"mysteries," in the meaning of symbols. And here the poet and the pastor meet rejoicing. Here are propriety, spirituality, and purpose of worship-a genuine sacrament. Both are inevitable symbols of the mystical union between the Christian and his ascended Lord. Apologetically, these comforting correspondences and answering affinities between man and his environment, the reciprocities and requitals of faith in nature, extend and enrich the parables of Scripture. Nature is the language of thought, The thought is better than its language. But where there is thought there is a thinker. The thinker is better than the thought, the doer than the deed. The goal is God. God is best. The cosmic system is a rational order to higher purpose. There is a science of the invisible truth of faith quite unknown to the mere physicist. The true mystic is profoundly Christian. He is a man of many books but one God, over all and in all. He is never an orphan in the world, never alone. His heart is restless until it reposes in God. He appreciates right relations and strenuous endeavor. He is an intellectual and

a moral stimulus of the first class. His conviction of natural symbolism encourages the sympathetic study of nature and excites our admiration. For him there is in nature a correlative intersignificance and fellowship of God with man. The sensuous world is rather more than a ritual of worship. It is sacramentally thoughtful and inspiring. Beauty is a symbol and a sacrament of holiness. So between science and religion there is no necessary conflict.

A prominent element of constructive power in mysticism is unqualified self-devotion to what is sincerely believed to be the will of God. The Mystic finds a God of intelligence and love, and loves and obeys the God he finds. His God is in every way worthy of respect. He has no will but to do God's will. Visions, ecstasies, trances, dreams, and the rest aside, obedience is great in religion. The Friends of God are essentially the spiritual successors of the apostles John and Paul. The facts and forms of nature and historic Christianity require the spiritual discernment and modern exposi

tions of personal experience. Mystical Christianity insists upon the translation of scriptural truths into personal realizations. Practical science and speculative religion are a bad combination. Hold not the faith with respect of persons must be taken seriously. He that loveth not knoweth not God.

These several salient elements of mysticism stand in very hopeful relations to one another, to modern thought, and to the religious interests of the new century. Mysticism comes to the rescue of faith from formalism, of spirit from materialism, of life from scholasticism, of liberty from ecclesiasticism, truth from indifference, love from professionalism, hope from pessimism, light from criticism, and order from confusion. The subjective and objective tendencies complement and correct each other. The Friend of God is an expert in adaptation. He is something of an artist, considerable of a scientist, a good deal of a poet, a suggestive philosopher, an effective preacher, a kindly brother, and a convincing Christian. With the revival of mystical interest we may reasonably expect a deepened experience of personal salvation, a profounder reverence for God, a spiritual appreciation of nature, a practical use of the Scriptures, a heart of purer joy, and a life of richer pleasure. Above all, the work of the Lord will be more heartily and thoroughly done. There will be less pomp, and more power; fewer wars, and greater victories; lower steeples, and fuller churches. Beethoven's music and Dante's poetry, St. John's gospel and St. Paul's epistles, will be in appreciation. Wordsworth and Tennyson, Browning and Brooks, Burroughs and Goethe will be helpful.

Дебедон

De Losi M. Tompkine

ART. VII.-WESLEY AS A STUDENT AND AUTHOR.

IF Wesley was not inclined to literary pursuits it was not because he did not receive a bent in that direction from both sides of the house. His ancestors were clergymen and university men, and his father was no mean author. But he not only received such a bent, he responded to it with joy. In one of his writings he complains of the same temptation to which Frederick W. Robertson gives expression when he speaks of his love of books tying him to his study and the love of Christ driving him out among men. Wesley's student life is summed up as follows: six years at Charterhouse School in London, five years in Christ Church College, Oxford, and five years resident in Oxford as a student and teacher as Fellow of Lincoln College-nearly ten years of university life. It is not necessary to say that a man so utterly conscientious, with so many moral and religious scruples, was most diligent in his studies. The Oxford course was not as broad and thorough as it is to-day, but as far as it went Wesley mastered it. It gave him a magnificent drill in Greek and Latin, and a good outlook over science and literature. He seemed to be a natural linguist. I do not know that he studied any modern language in Oxford-it was not till Thomas Arnold introduced his great educational reforms about 1830 that the modern languages took their place by the side of the ancient in England. But on his way to America and later he studied German so thoroughly that he could preach in it. He also knew French and Spanish and Italian, and was an excellent Hebrew scholar. Throughout his long life Wesley was an indefatigable reader. His intellectual acquisitiveness and curiosity were marvelous. If a new book came out in natural philosophy, or in electricity, which was just then beginning to be studied, he bought and read it. He took great interest in Benjamin Franklin's experiments in electricity, and himself established a station in London for the receiving of

patients to be cured of disease by electricity-one of the first to take up that force as a curative agent. I can imagine if he were living to-day with what intelligence and attention he would study Marconi's almost miraculous results in wireless telegraphy. It may be in some favored spot in the house of many mansions he is to-day observing the wonderful progress of science and taking in all the achievements of man. He had libraries and book depots in some of the principal cities, and was not compelled to carry many books with him. But he always had some books in his saddlebags, and read them in the saddle.

In some articles in the Methodist Quarterly (New York, April, 1858, October, 1859, and April and October, 1860) the Rev. G. F. Playter gives the best analysis anywhere to be found of Wesley's wonderful activity as a student and author. The list of books he read-those that are noted in the Journals-is so formidable that it is wearisome even to read the titles. Lecky says that he preached and traveled so much that one would suppose that he did nothing but preach and travel, and that he read and wrote so much that one would suppose he did nothing but read and write. Besides that, he gave so much attention and time to guiding the affairs of his societies and counseling the preachers, etc., that we cannot see how he could find time for anything else. We have been struck with the breadth of his intellectual interests. Take music. Was there an oratorio to be given? Wesley was there an admiring or critical listener. Was there a great anthem to be rendered in a cathedral? Wesley was there. Was a new theory of music broached? Wesley read it and criticised it. He passed judgment on Church music and compiled both tune and hymn books. I do not agree with all his ideas. In his time fugue tunes were coming into use. Wesley did not like fugue music, and forbade his societies to sing such tunes. He abominated repetition of words, as in anthems, and the singing different words at the same time by different members of the choir. As was said, his interest in natural science was intense. He was an

inveterate reader of scientific books. I could give a list of scores. Medicine was also his delight. He read the best medical books of the time. But he did not believe much in medicine as it was then practiced, nor have much faith in doctors. He worked out a scheme of medicine for himself, based partly on medical writings, partly on his own experience and observation, and partly on the experience of others. One of the most popular books he ever wrote was Primitive Physic. Some of his recommendations are absurd. Others are wise and good. He himself was often called to help the sick, which he generally did with excellent results. The Christian Science people would indorse Wesley when he said in 1747, "For more than twenty years I have had numberless proofs that regular physicians do exceeding little good." But farther than that they could not follow him. He was too sane to deny the reality of sickness or the use of the best remedies to counteract it, though he thoroughly believed in the power of prayer and that God sometimes heals miraculously in answer to faith. Wesley was a great lover of poetry. He read the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" of Homer and admired them intensely, and contrary to the best critics considered the "Odyssey" the finer. He reveled in Virgil and quotes it frequently even in his sermons. He loved the ancient classics and had no patience with men who were filling themselves with the chaff of modern books, neglecting the eternal masters-Homer, Virgil, and others. He wrote to Joseph Benson, "You would gain more clearness and strength of judgment by reading those Latin and Greek books (compared with which most of the English are whipped syllabub) than by fourscore modern books." He read the "Fingal" of Macpherson, ascribed to Ossian, three times, and his admiration increased with every reading. Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered," Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," Milton's "Paradise Lost" and his "Paradise Regained," Voltaire's "Henriade," and other great poems he read with zeal. He prepared an edition of "Paradise Lost," leaving out some of the obscurer lines and explaining