SPIRITUALISM A SATANIC DELUSION.
ITS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER.
SPIRITUALISM, in its modern phases and manifestations, began in the Fox family, in Hydesville, N. Y., in 1848. The mediums were taken to Rochester and put to rigid tests, and it then took the name of “Rochester Knockings.” The manifestations have increased and spread, until now in every part of the world there are “rapping,” “writing,” “speaking,” and “healing” mediums. In the United States alone, Spiritualists number upward of ten millions. Only twenty-nine years have passed since its advent; yet their numbers are far greater than those of any religious sect. Who, then, will deny that it is a matter of importance, and that it demands attention? Every candid man, who has had a fair chance to witness its phenomena, is compelled to acknowledge that it must be the work of invisible spirits, that have both power and intelligence more than human. Judge Edmonds, in “Year-Book of Spiritualism,” for 1871, makes the following statement in regard to their numbers at that time:— “Preparatory to the Ecumenical Council, the Pope desired to learn the religious convictions of Christendom; and the Catholic hierarchy of this country took pains to obtain it through its numerous priesthood; and the result of inquiry was what I obtained and gave to the world; so that it was not our statement of our strength, but that of our adversaries, and they have never contradicted or in any way questioned it. “Within the last two or three months there has been at Baltimore a convocation of the Roman Catholic bishops and archbishops of this country. One of the most interesting subjects for their consideration was the statistical religious condition of our people. Each diocese brought its information; and the result was, that while Romanism and Protestantism combined numbered from eight to nine millions, with some forty-five thousand preachers, Spiritualism numbered between ten and eleven millions, with fifty thousand mediums. “Recollect, now, that this estimate comes not from us, but from our opponents; is not the product of our imaginations, but the result of the severe scrutiny of those who have no sympathy with us. I confess, however, that I believe it to be accurate; all my information goes to confirm it; and my error was in estimating the number too low, lest I might be accused of exaggeration.” BY WHAT STANDARD SHALL WE TRY THEM?
Spiritualists often appeal to the Bible, and quote Scripture, making free use of Bible phrases at least, so far as suits their purpose. We propose, therefore, to try them by the Bible. No Spiritualist ought to complain of this; for they say the prophets were mediums; and that Christ was one of the best men that ever lived. 1. The Bible is the truest and most harmonious standard to which we can appeal. 2. It contains the oldest record in existence. 3. It gives the only rational account of the creation, and of the fall of man. 4. Its system of morality and chain of prophecy prove it divine. 5. Those who sincerely love, and strive to obey, the teachings of the Bible, are the best people in the world. The best citizens, neighbors, husbands, and wives are those who take the Bible as their guide, and Christ as their example. 6. When we contrast those countries where the Bible is revered, with heathen lands, or with infidel France, when she had destroyed the Bible and put out its light, we are constrained to say, in the language of Jesus, “Thy word is truth.” What book on earth can compare with the Bible? “What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.” “Men’s books with heaps of chaff are stored;
God’s Book doth golden grains afford;
Then leave the chaff and spend your pains
In gathering up the golden grains.” “Nay, were the seas one chrysolite,
The earth a golden ball,
And diamonds all the stars of night,
This Book were worth them all.” THE WORKS OF SPIRITUALISM ARE POSITIVELY FORBIDDEN BY THE WORD OF GOD.
1. Necromancy is Forbidden.—“When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 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.”—Deut. 18: 9–12. Webster gives the definition of necromancy as “pretended communication with the dead.” And Spiritualists everywhere claim that their spiritual communications are from the spirits of the dead. 2. Familiar Spirits are Forbidden.—“Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them; I am the Lord your God.” Lev. 19: 31. “Familiar spirit: A demon or evil spirit supposed to attend at a call.”—Webster. Spiritualists confess their spirits to be of the familiar kind. The following is from the Spiritual Telegraph, Dec. 20, 1856: “I must refer again to the ‘guardian spirit’ of our circle. He is always with us when we meet, and his language and deportment toward each one of us are those of a tried, intimate, and ‘familiar’ friend.” But why multiply proof on this head? Spiritualists do not deny that their mesmerizing, magnetizing, calling on the dead, etc., are what is called in the Bible, “charming,” “enchantment,” “sorcery,” “witchcraft,” “necromancy,” “divination,” “consulting with familiar spirits,” etc. And every Bible student knows that these are declared in numerous places to be “abomination,” and are strictly forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments. See 2 Kings 21: 2, 6, 9; Rev. 21: 8; Gal. 5: 19–21; Acts 16: 16–18. Those who embrace Spiritualism, therefore, have to give up the Bible. Both cannot be true. The Bible is true; and Spiritualism must be false. THEY ARE NOT SPIRITS OF THE DEAD.
1. In ancient times, when people supposed they were sacrificing to “the dead,” it is positively declared that they sacrificed “unto devils.” Ps. 106: 28, 37; 1 Cor. 10: 20. 2. The dead have no knowledge of things done in the world. Job says, “His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” Chap. 14: 21. “The breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146: 4. “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 forever in anything that is done under the sun.” Eccl. 9: 5, 6. If Spiritualists are startled at the scriptural idea of unconsciousness in death, we call their attention to their own teachings on the subject:— “The man so killed—what was his sensation? It was for a time suspended. To him existence was nothing. . . . So Prof. Webster was eight days and a half unconscious.”—Death and the After-Life, by A. J. Davis, pp. 18, 19.