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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Spiritualism by Uriah Smith
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Modern Spiritualism
+
+Author: Uriah Smith
+
+Release Date: November 7, 2008 [Ebook #27197]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN SPIRITUALISM***
+
+
+
+
+
+                           MODERN SPIRITUALISM
+
+                          A SUBJECT OF PROPHECY
+
+                                  AND A
+
+                            SIGN OF THE TIMES.
+
+                              BY URIAH SMITH
+
+                   THE REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING CO.
+
+                                  1896.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Preface.
+Chapter One. Opening Thought.
+   A Manifestation of Power.
+   A Manifestation of Intelligence.
+   The Progress of Spiritualism.
+Chapter Two. What is the Agency in Question?
+   Credentials of the Bible.
+   An Impossibility.
+   The Soul Not Immortal.
+Chapter Three. The Dead Unconscious.
+Chapter Four. They Are Evil Angels.
+   Warnings Against Evil Spirits.
+Chapter Five. What The Spirits Teach.
+   They Deny All Distinction Between Right And Wrong.
+   Dangers Of Mediumship.
+   Miscellaneous Teaching.
+   Spirits Cannot Be Identified.
+Chapter Six. Its Promises: How Fulfilled.
+Chapter Seven. Spiritualism A Subject Of Prophecy.
+Conclusion.
+Index Of Authors Referred To.
+Index Of Books, Papers, Etc., Quoted.
+Index Of Texts Of Scripture Illustrated Or Explained.
+Footnotes
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+For nearly fifty years Spiritualism has been before the world. This surely
+is time enough to enable it to show its character by its fruits. “By their
+fruits ye shall know them,” is a rule that admits of no exceptions. If
+evil fruits appear, the tree is corrupt.
+
+Spiritualism has made unbounded promises of good. It has claimed to be the
+long-promised second coming of Christ; the opening of a new era among
+mankind; the rosy portal of a golden age, when all men should be reformed,
+evil disappear, and the renovation of society cause the hearts of men to
+leap for joy, and the earth to blossom as the rose.
+
+Has it fulfilled all, or any, of these promises? If not, is it not a
+deception? and if a deception, considering its wide-spread influence, and
+the number of its adherents, is it not one of the most gigantic and
+appalling deceptions that has ever fallen upon Christendom? The Bible in
+the plainest terms, declares that in the last days malign influences will
+be let loose upon the world; false pretensions will be urged upon the
+minds of men; and deceptions, backed up by preternatural signs and
+wonders, will develop to such a degree of strength, that, if it were
+possible, they would deceive the very elect. Is it possible that
+Spiritualism may be the very development of evil, against which this
+warning is directed?
+
+To investigate these questions, and to show by unimpeachable testimony,
+what Spiritualism is, and the place it holds among the psychological
+movements of the present day, is the object of these pages. Not a few
+books have been written against Spiritualism; but most of them endeavor to
+account for it on the ground of human jugglery and imposture, or on
+natural principles, the discovery of a new and heretofore occult force in
+nature, etc., from which great things may be expected in the future. But
+rarely has any one discussed it from the standpoint of prophecy, and the
+testimony of the Scriptures, the only point of view, as we believe, from
+which its true origin, nature, and tendency, can be ascertained.
+
+Many features in the work of Spiritualism would seem to indicate that the
+source from which it springs is far from good; but it is based upon a
+church dogma, firmly established through all Christendom, which in many
+minds is of sufficient weight to overbalance considerations that would
+otherwise be considered ample grounds for shunning or renouncing it. It is
+therefore the more necessary that the reader, in examining this question,
+should let the bonds that have heretofore bound him to preconceived
+opinions, sit loose upon him, and that he should put himself in the mood
+of Dr. Channing when he said: “I must choose to receive the truth, no
+matter how it bears upon myself, and must follow it no matter where it
+leads, from what party it severs me, or to what party it allies.” And he
+should remember also, as the eminent and pious Dr. Vinet once sagaciously
+observed, that “even now, after eighteen centuries of Christianity, we are
+very probably involved in some enormous error, of which Christianity will,
+in some future time, make us ashamed.”
+
+In view, therefore, of the importance of this question, and the tremendous
+issues that hang on the decisions we may make in these perilous times, we
+feel justified even in _adjuring_ the reader to canvass this subject with
+an inflexible determination to learn the truth, and then to follow it
+wherever it may lead.
+
+U. S.
+_Battle Creek, Mich., 1897._
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter One.
+
+
+OPENING THOUGHT.
+
+
+What think ye? Whence is it—from heaven or of men? Such was the nature of
+the question addressed by our Saviour to the men of his time, concerning
+the baptism of John. It is the crucial question by which to test every
+system that comes to us in the garb of religion: Is it from heaven or of
+men? And if a true answer to the question can be found, it must determine
+our attitude toward it; for if it is from heaven, it challenges at once
+our acceptance and profound regard, but if it is of men, sooner or later,
+in this world or in the world to come, it will be destroyed with all its
+followers; for our Saviour has declared that every plant which our
+heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. Matt. 15:13.
+
+To those who do not believe in any “heavenly Father,” nor in “Christ the
+Saviour,” nor in any “revealed word of God,” we would say that these
+points will be assumed in this work rather than directly argued, though
+many incidental proofs will appear, to which we trust our friends will be
+pleased to give some consideration. But we address ourselves particularly
+to those who still have faith in God the Father of all; in his divine Son,
+our Lord Jesus Christ, through whose blood we have redemption; in the
+Bible as the inspired revelation of God’s will; and in the Holy Spirit as
+the enlightener of the mind, and the sanctifier of the soul. To all those
+to whom this position is common ground, the Bible will be the standard of
+authority, and the court of last appeal, in the study upon which we now
+enter.
+
+
+
+
+A Manifestation of Power.
+
+
+Spiritualism cannot be disposed of with a sneer. A toss of the head and a
+cry of “humbug,” will not suffice to meet its claims and the testimony of
+careful, conservative men who have studied thoroughly into the genuineness
+of its manifestations, and have sought for the secret of its power, and
+have become satisfied as to the one, and been wholly baffled as to the
+other. That there have been abundant instances of attempted fraud,
+deception, jugglery, and imposition, is not to be denied. But this does
+not by any means set aside the fact that there have been manifestations of
+more than human power, the evidence for which has never been impeached.
+The detection of a few sham mediums, who are trying to impose upon the
+credulity of the public, for money, may satisfy the careless and
+unthinking, that the whole affair is a humbug. Such will dismiss the
+matter from their minds, and depart, easier subjects to be captured by the
+movement when some manifestation appears for which they can find no
+explanation. But the more thoughtful and careful observers well know that
+the exposure of these mountebanks does not account for the numberless
+manifestations of power, and the steady current of phenomena, utterly
+inexplicable on any human hypothesis, which have attended the movement
+from the beginning.
+
+The Philadelphia _North American_, of July 31, 1885, published a
+communication from Thomas R. Hazard, in which he says:—
+
+
+    “But Spiritualism, whatever may be thought of it, must be
+    recognized as a fact. It is one of the characteristic intellectual
+    or emotional phenomena of the times, and as such, it is deserving
+    of a more serious examination than it has yet received. There are
+    those who say it is all humbug, and that everything outside of the
+    ordinary course which takes place at the so-called séances, is the
+    direct result of fraudulent and deliberative imposture; in short,
+    that every Spiritualist must be either a fool or a knave. The
+    serious objection to this hypothesis is that the explanation is
+    almost as difficult of belief as the occurrences which it
+    explains. There must certainly be some Spiritualists who are both
+    honest and intelligent; and if the manifestations at the séances
+    were altogether and invariably fraudulent, surely the whole thing
+    must have collapsed long before this; and the Seybert Commission,
+    which finds it necessary to extend its investigations over an
+    indefinite period, which will certainly not be less than a year,
+    would have been able to sweep the delusion away in short order.”
+
+
+The phenomena are so well known, that it is unnecessary to recount them
+here. Among them may be mentioned such achievements as these: Various
+articles have been transported from place to place, without human hands,
+but by the agency of so-called spirits only; beautiful music has been
+produced independently of human agency, with and without the aid of
+visible instruments; many well-attested cases of healing have been
+presented; persons have been carried through the air by the spirits in the
+presence of many witnesses; tables have been suspended in the air with
+several persons upon them; purported spirits have presented themselves in
+bodily form and talked with an audible voice; and all this not once or
+twice merely, but times without number, as may be gathered from the
+records of Spiritualism, all through its history.
+
+A few particular instances, as samples, it may be allowable to notice: Not
+many years since, Joseph Cook made his memorable tour around the world. In
+Europe he met the famous German philosopher, Professor Zöllner. Mr.
+Zöllner had been carefully investigating the phenomena of Spiritualism,
+and assured Mr. Cook of the following occurrences as facts, under his own
+observation: Knots had been found tied in the middle of cords, by some
+invisible agency, while both ends were made securely fast, so that they
+could not be tampered with; messages were written between doubly and
+trebly sealed slates; coin had passed through a table in a manner to
+illustrate the suspension of the laws of impenetrability of matter; straps
+of leather were knotted under his own hand; the impression of two feet was
+given on sooted paper pasted inside of two sealed slates; whole and
+uninjured wooden rings were placed around the standard of a card table,
+over either end of which they could by no possibility be slipped; and
+finally the table itself, a heavy beechen structure, wholly disappeared,
+and then fell from the top of the room where Professor Zöllner and his
+friends were sitting.
+
+In further confirmation of the fact that real spiritualistic
+manifestations are no sleight-of-hand performances, we cite the case of
+Harry Kellar, a professional performer, as given in “Nineteenth Century
+Miracles,” p. 213. The séance was held with the medium, Eglinton, in
+Calcutta, India, Jan. 25, 1882. He says:—
+
+
+    “It is needless to say that I went as a skeptic; but I must own
+    that I have come away utterly unable to explain by any natural
+    means the phenomena that I witnessed on Tuesday evening.”
+
+
+He then describes the particulars of the séance. An intelligence,
+purporting to be the spirit of one Geary, gave a communication. Mr. Kellar
+did not recognize the name nor recall the man. The message was repeated,
+with the added circumstances of the time and particulars of a previous
+meeting, when Mr. Kellar recalled the events, and, much to his surprise,
+the whole matter came clearly to his recollection. He then adds:—
+
+
+    “I still remain a skeptic as regards Spiritualism, but I repeat my
+    inability to explain or account for what must have been an
+    intelligent force which produced the writing on the slate, which,
+    if my senses are to be relied on, was in no way the result of
+    trickery or sleight-of-hand.”
+
+
+Another instance from “Home Circle,” p. 25, is that of Mr. Bellachini,
+also a professional conjuror, of Berlin, Germany. His interview was with
+the celebrated medium, Mr. Slade. From his testimony we quote the
+following:—
+
+
+    “I have not, in the smallest degree, found anything to be produced
+    by prestidigitative manifestations or mechanical apparatus; and
+    any explanation of the experiments which took place under the
+    circumstances and conditions then obtaining, by any reference to
+    prestidigitation, is _absolutely impossible_. I declare, moreover,
+    the published opinions of laymen as to the ‘How’ of this subject,
+    to be premature, and according to my views and experience, false
+    and one-sided.”—_Dated, Berlin, Dec. 6, 1877._
+
+
+When professional conjurors bear such testimony as this, while it does not
+prove Spiritualism to be what it claims to be, it does disprove the humbug
+theory.
+
+In addition to this, it appears that two propositions, one of $2000, and
+the other of $5000, have been offered to the one who claimed to be able to
+duplicate all the manifestations of Spiritualism, to duplicate two
+well-authenticated tests; but the challenge has never been accepted, nor
+the reward claimed. See _Religio-Philosophical Journal_, of Jan. 15, 1881,
+and January, 1883.
+
+A writer in the _Spiritual Clarion_, in an article on “The Millennium of
+Spiritualism,” bears the following testimony in regard to the power and
+strength of the movement:—
+
+
+    “This revelation has been with a power, a might, that if divested
+    of its almost universal benevolence, had been a terror to the very
+    soul; the hair of the very bravest had stood on end, and his
+    chilled blood had crept back upon his heart, at the sights and
+    sounds of its inexplicable phenomena. It comes with foretokening
+    and warning. It has been, from the very first, its own best
+    prophet, and step by step, it has foretold the progress it would
+    make. It comes, too, most triumphant. No faith before it ever took
+    such a victorious stand in its very infancy. It has swept like a
+    hurricane of fire through the land, compelling faith from the
+    baffled scoffer, and the most determined doubter.”
+
+
+Dr. W. F. Barrett, Professor of Experimental Physics in the Royal College
+of Dublin, says:—
+
+
+    “It is well known to those who have made the phenomena of
+    Spiritualism the subject of prolonged and careful inquiry, in the
+    spirit of exact and unimpassioned scientific research, that
+    beneath a repellent mass of imposture and delusion there remain
+    certain inexplicable and startling facts which science can neither
+    explain away nor deny.”—_“__Automatic, or Spirit, Writing,__”__ p.
+    11 (1896)._
+
+
+In the _Arena_ of November, 1892, p. 688, Mr. M. J. Savage, the noted
+Unitarian minister of Boston, says:—
+
+
+    “Next comes what are ordinarily classed together as ‘mediumistic
+    phenomena.’ The most important of these are psychometry, ‘vision’
+    of ‘spirit’ forms, claimed communications by means of rappings,
+    table movements, automatic writing, independent writing, trance
+    speaking, etc. With them also ought to be noted what are generally
+    called physical phenomena, though in most cases, since they are
+    intelligibly directed, the use of the word ‘physical,’ without
+    this qualification, might be misleading. These physical phenomena
+    include such facts as the movement of material objects by other
+    than the ordinary muscular force, the making objects heavier or
+    lighter when tested by the scales, the playing on musical
+    instruments by some invisible power, etc.... Now all of these
+    referred to (with the exception of independent writing, and
+    materialization) I know to be genuine. I do not at all mean by
+    this that I know that the ‘spiritualistic’ interpretation of them
+    is the true one. I mean only that they are genuine phenomena; that
+    they have occurred; that they are not tricks or the result of
+    fraud.”
+
+
+In the _Forum_ of December, 1889, p. 455, the same writer describes his
+experience at the house of a friend with whom he had been acquainted eight
+or ten years. When about to depart, he thought he would try an experiment.
+He says:—
+
+
+    “She and I stood at opposite ends of the table at which we had
+    been sitting. Both of us having placed the tips of our fingers
+    lightly on the top of the table, I spoke, as if addressing some
+    unseen force connected with the table, and said: ‘Now I must go;
+    will you not accompany me to the door?’ The door was ten or
+    fifteen feet distant, and was closed. The table started. It had no
+    casters, and in order to make it move as it did, we should have
+    had to go behind and push it. As a matter of fact we led it, while
+    it accompanied us all the way, and struck against the door with
+    considerable force.”
+
+
+From the same article, p. 456, we quote again:—
+
+
+    “I add one more experiment of my own. I sat one day in a heavy,
+    stuffed armchair. The psychic sat beside me, and laying his hand
+    on the back of the chair, gradually raised it. Immediately I felt
+    and saw myself, chair and all, lifted into the air at least one
+    foot from the floor. There was no uneven motion implying any sense
+    of effort on the part of the lifting force; and I was gently
+    lowered again to the carpet. This was in broad light, in a hotel
+    parlor, and in presence of a keen-eyed lawyer friend. I could
+    plainly watch the whole thing. No man living could have lifted me
+    in such a position, and besides, I saw that the psychic made not
+    the slightest apparent effort. Nor was there any machinery or
+    preparation of any kind. My companion, the lawyer, on going away,
+    speaking in reference to the whole sitting, said: ‘I’ve seen
+    enough evidence to hang every man in the State—enough to prove
+    _anything excepting this_.’
+
+
+    “Professor Crookes, of London, relates having seen and heard an
+    accordion played on while it was enclosed in a wire net-work, and
+    not touched by any visible hand. I have seen an approach to the
+    same thing. In daylight I have seen a man hold an accordion in the
+    air, not more than three feet away from me. He held it by one
+    hand, grasping the side opposite to that on which the keys were
+    fixed. In this position, it, or something, played long tunes, the
+    side containing the keys being pushed in and drawn out without any
+    contact that I could see. I then said, ‘Will it not play for me?’
+    The reply was, ‘I don’t know: you can try it.’ I then took the
+    accordion in my hands. There was no music; but what did occur was
+    quite as inexplicable to me, and quite as convincing as a display
+    of some kind of power. I know not how to express it, except by
+    saying that the accordion was seized as if by some one trying to
+    take it away from me. To test this power, I grasped the instrument
+    with both hands. The struggle was as real as though my antagonist
+    was another man. I succeeded in keeping it, but only by the most
+    strenuous efforts.
+
+
+    “On another occasion I was sitting with a ‘medium.’ I was too far
+    away for him to reach me, even had he tried, which he did not do;
+    for he sat perfectly quiet. My knees were not under the table, but
+    were where I could see them plainly. Suddenly my right knee was
+    grasped as by a hand. It was a firm grip. I could feel the print
+    and pressure of all the fingers. I said not a word of the strange
+    sensation, but quietly put my right hand down and clasped my knee
+    in order to see if I could feel anything on my hand. At once I
+    felt what seemed like the most delicate finger tips playing over
+    my own fingers and gradually rising in their touches toward my
+    wrist. When this was reached, I felt a series of clear, distinct,
+    and definite pats, as though made by a hand of fleshy vigor. I
+    made no motion to indicate what was going on, and said not a word
+    until the sensation had passed. All this while I was carefully
+    watching my hand, for it was plain daylight, and it was in full
+    view; but I saw nothing.”
+
+
+We need not multiply evidence on this point. A remark by T. J. Hudson
+(“Law of Psychic Phenomena,” p. 206, McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1894) may
+fitly close this division of the subject. He says:—
+
+
+    “I will not waste time, however, by attempting to prove by
+    experiments of my own, or of others, that such phenomena do occur.
+    It is too late for that. The facts are too well known to the
+    civilized world to require proof at this time. The man who denies
+    the phenomena of spiritism to-day is not entitled to be called a
+    skeptic, he is simply ignorant; and it would be a hopeless task to
+    attempt to enlighten him.”
+
+
+
+
+A Manifestation of Intelligence.
+
+
+From the testimony already given it is evident that there is connected
+with Spiritualism an agency that is able to manifest power and strength
+beyond anything that human beings, unaided, are able to exert. It is just
+as evident that the same agency possesses intelligence beyond the power of
+human minds. Indeed, this was the very feature that first brought it to
+the attention of the public. Spiritualism, as the reader is doubtless
+aware, originated in the family of Mr. John D. Fox, in Hydesville, near
+Rochester, N. Y., in the spring of 1848. Robert Dale Owen, in his work
+called “Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World,” p. 290, has given a
+full narration of the circumstances attending this remarkable event. The
+particulars, he states, he had from Mrs. Fox, and her two daughters,
+Margaret and Kate, and son, David. The attention of the family had been
+attracted by strange noises which finally assumed the form of raps, or
+muffled footfalls, and became very annoying. Chairs were sometimes moved
+from their places, and this was once also the case with the dining-room
+table. Heard occasionally during February, the disturbance so increased
+during the latter part of March, as seriously to break the nightly repose
+of the family. But as these annoyances occurred only in the night-time,
+all the family hoped that soon, by some means, the mystery would be
+cleared away. They did not abandon this hope till Friday, the 31st of
+March, 1848. Wearied by a succession of sleepless nights, the family
+retired early, hoping for a respite from the disturbances that had
+harassed them. In this they were doomed to especial disappointment. We can
+do no better than to let Mr. Owen continue the narrative, in his own
+words:—
+
+
+    “The parents had removed the children’s beds into their bedroom,
+    and strictly enjoined them not to talk of noises, even if they
+    heard them. But scarcely had the mother seen them safely in bed,
+    and was retiring to rest herself, when the children cried out,
+    ‘Here they are again!’ The mother chided them, and lay down.
+    Thereupon the noises became louder and more startling. The
+    children sat up in bed. Mrs. Fox called her husband. The night
+    being windy, it was suggested to him that it might be the rattling
+    of the sashes. He tried several to see if they were loose. Kate,
+    the younger girl, happened to remark that as often as her father
+    shook a window-sash, the noises seemed to reply. Being a lively
+    child, and in a measure accustomed to what was going on, she
+    turned to where the noise was, snapped her fingers, and called
+    out, ‘Here, old Splitfoot, do as I do!’ The knocking instantly
+    responded.
+
+
+    “_That was the very commencement. Who can tell where the end will
+    be?_
+
+
+    “I do not mean that it was Kate Fox, who thus, in childish jest,
+    first discovered that these mysterious sounds seemed instinct with
+    intelligence. Mr. Mompesson, two hundred years ago, had already
+    observed a similar phenomenon. Glanvil had verified it. So had
+    Wesley, and his children. So we have seen, and others. But in all
+    these cases the matter rested there and the observation was not
+    prosecuted further. As, previous to the invention of the steam
+    engine, sundry observers had trodden the very threshold of the
+    discovery and there stopped, so in this case, where the royal
+    chaplain, disciple though he was of the inductive philosophy, and
+    where the founder of Methodism, admitting, as he did, the
+    probabilities of ultramundane interference, were both at fault, a
+    Yankee girl, but nine years old, following up more in sport than
+    in earnest, a chance observation, became the instigator of a
+    movement which, whatever its true character, has had its influence
+    throughout the civilized world. The spark had been ignited,—once
+    at least two centuries ago; but it had died each time without
+    effect. It kindled no flame till the middle of the nineteenth
+    century.
+
+
+    “And yet how trifling the step from the observation at Tedworth to
+    the discovery at Hydesville! Mr. Mompesson, in bed with his little
+    daughter (about Kate’s age), whom the sound seemed chiefly to
+    follow, ‘observed that it would exactly answer, in drumming,
+    anything that was beaten or called for.’ But his curiosity led him
+    no further.
+
+
+    “Not so Kate Fox. She tried, by silently bringing together her
+    thumb and forefinger; whether she could obtain a response. Yes! It
+    could _see_, then, as well as _hear_. She called her mother. ‘Only
+    look, mother,’ she said, bringing together again her finger and
+    thumb, as before. And as often as she repeated the noiseless
+    motion, just as often responded the raps.
+
+
+    “This at once arrested her mother’s attention. ‘Count ten,’ she
+    said, addressing the noise. Ten strokes, distinctly given! ‘How
+    old is my daughter Margaret?’ Twelve strokes. ‘And Kate?’ Nine.
+    ‘What can all this mean?’ was Mrs. Fox’s thought. Who was
+    answering her? Was it only some mysterious echo of her own
+    thought? But the next question which she put seemed to refute the
+    idea. ‘How many children have I?’ she asked aloud. Seven strokes.
+    ‘Ah!’ she thought, ‘it can blunder sometimes.’ And then aloud,
+    ‘Try again.’ Still the number of raps was seven. Of a sudden a
+    thought crossed Mrs. Fox’s mind. ‘Are they all alive?’ she asked.
+    Silence for answer. ‘How many are living?’ Six strokes. ‘How many
+    are dead?’ A single stroke. _She had lost a child._
+
+
+    “Then she asked, ‘Are you a man?’ No answer. ‘Are you a spirit?’
+    It rapped. ‘May my neighbors hear, if I call them?’ It rapped
+    again.
+
+
+    “Thereupon she asked her husband to call her neighbor, a Mrs.
+    Redfield, who came in laughing. But her cheer was soon changed.
+    The answers to her inquiries were as prompt and pertinent, as they
+    had been to those of Mrs. Fox. She was struck with awe; and when,
+    in reply to a question about the number of her children, by
+    rapping four, instead of three, as she expected, it reminded her
+    of a little daughter, Mary, whom she had recently lost, the mother
+    burst into tears.”
+
+
+We have introduced this narrative thus at length not only because it is
+interesting in itself, but because it is of special interest that all the
+particulars of the origin, or beginning, of such a movement as this,
+should be well understood. The following paragraph will explain how it
+came to be called “The Rochester Knockings,” under which name it first
+became widely known. It is from the “Report of the 37th Anniversary of
+Modern Spiritualism,” held in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 31, 1885, and
+reported in the _Banner of Light_, the 25th of the following month:—
+
+
+    “After a song by J. T. Lillie, Mrs. Leah Fox Underhill, the elder
+    of the three Fox sisters (who was on our platform), was requested
+    to speak. Mrs. Underhill said that she was not a public speaker,
+    but would answer any questions from the audience, and in response
+    to these questions told in a graphic manner how the spirits came
+    to their humble home in Hydesville, in 1848; how on the 31st of
+    March the first intelligent communication from the spirit world
+    came through the raps; how the family had been annoyed by the
+    manifestations, and by the notoriety that followed; how the
+    younger sisters, Catherine and Margaret, were taken to Rochester,
+    where she lived, by their mother, hoping that this great and
+    apparent calamity might pass from them; how their father and
+    mother prayed that this cup might be taken away, but the phenomena
+    became more marked and violent; how in the morning they would find
+    four coffins drawn with an artistic hand on the door of the
+    dining-room of her home in Rochester, of different sizes,
+    approximating to the ages and sizes of the family, and these were
+    lined with a pink color, and they were told that unless they made
+    this great fact known, they would all speedily die, and enter the
+    spirit-world.
+
+
+    “Gladly would they all have accepted this penalty for their
+    disobedience in not making this truth known to the world. She told
+    how they were compelled to hire Corinthian Hall in Rochester; how
+    several public meetings were held in Rochester, culminating in the
+    selection of a committee of prominent infidels, who, after
+    submitting the Fox children to the most severe tests,—they being
+    disrobed in the presence of a committee of ladies,—reported in
+    their favor.... All the time she was on our platform, there was a
+    continuous rapping by the spirits in response to what was being
+    said by the several speakers, also in response to the singing, and
+    all our exercises.”
+
+
+In the same volume of the _Forum_ from which quotations have already been
+made, M. J. Savage states many facts which have a determinate bearing on
+the point now under consideration; namely, the intelligence manifested in
+the spiritual phenomena. From these we quote a few. He says (p. 452 and
+onward):—
+
+
+    “I am in possession of quite a large body of apparent facts that I
+    do not know what to do with.... That certain things to me
+    inexplicable have occurred, I believe. The negative opinion of
+    some one with whom no such things have occurred, will not satisfy
+    me.... I am ready to submit some specimens of those things that
+    constitute my problem. They can be only specimens; for a detailed
+    account of even half of those I have laid by, would stretch to the
+    limits of a book.
+
+
+    “A merchant ship bound for New York was on her homeward voyage.
+    She was in the Indian Ocean. The captain was engaged to be married
+    to a lady living in New England. One day early in the afternoon he
+    came, pale and excited, to one of his mates, and exclaimed, ‘Tom,
+    Kate has just died! I have seen her die!’ The mate looked at him
+    in amazement, not knowing what to make of such talk. But the
+    captain went on and described the whole scene—the room, her
+    appearance, how she died, and all the circumstances. So real was
+    it to him, and such was the effect on him, of his grief, that for
+    two or three weeks, he was carefully watched lest he should do
+    violence to himself. It was more than one hundred and fifty days
+    before the ship reached her harbor. During all this time no news
+    was received from home. But when at last the ship arrived at New
+    York, it was found that Kate did die at the time and under the
+    circumstances seen and described by the captain off the coast of
+    India. This is only one case out of hundreds. What does it mean?
+    Coincidence? Just happened so? This might be said of one; but a
+    hundred of such coincidences become inexplicable.”
+
+
+The following is another instance mentioned by the same writer:—
+
+
+    “I went to the house of a woman in New York. She was not a
+    professional. We had never seen each other before. We took seats
+    in the parlor for a talk, I not looking for any manifestation.
+    Raps began. I do not say whether they were really where they
+    seemed to be or not; I know right well that the judgment is
+    subject to illusion through the senses. But I was told a ‘spirit
+    friend’ was present; and soon the name, time, and place of death,
+    etc., were given me. It was the name of a friend I had once known
+    intimately. But twenty years had passed since the old intimacy;
+    she had lived in another State; I am certain that she and the
+    psychic had never known or even heard of each other. She had died
+    within a few months.”
+
+
+Mr. Savage then gives examples where the power in question was exclusively
+mental:—
+
+
+    “The first time I was ever in the presence of a particular
+    psychic, she went into a trance. She had never seen, and, so far
+    as I know, had never had any way of hearing of my father, who had
+    died some years previously. When I was a boy, he always called me
+    by a special name that was never used by any other member of the
+    family. In later years he hardly ever used it. But the entranced
+    psychic said: ‘An old gentleman is here,’ and she described
+    certain very marked peculiarities. Then she added: ‘He says he is
+    your father, and he calls you ——,’ using the old childhood name of
+    mine.”
+
+
+Again, same page:—
+
+
+    “One case more, only, will I mention under this head. A most
+    intimate friend of my youth had recently died. She had lived in
+    another State, and the psychic did not know that such a person had
+    ever existed. We were sitting alone when this old friend announced
+    her presence. It was in this way: A letter of two pages was
+    automatically written, addressed to me. I thought to myself as I
+    read it,—I did not speak,—‘Were it possible, I should feel sure
+    she had written this.’ I then said, as though speaking to her,
+    ‘Will you not give me your name?’ It was given, both maiden and
+    married name. I then began a conversation lasting over an hour,
+    which seemed as real as any I ever have with my friends. She told
+    me of her children, of her sisters. We talked over the events of
+    boyhood and girlhood. I asked her if she remembered a book we used
+    to read together, and she gave me the author’s name. I asked again
+    if she remembered the particular poem we were both specially fond
+    of, and she named it at once. In the letter that was written, and
+    in much of the conversation, there were apparent hints of
+    identity, little touches and peculiarities that would mean much to
+    an acquaintance, but nothing to a stranger. I could not but be
+    much impressed. Now in this case, I know that the psychic never
+    knew of this person’s existence, and of course not of our
+    acquaintance.”
+
+
+Mr. Savage then mentions cases which he calls still more inexplicable,
+because the information conveyed was not known either to the psychic
+(which seems to be the new name for medium) or to himself. He says:—
+
+
+    “But one more case dare I take the space for, though the budget is
+    only opened. This one did not happen to me, but it is so hedged
+    about and checked off, that its evidential value in a scientific
+    way is absolutely perfect. The names of some of the parties
+    concerned _would be recognized in two hemispheres_. A lady and
+    gentleman visited a psychic. The gentleman was the lady’s
+    brother-in-law. The lady had an aunt who was ill in a city two or
+    three hundred miles away. When the psychic had become entranced,
+    the lady asked her if she had any impression as to the condition
+    of her aunt. The reply was, ‘No.’ But before the sitting was over,
+    the psychic exclaimed, ‘Why, your aunt is here! She has already
+    passed away.’ ‘This cannot be true,’ said the lady; ‘there must be
+    a mistake. If she had died, they would have telegraphed us
+    immediately.’ ‘But,’ the psychic insisted, ‘she is here. And she
+    explains that she died about two o’clock this morning. She also
+    says that a telegram has been sent, and you will find it at the
+    house on your return.’
+
+
+    “Here seemed a clear case for a test. So while the lady started
+    for her home, her brother-in-law called at the house of a friend
+    and told the story. While there the husband came in. Having been
+    away for some hours he had not heard of any telegram. But the
+    friend seated himself at his desk and wrote out a careful account,
+    which all three signed on the spot. When they reached home,—two or
+    three miles away,—there was the telegram confirming the fact and
+    the time of the aunt’s death, precisely as the psychic had told
+    them.
+
+
+    “Here are most wonderful facts. How shall they be accounted for? I
+    have not trusted my memory for these things, but have made careful
+    record at the time. I know many other records of a similar kind
+    kept by others. They are kept private. Why? The late Rev. J. G.
+    Wood, of England, the world-famous naturalist, once said to me: ‘I
+    am glad to talk of these things to any one who has a right to
+    know. But I used to call everybody a fool who had anything to do
+    with them; and with a smile—“I do not enjoy being called a
+    fool.” ’
+
+
+    “Psychic and other societies that advertise for strange phenomena,
+    must learn that at least a respectful treatment is to be accorded,
+    or people will not lay bare their secret souls. And then, in the
+    very nature of the case, these experiments concern matters of the
+    most personal nature. Many of the most striking cases people will
+    not make public. In some of those above related, I have had so to
+    veil facts, that they do not appear as remarkable as they really
+    are. The whole cannot be told.”
+
+
+A quotation from this same writer (“Automatic Writing,” page 14), says:—
+
+
+    “I am in possession of a respectable body of facts that I do not
+    know how to explain except on the theory that I am dealing with
+    some invisible intelligence. I hold that as the only tenable
+    theory I am acquainted with.”
+
+
+In the same work (page 19), the author, Mrs. S. A. Underwood, as the
+result of her communications from spirits, says:—
+
+
+    “Detailed statements of facts unknown to either of us [that is,
+    herself and her ‘control’], but which weeks afterward were learned
+    to be correct, have been written, and repeated again and again,
+    when disbelieved and contradicted by us.”
+
+
+On this point, also, as on the preceding, testimony need not be
+multiplied. The facts are too well known and too generally admitted to
+warrant the devotion of further space to a presentation of the evidence.
+_The question must soon be met, What is the source of the power and
+intelligence thus manifested?_ But this may properly be held in abeyance
+till we take a glance at:
+
+
+
+
+The Progress of Spiritualism.
+
+
+during the fifty years of its modern history. It began in a way to excite
+the wonder and curiosity of the people, the very elements that would give
+wings to its progress through the land. Men suddenly found their thoughts
+careering through new channels. An unseen world seemed to make known its
+presence and invite investigation. As the phenomena claimed to be due to
+the direct agency of spirits, the movement naturally assumed the name of
+“Spiritualism.” It was then hailed by multitudes as a new and living
+teacher, come to clear up uncertainties and to dispel doubts from the
+minds of men. At least an irrepressible curiosity was everywhere excited
+to know what the new “ism” would teach concerning that invisible world
+which it professed to have come to open to the knowledge of mankind.
+Everywhere men sought by what means they could come into communication
+with the spirit realm. Into whatever place the news entered, circles were
+formed, and the number of converts outstripped the pen of the enroller. It
+gathered adherents from every walk of life—from the higher classes as well
+as the lower; the educated, cultured, and refined, as well as the
+uncultivated and ignorant; from ministers, lawyers, physicians, judges,
+teachers, government officials, and all the professions. But the
+individuals thus interested, being of too diverse and independent views to
+agree upon any permanent basis for organization, the data for numerical
+statistics are difficult to procure. Various estimates, however, of their
+numbers have been formed. As long ago as 1876, computations of the number
+of Spiritualists in the United States ranged from 3,000,000 by Hepworth
+Dixon, to 10,000,000 by the Roman Catholic council at Baltimore. Only five
+years from the time the first convert to Modern Spiritualism appeared,
+Judge Edmonds, himself an enthusiastic convert, said of their numbers:—
+
+
+    “Besides the undistinguished multitudes, there are many now of
+    high standing and talent ranked among them,—doctors, lawyers, and
+    clergymen in great numbers, a Protestant bishop, the learned and
+    reverend president of a college, judges of our higher courts,
+    members of Congress, foreign ambassadors, and ex-members of the
+    United States Senate.”
+
+
+Up to the present time, it is not probable that the number of
+Spiritualists has been much reduced by apostasies from the faith, if such
+it may be called; while the movement itself has been growing more
+prominent and becoming more widely known every year. The conclusion would
+therefore inevitably follow that its adherents must now be more numerous
+than ever before. A letter addressed by the writer to the publishers of
+the _Philosophical Journal_, Chicago, on this point, received the
+following reply, dated Dec. 24, 1895:—
+
+
+    “Being unorganized, largely, no reliable figures can be given.
+    Many thousands are in the churches, and are counted there. It is
+    _claimed_ that there are about five million in the United States,
+    and over fifty million in the world.”
+
+
+The _Christian at Work_ of Aug. 17, 1876, under the head of “Witches and
+Fools,” said:—
+
+
+    “But we do not know how many judges, bankers, merchants, prominent
+    men in nearly every occupation in life, there are, who make it a
+    constant practice to visit clairvoyants, sightseers, and so-called
+    Spiritual mediums; yet it can scarcely be doubted that their name
+    is legion; that not only the unreligious man, but professing
+    Christians, men and women, are in the habit of consulting spirits
+    from the vasty deep for information concerning both the dead and
+    the living. Many who pass for intelligent people, who would be
+    shocked to have their Christianity called in question, are
+    constantly engaged in this disreputable business.”
+
+
+The following appeared some years ago, in the San Francisco _Chronicle_:—
+
+
+    “Until quite recently, science has coldly ignored the alleged
+    phenomena of Spiritualism, and treated Andrew Jackson Davis, Home,
+    and the Davenport brothers, as if they belonged to the common
+    fraternity of showmen and mountebanks. But now there has come a
+    most noteworthy change. We learn from such high authority as the
+    _Fortnightly Review_ that Alfred R. Wallace, F. R. S.; William
+    Crookes, F. R. S. and editor of the _Quarterly Journal of
+    Science_; W. H. Harrison, F. R. S. and president of the British
+    Ethnological Society, with others occupying a high position in the
+    scientific and literary world, have been seriously investigating
+    the phenomena of spiritism. The report which those learned
+    gentlemen make is simply astounding. There is no fairy tale, no
+    story of myth or miracle, that is more incredible than their
+    narrative. They tell us in grave and sober speech, that the spirit
+    of a girl who died a hundred years ago, appeared to them in
+    visible form. She talked with them, gave them locks of her hair,
+    pieces of her dress, and her autograph. They saw her in bodily
+    presence, felt her person, heard her voice; she entered the room
+    in which they were, and disappeared without the opening of a door.
+    The savants declare that they have had numerous interviews with
+    her under conditions forbidding the idea of trickery or imposture.
+
+
+    “Now that men eminent in the scientific world have taken up the
+    investigation, Spiritualism has entered upon a new phase. It can
+    no longer be treated with silent contempt. Mr. Wallace’s articles
+    in the _Fortnightly_ have attracted general attention, and many of
+    the leading English reviews and newspapers are discussing the
+    matter. The New York _World_ devotes three columns of its space to
+    a summary of the last article in the _Fortnightly_, and declares
+    editorially that the ‘phenomena’ thus attested ‘deserve the rigid
+    scientific examination which Mr. Wallace invites for them.’ This
+    is treating the matter in the right way. Let all the well-attested
+    facts be collected, and then let us see what conclusions they
+    justify. If spirit communication is a fact, it is certainly a most
+    interesting one. In the language which the World attributes to
+    John Bright, ‘If it is a fact, it is the one besides which every
+    other fact of human existence sinks into insignificance.’ ”
+
+
+One of the reasons why it would be quite impossible to state the number of
+real Spiritualists in our land to-day has already been hinted at in a
+foregoing extract. It is that “many thousands,” and we think the number
+might in all probability be raised to millions, who are in reality
+Spiritualists, do not go by that name. They are in the various churches,
+and are counted there. Yet they believe the phenomena of Spiritualism,
+accept its teachings in their own minds, and quietly and constantly, as
+the _Christian at Work_ avers, consult clairvoyants and mediums, in quest
+of knowledge. The grosser features of the teachings of Spiritualism which
+were painfully prominent in its earlier stages, which there is no reason
+to believe are discountenanced or abandoned either in theory or practice,
+are relegated to an invisible background, while in its outward aspect it
+now poses in the attitude of piety and the garb of religion. It even
+professes to adopt some of the more prominent and popular doctrines of
+Christianity. In this phase the average churchgoer cannot see why he may
+not accept all that Spiritualism has to give, and still retain his
+denominational relationship. Besides this, the coming to light, every now
+and then, of the fact that some person of national or world-wide fame is a
+Spiritualist, adds popularity and gives a new impetus to the movement.
+Such instances may be named as the founder of the Leland Stanford
+University, of California; the widow of ex-Vice-President Hendricks, of
+Indiana, who, it is said, is carrying on some very successful financial
+transactions by direction from the spirit world; and Mr. W. T. Stead,
+London editor of the _Review of Reviews_, who, in 1893 started a new
+quarterly, called _The Border Land_, to be devoted to the advocacy of the
+philosophy of Spiritualism, which he had then but recently espoused. In
+other countries it has invaded the ranks of the nobility, and even seated
+itself on the thrones of monarchs. The late royal houses of France, Spain,
+and Russia are said, by current rumor, to have sought the spirits for
+knowledge. No cause could covet more rapid and wide-spread success than
+this has enjoyed.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter Two.
+
+
+WHAT IS THE AGENCY IN QUESTION?
+
+
+Having now shown that there are connected with Spiritualism supermundane
+phenomena that cannot be denied, and equally evident superhuman
+intelligence, sufficient to give to the movement unprecedented recognition
+in all the world, the way is open for the most important question that can
+be raised concerning it, and one which now demands an answer; and that is,
+What is the agency by which these phenomena are produced, and by which
+this intelligence is manifested? This question must be examined with the
+utmost care, and, if possible, a decision be reached of the most assuring
+certainty; for, as Mr. M. J. Savage says, “Spiritualism is either a grand
+truth or a most lamentable delusion.”
+
+It is proper that the claim which Spiritualism puts forth for itself, in
+this regard, should first be heard. This is so well known that it scarcely
+need be stated. It is that there is in every human being a soul, or
+spirit, which constitutes the real person; that this soul, or spirit, is
+immortal; that it manifests itself through a tangible body during this
+earth life, and when that body dies, passes unscathed into the unseen
+world, into an enlarged sphere of life, activity, and intelligence; that
+in this sphere it can still take cognizance of earthly things, and
+communicate with those still in the flesh, respecting scenes which it has
+left, and those more interesting conditions still veiled from mortal
+sight; that it is by these disembodied, or “discarnated” spirits that raps
+are given, objects moved, intelligence manifested, secrets revealed,
+slates written, voices uttered, faces shown, and epistles addressed to
+mortals, as friend would write to friend. If this be true, it opens what
+would indeed be considered a grand avenue of consolation to bereaved
+hearts, by giving them evidence that their departed friends still lived;
+that they recognized, loved, and accompanied them, and delighted still to
+counsel and instruct them. If not true, it is a masterpiece of superhuman
+craft and cunning; for it takes Christendom on the side where it is least
+guarded; as the view is everywhere held that the dead are conscious, and
+the only question would be as to their power to communicate with persons
+still living in the body; and it throws its arms around the individual
+when the heart is the most tender, when plunged into a condition in which
+every pang of bereaved sorrow, every tie of affection, and every throb of
+love, press him to crave with all his being that communication with the
+dead may be proved a fact, and to constrain him to accept the doctrine,
+unless kept from it by some power stronger than the cords that bind heart
+to heart in deathless love. If it be a deception, it occupies a vantage
+ground before which men may well tremble.
+
+But, as has been already stated, the question is here to be discussed from
+the standpoint of the Bible; the Bible is to be taken as the standard of
+authority by which all conflicting claims respecting the nature of man,
+must be decided. The authenticity of the Scriptures, in reference to those
+who deny their authority, is an antecedent question, into the discussion
+of which it is not the province of this little work to enter. A word,
+however, by way of digression, may be allowed in reference to its
+authorship.
+
+
+
+
+Credentials of the Bible.
+
+
+1. The Bible claims to be the word of God. Those who wrote it assert that
+they wrote as they “were moved by the Holy Ghost;” and they append to what
+they utter, a “Thus saith the Lord.”
+
+2. If it is not what it claims to be, it is an _imposture_ invented by
+_deceivers_ and _liars_.
+
+3. _Good_ men would not deceive and lie; therefore they were not the ones
+who invented the Bible.
+
+4. If, therefore, it was invented by men at all, it must have been
+invented by _bad_ men.
+
+5. All liars and religious impostors are bad men; but—
+
+6. The Bible repeatedly and most explicitly forbids lying and imposture,
+under the threatening of most condign punishment.
+
+7. Would, therefore, liars and impostors invent a book which more than any
+other book ever written, denounces lying and imposture, thus condemning
+themselves to the severest judgments of God, and at last to eternal death?
+
+8. If, then, the Bible is not the invention of good men,—because such men
+would not lie and deceive; nor of evil men,—because such men would not
+condemn themselves; nor of good or evil angels, for the same reasons, who
+else can be its author, but he who claims to be, that is, the living God?
+
+9. If, therefore, from the very nature of the case, it must be God’s book,
+why not believe it, and obey it?
+
+To return: Appeal is therefore made to the Bible; and the object is to
+learn what the Bible teaches about Spiritualism. When the claim is put
+forth that it is the disembodied spirits of dead men who make the
+communications, the Bible reader is at once aware of a conflict of claims.
+In times when the Bible was written, there were practices among men which
+went under the names of “enchantment,” “sorcery,” “witchcraft,”
+“necromancy,” “divination,” “consulting with familiar spirits,” etc. These
+practices were all more or less related, but some of them bear an
+unmistakable meaning. Thus, “necromancy” is defined to mean “a pretended
+communication with the dead.” A “familiar spirit” was “a spirit or demon
+supposed to attend on an individual, or to come at his call; the invisible
+agent of a necromancer’s will.”—_Century Dictionary._ Spiritualists do not
+deny that their intercourse with the invisible world comes under some, at
+least, of these heads. But all such practices the Bible explicitly
+forbids.
+
+Deut. 18:9-12: “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his
+son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or
+an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a
+consulter with _familiar spirits_, or a wizard, or a _necromancer_. For
+all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.” Lev. 19:31:
+“Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards,
+to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” See also, 2 Kings 21:2, 6,
+9, 11; Rev. 21:8; Gal. 5:19-21; Acts 16:16-18; etc. Thus plainly in both
+the Old and New Testaments, are these practices forbidden.
+
+
+
+
+An Impossibility.
+
+
+But why does the Bible forbid such practices as necromancy, or a
+“pretended” communication with the dead?—Because it would be only a
+pretense at best; for such communication is impossible. The dead are
+unconscious in their graves, and have no power to communicate with the
+living. Let this truth be once established, and it is the death-blow to
+the claims of Spiritualism, in the cases of all who will receive it.
+Allusion has already been made to a popular and wide-spread dogma in the
+Christian church which furnishes a basis for Spiritualism. It is that the
+soul is immortal, and that the dead are conscious. Spirits make known
+their presence, and claim to be the spirits of persons who have once lived
+here in human bodies. Now if the Bible teaches that there is no such thing
+as a disembodied human spirit, a knowledge of that fact would enable one
+to detect at once the imposture of any intelligence which from behind the
+curtain should claim to be such spirit. Any spirit seeking the attention
+of men in this life, and claiming to be what the Bible says does not
+exist, comes with a falsehood on its lips or in its raps, if the Bible is
+true, and thus reveals its real character to be that of a deceiver. In
+this case the Bible believer is armed against the imposture. No man likes
+to be fooled. No matter therefore how nice the communicating intelligence
+may seem, how many true things it may say, or how many good things it may
+promise, the conviction cannot be evaded that no real good can be intended
+or conferred by any spirit, or whatever it may be, masquerading under the
+garb of falsehood, or pretending to be what it is not. On such a
+foundation no stable superstructure can be reared. It becomes a
+death-trap, sure to collapse and involve in ruin all those who trust
+therein.
+
+It is very desirable that the reader comprehend the full importance of the
+doctrine, as related to this subject, that the dead are unconscious and
+that they have no power to communicate with the living. This being
+established, it sweeps away at one stroke the entire foundation of
+Spiritualism. Evidence will now be presented to show that this is a Bible
+doctrine; and wherever this is received, the fabric of Spiritualism from
+base to finial falls; it cannot possibly stand. But where the doctrine
+prevails that only the thin veil that limits our mortal vision, separates
+us from a world full of the conscious, intelligent spirits of those who
+have departed this life, Spiritualism has the field, beyond the
+possibility of dislodgment. When one believes that he has disembodied
+spirit friends all about him, how can he question that they are able to
+communicate with him? and when some unseen intelligence makes its presence
+known, and claims to be one of those friends, and refers to facts or
+scenes, known only to them two, how can the living dispute the claim? How
+can he refuse to accept a claim, which, on his own hypothesis, there is no
+conceivable reason to deny? But if the spirits are not what they claim to
+be, how shall the inexplicable phenomena attending their manifestations be
+explained?—The Bible brings to view other agencies, not the so-called
+spirits of the departed, to whose working all that has ever been
+manifested which to mortal vision is mysterious and inexplicable, may be
+justly attributed.
+
+
+
+
+The Soul Not Immortal.
+
+
+Spiritualism declares it to be the great object of its mission, to prove
+the immortality of the soul, which, it says, is not taught in the
+Scriptures with sufficient clearness, and is not otherwise demonstrated.
+It well attributes to the Scriptures a lack of plain teaching in support
+of that dogma; and it would have stated more truth, if it had said that
+the Scriptures nowhere countenance such a doctrine at all. But, it is
+said, the Scriptures are full of the terms, “soul” and “spirit.” Very
+true; but they nowhere use those terms to designate such a part of man as
+in common parlance, and in popular theology, they have come to mean. The
+fact is, the popular concept of the “soul” and “spirit” has been
+formulated entirely outside the Bible. Sedulously, unremittingly, for six
+thousand years, the idea has been inculcated in the minds of men, from the
+cradle to the grave, that man is a dual being, consisting of an outward
+body which dies, and an inward being called “soul,” or “spirit,” which
+does not die, but passes to higher spirit life, when the body goes into
+the grave. The father of this doctrine is rarely referred to by its
+believers, as authority, possibly through a little feeling of
+embarrassment as to its parentage; for he it was who announced it to our
+first parents in these words: “Ye shall not surely die!” Gen. 3:4. When
+men began to die, it was a shrewd stroke of policy on the part of him who
+had promised them that they should not die, to try to prove to those who
+remained that the others had not really died, but only changed conditions.
+It is no marvel that he should try to make men believe that they possessed
+an immaterial, immortal entity that could not die; but, in view of the
+ghastly experiences of the passing years, it is the marvel of marvels that
+he should have succeeded so well. The trouble now is that men take these
+meanings which have been devised and fostered into stupendous strength
+outside the pale of Bible teaching, and attach them to the Bible terms of
+“soul” and “spirit.” In other words, the mongrel pago-papal theology which
+has grown up in Christendom, lets the Bible furnish the terms, and
+paganism the definitions. But from the Bible standpoint, these definitions
+do not belong there; they are foreign to the truth, and the Bible does not
+recognize them. They are as much out of place as was the inventor of them
+himself in the garden of Eden. Let the Bible furnish its own definitions
+to its own terms, and all will be clear. The opinion of John Milton, the
+celebrated author of Paradise Lost, is worthy of note. In his “Treatise on
+Christian Doctrine,” Vol. I, pp. 250, 251, he says:—
+
+
+    “Man is a living being, intrinsically and properly one individual,
+    not compound and separable, not, according to the common opinion,
+    made up and framed of two distinct and different natures, as of
+    body and soul, but the whole man is soul, and the soul, man; that
+    is to say, a body or substance, individual, animated, sensitive,
+    and rational.”
+
+
+In this sense the word is employed many times; but whoever will trace the
+use of the words “soul” and “spirit” through the Bible, will find them
+applied also to a great variety of objects; as, person, mind, heart, body
+(in the expression “a dead body”), will, lust, appetite, breath, creature,
+pleasure, desire, anger, courage, blast, etc., etc., in all nearly fifty
+different ways. But it is a fact which should be especially noted, that in
+not a single instance is there the least hint given that anything
+expressed by these terms is capable of existing for a single moment, as a
+conscious entity, or in any other condition, _without the body_! This
+being so, none of these, according to the Bible, are the agency claimed to
+be present in Spiritualism.
+
+Another fact in reference to this point, should be allowed its decisive
+bearing. The question now under investigation is, Is the soul immortal, as
+Spiritualism has taken upon itself to teach, and claims to demonstrate?
+The Bible is found to be so lavish in the use of the terms “soul” and
+“spirit,” that these words occur in the aggregate, _seventeen hundred
+times_. Seventeen hundred times, by way of description, analysis,
+narrative, historical facts, or declarations of what they can do, or
+suffer, the Bible has something to say about “soul” and “spirit.” The most
+important question to be settled concerning them, certainly, is whether
+they are immortal or not. Will not the Bible, so freely treating of these
+terms, answer this question? Very strange, indeed, if it does not. But
+does it once affirm that either the soul or the spirit is immortal?—_Not
+once!_ Does it ever apply to them the terms “eternal,” “deathless,”
+“neverdying,” or any word that bears the necessary meaning of
+immortal?—Not in a single instance. Does it apply to them any term from
+which even an inference, necessary or remote, can be drawn that they are
+immortal? Even reduced to this attenuated form, the answer is still an
+emphatic and overwhelming, _No!_ Well, then, does it say _anything_ about
+the nature and capabilities of existence of that which it denominates soul
+or spirit?—Yes; it says the soul is in danger of the grave, may die, be
+destroyed, killed, and that the spirit may be wounded, cut off, preserved,
+and so, conversely, made to perish.
+
+It is sometimes claimed that it is not necessary that the Bible should
+affirm the immortality of the soul, because it is so self-evident a fact
+that it is taken for granted. But no one surely can suppose that the
+immortality of the soul is more self-evident than that of Jehovah; yet the
+Bible has seen fit to affirm his immortality in most direct terms. 1 Tim.
+1:17: “Now unto the King eternal, _immortal_, invisible, the only wise
+God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” 1 Tim. 6:16: “Who only
+hath _immortality_, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;
+whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power
+everlasting. Amen.” Let, then, similar Bible testimony be found concerning
+the soul; that is, that it is “immortal,” or “hath immortality,” and the
+taken-for-granted device will not be needed.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter Three.
+
+
+THE DEAD UNCONSCIOUS.
+
+
+From the fact now established that the soul is not immortal, it would
+follow as an inevitable conclusion, that the dead are not conscious in the
+intermediate state, and consequently cannot act the part attributed to
+them in modern Spiritualism. But there are some positive statements to
+which the reader’s attention should be called, and some instances supposed
+to prove the conscious state which should be noticed.
+
+1. _The Dead Know not Anything._—As a sample of the way the Bible speaks
+upon this question, let the reader turn to the words of Solomon, in Eccl.
+9:5, 6, 10: “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know
+not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them
+is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now
+perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in anything that
+is done under the sun.... Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with
+thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
+the grave, whither thou goest.”
+
+This language is addressed to the real, living, intelligent, responsible
+man; and how could it be plainer? On the hypothesis of the commonly
+believed distinction between the soul and the body, this must be addressed
+to the soul; for the body considered as the mere material instrument
+through which the soul acts, is not supposed of itself to know anything.
+The body, as a body, independent of the soul, does not know that it shall
+die; but it is that which knows, while one is alive, that it shall die—it
+is that same intelligent being that, when dead, knows not anything. But
+the spirits in Spiritualism do know many things in their condition;
+therefore they are not those who have once lived on this earth, and passed
+off through death; for such, once dead, this scripture affirms, know not
+anything—they are in a condition in which there is “no work, nor device,
+nor knowledge, nor wisdom.” This is a plain, straightforward, literal
+statement; there is no mistaking its meaning; and if it is true, then it
+is not true that the unseen agents working through Spiritualism, are the
+spirits of the dead.
+
+2. _The Spirit Returns to God._—Another passage from the same writer and
+the same book, may recur to the mind of the reader, as expressing a
+different and contradictory thought. Eccl. 12:7. “Then shall the dust
+return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who
+gave it.” A careful analysis of this passage reveals no support for
+Spiritualism; for it does not say that the spirit, on returning to God, is
+conscious, or is capable of coming back and communicating with mortals. It
+is not denied that different component parts enter into the constitution
+of man; and that these parts may be separated. Solomon himself may
+therefore tell us what he means by the term “spirit” which he here uses.
+He employs the same word in chapter. 3:21 of this same book, but says that
+beasts have it as well as men. And then in verse 19, he explains what he
+means, by saying that they (man and the lower animals) _all_ have one
+_breath_. The record of man’s creation in Gen. 2:7, shows that a
+vitalizing principle, called the “breath of life,” was necessary to be
+imparted to the organized body, before man became a living being; and this
+breath of life, as common to man and to all breathing animals, is
+described in Gen. 7:21, 22, by the term רוח (_ruahh_), the same word that
+is used for “breath,” in Eccl. 3:19, “spirit,” in verse 21, and “the
+spirit,” which God gave to man, and which returns to God, in chapter 12:7.
+Thus it is clear that reference is here made simply to the “breath of
+life” which God at first imparted to man, to make him a living being, and
+which he withdraws to himself, in the hour of man’s death. Job states the
+same fact, and describes the process, in chapter 34:14, 15: “If he [God]
+set his heart upon man, if he gather _unto himself_ his [man’s] spirit
+[same word] and his breath; ... man shall turn again unto dust.” No one
+can fail to see here that Job refers to the same event of which Solomon
+speaks.
+
+And at this point the question may as well be raised, and answered, Whence
+comes this spirit which is claimed to be the real man, capable of an
+independent and superior existence without the body? Bodies come into
+existence by natural generation; but whence comes the spirit? Is it a part
+of the body? If so, it cannot be immortal; for “that which is born of the
+flesh is flesh.” John 3:6. Is it supplied to human beings at birth? If so,
+is there a great storehouse, somewhere, of souls and spirits, ready-made,
+from which the supply is drawn as fast as wanted in this world? And if so,
+further, is it to be concluded that all spirits have had a pre-existence?
+and then what was their condition in that state? And again, how does it
+happen, on this supposition, that this spirit in each individual exhibits
+so largely the mental and moral traits of the earthly parents? These
+hypotheses not being very satisfactory, will it be claimed that God
+creates these spirits as fast as children are born to need them? and if
+so, who brings them down just in the nick of time? and by what process are
+they incarnated? But if God has, by special act, created a soul or spirit
+for every member of the human family since Adam, is it not a contradiction
+of Gen. 2:2, which declares that _all_ God’s work of creation, so far as
+it pertains to this world, was _completed_ by the close of the first week
+of time? Again, how many of the inhabitants of this earth are the
+offspring of abandoned criminality; and can it be supposed that God holds
+himself in readiness to create souls which must come from his hands pure
+as the dew of heaven, to be thrust into such vile tenements, and doomed to
+a life of wretchedness and woe at the bidding of defiant lust? The
+irreverence of the question will be pardoned as an exposure of the
+absurdity of that theory which necessitates it.
+
+3. _The Spirits of Just Men Made Perfect._—This expression is found in
+Heb. 12:23, and seems, by some, to recognize the idea that spirits can
+exist without the body, and are to be treated as separate entities. Thus
+interpreted it might appear to give some support to Spiritualism. But it
+will by no means bear such an interpretation. The apostle is contrasting
+the privileges of Christians in the present dispensation, with the
+situation of believers before the coming of Christ. What he sets forth are
+blessings to be enjoyed in the present tense. Yes, says one, that is just
+what I believe: We are come to spirits; they are all about us, and tip and
+talk and write for us at our pleasure. But hold! nothing is affirmed of
+spirits separately. The whole idea must be taken in. It is the “spirits of
+_just men_ made perfect;” and the participle “made perfect” agrees with
+“just men,” or literally “the just made perfect” (δικαίων τετελειωμένων),
+not with “spirits.” It is the _men_ who are made perfect to whom we are
+said to have come. But there are only two localities and two periods, in
+which men are anywhere in the Scriptures said to be made perfect. One is
+in this life and on this earth, and refers to religious experience (“Be ye
+therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”);
+the other is not relative, but actual and absolute, and refers to the
+future immortal state when all the people of God will enter upon eternal
+life together (“God having provided some better thing for us, that they
+[the ancient worthies] without us should not be _made perfect_.” Heb.
+11:40). Thus, taken in either of the only two ways possible, the text
+furnishes no proof of Spiritualism. It doubtless refers to the present
+state, the expression, “spirits of just men,” being simply a periphrasis
+for “just men,” the same as the expression, “the God of the spirits of all
+flesh” (Num. 16:22), means simply “the God of all flesh,” and the words
+“your whole spirit, and soul, and body” (1 Thess. 5:23), means simply the
+whole person.
+
+4. _Spirits in Prison._—The apostle Peter uses an expression, which,
+though perhaps not often quoted in direct defense of Spiritualism, is
+relied upon extensively in behalf of the doctrine of the conscious state
+of the dead, which, as already shown, is the essential basis of
+Spiritualism. And such texts as these are here noticed to show to the
+general reader, that the Bible contains no testimony in behalf of that
+doctrine, but positively forbids it, as further quotations will soon be
+introduced to show. The passage now in question is 1 Peter 3:19, where,
+speaking of Christ, it says: “By which also he went and preached unto the
+spirits in prison.” By the use of strong assumption, and some lofty
+flights of the imagination, and keeping in the background the real intent
+of the passage, a picture of rather a lively time in the spirit world, can
+be constructed out of this testimony. Thus the spirits are said to be the
+disembodied spirits of those who were destroyed by the flood. See context.
+They were in “prison,” that is, in hell. When Christ was put to death upon
+the cross, he immediately went by his disembodied spirit, down into hell
+and preached to those conscious intelligent spirits who were there, and
+continued that work till the third day when he was himself raised from the
+dead. A thought will show that this picture is wrong, (1) in the time, (2)
+in the condition of the people, (3) in the acting agent, and (4) in the
+end to be attained. Thus, when Christ had been put to death, he was
+“quickened” (or made alive), says the record, “by the Spirit.” This was
+certainly not a personal disembodied spirit, but that divine agency so
+often referred to in the Scriptures. “By which,” that is, this Spirit of
+God, he went and preached. Then he did not go personally on this work. The
+“spirits” were the antediluvians; for they were those who were disobedient
+in the days of Noah. Now when were they preached to? Verse 20 plainly
+tells us it was “_when_ once the longsuffering of God waited _in the days
+of Noah_.” In accordance with these statements now let another picture be
+presented: Christ, by his Spirit which was in Noah (1 Peter 1:11), and
+thus through Noah, preached to the spirits, or persons, in Noah’s time,
+who were disobedient, in order to save all from the coming flood who would
+believe. They were said to be “in prison,” though still living, because
+they were shut up under condemnation, and had only one hundred and twenty
+years granted them in which to repent or perish. Thus Christ was
+commissioned to preach to men said to be in prison, because in darkness,
+error, and condemnation, though they were still living in the flesh. Isa.
+61:1. Dr. Adam Clarke, the eminent Methodist commentator (_in loco_),
+places the going and preaching of Christ in the days of Noah, and by the
+ministry of Noah for one hundred and twenty years, and not during the time
+while he lay in the grave. Then he says:—
+
+
+    “The word πνεῦμασι (spirits) is supposed to render this view of
+    the subject improbable, because this must mean _disembodied_
+    spirits; but this certainly does not follow; for the _spirits of
+    just men made perfect_ (Heb. 12:23), certainly means righteous
+    men, and men _still in the church militant_: and the Father of
+    spirits (Heb. 12:9) means men still in the body; and the God of
+    the spirits of all flesh (Num. 16:22 and 27:16), means _men, not_
+    in a disembodied state.”(1)
+
+
+5. _Cannot Kill the Soul._—“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not
+able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both
+soul and body in hell.” Matt. 10:28. We know what it is to kill the body;
+and by association of ideas, it seems quite natural to form a like
+conception of the soul as something that can be treated in the same way.
+Then if the soul cannot be killed like the body, the conclusion seems easy
+of adoption that it lives right on, with all sensations preserved, as it
+was with the body before its death. If it were not for the pagan
+definition of “soul,” which here comes in to change the current of
+thought, such conclusions drawn from this text would not be so prevalent;
+and a little attention to the scope of Christ’s teaching here will readily
+correct the misapprehension. This is brought out clearly in verse 39: “He
+that findeth his _life_ shall lose it: and he that loseth his _life_ for
+my sake shall find it.” This is easily understood. No one will question
+what it is to lose his life; and Christ says that he who will do this for
+his sake, shall find it. Any one who has been put to death for his faith
+in the gospel has “lost his life” (had the body killed) for Christ’s sake.
+But Christ says, Do not fear them, even if they do this. Why?—Because ye
+shall find it—the life you lost. When shall we find it?—In the
+resurrection. John 6:40; Rev. 20:4-6. The expression, “shall find it,”
+thus becomes the exact equivalent of the words, “are not able to kill the
+soul;” that is, are not able to destroy, or prevent us from gaining that
+life he has promised, if we suffer men, for his sake, to “kill the body,”
+or deprive us of our present life. The correctness of this view is
+demonstrated by the word employed in these instances. That word is ψυχή
+(_psuche_). It is properly rendered “life” in verse 39, and improperly
+rendered “soul” in verse 28. This lesson, that men should be willing to
+lose their life for Christ’s sake, was considered so important that it is
+again mentioned in Matthew, and reiterated with emphasis by Mark, Luke,
+and John; and they all use this same word ψυχή, which is rendered “life.”
+In one instance only in all these parallel passages have the translators
+rendered it “soul;” and that is Matt. 10:28, where it is the source of all
+the misunderstanding on that text.
+
+6. _Souls Under the Altar._—As a part of the events of the fifth seal as
+described in Rev. 6:9-11, John says he saw the souls of the martyrs under
+the altar, and heard them crying for vengeance. If they could do that, it
+is asked, cannot disembodied souls now communicate with the living? Not to
+enter into a full exposition of this scripture, and the inconsistencies
+such a view would involve, it is sufficient to ask if these were like the
+communicating spirits of the present day. How many communications have
+ever been received by modern Spiritualists from souls confined under an
+altar? In glowing symbolism, John saw the dead martyrs, as if slain at the
+foot of the altar; and by the figure of personification a voice was given
+to them, just as Abel’s blood cried to God for vengeance upon his guilty
+brother (Gen. 4:10), and just as the stone is said to cry out of the wall,
+and the beam out of the timber to answer it. Hab. 2:11.
+
+7. _The Medium of Endor._—Aside from the direct teaching of the
+Scriptures, it is still held by some that there are scenes narrated in the
+Bible which show that the dead must be conscious. The first of these is
+the case of Saul and the woman of Endor, whom he consulted in order to
+communicate with the prophet Samuel, as narrated in 1 Samuel 28. Here, it
+must be confessed, is brought to view an actual case of spirit
+manifestation, a specimen of ancient necromancy; for the conditions,
+method of procedure, and results, were just such as pertain to the same
+work in our own day. But then, as now, there was no truth nor good in it,
+as a brief review of the narrative will show. (1) Samuel was dead. (2)
+Saul was sore pressed by the Philistines. Verse 5. (3) God had departed
+from him. Verse 4. (4) He had cut off those who had familiar spirits and
+wizards, out of the land, because God had forbidden their presence in the
+Jewish theocracy, as an abomination. Verse 3; Lev. 19:31. (5) Yet in his
+extremity he had recourse to a woman with a familiar spirit, found at
+Endor. Verse 7. (6) She asked whom she should bring up, and Saul answered,
+Samuel. Verse 11. (7) Saul was disguised, but the familiar spirit told the
+woman it was Saul, and she cried out in alarm. Verse 12. (8) Saul
+reassured her, and the woman went on with the séance. Verse 10. (9) She
+announced a presence coming (not from heaven, nor the spheres, but) up out
+of the earth, and at Saul’s request gave a description of him, showing
+that Saul did not himself see the form. Verse 13. (10) Saul “perceived”
+that it was Samuel (not by actual sight, but from the woman’s description;
+for the Hebrew ירע and the Septuagint, γινωσκώ, signify to know, or
+perceive, by an operation of the mind.) Verse 14. (11) The woman supposed
+it was Samuel; Saul supposed it was Samuel; and that personation is, then,
+by the law of appearance, spoken of, in whatever it said or did, as
+Samuel; as, “Samuel said to Saul,” etc. Verse 15. (12) Was Samuel really
+there as an immortal soul, a disembodied spirit, or as one raised from the
+dead?—No; because (_a_) immortal souls do not come up out of the ground,
+wrapped in mantles, and complain of being disquieted and brought up; (_b_)
+Samuel was a holy prophet, and if he was conscious in the spirit world, he
+would not present himself at the summons of a woman who was practicing
+arts which God had forbidden; (_c_) God having departed from Saul, and
+having refused to communicate with him on account of his sins, would not
+now suffer his servant Samuel to grant him the desired communication
+through a channel which he had pronounced an abomination; (_d_) Samuel was
+not present by a resurrection, for the Devil could not raise him, and God
+certainly would not, for such a purpose; besides Samuel was buried at
+Ramah, and could not be raised at Endor; (_e_) It was only the woman’s
+familiar spirit, personating Samuel as he used to appear when alive—an
+aged man clothed with a mantle. His object was to make both the woman and
+Saul believe it was Samuel, when it was not, just as communicating spirits
+to-day try to palm themselves off for what they are not. As a specimen of
+ancient Spiritualism, this case is no particular honor to their cause; and
+as a proof of the immortality of the soul, and the conscious state of the
+dead, it is a minus quantity.
+
+8. _The Transfiguration._—Jesus took three of his disciples, Peter, James,
+and John, apart into a high mountain, and was transfigured before them;
+his face became as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light, just
+as it will be in the future kingdom of glory, which this scene was
+designed to represent. And there then appeared Moses and Elias talking
+with Christ. But Moses had died in the land of Moab nearly fifteen hundred
+years before, and it is at once concluded that the only way to account for
+his appearance on this occasion, is to suppose that he was still alive in
+the spirit world, and could appear in a disembodied state, and talk with
+Jesus as here represented. But such a conclusion is by no means necessary.
+Jesus was there in person, Elias was there in person; for he had not died,
+but had been translated bodily from this earth. Now it would be altogether
+incongruous to suppose that the third member of this glorious trio,
+apparently just as real as the others, was only a disembodied spirit; an
+immaterial phantom. Unless the whole scene was merely a vision brought
+before the minds of the disciples, Moses was as really there, in his own
+proper person, as Jesus and Elias. But there is no way in which he could
+thus be present, except by means of a resurrection from the dead; and that
+he had been raised, and was there as a representative of the resurrection,
+is proved, first by his actual presence on this occasion, and secondly, by
+the fact that Michael (Christ, who is “the resurrection and the life,”
+John 11:25) disputed with the Devil (who has the power of death, Heb.
+2:14) about the body of Moses. Jude 9. There could be no other possible
+ground of controversy about the body of Moses except whether or not Christ
+should give it life before the general resurrection. But Christ rebuked
+the Devil. Christ was not thwarted in this contest, but gave his servant
+life; and thus Moses could appear personally upon the mount. This makes
+the scene complete as a representation of the kingdom of God, as Peter
+says it was (2 Peter 1:16-18); namely, Christ the glorified King, Elias
+representing those who will be translated without seeing death, and Moses
+representing those who will be raised from the dead. These two classes
+embrace all the happy subjects of that kingdom. This view of the matter is
+not peculiar to this book. Dr. Adam Clarke, on Matt. 17:3, says: “The body
+of Moses was probably raised again, as a pledge of the resurrection.”(2)
+And Olshausen says: “For if we assume the reality of the _resurrection of
+the body_, and its glorification,—truths which assuredly belong to the
+system of Christian doctrine,—the whole occurrence presents no essential
+difficulties. The appearance of Moses and Elias, which is usually held to
+be the most unintelligible point in it, is as easily conceived of as
+possible, if we admit their bodily glorification.”
+
+Those passages which speak of Christ as the “first-fruits,” the
+“first-born from the dead,” the “first-born among many brethren,” “of
+every creature,” etc., refer only to the chief and pivotal importance of
+his own resurrection, as related to all others; and Acts 26:23 does not
+declare that Christ should be the first one to be raised from the dead,
+but that he first, by a resurrection from the dead, should show light to
+the Gentiles. (See the Greek of this passage.) These scriptures therefore
+prove no objection to the idea that Moses had been raised from the dead,
+and as a victor over the grave, appeared with Christ upon the mount. Thus
+another supposed stronghold affords no refuge for the conscious-state
+theory, or for Spiritualism.
+
+9. _The Rich Man and Lazarus._—With the features of this parable, as found
+in Luke 16, which is supposed to prove the dead conscious, and
+Spiritualism possible, the reader is doubtless familiar. It should ever be
+borne in mind that this is a parable; and in a parable, neither the
+parties nor the scenes are to be taken literally, and hence no doctrines
+can be built upon such symbolic representations. But not only is it a
+parable, but it is a parable based upon traditions largely entertained by
+the Jews themselves in the time of Christ. Thus T. J. Hudson (“Law of
+Psychic Phenomena,” p. 385) says:—
+
+
+    “It is a historical fact, nevertheless, that before the advent of
+    Jesus, the Jews had become imbued with the Greek doctrine of
+    Hades, which was an intermediate waiting station between this life
+    and the judgment. In this were situated both Paradise and Gehenna,
+    the one on the right, and the other on the left, and into these
+    two compartments the spirits of the dead were separated, according
+    to their deserts. Jesus found this doctrine already in existence,
+    and in enforcing his moral precepts in his parables, he employed
+    the symbols which the people understood, neither denying nor
+    affirming their literal verity.”
+
+
+Thus Christ appealed to the people on their own ground. He took the views
+and traditions which he found already among them, and arranged them into a
+parable in such a way as to rebuke their covetousness, correct their
+notions that prosperity and riches in this life are tokens of the favor
+and approbation of God, and condemn their departure from the teachings of
+Moses and the prophets. As a parable, it is not designed to show the state
+of the dead, and the conditions that prevail in the spirit world. But if
+any persist that it is not a parable, but a presentation of actual fact,
+then the scene is laid, not in the intermediate state, but beyond the
+resurrection; for it is after the angels had carried Lazarus into
+Abraham’s bosom. But the angels do not bear any one anywhere away from
+this earth, till the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the
+dead. Matt. 24:30, 31; 1 Thess. 4:15-17. Finding no support in this
+portion of scripture for the conscious-state theory, with its
+spiritualistic possibilities, appeal is next made by the friends of that
+theory to the case of—
+
+10. _The Thief on the Cross._—Luke 23:39-43. When one of the malefactors
+who were crucified with Jesus, requested to be remembered when he should
+come into his kingdom, according to the record in the common version, the
+Lord replied, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” To go from death
+into paradise the same day, means to go into the spirit world without a
+body, or discarnated, as Spiritualists claim. And so it would be if such
+was Christ’s promise to the thief; but it was not.
+
+The little adverb “to-day” holds the balance of power as to the meaning of
+this text. If it qualifies Christ’s words, “Verily I say unto thee,” it
+gives one idea; if it qualifies the words, “Thou shalt be with me in
+paradise,” we have another and very different idea. And how shall the
+question of its relationship be decided?—It can be done only by the
+punctuation.
+
+Here another difficulty confronts us; for the Greek was originally written
+in a solid line of letters, without any punctuation, or even division into
+words. Such being the case, the punctuation, and the relation of the
+qualifying word “to-day,” must be determined by the context. Now it is a
+fact that Christ did not go to paradise that day. He died, and was placed
+in the tomb, and the third day rose from the dead. Mary was the first to
+meet him, and sought to worship him. But he said, “Touch me not, for I am
+not yet ascended to my Father.” John 20:17. Paradise is where the Father
+is (see 2 Cor. 12:2-4; Rev. 2:7; 22:1, 2), and if Christ had not been to
+his Father when Mary met him the third day after his crucifixion, he had
+not then been to paradise; therefore it is not possible that he made a
+promise to the thief on the day of his crucifixion, that he should be with
+him _that_ day in paradise.
+
+But further, the day of the crucifixion was the day before the Sabbath;
+and it was not lawful to leave criminals on the cross during that day.
+John 19:31. If they were still living when the time came to take them from
+the cross, they were taken down, and their legs were broken to prevent
+their escape. The soldiers on this occasion broke the legs of the two
+thieves, because they were still alive; “but when they came to Jesus and
+saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs.” Verses 32, 33. The
+thief therefore lived over into the next day.
+
+Thus there are two absolutely insuperable objections against allowing the
+adverb, “to-day,” to qualify Christ’s promise, “Thou shalt be with me in
+paradise:” (1) Christ did not go to paradise that day; and (2) The thief
+did not die that day. Before these facts the conscious-state argument
+built upon this incident, vanishes into thin air. Just place the comma (a
+punctuation mark not invented till 1490) after “to-day” instead of before
+it, and let that word qualify the verb “say” and emphasize the time when
+it was spoken, and all is harmonious. The thief’s request did not pertain
+to that day, but looked forward to the time when Christ should come into
+his kingdom; and Christ’s promise did not pertain to that day, but to the
+time in the thief’s request; so he did not falsify it by not going to his
+Father for three days afterward. The thief is quietly slumbering in the
+tomb; but Christ is soon coming into his kingdom. Then the thief will be
+remembered, be raised from the dead, and be with Christ in that paradise
+into which he will then introduce all his people. Thus all is as clear as
+a sunbeam, when the text is freed from the bungling tinkering of men.
+
+The strongest texts and incidents which are appealed to in defense of the
+conscious-state theory, have now been examined. If these do not sustain
+it, nothing can be found in the Bible which will sustain it. All are
+easily harmonized with these. Thus in Paul’s desire to “depart and be with
+Christ” (Phil. 1:23), he does not there tell us _when_ he will be with
+Christ; but he does tell us in many other places; and it is at the
+resurrection and the coming of Christ. Phil. 3:11; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. When
+he speaks of our being clothed upon with our house from heaven (2 Cor.
+5:2), he tells us that it is when “mortality” is “swallowed up of life.”
+But that is only at the last trump. 1 Cor. 15:51-54. If we are told about
+the woman who had had seven husbands (Matt. 22:23-28), no hint is given of
+any reunion till after the resurrection. If God calls himself “not the God
+of the dead, but of the living” (Matt. 22:32), it is because he speaks of
+“those things that be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17), and the
+worthies of whom this is spoken, are sure to live again (Heb. 11:15, 16),
+and hence are now spoken of as alive in his sight, because they are so in
+his purpose. Texts which speak of the departure and return of the soul
+(Gen. 35:18; 1 Kings 17:21, 22), are referable to the “breath of life,”
+which is the meaning of the word in these instances rendered “soul.”
+
+Three passages only have been referred to, which declare positively that
+the dead know not anything. It was thought preferable to answer certain
+objections, before introducing further direct testimony. But there are
+many such passages, a few more of which will now be presented, as a
+fitting conclusion to this branch of the subject. The reader’s careful
+attention is invited to a few of the various texts, and the conclusions
+that follow therefrom.
+
+1. _Death and Sleep._—Death, in numerous passages is compared to sleep, in
+contrast with the wakeful condition. See Ps. 13:3; Job 7:21; John 11:11;
+Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 11:30; 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:14; etc. But there is only one
+feature in sleep by virtue of which it can be taken as a figure of death;
+and that is, the condition of unconsciousness which shuts up the avenues
+of one’s senses to all one’s environment. If one is not thus unconscious
+in death, the figure is false, and the comparison illogical and
+misleading.
+
+2. _Thoughts Perish._—So David testifies: “Put not your trust in princes,
+nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth,
+he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps.
+146:3, 4. The word “thoughts” does not here mean simply the projects and
+purposes one has in view, which do often fail, when the author of them
+dies, but it is from a root which means the act of thinking, the operation
+of the mind; and in death, that entirely ceases. It cannot therefore be
+the dead who come out of the unseen with such intelligence as is shown in
+Spiritualism.
+
+3. _Job’s Statement._—Speaking of a dead man, Job (14:21) says: “His sons
+come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he
+perceiveth it not of them.” If the dead cannot take cognizance of matters
+of so much interest as these, how can they communicate with the living as
+the spirits do?
+
+4. _No Remembrance of God._—David, in Ps. 6:5 and 115:17, again testifies:
+“For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give
+thee thanks?” “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into
+silence.” Is it possible that any righteous man, if he is living and
+conscious after going into the grave, would not praise and give thanks to
+the Lord?
+
+5. _Hezekiah’s Testimony._—Hezekiah was sick unto death. Isa. 38:1. But he
+prayed, and the Lord added to his days fifteen years. Verse 5. For this he
+praised the Lord, and gave his reasons for so doing in the following words
+(verses 18, 19): “For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate
+thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The
+living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day.” This is a
+clear affirmation that in death he would not be able to do what he was
+able to do while living.
+
+6. _New Testament Evidence._—The New Testament bears a corresponding
+testimony on this subject. None will be saved except such as Christ raises
+up at the last day. John 6:39, 40. No one is to receive any reward before
+the resurrection. Luke 14:14; 2 Tim. 4:8. No one can enter God’s kingdom
+before being judged; but there is no execution of judgment before the
+coming of Christ. 2 Tim. 4:1; Acts 17:31; Luke 19:35; etc. If there is no
+avenue to a future life by a resurrection, then all who have gone down in
+death are perished. 1 Cor. 15:18. Such texts utterly forbid the idea of
+consciousness and activity, on the part of any of the human family, in
+death.
+
+This part of the subject need not be carried further. It has been dwelt
+upon so fully simply because of its determinate bearing on the question
+under discussion. Spiritualism rests its whole title to credence on the
+claim that the intelligences which manifest themselves are the spirits of
+the dead. The Bible says that they are _not_ the spirits of the dead. Then
+if the Bible is true, the whole system rests upon deception and falsehood.
+No one who believes this will tamper with Spiritualism. One cannot have
+Spiritualism and the Bible, too. One or the other must be given up. But he
+who still holds on to the theory that the dead are conscious, contrary to
+the testimony of the Scriptures has no shield against the Spiritualistic
+delusion, and the danger is that he will sooner or later throw the Bible
+away.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter Four.
+
+
+THEY ARE EVIL ANGELS.
+
+
+As the Bible plainly shows what the spirits which communicate are _not_,
+it just as clearly reveals also what they _are_; so that in no particular
+is one left to conjecture or guesswork. There is an order of beings
+brought to view in the Scriptures, above man but lower than God or Christ,
+called “angels.” No Bible believer questions the existence of such beings.
+It is sometimes asserted that angels are departed human spirits; but this
+cannot be; for they appear upon the stage of action before a single human
+being had died, or a disembodied spirit could have existed. When the world
+was created, Job declares that “the morning stars sang together, and all
+the sons of God shouted for joy.” These are two of the names applied to
+these beings, but they are also known by a number of others. They are 167
+times called angels; 61 times, angel of the Lord; 8 times, angel of God;
+17 times, his angels; 41 times, cherub and cherubim. There are also such
+names as seraphim, chariots, God’s hosts, watchers, holy ones, thrones,
+dominions, principalities and powers,—all referring to the different
+orders of these heavenly beings.
+
+A part of this host fell into sin, and thereby became evil, or fallen,
+angels. A reasonable statement of how this came about can be given, but no
+reason for the act itself. Sin cannot be explained. To explain it would be
+to give a reason for it; and to give a reason for it would be to excuse
+it; and then it would cease to be sin. In the beginning a condition
+existed which was in itself right and essential; but which nevertheless
+made sin possible. It is one of the inevitable conditions of the highest
+glory of God, that all his creatures should serve him from choice, under
+the law of love, and not by compulsion, as a machine, under the law of
+necessity. To secure this end, they must be made free moral agents. Thus
+to angels was given the freedom of the will, the same as to man. They were
+in a state of purity and happiness, with every condition favorable for a
+continuance in that condition; but in the free choices of their free
+wills, they of course had the power, if they should unaccountably see fit
+so to use it, to turn away from truth and right, and rebel against God.
+This some of them did. So we find Jude speaking of “the angels that kept
+not their first estate” (Jude 6), and Peter, of “the angels that sinned”
+(2 Peter 2:4); and these they further declare, were cast down to Tartarus,
+and are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment
+of the great day.
+
+There must have been to this rebellion an instigator and leader; and we
+accordingly find the Bible speaking of such a personage; the whole company
+being described as “the Devil and his angels.” Our Lord pointed out this
+leader in evil, and his work, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your Father the
+Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the
+beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
+When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the
+father of it.” This reveals the great facts in his case. He abode not in
+the truth. Then he was once in the truth; and as he is a liar, and the
+father of it, he was the first one to depart from truth and introduce
+falsehood and evil into the universe of God.
+
+In Isaiah (14:12-14) this being is addressed as Lucifer, or the day-star;
+and the prophet exclaims, “How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son
+of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken
+the nations!” The following verses indicate that the nature of his
+transgression was self-exaltation and pride of heart: “For thou hast said
+in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above
+the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in
+the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I
+will be like the Most High.” Paul, in 1 Tim. 3:6, intimates that it was
+this pride that caused the ruin of this once holy being. Of an elder he
+says that he must not be a novice, “lest being lifted up with pride he
+fall into the condemnation of the Devil,” or that sin for which the Devil
+was condemned.
+
+In Ezekiel 28, Satan is again spoken of under the pseudonym of “the prince
+of Tyrus.” Verse 2 shows his pride: “Because thine heart is lifted up, and
+thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God,” etc. Verses 12-15
+describe his beauty, wisdom, and apparel, and his exalted office as a high
+cherub, before his sin and fall. Verse 15 reads: “Thou wast perfect in thy
+ways from the day thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”
+
+These passages give us a sufficient idea of the origin of Satan and how
+such an incarnation of evil has come to exist. The Tartarus into which he
+and his angels were cast, according to Peter, is defined by leading
+lexicographers, as meaning the dark, void, interplanetary spaces,
+surrounding the world. Using the serpent as a medium, this apostate angel,
+thus cast out, plied our first parents with his temptation by preaching to
+them the immortality of the soul, “Thou shalt not surely die,” and alas!
+seduced them also into rebellion. The dominion which was given to Adam
+(Gen. 1:28), Adam thus alienated to Satan, by becoming his servant; for
+Paul says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to
+obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?” Rom. 6:16. Now, consequently,
+such titles as “prince of this world,” “prince of the power of the air,”
+“god of this world,” etc., are applied to him, because he has by fraud
+usurped that place. John 14:30; Eph. 2:2; 2 Cor. 4:4. He, of course,
+employs “his angels” to co-operate with him in his nefarious work.
+
+Thus clearly do we have set before us just the agencies,—the Devil and his
+angels,—which are adapted, both by nature and inclination, to carry on
+just such a work as is seen in Spiritualism. But how do we know, some one
+may ask, but that Spiritualism is the work of the good angels?—We know
+that it is not, because good angels do not lie. They never would come to
+men, professing to be the spirits of their dead friends, and imitate and
+personate them to deceive, knowing that the mediums did not know, and
+could not ascertain that they were altogether another and different order
+of beings. But the evil angels, led by the father of lies, and cradled,
+and drilled, and skilled, and polished, in the school of lying, would be
+delighted to deceive men in this very way, by pretending to be their dead
+friends, and then by working upon their affections and love for the ones
+they could skilfully personate, bring them under their influence and lead
+them captive at their will.
+
+These evil angels are experts in deception. They have had six thousand
+years’ experience. They are well acquainted with the human family. They
+can read character. They study temperament. They acquaint themselves
+minutely with personal history. They know a thousand things which only
+they and the individual they are trying to ensnare, are aware of. They
+know many things beyond the knowledge of men. They can easily carry the
+news of the decease of a friend, and the description of a death-bed scene,
+to other friends thousands of miles away, and months before the truth
+through ordinary channels can reach them, so that when it is verified,
+their influence over them may be increased. (See page 23.)
+
+There is nothing that has yet taken place, of however inexplicable a
+nature, and nothing which even the imagination may anticipate, which is
+not, and will not be, easily attributable to these unseen angels. They are
+lying spirits; for the fundamental principle on which they are acting is a
+lie; but they tell enough truth to sway and captivate the minds of men. It
+matters not how sacred the field in which they tread, nor how hallowed the
+associations which they invade, they press into every spot where it is
+possible, by spinning another thread, to strengthen their web of
+deception.
+
+And in what dulcet and siren tones they woo their victims to lay aside all
+resistance to their influence, to become receptive and passive, and yield
+themselves to their control; and when they have them thus helpless in
+their arms, they deliberately and cruelly instil into their minds the
+virus of ungovernable lust, the leprosy of unconquerable rebellion against
+the government of Heaven. That this language does not misrepresent nor
+slander them, will be shown from their own testimony, before the close of
+this book.
+
+The thought is not overlooked that many even of those who do not profess
+to be Spiritualists, deny the existence of any such being as a personal
+Devil, or of personal evil angels, his agents. He is no doubt well pleased
+with this, as such people can the more easily be made the victims of his
+wiles. But these same persons would no doubt acknowledge the existence, as
+real beings, of God, Christ, and the good angels. This fact being
+established, by parity of reasoning the Devil and his angels become real
+beings also. The same arguments which show that God and Christ exist as
+personal beings may be used to show that the Devil and his angels are
+personal beings also. He who denies that there is a personal Devil, must
+be prepared also to deny that there is a personal Christ. So far as the
+argument for personal existence is concerned, Christ and good angels stand
+on one side of the equation, and the Devil and his angels on the other;
+and whoever would rub out the one, must rub out the other also.
+
+Christ said that he “beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” Luke
+10:18. John in the Revelation (12:7) beheld a war in heaven. “Michael
+[Christ] and his angels fought against the dragon [Satan]; and the dragon
+fought, and his angels.” On the ground that there is no Devil, this would
+be a wonderful battle—Christ and his angels, who are real beings, fighting
+furiously against myths and nonentities which have not even the substance
+of a phantom.
+
+To endorse the doctrine of a personal Devil, is not to endorse the grossly
+absurd caricatures conjured up by morbid imaginations, and popular
+theology,—a being with bat’s wings, horns, hoofs, and a dart-pointed tail.
+Yet upon such pictorial fables he doubtless looks with complacency; as
+they are calculated still further to destroy faith in his existence, and
+enable him the better to cover his tracks and carry on his work among men.
+Nevertheless the only rational hypothesis on which to account for the
+present condition of this world (which every one must admit is full of
+devilishness), the existence of evil, and the presence of sickness,
+suffering, and death, is the account the Bible gives us of fallen angels
+and fallen men. Unfallen angels are beings of mighty power. One of them
+slew in one night 185,000 Assyrians (2 Kings 19:35); and the one who
+appeared at the time of Christ’s resurrection had a countenance like the
+lightning, and raiment white as snow, and before him the keepers of the
+tomb fell like dead men. Matt. 28:3, 4. A fall from their high estate,
+though it would impair their strength and power, cannot be supposed to
+have wholly deprived them of these qualities; therefore the fallen angels
+still have capabilities far superior to those of men. The only defense
+mankind has against them is found in Christ, who circumscribes their power
+(for they are kept in chains, 2 Peter 2:4), and makes provision by which
+we may resist them. Eph. 6:11; James 4:6-8; 1 John 5:18. The question why
+they are permitted to continue finds solution in the thought that God is
+consistently giving to sin time and opportunity to develop itself, fully
+show its nature, and manifest its works, to all created intelligences, so
+that when it shall finally be wiped out of existence, with all its
+originators, aiders, and abetters, as in God’s purpose it is to be (Rev.
+20:14, 15; 2 Peter 3:7, 13; Rev. 5:13), there will ever after remain an
+object-lesson sufficient to safe-guard the universe against a repetition
+of the evil. Only some 6000 years are allotted to this work of evil; and
+6000 years are as nothing compared with eternity.
+
+
+
+
+Warnings Against Evil Spirits.
+
+
+The Scriptures plainly point out the working of these agents of
+wickedness, and warn us against them. In 1 Tim. 4:1, we read: “Now the
+Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from
+the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” This
+shows that these spirits make it an object to seduce, or deceive, to draw
+men away from the true faith, and cause them to receive, instead, the
+doctrines they teach, which are called “doctrines of devils;” and this
+scripture is written to put men on their guard against them.
+
+Again Paul says: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
+principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
+world, against spiritual wickedness [margin, ‘wicked spirits’] in high
+places.” Eph. 6:12. And he adjures his readers to put on the whole armor
+of God to be able to resist them.
+
+The apostle Peter exhorts to the same purpose: “Be sober, be vigilant;
+because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
+seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith.” 1 Peter
+5:8, 9. If our ears do not deceive us, a good deal of this roaring is
+heard in the ranks of Spiritualists, where, by invisible rapping, agitated
+furniture, clairvoyance, clairaudience, writing, speaking, marvels, and
+wonders, he seeks to set the world on tiptoe of curiosity and expectation,
+and bewilder men into a departure from the faith and the acceptance of the
+doctrines of devils. He is cunning enough not to “roar” in a way to
+frighten and repel, but only to attract attention, and lead multitudes,
+through an overweening curiosity and wonder at the marvels, to come
+thoughtlessly within the sphere of his influence.
+
+The prophet Isaiah also has something to say directly upon this subject:
+“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar
+spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people
+seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?” Isa. 8:19. That is, is
+it consistent for living people to go to dead ones for their knowledge?
+The following verse shows where we should go for light and truth: “To the
+law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is
+because there is no light in them.” The time has certainly come when many
+are saying just what the text points out, and seeking to the dead, to
+familiar spirits, and wizards, for knowledge. Those practices which in the
+Bible are enumerated as “charming,” “enchantment,” “sorcery,”
+“witchcraft,” “necromancy,” “divination,” “consulting with familiar
+spirits,” etc., are more or less related, and are all really from one
+source. So in modern times different names indicate substantially the same
+thing. Thus Mr. Hudson, in “Psychic Phenomena,” p. v, says:—
+
+
+    “It has, however, long been felt by the ablest thinkers of our
+    time that all psychic manifestations of the human intellect,
+    normal or abnormal, whether designated by the name of mesmerism,
+    hypnotism, somnambulism, trance, spiritism, demonology, miracle,
+    mental therapeutics, genius, or insanity, are in some way
+    related.”
+
+
+Seven, at least, of the foregoing names are no doubt in the warp and woof
+of Spiritualism; and he might have added mind-reading and Christian
+Science. And Spiritualists admit that their work is the same as that
+described by the Bible terms above quoted. Thus, Allen Putnam, a
+Spiritualistic writer, says:—
+
+
+    “The doctrine that the oracles, soothsaying, and witchcraft of
+    past ages were kindred to these manifestations of our day, I, for
+    one, most fully believe.”
+
+
+In a pamphlet by the same author, entitled, “Mesmerism, Spiritualism,
+Witchcraft, and Miracle,” p. 6, he says:—
+
+
+    “As seen by me now, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Witchcraft, Miracles,
+    all belong to one family, all have a common root, and are
+    developed by the same laws.”
+
+
+To all these, therefore, the text under notice (Isa. 8:19, 20) applies. We
+are to bring them to the standard of “the law and the testimony,” and “if
+they speak not according to this word ... there is no light in them.” The
+living should not seek to the dead.
+
+In Rev. 16:13, 14, the same spirits are again brought to view, and called
+“unclean spirits,” and “spirits of devils.” Their last work of deception
+is to go forth to the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to
+gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. Thus all that
+is revealed of them from beginning to end (and scriptures might be
+multiplied on the point) furnishes the most cogent reason why all should
+be keenly awake to their existence and their work, and be ever watchful
+against their influence and approach.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter Five.
+
+
+WHAT THE SPIRITS TEACH.
+
+
+It has been shown in the preceding chapters that the unseen “controls”
+(the beings who control the mediums) in Spiritualism, are not the spirits
+of the dead, but are fallen angels or spirits of devils. This fact will be
+confirmed by a brief glance at some of their teachings; for we are to
+remember that if they speak not according to the law and the testimony
+there is no light in them. It matters not that what they teach may be
+supported by signs and wonders beyond the comprehension of the human mind.
+That is no guarantee of truth; for such phenomena are to be wrought, as
+will soon be shown, to prove a lie. The Lord anciently put his people on
+their guard in this respect. Deut. 13:1-3, 5: “If there arise among you a
+prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and
+the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying,
+Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve
+them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that
+dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye
+love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” “And
+that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he
+hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, ... out of the way
+which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in.”
+
+Thus the fact that one who professed to be a prophet could perform a sign
+or wonder, showing his connection with some unseen power, was not enough
+to shield him from condemnation and punishment, if what he undertook to
+prove by that sign or wonder was contrary to the truth, and tended to lead
+away from God. The teaching of any system is an important part of the
+fruit it bears; and by that, according to our Lord’s own rule, we are to
+judge it, and not by any power or mighty works connected with it, however
+wonderful they may be.
+
+“’Tis not the broad phylactery
+  Nor stubborn fasts, nor stated prayers
+That make us saints. We judge the tree
+  By what it bears.”
+—_Alice Carey._
+
+It is therefore pertinent to look sufficiently at the teachings of the
+spirits to ascertain their character. Here we shall find some most
+damaging testimony; for—
+
+1. _They Deny God._—It is no pleasure to transcribe the utterances of
+practical atheism; yet enough should be given to show what they teach on
+the great fundamental principles of Christianity. At a séance, reported in
+the _Banner of Light_, July 11, 1868, the following questions were
+addressed to the spirits, and the accompanying answers received:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—It is said in the Bible that man is made in the image of
+    God. Please tell us what that image is.
+
+
+    “_Ans._—He is made in the image of everything that ever was, that
+    is, or that ever shall be. He holds within his caliber everything
+    that exists, that ever has existed, or that ever will exist. Now,
+    God is included in this. If he exists at all, he exists everywhere
+    (and we have taken in everything), every place, every name, every
+    condition. I believe that the human stands above all things else,
+    and holds within its embrace all the past, present, and future. In
+    this sense he is created and exists in the image of God.
+
+
+    “_Q._—What is God essentially?
+
+
+    “_A._—Everything. Essentially you are God, and I am God—the
+    flowers, the grass, the pebbles, the stars, the moon, the sun,
+    everything is God.”
+
+
+The Devil, through the serpent in the garden, taught Adam and Eve that the
+soul is immortal, and has transfused the same idea very successfully
+through paganism, Romanism, and Protestantism; but he also said, “Ye shall
+be as gods;” and now, it seems, he is trying to make the world swallow
+this other leg of his falsehood; but by putting it forth under the form of
+the old pagan pantheism, that everything is God, and God is everything, he
+betrays the lie he uttered in Eden; for in that case, Adam and Eve were no
+more gods after they ate than they were before.
+
+Another séance, reported in the _Banner_ about twenty years later than the
+one quoted above, April 28, 1888; an inquirer addressed to the “spirits” a
+question about God, and received answer, a portion of which is presented
+below:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—Some Spiritualists, I learn, believe in a God; otherwise
+    they would not pray to him—taking for granted that there is such a
+    being. Please enlighten us.
+
+
+    “_Ans._—We have yet to come in contact with a thorough
+    Spiritualist, one who understands something of spiritual life and
+    the revelations made by returning spirits, who directly believes
+    in a personal God. True, many Spiritualists and many returning
+    spirits offer their invocations to the ‘Great Supreme Spirit of
+    all life and intelligence,’ not because they expect to change the
+    order of law, or to come into direct communication with, or
+    nearness to, a Great Supreme Being, clothed in the image of man,
+    but because they desire to enter an atmosphere of harmony, to
+    uplift their own souls to a plane of thought which will bring
+    spiritual inspiration to their minds. We make a distinction
+    between that Great Supreme Overruling Force which we may call the
+    Superior Spirit of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Love, and the
+    personal Deity, clothed in the image of man, gigantic in stature,
+    jealous and revengeful by nature, which has been set up and
+    worshiped as the Christian Jehovah. We know of no Spiritualist—let
+    us repeat it—who believes in such a personal God; but we can
+    believe and accept the idea, though it may pass beyond almost our
+    finite comprehension, that there is a grand universal Spirit
+    permeating all forms of existence; that this great source of
+    light, of activity and vitality vibrates with intelligence, and
+    that it is superior to all organic forms, however grand they may
+    prove to be.”
+
+
+The same views have been taught all along by the “spirits” of
+Spiritualism, as could be shown by extracts dating as far back as 1858,
+only ten years after the “Rochester Knockings.” And though Spiritualism is
+now assuming more of the sedate speech of organized Christianity, the
+spirits do not modify their teaching in respect to God. In “Automatic, or
+Spirit, Writing,” p. 148 (1896), are given many messages from the spirits
+through the mediumship of Mrs. S. A. Underwood, wife of the editor of the
+_Philosophical Journal_, Chicago. The “spirits” set forth their teaching
+in answer to questions by the medium, some of which have reference to God,
+though his name is not used. Thus on page 148, this conversation is
+given:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—You often in these communications speak of the binding
+    laws of spiritual life—that because of them you cannot give us
+    such and such information, etc. Now who makes those laws, and
+    whence came they, and how are they taught?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—Thou say’st ‘who’—therefore we cannot answer. Go back to
+    the first question and ask one at a time.
+
+
+    “_Q._—Well, who makes the laws?
+
+
+    “_A._—Spirits are not bondaged by _persons_.
+
+
+    “_Q._—Then how do you come to know those laws?
+
+
+    “_A._—Pharos will now answer. Spiritual laws are spiritually
+    perceived, as soon as the physical perceptions are got rid of.
+
+
+    “_Q._—Could you explain to us those laws?
+
+
+    “_A._—Courses of teaching from our side are as necessary for you
+    to understand even the rudimentary laws of Being, as courses in
+    your colleges; and guessed-at spirit knowledge from your bounded
+    view must always fail in accurate wording.”
+
+
+It will be perceived that the answers to these questions are, from the
+beginning, evasive; but the real idea entertained clearly shines through
+the thin veil drawn over to conceal it. The questions pertain to the
+source, or authorship, of the “laws of spiritual life;” and this would
+generally be understood to be God. But on a technicality the spirits
+refuse to answer. The question is made plainer, and the answer is that
+“spirits are not bondaged by _persons_;” that is to say that spirits have
+nothing to do with personalities, and that no personal being has anything
+to do with those laws. There is therefore no God who formulates and
+promulgates them. No wonder the question followed, how they came to know
+these laws; and it was a very convenient answer that we will know when we
+get there and have lost all physical perceptions. A desire for some
+explanation of those laws is met with the not very satisfactory
+information that they (the spirits) would have to give those in our sphere
+a course of teaching, like a college course, before we could understand
+even the rudimentary laws of Being. The only thing clear in all this is
+that there is no God; at least no personal God such as the Bible reveals.
+To the “grand whole,” whatever that may be, they give the name of the “All
+of Being.” In answer to a question concerning “personalities,” they are
+called “atoms emanating from the same source—parts of the great All of
+Being, partaking of the general characteristics of the grand whole.”—_Page
+149._
+
+Reader, how does all this compare in your own mind with the God of the
+Bible, the Creator of all things, the loving Father of us all, who has for
+his creatures more tender regard and pity than a father can feel for his
+own children, whose very name and nature is Love, and who has purposed
+infinite good for all men, and will carry it out unless they, as free
+moral agents, by their own sin, prevent his doing for them what he desires
+to do? The Bible is not responsible for the aspersions cast upon God by a
+false theology, which misrepresent his character and give occasion for the
+charges of vindictiveness and vengeance and awful tyranny, so freely made
+by fallen angels and wicked men. They do not belong to him who is the
+source of all goodness and mercy; and we would labor to bring those who
+have perverted views of God back to a right conception of the great Friend
+of sinners, as he has revealed himself in his holy word.
+
+2. _They Deny Jesus Christ._—Christ is revealed as the divine Son of the
+Father; and to deny that he was or is any more than any other man is
+surely to deny him; and the scripture says that “whosoever denieth the
+Son, the same hath not the Father.” 1 John 2:23. The following is what the
+“spirits” began to teach in the earliest stages of Spiritualism concerning
+Christ:—
+
+
+    “What is the meaning of the word Christ?—’Tis not, as generally
+    supposed, the Son of the Creator of all things. Any just and
+    perfect being is Christ. The crucifixion of Christ is nothing more
+    than the crucifixion of the spirit, which all have to contend with
+    before becoming perfect and righteous. The miraculous conception
+    of Christ is merely a fabulous tale.”—_Spiritual Telegraph, No.
+    37._
+
+
+How fully does this declaration that any good man is Christ open the way
+for the fulfilment of the Saviour’s prophecy that in the last days many
+false Christs and false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. See
+Matt. 24:24. A prospectus of the _Truth Seeker_ contained these words: “It
+shall be the organ through which the christs of the last dispensation will
+choose to speak.”
+
+A little later, July 19, 1862, there was published in the _Banner of
+Light_ a lecture on Spiritualism by Mrs. C. L. V. Hatch, in which she
+spoke of Christ as follows:—
+
+
+    “Of Jesus of Nazareth, personally, we have but little to say.
+    Certain it is, we find sufficient that is divine in his life and
+    teachings, without professing to believe in the fables of
+    theologians respecting his birth and parentage. We are content to
+    take the simple record as it stands, and to regard him as the son
+    of Joseph and Mary, endowed with such purity and harmony of
+    character as fitted him to be the Apostle and Revelator of the
+    highest wisdom ever taught to man. It is the fundamental article
+    in the creed of modern Christianity, that Jesus was divine in his
+    nature, and of miraculous origin and nativity. Now, no human being
+    of ordinary intelligence, unwarped by educational bias, would ever
+    profess to believe in such a monstrous figment, which only shows
+    the blindness of superstitious prejudice.”
+
+
+Here is something twenty-four years later. A séance reported in the
+_Banner of Light_, Oct. 9, 1886, gives the following questions and
+answer:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—Do ‘spirits’ generally believe in the divinity of Jesus
+    Christ; that he was the Son of God; that he was crucified, dead,
+    and buried, and rose again the third day for the saving of all who
+    should believe in him?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—No; spirits generally—advanced spirits, those who are
+    intelligent, having studied deeply into the principles of life—do
+    not accept the theory of the divinity of Jesus Christ; they do not
+    believe that he was crucified for mankind, in the accepted
+    understanding of that term.”
+
+
+Some years ago a class was formed in New York City for the purpose of
+investigating what is called the spiritual philosophy. Before that class,
+Dr. Weisse said:—
+
+
+    “Friend Orton seems to make rather light of the communications
+    from spirits concerning Christ. It seems, nevertheless, that all
+    the testimony received from advanced spirits only shows that
+    Christ was a medium and reformer in Judea; that he now is an
+    advanced spirit in the sixth sphere; but that he never claimed to
+    be God, and does not at present. I have had two communications to
+    that effect. I have also read some that Dr. Hare had. If I am
+    wrong in my views of the Bible, I should like to know it, for the
+    spirits and mediums _do not contradict me_.”
+
+
+The peculiar insult here purposely offered to the Saviour will be
+appreciated when it is noted that at about the same time the spirits
+located Thomas Paine, the well-known skeptic, in the seventh sphere, one
+sphere above that of Christ. He must therefore have progressed very
+rapidly, seeing he so quickly surpassed Christ, who had over 1700 years
+the start of him.
+
+Before the same class Dr. Hare is reported to have spoken as follows,
+which we give without assuming any responsibility for the spiritual
+grammar therein exhibited:—
+
+
+    “He said that he had been thus protected from deception by the
+    spirits of Washington and Franklin, and that they had brought
+    Jesus Christ to him, with whom he had also communicated. He had
+    first repelled him as an impostor; but became convinced afterward
+    that it was really him. He related that he had learned from that
+    high and holy spirit, that he was not the character that
+    Christendom had represented him to be, and not responsible for the
+    errors connected with his name, but that he was, while on earth, a
+    medium of high and extraordinary powers, and that it was solely
+    through his mediumistic capabilities that he attained so great
+    knowledge, and was enabled to practice such apparent wonders.”
+
+
+When Christ was upon earth, it was envy, jealousy, and malice that moved
+the Pharisees against him (Matt 27:18); and it seems that he is followed
+by the same feelings in the spirit world. This is natural; for he who
+fired the hearts of the Pharisees with their malignant spirit, is the same
+one, as we have seen, who is working through the powers of darkness in the
+unseen world to-day. Any way to degrade Christ in the minds of men to a
+level with, or below, the mediums of our time, and make it appear that
+they can do as great wonders as he, seems to be the object in view.
+
+There is plainly manifest an irrepressible desire on the part of spirits
+and mediums to show Christ to be inferior to the leaders of other great
+religions of the world, as Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, etc. Thus, at a
+seance held in 1864 (_Banner of Light_, June 4), the spirits were
+questioned as follows:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—Have you ever seen Confucius or Zoroaster?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—Yes, many times.
+
+
+    “_Q._—In the order of degree, which stands the higher in moral
+    excellence—Jesus Christ, Confucius, or Zoroaster?
+
+
+    “_A._—Confucius stands in morality higher than the other two....
+    Jesus himself claims to have been inspired to a large extent, by
+    this same Confucius. And if we are to place reliance upon the
+    records concerning each individual, we shall find that Jesus spoke
+    the truth when he tells us that he was inspired by Confucius.”
+
+
+Indeed! Where are the records referred to? Where and when did Jesus
+“speak” the words attributed to him? And where does he tell _us_, that he
+was inspired by Confucius? So we are to believe, are we, that the gospel
+of Jesus Christ, is only a rehash of what was originally wrought out in
+the brain of Confucius, and not words fresh from the fountain of light
+given him by his Father in heaven, to speak, as he claimed them to be? Yet
+he was a high and _holy_ medium. We wonder what standard of holiness and
+perfection the spirits can have.
+
+But still later, in 1896, we find the spirits putting forth the same
+teaching in reference to Jesus Christ. In “Automatic, or Spirit Writing,”
+pp. 148, 149, we have this:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—Do you accept Jesus as the model of spiritual knowledge?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—Shall you give us a better example?
+
+
+    “_Q._—Well, we are willing to accept him as one of many, but not
+    as chief.
+
+
+    “_A._—Change the name. Call him by other names—Buddha, Krishna, or
+    Mohammed, the spirit is one—is ever and ever the same. Spirit is
+    one, not many, however often the name is changed.
+
+
+    “_Q._—Were not Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed distinct personalities?
+
+
+    “_A._—No more than all atoms emanating from the same source—parts
+    of the great All of Being, partaking of the general
+    characteristics of the grand whole—but yielding to environments,
+    showed marked individualism, such as the force of the times in
+    which they appeared would create in their characters.
+
+
+    “_Q._—Are these leaders of religious thought not distinct
+    individualities now?
+
+
+    “_A._—No, not on spiritual planes, which do not recognize any
+    now.”
+
+
+Thus they persist in denying that Jesus holds any pre-eminent position as
+a religious teacher. He may as well be called Buddha, Krishna, or Mohammed
+as Jesus. They are all the same spirit, all atoms of the great “All of
+Being,” all as much alike as three drops of water from the same ocean, and
+what is more bewildering still, they have now all lost their individuality
+in the spirit world. How, then, can it be told that Christ is in the sixth
+sphere, and Paine in the seventh? Such teachers, though they may claim to
+be good spirits, are branded as antichrist by both John and Jude. John
+says: “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is
+antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son.” 1 John 2:22. Again,
+“Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
+is not of God.” 1 John 4:3. According to the spirits, Jesus Christ has no
+more come in the flesh than have Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Zoroaster,
+or any other religious teacher. They all simply yielded to their
+environments, and showed marked individualism while on this earth, and
+have now become absorbed in the “great whole” in the spirit world. Thus,
+as Jude says (verse 4), they deny “the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus
+Christ.”
+
+So much for their denial of Christ in his person. They also deny him in
+his offices; for to deny and ridicule what he came to do, is one of the
+most effectual ways of denying him. The great work of Christ was the
+shedding of his blood to atone for the sins of the world; and the spirits
+are particularly bitter in denouncing that idea. If such sentiments were
+uttered only by open and professed scoffers, it would not do so much harm;
+but it is not unusual to find those bearing the title of “Reverend”
+descanting on these themes in a manner to show themselves antichrist,
+according to the definition of that term by John. And even this need not
+surprise us; for the sure word of prophecy has foretold that some who have
+once held the true faith will depart therefrom to give heed to seducing
+spirits, and doctrines of devils. 1 Tim. 4:1.
+
+One R. P. Wilson, to whose name is attached the ministerial title, in his
+lectures on “Spiritual Science,” said:—
+
+
+    “Although as a believer in true spiritual philosophy, we cannot
+    receive the orthodox views of salvation, yet we recognize the
+    birth of a Saviour and Redeemer into the universal hearts of
+    humanity, _wherein truly the deity is incarnate_, dwelling in the
+    interior of man’s spirit. We believe that each soul of man is born
+    with his or her Saviour within them; for as man is an embodiment
+    of the universe in epitome, he contains in his central nature an
+    incarnation of deity. The germ of immortal unfoldings resides
+    within the spirit of it, which needs only appropriate conditions
+    to call forth the expanding and elevating powers of the soul.”
+
+
+In “Spiritual Science Demonstrated,” p. 229, Dr. Hare said:—
+
+
+    “Since my spirit sister’s translation to the spheres, she has
+    risen from the fifth to the sixth sphere. It has been alleged by
+    her that her ascent was retarded by her belief in the atonement.”
+
+
+A “spirit” calling himself Deacon John Norton, as reported in the _Banner
+of Light_, said:—
+
+
+    “I used to believe in the atonement; I honestly believed that
+    Christ died to save the world, and that by and through his death
+    all must be saved if saved at all. Now I see that this is folly—it
+    cannot be so. The light through Christ, the Holy One, shone in
+    darkness; the darkness could not comprehend it; and thus it
+    crucified the body, and Christ died a martyr. He was not called in
+    that way, that by the shedding of his blood, the vast multitude
+    coming after him should find salvation. Everything in nature
+    proves this false. They tell me here that Christ was the most
+    perfect man of his time. I am told here also that he is worthy to
+    be worshiped, because of his goodness; and where man finds
+    goodness he may worship. God’s face is seen in the violet, and man
+    may well worship this tiny flower.”
+
+
+In the pantheism of Spiritualism, every object in nature, the tiny flower,
+the pebbles, the trees, the birds and bees, are worthy to be worshiped as
+much as Christ. In one breath the spirits extol him as a most perfect man,
+pre-eminent in goodness and worthy to be worshiped, and in the next, place
+him in a position which would make him the greatest fraud and impostor
+that ever lived. Such inconsistencies show that Christ is a miracle which
+evil men and evil angels know not how to dispose of.
+
+As they deny Christ, they must, logically, deny the doctrine of his second
+coming. This doctrine is made of especial importance and prominence in the
+New Testament. The nature of that coming, its manner, and the
+circumstances attending it are so fully described, that no one who adopts
+the Bible view can possibly be deceived by false christs. But the church
+and the world have been turned away from the true doctrine of the second
+advent, and the way is thus prepared for the great deceptions of the last
+days. Spiritualism is one of these, and claims that it is itself that
+second coming. Joel Tiffany, a former celebrated teacher of Spiritualism,
+has said:—
+
+
+    “I must look for the coming of my Lord in my own affection. He
+    must come in the clouds of my spiritual heavens, or he cannot come
+    for any benefit to me.”
+
+
+And through Mrs. Conant, a famous medium of the early days of
+Spiritualism, the controlling spirit said:—
+
+
+    “This second coming of Christ means simply the second coming of
+    truths that are not themselves new, that have always existed....
+    He said, ‘When I come again, I shall not be known to you.’
+    Spiritualism is that second coming of Christ.”—_Banner of Light,
+    Nov. 18, 1865._
+
+
+But the Bible description of this event is, the revelation of the Lord
+himself in the clouds of heaven in the glory of the Father, the
+reverberating shout of triumph, the voice of the archangel, the trump of
+God, the flash of his presence like that of the lightning, the wailing of
+the tribes of the earth, as they thus behold him, while unprepared to meet
+him, and the resurrection of the righteous dead. And where and when have
+these inseparable accompaniments of that event been seen? They do not
+occur when a person is converted from sin, nor do they occur in the dying
+chamber, nor have they occurred in Spiritualism; and until they do take
+place, the second coming of Christ is not accomplished.
+
+Many seek to dispose of such testimony as this, by making it all
+figurative, or meeting it with a bold denial, as in the case of the
+resurrection of the body. And the way has been too well prepared for this
+condition of things, by much of the teaching of popular orthodoxy, which
+turns the early records of the Bible into childish allegory, perverts the
+true doctrine of the coming and kingdom of Christ, and denies the
+resurrection of the dead, by destroying its necessity through the
+immortality of the soul. On the vital point of the resurrection, Dr.
+Clarke makes this noteworthy remark:—
+
+
+    “One remark I cannot help making,—The doctrine of the resurrection
+    appears to have been thought of much more consequence among the
+    primitive Christians than it is _now_! How is this?—The apostles
+    were continually insisting on it, and exciting the followers of
+    God to diligence, obedience, and cheerfulness through it. And
+    their successors in the present day seldom mention it! So the
+    apostles preached, and so the primitive Christians believed; so we
+    preach and so our hearers believe. There is not a doctrine in the
+    gospel on which more stress is laid; and there is not a doctrine
+    in the present system of preaching which is treated with more
+    neglect.”—_On 1 Corinthians 15_ (_original edition_).(3)
+
+
+In view of the way the Bible has been treated by its professed friends, it
+is no wonder that infidelity prevails, and Spiritualism prospers.
+
+3. _They Deny the Bible._—The denial of God and Christ, as set forth above
+is, of course, a denial of the Bible; and not much need therefore be added
+on this point. We quote only a few representative utterances. Doctor Hare
+(“Spiritual Science Demonstrated,” p. 209) says:—
+
+
+    “The Old Testament does not impart a knowledge of immortality,
+    without which religion were worthless. The notions derived from
+    the gospels are vague, disgusting, inaccurate, and difficult to
+    believe.”
+
+
+As to the Old Testament, it would seem doubtful whether Mr. Hare ever read
+far enough to find (1) Job exclaiming: “For I know that my Redeemer
+liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and
+though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see
+God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not
+another; though my reins be consumed within me” (or, as the margin reads:
+“My reins within me are consumed with earnest desire [for that day];”) or
+(2) David: “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness;” or (3)
+Isaiah: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they
+arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust;” or (4) Ezekiel:
+“Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up
+out of your graves;” or (5) Daniel: “Many of them that sleep in the dust
+of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
+everlasting contempt;” and (6) Hosea: “I will ransom them from the power
+of the grave, I will redeem them from death.” Job 19:25-27; Ps. 17:15;
+Isa. 26:19; Eze. 37:12; Dan. 12:2; Hosea 13:14. And as for the New
+Testament, it is no doubt “disgusting” to many Spiritualists to read that
+“the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
+whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have
+their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the
+second death;” and that without the city “are dogs, and sorcerers, and
+whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and
+maketh a lie.” Rev. 21:8; 22:15.
+
+Communications from spirits are offered in place of the Bible as a better
+source of instruction, the Bible being denounced, as above quoted, as
+“vague, inaccurate, and difficult to believe.” A brief comparison of the
+two will furnish pertinent evidence on this point. Take, on the Bible
+side, for example, a portion of the record of creation (Gen. 1:1-5):—
+
+
+    “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the
+    earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face
+    of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
+    waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And
+    God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light
+    from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness
+    he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first
+    day.”
+
+
+The facts stated in this record, the profoundest minds can never
+comprehend; the language in which they are expressed, a little child can
+understand. The statements are plain and simple, a perfect model of
+perspicuous narrative. Place by the side of this an account of the same
+event, as given us from the “spheres.” The spirits have undertaken to
+produce a new Bible, beginning, like the old, with the creation; and this
+is the way it starts out, through the mediumship of “Rev.” T. L. Harris:—
+
+
+    “1. In the beginning God, the Life in God, the Lord in God, the
+    Holy Procedure, inhabited the dome, which, burning in magnificence
+    primeval, and revolving in prismatic and undulatory spiral,
+    appeared, and was the pavilion of the Spirit: In glory
+    inexhaustible and inconceivable, in movement spherical, unfolded
+    in harmonious procedure disclosive.
+
+
+    “2. And God said, Let good be manifest! and good unfolded and
+    moral-mental germs, ovariums of heavens, descended from the
+    Procedure. And the dome of disclosive magnificence was heaven, and
+    the expanded glory beneath was the germ of creation. And the
+    divine Procedure inbreathed upon the disclosure, and the
+    disclosure became the universe.”
+
+
+We will inflict no more of this “undulatory spiral” nonsense on the
+reader. He now has both records before him, and can judge for himself
+which is the more worthy of his regard. There have been Spiritualists who,
+writing in their normal state, and not yet fully divorced from the
+influence of their former education, have acknowledged the authenticity of
+the Bible, and the doctrines of Jesus as recorded in the gospels. But
+these, it is claimed, are to be understood according to a spiritual
+meaning which underlies the letter; and this spiritual meaning generally
+turns out to be contrary to the letter, which is a virtual denial of the
+record itself. But the quotations here given (only a specimen of the
+multitudes that might be presented) are given on the authority of the
+“spirits,” whose teachings are what we wish to ascertain.
+
+
+
+
+They Deny All Distinction Between Right And Wrong.
+
+
+There is implanted in the hearts of men by nature, a sense of right and a
+sense of wrong. Even those who know not God, nor Christ, nor the gospel,
+possess this power of discrimination. This is what Paul, in Rom. 2:15,
+calls “the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
+bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else
+excusing one another.” That this distinction should now be denied by a
+class in a civilized community, professing to be advanced thinkers and
+teachers, among whom are found the learned, the refined, and the
+professedly pious, shows that we have fallen upon strange times. To be
+sure, many of them talk fluently of the beauty and perfection of divine
+laws; but in the sense in which they would have them understood, they rob
+them of all characteristics of law. The first great essential of law is
+authority; but this they take away from it; the next is penalty for its
+violation; but this they deny, and thus degrade the law to a mere piece of
+advice. The “Healing of the Nations,” an authoritative work among
+Spiritualists, pp. 163, 164, says:—
+
+
+    “Thus thy body needs no laws, having been in its creation supplied
+    with all that could be necessary for its government. Thy spirit is
+    above all laws, and above all essences which flow therein. God
+    created thy spirit from within his own, and surely the Creator of
+    law is above it; the Creator of essences must be above all essence
+    created. And if thou hast what may be or might be termed laws,
+    they are always subservient to thy spirit. Good men need no laws,
+    and laws will do bad or ignorant men no good. If a man be above
+    law, he should never be governed by it. If he be below, what good
+    can dead, dry words do him?
+
+
+    “True knowledge removeth all laws from power by placing the spirit
+    of man above it.”
+
+
+A correspondent of the _Telegraph_ said of this work, “The Healing of the
+Nations:”—
+
+
+    “According to its teaching, no place is found in the universe for
+    divine wrath and vengeance. All are alike and forever the object
+    of God’s love, pity, and tender care—the difference between the
+    two extremes of human character on earth, being as a mere atom
+    when compared with perfect wisdom.”
+
+
+This is a favorite comparison with them,—that the difference between God
+and the best of men is so much greater than the extremes of character
+among men,—the most upright and the most wicked,—that the latter is a mere
+atom, and not accounted of in God’s sight. That there is an infinite
+difference between God and the best of men, is all true; for God is
+infinite in all his attributes, and man is very imperfect at the best. But
+to argue from this that God is inferior to man, so that he cannot discern
+difference in character here, even as man can plainly discern it, seems
+but mad-house reasoning. What would we think of the man who had the same
+regard for the thief as for the honest man, for the murderer as for the
+philanthropist? To ignore such distinctions as even men are able to
+discern would destroy the stability of all human governments; what then
+would be the effect on the divine government? God has given his law—holy,
+just, and good—to men, and commanded obedience. He has attached the
+penalty to disobedience: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” “The wages
+of sin is death.” Eze. 18:20; Rom. 6:23. And in the judgment, the
+distinction God makes in character will be plainly declared; for he will
+set the righteous on his right hand, but the wicked on the left. Matt.
+25:32, 33.
+
+This view of the failure of law, and the absence of all human
+accountability, naturally leads to a bold denial of sin and the existence
+of crime. The “Healing of the Nations,” p. 169, says: “Unto God there is
+no error; all is comparatively good.” The same work says that God views
+error as “undeveloped good.” A. J. Davis (“Nature of Divine Revelation,”
+p. 521) says: “Sin, indeed, in the common acceptation of that term, does
+not really exist.”
+
+A discourse from J. S. Loveland, once a minister, reported in the _Banner
+of Light_, contained this paragraph:—
+
+
+    “With God there is no crime; with man there is. Crime does not
+    displease God, but it does man. God is in the darkest crime, as in
+    the highest possible holiness. He is equally pleased in either
+    case. Both harmonize equally with his attributes—they are only
+    different sides of the same Deity.”
+
+
+In “Automatic Writing” (1896), p. 139, a question was asked concerning
+evil, meaning sin and crimes among men. The spirit answered that these
+were conditions of progress, and were so necessary to elevation that they
+were to be welcomed, not hated. The questions and answers are as follows:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—Can you give us any information in regard to the
+    so-called Devil—once so firmly believed in?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—Devil is a word used to conjure with.
+
+
+    “_Q._—Well, then, as the word itself doubtless arose from the word
+    ‘evil,’ which means to us unhappiness, can you give us an
+    explanation of the existence of evil?
+
+
+    “_A._—Evil—as you who are the greatest sufferers from it, name one
+    of the conditions of progress—is as necessary, aye, more so, than
+    what you call good, to your and our elevation to higher spheres.
+    It is not to be hated, but welcomed. It is the winnowing of the
+    grain from the chaff. Children of truth, don’t worry over what to
+    you seems evil; soon you will be of us and will understand, and be
+    rejoiced that what you call evil persists and works as leaven in
+    the great work of mind versus matter.
+
+
+    “_Q._—But it seems to us impossible that brutal crimes like
+    murder, assassinations, or great catastrophes, by which the
+    innocent are made to suffer at the hands of malicious and cruel
+    persons, should work for ultimate good?
+
+
+    “_A._—Percipients of the grand whole of Being can understand but
+    may not state to those on your plane, the underlying good making
+    itself asserted even through such dreadful manifestations of human
+    imperfections as the crimes you name.
+
+
+    “When asked why certain wrongs were allowed to be perpetuated,
+    this answer was given:—
+
+
+    “There is a law of psychical essence which makes necessary all
+    these ephemeral entanglements which to you seem so severe, and you
+    will yet see from your own standpoint of reason why such hardships
+    must be endured by questioning souls on the highway of progress.
+
+
+    “_Q._—But do you from your vantage ground of larger knowledge grow
+    careless that such injustice is done?
+
+
+    “_A._—We do care, but cannot remedy.
+
+
+    “_Q._—Why can’t you remedy?
+
+
+    “_A._—Because humanity is but an embryo of existence.
+
+
+    “_Q._—If you can perceive the trials and sorrows of mortals, and
+    can interfere to save them, why do you not more often do so?
+
+
+    “_A._—When undeveloped souls pay the price of development, we
+    stand aloof, and let the play go on. Interference will do no
+    good.”
+
+
+In view of such a confession, what becomes of the many claims put forth by
+other spirits that they are ever hovering near their friends to assist and
+guard them, to help and inspire them, and keep them from evil and danger?
+These say that those terrible crimes (and this would include all crimes)
+are all necessary, that they are tending to develop souls, and bring them
+to higher spheres, and thus are just as laudable as good actions; so they
+settle back in a gleeful mood, and “let the play go on;” let wicked men
+cultivate and develop and practice their evil propensities, and the
+innocent suffer. Well may men pray to be delivered from such a spirit
+assembly as that.
+
+In “Healing of the Nations,” p. 402, Dr. Hare says:—
+
+
+    “That anything should, even for an instant, be contrary to his
+    will, is inconsistent with his foresight and omnipotency. It would
+    be a miracle that anything counter to his will should exist.”
+
+
+A lecture on the “Philosophy of Reform,” given by A. J. Davis, in New York
+City, bears testimony to the same effect:—
+
+
+    “In the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, it is affirmed that sin
+    is the transgression of the law. But by an examination of nature,
+    the true and only Bible, it will be seen that this statement is
+    erroneous. It gives a wrong idea of both man and law.... It will
+    be found impossible for man to transgress a law of God.”
+
+
+Thus they very illogically assume that if God has the will or the power to
+prevent evil, it could not exist, and therefore, if there is such a God,
+he is responsible, forgetting that God is long-suffering, and bears long
+with vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, before they pass beyond the
+limits of his mercy and perish. But Mr. Davis says further:—
+
+
+    “Reformers need to understand that war is as natural to one stage
+    of human development as peace is natural to another. My brother
+    has the spirit of revenge. Shall I call him a demon? Is not his
+    spirit natural to his condition? War is not evil or repulsive
+    except to a man of peace. Who made the non-resistant? Polygamy is
+    as natural to one stage of development as oranges are natural to
+    the South. Shall I grow indignant, and because I am a monogamist,
+    condemn my kinsman of yore? Who made him? Who made me? We both
+    came up under the confluence of social and political
+    circumstances; and we both represent our conditions and our
+    teachers. The doctrine of blame and praise is natural only to an
+    unphilosophical condition of mind. The spirit of complaint—of
+    attributing ‘evil’ to this and that plane of society—is natural;
+    but is natural only to undeveloped minds. It is a profanation—a
+    sort of atheism of which I would not be guilty.”
+
+
+The Bible says, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that
+put darkness for light and light for darkness.” Isa. 5:20. And it makes
+another declaration which finds abundant confirmation in the sentiments
+quoted above: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed
+speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to
+do evil.” Eccl. 8:11.
+
+Having thus attempted to destroy in the minds of men all distinction
+between good and evil, all being alike in God’s sight, and all equally
+good, they try to make the way a little broader and easier for men to give
+full rein to all the propensities and inclinations of an evil heart, by
+teaching that there is no Lawgiver and Judge before whom men must appear
+to give an account of their deeds, but that they are responsible to
+themselves alone, and must give account only to their own natures. Thus
+Hon. J. B. Hall, in a lecture reported in the _Banner of Light_, Feb. 6,
+1864, said:—
+
+
+    “I believe that man is amenable to no law not written upon his own
+    nature, no matter by whom given.... By his own nature he must be
+    tried—by his own acts he must stand or fall. True, man must give
+    an account to God for all his deeds; but how?—Solely by giving
+    account to his own nature—to himself.”
+
+
+At a séance reported in the _Banner of Light_, May 28, 1864, the following
+question was proposed, and the answer was by the communicating spirit:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—To whom or to what is the soul accountable?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—To no Deity outside the realm of its own being, certainly;
+    to no God which is a creation of fancy; to no Deity who dwells in
+    a far-off heaven, and sits upon a white throne; to no Jesus of
+    Nazareth; to no patron saint; to no personality; to no principle
+    outside our own individual selves.”
+
+
+The “Healing of the Nations,” p. 74, says:—
+
+
+    “Man is his own saviour, his own redeemer. He is his own judge—in
+    his own scales weighed.”
+
+
+A little over twenty years after the birth of Spiritualism, Aug. 25, 1868,
+the Fifth National Convention of Spiritualists was held in Corinthian
+hall, Rochester, N. Y., at which a formal “Declaration of Principles” was
+set forth. From the seventh and eighth paragraphs, under principle 20, we
+quote the following:—
+
+
+    “_Seventh_, To stimulate the mind to the largest investigation ...
+    that we may be qualified to _judge for ourselves_ what is right
+    and true. _Eighth_, To deliver from _all bondage to authority_,
+    whether vested in _creed_, _book_, or _church_, except that of
+    received truth.”
+
+
+This is the same principle of man’s responsibility to no one but himself,
+authoritatively adopted. What a picture have we now before us! Destroy
+man’s belief in, and reverence for, God and Christ, as they do; lead him
+to ridicule the atonement, the only remedy for sin; make him disbelieve
+the Bible; take away from his mind all distinction between right and
+wrong, and assure him that he is accountable to no one but himself; and
+how better could one prepare the way to turn men into demons. All this the
+spirits, by their teaching, seek to do. And can any one fail to foresee
+the result? Comparatively a small proportion of the inhabitants of this
+country have committed themselves to these views; consequently but little
+of the legitimate fruit as yet appears; but take human nature as it is and
+suppose all the inhabitants of this land to act on these principles, and
+then what would we have?—A pandemonium, a scene of anarchy, riot,
+bloodshed, and all depths of rottenness and corruption—in short, a hell so
+much worse than that to which the Devil is popularly assigned, that he
+would at once change his location and here take up his abode.
+
+That this statement is none too strong, will appear as we look a moment at
+some of the results which have already developed themselves among the
+friends of such views, and as their inevitable fruit. The tendency can by
+no possibility be otherwise than to atheism and all immorality. As has
+been already remarked, the repulsive features were made much more
+prominent in the early stages of Spiritualism than at the present time.
+They are now held in the background. The literature touching these points
+has been remodeled, and an air of respectability and religion assumed.
+Most of the quotations therefore date some years back, and would be
+charitably withheld were there any evidence of reform either present or
+prospective. But where or when have these principles ever been officially
+repudiated, and evidence given that the consequent practices had been
+abandoned? That there are many Spiritualists of upright and moral lives,
+and honorable members of society, in the best sense of that term, we
+gladly believe; but is not this because they are living above their
+principles; and due, not to the influence, but rather to the non-influence
+of real Spiritualism upon their lives? The quotations given are from those
+who have been prominent among Spiritualists as authors and speakers. If
+they overdraw the picture, the responsibility is with them. Dr. B. P.
+Randolph, author of a work “Dealings with the Dead,” was eight years a
+medium, then renounced Spiritualism long enough to expose its character,
+then returned to it again, unable to break entirely away from the spell it
+has fastened upon him. He gives his opinion of it in the following
+scathing words:—
+
+
+    “I enter the arena as the champion of common sense, against what
+    in my soul I believe to be the most tremendous enemy of God,
+    morals, and religion, that ever found foothold on the earth;—the
+    most seductive, hence the most dangerous, form of sensualism that
+    ever cursed a nation, age, or people. I was a medium about eight
+    years, during which time I made three thousand speeches, and
+    traveled over several different countries, proclaiming its new
+    gospel. I now regret that so much excellent breath was wasted, and
+    that my health of mind and body was well nigh ruined. I have only
+    begun to regain both since I totally abandoned it, and to-day had
+    rather see the cholera in my house, than be a spiritual medium.
+
+
+    “As a trance speaker, I became widely known; and now aver that
+    during the entire eight years of my mediumship, I firmly and
+    sacredly confess that I had not the control of my own mind, as I
+    now have, one twentieth of the time; and before man and high
+    heaven I most solemnly declare that I do not now believe that
+    during the whole eight years, I was sane for thirty-six
+    consecutive hours, in consequence of the trance and the
+    susceptibility thereto.
+
+
+    “For seven years I held daily intercourse with what purported to
+    be my mother’s spirit. I am now fully persuaded that it was
+    nothing but an evil spirit, an infernal demon, who, in that guise,
+    gained my soul’s confidence, and led me to the very brink of ruin.
+    We read in Scripture of demoniac possession, as well as abnormal
+    spiritual action. Both facts exist, provable to-day; I am positive
+    the former does. A. J. Davis and his clique of Harmonialists say
+    there are no evil spirits. I emphatically deny the statement. Five
+    of my friends destroyed themselves, and I attempted it, by direct
+    spiritual influences. Every crime in the calendar has been
+    committed by mortal movers of viewless beings. Adultery,
+    fornication, suicides, desertions, unjust divorces, prostitution,
+    abortion, insanity, are not evils, I suppose. I charge all these
+    to this scientific Spiritualism. It has also broken up families,
+    squandered fortunes, tempted and destroyed the weak. It has
+    banished peace from happy families, separated husbands and wives,
+    and shattered the intellect of thousands.”
+
+
+The following is an extract from the writings of J. F. Whitney, editor of
+the New York _Pathfinder_. His view of the subject accords with that of
+Dr. Randolph:—
+
+
+    “Now, after a long and constant watchfulness, seeing for months
+    and for years its progress and its practical workings upon its
+    devotees, its believers, and its mediums, we are compelled to
+    speak our honest conviction, which is, that the manifestations
+    coming through the acknowledged mediums, who are designated as
+    rapping, tipping, writing, and entranced mediums, have a baneful
+    influence upon believers, and create discord and confusion; that
+    the generality of these teachings inculcate false ideas, approve
+    of selfish individual acts, and endorse theories and principles,
+    which, when carried out, debase and make men little better than
+    the brute. These are among the fruits of Modern Spiritualism, and
+    we do not hesitate to say that we believe if these manifestations
+    are continued to be received, and to be as little understood as
+    they are, and have been since they made their appearance at
+    Rochester, and mortals are to be deceived by their false,
+    fascinating, and snakelike charming powers, which go with them,
+    the day will come when the world will require the appearance of
+    another Saviour to redeem the world from its departing from
+    Christ’s warnings.... Seeing, as we have, the gradual progress it
+    makes with its believers, particularly its mediums, from lives of
+    morality to those of sensuality and immorality, gradually and
+    cautiously undermining the foundation of good principles, we look
+    back with amazement to the radical change which a few months will
+    bring about in individuals; for its tendency is to approve and
+    endorse each individual act and character, however good or bad
+    these acts may be....
+
+
+    “We desire to send forth our warning voice, and if our humble
+    position as the head of a public journal, our known advocacy of
+    Spiritualism, our experience, and the conspicuous part we have
+    played among its believers, the honesty and the fearlessness with
+    which we have defended the subject, will weigh anything in our
+    favor, we desire that our opinions may be received, and those who
+    are moving passively down the rushing rapids to destruction should
+    pause, ere it be too late, and save themselves from the blasting
+    influence which those manifestations are causing.”
+
+
+Every one who knows anything about Spiritualism has heard of Cora Hatch,
+who traveled extensively, and manifested her powers as an extemporaneous
+lecturer before astonished multitudes. One of her husbands, Dr. Hatch,
+renounced Spiritualism, and the following is from the testimony he bore
+concerning it:—
+
+
+    “The most damning iniquities are everywhere perpetrated in
+    spiritual circles, a very small percentage of which ever comes to
+    public attention. I care not whether it be spiritual or mundane,
+    the facts exist, and should demand the attention and condemnation
+    of an intelligent community.... The abrogation of marriage,
+    bigamy, accompanied by robbery, theft, rape, are all chargeable
+    upon Spiritualism. I most solemnly affirm that I do not believe
+    that there has, during the last five hundred years, arisen any
+    people who are guilty of so great a variety of crimes and
+    indecencies as the Spiritualists of America.
+
+
+    “For a long time I was swallowed up in its whirlpool of
+    excitement, and comparatively paid but little attention to its
+    evils, believing that much good might result from the opening of
+    the avenues of Spiritual intercourse. But during the past eight
+    months I have devoted my attention to critical investigation of
+    its moral, social, and religious bearing, and I stand appalled
+    before the revelations of its awful and damning realities.”
+
+
+Much testimony of this nature might be given from those who have had
+similar experiences and equally favorable facilities for judging of the
+character of Spiritualism. We present only a few extracts more.
+
+Dr. Wm. B. Potter of New York, in an article under the head of “Astounding
+Facts,” and also in a tract entitled, “Spiritualism as It Is,” gives the
+result of his experience and observations. His testimony is the more
+valuable, since he writes not from the standpoint of one who has renounced
+Spiritualism, whose feelings may for the time be overwrought, and his
+language stronger than would be used in calmer moments. When he wrote, he
+was still an advocate of Spiritualism, and spoke as a friend who would, if
+possible, induce Spiritualists to reform their faith and their manner of
+living. He says:—
+
+
+    “Fifteen years of critical study of Spiritual literature, an
+    extensive acquaintance with the leading Spiritualists, and a
+    patient, systematic, and thorough examination of the
+    manifestations for many years, enable us to speak from actual
+    knowledge, definitely and positively, of ‘Spiritualism as It Is.’
+    Spiritual literature is full of the most insidious and seductive
+    doctrines, calculated to undermine the very foundations of
+    morality and virtue, and lead to the most unbridled
+    licentiousness.
+
+
+    “We are told that ‘we must have charity,’ that it is wrong to
+    blame any one, that we must not expose iniquity, as ‘it will
+    harden the guilty,’ that ‘none should be punished,’ that ‘man is a
+    machine, and not to blame for his conduct,’ that ‘there is no
+    high, no low, no good, no bad,’ that ‘sin is a lesser degree of
+    righteousness,’ that ‘nothing we can do can injure the soul or
+    retard its progress,’ that ‘those who act the worst will progress
+    the fastest,’ that ‘lying is right, slavery is right, murder is
+    right, adultery is right,’ that ‘whatever is, is right.’
+
+
+    “Hardly can you find a Spiritualist book, paper, lecture, or
+    communication that does not contain some of these pernicious
+    doctrines; in disguise, if not openly. Hundreds of families have
+    been broken up, and many affectionate wives deserted by
+    ‘affinity-seeking’ husbands. Many once devoted wives have been
+    seduced, and left their husbands and tender, helpless children, to
+    follow some ‘higher attraction.’ Many well-disposed but
+    simple-minded girls have been deluded by ‘affinity’ notions, and
+    led off by ‘affinity hunters,’ to be deserted in a few months,
+    with blasted reputations, or led to deeds still more dark and
+    criminal, to hide their shame.”
+
+
+The same writer also mentions a fact which shows where the responsibility
+of all this looseness of morals belongs. He says:—
+
+
+    “At the National Spiritual Convention at Chicago, called to
+    consider the question of a national organization, the only plan
+    approved by the committee, especially provided that no charge
+    should ever be entertained against any member, and that any
+    person, without any regard to his or her moral character, might
+    become a member.”
+
+
+The fact that no plan could find approval which did not provide that they
+should never be blamed nor called to account for any of their deeds, shows
+on what points they felt the most anxious, and plainly proves that they
+belong to the class of which Christ spoke, who loved darkness rather than
+light, and who would not come to the light lest their deeds should be
+reproved. John 3:19-21.
+
+It is unpleasant to wade through pools of filth, and we therefore spare
+the reader quotations from those Spiritualists who have not only avowed
+the most revolting practices of free love, but openly advocated the same,
+and endeavored to induce others to come out likewise, on the ground that
+they were only honestly and publicly admitting what the others believed
+and practiced in secret. For the same reason we pass by the notorious
+Woodhull and Claflin, and Hull and Jamieson episodes, in this field,
+which, in the illustration and language of another, “burst upon the
+country like a rotten egg three thousand miles in diameter!”
+
+It may be said that these things are in the past and the situation has now
+greatly changed. For the benefit of those who thus flatter themselves we
+introduce one more quotation. It is from “The Law of Psychic Phenomena,”
+by T. J. Hudson (A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1894). The language is
+candid and conciliatory, and the author cannot be accused of any undue
+prejudice on the question of which he speaks. On page 335, he says:—
+
+
+    “I do not charge Spiritualists as a class with being advocates of
+    the doctrines of free love. On the contrary, I am aware that, as a
+    class, they hold the marriage relation in sacred regard. I cannot
+    forget, however, that but a few years ago some of their leading
+    advocates and mediums proclaimed the doctrine of free love in all
+    its hideous deformity from every platform in the land. Nor do I
+    fail to remember that the better class of Spiritualists everywhere
+    repudiated the doctrine, and denounced its advocates and
+    exemplars. Nevertheless the moral virus took effect here and there
+    all over the country, and it is doing its deadly work in secret in
+    many an otherwise happy home. And _I charge a large and constantly
+    growing class of professional mediums with being the leading
+    propagandists_ of the doctrine of _free love_. They infest every
+    community in the land, and it is well known to all men and women
+    who are dissatisfied or unhappy in their marriage relations, that
+    they can always find sympathy by consulting the average medium,
+    and can, moreover, find justification for illicit love by invoking
+    the spirits of the dead through such mediums.”
+
+
+We have italicized that passage in the foregoing which shows that the
+deadly evil is still working in secret, and that a large and constantly
+growing number of professionals are aiding and abetting the iniquity.
+
+
+
+
+Dangers Of Mediumship.
+
+
+A few testimonies will show that when one gives himself or herself up to
+the control of the spirits, such ones take a most perilous position. The
+spirits insist on their victims becoming passive, ceasing to resist, and
+yielding their whole wills to them. Some of their persuasive words are
+these: “Come in confidence to us;” “Let our teachings deeply impress you;”
+“You must not doubt what we say;” “Learn of us;” “Obey our directions and
+you will be benefited;” “Seek to obtain knowledge of us;” “Have faith in
+us;” “Fear not to obey;” “Obey us and you will be greatly blessed;” etc.,
+etc. Mesmerists operate in the same way. They gain control of their
+subjects in the same way that the spirits mesmerize their mediums, and
+when under their control, the spirits cause them to see whatever they
+bring before them, and hear according to their wills, and do as they bid.
+And the things they suppose they see and hear, and what they are to do,
+are only such things as exist in the mind of the mesmerizing power. The
+subject is completely at the mercy of the invisible agency; and to put
+one’s self there is a most heaven-daring and hazardous act. Mr. Hudson
+(“Law of Psychic Phenomena,” p. 336) says:—
+
+
+    “To the young whose characters are not formed, and to those whose
+    notions of morality are loose, the dangers of mediumship are
+    _appalling_.”
+
+
+To further gain the confidence of mortals, the spirits claim to be the
+ones who answer their prayers. In “Automatic Writing,” p. 142, we have
+this:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—Will our friends tell us whether from their point of
+    view, there is any real efficacy in prayer?
+
+
+    “_Ans._ [by spirits].—Shall not ‘a soul’s sincere desire’ arouse
+    in discarnate and free spirits effort to make that sincere desire
+    a reality? What good can come from aspirations on mortal planes,
+    save through the efforts to make those aspirations realized on
+    spiritual planes, by the will of freed spirits?”
+
+
+Mediums are unable to resist the powers of the unseen world when once
+under their control. Professor Brittan (“Telegraphic Answer to Mahan,” p.
+10), concerning mediumship, says:—
+
+
+    “We may further add in this connection that the trance mediums for
+    spirit intercourse are equally irresponsible. Many of them are
+    totally unable to resist the powers which come to them from the
+    invisible and unknown realms.”
+
+
+Dr. Randolph (“Dealings with the Dead,” p. 150) shows the dangers of
+mediumship, as follows:—
+
+
+    “I saw that one great cause of the moral looseness of thousands of
+    sensitive-nerved people on earth, resulted from the infernal
+    possessions and obsessions of their persons by delegations from
+    those realms of darkness and (to all but themselves) unmitigated
+    horror. A sensitive man or woman—no matter how virtuously
+    inclined—may, unless by constant prayer and watchfulness they
+    prevent it and keep the will active and the sphere entire, be led
+    into the most abominable practices and habits.”
+
+
+This same writer, in the same work, pp. 108, 109, says:—
+
+
+    “Those ill-meaning ones who live just beyond the threshold, often
+    obtain their ends by subtly infusing a semi-sense of volitional
+    power into the minds of their intended victims, so that at last
+    they come to believe themselves to be self-acting, when in fact
+    they are the merest shuttlecocks bandied about between the
+    battledores of knavish devils on one side, and devilish knaves
+    upon the other, and between the two the poor fallen wretches are
+    nearly heart-reft and destroyed.”
+
+
+A work by A. J. Davis called “The Diakka, and their Earthly Victims,”
+mentions the nature of these denizens of the spirit world, and their
+wonderful location. The country (to speak after the manner of men) which
+they inhabit, is so large that it would require not less than 1,803,026
+diameters of the earth to span its longitudinal extent. This he had from a
+spirit he calls James Victor Wilson, a profound mathematician! This space
+is occupied by spirits who have passed from earth, who are “morally
+deficient, and affectionally unclean.”—_Page_ 7. The same spirit, Wilson,
+describes the diakka as those “who take insane delight in playing parts,
+in juggling tricks, in personating opposite characters to whom prayers and
+profane utterances are of equi-value; surcharged with a passion for
+lyrical narrations; one whose every attitude is instinct with the schemes
+of specious reasoning, sophistry, pride, pleasure, wit, subtle
+convivialities; a boundless disbeliever, one who thinks that all private
+life will end in the all-consuming self-love of God.”—_Page 13._ On page
+13 he says further of them, that they are “never resting, never satisfied
+with life, often amusing themselves with jugglery and tricky witticisms,
+invariably victimizing others; secretly tormenting mediums, causing them
+to exaggerate in speech, and to falsify in acts; unlocking and unbolting
+the street doors of your bosom and memory; pointing your feet into wrong
+paths, and far more.”
+
+What this “far more” is, we are left to conjecture. The advertisement of
+this book says that it is “an explanation of much that is false and
+repulsive in Spiritualism.” W. F. Jamieson, in a Spiritualist paper,
+called these diakka “a troop of devils,” and quoted Judge Carter as
+saying: “There is one thing clear, that these diakka, or fantastic or
+mixed spirits, are very numerous and abundant, and take any and every
+opportunity of obtruding themselves.”
+
+Hudson Tuttle, author of “Life in Two Spheres” and other Spiritualistic
+works, speaks of “a communication, through a noted medium, to Gerald
+Massey from his ‘dog Pip,’ the said Pip ‘licking the slate and writing
+with a good degree of intelligence.’ ” He adds, “Mr. Davis would say that
+‘Pip’ was a ‘diakka,’ and to-morrow he will communicate as George
+Washington, Theodore Parker, or Balaam’s ass. This diakka is flesh, fish,
+or fowl, as you may desire.”
+
+Some idea of how the spirits sometimes torment the mediums, as hinted at
+above, may be gained from the following instance. In “Astounding Facts
+from the Spirit World,” pp. 253, 254, Dr. Gridley describes the case of a
+medium sixty years of age, living near him in Southampton, Mass. The
+sufferings inflicted upon him “in two months at the hands of evil spirits
+would fill a volume of five hundred pages.” Of these sufferings, the
+following are specimens:—
+
+
+    “They forbade his eating, to the very point of starvation. He was
+    a perfect skeleton; they compelled him to walk day and night, with
+    intermissions, to be sure, as their avowed object was to torment
+    him as much and as long as possible. They swore by everything
+    sacred and profane, that they would knock his brains out, always
+    accompanying their threats with blows on the forehead or temples,
+    like that of a mallet in the hands of a powerful man, with this
+    difference, however; the latter would have made him unconscious,
+    while in full consciousness he now endured the indescribable agony
+    of those heavy and oft-repeated blows; they declared they would
+    skin him alive; that he must go to New York and be dissected by
+    inches, all of which he fully believed. They declared that they
+    would bore holes into his brain, when he instantly felt the action
+    suited to the word, as though a dozen augers were being turned at
+    once into his very skull; this done, they would fill his brain
+    with bugs and worms to eat it out, when their gnawing would
+    instantly commence. These spirits would pinch and pound him,
+    twitch him up and throw him down, yell and blaspheme, and use the
+    most obscene language that mortals can conceive; they would
+    declare that they were Christ in one breath, and devils in the
+    next; they would tie him head to foot for a long time together in
+    a most excruciating posture; declare they would wring his neck off
+    because he doubted or refused obedience.”
+
+
+Who can doubt that such spirits are the angels of the evil one himself?
+Dr. Gridley in the same work, p. 19, gives the experience of another
+medium, for the truthfulness of which he offers the fullest proof:—
+
+
+    “We have seen the medium evidently possessed by Irishmen and
+    Dutchmen of the lowest grade—heard him repeat Joshua’s drunken
+    prayers [Joshua was a strong but brutish man he had known in
+    life], exactly like the original,—imitate his drunkenness in word
+    and deed—try to repeat, or rather act over his most brutal deeds
+    (from which for decency’s sake, he was instantly restrained by
+    extraordinary exertion and severe rebuke)—snap and grate his teeth
+    most furiously, strike and swear, while his eyes flashed like the
+    fires of an orthodox perdition. We have heard him hiss, and seen
+    him writhe his body like the serpent when crawling, and dart out
+    his tongue, and play it exactly like that reptile. These
+    exhibitions were intermingled with the most wrangling and horrible
+    convulsions.”
+
+
+These descriptions, it would seem, ought to be enough to strike terror to
+any heart at the thought of being a medium. But there is yet another phase
+of the subject that should not be passed by. These fallen spirits who are
+engineering the work of Spiritualism, to maintain their “assumed
+characters,” and “play their parts” like the aforesaid diakka, represent
+that disembodied spirits “just over the threshold,” still retain the
+characteristics they bore in life, such as a disposition to sensuality and
+licentiousness, love of rum, tobacco, and other vices, and that they can,
+by causing the medium to plunge excessively into these things, thereby
+still gratify their own propensities to indulge in them. The following
+sketch by Hudson Tuttle, a very popular author among Spiritualists, is
+somewhat lengthy, but the idea could not better be presented than by
+giving it entire. In “Life in Two Spheres,” pp. 35-37, he says:—
+
+
+    “Reader, have you ever entered the respectable saloon? Have you
+    ever watched the stupid stare of the inebriate when the eye grew
+    less and less lustrous, slowly closing, the muscles relaxing, and
+    the victim of appetite sinking over on the floor in beastly
+    drunkenness? Oh, how dense the fumes of mingled tobacco and
+    alcohol! Oh, what misery confined in those walls! If you have
+    witnessed such scenes, then we need describe no further. If you
+    have not, then you had not better hear the tale of woe. Imagine to
+    yourselves a bar-room with all its sots, and their number
+    multiplied indefinitely, while conscience-seared and bloated
+    fiends stand behind the bar, from whence they deal out death and
+    damnation, and the picture is complete. _One has just arrived from
+    earth._ He is yet uninitiated in the mysteries and miseries of
+    those which, like hungry lions, await him. He died while
+    intoxicated—was frozen while lying in the gutter, and consequently
+    is attracted toward this society. He possessed a good intellect,
+    but it was shattered beyond repair by his debauches.
+
+
+    “ ‘Ye ar’ a fresh one, aint ye?’ coarsely queried a sot, just then
+    particularly communicative.
+
+
+    “ ‘Why, yes, I have just died, as they call it, and ’taint so bad
+    a change after all; only I suppose there’ll be dry times here for
+    the want of something stimulant.’
+
+
+    “ ‘Not so dry; lots of that all the time, and jolly times too.’
+
+
+    “ ‘Drink! Can you drink, then?’
+
+
+    “ ‘Yes, we just can, and feel as nice as you please. But all
+    can’t, not unless they find one on earth just like them. You go to
+    earth, and mix with your chums; and when you find one whose
+    thoughts you can read, he’s your man. Form a connection with him,
+    and when he gets to feeling _good_, you’ll feel so too.—There, do
+    you understand me? I always tell all fresh ones the glorious news,
+    for how they would suffer if it wasn’t for this blessed thing.’
+
+
+    “ ‘I’ll try, no mistake.’
+
+
+    “ ‘Here’s a covey,’ spoke an ulcerous-looking being; ‘he’s of our
+    stripe. Tim, did you hear what an infernal scrape I got into last
+    night? No, you didn’t. Well, I went to our friend Fred’s; he
+    didn’t want to drink when I found him; his dimes looked so
+    extremely large. Well, I _destroyed that feeling_, and made him
+    think he was dry. He drank, and drank, more than I wanted him to,
+    until I was so drunk that I could not break my connection with
+    him, or control his mind. He undertook to go home, fell into the
+    snow, and came near freezing to death. I suffered awfully, ten
+    times as much as when I died.’... Reader, we draw the curtain over
+    scenes like these, such as are daily occurring in this society.”
+
+
+In these cases the whole evil of the indulgences of course falls upon the
+mediums; and who would wish to assume personal relation with such a world,
+and be forced to bear in their own bodies the evils of the unhallowed
+indulgences of unseen spirits, against their will?
+
+Other scenes represented as taking place in the spirit land, are most
+grotesque and silly and would be taken as a burlesque upon Spiritualism,
+were they not put forth in all gravity by the friends and advocates of
+that so-called new revelation. Thus Judge Edmunds, giving an account of
+what he had seen in the spirit world, mentions the case of an old woman
+busy churning, who promised him, if he would call again, a drink of
+buttermilk; he speaks of men fighting, of courtezans trying to continue
+their lewd conduct; of a mischievous boy who split a dog’s tail open, and
+put a stick in it, just to witness its misery; of the owner of the dog,
+who, attracted by its cries, discovered the cause, and beat the boy, who
+fled, but was pursued and beaten and kicked far up the road. See Edmund’s
+“Spiritualism,” Vol. II, pp. 135-144, 181, 182, 186, 189. Surely here are
+the diakka playing their pranks in all their glory.
+
+
+
+
+Miscellaneous Teaching.
+
+
+On the leading points of faith as held by Christians generally, quotations
+have been given to show sufficiently what the spirits teach, and the
+object they are trying to effect. But the reader will be interested to
+learn what they teach on some other points which incidentally appear in
+their communications.
+
+Spiritualists object most strenuously to the idea of unconsciousness in
+death, or to the Bible declaration, “The dead know not anything.” But the
+spirits themselves teach this very thing. Thus Judge Edmunds, Vol. II,
+Appendix B, p. 524, quotes the confession of a spirit that he was totally
+unconscious for a time, he could not tell how long, and awoke to
+consciousness gradually; and that the state of unconsciousness differs
+with different persons, depending on circumstances. A. J. Davis admits
+that Professor Webster was eight days and a half unconscious.—_“__Death
+and the After Life,__”__ pp. 18, 19._
+
+Through Mrs. Conant, medium, in _Banner of Light_, June 3, 1865, we have
+this information: “It is said that some spirits require a thousand years
+to awake to consciousness. Is this true?—Yes, this is true.” In “Automatic
+Writing,” p. 93, the spirits teach the same thing to-day. If others deny
+such statements, it only shows that their testimony is contradictory and
+therefore unreliable.
+
+Again, the Bible doctrine that the incorrigibly wicked must cease from
+conscious existence, is denounced by Spiritualists; but on this point the
+spirits confess also:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—Do I understand you to say that a diakka is one who
+    believes in ultimate annihilation?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—Only yesterday one said to a lady medium, signing himself
+    ‘Swedenborg,’ this: ‘Whatsoever is, has been, will be, or may be,
+    _that_ I AM, and private life is but the aggregative phantasms of
+    thinking throblets rushing in their rising onward to the central
+    heart of eternal death.’—_“__Diakka__”__ p. 11._
+
+
+    “_Q._—Does every human being continue life on higher planes?
+
+
+    “_A._—Shall not all who are abortions die?”
+
+
+    “_Q._—Do you mean that some born on this plane may spiritually die
+    from lack of force to persist?
+
+
+    “_A._—Yes—both women and men are born into the divine humanity who
+    must necessarily perish, because they have not sufficient soul
+    strength to persist.”—_“__Automatic Writing,__”__ pp. 101, 102._
+
+
+There is, it seems, a purgatory in the spirit world. In answer to a
+question, a spirit replied:—
+
+
+    “There is a sphere in spirit life allotted to those who leave the
+    earthly plane in spiritual ignorance, which is _not pleasing_ to
+    dwell upon, yet which is absolutely necessary to spiritual soul
+    growth.”—_Id., p. 90._
+
+
+Spiritualism is claimed to settle the question of immortality; but the
+spirits confess themselves ignorant of it:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—On your plane do you arrive at certainty in regard to
+    immortality?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—We here are as _ignorant as you are_ as to the ultimate of
+    existence. Immortality is still an _undetermined issue_. One life
+    at a time seems as pertinent with us as with you.”—_Id., p. 103._
+
+
+The spirits’ heaven, it seems, is not so desirable a place that it
+prevents their being homesick.
+
+
+    “_Ques._—Why are you homesick?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—Have not found out the real reason; things are so
+    different from former ideas.”—_Id., p. 111._
+
+
+Spirits are not allowed to tell too much about their condition, as the
+following question and answer show:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—Can’t you tell us what makes it pleasanter,—describe so
+    we can understand?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—You’ll find out as I did—_’gainst the rules here to
+    tell_.... Just be patient—it’s all easy enough when you learn how.
+    I was puzzled, but it all seems straight enough now.”—_Id., p.
+    115._
+
+
+They teach the pre-existence of souls, and the old pagan doctrines of the
+reincarnation of souls, and the final absorption of all into Nirvana. A
+spirit having answered that all had been asserted in some other form,
+questions and answers followed from which we quote:—
+
+
+    “_Q._—Is that statement an intimation of the truth of
+    reincarnation?
+
+
+    “_A._—Souls of all who have preceded you are centered in you in
+    spite of your childish protests. Ask not of those predecessors;
+    for they yet live in you, and you in them.... Long ago you and I
+    went over the ground under eminent names.... Were not we together
+    when Socrates and Aspasia talked?”—_Id., pp. 151, 152._
+
+
+    “_Q._—Can you tell us, at least, whether spirit, as a whole or in
+    its individual atoms, exists eternally?
+
+
+    “_A._—Yes; spirit as a whole is eternal—exists—did exist—by force
+    of Powers you cannot understand. But you as individual,
+    self-conscious, atomistic particles of spirit wholeness, are not
+    eternal, and must return to the Primal Source.”—_Id., p. 133._
+
+
+
+
+Spirits Cannot Be Identified.
+
+
+Having now sufficiently examined the teaching of the spirits, a final
+question arises in regard to them, whether it is possible to identify
+them, and determine with any absolute certainty whether they are the
+spirits of the particular individuals they claim to be, or even spirits of
+the dead at all, or not. It should be distinctly borne in mind, always,
+that evil angels, whose existence has been proved from the Bible, whose
+nature and delight is to deceive, can walk the earth unseen, imitate and
+personate any individual, and reveal their characteristics of thought,
+writing, acts, form, and features, and make so perfect a counterfeit as to
+defy detection. How, then, can it be told what spirit it is, even though
+it shows the face and features of some well-known friend? On this topic,
+as on preceding questions, Spiritualists themselves may produce the
+evidence. President Mahan (“Discussion with Tiffany and Rhen,” p. 13)
+remarks:—
+
+
+    “Certain experiments have been made, in order to determine whether
+    spirits are present. Individuals go in as inquirers, and get
+    definite answers—in the first place, from _departed spirits_ of
+    persons _yet living_; in the second place, from departed spirits
+    of persons who _never existed_ here or anywhere else; in the third
+    place, from the departed spirits of brute beasts.”
+
+
+When it is considered, as already noted, that spirits do their work
+through mesmeric power, it is easy to understand how the medium is made to
+believe that such and such a spirit is communicating when it is not so at
+all. This question of identity came up in the very early stages of
+Spiritualism, and is no nearer settled, on their own confession, now than
+then. A Mr. Hobart, in 1856, who claimed to be the first Spiritualist in
+Michigan, made the following admission:—
+
+
+    “The spirit sometimes _assumes_ the name of an individual
+    belonging to the same church, to induce them to hear. This is
+    necessary with some who are so bigoted they would not believe
+    unless a name was assumed which they respected.”
+
+
+An article in the _Spiritual Telegraph_, of July 11, 1857, begins as
+follows:—
+
+
+    “The question is continually being asked, especially by novitiates
+    in spiritual investigations, How shall we know that the spirits
+    who communicate with us are really the ones whom they purport to
+    be?... In giving the results of our own experience and observation
+    upon this subject, we would premise that spirits unquestionably
+    can, and often do, personate other spirits, and that, too, often
+    with such perfection as, for the time being, to defy every effort
+    to detect the deception.... If direct tests are demanded at all,
+    we would recommend that they be asked for the purpose of proving
+    that the manifesting influence is that of _a spirit_, rather than
+    to prove what _particular_ spirit is the agent of its production.”
+
+
+This is an entire begging of the whole matter in question; for it is not
+denied that it is _a_ spirit; we want to know what _particular_ spirit it
+is; but for that we must not ask; for it cannot be ascertained. The same
+article states that other and lower spirits often crowd in and take the
+place of the spirit communicating, without the knowledge of the medium. We
+might also quote “Spiritualism as It Is,” p. 14, that “not one per cent.
+of the manifestations have had a higher origin than the first and second
+spheres, which are filled with low, ignorant, deceptive, mischievous,
+selfish, egotistical spirits;” and “Dealings with the Dead,” p. 225, that
+“the fact is, good spirits do not appear one tenth as often as imagined.”
+
+Jan. 7, 1888, the following appeared in the _Banner of Light_:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—What is the cause of our receiving inconsistent and
+    untruthful communications? Does the blame, if any there is, rest
+    with us or the controlling intelligence?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—There are spirits who delight in imposing upon mortals;
+    they realize their power outside of material things, and that
+    those who seek knowledge from them _cannot see nor get hold of
+    them_; therefore to an extent they exercise a certain power over
+    those mortals who approach; and if the mortals are themselves
+    tricky by nature, insincere, ready to take advantage of others,
+    whether it be at the time of sitting or in their daily life, rest
+    assured they may be imposed upon by spirits from the other side
+    who occupy a like plane of existence with themselves.”
+
+
+Mediums themselves will not trust the spirits, according to statements
+made as late as 1896. Mrs. S. A. Underwood, medium, in “Automatic
+Writing,” p. 55, says:—
+
+
+    “With all my experience in it, I would not to-day venture upon any
+    change, business venture, friendship, or line of conduct, advised
+    from this source, unless my own common material sense endorsed it.
+    Indeed, I would not take as fact any of its even reasonable advice
+    without question, because it is not reliable as a guide in earthly
+    affairs.”
+
+
+Spirit communication, then, certainly does not amount to much as a
+heavenly instructor, a celestial guide to enlighten the ignorance of men.
+Whatever we know ourselves, we may rely upon; all else is uncertain.
+Again, on p. 56, she says:—
+
+
+    “Then the assumption of great names by apparently common-place
+    minds is a very strange thing. I was horrified and annoyed when
+    this occurred under my own hand, because that is one of the things
+    which disgusted me with spiritual messages before this writing
+    came to me, as I had occasionally glanced over such messages. When
+    I protested against such assumption, I was told that ‘Elaine and
+    Guinevere’ were not real beings, but types. So somewhere in our
+    sphere are spirits who embody cleverness in creations of their own
+    fancy, and adopt names suited to that fancy.”
+
+
+Thus the spirits themselves confess that the names they often assume are
+not those of real beings, but typical and fanciful. Nothing more, it would
+seem, is necessary to complete the condemnation of Spiritualism, so far as
+its own nature is concerned. When in addition to all else, it appears that
+the spirits cannot be identified; that the whole underlying claim that the
+spirits are the spirits of the dead, must itself be assumed; and that,
+too, in the face of the numberless known falsehoods and deceptions that
+are constantly issuing from the unseen realm,—there is nothing left for it
+to stand upon.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter Six.
+
+
+ITS PROMISES: HOW FULFILLED.
+
+
+It is fair to call Spiritualism to account as to the fulfilment of the
+promises involved in its challenge to the world when it stepped upon the
+stage of action. No movement ever opened with more magnificent promises.
+It posed before the world as an angel of heavenly light. It claimed to be
+the second coming of Christ. It claimed to have been sent to regenerate
+mankind, and renovate the world. We give herewith a few of its
+spirit-inspired pretensions. Its “Declaration of Principles,” Article 20,
+says:—
+
+
+    “The hearty and intelligent convictions of these truths [the
+    teachings of spirits] tend to energize the soul in all that is
+    good and elevating, and to restrain from all that is evil and
+    impure, ... to quicken all philanthropic impulses, stimulating to
+    enlightened and unselfish labors for universal good.”
+
+
+In behalf of the cause of woman it says:—
+
+
+    “Spiritualism has done more for the advancement of true womanhood
+    than the Church or any of its accessories.”—_Dr. Watson, in Banner
+    of Light, April 16, 1887._
+
+
+Miss A. L. Lull, in the _Religio-Philosophical Journal_ of Jan. 23, 1886,
+said:—
+
+
+    “Spiritualism is the saviour of humanity, because it is reaching
+    out toward the criminal, and in its effort to lift humanity to a
+    higher plane, it is laying the foundation for future
+    generations.... Spiritualism comes to cleanse out the dregs and
+    wretchedness of humanity.”
+
+
+Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, in a mediumistic discourse reported in the
+_Banner of Light_, April 3, 1886, said:—
+
+
+    “The Great Reformer of the world is Spiritualism.... When modern
+    Spiritualism made its appearance, it said in so many words, I come
+    to reform the world.... Spiritualism came to put the ax at the
+    root of the tree of human evil, it came to decide upon the most
+    important and vital thing connected with existence; _i. e._, Is
+    man only an evanescent, material, earthly being, or is he
+    immortal?... Spiritualism came to reform death, to resolve it into
+    life; came to reform fear, to resolve it into trust and knowledge;
+    came to reform the darkness which rests upon humanity concerning
+    the nature of man’s existence.”
+
+
+In the same paper, April 6, 1887, was given the following prediction of
+the future of Spiritualism:—
+
+
+    “Modern Spiritualism will grow, and deepen, and broaden, and
+    strengthen, until all false creeds and dogmas shall be swept from
+    the earth—when faith shall be buried in knowledge, when war shall
+    be known no more, when universal brotherhood shall prevail to
+    bless mankind.”
+
+
+In “Nineteenth Century Miracles,” p. 79, M. Jaubert speaks as follows:—
+
+
+    “Affirm to your people that man never dies, that his immortality
+    is proved, not by books but by material and tangible facts, of
+    which every one can convince himself; that anon our houses of
+    correction, and our prisons, will disappear; suicide will be
+    erased from our mortuary tables; and nobly borne, the calamities
+    of earth shall no longer produce madness.”
+
+
+Mrs. R. S. Lillie, in a speech at the Thirty-eighth Anniversary services
+in Horticultural Hall, Boston, Mass., and reported in the _Banner of
+Light_, of April, 1886, said:—
+
+
+    “Christianity never had a Pentecost to be compared with modern
+    Spiritualism. The latter is as far in advance of the former, as
+    the electric light is in advance of the tallow dip of the past;
+    for it is nineteen centuries ahead of it.”
+
+
+These are most astounding claims; and if there is any truth in them,
+Spiritualism ought to have shown itself as a great uplifting moral power,
+provided it has been able to get any foothold among the people. We
+therefore inquire what its success has been. On this point Professor Keck,
+at the Thirty-ninth Anniversary of Modern Spiritualism, at Bridgeport,
+Conn. (_Banner of Light_, April 9, 1887), said:—
+
+
+    “It [Spiritualism] has made converts of more scientific men and
+    profound thinkers than any other sect in the world. In thirty-nine
+    years it has grown to ten or fifteen millions of believers, with
+    thousands of mediums, a literature printed in every known
+    language, and converts in every quarter of the globe.”
+
+
+With all these facilities and all this success, it surely has been able to
+make good its claims, and fulfil its promises, if its nature is such as it
+assumes, and its promises are good for anything; and its course should be
+marked by a great decrease of crime, by the promotion of virtue and a
+general improvement in the moral tone of society, wherever it has gone.
+For nearly fifty years it has now been operating in the world; and with
+all its glowing professions of what it was able to do, and its millions of
+converts, “energized to all that is good and elevating,” its impress for
+good should everywhere be seen.
+
+But what are the facts?—Just the reverse of what has been promised. Free
+love, which is free lust, has followed in its wake; homes have been
+ruined, families scattered, characters blighted; while insanity and
+suicide have been the fate, or the last resort, of too many of its
+victims. And outside of its own ranks, in the world at large, the fifty
+years since the advent of Spiritualism have been years of increase of
+crime and every evil in a fast growing ratio. Liquor drinking, tobacco
+using, gambling, prostitution, defalcations, robberies, bribery, municipal
+corruption, divorces, thefts, insanity, suicide, and murder, have
+increased in far more rapid ratio than the population itself.
+
+The reader will remember the testimony of Dr. Randolph, p. 105, that five
+of his friends destroyed themselves, and he attempted it for himself, by
+direct spirit influences. The Philadelphia _Record_, of Feb. 17, 1894,
+speaks of the suicide of May Brooklyn in San Francisco, Cal.:—
+
+
+    “The letters and papers left by the dead woman show plainly that
+    in her grief over the death of Lovecraft she had dabbled in
+    Spiritualism, and had finally reached the conclusion that her only
+    chance of happiness lay in joining her lover in the other world.”
+
+
+A few figures, as samples, will be given just to emphasize the general
+statements. The following is from the Chicago _Tribune_ of Jan. 1, 1893:—
+
+
+    “The number of persons who have committed suicide in the United
+    States during the year (1892), as gathered from telegraph and mail
+    report to the _Tribune_, is 3860, as compared with 3331 last year
+    (1891), 2640 in 1890, and 2224 in 1889. The total is much larger
+    than that of any of the eleven preceding years.”
+
+
+The _Christian Reformer_ gives the following figures of murders, suicides,
+and embezzlements from 1891-1893:—
+
+
+    “Murders in 1893, 6615; increase over 1891 of 709.
+
+
+    “Suicides in 1893, 4436; increase over 1892, 576; 1891, 1105.
+
+
+    “Funds embezzled in 1893, $19,929,692; increase of 100 per cent.
+    over 1892.”
+
+
+It may be asked, What has this to do with Spiritualism?—It is a test of
+the value of its promises. Spiritualism has been posing for fifty years as
+the “world’s reformer,” the great energizing, uplifting force to elevate
+mankind, the mighty power which has come to empty our workhouses and
+prisons, abolish suicides and all crime, the “electric light” compared
+with the “tallow dip” of the gospel. And yet with all these claims, with
+its millions of adherents, and the funds and influence at its command, it
+is allowing, year by year, crime to increase much faster than the
+population. Now if Spiritualism was the purifying, renovating power which
+it claims to be, such results could not have been seen. It is very
+evident, that, as a power in the world in behalf of righteousness and
+humanity, it has been of no account; and as between the forces of good and
+evil, its weight has been on the side of evil instead of good. It is thus
+that the author of Spiritualism, the father of deception, fulfils the
+promises made through that channel to deceive mankind. What organized,
+aggressive efforts against evil has Spiritualism ever shown? Where are its
+schools and colleges? Where are its hospitals and benevolent institutions?
+Where are its organized charities? and what are its millions of members
+doing to relieve suffering and distress, and turn men to better ways of
+living? The very aspect it presents to the world to-day, stamps the brand
+of Cain upon its brow. The Boston _Herald_ of Dec. 17, 1874, said:—
+
+
+    “Let Spiritualism produce some idea, utter some word, or perform
+    some deed, which will have novelty, and yet be of manifest value
+    to the human race, and it will make good its claims to our serious
+    consideration. But it has not done this. For nearly thirty years
+    it has been before the world in its present shape, and in all that
+    time, with all its asserted command of earthly and
+    superterrestrial knowledge, it has never done an act, or breathed
+    a syllable, or supplied an idea which had any value as a
+    contribution to the welfare of the race, or to its stock of
+    knowledge. Its messages from learned men who are dead, have been
+    the silliest bosh; its stories about life upon the planets are
+    wretched guesses, many of which can be proved false by the
+    astronomer; its visions have frightened scores of people into
+    madhouses, and made semi-lunatics of hundreds of others.”
+
+
+If this charge was good as late as 1874, it is equally so at the present
+time. And thus are we forced to the conclusion that Spiritualism, judged
+by the light of its fair promises, is one of the most lamentable of
+delusions, and most stupendous of failures.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter Seven.
+
+
+SPIRITUALISM A SUBJECT OF PROPHECY.
+
+
+We come now to one of the most timely and important features of this whole
+subject; for God in his word has foretold and forewarned the world of the
+movement here passing under review. He has made known the time when it
+should appear, the character it would bear, and the work it is to do. He
+has also connected this with the great event of all-overshadowing
+importance to this world, of which it is a startling sign and sure
+precursor; namely, the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask the
+special attention of the reader to this part of the subject.
+
+A word of digression may be allowed as to the place which prophecy holds
+in the word of God. Prophecy is that feature of the sacred volume which
+constitutes it a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Ps. 119:105; 2
+Peter 1:19. It is that which enables that word to be a guide to the hosts
+of Israel through the weary journey and the gloomy shades of time, giving
+to every era its “present truth,” and showing the progress of the
+slow-revolving ages toward the great consummation. It is the golden
+credential which the Bible holds up to the world of its genuineness and
+authenticity.
+
+Prophecy is peculiar to the Christian Scriptures. No other so-called
+sacred books contain this feature. It is not found in the Vedas, Shasters,
+or Puranas of the Hindus, nor the Zend Avestas of the Parsees, nor the
+Kojiki Nohonki, of the Shintos of Japan, nor the law books of Manu, nor
+the Koran of the Mohammedans, nor the Kan-Ying-Peen or Tao-Te-King of the
+Chinese, nor the Tripitakas of the Buddhists. The reason is obvious.
+Neither the minds of men nor of angels, either good or bad, can read the
+future. Divine omniscience alone can see the end from the beginning and
+foretell the great events that shall mark the history of the world, and
+affect the interests of the church. It is this that stamps the Bible as
+divine, and lifts it immeasurably above all other books. It is indeed
+passing strange that all cannot see this. Instead of being a book that
+grows obsolete and out of date with the passing years, like the
+productions of men, it is the only book ever seen upon the earth which is
+ever abreast of the times in every age, and lifts the veil of the future
+before him who honestly and reverently seeks its pages for a knowledge of
+the truth. Those who ignore or despise the prophecies, rob the Bible of
+one of the brightest stars in its crown of glory.
+
+To be entitled to claim credit as divine, any book or system should be
+able to show that it can correctly foretell the future. The spirits see
+this, and, knowing that they cannot do it, discountenance and discourage
+all such efforts. Here is a little of their teaching on the subject:—
+
+
+    “_Ques._—Why are so many predictions made through mediums, which
+    prove false?
+
+
+    “_Ans._—Wonderful _guesses_ are sometimes made by daring spirits.
+
+
+    “_Q._—Can you tell us anything of the future?
+
+
+    “_A._—Pharos says you must not ask questions of the future—spirits
+    who _prophesy_ are _not good_ spirits.
+
+
+    “_Q._—Do you mean that it is not best for us to know the future?
+
+
+    “_A._—Souls on your plane are undergoing discipline, and it would
+    cost more than it is worth to foretell the future of your
+    state.”—_“__Automatic Writing,__”__ pp. 141, 142._
+
+
+Spiritualists rail at God for prohibiting from Adam and Eve, in the
+garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, to keep them in
+ignorance. What will they say to these spirits who coolly answer that “it
+would cost more than it is worth” to give them any knowledge of future
+events? This, perhaps, they will consider all right because it isn’t God
+who says it.
+
+1. Let us then see what God has said of the time and work and significance
+of Spiritualism. Over seven hundred years before Christ, the prophet
+Isaiah wrote of our time, as follows: “And when they shall say unto you,
+Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and
+that mutter, should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to
+the dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to
+this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
+
+Here is certainly a prophecy that a time would come when just such a work
+as Spiritualism is now doing would be a distinguishing feature of the age.
+The present must be the time referred to, because it has never been so in
+any past age; and the present meets the specifications in every
+particular. It shows that the only safety for any one now is to seek unto
+his God, and make the law and the testimony, the word of God, the great
+standard by which to try all spirits. 1 John 4:1. And another great event
+is directly connected with this, that is, the second coming of Christ; for
+according to verses 16-18, the disciples are then looking for him.
+
+2. Matt. 24:24: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets,
+and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were
+possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”
+
+A deception of no ordinary power is here brought to view. It really
+results in the division of Christendom; for all but the elect are carried
+away by it. In its own claims, Spiritualism fulfils the “Christs” and
+“prophets” part of the declaration, claiming of course to be true, while
+the Bible says it is “false.” The signs and wonders are beginning to be
+seen in the many “inexplicable” phenomena attending Spiritualism. But many
+more startling exhibitions, as will be presently shown, are yet to appear.
+We charge upon Spiritualism, so far, the fulfilment of this prophecy. But
+mark! this occurs when the Son of man is about to appear “as the lightning
+cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west” (verse 27); and it
+is one of the prominent signs of that event. See the prophecy from verse
+23 to verse 35. Mark and Luke also dwell upon the same prediction, as
+gathered from the lips of our Lord himself.
+
+3. Heb. 10:28, 29: “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under
+two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he
+be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath
+counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
+thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”
+
+It is the bold stand which Spiritualism has taken against Christ and the
+atonement, that makes this scripture applicable to that work. The apostle
+is speaking of the times when the great “day is approaching” (verse 25);
+when it is but a little while, and he that shall come, will come and will
+not tarry (verse 37), and the introduction of verse 29, in such a
+connection, becomes a prophecy that such an outbreak against Christ and
+his atoning work would be seen when he is about to come again. And the
+fulfilment we are now beholding in Spiritualism.
+
+4. Rev. 12:12: “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the
+devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that
+he hath but a short time.”
+
+This scripture locates itself. It is when Satan knows that he has but a
+little time to work, and hence it must be in the last days. At this time
+he descends upon the world in an avalanche of wrath. “Wrath” is a
+misleading term. The words θυμόν μέγαν signify the strongest and most
+intense emotion of the mind. If the object is to accomplish some
+particular end, they would indicate the most intense, concentrated,
+energetic, and persistent efforts to that purpose, using every means, and
+bringing to bear every influence to reach the result in question. Satan,
+as we have seen, has an object in deceiving the human family, as far as
+possible, to their destruction, by signs and wonders. In this work,
+according to the prophecy before us, he will go to the extent of his
+power, and show his most potent signs. Bringing the supposed forms and
+features of the dead before living witnesses, is his most successful
+method at the present time. But as this work is, as yet, done largely in
+the dark, it gives more room for jugglery and imposition. The time will
+come, however, when, in open light, counterfeit materializations of the
+dead will swarm on earth, and deceive, if it were possible, the very
+elect—_i.e._, all who cannot meet the deception with the potent weapon—“It
+is written, The dead know not anything, neither have they any more a
+portion forever [in the present state of things] in anything that is done
+under the sun.”
+
+5. Rev. 13:13, 14: “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire
+come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them
+that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power
+to do.”
+
+This prophecy relates to some earthly government represented by a symbol
+with two horns like a lamb. Verse 11. It is part of a prophecy beginning
+with chapter twelve, and ending with verse 5 of chapter fourteen. It is
+not the place here to introduce an exposition of this prophecy. It is only
+necessary to state that the position taken is that the lamblike symbol
+represents our own government, the United States of America.(4) And the
+great wonders that he does, apply to the marvelous manifestations of
+Spiritualism. It is a significant fact that Spiritualism arose in this
+country, thus fitting itself exactly to the prophecy. The climax of the
+wonders brought to view in the text, making “fire come down from heaven on
+the earth in the sight of men,” has not yet been reached. More is
+therefore to be developed. Yea, this wonder-working power is to go forward
+till that which, in the time of Elijah, was the test between the false god
+Baal and the Lord Jehovah, is brought to pass, and fire is made to come
+down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And the sad feature of
+this case will be that the multitudes, not perceiving the change of issue,
+will take the act down here to be a test of truth, as it was in the days
+of Elijah.
+
+Taken in connection with other portions of the book of Revelation, this
+prophecy reveals clearly what the agency that works the miracles is. The
+dragon, representing paganism (Rev. 12:3, 4); the beast, representing the
+papacy (Rev. 13:1-10); and the lamblike symbol, representing
+Protestantism, or more specifically, Protestant America (Rev. 13:11-17),
+constitute the symbols of this prophecy. For convenience, let us designate
+them as _A_, _B_, and _C_; respectively. _C_ works his miracles in sight
+of _B_; _B_ and _C_ are again brought to view in Rev. 19:20, and there _C_
+is called “the false prophet.” We know the false prophet here is the same
+as _C_, because he works miracles before _B_, the same as _C_ does in
+chapter 13:14. All together, _A_, _B_, and _C_ are brought to view in Rev.
+16:13, and unclean spirits like frogs are said to come out of their
+mouths; and then verse 14 tells what they are: “For they are spirits of
+devils, working miracles.” This, then, not the spirits of dead men, is the
+agency that works the miracles of chapter 13:13, 14. We follow the subject
+so far, at this point, merely to identify the agency that works the
+miracles, and shall have more to say upon it. But before passing, we would
+remind the reader that here also the subject is connected with the second
+coming of Christ; for the prophecy of Revelation 13 ends with the
+redemption of the church which immediately follows. Rev. 14:1-5.
+
+6. 2 Thess. 2:9-12: “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan,
+with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
+unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of
+the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send
+them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might
+be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
+unrighteousness.”
+
+Here, again, we have the great fact brought out with still more startling
+emphasis, that there is to be a great outbreaking of Satanic power among
+men, just before and up to, the coming of Christ. And if we already see
+the preliminary and even far-advanced working of this power in
+Spiritualism, the world should stand aghast at the perils of the times in
+which we live. The coming of Christ is brought to view in verse 8, and
+verse 9 states that at that time Satan will be working with all power. The
+common version is calculated to obscure this passage. The words “even him”
+(verse 9) are wrongly and unnecessarily supplied. Literally rendered, the
+last clause of verse 8, and the first of verse 9 would read as follows:
+“Whom the Lord ... shall destroy with the brightness of his [Christ’s]
+coming; of whom [Christ] the coming is, after [or at the time of] the
+working of Satan,” etc. The word “after” is from, the Greek κατα (_kata_),
+which when referring to time, as in this case, does not mean “after or
+according to,” but “within the range of, during, in the course of, at,
+about,” as in 2 Tim. 4:1, where it is rendered “at.”
+
+So here is a plain declaration that at the very time when Christ comes
+Satan will be working in the hight of his power, by signs and lying
+wonders (wonders to prove a lie) to keep the people under falsehood and
+deception. Verses 10-12 tell who his victims are, and why they become
+such: they are those who preferred the pleasures of sin to the practice of
+righteousness, and so would not receive the truth, nor the love of it. In
+all such cases God’s throne is clear. He always, as in this case, sets
+truth first before the people, gives them a chance, and calls upon them to
+embrace it, and be saved. But when men, as free moral agents, whom God
+will not force into his kingdom, refuse to receive the truth, shut their
+eyes, close their ears, and steel their hearts against it, and find their
+pleasure in unrighteousness, in going in just the opposite direction;—what
+can God do for them? We leave the skeptic himself to answer. For more
+years than Spiritualism, in its present phase, has been before the world,
+several religious bodies have made a specialty of the great Bible truth
+concerning the state of the dead, and life only in Christ, which
+effectually shields all those who receive it against the rapping delusion.
+
+7. Rev. 18:2: “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon
+the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils,
+and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful
+bird.”
+
+Among the many predictions given in the word of God touching the last
+days, is one which foretokens a wide-spread and lamentable declension in
+the religious world. The phrase which embodies it, is the one just quoted,
+“Babylon is fallen.” The term “Babylon” is not intended nor used as a term
+of reproach, but rather as a descriptive word setting forth the very
+undesirable condition of “mixture” and “confusion” in the religious world.
+It is certainly not the Lord’s will, who prayed that all his people should
+be one, that scores or hundreds of divisions and sects should exist within
+his church. That is owing, exclaims the Catholic, to the Protestant rule
+of private judgment. It is not. It is owing to that Pandora’s box of
+mystical interpretation placed in the church by old Origen, that prince of
+mischief-makers. By this method, which has no method and no standard, the
+interpretations of God’s word will ever be as various and numerous as the
+whims and fancies that may find a place in the minds of men.
+
+But all this confusion must be remedied in that church which will be ready
+for the second advent; for no people will be prepared for translation but
+such as worship the Lord in both _spirit_ and _truth_. To bring the church
+to this point, a call has been sent to Christendom in the special truths
+for this time. Most turn away, but some are taking the stand to which
+these circumstances summon them. The process is simple. It is but to read
+and obey God’s word in the light of what is called the literal rule of
+interpretation. No other rule would ever have been thought of, if the
+Devil had let the minds of men alone. By this rule the true Sabbath would
+always have been maintained a perfect safeguard against idolatry in the
+earth; the law would have held its place as a perfect, immutable, and
+eternal rule of conduct, a safeguard against the antinomianism of all ages
+and the Spiritualism of to-day; the view that the dead remain unconscious
+in the grave till the resurrection, would always have been held, and then
+there could have been no purgatory, no masses for the dead, no Mariolatry,
+no saint worship—in short, no Roman Catholicism, and no Universalism, nor
+Spiritualism; the true nature of the coming and kingdom of Christ would
+not have been lost sight of, and the peace and safety fable of a temporal
+millennium never could have existed.
+
+To say nothing of other errors that would be corrected, suppose all
+Christendom stood together on these four simple truths, how much division
+could there have been in the Christian world? A second denomination could
+not have existed. And what would have been the condition of things?—As
+different from the present condition as one can well imagine—no paganism,
+no Roman Catholicism, no Protestantism, no multiplied sects, no
+Spiritualism,—but Christianity, broad, united, free, and glorious. Some
+are taking their stand on these truths, and so will be shielded from the
+delusions of these last days, for which the way, by ages of superstition
+and error, has been so artfully prepared. Every one must stand upon them
+who is governed by the literal rule of interpretation; for they are read
+in so many words out of the sacred volume itself. But the churches
+generally reject them, often with bitterness, scorn, and contempt, and
+some even with persecution. And this is why Babylon has fallen.
+
+That organization, called in Rev. 17:5: “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the
+Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth,” has been very generally
+applied by Protestants to the Roman Catholic Church; but if that church is
+the mother, who are the daughters? This question has been asked for many
+years. Alexander Campbell said:—
+
+
+    “The worshiping establishments now in operation throughout
+    Christendom, incased and cemented by their voluminous confessions
+    of faith, and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches
+    of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that mother of
+    harlots—the Church of Rome.”
+
+
+Lorenzo Dow said:—
+
+
+    “We read not only of Babylon, but of the whore of Babylon, styled
+    the mother of harlots, which is supposed to mean the Romish
+    church. If she be a mother, who are her daughters? It must be the
+    corrupt national established churches that came out of her.”
+
+
+The great sin charged against Babylon, is unlawful connection with the
+kings of the earth. The church should be entirely free from the state. But
+now the churches of America, which have for long years borne so noble a
+part, are clamoring for a union with the state, calling for a recognition
+of God’s name in the Constitution, and God’s law in the courts, and that
+the government be run on Christian lines. Old, antiquated laws which they
+find upon the statute books of various States, they are beginning to use
+to persecute those who differ in belief with them; and they seek for the
+enactment of more stringent Sunday laws for the same purpose. And when
+they shall succeed in getting full control of the state, they will have
+severed the last link that has held them to their high estate, show
+themselves true members of the Babylonian family, and sink in spirit and
+practice to the level of the elder Rome.
+
+Rev. 14:8 was fulfilled in 1844.(5) Since then the churches have been
+going down in spirituality and godliness, catering more and more to the
+world, indulging in carnal amusements, festivals, wife auctions, and
+kissing bees, to the very border line of decency, but especially filling
+up with the influences mentioned in Rev. 18:2, till the leaven of
+Spiritualism is fast penetrating the whole mass. Yet there are a multitude
+of God’s people connected with these churches, who deplore the situation,
+and for whom a crisis is approaching. The cry is again to be raised,
+“Babylon is fallen, come out of her my people.” We verily believe the time
+has come when that call should be made and heeded; for a little further
+progress in the evil path upon which we have entered, will surely provoke
+the just judgments of heaven. Verses 4, 5.
+
+8. 2 Tim. 3:8: “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these
+also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the
+faith.”
+
+The first five verses of this chapter portray a dark list of eighteen sins
+which will characterize professed Christians in the last days; for those
+who bear the characters described, have a _form of godliness_, but deny
+the power thereof. The three following verses plainly describe certain
+members of the spiritualistic fraternity; and they are said to be of the
+same sort. This prophecy therefore becomes parallel to that which has just
+been examined. The fall of Babylon prepares the popular churches for
+Spiritualism. Here the practice of these sins in the churches, makes them
+of the same sort with Spiritualists, so that they fraternize well
+together. Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses by the wonders they were able
+to perform; so these will resist the truth through the wonders of
+Spiritualism. And this is in the last days where we now are. So Babylon’s
+fall just precedes the coming of Christ.
+
+9. Rev. 16:14: “For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles,
+which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to
+gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”
+
+The work of the spirits reaches its climax in the scene here brought to
+view. Their last mission is to go to the kings of the earth to gather them
+to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. In this conflict, so far
+as this earth is concerned, the great controversy between Christ and Satan
+closes in the triumph of Him who rides forth on a white horse at the head
+of the white-horsed armies of heaven. The beast and false prophet are
+hurled into a lake of fire, and the remnant, the kings of the earth and
+their armies, are slain by the sword of him upon whose vesture is
+inscribed the all-conquering title, “King of kings and Lord of lords.”
+Rev. 19:11-21.
+
+But before these spirits can thus influence the kings of the earth, they
+must make their way to them and bring them under their control. They have
+already shown great facility in this work, giving promise of what they
+will be able to do in the near future. A work by Hudson Tuttle, “What Is
+Spiritualism?” p. 6, names the following among the late and living crowned
+heads, nobility, etc., who have been supporters of Spiritualism:—
+
+
+    “Emperor Alexander, of Russia; Louis Napoleon, of France; Queen
+    Victoria, of England; Prince and Princess Metternich; Prince
+    Wittgenstein, Lieutenant Aide-de-camp to the emperor of Russia;
+    Hon. Alexander Axahof, Russian Imperial Councilor, St. Petersburg,
+    Russia; Baron Guldenstuble, of Paris; Baron Von Schick, of
+    Austria; Baron Von Dirkinck, of Holmfield, Holstein; Le Comte de
+    Bullet, of Paris; Duke of Leuchtenberg, of Germany. Of England
+    there are Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare, Lord Dunraven,
+    Sir W. Trevilyan, Countess Carthness, Sir T. Willshire, Lady
+    Cowper, Sir Charles Napier, Sir Charles Isham, Bart., Colonel E.
+    B. Wilbraham, of the English army,” etc.
+
+
+The late Alexander III, of Russia, and the queen of Spain are also
+reckoned among the number. Thus, so far as the agency of the spirits is
+concerned, there is nothing in the way of the speedy fulfilment of Rev.
+16:14.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+The reader now has before him, in brief, the main outlines of this
+momentous subject.
+
+1. Spiritualism, so far as its phenomena are concerned, is not humbug and
+trickery, but a real manifestation of power and intelligence.
+
+2. But the marvels and wonders are not performed by the spirits of the
+dead.
+
+3. Evil spirits step in and counterfeit what are supposed to be the
+spirits of the dead, in which men have been taught to believe, simulating
+points of identity to any minute particular that may be required.
+
+4. Besides starting on this false assumption, all their teaching shows
+that they are agents of evil, not of good, and their work is to degrade,
+not elevate.
+
+5. The world by long resistance of the truth, has prepared the way for
+this deception, which the spirit that worketh in the children of
+disobedience is not slow to improve.
+
+6. Even the churches of Christ, by rejection of the truth, are preparing
+themselves for the same snare.
+
+7. The Scriptures have plainly pointed out this great outbreak of the
+working of Satan, and invariably connected it with the last days and the
+second coming of Christ.
+
+8. Spiritualism is thus a subject of prophecy, and an infallible sign and
+precursor of the soon-coming end.
+
+9. The great day of the Lord is near and hasteth greatly; and all things
+now call upon all men to prepare for its eternal decisions.
+
+Is this the lesson? Who will heed it and thus escape the delusions and
+perils of these last days, and be finally saved in the kingdom of heaven?
+
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF AUTHORS REFERRED TO.
+
+
+Alexander, Emperor, 146
+
+Axahof, Hon. Alexander, 146
+
+Adare, Lord, 146
+
+Alexander III., 146
+
+Bellachini, Mr., 14
+
+Barrett, Dr. W. F., 15
+
+Bright, John, 30
+
+Buddha, 86, 87, 88
+
+Brittan, Professor, 111
+
+Brooklyn, May, 128
+
+Channing, Dr., 4
+
+Cook, Joseph, 12
+
+Crookes, Professor, 17
+
+Crookes, Wm., F. R. S., 29
+
+Clarke, Dr. Adam, 50, 56, 91, 92
+
+Carey, Alice, 78
+
+Confucius, 86, 88
+
+Conant, Mrs., 90, 119
+
+Curry, Dr., 56, 92
+
+Claflin, Mr., 109
+
+Carter, Judge, 113
+
+Campbell, Alexander, 143
+
+Carthness, Countess, 146
+
+Cowper, Lady, 146
+
+Dixon, Hepworth, 28
+
+Davis, A. J., 29, 97, 100, 105, 112, 114, 118
+
+Davenport, Messrs., 29
+
+Dow, Lorenzo, 143
+
+Dunraven, Lord, 146
+
+De Bullet, Le Compte, 146
+
+Eglinton, Mr., 13
+
+Edmunds, Judge, 28, 117, 118
+
+Fox, John D., 18
+
+Fox, Mrs., 18, 19, 20, 21
+
+Fox, Margaret, 18, 20, 22
+
+Fox, Kate, 18, 19, 20
+
+Fox, David, 18
+
+Fox, Mary, 21
+
+Fox, Catharine, 22
+
+Franklin, Benjamin, 85
+
+Geary, Mr., 13
+
+Glanvil, Mr., 20
+
+Gridley, Dr., 114, 115
+
+Guldenstuble, Baron, 146
+
+Hazard, Thos. R., 11
+
+Harrison, W. H., F. R. S., 29
+
+Home, Mr., 29
+
+Hendricks, Mrs., 31
+
+Hatch, Mrs. C. L. V., 83, 106
+
+Hare, Dr., 84, 85, 89, 92, 99
+
+Harris, “Rev.” T. L., 94
+
+Hall, Hon. J. B., 101
+
+Hatch, Dr., 106
+
+Hudson, T. J., 17, 57, 74, 109, 111
+
+Hull, Moses, 109
+
+Hobart, Mr., 122
+
+Isham, Sir Charles, 146
+
+Jamieson, W. F., 109, 113
+
+Jaubert, M., 126
+
+Keller, Harvy, 13
+
+Krishna, 87
+
+Keck, Professor, 127
+
+Lillie, J. T., 21
+
+Loveland, J. S., 97
+
+Lull, Miss A. L., 125
+
+Lillie, Mrs. R. S., 127
+
+Leuchtenberg, Duke, 146
+
+Lyndhurst, Lord, 146
+
+Lindsay, Lord, 146
+
+Mompesson, Mr., 20
+
+Milton, John, 40
+
+Mohammed, 87, 88
+
+Massey, Gerald, 114
+
+Mahan, Pres., 121
+
+Metternich, Prince, 146
+
+Metternich, Princess, 146
+
+Norton, Deacon John, 89
+
+Napoleon, Louis, 146
+
+Napier, Sir Charles, 146
+
+Owen, Robert Dale, 18, 19
+
+Olshausen, Dr., 56
+
+Orton, Mr., 84
+
+Origen, 141
+
+Putnam, Allen, 75
+
+Paine, Thomas, 85, 87
+
+Potter, Dr. William B., 107
+
+Parker, Theodore, 114
+
+Queen of Spain, 146
+
+Redfield, Mrs., 21
+
+Randolph, Dr. B. P., 104, 105, 112, 128
+
+Richmond, Mrs. Cora L. V., 126
+
+Slade, Mr., 14
+
+Savage, M. J., 15, 22, 24, 25, 32
+
+Stead, W. T., 31
+
+Stanford, Leland, 31
+
+Tiffany, Joel, 90
+
+Tuttle, Hudson, 113, 116, 146
+
+Trevilyan, Sir W., 146
+
+Underhill, Leah Fox, 21
+
+Underwood, Mrs. S. A., 26, 80, 123
+
+Vinet, Dr., 5
+
+Victoria, Queen, 146
+
+Von Schick, Baron, 146
+
+Von Dirkinck, Baron, 146
+
+Wesley, Mr., 20
+
+Wood, Rev. J. G., 26
+
+Wallace, Alfred R. F. R. S., 29, 30
+
+Weisse, Dr., 84
+
+Washington, George, 85, 114
+
+Wilson, R. P., 88
+
+Whitney, J. F., 105
+
+Woodhull, Mrs., 109
+
+Wilson, James Victor, 112, 113
+
+Webster, Professor, 118
+
+Watson, Dr., 125
+
+Wittgenstein, Prince, 146
+
+Willshire, Sir T., 146
+
+Wilbraham, Col. E. B., 146
+
+Zöllner, Professor, 12, 13
+
+Zoroaster, 68, 88
+
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF BOOKS, PAPERS, ETC., QUOTED.
+
+
+Automatic or Spirit Writing, 15, 26, 80, 86, 98, 111, 119, 120, 121, 123,
+124, 133
+
+_Arena_, The, 15
+
+Astounding Facts from the Spirit World, 114
+
+_Banner of Light_, 21, 78, 79, 83, 84, 86, 89, 90, 97, 101, 119, 123, 125,
+126, 127
+
+_Christian at Work_, The, 29, 30
+
+_Chronicle_, San Francisco 29
+
+Century Dictionary, 35
+
+_Christian Reformer_, The, 129
+
+Declaration of Principles of the Spiritualists, 102, 125
+
+Dealings with the Dead, 104, 112, 123
+
+Death and the After Life, 118
+
+Discussion with Tiffany and Rhen, 121
+
+_Forum_, The, 16, 22
+
+Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World, 18
+
+_Fortnightly Review_, 29, 30
+
+Home Circle, 14
+
+Healing of the Nations, 96, 97, 99, 102
+
+_Herald_, Boston, 130
+
+Kojiki Nohonki, 132
+
+Koran, 132
+
+Kan-Ying-Peen, 132
+
+Law of Physic Phenomena, 17, 57, 74, 109, 111
+
+Life in Two Spheres, 113, 116
+
+Law Books of Manu, 132
+
+Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Witchcraft, and Miracles, 75
+
+_North American_, Philadelphia, 11
+
+Nineteenth Century Miracles, 13, 126
+
+Nature of Divine Revelation, 97
+
+Paradise Lost, 40
+
+_Pathfinder_, New York, 105
+
+Purana, 132
+
+_Quarterly Journal of Science_, 29
+
+_Religio-Philosophical Journal_, 14, 28, 80, 125
+
+Report of the 37th Anniversary of Modern Spiritualism, 21
+
+_Review of Reviews_, 31
+
+_Record_, Philadelphia, 128
+
+_Spiritual Clarion_, 14
+
+_Spiritual Telegraph_, 83, 96, 122
+
+Spiritual Science Demonstrated, 89, 92
+
+Spiritualism as It Is, 107, 108, 123
+
+Spiritualism 118
+
+Shaster, 132
+
+_The Border Land_, 31
+
+Treatise on Christian Doctrine, 40
+
+_Truth Seeker_, 83
+
+Telegraphic Answer to Mahan, 111
+
+The Diakka and their Earthly Victims, 112, 113
+
+_Tribune_, Chicago, 128, 129
+
+Tao-Te-King, 132
+
+Tripitaka, 132
+
+Veda, 132
+
+_World_, New York, 30
+
+What Is Spiritualism, 146
+
+Zend Avesta, 132
+
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATED OR EXPLAINED.
+
+
+GENESIS.
+  1:1-5, 93
+  1:28, 68
+  2:2, 46
+  2:7, 45
+  3:4, 39
+  4:10, 52
+  7:21, 22, 45
+  35:18, 61
+
+LEVITICUS.
+  19:31, 36, 53
+
+NUMBERS.
+  16:22, 48, 50
+  27:16, 50
+
+DEUTERONOMY.
+  13:1-3, 5, 77
+  18:9-12, 36
+
+1 SAMUEL.
+  Chap. 28, 52, 53
+
+1 KINGS.
+  4:1, 73
+  17:21, 22, 61
+
+2 KINGS.
+  19:35, 72
+  21:2, 6, 9, 11, 36
+
+JOB.
+  7:21, 62
+  14:21, 63
+  19:25-27, 93
+  34: 14, 15, 45
+
+PSALMS.
+  6:5, 63
+  13:3, 62
+  17:15, 93
+  115:17, 63
+  119:105, 131
+  146:3, 4, 62
+
+ECCLESIASTES.
+  3:19, 21, 45
+  8:11, 101
+  9:5, 6, 10, 43
+  12:7, 44, 45
+
+ISAIAH.
+  5:20, 101
+  8:19, 74
+  8:19, 20, 75, 133
+  14:12-14, 67
+  26:19, 93
+  38:1, 5, 18, 19, 63
+  61:1, 50
+
+EZEKIEL.
+  18:20, 97
+  28:, 67
+  28:2, 12-15, 68
+  37:12, 93
+
+DANIEL.
+  11:2, 93
+
+HOSEA.
+  13:14, 93
+
+HABAKKUK.
+  2:11, 52
+
+MATTHEW.
+  10:28, 50, 51, 52
+  10:39, 51
+  15:13, 9
+  17:3, 56
+  22:23-28, 32, 61
+  24:23-35, 135
+  24:24, 83, 134
+  24:30, 31, 58
+  25:32, 33, 97
+  27:18, 85
+  28:3, 4, 72
+
+LUKE.
+  10:18, 71
+  14:14, 64
+  16:, 57
+  19:35, 64
+  23:39-43, 58, 59
+
+JOHN.
+  3:6, 46
+  3:19-21, 109
+  6:39,40, 64
+  6:40, 51
+  8:44, 67
+  11:11, 62
+  11:25, 55
+  14:30, 68
+  19:31-33, 60
+  20:17, 59
+
+ACTS.
+  7:60, 62
+  16:16-18, 36
+  17:31, 64
+  26:23, 57
+
+ROMANS.
+  2:15, 95
+  4:17, 61
+  6:16, 68
+  6:23, 97
+
+1 CORINTHIANS.
+  11:30, 62
+  15:, 92
+  15:18, 64
+  15:51, 62
+  15:51-54, 61
+
+2 CORINTHIANS.
+  4:4, 68
+  5:2, 61
+  12:2-4, 59
+
+GALATIANS.
+  5:19-21, 36
+
+EPHESIANS.
+  2:2, 68
+  6:11, 72
+  6:12, 73
+
+PHILIPPIANS.
+  3:11, 61
+  1:23, 61
+
+1 THESSALONIANS.
+  4:14, 62
+  4:15-17, 58, 61
+  5:23, 48
+
+2 THESSALONIANS.
+  2:8,9, 139
+  2:9-12, 138
+
+1 TIMOTHY.
+  1:17, 42
+  3:6, 67
+  4:1, 73, 88
+  6:16 42
+
+2 TIMOTHY.
+  3:8, 144
+  4:1, 8, 64
+  4:1, 10-12, 139
+
+HEBREWS.
+  2:14, 55
+  10:25-29, 135
+  11:15, 16, 61
+  11:40, 48
+  12:9, 23, 50
+  12:23, 47, 50
+
+JAMES.
+  4:6-8, 72
+
+1 PETER.
+  1:11, 49
+  3:19, 48
+  3:20, 49
+  5:8, 9, 73
+
+2 PETER.
+  1:16-18, 56
+  1:19, 131
+  2:4, 66, 72
+  3:7, 13, 72
+
+1 JOHN.
+  2:22, 87
+  2:23, 83
+  4:1, 16-18, 134
+  4:3, 88
+  5:18, 72
+
+JUDE.
+  Verse 4, 88
+  " 6, 66
+  " 9, 55
+
+REVELATION.
+  2:7, 59
+  5:13, 72
+  6:9-11, 52
+  12:3, 4, 137
+  12:7, 71
+  12:12, 135
+  13:1-10, 137
+  13:11, 13, 14, 136
+  13:11-17, 138
+  14:1-5, 138
+  14:8, 144
+  16:13, 14, 75, 138
+  16:14, 145, 146
+  17:5, 142
+  18:2, 140
+  18:2, 4, 5, 144
+  19:11-21, 145
+  19:20, 138
+  20:4-6, 51
+  20:14, 15, 72
+  21:8, 36, 93
+  22:1, 2, 59
+  22:15, 93
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 Original edition.
+
+    2 Original edition. Not found in the mutilated edition, revised by Dr.
+      Curry.
+
+    3 The revision of Dr. Clarke’s Commentary by Dr. Curry, proves the
+      truthfulness of what the doctor here says, for this important
+      passage is entirely eliminated, and its place filled with statements
+      which Dr. Clarke did not make, and sentiments which he did not
+      believe. It is no less than a crime to treat a dead man’s work in
+      this manner.
+
+    4 For a full argument on this point, fortified by testimony, the
+      application of which is beyond question, see works treating on the
+      United States as a subject of prophecy, for sale by the
+      International Tract Society, Battle Creek, Mich.
+
+    5 See works on the three messages of Revelation 14, for sale by the
+      International Tract Society, Battle Creek, Mich.
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN SPIRITUALISM***
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