soul, but God in man. As electricity and magnetism ai'e (or used to be) regarded as forces diffused through the material world, so the Adyo?, the divine impersonal reason, is diffused through the world of mind, and reveals itself more or less potentially in the souls of all men. This theory, in one aspect, is a form of Ration- alism, as it refers all our higher, and especially our religious knowl- edge, to a subjective source, which it designates Reason. It has, however, more points of analogy with Mysticism, because, (1.) It assumes that the informing principle, the source of knowledge and guide in duty, is divine, something which does not belong to our nature, but appears as a guest in our consciousness. (2.) The office of this inward principle, or light, is the same in both sys- tems. It is to reveal truth and duty, to elevate and purify the soul. (3.) Its authority is the same ; that is, it is paramount if not exclusive. (4.) Its very designations are the same. It is called by philosophers, God, the Adyos, the Word ; by Christians, Christ within us, or, the Spirit. Thus systems apparently the most diverse (Cousin and George Fox !) run into each other, and reveal themselves as reproductions of heathen philosophy, or of the heresies of the early Church.
Although the Alexandrian theologians had these points of agree- ment with the Mystics, yet as they were speculative in their whole tendency, and strove to transmute Christianity into a philosophy, they are not propei'ly to be regarded as Mystics in the generally received theological meaning of the term.
B. The Sense in ivhich Evangelical Christians are called Mystics.
As all Evangelical Christians admit a supernatural influence of the Spirit of God upon the soul, and recognize a higher form of knowledge, holiness, and fellowship with God, as the effects of that influence, they are stigmatized as Mystics, by those who discard everything supernatural from Christianity. The definitions of Mysticism given by Rationalists are designedly so framed as to in- clude what all evangelical Christians hold to be true concerning the illumination, teaching, and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Thus Wegscheider ^ says, " Mysticismus est persuasio de singulari animaa facultate ad immediatum ipsoque sensu percipiendum cum numme aut naturis coelestibus commercium jam in hac vita perveniendi, quo mens immediate cognitione rerum divinarura ac beatitate per- finiatur." And Bretschneider ^ defines Mysticism as a " Belief in
1 Intt. § 5. '^ Systemntische Enlwkkelung, fourth edit. p. 19.
64 INTRODUCTION. [Ch. IV. — Mysticism.
a continuous operation of God on the soul, secured by special re- ligious exercise, producing illumination, holiness, and beatitude." Evangelical theologians so far acquiesce in this view, that they say, as Lange,^ and Nitsch,^ " that eveiy true believer is a Mystic." The latter writer adds, " That the Christian ideas of illumination, reve- lation, incarnation, regeneration, the sacraments and the resurrec- tion, are essentially Mystical elements. As often as the religious and church-life recovers itself from formalism and scholastic bar- renness, and is truly revi^^ed, it always appears as Mystical, and gives rise to the outcry that Mysticism is gaining the ascendency." Some writers, indeed, make a distinction between Mystik and Mys- ticismus. " Die innerliche Lebendigkeit der Religion ist allezeit Mystik" (The inward vitality of religion is ever Mystik), says Nitsch, but " Mysticismus ist eine einseitige Herrschaft und eine Ausartung der mystischen Richtung." That is, Mysticism is an undue and perverted development of the mystical element which belongs to true religion. This distinction, between Mystik and Mysticismus, is not generally recognized, and cannot be well ex- pressed in English. Lange, instead of using different words, speaks of a true and false Mysticism. But different things should be desig- nated by different words. There has been a religious theory, which has more or less extensively prevailed in the Church, which is distin- guished from the Scriptural doctrine by unmistakable characteris- tics, and which is known in church history as Mysticism, and the word should be restricted to that theory. It is the theory, variously modified, that the knowledge, purity, and blessedness to be derived from communion with God, are not to be attained from the Scrip- tures and the use of the ordinaiy means of grace, but by a super- natural and immediate divine influence, which influence (or com- munication of God to the soul) is to be secured by passivity, a simple yielding the soul without thought or effort to the divine influx.
C. The System which makes the Feelings the Source of Knowledge. A still wider use of the word Mysticism has to some extent been adopted. Any system, whether in philosophy or reHgion, which as- signs more importance to the feelings than to the intellect, is called Mystical. Cousin, and after him, Morell, arrange the systems of philosophy under the heads of Sensationalism, Ideahsm, Skepticism,
1 In Herzog's EncyMopadie, art. "Mystik."
2 Syste7n der Christlichen Lehre, fifth edit. p. 35.