The Spiritual Journals of Warren Felt Evans

From Methodism to Mind Cure

Warren Felt Evans, Catherine L. Albanese

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780253022554
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Religion

Warren Felt Evans (1817–1889) converted to Methodism while at Dartmouth College, became a minister, and spent his Methodist years as a spiritual seeker. His two extant journals, edited and annotated by Catherine L. Albanese, appear in print for the first time and reveal the inner journey of a leading American spiritual pilgrim at a critical period in his religious search. A voracious reader, he recorded accounts of intense religious experience in his journals. He moved from the Oberlin perfectionism he embraced early on, through the French quietism of Madame J. Guyon and Archbishop Fénelon, then into Swedenborgianism, spiritualism, and mind cure with distinct theosophical overtones. His carefully documented journey is suggestive of the similar journeys of the religious seekers who made their way into the burgeoning metaphysical movement at the end of the 19th century—and may shed light too on today's spirituality.

Journal II (1857–1865)

Journal Dec. 31^st. 1857.¹
W. F. Evans.

Claremont N.H.

Chronology of my Life.²

I was born in Rockingham Vt. Dec. 23^d 1817. In June, 1835, turned my attention to religious things and connected myself with the Congregational church.

Fitted for College at Chester (vt) Academy, and entered Middlebury College, Sept. 7^th 1837. In the following spring went to Dartmouth College, where I remained until the middle of the Junior year.

Jan. 1^st 1839. Preached my first sermon at Bellows Falls, from “He hath bent his bow & made it ready.”³ Also connected myself with the M. E. Church. Had previously embraced the Oberlin view of Sanctification.

June 21^st 1840, was married to Miss Charlotte Tinker of Chelsea Vt, and in the session of the N.H. Conference, held in Chelsea July 1^st 1840, was appointed to Peacham Vt. Remained one year and located.

Joined Conference again, at the session in Portsmouth, July 10^th 1844.

July 14^th 1844 was ordained Deacon by bishop Hamline.⁴ Was stationed at Goffstown N.H., where I remained one year.

In June 1845, was stationed at Pembroke⁵ where I labored two years.

At the Conference in Northfield N.H., May 23^d 1847, was ordained an Elder, and stationed at Rindge, N.H. Remained one year. The two following years labored in Marlow.⁶

At the Conference held in New Market May, 1850, was appointed to Newport, where I labored two years. From that time my Journal shows where I have preached.⁷

1857.⁸

Claremont Dec. 31^st 1857. In a short time another year expires. May my sinful nature expire with it. May the old Adam in me die, and all things belonging to the new life in Christ live and grow in me— I can never deem the work of my salvation complete until I do good without effort, just as the sinner does evil. In the 2^d Chapter of Isaiah, the prophet in speaking of the age of the Messiah, says: “It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” Isa. 2:2. As the torrents of the mountains, as the rivers in the valleys, flow to the ocean from the law of their own nature, so the soul fully redeemed flows toward the mountain of God’s holiness from its own inward impulse. It is not impelled merely by a sense of obligation, but through the attractions of love it silently and calmly moves in the line of duty. The degree of ease with which one does what is right, is the measure of the degree of our redemption.

I find the following among the maxims of Lao-tseu, a Chinese philosopher who lived about 600 years before Christ— “Men of superior virtue are ignorant of their virtue. Men of inferior virtue do not forget their virtue. Men of superior virtue practice it without thinking of it. Men of inferior virtue practice it with intention.”⁹ In the highest stage of our personal redemption, our whole inward nature is transformed, the current of life flows spontaneously in the direction of God and heaven. The thoughts, desires[,] affections, and even the will all tend of their own accord towards their natural center. Such a soul does right without a struggle, without an effort, and sometimes without knowing it. He is not driven by conscience to duty, to secret prayer for instance, like a slave to a task. His nature flows in that direction. He acts in accordance with the law, and yet is not pressed by the law. He is impelled not by the pressure of law, or the demands of conscience merely, but his nature, his life, is to do what the law demands. His soul has recovered its native freedom—the freedom of angels and of God.

“All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; [un]to the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” Eccl. 1:7. (The time will come when the multitudes of the world will flow unto the mountain of the Lord’s house, not like the Euphrates in a great, rapid, and impetuous current, roaring and dashing; but the ransomed spirit shall flow to God, like the gentle Siloah, whose waters go softly. Isa. 8:6.7.)¹⁰

Jan. 2. 1858. With the first beginnings of the soul’s restoration, the appearance of outward nature is changed. How often is the remark made that all things seem to be new. The new moral creation within is reflected upon things without, and there seem to be new heavens and a new earth, because we behold them through the medium of new feelings, and see them from a different stand-point. The harmony of the restored moral nature with the with the outward world deepens with the progress of the redeemed spirit in holiness. It sees in the beautiful, moving forms of the earth the emanations of the beauty of the Lord, and sees all things to be full of God— The successive seasons, with the beauties and harmonies belonging to each, are exhibitions of the Deity.

[“]These as they change, Almighty Father, these

Are but the varied God. The rolling year,

Is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring

Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love.

Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm;

Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles;

And every sense, and every heart is joy.

Then comes thy glory in the Summer-months,

With light and heat refulgent. Then thy Sun

Shoots full perfection through the swelling year:

And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks;

And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,

By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales,

Thy bounty shines in Autumn unconfined.

And spreads a common feast for all that lives.

In winter, awful thou! with clouds and storms

Around thee thrown, tempest o’er tempest rolled,

Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind’s wing,

Riding sublime, thou bid’st the world adore,

And humblest nature with thy northern blast.”¹¹

The earth though sympathizing with the moral disorders of mankind, still exhibits traces of its original perfection, some lingering marks of its Paradisaical order and bloom. It is this which accounts for the fact that in the language of two of the most highly polished nations of the old world, the universe is designated by words signifying order and elegance, (κοςμος, and mundus.)¹² Pythagoras, who seems to have had a keen sense of the harmonies of nature, is said to have been the first of the Greeks who applied the word κοςμος to the material universe. (See Hulsean Lectures. p. 194.)¹³ Enough of its original beauty gleams through its present disorders, to convince us that it was not made to be the abode of sin, and of beings made miserable by sin. “The earth, arrayed in verdure, adorned with flowers, diversified with hill and dale, forest and glade, fountains and running streams, engirdled with the ocean, over-canopied with heaven; this earth, so smiling and fruitful, so commodious and magnificent, is altogether worthy of its Maker; and not only a fit habitation for man, created in the image of God, but a place which angels might delight to visit on embassies of love.” (Montgomery’s Lectures on Poetry. p. 52.)¹⁴ These beauties can be appreciated {only} and enjoyed fully only by those who are pure in heart. Sin blights and blasts the fair scene. It draws a veil over the beautiful creations of the divine hand. But the earth is full of divine radiance, and the relics of its original adornment. The redeemed spirit, adjusted in harmony with all that is divine, finds them on every hand. It now,

“Makes musis [music] with the common strings, With which the world
is strung, and makes the dumb

Earth utter heavenly harmony.—[”]¹⁵

How often in silent contemplation, with the soul in communion with

a present God, have I heard,

“The low sweet voices of a thousand streams,

Some near, some far remote, faint trickling sounds,

That dwelt in the great solitude of night

Upon the edge of silence.”¹⁶

Jan. 24. Had a greater struggle of soul this afternoon after meeting than I ever before experienced. I joined my soul to Christ by living faith, and thus merged in Jesus, I went to the throne of the Father, who always—hears him. I felt as if I should die unless my prayer was heard. In the evening we had a time of power, such as I have not seen since I came to Claremont. Three souls were converted—

Jan. 27. My mind is unusually active, I am not troubled with wandering thoughts, with such as wander from God. My thoughts naturally move towards him, and fix themselves upon divine things. I almost tire of this divine contemplation. Sometimes I fall into a divine slumber. The soul ceases all effort in thinking; all desire is silenced; and the mind looses itself in the depths of God. Earthly images fade away, and the soul sweetly floats inward from the circumference, and becomes tranquilly fixed on its divine center. This divine slumber is necessary to the rest of the powers of the soul, and to recruit its energies. The spirit sleeps in God— Does not the Psalmist refer to this when he says of God that “he giveth his beloved sleep.” Ps. 127:2. Fenelon remarks in his Pious Thoughts, “That the presence of God calms the spirit, gives a peaceful slumber and repose, even during the daytime, and in the midst of all labors.”¹⁷ How sweet thus to rest, with the mind free from all disturbing emotions, and desires, and all active thought, and to fall into a divine slumber— I love to hide in the secret place of the Most High from all care and anxiety, and in inward silence to sympathize with the repose of God—to sink into the bosom of the Infinite Life, and become still. There are times, after long continued thought and exertion, as in preaching, when the soul needs not bliss, but asks only for rest.

This holy slumber is not to be a permanent state, but only as the soul needs repose. “There remaineth a rest to the people of God.”¹⁸

Feb. 27^th 1858. At times my soul has had a clearer sense of the allness of God than I ever before experienced. One night on my bed my soul lost itself in the All— It seemed to me that there was nothing but God—that he was the life, the support, the substance of everything which exists. I thank God for rest in the all-pervading Deity. This inward consciousness of God, this living and moving in the divine element, has made all times and places alike. Every day is exalted to the dignity of a Sabbath, while the Sabbath is not lowered to mere secular time. Sometimes I find formal prayer to be an impossibility. I enter my closet, fall upon my knees, hold my soul in the divine presence, but have no special burden of prayer, no particular requests to make. I can only sweetly rest in the will of God, while my heart from its inmost center silently breathes out the prayer, the holiest in earth or heaven—

May thy will, not mine be done,

May thy will and mine be one.¹⁹

Prayer is becoming with me an inward life— The soul in a ceaseless current flows out after God. Its desires silently flow into the mind of God, and the thoughts of God flow into my soul. There is a community of feeling between my heart and the God it adores. In this holy fellowship with Christ we have all things common.

March 7. Sabbath— In the evening three persons presented themselves as objects of prayer. May they all find rest in Christ.

March 10. I have found the true riches—at least I have discovered where they are to be found. He is infinitely rich who desires nothing. Many persons are esteemed rich who are not really so— Says the devout Charles How— “I take him to be the only rich man, who lives upon what he has, owes nothing, and is contented. For there is no determinate sum of money, nor quantity of estate, that can denote a man rich; since no man is truly rich that has not so much as perfectly satiates his desire of having more. For the desire of more is want, and want is poverty.”²⁰ But nothing can meet the large desires of the soul but the possession of the infinite and uncreated Good. The soul that is satisfied with God and desires nothing else is unspeakably rich. If I delight myself in the Lord, he gives me the desires of my heart. I have found this blessedness in some good degree— How sweet has been my fellowship with God for a long time— In the solitude of my own being I commune with him—

“Within his circling arms I lie,

Beset on every side.”²¹

I have been blest with the “season of finite good,” and have found gold tried in the fire.²²

March 19^th 1858— There is at present a more extensive revival of religion in the country than has been known for a long time; New York city is especially the scene of a most powerful work of God.²³ The popular current has been turned towards the cross, and the masses are flowing towards the house of God. Prayer has been offered that this saving influence might sweep over the place like an an overwhelming flood of life and glory. My own soul has been much burdened with an intense and incessant desire for a general outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Yet I would constantly rest in the will of God in this matter. O that his salvation might go forth as brightness. Let my cry come before thee my king and my God; for unto thee do I call.

March. 26— In order to abide in the peace of God, I find it necessary to banish from my heart all jealous feelings of God, and to maintain a constant assurance that he l...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Warren Felt Evans
• A Note to Readers
• Journal I (1850–1857)
• Journal II (1857–1865)
• Notes
• Index