The Golden Sequence

A Fourfold Study of the Spiritual Life

EVELYN UNDERHILL

FELLOW OF KING S COLLEGE, LONDON

TO
LUCY MENZIES
WITH MUCH LOVE

page xi

Preface

page xii

PRAYER

PREFACE

page vii

I

"THIS is a personal little book. Its aim is not the establishment of some new thesis. It merely represents the precipitation of my own thoughts, as they have moved to and fro during the last few years, along a line which has the spiritual doctrine of St. John of the Cross at one end, and the philosophy of Professor Whitehead at the other: though I fear that few traces of the influence of these august god-parents appear in the finished result. The book, then, does not pretend to completeness; and is not to be regarded as a treatise, still less as a manual of the spiritual life. It consists of what ancient writers on these themes were accustomed to call 'considerations'; offered to those who share the writer's passion for the exploration of the realities, and interpretation of the experiences, which are signified by the familiar words and symbols of dogmatic religion.

I am sure that this passion even where it takes the form of an exaggerated impatience of traditional language and practice is on the whole a symptom of spiritual vitality; and that its legitimate demands should be met, with candour and without nervousness, by those who adhere to Christian theism and believe its majestic declarations to be the best of

page viii

all answers to the problem of human life. For although it is almost certainly an error, to speak of the 'modern soul' as though it were distinct in kind from all that have gone before, and had nothing to learn from its spiritual ancestors; yet the great changes which have come with the present century, and especially the new proportion in which the universe is now seen by us, have deeply affected our attitude towards those realities which do not change. The ancient language of faith can no longer be taken for granted. Its terms must be re-examined, if their abiding significance is to be understood. And it is surely a work of piety to do this; and bring back into currency these lovely tokens of our spiritual Patria and spiritual wealth.

For the times are crucial for the future of human religion. On one hand it tends more and more towards a shallow immanentism, an emphasis upon the here-and-now, which replaces adoration by altruism, and Charity by humanitarian sentiment.
This pious naturalism abounds in good works; but it lacks the creative energy which comes only from the eternal sources of power. On the other hand, the fresh acknowledgement of the Transcendent, the awe-struck sense of God, the prophetic insistence on the Holy, which distinguishes the work of Otto, Barth and Brunner, and their numerous disciples, has brought with it a crushing sense of helplessness; of an unbridged gap between action and contemplation, between the human and the divine. It is the peculiar work of the Christian doctrine of the Spirit,

page ix

to fill this gap ; and weave together the temporal and eternal strands in our strange human experience of reality, without any declension from that deep acknowledgement of Transcendent Majesty, that sense of our creaturely status over against the Eternal, which is the very salt of religion. The title of the book is that given by liturgic custom to the noblest of all Christian hymns, the Veni Sancte Spiritus; well known in a somewhat pedestrian translation to users of our standard English hymn-books. For these studies began as an attempt to enter more deeply into its unfathomable meaning, give a wider, richer and more supple
interpretation to the neglected doctrine which it declares, and bring its phrases into direct relation with the interior experiences of men. Though here and there my meditations may seem to wander far from their inspiring cause, to me its music has been always present; and will, I hope, be heard by my readers too. The four sections into which the work has fallen, do represent in some sense the fourfold relation between the created spirit and that Spirit Increate: for they cover first the revelation of its reality and the movement of response which it incites in us, and then the two capital means without which our destiny as spiritual beings can never be fulfilled. Some who read these pages will certainly complain, because little is said about Fellowship and Service; activities which nowadays are often regarded as the substance, instead of the symptoms, of a living Christianity. To these critics I can only say, that the subject of the book is that essential life, out of which real fellowship and service must proceed; for these are not the essence but the expression of the spiritual life in man. The saints abound in fellowship and service, because they are abandoned to the Spirit, and see life in relation to God, instead of God in relation to life; and therefore seize with delight on every circumstance of life, as material for the expression of Charity. This resort to first principles, this surrender to the priority of Spirit, and the embodiment of our faith in such meek devotional practice and symbolic action as shall stimulate the transcendental sense: this, I believe, is the chief spiritual lack of the modern world.

The first and last sections of this book incorporate the substance of a few passages which have already appeared in a paper on 'God and Spirit' read before the Anglican Fellowship, and afterwards printed in Theology; and in an article on 'Prayer and the Divine Immanence' contributed to The Expository Times. This material has been revised and largely rewritten for the purpose of the present work.

E. U.
Whitsuntide, 1932

page xiv

Veni, Sancte Spiritus,
Et emitte coelitus
Lucis tuae radium.
Veni, pater pauperum,
Veni, dator munerum,
Veni, lumen cordium.
Consolator optime,
Dulcis hospes animae,
Dulce refrigerium.
In labore requies,
In aestu temperies,
In fletu solatium.
O Lux beatissima,
Reple cordis intima
Tuorum ndelium.
Sine tuo numine,
Nihil est in homine,
Nihil est innoxium.
Lava quod est sordidum,
Riga quod est aridum,
Sana quod est saucium.
Flecte quod est rigidum,
Fove quod est frigidum,
Rege quod est devium.
Da tuis fidelibus,
In te confidentibus,
Sacrum septenarium.
Da virtutis meritum,
Da salutis exitum,
Da perenne gaudium.

Back to Contents

Next: What is Spirit

1906 - The Miracles of Our Lady Saint Mary

1911 - Mysticism

1912 - Introduction to The Cloud of Unknowing

1913 - The Mystic Way

1914 - Introduction: Richard Rolle - The Fire of Love

1915 - Practical Mysticism

1915 - Introduction: Songs of Kabir

1916 - Introduction: John of Ruysbroeck

1920 - The Essentials of Mysticism, and other Essays

1922 - The Spiral Way

1922 - The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today (Upton Lectures)

1926 - Concerning the Inner Life

1928 - Man and the Supernatural

1929 - The House of the Soul

1933 - The Golden Sequence

1933 - Mixed Pasture: Twelve Essays

1936 - The Spiritual Life

1943 - Introduction to the Letters of Evelyn Underhill
by Charles Williams

As far as I have been able to ascertain, all of these works are now in the public domain. If you own copyright in any of these, please let me know immediately and I shall either negotiate permission to use them or remove them from the site as appropriate.

DCW

The Golden Sequence

A Fourfold Study of the Spiritual Life

EVELYN UNDERHILL

CONTENTS

SPIRIT

SPIRITUAL LIFE

PURIFICATION

PRAYER

PREFACE