Christian Healing

"But does this God have any relationship to the individual, so that we can have some consciousness of Him and some connection with Him? Or is there an invisible curtain between the soul and this power in nature—this righteous direction of history? Literature is the interpreter of life, and we turn to literature for an answer to this question. This answer is given to us by the great poets, and by no one more clearly and beautifully than by Tennyson:

"Speak to Him, for He hears, and spirit can meet with spirit;

He is closer than breathing, and nearer than hands or feet." These lines are from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem "The Higher Pantheism" (1869), which suggests that the physical world is a manifestation of God, who is immediately accessible to the human spirit.

"The notion of a human-like original: "humanized" God sitting at the center of the universe ruling things is gone. In its place, science has brought us back to this: 'We are always in the presence of the Infinite'; and history has brought us back to this: 'There is a power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness'; This famous definition of God was coined by the Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold in his book Literature and Dogma (1873). and literature has brought us back to this: 'Spirit can meet with spirit. He is closer than breathing, and nearer than hands or feet.' Would you think that personality In this context, "personality" refers to the quality of being a conscious, self-aware, and relating Being, rather than a cold, mechanical force. was gone just because it was operating right before your eyes?

"What we mean by personality is this: the infinite and eternal energy, from which all things proceed, is an energy that thinks, feels, intends, and acts. It is thinking, feeling, intending, and acting as a conscious life, of which our own is only a poor and broken reflection. I think we have stood at the foot of the cross or at the door of the tomb for too long and have not seen the stone rolled away and the triumphant Savior emerging. We have thought of the life of Christ ending with His passion Archaic use referring to the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus. and death for too long. But the greater part of His life is His life after the resurrection."

This fuller understanding of the very near presence of the creating and sustaining power of the universe, including humanity, has awakened a great inquiry into the character of this all-pervading One, and on every hand...