Sunday, January 29, 2006
Sermons and Lessons
INTRODUCTION TO THE AUTHOR
Thomas Kelly was born into a Quaker family in Ohio in 1893. He was educated at Haverford and Harvard and acquired a reputation for outstanding scholarship. Kelly was involved in two important ministries in his early years: working with German prisoners in 1917-18 and pastoring a Quaker community in Berlin in 1924-25. Upon his return, he taught at Earlham College and the University of Hawaii. In 1936 he began teaching philosophy at Haverford, where he remained until his death in 1941.
While a student at Haverford, Kelly said to a professor; "I am going to make my life a miracle!" He set high standards for his life, desiring excellence in truth in all areas. Some believed that he was driven to the point of exhaustion until, in 1937, he had an experience that ended the strain and striving. His efforts were now aimed at developing an acquaintance with God, not merely acquiring knowledge about God.
Kelly was known by his colleagues as a man of genuine devotion, and his writings, in particular A Testament of Devotion and The Eternal Promise, have made a lasting impact on all who have read them. Rufus Jones said of the former book, "There are a few-a very few-great devotional books-and here is a book I can recommend along with the best of the ancient ones."
The book was originally given as a five-part series of addresses, and the following selection is taken from the first address, titled "The Light Within."
EXCERPTS FROM A TESTAMENT OF DEVOTION
1. An Amazing Inner Sanctuary
Meister Eckhart wrote, "As thou art in church or cell, that same frame of mind carry out into the world; into its turmoils and fitfulness." Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself.
It is a light within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon our faces. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And he is within us all.
2. The Secret Places of the Heart
The basic response of the soul to the Light is internal adoration and joy, thanksgiving and worship, self-surrender and listening. The secret places of the heart cease to be our noisy workshop. They become a holy sanctuary of adoration and self-oblation, where we are kept in perfect peace if our minds be stayed on Him who has found us in the inward springs of our life. And in the brief intervals of overpowering visitation we are able to carry the sanctuary frame of mind out into the world, into its turmoil and fitfulness. Powerfully are the springs of our will moved to an abandon of singing love toward God; powerfully are we moved to a new and overcoming love toward time-blinded men and all creation.
3. A Subterranean Sanctuary of the Soul
But the light fades, the will weakens, the humdrum returns. Can we endure this fading? No, nor should we try, for we must learn the disciplines of his will, and pass beyond this first les¬son of his grace. But the Eternal Inward Light does not die when ecstasy dies, nor exist only intermittently with the flickering of our psychic states.
Continuously renewed immediacy, not receding memory of the Divine Touch, lies at the base of religious living. Let us explore together the secret of a deeper devotion, a more subterranean sanctuary of the soul, where the Light Within never fades, but burns, a perpetual Flame; where the wells of living water of divine revelation rise up continuously, day by day and hour by hour, steady and transfiguring.
4. Secret Habits of Unceasing Orientation
What is here urged are internal practices and habits of the mind. What is here urged are secret habits of unceasing orientation of the deeps of our being about the Inward Light, ways of conducting our inward life so that we are perpetually bowed in worship while we are also very busy in the world of daily affairs. What is here urged are inward practices of the mind at deepest levels, letting it swing like the needle, to the polestar of the soul.
And like the needle, the Inward Light becomes the truest guide of life, showing us new and unsuspected defects in ourselves and our fellows, showing us new and unsuspected possibilities in the power and life of good-will -among men. But, more deeply, he who is within us urges, by secret persuasion, to such an amazing Inward Life with him, so that, firmly cleaving to him, we always look out upon all the world through the sheen of the Inward Light, and react toward men spontaneously and joyously from this Inward Center.
5. History Rooted in Eternity
Such practice of inward orientation, of inward worship and listening, is no mere counsel for special religious groups, for small religious orders, for special "interior souls," for monks retired in cloisters. This practice is the heart of religion. lt is the secret, I am persuaded, of the inner life of the Master in Galilee. He expects this secret to be freshly discovered in everyone who would be his follower. It creates an amazing fellowship, the church catholic and invisible, and institutes group living at a new level, a society grounded in reverence, history rooted in eternity, colonies of heaven.
The Inner Light, the Inward Christ, is no mere doctrine, belonging peculiarly to a small religious fellowship, to be accepted or rejected as a mere belief. It is the living Center of Reference for all Christian souls and Christian groups.
Practice comes first in religion, not theory or dogma. And Christian practice is not exhausted in outward deeds. They are the fruits, not the roots. A practicing Christian must above all be one who practices the perpetual return of the soul into the inner sanctuary, who brings the world into its Light and rejudges it, who brings the Light into the world with all its turmoil and its fitfulness and re-creates it. To the reverent exploration of this practice we now address ourselves.
6. Behind the Scenes
There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculat¬ing, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings.
Between these two levels is fruitful interplay, but ever the accent must be upon the deeper level, where the soul dwells in the presence of the Holy One, forever bringing all affairs of the first level down into the Light, holding them there in the Presence, reseeding them in a new and more overturning way and responding to them in spontaneous, incisive, and simple ways of love and faith.
7. Mental Habits of Inward Orientation
How, then, shall we lay hold of that Life and Power and live the life of prayer without ceasing? By quiet, persistent practice in turning all of our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, toward him who calls in the deeps of our souls.
Mental habits of inward orientation must be established. An inner, secret turning to God can be made fairly steady after weeks and months and years of practice and lapses and failures and returns. It is as simple as Brother Lawrence found it, but it may be long before we can achieve any steadiness in the process.
Begin now, as you read these words, as you sit in your chair, to offer your whole selves, utterly and in joyful abandon, in quiet, glad surrender to him who is within. ln secret ejaculations of praise, turn in humble wonder to the Light, faint though it may be. Keep contact with the outer world of sense and meanings. Here is no discipline in absentmindedness. Walk and talk and work and laugh with your friends. But behind the scenes, keep up the life of simple prayer and inward worship. Let inward prayer be your last act before you fall asleep and the first act when you awake.
8. Ever Return Quietly
The first days and weeks and months are awkward and painful, but enormously rewarding. Awkward, because it takes constant vigilance and effort and reassertions of the will at the first level. Painful, because our lapses are so frequent, the intervals when we forget him so long. Rewarding, because we have begun to live.
Lapses and forgettings are so frequent. But when you catch yourself again, lose no time in self-recriminations, but breathe a silent prayer for forgiveness and begin again, just where you are. Offer this broken worship up to him and say: "This is what I am except Thou aid me." Admit no discouragement, but ever return quietly to him and wait in his presence.
9. The First Sign of Simultaneity
At first the practice of inward prayer is a process of alternation of attention between outer things and the Inner Light. Preoccupation with either brings the loss of the other. Yet what is sought is not alternation, but simultaneity, worship undergirding every moment, living prayer, the continuous current and background of all moments of life.
The first signs of simultaneity are given when at the moment of recovery from a period of forgetting there is a sense that we have not completely forgotten him. What takes place now is not reinstatement of a broken prayer, but a return to liveliness. The currents of his love have been flowing, but whereas we had been drifting in him, now we swim.
10. Made Pliant in His Holy Will
But periods of dawning simultaneity and steadfast prayer may come and go, lapsing into alternation for long periods and returning in glorious power. And we learn to submit to the inner discipline of withdrawing of his gifts. For if the least taint of spiritual pride in our prayer-growth has come, it is well that he humble us until we are worthy of greater trust.
For though we begin the practice of secret prayer with a strong sense that we are the initiators and that by our wills we are establish¬ing our habits, maturing experience brings awareness of being met and tutored, purged and disciplined, simplified and made pliant in his holy will by a power waiting within us. For God himself works in our souls, in their deepest depths, taking increasing control as we are progressively willing to be prepared for his wonder.
11. No New Technique
There is no new technique for entrance upon this stage where the soul in its deeper levels is continuously at Home in him. The processes of inward prayer do not grow more complex, but more simple. In the early weeks we begin with simple, whispered words. Formulate them spontaneously. "Thine only. Thine only." Or seize upon a fragment of the Psalms: "so panteth my soul after Thee, 0 God."
Repeat them inwardly, over and over again. For the conscious cooperation of the surface level is needed at first, before prayer sinks into the second level as habitual divine orientation. Longer discipline in this inward prayer will establish more enduring upreachings of praise and submission and relaxed listening in the depths, unworded but habitual orientation of all one?s self about him who is the Focus.
And in the X-ray light of eternity we may be given to see the dark spots of life, and di¬vine grace may be given to reinforce our will to complete abandonment in him. For the guidance of the Light is critical, acid, sharper than a two-edged sword. He asks all, but he gives all.
Related Tags: Thomas Kelly, devotional, spiritual, sermon, lesson, Christianity, faith, prayer
Thomas Kelly was born into a Quaker family in Ohio in 1893. He was educated at Haverford and Harvard and acquired a reputation for outstanding scholarship. Kelly was involved in two important ministries in his early years: working with German prisoners in 1917-18 and pastoring a Quaker community in Berlin in 1924-25. Upon his return, he taught at Earlham College and the University of Hawaii. In 1936 he began teaching philosophy at Haverford, where he remained until his death in 1941.
While a student at Haverford, Kelly said to a professor; "I am going to make my life a miracle!" He set high standards for his life, desiring excellence in truth in all areas. Some believed that he was driven to the point of exhaustion until, in 1937, he had an experience that ended the strain and striving. His efforts were now aimed at developing an acquaintance with God, not merely acquiring knowledge about God.
Kelly was known by his colleagues as a man of genuine devotion, and his writings, in particular A Testament of Devotion and The Eternal Promise, have made a lasting impact on all who have read them. Rufus Jones said of the former book, "There are a few-a very few-great devotional books-and here is a book I can recommend along with the best of the ancient ones."
The book was originally given as a five-part series of addresses, and the following selection is taken from the first address, titled "The Light Within."
EXCERPTS FROM A TESTAMENT OF DEVOTION
1. An Amazing Inner Sanctuary
Meister Eckhart wrote, "As thou art in church or cell, that same frame of mind carry out into the world; into its turmoils and fitfulness." Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself.
It is a light within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon our faces. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And he is within us all.
2. The Secret Places of the Heart
The basic response of the soul to the Light is internal adoration and joy, thanksgiving and worship, self-surrender and listening. The secret places of the heart cease to be our noisy workshop. They become a holy sanctuary of adoration and self-oblation, where we are kept in perfect peace if our minds be stayed on Him who has found us in the inward springs of our life. And in the brief intervals of overpowering visitation we are able to carry the sanctuary frame of mind out into the world, into its turmoil and fitfulness. Powerfully are the springs of our will moved to an abandon of singing love toward God; powerfully are we moved to a new and overcoming love toward time-blinded men and all creation.
3. A Subterranean Sanctuary of the Soul
But the light fades, the will weakens, the humdrum returns. Can we endure this fading? No, nor should we try, for we must learn the disciplines of his will, and pass beyond this first les¬son of his grace. But the Eternal Inward Light does not die when ecstasy dies, nor exist only intermittently with the flickering of our psychic states.
Continuously renewed immediacy, not receding memory of the Divine Touch, lies at the base of religious living. Let us explore together the secret of a deeper devotion, a more subterranean sanctuary of the soul, where the Light Within never fades, but burns, a perpetual Flame; where the wells of living water of divine revelation rise up continuously, day by day and hour by hour, steady and transfiguring.
4. Secret Habits of Unceasing Orientation
What is here urged are internal practices and habits of the mind. What is here urged are secret habits of unceasing orientation of the deeps of our being about the Inward Light, ways of conducting our inward life so that we are perpetually bowed in worship while we are also very busy in the world of daily affairs. What is here urged are inward practices of the mind at deepest levels, letting it swing like the needle, to the polestar of the soul.
And like the needle, the Inward Light becomes the truest guide of life, showing us new and unsuspected defects in ourselves and our fellows, showing us new and unsuspected possibilities in the power and life of good-will -among men. But, more deeply, he who is within us urges, by secret persuasion, to such an amazing Inward Life with him, so that, firmly cleaving to him, we always look out upon all the world through the sheen of the Inward Light, and react toward men spontaneously and joyously from this Inward Center.
5. History Rooted in Eternity
Such practice of inward orientation, of inward worship and listening, is no mere counsel for special religious groups, for small religious orders, for special "interior souls," for monks retired in cloisters. This practice is the heart of religion. lt is the secret, I am persuaded, of the inner life of the Master in Galilee. He expects this secret to be freshly discovered in everyone who would be his follower. It creates an amazing fellowship, the church catholic and invisible, and institutes group living at a new level, a society grounded in reverence, history rooted in eternity, colonies of heaven.
The Inner Light, the Inward Christ, is no mere doctrine, belonging peculiarly to a small religious fellowship, to be accepted or rejected as a mere belief. It is the living Center of Reference for all Christian souls and Christian groups.
Practice comes first in religion, not theory or dogma. And Christian practice is not exhausted in outward deeds. They are the fruits, not the roots. A practicing Christian must above all be one who practices the perpetual return of the soul into the inner sanctuary, who brings the world into its Light and rejudges it, who brings the Light into the world with all its turmoil and its fitfulness and re-creates it. To the reverent exploration of this practice we now address ourselves.
6. Behind the Scenes
There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculat¬ing, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings.
Between these two levels is fruitful interplay, but ever the accent must be upon the deeper level, where the soul dwells in the presence of the Holy One, forever bringing all affairs of the first level down into the Light, holding them there in the Presence, reseeding them in a new and more overturning way and responding to them in spontaneous, incisive, and simple ways of love and faith.
7. Mental Habits of Inward Orientation
How, then, shall we lay hold of that Life and Power and live the life of prayer without ceasing? By quiet, persistent practice in turning all of our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, toward him who calls in the deeps of our souls.
Mental habits of inward orientation must be established. An inner, secret turning to God can be made fairly steady after weeks and months and years of practice and lapses and failures and returns. It is as simple as Brother Lawrence found it, but it may be long before we can achieve any steadiness in the process.
Begin now, as you read these words, as you sit in your chair, to offer your whole selves, utterly and in joyful abandon, in quiet, glad surrender to him who is within. ln secret ejaculations of praise, turn in humble wonder to the Light, faint though it may be. Keep contact with the outer world of sense and meanings. Here is no discipline in absentmindedness. Walk and talk and work and laugh with your friends. But behind the scenes, keep up the life of simple prayer and inward worship. Let inward prayer be your last act before you fall asleep and the first act when you awake.
8. Ever Return Quietly
The first days and weeks and months are awkward and painful, but enormously rewarding. Awkward, because it takes constant vigilance and effort and reassertions of the will at the first level. Painful, because our lapses are so frequent, the intervals when we forget him so long. Rewarding, because we have begun to live.
Lapses and forgettings are so frequent. But when you catch yourself again, lose no time in self-recriminations, but breathe a silent prayer for forgiveness and begin again, just where you are. Offer this broken worship up to him and say: "This is what I am except Thou aid me." Admit no discouragement, but ever return quietly to him and wait in his presence.
9. The First Sign of Simultaneity
At first the practice of inward prayer is a process of alternation of attention between outer things and the Inner Light. Preoccupation with either brings the loss of the other. Yet what is sought is not alternation, but simultaneity, worship undergirding every moment, living prayer, the continuous current and background of all moments of life.
The first signs of simultaneity are given when at the moment of recovery from a period of forgetting there is a sense that we have not completely forgotten him. What takes place now is not reinstatement of a broken prayer, but a return to liveliness. The currents of his love have been flowing, but whereas we had been drifting in him, now we swim.
10. Made Pliant in His Holy Will
But periods of dawning simultaneity and steadfast prayer may come and go, lapsing into alternation for long periods and returning in glorious power. And we learn to submit to the inner discipline of withdrawing of his gifts. For if the least taint of spiritual pride in our prayer-growth has come, it is well that he humble us until we are worthy of greater trust.
For though we begin the practice of secret prayer with a strong sense that we are the initiators and that by our wills we are establish¬ing our habits, maturing experience brings awareness of being met and tutored, purged and disciplined, simplified and made pliant in his holy will by a power waiting within us. For God himself works in our souls, in their deepest depths, taking increasing control as we are progressively willing to be prepared for his wonder.
11. No New Technique
There is no new technique for entrance upon this stage where the soul in its deeper levels is continuously at Home in him. The processes of inward prayer do not grow more complex, but more simple. In the early weeks we begin with simple, whispered words. Formulate them spontaneously. "Thine only. Thine only." Or seize upon a fragment of the Psalms: "so panteth my soul after Thee, 0 God."
Repeat them inwardly, over and over again. For the conscious cooperation of the surface level is needed at first, before prayer sinks into the second level as habitual divine orientation. Longer discipline in this inward prayer will establish more enduring upreachings of praise and submission and relaxed listening in the depths, unworded but habitual orientation of all one?s self about him who is the Focus.
And in the X-ray light of eternity we may be given to see the dark spots of life, and di¬vine grace may be given to reinforce our will to complete abandonment in him. For the guidance of the Light is critical, acid, sharper than a two-edged sword. He asks all, but he gives all.
Related Tags: Thomas Kelly, devotional, spiritual, sermon, lesson, Christianity, faith, prayer
