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VERY REV. W. R. INGE, M.A., D.D.^ ON 



but the inference seemed to him to be in exactly the opposite direc- 

 tion from that drawn by the Lecturer. Time was when we knew 

 nothing of the structure of matter ; now we know a good deal. 

 Surely the inference was that that which possessed so complex a 

 structure was real. There was a time when the planets were simply 

 points in the heavens : mere mathematical points, having " neither 

 parts nor magnitude," but only position, and their positions seemed 

 to change capriciously. Now we had telescopes and could 

 study their surfaces and see the seas on Mars and the clouds on 

 Jupiter. Surely that did not point to the planets having no exist- 

 ence ; the details which we perceived upon their surfaces were an 

 argument for the actuality of the planets. 



The subject in hand that afternoon was not Mysticism in general, 

 but " Christian Mysticism." As he listened to the Lecturer, the 

 question arose in his mind, " Were any of the New Testament 

 writers mystics ? " And he turned in thought to the first Epistle of 

 St. John. Was there ever elsewhere expressed in so short a docu- 

 ment so full an apprehension of the presence of God, and such 

 fervent devotion towards Him 1 Had we not there mystical writing 

 of the very highest possible character 1 If we read that little treatise 

 through, we saw that St. John came straight to the fact of the 

 Incarnation. " That which was from the beginning " — He Who was 

 from all eternity — and then St. John continues : " Which we have 

 heard. Which we have seen with our eyes, Which we have looked 

 upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life." He came 

 at once to Christ born in the world. Surely there could be no 

 Christian Mysticism in any true sense of the word, that did not in 

 like manner sum itself up in our Lord Jesus Christ, God of God, 

 Light of Light, very God of very God, Who was made Man, and 

 born into this world. If that was so, if it was true that He Who 

 was throughout all the ages, came into this world, and became Man 

 for our salvation, then we had stamped upon manhood the character 

 of reality. And every science pointed in the same direction. If we 

 left religious and philosophical questions on one side, and came to 

 pure science, we found that man himself was ultimately the one 

 standard to which we referred all things. Why was this 1 Was it 

 not because man was made in the image of God, and God purposed 

 before all the ages to bring His only-begotten Son into the world 

 as Man ? 



