The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-18

there are limits, the trees don't grow into the sky. But the plain fact re- mains that men the world over possess amounts of resource which only very exceptional individuals push to their extreme of use.
 The general applications of this suggestion to physical and intellectual life. we will leave to physiologists and psychologists to discuss. It is with its application to the moral and spiritual life that we are concerned. Certainly what Prof. James says of the powers of man generally is pre-eminently true of those powers which we commonly designate as moral and spiritual, that most of us continue to live unneces- sarily near our surface"
 Just here is one of the greatest needs of the present hour. The in- tense living of our day tends to deepen life Intellectually by drawing upon all the reserve powers of men and engag- l ing them in the tasks that business and politics, science and philosophy, present to them. But precisely this in- | tellectual intensity in the realms that | dlG llOl ulSliItllN ly threatens to paraly2e the soul in the religious sphere. Moderate physical ex- ercise tends to quicken intellectual life but the great athlete is not usually great philosopher. Business that brings one into contact with his fellow men is more conducive to altruism than the life of the hermit; but enor- | hnSinace, { 4. make men seem only the parts of a machine and to destroy the altrustic spirit So intense devotion to science or philosophy may leave no opportunity for the deeper religious experiences. And since such experiences are as consequence not within the horizon of ones own life, even the portrayals of them in the lives of others are re- handed to the region of the unknown, l the imaginary, the mythical. Tho most superficial layer of spiritual experi- ences is all that is known; and the layer of resistance that separates it from the deeper possibilities of the soul becomes impenetrable.
 To the intensity of life in the prac- tical, scientific and philosophic spheres, 1t would be irrational to ob- ject. Not only in the matter of physi- cal comfoit and intellectual dePlop- ment but in that of religion and lnor- ality, science ard phil"so phy have wrought for our advantage But as a, complement to their intensity, tnere is need of a like intensity of spiritual | life, penetration in experience into those deeper poss abilities of fellowship with God of winch other ages ave had enriching and ennoblirg experi- ence. Such fellowship is not indeed a thing of the pas: only. But because of the very intensi v with which men rur- sue each his own task there is daiger that the deeper possibilities of spiritual life will become unknown to those whc l have made the gredteS, achievements in philosophy and science. and vice versa In the article to which we have referred Prof. James says:
 In few of us are functiors not tied up by the exercise of other functions
 Relatively few medcel men and scien- tific men, I fancy, can pray. Few can carry on any living commerce with God Yet many of us are we'll aware how much freer and abler our lives would be, were such important forms of energizing not sealed up by the crit ical atmosphere in which we have been reared. There are in everyone potential forms of activity that actually are stunted out of use"
 How then shall this deeper life be achieved?
 I The answer is in part suggested by what has already been said The
 man of scientific temper is tempted to dsbelieve in the existence of that
 which is outside the horizon of his experience and different in character from it. So many such things have dis l appeared under scientific scrutiny that
 one comes to expect that this will al-
 ways happen. Especially does the sci entific temper recoii from the mysteri-
 ous Yet this attitude is really unscien-
 tific. Prof. James reminds us that in
 all phases of personal life, physical in-
 tellectual, moral, there are deeper
 strata than the ordinary man ever
 touches or even dreams of He re-
 minds us too that prayer, commerce
 with God, gives to life a power and
 energy that it otherwise lacks These
 are ample reasons for the man who
 aspires to the greatest things in life,
 however thoroughly he is imbued with the scientific temper, to believe in the
 possibility of more real fellowship
 with God than he ever yet experienced
 It is as unscientific as it is irreligious
 to refuse to believe in larger possibii-
 ties of the soul because one has not yet
 to experience them. To believe in the possibility of life of real fellowship with God is the first condition of at taining it.
 But what practical steps can ont U take actually to attain the experience and so secure both larger spiritua F power, and experimental confirmation y of ones faith that such experience ans T power are possible?
 n One cannot secure them by isolation u from the common life of common ' men. Hours of solitude. occasicna g days of quiet. are needful to the de e velopment of the souls deepest life d But monasrc withdrawal from life ha = had it's trial and proved its inefficien n cy. Nor can our end be achieved b, e isolation from the intellectual life O t our day No doubt pious plowman