und it in the immediate vision, the ecstatic union with the
divine that, in intense degree, is peculiarly the mystic's. Some
have found it in the assured belief that evil is itself an illusion,
and, if rightly conceived, a beautiful dark shadow to set
off by contrast the high lights of a divinely ordered cosmos, a
minor note giving lyric and lovely poignancy to the celestial
music. Some have rested their faith in a perfect world not
here, but hereafter, "where the blessed would enter eternal
bliss with God their master." Thus man has in religion found
the fulfillment of his ideals, which always outrun the actualities
amid which he lives. In the religious experience, in all of
its forms throughout the ages, man has had the experience
of perfection at first hand, in the immediate and rich
intensity of the mystic ecstasy, in the serene faith of a lifelong
intuition or of a reasoned belief in the ultimate divinely
assured rightness of things.

Besides experiencing perfection, man has, in the sense of
security and trust afforded by the religious experience, found
release from the fret, the fever, the compulsion, and constriction
under which so much of life must be lived. Whatever
happens, the truly devout man has no fears or qualms. He
has attained equanimity; the Lord is his shepherd; he shall
not want. There is a serenity experienced by the genuinely
faithful that the faithless may well envy. God is the believer's
eternal watcher; a wise and merciful Providence, his infinite
guarantee.

Whoever not only says but feels, "God's will be done" is mailed
against every weakness; and the whole historic array of martyrs,
missionaries and religious reformers is there to prove the
tranquil-mindedness, under naturally agitating or distressing circumstances,
which self-surrender brings.[1]

[Footnote 1: James; _Varieties of Religious Experience_, p. 285.]

But peace is attained not only through faith in the fulfillment
of desire, but in a marked lessening in the tension of
desire itself, in a large and spacious freedom attained through
release from the confinement of self. We saw in the chapter
on the Consciousness of Self how much exertion and energy
may be devoted to the enhancement of Self through fame,
achievement, social distinction, power, or possession. We
saw how, in the frustration of self, the germ of great tragedy
lay. From the tragedy and bitterness of such frustration
men have often been reassured by a genuine con