THE INISTIR LIFE BY RUFUS M. JONES, A. M., Lrrx. D. PROFESSOR OF
PHILOSOPHY IN HAVERFORD COLLEGE AUTHOR OF STUDIES IN MYSTICAL
RELIGION SPIRITUAL REFORMERS, ETC. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1917 All
rights reserved COPYRIGHT, xgi6, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up
and elcctrotyped. Published October, 1916, Reprinted January, 1917.
. J. S. Gushing Go. Berwick Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U. S. A.
INTRODUCTION THERE is no inner life that is not also an outer life.
To withdraw from the stress and strain of practical action and from
the complication of problems into the quiet cell of the inner life
in order to build its domain undisturbed is the sure way to lose
the inner life. The finest of all the mystical writers of the
fourteenth century the author of Theologia Ger manica knew this as
fully as we of this psychologically trained generation know it. He
intensely desired a rich inner life, but he saw that to be
beautiful within he must live a radiant and effective life in the
world of men and events. I would fain be, he says, to the eternal
God what a mans hand is to a man i. e. he seeks, with all the
eagerness of his glow vi, INTRODUCTION ing nature, to be an
efficient instrument of God in the world. In the practice of the
presence of God, the presence itself becomes more sure and
indubitable. Re ligion does not consist of inward thrills and
private enjoyment of God it does not terminate in beatific vision.
It is rather the joyous business of carrying the Life of God into
the lives of men of being to the eternal God what a mans hand is to
a man. There is no one exclusive way either to the supreme
realities or to the loftiest experiences of life. The way which we
individuals select and proclaim asthe only highway of the soul back
to its true home turns out to be a revelation of our own private
selves fully as much as it is a revelation of a via sacra to the
one goal of all human striving. Life is a very rich and complex
affair and it forever floods over and inundates any feature which
we pick out as essential or as pivotal to its consummation. God so
completely over arches all that is and He is so genuinely 4
INTRODUCTION Vll the fulfillment of all which appears in complete
and potential that we cannot conceivably insist that there shall be
only one way of approach from the multiplic ity of the life which
we know to the infinite Being whom we seek. Most persons are
strangely prone to use the principle of parsimony. They appear to
have a kind of fascination for the dilemma of either-or
alternatives. Faith or works is one of these great historic
alternatives. But this cleavage is too artificial for full-rounded
reality. Each of these halves cries for its other, and there cannot
be any great salvation until we rise from the poverty of either
half to the richness of the united whole which includes both ways.
So, too, we have had the alternative of outer or inner way forced
upon us. We are told that the only efficacious way is the way of
the cross, treated as an outer historical transaction and we have,
again, been told that there is no viii INTRODUCTION way except the
inner way of direct ex perience and inner revelation. There are
those who say, with one of George Chap mans characters Ill build
all inward not a light shall ope The common out-way. Ill therefore
live in dark and all my light Like ancient temples, let in at my
top. Over against the mystic who glories in the infinitedepths of
his own soul, the evangelical, with excessive humility, allows not
even a spark of native grandeur to the soul and denies that the
inner way leads to anything but will-o-the-wisps. This is a very
inept and unnecessary halving of what should be a whole. It spoils
religious Hfe, somewhat as the execution of Solomons proposal would
have spoiled for both mothers the living child that was to be
divided. Twenty five hundred years ago Heraclitus of Ephesus
declared that there is a way up and a way down and both are one...
General
Imprint: |
Read Books
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
November 2008 |
First published: |
November 2008 |
Authors: |
Rufus M. Jones
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 140 x 15mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Laminated cover
|
Pages: |
220 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-4437-2251-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Humanities >
Philosophy >
General
Books >
Philosophy >
General
|
LSN: |
1-4437-2251-0 |
Barcode: |
9781443722513 |
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