nature of the bond to God is thus set forth by the Nakshibendi writer Shems ed Din: "It has been noticed that there is no flavor in worship or in prayer or recitation where this bond does not exist. Now if you think to yourself, I cannot see God, but God sees me, and knows all that I do, for he encircles the universe,' and if you think this without forgetting it for a moment, until after a month or so you have made it the state of mind in which you live, and from which you cannot depart, to this state they give the name of Rabita (bond), through it you will find pleasure in worship, and the flesh and the devil will be disappointed in their tricks and their evil." In another place the same writer says that the Rabita is really merely a figurative intimacy with God.

By the Zikr, the dervish frees himself of the worldly thoughts which he dreads; by the "inclination," he acquires a special relation to God which opens the way for the outpouring of divine grace into the heart; and by the "contemplation," he arrives at the experience of an attraction that draws him into a spiritual union with God.

It is not necessary to remark of the theories or of the exercises of the dervishes, that they are largely based upon the usages of that strange mysticism which has ever fascinated the Asiatic mind, and which is responsible for so many of the heresies of the Christian Church in its earlier ages. This fact may diminish the interest with which we receive from the dervishes their statements of doctrine and of the object which they seek. If by the knowledge of God they mean the visions of a disordered mind; if by communion with God they mean the ecstatic state into which a much abused body may fall as the result of purely physical exercises; if by freedom from the dominion of the animal nature they mean an exaltation that permits them to fancy their souls no longer responsible for the deeds of their bodies, they are simply following ancient pagans into an abyss of mental and moral hallucination from which there is no escape, and which certainly offers nothing new for the study of the Christian. Some dervish fraternities have no higher definition of the words which they so freely use than these. Some fraternities are gross pantheists, holding that union with God makes man one with God in attributes and power, and reveals everything as God. But the more we study the mysticism of the dervishes, the more shall we see that we cannot from the tenets of one order frame a system of doctrinal definition that shall apply to all. We cannot say that the dervishes are pantheists because some of the orders are so. We cannot frame a sentence that shall truly characterize all dervishes in their religious belief.

In order to the better explanation of the teachings and the objects of the more moderate of the dervish orders, I propose to give in some detail the course of training of a novice in the Nakshibendi Tarik or "way." It is necessary to remember, however, that, so far as I know, this is the most spiritually disposed of all the dervish fraternities. The theories of this order must not be given any greater extension than is implied in their use to illustrate the general plan of the methods used by dervishes to train the inner man.

The Nakshibendi order claims to be derived from the Caliph Abu Bekr, and therefore its "recitations" are all silent. Its name signifies "The way of the artists," for its votaries see at every stage of progress lights and forms and glories before their closed eyes, and they regard these pictures as proofs of high value. The chief of the ancient teachers of this order lived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Central

Asia. One of its greatest lights, Khoja Obeidullah, of Tashkend, is buried at Merv in Turkestan. The books from which the following statements are derived are the "Reshihat I ain I Hayat" (Drops from the Fountain of Life), written in 1492; the "Miftah ul Kuloub" (Key to the Heart), the "Merakebe" (Contemplation), and the "Resale I Pendie" (Advice) of the Sheikh Shems ed Din, who lived in Constantinople about fifty years ago; the "Hidayet ul Talibin" (Guidance for Seekers) written by the Sheikh Ebu Said, of Delhi, in India, together with a tract of a certain Hafiz Mehmed, of Constantinople, and the Hymns of the Moslem poetess, Sheref Hanum, also of Constantinople.

The fundamental principles of this order are set forth in the Reshihat (p. 26) as the following: 1. Save every breath; that is regarding the exhalation of breath, as the pronunciation of the name of God, made by every living creature, always have God in mind when breathing. (The letter H, the last letter of the word Allah, is used by mystics as the symbol for the whole name.) 2. Look to the feet; this being interpreted as implying both carefulness as to all actions and entire attention to the "way." 3. Journey at home; that is, be a traveler from evil morals and human qualities to pure morals and angelic qualities, and regard the state of a pilgrim as the natural state of man. 4. Have your private room in society; that is, have your heart so full of God that in society you are still with God. 5. Recite with both tongue and heart; that is, let your heart be more occupied than your tongue in prayer. 6. Use discrimination between right and wrong; that is, see that you constantly turn to God with desire to find Him. 7. Keep your mind; that is, keep it in the line of the return to God. 8. Never forget God; that is, be always in his presence and so acquire firm continuance.

In what follows, much will be said of annihilation, of union with God, of communion with Him, and of knowledge of Him. These terms are explained in the "Hidayet ul Talibin" to be: Annihilation, the putting away of self through the inclination of the heart to God, just as the lover who is thinking of the object of his affections or of being with her knows nothing of his bodily surroundings. Union with God, attaining to God, and seeing God are defined as being different terms for the same thing, in no sense a personal union, as some hold; for, says the author, "It is against the law of God, against sense, and against logic that a personal union be possible; it is merely the annihilation of the natural desires and selfishness and the egoism of the disciple, and his absorption in the contemplation of God. When we say that a man has joined himself to or is united with another, we do not mean bodily union, but the union of interests. This is the meaning of union with God. There is no divergence between man and his God." The theory on which are based the exercises of this order is set forth in the "Merakebe " of Shems ed Din in this way: The soul of man has two natures, the animal nature and the royal spiritual nature. The one responds to the natural (literally, glorious) attributes of God, and dreads Him; the other responds to his moral (literally, beautiful) attributes, and would love Him. The animal nature has made insurrection against the royal spiritual nature, and insists on avoiding all thought of God, and gratifying the animal passions. Before man can come into communion with God and enjoy his moral perfections, therefore, the animal nature must be brought into subjection to the royal and spiritual nature. This can be accomplished in two ways: first, by direct attack on the animal nature by ascetic practices (the way

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followed by the purely Arab orders of dervishes); or, second, by culture of the spiritual nature. The first way is hard, and few make any real progress before death stops the struggle. The second way is easy, for if the spiritual nature is brought into its true relation to God, the heart has no room for other wishes than to know Him, and the animal nature has to submit. This culture of the soul, according to the Hidayet ul Talibin," should be entered upon with this thought, "Whatever believing man, or believing woman, seeks the mercies and limitless gifts of God, with love and fidelity, God forbid that the Lord, the giver of gifts, should leave such a one without the guidance which he needs. Fix this in your heart, and try to keep your heart, which is the abode and treasure-house of God, and of which you are the doorkeeper, from the warriors of devilish desires, and from all anxieties for the body."

The process by which these dervishes seek this cultivation of the spiritual nature is as follows:

The man who wishes to become a Mureed in this fraternity must find a perfect guide. Directions are accordingly given as to how the perfect guide may be known, and directions as to what the man must do to find the "way" if no perfect guide can be found in his vicinity. In the latter case the hope of the postulant must be in the fact that God will not suffer any one to fail of finding Him who shall sincerely and diligently seek Him. Having found his guide, the postulant asks to be initiated, and the Murshid, or guide, tells him to pray that night for guidance by a dream, he himself also praying for guidance as to the course to be pursued. The dreams of that night are supposed to contain some indication as to whether it is well for this particular postulant to follow the " way " of the Nakshibendis, for different natures require different treatment. The answer being favorable to the admission of the postulant, the Murshid, that is to say the Sheikh or a man delegated by him, places the novice in front of him, both kneeling, knee touching knee, for the exercise called "inclination." This consists in the effort of the novice to incline all his thoughts toward the heart of his guide. The Sheikh also fixes his own thoughts on the heart of the novice, in an ardent desire to impart to it a glow of spiritual fervor; and in order to increase his personal influence he places his forehead against the forehead of the novice. This exercise of "inclination" continues in perfect silence for ten or fifteen minutes. Then the Sheikh takes the right hand of the novice in his own, and administers to him the covenant of the fraternity. This consists of five articles: 1. To keep up the ablutions prescribed by the Koran. 2. To perform the regular Moslem services of worship. 3. To make up all past neglect in the matter of fasts or of worship. 4. Absolutely to refrain from saying what is not true, and from calumny or talebearing. 5. To be against no man, but to continue in prayer for the forgiveness of sin, regarding Mohammed as the one mediator with God. Aside from these articles of the covenant the novice has to remember that he has taken the Sheikh to be his spiritual guide, and the Sheikh being actuated only by the desire to aid him in the spiritual life, he must learn to pay absolute and unquestioning obedience to every command of the Sheikh.

Every day the novice must exercise the "inclination," by kneeling, in a state of ceremonial cleanness, in a private place, facing Mecca, and strongly directing his thoughts upon the object to which he wishes to become assimilated. Every such sitting begins with the prayer, "I

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beseech thee, O great God, to pardon me, thou like whom there is no other. I repent of my sins to him. I ask him to pardon me and to accept of my repentance, to lead me in the true way,' and to have mercy on all those who repent of their sins." The sitting of "inclination" lasts from a quarter of an hour to an hour, according to the ability of the novice, for in this fraternity the fact is everywhere recognized that the men have diversity of gifts and cannot be bound by iron rules. At first the whole object of the "inclination" is to establish a bond between the Sheikh and the novice. For this purpose the whole attention of the novice is directed during the "inclination " to the thought that he is placing his heart by the side of the heart of the Sheikh, receiving from it streams of God's grace, or enveloping himself in the being of the Sheikh for the same purpose. At the same time the novice has to cultivate the feeling at all times, no matter what he is doing, that his hand is in the hand of his Sheikh, and the Sheikh's eye is upon bim. After a few days, or longer in some cases, during one of the sittings for inclination, while the novice is sitting with closed eyes and with the Sheikh in his heart, he sees in his silent thought the whole of his being absorbed in the being of his Sheikh. He himself is not longer existent, his Sheikh is in his place. This is the first step in his spiritual life. If this experience is too long delayed, the Sheikh examines the man to see if some part of his heart is reserved from the purpose to find God. He also gives the man extra sittings for personal contact and "inclination," always taking care to rest his forehead against that of the novice, and to incline his heart strongly toward him, with the unspoken prayer, “O Lord, direct this man in the true way.' Besides these private exercises the novice takes his place in the weekly assembly for the service of recitation, receiving the same aid of the personal "inclination" of the Sheikh as the others; each one in turn in these assemblies being favored by the Sheikh sitting in front of him and touching his forehead for several minutes while praying for his benefit.

After the novice has once become lost in the personality of his Sheikh, seeming to be annihilated as above described, he becomes a Salik, or walker in the way. He now adds to the prayer for forgiveness the recitation of the first chapter of the Koran: "Praise be to God the Lord of all creatures; the most merciful, the King of the Day of Judgment. Thee do we worship. Of thee do we beg assistance. Direct us in the right way, in the way of those to whom thou hast been gracious; not of those with whom thou art displeased, nor of those who go astray." The object of his "inclination" is now no longer the Sheikh, but the prophet Mohammed. The process goes on until the novice has in his meditations a vision of the person of the prophet, and has lost himself in the being of the prophet. Then commences the work of restoring his soul to its right functions. Again the Sheikh sits with him, and tells him to turn his thoughts on his own heart, describing it to him as a conical object situated two inches below the left breast. The novice must try to suspend all motions of the body, to hold his breath as much as possible, and while in this posture to repeat the name Allah three thousand times in his heart. He is to try to make his heart say it. He is on no account to allow any worldly thought to come into his mind, and if he follows the rule, his Sheikh helping him by silent prayer and strong will power directed upon the heart of the novice, he will suddenly see before his eyes a brilliant red or a rosy color that will surprise him with its beauty.

This color shows that the heart has been restored to its original state, and he can hereafter alone and unassisted bring the red color to view whenever he takes the proper means. In the same way the man is made to bring his soul (which, by the way, is located two inches below the right breast), his spirit, his consciousness, his mind, and his whole nature into the new relation of answering to the spiritual impulse produced by the silent recitation of the name of God. Each one of these parts of the nature has to be taken in turn, - five hundred recitations being added to the list at each step of progress, so that at the last the Salik must repeat the name of God six thousand times before he can see by the change of the light before his eyes from red to yellow, to green, to white, to black, and finally to orange, that all parts of his inward nature have been affected by the spiritual influence, and have come back to their original relation to God, and are ready to respond to his moral perfections. At the close of this series of experiences he can hear with his bodily ears, says the book, every member of his body saying "O God, O God."

The "walker" in the "way" now seeks to feel himself ever in the very presence of God. His downsitting and his uprising, his sleeping and his waking, are with God's presence felt in his heart. His soul has begun to

return to its original likeness to God, he has by this means to reach communion with God. This can only be a gift of God, in answer to the persistent cry for it. The desire must be in the heart in all circumstances, while busy with the daily occupations, in the street, in the house, in the private chamber of contemplation. The exercises so far performed have given the dervish control over himself to some extent. He has now to seek a proper understanding of what God is. To this end he has changed the object of his daily "inclination" to God; and his "recitation becomes the phrase of the unity: "There is no God but God." At the beginning of the course this phrase means to the Salik "there is none to worship save God." At a later period it means "there is no object to seek save God," and finally it means to him, "there is none existent save God." At this part of the course the Salik adds to his daily prayers the 112th chapter of the Koran, which is in these words: "God is one God; the eternal God; He begetteth not, neither is He begotten, and there is not any one like unto Him."

In order to have a true sense of the unity of God the Salik must at the time of his "inclination" imagine himself to be writing the declaration of God's unity on his person. With breath held in, lips firmly closed, and tongue turned back on his palate he must strive to write it (la ila il Allah) three times before he draws breath. At the writing of "la" he must think all, even himself, to be annihilated. At the word "ila" he thinks 'there is naught but God,' and at the "il Allah" he feels but God is.' Then in the release of his breath he says, "Mohammed is the prophet of God." Remembering that Mohammed is his means of access to God, and at the end the aspiration, he says in his heart, "I seek thee, O God, thy favor I desire." This should continue through twenty-one breathings, and if the exercise fails to lead to any manifestation of God's presence, the man must try to repeat the phrase of unity as before seven times in each breath. Then if he is truly free from desires save for the presence of God, he will suddenly find himself visible to his own closed eyes, entirely bathed in light from head to foot.