p. 12 | Rejuvenating Spiritualism

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 27, 1913

Rejuvenating Spiritualism

THERE is much in the way of trickery and fraud passing for Spiritualism which is not worthy of even so dignified a classification. In many instances Spiritualism itself has failed to cover up its true character, and has shown its real inwardness by manifestations that have been anything but creditable. This is recognized by some of the leaders in this cult.

Dr. Hyslop, a leading Spiritualist, comes out with a “Word to Spiritualists” in which he takes them to task for this lowering of their standard. He thinks that Spiritualism needs a rejuvenation. According to the Outlook of Oct. 11, 1913, he says:—

Why do not men and women in this agnostic age turn with avidity to the Spiritualist’s claim that he has indubitable evidence of a future life? The answer to this question is simple. The Spiritualists have not given any intelligent account of their own evidence, and have allowed their claims to be poisoned by so much real or apparent fraud that intelligent people would have none of it. They have not put ethics and religious earnestness forward as the primary object of their belief and lives.

On the contrary, they have exhibited performances which offend every intellectual and esthetic instinct of men when it comes to beliefs that have assorted themselves with some sort of idealism, and have given us performances that are poorer than conjuring and totally lacking in intellectuality and taste. . . .

Now, all this sort of thing will have to be abandoned if Spiritualism is to obtain any respect at all. It has harbored all sorts of frauds, and taken no adequate means of expelling them from its ranks or its promoters and priests. . . . There is no reason for making a fuss about immortality unless the belief is helpful to morality and religious ideals generally.

Spiritualism may seek to hide what it is for the sake of a respectable standing in the religious world. But a fountain cannot rise above its source, and no more can Spiritualism. It is founded upon the great falsehood uttered by the prince of darkness to our first parents, “Ye shall not surely die.” It affirms that which the Word of God denies; namely, the immortality of the soul and the conscious state of the dead. It is a great system of error, and error only. There is no such thing as rejuvenating it.