Personal Experiences Of Fanaticism
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
OF FANATICISM
begin to understand what this means, and I believe I am beginning to live it.
'From this time onward God is to be all in all to me.
I will acknowledge Him first in everything. . .
. Definitely and forever I consent now to die as to any recognised self-life.
It shall be henceforth no more I, but Christ.'
Under date of December of the same year I find the following entry :
'A grievous disappointment has come to me concerning the dear "' mystics'? who spent the summer near us.
I have discovered that they are involved in frightful fanaticism and I am all perplexed and distressed as to the teaching concerning the interior life which I had received from them.
I know the truth about it must exist, but if they have tried so faithfully to find it, and have been deluded, what hope have I of having any better success.
Perhaps it is better not to try to live this interior life at all, but just to be an ordinary good human being, seeking to serve God in one's daily life, and being content to know but little of the inward voice, or of the conscious presence of the Holy Spirit.
I confess I am sorely perplexed.'
This was almost the last entry in the Diary which I had kept at intervals for over forty years from the time
I was seventeen, and which had been mostly a record of my spiritual life.
It is not to be wondered at that I was, as I wrote, 'sorely perplexed'.
But in spite of it all I had gained from this summer's experience a knowledge of God that enabled me to trust Him even through this sore perplexity, and that carried me
CONCLUSION
triumphantly over it, and brought me into a peaceful resting in Him that has never been seriously disturbed since.
'The fact that I wrote no more in my Diary bears witness to this, for my Diary had always been more the refuge of my soul in all spiritual emergencies than anything else, and now that these emergencies were ended there seemed no occasion to make any farther entries.
From that time I can truly say that my soul has rested absolutely in God, in God Himself, not in His promises, but in His character, not in what
He has done or is doing, but in what He is.
That God exists has been from that time enough for me, and I ask nothing more ; for, in the fact of His existence is shut up the fact that all is well for me and for the universe.
It may seem strange that such an acquaintance with God could have come to me out of such a hotbed of fanaticism, but there is the fact, and there is no getting around it. Whatever else these dear deluded fanatics may have been or have done they did live in the presence of God in a most unusual sense, and did compel everyone who came to them for teaching to see
God everywhere and in everything. And so effectually had they succeeded in establishing my soul in this habit that when the crash came and their fanaticism was revealed to me, instead of it driving me off from God it only made me cling all the closer to Him, and realize that though all human teachers might fail God was the same yesterday, to-day and for ever.
He was enough for me and for the universe.
This was, as far as I can recollect, the last fanaticism
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
OF FANATICISM
in which I made any explorations.
I seemed somehow to have got behind the scenes and found out the way it was worked and I became convinced that all these strange manifestations and revelations were of the flesh, and belonged entirely to the physical parts of our nature, and that pure religion and undefiled was altogether apart from them, and resided not in the region of the emotions, but in the region of the will.
' Pure religion ', says Fénelon, 'resides in the will alone'.
And again, 'the will to love God is the whole of religion'.
I endorse these sayings with all my heart and am thankful beyond words that out of all my feverish search for emotional religion I was brought at last to see that a quiet steadfast holding of the human will to the will of God and a peaceful resting in His love and care is of infinitely greater value in the religious life than the most intense emotions or the most wonderful 'experiences' that have ever been known by the greatest ' mystic' of them all.
INDEX ADONAI Shomo, 142, Berlin Heights, 84 Bethel Community, 40, 84 Bimeler, Joseph, 37, 38 Bishop Hill Commune, 40 Blavatsky, Madame, 98 Blue Spring, 69 Boehme, Jacob, 31 Boston, 22, 62 Brethren and Sisters of the
Agapae, ceremonial, 31 Agapemone, in Somerset,
Alcott, A. Bronson, 64 Altruist Community, 83 Amana. Society, 39 Amis, 32 Anavaptism, 52 Arch-Natural, the,120, 141, Free Spirit, 57 Brethren of the Free Spirit, PLA eS LaLGs 17 n229 Armstrong, Peter, 86, 87 Asceticism, 59, 60 Aurora Community, 40
Brimfield, 55 Brisbane, Albert, 75, 76, 89 British Women's Temperance Union, 14 Broadlands, Conference at, B., Miss, 179, 180, 181 Ballou, Adin, 69 Baptism, adult, 31 Beckman, Mrs., 146 Beissel, Conrad, 33 Benton Harbour, Michigan, 149
Brocton, New York, 121,
ee Brook Farm, 63, 65, 77 Brotherhood of the New Life, 61, 100, 121 ff., 141
INDEX Brown, Maria, 55 Bruderhof Community, 41 Buddhistic influence, 59 Bundlers, 56, 57, 61 Bundling Perfectionists, the, 56 Bush, Professor, 89 Dunkers (Tunkers), 34, 35 Dutch sects, 32 ECONOMY, Ohio, 35 Eddy, Mary Baker, 99 Edwards, Jonathan, 24, 25, 48 Emerson, R. W., 62 Ephrata, 33, 34 CABET, Etienne, 85 California, Poles in, 85 Cedar Vale Community, 85 Celesta, 87 Cellular Cosmogony, 147 Channing, W. E., 62 Christian Science, 99, 263 Church Triumphant, the, FINNEY, Charles, 53 ff.
Forrestville, 69 Fourier, Charles, 65, 765, 76.0.,
Fox, Kate and Maggie, 91 Franklin, 69 Franklin, Benjamin, 34 'Free Enquirer,' the, 97 French sects, to Amezvica,
Clarkson Phalanx, 77, 78 Collins, John A., 75 Community of the Woman
Friends of God, 31 Fruitlands, 64 Fuller, Margaret, 62 in the Wilderness, 23 Cook, —, 142, 143 Coxackie Community, 69 Cragin, George, 102 Criticism, 111 ff.
GARDEN of Eden, 119,
Garrison, William Lloyd, DAVIS, Andrew Jackson, 88, 89, 90, 98 Dixon, W. Hepworth, 5 <,
German sects, in America, 56, 102 Dowie, —, 152 Dukhobors, 41 30, 33 ff.
Greeley, Horace, 7 5 77 Gruber, Eberhard, 39
INDEX Kiel, Dr., 40 Koreshanty, 146 ff.
Grubermann, Barbara, 37 HAINAULT, Marguerite de, 58 Harmless People, the, 32 Harmony, Indiana, 35, 66 Harris, Thomas Lake, 100
D> 182) 180;191, 1192,
L., Mrs., 207 Labadist Community of Protestant Mystics, 23 Lee, Ann, 42,43, 45, 92 ff.
Lehman, Peter, 33 Leon, Count Maximilian de, 36, 37 Lincoln, Mary, 55 Lord's Farm, the, 145 Het U1. Geat a One gait.
229, 237 Haverstraw Community,
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 62 Heinemann, Barbara, 39 Uitehkcock, Ira S$), 19 Hookers, the, 32 Hopedale, 69, 79 ff.
House of David, the, 148, MacWHIRTER, Martha,
Marriage, Complex, 106 ff.
Massachusetts, Anti-slav-
Howard, Flavilla, 55 Howland, Frederick, 142 Huss, John, 31 Hutchinson, Anne, 23 ery Society of, 74 Massachusetts, Revivalism in, $4, 55 Meacham, Joseph, 44 Mede, Joseph, 52 Mennonites, 32, 41 Metz, Christian, 39, 40 Millennial Church, the, see IRVING, Edward, 52 JANSON, Eric, 40 Jerusalem fanaticism,205 ff.
Shakers Miller, William, 51 Mnason, P. B., 145 Modern Times CommunKANSAS Community, 85 Kendal Community, 69 Kentucky, Revivalism in,
ity, 84
INDEX ' Moral Physiology,' by R.
PAULINE Church, 102 Peace Union Settlement,86 Pennsylvania, community D. Owen, 98 Moravians, 34, 35 Mormonism, 57, 61 Mount Temple, Lord, 13 Muckers, the, 57 Miller, Bernhard, 36, 37 in, 23, 35 Perfectionists. of Oneida, 100 ff.
Persecution, religious, 23 Phalanxes, 77 ff.
Pilgrim Fathers, 22 Polish Community, 'in NAPIER, John, 52 Nashoba, Tennessee, 69,
Nauvoo, 84, 85 Nettleton's Revival, 51 New Divinity Party, 25 New Harmony, 67 ff.
New York, Puritans in, 22 Newton, Isaac, 52 Nothingarians, 73, 78 Noyes, John Humphrey, America, 85 Prince, Henry, 57 Puritans, 22 Purnell, David and Mary, 149, 150 Purple Mother, 98 Putney Community, Vermont, 102, 103 $0,800 for 1 8e7 2 4
OUAKERS, 222 97,200
OLIPHANT, Alice,219 ff.
Oliphant, Laurence, 16, 17, Ro br. oy Rappites, 35, 66 Ripley, George, 63 Rock, Johann, 39 Ruskin Commonwealths, 1224.5 169210 Fi 3h4 Oneida Community, 56, 104 ff.
Owen, Robert, 35, 66, 68, 7°, 87 Owen, Robert Dale, 70, oF Owen, Rosamund, 98, 139,
Russell, Pastor T. C., 52 Russian sects, in America, Die BE
INDEX Ds Wiss, 173° ft, St. Simon, 76, 147 Sanctified Band, the, 143, Spener, —, 39 Spiritualism, 90, 91, 92, 93,
Stanley, Abraham, 42, 43 Swedenborgianism, 87 ff.,
Sympneumata, 17, 221
Sandford, J, story of, 151 Schweinfurth, G. J., 146 Schwenfeldians, 35 scott, J. L., 119 Second Adventism, 51, 52, TEED, Cyrus— R:;
Temperance Movement, 14 Theosophy, 98, 99 146, eh MeN Second Christian Church,
Separatists, 37, 39 Shakers, 42, 44, 45, 46, 50, > Lime: stores 3:3;. 34
Tobolampo Community, 86 Transcendental Movement, ies O5-O1s: O.2cft.
Smilnikar, Andreas nardus, 86 Smith, Hannah Whitall, birth, 11 ; her marriage, 62 ff.
Tunkers, 34, 35 BerOMB AIREY LIST Eigen T10L2e se Lhe <Christianss Secret of a Happy Life,' cinia, $4 United Society of Believ13; 'The Unselfishness of God,' 15 ; _ personal experiences, 155 ff.
Smith, Joseph, 61 Smith, Robert Pearsall, 12, ers, see Shakers 'Unselfishness of God, Tes aes VICTORIA Gratia, 148
Snowhill, 33 W., Miss, 182 ff., 230, 231 W., Miss Caroline, 187, 188, 193 Warren, Josiah, 83, 84 Whiston, William, 52 Social Freedom Community, 85 Society of the Arch-Triumphant, 147
INDEX Wilkinson, Jemima, 48, 49 Wright, Lucy, 44 Woman's Commonwealth, Wyclif, John, 31
Woman in the Wilderness X., Miss, 229 ff.
Community, 23, 33 Women's Suffrage MoveYELLOW Springs Comment, 14 munity, 69 Wright, Frances, 69, 70, 71; 97, 98
ZOAR, 37, 39
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