“Mysticism is religion, and supplies a refuge for men of religious minds who find it no longer possible for them to rest on ‘external authority’—as George Tyrrell both expounded and illustrated for us. Once turn away from revelation and little choice remains to you but the choice between Mysticism and Rationalism. There is not so much choice between these things, it is true, as enthusiasts on either side are apt to imagine. The difference between them is very much a matter of temperament, or perhaps we may even say of temperature. The Mystic blows hot, the Rationalist cold. Warm up a Rationalist and you inevitably get a Mystic; chill down a Mystic and you find yourself with a Rationalist on your hands. The history of thought illustrates repeatedly the easy passage from one to the other. Each centers himself in himself, and the human self is not so big that it makes any large difference where within yourself you take your center. Nevertheless just because Mysticism blows hot, its ‘eccentricity’ is the more attractive to men of lively religious feeling.” —_Benjamin B. Warfield, in the “Princeton Theological Review.”_ VIII AL-GHAZALI AS A MYSTIC One of the earliest mystics in Islam was Rabiaʾ, who was buried in Jerusalem. She was a native of Busrah and died at Jerusalem as early as the second century of Islam. Her tomb, according to Ibn Khallikan, was an object of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, and was probably visited by Al-Ghazali. The following verses are quoted from her in the _Ihya_ (vol. iv. p. 298): “Two ways I love Thee: selfishly, And next, as worthy is of Thee. ’Tis selfish love that I do naught Save think on Thee with every thought: ’Tis purest love when Thou dost raise The veil to my adoring gaze. Not mine the praise in that or this, Thine is the praise in both, I wis.” The Moslem mystics, or _Sufis_, however, received their name through Abu Khair, who lived at the end of the second century of the Hegira. His disciples wore a woolen garment, and from the word _suf_, which means wool, they obtained their name. In the next century, al-Junaid (A. H. 297), one of Al-Ghazali’s favourite authorities, was the great leader of the movement, which spread throughout Islam. It was a reaction from the barren monotheism and the rigid ritualism of Islam. This kind of orthodoxy did not meet the needs of the more imaginative mind of the Eastern races who accepted Islam. The preachers of the new doctrine travelled everywhere and mixed with men of all conditions. In this way they adopted ideas from many sources, although always professing to base their teaching on the Koran and Tradition.