Greetings,
In 1931 Lawrence Hyde wrote an interesting
piece about “Spiritual Knowledge” in The Prospects of Humanism. A number of events in the past few weeks have
again turned my thoughts to it. It is
certainly of worth considering in and of itself, but it will also serve as a
commentary on some future messages.
It takes a long time for the average
over-intellectualized person to realize that in this particular sphere of
reality he must be prepared to receive illumination from the most unexpected
quarters, to learn his lessons in completely unfamiliar terms, to strain his
ear to catch overtones to which he previously paid little attention, to abandon
some of his most cherished preconceptions, to bare himself to truths which he
has not hitherto been prepared to face.
Yet only at this price can spiritual be substituted for merely
intellectual knowledge...
The point is that the particular kind of
awareness which the educated derive from dealing with experience in its more intellectual
aspects hardly comes into play at all when it is a question of the deeper laws
of life. The attention then becomes
concentrated upon a certain type of datum which the unsophisticated person can
identify and handle just as effectively as can any other—often more
effectively, indeed, than the person who is highly educated. We find ourselves in a region in which the
vital issues are brought into focus by such factors as acts of devotion,
simplicity of behaviour, humbleness of spirit...
We may draw from this an important
conclusion. If anything in the nature of
a religious revival ever takes place in this country..., we shall be prudent
not to expect the educated classes to play any more important a part in it than
that which is played by people of quite humble origin and pretensions. Spiritual power, insight, and authority—these
things are apt at such an epoch to manifest themselves in the most unexpected
places, to the confusion of the orthodox.
A tram-driver who has been spiritually quickened in the way in which
certain slaves were once quickened at the beginning of the Christian era, or as
certain Quakers were quickened in the seventeenth century, is a figure to be
reckoned with—particularly in a society which, like our own, is beginning to regard
the capacities of its intelligentsia with distrust.
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“Spiritual power, insight, and
authority...are apt...to manifest themselves in the most unexpected places, to
the confusion of the orthodox.” This is
indeed what is beginning to happen in our time, and the Church had better be
prepared. As Resurrection Christians, as
Spirit in-breathed Christians, as the Empowered Body of Christ, we need to be
the Revolution of God’s Love in our churches, in our society, in our world.
Yours & His,
DED
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