THE NATURE AND TENDENCY OF MODERN SPIRITUALISM.
By J. H. W.
Accounts of the greatest acts and events are given in the Bible in plain, simple language. Take the record of creation for an example: [Gen. i, 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.” Here are facts, the greatness of which the minds of the wisest can never comprehend, expressed in language that a child can understand. The whole history is a model of simplicity. With these verses contrast the first verses of a record of creation professedly given by an exalted spirit, under the imposing head of “Disclosures from the Interior.” (By request we give the entire chapter.) “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. 3. “And God called the Disclosing Firmament heaven, and the disclosed creation he called earth. 4. “And God said, Let Mechanical Procedure be! and movement, rhythmical, harmonical, melodial, unfolded from the firmament. And the movement thereof in the moving creation was time. 5. “And God said, Let there be space! and the firmament was separated from the emanation, and the firmament, unmoved, appeared, and the emanation unfolded within the procedure. And the firmament is manifest Infinitude, and the emanation separated, is encompassed space.” 6. “These are the generations of creation in the day that Jehovah God created the heaven and the earth; and behold the creation was one earth and the dome of disclosure one heaven. 7. “And God said, Let there be light! and the Divine Procedure unfolded a luminary unto the ethereal which divided the emanation from the firmament. And the Intelligence was light. 8. “And God said, Let there be heat! and the breathing life thereof descended. 9. “And God said, Let there be movement of moving Energy! and life descended, interanimate, comprehending Creation, and there was movement spherical from the heaven of disclosure. 10. “And God said, Let there be center given! and from the Divine Procedure descended the arm of strength unto the right and the arm of strength unto the left; and from the arm of strength at the right proceeded vital-electro motion and communicated polarity; and from the arm of strength at the left proceeded re-attractive electro-magnetic force and created the horizontal; and the horizontal became the axis and the points thereof the poles. 11. “And God made two great lights to rule the Zodiac, and to be for creative disclosure, disclosive manifestation, manifest glory, glorious radiation, interpenetrative aggregation; and thence vortices, vortical suns, suns of vortices, solariums, vortical planetariums, planets, floral universes, universal paradises, paradisical heavens, heavens of spiritual universes, celestial heavens, seraphic habitations, seraphinal universes, cities of heavenly seraphima, and final commutative universal intelligence in unity of immeasurable individuality, in trinity of unfolding universes, adorning and ascending in beatification unto eternal life. 12. “This is the Genesis of Nature;—not uncreated or self-originated, but created;—not the progressive, upgrowing, upheaving, upmentalizing, upspiritualizing, upreaching struggle of a germ;—but condescension infinite, erection voluntary, and bestowment merciful, of the Divine Creator; to whom be given adoration immeasurable and eternal! world without end!” Such a piece of nonsense—such a stringing together of words without meaning, we venture to say, cannot be found beyond the limits of Spiritualism. And it is truly strange that any one that has capacity to pronounce these meaningless phrases should think it an improvement of the Holy Scriptures! A correspondent of the Spiritual Telegraph calls special attention to the book entitled, “The Healing of the Nations,” and says: “It is not only the ‘Book for the millions,’ as our worthy friend Talmadge says; but in my estimation it is the ‘Book of books,’ transcending in merit, in the beauty, purity, loveliness, truthfulness, and grandeur of its philosophy, the Bible, by more than two thousand years in the time of progress.” What has now been adduced is sufficient to show that Spiritualism is destroying the faith of the Bible, setting it aside for teachings more pleasing to the carnal mind. We have stated that they teach doctrines contrary to the Bible, some of which we will notice. Their doctrine is a denial of Christ. Says the scripture, “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.” 1 John ii, 23. To give the name or ascribe the honors and power to others that belong to Christ is surely denying him; for, according to the Bible, it is impossible to find his equal in nature and office. But quotations already given show that others do claim the name and profess to have the power possessed by him, and some claim still greater power. Says the “Healing of the Nations,” p. 74: “Man is his own saviour—his own redeemer. He is his own judge—in his own scales weighed.” Were this last sentence true, it is fair to presume there would be but very few “found wanting.” Not that their characters are made to conform to a perfect balance, but “their own scales” are adjusted to suit their characters. If this teaching is not a parallel to that of the serpent, “Ye shall be as gods,” we know not how its parallel would be recognized. The prospectus of the Truth Seeker says: “It shall be the organ through which the christs of the last dispensation will choose to speak.” Could there be a more perfect and complete fulfillment of prophecy than this? A correspondent of the same paper says they have concluded to “—Analyze the laws of cause and effect, be good philosophers, study our own being, let God and Jesus go, and redeem ourselves and progress in eternal happiness.” The scriptures say that God is the judge of all, and Jesus is the author of salvation; but Spiritualism teaches that man is his own judge, and his own saviour and redeemer, and then in presumptuous blasphemy boast that they will “let God and Jesus go.” We firmly believe that the day is approaching when they would gladly give worlds to have the Lord return in mercy to them. But Oh! it will then be too late. Now is the time—the only time. They know not what they do to thus abuse his mercy, while it is graciously offered: soon it will be withdrawn and unmingled wrath will be their portion. It would seem to be some relief to this dark picture if the utterance of such sentiments was confined to open blasphemers—those who scoffed and mocked at all that is good. But it is not. He who declares the end from the beginning, has described those who have a form of godliness, that they give heed to doctrines of devils. And his words are fulfilled. From lectures on “Spiritual Science” by “Rev. R. P. Wilson,” the well-known medium and lecturer, we extract the following: “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 humanity50wherein 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.” We pass to another point, not because our material is exhausted on this, but the proof offered is sufficient to establish it. They deny the Holy Spirit. Every Spiritualist lies under this charge who quotes the scriptures referring to the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit, and applies them to Spiritualism; for their whole system rests upon the proposition that the spirits communicating are the spirits of the dead; therefore in applying those scriptures to such spirits, they really make the Holy Spirit of God and the spirit of a dead man identical! Some may think we are unfair in this conclusion, thinking they would not endorse anything so monstrous and absurd. But if any think there is anything too monstrous or absurd for Spiritualism to endorse and teach, we refer them to the following, which we think will correct such an impression. It is from Dr. J. B. Dods’ report of a case of healing by spirit power, already quoted from, wherein he called Christ the “Master Medium.” This extract is intended to show by what power the healing was effected. The spirit communicating professed to be that of his own father: “John, there are seven of us now visible to you. All are familiar to your mind except two. These are the mother and brother of Betsy. Her father’s presence you well know. Her parents and brother are very anxious to have her cured; have sought us out, and we are come to visit and instruct you how to proceed to make her whole. It will require seven spirits to effect it, acting through seven human beings. We seven might possibly effect it through you alone, but it would be very difficult, because her diseases are various and complicated, and two of them are incurable by human skill. You will therefore call up from the audience the following persons: Jane Cook, Jonathan Nickerson, William Atkins, Phineas Freeman, Betsy’s husband; and Mr. Hutchins, a medium, must be there; yourself will make the seventh. Form the circle, and you and Hutchins lay your hands upon Betsy’s head. We seven will appear and act upon each of the circle. You will proceed as directed, and she will arise and walk with strength and firmness, a healed woman. No spirit ever goes alone to cure a human being, or to execute a command. They go by sevens—these seven constitute the Holy Spirit. ‘The seven lamps before the throne are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.’ Remember this, my son, and they have each seven eyes, which only means a perfection of sight. These seven spirits do not always mean the same individuals, but any seven of the myriads before the throne selected and sent as we now are. Mr. Hutchins will see us and describe us before the audience. Declare these glad tidings to Betsy, and announce to your audience this evening what you are instructed to do, and appoint the night when it shall be accomplished.” The spirits of any seven dead men constitute the Holy Spirit! And Dr. Dods is styled a “Christian Spiritualist.” Is not this a doctrine of the devil? Yes; the “father of lies” is manifest in such teachings. And it is astonishing that any one that has either reverence or reason left should endorse such things. It sometimes seems to us as though Satan presumed even on the confidence of his own followers in giving utterance to such statements. It shows also the fulfillment of other scriptures yet to be noticed. They deny the doctrine of punishment for sin. The Bible informs us that when God created man and placed him in Eden, he told him that if he disobeyed him he should die. We find this penalty for transgression confirmed in many scriptures. “The soul that sineth, it shall die.” Eze. xviii, 4. “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. vi, 23. Who would imagine, from reading the works of Spiritualists, or even those of the popular authors of the day, either secular or religious, that death was an enemy, a curse, a fruit of sin? A popular author makes an apostrophe to death as follows: “O death! thou art lovely. O death! thou art grand. Now I see that man was made in the image of God. Life may deface it, but death restores it. The impress of the Divinity is here.” If this were true, Jesus would again deface the image of God when he raised his saints from the dead! The Spiritual Age says: “There is, strictly speaking, no such thing as death, in the popular signification of that term. Death, so-called—the death of the human—is a veritable birth into a higher life. It is a change in the condition, consequent upon outward dissolution. … The REAL man survives the process intact, and still exists in full life and consciousness, upon a plane beyond—far beyond!—the reach of fire and flood.” The scripture, corrected by this standard, should read: The soul that sinneth, it shall be born into a higher life! The wages of sin is a transition to a more elevated plane of being! This is comforting to sinners, no doubt, for the present; but when the penalty of God’s holy, just and good law shall be inflicted, and the sinner dies, even the second death, how miserably foolish and vain will appear the perversions of God’s word on which he has staked eternal life! Truly, “they know not what they do.” The “Healing of the Nations” says: “At the death of the outer body the true life of the inner spirit commences.” Thus, again, we may paraphrase the threat of the Lord to Adam: “In the day thou eatest thereof the true life of thine inner spirit shall commence.” If our professed Christian friends discover the counterpart of their systems of theology in such teachings, we hope they may be led to consider well its opposition to the word of God. The rudiments of Spiritualism have been taught in the pulpits throughout the length and breadth of the land. And it is vain for those ministers to try to pull down the superstructure, and denounce it as evil, who guard and defend the foundation with such a jealous care. If they would successfully oppose it, let them first acknowledge the plain and scriptural facts, that a dead man is dead, and that the living know more than the dead: [Eccl. ix, 5:] that death is an enemy, brought into the world by the deceptions of the devil, and that life is a blessing, and Jesus a friend, by whom we may have it eternally. Eternal life! how rich, how glorious the prospect! Sure to them who seek for it through Christ. Rom. ii, 7.