The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Romance of the Soul, by Lilian Staveley

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Title: The Romance of the Soul

Author: Lilian Staveley

Release Date: July 18, 2009 [EBook #29451]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF THE SOUL ***

Produced by Ruth Hart

THE ROMANCE OF THE SOUL

By

Lilian Staveley
The Author of "The Golden Fountain"

London
John M. Watkins
21 Cecil Court, Charing Cross Road, W.C. 2
1920

What am I? In my flesh I am but equal to the beasts of the field. In
my heart and mind I am corrupt Humanity. In my soul I know not
what I am or may be, and therein lies my hope.

O wonderful and mysterious soul, more fragile than gossamer and
yet so strong that she may stand in the Presence of God and not
perish!

"Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of
a _dove."--Psalm lxviii. 13._

By what means shall the ordinary man and woman, living the usual
everyday life, whether of work or of leisure, find God? And this
without withdrawing themselves into a life apart--a "religious" life,
and without outward and conspicuous piety always running to public
worship (though often very cross and impatient at home); without
leaving undone any of the duties necessary to the welfare of those
dependent on them; without making themselves in any way
peculiar;--how shall these same people go up into the secret places
of God, how shall they find the marvellous peace of God, how
satisfy those vague persistent longings for a happiness more
complete than any they have so far known, yet a happiness which is
whispered of between the heart and the soul as something which is
to be possessed if we but knew how to get it? How shall ordinary
mortals whilst still in the flesh re-enter Eden even for an hour? for
Eden is not dead and gone, but we are dead to Eden--Eden, the
secret garden of enchantment where the soul and the mind and the
heart live in the presence of God and hear once more "the voice of
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day" (Gen. iii.).

It is possible for these things to come to us or we to them, and in
quite a few years if we set our h