SPIRITUALISM A SATANIC DELUSION.
The spirits at the Banner of Light circle described how they get possession of the body:— “I ask that spirit, ‘Will you yield me up the control of your mortal form for a short time?’ The answer is generally, ‘I will.’ . . . . The spirit is subjected to the entire control of the predominating spirit. It is, in a word, magnetized by the spirit; held in perfect subjection.” “We may further add, in this connection, that the trance mediums for the spirit intercourse are equally irresponsible. Many of them are totally unable to resist the powers which come to them from the invisible and unknown realms.”—Telegraph’s Answer to Mahan, p. 10. Swedenborg says of the object of the spirits:— “We mean to revolutionize the whole race of man. We will write what we will, and this medium has not the power to resist what we will to be done. Such we intend shall be the condition of all men. Human destiny is now measurably in our hands.”—Book of Human Nature, p. 308.139 Again the same author says:— “Nearly the whole world of spirits is fanatical, and seeks nothing else but to teach and to lead, striving even to possess the bodies of men, and loosen all the bonds of conscience, especially in respect of marriage.”—Ib., p. 299. SEDUCING, DECEPTIVE SPIRITS.
Their flattering style is like that of the seducer. The communications from the spirits abound in such as the following:— “Come in confidence to us.” “Let our teachings deeply impress you.” “You must not doubt what we say.” “Learn of us.” “Have confidence in us.” “Obey our directions and you will be benefited.” “Seek to obtain knowledge of us.” “Have faith in us.” “Fear not to obey.” “Obey us and you will be greatly blessed.” Judge Edmonds, in his Broadway Tabernacle lecture, Feb. 16, 1855, said:— “I assure you from my own experience and observation, that the fascination of this intercourse is so great that its tendency is to lead men away from their proper judgment, and instill a spirit of fanaticism most revolting to the calm and natural mind.” The Spiritual Telegraph, of July 11, 1857, says:— “In giving the results of our own experience and observation upon this subject, we would premise that spirits unquestionably can, and often do, personate other spirits, and that, too, often with such perfection as, for the time being, to defy every effort to detect the deception. Not only can they represent the leading personal characteristics of the spirits whom they purport to be, but they can relate such facts in the history of said spirits as may be known to the inquirer, or to some one else with whom the communicating spirit is or has been en rapport.” “The point to which I wish to call your attention is the almost universal fact that mediums devoted to external manifestations, while under the influence of this presiding spirit, are under an influence to deceive, to cheat, which is almost irresistible. It does not matter particularly how good manifestations they get. I have seen this deceptive disposition manifested in mediums who could get very remarkable manifestations, such as the movement in the open light of a table with several men standing upon it.”—Lect., pp. 122, 123. Dr. Child, in Banner of Light, Oct. 26, 1864, says:— “Nor can we doubt, I think, that there are a diverse host of badly misdirected spirits. The lower spirits seek to undo the good work of the higher, and to harass, and to annoy, and subject to suffering, medium and sitter. They will deceive us for their amusement. Where is the medium but what has either seen or felt this? I have both. But wise spirits, who are to us the revelators and executors of the divine will, designedly deceive us for our good.” The following is part of a list of predictions made at Chagrin Falls, Ohio, Sept. 20, 1860, by the spirits, and published by A. J. Davis. The reader will see that it must have come from the father of lies:— “1. Next winter Congress will get into a fight. Blood will flow.
“2. This nation will be dead as a nation before the 4th of March next.
“3. We will have no more presidents. The present one (Buchanan) will not serve his time out.
“4. The Republican candidate will get the popular vote, but will not be elected.
“5. Canada will enter the new Republic in America.” The spirit, professedly, of Swedenborg says:— “When spirits begin to speak with man, he must beware that he believe nothing that they say; for nearly everything they say is fabricated by them, and they LIE; for if they are permitted to narrate anything, as what Heaven is and how things in the Heavens are to be understood, they will TELL SO MANY LIES that a man would be astonished.”—Banner of Light, March 20, 1869. The Crucible of April 23, 1871, says:— “The best that can be done, a spirit cannot always make a medium speak the truth. During the last half score of years, we have had varied and extended experience as a psychological operator, which has enabled us to look with more charity on the false in phenomenal Spiritualism than in former days. We have learned that, do the best we can, it is impossible to find a medium that can always be made to speak the truth. We can often make them talk eloquently, and sometimes logically, but no one can be made to always talk truthfully.” That the early Christians understood the deceptive character of the spirits and mediums of that time, is evident from the following quotation of an elder’s reproof of one of them, as given by Irenæus:— “Marcus, thou former of idols, inspector of portents, skilled in consulting the stars, and deep in the black arts of magic, ever by tricks such as these confirming the doctrines of error. Furnishing signs unto those involved by thee in deception, wonders of power that is utterly severed from God, and apostate, which Satan, thy true father, enables thee still to accomplish, by means of Azazel, that fallen, yet mighty, angel.”—Against Heresies, book i., chap. 15, p. 68. The poet Saxe aptly says:—
“If in your new estate you cannot rest,
But must return, oh! grant us this request:
Come with a noble and celestial air,
And prove your titles by the names you bear,
Give some clear tokens of your heavenly birth;
Write as good English as you wrote on earth;
And, what were once superfluous to advise,
Don’t tell, I beg you, such egregious lies.” THEY DENY GOD AND BLASPHEME.
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Ps. 53:1. W. F. Jamieson in debate with Burgess said, “I do not believe in a personal God, no great First Cause, no Creator. Space, and the worlds, or the matter composing them, never were created, never needed a First Cause.”—Banner of Light, April 12, 1871. In the Banner of Light of Aug. 8, 1868, we have the following:— “It is just as sensible to pray to the ocean, or the sun, as to the Jewish, ‘unknown Jehovah,’ or the Christian’s God. Nature justifies faith in no such ABORTION! People of shallow brains are so apt to get mad when they hear a free-thinker speak irreverently of the GREAT OVERGROWN BOSS of the universe!” Mr. Jamieson, in the Crucible, Moses Hull’s paper, of April 22, 1871, says:— “A personal God would be a monstrosity.” “All prayer addressed to a supposed Supreme Intelligence is idolatry. There is not and cannot be a Supreme Spirit even.” Speaking of the God of the Jews, he describes him as “an unmitigated tyrant, a despisable murderer, worse and meaner than a common cutthroat. If a Yankee should ever have the ill luck to get into his kingdom, he would kick his ‘alabaster throne’ to pieces!” etc. What purports to be the spirit of Edward B. Richards, published in the Banner of Light of Oct. 26, 1861, says:— “I’ve lost my faith in God, and I’d just as soon think of believing in a God of fire as believing in any kind of a God, for aught I see of him or his work. There is none—there’s nothing at all you can call God. I am satisfied that all who do the best they know how to, get along the best, and the less you try to know of God, the better off you will be.” A speaker at the Spiritualist camp-meeting at Havre de Grace, Md., in Aug. 1871, uttered the following:— “The time has come for Spiritualism to take the offensive; our belief has been advancing for a thousand years, and the time is come for us to smite the intolerant enemy like the bullock before the butcher. A nice religion the pretenders would like to fasten upon the worldlings; taken from the records and practices of such old liars and murderers as Moses and his villainous tribe. The Bible is a polluted collection of blood and lies, and unfit for a sane man to read. The only true man that ever wrote in either of the Testaments was Judas, who gave Christ credit for being a divine spirit, and who, in putting the matter to the test in the so-called betrayal, lost his own life, while such lying hypocrites as Peter, Luke, and the rest of the gang, grew rich on the blood of their Master. . . . It is an insult to our psychological development to admit such an absurdity as a creature like this God. We look beyond such mummery; ours is a vast hierarchy of spirits endowed with all the power these fools allot to their so-called omnipotent God. Ruler of what is he? Not of this world, for he don’t rule me. I do as I please, so do you. Why, even Satan can overmatch him, according to Christian doctrine.” Joel Tiffany, a Spiritualist lecturer and publisher, in his monthly of June, 1858, said:— “My experience has been, go among Spiritualists where you will, and, as a general thing, they have no faith in a living, conscious, intelligent Deity, possessed of love, volition, affection, etc., as an object of religious aspiration and worship.” THE DEVIL IS THEIR GOD AND FATHER.
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” John 8:44. Man is so constituted that he will worship some being or power which he regards as superior to himself. And as Spiritualists refuse allegiance to the God of the Bible, it will not be surprising if they choose Satan as their god and father. History shows that such has always been the case with men in past ages. Concerning demon worship in early times, Gibbon says:— “It was the universal sentiment, both of the church and of heretics, that the demons were the authors, the patrons, and the objects, of idolatry. Those rebellious spirits who had been degraded from the rank of angels and cast down into the infernal pit, were still permitted to roam upon the earth, to torment the bodies, and to seduce the minds of sinful men. The demons soon discovered and abused the natural propensities of the human heart toward devotion, and, artfully withdrawing the adoration of mankind from their Creator, they usurped the place and honors of the Supreme Deity. By the success of their malicious contrivances, they at once gratified their own vanity and revenge, and obtained the only comfort of which they were yet susceptible—the hope of involving the human species in the participation of their guilt and misery.”—Vol. i., p. 523. In the Banner of Light, Nov. 4, 1865, is the following question and answer; the answer by the “controlling spirit,” through Mrs. Conant:— “Q. Do you know of any such spirit as a person we call the devil?”
“A. We certainly do. And yet THIS SAME DEVIL IS OUR GOD, OUR FATHER.” Dr. A. B. Child says, “What is called the devil is the Spirit of God in nature.”—Christ and the People, p. 167. The same author in another work says:— “It is the mission of the devil, yet unthought of by men, to carry them through the hell of earth, and prepare them for the heaven of the spiritual world.”—Better Views of Living, p. 41. In the “National Convention” of Philadelphia, Judge Carter “was warmly applauded by the audience,” while uttering his views on the subject of diabolism, as follows:— “Spiritualists are not, and should not be, frightened by the hue and cry, and the terrors, of diabolism. They care not for having the devil to aid and abet them. Indeed, they think, and think justly, that if Spiritualism and its manifestations and phenomena are of and from the devil, they are prepared to stand by, and fight for the devil. . . . In goodness and wisdom he has turned to be a God, and, although he did rebel against the Almighty, and was cast down deep into hell for his rebellion, we will forthwith send a monster petition to the throne for his unconditional pardon, for surely he has done the State some notable service. If the devil does all of these things, we are not only prepared to admire and honor, but we must fall on our knees and worship and adore him; nay, we must ‘fall at his feet as dead,’ and are quite willing and disposed to
“Wear the livery of Heaven,
To serve the devil in.” Dr. Hare says: “The Old Testament does not impart a knowledge of immortality, without which religion were worthless. The notions derived from the gospel are vague, disgusting, inaccurate, and difficult to believe.”—Spir. Sci. Dem., p. 209. In the testimony of a spirit, given in the Banner of Light, Nov. 23, 1861, it is said:— “Many times before we have said that we cannot place implicit confidence in that which we find between the lids of the Bible.” A spirit, claiming to be Rev. John Moore, says:—
“My friend asks, ‘Do you believe the Bible?’ I answer, No; I do not, I cannot believe one word of it as the word of God.” Speaking of the transgression of mother Eve, S. C. Huddleston says: “She has been of more benefit to humanity than any other person that ever existed, God not excepted; for it appears to be his intention to keep man in shameful ignorance, and who would not prefer wisdom to ignorance? Just imagine for a moment what a pitiable set of blind, naked, idiotic babies we would have been if mother Eve had obeyed God’s command.”—Crucible, April 22, 1871. The following paragraph is from a discourse, reported in the Banner of Light, from J. S. Loveland, once a Methodist minister:— “With God there is no crime; with man there is. Crime does not displease God, but it does man. God is in the darkest crime as in the highest possible holiness. He is equally pleased in either case. Both harmonize equally with his attributes—they are only different sides of the same Deity.” Who can doubt that such doctrines come from demons? The spirits ask us to follow their teaching as a guide. But it points the wrong way. It can therefore only be a guide in this respect, that if you do exactly opposite what they say, you are sure to do right. No wonder Mr. Jamieson exclaims, concerning Spiritualism:— “If it be a delusion, it is the most gigantic and terrible that ever has been known.”—Banner of Light, Feb. 7, 1863.