Light, Life, and Love | Page 6

of the "spark" over the
soul is an unrealised ideal.[14]
The truth which he values is that, as Mr Upton[15] has well expressed
it, "there is a certain self-revelation of the eternal and infinite One to
the finite soul, and therefore an indestructible basis for religious ideas
and beliefs as distinguished from what is called scientific
knowledge. . . . This immanent universal principle does not pertain to,
and is not the property of any individual mind, but belongs to that
uncreated and eternal nature of God which lies deeper than all those
differences which separate individual minds from each other, and is
indeed that incarnation of the Eternal, who though He is present in
every finite thing, is still not broken up into individualities, but remains
one and the same eternal substance, one and the same unifying
principle, immanently and indivisibly present in every one of the
countless plurality of finite individuals." It might further be urged that

neither God nor man can be understood in independence of each other.
A recent writer on ethics,[16] not too well disposed towards
Christianity, is, I think, right in saying: "To the popular mind, which
assumes God and man to be two different realities, each given in
independence of the other, . . . the identification of man's love of God
with God's love of Himself has always been a paradox and a
stumbling-block. But it is not too much to say that until it has been seen
to be no paradox, but a simple and fundamental truth, the masterpieces
of the world's religious literature must remain a sealed book to us."
Eckhart certainly believed himself to have escaped the pitfall of
Pantheism; but he often expressed himself in such an unguarded way
that the charge may be brought against him with some show of reason.
Love, Eckhart teaches, is the principle of all virtues; it is God Himself.
Next to it in dignity comes humility. The beauty of the soul, he says in
the true Platonic vein, is to be well ordered, with the higher faculties
above the lower, each in its proper place. The will should be supreme
over the understanding, the understanding over the senses. Whatever
we will earnestly, that we have, and no one can hinder us from attaining
that detachment from the creatures in which our blessedness consists.
Evil, from the highest standpoint, is only a means for realising the
eternal aim of God in creation; all will ultimately be overruled for good.
Nevertheless, we can frustrate the good will of God towards us, and it
is this, and not the thought of any insult against Himself, that makes
God grieve for our sins. It would not be worth while to give any more
quotations on this subject, for Eckhart is not more successful than other
philosophers in propounding a consistent and intelligible theory of the
place of evil in the universe.
Eckhart is well aware of the two chief pitfalls into which the mystic is
liable to fall--dreamy inactivity and Antinomianism. The sects of the
Free Spirit seem to have afforded a good object-lesson in both these
errors, as some of the Gnostic sects did in the second century. Eckhart's
teaching here is sound and good. Freedom from law, he says, belongs
only to the "spark," not to the faculties of the soul, and no man can live
always on the highest plane. Contemplation is, in a sense, a means to

activity; works of charity are its proper fruit. "If a man were in an
ecstasy like that of St Paul, when he was caught up into the third
heaven, and knew of a poor man who needed his help, he ought to
leave his ecstasy and help the needy." Suso[17] tells us how God
punished him for disregarding this duty. True contemplation considers
Reality (or Being) in its manifestations as well as in its origin. If this is
remembered, there need be no conflict between social morality and the
inner life. Eckhart recognises[18] that it is a harder and a nobler task to
preserve detachment in a crowd than in a cell; the little daily sacrifices
of family life are often a greater trial than self-imposed mortifications.
"We need not destroy any little good in ourselves for the sake of a
better, but we should strive to grasp every truth in its highest meaning,
for no one good contradicts another." "Love God, and do as you like,
say the Free Spirits. Yes; but as long as you like anything contrary to
God's will, you do not love Him."
There is much more of the same kind in Eckhart's sermons--as good
and sensible doctrine as one could find anywhere. But what was the
practical effect of his teaching as a whole? It is generally the case that
the