The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human NatureJames, William
ReligionComparative
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
James, William
Conversion; Experience (Religion); Philosophy and religion; Psychology, Religious; Religion
“It is the experience of myriads of trustful souls, that this
sense of God’s unfailing presence with them in their going out and
in their coming in, and by night and day, is a source of absolute
repose and confident calmness. It drives away all fear of what may
befall them. That nearness of God is a constant security against
terror and anxiety. It is not that they are at all assured of
physical safety, or deem themselves protected by a love which is
denied to others, but that they are in a state of mind equally
ready to be safe or to meet with injury. If injury befall them,
they will be content to bear it because the Lord is their keeper,
and nothing can befall them without his will. If it be his will,
then injury is for them a blessing and no calamity at all. Thus
and thus only is the trustful man protected and shielded from
harm. And I for one—by no means a thick‐skinned or hard‐nerved
man—am absolutely satisfied with this arrangement, and do not wish
for any other kind of immunity from danger and catastrophe. Quite
as sensitive to pain as the most highly strung organism, I yet
feel that the worst of it is conquered, and the sting taken out of
it altogether, by the thought that God is our loving and sleepless
keeper, and that nothing can hurt us without his will.”(157)
More excited expressions of this condition are abundant in religious
literature. I could easily weary you with their monotony. Here is an
account from Mrs. Jonathan Edwards:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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