The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

The Varieties of Religious Experienceconverse with them, and finally I spoke, saying ‘O ye affectionateangels! how is it that ye can take so much interest in our welfare,and we take so little interest in our own.’ After this, with difficultyI got to sleep; and when I awoke in the morning my first thoughtswere: What has become of my happiness? and, feeling a degree of itin my heart, I asked for more, which was given to me as quick asthought. I then got up to dress myself, and found to my surprisethat I could but just stand. It appeared to me as if it was a littleheaven upon earth. My soul felt as completely raised above the fearsof death as of going to sleep; and like a bird in a cage, I had a desire,if it was the will of God, to get released from my body and to dwellwith Christ, though willing to live to do good to others, and towarn sinners to repent. I went downstairs feeling as solemn as if Ihad lost all my friends, and thinking with myself, that I would notlet my parents know it until I had first looked into the Testament. Iwent directly to the shelf and looked into it, at the eighth of Romans,and every verse seemed to almost speak and to confirm it tobe truly the Word of God, and as if my feelings corresponded withthe meaning of the word. I then told my parents of it, and toldthem that I thought that they must see that when I spoke, that itwas not my own voice, for it appeared so to me. My speech seemedentirely under the control of the Spirit within me; I do not meanthat the words which I spoke were not my own, for they were. Ithought that I was influenced similar to the Apostles on the day ofPentecost (with the exception of having power to give it to others,and doing what they did). After breakfast I went round to conversewith my neighbors on religion, which I could not have been hiredto have done before this, and at their request I prayed with them,though I had never prayed in public before.“I now feel as if I had discharged my duty by telling the truth, andhope by the blessing of God, it may do some good to all who shallread it. He has fulfilled his promise in sending the Holy Spirit downinto our hearts, or mine at least, and I now defy all the Deists andAtheists in the world to shake my faith in Christ.”So much for Mr. Bradley and his conversion, of the effect of whichupon his later life we gain no information. Now for a minuter surveyof the constituent elements of the conversion process.178