"The ascetic is a blasphemer of God and of the work for which God alone
is responsible. By withdrawing himself from the world of men he
withdraws himself from human sympathy. By chastising the body and its
natural emotions and desires, he chastises that which God has made as a
temple for his soul to dwell in. By denying the pleasures of this
world, he denies all the good which God has prepared and provided for
him, and he wrongs the fair happiness of Nature and the order in which
the Universe is planned. The so-called 'religious' person who retires
into a monastery, there to pray and fast and bemoan the ills of the
flesh, is an unnatural creature and displeasing to his Maker. For God
looked upon everything He had made and found it 'good.' Good--not bad,
as the arrogant ascetic would assume. Joy, not sorrow, should be the
keynote of life--the world is not a 'vale of tears' but a flower-filled
garden, basking in the perpetual sunshine of the smile of God. What is
called 'sin' is the work of Man--God has no part in it. 'By pride the
angels fell.' By pride Man delays his eternal delight. When he presumes
to be wiser than his Creator,--when he endeavours to upset the
organisation of Nature, and invents a kind of natural and moral code of
his own, then comes disaster. The rule of a pure and happy life is to
take all that God sends with thankfulness in moderation--the fruits of
the earth, the joys of the senses, the love of one's fellow-creatures,
the delights of the intellect, the raptures of the soul; and to find no
fault with that which is and must ever be faultless. We hear of wise
men and philosophers sorrowing over 'the pain and suffering of the
world'--but the pain and suffering are wrought by Man alone, and Man's
cruelty to his fellows. From Man's culpable carelessness and neglect of
the laws of health has come every disease, as from Man's egotism,
unbelief and selfishness have sprung all the crimes in the calendar." I
paused here, for it seemed to me that it was getting dark,--at any rate
I could not see to read very clearly. I looked at the window, but very
little light came through it,--a sudden obscurity, like a heavy cloud,
darkened all visible things. I quickly made up my mind that I would not
yield to any more fanciful terrors, or leave the room, even if I saw
another outlet that night. With this determination I undressed quickly
and went to bed. As I laid my head on the pillow I felt a kind of
coldness in the air which made me shiver a little--an 'uncanny'
sensation to which I would not yield. I saw the darkness thickening
round me, and closed my eyes, resolving to rest--and so succeeded in
ordering all my faculties to this end that within a very few minutes I
was soundly asleep.