Editorial December 4, 1915 Issue

Habitual Meditation

John B. Willis

He who enters the hospitable courts of Richmond Hill, the center of Wesleyan mission work at Point de Galle, Ceylon, will come upon many interesting things in addition to one of the finest views in all "The Pearl of India." It is a beehive of educational and evangelical industry, in which the "cultivation of the spirit" is the constant aim. This fact was emphasized to one visitor as a result of his inquiry respecting the purpose of a row of little cell-like rooms which nestled under the cocoanut palms that bordered the school compound. "Here every student," came the answer, "is expected to spend half an hour each day alone, in silence and meditation."

This interesting discovery brought to remembrance the fact that the meditative life is a child of the East, and that though both preached and practised by the Master, it is made conspicuous today by its absence from the habit of the great majority of religious people. In our day so-called Christian civilization has little time or taste for quiet thought, and its marked materiality, its very noticeable lack of the fruits of the Spirit, is largely explained thereby.

For a Christian man to be unmeditative is incongruous, since Christianity means regard for the things that most stimulate thought. The infinite manifestations of Life, the inexhaustible riches of Truth, the deep mysteries of Love,—all the grandeurs and beauties of being challenge the Christian's attention, and that he can seem to be stupidly indifferent to their appeal is inexplicable indeed.

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