RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26544, 20 August 1947, Page 2

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

L. D. WEATHERHEAD’S GUIDE How Can I Find God? By Leslie D. Weatherhead. A St. Hugh’s Miniature This little book, by the well-known Free Church minister, has taken a subject which, after a great war, must interest many more people than the conventionally religious. The book gets off to a good start, for Mr Weatherhead. who is a shrewd and hardhitting man, begins by asking, “ Do we really want to find Him? ” and shows ■ hat all too often we want to witn only half our minds. His next section, “Are we hiding from Him? ” is equally good. He points out the many spiritual dug-outs into which people dive to escape the bombardment of that stern question. (The figure is his own.) He 'emphasises that too much intellectual speculation on theology is just as effective a barrier to true realisation of God as denial of Him, and that conventional religion can sometimes be even mox - e effective because it instils a sense of false security, and self-satisfaction. He points out that there are plenty of Pharisees about to-day. Service to our fellowmen is also indicted as a “ dug-out ” when undertaken as a substitute for union with God, instead of as a result of it. In all this Mr Weatherhead hits hard, and also accurately. It is in the later parts of the book that he is less satisfying. The answer to . the question “ How may we find Him? ” is neither clearcut nor absolutely free from a certain barren conventionality of phrase. One finds some of the cant of the pulpit where one looks for, and is entitled 1o expect, some sort of recipe of sainthood. The sages of old were never afraid to give their recipes. St. Ignatius Loyola had his Many of the great mystics of the Christian tradition gave theirs, and the mystics of the East have added a testimony that differs only in detail in its method of achieving a very similar end. One cannot help suspecting that Mr Weatherhead has himself never “found” God in the true sense of experiencing the mystic union that alone qualifies a man to act as a director to others on the way Those who wish to know the answer to his question can find it elsewhere. But they will discover that it involves a self-discipline much harder, and a self-surrender more absolute, than most of us are prepared to undertake. Meanwhile this book will serve very well for those who wish to strengthen and improve their characters a little. It will not serve for those who really wish to “ find God." P. H. W. N.