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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MYSTICISM Herbert Spencer has affirmed that the one essential principle of religion is the sense of mystery. We have about us the visible world of things. Each of these things stands in definite relations with the things about it. These relations we can understand; or at least we can put them into formulas which seem clear to the understanding. But we feel that behind these visible things and these finite relations there is a something which we cannot see, which we cannot put into formulas, and which, thus, we cannot even pretend to understand. This unknowable something is a power present in all things, manifesting itself in all things, the life of all things; but though it is always manifesting itself, it can never make itself known; though so near us, it can never be grasped. It remains ever the infinite, the unknown. The consciousness of the reality of this unknowable power is, according to Spencer, the element peculiar to all religions, the only element that may properly be called religious. The definition of religion, as given by Herbert Spencer, tells only half the story. There is another element which is essential to religion and which is common to all religions. There is light in religion as well as darkness. If God dwells in the darkness He dwells also in the light, and the darkness and the light are alike filled with His presence. I refer, however, at this time to the position of Herbert Spencer, not to criticise it, not to attempt to supply its deficiency, but to recognize its real though partial truth. The sense of mystery is not the only element of religion, but it is an essential element of it; an element too much lost sight of in these days of brilliant, though largely superficial thought. The religious world owes a debt of gratitude to Herbert Spencer for b...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217229975 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217229972 |
| Weight | 0.36 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.24 In |
| List Price | $19.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
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| Pages | 102 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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