Page:The Practice of the Presence of God.djvu/9



The value of this little book is its extreme simplicity. The trouble with most of the religion of the day is its extreme complexity. “Brother Lawrence” was not troubled with any theological difficulties or doctrinal dilemmas. For him these did not exist. His one single aim was to bring about a conscious personal union between himself and God, and he took the shortest cut he could find to accomplish it. The result can best be described in his own words: “If I dare use the expression, I should choose to call this state the bosom of God, for the inexpressible sweetness which I taste and experience there.”

What Brother Lawrence did all can do. No theological training nor any especial theological views are needed for the blessed “practice” he recommends. No gorgeous churches, nor stately cathedral, nor elaborate ritual, could either make or mar it. A kitchen and an altar were as one to him; and to pick up a