ABSTRACT
Mankind has always been divided into two categories—the Elishas and the servants, the open-eyed, with their clear sight of a realm transcending this world of sense, and those, with dulled gaze and coarsened souls, who see it not. For the one, the horses and chariots of fire, the Heavenly host which proclaims the Divine King and his all-saving power; for the other, only the forces of this world, sinister, destructive, seemingly invincible. The latter are the common herd, the former the elect spirits, whom we variously call Prophets, Seers, Mystics. So often misunderstood, for all religion must needs have its element of mysticism—of mysticism, which is the actual experience of God, as contrasted with mere belief in Him, the sight of the fiery chariots and horses, not simply the picturing of them by the imagination. The Seers have preserved not only religion, but goodness—and goodness, like religion—by their example.
