I am reading a devotional book, "The Hidden Life", (Adolph Saphir) based on James 4:8 - "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." I came across a few intesting pages on mystics I thought I would share for whatever it's worth. "Note on Mystics" is the title of the little section.
(1) The dangerous tendencies of Christian mystics (I use no stronger expression, because I do not think the more important and best-known of these writers have fallen into errors) seem to be towards Pantheism. They dwell much on the Scriptural truth, that all things are of God and through Him and to Him. They love to contemplate the union between God and man, between Christ and the believer - a union real and essential, and not merely ethical. It is here that sometimes they use unguarded expressions, of our being Engoded (vergottet) - "God so unites Himself with the soul, that they become one Spirit, one Substance" (Makarius) - and terms still more vague and misleading. Yet this ought not to prevent our appreciating their testimony of the truth of the indwelling of God in us, and our indwelling in Him.
(2) They tend to divert the attention from Christ to the soul, in which God and Christ dwell; so that self (renewed and God-influenced, yet self) becomes the object of contemplation. This tendency is subtle, attractive, and dangerous. "I have a suspicion about the mystics," says Theremin; "they never are in a peculiar state of mind, but they immediately reflect on it and describe it." There is, contrary to their own theory, much of their own willing in their states and phases. To contemplate what Christ effects in us, instead of what Christ is - to dwell on what He has given us, instead of the unsearchable riches and fullness of the Lord - will produce self-deception instead of self-judgment, and can only lower the standard of Perfectness, which is none other but Christ Himself.
One great and constant desire ought to be to know Christ, and, having no confidence in the flesh, to rejoice in Him, waiting for His coming, when, delievered from the body of sin, we shall be like Him. The constant watching of the growth of the inner man leads us also "to mistake passing emotions for real and abiding love of good," and to exalt any peculiar intuition into a source of self-glorification.
(3) The objection most frequently urged, that they encourage a morbid quietism, a merely passive and receptive attitude, is true only to a limited degree. The mystics were driven into solitude by the mechanical and unspiritual externalism of works which surround them. This evil is not confined to any period or church. It is always man's tendency to work and speak and run, whether sent or not, and whether or not 'the hour is come.' Against this the mystics protested; but they did not encourage false quietism may be seen from such passages as the following, from Tauer: "The righteous exercise themselves inwardly and outwardly; they endure in all paths into which God leads them, in temptation and in darkness, and do not pretend that they have reached the state of quietude. Works of love are more pleasing to God than great comtemplativeness. If thou art in spiritual devotion, and God sends thee to go out and preach or to serve a sick brother, God wil be more present to thee than if thou remainest in secret contemplation."
The mystic writers will always be a useful protest against the mere 'form of godliness,' and the letter that killeth; but the minds that feel most attracted by them need most to be on their guard in reading them. Let everything lead us to spiritual and diligent study of the perfect, healthful, and precious word of God.
Me: Well, not so bad I think.
:-)
