lectures11-13-第3章
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The difference between willing and merely wishing; between having
ideals that are creative and ideals that are but pinings and
regrets; thus depends solely either on the amount of
steam…pressure chronically driving the character in the ideal
direction; or on the amount of ideal excitement transiently
acquired。 Given a certain amount of love; indignation;
generosity; magnanimity; admiration; loyalty; or enthusiasm of
self…surrender; the result is always the same。 That whole raft
of cowardly obstructions; which in tame persons and dull moods
are sovereign impediments to action; sinks away at once。 Our
conventionality;'147' our shyness; laziness; and stinginess; our
demands for precedent and permission; for guarantee and surety;
our small suspicions; timidities; despairs; where are they now?
Severed like cobwebs; broken like bubbles in the sun
〃Wo sind die Sorge nun und Noth
Die mich noch gestern wollt' erschlaffen?
Ich scham' mich dess' im Morgenroth。〃
The flood we are borne on rolls them so lightly under that their
very contact is unfelt。 Set free of them; we float and soar and
sing。 This auroral openness and uplift gives to all creative
ideal levels a bright and caroling quality; which is nowhere more
marked than where the controlling emotion is religious。 〃The
true monk;〃 writes an Italian mystic; 〃takes nothing with him but
his lyre。〃
'147' See the case on p。 69; above; where the writer describes
his experiences of communion with the Divine as consisting
〃merely in the TEMPORARY OBLITERATION OF THE CONVENTIONALITIES
which usually cover my life。〃
We may now turn from these psychological generalities to those
fruits of the religious state which form the special subject of
our present lecture。 The man who lives in his religious centre
of personal energy; and is actuated by spiritual enthusiasms;
differs from his previous carnal self in perfectly definite ways。
The new ardor which burns in his breast consumes in its glow the
lower 〃noes〃 which formerly beset him; and keeps him immune
against infection from the entire groveling portion of his
nature。 Magnanimities once impossible are now easy; paltry
conventionalities and mean incentives once tyrannical hold no
sway。 The stone wall inside of him has fallen; the hardness in
his heart has broken down。 The rest of us can; I think; imagine
this by recalling our state of feeling in those temporary
〃melting moods〃 into which either the trials of real life; or the
theatre; or a novel sometimes throws us。 Especially if we weep!
For it is then as if our tears broke through an inveterate inner
dam; and let all sorts of ancient peccancies and moral
stagnancies drain away; leaving us now washed and soft of heart
and open to every nobler leading。 With most of us the customary
hardness quickly returns; but not so with saintly persons。 Many
saints; even as energetic ones as Teresa and Loyola; have
possessed what the church traditionally reveres as a special
grace; the so…called gift of tears。 In these persons the melting
mood seems to have held almost uninterrupted control。 And as it
is with tears and melting moods; so it is with other exalted
affections。 Their reign may come by gradual growth or by a
crisis; but in either case it may have 〃come to stay。〃
At the end of the last lecture we saw this permanence to be true
of the general paramountcy of the higher insight; even though in
the ebbs of emotional excitement meaner motives might temporarily
prevail and backsliding might occur。 But that lower temptations
may remain completely annulled; apart from transient emotion and
as if by alteration of the man's habitual nature; is also proved
by documentary evidence in certain cases。 Before embarking on
the general natural history of the regenerate character; let me
convince you of this curious fact by one or two examples。 The
most numerous are those of reformed drunkards。 You recollect the
case of Mr。 Hadley in the last lecture; the Jerry McAuley Water
Street Mission abounds in similar instances。'148' You also
remember the graduate of Oxford; converted at three in the
afternoon; and getting drunk in the hay…field the next day;
but after that permanently cured of his appetite。 〃From that
hour drink has had no terrors for me: I never touch it; never
want it。 The same thing occurred with my pipe。 。 。 。 the desire
for it went at once and has never returned。 So with every known
sin; the deliverance in each case being permanent and complete。
I have had no temptations since conversion。〃
'148' Above; p。 200。 〃The only radical remedy I know for
dipsomania is religiomania;〃 is a saying I have heard quoted from
some medical man。
Here is an analogous case from Starbuck's manuscript
collection:
〃I went into the old Adelphi Theatre; where there was a Holiness
meeting; 。 。 。 and I began saying; 'Lord; Lord; I must have this
blessing。' Then what was to me an audible voice said: 'Are you
willing to give up everything to the Lord?' and question after
question kept coming up; to all of which I said: 'Yes; Lord;
yes; Lord!' until this came: 'Why do you not accept it NOW?' and
I said: 'I do; Lord。'I felt no particular joy; only a trust。
Just then the meeting closed; and; as I went out on the street; I
met a gentleman smoking a fine cigar; and a cloud of smoke came
into my face; and I took a long; deep breath of it; and praise
the Lord; all my appetite for it was gone。 Then as I walked
along the street; passing saloons where the fumes of liquor came
out; I found that all my taste and longing for that accursed
stuff was gone。 Glory to God! 。 。 。 'But' for ten or eleven long
years 'after that' I was in the wilderness with its ups and
downs。 My appetite for liquor never came back。〃
The classic case of Colonel Gardiner is that of a man cured of
sexual temptation in a single hour。 To Mr。 Spears the colonel
said; 〃I was effectually cured of all inclination to that sin I
was so strongly addicted to that I thought nothing but shooting
me through the head could have cured me of it; and all desire and
inclination to it was removed; as entirely as if I had been a
sucking child; nor did the temptation return to this day。〃 Mr。
Webster's words on the same subject are these: 〃One thing I have
heard the colonel frequently say; that he was much addicted to
impurity before his acquaintance with religion; but that; so soon
as he was enlightened from above; he felt the power of the Holy
Ghost changing his nature so wonderfully that his sanctification
in this respect seemed more remarkable than in any other。〃'149'
'149' Doddridge's Life of Colonel James Gardiner; London
Religious Tract Society; pp。 23…32。
Such rapid abolition of ancient impulses and propensities reminds
us so strongly of what has been observed as the result of
hypnotic suggestion that it is difficult not to believe that
subliminal influences play the decisive part in these abrupt
changes of heart; just as they do in hypnotism。'150' Suggestive
therapeutics abound in records of cure; after a few sittings; of
inveterate bad habits with which the patient; left to ordinary
moral and physical influences; had struggled in vain。 Both
drunkenness and sexual vice have been cured in this way; action
through the subliminal seeming thus in man