What is Mysticism? As has been pointed out by several, it is something which from its very nature is hardly susceptible of exact definition, does not readily lend itself to the most precise forms of language. It is a phase of thought or feeling which continually appears in connection with the endeavor of the human mind to grasp the Divine essence, and to enjoy the blessedness of actual communion with the Highest. It springs inevitably from intense desire for intimate fellowship with God, from the hottest possible pursuit of the highest ideals. It is a sort of name for the realization of God as transfused throughout the universe, as being immanent in material things and in mankind alike. The Century Dictionary defines Mysticism as “any mode of thought or phase of intellectual or religious life in which reliance is placed upon a spiritual illumination believed to transcend the ordinary powers of understanding.” The Standard Dictionary says that Mysticism is “the doctrine and belief that man may attain to an immediate direct consciousness or knowledge of God as the real and absolute principle of all truth. The term is applied to a system of thought and life of which the chief feature is an extreme development of meditative and intuitive methods as distinguished from the definitive and scholastic.” Similarly Dr. J. P. Lange, in the Schaff-Herzog Cyclopedia, says: “Mysticism has been defined as belief in an immediate and continuous communication between God and the soul which may be established by certain peculiar religious exercises.... There is a mystic element in all true religion.” Cousin says: “Mysticism is the belief that God may be known face to face without anything intermediate. It is a yielding to the sentiment awakened by the Infinite, and a summing up of all knowledge and all duty in the contemplation and love of Him.” Nitzsch, in his “System of Christian Doctrine,” declares “that the religious man, the man of faith, is, as such, a Mystic; for he in whose consciousness God does not appear, certainly does not feel God, nor can he know or honor Him; but he who only thinks Him, without loving Him and becoming pure in heart, can not know Him vitally; much less can he behold Him spiritually who desires to see Him with the outward sense. The inner life of religion is ever Mysticism.”