T HE MES S A G E O F

T HO MA S A K E M P I S

E BEN .
J . IV E S
”
A ut h o r of
“
T h e Ev e r a P r e s e n t C h r i s t , e tc .

We ma yee m im e o m preh d d e ha
s at t s to c en an x ust t h e h el p f u l a

ne ss h b oo
of t b
e l k : d li e m o re
ut et u s go an v an d the om e n c

h hered e er e e d 1 w d h
,

b k
ac to i t w it ou r g at x p i nc , an 0 ! ne ep t s

an d re he ac f m ea
s oha w ere b e
n i ng t t i nvi s i l to ou r le t o red
ss ut

a e — EO GE T RRELL
g z G R Y .

C O LLE G E

Ql 3
2 »

L O N D O N

S TUD E NT C HR I S T I A N M OV E M E NT
32, R USS ELL S QU A R E , W . C i .

1 9 22
 To C .
I . I .

WHO SE M O THER AND MI NE TAUG HT

ME TO READ
I M I T A T I ON

i5 205 25 7
 CO NT ENT S
C HA PT E R

1 . FIR ST PRIN CIPLES

Law of New Tes tamen t I mi tation—Mi s
taken Imi tatio ns —Law o f As s mn latio n

II . A
T HE I MI T TI O N orC HR I ST
A u tho rs hip and Th omas a Kempis—C ht o
no lo gi c al Tab le
III . T HE I MI TA I I ON ’ ’
OF C HR IST
Arr an gement an d Con tents
IV . T HE C HR I STor

I ts M ess age— T h e Kin g s Way o f th e Holy

'

Cross— Imit ation—Mys ticis m—S oh tu d e

and F e llo ws h ip—Ethi cs— T e mptati on

Grac e—T h e Lo ve of J es us—Holy Com

muni on

V . T HE IMI TA TI ON C HRI ST op

S ome C ri ticis ms J us t and Unjus t

,

”
VI . T HE I MI TAI
’ '
I ON OF C HR I ST
I ts Perman en t V al u e

B IB LI O GRAP HY
I NDEX
vii
 T HE M ES S A G E OF

T HO MA S A KE M P I S

C HA PTE R I
I R ST
F PR I N C I P LES
O f thes e two i nflu ences —that o f Reas on and th at o f
L iving Examp le—w hi ch w ou ld a Wi s e refo rmer re
info r c e C hri s t c hos e th e las t He gath er e d all
.

men in to a co mmon r e lati o n to Hi ms elf and d emande d

,

that eac h s h ou ld s et Hi m on a p edes tal o f his h eart,

gi vin g a lo we r p lac e t o all o th er o b l e c ts o f wo rs h i p ,

t o fat h e r an d mo th e r t o h u s b and o r W l f e
, I n Hi m
.

s h o u l d t h e lo y alty o f all h e arts c en tr e ; He s h o u l d b e

"—
t h ei r p att e r n th eir A u th o ri ty and J u d ge
, E cce Homo
. .

I t I s th e w ork o f a mi n d o f extr eme o ri gin ali ty and

p ower : an d I t i s als o th e w o rk o f a ve ry r eli giou s man :
Tho mas a Kemp i s had no t a mo r e s o lemn s ens e o f
thi n gs u ns een and o f w hat is me ant by th e Imi ta ti o n
"—
o f C h r is t D EAN C HUR CH S Revi ew of Ecce Homo
’
.

T HE world -famous littl e book ca ll ed The I mi

t atian of C hrist opens with these words :

Whosoever followeth after M e walketh

not in darkness saith the Lord T hese
, .

are the words of Christ by which we are ,

admonished to imitate His life and manners :

if we would be truly enlightened and
de livered from all blindness of heart .

"
'
Here are the Christian s programme and
problem but how are they to be solved i n actual
,

I A
 T HE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMPIS
life ? How can frail men and women achieve
even a tolerable likeness to Jesus Christ Did
the earliest disciples do it ? H as it ever been
done Was P rofessor S eeley right in the above
extract in saying that Jesus deli berately adopted
the principle of a Livin g E xample as funda
mental amongst His disciples ? If we reali z e
w e cannot win a recogni z able likeness to Jesus
by our own e fforts , what reinforcement of our
nature is o ffer e d T his is our problem when
ever w e think o f imitating the Example of Jesus .

We shall s e e that though thi s wonderful little

book raises the probl em by its titl e , there is
much more in it of anothe r principle without ,

which imitation sinks into a vai n e ffort and

mocks by its futility T h e book sets before
.

us a great task , but suggests a way of a e com

p lis h men t for the weakest .

T h e E xample of Jesus is more than an appeal

to admiration : it is an inspiration ; but it is an
inspiration whi ch whilst creating a sense of
,

dissatisfaction and insufficiency, awak ens also a

great desire which by the strengthening aid of
,

the Holy S pirit can be embodi ed in action I t is .

the wond e r of Jesus that He can renew men into

His likeness By fellowshi p with Him the
.

moul ding power is brought into play By the .

S pirit He communicates He makes men like

Himself O r put in another way, the S pirit
.
,

takes of the things of Christ an d reveals them

to us , but such revelation is not fully known til l
it becomes incorporate in the life of the reci
pient . T h e acid test of Christianity is not what
2
 F IRST PR IN C IPLES
we make of it but what it makes of us We .

comment on the story in the Gospels criticize ,

its details but sl owly are forced to perceive that

,

w e ourselves are bein g criticized Whatever .

thei r origin however edited there they are

, ,

before us with the S upreme portrait of O ne in

whom w e discover with Browning in Christmas
,

E ve,
M o rali ty to th e u tt ermos t
S u pr eme in C hri s t as we all f
c on ess .

And not mora lity only but re li gion al so F or

, .

in Him whilst our consci ence finds its Lord

, ,

our soul discovers its Lover an d S aviour : w e

bow before Him and o w n in Him the Way the ,

Truth the Life

, I nevitably we find ourselves
.

’
testing our li ves by His whate er our name ,
"
or sign .

’
Dr Hort s statement that
. I t was not as an ,

Example but as a M aster that Christ spell

bound the A postles is true onl y in a sense .

Did He not spellbind them in both ways Of

His mastership over them there need be no
question But again and again the N ew T esta
.

ment shows how His Example was one of the

most powerful influenc e s that acted upon them ,

s o that His life and manners became the

standard for their actions An d it sh o ws .
,

further how Jesus Hims elf de liberatel y us ed

,

The Way , the Tr uth, and the Life p , . 205 .

3
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O M A S A KEMP IS
the imitative instinct as every wise educationist
do es
T h e personal influence of Jesus m
.

— ust have
been at least like that of any great man I f an .

undergraduate could s ay of T H Green I . . ,

never go to s e e Green without feeling I ought

to be ashamed of myself and by Jove I am , , ,

ashamed of would not the same be said

of Jesus I f it can be said of L ord Haig that
he exhales such an a t mosphere of honour ,

virtue courage , and sympathy that one feels

,

uplifted as when one enters the Cathedral of

,
"
Beauvais for the first time 1 did not P eter ,
'

re alize the same subtl e influence in the P resence

of Jesus ? His disciples bowed before Him
with that reverence and subj ection of soul that
upraise it too He shamed them into a feeling
.

of their littleness and yet w o n them by His

,

sympathy ; by His s elfless ne s s He judged their

selfis h ness by His purity He condemned their
,

lusts His Example w as the light that blackened

.

every blot T h e awe He exci ted by His power

.

over disease and life became a deeper aw e as

they gained insight into Hi s character He w as .

often over their heads in His instructions ,

but they seldom missed the truth when He

translated Hi s teaching into action and ex
hibit e d it in the terms of life T hey were knit .

to Him with a passionate devotion though they ,

ove restimated the strength of that devotion in

the hour of trial When His physical presence
.

L ife of B jowet t ii 1 9 2
. , . .

1
“
N L y tt o n The P ress and the General S tafi
.
, .

4
 F IRST PR IN C IP L ES
w as withdrawn it became their ambition to
follow His footsteps ( I P et ii ax ) to walk as He
*
. .
,

walked live as He lived ( I John ii

, S uch was .

the spell that His Example threw over them that

they sought not to please themselves , since
Christ pleased not Himself ( R om xv 2 3 to . .
, ,

give alms with the grace w ith which He had

“

given Himself (2 Cor viii 7 to forgive a s . .

He forgave (Ep h iv 31 to v . to be gentl e and

. .

sweetly reasonable as His conduct had eve r

been (2 Cor x I ) ; to be humble and lowly in
. .

mind (P hil i i . to be as full of courage in w i t

.

’
n e ss in g to the truth as He w as at P il ate s judg
ment seat ( I T im vi
- to s ee in Him the
. .

p ioneer and the p erfection of faith ( Heb xii . .

and to find in Him help and inspiration in

the hour of temptation since He remained sin
less though tempted ( Heb ii 1 8 iv P aul . .
, .

indeed almost sums up their ambition in the

words Copy me as I copy Christ ( I Cor xi I )
, , . . .

’
T hough it is true that h e re P aul s eyes are fixe d
on the exalted Lord since in the main as D r , , .

Fin dlay says P aul s imitatio Chri sti turns o n

'

the great acts of Christ s redee m

,
'
ing work rather ,
"
than on the incidents of His eart hly course 1 .
‘

Qu o tatio ns thr o u gho u t ar e e ith er fro m RV . or

D r M o ffatt s tr ans lati o n
.
'
.

T pE x os i t o
'
r s rGee k Te s tam ent, in lo co : cf D e n n ey , .

S tudi es i n Theology, p 1 7 1 : .t may s eem at firs t I

Si gh t mean in gles s t o s ay th at C
hr is t i n Hi s e xaltati on
C
is t o b e i nc lu d e d i n th e imi ta ti o hr isti : b u t is it s o ab s u rd
w h en w e thi n k o f it ? T h e e xalt e d hris t is thr ou gh C
Hi s S p i rit th e au tho r and giv er o f ou r li fe as hris tians ,
"
C
an d t h e k f c He c ommu ni cat es is Hi s o wn .

5
 T HE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMPIS
Ye t if we are to understand P aul we must refuse
the distinction o ften made between the histori c
Jesus and the exalted Christ T o P aul these words .

would mean little : it w as the same Jesus whom

he s aw whether he looked upward or backward .

A n d i f at times his gaZ e was more upon the

Risen Christ it w as because P aul knew the inti
mate an d invisible P resence as the very central
core o f that which made his life wort h living .

P aul lived a life in whi ch Christ w as both

within and without He w as the living atmo .

sphere in which P aul s heart breathed an d '

existed .

But this w ay of following Jesus became more

natur al to the Apostles since they had receive d
in Jesus the right of being chi ldren of God and if ,

children they perceived they were destined to

be like Him for He w as the firs t bo rn of a great
,
-

brother hood ; and by Him they were to be trans

formed into the same likeness as Hi ms elf T ill .

that likeness w as attained they were immature ,

stunte d in moral and spiritual stature waiting ,

till in common growth they grew to the full

measur e of develop ment which belongs to the fulness
of C hrist I n them had the seed of Christ been
.

sown and being watered and nourished woul d

,

some day burst into the glorious likeness

‘

( John i 1 2; I John iii 2; R om xii 29 ; 2 Cor

. . . . .

iii 1 8 ; E p h iv 1 3; John i 1 9 I 6 ; cf 1 Cor

. . . .
, . .

xv 22 47 49 ; Col iii 4 ; Gal ii

.
,
-
. I n very
. . .

”
truth Christ was the ground and original as ,

well as the archetype and prophecy of their life , .

In Jesus the y s aw what human life could be come

6
 F IRST PRIN C IPLES
they saw the richness and fulness and manifold
ness of His life ; they enlarged their conceptions
’
of man s value and potentialities M anhood .

became a new thing to them as they watched

how He lived He raised their ideals of human
.

nature O ften other aspects of His work and

.

task filled their whole horizon when for in , ,

stance they thought o f Hi m as Messiah or

, ,

S aviour o r Lord ; but though these and othe r

,

aspects overshadowed His example they could

not obliterate it I t remained full of inspira
.

tion and instruction and was one of the many

,

strands that bound them to their M aster .

T h e A postles followed Jesus by w ay of imita

ting Him since He taught them to do s o When .

He call e d them to follow Him ( M ark i He .

summoned them at first to a literal companion

ship but the word d e epened in significance till ,

it lost its literal meaning and became meta

p h o ri cal We can trace the change in P eter
.

when we compare M ark i 1 7 with John xvi 37 . .

,

xxi 21 ; 1 P et ii 21
. First that which is
. . .

natural then that which is spiritual— such is the

,

history of this word follow in the New T esta

, ,

ment When Jesus said Come unto M e

.
,

learn of M e ( M att xi 28 He was suggestin g

. .

a wider obj ect lesson than that of a calm u n

-
,

troubled mind Was it not the whole art of

.

life ? D o they not suggest a life of faith of ,

communion with a Heavenly F ather a realiza ,

tion of His abiding P resence a conscience that ,

can say I do alway s the things that p leas e Him

,

I s He not placing Hims e lf before men as the

7
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMPIS
O ne having mastered the supreme secret
who ,
of life can show all h ow the art of life should
,

be perfectly practised ? I s He not li ke the gym

n aS i u m master w h o whe n his boys have fai led
,

to carry out his verbal instructions says to them , ,

N ow let me S how you how to do i t T he

other words of Jesus I have been setting y ou an,

ex amp le ( John xii i are li kewise pregnant

.

with a fuller meaning than the primary lesson

of humble service T hey attach to themselves
.

His words : jus t as the S on of M an has not come

to be served but give his life a rans om
to s erve and

f or many ( M att xx or Yo u are to love one

. .

ano ther as I ha ve loved y ou ( John xv In .

such words and oth e rs the M aster taught His

disciples to s ee in His life His motives and in ,

Hi s actions an embodi ment of His verbal teach

in g I t was teaching by the concrete not b y
.
,

ph i losophical discourse nor homiletical in s t ru c

tion T hus He taught by example and appealed
.
,

for imitation in the central things that shape

conduct *
.

But He is the Way and the Truth and the Life ,

and though by example His message is goo d

"
advice ye t because He is the Life His message
, ,
"
becomes good news a g ospel indeed He , .

A r ati o nal imi tati o n o f C h ris t is n o t th e c o n du c t

o f a mi mi c o r a p u pp e t I t means w hat th e mu tatio n
o f o th e r c har ac t e rs me ans— an i nfl u en c e o f l ead e rs h i p ,
.

pow er, au tho ri ty , ex ampl e, appli e d to t h e co nditi ons

o f o n e s o w n li fe T h e tr ai ts i n Hi m w h i c h co mman d
'
. , ,

ap preci ati on ar e ap p h e d ppr ess o n e s o wn

no t to s u
'

"—
,

c h ar ac t e r b u t t o e nr i ch
, an d e nn o b le i t PEAB ODY : .

jesus Christ and Chris ti an Character p 39 , . .

 F IRST PR IN C IPLES
used every agency in teaching which w as open
to Him that He might win men from their life
of s in of alienation of indifference , to a l i fe of
, ,

faith and love an d hope a life of which God ,

w as the alpha and omega 2 life in which He ,

Himself was central because He and the F ather

are one .

II .

Dr . John O man in his virile book, G race and

P ersonality has subj ected the principle of imi
,

t atio n to some strong criticism He w ill only .

all ow that the example of Jesus can serve as an

inspiration , succouring the faith which sees
’
love to be li fe s final meaning and last word of
power though he allows that in a state of
pup ilage pattern is much more than precept
,

and much longer than He rej ects imita

tion since it seems to necessitate rul es of conduct
or requires an en cyc lo p z dic knowledge of Jesus
such as w e can never possess an d thus inj ures ,

moral freedom and proves impossi ble in the

long run But D r O man is thinkin g of an
. .

external copyin g of the life of Jesus such as the

A postles n e ver sought nor the I mitation s e t
before its readers T h e imitative instinct is of
.

course present in all hero worship and plays -

,

a great part in the acquisiti on of experience .

R esponse to the suggestiveness of a great

character is a real factor in most men and
women and it lasts long after our childish
,

heroe s and heroines have ceased to charm and

p p 249 25 2
-
. .

9
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMPIS
allure us B ut surely it h as a meanin g deeper
.

than mere copying when we think of Jesus .

T here is an imitation of His lif e and manners

that at once commends itself to the conscience
which need have in it none of the blind
copying that D r O man rej ects
. S urely .

it is possible to maintain our moral freedom

even whilst we s ee in Christ the supreme
P attern of life and seek to follow in His
,

steps.

We are not con cerned with the theoretica l

place that example may or may not have in
morals P racti cally it is a help to know that
.
,

as E pictetus or Plutarch said we have a type ,

to j udge by and to ask ourselves how S ocrates ,

or any other wise man would act in our circum

,

stances I t has , of course many perils : our

.
,

imaginative repict u rin g of our chosen examples

may be faulty our insight into the motives that
,

moved them may be dim and uncertain ; but on ,

the other hand it is frequently a guide And

, .

John S tuart Mill s famous adaptation of this

’

p rinciple to Jesus has a real value to us if w e

use it carefully an d with discretion P erhaps .

the negative side of the question is the more

helpful use of the method ; for instance , how
often we say to ourselves O h Jesus would
, ,
"
never have done or sai d that 1 In this way our
conscience receives enli ghtenment and Jesus ,

becomes to us a S econd Conscience since He ,

never once failed to follow right and truth and

beauty I ts fundamental peril woul d appear
.

to be that it stresses the exte rnal rather than the

10
 F IRS T PR IN C IP L ES
inner life and makes life work from without
rather than from within .

T h e greatest experiment in the imitation of

Jesus was of course the work of S t F ran cis of
, , .

A ssisi ( 1 1 8 2 whose story has endless

charm He has been aptly called half angel and
.

"
half nightingal e T he fresh study of his life
.

and movement in our day is to be welcomed for

m any reasons T here is a sprin g like glamour
.
-
,

a sweet simplicity an abandonment a love a

, , ,

j oyousness that make an instant app e al He .

was a standard bearer of medi aeval s aint li

-
"
ness along with The I mitation His limitations
, .

were chiefly those of his age Born to a wealthy .

inheritance F r ancis heard the call of Jesus to go

,
"
forth naked to follow the naked Jesus and ,

to reproduce as close a copy of hi s Master as he

coul d Because Jesus was poor F rancis es
.
,

p o us e d Lady P overty because Jesus w as

never married F rancis vowed hims elf to cel i
,

bacy ; because Jesus was obedient unto death ,

F rancis laid hi ms elf ai p o n the altar of obedien ce

to the chief representative of religion in his day,
the P ope ; because Jesus touched the leper ,

F rancis as a good soldier of Jesus kissed one ;

, ,

because Jesus body was marked with scars

’
,

F rancis sought to have the stigmata upon his

own hands and feet F rancis i mposed on his .

disciples the threefold vow— poverty chastity , ,

obedience ; his example proved contagious and ,

he soon gathered a large following for he p rac ,

t is e d the message of gentle love which he

preached He was the very antithesis of the
.

1 1
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
sour P uritan He was the most j oyous of
.

s aints would have no s ad long faces abo ut

, ,

him . Hi s friars were to be jocula tores Dei

the minstrel s of God I ndeed the ,

medi aeval evangelists were the analogue of the

'
modern His love w as ard ent
al i ke for God for his neighbour for the p oo r,
, ,

for the whole creation— s u n moon birds beasts , , , .

He had caught ab ke the M aster s breadth of love ’

and Hi s deep j oyousness of heart He sought to .

keep the example of a direct followin g of Christ

before the eyes of the world as a continuous livin g
"
spe ctacl e in a world before whi ch Christianity
,

w as distorted by a paganized and seculari z ed

clergy s o that Harnack can s ay : What the
,

watchword poverty denoted w as an immense

step of advance from dead faith and from a ,

barren service of ceremonies and works to .

spiritual freedom in rel i gion and to an earnest ,

"
personal Ch ris tianity T I t is not clear if .

F rancis had any contact with the Waldenses ,

"
the poor men of Lyons w h o a generation , ,

O key L i ttle Flowe rs (Every man

, xviii I t .

is h ard t o ki ll th e tr adi ti o n o f s o u rness a ttach ed t o

Pu ri tani s m I
t w as no t s ou r o r lacki ng i n h u mou r ;
'

cf . O n h i s w ay t o D u nb ar C
r omwell lau gh e d h eart i l y
at th e sigh t of on e s o ld i er o vert u rni n g a fu ll cr eam- t u b
an d s lammi n g i t d ow n o n t h e h ea d o f ano th e r , w h i ls t
o n hi s r e t u r n fr o m Wo r c e s t e r h e s p en t a d ay h aw kin g
t h e fiel ds n ea r Ay les b u ry O li v er, w e h ear,
’
In .

‘
lo v e d an i nn o c en t jes t
'
( ardin er, His tory of the G
C ommonweal th and P r otect or a te, ii Was Milton .

or was B u ny n s ou a r
1 His t of D og , vi . 9 3.
"
.

I 2
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
inspiration to copy him as he copied Christ ,

though the methods may be utterly diverse in

outward expression Every lover of Jesus .

learns something from everyone w ho loves and

serves the same Lord I t may seem to many .

that S t F ran cis misunderstood Jesus but if w e

.
,

claim to know Him better how much greater ,

becom es the appeal for loyalty to the Lord

of us all w h o never denies His P resence to the
,

simple and sincere heart however mistaken some ,

of its notions or practi ces may b e *

.

III .

Writers of the Evan geli cal S chool have tended

to disparage the idea of imitatin g Jesus because
the p ri nciple seems to ignore the great watch
words of the R eformation which took a very ,

different form of outward expression from that

F rank Cross ley was a nineteenth c entu ry s aint -

w h o m F r an cis o f As s is i mi gh t h av e r ec o gni ze d as a
br o th er i n fai th an d s p i ri t That li fe—be au ti fu l
.

in i ts rl dli n es s i ts fai th fu ln ess t o com mence i ts

u nw o , ,

u ns ti n t e d li b e r ali t y an d i ts s e lf-o b li vio n

, T o many .

i t bro u gh t i ns pi rati o n an d grave ! u es tionin gs as to th ei r

o wn d u ty as C hris ti ans S u r e ly th e pr es e n t
.

ty p e o f C hri s ti ans nee d f ew th ings mo r e th an t o b e

br o u ght face t o fac e Wi th a h f e w h ic h w as o ne lon g
e n d eavo u r t o mak e C hr is ti an p ri n CI p les r eali ti es an d to ,

fo llow th em and th e C h ri s t w h o is ass u me d t o be

,

o u r p a tt e r n w h e r e v e r th ey l e d n o ma tt e r h o w od d
"—
, ,

o r h o w h ard t h e r es u l ti n g c o u rs e mi g ht b e Dr A le x . . .

M ac laren s I ntro duc ti on to L if e of F W C rossley v ;

'
. .
, .

cf All nat u ral imi ta tiv en es s is s u p e rnat u rall y magni fie d

.

at th e s ight o f th e all lovely L o rd ( F W Crossley

-
. .
,

p t

I 4
 F IRST PR IN C IP L ES
of the medi e val standards T hey disparage it .

in the main because it seems to put ethics before

religion imitation before regeneration the
, ,

I ncarnation before the Cross I n the N ew .

T estament the tw o are j oined , or it is obvious

that Christian conduct must sp ring from a heart
in which Jesus is enthroned as Lord if conduct
is to be according to His standard Else we .

have sham imitation mere copyin g in which ,

the spirit is dead .

We find if we search the Apostolic writings

, ,

that whilst they sought to foll ow the Example ,

they also sought renewal of the whole inner li fe ;

first His P resence , then that P resence subduin g
and colouring all within T h e earliest Chris .

tians felt the i nfluence of Jesus upon their lives ,

flowing into them as they contemplated His life

an d words His Example shed its radiance upon
.

them as it has done upon all men w h o have

known anything of Him He has be en as .
,

Lecky says an enduring principle of regen

,
"
cration . Blessed influence of one true loving
soul on another ! not calculable by al geb ra not ,

deduci ble by logic but mysterious e ffe ctual

, , ,

mighty as the hidden process by which the tiny

seed is quickened and bursts forth into tall
stem and broad leaf and glowing tasselled
F or every life has b en e fic en t influences
according to the measure of its goodness .

" “
Every life as Ani i el in his journal says
, is ,

a profession of faith and exercises an inevitable

,
"
and silent propaganda 1 .
'

G Elio t
.
, S cenes f rom Clerical Lif e .
1 p . 24 .

1 5
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMP IS
But t o explain h ow the Example of Jesus doe s
its vast work upon the hearts of men by influence
is not to open up the N ew T estament secret .

T hat secret lies in the use the S pirit of God

makes of this subtl e intangible power that one
,

man has over another T h e A postles felt the .

influence but they experienced somethin g in

,

addition S uch expressions as thes e imply far

.

more : A ll of y ou who had y ourselves bap tized

into Christ ha ve taken on the character of Chris t
( Gal ii i
. P ut on the character of the Lo rd
.

jesus Christ ( R om xiii We all mirror the

. .

glory of the Lord with face unvei led and so a re ,

being t ransformed into the same likeness as Hi m

s elf p assing from one glory t o another— f or this
,

comes from the Lord the Sp irit (2 Cor i ii . .

Ti ll C hris t be formed within y o u ( Gal iv It . .

is the work of the Holy S pirit to take of the

things of Christ and make them vivid realities
to us to make Jesus a power within the hear t
, ,

to unve il His P resence wit hin as something which

renews changes produces a n ew set of desires
, ,

overcoming and destroying the tendencies to

evil Whatever Jesus does for men He does by
.

the S pirit I n our c o -operation with the D ivine

.

S pirit w e grow into that D ivine likeness and

resemblance ; we assimilate the character of
Jesus F rom the human point of View we may
.

call it influence or imitation ; from the D ivine

point of view it is the work of grace within our
hearts the gift of the Holy S pirit T his does
, .

not degrade a D ivine operation to a merely

human task under another name , but we see how
1 6
 F IRST PRIN C IP L ES
the inter-relationshi ps of God and man as we ll ,

as of man with man are in reality all of God , .

What we conceive of as human is in truth D ivine .

We assimilate the S pirit by openin g the

heart yielding up the desires and ambitions of
,

life to Him entering into communion and c o

,

operation with His work i n the worl d ; and there

comes to us a life of progressive identification
—o f the present c ons a o u s nes s and character
with the character and will and being of Christ,
who is T o behold the glory of the Lord,
to p ut on Christ to have Chris t formed within is
, ,

to be pledged to follow Him and walk as He

walk ed We s e e in Christ as in a mirror the
—
.

destiny awaitin g u s He is the Omega the last ,

’
letter in life s al phabet to us ; but He is this
because He is also the A lp ha the first We are , .

truly only our real selves as w e fulfil all the

potentiali ties within us the most wonderful ,

being this that Christ is the light that lighteth

,

every man coming into the world

, F or the .

de v elopment of the first into the last w e have

the power of imitation of assimilation of co , ,

operation with the Holy S pirit who is none ,

other than the Lord Himself When the pro .

digal came to hims elf he left behind his false ,

unnatural self t h e self of wo rldliness and s in
,

and selfishness and in re alizin g himself he found

,

himself in hi s father s home and love T h e '

.

popularity and usefulness of The I mitation of

Chris t lies just here that it embodies the prin
,

M ob e r l y A tonement and Personali ty ,

, p . 274 ;
cf . als o C
I llin gw o rth , h ri stian haracter, p 37 C . .

1
7 B
 TH E MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
c ip les thus briefly enumerated I t does not .

propose a mere literal copyin g but brings its ,

readers into the very P resence of Christ and ,

quickly passes away from following to fellowship

with Christ a fellowship which transforms the
,

hi dden springs of life turning bitte r waters into

,

sweet foulness into purity and death into life

, , .

I t is a fellowship in which there is a c o mmu

n ic at io n of life In the I ncarnate S aviour w e
.

see the life working to its vast issues and as we ,

receive such a life we know al so that the laws of

that life are the laws which will regu late our o w n
life as that life flows into us T h e watchword .

of the R eformation Christ for us needs for its

full pe rfe ction another—Christ in us He is our
, ,

Lawgiver and our S aviour—may our Life

.

.
,

Without both of these elements Christianity is

shorn of its stren gth M en need a Bethl ehem
.

and a Calvary within as well as without them .

Bethl ehem does not reveal its eternal significance

till Christ has a manger in our hearts ; Calvary
does not su ffice till there is a cross wi thin ;
E aster is not a memory : it is an experience .

Th o u gh C hris t our L o rd a th o usand ti mes in B eth leh em

b e b or n,

An d n o t in th ee t h y so ul r emains e t e rn ally fo r lo rn
, .

T h e C ro ss o n Calva ry c an n e v e r s av e th e e fr o m th y s in ,

Un less i t is u pr ais e d agai n t h y v er y s o u l W i thin .

O u r L o rd is ris en fr o m t h e d ead Wh at goo d is tha t to th ee

S o lo ng as thou r emaines t d ea d in s in and mis e ry ?

1 8
 C HAPTE R I I

T HE I MI TAT I O N OF CHR I ST
AUT HOR SHI P AND
T HO MA S A KEMP I S
C
Th e I mi tati o hrist i kin d les i nde p end ent r eli gi ou s
”
hf e and a fire w hi c h b u r ns wi th a flame o f i ts o wn.
H A
AR N CK : Wha t is C
hris ti anity ? p 270 . .

I T is claimed sometimes that next to the Bible

The I mitation of Chris t is the most popular book
T hough P ilgrim s
’
O f devotion in the world .

P rogress probably runs it close for ci rculation ,

the picture of Giant P ope Wi ll probably hi nder
it in R oman Catholic circles But The I mita .

tion has a free course in every communion h as ,

had a longer history by tw o and a half centuries

than the P i lgrim has been translated into most of
,

the languages Of the world and has been trea ,

sured everywhere as of exceptional service for

spiritual nutriment As S amuel Johnson said
.

to Boswell Thomas a Kemp is must be a

,

good book as the world has opened its arms to

,
"
receive it . T his was in 1 778 an d the world ,

has not closed its arms yet T wenty eight years.

-

before this was said John Wesley had recorded

of his early M ethodist F ellowship groups : T h e
societies are not half supplied with books not ,

even with a Kempis— which ought to be in every

I9
 THE MESSA G E O F T H O MAS A KEMPIS
house Wesl ey himself published man y editions
—one it may be noticed in Latin for the boys
.

, ,

of Kingswood S chool whi ch he had founded , .

John Woolman the American Quaker, and con

,

temporary o f both Johnson and Wesl ey and en ,

gaged in very different work for the Kingdom

of God entered in hi s journal 1 75 7 : I have
, ,

been informed that T homas a Kempis lived an d

died in the profession of the Roman Catholi c
religion ; and in reading his writings I have
, ,

believed him to be a man of true Christian

spirit as fully as many who died martyrs because
,

they coul d not j oin with some superstitions in

that Church All true Christian s are of the
.

same spirit but their gifts are diverse Jesus

, ,

Christ appointin g to each one his peculiar o ff i ce

"
agreeably to His in finite w isdom I t woul d be .

easy to cull other quotations and mul ti ply those

given by Mr M ontmorency in his Thomas ci
‘

Kemp is or by D r C B i gg in his I ntroduction to

. .

The I mitation I n the nineteenth century as in

. ,

the eighteenth the book w as a favourite form of

,
’
devotional reading from George Eliot s famous ,

description in The M ill on the Floss, that it “

works mi racles to Matthew Arnold s T h e

,
'

most exquisite document after those of the New

T estament of all that the Christian spirit h as
'
inspired from Gladstone s description of it
"
as a golden book for hours of sorrow to ,
'
Gordon s use of it ; from Roman Catholics ,

Anglicans F ree Churchmen and Quakers to

, ,

T olstoi in his masterpiece War and P eace where , ,

Pierre , after his introduction to F reemasonry ,

20
 THE MESS A G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
subj ect had taken to heart a sentence in
Book I v .

L et not the authority of the writer move

thee W hether he be of small or great learn
,

ing ; bu t let the pure love of tr uth draw

thee to read S earch not w ho said this
. ,

but mark what is s aid .

Much ink and paper woul d have been saved

if this had been heeded Ye t no surprise need .

be felt seeing that the author borrowed from S t .

Bernard the motto

Love to be unknown a n d to be little
esteemed ( I .

T h e author seems to have been frankly in

di fferent about any fame to be wo n by this
fourfold pamphlet on aspects of spiritual devo
tion and did not Sign any MS as the true an d
, .

only author .

R ena in a well known essay in his Leaders

n ,
-

of Ch ristian and A nti Christian Thought cl aims

-
,

the authorship for I taly in the person of the

Abb e of S t Etienne of V e r c eil named G e rs en
.
, ,

or Gesen in the thirteenth century ; his main

,

reason being that he finds in the book internal

evidence to fit in with the age But no one has .

followed his lead and his positive evidence

,

amounts to nil F ar more can be said for

.

John Gerson ( 1 363 1 423) W hose date fits in with

-
,

the first circulation of the little M SS and .

,

amongst W hose writings copies of part of The

I mitation have be en fo u nd He was Chancellor .

22
 THE IM ITA T I O N OF C H RIS T ”

of the University of P aris a leading s cholar an , ,

enthusiastic educationist a great orator ; he ,

took a large share in the Council of Constance ,

at which hi s side was so completely defeated that

he fled dis guised as a pilgrim and lived henceforth
in retirement first at the Monastery of Mo elc h
,

and later on at the Celestine M onaste ry of

Lyons W here he opened classes for boys
, Mr . .

Montmorency publishes an extract from his

tracts and after a thorough examination rej ects
,

the claims on his behalf T h e atmosphere of .

The I mitation is s o di fferent from ecclesiastical

strife and Gerson s style in hi s known writings is
,
'

s o scholarly that when W e consider how easily an

,

anonymous treatise coul d b e incorporated to

increase the fame of his monastery or his order ,

and that he was never a monk W hilst the cowl ,

of the monk shadows the book one feels that ,

the verdict is against hi m .

T here is a somewhat u ncertain cl aim made

for the Englishman Walter Hylton in an edition
, ,

call ed The Christian Pattern or the I mitation of ,

jes us Christ in which the editor denies the

authorship to T a Kempis and claims it for
.
,

the chanon and go ve rn ai re of the house of

”
T h ur gato n bis id e N ewark
, Hylton or Hilton.
, ,

was a mys tic and the author of The Ladder of

P erfection Amongst his recognized MSS is a
. .

tract called De M usica E cclesias tica which is ,

composed of three parts of The I mi tation .

Hylton died in 1 39 5 or 1 396 T hat some .

copyist found the tracts on the Continent after

'
1 420 copied them and added them to Hylton s
, ,

23
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMP IS
other writings seems easier to beli eve than that
,

T homas a Kempis knew E nglish and transl ated

what he found into Latin Anyhow the claim . ,

lacks other substantial proof and presents us ,

with a curious study in religious authorship but ,

it cannot hold itself against the more certain

cl aims of a Kempis .

P robably except for these cl aimants T homas

, ,

Hamme rlein of Kempen or a Kempis as he is , ,

commonly styled would universally have been

,

reckoned as the author T h e internal evidence

.

from comparison with his other writings is con

vin cin g the parallelism of thought is striking
, ,

all w e know about him is confir matory an d what ,

M S evidence exists is in his favour In the

R oyal Lib rary, Brussels there are—o r were
. .

some of his autographic writings On e is the .

copy of the whole B i ble in the Vulgate which ,

occupied him fif t een years , 1 425 - 1 44 0 An .

other is a small volume of 1 92 pages interleaved ,

irre gul arly with vellum containing all four parts

,

of The I mitation and actually signed as written

by T homas I t is dated 1 44 1
. T here is also .

another M S of the first three b o oks not written

.
,

by him but attested thus : Le t it be obse rved

,

that this treatise has been composed by a pious

and learned man M aster T homas of Moun t
,

S t A gnes and Canon R egular of Utrecht called

.
,

T homas a Kempis I t h as been copied from

.

the manuscript of the author in the year

O ne curious point about some of the Brussels
MSS is that one of them is called M uszca
.

E cclesias tica the very n ame given to it in the

,

24
 THE IM ITA T I O N OF C HR IST
Hylton MSS at Z ion House But more of this
. .

later on T h e life of T homas has been known

.

for long in part from his o wn book Chronicles

, ,

of M ount S t A gnes where he was a mo nk for

.
,

the most of his long life and al so from lives of

,

him written by contemporaries after his death .

His styles of thought an d devotion are known

from many other treatises , sermons an d hymns ,

which are always account ed as his I n fact, .

nearly everythin g points to him, though there

are points of obscu rity which probably now will
never be cl eared up .

T homas Hamme rlein of Kempen has found

many biographers and the writers have varied
,

in treatment accordin g as they were R oman

Catholic or P rotestan t He himself wrote
.

sketches of the originators of the movement in

whi ch he took a part and also of his contem
,

p o rari es in tw o volumes The Founders of the

, ,

New Devo tion and Chronicles of M ount S t .

A gnes ; into these he has put slight references

to his own contact with the men about whom
he wrote S hortly after his death his o wn
.

biography w as written by Busch T h e R oman .

Cat holic lives usually contain visions lege nds , ,

and adornments assigned by that Church to her

I n Ket tl e well s two stout
’
s aints and confessors .

volumes there are copious extracts and a full

account of the monastic order to which a
Kempi s belonged , The B rethren of the Common
25
 THE MESSA G E OF TH OMAS A KEMPIS
Life whilst in Mr Montmoren cy s book w e
.
'

have the latest and best account of all, being

most critical , useful and full of interest
, .

T h e New Devo tion movement as it is some ,

times called whi ch consolidated itself into an

,

order The B rothers of the Common Life sprang

, ,

from the striking conversion of Gerard Groot or ,

the Great ( 1 340 as Methodism sprang out

’
of John Wesley s conversion three centuries later .

T h e parallel between these tw o men is close : both

were University men and turned to the common
people for their evangelism Gerard , after .

taking his degree in P aris became a popular ,

teacher and after his conversion consecrated his

,

gifts to witnessing for Christ quickly gaining ,

success as a preacher In order to give stabi lity

.

to hi s converts he formed them into fe llowship

groups just as George F ox or Wesley did in
,

later days He was a book lover like Wesley ;

.
-

his chief masters were Augustine and Bernard ,

and he w as a close student of the S criptures ;
a Kempis in the brief biography he wrote of
,

Gerard quotes a saying of his : I am covetous

, ,

yea more than covetous of books an d if I lack

, , ,

them I am nothing — a saying that went

straight to the heart of a man who loved to have
“ "
a little book in a littl e nook He trave lled .

to preach in the chief cities of Hollan d ; at

A msterdam he is said to have used the mother
tongue of the people in his sermon for the first
time He visited Ruysbroeck the great mystic
. , ,

at Gr unthal near Brussels an d came away as

, ,
"
it were a purified creature having written down ,

26
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C HR IST
'
some of the mystic s great sayin gs lest they
shoul d be forgotten T his is to be noted
. ,

for it shows how the movement he originated is

linked with the mystics of an earlier genera
tion such as T aul er S uso an d others and
, , , ,

through them with E ckhart who is a gre at ,

watershed personal ity in the history of

mysticism .

T h e converts were grouped into communi

ties called Brother Houses and S ister Houses ;
,
- -

here they cul tivated their soul s watched ove r ,

one an other and by way of maintenance were

, , ,

employed chi efly in copying MS S for it w as .

,

in the age j ust before printing was invented .

Gerard died before the first monastery of his

movement had been bui lt at Windesheim under ,

the guidance of F lorenti ns Rad ewyn his imme ,

diate successor who was T homas a Kempis

,
’

”
sweet master An offshoo t of this monastery
.

w as another at Mount S t A gnes at Z wolle near .

the Z u yd er Z e e, where T homas spent his days .

S o well organiz ed for both devotion an d p r ac

tical life were these communities that Luther ,

w h o had no great love for monasteries sai d : ,

Woul d God that all convents were like the

Brother Houses
-
T h e movement was a kind
of overt ure for the R eformation in that it w as
an attempt to revive vital an d expe rimental
religion strictly within the borders of the
Ro man Church I t passed slowly away as
.

MS copying lan guished when printin g was

.

invented about 1 440 but its imperishable ,

monument is in the book The I mitation ,

27
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
o f Chris t whi ch was written between 1 420
,

and 1 4 25 .

Flo ren ti u s R ad ewyn foll owed Gerard Groot as

head of the New Devotion and was in charg e at
,

D eventer when T homas aged thirteen first , ,

met him I t w as there that T homas says, I

.
,
”
learnt to write an d he lived there for seven
,

years ; in 1 399 he w as sent to Mount S t A gnes . ,

where his brother was P rior and he remained ,

there till 1 47 1 when he passed to the b eatific

,

vision of the Lord he l oved M r Kettlewell . .

describes the situation of the monastery as

pleasant an d healthy A fine genial bracing
.
, ,
"
air wafted softly across the downs when he
visited the place .

T h e life w as monastic ; in his own cell

T homas a Kempis had his longest j ourneys and
h is most perilous voyages He fulfilled such
.

labours as fell to hi s share : he wrote he copied ,

M SS he instructed the novices he kept the

.
, ,

hours of prayer an d meditation O nly twice did .

he leave the monastery : once when all the

monks were under a b an of ecclesiastical
censure an d once to visit his d ying brother
, .

I n 1 4 1 4 he was ordained P riest and w e have a ,

sketch of his priestly ide als in Book I I I v F or . .

a time he was P rocurator and at an o ther time

,

S ub -prior O f his books some fo rty survive

.
,

though only a few have been translated into

E nglish . He appears to have lived in happy
rel ations with the rest of the co mmunity though ,

he woul d often slip away sayin g that he had

S omeone waiting for him in his cell Like .

28
 THE MESSA G E O F T H OMAS A KEMP IS
cu l u m whenever the conversation became too
lively ; somewhat bent for it is on record that
,

he stood upright when the P salms were chanted ,

and even rose on his tiptoes with his face turned

up w ards ; genial if s hy and occasionally given
, ,

to punning as when he said he preferred a

,

P salm to S almones— a man w h o perhaps led the

most placid uneventful life of all men w ho ever
,

wrote a book or scribbled

When we compare this most placid un ,

eventful life Wi th the very disturbed and

eventf ul times in which our author lived as we ,

may do by glancin g at a tabl e at the end of thi s

chapter we see at once the value and defect of
,

the monastic ideal he followed and mark one of

the failures of The I mitation to give a full -orbed
presentation of the Christian life He lived as .

a man might if he dwelt in some church o ff

Cheapside or the S trand or P iccad illy untouched ,

by the fashions deaf to the voices blind to all

, ,

the chan ging sights of the worlds of business

and pleasure and politics I f noting all this .
, ,

we impatientl y cry with Robert Louis S teven

son

An d y e, O br ethr en , w h at if G o d,
Wh en from Heav n s to p He s pies abroad
' ’
,

An d s ees o n this t o r men t e d s tage

T h e n o b le w ar o f man kin d ra ge
Wh at if Hi s vivifyi n g ey e ,

0 monks s h o u ld p as s y ou r co r ner by 1
,

E ncy .B rit Th mas a K mpis

,
. o e .

1
‘
O ur Lady of the S nows .

30
 THE IM ITAT I O N OF C HR IST
we must remember that the life of contem
p latio n and prayer which these monks practised
has great claims an d that monasteries have
,

made valuable contributions to the world they

despised T hey renounce d what we must seek
.

to consecrate and use T h e conception of

.

the saintly life has been enlarged since those

days but at that period it w as undoubtedly
,

narrow isolated self centred seekin g to save

, ,
-
,

its own soul forgetful of the souls of others

, .

T h e modern vision of Jesus demands a wider

’
interpreta tion of life s duties than that of the
M edi aeval Age for to -day the spirit of Charles
,

Wesley s words animates the Christian view of

’

I n J es us n ame , b e ho ld, we meet ,

'

Far fr o m an e vi l w o r l d r e tr ea t,
An d all its fr an ti c ways :
O ne o n ly thi ng r e so lv e d t o know
A nd s ! u ar e o u r us efu l h ves b e lo w
B y r eas o n and by gr ac e .

No t in t h e to mbs w e pine to dwell ,

No t in th e dark monas tic c ell ,

B y v o ws and gat es c o nfine d

Freely to all ou rs elves w e gi ve ,

Co ns trai ned by Jes us lo ve to li ve

'

T h e s ervan ts o f ma nkin d .

I f T homas a Kempis missed the fiery, pas

s io n at e enthusiasm of S t F rancis as an evange
.

list ; if he shows little of F rancis gay j oyousness '

,

his wide all embracing love if the Si lence and

,
-
,

often gloomy atmosphere of the cloister too often

invade his spirit it is never difficult to s ub
,

tract these thin gs from his pages and receive

what he has to give us .

31
THE MESSA G E O F TH O MAS A KEMP IS

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32
 C HAPTE R I I I
"
“
T HE IMI TAT I O N OF C HR I ST : ARRA N GEM EN T
AND C O N T EN T S

T he au th o r o f t
th e I mi ta i on was an arti s t o f hi gh es t
rank , h e b ui lt h i s w o rk, s e n t enc e b y s ent ence, Wi th
an d
an i nd e finab le s ki ll, Wi th a co ns tr u c ti v e gemus th at d e fies
an alysis . Wi th an u nerri ng ju d gment h e h as go ne
to t h e h t erar y s o u r c es an d fo u n tai ns w h er e i s to b e
fo u nd that y earning o f th e alon e for th e A lone, ’

w hi c h h e a do pts and t eac h es —DE M O N T M OREN CY :

.

Th omas a Kemp i s, p 1 70 . .

TO the literary student The I mi tation has many

points of interest in i ts arran gement and contents
underlying its devotional value T here is no .

account of i t s composition and we can only guess ,

that as T homas a Kempis wrote each separate

section he allowed copies to be passed to suit
able readers in di fferent monasteries We have .

no dates except within the period 1 420 -1 425 .

T he
usual titl e for the book is taken from its
opening words for T homas seems to have gi v en
,

no title himself to his four tracts I n Engli sh .

translations there are a variety of titles—Li k e unto

C hrist The Following of Christ The Chris tian
, ,

P a ttern, and s o on D r C Bigg s translation

'
. . .

33 C
 THE MESSA G E O F T H O MAS A KEMPIS
has the title E cclesi astical Music as an alternative ,

from the fact already noted that some MSS .

called the work in L atin D e M usica E cclesias

tica . Whence this description ? D r Bigg .

himself explains it as due to the subj ect : T h e

music is of the I nner Life or more specially , , ,

the mellifiuum nomen of the R edeemer It .

is marked by tw o artistic features R hyme and ,

But is this s u ffiCi ent ? T here is

another possible explanation at hand for the ,

L atin version as ori ginally written has certain

, ,

musical signs in some of the M S S which .

,

suggests that the sentences were intended to be

intoned or chanted T h e first hint of this
.

explanation was given by D r Hirs che of Ham .

burg in 1 874 in an edition he published in

Berlin I t has further been explained by M
. .

C Ru el ens of the R oyal Library Brussels ,

. ,

where some of the MSS are : T h e full stop .

followed by a small capital the full stop followed ,

by a large capital the colon foll owed by a small

,

letter the usual S ign of interrogation and

, ,

lastl y an unusual sign the cli vi s or flex a used

, , ,

in the musical notation of the period T his .

method followed in a 1 44 1 M S Obviously

, .

suggests chanting or intoning and the titl e

M usica E cclesias tica T here is no doubt that
.

T homas carried music in his heart and loved ,

to sing of his Lord for there are hymns written

,

by him M ay he not have intended that just

.

as he chanted the P salms and found an addi

tio nal help to his devotion by the practice , he
p . ix ; Cf . X -XV .

34
 THE IM I TATI O N OF C HR IST
may have wished to have his book used in
simi lar manner ? Wi lliam Law in his S erious ,

Call actually advises that w e shoul d u s e music

,

or chanting in p rivate devotion I t i s worth .

while quoti ng his words : Yo u are therefore , ,

to consider the chanting of a P salm as a n ec es

sary begi nning of your devotions as something ,

that i s to awaken all that i s good and holy within

you that i s to call your sp i rits to your duty to
, ,

s e t you in your best posture towards heaven ,

and tune all your powers of soul to worship an d
adoration . T h e d i fference betw een sing
ing and reading a P salm will be easily under
stood ii you consider the di fference between
,

reading and singing a common song Whilst .

you only read it you only hke it and that is all ;

, ,

but as soon as you sing it then you enj oy it, ,

you feel the delight of it : it has got hold of you ,

your passions keep pace with i t and you feel ,

the same spirit withi n that seems to be in the

"
words .

An d for the non musical Law offers this

-
,

comfort : S inging is no more required for the

music that is made by it than prayer is made
,

by the fine words that it conta i ns Ou r .

blessed S aviour and His apostles sang a hymn ;

but it may reasonably be supposed that th e y
rather rej oiced in God than made fin e music
( S erious Call ch , .T his piece of practical
advice for devotion from such a master as
Wi lliam Law suggests quite another explanation
from that of D r B i gg an d if anyone Wi ll try
.
,

The I mitation by chanting he Wil l not be sur

35
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMPIS
prised to fin d that here is the secret of cal ling
the book De M usica E cclesiastica *
.

T homas a Kempis w as a hymn writer but -

,

lacked the lyrical note without which no hymn

becomes popular S J S tone a w rit er of some
. . .
,

well known hymns has translated six or seven

-
,

into English ; here is part of one as given in ,

Ke ttlew ell s biography

’

B e t he li fe o f C hri s t th y S avi o u r ever mo r e thine imi ta

ti on .

So in p u reness tr u th and h onou r s hall b e all th y co n

, ,

ve rs ati o n.

S i n g Hi s B i rth Wi th h oly gla dness ,

M o u rn Hi s D eath Wi th h o ly s adnes s ;
Mi ngle gladness with th y mo u rni ng i n th y S piri t s
’

e x e r ci s es
,

Wi p e aw ay th y wo es Wi th weepi ng : War e th e wo r ld s
’ '

d eli ghts and a es .

J es u s s ee k wi th s ear c h u nfai li ng ,

Kno c k and cry in pray er p r evai h ng ;

I n a d ori ng hy mns d e li g ht th ee ,

Th ou ghts o f J es us s hall r e ! ui te th ee ;
Y et mo r e s w e e t Hi s joy s fr ui ti o n
'
,

S wee t er s ti ll Hi s h eav enl y Vi si o n .

B ear Wi th love un ceas mg ,

A ll th y t o i ls in c reas m g ;
S h ow th e w o r l d u n ki n d
Wi s do m s ! ui e t mi n d ;
'

S ti ll b y pr ay er an d r ea di ng
A ll t hy s ens es h e e din g,

A nd as h o u rs ar e fl yi ng
S ti ll t h e wo r l d d enyi ng .

But however the name De M usica E cclesias tica

was attached to the book, it is not now l i kely ,

Canon Li ddon e di te d a copy o f The I mitation where

th e tr ans lati on was r en d er e d i n to s h o rt lines .

36
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMP IS
God : First of all w e should disentan gle
,

ourselves absolutely from the pleasures of the

world manfully turning our backs upon all
,

vices ; w e should turn to God by continual

prayers by seclusion and holy exercise that
, ,

the flesh may be thus subdued to the spirit .

N ext we must o ffer ourselves willingly to endure

,

all the troubles that may come upon us from ,

God or from the creatures T hi r dlyb w e must .

impress upon ourselves the P assion of Christ

cru cified ; w e must fix upon our minds His
sweet teaching His most gentl e conversation
, ,

His most pure life which He gave us for our

,

example an d so we must penetrate deeper and

,

advance farther in our I mitation of Him

F ou rthly w e must divest ourselves of extern al
,

occupations and establish ou rselves in a tran

,

quil stillness of soul by an energetic resignation ,

as if w e were d e ad to self an d thought only of

the honou r of Christ and His Heavenly F ather .

L astly w e must be humble towards all men

, ,
"
whether friends or foes N ow when com .
,

pared with the order as given by D r Bigg . ,

the resemblance is near enough to suggest that

T h o mas a Kempis may have had this in his
mind Both he and S uso follow in the main
.

the chart or map of the soul s pil grimage as '

charted by many o f the mystic schools B e .

hind this fourfold order lie the stages of P urga

tion I llumination Consummation
, , M ystici sm .

as represented by The I mita tion will be treated

later on but w e can easily see how the first
,

two books deal with the P urgative stage the ,

38
 THE IM ITATI O N O F C HR IST
discipline of the soul before it receives the light .

T h e third section on Holy Communion r e p r e

sents I lluminati on when the soul partakes
, ,

not only of the heavenly bread but also receives ,

the Light for Christ is both S ustenance and

,

Knowledge to the soul of His disciple T he .

book of I nternal Consolations as Bigg names ,

the last book is obviously the Consummation

, ,
'
the soul s union w ith its S aviour and Lord ,

finding its rest in Him T h e deeper mysteries

.

which the mystical writers often speak of ,

"
the dark night of the soul the abyss of
,
" "
D eity , the absorption of the soul in God ,

are experiences scarcely touched upon by

T homas a Kempis T h e extremes are omitted
.

both of the depths below and the heights above .

S ome editors have placed the book on Holy

Communion as t h e final climax but if it be ,

placed third in the order it becomes a mean s

"
to the end a veritable means of grace for
, ,

the end lies not in a service but in an experience .

T h e end of man s pil grimage is to be one with

’

Christ in God a oneness that preser v es the

,

identity of man whilst bound to God with the

Chain of an immortal love .

’
T hese mystical stages on the soul s route are not
those of the Evangel i cal Christian w h o marks the
three stages on his map as R e p ent anc e Regene ra ,

ti on San c ti ficatio n T hough the phraseology

, .

di ffers and the di ff erences are both subtle and

m any we may consider them as di fferent
,

aspects of the same fundamental spiritual facts .

T h e Evangelical lays more stress on certain

39
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
aspects of Christ s work than the Mystic would
'
.

What w e need for the whole truth is a synthesis

of all the scattered truths of man s experience ’

of Christ Whatever the variety in these truths

.
,

there is a common likeness since every truth ,

finds its perfect exhi bition i n Him w h o is the

T ruth . When we get below the names and the
theologies to the experimental side of religion ,

the superficial di fferences disappear and a real

unity is revealed We grow nearer one another
.

as we gravitate towards t h e centre of all life

in Jesus Christ I t w as part of the work of a

.

man like T homas a Kempis to get below the

surface so that Christians of all schools read his
'
masterpiece with infinite profit for Christ s ,

S pirit pervades its pages I t is our agreements

. ,

not our di sagreements that really count I n

, .

our agreements we exhi bit the greatness of our

M aster : in our disagreements w e O ften show our
o w n limitations
.

T homas a Kempis must have had either a

retentive memory or a commonplac e book for ,

scholars have shown that t h e book is a mosai c

of allusions and quotati o ns He most certainly
.

had no desire to parade his learning since many ,

of these are so hidden that only a well -read

scholar can detect them T hey are very care
.

fully woven into the very texture of his thought .

Anyone w h o turns to D r Bigg s edition or to

'
.

Mr Montmorency s book Wi ll s ee this proved

.
'

40
 THE IM ITAT I O N OF C HR IST
at once T his is not to s ay The I mitation is
.

not an original book nor is the charge of p l a

,

giaris m t o be sustained T homas knew that

.

many pilgrims had travelled the road he was

depicting and he was will ing to pass on hints
,

from anyone who had good advice to give to

the traveller or warnin gs which it were folly
,

to ignore .

T h e laborious task of copying out the V ul gate

bears its fruit in these pages by the large
number of S criptural references and quotations .

I t has been cal culated that there are about

Biblical references taken from the ,

whole range of the sacred book including the ,

O ld T estament Apocrypha : most are from

the P salms the next in number are from the
,

E pistles whilst the Gospels tak e the thi rd place

, .

T his is a fact to be taken into account when w e

"
understand by the word imitation the idea “

’
of copying : had this been T homas a Kempis
chief idea in the book the Gosp els would ,

naturally have been used far more frequently .

T his use of the Bible is enti rely in the method

of The New Devotion for Gerard Groot had
,

insisted on this and prepared the w ay for

the tru e place of the S criptur e s in the culture
of the soul a place more fully recogni z ed
,

in t h e R eformation period T homas a Kempis .

knew of other wells also and dipped his bucket

,

accordingly O f classic authors he quotes

.

A ristotle once if not twic e ( I

, S eneca ( I xx ) . . .

O vid ( I
. perhaps V ergil ( IV Horace .

(I II
. Plin y ( I I I . Lucan ( I I I .

41
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMPIS
whilst the influence coming from Plato through
P lotinus and the N eoplatonists can be traced
in the influences which mysticism showered
upon him D ante s famous line
.
’
,

I n Hi s Wi ll is o ur p eace ,

might be taken as the basis of the prayer in

Book I V x v T here are of course references
. .
, ,

to such great Christian teachers as T homas

A quinas and Anselm ; but the great masters of his
thought were Augustine and Bernard T here .

is a quotation from S t F rancis of Assisi as

given by Bonaventura
What a man is in T hy sight that he is
and no more ( I V .

S uch is something of the range can dis we

cover within these quiet pages for he eagerly ,

laid under contribution any help that might

be of service in setting out the truth as he
understood it He resolutely wished to be as
.

simple as he could and turned aside from

S cholasticism with its endless speculations :
What profit is there in lengthy quibbling
about dark and hidden things ? What
have we to do with genera and sp ecies ?
(I 11 1
. . Cease from an inordinate desire
o f knowledge : for therein is found great

distraction and deceit ( I I L ) An humble . .

knowledge of thyself is a surer way to God :

Dr B i gg s trans lat io n
.
’
and o rd er of th e b oo ks ar e
us e d th r o u gh o u t .

42
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C HR IST
than a deep search after learning He .

is truly learned : that does the will of

God and forsakes his own wil l ( I 1 1 1 . .

T hrow aside subtleties : read such books

as rather sti r compunction , than furnish
occupation ( I .

T homas a Kempis is not a theological teacher ;

he accepted s o far as we know the dogmas
of the Church as he had learnt them His .

concern was with heart knowledge the ex p e ri

-
,

mental knowledge o f God that alone gives

peace Here is the value of his book : it is a
.

book for the heart Here is the centre on which

.

all swings I t is this which gives The I mitation

.

its uni versal appe al and permanence Know .

ledge increases modes o f thought change ; but

,

the heart of man abides conscious of moral

weakness with perennial need o f the grace of
God to cleanse and chang e He deals with.

those s t i at a of thought and emotion that lie

below the surface He is the geologist and
.

not the geographer of the soul .

Blessed is the simplicity which leaves ,

the di fficult paths of dispute : and goes

forward in the plain and solid path of God s '

commandments M any have lost devo

.

tion : whilst they sought to search into

things too high ( I I I .

43
 C HAPTE R IV
“
T HE IMI TAT I O N OF C HR I ST I TS MESSA G E

It t f S oi l an d none bu t ful ly co nse cr at e d men

is s if
will ac co mp lis h mu c h Co mf ort s eek"ing etC won t do ’

th er e Cr oss loving men ar e need ed —Hudson Tay lor

.
, .
,
-
. .

and the Ch na I nland Misswn

i .

T HERE must be a deep grain of humanity in

The I mitation, for its appeal is by no means con
fined to orthodox Christian circles I t has .

been appreciated by orthodox and h e t ero d ,

"
R oman , Anglican , P rotestant, those without .

Auguste Comte , the founder of P ositivis m, read

it daily for years and valued it for moral cul
,

ture But f ew eulogies have surpassed George

.

Eliot s famous description in The M i ll on the

’

Floss usually reckoned as autobiographical as is

, ,

confirmed by one of her l etters : I have at last

the most wonderful De I mitatione Christi with
quaint woodcuts O ne breathes the cool air as
.

of the Cloiste rs in the book— it makes one long

to be a saint for a f ew months Veri ly its pie t y .

has its foundations in the depth of the human

"
heart T his was written in 1 849 three years
. ,

after she had published her translation of S trauss

and ten years earlier than the novel I t is worth .

while quoting again that great appreciation , for

it speaks for many others beside M aggie
44
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMP IS
nion w as merely a human monologue But .

renunciation is an essential part of his message .

R enunciation is not only to be borne Wi llingly ,

as if with dumb resignation but cheerfully with

, ,

hear t y co -operation ; the cross is to be carried

for the j oy set before us ; the note is P er crucem
a d lucem the w ay is The King s Way of the '

If thou carry thy cross cheerfully it will

carry thee and lead thee to the desired
,

end— namely where there shall be an end

,

of su fferin g : though here there shall be none

(II x11
. . 0 L ord Jesus as T hou hast ,

sai d an d promi sed : so truly let it be and ,

may I not be undeserving I have received .

the cross I have received it from T hy

,

hand : I will carry it and carry it unto

death : as T hou hast laid it upon me ( IV .

LVI . Come brothers march together

, ,

Jesus Wi l l be with us F or Jesus w e took

.

up this cross : for Jesus l e t us persevere in

the cross He w ill be our Helper : who is
.

our Guide and F orerunner Behold our .

,

King goes before us : and He Wi ll fight for

us Let us follow manfully let no man
. ,

fear terrors : let us be ready to die val iantly

in battle : nor bring such disgrac e on our
glory as to flee from the cro ss ( I V LVI . .

I t will be se e n that the tone of these words

di ffers from that with which M aggie T ull ive r
met her great tri als S he had not learnt what
.

the P sal mist knew : B l ssed be the Lord who

g
4
 THE IMIT A TI O N O F C HR IST
daily beareth our burdens
nor had her creator .

But a Kempis knew and put it into a little

,

epigram quoted by D r Bigg as a note to thi s

.
'

ve ry passage : P ortat p ortantem ( I t bears the

bearer ) I t 1 5 what S amuel Rutherford knew
.

when he wrote I t is such a burden as wings

:

are to a bird or sails are to a ship to carry me

, ,

forward to my T h e cross a man has

to carry may be a lif eb elt : the firmer it is grasped
the more it holds its holder in the roughest sea .

Teneo et teneor .

Renunciation, however is an ugly word to

,

many till a little reflection shows how deeply

implanted it is in the very stu ff of life N ot .

"
renunciation men cry
, but exp ansion in
, ,

clu s io n ; not renunciation but fulness richn ess

, , ,

breadth S o we cry and forget h o w nature

,

teaches us again and again that if w e would

have one thi ng there are other things in c o m
patible Wi th its possession ; to hold the one w e
have to let the other go Ye cannot serve G od
.

and M ammon .Choice of one calling i mplies

renunciation of another ; the worker has to
renounce idleness ; to marry is to renounce the
freedom of the single lif e ; the athlete abandons
everything that will soften or relax his muscl es ;
at death we have to renounce our earthly life
and career I s it as hard as men are apt to
.

suppose I s the demand of life for singleness

of purpose s o very grievous when w e consider
the limits of our powers of accomplishment ?
T h e apostolic ch allenge Wha t concord hath ,

Le tters Bo nar s ed p 26 2
'
. . .
, ,

47
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A K EMPIS
Chris t with B elial ? with its declaration that
things differ that to get one the other must be
,
’
renounced is in perfect accord with life s
,

demand for every man T h e lower must be .

left behind for the higher evil renounced in ,

favour of the good the temporal yield place to

,

the eternal S ays our author

. ,

V anity is it to s et thy heart on that which

speed i ly passes away : and not to h asten
thither W here everlasting j oy abides ( I .

R ather Choose to have all the world against

thee : than Jesus angry Above all , there .

fore that be dear : let Jesus alone be

,

specially beloved Love all for Jesus : but

.

Jesus for Hi mself Jesus Christ alone is .

singularly to be beloved : w h o alone is

found good an d faithful above all friends
( I I V I II ii
.
, . .

’
T o abide in J e su s s love means a certain
contempt of the world renunciation of its spirit
, ,

i t s temper , its display its priz es S implicity

, .

and puri ty of heart are the two wings which

lift man up from the earth ( I I R enounce .

self deny self the selfish pride the self that

, , ,

loves and seeks d ainty , luxurious thin gs, the

self that erects upon the throne of its worshi p
anything but Jesus T his is the call of T homas
.

a Kempis L ater on it will be seen that thi s

.

call is perhaps overstrained since his view of ,

Civilization is that of the monk ; but meantime

let us recall that it is true to one element in
the teaching of Jesus, for His disciples were not
48
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C H RIST
freed from the world but to be in it as strangers ,

and soldiers fighting its evil T h e modern .

conception of consecratin g the world is beset

with perils for entanglement has proved fatal
,

to many snares are on every side the atmo

, ,

s phere is soft and lulls the soul to sleep F or what .

"
is the world what is worldliness , but , ,

as Bishop Creighton once happily phrased

"—
it life with God left out
, life that is which , ,

is practical atheism life where the soul is ,

disregarded and sinks to stark materialism ?

Luther once summed up : N o one is less in
the world than a Christian an d no one is more
worl dly than a T h e paradox is
true and reveals how diffi cult it is to state
truth exactly F ather T yrrell in his P reface to
.

The I mitation says justly that this doctrine

of Flight must give place to the doctrine of
Right Us e but T homas a Kempis with
monastic bias lays emphasis on flight from the
world .

Jesus used the illustration of the grain of

wheat falling into the ground and dyin g befo re
the rich fruit can be born ( John xii whilst .

S t P aul uses the illustration of crucifixion

.

( Gal vi 1 4) to bring out this principle of

. .

R enunciation T hat is of course to say that

.
, ,
"
we die to live I n our experience we find
.

analogies to the crucifixion burial and resur , ,

rection of our Lord so that we may be born ,

into a new life wherein the old self is denied

and lost in forge tfulness T o be born again .

S ee H errman , Commun on with G od p

i , . 20 1 .

49 D
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMPIS
is to renounce the old life S in and the natural , ,

man to take to oneself another principl e of life

, .

I t is to exist for God with another self another ,

Wi ll another love
, T o live in God and
.

do His work— this is religion salvation eternal , ,

life ; this i s both the e ffect and the Sign of love

"
and of the Holy S pirit S o writes Amiel i n his
.

journa l and i n his clear w ay he points to the"

,

truth that lies in this great word renunci ation .

I t is well expressed by F rancis T hompson

by w ay of the l aw of dying to live in the circle
'
of nature s processes
Fo r b i rth ha th in i ts elf th e ger m o f d eath ,

An d d eath h ath in i ts elf th e ge r m o f birth .

I t is th e f alhn g acorn b u ds th e tr ee ,

T h e falli n g r ai n th at b ears th e gr eenery ,

T h e fe rn p lan ts mou ld er wh en t h e fe rns aris e

-
.

For th er e is no thi ng h ves b u t so m e thin g di es ,

An d th er e is no thin g di es b u t s ome thi n g li ves .

T he renunciation that Jesus taught is to t e

nounce the tempor al for the etern al the shadow ,

for the substance the illusion for the real

, .

I t is to forget our narrow isolated self in the ,

remembrance of a higher nobler s elf whi ch ,

we gain by fellowshi p with other people or with

Christ When the young V C officer was asked
. . .

how he came to be brave enough to do his

heroic deed he replied : O h I suppose I
, ,

forgot myself In hi s hour of danger he had

.

found the secret of all true life O ur instinct .

in the hour of peril is to preserve ourselves ,

and this instinct is ceaselessly at w ar with the

p .
71 .

5 0
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C HR IST "

nobler instinct to guard and rescue our neigh

bours T h e risk we take in helping them is
.

the measure of our se lf renunciation and self -

forgetfulness .

R enunciation as a doctrine for life suffers

most of all from its suspicion of negation : it
suggests r e straint the thou shalt not type,

of life But its correlative concentrati o n

.
, ,

has a more positive tone and is perhaps the , ,

better word to u s e T h e man w h o c o n c en .

trates on business or politics books or athletics , ,

necessarily renounces those thin gs inimical to

these pursuits He denies himself all that
.

woul d hinder his practice in these different

expressions of life T homas a Kempis bids .

men concentrate on Jesus Christ and ab andon

all things for l ove of Him I f he calls this world .

of civilized life a vanity it is a vamty in com ,

parison with the supreme reality of Jesus .

’
Here of course he simply reiterates Jesus call
, ,

S eek y e first the Ki ngdom of G od and His righteous

ness ( M att vi . or the apostolic Therefore
.

c ome a way from t hem, sep arate, s aith the Lord

(2 Cor vii . T h e world is full of a number
.

of things that are able to hinder or to promote

the K ingdom but the call of Jesus is that eve ry
,

thing must be subse rvient an d only used as it

stands in relation to God s rightful p l ace in the ’

world A little lad in reading a well -known verse

.

"
stumbled over the word consecrated and ,

read the lines

Tak e my life and let i t b e
Concentrated L o rd on Thee , , .

SI
 T HF MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
Could there be a better interpretation I t w as
t h e fashion of a Kempis day to conceive of the
'

holy life the religious life as possible only

, ,

in the cloister in a flight from the world

,

by retirement ; but if our modern world takes

a less fugitive view of religion and its duties ,

it behoves us beware lest w e seculari z e the holy

in our e ffort to hallow the secul ar We still .

need to have emphatic warnin gs that our hearts

are to renounce all lower aims than those w hich
Jesus has s et before us and to carry His cross
in our hearts if we are to be loyal to Him dying ,

to all that is not His an d living a life of which

,

H e al one is both centre and circumference .

It has already been pointed out that of the

external copying of Jesus there is hardly anythin g
in The I mitation that a Kempis follow s closely
,
'
the apostoli c teachin g as to the w ay Jesus
disciples should follow their Example He .

follow s them for instan ce in that what he does

, ,

s ay about imitating is c h iefly confined to the

example of Christ s pa tient endurance His

'
,

fidelity to His task Hi s bearing of the cross

, .

I t is as if Jesus were chiefly to be t hought of in

the days of His P assion T h e silent years at
.

'
N a z areth the carpenter s bench the loyal ty to
, ,

Jewish customs of religion the social life are, ,

scarcely ever named I t is true that T homas a

.

Kempis did think on these thi ngs, for he wrote

52
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMPIS
grant me grace to imitate T hee though
Le t T h y
'
with the world s contempt .

servant be trained in T hy life : for therein is

my s alvation and true holiness ( IV LVI
, . .

I became of all men the humblest and lowest

that thou mightest beat down thy pride
with My humi lity ( IV I came down
.

from heaven for thy salvation : I took upon

Me thy miseries not necessity but charity
,

drawing M e thereto : that thou mightest

learn patience and bear temporal miseries
without complaint F or from the hour of
.

My birth to My death on the cross : I w as

,

not without suffe rin g of grief IV F or

T h y life is our way and by T hy holy patience
we walk toward T hee w h o art our Crown .

I f T hou hadst not gone before us and taught

us : w h o woul d care to follow ? Al as l how
many would remain afar o ff and behind : if
they saw not T hy nobl e Example ( I V .

But there is nothing from beginning to end

of the book to lead us to seek an e ncy clo
"
p e
e d ic knowledge of Jesus T here is
. no r e
drawing o f the F igu re of the Gospel story : the
tone of speaki ng of Jesus is that of the E pistles ,

not the Gospels I t is the heart the mind the

. , ,

temper the character of our Lord whi ch are

,

ever before us as the pattern for life T homas .

a Kempis knows no di fference between Jesus

an d the Christ : to him Jesus w as the same Jesus ,

ever the same whether on the stage of history

or livin g exalted in the heavens He strains his .

54
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C HR IST
ear and bids us listen for t h e voice of Christ
within his heart ; and the words he puts into
’
Christ s lips are seldom quotations from the
Gospels—they represent the instruction that hi s
S pirit taught heart received as the truth
-
.

Happy the man whom truth teaches b y

itself, not in fleeting figures and words :
but as it is in itself . He to whom
the E ternal Word speaks : is freed from
many opinions F rom one Word are all
.

things ; and all speak that one ; and this is

the Beginning which also speaks to us
, .

N o man W ithout that Word understan ds

or judges aright He to whom all things
.

are one he draws all things to one and sees

, ,

all things in one : may be stablished in

heart : and rest as a peacemaker in God .

Le t all doctors hold their peace , let all

creatures keep silence in T hy sight : speak
T hou alone to me ( I 1 1 1 . Blessed is the
.

soul which hears the L ord speaking within

her : and receives from His mouth the word
of consolation . Blessed indeed are
those c ars that listen not to the voice which
babbles without : but to the T ruth which
teaches within ( IV .

T hus a Kempis rises beyond any mere copying

of a pattern t o become a listener to the E ternal
S pirit w h o t o l iim w as none other than the voice
,

of Christ as He dwelt within his heart T h e .

way to become like Jesus was for him the w ay

of fell owship an d communion .
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMP IS

III .

My sticism .

T h e last s et of quotations from The I mitation

is noteworthy and Mr Montmorency fixes upon
, .

them as the basis of his cl aim that a Kempis

"
w as a profound and blameless mystic ,

possessing all the elements of M ys ticism in hi s

"
nature But such a claim is not all owed
.

by another lover of the book D r Bigg for he , .

,

writes in his I ntroduction the religion of ,

"
the heart is impatient of logical categories ,

and he will onl y allow that a Kempis was a half

or semi mystic T hi s of course hangs very
-
.

much on what the true definition of Mysticism

is and more definitely what is Christian Mys
, , ,

ticis m We get some conception of the range

.

that the word covers by glancing at the articles

on Mysticism in the Ency clop aedi a of Religion
and E thi cs where the varieties are distributed
,

into P rimitive Buddhist Chinese Hebrew , , , ,

Hindu M us lim P ersian ( Greek and R oman are

, ,

dealt with un der the heading of Mysteries

whilst Christian Mysticism is subdivided
into N ew T estament R oman Cath olic P rotes , ,

tant and Russian, D r R ufus Jones in the first

. .

articl e thinks that the word covers ( I ) the firs t

hand experience o f direct intercourse with God
and (2) the t h eo lo gi co metaphysical doctrine of -

’
the soul s possible union with Absol ute R eali ty
i e God
. . , He thinks it woul d avoid a good deal
.

of loose thinking and writing if the word were

56
 THE IM ITA T I O N OF C HR IST
restricted to the second idea which represent s ,

the German word my stik D r Bigg conceives . .

of the mystic as one w h o shuts his eyes to facts

and relies upon the I nner Light or one w ho
seeks to lose his existence in the Eternal or , ,

in Christian terms thinks sol ely or m ain ly of t h e

,

I ncarnation rather than of the Cross D ean .

I nge says roundly T homas a Kempis

, does
not exhibit the distinguishin g characteristics of
Mysticism "
,
but then in his brilliant book on
Christi an My sticism he has dealt with the i nne r
Circle of t h e chief masters with whom few would
,

rank a Kempis , whose place is in one of the

outer courts .

The I mitation follows the Mysticism w e fin d

in the pages of the N ew T estament in P aul ,

and John T homas a Kempis was very sure of

.

God of the love that Jesus had shed abroad in

,

hi s heart by the Holy S pirit of the indwelling of

,

Jesus in hi s heart and therefore Jesus P resence

,
’

was constantly with him in the monastery an d ,

he had conscious union with Him whom he

worshipped and loved so passionately His .

religion was emphatically a religion of the heart .

T here is an illustration of his power to convey

this to his readers in the case of John Wesley
when he w as twenty tw o years of age : T h e
-

P rovidence of God directing me to a Kempis '

Chris tian P a ttern I began to see that tru e

,

reli gion was seated in the heart and that God s '

law extended to all our thoughts as well as

words and actions I w as however very
.
, ,

p . 1 94 .

57
 THE M ESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMPIS
angry at Kempis for being too strict : though
I read him only in D ean S tanhope s tran slation
’
.

Y e t I have frequently much sensible comfort

in readin g hi m such as I was an utter stranger
,

to T h e popul arity of our littl e book

is doubtless due to thi s and the further fact that it
seldom goes beyond the range of such experiences
as can be easily paralleled in the N ew T estament .

I t is far more import ant to attend to what is

said than to be anxious about the exact class
of mystic to which T homas belonged but when ,

w e read the following w e have some of his

gu idin g thoughts :
T h e habit and the shaven crown do
little profit : but changes of manners and
perfect mo rt ificatio n of passions make a
true religious man ( I S ome carry
.

their devotion only in books : some in

images : some in outward signs and figures .

S ome have M e in their mouths but littl e ,

in their hearts ( IV Iv M any run to

. .

distant places to visit the re lics of the

saints : and but littl e amendment is reaped
thereby ( I I I 1 . I f thou intend and
.

seek nothing else but the pleasure of G o d

and the good of thy neighbour : thou shalt
enj oy perfect internal freedom I f thy heart .

were right : then every creature woul d be a

mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine .

T here is no creature s o small and

journal, i 99 ; c f also th e s to ry of J o hn New to n s
'
. .

v r
c o n e s io n o n a s lave-trade r by th e agency o f th e same
translat i on in th e y ear
5
 THE IM IT A TI O N OF C HR IST
abj ect : but it reflects the goodness of God
(I I N )
. Let nothin g be great unto thee ,
nothing high nothing pleasing nothing
, ,

acceptable : but simply God or that which

is of God ( I I M an s welfare then
.
’
, ,

lies not in things outward that he gains or

amasses : but in despising them this
thou must understand not only of income
and wealth : but of seeking after honour and
the desire of vain praise ( I V To .

walk inwardly with God and not be fet ,

t e r e d by any affection without : is the state

of an inward man ( I I T h e more thou
.

canst go out of thyself : the more wilt thou

be able to pass into M e ( IV LVI . .

Every chapter i n the book we feel is written

, ,

by a man profoundly moved by spiritual reali

ties seeking unrealiz ed worlds unsatisfied ti ll
, ,

he can reach all that God can give him an d he ,

'
quotes as well as bases his book on Augustine s
famous sentence ,O ur hearts are restless till
they rest in T hee T h e book is one of the man y
.

great literary witnesses the world possesses for

'
the reality of the spiritual kingdom an d man s ,

ability to live within its frontiers enjoying its ,

man ifold blessings T homas a Kempis is one of

.

the sanest mystics and b rin gs the things of heaven

,

down to cottage doors T here are a few visions

.

recorded of him but the passage in Book I XXV

, . .

may confidently be read as autobiography .

O ne that in sore anxiety an d often

w as
wavered between hope and fear, and once
59
 THE MESSA G E O F T H O MAS A KEMP IS
w as mastered by sorrow prostrated him ,

self in a church before an altar in prayer

and said within hi mself O h if I knew , ,

that I should yet persevere P resently he

heard the D ivine answer Wi thin him, But “

if thou didst know it what wouldst thou,

do D o now what thou woul dst then : and

"
thou shalt be free from fear And being .

therewith comforted and strengthened he

committed himself to the will of God : and
*
that anxious fluctuation ceased .

T here is of course , nothi ng very unusual in

,

this, except that w e are slower than the saints

to recogniz e the D ivine S pirit moving within
our own minds in the answers w e ourselves give
,

to our own questions or in the splendour of our

sudden i nsp i rations M en seek for audible
.

voices w here they can have the silent voice

within if they will attune their hearts to the
h eavenly music .

T homas followed the ol d style Biblical an d ,

patristic when he wrote out the elaborate

,

dialogues in Books I I I and IV between the

. .

Beloved and the disciple T h e dramatic ele

.

ment gives force and vividness to the dialogu es

within our hearts when w e argue with our
"
selves or when w e are conscious of tw o motives
,

within striving to move our wills in diverse

Wi th this exp eri enc e w e may co mpar e that o f o ne
wh o in an h o u r o f d o u bt h eard a v 0i c e b o rne o n th e
,

br e eze s ayin g A ct as thou g h I w er e an d th ou s h al t

, ,

find I am .
"

60
 THE MESS A G E OF T H O MAS A KEMPIS
which he returns throughout The I mitation
.

mi ght almost have been named like William

,

P enn s book S ome Fr uits of S olitud e : and it

'
,

would not be misnamed .

L eave vain things to the vain : fix thou

'
thy thoughts upon God s commands to
thee S hut thy door behind thee : and
.

call unto thee Jesus thy b e loved ( I .

But a Kempis w as not without a sense of the

value of friendship and fellowship Life was in
.

tended for both T here are times for solitude

.

an d times for fellowshi p ; there are truths more

easily grasped and assimi lated in fellowship ,

others more readi ly in solitariness T here are

.

places in the heart where no friend can intrude ,

ti mes wh e n famil i ar friendship hinders the soul s’

development .

O ur progress is not a littl e helped by

devout communing of spiritual things :
especially wh e n men of like mind and
spirit be met together in God ( I .

Without a friend thou canst not li v e well

and if J e sus be not above all a friend to
thee : thou will be very sad and desolat e
( I I VIII
. . T h y love for thy friend
should be grounded in M e and for M y
,

sake shoul dest thou love thos e w h o seem

good to thee : and very dear in this k f c .

Without M e fri e ndship has no strength

nor continuance ; neither is that love true
and pure : which is not kni t by Me ( I V .

XM L ) .

62
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C HR IST
T hus we are taught to cultivate the living
communion of saints M ethodist class meetings
.
-
,

group fe llow ships and study circl e s woul d have

-
,

had a Kempis blessin g upon them I t is to be

’
.

feared however he would have wished the

, ,

sexes separate for there is no trace in his life

,

that he ever knew the supreme value of the

friendship of a good woman as Augustine had ,

known his mother or as S t F rancis had known .

S t Clare
. .He lived in a world where only
fellowship with men w as known He w as a .

monk and limited in his knowledge of life

,
.

Y et a woman of last century has written one of

the noblest appreciations of the book and the ,

book is probably more often read by women

than men .

S cattered throughout the four pamphlets are

ethical principles on which very little need be
said though i t is interesting to note one or t w o
,

points D r E dward Caird has rema rke d on

. .

the fact that in the D e I mitati one Christi we

find the utmost renunciation of self the deepest ,

prostration of humi lity the most complete aban,

d o nme nt of every earthly aim and ambition ,

without any of the crud i ty and bitterness of

T h e ethics are indeed tinged with
S toic colouring but one h as only to compare
,

E volution f Religion,
o ii . 290 .

63
 THE MESS A G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
the be st thing that S toicism has given to the
world The M edi ta tions of M arcus A urelius with
, ,

The I mitation to discover the di fference that

,

Jesus has made to life T h e S toi c sought to .

annihilate what Jesus wo u ld purify and use .

Another point on the ethical side of the book is

that T homas a Kempis being a monk had , ,

taken the vow of obedience whi lst the modern ,

P rote stant e xults in a freedom from authority

and a Wi llingness to take the responsibility of life
upon his own shoulders knowing that h e must
answer for himself at the judgment seat of -

Christ O bedience to authority has its place in

.

life but the right of conscience has also its place

, .

How often the rebel against authority has been

the pioneer for the advance of mankind the pages
of hi story S how We are under the rule of
.

”
O ne whose service is perfect freedom To .

day there are many w h o shi rking responsibility

, ,

seek to place themselves un der the guidance of

master or priest rather than feel the burden of
s elf direction and in this are at one with
-
,

T homas .

F or the right ordering of life the main virtues

are simple— humility patience self control in
, ,
-
,

d u s t ry abstinence from censoriousness love

, ,

towards all se rvice to the communi t y T o the

, .

practice of some of the virtues w e are s u m

mo n e d since they were exhibited by the Ex
,

ample o i Jesus ; thus w e have chapters in

Book IV Of O bedience Of Temp oral M iser ies
.
, ,

to be borne calmly , That we ought to deny O ur

selves and I mita te Christ by the C ross, and in
64
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C HR IST
detail the subj ect is often urged But on th e
.

other h and we have sentences like these :

,

Gird up thy loins like a man against the

wickedness of the devil : bridle thy ap petite
an d thou wilt more easily bridle every
inclination of the flesh N ever be wholl y
.

idle : but either readi ng or writing or pray

ing or meditatin g or endeavouring some
thi ng for the common good ( I .Better
is a little wisdom Wi th humility and a
slender wit : than great treasures of learnin g
with vain self satisfaction
-
. I f thou
coul dest always remain humbly and modes tly
within thyself : and further couldest wisely
curb and rule thy spirit : thou wouldest not
fall s o quickly into danger and offence
( IV. T urn thine eyes upon thyself :
and beware thou j udge not the actions of
others I n judging of others a man labours
.

in vain : oft en e rrs and easi ly sins : but in

judging an d examining hims elf he always
labours fruitfully We often j udge of
.

things as we hke them : for w e easily lose

touch of j udgment through private inclina
tion ( I . F irst therefore be severe
, ,

towards thyself : and then mayest thou

justly be severe towards thy neighbour .

T hou knowest well how to excuse an d

colour thine own deeds : but thou wilt not
admit the excuses of others I t were more
.

j ust that thou shouldest accuse thyself : an d

excuse thy brother If thou wilt be carried :
.

65 E
 THE MESSA G E O F T H O MAS A KEMPIS
carry al so an other ( I I . If thou p e r
f e ct ly master thyself : thou shalt very
easily bring all else under the yoke T h e .

perfect victory is : to triumph over our

selves F or he that keeps himself in such
.

subj ection that his sense be obedient to his

,

reason and his reason in all things to M e

,

is truly conqueror of himself and lord of the

world ( I V . A man must strive hard
and long W i thin himself befor e he can
,

learn fu lly to master himself : and to draw

his whole heart unto God ( I I I X . .

T his handful of quotations shows the kind of

et hical standard that T homas a Kempis teaches .

But besides this we have constantly a sane and

,

practi cal form of worl dly wisdom due to a ,

knowledge of men born of experience a tactful ,

management of life :
We often do badl y : and excuse it worse
(I I
.
Quit thyself like a man : one
custom dri v es out another ( I XXL ) O ld
. .

inbred habit will rebel : but by a better

habit shall it be entirely overcome ( IV .

All is not spoiled : although thou feel thy

self often affli c t e d and grievously tempted .

T hou art man and not God T hou art

.

flesh and not angel ( I V . I t is ex

p e di ent to use the curb even in good e n
d e avo u rs and desires : lest through pre
‘
occupation th o u incur distraction of mind
lest by want of self-government thou beget
scandal unto others : or again by the con
66
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C HR IS T
t radi c tio n
of others thou suddenly lose
temper and fall ( IV XL ) D o often what
. .

thou wouldest not : and leave undone what

thou wouldest ( IV X LIX . R esist thy
.

inclination in the beginning : an d unlearn

evil custom : lest perhaps littl e by littl e it
draw thee into greater diffi cul ty ( I XL ) . .

Le t not thy peace lie in the tongues of men .

F or whether they construe well or ill : thou

art not therefore another man ( IV .

God weighs rather the means of

the worker than the work he does He does .

much : that loves much He does much .

that does a thi ng well He does we ll : that

.

se rves the community rather than his own

will ( I .

VI .

Temp tation .

T he teaching on the subj e ct of T emptation

is full of shre w dness and wisdom I t lies .

mainly in two chapters On resisting Temp tation

,

( I XI I I ) and Tha t there is no S afe ty from Temp ta

. .

t ion in this Life ( I V . A Kempis never

S trained after novelty ; h e w as never afraid of
truisms ; he knew that temptations beset the
soldier of Christ w h o must ev e r be aw ake alert
, , ,

bating no j ot of hope or courage N one are safe . .

We are cradle d in temptation and we swing to ,

and fro and are never beyond its reach .

T here is no order so hol y no place so ,

sec ret : where there be no temptations or

67
 THE MESSA G E O F T H O MAS A KEMPIS
adversities M any shun temptations
.

and fall more grievously into them By .

flight alon e w e cannot overcome By .

littl e and little and by patience with long

,
'
suffe ring through G o d s h elp thou shalt
better o vercome O ften take counsel i n
.

temptation : and deal not roughly with him

that is tempted : but give him comfort a s ,

thou wouldest w ish to be done to thyself .

After quoting O v id s wise words ’

With ,

stand beginnin gs : a remedy may come too

late (Wi th which w e may compare A miel s
’

We shut our eyes to the begi nnings o f W A

because they are small and in this weakness is
,

contain e d the g e rm of our defeat P rincip ii s .

o bsta — this maxim dutifully follow e d woul d

preserve us from almost all our catastrophes
T homas goes on with an an alysis of the develop
ment of temptation :
F or first there comes to the mind a bare
thought : then a strong imagination : after
wards a delight and an evil motion and
consent An d so by little and little our
.

wicked enemy gets wholly in : becaus e he

is not resist e d in the beginning S ome .

are kept fro m gr e at temptations and in ,

small daily ones are often overcome ( I .

mm) .

T h e raison d etre of temptation is that we may

be tested proved and s o stan d pedestalled in
, ,
"
triumph .

journal p 64 , . .

68
 THE MESSA G E O F T HO M A S A KEMPIS

VII .

G race .

In May John Wesley records in his

, 1 7 5 0,
journal I have preached much longer than
,

I am accustomed finding it an acceptable time

, .

W e ll might Kempis s ay He rides eas i ly whom ,

the Grace of God carries T h e quotation is

’
.

from Book I I 1 X 2 Chapter that exhibits the

. .
,

sanity of a Kempis in that he recognizes the

tides the ebb and flow the moods of the soul
, , .

He knew the music of the inner life often fall s

below concert pitch ; he does not however deal , ,

definitely with that discord of the monastic life ,

called accidie of which the late Bishop P aget

,

gave an an alysis in his The Sp irit of Discip line ,

for he was not one w h o felt that he had mistaken

his vocation He quotes Ps x x x 6 - 1 1 to S how
. . .

”
what great saints and ancient prophets had
experienced
If
great saints were so dealt with : we
that are weak an d poor should not despair ,

if we be sometimes fervent and sometim e s

cold I n w hat then can I hope or in
.
, ,

whom should I trust : save in the great

mercy of God alone and in the only hope ,

of heavenly grace ? F or whether I have

with me good men or devout brethren or
faithful friends : whether holy books or
beautiful treatises or sweet chants and ,

hymns : all the se hel p but littl e have but ,

70
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C HR IST
little savour : when grace forsakes me and
I am left alone in mine own poverty ( I I .

I x ii
. .
,

T he soul s remedy and medicine therefore is

’
, ,

Grace which T homas never defines but de

, ,

scribes abundantly in the great chapter where

he compares and contrasts N ature and Grace
( IV
. What then is Grace ? I n what sense
, ,

is that rich word used I t is the antithesis of

N ature and stands for that side of every action
,

which from another side we call faith Grace .

is the D ivine and faith the human side of our

experience of salvation T hey are the tw o .

indissoluble sides of one act through which the ,

u nion between God and man becomes

Grace truly celestial : without which
0
is no merit of our own : nor are any gifts
of nature to be esteemed A rts riches .
, ,

beauty or strength : wit or eloquence are

,

powerless before T hee Without T hy grace ,

O Lord Although I be tempted and

.

vexed with many tribulations yet I will ,

fear no e v ils : so long as T h y grace is with

me T his is my strength ; this gives
.

counsel and help I t is the school .

mistress of truth the teacher of discipline ,

the light of the heart the solace of afflic ,

tion the dispe ller of gloom : the cure of

,

fear the nurse of devotion the fountain of

, ,

tears L e t T h y grace therefore L ord

.
, , ,

I ng e , Faith and i ts Psy chology , p . 239 .

71
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMPIS
always prevent and follow me ; and make
me to be continually given to good works
( I V LV ii . Grant me the grace to
. .
,
’
imitate T he e though with the world s
contempt ( I V LVI . .

Grace in T homas a Kempis vocabulary prac ’

tically stands for the supernatural life the Divine ,

love and power whi ch w orks in man I n P ro .

testant circles this is usually regarded as the

operation of the Holy S pirit since He is regarded ,

as the Author of all our good T h e word as .

a Kempis used it has been lifted out of its New

T estament or P auline use for the free uh , ,

meri ted love of God exh i bited in His treatment

of sinners in a full and free fo rgi v eness a con ,

c e p ti o n that Luther restored to the Church ;

it has been chan ged into a synonym for the
work which Luther would say w as the work of
the Holy S pirit withi n the heart Grace has .

always a convex side towards God and a concave

side towards man T aken separately they are .
,

contradict o ry and opposite but united they , , ,

are as perfectly one as the convex and concave

sides in one I t stands therefore for the , ,

superhuman life to which eve r y Christian is

called a life of u nion and c o operation with
,
-

Jesus Christ and w h o therefore as a matter of

, , ,

course is equal to any d emands upon him

, .

”
T h e need to day D r E A Burroughs pro
-
, . . .

O man Grace , andPersonali ty , p 1 8 2; cf . . arti cl e on

Grac e ( b o th Pro t es tant and Roman C ath oli c) in ERE . . .

vi . 36 4 f .

72
 “
THE IM IT A TI O N OF C HR IST
c e e ds, is that every Christi an shoul d be a
Christian in the full
T his enforcement of the disciple by Grace
makes even imitation a n ew thing for hence ,

forth he says I can do all things in Hi m that

,

s t rengtheneth me : he is not alone by his unaided

e ff orts to struggle after an imposs i ble ideal to ,

be a mere copyi st : he opens his nature to the

Grace of God that he may follow Christ Grace .

is the dynamic of et hi cal perfection .

VI I I .

The Love
f jesus o .

But the motive that urges such a following is

love the love that has been awakened by a sense
,

of the Love of Jesus Jesus is the Beloved the

. ,

most tremendous Lover w h o claims all in

return for the all H e gave In Book IV v . . .

and v1 this devotion of heart to Jesus is ex

.

pound e d at length Whilst Grace is the mode

.

in which Jesus sheds Hi s love into the heart .

Love impels Grace to move for L ove was the ,

open secret of the Cross where everybody can

read He lo ved me and gave Hims elf up for me
, .

T o T homas the name Jesus is synonymous with

Lover How i t moul ds life he has s e t out in a
.

noble passage fit to stand side by side with

,
’
P aul s great psalm in 1 Cor xiii . .

T h e noble love of Jesus impels to great

deeds : and arouses a constant desire for
Val ley f Deczszon, p
o . 26 3.

73
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMPIS
greater perfection Love longs to soar : and
.

will not be held down by things that are

low Love longs to be free and estranged
.
,

from all worldly a ff ection : that its inner

eye may not be dimmed : that it may not
be caught by any temporal prosperity : nor
by any adversit y cast down N othin g is .

sweeter than L o ve : nothing braver nothing ,

higher nothing wider : nothing sweeter

, ,

nothing fuller nor better in heav e n or on

earth : because Love is born of God : and
can only rest in God above all created
things .

T h e lover flies runs and rej oices : he is

, ,

free and cannot be held He gives all for .

all : and has all in all He regards not

.

gifts : but turns himself above all gifts to

the Giver L ove feels no burden :
.

counts no pains exerts itself beyond its

,

strength : talks not of impossibil i ty : for it

thinks all things possible and all permitted
( IV v
. .

But T homas a Kempis is not praising love in

vacuo it is personal and centr e d on J e sus : else
,

where he gi ves u s certain ways of proving the

true Lover :
S on , thou art not yet a brave and discreet
lover .

Why Lord ,

A brave lover stands firm in temptation

nor listens to the crafty persuasions of the
enemy As I please him in fai r weather :
.

74
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C H RIST
so I displease not in foul . He counts
the a ffection rather than the price : and
sets the Beloved above all his gifts .

All is not lost because at times thy heart

,

is not stirred . N either is it an

illusion that at times thou art suddenly
rapt in ecstasy : and presently re tu rn e s t
unto the accustomed follies of thy heart .

Fight like a good soldier : and if at times

thou f all t h ro u g h w e akn e s s take again greater
,

strength than before trusti ng in larg e r grace

,

from M e : and take heed of foolish conceit

and of pride T hrough this many are led
.

into error : and fall at times into blindness

past cure Let the fall of the proud thus
.

foolishly presuming on themselves : teach

thee caution and constant humi lity ( I V .

A lover of Jesus and truth w h o truly lives ,

the inner life and is free fr o m inordinate

a ffe ctions : can freely turn himself to God ,

and lift himself above himself in spirit

and rest in fruition ( I I 1 . Come
.
,

faithful soul , make ready thy heart for this

Bridegroom : that He may come unto the e
and d w ell within thee ( I I 1 . T hey .

who love Jesus for the sake of J e sus and

not for some special comfort of their own :
bless Him in all tribulation and distress of
heart as well as in dearest comfort ( I I XL ) . .

T hy Beloved is of such a nature that He ,

will bear no rival : but wi ll have thy heart

to Himself : and sit o n His throne as King .

F or man doth more hurt to himself if he

75
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
seek not Jesus : than the whole world and
all his enemies ( I I .

T hese quotations are but samples of what

every reader knows permeates and thrills
throughout The I mi tation for if one thing is ,

ce rtain about the book more than another i t is

the passionate d e votion of the heart to Jesus .

F or the sake of i t a Kempis left all and turned his ,

fac e against every let and hi ndranc e and s e t his ,

’
heart s altar alight by communion with his
Beloved Lord feeding the fire with everything
,

that woul d cause it to bla z e more brightly .

Here he is in line with his masters Augustine ,

and Bernard who were great lovers of God

, ,

or S t P aul whose heart was not less absorbed

.
,

and moulded by love for Jesus Christ He .

found that Jesus the very thought of T hee

,
”
with sweetness fills my breast was not an
aspiration but an experi e nce T here is a lyric .

note in his love such as one finds in the hymn

books of the Church those treasures of the,
’
heart s knowledge of Jesus In the hymnology .

of the Church theology i s turned into musi c i t s

, ,

laws b e come songs Benj a min Jowett has

.

raised thi s question : I s it possible to feel a

p e rsonal attachm e nt to Christ such as that
descri bed by T homas a Kempis I think that
it is impossi ble and contrary to human nature
, ,

that we shoul d be able to concentrate our

thoughts on a person scarcely known to us who
lived years But the facts are against
L fe
i , ii . 1 51 .

76
 THE MESSA G E O F T H O MAS A KEMPIS
be rin g that a Kempis is onl y one of thousands ,
and that his experiences are backed for their
reality and honesty by all w h o are Within the
Christian F aith Christianity woul d long ago
.

have sunk beyond recall had it not possessed

the power to lift men out of themsel v es out ,

of their weaknesses and sins into power and

purity and holy lives out of ai ml ess eddying
,

about into a vocation .

IX
Holy C ommunion .

I n many respects the Book— whether I I I or .

—
I V has al ready been discussed o n Holy Com
.

munion is the richest Even P rotestants of the

.

Evangelical S chool find in it endless suggestions

even whilst they demur to or rej ect the funda
mental basis o n whi ch it is founded T hey.

find in these eighteen chapters of dialogue

between the Beloved and the disciple plenty
that will enhance their own conception of this
“
life giving feast, as T e nnyson described it
-
.

A s a stout son of the R eforming F aith sang ,

and taught many a P rot e stant to sing, H e re ,

0 my Lord I s ee T hee face to face

, I t is
.

pre eminently a service in whi ch each receives

-
,

as h e brings to the ser v ice All will do well

.

to giv e heed to these words of a Kempis :

Beware of curious and unprofitable
s earching into this most profound S acra
ment : if thou wilt not be plunged into
78
 TH E IM ITATI O N O F C HR IST
depths of doubt . He that pries into
maj esty : shall be overp owered by glory .

God can work more : th an man can under

stand ( I I I .

I t i s possible w e may have to rej ect the

priestly function as ardently as T homas wo u ld
maintain it : rej ect what appears the grosser
elements of its theory as T homas would
have insisted on them I t is possible to take
.

a high view with the simpli city of an entirely

spiri tual faith We may have our different
.

opinions on matters of transubstantiation ,

consubstantiation and the like : but w e can

,

never a ff ord to forget that Christ is the very

F ood and nourishment o f Life the heavenly
,

M anna .
”
Even those w h o can dispense with
’
the outer symbolism of the Lord s S upper can
at least u nite in such a prayer as this
O h that with T hy P resence T hou
wouldest wholly kin dle burn and trans
, ,

form me unto T hyself : that I might be

made one spirit with T hee by the grace of
inward uni o n : and the melti ng of ardent
love .S uffer me not to go away from
T hee hungry and dry : but deal merciful ly
with me : as oftentimes T hou has t dealt
wonderfully with T h y saints ( I I I Oh .

that it were granted me Lord to find T hee

, ,

alone and open unto T hee my whole heart

and enj oy T hee as my soul desires : and that
henceforth none may despise me nor any ,

creature attract nor regard me : but that

79
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMP IS
T hou alone mayest speak unto me and I
to T hee : as the beloved is wont to speak to
his beloved and friend to feast with friend
,

(I I I .

N owhere in The I mita tion have theological we

discussions givm g rise to disputes but every ,

where the book rises to the bracing ai r of the

hi lls of G o d above the plains where opinions
clash All is of t h e grace of God and all is open
.

to the devout soul that in simpli city of fai th

will seek Jesus We are summoned not to a
.
,

copying of an external example but to the ,

partaking of a li fe whi ch bringing strength , ,

subdues to the resemblance of its own supreme

nature As John N ewton sang :
.

As th e i ma ge in t h e glas s
Answ e rs t h e b eh o l d e r s fac e,
’

Th u s u n to my h e art app ear,

Pri n t T hi n e o wn r es emb lan c e th er e .

L et Him come to me His poor one

and make me glad Le t Him put fo rth Hi s
.

h and : and STi ve a poor wretch from every

’

d i fficulty Come come : for Wi thout T hee

.
,

no day nor hour is j oyful : for T hou art

my j oy an d without T hee my table is empty
( IV x x i
. .

T his is the very core of the book : union that

brings likeness fellowship that brings such
,
’
a w ay of sharing Jesus outlook on life that we
are drawn to walk as He walked and to carry
on the work which jesus began by doing and
80
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C HR IST
teaching. is a union which renews the nature
It
of the disciple and issues not only in wal king
,

after Him but also likeness to Him s o that He

, ,

becomes known to the world through His

disciples and the world marks from thei r life
and manners that they have been with jesus
and have learnt of Him When D r F orsyth
. .

in Chris t on P arnassus is comparin g Greek an d

Gothic architecture the square self-contained
, , ,

and sprightly temple of Greece with the

eternal hope and aspirati on which speaks
forth in every line and curve of Gothic archi
’
tecture the lovely symbol of man s thirst
for the infinite it utters man s diss atis ’

faction with himself and expresses his rest and

”
peace to be only in God he adds : I t is the
,

soul of the I mitati on proj ected in

T h e infinite variety of Gothi c is indeed an apt
reminder that the disciples of Jesus express
the li keness of their M aster with manifold
diff erences— never according to one rule ; one is
ne v er the exact replica o f another but they are ,

of the same style We are not to be littl e

.

”
Christs but we are to be in Him : w e are not
,

to be duplicates but fresh incarnations of His

,

life as He is formed within us .

p . 1 82 .

81
 C HA PTE R V

THE IMI TAT I O N OF C HRI ST SO ME CR I T I C I SM S,

JUS T AND U NJUST
Chr s tendom m s t cons tan tly go on to learn that ev en
i u ,

in r eli gi o n th e S i mp les t thin g i s th e mos t di ffi cu lt and ,

th at eve ry thi ng th at i s a b u rd en o n r eli gi o n ! u enc h es i ts

s e rio us n ess a C hri s tian man s b us mess is no t to tal k
'

gr an d ly ab o u t d o gmas b u t to be alw ays d o i n g ardu ous

,

an d g r e at thi n gs i n fe llo w s h ip Wi th G od : Z wm gli ) .

Th er efo r e t h e goal o f all Chri s ti an w o rk ev en al l th eo

l o gi cal w o rk can o n ly b e thi s —to di s c ern e v e r mo r e
,

di s ti nctl y th e s imp li ci ty an d s erious ness o f th e Go s p el ,

in o rd e r to b ec o me e v e r p u r e r an d s tr o n ge r i n Sp i ri t
" —
,

and e v e r mo r e lo vi n g an d br o th e r ly i n a cti on L ast

.

sentence of HA RN A CK S His tory of Dogma Vi i p 274

'
. . .
,

T HE most general and obvious criticism directed

against The I mitation is that the writer w as a
monk and therefore the air of the Cloisters per
,

vades its pages T o some as to George Eliot

.
, ,

this is an attraction to others it is a bias in the

,

wrong di rection Whilst frankly acknowledgin g

.

the bias it may be worth while to mark more

,

exactly the essential elements of the monkish

ideals of the religious life : elements that are
eternall y true an d worth preserving I t may be .

a kind of hothouse piety carefully secluded ,

from the chill blasts and tempests of the open

field but e v en in h o thouses some flowers
82
 THE IM ITATI O N OF C HR I S T
bloom which cannot grow out in the open I t .

is almost waste of time to discuss the relative

merits of the Contemplative and the Active life ,

the M ary an d M artha aspects for the world ,

needs both and the individual himself must

,

have both in the smaller world of his o wn life .

We cannot live them singly without serious loss .

T homas a Kempis exhi bits something of the

beauty of the Contemplative life and the loss it
suffers when di sj oined from that of the business
of the world T h e R eformation p eriod in i t s
.
,

reaction from the monasti c theories of religion ,

su ffered from swinging too far towards the

Acti v e : an d the daughter churches of the R e-

formation have never suffici e ntly insisted on the

culture of the soul T h e Evangelical R evival of
.

the eighte e nth century made an effort to com

pound the tw o into one witness Charle s ,
’
Wesley s lines
S erv e Wi th c ar e fu l M arth a s han ds
’
,

An d Io vi n g M ary s h eart !
’

O r two other lines

M y hands are bu t engage d b e low
M y h eart is s till with Th ee .

T homas a Kempis w as not ignorant of this

double call for he wrote a little treatise D e
, ,

fi li disp ensatore parts of whi ch English readers

d e ,

may find in S H Gem s most interesting little

. .
’

book called Hidden S aints

, .

Al though the part of M ary is more

eligible and sweeter yet the labo rious part
,

83
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMP IS
of M artha her sister, is praiseworthy and
,

accepted of God ; to serve belongs

especially to M artha as to be at leisure ,

belongs to M ary Y et these tw o sisters

.

are not to be separate from each other nor ,

shoul d they contend as to the respective

merits of their conditions I t should rather .

be their effort equally to receive Christ as

their guest that in all things they may stand
,

perfectly an d advance in daily increasing

,

Vi rtue *
.

T here is ample justification for D r C Bigg . .

when he pleads that the world needs reser

vo ir s of every kind of excellence of intelligence , ,

of knowledge of practical abili ty of morality

, , .

N o man is s u ffi cient for himself At e v ery turn .

he must borrow and he must lend T h e con

, .

t e mplative li fe is such a reservoir a storage ,

” ‘
ground of moral force 1 T h e streams which .

cleanse and sweeten the muddy waters of life

have their springs in the highlands of Con
t e mp lati o n and P rayer .

I t is th e w ay th e Mas te r went
Sh o ul d
no t th e s e rvan t tr ea d it s ti ll
We allow scholars , scientis ts artists to live , ,

apart from the main cu rrent of affairs that they

may be un distracted in the pursuit of their
aim, and w e do not condemn them T he .

religious man if he pleads the sam e exemption

,

from the responsibilities for the upkeep of the

93 f 1 p xxx vi
'

P o l o . .

84
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMP I
himself as a vesse l through whom God
waiting to pour forth His grace is a truth
Church needs to s ee and every disciple of J
needs to take to heart We have .

that o ne may clas p God an d the other our fellow

men , that thus there may be contact with Him
thr ough us .

In thinking like this w e assume that w e have

passed beyond the monastic ideal of the Middle
A ges and feel how j usti fied D r Hastings Ras h dall
.

is when he points out that there has been a

continuous development in Christian thought
as it h as had to face the problems of the world ,
and that that development is the result of the
work of the Divin e S pirit T h e ideal of
.

T homas a Kemp i s w as very unlike the ideal o f l

Jesus—much more s o than the ideal of the besi l
modern But to rej ect the ide al l
s e t before u s in The I mi ta tion to forget the ,

mighty influence it h as had over men w h o were

engage d i n great confli ct with the world s evil ’
,

in politics like Gla dstone , in soldiering li ke

Gordon, is to miss t h e stimulus they foun d in
its pages : for however far short w e may feel the
book fall s of N ew T estament Christianity it still ,

possesses this power of directin g its readers into

the Very P resence of Jesus and liftin g them into
the eternal order of things I t was writt en .

before the R eformation an d before Luther had

broken with the traditional portrait of the saint .

T o us mode m s Luther is far more a saint of the

New T e s tament ty pe than T homas—Luther with
Chris t and C r sa ence, p 21 8
gé
. .
 THE I M I TA T I O N O F C HR IST
bold humour his hearty laughter his home
, , ,

his desire to bring the Kingdom of God into

being as a force in worldly a ffairs T h e gloomy .
,

pessimistic View of life in some pages of The

I mit ati on is impossible for us .

This
wo r l d s no b lo t f o r us ,
'

Nor b lank ; it means intens ely, and means go od

T o find I ts meaning is my meat and dri nk .

But in seeking power to balance the care of

our souls with service to the world the love of ,

God and love of neighbour, the retreat from the

world that w e may be abl e to be of greater us e
to the world there is that in T homas a Kempis
,

which cannot fail to help us to preserve the true

equilibrium of interests .

F ollowing the line of this criti cism there are

two others by Milman in hi s La tin Ch istianity
r *
,

and W M T hackeray in his

. . Milman
describes the book whilst admitting that it ,

supplies some imperious want in the Chris

”
t ianity of mankind as absolutely and entirely
,

selfish in its aim ”

begins in self— terminates
,
”
in self. But this is not fair nor j ust for a ,

Kempis certainly included servi ce for the

community ( I the goo d of others rather
.

’
than doing one s own will ( I as part of the .

life he depicted ; and what about such a sentence

as this ?
If thou wil t be carried carry al s o another ,

( I I I I L)
. .

L t n Chr t an ty ix 1 6 3 f
a i is i i , . .

1
“

Letters of W M Thack ray p . . e , .

96 .

87
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMP IS
It may be he had not at tained to our modern
interpretation of the l aw, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thy self for as Benj amin Kidd says
, , ,

it is the expand i ng application of the word

neighbour that reveals the development of
the ethics of mankind *
T homas w as not ahead
.

of his times in this extension of the law : he

accepted the limitations of the monastery But .

it is clear that his ideal w as not so selfish as

Milman would have us think T hackeray s .
’

criticism has less ground than Milman s when ’

he says that the book would create a s et of

selfis h beings , crawling about avoiding one ,

another and howling a perpetual Miserere

,
”
.

But does it ? John Wesl ey might be taken as

one upon whom The I mi tation exercised a
wonderful e ffect for he certainly drew from its
,

pages continual guidance and as certainly he ,

never crawled about or howled a perpetual

Miserere but lived one of the most selfless
”
, ,

cheerful useful lives of any man of his genera

,

tion A pply the pragmatic test B y their fruits

.
,

y e shall k now them and the book s influence has

’
,

at least the evidence often suggested in these

pages Has ever anyone cl aimed that it is a
.

fu ll Christi anity or that it is a complete presenta

tion of Jesus ? But whenever men seek to
warm their hearts with the love of Je sus or need ,

incentives to deny s elf to carry the cross man

,

fully to be self forgetful they wi ll hear the call

,
-
,

in these pages and bless God for His prophet ,

T homas a Kempis .

A rt Civili aticn E R E
“

gg
. , . . .
 THE IM ITA T I O N OF C HR IST
A far more damaging criti cism is made when
it is suggested that The I mi tation reveals no
historic sense T hough w e ought not in fair.

ness to as k from a man more than he can gi ve

us it nevertheless militates against its service
,
”
ableness He constructs
. so D r S talker , .

s ays , Christ out of hi s o wn notions of excel

lence in stead of going to the records of His
,

life and painting the portrait with the colours

”
they supply D r S tal ker has in his well
. .

known book I mago Christi sought to supply

, ,

this lack and has traced the portrait of the

M aster in varying aspects—sixteen in all — as a
,

F riend Worker S u fferer Evangelist T eacher

, , , , ,
*
in the Home the S tate the Church , and s o o u
, , .

T his method however suggestive can never be

, ,

fully adequate for it is always open to s ay that

,

the external actions o i Jesus only expressed His

'

mind for His own day and that in other times ,

and other days and other lands He might have

expressed His mind and heart quite di fferently
and even in quite opposite a fashion And the .

method is exposed to D r O man s criti cism .

’

that we do not possess an encycl op e dic know

ledge o f Jesus : but taken as far as we can go ,

probably no reader rises from I mago Christi

without receiving the elevation of heart that all
conta ct with Jesus brings O n the other hand .
,

it is true to say that what records w e have of the

earthl y life of Jesus are sufficient for us to know
p . 24 f .
; cf . S tal k er
’
s E thic f jesus , p
o . 1 97 f cf .
Caro l ne Fo Chr s t o ur E x mp le nd
als o i x , i a , a Upham
The Hidden L f e ii 1 3 for o th er i ll us tr atio ns
i , .
, .

89
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMPIS
His mi nd As the geologi st from a S ingle bone
.

can reconstruct the form of a prehistoric

animal so from a few incidents it is possible
,

often to reconstruct the mind of past characters ,

though it never can be done without an element

of unce rtainty T hus the saying Consider the
.
,

lilies opens a window into Jesus min d that

’
,

suggests He appreciated floral beauty and if ,

floral then beauty in every form and that He

, ,

poss e ssed the e sthetic s ense N evertheless . ,

D r S talker s charge that Christ as portrayed

’
.

by a Kempis is not the Jesus of the Gospels is

reaffirmed by D r Hastings Ras hd all w h o .
,

strongly asserts T h e Christ of whom w e hear

,

so much in the I mitatio has not very much in

”
common with t he Christ of the Gospels ,

though D r S talker sees also that a Kempis h as

.

some instinct or power that with a glowing love

and a soaring reverence do indeed bring Christ
home to the heart T o this the reply might be
.

made that it seems odd that the generations of

readers of The I mitation shoul d not have dis
covered the discrepancy that D r Ras h dall says .

exists Unless indeed the explanati on be that

. , ,

the readers of a Kempis like a Kempis himself , ,

approached Jesus rather through the creeds of

the Church than through the Gospels tre ated
as historical documents I t is true that never .

’
S ince the A postles days have such e ff orts been
made to s ee Jesus apart from the doctrines
framed concerning His P erson T h e multi .

tu dinous Lives of Christ have often brought

90
 THE IM ITAT I O N OF C HR IST
out lineaments of His Character obscured in
earlier centuri es, and the final Life h as yet to
be written Just as none of us is ever satisfied
.

’
with the painters attempts to give His por
trait s o few o f us are content Wi th the most
,

accurate Life written hitherto His F ace mus t .

have been more wonderful than any artist has

put upon canvas and He is still in a sense the
,

great E nigma for biographers : we label Him ,

but He escapes our Cl assification ; He was over

”
the heads of His reporters an d He is over the ,

heads of His critics to -day ; every biographer

sees Him from some aspect which is valuable ;
and in the words of T homas Hodgkin his ,

torian banker, and Quaker w e may s ay that

, ,

Jesus Christ the Word of God speaks to us

, ,

with an even more powerfu l and heart satisfying -

voice than He has done for many past genera

O rthodoxy in its anxiety to preserve
,

the cree ds concerning the P erfect Godhead has ,

often tended to hide the P erfect M anhood in the

I ncarnation And we have a singular evidenc e
.

of this in the storm that met E cce Homo on its

publication : yet as D ean Church said in his
,

review of that great book, it was l i ke a modern

I mitation .

But the study of Jesus to which The I mita

tion calls us leads rather to the apostolic w ay
of following Him than to a repro duction of the
Gospel settings of His life F or D r S talker . .

hi mself says that the book specifies indee d, ,

’
certain great features of the S aviour s history
Life and Le tters p , .
336 .

91
 T HE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A KEMP IS
as for instance that in beco ming man He
, ,

humbled Himself and therefore w e ought to be

,

humble : or that He lived a life of su ff ering and ,

therefore w e ought to be willing to su ffer ; but

”
he does not get beyond these generalities .

But this can also be said concerning the apo stolic

teaching on followin g and imitating C h rist .

T homas a Kempis line of thought is rather

’

theirs than of the modern historical school .

Even if it can be proved that his Vision of Jesus

was somewhat defective lacking s ome elements
, ,

does that prove it was not true ? D oes it not

only prove that Jesus was too great for him ?
An d that everyone W ho comes to Jesus like ,

the old legend of the statue of Jesus which

enlarged itself as anyone approached it, finds
that He is greater than his powers are to com
prehend that might y F igure ? Everyone can
agree with D r S talker T h e imitation of Christ
.
,

is a subj ect whi ch is constantly calling for t e

”
consideration . T h e aim o i every Christian
will always be to grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lo r d and S aviour jesus Christ O ne can .

almost hear the sin cere devout old monk saying

,

to us as we di scuss these t hings Away with

,

your subtleties your criti cis s your discus

,

sions : get on with your imitation of the Lord

m
,

love Him till you grow like Him behold Him ,

ti ll you are transformed into the same image as ,

by the Lord the S pi rit ! T ake what you can

profit by but get on
,

92
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O M A S A KEMP IS
dated 1 764 : I went upstairs and after a little
,
‘
prayer opened Kempis on these words : Wait
on the Lord quit thyself like a man Yield not
, .

to distrust Be unwil ling to depart : but con

.

s t an tl y expose body an d soul for the Glory of

I t does not app e ar that Wesley often

practised this sortes Kemp isens is though w e ,

know both he an d his fri ends adapted the

habit to the S criptures T h e practi ce of
. ,

course is evidence of the place that a Kempis

,

had in his mind But its real value lies

.

elsewhere .

I t has been said that part of the attraction lie s

in the title for every love r of Jesus is drawn by
,

his love to imitate his Lover Certainly a .

Kempis h as been fortunate in the translator who

first s ele cted the title Who does not hear in
.

The I mitation of Christ somethi ng that stirs the

pulse and summons to the heights ? Who
woul d not be such a man if he coul d ? T h e
very title comes home right to our hearts and
bosoms as the supreme aim of all character
building . I t sums up the yearnings of many
hearts I ts appeal pre-eminently is for love to
.

Jesus a love that readil y su ffers all things gladly

,

for His sake and seeks to discipline itself to His

,

likeness .

T h e full and free use of the S criptures

accounts for a great part of its attractiveness ,
coupled as it is with the absence of any doc
trinal basis Whatever light theology as the
.
,

s cientific statement of religion may bring to the

,

94
 THE IM ITATI O N OF CH R IST ”

mind it very seldom h as warmth for the heart

, ,

and T homas a Kempis shows himself impatient

of theological hair splitting He never initi ates
-
.

a discussion for he knows how often theological

,

debate is fatal to the true spirit of devotion .

T h e theological compendium may de fine s in ,

bu t seldom convicts of sin ; may establis h a

doctrine of the P ersonality of Jesus without
settin g the heart ablaze with love And w e .

cannot doubt that the popularity of The I mita

tion is largely due to the absence from its pages
of echoes of contending doctors T h e language .

of The I mi tation is the l anguage of the heart and ,

there are more people w h o can understan d that

dial ect than are competent to move in the
regions of theology D oubtless T homas w as
.

duly trained himself in the ecclesiastical dogmas

of hi s Church for he w as a p riest ; but he no
,

where dresses himself as a rabbi of the schools :

he remains a man who wishes to reach the
people not the experts Even in the section on
, .

Holy Communion where his teaching is of the

,

sacramental and sacerdotal type there is an ,

aroma about it that suggests the devotion of the

saint as he comes face to face with his Lord .

Of course theology has its place in the scheme

of things since we mu st learn to think rightly
,

and wis ely about all thi ngs ; but it is infinitely

more importa nt to follow Christ T h e book .

accomplishes this in a way that proves it to be

a work of spiritu al geni us With the simplest
.

art in the world we are brought to the feet of

Jesus that w e may hear Him speak and receive
95
 TH E MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
gifts from Him We may call the attitude of
.

min d into which the book brings us what we

wil l — mysti cism contemplation imitation assi
, , ,

milatio n contact : it is assuredly something

,

that leaves its mark upon us and brin gs ,

us to pe ace and insight and j oy and love I t .

is then that we know His touch has stil l

,
”
its ancient power to make men whole to
, ,

give them Vi sion to make them anew and save

,

them .

The I mitation possesses this power to intro

duce the soul to Jesus and Jesus to the soul
in common with other books of similar purport .

And s o it stands as a witness —one amongst

hundreds—o f the affirmation that Jesus can be
known an d that in the Godhead w e can see the
,

Christ stand opening the gates of life I t is .

d ifficult very di fficult to explain how this

, ,

as surance of His reality to the soul can be made

a spiritu al fact though such He has been and is
, ,

still to millions of men an d women But this

, .

spiritual fellowshi p though di fficult to define

, ,

is here in this li ttle book beyond doubt Christ .

was to T homas a Kempis closer than breath

ing nearer than hands and feet
, it was a fact
that he walked an d talked with Him that he ,

knew Christ does not lie dead where the

S yrian stars look down but is the Lord of
,

Glory alive for evermo re

, He knew this fell ow
.

ship with God in Christ in the lon e liness of his

cell in hours of so cial worship ; he knew it as an
,

actual living expe rience Explain all t hi s as w e

.

may, we can not doubt tha t he was as truthf ul as

96
 THE MESS A G E O F T H O MAS A KEMPIS
To these he might have added R L . .

S t evens o n w h o missed Christ as a P oet and found

,

Him as a Hero ; or O scar Wi ld e w ho discovered ,

Him as a P oet but never saw Him as a S aviour ;

or Carlyle w ho s aw in Christ the noblest
, ,

b ro t h e rlie s t and most heroic minded Being

,
-

”
that ever walked this earth T hese might .

easily be increased in number by reviewing

various aspects as repr e sented by the great
m asters of art w h o in colour or in sculpture
,

have sought to express how J esus appeared to

them F or the wonderful thing about Jesus
.

is that silently He invades everywhere But .

in most of these there is little more than what

may be called the external aspect of Jesus
however much they rebelled an d most of—
those named above were rebels in some form or ,

other against the customs and codes of their

,

o wn day — they instinctively bow their heads in

His P resence T o few of them was Jesus more
.

than an Example but their reverence for Him ,

was genuine enough s o far as it went .

M r R oberts suggests but does not carry out

. , ,

a further line of comparison the story of ,

Jesus in the hearts of men the story of W hat the ,

L ove and P resence of Jesus has done in the souls

of His lovers friends disciples or what we may
, , ,

call a comparative study of Christian experience

in the saints of all ages— Augustine Bernard , ,

j f
esus o the Poets and P rop he ts,
22 44 , 1 5 1 ; pp .
-

Kelman s R L S tevenson, pp 1 78 , 8 8—9 2; Wil d e s

’ '
cf. . . .

De P rof undis ; Ho lman Hu nt s P re-Rap haeli te B rother

'

k oad,i 35 5
. .

98
 THE IM ITATI O N O F C H RIST
Luther, F ox, Wesley, R utherford , Brother
Lawrence We have had psychological studies
.

of conversion , of assurance, of s an c ti ficatio n ;

but this would be a study of the supreme Lord
as known by His followers to whom He has ,

been the Unknown S teersman or the well

known F riend , the S aviour to the uttermost
or the Lord of their lives O ne fact would .

emerge from such a comparative study : Jesus

was to them exactly what they needed ; they got
from Him what they sought and received from ,

Him according to their faith T o one He was .

the mighty D eli v erer from some bindin g sinful

habit to another the S olution of their int ell e c
,

tu al doubts to another the Guide into the w ay

,

of peace to another who brought nothing but

,

an empty heart Jesus b e came the Al l in all as - -

,

the di fferent chambers of life had their doors

opened for Him to enter in and possess .

D r Glover has taken his o w n excellent way in

.

dealin g with jesus in the Ex p erience of M en but ,

this suggested study would be equally W ell

named by the title of his book We should then .

s e e that no one has ever grasped every side of

the M aster but that it may take the whole

,
’
range of mankind s mental and moral powers
before He is full y known T o know him in
.

His fulness is a pursuit as well as an attainment .

He is the Universal Man and it may well take

,

a uni v erse of lovers to understand Him He .

is O ne in whom all types find their fulfilment ,

the E pitome of the World s D esire We wait’

.

ti ll the E ast s h all have brought its contribution

99
 THE MESSA G E OF TH O MAS A K EMP IS
to the study of Jesus till the Af rican has made
,
”
Cl ear the lineaments of the Black Christ of ,

whom the R hod e sian missionary A S Cripps , , . .

has written in some of his poems till the men ,

and women of every race every temperament, ,

every tradition have given in their co nt rib u

tions : then and only then shall something of the
unparalleled gl ory of the S on of M an be seen .

T hen shall men s e e that Jesus is indeed The Light

of the World, The Way the Trut h a nd the Life
, , ,

or as P aul says jesus is Lord ( 1 Cor xii

, , . .

T o this consensus of faith s assurances about

’

Jesus T homas a Kempis made hi s c o nt ribu

,

tion by setting forth the Lord a s the Light,

the F ood, t h e Life of men showing that ,
'
in Him is satisfaction of the heart s longings
to be found that the Love of Jesus for souls
,

awakens and sets on fire their devotion towards

Hims elf and His work ; that to know the love
of C hrist which surp asses all k nowledge (E p h ii i . .

1 9) is something for which the world may well

be lost I t becomes the master light of a ll

.
-

our seeing . I t is a love which stimulates

a responding love till that love seeks to walk
al ong the same road with the Beloved and finds
no ambition s o masterful as that which longs to
be li ke Him T here is no stronger motive than
.

the love of Chris t convinced that as One has

,

d ied for all then all have died and tha t He died
, ,

for all in o rder to have the living live no longer

for themselves but f or Him who died and rose
again f o r them ( 2 Cor v Here is the heart
. .

of T homas a Kempis faith, an d this is Chris

’

1 00
 THE MESSA G E OF T H O MAS A KEMP IS
illuminating strengthening , , j ust as Charles
Wesl ey found it
Wh en J es us makes my h eart His ho me
My all all d epart
Si n sh
An d 10 He s ai th I ! u i c kly , co me
T o fill an d r u le th y h eart .

BR IE F B IB L I OG RAPHY FOR E NG L I S H R E A DE R S

S . E E E
K TTL W LL : T homas 21 Kem is p a nd Brothers f
o the
C ommon Lif e 1 88 2 . .

S IR F E
R C RUI S : Thomas 2
.1 Kem . p i s. 1 80 7 . Wi th s ix
p g f b bl gr ph y
a es o i io a .

Wh o was the A u h o t r of The Imi tati on of C h rist 1 898 .

D OM V S CULLY : Lif e of Venerab e Thomas 2

. 1 Kem is 1 90 1 l p . .

J E G DE M ONTMOR NCY : Th omas ii Kem i s, His A ge and

. . . E p
B ook 1 9 0 6 . .

S H . H i dden S aints : A S tudy of the Brothers of

. G EM : th e
C ommon Lif e 1 9 07 . .

D B UTL ER : Thomas 2
. 1 Kemp i s : A R el i gi ous S t udy 1 908 . .

R M J ONEs : S tudies i n M y sti cal Reli gi on

. . 1 9 09 . .

G H PRESTON : S t udies i n Thomas 2

. . 1 Kemp i s 1 91 2 . .

L A WHEATL EY : S tory of The I mi tati on 1 89 1

’
. . . .

W R INGE : Christian My s tia sm 1 8 9 9

. . . .

E UNDERI I ILL : My sti ci sm

. 1 91 1 -
. .

E HE RRMAN : M eaning and Va l ue of My sti cism

. 1 91 5 . .

S i nc e 1 5 0 2 s o me thi r ty or forty trans lati o ns o f The I mi ta

ti on h av e b ee n made In to E ngl is h For t h e pres e nt work
.

tw o h av e b e en us e d:
C BI . The Imi tati on
GG : o f C hris t, l
a s o ca e ll d the E cclesz
as ti cal M usi c 1 90 1 . .

G . T YRRELL : The Imi tati on of Chris t . 1 90 3 . T he Intro

d u c ti o n an d I nd ex ar e valu abl e .

1 02
 INDE X

A cti ve Li e, f 83 l
G ad s to ne, 20
A Kem p 24 f , 28 f
is, . l
G ov e r . 7 7. 9 9
Hy mn- w i e , 36 rt r G race, 70 f .

l
A mi e , 1 5 , 5 0 . 6 8
l
Arno d , M , 20 ar nac k 9, 82
g
1 2, 1
rt reii gi on
.

l
A ssi mi ati on, 1 4 f , 79 .
ca
H o d gki n 9 1
4 3 5 7, 9 4 f
,

B ernar d , 22, 76 Holy C ommuni on 37 f 78 , .

,

B i gg. 34. 37. 5 6 f , 8 4 H oly Sp i ri t 1 6 5 5 72 77 8 6

, , , , ,

H yl to n 23
.

B rothers of C ommon Life, 26 ,

Bro w ni ng, 3, 8 7
Imi tati on , A p osto i c, l 4 f .
,

C ird
a , E .
, 63 52f r
) 9I f 0

C oncentrati on 5 1 , J esus ’ 7 f r
: 5 2f :

C ontempl at i ve Lif e 8 3 f and Influence, 1 5 f .

py
.
,

Cross ley F W 1 4 n not co 5 2f

i ng, 9 f .
’ .

Influence
. .
, . ,
of jesus , 4 , 1 5 , 9 8

De M usi ca Ecc l esias ica, t 23, I n ge , W . R , 5 7, 7 1.

34
D eve o lp ment of i dea s, 8 6 l jesus in h i story , 90
u ni ve sa r l pp l a ea , 87 f .

El t
i o , G eo r ge , I S; 20 ; 44 ; 9 3 J o h ns o n S , 1 9
, .

E thi cs, 6 3 f . J o nes , R M , 5 6 , . . 1 01

l l
E vange i ca i sm, 39 J owe tt, B , 76 .

pl
Ex am e Of 1 6 8 115 , 2: 7: 5 3 i n
Ke tt l ew e ll 25 , 28 , 36
6 4. 8 9 f . 9 8 ,

F ll w h p 7 6 i 9 6
e o s i , I . 1 n
L aw , W , 35 .

Fl r t 27 f
o e n i ns , .
L i nd say, J , 29 .

F g zz r 2
o a a o, 1 Lo ve to jesus, 7 3 f .
, 1 00

F r yth 8
o s , 1 Lu t h er, 27, 49 , 8 6
Fr St f 3 42
anc is , 1 1 1
M i l man 8 7
.
,
o
i :

G e m, S H , 83 .
M onas ti cism, 30 5 2, 8 4 I .

M ontmorency 21 33 37
.

G erar d G ro o t 26 , , 41 . . . : 55
G ers on, 22
Mysti cism. 37 f , 5 6 f . .
 INDEX
Nature and G race, 7 1 f . Sortes Kemp p isenses 94
S tal k er J 89 f
,
Newt o n, J , 5 8, 8 0.
, . .

Stevens o n R L 30 , .
,
0 3 1 311 ; I ” 9; 72: 8 9 S toi ci sm 6 3 f , .

Suso 27 37 f
, , .

P3 11 1, S t p 5 f » 1 6) 73?
o r

b
Pea o d y, 8 n .
p
Tem tati on, 6 7 f
Pe ter, S t , 5 , 7
.

T h ac k eray, 8 7 f
.

P uri tani sm, 1 1 f

F
.

.
T ho mps o n, 50
T o lenS i s , 9
Q uo ta ti ons , 41 f .
l
T o s to i , 2 5
R as h d all, H 8 6 9o
R e nan, 22 Vi swns , 5 9
Renunci ati on, 4 5 f .

b
R o erts , R , 9 7 f . . Way of C ross, 4 5
R u th erfo rd , S , 4 7 . Wes l e y
, C , 31 , 8 3, 1 0 2

b
.

R u ys ro ec k , 26 J , 1 9 , 26 , 5 7, 70, 8 6 , 94
.

Women, 6 3
S r pt r
c i u e, 24 , 4 1 Woo lrn an, J , 20
S lt d
.

o i u e, 61 f .
l l
Wo r d y Wis dom, 6 6

PRI NT E D I N G RE A T B R IT A I N B Y

B I LLI NG A ND SO NS, LT D G UI LDFO RD A ND ES HER