A Convention of Spiritualists in Missouri
By John S. Wightman
The State Progressive Spiritualists’ Association of Missouri held its annual convention at Kansas City, Mo., February 24-26. At this convention there were present Dr. George B. Warne, of Chicago, president of the National Spiritualists’ Association; Dr. Thomas Grimshaw, of St. Louis, a leading Spiritualist lecturer; and others. The meeting, though locally confined within State lines, was entirely representative of the national organization, both as to views and as to members. The writer was present, and by careful observation and some investigation of certain conditions, is well satisfied of one thing: Spiritualism as an organization, as an organized force influential and growing in numbers—is slowly but surely dying. Of this there can be no doubt. As a psychic force, a belief, a religion, if it may be called such, Spiritualism is rapidly gaining ground, gaining its many converts under other more plausible and attractive hypotheses, marching under far more pleasing and attractive banners. The association speakers could point to no increase in its numbers, boast of no remarkable accomplishment of its present-day mediumship, show no satisfactory increase of its financial ability or social strength. Chiefly, the work of the convention was an apologetic defense of the disputed character of its mediums and propagandists in general, a plea for the future existence of the organization and for the loyal adherence of its members to first principles. It is unmistakable that Spiritualism sees in the Psychical Research Society of Prof. James H. Hyslop, and his work, an able competitor in the business of “seeking familiar spirits,” “from the living to the dead;” a serious menace to the very life of the organization of the Spiritualists. But the association takes the most hopeful view possible; it predicts that all these will yet come together upon an indistinguishable plane. Dr. Warne said: “Professor Hyslop and his confrères are not so very far away from us. Our ways are nearly parallel to-day, but like the lengthening reach of rails, they meet and continue on together in the distance. I plead with you to be just a little patient; wait, for Professor Hyslop is nearer our side of the line than many of you think. . . . Professor Hyslop has asked us to turn over to him the phenomena and the scientific side of our belief, and attend solely to the ethical, mental, and moral side of Spiritualism. Spiritualism has chosen those through which it should be made known to the world. It was not the scientist. It was the lowly and untutored mind to whom the first revelation that has brought about this great revelation of the thinking world was given.” Thomas Grimshaw, leading lecturer and trustee of the National Spiritualists’ Association, said: “We are not Spiritualists because of something we have been taught to believe. It is a matter of personal experience. Death is not the end, but the beginning, of life. These phenomena of communicating with those who have passed into the other world are true phenomena; and if you have not experienced them, it is your misfortune.” I think some considerable significance will be attached to the following statement by Dr. Grimshaw: “The Psychical Research Society is doing much to disarm the suspicion of the general public by their study of the phenomena that attend the Spiritualistic seance, in the same way that they pursue their studies of physical phenomena.” In this connection, that is an intensely interesting statement found in “Great Controversy:” “It is true that Spiritualism is now changing its form, and, veiling some of its more objectionable features, is assuming a Christian guise. But its utterances from the platform and the press have been before the public for nearly forty years, and in these its real character stands revealed.” These teachings can not be “denied or hidden.” The president of the National Spiritualists’ Association said: “The propagation of Spiritualism may be taken entirely out of our hands by others receiving communications from the spiritual world.” And this, in the opinion of the writer, is just what is being done. Professor Hyslop’s work and that of others is taking out of the hands of the Spiritualists’ society the work both of demonstration and of propagation,—taking the11same deceptive, soul-destroying work, arraying it in doctrinal robes of white, and sending this ancient theory of the “immortality of the soul” forth upon the “wings of light.” It conquers the nations, and if it were possible, would deceive the very elect. Dr. Warne called attention to the fact that W. T. Stead, the famous London editor and writer, and “universal peace” advocate, was a Spiritualist, had written a book entitled “How I Know the Dead Return,” and had stated to him (Dr. Warne), while visiting at his home in Chicago, that he writes through the influence of Miss Frances Willard and a former noted Chicago woman, and that he always converses with his dead friends once every week. “Christian Science, New Thought, Theosophy, etc., are all sciences that have sprung from Spiritualism,” said Dr. Warne. Those, I am sure, who have carefully compared the doctrines and beliefs of these modern “isms” will quite agree with Dr. Warne. That Spiritualists have not changed their attitude toward the Bible, denying, in fact, that it is of divine origin, appears from the many utterances made at this convention. For instance, the president of the National Spiritualists’ Association said: “Matthew Arnold, the great English critic, once said: ‘The first requisite to knowing anything about the Bible is to realize that the men who wrote it, not only could err, but that they did err. The Bible is a humanly edited book, and there is no department of human effort which it touches in which it is infallible. It is full of high hopes, unrivaled poetry, and damnable morality.’” To recapitulate: the Missouri organization of Spiritualists regards Spiritualism as a religion that will yet take the place of, and become more popular than, the Christian religion; in its hymn-books reference is made to “angels” and “spirits,” but none to God and Christ; its medium lecturers prayed to Lucifer, and the “god of nature,” but not once to God or Christ; the convention denied the divinity and vicarious atonement of Christ; it ridiculed the Bible. It is the same ancient philosophy born in the garden of Eden,—“Thou shalt not surely die,”—and in its new and brighter garb, in its multifarious forms so distinctly separate from that heretofore known as Spiritualism, feared, despised, and ridiculed,—as Christian Science, New Thought, Theosophy, Psychical Research, Emmanuel Movement, etc., the doctrine of Spiritualism, which is the doctrine, the very essence of the doctrine, of the “natural immortality of the soul,” will honeycomb society, permeate the churches, “deceive the nations.” In fact, Spiritualism—in these many new forms and phases, so seductive and pleasing,—will deceive, and finally control, all whose names are “not written in the book of life.” It is worthy of mention that the Spiritualists were welcomed to Kansas City in a public address delivered by the mayor of the city. The newspapers had very little to say about the convention, with the exception of one journal that gave a reasonably fair report. Before adjourning, a number of resolutions were adopted, chief of which was one relating to the building of schools to teach Spiritualism and mediumship, and the putting of books on Spiritualism and psychical research in the public libraries. The following extract from the spirit of prophecy is worthy of thought in this connection:—
“When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with Spiritualism, when under the influence of this threefold union our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution, as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we know that the time has come for the marvelous workings of Satan, and that the end is near.”