Thoughts on Religious Experience (eBook)

by Archibald Alexander

In ePub, .mobi and .pdf formats

On the basis of fifty years as a pastor, preacher and professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) deals with the subjective work of the Holy Spirit in the heart in all its phases, from the new birth until final preparation for heaven.

There are two kinds of religious knowledge which, though intimately connected as cause and effect, may nevertheless be distinguished. These are the knowledge of the truth as it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures; and the impression which that truth makes on the human mind when rightly apprehended. The first may be compared to the inscription or image on a seal, the other to the impression made by the seal on the wax. When that impression is clearly and distinctly made, we can understand, by contemplating it, the true inscription on the seal more satisfactorily, than by a direct view of the seal itself. Thus it is found that nothing tends more to confirm and elucidate the truths contained in the Word, than an inward experience of their efficacy on the heart. It cannot, therefore, be uninteresting to the Christian to have these effects, as they consist in the various views and affections of the mind, traced out and exhibited in their connection with the truth, and in their relation to each other.