Communication Between the Living and Dead
The following paragraph relating to the question of communication between the living and the dead, appeared in a recent issue of the Christian Register:— The death of Mr. Hodgson raises a question like that which was asked after the death of Mr. Myers in England. These two men have made careful and thoroughgoing studies of occult and psychical phenomena. Mr. Hodgson had for his principal occupation for years the study and control of the phenomena manifested in the case of Mrs. Piper. Now these men have passed on. They were expert in all that concerned the study of such phenomena on this side of the grave. Both of them promised, when their turn came, to send back, if possible, intelligible messages. In the case of Mr. Myers it is a fact, we believe, that the test he devised has failed since his death. If this happens in the case of Mr. Hodgson, is it not better for us to believe that, for wise reasons which we should approve if we knew them, the blessed ones who have passed within the veil are as much restrained from communication with us as we are from communication with them? The question whether the dead communicate with the living depends, according to this, upon the evidence furnished by the reception or the absence of a message from the dead Mr. Hodgson. A great many messages purporting to be from other dead people have come to the living, and it is not clear what additional proof on the subject would be furnished by a message claiming to be from this particular person. Is it not vastly better to accept the plain evidence of Scripture, which states that “the dead know not anything” (Eccl. 9:5), that the living should not seek to the dead for knowledge, but to the Lord (Isa. 8:19), and that communication with “familiar spirits” was contrary to the will of God and was strictly forbidden, showing that such communications were from a lying source?