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
“When,” says Mrs. Edwards, continuing the narrative from which I
made quotation a moment ago, “I arose on the morning of the
Sabbath, I felt a love to all mankind, wholly peculiar in its
strength and sweetness, far beyond all that I had ever felt
before. The power of that love seemed inexpressible. I thought, if
I were surrounded by enemies, who were venting their malice and
cruelty upon me, in tormenting me, it would still be impossible
that I should cherish any feelings towards them but those of love,
and pity, and ardent desires for their happiness. I never before
felt so far from a disposition to judge and censure others, as I
did that morning. I realized also, in an unusual and very lively
manner, how great a part of Christianity lies in the performance
of our social and relative duties to one another. The same joyful
sense continued throughout the day—a sweet love to God and all
mankind.”
Whatever be the explanation of the charity, it may efface all usual human
barriers.(165)
Here, for instance, is an example of Christian non‐resistance from Richard
Weaver’s autobiography. Weaver was a collier, a semi‐professional pugilist
in his younger days, who became a much beloved evangelist. Fighting, after
drinking, seems to have been the sin to which he originally felt his flesh
most perversely inclined. After his first conversion he had a backsliding,
which consisted in pounding a man who had insulted a girl. Feeling that,
having once fallen, he might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb,
he got drunk and went and broke the jaw of another man who had lately
challenged him to fight and taunted him with cowardice for refusing as a
Christian man;—I mention these incidents to show how genuine a change of
heart is implied in the later conduct which he describes as follows:—
“I went down the drift and found the boy crying because a fellow‐
workman was trying to take the wagon from him by force. I said to
him:—
“ ‘Tom, you mustn’t take that wagon.’
“He swore at me, and called me a Methodist devil. I told him that
God did not tell me to let him rob me. He cursed again, and said
he would push the wagon over me.
“ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘let us see whether the devil and thee are
stronger than the Lord and me.’
“And the Lord and I proving stronger than the devil and he, he had
to get out of the way, or the wagon would have gone over him. So I
gave the wagon to the boy. Then said Tom:—
“ ‘I’ve a good mind to smack thee on the face.’
“ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘if that will do thee any good, thou canst do
it.’ So he struck me on the face.
“I turned the other cheek to him, and said, ‘Strike again.’
“He struck again and again, till he had struck me five times. I
turned my cheek for the sixth stroke; but he turned away cursing.
I shouted after him: ‘The Lord forgive thee, for I do, and the
Lord save thee.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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