a life of solitary contemplation; while others, intellectually
weaker or less serious, will follow the various theosophical and
theurgical delusions which, from the days of Iamblichus downward,
have dogged the heels of mysticism. For the "False Light" against
which the "Theologia Germanica" warns us is as dangerous as ever; we
may even live to see some new "Brethren of the Free Spirit" turning
their liberty into a cloak of licentiousness. If so, the world will
soon whistle back the disciplinarian with his traditions of the
elders; prophesying will once more be suppressed and discredited,
and a new crystallising process will begin. But before that time
comes some changes may possibly take place in the external
proportions of Christian orthodoxy. The appearance of a vigorous
body of faith, standing firmly on its own feet, may even have the
effect of relegating to the sphere of pious opinion some tenets
which have hitherto "seemed to be pillars."

For these periodical returns to the "fresh springs" of religion
never leave the tradition exactly where it was before. The German
movement of the fourteenth century made the Reformation inevitable,
and our own age may be inaugurating a change no less momentous,
which will restore in the twentieth century some of the features of
Apostolic Christianity.






LIGHT, LIFE AND LOVE