^Y OF PniNC^ 
 
 '^OiOGiCM SE\A^^ 
 
 BV 5082 .S36 1907a 
 Scott, W. Major 
 Aspects of Christian 
 mysticism 
 
ASPECTS OF 
 CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM 
 
ASPECTS OF 
 CHRISTIAN 
 MYSTICISM 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 W. MAJOR "^SCOTT, M.A. 
 
 / will go unto the altar of Goo 
 
 Book of Psalms 
 
 The. Mystery of Unio7i with the Son of God 
 
 John Bunyan 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. P. BUTTON AND COMPANY 
 
 1907 
 
PRINTED BY 
 
 HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD. 
 
 LONDON AND AYLESBWRY, 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
TO 
 
 MY FATHER 
 
 AND 
 
 MY MOTHER 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The studies of Christian mystics here presented 
 do not profess to be, in any sense, summaries 
 of their teaching ; they are statements, partly 
 expository, of certain aspects or elements of 
 mystical truth. If, to any reader, they should 
 serve as an introduction to that vast and 
 fascinating field of study — Christian mysticism — 
 they will have achieved their purpose. 
 
 For the awakening, the sustaining, and the 
 deepening of the spirituid life in the soul of 
 man, perhaps no study, if it be undertaken with 
 humility, is more fruitful than a patient reading 
 of the great Christian mystics. Of such, this 
 little volume^ may claim to be, not untruly, an 
 outcome. As far as possible, I have endeavoured 
 to use the ipsissima verba of the mystics them- 
 selves. 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 My Indebtedness to many writers is great. 
 Despite its unsatisfactory character and unsym- 
 pathetic tone, Vaughan's Hours with the Mystics 
 is still, in many ways, indispensable. I have 
 constantly consulted the '' Bampton Lectures " 
 on Christian Mysticism, as well as other books 
 by Dr. Inge, with whose attitude towards the 
 subject, I am, however, only imperfectly in 
 sympathy, but to whom my gratitude is never- 
 theless sincere. In one or two instances I have 
 quoted his translations. The writings of the 
 late Rev. J. M. Neale, D.D., I have found ever 
 suggestive ; and among other writers whose work 
 has laid me under a lasting obligation, it is a 
 pleasure to name Mrs. Frances A. Bevan, 
 Mr. A. E. Waite, the Rev. C. Bigg, D.D., the 
 Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll, LL.D., the Rev. 
 Alexander Whyte, D.D., and Mr. J. Rendel 
 Harris, Litt.D. I have endeavoured to acknow- 
 ledge points of special indebtedness — if any 
 have been inadvertently overlooked, I ask 
 forgiveness. 
 
 From my wife I have received much help 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 throughout, but especially in the chapter on 
 St. Teresa. My friend, the Rev. G. Currie 
 Martin, B.D., whose counsel and aid, in the 
 midst of his professorial duties, have been 
 generously given me, added to his many kind- 
 nesses by reading and criticizing certain chapters 
 of the book, and to him I tender my best 
 thanks. 
 
 W. MAJOR SCOTT. 
 
 LlSCARD, 
 1907. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I CONCERNING MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM 
 
 II. ST. PAUL AND ST. JOHN 
 
 ~ III CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA . 
 
 l\. DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 
 
 V. MASTER ECKHART . 
 
 VI. RUYSBROECK . 
 
 VII. SUSO .... 
 
 VIII. TAULER .... 
 
 IX ST. TERESA 
 
 X. ST. lOHN OF THE CROSS 
 
 XI. JACOB HEHMEN 
 
 XII. PETER STERRY 
 
 14 
 26 
 
 53 
 
 67 
 
 81 
 
 95 
 108 
 122 
 132 
 146 
 
ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN 
 MYSTICISM 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 CONCERNING MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM 
 
 It has been said with much truth that mysticism 
 is a word of evil sound in English ears, and 
 it may even be affirmed, not untruly, that mystics 
 are invariably regarded by the multitude with 
 something like suspicion. Yet in a certain dim 
 sense it is as true to say that all men are mystics 
 as it is to say that all men are religious, for many 
 are mystics after an unconscious manner — albeit, 
 by them, the mystic realities are touched rather 
 than grasped. Perhaps the *• vocation to the 
 inward life" is not for all. 
 
 To give a definition of mysticism is at once 
 fatally easy and exceedingly difficult, for it has 
 been made to denote phenomena so diverse as 
 crude supernaturalism on the one hand, and 
 visions and revelations of the divine on the 
 
 I 
 
2 CONCERNING MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM 
 other. The simplest definition, however, will 
 probably be found to be the truest as well as 
 the most illuminating. We say, then, frankly that 
 mysticism is the science of spiritual mysteries, 
 and the mystic is one who is concerned with 
 and who believes in spiritual mysteries. 
 
 One of the commonest, and, it may be added, 
 one of the falsest of popular errors, is to suppose 
 that a mystery is necessarily something unfathom- 
 able. A mystery is rather something unrevealed, 
 though not unrevealable. It is something hidden 
 and obscure only to the uninitiated. It is ever 
 a secret, but to the initiated it is an open one. 
 The secret of the mystic may be, speaking 
 strictly, indefinable, but it is also, speaking 
 strictly, indisputable. One of our most brilliant 
 men of letters has recently called attention to 
 the fact that *' much of our modern difficulty, 
 in religion and other things, arises merely from 
 this : that we confuse the word indefinable with 
 the word vague. If some one speaks of a spiritual 
 fact as indefinable we promptly picture some- 
 thing misty, a cloud with indeterminate edges." 
 The same writer goes on to affirm that it is 
 just the indefinable that is the indisputable, and 
 that there are some people to whom spiritual 
 
THE MYSTIC EXPERIMENT 3 
 
 things have a fierce and practical proximity — 
 to whom God is too actual to be defined. Thus 
 there are many truths which may be rightly 
 apprehended, though they cannot be made 
 wholly transparent. 
 
 The mystic recognises and holds "that far 
 removed from ordinary paths and interests, 
 even in the order of the soul, there is a grand 
 experiment possible, and that some have achieved 
 it."^ This experiment is a spiritual process which 
 demonstrates the possibility in this present life 
 and in this body of humiliation of knowing God. 
 By means of this spiritual operation the mystic 
 can accomplish a " reversion to the fontal source 
 of souls," and enter ''into an ecstatic communion 
 with the universal consciousness." 
 
 It is, however, untrue to say, as some critics 
 of mysticism have said, that the ambition of 
 the mystic has always been to transcend indi- 
 viduality and morality alike, or that the mystic 
 has always striven to reach the consciousness 
 of God through the negation of self-conscious- 
 ness. Rather it would be more accurate to say 
 that the mystic seeks to attain a fuller know- 
 ledge of God, through a deeper reading of the 
 
 1 A. E. Waite, A Book of Mystery cuid Vision, p. x. 
 
4 CONCERNING MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM 
 fact of self-consciousness. It was R. L. Nettle- 
 ship who finely observed that *' true mysticism 
 is the consciousness that everything we ex- 
 perience is an element, and only an element in 
 fact — i.e. that in being what it is, it is symbolic 
 of something more." ^ Benjamin Jowett, who 
 presents certain interesting affinities with the 
 mystics, writes in his introduction to Plato's 
 Phcedrus : ** By mysticism we mean not the 
 extravagance of an erring fancy, but the con- 
 centration of reason in feeling, the enthusiastic 
 love of the good, the true, the one, the sense 
 of the infinity of knowledge and of the marvel 
 of the human faculties." 
 
 The mystic proper, however, is '' a man who 
 knows that there is only one character of true 
 excellence in human life, and that is the seal 
 or character which expresses the sanction of 
 eternity"; or, as Lasson phrases it, "mysticism 
 views everything from the standpoint of teleo- 
 logy." The mystic always regards life sub specie 
 cEternitatis, He thus escapes the thraldom of 
 sense and the bondage of mere words. Rigor- 
 ously cutting off temporal correspondences with 
 things on the earth and turning resolutely from 
 ^ R. L. Nettleship, Remains. 
 
MYSTIC CHARACTERISTICS 5 
 
 lower creations, the mystic establishes eternal 
 correspondences with things unseen, and stead- 
 fastly looks for " the Blessed Isles of the Elect 
 Children " and the " Glory of the Rosy Cross." 
 He undergoes a spiritual education, conducted 
 in the main by means of type and symbol, for 
 it is an axiom of mysticism that all things possess 
 an interior and divine meaning. It is this 
 meaning which the mystic waits to know. 
 
 The vital things are the eternal and the 
 unseen things. The mystical or sacramental 
 view of life may be traced throughout the 
 history of mystical thought ; although, as 
 Dr. Bigg has pointed out, '' there is properly 
 speaking no history of the mystics ; only bio- 
 graphies. They are like a chain of stars, each 
 separated from the other by a gulf. We can 
 trace resemblances, even connections ; but they 
 themselves tell us that the light comes direct 
 from the sun, and is not passed on at all. Yet 
 the mystic usually reads books, and the beacon 
 of Dionysius, or Joachim, or Tauler wakes the 
 kindred soul across seas or centuries." Thus 
 the wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hear 
 the voice thereof, but know not whence it cometh, 
 and whither it goeth. This is true of every one 
 
6 CONCERNING MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM 
 that is born of the Spirit. It is only men like 
 Blake who, having felt the breath of the Spirit, 
 ever discern God's forehead at the window, or, 
 like Elias, are caught up to God. 
 
 When we speak of Christian mysticism we 
 understand that process of initiation into fuller 
 and deeper knowledge of divine things by which 
 the spirit of man is led towards ultimate union 
 with God. Therein the soul traverses a path 
 which the vulture's eye hath not seen, but a 
 path which leads to the Heart of the Rose. The 
 exercised Christian believer is led into the mystery 
 of union with the Son of God ; and it is to 
 the open mind and adoring heart of such that 
 the flaming vision is vouchsafed and '* the Interior 
 Translation and the Mystic Apocalypse " known. 
 This the Philistines understand not. It has been 
 pointed out that " the special patrimony of Christian 
 Mysticism " is the " mystery of universal symbo- 
 lism," which is intimately connected with the 
 spiritual theory of life. And this precious heritage 
 has charmed many to the Christ in whom are 
 hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 
 The everlasting power and divinity of the in- 
 visible things are, since the creation of the world, 
 clearly seen by the Christian mystic, being, as 
 
THE SECRET OF MYSTICISM 7 
 
 St. Paul says, *' perceived through the things that 
 are made." By means of the Christian symbolism 
 the soul that is clothed with humility advances 
 by a sequence of mystic experience towards the 
 supreme sacrament of the everlasting light. The — - 
 dictum that " esoteric Christianity holds all " is 
 to be interpreted in this sense. Undeniable 
 though it be that the growing revelations and 
 enlarged experiences of the Christian mystic are 
 both sealed and secret thing^s for all those who 
 have never passed the mystic portal, and, in 
 consequence, have never shared them, it is never- 
 theless true that if we desire, the door is opened 
 to us, if we dare, the gain is glorious, if we "will" 
 to do, the great achievement is possible. But we 
 always need to remember that the subject of the 
 art requires, as Raymund says, its proper earth. 
 
 Any religion, it may be affirmed, to have life 
 and power must be mystical ; and all truly 
 religious men are mystics. That contemplative 
 author, Mr. A. C. Benson, writing From a 
 College Window, has said in his essay on religion : 
 " There is a motto which I should like to see 
 written over the door of every place of worship, 
 both as an invitation and a warning : thou shalt 
 
 MAKE ME TO UNDERSTAND WISDOM SECRETLY. 
 
8 CONCERNING MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM 
 It is an invitation to those who enter, to come 
 and participate in a great and holy mystery ; and 
 it is a warning to those who believe that in 
 the formalities of religion alone is the secret of 
 religion to be found." Without the mystic 
 element religion becomes always an external, 
 and often an empty thing. The life-blood of 
 the Christian faith is its mysticism ; and the 
 Church, to quote the words of Dr. Bigg, " can 
 never get rid of the mystic spirit, nor should 
 she attempt to do so, for it is, in fact, her life. 
 It is another name for conscience, for freedom, 
 for the rights of the individual soul, for the 
 grace and privilege of direct access to the Re- 
 deemer for the presence of the Divine Spirit in 
 •* the heart. You cannot quench this prophecy." 
 
 If we add to these considerations the governing 
 idea of unity, and the illuminating idea of eternity, 
 we grasp, though we cannot exhaust the vital 
 content of mysticism. 
 
 The unwavering belief, then, of the Christian 
 mystic is that it is possible to apprehend and 
 assimilate spiritual truths ; and in quietness and 
 confidence he finds not only strength, but illumi- 
 nation. The knowledge of God which he seeks 
 is attained by a fruitful stillness. He listens and 
 
thp: knowledge of god 9 
 
 waits for the still small voice of God speaking 
 to him, and he believes that there is no know- 
 ledge of divine things so precious and so sure 
 as that which is imparted in this way. Modern 
 psychology might express this fact by speaking 
 of ''an extension of the frontier of consciousness," 
 but such a phrase scarcely conveys to the devout 
 religious soul the deep meaning embodied in the 
 aspiration of his heart. 
 
 No man, it has been said, can see God's face 
 and live ; but apart from communion with God 
 we must die, and the mystic grounds the possi- 
 bility of knowledge of God in the fact that man 
 is a partaker of the divine. To accomplish our 
 end in the spiritual order we must know God. 
 We can know the divine, because, potentially, we 
 are divine. He maintains to the full the stupen — 
 dous and awful truth that man is made in the 
 image of God. Every man may be a saint if 
 he so wills, because God so willed it from the 
 beginning. Doubtless this is a great mystery, but 
 in its light many other dark things become clear. 
 
 If the divine image in man has been defaced, 
 the divine wisdom will be obscured, for " the 
 God-light falls lost, if it shine, on the eye un- 
 responsive and blind." Only the pure in heart 
 
lo CONCERNING MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM 
 can see God — that is, only the pure in heart can 
 enjoy unbroken communion with Him. as they 
 bow before '* the Closed Eye of the Unknown 
 Darkness." There is a way for man to rise — 
 the scala perfectionis — a path by which the mystic 
 ascends on stepping-stones of his dead self to 
 higher things. Losing his life and freed from 
 the bondage of self and sin, he gains the life 
 which is life indeed, and enters upon that uphill 
 road which knows no other goal than union with 
 God. He tends and waters the garden of his 
 soul, that one day he may behold blossoming 
 " the splendid white flower which is red inside." 
 The Christian mystic is a sojourner and stranger 
 in the wilderness of this world, and his life is 
 a pilgrimage towards the '' serene and solemn 
 spirit-land," as it is called by Goethe, which is 
 the soul's true home. He knows *' that there is 
 indeed but one thing needful, which is the union 
 of the soul with God." 
 
 Mysticism has often been identified, though 
 erroneously, with symbolism or allegorism, but 
 these should rather be regarded as handmaids 
 which attain considerable prominence in the 
 mystical interpretation of the world around. To 
 the mystic " it may be truly said that the whole 
 
ALLEGORY AND SYMBOL it 
 
 universe bursts forth into a flame and blossom- 
 ing of parable, symbol, and sacrament." He 
 believes, with fervour, that the highest spiritual 
 truths may be enshrined in symbol and metaphor, 
 and that our consciousness of these things can 
 only thus be expressed, though some have risen 
 beyond them. But all mystics would maintain 
 that allegory, parable, and ceremony are economies 
 of divine things and fraught with eternal mean- 
 ings. All language, in this connection, must be 
 analogical, suggesting and dimly hinting at the 
 form of the hidden reality. Regarding all the 
 natural things of life as sacramental, the mystic 
 believes that — 
 
 ... By a quest 
 Which does not take too far or ask too much 
 He can achieve their meanings, and the grace 
 Which Hes within, their Hving language learn, 
 And this shall take him past all outward pomps 
 Far into vision, far through Mystery.^ 
 
 Thus, through nature, he is led into the deeper 
 life of the spirit ; and by patiendy treading the 
 inner way he comes to possess a knowledge of 
 the secrets of that life which is hid with Christ 
 in God. More life and fuller is the desire of 
 the mystic; and the life more abundant is to 
 1 A. E. Waite, A Book of Mystery and Vision, 
 
12 CONCERNING MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM 
 be found alone by the inward way. The kingdom 
 of God is within. Hence the saying that the 
 Christian mystic is concerned with three great 
 mysteries : God, the Soul, and Revelation. 
 
 It should be said in passing that it is only 
 those blind to the sublimity of the mystic's ideal, 
 who (as Mr. Swinburne has finely observed in 
 his discriminating essay on William Blake), 
 " regard mysticism with distaste or contempt, 
 as essentially in itself a vain or noxious thing — 
 a sealed bag or bladder that can only be full 
 either of wind or of poison." 
 
 The mystic's path — and the only path leading 
 to the goal of the Soul — is ''the interior way," 
 of which much will be said later on. For the 
 present, it may be stated briefly as consisting 
 of three stages. The first is that of purgation, 
 in which the soul is by discipline purified from 
 the lusts which war against her. This is followed 
 by illumination, when divine things are made 
 visible to the expectant. The last stage is that 
 of full contemplation of and union with the 
 divine, when the soul no longer sees through a 
 glass darkly, but is at one with God, and inhabits 
 '' those worlds of eternity in which we shall live 
 for ever in Jesus our Lord." 
 
LIFE IN GOD 13 
 
 To sum up, one may say that the mystic 
 strives to see God in all life, and all life in God. 
 Visible things are transformed into symbols of 
 the invisible, 
 
 With angels planted in hawthorn bowers, 
 And God Himself in the passing hours. 
 
 He lives and labours under other heavens than 
 those recognised by the people who, as Plato 
 said long ago, live the life of a shell-fish. He 
 proves the integrity of his purpose and the 
 sincerity of his faith by a rigorous discipline of 
 his life. And although the history of Mysticism 
 shows disastrous aberrations, yet '' one may think 
 it worth while to follow out and track to its root 
 the peculiar faith or fancy of a mystic without 
 being ready to accept his deductions and his 
 assertions as absolute and durable facts." For 
 those of us who in this house of our earthly 
 tabernacle feel the bitterness of our exile, the 
 sight of those who have won their way and are 
 now at home in God is of immeasurable worth, 
 and oft-times we wonder — 
 
 How will it come to us, that great day ? What will the 
 
 dawn disclose ? 
 Past veils expended, the omens ended, what truth at the 
 
 heart of those ? 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 ST. PAUL AND ST. JOHN 
 
 St. Paul is the prince of all true Christian 
 mystics, for not only is he the most mystical 
 of all New Testament writers, as has often 
 been pointed out, but he is also the one who 
 has penetrated farthest into the mystery of the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 His gospel, as he affirms, came to him through 
 revelation of Jesus Christ ; and he was brought 
 to know the wisdom of God in a mystery. A 
 careful study of St. Paul's mysticism is essential, 
 therefore, if we would seize the secret held by 
 the cloud of witnesses. At the outset, it is well 
 to notice that his entire career was changed as 
 a consequence of a vision which came to him 
 as he journeyed along the road to Damascus — 
 a vision to which, in after-years, he could 
 declare, " I was not disobedient." In this 
 vision, he says with simplicity and calmness, 
 Christ appeared to him. Elsewhere he speaks 
 
 14 
 
ST. PAUL'S VISIONS 15 
 
 of visions and revelations which he received of 
 divine things. At various times he puts it on 
 record that he saw visions and heard voices ; 
 and once, at least, he was caught up in an ecstasy 
 and heard things unutterable. He identifies 
 himself with ''a man in Christ," who, "whether 
 in the body or apart from the body," he knew 
 not, was caught up to the third heaven, into 
 Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which 
 it is not lawful for a man to utter. He glories 
 on behalf of such a man, and by reason of the 
 exceeding greatness of the visions and revelations 
 of the Lord. The question may be asked, '* Did 
 St. Paul gain greater insight into divine truth as 
 a consequence ? " Perhaps not, directly. There 
 is a saying which is attributed to Aristotle, 
 concerning the Greek mysteries, to the effect 
 that ''the initiated learned nothing precisely, 
 but received impressions, and were put into 
 a certain frame of mind." We may assert, 
 then, that visions and ecstasies do not con- 
 stitute the heart of mystic experience — that lies 
 elsewhere. 
 
 The mystical union of the believer with Christ 
 is the most conspicuous feature of St. Paul's 
 mysticism, which always has the Son of God 
 
16 ST. PAUL AND ST. JOHN 
 
 at its central shrine. "It was the good pleasure 
 of God to reveal His Son in me," writes St. Paul ; 
 and from that moment in his life to the close, the 
 idea of a vital union between himself and Christ 
 was always present to him. He was united with 
 Christ and lived in Him. This mystic experience, 
 which had become the great reality of his life, 
 he desired all his converts to share. He writes 
 to them, therefore, of the mystery "now made 
 manifest to the saints . . . which is Christ in you." 
 Closely allied to this, is the further mystical idea 
 of the soul of a Christian experiencing and passing 
 through, even in a measure sharing in the 
 redemptive process of Christ. Always he bears 
 about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus, 
 that the life also of Jesus may be manifest in him. 
 Nay, he even fills up that which is behind 
 of the sufferings of Christ. This process of 
 identification with Christ in His sufferings, of 
 being crucified with Christ, symbolically spoken 
 of, by one mystic writer, as tasting His death, 
 is but another aspect of Christ being formed in 
 the soul of the Christian. But the mystic passes 
 onward from this stage to that of participation 
 in the Divine nature, in which he, as in a mirror, 
 reflects the glory of the Lord. H is real personality, 
 
CHRIST THE MYSTIC HEAD 17 
 
 as distinct from his individuality, can only be 
 attained in this manner. Not to be unclothed but 
 to be clothed upon is his desire, and to be filled 
 with all the fulness of God is his ultimate goal. 
 
 St. Paul lays great stress, in his mystical teach- 
 ing, on the Headship of Christ. Christ is not 
 only all in all, the one eternal source of life, and 
 the Image of the invisible God, but He is the 
 mystic Head of the whole creation. According 
 to their several capacities, all created beings are 
 images of Him and share His life. He is the 
 Head of all principality and power, and in Him 
 we are made full. Holding fast the Head, 
 all the body increaseth with the increase of 
 God. 
 
 St. Paul adds to his mystical conception of the 
 Person and work of Christ the mystical conception 
 of the Church as the Bride of Christ. This latter 
 idea has exercised a very potent influence in 
 the history of mystical theology ; and, occasionally, 
 its greatness and fruitfulness have been obscured 
 by repugnant perversions of the holy truth which 
 it enshrines. According to St. Paul, Christ is 
 the Head, and the Church is the body; neither is 
 complete apart from the other. Christ needs the 
 Church, and the Church needs Christ. The Church 
 
 2 
 
i8 ST. PAUL AND ST. JOHN 
 
 stands in a relation of dutiful subjection to her 
 Lord, and Christ's attitude towards His Church 
 is that of gracious protection. St. Paul regards 
 the sacrament of marriage as a parable of the 
 mystic union by which the Church is one with 
 Christ. The Church, then, is the mystical body 
 of Christ, cleansed and sanctified and glorious, 
 not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. 
 
 Undoubtedly much of the language and imagery 
 employed by St. Paul is taken over from the 
 Greek mysteries. For example, there is the con- 
 stantly recurring idea of maturity or perfection, 
 in which degrees of initiation are assumed. He 
 speaks wisdom, he says, among the perfect — that 
 is, among those who are fully initiated, and there- 
 fore are able to apprehend not only the lesser but 
 also the greater mysteries. He labours to the 
 end that he may present every man perfectly 
 initiated in Christ Jesus. 
 
 He speaks of a personal experience of the 
 divine fellowship which is only known by enlight- 
 enment, by illumination. He teaches, however, 
 that it is possible for all men to be enlightened. 
 The necessary conditions of initiation are not, 
 or ought not to be, a barrier to any. Being 
 cleansed from all defilement of flesh and spirit, 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE SPIRIT 19 
 
 we begin the mystic ascent, and guided by the 
 lamp of love it is possible for all to reach the 
 radiant summit. 
 
 St. Paul's doctrine of the Spirit is characteristic 
 and very suggestive. It is the letter which killeth, 
 but the Spirit which giveth life ; and where the 
 Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. It is the 
 Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which makes us 
 free, and which searcheth all things, even the 
 deep things of God. To walk in the Spirit 
 is to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, and these 
 are love, joy, and peace. We are not under law, 
 if we are led by the Spirit. In some places, 
 St. Paul seems to identify Christ with the Spirit, 
 for he writes of those who, with unveiled face, 
 beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, 
 are transformed into the same image from glory 
 to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. 
 Christ is a " life-giving Spirit," and if any man 
 have not this spirit he cannot be a partaker of 
 spiritual things. 
 
 It is important to observe that St. Paul con- 
 tinually insists that divine truths are spiritually 
 discerned, and he alone that is spiritual judgeth 
 all things. It is the spiritual being or " the Con- 
 cealed Man " who can tread the unsealed heights 
 
20 ST. PAUL AND ST. JOHN 
 
 and sound the unmeasured profundities. No gift 
 is to be more earnestly coveted than that of 
 spiritual understanding, for only thus can we com- 
 pare spiritual things with spiritual. This doctrine 
 of the inner light is universally characteristic of 
 mystical theology, and is, undoubtedly, one liable 
 to grave and mischievous perversion ; but in 
 essence, and as stated by St. Paul, it is a divine 
 and precious truth. It is the affirmation of the 
 great fact that there is a higher faculty than that 
 of *' reasoning," that the spiritual man possesses 
 and exercises an intuitive instrument of knowledge, 
 and that he '* knows " by an interior process in 
 the -spiritual part of his being. 
 
 The Gospel according to St. John has been 
 regarded by some initiates as the charter of 
 Christian mysticism, and it is easy to understand 
 this view, when we remember that many of the 
 distinctive features of mysticism are found in it. 
 The Incarnation is the fact which dominates the 
 Gospel throughout, and it is the supreme revela- 
 tion of the divine. No man hath seen God at 
 any time, but He has been declared by the only 
 beorotten Son which is in the bosom of the 
 Father. It is thus that the Eternal Life and 
 the Eternal Love have been manifested to men; 
 
ST. JOHN AND THE NEW BHU^H 21 
 by the Word which was with God, and was 
 God. Through Him all things were made, and 
 that which hath been made was life in Him ; and 
 the life was the Light of men. St. John then 
 regards the whole creation as part of the manifes- 
 tation of the Divine Word, and he constantly 
 employs as symbols of unseen things and eternal 
 realities, things which are seen and temporal. 
 
 The supreme revelation of divine things is 
 expressed by, and in Christ. It can only be 
 communicated, however, to those who stand in a 
 divine relationship. It is a distinct and definite re- 
 velation, although it can be only gradually unfolded. 
 Very important in St. John's teaching is the 
 idea of a new birth or a birth from above, which 
 is the one indispensable condition of entering 
 upon the soul's great quest. Until a man be 
 born from above he cannot even see the kingdom 
 of God, and except a man be born of the Spirit 
 he cannot enter it. St. John teaches that whoso- 
 ever believeth on Jesus as the Christ is begotten 
 of God, is born of the Spirit. Further, the soul 
 that is begotten of God overcometh the world, 
 and " doeth no sin." We are assured of the 
 victory, because greater is He that is in us than 
 he that is in the world. 
 
22 ST. PAIiL AND ST. JOHN 
 
 St. John's teaching concerning the purifica- 
 tion of the soul is very explicit. The soul is 
 cleansed by the indwelling Word, and sanctified 
 by the divine and abiding Truth. It is cleansed 
 and purified in order that there may be fijlfilled 
 in it the divine intention. The doctrine of the 
 soul's development, of the progressive realisa- 
 tion of eternal life which we find in St. John's 
 writings, is in substance the same as St. Paul's. 
 Apart from Christ there can be neither growth 
 in grace nor experience of the life that is 
 abundant. 
 
 Thus Christ is spoken of as the living Bread, 
 the Bread from heaven, which we must eat and 
 assimilate. To believe on Christ is to receive 
 Him as a principle of life; and Christ Himself 
 becomes a spring of life within our souls. This 
 thought of the soul's participation in Christ is a 
 ruling conception in St. John's mind. Christ is 
 able to communicate the life which He possesses 
 to the believing soul, and such communication 
 means sustenance, growth, and progress. Christ 
 lived for us and died for us ; and the meaning of 
 the mystical language concerning the bread and 
 the wine is to be seen in the effects of His life 
 and death, which He communicates to the soul. 
 
UNITY AND UNION 23 
 
 Apart from this appropriation of a sacrificial 
 life, a man can have no life in himself; his life 
 is in Christ, and not in himself St. John 
 would agree with St. Paul that, if any man be 
 in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation, — created 
 in Christ unto good works. 
 
 St. John, too, places the mystic idea of unity 
 in the forefront. He* agrees with St. Paul that 
 believers are one in Christ, and that their true 
 life is realised only in their abiding union with 
 Him. The fruitfulness of their life is dependent 
 upon their abiding in Christ ; for out of Christ 
 they can do nothing. They are to be one, 
 even as the Father and the Son are one,— 
 perfected into one by the indwelling Christ. 
 
 St. John's mystical doctrine of the Spirit, 
 which is a very conspicuous feature of his 
 teaching, is markedly akin to that of St. Paul. 
 Divine knowledge follows upon the growing 
 illumination of the Spirit, and by the certainty 
 of the inward assurance, the soul is convinced 
 of the truth of the knowledge imparted, the Spirit 
 witnessing with our spirit that we are children 
 of God. In a very mystical passage, St. John 
 speaks of the threefold witness, — the Spirit and 
 the water and the blood,- — signifying God's three- 
 
24 ST. PAUL AND ST. JOHN 
 
 fold testimony as to His gift of eternal life 
 in His Son. The Spirit, says St. John, gives 
 testimony, because the Spirit is the truth ; and 
 Jesus Christ came, not with the water only, but 
 with the water and the blood. He who believes 
 in the Son of God has the witness in his own 
 heart. St. John further writes of the Spirit of 
 Truth within us and abiding within us, who shall 
 teach us all things, guiding us into all the truth 
 and declaring the things that are to come. This 
 Spirit, which proceedeth from the Father, con- 
 victs the world in respect of sin and of righteous- 
 ness and of judgment, and bears witness of 
 Christ. Indeed, at times, like St, Paul, St. John 
 seems to identify the Spirit with Christ. The 
 soul needs no other teacher save the Spirit who 
 is the Truth. '' Ye have," declares the apostle, 
 '*an anointing from the Holy One, and ye all know 
 the anointing which ye received abideth in you, 
 and ye need not that any one teach you, for His 
 anointing teacheth you concerning all things." 
 
 It remains only to note the emphasis which 
 St. John lays on Love in his teaching. Love 
 is of God, and God is Love. We are to love 
 one another as Christ hath loved us, and so 
 manifest the love of God. He who loveth God, 
 
THE LOVE OF GOD 25 
 
 lovcth his brother ; and he who dwelleth in love 
 dwelleth in God. He that loveth hath eternal 
 life abiding in him, but he that hateth abideth 
 in death ; and we know that we have passed 
 out of death into life, because we love. ''We 
 love," says St. John, ^'because He first loved us." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, it has been^sald by Dr. 
 Bigg, was the father of all the Christian mystics, 
 but no mystic himself; that the enchanted garden 
 which he opened for others he did not himself 
 enter ; in a word, that Clement shrank from his 
 own conclusions. But this is only true if we agree 
 with Dr. Bigg in regarding mysticism as co- 
 extensive with ecstasy, a view which is surely 
 both arbitrary and unnecessary. " O truly sacred 
 mysteries!" cries Clement, *' O stainless light! 
 My way is lighted with torches, and I survey 
 the heavens and God ! I am become holy while 
 I am being initiated. The Lord is my hiero- 
 phant." The man who could write thus must 
 certainly have advanced some way along the 
 mystic path. 
 
 Clement's writings cover so wide a field of 
 
 thought, and embrace so great an area of 
 
 26 
 
THE ''CHILD" AND THE "MAN" 27 
 Christian doctrine and experience, that it is easy 
 to overlook his distinctively mystical teaching. 
 
 His aim was to construct a knowledge of God 
 by which the Christian believer should be initiated 
 into the holy mysteries of his faith— a knowledge 
 of God including the divine secrets, the secret 
 Word, and the mysteries of the Word. 
 
 The following sentences will show how Clement 
 regarded the process of initiation into fuller know- 
 ledge of the Christian mysteries. " As the word 
 ' child ' implies one who is learning, so the 
 word 'man' implies one who is teaching, and 
 in Scripture the word 'man' is employed to 
 express that which is perfect. Our Lord is called 
 a 'man' on account of His being perfect in 
 righteousness; and we shall be perfected when 
 we become the Church and receive Christ as the 
 Head." '' Perfection as regards the performance 
 of law is to be but a child in Christ." "When 
 St. Paul became a man he put away childish 
 things— the things of the law, and understood 
 the things of Christ, who in Scripture is called 
 ' the Man.' " '' The sick need a Saviour and the 
 lost a guide ; the blind, one who shall give light, 
 and the thirsty, the living fountain, that drinking, 
 he shall thirst no more ; the dead need life and 
 
28 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 
 
 the sheep a shepherd ; children need a teacher, 
 and all mankind need Jesus." 
 
 This knowledge, it is to be noted, is rooted 
 and grounded in the revelation delivered once 
 for all to the saints. 
 
 As a man becomes a new creation in Christ, 
 so from Christ proceeds that fuller manifestation 
 of divine realities which it is life and peace to 
 know. Thus Clement speaks of the initiated as 
 those who have learned the divine mysteries 
 from the only begotten Son, and as becoming 
 pure in heart by means of that knowledge which 
 is through the Son of God. By this means 
 alone are they " initiated face to face into the 
 blessed contemplation." It is Christ, says 
 Clement, the Word of Truth, the Word of in- 
 corruption, who regenerates man, leading him 
 back to the truth. Christ Is the centre of 
 salvation, and He freely offers light and life to 
 the darkened and dead soul. 
 
 There are lesser mysteries and the great 
 mysteries, just as there is a knowledge which is 
 darkly partial and a knowledge which is perfect ; 
 the former lead on to the latter, as the many 
 lead to the one. Babes are to be fed with 
 milk ; the perfect man with solid food. Instruc- 
 
CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 29 
 
 tion in the primary rudiments of the gospel is 
 indeed the first nourishment of the soul ; but 
 full and perfect insight into the truth, a con- 
 templation which discerns all mysteries, a com- 
 prehension of the blood and flesh of the Word 
 and of the divine power and essence, is needful 
 for the fully-grown man. This latter knowledge 
 is not a barren word, but a sort of divine 
 science which makes all things manifest in their 
 origin, prepares man to know himself, and 
 teaches him to reach out toward God. This 
 knowledge is the perfection of man as man ; 
 and the mystic is perfected through the science 
 of divine things, for he is in unison with the 
 Divine Word and intimately united to God. 
 Clement quotes the saying of St. Paul respecting 
 his knowledge in the mystery of Christ, and 
 refers to the special instruction of the perfect 
 which St. Paul alludes to in his epistle to the 
 Colossians. Some mysteries, says Clement, were 
 concealed until the times of the apostles, and 
 were delivered by them as they received them 
 from the Lord. These mysteries which were 
 hidden in the Old Testament are now revealed 
 to the saints. Clement adds, however, that this 
 knowledge is not imparted to all believers. The 
 
30 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 
 
 vital energies of the spiritual deep and the powers 
 of the world to come are known only by the 
 initiated. 
 
 According to Clement there are two forms of 
 truth : one relating to words, and the other to 
 things. This latter, he suggests, is possessed 
 by the initiated alone. Clement makes a dis- 
 tinction between that which is written and its 
 deeper meaning — the concealed reality which is 
 the subject of a higher knowledge. Instruction 
 in the higher form of truth is called illumination, 
 because it makes manifest that which is hidden. 
 It is to be remembered, writes Clement, that 
 neither the prophets nor the Saviour Himself 
 announced the divine mysteries so as to be 
 easily comprehended by every one, but spoke 
 in parables. The deepest interpretation is always 
 the truest. This is not intended to be the 
 negation, but the affirmation of the place of 
 reason as an interpretation of divine realities ; 
 for Clement regards the mystical as springing 
 out of the rational. It cannot be denied that 
 the historical facts of the Christian revelation 
 are accorded their due place in Clement's 
 teaching, but the idea they enslirine is always 
 placed in the forefront ; the outward sign is 
 
SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE 31 
 
 acknowledged, but it is the inncT truth that is 
 regarded. The mystic possesses the true logic 
 which alone leads to the true wisdom. That 
 true wisdom is the divine power which, knowing 
 things as they are and exempt from all passion, 
 reaches out toward perfection. It cannot be 
 attained apart from the Saviour, who, by the 
 divine word, removes the veil of ignorance 
 spread over the eye of the soul by the things 
 of sense, and gives that which is best — the power 
 of discerning between God and man. The true 
 and spiritual meaning of the Scriptures is pos- 
 sessed by the mystic alone, and to him the 
 sayings of the Lord, though obscure to others, 
 are clear and manifest. He has obtained know- 
 ledge concerning all ; for, says Clement, " our 
 oracles return answers concerning things present, 
 as they are ; concerning things future, as they 
 will be ; concerning things past, as they have 
 been." This knowledge is quite different from 
 that derived through the senses, which is common 
 to all men ; it is not born with men, but is 
 acquired by attention, nourishment, and increase. 
 By incessant practice it becomes a habit or dis- 
 position ; and perfected by mystical initiation, and 
 fixed by love, it cannot fail. 
 
32 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 
 
 Clement writes : **Man is dear to God, because 
 he is God's workmanship. God commanded the 
 creation of other beings, but He fashioned with 
 His own hands man — breathing into him that 
 which was pecuHar to Himself Therefore that 
 which was fashioned by God after His own image 
 was created by Him — whether chosen on its own 
 account, or on account of something else. If 
 chosen on its own account, God who is goodness 
 loves that which is good ; and that which is called 
 the inspiration or breathing of God is the interior 
 charm rendering man beloved of God. If chosen 
 on account of something else, God's only motive 
 for creating him was that, apart from his exist- 
 ence, God could not be a good Creator, and 
 man could not attain the knowledge of God." 
 Elsewhere Clement says : " Knowledge lies in 
 illumination, and the end of knowledge is rest ; 
 and this is the ultimate object of desire." 
 
 Naturally, Clement came to think of the 
 Christian life as consisting of a twofold character 
 — a lower and a higher life. The former lay in 
 obedience to the Christian rule, and in this lower 
 life hope and fear alternated. While by no 
 means the ideal, this life was typical of the vast 
 majority of Christians. The higher and ideal 
 
"I HAVE CALLED YOU FRIENDS" 2>2> 
 Christian life was one of full understanding of, 
 and communion with God — a life in which the 
 soul joyfully surrendered to the divine. This 
 surrender, which brought ecstatic joy, was the 
 one utterly desirable end of human endeavour ; 
 and only those who had grown in the knowledge 
 of the Son of God to the stature of the perfect 
 man might attain it. Clement adds that this 
 perfection consists in an abiding communion with 
 God through the Great High Priest, and "in 
 being as like unto the Lord as can be." The 
 mystic is described by Clement as one who is 
 superior to anger and desire, which are both 
 equally irrational. He loves the creature only 
 through the God and Maker of all things, and 
 he has acquired a habit or disposition of self- 
 control, unattended by effort, after the likeness 
 of his Lord. He unites knowledge to faith and 
 love, and is therefore one in his judgment. 
 Being formed into a perfect man after the image 
 of the Lord, he is truly spiritual, and worthy 
 to be called brother by the Lord. At once, he 
 is a friend and a son of God. 
 
 Dr. Inge has pointed out that the doctrine 
 of "deification" found its way into the scheme 
 of Christian mysticism through the teaching of 
 
 3 
 
34 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 
 
 Clement ; but it would, perhaps, be more correct 
 to say that Clement only seized upon and 
 emphasized, somewhat too unguardedly and too 
 unreservedly, certain aspects of Pauline mysti- 
 cism. Clement constantly refers to the statement 
 that God formed man in His image and after 
 His likeness, and explains this to mean that 
 man at his birth receives the image, but only 
 acquires the likeness gradually, and as he draws 
 nearer to Christian perfection. " Christ alone," 
 says Clement, " who is exempt from passions 
 and affections, is at once in the image and after 
 the likeness." Clement, however, is not careful 
 enough in preserving the distinction he notes, 
 and he sometimes speaks of the mystic or perfect 
 Christian as formed in the 4mage and after the 
 likeness of God. By knowing God, man may 
 be assimilated to God, and by the indwelling 
 of the Word, may even become God. The union 
 of the Holy Spirit with the soul of man enables 
 the mystic to perfect within him the likeness 
 of the divine image; and ''the image of God," 
 says Clement, '' is His Word." The mystic's 
 whole life is prayer and converse with God, 
 and although to speak of the soul as " training 
 itself to be God " is doubtless open to objection. 
 
THE WORK OF PERFECTION 35 
 
 the idea which it embodies is essentially a true 
 one, and, as an ideal, ought to be present before 
 the mind and imagination of all Christians. 
 
 Clement teaches that the mystic having passed 
 through the successive stages of initiation will 
 arrive at the highest place of rest, in which he 
 will contemplate God face to face with full 
 knowledge and understanding "in the Holy 
 Mountain of the Lord, in the Church above. 
 There are the divine philosophers, the true 
 Israelites, the pure in heart, in whom is no 
 guile — no longer remaining in the Hebdomas 
 of rest, but by active well-doing, after the Divine 
 Image, looking up to the inheritance in the 
 Ogdoas." Advancing continually in the work 
 of perfection, the Mystic " hastens through the 
 Holy Hebdomas, to the Father's Habitation, 
 the Mansion of the Lord, about to become, so 
 to speak, an eternally permanent light for ever 
 unchangeable." 
 
 In setting forth the progressive realisation of 
 the higher Christian life, Clement employs some 
 of the ideas and language of the Greek mysteries 
 with which he was familiar. In particular, he 
 insists upon the place and power of purgative 
 discipline. It is only the pure in heart to whom 
 
36 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 
 
 divine illumination is given ; they, and they 
 only, can enter the shrine. In order to attain 
 this purity, the soul must be purged from the 
 dross of this world, thus escaping the snare of 
 sensual pleasure and self-satisfied ease. A 
 separation without regret from the body and 
 its passions, says Clement, is not only a sacrifice 
 acceptable to God, but it is essential to the 
 higher life of the spirit. Clement writes : 
 " The soul of the mystic must be denuded of 
 the material skin, freed from bodily trifling and 
 all the passions which vain and false opinions 
 engender, and having put away fleshly lusts 
 must be consecrated to the light. He begins 
 the purgative process by confession, and the 
 contemplative process by analysis. ... If, then, 
 w^e cast ourselves into the greatness of Christ, 
 and go forward with purity into profundity, we 
 shall approach to the notion of the Almighty, 
 knowing, indeed, not what He is, but what He 
 is not." Clement adds that we are unable, of 
 ourselves, to attain to this knowledge : it is 
 the gift of God through His Son. 
 
 Of cleansing through the Word and growth 
 in the grace of illumination, Clement writes 
 thus : " Our sins are forgiven by one sovereign 
 
PURGATION 37 
 
 medicine, which is baptism according to the 
 Word ; in this we are cleansed from all our 
 sins and immediately pass from our evil state. 
 This is one grace of illumination, for no longer 
 is our way of life after the manner in which we 
 walked before we were cleansed, because know- 
 ledge grows with illumination — enlightening the 
 understanding. Thus we who were untaught 
 are now called disciples." Or again : '' It is 
 called ' washing,' for by it we are cleansed from 
 our sins ; ' grace,' for by it the punishment due 
 to our sins is forgiven ; ' illumination,' for by 
 it we see that holy saving Light, and our sight 
 is made keen to see the Divine nature ; * per- 
 fection,' for nothing is wanting to the soul that 
 knows God." Elsewhere Clement sums up the 
 process thus : " Being baptised, we are illuminated, 
 being illuminated, we are adopted ; being adopted, 
 we are perfected ; being perfected, we are made 
 immortal." Always, Clement maintains that 
 " the Word is the source of all the true 
 knowledge to which man attains " ; " the wisdom 
 of God " ; " the genuine wisdom, the sanctification 
 of knowledge"; ''the person of the revealed 
 truth" ; " the person or face of God, by which 
 He is brought to light or revealed/' 
 
>/ 
 
 38 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 
 
 Purgation, Clement teaches, is the means 
 by which purity is gained, and purity is a pre- 
 liminary to positive holiness. Hence, Clement 
 assigns no mean place to the discipline of fasting, 
 which purifies the soul from matter, and renders 
 both body and soul pure and light to receive 
 the divine disclosures. Mystically, he tells us, 
 fasting shows that as life in each individual is 
 supported by food, and not to be nourished by 
 food is a symbol of death, so it is incumbent 
 upon us to fast from worldly things that we 
 may be dead to them, while partaking of divine 
 food we may live to God. Purity is then not 
 simply the absence of evil, but the presence of 
 good. '* Purity is to think holy things." With- 
 out this, no true knowledge, no mystical illu- 
 mination is possible. This, and this only, is 
 the one thing needful, though prayer and patient 
 study of Scripture (which Clement teaches as 
 admitting of a fourfold interpretation), go hand 
 in hand with it. 
 
 Further, according to Clement, the more a man 
 loves, the more deeply does he penetrate into 
 God. The loving soul will make his whole life 
 a continued act of prayer, for he knows that he 
 is living always in the presence of God. Without 
 
THE MYSTIC GOAL 39 
 
 love, no course of purgation or discipline will 
 bring the soul to perfection. Perfection is at- 
 tained only when the soul hangs upon the Lord 
 through faith, and knowledge, and, especially, 
 love. Mystical knowledge is given only to 
 those who love much. 
 
 The final state of the mystic is perpetual 
 contemplation of God, and in this his blessedness 
 consists. The soul, says Clement, contemplates 
 no longer in a mirror or through a glass, but 
 looks eternally upon the vision in all its clear- 
 ness — the vision with which the soul, smitten 
 with boundless love, can never be filled. To 
 hold intercourse with God eternally, is the final 
 operation of the mystic. He rests in the holy 
 mountain of the Lord together with the Church 
 above. 
 
 Of those who have studied with patience and 
 sympathetic insight the mystical teaching of 
 Clement, few will be found to dispute the pro- 
 nouncement of Dr. Bigg, that among Christian 
 writers, none till very recent times has so clear 
 and grand a conception of the development 
 of the spiritual life. He was a master of that 
 spiritual science which treats of the evolution 
 or development of humanity by the Interior 
 
40 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 
 
 Way towards God who is the Beginning and 
 
 End of all. 
 
 Perhaps no study of Clement could furnish 
 us with a more faithful knowledge of his mystical 
 teaching than is to be found in the words of the 
 following prayer : 
 
 " O Lord, grant that we, who follow Thy 
 injunctions, may perfect the likeness of Thy 
 image. . . . Grant that we all, living in 
 Thy peace, translated into Thy City, safely 
 sailing through the waves of sin, may be tran- 
 quilly borne along together with the Holy 
 Spirit, the ineffable Wisdom ; and day and 
 night until the perfect day, may praise with 
 thanksgiving, and give thanks with praise, to 
 the only Father and Son . . . together with 
 the Holy Spirit, all things in one ; in Whom 
 are all things ; through Whom all things are 
 one ; through Whom is eternity ; Whose 
 mernbers we all are. Amen," 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 
 
 DiONYSius has been called by Vaughan ''the 
 mythical hero of mysticism," for, although we 
 know that the author of the treatises and letters 
 which have come down to us under the name 
 of Dionysius was not St. Paul's Athenian 
 convert, yet both the date and nationality of 
 the monk or priest who wrote them are shrouded 
 in mystery. Whoever he was, he effectually 
 suppressed his own individuality by ascribing 
 his writings to Dionysius the Areopagite. It 
 is still convenient to allow him the name he 
 assumed. 
 
 Unlike his master Hierotheus, Dionysius aims 
 at a constructive philosophy of Christian truth, 
 and in his system the Platonic elements are 
 very marked. Influenced greatly by the teaching 
 of Proclus, he sought to assimilate the finest 
 spirit of Neo-Platonism to the current statements 
 
 41 
 
42 DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 
 
 of Christianity. Christianity, he holds, rightly 
 
 understood, is the one perfect and absolute 
 
 philosophy. 
 
 Starting from a conception of God as the 
 ground or being of all that is, Dionysius affirms 
 that as all things have come from God, so the 
 goal of the whole creation is return to God. 
 " All things flow out from God, and all will 
 ultimately return to God." His conception of 
 creation is a modification of the Neo-Platonic 
 theory of emanation, which " assumes the world 
 to be an effluence or eradiation of God, in such 
 manner that the remoter emanation possesses 
 ever a lower degree of perfection than that which 
 precedes it ; and represents consequently the 
 totality of existence as a descending series." 
 Thus to Dionysius, everything that exists is 
 in its degree "a symbolic manifestation of the 
 super-existent," though God Himself is beyond 
 all negation and affirmation. The whole world 
 is a divine allegory, furnishing us with a true 
 though partial idea of the nature of God. 
 
 The outer world 
 Marks but the limit of the human soul's 
 Advance, developing her infinite. 
 O blessed promise of the time to come ! 
 
THE UNITY OF GOD 43 
 
 At each succeeding stage more lofty types — 
 A wider world — significance more deep — 
 Till, in the full possession of itself, 
 The soul attains, from every type set free, 
 The supra-conscious life of pure repose 
 And unveil'd vision into God the All. 
 
 While Dionysius teaches that the whole 
 universe is to be regarded as an allegory of God, 
 he is careful to point out that God Himself is 
 the Absolute, and beyond both essence and 
 knowledge. We can, indeed, speak of Him by 
 different analogies, though many mystics have 
 persistently endeavoured to rise beyond these — 
 leaving all symbols and metaphors behind. It 
 is a supreme truth that "the One who is said 
 to become multiform " in the world must embrace 
 all that is good and true and beautiful, and hence 
 we find Dionysius affirming that "the Non- 
 Existent also must participate in the Good and 
 Beautiful." But the Mystic cannot rest in these 
 finite embodiments or manifestations of the 
 Good and Beautiful, because " the Absolute 
 Good and Beautiful is honoured by abstracting 
 all qualities from it." It is the ''supra-rational 
 Unity " that the Mystic seeks — that *' Unity 
 which unifies every unity." Being and Life, 
 
44 DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 
 
 Wisdom and Beauty are manifestations of God, 
 but God Himself is none of these. 
 
 Accordingly, to Dionysius, advance in the 
 knowledge of God is not made by any affirmation 
 concerning Him, for no name can adequately 
 convey a knowledge of God's essential being ; it 
 is, therefore, only by a sequence of symbols and 
 rites that the soul can rise to the reality of God. 
 The nearer we draw to the Centre and Fount 
 of Light, says Dionysius, the clearer and truer 
 becomes our apprehension. The evolution or 
 progression of the spiritual principle towards 
 perfection can be effected only by the love of 
 God, and it is only by the love of God that we 
 can gain a true knowledge of Him. But when 
 this is attained, there is no joy equal to the joy 
 of the accompanying great enlightenment. 
 
 The return of the soul to God, which Dionysius 
 ^\ calls '' deification," is the consummation of the 
 ' creature's life — a consummation aspired to un- 
 ceasingly. The soul waits and watches until 
 the day break and the shadows flee away, and 
 •- God be all in all. 
 
 To call Dionysius a pantheist, as has often 
 been done, is a mistake. God alone has life in 
 Himself; although the world is an outcome of 
 
UNITY IN DIVERSITY 45 
 
 that life, and indeed, a necessary expression of 
 the Divine Being. It is only as God dwells in 
 any being that such being possesses real exist- 
 ence, the life of the creature being determined 
 by the relation which it sustains to the Centre 
 and Fount of life. Divine immanence is in no 
 sense the characteristic feature of the cosmology 
 of Dionysius, who goes so far, indeed, in main- 
 taining the transcendent character of God, that 
 he is led to make the extravagant statement : 
 " Being is in Him, He is not in being." God, he 
 repeatedly says, is the unity which comprehends 
 all differences — not abolishes them, and as He is 
 before all things so He is the end of all things. 
 But to predicate anything of God, is really to veil 
 Him, because He is so far beyond anything that 
 it is possible for man to affirm. We know more 
 of God the more of Him we possess ; we possess 
 more of God, the nearer we dwell to the Centre. 
 
 Concerning the mystical via negativa and the 
 via affirmativa, Dionysius has much to say of 
 interest and value. The former is the ascending 
 process, or the return journey to God by means 
 of abstraction and analysis. The latter is the 
 descending process, or the outflow through finite 
 existences. As Dr. Inge has pointed out, the 
 
46 DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 
 
 conclusion of the former is ** God is all," the 
 conclusion of the latter is " all is not God." 
 Thus, as we have already noted, anything we 
 may assert concerning God only serves to veil 
 Him, while anything we deny concerning Him 
 results in a partial unveiling. 
 
 The highest as well as the truest knowledge 
 of God is attained, according to Dionysius, in a 
 mystic ignorance. The mystic, he says, ''must 
 leave behind all things both in the sensible and 
 in the intelligible worlds, till he enters into the 
 darkness of ignorance that is truly mystical." 
 This is a divine state of darkness, it is dark 
 only through excess of light, It has been de- 
 scribed by the apostle Paul as *'the light unap- 
 proachable." Perhaps in no respect has the 
 influence of Dionysius been more marked than 
 in his teaching and doctrine of '' the divine 
 dark." The mystic believes that clouds and 
 darkness surround the great white throne, and 
 that God dweileth in thick darkness, beyond the 
 light of setting suns. Thus it is imperative for 
 the mystic to seek to ascend beyond the ignor- 
 ance which veils itself in words to a true mystic 
 ignorance in which " darkness " God dwells and 
 may be found. As our knowledge of God is best 
 
"THE DIVINE DARK" 47 
 
 expressed, according to Dionysius, by abstraction, 
 by negations, so the mystic aim is to reach the 
 Divine incomprehensible unity in the Divine 
 obscurity. This is essentially a spiritual state, 
 signifying to Dionysius as well as to the great 
 mediaeval mystics who were profoundly influenced 
 by him, the supreme and most exalted state 
 possible to the soul — the intimate communion 
 with the Universal — the union of the spirit of 
 man with the Spirit of God. To be glorified 
 in God and by God is the end for which man 
 was created, and the mystic can rest in no 
 lesser beatification than this. 
 
 This was the belief of Dionysius, and we are 
 not surprised, therefore, to find that he urges the 
 necessity of denuding the mind and stripping 
 the soul of all sensuous images, which can only 
 enmesh and ensnare. We must rigorously turn 
 aside, not only from the fashions of this world, 
 which are fleeting and cunning deceits, but 
 emancipate ourselves from the allurements of 
 the senses, and transcend even our intellectual 
 knowledge of God. Dionysius calls for the 
 cultivation of a passionless passivity by means 
 of which the soul shall realise the divine. This 
 is the one thing of vital import to the mystic. 
 
48 DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 
 
 To hear arid to see and to know, and, immersed where the 
 
 Hghts never fail. 
 Confess that at length we have truly transcended the world 
 
 of the veil ; 
 We have pass'd through the region of omen, and entered 
 
 the land of sight ; 
 Oh, thanks be to God for the pillar of smoke by day and 
 
 the pillar of fire by night; 
 The voice in the cloud and the burning bush and the holy 
 
 places trod; 
 For the soften'd grace of the shaded face and the back of 
 
 the Lord our God ; 
 For the shadow'd home and the light beyond, for the 
 
 secret pulses stirr'd 
 By the parable dim and the mystic hymn and the first 
 
 sense of the Word ! 
 But O for the end and the vision, beyond the gate and 
 
 the way, 
 The light which the eye cannot picture, repose in activity free ! 
 The veils of the world are about me, sad dreams of the 
 
 night and the day. 
 
 But I look to see ! ^ 
 
 The soul, according to Dionysius, is bipartite, 
 and possesses a higher and lower faculty. The 
 higher faculty is able to apprehend the divine 
 image immediately, the lower faculty only by 
 means of symbols. Despite the necessity for 
 rising above symbolic representations, we cannot 
 dispense with symbols, for they are— 
 
 ^ A. E. Waite, A Book of Mystery and Vision. 
 
SYMBOL AND SACRAMENT 49 
 
 The ministries of deep 
 And many-sided emblems which exist 
 For man alone, developing for him 
 Resources in the measure of his need, 
 His insight, inquest, and experiment. 
 
 It has been already suggested that, as Dionysius 
 states, material things are symbols of the Divine 
 reality, and that the symbolism of Nature is a 
 partial revelation of God. Symbols can only 
 shadow forth figuratively and darkly ; and it is 
 only the fruits of the valley that v^e attain through 
 them, but they prepare us for receiving the holy 
 fruit of the Tree of Life. They give us true, 
 albeit partial impressions of the Divine character ; 
 and it is by means of earthly things that we learn 
 the first secrets of the heavenly. We rise from 
 "white sacraments and parables," until we reach 
 the One Eternal Truth amid the white radiance 
 of Eternity. To the eye of the mystic, the whole 
 creation is a Divine allegory ; and in this sense, 
 all that exists is a symbolic manifestation and 
 revelation of the Fount and Source of Life. 
 
 Tradition and Scripture itself, Dionysius 
 teaches, are to be read symbolically, for only in 
 this way can their hidden truths be revealed. 
 The same principle of interpretation Dionysius 
 
 4 
 
so DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 
 
 applies to the liturgy and offices of the Church, 
 but here, it is to be noted, Christ — the Incarnate 
 Son — is the One, True, and Divine Illuminator. 
 From the dim shades of time the Divine Hiero- 
 phant leads the soul on to the burning bliss of 
 the Eternal Light. 
 
 Undoubtedly, the teaching of Dionysius under 
 this head is open to misconstruction, and it has 
 seemed inconsistent to not a few careful students. 
 He writes of Christ as the Cause of all things, 
 filling all things and sustaining all the separate 
 parts of the universe, (in accordance with the 
 perfect whole,) by His essential Deity which in- 
 cludes all the parts and the full whole in Itself. 
 Being the prime Author of perfection. It is perfect 
 in the imperfect, while in perfect things It is 
 imperfect, because alike in dignity and origin 
 It transcends their perfection. It is the Being 
 which completely inhabits all beings perfectly, 
 while at the same time It is wholly exalted above 
 all beings. At once It determines all the prin- 
 ciples of things and stands above all principles 
 and ordinances. In a word. It is exalted over all 
 things. Thus, as Dorner pointed out, the con- 
 ception of Dionysius regarding the participation 
 of Christ in the transcendence of God and the 
 
THE MYSTICAL LADDER Si 
 
 conception of a Divine, super-essential, formless 
 essence, made it difficult for him to do justice 
 to the Christian doctrine of Incarnation or to 
 assign to Jesus a distinct and unique place in 
 the universe. Hence, the Logos is violently 
 identified in his system with Jesus, who is, how- 
 ever, the Revealer, the Illuminator, and the great 
 High Priest. Upon this Dionysius is emphatic ; 
 Christ is the Light-Bearer and the Light-Bringer 
 to the soul. Dionysius regards the technical 
 terms of the Greek mysteries — purification, illu- 
 mination, and perfection — the three stages in the 
 mystical ladder, as representing, or as being 
 represented by the three sacraments of Baptism, 
 the Eucharist, and Unction. They signify re- 
 spectively the cleansing of the soul, the partici- 
 pation of the soul in divine knowledge, and the 
 actual communion and union of the soul with 
 God. The three embrace the science of the 
 return of the spirit of man to its source. 
 
 Of the mystical union of the soul with God, 
 of the absorption of the many into the One, 
 Dionysius, while fervently believing it to be the 
 ultimate end and consummation of mystic desire, 
 as is obvious from what has been previously 
 affirmed, does not always write explicitly. He 
 
52 DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 
 
 emphatically believes, however, that walking the 
 inner way, living in the presence and in the power 
 of the Spirit, and constrained by a passionate love 
 of God, the initiated soul may attain even in this 
 body of humiliation a height surpassing far the 
 region bounded by vision, and in the end become 
 truly one with God. The love of the soul for 
 God becomes, in the end, one with the Love 
 of God, which, says Dionysius, is *' an eternal 
 circle from goodness, through goodness, and to 
 goodness." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 MASTER ECKHART 
 
 Many critics of mysticism have alleged that the 
 only pathway to the universal, acknowledged by 
 the mystic, is that of the negation of the indi- 
 vidual. As we have had occasion to observe 
 already, this is a pure misapprehension, where it 
 is not a wilful perversion of mysticism. That 
 this false idea has existed so long is doubtless 
 due to the contradictions, sometimes real, but 
 more often apparent, in the language employed 
 by mystical writers. To avoid this altogether 
 is difficult, if not impossible, " because the phrases 
 that do well enough in space and time are in- 
 adequate with the things of eternity. There the 
 contradictions must meet and be reconciled."^ 
 
 Eckhart has suffered much on account of, not 
 the obscurity, but the apparent contradictions in 
 his statement of the truth. He wrote in German, 
 and for the general public ; and as Dr. Inge has 
 
 ^ Professor Ritchie, Philosophical Studies^ p. 241. 
 53 
 
54 MASTER ECKHART 
 
 pointed out, Eckhart's ''desire to be intelligible 
 
 to the general reader led him to adopt an 
 
 epigrammatic, antithetic style, and to omit 
 
 qualifying phrases. This is one reason why 
 
 he laid himself open to so many accusations of 
 
 heresy." 
 
 As a Dominican monk, sometime prior of Erfurt 
 and vicar-general of Thuringen in later years, 
 vicar-general of Bohemia, he lived a strenuous 
 and consecrated life. He was influenced greatly 
 by the writings of Dionysius and Augustine, 
 Erigena and Aquinas ; and the inner life of his 
 spirit was greatly enlarged by the societies of those 
 of his day who followed the gleam of the inward 
 light. A few years before his death he preached 
 frequently at Cologne — his discourses attracting 
 much attention. They were as strong spirit 
 music, hard for tongue to utter and difficult 
 for ear to understand. 
 
 Eckhart, in common with all the mystics, re- 
 gards the supreme satisfaction of the soul as 
 dependent upon a true knowledge of God. He 
 grounds the possibility of such knowledge on 
 the fact that God being immanent as well as 
 transcendent, may be known in all things. To 
 apprehend God better in one thing than in 
 
DOCTRINE OF GOD 55 
 
 another, is perhaps the lot of the many ; but the 
 more excellent way is to apprehend God every- 
 where, "for to that end do all things exist." 
 In God, says Eckhart, all things are one, from 
 angel to spider, yet not all the fulness of the 
 creatures can express God any more than a drop 
 of water can express the ocean. 
 
 Notwithstanding the soul's necessity of a know- 
 ledge of God, it is better, says Eckhart, to be 
 silent about Him : '' God cannot be named, be- 
 cause no man can say anything or understand 
 anything about Him. If I say, ' God is good," 
 it is not true ; nay further, I am good, God is not 
 good. I might further say, ' I am better than 
 God,' for whatever is good may become better, 
 and whatever may become better may become 
 best. Now God is not good, because He cannot 
 become better; and since He cannot become 
 better He cannot become best, for these things 
 'good,' 'better,' and 'best' are far from God, 
 since He is above all. . . . Thou canst under- 
 stand nothing about God, because He is above 
 all understanding." 
 
 Now, such teaching as this has its dangers, 
 and it is easy to see how the mystic is led to 
 such extravagances of statement as : " God in 
 
56 MASTER ECKHART 
 
 Himself was not God — in the creature only hath 
 He become God." Thus the whole creation is 
 an expression of the divine life and personality, 
 and to apprehend and to share in this is man's 
 highest good. That man to whom God is seen 
 alike in all things is on the way to the attain- 
 ment of the soul's purpose. Yet this achieve- 
 ment is in reality only the first sense of the 
 soul's divine quest. To trace the correspond- 
 ences in the material world with the high and 
 supreme truth beyond is indeed a praiseworthy 
 occupation ; but, as Saint-Martin asks : '' If this 
 world will seem to us, after our death, as nothing 
 but magical illusion, why do we regard it other- 
 wise at present ? The nature of things does 
 not change." 
 
 Despite the foregoing, the knowledge of 
 divine truth and its apprehension by man is 
 desired by God, though it can be attained only 
 through the abandonment of earthly things. 
 Man never desires anything so earnestly, affirms 
 Eckhart, as God desires to bring a man to Him- 
 self that he may know Him — the Alpha and 
 Omega of the mystery of divine and spiritual 
 things. In this divine disclosure nothing is 
 lacking; ''it is full and complete, and God is 
 
THE SOUL AND GOD 57 
 
 constrained to give it thee, since He cannot 
 cease till He hath given thee Himself." 
 
 Eckhart writes : " As the soul, through God, 
 loses itself and abandons all things, so does it 
 find itself again in God. When it knows God 
 it knows itself — as well as all the things from 
 which it has disjoined itself— perfectly in God." 
 This is simply another form of the mystic 
 doctrine of dying to self and living in God. 
 By abandoning all things the soul finds itself in 
 God, for *' in every man who hath utterly 
 abandoned self, God must communicate Him- 
 self according to all His power." Nothing is 
 more deplorable in the life of man than the 
 fact that it is the man himself who prevents 
 the approach of the divine. Thus an unhesi- 
 tating abandonment is the nearest way to God. 
 But the work of divine union can only be 
 accomplished by a strong and constant resolu- 
 tion on the part of the soul that desires it, in 
 true humility which is capable of utter abase- 
 ment. God is nigh unto us, but we are far 
 from Him ; yet, according to the constitution 
 of His nature, God must give, and His very 
 essence inclines Him to give His good gift to 
 us when we are humble, The mystic knows 
 
58 MASTER ECKHART 
 
 that if ever the soul is to know God it must 
 
 forget itself — yea, lose itself, for when the soul 
 
 knows and sees itself it does not see and know 
 
 God. 
 
 This knowledge of God, Eckhart teaches, is 
 confirmed by inner experience. '' How can any 
 external revelation help me unless it be verified 
 by inner experience ? The last appeal must 
 always be to the deepest part of my own being." 
 It is the inner voice which is the voice of God, 
 and to hear that we must resolve to descend 
 into ourselves. And this interior light of our 
 being is kindled by God and leads us to Him. 
 
 By this knowledge of God, which is one of 
 
 '' the mysteries of our fundamental being," the 
 
 soul of man is enabled to return to its divine 
 
 source, and by the inward secret way union with 
 
 - God is made possible. 
 
 There is, moreover, something in the soul 
 which is so akin to God that it is one with 
 Him, and not merely united with Him. " I 
 have a power in my soul," writes Eckhart, 
 "which is thoroughly susceptible to and re- 
 ceptible of God : I am as certain as that I live 
 that nothing whatever is so near to me as God. 
 God is nearer to me than I am to myself." The 
 
GOD IN TMP: soul 59 
 
 natural abode of the soul is God, and away from 
 Him it can find no rest. 
 
 In storm, in darkness and in stress, 
 In languor and deep weariness, 
 What wonder if, o'er life's dark deep- 
 That tossing sea which dare not sleep — 
 From time to time on each should come 
 An exile's sickness for his home. 
 
 ** That which God works in the simple light of 
 the soul is more beautiful and more pleasing than 
 all the other works which He performs in all 
 creatures ; only foolish people take evil for good 
 and good for evil. But to the man who rightly 
 understands, the one work which God effects 
 in the soul is better and nobler and higher than 
 all the world, for through that light comes grace. 
 This never comes in the intelligence or in the 
 will for if this should come to pass the intelli- 
 gence and the will would need to transcend 
 themselves." In another place Eckhart says : 
 '* Since God has never bestowed any gift simply 
 that man may rest in the possession of it, and 
 since every gift He has bestowed in heaven and 
 on earth has been given in order that He may be 
 able to give one gift which is Himself, so ... He 
 will prepare us for the one gift, which is Himself." 
 
6o MASTER ECKHART 
 
 The union of the soul with God takes place, 
 according to Eckhart, in ** the little spark/' 
 This *' spark " is called also the spirit of the 
 soul. There is, then, an experience possible to 
 the exercised believer in which he realises that he 
 has become one spirit with the Lord. It carries 
 with it its own certainty, a deepening certainty 
 growing out of the mystic consciousness of 
 divine sonship. Eckhart constantly emphasises 
 the mystical doctrine of regeneration, in which 
 divine grace aids human weakness, and by the 
 spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirit seals 
 us as sons of God. That which is the essence 
 of all creatures is eternally a divine life in Deity, 
 and the flaming consummation and holy per- 
 fection of such a life proceeds from that vital 
 union with God initiated in time in ''the little 
 spark." This spark, says Eckhart, rejecteth all 
 creatures, and will have only God simply as He 
 is in Himself. The union is so truly one between 
 life and life that Eckhart enunciates the famous 
 mystical saying : *' The eye with which I see 
 God is the same as that with which He sees 
 me." Many have stumbled at this word, some 
 have even wrested it to their own destruction ; 
 but the mystics of every age have understood 
 
"CHRIST IN YOU" 6i 
 
 its truth and accepted it, because, as Saint- 
 Martin has said, " all men who are instructed 
 in fundamental truths speak the same language, 
 for they are inhabitants of the same country." 
 
 A favourite and constantly recurring doctrine 
 of all mystics is that of the birth of the Son of 
 God in the soul of the Christian. Eckhart states 
 it boldly in the following words : *' When the 
 soul is freed from time and space, the Father 
 sends and begets His Son in the soul." The 
 Holy Father begets the divine Son in us, and 
 " as fire turns all that it touches into itself, so 
 the birth of the Son of God in the soul turns 
 us into God, so that God no longer knows 
 anything in us but His Son." 
 
 Such language as this is doubtless unguarded, 
 but the profound truth it embodies is central, 
 and Eckhart himself safeguards the doctrine by 
 his teaching concerning the necessity of the 
 human will obeying the divine behests so per- 
 fectly and gladly, that it becomes one with the 
 will of God. He points out that no man is so 
 boorish or stupid or awkward that he cannot, 
 by God's grace, unite his will wholly and entirely 
 with God's will ; and when dealing with the 
 problem of pain, Eckhart says that those who 
 
62 MASTER ECKHART 
 
 accept all that the Lord sends as the very best, 
 remain always in perfect peace, for in them 
 God's will has become their will. This is incom- 
 parably better than that our will should become 
 God's will. The ideal to set before us is the 
 full surrender of the will : *' The will is perfect 
 when it has gone forth from itself, and is formed 
 into the will of God. The more truly this is 
 effected, the more perfect is the will. In such 
 a will thou canst do all things." The union of 
 the divine and human will is a work which can 
 be accomplished only by the fervent and per- 
 sistent resolution of those who desire it, and in 
 fear and trembling pray that God will work His 
 perfect will in them without let or hindrance. 
 
 Eckhart insists that it is by divine grace that 
 we are united to the divine nature, united as the 
 Son is eternally one with the divine nature. If 
 God, says Eckhart, did not abide with and in 
 the creatures, they must necessarily have fallen 
 back, so soon as they were created, into the 
 nothingness out of which they were created ; 
 and in order that God's likeness may be brought 
 to perfection in them, " God alone must work 
 in them without hindrance." In this way the 
 soul is brought to understand with God, to will 
 
DEADLY SIN 63 
 
 with God, and to love with God. Tliis is the 
 essence of perfection. 
 
 Ahhough Eckhart has no systematic, no for- 
 mulated doctrine of sin, we may gather up and 
 down his pages sayings showing so much insight 
 into the nature and character of moral evil, that 
 we are constrained to admit his teaching under 
 this head to be very profound. Eckhart goes 
 much further than many of the mystics : for, 
 while he believes that for every soul good is 
 the fulfilment of God's law, and evil that which 
 is opposed thereto, he goes deeper when he says 
 that sin which is deadly separates us from God. 
 Thus, not only does sin hinder man from the 
 attainment of light and truth and produce con- 
 fusion and disorder both in the universe and 
 in himself, but it hides God's face from him. 
 Eckhart teaches that sin is not only derange- 
 ment, but the death of the soul. As the natural 
 place of the soul is God, and as sin entering 
 within is like a fire, foreign to the soul's true 
 essence, it is not wonderful that the heart of 
 man should be saddened by weariness and 
 afflicted by torment. Again, Eckhart calls sin 
 a sickness of the faculties. The soul constantly 
 suffers from this sickness, and languishes, until 
 
64 MASTER ECKHART 
 
 it is perfectly delivered from it and made whole 
 by the Divine Physician and Repairer. Sin is 
 also a blindness of the sense — a blindness in 
 which man can neither discriminate nor discern 
 between good and evil. Sin separates us from 
 God, who is the life of the soul ; therefore 
 Eckhart describes it as a death of all graces. 
 For, if the soul is cut off from the source of all 
 life, it must inevitably follow that the fruits and 
 graces, which are the sign and expression of 
 vital forces working within, will be wanting. 
 Where sin abounds the graces of the soul can 
 never be found. 
 
 We ought to pray, Eckhart teaches, both 
 for temporal blessings and spiritual virtues ; but 
 he takes care to point out that when we ask 
 for material things we should always add, " if 
 it be God's will and if it be for my soul's 
 health." When, however, we pray for Christian 
 virtues and graces, "we need add no qualifica- 
 tion, for these are God's own working." When 
 asked what were the greatest goods that God 
 had done to him, Eckhart said they were these 
 three : First, that the lusts and desires of the 
 flesh had been taken away from him ; second, 
 that the divine light continually shone and 
 
ETHICS OF MYSTICISM 65 
 
 gave him light in all his doings ; third, that he 
 was daily renewed in virtue, grace, and holiness. 
 
 In prayer the mystic does not cry to the 
 heavens, he does not call to a God far off, but 
 to One who is within the soul, an "ever-present 
 Deity." He can pray, therefore, " in all places 
 and among all persons, in the street as well as 
 in the church." Thus the life of the mystic is 
 one of unceasing and prevailing prayer. 
 
 The mysticism of Eckhart, like that of all 
 true initiates, had its essentially practical effects 
 in character. What a man has taken in by 
 contemplation, says Eckhart, that he pours out 
 in love. To be a true mystic, one need not go 
 into a desert and fast; "a crowd is often more 
 lonely than a wilderness, and small things harder 
 to do than great." One is reminded of the deep 
 saying of Ewald, that the true mystic never 
 withdraws himself wilfully from the business of 
 life — no, not even from the smallest business. 
 If, says Eckhart, a man were in an ecstasy like 
 that of St. Paul when he was caught up into the 
 third heaven, and knew of a poor man who needed 
 his help, he ought to leave his ecstasy and help 
 the needy. " It is better to feed the hungry 
 than to see even such visions as St. Paul saw." 
 
 5 
 
66 MASTER ECKHART 
 
 The following prayer of Eckhart expresses 
 very truly both the creed and character of the 
 man : — '' O Almighty and Merciful Creator and 
 Good Lord, be merciful to me for my miserable 
 sins, and help me that I may overcome every 
 temptation and shameful lust, and may be able 
 to avoid utterly, in thought and deed, what 
 Thou forbiddest ; and give me grace to do and 
 to hold all that Thou hast commanded. Help 
 me to believe, to hope, and to love, and in 
 every way to live as Thou wiliest, as much 
 as Thou wiliest, and what Thou wiliest." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 RUYSBROECK 
 
 Let it be said at once that the profound insight 
 into spiritual truths which his writings display, 
 and the deep mystical teaching of Ruysbroeck, 
 is not to be measured by his lack of learning 
 or his obscurity of thought. Without following 
 M. Maeterlinck in his extravagant eulogy of 
 Ruysbroeck, it must be admitted that his great 
 mystical treatise, Ordo spiritualiuvi nuptiarum, is 
 one of the most valuable works of its kind that 
 exists, marking as it does, with intense force and 
 lofty seriousness, the mystic ascent, and describing 
 with extreme precision and astonishing fulness 
 the steps in the way. All Ruysbroeck's books, 
 as Maeterlinck has pointed out, '' treat exclusively 
 of the same science : a theosophy peculiar to 
 Ruysbroeck, the minute study of the introversion 
 and introspection of the soul, the contemplation 
 of God above all similitudes and likenesses, and 
 
 67 
 
68 RUYSBROECK 
 
 the drama of the divine love on the uninhabitable 
 
 peaks of the spirit." 
 
 The truth could hardly be better expressed ; 
 and when we remember that they were all written, 
 as he says, under the direct guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit, we may well believe that he had drunk 
 deep of the wine of inward joy and spiritual 
 consolation, of which he speaks so often and so 
 rapturously. 
 
 He was born, probably, in the year 1293, and 
 died in the year 1381. He was for some time 
 prior of Vauvert, near Brussels, but afterwards 
 retired into the forest of Soignies, where in the 
 convent of Grunthal, spiritually exercised and 
 after much meditation, he wrote most of his 
 books. He seems to have read Dionysius, St. 
 Augustine, Eckhart, and other mystical writers ; 
 but the unsurpassed depth of his thought and 
 spiritual acumen is unquestionably due to the 
 profound spiritual experience, or rather experi- 
 ences, of a singularly simple and sensitive — 
 perhaps one might even say, emotional — nature, 
 of which he writes at first hand. He himself, 
 as we have already observed, most humbly but 
 most fervently believed that all his mystical 
 writing was done under the direct guidance of 
 
LOVE AND REST 69 
 
 the Holy Spirit, and with a special and most 
 blessed consciousness of the divine presence in 
 his soul. This blessedness included peace, inward 
 quiet, faithful clinging to the source of all joy, 
 sleep in God, and contemplation of the heaven 
 of darkness, far above reason. 
 
 It was, in other words, the mystic labour and 
 rest, concerning which Ruysbroeck writes : ''In 
 one and the selfsame moment of time, love 
 labours and rests in its love. And the one is 
 made strong by the other, because the higher 
 the love the greater is the rest, while the greater 
 the rest, the dearer is the love ; for the one 
 lives in the other ; and he who loves not rests 
 not, while he who rests not loves not. There 
 are, however, some good men who believe that 
 they neither love nor rest in God ; but this very 
 thought springs from love, and since their desire 
 to love is greater than their ability, it seems to 
 them, therefore, that they are powerless to love. 
 Yet in this labour they taste of love and rest, 
 for only the resigned, the passive, and the 
 illuminated man can understand how it is possible 
 to rest and also to enjoy." 
 
 Perhaps no one has written more fully of the 
 stages of the inward way than Ruysbroeck ; and 
 
70 RUYSBROECK 
 
 although he would have agreed with the saying 
 of Saint-Martin that Christianity possesses things 
 of great force and great weight which neither 
 are nor can ever be written, yet the three stages 
 of the exiled soul's path have seldom been 
 described more particularly or more faithfully. 
 
 The lowest stage is that of the active life. 
 The distinguishing marks of this life are humility, 
 love, and justice. We occupy, preserve, and 
 order the kingdom of our soul, says Ruysbroeck, 
 in going forth by love and the virtues, and it 
 is essential that we go forth by charity and 
 justice towards God, towards our neighbour, and 
 towards ourselves. The greatest of all virtues 
 is love, and Ruysbroeck tells us emphatically 
 that none can enter into the repose that is 
 above action, unless he has first actively loved 
 love. The man who feels or thinks that he 
 can possess God without the exercises of love 
 is deceived. The exercise of love is indis- 
 pensable. 
 
 The middle or second stage is that of the 
 internal life. This denotes the rise of the soul 
 from the exterior to the inner life, which 
 Ruysbroeck sometimes calls the elevated or 
 affective life. It is then that the mystic, having 
 
SUPERNATURAL VISION 71 
 
 received the illumination of the intellect, beholds 
 the eternal truth. For this illumination, this 
 spiritual or supernatural vision, as Ruysbroeck 
 calls it, three things are necessary. '* First, the 
 light of the divine grace, then the free conversion 
 of the will towards God, and lastly, a conscience 
 pure from all mortal sin." It is by the light of 
 the divine grace alone that the soul can see. 
 Ruysbroeck maintained as fervently as another 
 great mystic that *' the entire universe, notwith- 
 standing all the splendours which it displays 
 before our eyes, can never of itself manifest 
 the truly divine treasures," but, "in order that the 
 creature may conceive and comprehend God, it 
 must be drawn up into God from above." Only 
 by the agency and operation of God can the 
 creature comprehend Him. It is divine grace 
 which enables the soul to recognise and realise 
 its latent possibility. To go out towards God 
 by interior love in eternal work, and by joyous 
 inclination to rest in God in eternal repose, to 
 abide in God, and yet go out towards all the 
 creatures in common love, in the virtues, and in 
 the works of justice, — this is the supreme summit 
 of the inner life. The soul that ascends to this 
 height has all things under it, is sanctified by 
 
72 RUYSBROECK 
 
 God, and in ''the nothingness of humility" rises 
 
 beyond all heavens. 
 
 While all are not called to the internal life, 
 only few attain the third stage, which is that 
 of the contemplative life. Here, by a process 
 of ** deification," the soul makes its ascent to God. 
 At this stage we die to ourselves in God, and 
 God unites us with Himself in eternal love. 
 Thus the soul '' sinks into the vast darkness of 
 the Godhead." Very few men attain to this 
 divine contemplation, according to Ruysbroeck, 
 because of their incapacity and the mystery of 
 the light in which contemplation takes place. 
 Only he who is united to God and illuminated 
 in this truth can comprehend the truth by itself 
 
 This contemplation is the eternal recompense 
 of all the virtues and of all life ; none can arrive 
 there by knowledge or subtlety, nor by any 
 exercise ; but he whom God wills to unite to 
 His own spirit and to illuminate by Himself 
 can contemplate God, and none other can. It is 
 to be remembered, however, that '' the essential 
 unity of our spirit in God exists not in itself, 
 but abides in God and flows out from God, and 
 is immanent in God and returns to God, as to its 
 eternal cause." And, says Ruysbroeck, as the 
 
"THE LONELY DARKNESS" 73 
 
 abyss of God calls to abyss, so it is with all 
 those whose spirits are united to God in joyous 
 love. All men who are raised above their 
 creatureliness into the contemplative life become 
 one with the divine glory, one with the same 
 light by means of which they see, and which 
 they see. '' This calling is an irruption from His 
 essential brightness ; and this essential brightness 
 in the embrace of His bottomless love causes us 
 to lose ourselves and escape from ourselves in 
 the lonely darkness of God." 
 
 In another place, Ruysbroeck speaks of the 
 manifestation of God and of eternal life beginning 
 in the abyss of darkness. There the loving spirit 
 is dead to itself This is the highest state of 
 knowledge to be attained, " the stage of ignorance 
 — where there is neither God nor creature, as 
 far as respects the distinction of persons, but 
 where we in God, and God in us, form one simple 
 blessedness, provided we have all lost ourselves, 
 and have been diffused through, or even dissolved 
 in, the unknown obscurity. This is the highest 
 that can be attained in eternal blessedness, in life, 
 death, enjoyment, love." Here ''we behold the 
 immeasurable glory of God, and our intellect is 
 as clear from all considerations of distinction and 
 
74 RUYSBROECK 
 
 figurative apprehensions, as though we had never 
 seen or heard of such things. Then the riches 
 of God are open to us. Our spirit becomes 
 desireless, as though there were nothing on earth 
 or in heaven of which we stood in need. Then 
 we are alone with God, God and we — nothing 
 else. Then we rise above all multiplicity and 
 distinction into the simple nakedness of our 
 essence, and in it become conscious of the infinite 
 wisdom of the divine essence, whose inex- 
 haustible depths are as a vast waste, into which 
 no corporeal and no spiritual image can intrude. 
 Our created is absorbed in our uncreated life, and 
 we are as it were transformed into God." 
 
 Having won its way, the contemplative spirit 
 enjoying as far as may be in this mortal state a 
 real knowledge of the vision of God, will ex- 
 perience its living efficacy in the perfection of 
 divine rest. 
 
 And towards the place of exile, far away, 
 We shall look back in our relief and say : 
 
 Hard was the bed whereon we writhed in sleep; 
 But now the vigils of true life repay 
 With rest divinely deep.^ 
 
 We shall, as Ruysbroeck says, understand by 
 love, and we shall be understood by love, and 
 ^ A. E. Waite, Strange Houses of Sleep, \ 
 
THE BRIDEGROOM'S COMING 75 
 
 God shall possess us and we Him in unity. In 
 a word, we shall enjoy God, and, united to Him, 
 we shall rest in blessedness. 
 
 Deep to deep and sea to sea, 
 Wondrous union, wondrous rest, 
 
 And o'erflowing, then shall be 
 The long pent-up soul express'd. 
 
 This is the life of love in its perfection, which 
 Ruysbroeck says is '* above reason and higher 
 than all understanding." The union grows closer 
 all the days of our life which becomes an " eternal 
 coming of our Bridegroom." The following 
 words represent, without doubt, Ruysbroeck's 
 own experience : ** The coming of the Bride- 
 groom is so swift that He is always coming — 
 dwelling within us with His unfathomable riches 
 — ever returning anew in person, with such new 
 brightness that it seems as if He had never come 
 before. For His coming extends beyond all limit 
 of time into an eternal Now, and He is always 
 received with new desires and new delight. Lo ! 
 the joys and the delights which this Bridegroom 
 brings with Him at His coming are boundless 
 and limitless, for they are Himself! For this 
 reason, the eyes of the spirit by which the loving 
 soul beholds its Bridegroom are opened so wide 
 
ye RUYSBROECK 
 
 that they will never close again. The con- 
 templation and the fixed gaze of the spirit are 
 eternal in the secret manifestation of God, and 
 the comprehension of the spirit is so widely 
 opened, as it waits for the appearing of the Bride- 
 groom, that the spirit itself becomes great as that 
 which it comprehends. Thus is God beheld and 
 comprehended by God, in whom all our blessed- 
 ness is found." 
 
 Of the eternal satisfaction of the craving for 
 union with God, it must be admitted that Ruys- 
 broeck often speaks unguardedly. For example, 
 he writes : "In this embrace and essential unity 
 with God all devout and inward spirits are one 
 with God by living immersion and melting away 
 into Him ; they are by grace one and the same 
 thing with Him, because the same essence is in 
 both." In such a statement as this, and many 
 others which might be easily adduced, it is obvious 
 there is that which might give rise to a suspicion in 
 the minds of some that the writer had pantheistic 
 tendencies ; but Ruysbroeck certainly could not 
 be rightly charged with teaching pantheism, for 
 in numerous passages he insists upon the fact 
 that we remain eternally distinct from God. We 
 arrive, it is true, at the eternal image after which 
 
"THE DARK SILENCE" ^^ 
 
 we were created, and become one with the divine 
 glory, but we also contemplate God. And this 
 is the soul's supreme blessedness, for " here is 
 nought but an eternal rest, in a joyous envelop- 
 ment of loving immersion, and this is the essence, 
 without mode, which all interior spirits have 
 chosen above all other things. It is the dark 
 silence in which all lovers are lost." The life 
 begun by divine grace, continued by self-denial 
 and discipline, and illumined by the Holy Ghost 
 shed abroad in the heart, finds its completion 
 and perfection in a realised union of the soul with 
 God. 
 
 Of the strange and dark vicissitudes through 
 which the soul passes ere it enters the Mysterium 
 Magnum y Ruysbroeck writes : " Out of all suf- 
 ferings and renunciations the man will derive 
 for himself an inward joy, he will resign himself 
 into the hands of God and will rejoice to endure 
 suffering for the promotion of God's glory. And 
 by persevering in this way he will experience 
 secret joys never tasted before, because nothing 
 so rejoices the lover of God as to feel that he 
 belongs to his Beloved "... Further, when the 
 time comes all consolation is withdrawn from 
 these exercised spirits "so that they believe 
 
78 RUYSBROECK 
 
 they have lost all their virtues, and are forsaken 
 of God and of every creature, if they know how 
 to gather the various fruits, the corn is ripe and 
 the wine ready." Those souls who walk the way 
 of love, amid all storms, to the place whither love 
 shall lead them, having been disciplined by all 
 the virtues, will be accounted worthy to behold 
 God and partake of that sacrament which will 
 be communicated to those who sit down at " the 
 marriage supper of the Lamb." 
 
 Concerning the Person and the work of the 
 Incarnate Son, Ruysbroeck teaches that "the 
 Son is the Image of the Father, that in the Son 
 have dwelt from all eternity, foreknown and con- 
 templated by the Father, the prototypes of all 
 mankind. We existed in the Son before we 
 were born — He is the creative ground of all 
 creatures — the eternal cause and principle of 
 their life. The highest essence of our being 
 rests therefore in God — exists in His image in 
 the Son." " The office of the Son in time was 
 to die for us, fulfil the law, and give us a divine 
 pattern of humility, love and patience. He is the 
 fountain whence flows to us all needed blessing, 
 and . . . what the Son did. He did for all." 
 Ruysbroeck is never weary of insisting that 
 
PRACTICAL ASPECT 79 
 
 Christ must be the rule and pattern of our lives, 
 and that often we must needs press ourselves to 
 the wounds and open heart of Christ our Saviour, 
 if in all things we would have God for our aim. 
 In such exercises, visions and great revelations 
 of the Lord have often come to men 
 
 Ruysbroeck had a very keen eye for the 
 abuses and the foibles, as well as the vices rife in 
 his day, and as Vaughan points out, he '' inveighs 
 with much detail against the vanities of female 
 dress — as to those hair pads, sticking up like great 
 horns — they are just so many ' devil's nests.' " 
 He does not for a moment ignore what is known 
 as the practical side of the religious life, but 
 urges that we must not remain on the top of the 
 ladder, but must descend. A life of meekness, 
 humility, and service is a proof of the birth of 
 the Son in our souls. Or as another mystic has 
 said: " As a proof that we are regenerated we 
 must regenerate everything around us." 
 
 Finally, Ruysbroeck affirms that in the interior 
 life, everything depends on the will. It is neces- 
 sary above all things that a man should will right, 
 fervently. " Will to have humility and love, and 
 they are thine." All things are possible to the 
 willing believer. '' On the white colour of inno- 
 
8o RUYSBROECK 
 
 cence we shall place red roses by evermore 
 resisting all that is evil. Thus we maintain 
 purity and crucify our own nature, and these 
 red roses with their sweet perfume are very 
 lovely on the white colour." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 SUSO 
 
 Henry Suso was born in the year 1295 ^^^ 
 died in 1365. He was, in many respects, notably 
 in his passionate devotion to the Saviour, akin 
 to the great Spanish mystics, although in his 
 youthful days he had been a disciple of Eckhart 
 at Cologne, of whom he afterwards spoke as 
 " the blessed master Eckhart." 
 
 The place and function of asceticism are defined 
 and exemplified in an exaggerated form in Suso, 
 who maintained that the only way to the Crown 
 was the royal way of the Holy Cross ; and so 
 intense was the literalness of his belief, that he 
 practised upon himself the most terrible austerities, 
 with unflinching calmness and unremitting rigour. 
 His descriptions of the visions and ecstasies 
 which came to him are extremely vivid and 
 poetical, for he had by no means a contemptible 
 literary gift — which was suffused through and 
 
 8^ 6 
 
82 SUSO 
 
 through with the warmth of his ardent and 
 
 affectionate soul. 
 
 Dr. Inge has remarked, with much truth, that 
 Suso's autobiography is a document of unique 
 importance for the psychology of mysticism. It 
 may be added that it bears all the marks of the 
 exercised believer, although 
 
 The purports deep by which the soul is stirr'd 
 Lurk not within the manifested word, 
 As many intimations dimly show. 
 Directing higher search to those who know. 
 
 It was in his eighteenth year that Suso first 
 turned to God, and it was not long after this 
 that he began his ascetic practices. Soon visions 
 were vouchsafed to him, lasting usually about 
 an hour and a half, and by these he was greatly 
 encouraged. It was in one such vision that he 
 saw *' the blessed master Eckhart," who told 
 him that the secret of dwelling in God was 
 detachment from the world, and the way to 
 attain this detachment was to die to self, and 
 *' to maintain unruffled patience with all men." 
 In another vision he saw a company of angels, 
 of one of whom Suso requested that he might 
 be permitted to see '* the manner of God's secret 
 dwelling in the soul." He was bidden cast a 
 
ASCETIC DISCIPLINE 83 
 
 joyous glance into himself, and behold " how 
 God plays His play of Love " with a loving 
 soul — all of which Suso describes with much 
 ardess charm. 
 
 His affectionate nature could only be satisfied 
 by the highest joy of loving hearts, and thus 
 he was moved to cut the letters of the name 
 of Jesus in his breast, so deeply that he carried 
 the marks throughout his life " about the length 
 of a finger-joint." 
 
 After sixteen years of painful penances and 
 austere discipline, he abandoned his extreme 
 asceticism, being warned, he states, by an angel 
 to discontinue his accustomed practices. There- 
 after, he did not regard these things as indispens- 
 able to the living of a holy life. External marks 
 they had been, though signal proofs of an internal 
 passion ; and Suso relates how in a vision the 
 Lord spoke to him, saying: ** Hitherto thou 
 hast stricken thyself : now I will strike thee . . 
 thou shalt be forsaken both by God and the 
 world. ... Be of good cheer, I will be with 
 thee and aid thee to overcome." The joy of 
 the certainty of the divine presence was for 
 seasons denied him, and he passed through 
 periods of great spiritual desolation, and under- 
 
84 SUSO 
 
 went the agonies of soul dereliction. But Suso 
 won his way through these perils into the calm 
 assurance of life in God, and his days were 
 henceforth spent in holy service of increasing 
 fruitfulness. He was, as Vaughan points out, 
 greatly sought after as a preacher. 
 
 A brief examination of the Book of the Eternal 
 Wisdom, which Suso is stated to have written 
 *' only in his most favoured moments, himself 
 ignorant and passive, but under the immediate 
 impulse and illumination of the Divine Wisdom," 
 will bring us face to face with the characteristic 
 features of his mysticism ; and as Suso says : 
 "Whosoever will read these writings of mine 
 in a right spirit, can hardly fail to be stirred in 
 his heart's depths, either to fervent love, or to 
 new light, or to a longing and thirsting for God, 
 or to detestation and loathing of his sins, or to 
 that spiritual aspiration by which the soul is 
 renewed in grace." 
 
 The first step towards union with God is 
 detachment from the world, a real detachment, 
 attained only by dying to self. Speaking to his 
 *' spiritual daughter," Suso says that the order 
 in which the spirit returns to God is, first, by 
 completely disentangling itself from the pleasures 
 
STEPS TOWARDS UNION 85 
 
 of the world and resolutely turning away from 
 all vices, and in quiet and holy exercise by 
 continual prayer to God, obtaining and maintaining 
 the subjugation of the flesh. Quite simply, the 
 first stage consists in turning away from the world 
 and the lusts of the flesh, to God. 
 
 Next, one must be heartily willing to endure 
 patiently whatsoever ills flesh is heir to, whether 
 inflicted by God or man. The garden of 
 spices is sprinkled with red flowers. Further, 
 the Passion of Christ crucified must be ex- 
 perienced in and by our own souls ; it must not 
 be a mere imitation of the sufferings of Christ, 
 but a mystical identification with them. In 
 addition to this, the most holy life of our 
 Redeemer is given for us, as our example. By 
 a continual remembrance of this — of His gracious 
 words and His blameless life — we shall be 
 fashioned after the same image. Beyond this 
 is the stage in which the soul divests itself in 
 a profound stillness, by a purposeful resignation. 
 Therein a man becomes dead to self — the honour 
 of Christ and the heavenly Father has become 
 all in all, and in this utter tranquillity of spirit, 
 " that mystic trance through which our Momus 
 pageantries advance," attained through progressive 
 
86 SUSO 
 
 holy exercise, a man arrives at the goal in which, 
 freed from the outward senses he parts with 
 his '' natural properties," and '* presses within 
 the circle which represents the eternal Godhead, 
 and thus reaches spiritual perfection." This 
 entire process has been truly and tersely 
 described by Suso, where he says that a man 
 of true self-abandonment must be unbuilt from 
 the creature, inbuilt with Christ, and overbuilt 
 into the Godhead. 
 
 In this risumd of Suso's teaching, there are 
 certain things which call for some comment, 
 perhaps even elucidation ; and we do well to 
 bear in mind continually, that " all these images, 
 with their interpretations, are as unlike the 
 formless truth as a black Ethiopian is to the 
 bright sun." 
 
 The basis of all Suso's mystical teaching 
 is the doctrine that men become sons through 
 Christ and in Christ. Suso compares the only 
 begotten Son to an image which is so complex 
 and manifold, that it denotes all men. All men 
 are members of Christ, and it is by Him alone 
 that they either are, or may become sons. 
 Speaking of Christ the Lord Suso affirms that 
 He is distinguished above all men, in that 
 
THE WAY OF THE CROSS 87 
 
 He is the Head of Christendom, which is His 
 body. It is therefore well with a man, only 
 when, dying to self, he begins to live in Christ. 
 Whosoever then desires to become a son in 
 Christ and commence the steep ascent, must 
 with unfeigned resignation turn from himself to 
 Christ, and " he shall come whither he ought 
 to come." Though we have caused our Elder 
 Brother much labour and pain, nay, for that very 
 cause, the abyss of His mercy towards us is 
 unfathomable. 
 
 Suso represents our Lord as saying : " No 
 man can come to the height of my Godhead, nor 
 attain to that unknown sweetness, unless he be 
 first led through the bitterness of my humanity 
 which is the road by which men must travel. 
 My Passion is the gate through which they must 
 enter." 
 
 Suso teaches that the soul must be prepared 
 to suffer and endure : " Of a surety thou wilt 
 have to endure many deaths, ere thou canst 
 put thy nature under the yoke. . . . Many shall 
 be thy afflictions, till thou hast finished thy 
 grievous journey of cross-bearing, and hast re- 
 nounced thy own will and disentangled thyself so 
 completely from all creatures, in everything which 
 
88 SUSO 
 
 might hinder thine eternal salvation, as to be like 
 one about to die." Again he asks : "By what 
 other way could he who had deprived himself 
 of joy by the insatiable pursuit of pleasure be 
 brought back more fittingly to the joys of 
 eternity ? " We are divinely assured that, as 
 created beings now are, no more fitting method 
 could be found. To be alone 
 
 On the tideless seas in the middle hour 
 Of the savage and measureless night, 
 
 is an experience dread indeed, but it will be 
 forgotten In the glory of the daybreak. 
 
 Suso held that the secrets of God were dis- 
 closed to men in the humanity of Christ, and that 
 by no other means could they have been made 
 known. Christ is the door by which a man may 
 enter ; He is our Kinsman in whom we find the 
 source of our new life ; and from Him proceeds 
 the living energy which enables us to will and 
 to do. This may be expressed by saying that 
 the mystery of our own being is inextricably 
 interwoven with His, that our destiny is linked 
 with the travail of His soul, and that we are 
 complete in Him. How deep is the truth that 
 finds expression in the mystical saying, that the 
 
PASSIO CHRISTI 89 
 
 door by which God issues from Himself is 
 the door through which He enters the human 
 soul ! 
 
 On the sufferings of Christ, Suso's teaching is 
 both full and clear. A high love, he says, loves 
 the sufferings of Christ ; for they immoderately 
 affect the heart. They ought not, however, to be 
 regarded solely after an outward manner, but 
 much more after an inward manner ; not alone 
 by the reason in contemplative guise, but rather 
 operatively or experimentally. In a word, they 
 are to be apprehended by *' an imitative exercise." 
 No one more truly testifies his grief over the 
 Saviours Passion than he who in very deed 
 passes through it with the Saviour, and fills up 
 that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. 
 Only thus does the soul share to the full in the 
 treasure of the divine passion. 
 
 '' Who," asks Suso, " would be willing to tread 
 the way of a hard and despised life (avoided by 
 all) if God had not trodden the same way Him- 
 self.^ Suppose thou wert under condemnation of 
 death, how could any one show his love and 
 fidelity to thee more certainly, or cause thee to 
 love him in return more powerfully, than by 
 bearing thy sentence himself? " Therefore, says 
 
go SUSO 
 
 Suso, if there is any one who is not stirred and 
 moved to love Christ from his heart by His 
 exceeding love, His infinite pity, His exalted 
 divinity, His pure humanity, His brotherly 
 fidelity, His sweet companionship, is there aught 
 that can soften that stony heart ? Even when all 
 is done that can be done by a man in imitation 
 of the Saviour's most gentle life and most loving 
 passion, no man can make himself for Christ's 
 sake such as Christ made Himself for his. 
 
 We must not, however, understand Suso to 
 teach that there is no virtue in the contemplation 
 of the sufferings of Christ after an outward 
 manner, for this would be opposed both to the 
 spirit of His words and to the example of His life. 
 To the one who realises the inward in the out- 
 ward, the inward becomes more truly vital than 
 it does to him who merely realises the inward 
 in the inward ; and to bear in the body the marks 
 of the Lord Jesus is a sign that we shall also 
 bear the image of the heavenly. But to know 
 the essential glory of the Beloved Son, the 
 eyes must first behold '' the slain and the 
 stricken Lamb," and on the cross of dishonour 
 ** a cursed and a dying Man." On this wise the 
 soul is led into fellowship with the sufferings 
 
"THE SORROWS I SUFFER" 91 
 
 of the Lord, and experiences the blessedness of 
 conformity to the Divine Son. 
 
 I would bear in my body the dying 
 Of Him who has died for me — 
 
 Here share, O my Lord, Thy rejection 
 Ere I sit on Thy Throne with Thee. 
 
 In sorrow, in want, in dishonour, 
 How dear are Thy footsteps to me ! 
 
 The fountain is sweet to the thirsty, 
 But sweeter is thirsting with Thee. 
 
 Above me the stars in the heavens. 
 Stars countless, so many they be , 
 
 So glorious, albeit so countless 
 The sorrows I suffer for Thee.^ 
 
 Although Suso would agree with one who 
 writes that Horeb and Calvary and Sinai are 
 " all peaks where man has suffer'd and has seen 
 some little corner of the mystery," he would 
 likewise teach (in accordance with the deepest 
 thought of the greatest mystics), that *'the 
 Mystery of the Passion and of that Lamb which 
 has been slain from the foundation of the world 
 is one of the mysteries of the unseen. The 
 true Golgotha and Calvary are not of this 
 world." But as Suso sings, it is nevertheless 
 true, that as 
 
 1 Hymm of Ter Steegen, Suso and others, by Frances Bevan. 
 
92 SUSO 
 
 Thou knowest the sun by his glory — 
 Thou knowest the rose by her breath, 
 
 Thou knowest the fire by its glowing — 
 Thou knowest my Love by Death. 
 
 The soul must not shrink because it is neces- 
 sary to follow the footsteps of Christ's Passion ; 
 for the soul that loves God, and is inwardly united 
 to Him, finds the cross itself light and easy to 
 bear, and has nothing whereof to complain. 
 " No one receives from Me more marvellous 
 sweetness than He who shares My bitterest 
 labours." 
 
 Suso represents the Eternal Wisdom speaking 
 to the servitor thus : '' Knowest thou not Me ? 
 Wherefore art thou so despondent ? . . . Dost 
 thou not know that I am Wisdom, most gentle 
 and tender, in whom is the abyss of infinite 
 mercy, never yet fathomed perfectly even by all 
 the saints, but still open to thee and all other 
 sorrowing hearts. ... I am He who bore a 
 bitter death, that I might restore thee to life. 
 I am thy brother ; I am thy Bridegroom. . . . 
 Wash away thy stains in My blood. Lift up thy 
 head, open thine eyes and take heart. In token 
 of reconciliation take this ring and put it on thy 
 finger as My bride, put on this robe and these 
 
DERELICTION 93 
 
 shoes, and receive this sweet and loving name, 
 that thou mayst both be and be called for ever 
 My bride." 
 
 Of the ebb and How of the tides of the spirit, 
 Suso writes with great wisdom. Once he passed 
 through a period of the deepest spiritual gloom — 
 a gloom which lasted for ten years. He knows 
 that never to be deprived of the divine presence 
 belongs not to temporal, but to eternal life ; and 
 that the holiest souls have to pass through times 
 of intense spiritual desolation, and no " resigna- 
 tion is more perfect or more excellent than to 
 be resigned in dereliction." It is the divine 
 will that we should be resigned in the matter 
 of receiving and feeling tokens of the divine 
 love ; and we ought to seek the divine glory 
 alone (not the gratification of ourselves) " in 
 dryness and hardness as well as in sweetness." 
 
 The end of the mystic's path is God. Suso 
 describes the heart's true Home in language 
 which has been an offence to many. Dorner, 
 for example, regards Suso as setting up ''as the 
 objective goal of man," the '* deepest abyss, 
 the dark state of utter indeterminateness, in 
 which all manifoldness and the spirit's own self- 
 hood disappear." But in Suso's thought it is 
 
94 SUSO 
 
 clear that the distinction between the Creator and 
 the creature was preserved, however unguarded 
 some of his expressions concerning absorption in 
 God may have been. 
 
 The influence of Dionysius upon Suso is 
 marked, and nowhere is it more evident than in 
 the doctrine of " the divine dark," where the 
 soul is described as becoming ignorant of itself 
 and of all things, and, reduced to its essence, 
 hovering in the abyss of the Trinity. The 
 transit of the soul, through the mystic experi- 
 ences of the inward life, to spiritual perfection, 
 ends, it is true, in its absorption in the Eternal 
 Godhead ; yet Suso adds, that in this absorption 
 the soul is still a creature, " but hath no thought 
 whether it be a creature or no." " Ah, God ! 
 blessed is the man who strives after Thee 
 alone ! " 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 TAULER 
 
 John Tauler, the great Dominican monk and 
 the most distinguished of the band of godly 
 men known as ''The Friends of God" — an 
 association ''for the better tending of the inward 
 life in these troublous times " — was born at 
 Strassburg, of "a tolerably wealthy family," in 
 the year 1300. At an early age he entered the 
 Dominican convent, subsequently studying at 
 Cologne, and afterwards at Paris at the famous 
 college of St. Jacques. It is manifest, however, 
 from his statements in later life, that his early 
 studies, though of a strenuous character, did not 
 teach him " that which answered to the needs 
 of his spirit." 
 
 Undoubtedly, the works of the earlier mystics 
 — especially Augustine — exercised a profound 
 influence upon him ; and in Tauler's writings 
 Dionysius, Proclus, Bernard, and the Victorines 
 
 95 
 
96 TAULER 
 
 are all quoted or otherwise referred to. Return- 
 ing from Paris to Strassburg, he came under 
 the influence of other mystical teachers — chief of 
 whom may be cited Eckhart — commonly regarded 
 as *'the most learned man of his day in the 
 Aristotelian philosophy" — who left an indelible 
 impression upon Tauler's thought. There is a 
 great similarity between the teaching of Eckhart 
 and Tauler, but the latter is less scholastic and 
 metaphysical than the former ; and, as we shall 
 see, in his teaching upon sin he strikes a much 
 deeper note. Nicholas of Strassburg was another 
 mystic whose powerful and penetrating intellect, 
 combined with a popular and persuasive gift of 
 oratory, made a strong impression upon Tauler. 
 
 Joined to intellectual abilities of a high order, 
 Tauler had unique gifts as a preacher, a proof 
 of which is to be found in the crowded congre- 
 gations that gathered to hear him until the close 
 of his life. Doubtless one of the secrets of the 
 attractiveness of his preaching is to be found in 
 the fact that its dominant note is experimental 
 and practical. 
 
 Tauler, who was greatly beloved by the people 
 for his unstained nobility of character, held that 
 no teacher can teach what he has not " lived 
 
GOD IN THE SOUL 97 
 
 . through himself" ; and it was said of him that 
 the spirit of God dwelt within like " a sweet 
 harping." We do not read of visions and 
 voices in the life of Tauler, but we feel that 
 we are in the presence of one who has been 
 oft on the Mount of Transfiguration with his 
 Lord, and beholding as in a mirror the glory 
 of the Lord, has been changed into the same 
 Image. 
 
 His teaching concerning the indwelling of God 
 in the soul of man was, perhaps, the most 
 fruitful, if not the most distinctive feature of his 
 doctrine. God is, indeed, everywhere, but it is 
 in the depths of the soul that He may always 
 be found. The divine kingdom, he says, is 
 seated in the inmost recesses of the spirit. 
 Accordingly, the soul, which is the noblest of 
 creatures, is enabled to find, to know, and to 
 love God. Men are counselled therefore to be at 
 home in their own hearts, and to cease from their 
 restless chase of and search after outward things, 
 to turn their thoughts inward, to remain resting 
 on '' the inmost foundation of their souls," and 
 with the eye of their enlightened understanding 
 fixed upon God, a ait the divine summons. 
 Tauler speaks much of the wild waste, or the 
 
 7 
 
98 TAULER 
 
 wilderness through which exercised spirits must 
 needs pass before they can really hear or under- 
 stand that which is within them, and the com- 
 munications that God makes to the waiting soul. 
 Here is given an exceeding bitter myrrh to 
 drink , yet, *' when a man is willing to taste this 
 myrrh, and does not put it from him, it wears 
 down flesh and blood, yea, the whole nature ; 
 for these inward exercises make the cheek grow 
 pale far sooner than great outward hardships, for 
 God appoints unto His servants cruel fightings 
 and strange dread, and unheard-of distresses, 
 which none can understand but he who has felt 
 them. And these men are beset with such a 
 variety of difficulties, so many cups of bitterness 
 are presented to them, that they hardly know 
 which way to turn, or what they ought to do ; 
 but God knows right well what He is about." 
 God gives to the soul the cup of myrrh in a 
 love surpassing all that the heart of man can 
 
 conceive. 
 
 When on the aspirations of the heart 
 
 A darkness falls and, all her aids withdrawn, 
 
 No comfort comes to cheer thy lonely soul, 
 
 God is not with thee less in dark than light, 
 
 And in aridity and drought discern 
 
 His ministry and thy best way to Him ! 
 
"CUPS OF BITTERNESS" 99 
 
 A little while He leaves thee, to return 
 
 In fuller sweetness — ah, He leaves thee not ! 
 
 His consolation, not His ward or watch, 
 
 Withdraws awhile, and thus He leads thee on. 
 
 That thou through dereliction and great pain 
 
 Mayest pass forth into felicity. 
 
 God waits behind the darkness of thy soul. 
 
 As waits the sun to gladden earth and sea, 
 
 And bitter winds possessing all the East 
 
 Can hinder not nor darkness bar the way. 
 
 Tauler himself had passed through this, and he 
 speaks out of the depths of a rich, albeit deso- 
 lating spiritual experience. The souls that 
 undergo and pass through it — not unscathed — 
 become masters of the spiritual life, and are 
 able to lead others to the unsullied heights of 
 joy they themselves have attained. 
 
 It is by this dark and awesome way that 
 the soul comes to the joy and blessedness, the 
 glory and honour of those who shall see clearly 
 and without veil the gladsome and beauteous 
 face of God, and shares in the best and highest 
 good which is God Himself But sore, indeed, 
 is the desolation of this darkness illumined by 
 no candle of the Lord, made radiant by no 
 vision — the silence unbroken by any voice from 
 heaven. Yet it is in the midst of this wilderness 
 
TOO TAULER 
 
 that the lilies of chastity, the white roses of 
 innocence, the violets of humility grow side by 
 side with the red roses of sacrifice and " many 
 other fair flowers and wholesome roots " ; and 
 in traversing this unalluring way the soul is 
 prepared by God for Himself. 
 
 Of the abiding presence and continual work 
 of God in the souls of those with whom He 
 holds immediate converse, no man can adequately 
 speak. It can only be dimly suggested to 
 another. He alone who has experienced it 
 knows what it is, and can say nothing more of 
 it than that '' God in very truth hath possessed 
 the ground of his soul." Always on man's 
 part there must be deep humility, free self- 
 surrender, patient long-suffering, true poorness 
 of spirit and fervent love to God. Tauler 
 entreats us to pray for the true divine love 
 which may unite the soul with God, and 
 immerse and cover it in Him. The essence 
 of such prayer is " the ascent of the mind 
 to God." 
 
 Tauler feels acutely -the sinfulness of sin, 
 and he answers the poignant cry of the sin- 
 burdened soul, ** who shall deliver me ? " by 
 the apostolic word, '' I thank God . . . Jesus 
 
SIN AND FORGIVENESS loi 
 
 Christ our Lord." It was this feature of his 
 teaching, doubtless, that prompted Luther to 
 write of Tauler's sermons that neither in Latin 
 nor in his own language had he ever seen a 
 theology more sound or more in harmony with 
 the Gospel. 
 
 Tauler had known the gr^ice of God in Christ, 
 and he firmly believed in that divine loving- 
 kindness which goes far out beyond our dreams. 
 "O child, hast thou fallen.^ Then arise, and 
 with childlike trust go to thy father, like the 
 prodigal son, and with humility say with heart 
 and voice, ' Father, I have sinned against 
 heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy 
 to be called thy son ; make me as one of thy 
 hired servants.' And what will thy Heavenly 
 Father do but what the father in the parable 
 did? Assuredly He will not change His nature, 
 which is Love, on account of thy misdeeds." 
 
 Of the identification of the spiritual man with 
 the crucified Jesus, Tauler speaks as follows : 
 '' The holy apostle Paul, whose endeavours 
 towards a perfect life were all founded upon 
 endurance and true renunciation, shows how a 
 righteous and spiritual man, being crucified with 
 Christ on the Cross, no longer liveth through 
 
I02 TAULER 
 
 himself, albeit his sufferings bring forth in him 
 
 the living fruits of the Spirit." 
 
 Further, Tauler goes on to say : " Though 
 there are many kinds of cross and suffering, of 
 which each has its own length and depth and 
 breadth and height, yet there is only one on 
 which our eternal redemption was accomplished — 
 that is, the cross of Christ's humanity, which 
 again points to a still higher Cross (in a manner 
 without cross and pain) of His Divine nature." 
 Tauler had sorrowed greatly on account of 
 his sins, and with agony of spirit had prayed : 
 "O merciful God, have mercy upon me, a poor 
 sinner ; have mercy in Thine infinite compassion, 
 for I am not worthy to live on the face of the 
 earth." Such an "unworthy sinful man" would 
 not be likely to regard sin lightly. But he 
 knew Christ as the sinful soul's Saviour, and 
 all his sins, like his thoughts and his cares, were 
 lovingly cast upon the One Sure Refuge. He 
 knew that salvation was the absolute and free 
 gift of God's grace, that we are reconciled to 
 God by the death of His dear Son; and the 
 comfort of "the bitter passion and death of 
 Jesus Christ, who had therewith made satis- 
 faction before God ... for the sins of the 
 
IMITATIO CHRISTI 103 
 
 whole world," brought to his heart the peace 
 that passeth all understanding. 
 
 Tauler's teaching concerning the Christian's 
 imitation of Christ is insistent and unmistakable. 
 He bids us turn to Christ with reverent and 
 expectant spirit. Thereafter, we must gaze both 
 closely and deeply into the glorious image of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, maintaining a continual earnest 
 effort and aspiration after it. Then looking 
 attentively at ourselves, beholding our own little- 
 ness, we shall see how unlike we are to this 
 image. The imitation of Christ is not effected by 
 talking much and eloquently of the Incarnation 
 and bitter sufferings of Christ, by presenting 
 Him to our imagination as He trod the wine- 
 press alone, although such things may move the 
 sensibilities of dull hearts. But In such excite- 
 ment and transport and ''mere sweet emotion" 
 there is often more of sense and self-pleasing 
 than of true love to God. We must become 
 like unto Christ by perfect obedience, and by 
 perseverance and growth of holiness follow "the 
 lovely example " of our Blessed Lord Jesus 
 Christ to our life's end. The righteous spiritual 
 man is nailed with Christ to the cross, "whose 
 sufferings bring forth in him the living fruits 
 
I04 TAULER 
 
 of the Spirit." Such a man dies to self-will, 
 self-complacency, and other sinful failings ; for, 
 says Tauler, he who will reach up unto the 
 Cross of Christ's divine nature, must first be 
 fashioned into the likeness of His crucifixion 
 in the flesh. Thus, in all things, '' the sacred 
 example and sufferings of our Blessed Lord 
 Jesus Christ" and ''nothing of our own," are 
 to be our stay. The life of Christ is left " as 
 a sacred Testament to His followers in this 
 present time, who are converted into His 
 dying life, that they may remember Him when 
 they drink of His cup, and walk as He hath 
 walked." 
 
 Now, some of us fill'd with a holy fire 
 The Cross and the Christ have kiss'd; 
 
 We have sworn to achieve our soul's desire 
 On book and evangeUst.^ 
 
 The soul that has once tasted the heavenly 
 
 manna knows that the garbage of the world 
 
 can never again satisfy, and nothing can ever 
 
 separate the redeemed and restored spirit from 
 
 the Lord of life and glory. 
 
 I cannot lose the presence of the Lord : 
 One arm, Humility, takes hold upon 
 
 1 A. E. Waite, Sf range Bouses of Sleep, 
 
THE DIVINE ABYSS T05 
 
 His dear Humanity ; the other, Love, 
 Clasps His Divinity. So where I go, 
 He goes; and better fire-walled Hell with Him 
 Than golden-gated Paradise without.^ 
 
 It is not difficult to see how Tauler's ''pro- 
 found spiritual self-abasement," as it is termed 
 by Vaughan, led to his *' doctrine of self-abandon- 
 ment," or, otherwise expressed, how his concep- 
 tion of the Quest and Way determined his idea 
 of the End or Goal. Regarding sin as selfish- 
 ness, perfect righteousness or holiness was the 
 denial and complete effacement of self. Thus 
 Tauler speaks of a man flinging himself into the 
 divine abyss, in which he dwelt eternally before 
 he was created. Tauler held that it is possible 
 for a man to be carried so far that his spirit is, 
 as it were, sunk and lost in the abyss of the 
 Deity, completely freed from the consciousness 
 of all creature distinctions. He says : " All 
 things are gathered together in one with the 
 divine sweetness, and the man's being is so 
 penetrated with the divine substance, that he 
 loses himself therein, as a drop of water is 
 lost in a cask of strong wine." Elsewhere, he 
 says that when God finds the man thus simply 
 1 J. G. Whittier, Tmikr, 
 
io6 TAULER 
 
 and nakedly turned towards Him, the Godhead 
 bends down and descends into the depths of 
 the pure, waiting soul, and transforms the created 
 soul, drawing it up into the uncreated essence, 
 so that the spirit becomes one with Him. If 
 it be asked: ''What remains after a man hath 
 lost himself in God ?" Tauler answers: "Nothing 
 but a fathomless annihilation of himself, an abso- 
 lute ignoring of all reference to himself person- 
 ally, of all aims of his own in will and heart, 
 in way, in purpose and in use." Tauler does 
 not hesitate to affirm that the man's spirit 
 becomes so sunk in God, in Divine union, that 
 he loses all sense of distinction, " and there 
 remains a secret, still union, without cloud or 
 colour." Thus God is " the unity in which all 
 multiplicity is transcended." By divine grace, 
 every soul may thus give place to God ; only, 
 it *' is not the work of a day or a year." " Be 
 not discouraged ; it takes time, and requires 
 simplicity, purity, and self-surrender " ; and the 
 three stages of the mystic ascent "are the shortest 
 road to it." 
 
 " Because the soul is a creature," says Tauler, 
 " it must cast itself out of itself, and in its hour 
 of contemplation must cast out all saints and 
 
"A SECRET UNION" 107 
 
 angels, because these are creatures and hinder 
 the union of the soul with God. It must be 
 rid of all things, in need of nothing, that it 
 may come to God in His likeness; for nothing 
 unites so much as likeness, and receives its colour 
 so soon. God will then give Himself to the 
 faculties of the soul, so that the soul grows in 
 the likeness of God and takes His colour. The 
 image resides in the soul's powers, the likeness 
 in its virtues, and the Divine colour in its union. 
 Thus its union becomes so intimate that it does 
 not work its works in its creature form, but in 
 its Divine form, wherein it is united to God. Its 
 very works are taken from it, and God works all 
 its works in His form. Finally, while it beholds 
 God and becomes more intimately united with 
 Him, the union is of such a nature that God 
 empties Himself altogether into it, and draws 
 it so completely into Himself that it no longer 
 has any distinct recognition of virtue or vice, 
 or of the marks by which it knows what it is 
 itself." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 ST, TERESA 1 
 
 St. Teresa was born in the year 1515, and 
 died after a most beneficent life, aged sixty-seven. 
 She was canonised at Rome in 1622. As 
 Dr. Whyte in his noble appreciation of the 
 saint rightly says : '* Teresa's was one of those 
 sovereign souls that are born from time to time 
 as if to show us what our race was created for 
 at first, and for what it is still destined. She 
 was a queen among women." Of her sanctified 
 energy, extraordinary tact, of her practical, as 
 well as mystical wisdom, it is impossible to speak 
 too highly. The consummate ability with which 
 she organised the numerous communities of bare- 
 footed Carmelites testifies to *'her powers as an 
 organiser and ruler of men and women." Doubt- 
 less she owed much of her natural nobility of 
 
 1 The translations of St. Teresa's writings by Woodhead, 
 Lewis, and Dalton may be warmly commended to the 
 reader. 
 
 108 
 
VISIONS AND VOICES 109 
 
 character to her Castilian ancestors, but the 
 consistent self-denial of her life was due to her 
 strenuous and unintermittent cultivation of the 
 graces of the consecrated soul, and her ''complete 
 conformity to the will of God." 
 
 As Dr. Inge has pointed out, Teresa is best 
 known as a visionary, but although many visions 
 were granted to her during the early years spent 
 in the convent, there was a long period in which 
 they were absent. She experienced them again 
 between the ages of forty and fifty, and despite 
 their vivid reality, there were times when she 
 felt uncertain as to their character and import. 
 
 The first heavenly rapture which shook her 
 soul came to her when in the act of reciting 
 the Veni Creator, when, in the interior of her 
 heart, she heard these thrilling words spoken : " I 
 will have thee hold converse, not with men, but 
 angels." In her autobiography, which she wrote 
 in 1562, "at the bidding of her confessor," she 
 tells us that the reading of St. Augustines 
 Confessions at the age of forty-one *• was the 
 turning point in her life." As she read, " it 
 was just as if the Lord called " her. These calls 
 or "locutions" of the divine which she heard 
 in her visions were remarkable. She describes 
 
no ST. TERESA 
 
 them herself with perfect calmness, saying, that 
 the words were very clearly formed and un- 
 mistakable, though not heard by the bodily ear. 
 " They are quite unlike the words framed by 
 the imagination, which are muffled." 
 
 There is no escape, she tells us, in this ''locu- 
 tion" of God addressed to the soul, for in spite 
 of ourselves we must listen. She has visions of 
 Christ also, in which she sees Him not with the 
 eyes of the body, but with the eyes of the soul. 
 She beholds him more distinctly than would 
 have been possible with the eyes of the body. 
 One such occasion she describes on this wise : 
 *' Being one day in prayer, our Lord was pleased 
 to show^ me His sacred hand, of excessive and 
 indescribable beauty ; afterwards His Divine 
 face, and finally, at mass, all His most sacred 
 humanity." 
 
 Her practice of mental prayer, with its "quiet 
 extraordinary purity and spirituality," is a deeply 
 significant feature of her life. " With Teresa," 
 says Dr. Whyte, *' literally all things were 
 sanctified, and sweetened, and made fruitful by 
 prayer." 
 
 She says herself that the soul which begins 
 to walk in the way of mental prayer with 
 
MENTAL PRAYER in 
 
 resolution, and is determined not to care much, 
 neither to rejoice nor to be greatly afflicted 
 whether sweetness and tenderness be denied or 
 granted by our Lord, has already travelled a 
 great part of the way. In fact, Teresa's con- 
 ception of prayer is so far-reaching and com- 
 prehensive that it becomes practically identified 
 with the whole domain of mystical theology. 
 
 In prayer, we resign our souls into the hands of 
 God ; Teresa mourns that we are so long and 
 so slow in thus giving up our hearts to God. 
 '' If, however," she says, *' we did what we could, 
 not clinging with our hearts to anything what- 
 soever in this world, but having our treasure and 
 our conversation in heaven, then this blessedness 
 would soon be ours, as all Thy saints testify. 
 God never withholds himself from him who pays 
 this price and who perseveres in seeking Him. 
 He will, little by little, and now and then, 
 strengthen and restore that soul, till at last it is 
 victorious." That prayer alone is effectual which 
 is offered by a soul resolved to follow the Eternal 
 Good — by that soul which is willing to forsake all 
 for God. Teresa confesses that all her failures 
 in obedience were the consequence of not leaning 
 on the strong pillar of prayer. Her practice of 
 
112 ST. TERESA 
 
 mental prayer, which from her twenty-fourth year 
 
 onwards she adopted, led her into the realm 
 
 of those higher spiritual experiences which are 
 
 the fruits of " supernatural prayer and mystical 
 
 devotion." 
 
 According to St. Teresa there are four degrees 
 of prayer. She names the first degree simple 
 mental prayer. In this, the one who prays is 
 bidden frequently to pause and think with whom 
 he speaks ; to call to mind his own sinfulness ; 
 and to set before himself the goal to which he 
 aspires. 
 
 Teresa writes : *' In prayer it is far best to be 
 alone, as, for our example and instruction, our 
 Lord always was when He prayed. We cannot 
 talk both to God and man at the same time ; 
 and if we feel too much alone, and must have 
 companionship, no companionship is comparable 
 to that of Christ. Let us picture and represent 
 Christ to ourselves and to His Father as always 
 at our side. Those who pray with proper pre- 
 paration — with much meditation on the whole 
 life and death of our Lord, on their own death, 
 on the last day, or such like — our Lord will bring 
 all such to the Port of Light." . . . '' The life 
 of prayer is simply love to God and the custom 
 
"THE PRAYER OF QUIET" 113 
 
 of being ever with Him." Of the obtaining of 
 God's presence in the praying soul, she says : 
 " We obtain it by meditating much upon our 
 own baseness, our neglect and ingratitude shown 
 toward the Son of God, what things He has done 
 for us. His Passion and terrible suffering, — His 
 whole life so full of affliction, and by delighting 
 ourselves in His word and in His works, and 
 such things as these." Such mental prayer ought 
 to be practised by all men, and it is the beginning 
 of all virtues. 
 
 The second degree is called the prayer of quiet, 
 and it is supernatural. In this the will is absorbed 
 and taken up in God. In a passive and tranquil 
 condition the soul often receives wondrous sweet- 
 ness. The soul burns with love without knowing 
 what she has done either to deserve, or to prepare 
 herself for such rapture. It is the gift of God, 
 and He gives His gifts to whomsoever and 
 whensoever He will. 
 
 The third degree, or the prayer of union, 
 indicates the stage at which the powers of will, 
 understanding and memory are quiescent, and 
 swallowed up in God. It is the prayer of perfect 
 contemplation. At such seasons God works in 
 the soul that which far transcends and overtops 
 
 8 
 
114 ST. TERESA 
 
 all the powers and resources even of the renewed 
 nature. Teresa adds that such prayer is not 
 necessary to salvation. 
 
 The last degree of all is the prayer of ecstasy. 
 This stage is the rarest and most privileged of 
 all. In this all the natural powers '' are sunk in 
 a divine stupor." The ecstasy never lasts very 
 long — rarely, indeed, half an hour. Teresa is 
 careful and sane enough to add that we must come 
 out from the sweetest and most rapturous prayer, 
 only to do harder and still harder works for God 
 and our neighbour. " For my part," she says, '' I 
 desire no other gift of prayer but that which ends in 
 every day making me a better and better woman." 
 
 Again Teresa writes in a letter to Father 
 Gratian : "It is important to remember, regard- 
 ing these interior things of the Spirit, that the 
 best prayer and that which is most acceptable 
 to God, is that which produces the best results. 
 I do not speak now of the many desires which 
 the soul may have, for although these are good, 
 they are not always such as our self-love repre- 
 sents them. I speak of these results which are 
 confirmed by actions. In this way we may know 
 what desires the soul has for God's honour, by 
 her true anxiety for it, and by her diligence in 
 
"THE INTERIOR CASTLE" 115 
 
 employing her memory and understanding in 
 everything that may please Him, that so she may 
 the better testify her love for Him." 
 
 The mysticism of St. Teresa is largely that 
 of the quietist. Although she does not adopt the 
 familiar three-stage mystic ascent, yet the Initia- 
 tion, the Quest, and the Way are all to be found 
 in her exposition of the mystic's progress which 
 is described in The Interior Castle. There are 
 seven apartments in the Castle ; the innermost 
 chamber represents the centre of the soul, where 
 God dwells ; the remaining divisions from the 
 outermost to the central, represent ''the advancing 
 stages of discipline and privilege through which 
 \ the mystic passes." 
 
 Ere the soul can return to the bosom of God 
 it must cut itself away from all earthly and 
 sensuous things, withdrawing itself from all 
 worldly objects, and by stern discipline fit itself 
 for the holy quest. The most Sacred Humanity 
 of Christ, however, is not to be counted among 
 the objects from which we have to withdraw. 
 
 On the contrary, Teresa insists that the soul 
 may place itself in the presence of Christ and 
 accustom itself to many acts of love directed 
 to His Sacred Humanity, and remain in His 
 
ii6 ST. TERESA 
 
 presence continually, and speak to Him, pray 
 to Him in its necessities, and complain to Him 
 of its troubles ; be merry with Him in its joys, 
 and yet not forget Him because of them. 
 
 Teresa's spiritual instructions and directions 
 prove, not only her knowledge of the mystic 
 way, but her insight into the perversity of the 
 human will and the sinfulness of the human heart. 
 
 As M. Huysmans truly observes : '* She is the 
 geographer and hydrographer of the sinful soul. 
 She has drawn the map of its poles, marked its 
 latitudes of contemplation and prayer, and laid out 
 all the interior seas and lands of the human heart. 
 Other saints have been among those heights and 
 depths and deserts before her, but no one has left 
 us so methodical and so scientific a survey." 
 
 After the soul has passed through the stages 
 of detachment, of purgation and discipline, the 
 way is opened up to the higher forms of con- 
 templation. There are many roads leading to the 
 many mansions of heaven, but they are all beset 
 by strange and sharp spiritual vicissitudes ; but 
 the one thing needful is to abandon ourselves into 
 the hands of God. We are to think '' that in the 
 whole world there is only God and our souls,'' 
 and the human will must become so conformed 
 
"A SHARP MARTYRDOM" 117 
 
 to the divine " that without knowing how it has 
 become a captive, it gives a simple consent to 
 become the prisoner of God, for it knows well 
 what it is to be the captive of Him it loves." 
 There are seasons of dryness during which the 
 soul endures all the miseries of despair, and there 
 are seasons of rapture, albeit often accompanied 
 by a certain ''great pain," in which the enraptured 
 soul is, as it were, crucified between earth and 
 heaven, enduring its passion. But, as Teresa 
 points out, *' the agony carries with it so great 
 a joy that I know of nothing wherewith to 
 compare it. It is a sharp martyrdom, full of 
 sweetness : for if any earthly thing be then offered 
 to the soul, even though it may be that which 
 it habitually found most sweet, the soul will have 
 none of it." The will becomes at last perfectly 
 passive, and the exercised soul at rest. Even the 
 understanding ceases from its normal acts and 
 operations, because, in mystical theology, " God 
 suspends it," when He discloses Himself and 
 His ways to the loved and loving soul. 
 
 In St. Teresa's Way of Perfection — a work 
 of her ripest spiritual genius — we have what 
 Mrs. Cunninghame Graham calls " her spiritual 
 testament," and in this book " the maladies of the 
 
ii8 ST. TERESA 
 
 soul " and its wounds, its sins and its weaknesses 
 as well as the Source of its recovery and life, the 
 divine manifestations with which it is visited on its 
 upward ascent are all treated of with consummate 
 skill and great power. In all her writing she 
 shows herself as a sure guide to the troubled soul ; 
 she knows the way because she has trodden it. 
 Hear her as she cries, " Oh, what a distress it 
 is for my soul to have to return to hold commerce 
 with this world after having had its conversation 
 in heaven ! To have to play a part in the sad 
 farce of this earthly life ! . . . I cannot run away 
 from this world, I must remain in it till my 
 discharge comes. But, meantime, how keen is 
 my captivity ; how wretched in my own soul am I ! 
 And one of my worst distresses is this, that I am 
 alone in my exile." 
 
 Teresa's teaching on the indwelling of Christ 
 in the human soul is full of suggestiveness. He 
 is the very Soul of the soul. He engulfs into 
 Himself, He enlightens and strengthens the 
 soul. In a beautiful passage, Teresa speaks of 
 a great and wonderful palace in the soul, with 
 its structure all of gold and precious stones. In 
 this palace the Great King is the guest. He 
 sits on the innermost seat of the heart, and 
 
THE LORD'S INDWELLING 119 
 
 holds it to be His best and bravest throne. 
 This will seem to some, she says, a silly fiction ; 
 but yet to believe it, fiction as it is, will help 
 the soul much. They are happy people who 
 have once got a hold of this glorious truth. To 
 possess, throughout this long and uphill pil- 
 grimage of ours, the constant presence of our 
 great Exemplar Jesus Christ is to be fortified 
 against all the powers of evil. 
 
 No company is comparable to the company of 
 Christ. Teresa describes, in a pictorial manner, 
 a vision of Christ's indwelling in her soul, in 
 the following words : '* One day, my soul sud- 
 denly lapsed into a state of recollection, appearing 
 to me as a bright mirror, the whole of which 
 was perfectly clear. In the centre of this was 
 represented to me Christ our Lord, as I am 
 accustomed to see Him. I seemed to see Him 
 in all the parts of my soul also, clearly as in 
 a mirror, and at the same time (I know not 
 how to express it), this mirror was all engraven 
 in the Lord Himself, by a communication ex- 
 ceedingly loving, and which I cannot describe. 
 I know that this vision was of great advantage 
 to me, both then and every time I have called 
 it to mind — more especially after communion. 
 
120 ST. TERESA 
 
 I was given to understand that when a soul is 
 in mortal sin, this mirror is covered with a 
 great cloud, and grows very dark, so that the 
 Lord can neither be seen nor represented in 
 us, though He is always present as the Author 
 of our being." The divine indwelling, Teresa 
 affirms, is the secret of victory over the vain 
 things of this world, of deliverance from the 
 manifold lusts that war against the soul, and of 
 all progress towards the Port of Light. 
 
 In the higher stages of Mystical Theology, 
 Teresa speaks of the experiencing of divine 
 truths by supernatural illumination, such illumina- 
 tion taking place when the soul is in a condition 
 of perfect passivity. Writing in her autobiography 
 of such an experience, she says, ** I learnt some 
 things without the help of words, and that more 
 clearly than those things which were told me 
 in words. I understood exceedingly deep truths 
 concerning the Truth, more than I could have 
 done through the teaching of many learned men." 
 Crashaw speaks of the saint's "angelical height 
 of speculation " ; and a great multitude of humble 
 hearts, whose flame of love has been kindled at 
 the same altar on which "Teresa of Jesus" laid 
 down her life, would acknowledge the immense 
 
 / 
 
"THE FLAMING HEART" 121 
 
 profit and delight they have found in aspirin^/ 
 with her after the highest things that mind 
 and soul can attain. 
 
 O sweet incendiary ! shew here thy art 
 
 Upon this carcass of a cold hard heart ; 
 
 Let all thy scatter'd shafts of light that play 
 
 Among the leaves of thy large books of day, 
 
 Combined against this breast at once break in 
 
 And take away from me myself and sin ; 
 
 This gracious robbery shall thy bounty be, 
 
 And thy best fortune such fair spoils of me. 
 
 O thou undaunted daughter of desires ! 
 
 By all thy dower of lights and fires ; 
 
 By all the eagle in thee, all the dove; 
 
 By all thy lives and deaths of love ; 
 
 By thy large draughts of intellectual day, 
 
 And all thy thirsts of love more large than they 
 
 By all thy brim-filled bowls of fierce desire ; 
 
 By thy last morning's draught of liquid fire ; 
 
 By the full kingdom of that final kiss 
 
 That seized thy parting soul, and sealed thee His ; 
 
 By all the heavens thou hast in Him, 
 
 (Fair sister of the Seraphim!); 
 
 By all of Him we have in thee, 
 
 Leave nothing of myself in me : 
 
 Let me so read thy life, that I 
 
 Unto all life of mine may die.^ 
 
 ^ Crashaw, The Flaming Heart. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS ^ 
 
 Dr. Inge has written of St. John of the Cross 
 that he '* presents the life of holiness in a 
 grim and repellent aspect." Many students of 
 mysticism will, however, regard this as a mis- 
 chievous misstatement — only possible to one 
 who has little or no sympathy with the ascetic 
 austerities which St. John practised so unremit- 
 tently. His writings display a similar Quietistic 
 tendency to that which was characteristic of 
 St. Teresa, though John's turbulent and fiery 
 disposition is in marked contrast to Teresa's. 
 '' It is impossible," writes Vaughan, " not to 
 recognise a certain grandeur in such a man. 
 Miserably mistaken as he was, he is genuine 
 throughout as mystic and ascetic. Every bitter 
 cup he would press to the lips of others he had 
 first drained himself." Further, Vaughan even 
 
 1 An admirable translation of the works of St. John of the 
 Cross is that by David Lewis. 
 
 122 
 
"THE OBSCURE NIGHT" 123 
 
 admits " it must be conceded that the mysticism 
 of John takes the very highest ground. It looks 
 almost with contempt upon the phantoms, the 
 caresses, the theurgic toys of grosser mystics." 
 
 In The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The 
 Obsciwe Night of the Soul, which he finished in 
 the convent of Pegnuela, St. John of the Cross 
 describes the mystic pathway to union with God, 
 with the unerring certainty of one to whom the 
 inner way is familiar ground. '* The journey of 
 the soul to the Divine union," says St. John, \^^^ 
 "is called night for three reasons: the point 
 of departure is privation of all desire, and com- 
 plete detachment from the world ; the road is 
 by faith, which is like night to the intellect ; 
 the Goal, which is God, is incomprehensible 
 while we are in this life." 
 
 St. John passed through the obscure night, 
 and he is a sure guide to all those who are 
 starting out on the same divine quest. He is 
 a true hierophant to the spiritually perplexed, 
 a real unfolder of divine mysteries to exercised 
 wayfarers. 
 
 What may be called the central principle of 
 St. John's teaching is that of complete detach- 
 ment from the things of the world. Unless the 
 
124 ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS 
 
 soul cuts itself away from these, the mystic 
 ascent is an impossible ideal. He says ex- 
 pressly, that in order to unite ourselves to the 
 Infinite we must surrender finite things without 
 reserve. It is not possible that created things 
 should serve as a ladder to the Uncreated 
 Source of all — they are only a hindrance and 
 a snare, and the moment the soul attempts to 
 rest in them it ceases to advance towards the 
 Infinite. When the soul begins to dwell upon 
 anything, it ceases to cast itself upon the AIL 
 
 Wise therefore, and wise above all, is he who does not 
 
 swerve aside, 
 But knows to his greatest need on earth is service of earth 
 
 denied ; 
 Who least things asking of flesh and blood and less than 
 
 the least of rest, 
 Goes on demanding the greater good and disdaining the 
 
 second best. 
 
 If we empty our spirit of all created things, 
 we shall then walk in the divine light, for God 
 bears no resemblance to any created thing. The 
 soul must go forth, abandoning itself in pure 
 faith to darkness. This world is "beyond the 
 shadow of a dream," and the mystic presses 
 onward towards the great reality. 
 
 First, the soul must pass through the obscure 
 
THE NIGHT OF THE SENSE 125 
 
 night of the sense, an experience which comes 
 to many. The neophyte may mark this by the 
 absence of incHnation towards any created thing. 
 It is a process in which vigil and purgation 
 fulfil their perfect work accompanied with much 
 painfulncss and weariness. It often succeeds a 
 period of spiritual luxury and gratification, and 
 is frequently characterized by anxiety lest the 
 soul should be turning back from God. Often 
 there is an apparently unaccountable incapacity 
 for meditation which tortures and torments the 
 soul. Yet at times the soul is visited by won- 
 drous raptures and delights, enjoying even now 
 a foretaste of those pleasures which are for 
 evermore. 
 
 The second stage is the night of the spirit, 
 which only falls upon those souls that have 
 made assured progress amid spiritual things. 
 St. John warns his readers that few persons 
 are willing to endure, even for the greatest 
 end, the least spiritual solicitude and mortifica- 
 tion, and still fewer who resolve to labour with 
 firm patience till they attain the Goal of all 
 human endeavour. During this second night 
 the purification of the spirit takes place— a 
 purgation which is vital to the spirit. In this 
 
126 ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS 
 
 our desires after spiritual goods often expire, 
 and all our feelings become " barren and re- 
 strained." At this time "the deserted soul 
 cannot think, or pray, or praise as of old," and 
 it begins to fear that ''pitiless purgation and 
 privation absolute are about to make the second 
 night not night only, but midnight." Sometimes 
 the soul is misled by vain visions and lying 
 voices, but at other times it is kindled by 
 heavenly manifestations and experiences an influx 
 of God. " Infused contemplation or mystical 
 theology," as St. John terms it, is a distinguish- 
 ing feature of this state. Wondrous visions and 
 beatific manifestations visit and enlighten the 
 soul, inflaming it with " a passion of divine 
 love." Light begins to gleam with something 
 of the brilliance of the perfect day. We see 
 the glow of a rosy dawn. The thick and heavy 
 clouds that oppress the soul, confining it and 
 keeping it alien and separate from God, flee 
 
 away. 
 
 But ask not that joy be with you; 
 
 Light things are by joy express'd : 
 Unto us the deeps are speaking, 
 Past the sadness of their seeking 
 
 Is God's graveness and God's rest.^ 
 
 ^ A. E. Waite, Stra?ige Houses of Sleep. 
 
THE NIGHT OF THE WILL 127 
 
 We are not to place an undue emphasis or 
 reliance even on the visions and manifestations 
 vouchsafed to us ; for, says St. John, the higher 
 we attain, ''the less of such manifestation" do 
 we meet. He gives an impressive warning 
 against "the Epicureans, who seek the delight 
 of the spirit rather than true devotion." Our 
 duty is to press forward to the prize of our high 
 calling of God, heedless of divine favours given 
 or withheld. Certainly on no account are we to 
 seek them. 
 
 The third stage is the night of the memory 
 and the will, to which not many attain. Here 
 the soul is enswathed in " a limitless expanse of 
 calm " ; the will " has gone out of itself, and 
 become in a sort divine"; it now "sinks into 
 profound oblivion." The mystic now becomes 
 the possessor of the highest mystical wisdom, 
 and attains a knowledge of " things so sublime 
 that their proper idiom is for them to be per- 
 ceived, felt, and wrapped in silence." He passes 
 from this oblivion into a supernatural state, in 
 which his powers are transformed into .divine 
 activities. His going forth into the divine dark 
 has crowned him with happiness, for he has 
 been " straightway elevated to operations entirely 
 
128 ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS 
 
 divine — to most familiar intercourse with God." 
 His understanding, once wrapped in darkness, 
 " has passed from a human to a divine con- 
 dition." From the night of his spirit and his 
 natural powers he has been delivered into the 
 uncreated light. 
 
 The following is Mr. David Lewis's transla- 
 tion of T/ie Song of the Obscure Alight, by 
 St. John of the Cross : 
 
 In an obscure night ! 
 
 With anxious love inflamed, 
 
 O happy lot ! 
 Forth unobserved I went, 
 My house being now at rest. 
 
 In darkness and obscurity, 
 By the secret ladder disguised, 
 
 O happy lot ! 
 In darkness and concealment, 
 My house being now at rest. 
 
 In that happy night, 
 In secret, seen of none. 
 Seeing nought myself, 
 Without other light or guide. 
 Save that which in my heart was burning. 
 
 That light guided me, 
 
 More surely than the noonday sun. 
 
 To the place where He was waiting for me, 
 Whom I knew well, 
 And where none but He appeared. 
 
"THE INTERIOR TRANSLATION" 129 
 
 O guiding night ! 
 
 night more lovely than the dawn ! 
 O night, that hast united 
 
 The Lover with His beloved ! 
 And changed her into her Love. 
 
 On my flowery bosom, 
 Kept whole for Him alone, 
 He reposed and slept. 
 
 1 kept Him, and the wooing 
 Of the cedars fanned Him. 
 
 Then His hair floated in the breeze 
 That blew from the turret. 
 
 He struck me on the neck 
 With his gentle hand. 
 And all sensation left me. 
 
 I continued in oblivion lost. 
 
 My head was resting on my Love. 
 
 I fainted, and was abandoned, 
 And, amid the lilies forgotten, 
 Threw all my cares away. 
 
 As in the night of the spirit, all the mystic's 
 powers and affections were renovated by ** the 
 despoliation of the old man " to such a degree 
 that their very nature seemed changed so that 
 they relished only spiritual and divine delights, 
 so now, in the night of the memory and the will, 
 the mystic's energies are changed into the Divine. 
 Having lost entirely human knowledge and 
 
 9 
 
./ 
 
 I30 ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS 
 
 human feelings, the mystic receives divine know- 
 ledge and divine feelings. Of this state St. John 
 writes : " One might say, in a sense, that the soul 
 gives God to God, for she gives to God all that 
 she receives of God, and He gives Himself to 
 her. This is the mystical love-gift, wherewith 
 the soul repayeth all her debt." 
 
 O Love of all ! for love of thine and thee, 
 
 ?•■ 
 
 Yet only love us, and in love like thine, 
 
 Our soul's love-flaming shall be meet to hold — 
 
 O love beyond all love ! the love of thee. 
 
 Without the love of God, union with God is 
 impossible. No man can ignore and despise the 
 world and take up his heavy and cruel cross, 
 unless the love of God hath been shed abroad 
 in his heart by the Holy Ghost. Unless the soul 
 has a love of God which constrains her, she 
 cannot abandon whatsoever is pleasant, and 
 embrace whatsoever is painful. No spiritual 
 achievement is possible apart from love. " Love," 
 says St. John, '' unites the soul to God, and the 
 more degrees of love the soul holds, so much 
 the more deeply does it enter into God, and is 
 concentrated into Him." By love, the soul finds 
 its way back to its centre, and '' we call that the 
 soul's deepest centre which is the furthest goal 
 
THE LOVE OF GOD 131 
 
 to which its essence, virtue, and power of move- 
 ment and operation can reach ; and this centre is 
 God." 
 
 The following words sufficiently indicate the 
 love which St. John of the Cross bore to his 
 Lord : 
 
 " O sweetest love of God, too little known ; he 
 who has found Thee is at rest ; let everything be 
 changed, O God, that we may rest in Thee. 
 Everywhere with Thee, O my God, everywhere 
 all things with Thee ; as I wish, O my Love, all 
 for Thee, nothing for me — nothing for me, every- 
 thing for Thee. All sweetness and delight for 
 Thee, none for me — all bitterness and trouble 
 for me, none for Thee. O my God, how sweet 
 to me Thy presence, Who art the Supreme 
 Good ! " 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 JACOB BEHMEN^ 
 
 " I AM an instrument of God," writes Jacob 
 Behmen, " wherewith He doth what He will." 
 Certainly no one acquainted with the Aurora 
 or the Signatura Reru7n, The Three Principles 
 or the Threefold Life of Man, The Way to 
 Christ and the Forty Questions, the Four 
 Co7nplexions and the Mysterium Magnum, not 
 to speak of the fragmentary Theoscopia, will 
 question for a moment the truth of Behmen's 
 own statement. 
 
 Born in the year 1575, he became a shoemaker 
 and glover in Gorlitz. The gravity and thought- 
 fulness of his early days deepened with the 
 dawn of manhood, accentuated, no doubt, by the 
 lamentable state of things existing around him in 
 Church and society. He was not a lettered man, 
 and did not begin to write until within twelve 
 years of his death. But despite his lack of 
 
 1 Thoughts on the Spiritual Life, by Jacob Behmen, trans- 
 lated by Miss Rainy, is a small, but well-chosen selection of 
 passages from Behmen's writings. 
 
 132 
 
SPIRITUAL INSIGHT AND GENIUS 133 
 education, and the strong inllucnce which his 
 patient study of Paracelsus exerted over his 
 naturally obscure style, no competent and sym- 
 pathetic reader of his writings can doubt the 
 stupidity and perversity of the verdict of John 
 Wesley, who sums up Behmen's work as " sublime 
 nonsense, inimitable bombast, fustian not to be 
 paralleled." Saint-Martin says the right word 
 when he speaks of Behmen as " this incom- 
 parable author." 
 
 Behmen possessed a natural genius for the 
 great problems of philosophy and theology, and 
 no student will be inclined to dispute what Henry 
 More called " the sagacity of his imagination." 
 But the secret of the profundity and insight of 
 Behmen's writings is to be found in his own ;^^ 
 words : " the truth of God did burn in my bones 
 till I took pen and ink and began to set down 
 what I had seen." He also affirmed that when — 
 the Spirit of God was taken away from him he 
 could not even read, so as to understand, what 
 he had himself written. Without minimising the 
 influence of the astrological and theosophic books 
 which he confesses to have studied, and making 
 due acknowledgment of his spiritual and mental 
 indebtedness to Schwenkfeld and Weigel, we 
 
134 JACOB BEHMEN 
 
 are compelled to believe Behmen when he 
 states expressly that, being divinely illumined, he 
 was constrained to write the record of his visions. 
 
 At the age of twenty-five, as he sat meditating 
 in his little room at Gorlitz, Behmen had a vision 
 of the origin and principles of the Divine and 
 universal process. This first illumination, he 
 says, came to him as he was gazing on the 
 bright light which was reflected from a tin 
 vessel, as the brilliant rays of the sun flashed 
 into his room. His first impulse was to distrust 
 the import and significance of the vision, and 
 he attempted to dispel it, but without effect. 
 It was not till twelve years afterwards, and when 
 he had experienced a second illumination, which 
 revealed with greater certainty and fulness the 
 truths he had previously seen, that he began 
 to write the Aurora. 
 
 In this vision he says that he saw the Being 
 of all beings, the Ground and the Abyss, the 
 birth of the Holy Trinity, the origin and first 
 state of this world and of all created things. 
 In himself he saw the divine or angelic world, 
 the dark world or the original of nature, and 
 the external or visible world as a creation out 
 of the two inner or spiritual worlds. He saw the 
 
HIS VISIONS 135 
 
 whole Being in good and evil, their origin in 
 each other, all of which moved him to great 
 wonder and joy. But though he saw it well, 
 as in a great deep, in his inward man, yet he 
 could not unfold it. From time to time, how- 
 ever, it opened itself within him, like a growing 
 plant. For twelve years he carried it about 
 within him, feeling a strong inward impulse, 
 unable to bring it forth in any outward form. At 
 length it fell upon him, like a bursting shower, 
 and all that he could bring into outwardness, that 
 he wrote down. 
 
 Behmen says explicitly that he did not write 
 from books, from the doctrine and science of 
 men, but from the book which was opened within 
 him — namely, the book of the glorious image of 
 God. This book was opened for him to read, 
 and therein did he study. It had but three 
 leaves, the three principles of Eternity, yet in 
 them he found the foundation of the world and 
 all mystery. To one who lived, as did Behmen, 
 " in weakness and childhood, and the simplicity 
 of Christ," we need not marvel that the gate 
 of the Divine Mystery was at times so opened 
 to him that in one quarter of an hour he saw 
 and knew more than if he had been many years 
 
136 JACOB BEHMEN 
 
 together at a university. " Jacob Behmen," says 
 Dr. Whyte, ''is of the race of the seers, and he 
 stands out a very prince among them." It is to be 
 regretted that the fruitful influence of Behmenism 
 on the religious thought of England — penetrating 
 and beneficent as it was — has not, as yet, been 
 adequately recognised and appraised. The 
 testimony of William Law, perhaps the ablest 
 of all Behmen's expositors, is given in the 
 following words : '' Next to the Scriptures, my 
 only book is the illuminated Behmen. For the 
 whole kingdom of grace and nature was opened 
 in him. In reading Behmen I am always at 
 home, and kept close to the kingdom of God 
 that is within me." 
 
 The following lines of Tennyson may very 
 fitly be used to express what was a central fact 
 to Jacob Behmen, and indeed to all who have 
 walked ** the interior way " : 
 
 If thou would'st hear the Nameless, and descend 
 Into the Temple-cave of thine own self. 
 There, brooding by the central altar, thou 
 May'st haply learn the Nameless hath a voice, 
 By which thou wilt abide, if thou be wise ; 
 For knowledge is the swallow on the lake, 
 That sees and stirs the surface-shadow there 
 But never yet hath dipt into the Abysm. 
 
THE NEW BIRTH 137 
 
 The deep teaching and illuminating doctrine 
 of Behmen is the outcome of the vivid revela- 
 tions, experiences, and exercises through which 
 he had passed. In it are blended the subjective, 
 the speculative, and the symbolic types of 
 mysticism in a very remarkable way. On all 
 the high themes of which he treats, Behmen 
 displays the lofty sweep of his imagination, but 
 nowhere with greater insight than when he deals 
 " specially of man and his soul." What has been 
 called '' the pith and drift of all Behmen's 
 writings " is the fact of regeneration or the 
 New Birth, of which he writes in The Three- 
 fold Life of Man, This new birth which the 
 soul needeth, he says, is "a turning towards 
 God, and an entering into Him." This is the 
 stone of the philosophers, and it will not be 
 found in the ways of strife or of earthly wisdom. 
 Everything depends on the will, and not on 
 the understanding. We must forsake all that 
 is earthly, and cast all our sins by which we 
 are led captive away into the mercy of God. 
 We are to flee to God for our freedom and for 
 the enlightening of His Spirit. Behmen bids 
 us not discuss much, but contend earnestly, for 
 heaven must be stormed and hell must tremble. 
 
138 JACOB BEHMEN 
 
 With sacred vehemence we must commit our 
 will and imagination eternally to God. Thus 
 shall we experience wonders. Speedily shall 
 we find One within us, who will help us to 
 struggle, to fight, and to pray. 
 
 So we find Behmen writing : *' Even as light 
 possesseth a property other than fire, and giveth 
 itself up, not as fire that consumeth itself, so 
 the holy life of humility blossometh out of death 
 when self-will dies, and the loving will of God 
 alone reigneth and worketh in all." Love in 
 its strength and virtue, in its height and great- 
 ness, cannot be grasped, says Behmen, without 
 the death of the will. " If thou desirest to grasp 
 her, she will flee from thee, but if thou givest 
 thyself entirely and utterly to her, thy will shall 
 become as dead, and love will then become 
 the life of thy nature. Then thou shalt live 
 not to thy own will, but to her will, for thy 
 will shall become her will. Then, being as 
 it were dead to thyself, thou shalt live to 
 God." 
 
 Elsewhere, Behmen says we may set our 'Teft- 
 hand will " to the pursuit of our daily calling, 
 but our " right-hand will " must be directed 
 towards God and the Eternal. We are to re- 
 
ABIDING IN CHRIST 139 
 
 member that we are but day-labourers, and as 
 those who listen fur the voice that shall call us 
 home. 
 
 The greatest and the most important thing is 
 to give ourselves utterly to Christ, to place 
 everything at His disposal. If we possess Him, 
 He will teach us what to forsake and what to 
 discourage, and wisdom will be given us, and 
 He will work in us that which is well pleasing 
 in His sight. There is one book which we all 
 possess that leadeth to God. Every man has it 
 in himself. It is the dear name of God, and its 
 letters are the flames of love which He has 
 revealed to us in the blessed name of Jesus. 
 To ponder these same letters in your heart and 
 spirit is enough. To be born again into the 
 life and spirit of Christ is to possess all God is 
 and can be. The New Birth is a divine life, 
 derived from Christ who is the true Vine ; to 
 experience this is to have *' the new life in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 Behmen's teaching on the indwelling of Christ 
 in us is singularly rich and full. Behmen believes 
 most fervently that " there is no grace whereby 
 we can come to adoption, save simply in the 
 blood and death of Christ," and that " Holy 
 
I40 JACOB BEHMEN 
 
 Scripture everywhere testifieth that we are justi- 
 fied from sin, not by meritorious works of ours, 
 but through the blood and death of Christ " ; 
 but, at the same time, he lays great stress on 
 '' the inward power of Christ's death." He 
 affirms that no man is a Christian who simply 
 comforts himself with the suffering, death, and 
 satisfaction of Christ, imputing it to himself as 
 a gift of favour, and still remains a wild beast 
 and unregenerate. No show of grace imputed 
 from without can make a true Christian. If the 
 sweet sacrifice of Jesus is to avail for us it must 
 be wrought in us ; the Father must communicate, 
 or beget His Son in us, so that we may appre- 
 hend Him in His word of promise. *' Then," 
 says Behmen, '' I put Him on, in His entire 
 process of justification, in my inward ground ; 
 and straightway there begins in me the killing of 
 the wrath of the devil, death, and hell, from the 
 inward power of Christ's death." We become 
 dead to self ; but Christ worketh in us when 
 He ariseth within. We are inwardly dead, 
 and He is our life; we live in Him, and not 
 in our self-hood. With our whole desire and 
 will, we " enter into the rose-garden of our 
 Redeemer, Jesus Christ," that the divine breath 
 
SYMBOLISM 141 
 
 may breathe into our spirits, and our life be 
 hid with Christ in God. We must make room 
 in our hearts for the divine love, that Christ 
 may there raise His kingly palace against death 
 and hell, and Himself for ever reign therein. 
 *' A true Christian," says Behmen, "does not 
 know himself." 
 
 Behmen, like other mystics, recognised the place 
 and power of symbols. In the Sigfiahcra Re7^tim 
 he points out that all created things have two 
 characteristics — an inner and invisible essence, 
 and an external and visible form. There is an 
 inward and outward world in which all things live, 
 and the outward always indicates, more or less 
 clearly, the inward. The whole external world 
 is a symbol of the internal and invisible world. 
 It is by the external form of all creatures that 
 their hidden spirit is made known. Everywhere 
 there are gates opening on the Great Mystery. 
 To enter them would be the beginning of our 
 redemption, for it would mark our deliverance 
 from exile, and our return to union with God. 
 Symbols may awake the inward life of the soul 
 and lead to " the Gate of the Great Mystery," 
 for as Behmen says, " Paradise is still in the world, 
 but man is not in paradise, unless he be born 
 
142 JACOB BEHMEN 
 
 again of God ; in that case he stands therein in 
 his new birth." And when the centre of all being 
 is apprehended, there rises in the heart a joy 
 that surpasseth all other, for then the soul knows 
 that the time is nigh when it shall *' regain the 
 flowers of paradise in the new man." 
 
 Behmen is careful to preserve the true difference 
 between eternal and transitory creatures, and he 
 never falls into the error of Pantheism. He says 
 that what he relates in succession takes place 
 simultaneously in God, and what he describes 
 separately is one in God. God needs neither 
 method nor medium, and therefore the eternal 
 nature is not His instrument for creating the 
 visible universe. With God thought and realisa- 
 tion take place together, and are in Him identical. 
 It is true that the power of God is in the fruits 
 of the earth, and identifies itself with the gene- 
 rative processes of nature, for " God filleth all 
 things," but neither nature nor the fruits of the 
 earth are God. " I say," says Behmen, " God 
 gives to all life its power, gives power to every 
 creature according to its desire, whether that 
 power be used for good or evil. . . . He com- 
 municates His power to all His nature and works, 
 and everything appropriates that power of His 
 
''THE DEEP DOOR" 143 
 
 according to its property. One appropriates 
 darkness, another light ; the appetite of each 
 demands what is proper to it, and the whole 
 substance is still all of God, whether good 
 or evil. For from Him, and through Him, 
 are all things ; and what is not of His love 
 is of His wrath." And, in the Mysterium 
 Magnum, Behmen defines the life of man 
 as " nothing less than a spark of the will of 
 God." 
 
 Of death, and the future life, Behmen writes : 
 *' The soul, when it departs from the body, 
 needeth not to go far ; for where the body 
 dies, there is heaven and hell. God is there, 
 and the devil ; yea, each in his own kingdom. 
 There also is paradise, and the soul needeth 
 only to enter through the deep door in the 
 centre." 
 
 Behmen died in 1626, in his fiftieth year. To 
 such a soul death could have no terrors, and his 
 last words were, ''I go to-day to be with my 
 Redeemer and my King in Paradise." The outer 
 life, indeed, remained in this world ; but that 
 which the heart had apprehended went with him 
 to where " the open fountain in the heart of 
 Christ Jesus " would " refresh and illumine for 
 
144 JACOB BEHMEN 
 
 ever." He had committed all to the sweet love 
 
 of God. 
 
 Behmen's life well exemplifies the truth of his 
 own saying — that the greatest power and virtue 
 spring from lowliness and humility. All his days 
 he had lodged in the melancholy inn, and, as he 
 says in his profound treatise on the Four Com- 
 plexions, he wrote for no other purpose than that 
 men might learn how to know themselves. He 
 was not born of art, but of simplicity, and he 
 acknowledged all who loved such mystical know- 
 ledge as his brethren in Christ. He knew that 
 our best knowledge here is but in part, and 
 that not until we attain to perfection shall 
 we see what God is, and what He can do. 
 He died in faith, looking for '' the time of 
 the lilies." The following is one of Behmen's 
 prayers : 
 
 '* O Thou great, incomprehensible God, Who 
 fillest all, be Thou indeed my heaven, in which 
 the new creature in Christ Jesus may dwell. Let 
 my spirit be indeed the music and the joy of 
 Thy spirit ! Do Thou make music in me . . . 
 and may I make harmony in the divine kingdom 
 of Thy joy, in the great love of God, in the 
 wonders of Thy glory and splendour, in the 
 
"THE HOLY CITY" 145 
 
 company of Thy holy angeHc harmonies, and 
 build Thou in me the holy city of Zion, in 
 which we all live as children of Christ in one 
 city, which is Christ in us. In Thee I would 
 lose myself utterly ; do in me what Thou 
 wilt. Amen." 
 
 10 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 PETER STERRY 
 
 Peter Sterry and his writings have fallen into 
 general but undeserved obscurity, although, 
 among those who are versed in mystical theology 
 and thought, his name is honoured and his 
 writings studied still. Sterry's works exercised 
 great influence in their day, and their influence 
 among ''the curious and understanding in this 
 kind of writings " is not yet spent. 
 
 Despite the fact that his name is by no means 
 familiar to the multitude, Sterry is one of the 
 greatest of the English mystics, and was 
 numbered among the circle of men known as 
 the Cambridge Platonists. Benjamin Whichcote, 
 on hearing of Sterry's death, referred to him as 
 '* that greatly enlightened friend of ours, who 
 is now taken from us." 
 
 The date of his birth is uncertain, but he was 
 born in Surrey, and educated at Emmanuel 
 
 146 
 
HIS LIFE 147 
 
 College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1629 — 
 three years after Whichcote and one year before 
 Ralph Cudworth. He graduated B.A., in 1633. 
 the same year that Nathaniel Culverwel entered 
 Emmanuel, and was elected a Fellow of his 
 college in 1636 — the entrance year of John 
 Smith — proceeding M.A., in the following year. 
 He became a minister of the gospel in London, 
 " and was one of the fourteen divines nominated 
 for the Westminster Assembly by the House 
 of Lords in May 1642." Seven years later, 
 Sterry was elected as preacher to the Council 
 of State with a stipend of ;^ioo a year (which 
 was afterwards doubled), and apartments at 
 Whitehall. "His duties were to preach on 
 Sundays before Cromwell either at Whitehall 
 or Hampton Court, on every other Thursday 
 morning at the former, and frequently before 
 the Lords and Commons."^ He was a friend 
 of Sir Henry Vane the younger, and was deeply 
 attached to Cromwell. 
 
 Sterry took no pert In the ecclesiastical 
 polemics of his time, though he was vehemently 
 opposed to the " constitutions, methods and 
 discipline " of Presbyterianism, and was a sup- 
 
 1 Article in Did. Nat. Biog., by Miss C. Fell Smith. 
 
148 PETER STERRY 
 
 porter of no religious communion that *' laboured 
 to hedge in the wind, and to bind up the sweet 
 influences of the Spirit." A man of cultivated 
 mind and artistic instincts, with a feeling for 
 literature and painting, after the death of Crom- 
 well he continued to reside in London, taking 
 pupils, preaching and writing until his death 
 after a lingering sickness, in 1672. When asked 
 on his death-bed, '' how his mind stood," it is 
 recorded that "he attested by his last words, 
 with much composure, that it then pleased God 
 also to give him full assurance of those truths 
 he had taught others." 
 
 In addition to various sermons, Sterry's 
 published works consist of T/ie Spirit Convincing 
 of Sin, London, 1645 ; Discourse of the Freedom 
 of the Will, London, 1675 — the preface to which, 
 one writer has said '* will bear a comparison with 
 Cudworth's famous sermon on the same subject " ; 
 The Rise, Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of 
 God in the Soul of Man (with preface by Crom- 
 well's chaplain, Jeremiah White), London, 1683 ; 
 and The Appearance of God to Man in the Gospel 
 and the Gospel Change, London, 17 10. This 
 latter contained an Explication of the Trinity, 
 and a Short Catechism. In 1785 there was 
 
STERRY and VVHICHCOTE 149 
 
 published Prayers selected from Thomas a Kempis, 
 Everard, Law, and {chiefly) Peter Sterry. 
 
 As a prose writer, Sterry has unusual distinc- 
 tion of style, and it has been affirmed that some 
 of his prose is ''worthy of comparison with 
 Milton's." But all his works, which are indeed 
 splendid specimens of the literary efflorescence 
 of Christian mysticism, proclaim him to be a fol- 
 lower of the inward light and a pilgrim along "the 
 interior way." It is certainly not to be wondered 
 at that '* he was characterised by Sir Benjamin 
 Rudyerd and others as mystical and obscure." 
 On the other hand, it is recorded that on one 
 occasion when Whichcote and Sterry were discuss- 
 ing together intricate theological questions, after 
 Sterry had displayed such extraordinary grasp 
 and knowledge of the wide issues involved, 
 Whichcote rising from his seat, delivered himself 
 thus : '' Peter, thou hast overcome me, thou 
 art all pure intellect." As one careful student 
 of his writings observed, Sterry " soared into 
 the pure empyrean of theology with unfailing 
 pinions " ; and as another remarks, it is indeed 
 " strange that the tinsel of the English mystics 
 should have been given to the world, and the 
 •fine gold' of the greatest of them all suppressed." 
 
ISO PETER STERRY 
 
 The mystic or evangelical life is, according 
 to Sterry's teaching, a life in which man ministers 
 unto God, offering up himself unto God '' as a 
 perpetual sacrifice in a flame of love," and 
 receiving from Him divine manifestations and 
 communications according to the divine good 
 pleasure, " and all this with an open contem- 
 plation of Him, and an assured complacency 
 in Him." 
 
 He describes it thus : '' When the soul is 
 taught by her experience and her God, that the 
 secret delights of the natural image are for a 
 repast only, not a repose, that in the strength 
 of these as Elijah's food, brought by angels, she 
 is to travel through a wilderness — the ruins of 
 nature with all its principles and images — till she 
 comes to the Mount of God, then she takes up 
 a resolution to stay no longer in this field of 
 swine with the swine, but to make haste to her 
 Father's House, where every servant hath bread 
 enough — each fleshly form is filled with sub- 
 stantial glory. When God hath secretly instructed 
 the soul thus to resolve. He, as a tender-hearted 
 Father, meets her in the beginning of these 
 resolutions, falls upon her neck and kisseth her. 
 God shows Himself in the soul, gives her sweet 
 
THE SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLE 151 
 
 testimonies of His love, carries her farther off 
 from the outward image, carries her through 
 the most retired principles of nature beyond and 
 above them, into this spiritual principle and state 
 which is the Spirit of Christ, where God and 
 the creature are united, where the spirit is as 
 water, the flesh as a flourishing earth standing 
 in that water and out of it — being continually 
 fed, continually made fruitful and beautiful by 
 it." 
 
 God, Sterry affirms, is the ground of every 
 natural being, and the treasury of all spiritual 
 beings. He is an infinite sweetness, which is 
 both fountain and sea in one — a fountain sending 
 forth many streams, many sons ; a sea drawing 
 all into its bosom again by a natural course. Man 
 has come from that boundless deep, and his most 
 urgent need is to discover the way of returning. 
 Sterry adjures us to allow nothing to keep us 
 at a distance from God ; for where, he asks, 
 can we be so well as in the bosom of Him 
 who loves us ? Thus th*e mystic's quest is a 
 right discovery of God in order that he may 
 attain to "the life of glory in which all things 
 lived to God, before they lived to themselves 
 in the flesh." The fleshly state Sterry describes 
 
152 PETER STERRY 
 
 as the true Sodom in which our Lord was 
 crucified — the city of Darkness in which the 
 Eternal Light is put to open shame and torture, 
 till it gives up its Spirit to God. The end of 
 the quest is not reached " till all things be an 
 infiniteness of Divine Appearances, a fulness of 
 Divine Images flowing forth from God, and 
 playing in the Bosom of God," and the soul 
 " see itself again in God." Sterry teaches that 
 the soul with all its capacity is natural, and that 
 whatever we can see, feel, declare in, or from 
 our souls, of the enjoyment of God, is but the 
 shadow of the true enjoyment because it hath 
 nature for its seat, if not for its root. Our 
 vocation is to retire beyond nature into the 
 spiritual image of things, to enter into the secrets 
 and depths of the spiritual man. The pity of it 
 is that too often '' we set the feet of our fleshly 
 affections upon the life and beauty of our spiritual 
 man," which is *'the undefiled image of God 
 in ourselves, of ourselves in God." 
 
 Except a man be born from above he cannot 
 enter the Divine kingdom — this is the affirmation 
 of all Christian mystics. Sterry says that our 
 Lord gave His disciples " a full description of 
 the Christian Mystery " — of the New Birth — in 
 
"AN ETERNAL GENERATION" 153 
 the following words : *' Except ye be converted, 
 and become as little children, ye cannot enter 
 into the Kingdom of Heaven." Thus the mystic, 
 or spiritual man, is born of God, " having the 
 Divine nature, the very root and seed of the 
 Godhead," within him. He is without cloud or 
 spot, "because the seed of Divinity, which is 
 an Eternal Generation, is ever growing up " 
 within him. Sterry likens the mystical process 
 in the soul to the action of seminal powers in 
 the ground, and says that *' the Godhead, by 
 the Gospel, opens itself within the natural man, 
 and brings forth into light the spiritual, the 
 immortal man to the natural." Sterry calls our 
 life in nature a sleep, and the raising of the soul 
 into Christ is the awakening of it. The soul 
 must pass from the natural life, which is either 
 one of darkness or of dreams into the life which 
 is life indeed. 
 
 To assist our conversion, we do well to con- 
 sider these four questions : 
 
 (i) What are we? By descending into our 
 own being, and entering into *' the secretest 
 retirement " of our own spirit, we shall discover 
 that we are not our own original, but that there 
 is "some eternal thing" above our reach, past 
 
154 PETER STERRY 
 
 our understanding, which fashions us, and carries 
 us on in its own image. Whereupon, Sterry 
 bids us : '* Look upward then, and say, O Thou 
 hidden and supreme Substance ! which hast cast 
 me as thy shadow upon this earth, comprehend 
 me. O Thou supreme Pattern ! which hast 
 sent me forth to pass through this world in 
 Thy Image, guide me." 
 
 (2) Where are we ? We are in a world of 
 images, and our business is to pass through this 
 world as through '' a throng of apparitions," we 
 ourselves being numbered among the rest. We 
 are urged to ascend with these till they bring 
 us to their first fountain, where we and they 
 together shall drink and be '' wrapt up into an 
 Immortal Fulness." 
 
 (3) Whence came we ? Sterry answers that 
 we came forth into this world from an immutable 
 Substance, from an eternal Original, and we 
 shall never have rest till we return thither again. 
 " Happy is that soul," says Sterry, '' that after all 
 her weary steps through the world to seek con- 
 tent, now tired, thinks of returning to her Father, 
 her first Husband, and breathes forth such sighs 
 as these towards Him : O my God ! Thy Fulness 
 is the womb out of which I was brought forth 
 
"THE MAIN-LAND OF ETERNITY" 155 
 into this world ; Thy sweetness is the Bosom in 
 which I must eternally rest. How long shall 
 I linger here ? O when shall I once leave this 
 world, and come again to Thee ? " 
 
 (4) How came we hither ? We came hither 
 " through a darkness." Sterry writes : " We 
 know not where we were, when God laid the 
 foundations of the earth ; or what we were before 
 that, when all our bones were first written by 
 God in His book ; when first those Eternal 
 Forms which were to frame and sustain every 
 shape or state, into which we should pass, were 
 brought forth in the Divine Wisdom." *' Dark- 
 ness is the bound between God and the creature, 
 through which all things pass out of one into 
 the other." Therefore, we are to " imagine this 
 life as an island, surrounded with a sea of dark- 
 ness, beyond which lies the main land of Eternity. 
 That man is blessed who can " raise himself to 
 such a pitch as to look off this island, beyond 
 that darkness, to the utmost bound of things." 
 •'What shall trouble him, on this twig of life, 
 on which he is like a bird but now alighted from 
 a far region from whence again he shall immedi- 
 ately take his flight ? " 
 
 The soul that has well pondered these four 
 
156 PETER STERRY 
 
 questions will recognise that life on earth " is 
 a mixt state of comforts and crosses," and that 
 the one thing needful is to experience the New 
 Birth which will open up to the soul vistas of 
 visions and revelations until it come to '* Mount 
 Zion, on which is the great assembly of the 
 First-born." 
 
 At the season of the New Birth, says Sterry, 
 " God discovers Himself in the soul as a glorious 
 ground, out of which thy life and thy Jesus 
 spring up together by degrees, like twin-lilies — 
 roses from the same stalk or root, which is 
 Christ." When the set time is come, nothing 
 can withstand that rising, for Jesus Christ and 
 the soul are together born anew from the womb 
 of Eternal Love where they lay hid. *' They 
 now come up together in one Spirit into one 
 spiritual life and heavenly image, in which 
 Paradise also comes up new and fresh together 
 with them." In the moment of Regeneration 
 or Conversion, the divine nature is new-born 
 in the soul ; or stated otherwise, the soul is new- 
 born into the divine nature, and " comes forth 
 with a new and divine being into a new and 
 divine world." 
 
 Speaking of the New Birth, Sterry says : 
 
THE DIVINE FOUNTAIN 157 
 
 "When the Father openeth Himself as a Foun- 
 tain of Divine Love in your spirits ; when the 
 Lord Jesus ariseth up and appeareth to you as 
 the Birth and Image of Divine Love within this 
 Fountain ; when your selves appear in Him one 
 Love-Birth in this Fountain of Love together 
 with Him ; then may you rejoice and say : ' Now 
 I live ; now I am new-born from the Love-spring 
 on high, in the highest glory.' You that have 
 the mystery of this Divine Birth revealed in you, 
 who see the garden of Love flourishing in the 
 midst of the Fountain of Love within you, retire 
 into this Fountain, into the Garden in the Foun- 
 tain, the Lord Jesus in the Bosom of the Father." 
 
 This is the rise to the kingdom of God in 
 the soul of man, and " the first motion in religion, 
 the winding of the soul about the utmost point 
 of the creature, and turning in towards God 
 again"; or, otherwise expressed, "the touching 
 of the soul with God." 
 
 By Sterry, the mystic or spiritual Christian is 
 regarded as one who possesses the immediate 
 and powerful breathings of the Spirit of Christ 
 Jesus within him, and his teaching on the Person 
 and office of Christ — his evangelical representa- 
 tion — is pronounced. As might be expected, he 
 
158 PETER STERRY 
 
 lays great stress on the doctrine of the Indwelling 
 Christ. The appearances of God in nature were 
 but candle-lights, dim and flickering, but in the 
 Gospel the Divine manifestation is an Eternal 
 Brightness — '' one entire light, God shining forth 
 by His Son," God in Christ " appears as One, 
 comprehending the creature in Himself, clothing 
 Himself with the creature," thus taking away 
 the distance and division. He " finds a distance, 
 but makes an unity." The Mediator breaks not 
 the unity, because He is one with both. God 
 in giving us His Son Jesus " gives us all that 
 He is, all that He doth, all that He brings 
 forth. His possessions, treasures, joys, glories, 
 Himself" 
 
 Moreover, while the Gospel ** is the unveiling 
 of the Face of Christ," it is also the unveiling 
 *' of our true face," for the spiritual man — the 
 man of life and glory — is already complete, 
 already ours, '* only it is hid above in God." 
 But it is one person with us ; it is our truest 
 self The man therefore who saves the life of 
 his natural flesh and abides in it, loses the life 
 of his spiritual flesh till it disappears from him ; 
 but he who allows the outward and earthly life 
 to perish preserves the heavenly life in himself 
 
THE SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE 159 
 
 " The spiritual man and Jesus Christ are both 
 one spirit, have both one face." So close is the 
 spiritual marriage which the Lord makes between 
 Himself and the soul that we do not see Jesus 
 aright if we see not ourself in Him ; while we 
 see not ourself aright unless we see our Saviour 
 in ourself; for "Christ maketh a Christian one 
 mystical person with Himself." And the means 
 by which the Lord makes the saint one Image 
 with Himself are, according to Sterry, four: 
 Manifestation, Propagation, Translation, and 
 Combination or Marriage. Sterry expresses the 
 intimacy existing between the soul and Christ 
 by saying that the mystic carries about with him, 
 in the earthen vessel of his flesh, an unspeakable 
 treasure. He has Christ and God sojourning 
 with him ** under the same roof of this taber- 
 nacle ; for God is in Christ, Christ is the 
 spiritual man ; the spiritual man lives in the 
 natural ; God is one with Christ ; Christ and 
 the spiritual man are one spirit." Thus the 
 mystic maintains a perpetual fellowship with his 
 Saviour, since He is in him as one with him. 
 " It is a single life ; it is an association of lives ; 
 it is the life of two in one ; of a saint and his 
 Saviour, it is a marriage of lives and spirits." 
 
i6o PETER STERRY 
 
 The mystic fellowship of the soul with Christ 
 is well expressed in the following words : ''If 
 the Lord Jesus be in thee, let thy life be thy 
 Saviour's, and not thine ; let the life which thou 
 livest be by the faith of the Son of God ; by 
 an Union or Incorporation with Him. Let thy 
 life be a resignation of thyself to thy Saviour, 
 a derivation of His life into thee. He hath 
 loved thee above all things ; let Him possess 
 thee entirely. Be thou His, and not another's — 
 not thine together with His. He hath given 
 Himself in exchange for thee, to be in thee, 
 instead of thee. Let Him alone form and act 
 thee." 
 
 Sterry warns, too, with emphatic words, against 
 the pretending to a union which does not exist : 
 " If we say that Jesus Christ the Light of God 
 dwells in us, and yet delight not in the ways of 
 His Spirit which are life, beauty, pleasantness, 
 liberty, but are found in the paths of flesh and 
 walks of sensuality, we are not united to Him 
 who is Truth, but have our hearts still lying in 
 the bosom of him who is the father of lies." 
 
 Sterry bids us search out *' the secrets of the 
 Spirit of Christ in our soul. Thou hast a 
 Master in thy own breast. None teaches like 
 
"THE LIFE OF LOVE" i6i 
 
 Him. Propound thy darkness, thy desires, to 
 the spirit of the Lord Jesus in thine own soul ; 
 there hearken to the private whispers ; there 
 receive the inward answers, repHes, representa- 
 tions of that Spirit which will pour forth itself 
 into a stream of sweet and deep apprehensions, 
 in a flood of powerful and glorious manifestations, 
 if thou wait upon it. It will give thee life, 
 light and language in heavenly things." The 
 Indwelling Christ is the supreme Illuminator, 
 and the mystic is drawn to Christ by the cords 
 of a conquering love. "O Jesus! cast Thou 
 but one glimpse of Thyself into our souls, 
 and we shall run from all things after Thee, 
 fly beyond all things towards Thee. How dark 
 and cold are these shadows to him that hath 
 seen the Light of Beauty in Thy Person, and 
 felt the warm life of love in Thine embraces ! " 
 God having revealed Himself in the soul, 
 draws the soul farther away from the outward 
 image, beyond and above the most retired 
 principles of nature into the spiritual principle 
 and state which is the Spirit of Christ, and 
 where God and the creature are united. The 
 spiritual state of things when made perfect 
 becomes the divine state of things in God. 
 
 U 
 
i62 PETER STERRY 
 
 vSterry describes the union of the soul with 
 God in the following words: "The soul having 
 been awhile taught in the bosom of Christ, 
 begins to grow up to a fuller sense of God, in 
 a more naked, abstracted, absolute, and com- 
 prehensive manner. Now she begins to put 
 off all that ever she put on, that God may be 
 her only clothing. She begins to think it not 
 enough to live and walk in the spirit of God — 
 except she be one Spirit with Christ and God. 
 She perceives some dark glimpse of that which 
 is meant, to know as we are known — that is, in 
 patrid, at home in God, comprehensively, by 
 being comprehended in God, and so compre- 
 hending Him again." The desire of the mystic 
 is to dwell for ever in the naked embraces of 
 the Eternal Spirit of Life and Beauty, to go 
 from hence for ever, but departing, to be for 
 ever with the Lord. 
 
 Sterry knows, however, that the heavenly 
 image in the soul that has been reborn is 
 subject to various clouds and storms while in 
 the body, for it is always in conjunction with 
 the fleshly image. This seldom suffers it to 
 shine forth clearly and purely ; often, indeed, 
 it is so clouded and captivated that it can send 
 
"THE DAY OF CHRIST" 163 
 
 forth neither sweet beam nor spark to enHghten 
 the soul " to any sensible discovery of it, or 
 warm thee with any sensible comfort in it." 
 The soul has to pass through '' a night of eternal 
 darkness upon all earthly contents," ere it is 
 brought '' out of the light of this world into 
 the Day of Christ." But by resignation, conse- 
 cration and prayer the mystic wins his way. 
 He dwells in the Spirit, as a priest in the 
 Temple, in purity, spirituality, with a holy 
 reverence and a sacred awe. He offers up 
 perpetually his life as a sacrifice to the life of 
 Christ. This is his constant prayer : '' Come 
 thou north wind, thou living power of my 
 Saviour's death, blow upon me ; come, thou 
 south wind, thou glorious power of my Saviour's 
 Resurrection, breathe upon me." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abandonment, '57 
 Achievement, Spiritual, 130 
 Aristotle, 15 
 Ascent of Mount Carmel, The, 
 
 123 
 Aurora, The, 134 
 
 Behmen, Jacob, 132-45 ; his 
 writings, 132 ; spiritual in- 
 sight and genius of, 133 ; 
 influenced by Paracelsus, 
 133 ; St. Martin's opinion 
 of, 133 ; Wesley's char- 
 acterisation of Behmen's 
 Works, 133 ; Henry More 
 on, 133 ; his spiritual and 
 mental indebtedness, 1 34 ; 
 his first vision, 1 34 ; his 
 second vision, 134, 135 ; 
 The Ajirora, 134; Dr. 
 Whyte on, 136 ; William 
 Law on, 136 ; on the New 
 Birth, 137, 139 ; The 
 Threefold life of man, 137 ; 
 on the will, 137, 138 ; on 
 abiding in Christ, 139; 
 on the indwelling of Christ, 
 1 39 ; on the inward power 
 of Christ's death, 140 ; on 
 symbolism, 141 ; Signa- 
 tiira Rerum, 141 ; on God 
 filling all things, 142 ; on 
 the deep door, 143 ; on 
 
 death and the future life, 
 143 ; The Four Complex- 
 ions, 144 ; a prayer of, 
 
 I44» 145 
 
 Benson, A. C, quoted, 7 
 
 Bigg, Dr., quoted, 5, 8 ; on 
 Clement, 26, 39 
 
 Birth of the Son of God in 
 the soul, 61 : see Re- 
 generation 
 
 Blake, William, 6 
 
 Christianity, Esoteric, 7 
 Clement of Alexandria, 26-40 ; 
 his writings, 26 ; his aim, 
 27 ; on initiation, 27, 28 ; 
 on perfection, 27, 35 ; on 
 knowledge, 28, 31-3, 36 ; 
 on man's regeneration, 28 ; 
 on Christ, 28 ; on the 
 lesser and the great mys- 
 teries, 28, 30 ; on the 
 soul's first nourishment, 
 
 29 ; on full insight, 29 ; 
 on contemplation, 29 ; on 
 divine science, 29 ; on the 
 perfection of man, 29, 2)1'^ 
 on mysteries, 29 ; on the 
 two forms of truth, 30 ; 
 on the concealed reality, 
 
 30 ; on illumination, 30 ; 
 on interpretation, 30 ; on 
 the historical facts of Chris- 
 
 16s 
 
i66 
 
 INDEX 
 
 tianity, 30 ; on true wis- 
 dom, 31 ; on the veil of 
 ignorance, 31 ; on the true 
 meaning of the Scriptures, 
 31 ; on God's workman- 
 ship, 32 ; on the twofold 
 character of the Christian 
 life, 32 ; on the soul's 
 surrender, 33 ; on " deifi- 
 cation," 33, 34 ; on union 
 \\dth the Holy Spirit, 34 ; 
 on the image of God, 34 ; 
 on the mystic's life, 34, 
 35 ; on the mystic trans- 
 lation and rest, 35, 39 ; 
 on the contemplation of 
 God, 35 ; familiar with 
 the language of the Greek 
 mysteries, 35 ; on purga- 
 tion, 35, 36, 38 ; on the 
 grace of illumination, -^^j ; 
 on the source of all true 
 knowledge, ^-j \ on the 
 interpretation of Scripture, 
 38 ; on love, 38, 39 ; a 
 prayer of, 40 
 Correspondences, 4, 56 
 Crashaw, on St. Teresa, 120, 
 
 121 
 Cromwell, 147 
 Cudworth, Ralph, 147 
 Culverwel, Nathaniel, 147 
 Cunninghame Graham, Mrs., 
 
 on St. Teresa, 1 17 
 " Cups of bitterness," 98 
 
 Darkness, The lonely, j^ 
 Dereliction, 93 
 
 Detachment, 84, 85, 115, 
 
 123, 124 
 " Divine Abyss," The, 105 
 Dionysius the Areopagite, 
 41-52 ; his date and na- 
 tionality unknown, 41 ; his 
 aim, 41 ; Platonic ele- 
 ments in his teaching, 41 ; 
 his view of Christianity, 
 42 ; his conception of God. 
 
 42 ; his " world-view," a 
 modification of the Neo- 
 Platonic theory of emana- 
 tion, 42 ; on the world as 
 an allegory, 42 ; on God 
 as the Absolute, 43 ; on 
 the " supra-national unity," 
 
 43 ; on the Good and the 
 Beautiful as manifestations 
 of God, 43 ; on the know- 
 ledge of God, 44 ; on rites 
 and symbols, 44, 49 ; on 
 perfection, 44 ; on " deifi- 
 cation," 44 ; not a pan- 
 theist, 44 ; on the im- 
 manence and transcendence 
 of God, 45 ; on the mys- 
 tical via negativa and the 
 via affirmativa, 45 ; on unity 
 in diversity, 45 ; on mystic 
 ignorance, 46 ; on the 
 " divine dark," 46, 47 ; 
 his influence on the 
 mediaeval mystics, 47, 94 ; 
 on union with God, 47, 51, 
 52 ; on denuding the mind, 
 47 ; on tradition and Scrip- 
 ture, 49 ; on the Divine 
 Hierophant, 50 ; on Christ 
 
INDEX 
 
 167 
 
 as the Light-Bearer and 
 Light-Bringer, 51 ; on the 
 three stages of the mystical 
 ladder, 51 
 Dorner, criticism of Diony- 
 sius, 50 ; criticism of Suso, 
 
 93 
 Dying to live, 57 
 
 Eckhart, Master, 53-66 ; on 
 the knowledge of God, 54, 
 55 ; the apprehension of 
 God, 55 ; on the creation 
 as an expression of the 
 divine life, 56 ; on the 
 soul's attainment, 56 ; on 
 " correspondences," 56 ; on 
 God's desire for man, 56 ; 
 on the divine disclosure, 
 56, 57 : on dying to self, 57 ; 
 on " abandonment," 57 ; 
 on union, 57; on "the 
 voice of God," 58 ; on the 
 soul's " return," 58 ; on 
 the soul and God, 57, 58 ; 
 on God's work in the soul, 
 
 59 ; on " the little spark," 
 
 60 ; on regeneration, 60 ; 
 on the birth of Christ in 
 the soul, 61 ; on man's 
 will and God's will, 61, 62 ; 
 on the work of divine 
 grace, 62 ; on sin, 6^, 64 ; 
 on prayer, 64, 65 ; prac- 
 tical mysticism of, 65 ; a 
 prayer of, 66 
 
 Ecstasy, 114 
 
 Eternal wisdom, The Book 
 of the, 84 
 
 Eternity, Idea of, 8 ; the 
 
 main -land of, 155 
 Ewald, on the true mystic, 65 
 
 Four Complexions, The, 144 
 " Friends of God," 95 
 
 Hierotheus 41, 
 
 Huysmans, M., on St. Teresa, 
 116 
 
 Ignorance, Mystic, 73, 74 
 
 Illumination, 12 
 
 Imitatio Christi, 103 
 
 Incarnation, The, 20 
 
 Indwelling of Christ, The, 1 39» 
 158 
 
 Inge, Dr., on the doctrine of 
 " deification," T,Tf ; quoted, 
 54 ; on Suso's autobio- 
 graphy, 82 ; on St. Teresa, 
 109 ; on St. John of the 
 Cross, 122 
 
 Inner life, Summit of, 71 
 
 " Inner light," Doctrine of 
 the, 20 
 
 Interior Castle, The, 115 
 
 Interior life, The, 79 
 
 Interior spirits. The choice of, 
 
 77 
 Interior Translation, The, 
 
 129, 130 
 Interior Way, 12 
 
 John, St., Gospel according 
 to, 20-25 '■> o" th® Incar- 
 nation, 20 ; on the creation, 
 21 ; his use of symbols^ 
 
i68 
 
 INDEX 
 
 21 ; on the supreme reve- 
 lation, 21 ; on the New 
 Birth, 21 ; teaching on 
 purification, 22 ; on the 
 soul's development, 22 ; 
 on the Living Bread, 22 ; 
 on the soul's participation 
 in Christianity, 22 ; on 
 the appropriation of a 
 sacrificial life, 23 ; on the 
 mystic idea of unity, 23 ; 
 on the abiding union, 23 ; 
 doctrine of the Spirit, 23, 
 24 ; on Divine knowledge, 
 23 ; on the threefold wit- 
 ness, 23 ; the witness in 
 the heart, 24 ; the witness 
 of the Spirit, 24 ; the 
 Spirit and Christ, 24 ; the 
 Spirit as teacher, 24 ; on 
 Love, 24, 25 
 Johnof the Cross, St., 122-31 ; 
 his ascetic austerities, 122 ; 
 Dr. Inge on, 122 ; Vaughan 
 on, 122, 123 ; The Ascent 
 of Mount Carmel, 123 ; 
 The Obscure Night of the 
 Soul, 123 ; on detachment, 
 123, 124; on the surrender 
 of finite things, 124 ; on 
 the night of the sense, 125 ; 
 on the right of the spirit, 
 125; on purgation, 126; 
 mystical theology, 126 ; the 
 night of the will, 127 : the 
 Song of the Obscure Night, 
 128-9; on "The Interior 
 Translation," 129, 130; 
 " the mystical love-gift," 
 
 130 ; on the love of God, 
 130, 131 ; a prayer of, 131 
 Jowett, Benjamin, quoted, 4 
 
 Lasson, quoted, 4 
 
 Law, William, on Behmen, 
 
 136 
 Lewis, David, quoted, 128 
 Luther, on Tauler's Sermons, 
 
 lOI 
 
 Maeterlinck, on Ruysbroeck, 
 
 67 
 More, Henry, on Behmen, 133 
 Mysteries, The Greek, 15 
 Mysterium Magnum, yj, 143 
 Mystery, 2 
 Mystical Love-Gift, The, 130 
 
 — Wisdom, 127 
 
 — View of life, 5 
 
 — Prayer, 100 
 Mysticism, definition of, 2 ; 
 
 criticisms of, 3, 53 ; an 
 axiom of, 5 ; content of, 
 8 ; history of, 13 ; Chris- 
 tian, 6 ; charter of, 20 
 Mystics, I, 3, 10; secret of 
 the, 2 ; belief of the, 4, 
 38 ; life of the, 65, 150, 
 151, 163 ; progress of, 
 115; operation of the, 3 ; 
 spiritual education of, 5 ; 
 experiences of, 7, 15 ; the 
 desire of, 11, 13, 152; the 
 path of, 12, 93 ; use of 
 symbols, 43 ; language of 
 the, 53 
 
 Neo-Platonism, 41 
 Nettleship, R. L., quoted, 4 
 Nicholas of Strassburg, 96 
 
INDEX 
 
 169 
 
 Obscure Night of the Soul, The, 
 
 123 
 Ordo spiritualium nuptiarum, 
 
 Paracelsus, his influence on 
 
 Behmen, 133 
 Passio Christi, 85, 87, 89, 
 
 90, 91, 112, 140 
 Paul, St., 14-20; the prince 
 of Christian mystics, 14 ; 
 his Gospel, 14 ; his visions 
 and revelations, 14, 15 ? 
 his mysticism, 15 ; his 
 union with Christ, 16 ; on 
 crucifixion with Christ, 16; 
 on the Headship of Christ, 
 17 ; on the Church as the 
 Bride of Christ, 17, 18 ; 
 on the mystic union, 18 ; 
 the Greek mysteries and 
 St. Paul's language and 
 imagery, 18 ; on degrees 
 of initiation, 18 ; on en- 
 lightenment, 18 ; on con- 
 ditions of initiation, 18, 19 ; 
 his doctrine of the Spirit, 
 19 ; on Christ and the 
 Spirit, 19 ; on the dis- 
 cernment of divine truth, 
 19 ; on spiritual under- 
 standing, 20 
 
 Perfection, Spiritual, 86 
 
 Plato, 13 
 
 Proclus, 41 
 
 Purgation, 12, 126 
 
 Regeneration, 60, 61, 137, 
 
 139, 152, i53» 156, 157 
 Resignation, 87 
 
 Ritchie, Professor, quoted, 53 
 Rudyerd, Sir Benjamin, 149 
 Ruysbroeck, 67-80 ; Maeter- 
 linck on, 67 ; on love and 
 rest, 69 ; on the stages 
 of the inward way, 69-74 ; 
 on love, 70 ; on the active 
 life, 70 ; on the internal 
 life, 70, 71 ; on illumina- 
 tion or supernatural vision, 
 71 ; on interior love, 71 ; 
 on the contemplative life, 
 72, 7:^, ; on " the lonely 
 darkness," 7Z; the stage 
 of ignorance, 73, 74 ; on 
 possessing God, 74 ; on 
 the life of love, 75 ; on 
 the Bridegroom's coming, 
 
 75 ; on union with God, 
 
 76 ; pantheism in, 76 ; on 
 " the dark silence," 77 ; 
 on secret joys, 77 \ on the 
 endurance of sufferings, 77y 
 78 ; on the Incarnate Son, 
 
 78 ; His mysticism practical 
 
 79 ; on the interior life, 79 
 
 Saint-Martin, quoted, 56, 61, 
 70 ; on Behmen, 133 
 
 Scala perfectioniSy 10 
 
 Schwenkf eld, 1 34 
 
 Self-abandonment, 86, 105, 
 106 
 
 Signatura Rerum, 141 
 
 Smith, John, 147 
 
 Song of the Obscure Night, 
 The, 128, 129 
 
 " Spark," the little, 60 
 
 Spiritual man, The, 158, 159 
 
I70 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Spiritual marriage, The, 159 
 
 — principle, The, 151 
 
 Sterry, Peter, 146-63 ; 
 Whichcote and, 146, 147, 
 149 ; at Emmanuel Col- 
 lege, Cambridge, 147 ; as 
 Preacher to the Council of 
 State, 147 ; writings of, 
 148 ; his prose, 149 ; on 
 the mystic life, 150, 151 ; 
 on the spiritual principle, 
 151 ; on the end of the 
 Quest, 152 ; on the New 
 Birth, 152, 153, 156, 157 ; 
 on the soul's exile, 154; 
 on " the mainland of 
 eternity," 155 ; on the 
 Indwelling Christ, 158 ; on 
 the spiritual man, 158, 
 159 ; on the spiritual mar- 
 riage, 159 ; on union with 
 Christ, 160, 161 ; union I 
 with God, 162 ; on the | 
 mystic life, 163 I 
 
 Suso, 81-94; his asceticism, > 
 81 ; his visions and ecs- I 
 tasies, 81-3 ; his auto- i 
 biography, 82 ; the Book | 
 of the Eternal Wisdom, 84 ; '. 
 on detachment, 84, 85 ; on ; 
 the Passion of Christ, 85, i 
 S7, 89, 90, 91 ; on spiritual ; 
 perfection, 86 ; on self- 
 abandonment, 86 ; the ' 
 basis of his mystical teach- 
 ing, 86 ; on resignation, 87 ; 
 on cross-bearing, 87 ; on 
 the secrets of God, 88 ; 
 on the Bridegroom of the 
 
 soul, 92 ; on dereliction, 
 
 93 ; influence of Dionysius 
 
 on, 94 
 Swinburne, A. C, quoted, 12 
 Symbol, Use of, 10, 11 
 Symbolism, 141 ; Christian, 
 
 6 ; universal, 6 
 
 Tauler, 95-107 ; influenced 
 by earlier mystics, 95 ; 
 influence of Eckhart upon, 
 96 ; influence of Nicholas 
 of Strassburg upon, 96 ; 
 the preaching of, 96 ; on 
 the indwelling of God, 97 ; 
 on "an exceeding bitter 
 myrrh," 98, 99 ; on the 
 work of God in the soul, 
 100 ; on the essence of the 
 mystic's prayer, 100 ; on 
 the sinfulness of sin, 100-2 ; 
 on the Cross of Christ's 
 humanity, 102 ; on the 
 imitation of Christ, 103 ; his 
 doctrine of self-abandon- 
 ment, 105 ; on the " di- 
 vine abyss," 105, 106 ; on 
 " the secret union, 107 
 Tennyson, quoted, 136 
 Tevsteegen, Hymns of, quoted, 
 
 Teresa, St., 108-21 ; visions 
 and voices, 109, no; her 
 practice of mental prayer, 
 1 10 ; four degrees of prayer, 
 112; the prayer of quiet, 
 113 ; the prayer of union, 
 113; the prayer of ecstasy, 
 114; on the best prayer. 
 
INDEX 
 
 171 
 
 T 14 ; The Interior Castle, ' 
 115; on "detachment," 
 115 ; her insight, 116 ; "a 
 sharp martyrdom," 117; 
 her Way of Perfection, 117; 
 on the indwelling of Christ, 
 118, 119, 120 ; on super- 
 natural illumination, 129 
 Theology, Mystical, 126 
 Threefold life of man, The, 137 
 
 Union, The Mystery of, 6 ; 
 The fact of, 12; the 
 Mystical, 15, 47» 57» 58, 
 60, 75-7, 106, 107, 162 
 Union with Christ, 160, 161 
 Unity, The Idea of, 8, 23 
 
 Vane, Sir Henry, 147 
 Vaughan, R. A., on Diony- 
 
 sius, 41 ; on Ruysbroeck, 
 
 79 ; on Tauler, 105 ; on St. 
 
 John of the Cross, 122, 123 
 Vision, Supernatural, 71 
 Visions and revelations, 79, 
 
 81-3, 127 ; voices and, 
 
 109, no 
 
 Waite, A. E., quoted, 3, n, 
 
 48, 74, 104, 126 
 Way of Perfection, The, 117 
 Weigel, 134 
 Wesley, John, on Behmen, 
 
 133 
 Whichcote, Benjamin, on 
 
 Sterry, 146, 147, 149 
 White, Jeremiah, 148 
 Whitticr, J. G., quoted, 105 
 Whyte, Dr., on St. Teresa, 
 
 108, no; on Behmen, 136 
 
 PrtfiUd by Hastll, l^Vatson & Vin»y, Ld., London and Ayltsbury. 
 
012 01038 0485 
 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 APR 1 t 
 
 1995 
 
 
 
 DEC 
 
 n996 
 
 
 
 mi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 DEMCO 38-297 
 
 I