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lectures expressly avoid earlier religious usages and questions



of derivation; I will pass from the subject of Sacrifice



altogether and turn to that of Confession。







'306' Above; p。 354 ff。















In regard to Confession I will also be most brief; saying my word



about it psychologically; not historically。  Not nearly as



widespread as sacrifice; it corresponds to a more inward and



moral stage of sentiment。  It is part of the general system of



purgation and cleansing which one feels one's self in need of; in



order to be in right relations to one's deity。  For him who



confesses; shams are over and realities have begun; he has



exteriorized his rottenness。  If he has not actually got rid of



it; he at least no longer smears it over with a hypocritical show



of virtuehe lives at least upon a basis of veracity。  The



complete decay of the practice of confession in Anglo…Saxon



communities is a little hard to account for。  Reaction against



popery is of course the historic explanation; for in popery



confession went with penances and absolution; and other



inadmissible practices。  But on the  side of the sinner



himself it seems as if the need ought to have been too great to



accept so summary a refusal of its satisfaction。  One would think



that in more men the shell of secrecy would have had to open; the



pent…in abscess to burst and gain relief; even though the ear



that heard the confession were unworthy。  The Catholic church;



for obvious utilitarian reasons; has substituted auricular



confession to one priest for the more radical act of public



confession。  We English…speaking Protestants; in the general



self…reliance and unsociability of our nature; seem to find it



enough if we take God alone into our confidence。'307'







'307' A fuller discussion of confession is contained in the



excellent work by Frank Granger:  The Soul of a Christian;



London; 1900; ch。 xii。















The next topic on which I must comment is Prayerand this time



it must be less briefly。  We have heard much talk of late against



prayer; especially against prayers for better weather and for the



recovery of sick people。  As regards prayers for the sick; if any



medical fact can be considered to stand firm; it is that in



certain environments prayer may contribute to recovery; and



should be encouraged as a therapeutic measure。  Being a normal



factor of moral health in the person; its omission would be



deleterious。  The case of the weather is different。 



Notwithstanding the recency of the opposite belief;'308' every



one now knows that droughts and storms follow from physical



antecedents; and that moral appeals cannot avert them。  But



petitional prayer is only one department of prayer; and if we



take the word in the wider sense as meaning every kind of inward



communion or conversation with the power recognized as divine; we



can easily see that scientific criticism leaves it untouched。







'308' Example:  〃The minister at Sudbury; being at the Thursday



lecture in Boston; heard the officiating clergyman praying for



rain。  As soon as the service was over; he went to the petitioner



and said 'You Boston ministers; as soon as a tulip wilts under



your windows; go to church and pray for rain; until all Concord



and Sudbury are under water。'〃  R。 W。 Emerson:  Lectures and



Biographical Sketches; p。 363。















Prayer in this wide sense is the very soul and essence of



religion。  〃Religion;〃 says a liberal French theologian; 〃is an



intercourse; a conscious and voluntary relation; entered into by



a soul in distress with the mysterious power upon which it feels



itself to depend; and upon which its fate is contingent。  This



intercourse with God is realized by prayer。  Prayer is religion



in act; that is; prayer is real religion。  It is prayer that



distinguishes the religious phenomenon from such similar or



neighboring phenomena as purely moral or aesthetic sentiment。 



Religion is nothing if it be not the vital act by which the



entire mind seeks to save itself by clinging to the principle



from which it draws its life。  This act is prayer; by which term



I understand no vain exercise of words; no mere repetition of



certain sacred formula; but the very movement itself of the soul;



putting itself in a personal relation of contact with the



mysterious power of which it feels the presenceit may be even



before it has a name by which to call it。  Wherever this interior



prayer is lacking; there is no religion; wherever; on the other



hand; this prayer rises and stirs the soul; even in the absence



of forms or of doctrines; we have living religion。  One sees from



this why 〃natural religion; so…called; is not properly a



religion。  It cuts man off from prayer。  It leaves him and God in



mutual remoteness; with no intimate commerce; no interior



dialogue; no interchange; no action of God in man; no return of



man to God。  At bottom this pretended religion is only a



philosophy。  Born at epochs of rationalism; of critical



investigations; it never was anything but an abstraction。  An



artificial and dead creation; it reveals to its examiner hardly



one of the characters proper to religion。〃'309'







'309' Auguste Sabatier:  Esquisse d'une Philosophie de la



Religion。 2me ed。; 1897; pp。 24…26; abridged。















It seems to me that the entire series of our lectures proves the



truth of M。 Sabatier's contention。  The religious phenomenon;



studied as in Inner fact; and apart from ecclesiastical or



theological complications; has shown itself to consist



everywhere; and at all its stages; in the consciousness which



individuals have of an intercourse between themselves and higher



powers with which they feel themselves to be related。 This



intercourse is realized at the time as being both active and



mutual。  If it be not effective; if it be not a give and take



relation; if nothing be really transacted while it lasts; if the



world is in no whit different for its having taken place; then



prayer; taken in this wide meaning of a sense that SOMETHING IS



TRANSACTING; is of course a feeling of what is illusory; and



religion must on the whole be classed; not simply as containing



elements of delusionthese undoubtedly everywhere existbut as



being rooted in delusion altogether; just as materialists and



atheists have always said it was。  At most there might remain;



when the direct experiences of prayer were ruled out as false



witnesses; some inferential belief that the whole order of



existence must have a divine cause。  But this way of



contemplating nature; pleasing as it would doubtless be to



persons of a pious taste; would leave to them but the spectators'



part at a play; whereas in experimental religion and the



prayerful life; we seem ourselves to be actors; and not in a



play; but in a very serious reality。







The genuineness of religion is thus indissolubly bound up with



the question whether the prayerful consciousness be or be not



deceitful。  The conviction that something is genuinely transacted



in this consciousness is the very core of living religion。  As to



what is transacted; great differences of opinion have prevailed。 



The unseen powers have been supposed; and are yet supposed; to do



things which no enlightened man can nowadays believe in。  It may



well prove that the sphere of influence in prayer is subjective



exclusively; and that what is immediately changed is only the



mind of the praying person。  But however our opinion of prayer's



effects may come to be limited by criticism; religion; in the



vital sense in which these lectures study it; must stand or fall



by the persuasion that effects of some sort genuinely do occur。 



Through prayer; religion insists; things which cannot be realized



in any other manner come about:  energy which but for prayer



would be bound is by prayer set free and operates in some part;



be it objective or subjective; of the world of facts。







This postulate is strikingly expressed in a letter written by the



late Frederic W。 H。 Myers to a friend; who allows me to quote



from it。  It shows how independent the prayer…instinct is of



usual doctrinal complications。  Mr。 Myers writes:







〃I am glad that you have asked me about prayer; because I have



rather strong ideas on the subject。  First consider what are the



facts。  There exists around us a spiritual universe; and that



universe is in actual relation with the material。  From the



spiritual universe comes the energy which maintains the material;



the energy which makes the life of each individual spirit。  Our



spirits are supported by a perpetual indrawal of this energy; and



the vigor of that indrawal is perpetually changing; much as the



vigor of our absorption of material nutriment changes from hour



to hour。







〃I call these 'facts' because I think that some scheme of this



kind is the only one consistent with our actual evidence; too



complex to summarize here。  How; then; should we ACT on these



facts?  Plainly we must endeavor to draw in as much spiritual



life as possible; and we must place our minds in any attitude



which experience shows to be favorable to such indrawal。  PRAYER



is the general name for that attitude of open and earnest



expectancy。  If we then ask to whom to pray; the answer



(strangely enough) must be that THAT does not much ma

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