_My friend, whose talk I have reported in this book so far as I am able,
would be the first to disclaim (as indeed he was always anxious to do)
the rôle of an accredited teacher, other than that which his sacred
office conferred on him._
_All that he claimed (and this surely was within his rights) was to be
at least sincere in his perceptions and expressions of spiritual truth.
His power, as he was at pains to tell me, was no more than a particular
development of a faculty common to all who possess a coherent spiritual
life. To one Divine Truth finds entrance through laws of nature, to
another through the medium of other sciences or arts; to my friend it
presented itself in directly sensible forms. Had his experiences,
however, even seemed to contravene Divine Revelation, he would have
rejected them with horror: entire submission to the_ _Divine Teacher
upon earth, as he more than once told me, should normally precede the
exercise of all other spiritual faculties. The deliberate reversal of
this is nothing else than Protestantism in its extreme form, and must
ultimately result in the extinction of faith._
_For the rest, I can add nothing to his own words. It is of course more
than possible that here and there I have failed to present his exact
meaning; but at least I have taken pains to submit the book before
publication to the judgment of those whose theological learning is
sufficient to reassure me that at least I have not so far misunderstood
my friend’s words and tales, as to represent him as transgressing the
explicit laws of ascetical, moral, mystical, or dogmatic theology._
_To these counsellors I must express my gratitude, as well as to others
who have kindly given me the encouragement of their sympathy._
_R. B._
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