The Varieties of Religious Experience — William James

p. 200Bodily accompaniments, loss of sleep and appetite, for example, are much more frequent in them.

" The essential distinction appears to be that conversion intensifies but shortens the period by bringmg the person to a definite crisis."^ The conversions which Dr. Starbuck here has in mind are of course mainly those of very commonplace persons, kept true to a pre-appointed type by instruction, appeal, and example.

The particular form which they affect is the result of suggestion and imitation.^ If they went through their growth-crisis in other faiths and other countries, although the essence of the change would be the same (since it is one in the main so inevitable), its accidents would be different. In Catholic lands, for example, and in our own Episcopalian sects, no such anxiety and conviction of sin is usual as in sects that encourao^e revivals.

The sacraments being more relied on in these more strictly ecclesiastical bodies, the individual's personal acceptance of salvation needs less to be accentuated and led up to. 1 E. D. Starbuck : The Psychology of Religion, pp. 224, 262, 2 No one understands this better than Jonathan Edwards understood it already.

Conversion narratives of the more commonplace sort must always be taken with the allowances which he suggests : " A rule received and established by common consent has a very great, though to many persons an insensible influence in forming their notions of the process of their own experience. I know very well how they proceed as to this matter, for I have had frequent opportunities of observing their conduct.

Very often their experience at first appears like a confused chaos, but then those parts are selected which bear the nearest resemblance to such particular steps as are insisted on ; and these are dwelt upon in their thoughts, and spoken of from time to time, till they grow more and more conspicuous in their view, and other parts which are neglected grow more and more obscure.

Thus what they have experienced is insensibly strained, so as to bring it to an exact conformity to the scheme already established in their minds. And it becomes natural also for ministers, who have to deal with those who insist upon distinctness and clearness of method, to do so too. Treatise on Religious Affections.

p. 201But every imitative phenomenon must once have had its original, and I propose that for the future we keep as close as may be to the more first-hand and original forms of experience. These are more likely to be found in sporadic adult cases. Professor Leuba, in a valuable article on the psychology of conversion,^ subordinates the theological aspect of the religious life almost entirely to its moral aspect.

The religious sense he defines as " the feeUng of unwholeness, of moral imperfection, of sin, to use the technical word, accompanied by the yearning after the peace of unity.

" The word ^ religion,' " he says, " is getting more and more to signify the conglomerate of desires and emotions springing from the sense of sin and its release " ; and he gives a large number of examples, in which the sin ranges from drunkenness to spiritual pride, to show that the sense of it may beset one and crave relief as urgently as does the anguish of the sickened flesh or any form of physical misery.

Undoubtedly this conception covers an immense number of cases. A good one to use as an example is that of Mr. S. H. Hadley, who after his conversion became an active and useful rescuer of drunkards in New York. His experience runs as follows : — " One Tuesday evening I sat in a saloon in Harlem, a homeless, friendless, dying drunkard. I had pawned or sold everything that would bring a drink. I could not sleep unless I was dead drunk.

I had not eaten for days, and for four nights preceding I had suffered with delirium tremens, or the horrors, from midnight till morning. I had often said, ' I will never be a tramp. I will never be cornered, for when that time comes, if ever it comes, I will find a home in the bottom of the river. But the Lord so ordered it that when that time did come I was ^ Studies in the Psychology of Religious Fheuomena, American Journal of Psychology, vii. 309 (1896).

p. 202not able to walk one quarter of the way to the river. As I sat there thinking, I seemed to feel some great and mighty presence. I did not know then what it was. I did learn afterwards that it was Jesus, the sinner's friend. I walked up to the bar and pounded it with my fist till I made the glasses rattle. Those who stood by drinking looked on with scornful curiosity.

I said I would never take another drink, if I died on the street, and really I felt as though that would happen before morning. Something said, ' If you want to keep this promise, go and have yourself locked up. I went to the nearest station-house and had myself locked up. " I was placed in a narrow cell, and it seemed as though all the demons that could find room came in that place with me. This was not all the company I had, either.

No, praise the Lord ; that dear Spirit that came to me in the saloon was present, and said. Pray. I did pray, and though I did not feel any great help, I kept on praying. As soon as I was able to leave my cell I was taken to the police court and remanded back to the cell. I was finally released, and found my way to my brother's house, where every care was given me.

While lying in bed the admonishing Spirit never left me, and when I arose the following Sabbath morning I felt that day would decide my fate, and toward evening it came into my head to go to Jerry M'Auley's Mission. I went. The house was packed, and with great difficulty I made my way to the space near the platform. There I saw the apostle to the drunkard and the outcast — that man of God, Jerry M'Auley.

He rose, and amid deep silence told his experience. There was a sincerity about this man that carried conviction with it, and I found myself saying, ' I wonder if God can save mef I listened to the testimony of twenty-five or thirty persons, every one of whom had been saved from rum, and I made up my mind that I would be saved or die right there. When the invitation was given, I knelt down with a crowd of drunkards. Jerry made the first prayer.

Then Mrs. M'Auley prayed fervently for us. Oh, what a conflict was going on for my poor soul ! A blessed whisper said, ' Come ' ; the devil said, ' Be careful. I halted but a moment, and then, with a breaking heart, I said, * Dear