The Ascent of the SoulBradford, Amory H. (Amory Howe)
Religion
The Ascent of the Soul
Bradford, Amory H. (Amory Howe)
Ascension of the soul; Soul
Another experience is perfectly attested. A man in a distinguished
position did wrong, and was in peril of still greater wrong when
something, he could not have explained what, not only warned him but
kept warning him and following him so that he could not escape. If he
closed his eyes his danger became more vivid; if he stopped his ears
voices of reproach found their way in. He loved his wrong and would move
toward it, but then invisible hands seemed to hold him back until the
time of danger was past, and he was confirmed in right ways. Such
experiences are too numerous and varied to be doubted. No facts are
better attested. It may be said that they are only the usual warnings of
conscience. Be it so. Then what is conscience? The factors in the
problem are not materially changed, for the phenomena of conscience are
as remarkable, constant, and verifiable as light and heat. Most men who
have recorded their experiences, and who have observed with care the
workings of their own faculties, have been conscious of being attended
by some invisible presence warning them against evil. The explanation of
this phenomenon may be left for later consideration.
Closely allied to warnings against moral danger, which are so vivid as
sometimes to be almost audible, are the evidences of what may be called
spiritual protection. The idea of guardian angels and tutelary deities
arose naturally and inevitably. Many who have been astonishingly
delivered from spiritual peril have been able to find no other
explanation of their escape. Those who receive the confidences of their
fellow-men have little difficulty in believing such a story as was once
confided to me. An able and prominent man who had, resolutely as he
thought, turned from a course of conduct which threatened disaster,
found himself drawn toward the evil from which he supposed that he had
been forever delivered. The attraction seemed to be resistless. Again
and again he was on the verge of falling when the fall would have been
ruin. Then something made it morally impossible for him to enter upon
the path which he had determined to follow. The means used to dissuade
him were various. Sometimes a friend would call, then a duty would
intervene, then some obligation would press until, to use his own way of
phrasing it,--"it seemed as if some unseen person who could read my
thoughts and desires was walking by my side and, as fast as I was in
danger of yielding to evil, ordering events so as to prevent me from
doing what I wanted to do."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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