Why did nothing happen? Because there was nothing to happen--nothing
of the kind they were looking for. Why did it elude them? Because
there was no "it." When shall we learn that the pursuit of holiness is
simply
THE PURSUIT OF CHRIST?
When shall we substitute for the "it" of a fictitious aspiration, the
approach to a Living Friend? Sanctity is in character and not in
moods; Divinity in our own plain calm humanity, and in no mystic
rapture of the soul.
And yet there are others who, for exactly a contrary reason, will find
scant satisfaction here. Their complaint is not that a religion
expressed in terms of Friendship is too homely, but that it is still
too mystical. To "abide" in Christ, to "make Christ our most constant
companion," is to them the purest mysticism. They want something
absolutely tangible and absolutely direct. These are not the poetical
souls who seek a sign, a mysticism in excess, but the prosaic natures
whose want is mathematical definition in details. Yet it is perhaps
not possible to reduce this problem to much more rigid elements.
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