Where Man Ends and God Begins

I finished reading The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal this morning. It was a difficult read - probably one of the more difficult I’ve had in awhile. It was difficult both from the standpoint of the content and from the fact that it was written in 16th century language. It felt like I was reading Shakespeare, and like Shakespeare it takes some getting used to before the language becomes less of a barrier than it is in the beginning.

The story of Henry Scougal and this little book is pretty amazing, and proved to be the main motivation behind reading it. From the back cover:

Henry Scougal died in 1657 at the age of 27 but by then he was already Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen University.

This timeless classic was originally written to encourage a friend and stimulate his spiritual life. It was so appreciated that it was later published as a book for a wider readership.

A hundred years later a copy was sent to George Whitefield by his friend, Charles Wesley - it was instrumental in Whitefield’s conversion. This book provided much of the stimulation behind the Methodist Revival of Britain and the Great Awakening in America.

In it Scougal explains the four essential characteristics of divine life, their excellence, their advantages and the practical steps that you can take in realizing them as your personal experience.

The four characteristics of divine life, according to Scougal, are: faith, love, charity and purity. I his own words: “As an excellent person hath well observed, however these names be common and vulgar, and make no extraordinary sound, yet do they carry such a mighty sense, that the tongue of men or angel can pronounce nothing more weighty or excellent.” He then goes on to spend a great deal of time unpacking these ‘simple’ words and the weightiness of a life spent accepting them as its own.

Perhaps my only qualm with the book is its monk-isque denying of anything earthly (see my previous post “World: No Love For You”). Even setting this aside, I can appreciate the dependence the book encourages on the things of God (where the denial comes from, in part).

All in all it is a good book - if you can push through the language. It has a good introduction by John Piper, a short biographical history of Scougal’s life, and an additional appendix (which you can probably skip) - the meat of the content between is a mere 97 pages. The weight of his words, even in as short a span as this, is profound. Like so many gifted writers of ages past, there are a good many nuggets of spiritual truth that will leave you speechless.

Update: For those of you who don’t mind sitting in front of your computer and reading, just found the bulk of the book (the main content is there - just not the forward, biography or appendix) on Google Book Search: The Life of God in the Soul of Man

Posted 09.09.2008

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