Liverpool Diocesa?t Board of Divinity Publications
No. VII.
HE APOLOGY OF
EXPERIENCE
THE 'LIVERPOOL LECTURE, 1913
I
DELIVERED IN
St. Peter's Church, Liverpool, on 2 June, 1913
by the right rev.
W. BOYD CARPENTER, D.D., D.C.L.
CANON OF WESTMINSTER AND FORMERLY LORD BISHOP OF RIPON
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA
1913
Liverpool Diocesan Board of Divinity Publications
No. VII.
rHE APOLOGY OF
EXPERIENCE
THE 'LIVERPOOL LECTURE, 1913
DELIVERED IN
St. Peter's Church, Liverpool, on 2 June, 1913
BY the right rev.
W. BOYD CARPENTER, D.D., D.C.L.
CANON OF WESTMINSTER AND FORMERLY LORD BISHOP OF RIPON
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA
1913
\
1
BR 110^. C345. 1913 ^ ^
Carpenter, William Boyd,
1841-1918.
The apology of experience
THE APOLOGY OF EXPERIENCE.
One great canon of modern science is that theories must
be built upon facts. It is an intelligible rule. Much
intellectual mischief has been done by those who have
invented a theory and then hunted for facts to prove it.
On the other hand, it must be remembered that many ot
the theories which are now established by the evidence
of facts were at the first brilliant guesses. Genius haz-
arded some hypotheses which later investigation proved
to be true. There is no harm in ventilating theories
when it is well understood that they must be verified be-
fore they can be accepted. Thus it happens that in the
world of thought many theories are held to be merely
working hypotheses which may be proved hereafter to be
incorrect, but which meanwhile are found useful in the
pursuit of truth. Indeed, are not some of the most im-
portant and well-known laws of nature acknowledged to
be working hypotheses, which larger knowledge may set
aside?
Two general principles here become clear. One tells
us that the best working method is to collect facts before
formulating theories : the other reminds us that there is
some value in a working hypothesis : indeed without it
investigation might stand still.
Our subject is religious experience. I desire first to
treat it on the principle of ascertaining facts before laying
down a theory. I may hazard a theory later.
I. Can such experiences be treated as belonging to the
3
4 The Apology of Experience.
realm of fact ? I admit the danger and difficulty of ground-
ing an apologetic argument upon religious experience ;
and yet I feel that there is room for such a presentation of
Christian evidences. I admit the danger ; for it is fatal
to the security of any argument if it can be pointed out
that it has its origin and force only in a series of
emotions. It is then dismissed as being subjective,
and therefore beyond the power of verification : it has
no more validity than our dreams : it is as a vapour that
passeth away.
I admit the danger, and yet I am confronted by the con-
tinued assertion that the argument from within is an
argument, clear, convincing, inevitable. Sacred writers,
ancient and modern, cling to it : it appears, and for a time
it may be forgotten : it is discredited and set aside ; but
it reappears. What we read in Deuteronomy finds a
place also in St. John. The affirmation of credibility is
within. " Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend.
The word is nigh thee in thy heart." St. John declares,
"He that believeth hath the witness in himself": St.
Paul is not otherwise minded. He cites from Deuteron-
omy and gives a Christian turn to the thought : there is
no need to call down Christ from Heaven to convince the
soul. The word is nigh thee : it brings its own evidence.
With the heart man believeth unto righteousness (Rom.
X. 6-10).
I might multiply quotations to show that the argument
from the witness within was accepted and understood by
Christian thinkers of subsequent ages. It is not to be
supposed that men of honest and reflective dispositions can
have overlooked the precarious nature of an argument
which could be crushed at once by being ridiculed as
emotional and unverifiable.
The Apology of Experience. 5
Therefore while fully aware of the snares which lie
alongside the path, I feel constrained to suggest that
there may be some sure and justifiable ground for ad-
vancing the apology from experience.
(i) We must take care to meet the first objection that
such experiences are merely subjective impressions. If
we can show that the word experience is not used in
the sense of mere subjective or emotional impression, but
that it covers certain verifiable facts, then experience takes
on a meaning more acceptable to scientific demands.
Can we show that this is the case ? First, let us consider
what factors are needed to give validity to this argument.
The very word experience implies two things — a
thing which is experienced and a mind or soul which has
been the subject of it. If I experience an emotion, there
must have been some cause for the emotion ; and the
cause must be very real which can create not merely
emotion, but a vigorous concentration of will-power, re-
sulting in a great and real change in habit, life, or custom.
Let me give an illustration. The Sufite Movement is
a fact in Mohammedan history. No reasonable man will
deny its existence : it arose in the 8th century : it exercised
a powerful influence over men's minds : it became strong
enough to endure against opposition : it abides to-day,
unexpelled from the bosom of the Faith. It is a fact of
history. But this fact of history is a complex fact. It
is built up of a number of lesser facts. It began — it is
said — with a woman, who felt that the idea of love found
but a small place in the God of Mohammed. Feeling
this she '' taught that God must be loved above all things,
because He alone is worthy of love ; and that everything
here below must be sacrificed in the hope of one day
attaining to union with God " (Prof. Noldeke, '* Encycl.
6 The Apology of Experience.
Brit."). This idea spread : it took hold of the hearts of
men. Now here is a broad historical fact, which includes
a large number of other facts. The historical fact is the
Sufite Movement : the included facts are the changes
wrought in many minds, besides the initial fact— the
dawn of the thought of Divine love in the mind of a
woman Rabi'a.
Whatever emotions may be involved in the story, the
Sufite Movement is undoubtedly a series of facts. We
cannot verify each fact, i.e. the fact of the influence upon
thought and life made by each disciple won to Sufism ;
but the resultant movement is an admitted fact, and
equally so the individual actions which increased the
number of its adherents were facts, which only the lunacy
of scepticism can doubt. Such a movement might be
illustrated by the great belt-like procession of ants in
West Africa : the invasion of the army of ants is a fact :
the boa-constrictor knows it to be a terrible fact, and pro-
vides for his safety against it ; but equally with the army
of ants each individual ant is a fact : and taken together
they are the series of facts which make up the army. So
the Sufite Movement is an assemblage of facts and each
convert to the movement is a fact.
But what is the nature of the fact in these cases ? The
fact is a convert — not a man merely but a man subject to
a certain emotion, which made him act in a certain way.
The essence of the fact is in all the circumstances which
wrought a change in the man's life : it is this which
makes the man a fact in the movement.
[a) Religious experiences certainly include facts. Re-
ligious experience therefore is not purely subjective.
Subjective emotions no doubt play some part in the
matter ; but the experience includes the act as well as
The Apology of Experience. y
the emotional disturbance : the act of becoming an ad-
herent of the movement is a fact, and the conflict of emo-
tions within his heart before he became an adherent is a fact
also. The subjective emotion preceded the act of adher-
ence, but the fact of the emotion is as real as the fact
that he became a Sufite. The emotion i and the con-
sequent action are both facts as the waves and the wind
that stirs thern are facts.
Feelings are in themselves facts — facts, that is, within
our own consciousness. They are not, however, veri-
fiable facts, and however true in the consciousness, feelings,
as such, do not emerge into the region of observed facts.
We admit it : feelings are not facts which can be ob-
jectively tested. No ! but feelings tend to produce con-
ditions which are facts, and facts which can be verified.
A series of emotions, for example, tends to modify the
conditions of a man's nature in such a way that after
a certain cycle of repeated emotions a man's mental and
even his bodily conditions may be changed. Violent
emotions, it is well known, produce bodily changes : fear
produces pallor : anger or shame cause the blood to flood
the countenance. Emotions continued for a length of
time cause distinct changes in the cells of body or brain.
Feelings as such may not come within the range of ob-
served, or objective facts ; but the conditions, which re-
peated or recurrent emotions occasion, come within reach
of observation and are capable of verification. It was
impossible to gauge the emotions of the man who heard
the appeal of the Sufite teacher ; but it was quite possible
to verify as a fact the change in his life and conduct which
was due to the repeated emotions of which he was the
subject.
Thus there is a sense in which feelings, if not verifiable
8 The Apology of Experience.
facts, are the parents of facts which can be observed and
tested under the same conditions as other facts. We
may not be able to enter into the emotional excitation
of our fellow-men ; but we can notice the changes in
their life, conduct, and disposition.
We constantly notice such changes in man. This
man, we say, was once generous, free with hand, kindly,
sympathetic. Now he is, as we say, a different man,
he is niggardly, sullen, reticent. Or again, this man
was jealous, suspicious, cynical in speech, unfriendly
in manner. Now he is open-hearted, sympathetic, lav-
ishly generous in his appreciation of others.
We cannot bring a man's emotions under observation ;
but we can mark, as very patent and clearly-observed
facts, the changes in word, manner, and character which
have occurred. We act in this matter along the lines
of common sense : we act according to the principle laid
down by Christ. "By their fruits ye shall know them."
We cannot follow the movement or activities of the seed
in the soil ; but we can mark and measure the fruit as it
ripens. Yes, even the blade, the ear, and the full corn in
the ear.
We cannot therefore class religious experience as wholly
outside the range of observation. We know that the at-
tendant emotions must be real for we can measure their
results : feelings if not fully facts are yet the matrix of
facts, and they can be known as real, because they bring
to birth facts which operate upon life.
(y8) We cannot depend upon our emotions : they must
be disciplined and perhaps doubted ; and yet, if I am not
mistaken, emotions reveal to us one of the greatest facts
in existence, viz., our possession of a soul or a spiritual
nature. It is through sensations that we become aware
The Apology of Experience, g
of the external world and gain knowledge of our own
bodily envelope. We learn by contrast to discriminate
between hard and soft, painful and pleasant, bitter and
sweet, rough and smooth, through our sensations. Sensa-
tions are the media through which we open up com-
munications with the physical world. I suggest that as
sensations make us aware of our bodies : emotions make
us aware of our souls. Emotions often result from
sensations. We tread upon the sharp point of a nail :
our sensation is one of pain ; but an emotion is ours also :
we are angry at the negligence which has left the nail
where it could be trodden upon. Now this emotion
opens up a communication— not as the sensation does
with the physical world, but with the realm within where
the capacities of anger and fear and joy and hope dwell.
The child that cries, not because it has been hurt, but
because its expectation has been disappointed or its pride
wounded, is learning that besides a body which can feel
pain, it possesses a soul which can feel vexation or an-
noyance : here it is learning that besides body there is
soul : that besides the outward world, the world of physical
things, there is the inner world which may be the scene
of tragedies of which the outward world takes no count.
In such experiences we become aware of the existence
of a realm which is certainly not physical : we are brought
to the gateway of another world, which, because it is
not the world physical or natural in the physical sense,
may be called the spiritual or psychical world.
We are inclined to concede perhaps too much to the
claims of materialism when we limit facts only to things
which can be measured by our senses : we measure
things by our emotions quite as often as we do by our
sensations.
10 The Apology of Experience.
Emotion brings us knowledge of our spiritual being.
It is the index that other things than things physical
affect us. A slight may be more keenly felt than a
wound. Our anger may be stirred by a physical pang,
it is true ; but we may feel a far greater anger at some
act which leaves our body untouched. There are injuries
for which no payment can compensate. The feelings,
which gave rise to duelling, attest the truth that there
are emotions closely connected with the sense of personal
honour which demand satisfaction more urgently than
any mere physical mishap : the light mention of a lady's
name : an insinuation against personal integrity set the
heart aflame. The soul is insurgent at such times : such
experiences, though linked with a disproportionate moral
sense, witnessed to the insistent power of spirit within.
There are stages in history which, however stained by
deplorable violence, mark the force of the spirit within :
the men who vindicated their honour were ready to put
their bodies in peril, because they felt that the demands
of the soul at the moment were of more importance than
the fear of physical injury.
The emotions often betray us, but they are witnesses
that our souls are more than our bodies. Sensations
make us aware of our bodies : emotions make us aware
of our souls. Emotions therefore are powerful in two
directions : they open the outward gate to action : they
open the inward gate to the consciousness of the soul.
Followed outward they may lead to very decisive action
in the physical world : to change of conduct, to a revolu-
tion which can be called a conversion. Followed inward
they may reveal to us depths and powers of our nature
allied to the world of spirit.
When they work outwards they originate facts which
The Apology of Experience. 1 1
can be marked, and measured and brought to the test of
adequate observation. The emotions which are inward
facts become the parents of outward facts which all may
know and verify : they help to disclose to us a great
central fact of our nature — the possession of a soul.
Thus far we may affirm that emotions are closely allied
to verifiable facts and may discover to us the existence
of our spiritual nature.
(ii) A second objection may arise. It may be admitted
that emotions and subjective experiences lead to acts
which may be observed ; but a fact which science can
deal with is a fact which exhibits such features that it can
be recognized when seen again. It must be capable of
recurrence with characteristics which can be understood.
Can we make such a claim on behalf of religious ex-
perience? Of course such an experience is not like a
stone or an oyster — thousands of which may be found
and examined in our laboratories ; but religious ex-
perience is not an inchoate thing : it presents certain
intelligible features ; and in some of its deepest processes
it shows a clear order or cycle.
(a) First then it presents intelligible features. We are
speaking of the religious consciousness in man. An
examination of this consciousness establishes certain
tendencies, and these tendencies exhibit recognizable
features. They are not vague, fluctuating, incoherent,
they express demands of the soul which may be set
forth with clearness. No doubt there is much admixture
of frothy passion, but just as we can trace amid the white
foam and dazzling spray the set of the waves, so amid the
wild flare of untamed emotion we can detect the genuine
demands or needs of the religious consciousness. It is
as much a fact that man's religious consciousness de-
1 2 The Apology of Experience.
mands a Power upon which he can in some way depend
as it is that he has a religious consciousness at all. There
is no religion that I am aware of which does not sooner
or later provide to meet this feeling of dependence. This
has been considered a sort of necessity of man's nature
by philosophical minds. The late Dean Mansel in his
Bampton Lectures spoke of two principal modes of re-
ligious intuition, the feeling of dependence and the feel-
ing of moral obligation (Lecture IV, p. 78). Schleier-
macher deemed that this feeling of dependence was the
essence of religion.
If the feeling of dependence is thus an essential in the
religious consciousness, the desire for a complete accord
or harmony between the God and the worshipper is also
imperatively shown. The history of religions witnesses
this. The Sufite Movement is the evidence that when
this desire for harmony is not met the religious conscious-
ness will find some way to supply it. Mohammedanism
is the religion of an autocratic God : in its original form
God is the law-giver — He is great and to be obeyed
without question ; but the souls of men asked for some-
thing more than a law-giver. The sense of Allah's
power to command and to judge did not satisfy the heart.
The Sufite Movement added to the idea of God's power
that of His Love. Hence its success : it met the de-
mands of the religious consciousness for harmony or
fellowship with the object of worship.
Further, we live in a world which is being slowly
pushed onward along the road of development. Man,
with his restlessness of hope, would never be satisfied
with a religion which spoke only in the past and present
tenses : the great momentum of the advancing universe
makes itself felt in his spirit, and his eyes are turned to
The Apology of Experience. 1 3
the future : he feels that he was not made to sit still : his
religion must meet his instinct of progress. Even the
somewhat fatalistic Buddhism looked forward to the
Matreya Buddha, the Ajita, the unconquerable one,
whose advent would bring blessing to the world.
Thus a religious consciousness knows what it wants.
Consciousness of God seeks dependence : consciousness
of moral obligation or of fear of Divine wrath seeks
harmony with the Divine Power: consciousness of a
path of the future provokes the desire for and assurance
of progress. Now these are what I may call instincts of
the religious consciousness : their existence is witnessed
in the history of religions : they are feelings in man,
which emerge into facts as we examine the development
of religious thought and movement. We know some-
thing of the content of man's spiritual nature.
Thus without as yet touching upon Christian experi-
ences, we have seen that religious experiences may be
closely related to facts, so indissolubly bound up with
them that it is difficult to treat the fact adequately with-
out the experience or to separate the experience from
the fact. Further, we have seen that the religious con-
sciousness moves along intelligible lines, and reveals
definite spiritual wants.
(/3) The religious consciousness then exhibits intelligible
features ; but more, in its deepest activities it exhibits an
orderly movement, which has been observed and noted
by impartial minds. In treating of this I pass to defin-
itely Christian experiences as they have been made the
subject of careful study.
Such matters are no longer relegated to the attention
of minor pietistic writers. The phenomena which were
once regarded as delusive, fantastic, fanatical are now
14 The Apology of Experience.
seriously considered by men of scientific and philosophical
mind. They have been made the subject of the late
Prof James's famous book : Prof. Granger in his book
" The Soul of a Christian" has dealt with the matter with
scholarly impartiality : Prof. Starbuck has written a
treatise which applies scientific methods to the examina-
tion of these experiences. These phenomena can hardly
be regarded as visionary, when they are accepted by
careful and accurate observers as offering a fertile field of
investigation. However subjective the associated emo-
tions may be, the phenomena investigated enter the region
of fact.
Prof Starbuck, in his work on the "Psychology of
Religion," has gathered with great diligence reports of
religious experiences from various parts of the United
States. These he endeavoured to classify. The materials
so collected were submitted to the late Prof James, whose
work on " Religious Experiences " is so well known.
Prof. James was at first doubtful whether Prof.
Starbuck would be able to collect materials suf-
ficiently trustworthy : he thought that the replies sent
in would not really represent results psychologically
valid ; he thought that they would be conventional
echoes of expected phraseology, and therefore of " little
significance," but on examining the results. Prof
James acknowledged the value of the book and wrote a
preface. In this preface he declared that the pages of
the book ''group together a mass of hitherto unpublished
facts, forming a most interesting contribution both to
individual and to collective psychology. They interpret
these facts with rare discriminatingness and liberality."
The phenomena of Christian experiences are thus re-
cognized as facts worthy of scientific consideration.
The Apology of Experience. 1 5
Indeed, speaking here in Liverpool, I cannot forget
that the eloquent voice of one honoured in this city and
alive to the value of Christian experiences was raised up
a few years ago pleading for the restoration of experi-
mental preaching.
If then we may claim that religious experience is
capable of providing a large number of facts which are
worthy of scientific or psychological inquiry, it becomes
interesting to know the results of such inquiry. When
facts are submitted to science, science classifies them and
sooner or later includes them in a portfolio which she
calls a law. Can the facts of Christian experience be so
treated ? Time will not allow me to do more than state
baldly the results.
Dr. Starbuck and Prof James agree that the
facts or phenomena seem to indicate a general harmony
in the experiences. Thus Prof James summarizes
the experiences as generally exhibiting the following
cycle. He affirms that under all discrepancies of creed
there is a common nucleus to which these experiences
bear testimony. This common nucleus consists of two
parts: (i) an uneasiness followed by (2) its solution
(Prof James, ''Varieties of Religious Experience,"
PP- 507, 508). According to Prof Starbuck (" Psychol-
ogy of Religion," pp. 158, 159) there are two types of the
experience of spiritual awakening — one arising from a
sense of incompleteness : the other, the eruptive type, as
he calls it, which is characterized by the breaking-up of
evil habits. But both types have much in common.
Both go through three stages of experience, viz. : Con-
viction, Crisis, New Life. It will be seen that this agrees
with Prof James's twofold division. The uneasiness
which he mentions corresponds with conviction, and his
1 6 The Apology of Experierice.
^'solution" covers what Prof. Starbuck calls Crisis
and New Life. The new life, he says, is the real self
Throughout it is the real self which is being sought.
After the awakening contentment with the lower life is
impossible and no rest is reached till the higher life
is accepted as the true life in which the true self is
found.
" The feeling of ' oneness ' (with God or Christ) is the
experience in which the most prominent thing which
presents itself at the time is the sense of freedom and
harmony that follows the change, and the consciousness
that the life is now the completer embodiment of the
larger spiritual world" (Starbuck, "Psychology and
Religion," p. i6i).
It is to be remembered that these descriptions of spiri-
tual experiences are given by men who approach the
matter from the standpoint of intellectual inquirers : they
affirm that the experiences are not only numerous and
sufficient to be considered exhibitions of fact, but that
these experiences are marked by a common note : they
follow a clear and regular cycle : they can be classified
under one type : they indicate what we may call a
psychical law. They are not therefore the wild im-
aginations or hallucinations of diseased minds : they are
too orderly in their sequence for this. They, moreover,
cannot be classed as merely subjective ; for they operate
in actual life in changed habits : in the subjugation of
selfish tendencies or habits.
It may, however, still be pleaded that however interest-
ing these facts of experience may be they are not alto-
gether like facts in the physical world where things can
be handled, and weighed, and measured. This we may
admit. The facts of the moral and spiritual world are
The Apology of Experience. I7
not matters which can be brought to the test of tables of
weights and measures. We do not propose, however, to
surrender at this epoch of the world's history to
materialism which we have been told is now " a pauper in
the realm of philosophy". We start with the hypo-
thesis that man is more than flesh and bones. We
start on the assumption that man by virtue of his religious
consciousness is a being greater than the beasts which
perish. We believe that in interrogating his religious
experiences we are entering a region which is capable of
yielding results which can be met with nowhere else. In
doing so, we are not deserting common sense or reason ;
we are making use of the one being in whose nature is
lodged the answer to many of the questions which have
been vainly asked of the great and inscrutable universe
of material things. For what is man according to
science ? He is the subject of an evolutionary process.
Yes, and of an evolutionary process of a special char-
acter ; for evolution, having produced man as the phy-
siological climax of her work, has shifted her gear, as
it were, and is continuing her work on the social and
moral plane. Social and ethical evolution has succeeded
physical evolution. Such was the view of Prof Fiske
among others. Thus man is a creature still incomplete
and the process of his completion is now in the social
and ethical realms of his nature.
Further, man is a being in whose nature is folded up
the story of all the past processes which have contributed
to his making. Each individual born into the world re-
peats during his ante-natal history the order of the past.
He is a piece of documentary evidence witnessing to all
that went before him. The world is bound up in him.
To interrogate him is not only to interrogate the highest
1 8 The Apology of Experience.
product of nature, but its most complex, its most signifi-
cant product He is a true microcosm for he carries
the whole evolutionary order, as it were, within himself.
Man is thus a reflection of the process of the universe ;
and as such we should expect him to be fitted to respond
to the evolutionary forces about him. As in his physical
nature he attests the working of the earlier processes of
nature, we should expect him to respond to the later.
He might be likened to an ^olian harp which vibrates
to the universal breath ; but the harp when it gives
forth its melody is an interpreter of the delicacy and
harmony of the forces which breathe around it. And
it ought not to surprise us to find in man some
capacity of interpreting in his experiences the pro-
cesses of the universe. In interrogating him we
interrogate the one being whose history and experiences
can yield the richest results. Hence there arises a
probability that in the experiences of man in acquir-
ing his full endowment of social and moral capacities
there may be found, not merely a few transient impres-
sions, but impressions which may bear witness to great
facts and perhaps to laws which govern the order of his
development.
We cannot go beyond a probability ; but we can at
least plead that such probability exists. I might add
here that if this line of argument establishes such a
probability, the converging line of philosophical thought
which speaks of the moral sense or conscience as an a
priori law of the human mind only serves to add to the
probability that the investigation of these experiences
will be fruitful.
If man is still the subject of our evolutionary process
and if that process is now working in the social and
The Apology of Experience. 19
moral sphere, then the inward experiences of man be-
come more significant ; they are the witnesses of the
working of some great world force : they indicate the
trend of all things.
And what is this trend ? Let us go back to the scien-
tific investigation of religious experiences made by Dr.
Starbuck. We saw that according to him and Prof.
James these experiences follow what may be called a
psychical law. They go beyond mere emotion, for they
emerge into life ; they indicate the subduing of selfish
passions. But let Prof. Starbuck speak, and ^\N(t us
his description of this experience. " It is, " he says, " a
process of unselfing." As examples he quotes the follow-
ing records of such experience. " I began to work for
others." ** I had more tender feeling toward my family
and friends." *'I felt everybody to be my friend."
" It is clear," concludes Prof Starbuck, " that in a large
percentage of cases an immediate result of conversion is to
call the person out from himself into active sympathy
with the world outside" (p. 128). Further, he notices a
heightened worth of self closely bound up with the altru-
istic impulses. The central fact underlying both is the
formation of a new ego, a fresh point of reference for
mental states (ibid., pp. 1 29, 1 30). As we read this state-
ment of what is deemed the central fact in this experience
our minds are carried irresistibly back to the language
of St. Paul. "The central fact," says the modern scien-
tific inquirer, " the central fact is a new ego." '' I live,"
says the Apostle, "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
The Apostle realizes the fact of this new Ego.
Whether therefore we approach these spiritual ex-
periences from the personal standpoint, or from the stand-
point of impartial inquiry, the central idea is the same.
20 The Apology of Experience.
Spiritual experiences include the moving from a lesser to
a larger life : from the life self-centred to a life centred
outside self, a life animated by strong altruistic impulses :
a life in which old things are passed away and all things
(i.e. the outlook upon all things and therefore their re-
lations to the soul) have become new.
I do not wish to lay down any limit to the incidental
features of such experiences, nor is it necessary to suppose
that they are always related to some fixed epoch of time :
this is the case with what Prof Starbuck calls the
" eruptive " type ; but he includes others in which the sense
of life's incompleteness has been realized and the soul has
stepped forth from the narrow cell of self into the fuller
and completer life. Whether, in fact, this changed aspect
of things has come about quickly and accompanied by
some vivid consciousness of change or whether the change
has been reached by insensible stages, the order and
significance of the change is the same. It is the same
curve on the railroad whether it has been taken at express
speed or at a prudently creeping pace.
We have sought facts : we have found that spiritual
experiences may be brought within the field of observable
facts : we have found that there is a certain type or cycle
which they follow — at any rate in Christian experiences.
11. These experiences must be read in connexion with
their environment : their significance largely depends on
environing conditions. A fact cannot be separated from
its environment, i.e. from the circumstances and influences
associated with the occurrence. The naked fact alone can-
not disclose its own significance.
A straw will show in what direction the wind blows,
but we must know where the straw is placed : the gust
of wind which rushes through a tunnel, though it shakes
The Apology of Experience. 2 1
the straw will not tell me the true quarter of the wind.
If I want to ascertain the fact about the wind's direction,
I must not only notice the movement of the straw, but I
must understand the environment of the straw. The
significance of the fact is the true fact : it is not the
shaking of the straw, but the circumstances under which
the straw shook, which make up the fact.
In other words, the incidental phenomenon must not
be taken as the whole fact : the real fact is only known
when its significance is ascertained and its significance is
only ascertained when the conditions of the phenomenon
are taken into account. I must know the envelope, so
to speak, of the fact : the letter is one thing but the
envelope with its address and postmark may explain the
letter. A mere incident is often mistaken for a full fact :
only when we take the incident in connexion with the
conditions under which it occurred, can we claim to
possess the full fact, or the fact with its significance.
When Patrick Henry said "Caesar had his Brutus,
Charles I his Cromwell, and George III his . . ."
there was excitement in the legislature of Virginia
(Bancroft, Vol. Ill, p. 468): this was the incident,
but the full fact is only understood when the political
crisis of the moment is known. The fact is far more
than the mere words, or even the excitement in the
Chamber of Debate : the significance of the fact is only
understood as we realize the temper of two peoples at
the moment.
If I may advance one further illustration I would
select one from New Testament story. The incident of
St. Paul's vision on the road to Damascus is not to us a
complete fact without some acquaintance with the cir-
cumstances : to grasp the fact and its significance we
22 The Apology of Experience.
need to have some insight into the state of St. Paul's
mind : it is only in the light of the circumstances before
and after that we can fully understand the fact which
transformed Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle.
Hence facts are more inclusive things than is commonly
supposed : they are not the vulgar, isolated incidents in
which Silas Wegg delighted : to be of service in histori-
cal criticism they must be related to circumstances : we
must know not only that the straw moves, we must
know when it moved : we must know not only the
orator's words, but the temper of the people among
whom he spoke. The fact is not the fact when it is
stripped of its flesh and blood and reduced to the bare
bones of an incident : to know the fact, I must know it
as it was : I must not be asked to accept its skeleton
instead of itself. It is not the words of a conqueror's
song only which can give me their significance. I must
know the circumstances which roused the soul to give
forth the stirring and undying words. Behind the fact
of the song stand other facts, which must be realized
before I can grasp its full and true meaning. I may il-
lustrate this by reference to an incident dealt with in Old
Testament criticism. In speaking of Miriam's Song of
the Sea, one German critic (Kittel) says that the song
bears " the marks of originality. It would be ground-
less scepticism," he says, " to maintain that the song is
an artificial echo of the later legends concerning the
passage through the Red Sea. Such an idea is psycho-
logically incomprehensible, and is absolutely condemned
by the exquisite simplicity and grandeur of the poem."
** Where is there (he asks) an instance of fiction produced
by later generations displaying such strength and purity
of inspiration " ("Hist, of the Hebrews," p. 226). His
The Apology of Experience. 23
meaning is quite clear : no mere tradition of a great
event could have inspired a poem of such natural simpli-
city and force. Behind the poem stands real emotion
produced by a real event. No later generation could so
identify itself with the emotions befitting the experience.
Memory can never be a substitute for genuine feeling.
There are psychological laws, which govern the powers
of expression. Emotions are like the ripples on the
water after a stone has been cast into it : they lessen in
force in proportion as they recede from the centre of dis-
turbance : only when the sense of a great event is vivid
can the emotional wave reach its maximum height.
From this argument the critic reaches the conclusion
that only a real and striking incident can have given
birth to such a genuinely natural outburst of feeling.
Historical fact lies behind the clear-hearted emotion ex-
pressed in the song.
The same kind of argument is carried further by the
critic. He is speaking of the spirit of national unity and
self-assertion which were manifested in Israel. Israel
possesses in her history certain qualities of durability and
coherence, qualities which guarantee national life. " Such
a work," says Kittel, 'Moes not accomplish itself. It
is only wrought when there is a personality behind the
mass, towering above them, urging them on, setting on
fire with its holy enthusiasm the consciousness of nation-
ality. Israel became a nation at the Exodus. Moses
created it. Without him Israel would have remained
what it was before." So far for the formation of Israel's
national life : its genesis is unintelligible without some
dominant personality.
There is something further to be said. ''There re-
mains," says Kittel, '' still a class of facts which are even
24 The Apology of Experience.
less capable than the successes already mentioned of
being explained apart from a specially inspired person-
ality. I mean the new religious creation in Israel. . . .
Nothing is less likely to arise spontaneously out of the
depths of a people's life than those new creations which
make epochs in the history of religion and morals. The
mere name of Moses would do nothing. If legend had
created the bearer of that name, another must have
actually filled his place " (ibid., p. 240). In other words,
behind a religious revolution there stands the dominant
and inspiring personality. Now let us return to our con-
sideration of facts. We wish to follow the scientific
principle of basing our theories on facts.
But what are facts ? Not merely the naked incident
which is only the skeleton of the fact ; but the whole
fact, i.e., the thing which happened together with the
characteristic envelope, so to speak, of the happening.
Not the words of the orator but the circumstances which
lifted his soul to effective utterance. Not the speech of
Demosthenes, but the temper of the speaker and his
audience which led them to cry " Let us march against
Philip ". Not the naked fact that seven bishops were put
on trial, but the flowing spirit of liberty to which their
action gave expression. Not the naked fact that Saul of
Tarsus had a strange experience and became an Apostle,
but the powers which wrought upon his spirit to pro-
duce this change. We cannot be said to grasp the fact,
i.e., ascertain its true significance, apart from the con-
ditions which made the fact possible. These conditions
are a part of the true fact. It is the part of historical
science or scientific history to take cognizance of these
conditions. We may take a stone and observe the marks
upon its surface : it is a stone scratched • over with a net-
The Apology of Experience. 25
work of slender lines. This is a fact ; but it is a fact
which standing alone does not possess much significance.
When, however, we add the knowledge of the circum-
stances under which the stone was found, the meaning
of the fact becomes clear : it is a glacier stone. The
history of the moving world, of chang-es in temperature,
of the action of the laws of nature, is written upon the
stone. Here are marks which attest the action of the
gigantic and persistent forces of the world. We add a
further circumstance : the place where the stone was
found : a place perhaps where to-day no glacier exists :
then further light breaks upon us : as this is a stone
bearing marks of the action of ice, and as the glacier
itself has melted away, it becomes clear that in earlier
times the ice cap of the earth reached far down to the
spot where the ice-marked stone was found. It is a
familiar story exemplified in the Glacier Garden of Swit-
zerland. It may illustrate our argument : the finding of
the stone with certain markings is the naked incident :
the knowledge of the action of the ice mass is the illu-
minating aspect of the fact.
Now let us apply this thought. The change wrought
in, say, St. Paul's life, is the naked incident : the illuminat-
ing aspect of the incident is found in the circumstance
that a spiritual force, radiating from a Jewish citizen put
to death as a criminal, was the working environment of
the incident. The change is the ice-marked stone : the
name or personality (nature) of Jesus Christ is as the
glacier force. The whole fact is not the mere change,
but the change in the light of the powerful influence
which accomplished the change.
Whatever our views may be as to the credibility of
certain Gospel narratives, the power of the personality of
26 The Apology of Experience.
Christ in the narrative of the Apostle Paul remains a
fact.
And this power is not limited to one age or one in-
dividual. The same kind of change, exhibiting the same
typical features, is repeated all through the Christian
centuries. What St. Paul experienced is experienced by
St. Augustine, by John Tauler, by Martin Luther, by
John Bunyan : by a great multitude whom no man can
number. Here then is an experience which can be veri-
fied in fact, which is continuous, which follows a re-
cognized order, and has become a matter of acknowledged
scientific interest. We are not confined to its subjective
aspect : the emotions, which are involved, are full of
interest, but as far as the argument is concerned they are
only conditions of transition from one fact to another.
The change in the subject of them is a historical fact.
Behind this fact of a life-change there were these sub-
jective phenomena. Behind the fact there is an emotion,
and behind the emotion another fact. Behind the fact
that St. Paul's life was transfigured there was a period
of emotional experience: behind the emotional experi-
ence was another fact — the personality of Jesus Christ.
The same may be said of all the succeeding experiences
of the same order.
The whole mass of these individual metamorphoses of
life has behind it the personality of Christ. As the wave-
lets spread from the centre of disturbance, so have these
spiritual experiences rippled over the ocean of time. The
power of His personality has flung itself across the
centuries ; it has exercised sway over the minds of those
who did not know Him or could not know Him in the
flesh. His influence is great in the world of thought,
and in the world of conduct. Men everywhere recognize
The Apology of Experience. 27
that He is the one personage in history whose character
has become the standard for all noble human life, but
besides this widespread and more conventional recognition
of His power, there is another, a deeper, and more spiritual
acknowledgment of His might : it is found in the souls
of the great multitude whose lives attest a power in
Christ's personality which has entered into the innermost
depths of their being. They will not speak of Christ
merely as a great historical character : they will not
describe Him as a great exemplar of life to men: they
declare that the power of Christ's very life has entered
into their lives : if they describe their experiences they
will say that it is the experience of Christ living in them :
the historical events of our Lord's life have become spiritual
types to them : they are buried with Christ when the
powers of the lower nature are crucified with Him :
through an experience which means the death of the old
and lower nature they pass to a life lived in Christ and
not in self. The power of Christ's personality has made
itself some way effective in them — in an experience which
they have known, and in a life known of all men. Dis-
count as much as you please the numbers who have
claimed this experience : make allowance for self-decep-
tions or transitory hallucinations : the residuum of cases
is ample : the energy which they have given to religious
movements of revival or missionary activity : the re-
semblance of the experiences whether of an eruptive or
a quietly transitional type: the common ardour with
which their love to their Lord is proclaimed : all show the
working of a power, real, practical, indubitable. Behind
this great series of phenomena extending from the days
of St. Paul to the present time stands the personality of
Christ.
28 The Apology of Experience.
Hence we must conclude that the power of Christ's
personality originated a spiritual influence which like a
spreading wave has rolled over the world and is still
moving with a force which time has not weakened. We
may regard this influence as a power from the past or
as a present power. If we regard this influence as the
historical continuation of an influence which began with
the disciples we must admit the transcendent power of
His personality as a historic character. In the other
case, we must regard this influence as the witness of a
power which is living and working to-day. Either the
Christ of history exerts a continuous influence over
centuries or the Christ of experience is a living Christ
to-day.
It will be said that the reality of these experiences
does not help the argument for the Divine origin of
Christianity. If by this it is meant that these experiences
do not demonstrate the heavenly character of Christ's mis-
sion, my answer is twofold.
First, it has not been advanced for such a purpose. All
that has so far been claimed is that these experiences are
so linked with the thought and person of Christ that they
attest even after well-nigh 2000 years the power of Christ's
personality.
Secondly, the words "heavenly" and "divine" are
often used in an unreal way. How do we discriminate
between the heavenly or the earthly character of a mis-
sion? By long-continued influence I may conclude the
power of a certain historic personality, but long-continued
influence might not be good influence, and however
strong or long continued such influence might be I should
not deem it heavenly in origin unless it were heavenly
in the quality of its influence. I do not conclude things
The Apology of Experience. 29
to be divine or heavenly by reason of their mere power ;
but when an influence Hfts men to higher principles of
action, when it restrains evil habits, modifies unlovely
qualities, disciplines and softens character : then I see the
tokens of a Divine power. The powers exerted by great
personalities in history can only be judged to be "divine" or
" heavenly " when they work for the highest good of men.
Now the work of these Christian experiences is always
the recognition of the higher which claims to surmount
the lower : it is the expression of a beautiful conscious-
ness concerning the spirit in which life should be lived :
it is, as Dr. Starbuck has described it, a process of
" unselling ".
Now let me recall the scientific theory that the evolu-
tionary process having attained its physiological goal has
now been working since the appearance of man along the
lines of social and moral development. Its goal is no
longer physical, but ethical : it no longer strives to
make man a fitter animal, but a better being. It does so
by introducing a deeper sense of social responsibility.
The length of childhood increases as we rise in the scale
of being : this lengthening tends to develop the sense
of family responsibility : affection grows through respon-
sibility : we love best what costs us most. The increasing
complexities which civilization brings show the interde-
pendence of man upon man. The sense of social re-
sponsibility widens. Dives cannot ignore Lazarus at his
gate. Man cannot live his life in selfish isolation. He
is responsible for his brother. He begins to see that a
selfish life is a life which ignores the very bonds which
hold the social world together. We are realizing this
truth more and more from day to day. The evolutionary
process has forced it upon our attention. The selfish life
30 The Apology of Experience.
is seen to be theoretically intolerable. The recognition
of the need of " unselfing " is the last word of civilization.
Is the evolutionary process which produces this conviction
a dead force? or is it the witness of the working of the
living God ? Is it perchance the witness of the work of
the Holy Spirit ? Are we not slow to recognize that
God Himself is behind the forces we call evolutionary?
If the trend of thought is in the same direction as that
of our religious ideals, if in the language of the Apo-
calypse — the earth is helping the woman — then one
great need of the soul is met. We can see harmony
between the things we know and the things we long for.
At any rate if the last word of civilization is the need of
an " unselfing " process, then the last word of civilization
is the first and often repeated word of Christ This
'' unselfed " life was the central idea of His teaching and
the true significance of His sacrifice. His was the '' un-
selfed life " : He left it as the ideal life for man. When
this " unselfed " life becomes the working principle in all
human lives, the last hour of the world's worst pain and
the first hour of the golden age will have come.
But meanwhile Christian experiences bear witness to a
power which works this " unselfing " in the souls of men.
Christian experiences exhibit in the individual the con-
flict against self which is being slowly fought out in the
world. The individual who has this experience is a
microcosm, or to state the same in Apostolic language,
he is a kind of first-fruits of God's creatures. In these
experiences, as we mark the unselfing process, we see
the earnest of that great inheritance which will be ours
when the creation will be delivered from the bondage of
corruption, which is selfishness, into the glorious liberty
of the children of God.
The Apology of Experience. 31
If science teaches us that the experiences of past evolu-
tionary history are written in the physical frame of man,
Christian faith teaches us that in these religious experi-
ences is written the prophecy of the great deliverance
which in Christ will be to us and to all people.
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