INTERCOURSE WITH GOD [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In
his letter under this head in your issue of January 3rd, Dean Du Buisson leaves it doubtful whether; by personal intercourse with God, he means the God of Christianity or simply God. I believe that personal experience of God is a fact. But it is a vague, indeterminate experience, to which we each give our own particular interpretation in terms of the creed in Which we have been nurtured. Thus, whilst to a Roman Catholic the experience will mean communion with the God of his church, with all its implications down to the efficacy of holy-water and the shin-bone of a saint ; to the Mahonunedan it will ha direct converse with Allah and all that his name connotes, from the devine inspiration of
Mohammed down to the Houris in Paradise ; and- to the Anglican the same experience will be a proof of the presence of Christ in his heart.
What we are directly aware of in those moments of intense religious experience to which Dean Du Buisson refers is com- munion with that reality which is the cause of our conscious thought and the justification of all our highest hopes and aspirations. It seems obvious that such a reality must exist. If conscious thought and personality, with all that they imply, are in us, they- must have been in the nature of things from the beginning. We are an outcome of the, universe and nothing in us can be alien to the universe. If, now, it be asked how we can communicate with this supreme reality, I would answer that never in the world's history has such a conception seemed easier than at the present day. When Science is reducing matter to such purely mental entities as protons and electrons and energy to a mere wave-motion with apparently nothing to be waved, the probability that our thought is also a form of radiation is obvious. In this case it is easy to see how we may be able, under certain conditions, to tune in with the cosmic radiations of which our thought is a part. I have no space to follow up this fascinating subject. To sum up, then. We are a product_ of the universe and therefore akin to it. I do not believe in " by-products." All is essential, if only we could discover the atoning formula that resolves the antinomies of our limited understanding. In this sense there is no better proof of God's existence than the existence of God in man's heart.—I am, Sir, &c.,
E. C. OPPENHEIM.
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