and represented for themselves the Religious Principle; that is to say, invested the Divine Idea of the World with a sensible, and practically active Body, so that it might dwell among them as a living and life-giving Word. These are unspeakably the most important of all the vestures and garnitures of Human Existence.

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They are first spun and woven, I may say by that Wonder of Wonders, Society; for it is still only when two or three are gathered together' that Religion, spiritually existent, and indeed indestructible, however latent, in each, first outwardly manifests itself and seeks to be embodied in a visible Communion and Church Militant." The Church visible is certainly of vital importance and has its place beside the Church invisible. The two are mutually related and interdependent. "As in the human constitution, body and soul are intended to exert a mutual influence, each working healthfully and helpfully upon the other, the body giving utterance and expression to the soul and carrying out its purposes and desires, and the soul animating the body and informing it with grace and beauty,- so also is the intent in all religion. All form is to the end of spiritual life and vigor, and spiritual life is in order to outward influence and fruitfulBut when the form hardens and crushes out the vigor and life of the soul it becomes pathological.

ness.

1

ASCETICISM AND MONASTICISM.

The majority of men are normally two-world creatures, and the relationship they maintain between the two, that is, the extent to which the other world shapes their lives and conduct in this, the relative value they attach to each, marks the degree of their healthy-mindedness. It would not be difficult to range the different types of men along this twoworld scale, at one end of which we should have to place the extreme other-worldists, at the other end the sensuous epicureans and charlatans, all of whose thoughts, ambitions, and ideals centre about their bodily selves, and between them, the normal two-worlded men in whose lives both spiritual and material interests are properly blended and controlled. We are here interested, however, only with those individuals who are other-worldly überhaupt, and these we may divide into four groups.

1 Herrick: Some Heretics of Yesterday.

1. Those who look at the world through smoked spectacles, as it were, and consequently see everything gray and gloomy. Men about them stubbornly persist in being wicked, and the Evil One is still their supreme master. Conditions, on the whole, are deplorable and discouraging, but these pessimists are not passive and resigned. On the contrary, they are extremely active, and of great courage. They constantly wage war with almost fanatic zeal against the devil, and his host of agents, and endeavor to reclaim the world, as far as it is possible, for their God. They are ascetics, perhaps constitutionally, perhaps because of their views of life, and also because their world-rescuing task requires an ascetic life, but they are always citizens of the world, wicked as it is. They are certain that the rule of the Demiurge is only a temporary one, that when the proper time and conditions come, he will be deposed, and God Himself will rule over His people. It is this theocratic state, this kingdom of heaven on earth that they endeavor to realize. In this category we may place the Jewish prophets, the Apostles, the Puritans, many missionaries and revivalists, the old Methodists, and possibly not a few modern ones. However, it should be said that in grouping these classes of men under one category it is by no means intended to imply that they are all equally pessimistic or ascetic, or that they are that and nothing more, but merely that, from the present point of view, they belong more or less to the general type we have attempted to describe. And this statement applies to all cases which shall be used as illustrations.

But

There are those who ignore this world entirely; they simply refuse to look at it or be a part of it. It has no value for them. Relatives, friends, honor, riches, in short all things that normal men hold dear are as nothing to them. They make of this life a mere preparation for death which is to usher them into a new and infinitely better world. with respect to this latter world they are extremely optimistic, and inasmuch as they live in it constantly in their thoughts; their lives, though other-worldly and abnormal from our point of view, are subjectively serene and happy. It is not surprising, therefore, to read so frequently of monks who spent happy lives in their cells, or rather in the paradises which their fancy created, and "filled the entire world with their songs of joy," to quote St. Anselm; for they who believed themselves citizens of the world to come could well

afford to ignore all earthly goods and joys. "I desire nothing more, "declared Marie Alacoque, to quote only one of the many ascetics and anchorites belonging to this class, "than to be blind and ignorant as regards human affairs, in order perfectly to learn the lesson I so much need, that a good nun must leave all to find God, be ignorant of all else to know Him, forget all else to possess Him, do and suffer all in order to learn to love Him.

3. There are individuals who are pessimistic or indifferent with regard to this life, and indifferent, or at least not optimistic with regard to the hereafter. Both worlds are of small or doubtful value. To this class belong the Cynic and Stoic sects of the decadent Greek and Roman periods, and the Buddhists, who are constantly reminded that, "all is transitory; all is misery; all is void; all is without substance," who dread transmigration, and whose supremest desire is annihilation,-Nirvana. Little wonder that, although they number 300,000,000 they allow themselves to be ruled over by a mere handful of English officials and soldiers, that they are nonchalant and non-resistive.

4. Lastly, there are those who approach and enter the condition known as melancholia. To this class belong the large number of unhappy and pessimistic atheists and agnostics whose earthly lives are canopied o'er with leaden skies and who have no hope whatever of a future life. As one of them expressed it: "The world is a human prisoncell, where hope flits to and fro, like a poor bat, beating in aimless flight the walls with timid wings, striking its little head against the moldering roof." And another: "We have no chapel where we can kneel down, no more faith to sustain us, no more God to whom we can address our prayOur hearts are empty, our souls are without an ideal and without hope." The other world is non-existent for them, and this one is unbearable.

ers.

Such are the four types of other-worldists or pessimists, and all except the first are, according to our criterion, pathological.

They give rise to two distinct kinds of asceticism: the first to a normal, active asceticism whose idea is to labor for the betterment and salvation of the human race; to transform the world into a city of God; and the others to a passive, subjective, corrosive asceticism which accomplishes nothing good and ends in madness. "What a chasm,"

says Harnack, "divides the silent anchorite of the desert, who for a lifetime has looked no man in the face, from the monk who imposed his commands upon a world." 1

"The ascetic instinct," writes Baring-Gould, "is intimately united to the religious instinct. There is scarcely a religion of ancient or modern times, Protestantism excepted, that does not recognize asceticism as an element of its system. The principle of asceticism is abstinence from lawful pleasures, the subordination of certain faculties to others, and the restraint of certain propensities. . . Buddha taught his disciples a religion of abstinence. . . . Brahmanism has also its order of ascetics. From the earliest Vaidic age, Hindoo thought turned to self-immolation, and annihilation of the carnal desires. Mohammedanism has its fakirs, subduing the flesh by their austerities, and developing the spirit by their contemplations and prayers. Fasting and self-denial were observances required of the Greeks, who desired initiation into the Mysteries. Abstinence from food, chastity, and hard couches, prepared the neophyte, who broke his fast on the third or fourth day only on consecrated food. The scourge

was used before the altars of Artemis, and over the tomb of Pelops.

The Egyptian priests passed their novitiate in the deserts, and when not engaged in their religious functions were supposed to spend their time in caves. They renounced all commerce with the world, and lived in contemplation, temperance, and frugality, and in absolute poverty. . . . The Jews also had their fasts, . . . and on special occasions gave themselves up to prolonged fasts and mortifications.

The races of the new world have also an instinctive regard for self-denial and fasting. .. The wrath of the gods is appeased, and they are made more disposed to listen to prayer, when man fasts. The Peruvians were wont to fast before sacrificing to the gods, and to bind themselves by vows of chastity and abstinence from nourishing foods. Fasting and mortifications of the flesh were common among the Mexicans. The savages of the American continent fasted to obtain ecstatic relation with their guardian spirits; the Aztecs denied themselves food, tortured themselves with deprivation of sleep, and preserved chastity, in order that they might by suffering purify their consciences. They ate

1 Harnack: Monasticism and Confessions of St. Augustine, p. 12.

but once a day, and refrained from stimulating drinks and strong diet. Fasts lasted for three, four, five, twenty, forty, sixty, and a hundred and sixty days, and even sometimes for four consecutive years. There were fasts for the whole nation, family fasts, and fasts for the individual. Numerous congregations of monks, like the Jewish schools of the prophets and the religious orders of Buddhism, were to be found dotted over the country under vows of perpetual celibacy. Parents dedicated their children to the cloister from infancy. . . There were ascetic orders for old men, and nunneries for widows devoted to the worship of Centeotl among the Totomacs, monastic orders among the Toltecs dedicated to the service of Quetzalcoatl, and others among the Aztecs consecrated to Tezcatlipoca." This type of asceticism which compels its disciples to scourge and lacerate themselves, which drives them into deserts, marshes, caves, on pillartops, into narrow cells, or worse still into the unhealthy ooze of their morbid souls is pathological. On the other hand, that type of asceticism of which we have many examples in early Christianity and later in Western Monasticism and which impels its disciples to enter the maelstrom of life and bids them to bend every energy to purify and permeate it with the true religious spirit, which pulsates with vigorous life, loves work and especially work in behalf of others must be considered normal. It gives birth to great religious leaders and reformers, and plays a large rôle in shaping the course of civilization and moulding the destinies of nations. Ascetics of this type practise renunciation both with a view to spiritual perfection, and in order that they may give their undivided thoughts and energies to the service of God and their fellow beings. Like scientists, philosophers, artists, and philanthropists they sacrifice their lower propensities to higher and more altruistic ideals. But these ascetics, it should be said, constitute the small minority, they are the few elect who draw up rules and govern, they are the religous commanders and generals; the others are the religious soldiers who are ordered to obey blindly and unreasoningly. But unlike the obedience of the military soldier which coexists with a certain amount of legitimate pride, that of the religious soldier is based upon abject humility. "There are actually two churches in the (Roman Catholic) church;"'

1 See Lecky: Hist. of European Morals, Vol. 2, pp. 198-199.