The Varieties of Religious Experience — William James

p. 253rienced entire sanctification on the 15th day of March, 1893, about eleven o'clock in the morning. The particular accompaniments of the experience were entirely unexpected. I was quietly sitting at home singing selections out of Pentecostal Hymns. Suddenly there seemed to be a something sweeping into me and inflating my entire being — such a sensation as I had never experienced before.

When this experience came, I seemed to be conducted around a large, capacious, well-lighted room. As I walked with my invisible conductor and looked around, a clear thought was coined in my mind, ' They are not here, they are gone. As soon as the thought was definitely formed in my mind, though no word was spoken, the Holy Spirit impressed me that I was surveying my own soul.

Then, for the first time in all my life, did I know that I was cleansed from all sin, and filled with the fullness of God. Leuba quotes the case of a Mr. Peek, where the luminous affection reminds one of the chromatic hallucinations produced by the intoxicant cactus buds called mescal by the Mexicans : — " When I went in the morning into the fields to work, the glory of God appeared in all his visible creation.

I well remember we reaped oats, and how every straw and head of the oats seemed, as it were, arrayed in a kind of rainbow glory, or to glow, if I may so express it, in the glory of God." ^ ^ These reports of sensorial photism shade off into what are evidently only metaphorical accounts of the sense of new spiritual illumination, as, for instance, in Brainerd's statement : " As I was walking in a thick grove, unspeakable glory seemed to open to the apprehension of my soul.

I do not mean any external brightness, for I saw no such thing, nor any imagination of a body of light in the third heavens, or anything of that nature, but it was a new inward apprehension or view that I had of God.

In a case like this next one from Starbuck's manuscript collection, the lighting up of the darkness is probably also metaphorical : — " One Sunday night, I resolved that when I got home to the ranch where I was working, I would offer myself with my faculties and all to God to be used only by and for him. ...

It was raining and the roads were muddy ; but this desire grew so strong that I kneeled down by the side of the road and told God all about it, intending then to get up and go on. Such a thing as any special answer to my prayer never entered my mind, having

p. 254The most characteristic of all the elements of the conversion crisis, and the last one of which I shall speak, is the ecstasy of happmess produced. We have already heard several accounts of it, but I will add a couple more.

President Finney's is so vivid that I give it at length : — " All my feelings seemed to rise and flow out ; and the utterance of my heart was, ' I want to pour my whole soul out to God. The rising of my soul was so great that I rushed into the back room of the front office, to pray. There was no fire and no light in the room ; nevertheless it appeared to me as if it were perfectly light.

As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then, nor did it for some time afterwards, that it was wholly a mental state. On the contrary, it seemed to me that I saw him as I would see any other man. He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to break me been converted by faith, but still being most undoubtedly saved.

Well, while I was praying, I remember holding out my hands to God and telling him they should work for him, my feet walk for him, my tongue speak for him, etc., etc., if he would only use me as his instrument and give me a satisfying experience — when suddenly the darkness of the night seemed lit up — I felt, realized, knew, that God heard and answered my prayer.

Deep happiness came over me ; I felt I was accepted into the inner circle of God's loved ones. In the following case also the flash of light is metaphorical : — " A prayer meeting had been called for at close of evening service. The minister supposed me impressed by his discourse (a mistake — he was dull). He came and, placing his hand upon my shoulder, said : ' Do you not want to give your heart to God ? ' I replied in the affirmative.

Then said he, ' Come to the front seat. They sang and prayed and talked with me. I experienced nothing but unaccountable wretchedness. They declared that the reason why I did not ' obtain peace ' was because I was not willing to give up all to God. After about two hours the minister said we would go home. As usual, on retiring, I prayed.

In great distress, I at this time simply said, * Lord, I have done all I can, I leave the whole matter with thee. Immediately, like a flash of light, there came to me a g^eat peace, and I arose and went into my parents' bedroom and said, ' I do feel so wonderfully happy. This I regard as the hour of conversion. It was the hour in which I became assured of divine acceptance and favor. So far as my life was concerned, it made little immediate change."

p. 255right down at his feet. I have always since regarded this as a most remarkable state of mind ; for it seemed to me a reality that he stood before me, and I fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. I wept aloud like a child, and made such confessions as I could with my choked utterance. It seemed to me that I bathed his feet with my tears ; and yet I had no distinct impression that I touched him, that I recollect.

I must have continued in this state for a good while ; but my mind was too much absorbed with the interview to recollect anything that I said. But I know, as soon as my mind became calm enough to break off from the interview, I returned to the front office, and found that the fire that I had made of large wood was nearly burned out. But as I turned and was about to take a seat by the fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Without any expectation of it, without ever having the thought in my mind that there was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever heard the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me.

Indeed, it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love ; for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings. "No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love ; and I do not know but I should say I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart.

These waves came over me, and over me, and over me, one after the other, until I recollect I cried out, ' I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me. I said, ' Lord, I cannot bear any more ; ' yet I had no fear of death. " How long I continued in this state, with this baptism continuing to roll over me and go through me, I do not know.

But I know it was late in the evening when a member of my choir — for I was the leader of the choir — came into the office to see me. He was a member of the church. He found me