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Page 23
What is the difference between the awakening of the soul and its
re-awakening? Are they two experiences? or different phases of the same
experience? The awakening is nearly simultaneous with the dawn of
consciousness. It is the adjustment of the soul to its environment--the
realization of its self-consciousness as free, as in a moral order, and
as possessing mysterious affinities with truth and right. This
realization is followed by a period of growth, during which many
hindrances are overcome, and in which the ministries of environment,
both kindly and austere, help to free it from its limitations and to
promote its advance along the spiritual pathway. But while the soul
dimly hears voices from above it has not yet, altogether, escaped from
the influence of animalism. It dwells in a body whose desires clamor to
be gratified. It is like a bird trying to rise into the air when it has
not yet acquired the use of its wings. Malign influences are still about
it, and earthly attractions are ever drawing it downward. It falls many
times. I do not mean that it is compelled to fall, but that, as a matter
of fact, its lapses are frequent and discouraging. In the midst of this
painful movement upward, there sometime comes to the soul a realization
of a presence of which it has scarcely dreamed before. It begins to
understand that it is never alone, that its struggle is never hopeless
because God and the universe, equally with itself, are concerned for its
progress. It is humiliated by its failures, but it has learned that,
however many times it may fail and however bitter its disappointment, in
the end it must be victorious because neither principalities nor powers,
neither things on the earth nor beyond the earth, can forever resist
God. Thus hope is born, and he who one moment cries, Who shall deliver
from this body of death? the next moment with exultation exclaims, I
thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
The light which shines into the soul from Jesus Christ is the revelation
of the co�peration of the Deity, and of the forces of the universe, with
every man who is moving upward. The realization that, however deep the
darkness, humiliating the moral failure, constant and imperious the
solicitations of animalism, "the nature of things" and the everlasting
love are on the side of the soul is its re-awakening.
It now not only knows that it is free, in a moral order, and that voices
from a far-off goal are calling it, but also that those who are with it
are more than those who can be against it. Thus hope, confidence, power
to resist, and faith even in the midst of failure dawn, and will never
be permanently eclipsed. The re-awakening of the soul is now complete.
This experience is traditionally called conversion. It is usually
associated with an appropriation of the teaching of Jesus Christ, and
inevitably follows an appreciation of His words and His work. But all
the revelations of the Christ have not been through the historic Jesus.
In every land, and in every age, souls have come to this new
consciousness. It was said of Isaiah that he saw the Lord; and of
Melchizedek that he was the priest of the most high God. The former was
a Hebrew, but the latter was not in what was to be the chosen line of
succession. The assurance that they are never alone has found many in
what has seemed impenetrable darkness, and they have risen and moved
upward. Instances of this kind are not limited to Christian lands,
although they are most common where the Christian revelation is known.
I cannot doubt that those who have not had this vision on the earth will
have it some time and somewhere. The Divine power and purpose to save,
and to save to the utter-most, are revealed with perfect clearness in
the teachings of Jesus Christ. Nothing could be more explicit than His
message that God loves all men, and that it is His will that all should
repent and come to the knowledge of the truth.
This stage of advance may be called the crisis in the ascent of the
soul. Before this it has moved slowly and with faltering steps.
Henceforth it will move more confidently and swiftly. But that does not
mean that it will find that hindrances are all removed, or that no
unseen hand will draw it downward. Some of the bitterest hours are to
follow--days and, possibly, longer periods of spiritual obscuration;
darkness like that of Jesus in which He cried, "My God, my God, why hast
Thou forsaken me." Who can explain the appalling humiliation of a man
when, as if a star had fallen from heaven, he sinks into awful and
inexplicable selfishness or sensuality? It is not necessary that we
explain, but we should remember that the goodness of God has so ordered
things that even disgrace may lead to stronger faith, clearer vision,
and tenderer sympathy.
Austere ministries are still needed; only fire will consume the dross.
The re-awakening of a soul is not its perfecting; but it is its
realization that the process of perfecting must go on, and will go on,
if need be along a pathway of shame and agony, until all that attracts
to the earth and sensuality has disappeared, and the spirit, like a bird
released, rises toward the heavens.
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