The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-01

DIR. william James. the ablest meta
physician in the United States, and Har-
ward professor. has just published a volume
entitled, Varieties Of Religious Expert
ence,' which contains more common sense
and less cant and mystery than any book
upon that subject published for years.
To start with he gives us some good
common sense definitions. namely, that re-
ligion is mans relation to and communion
with God. and then defines God as the
unseen Reality in whom we live and
move and have our being" This Unseen
Reality has that personal element in IL
without which no religion is valid. Science
gives us power and force-relgion, per-
sonality. Professor Jamess great and
constant insistence is that God comes TO US
through our feelings and not through our
intellects At the close Of his original and
profound chapter entitled philosophy"
the author uses these striking words, I'm
all sad sincerity I think we must conclude
that the attempt TO demonstrate by purely
intellectual processes the truth of the
deIiverances of our direct religious expert
ences, is absolutely hopeless"
After summing UP the conclusions of dog
matte theology and scholastic philosophy.
DIR. James says, and there is no mistaking
his language so much for the meta
physical attributes of God From the point
of view of practical religion, the meta
physical Master which they offer for our
worship. is absolutely worthless inven-
ton OF the scholastic mind" I'VE must
therefore. 1 think. bid definite goodbye to
dogmatic theology. In all sincerity our
faith must do without that warrant. Mod
err ideaIism has said goodbye to this
theology forever" All Of which learned
words comes to this, that our religion in
the last analysis is a matter of personal ex-
perience, and he or she whose heart has
never been touched Il use popular Ian
guage) by the Divine. will never find God.
This great conclusion is beautifully ex-
pressed by DR.. James in these words: mo;
the Book of Job went over this whole mat
ter once for all defnitively. Ratiocination
is a relatively superficial, although the
usual, path to the Deity IL will lay my
hand on my mouth. 1 have heard of Thee
by the hearing OF the ear, but now mine eye
seeth Thee" This is also Tennyson's con-
clusIon in the justly celebrated CXXIII
stanza of the great I'm Memoriam," one
of the profoundest studies in the Christian
faith ever written.
Il
/ heard a voice Believe no more
And heard an ever-breaking shore
That tumbled in a Goddess deep;
"A warmth within the breast would melt
The freezing reasons colder part,
And like man in wrath, the heart
Stood up and answered L have felt.
mo. like a child in doubt and fear;
But that blind clamor made wise;
Then was i a child that cries,
But, crying, knows his father near;
land what am beheld again
What is, and no man understands;
That out of darkness came the hands
That reach through nature, molding
men,"
Having thus laid out the road to God
Through the heart and through personal ex-
perience, DR.. James devotes the bulk of
his book to the consideration of what he
calls in his title, THE Varieties of Re-
ligious Experience" 1t is quite impossible
within the limits of a newspaper article to
go over all OF these experiences. 1 will
therefore confine myself with the utmost
brevity to four of his elaborate illustra-
lions. Conversion" Christian Science"
Prayer" and Mysticism
DIR. James selects extreme cases, like the
conversion of St. Paul, Richard Baxter
Jonathan Edwards, Richard Alien and
all on the Methodist camp-meeting cata-
clysmic order. Were these conversions gen.
uine? If genuine, were they the outpour-
ings of the Holy Spirit. or cases of the
workings OF temperamental psychology?
1t would take too long to go into details,
hut DR.. James's conclusions are that,
while these were genuine illustrations of a
change of heart they were each and all
the outcome of peculiar temperaments and
OF what psychology knows as the workings
of that ''subconsciousness" which dwells
in every human bosom. DR.. James calls
attention TO the fact that natural CONVEX
sions. such as we have in the more con-
sentative Catholic. Episcopal and Presby-
terrain churches which are the outcome of
Christian homes and the Sabbath school
and the appointed means of grace are
just as common, just religious and far
more reliable than those above mentioned
Let US not mistake Dr. James. He believes
In conversion. He believes that we are sur
rounded by the divine and that He or it
comes into our souls with wondrous cleans
Ing and peace-giving effects. and that the
conversions of the Salvation Army and the
Methodist Church are not counterfeit. but
that God may and does enter each indi-
vidual according TO his mental build, Just
as in bodily sickness what would be one
mans cure would be another's poison. A
man filled with animal spirits and red
blood Is TO be dealt with accordingly, and
not as a man with a deficiency of nerves.
bleod and temperament. In popular lam
guage, according TO DR.. James, there are
conversions and conversions. and, while
he prefers the still, small voice method.
still that does not prove that the other
that OF the tempest and whirlwind-are in
valid.
The author does not use the term Chris
fian science. but, rather. mind cure" and
Endorses II. although disclaiming and de-
ploring its exaggerations. He adopts the
principle of suggestion" and of the we'll
known effect which the mind has over the
body in repelling sickness. His chapter on
this subject is suggestivey entitled 1.-THE
Religion of Healthy Mindedness." Dr.
James believes In optimism, and SAYS that
its opposite. pessimism. is a religious dis
ease. At the same time he does not discard
medicine. He sees IN this great world of
ours ample room for both mind heaIers and
the medical profession to labor side by side