls are not few in this world that will live gallantly and die cheerfully for a cause. But must they not know

that they have a cause? Truly here is a human problem. When it is felt in its length and breadth it resolves itself into man's longing for the Eternal, the soul's hunger for God.

What has theology to say to a problem like this? Nothing glib and conventional, let us hope. He who could approach so supreme a question with anything like jaunty assurance would be one to

Peep and botanize upon his mother's grave.

The first obligation of the thinker in the field of religion is that he should inwardly apprehend the problems of life in their universality, for only so will he be able to discern the significance of the solving truths when he comes upon them. But the very fact that our problem is a universal one means that the great of all ages have wrestled with it, and that we may become heirs of their victories. The chastisement of our peace has been upon the suffering servants of the Lord, and with their stripes we are healed. The undertaking of this hour is therefore to consider certain typical forms of answer to the question: Wherein may man have an experience

of the Eternal? We will consider three types as the ones making the most important claim upon our attention to-day. According to these types the experience of the Eternal may be found in mystical states of consciousness, or in historical revelation, or in the development of moral personality. We will take up these answers in the order given, and accordingly will estimate first the claim that mystical experience constitutes the supreme type of relation to God.

I

The mystic is the radical in religion. He seeks to gain the experience of the Eternal in a form utterly pure and undefiled. His ideal is to apprehend God immediately and without the admixture of any other experience. His vision of the Infinite must be without horizon, without contrasting forms of light and shade, the simple undiversified beholding of pure and ineffable glory. Such an experience cannot come through the activity of the will, for the human will, with its strivings, its failures, and its only partial successes, is the most finite part