New Interest in Spiritualism
By L. A. S.
ALL at once the doctrines of spiritualism have been brought again into prominence before the nation. All the papers have been discussing the purported communication from Henry Ward Beecher to Dr. I. K. Funk, the well-known and highly respected clergyman and author of New York City. At a recent spiritualist seance in Brooklyn which Dr. Funk attended, the alleged spirit of Mr. Beecher, speaking through the “spirit” of another dead man named Rakestraw, spoke to Dr. Funk about a coin called the “widow’s mite,” which the latter had borrowed some years before from a friend named West, a college professor, and which he had forgotten to return. The location of the coin was made known through the spiritualist medium through whom the “spirit” of Rakestraw was talking with Dr. Funk, and a search being instituted, the coin was found in the exact spot designated. Professor West, to whom the coin belonged, has been dead about two years. But more than this: Dr. Funk is quoted as saying positively that some time ago, at another seance, he saw Mr. Beecher himself, and talked with him. “Dr. Funk” (to quote from the press dispatch) “asserts that he saw the clear outline of Mr. Beecher’s head and shoulders, and the ghost told the man in the flesh that he had work to do, and that it would be made clear to him in time.” The interest aroused by these statements from Dr. Funk has stirred up the Society for Psychical Research, and Dr. Richard Hodgson, head of the American branch of the society, which has headquarters in Boston, has undertaken to investigate the matter. Dr. Hodgson is the author of a recent book entitled “Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death.” To an interviewer Dr. Hodgson stated that he had received from Dr. Funk an extended report of his experience, together with sworn affidavits from witnesses in the case. He said there were four possible sources from which the communications might have come, which were these: (1) the affair might have been a fraud, a piece of trickery; (2) the information might have been derived from “telepathy,” the alleged unconscious transference of thought from one mind to another; (3) it might be explained by “clairvoyance,” in which state the medium discovers the facts by means of his, or her, “secondary personality;” (4) the information might have been derived from the “spirits of the dead,” speaking through the human medium. These four hypotheses were in his view—the only ones possible in the case. It will be seen that the real hypothesis, the true one in every genuine communication through spiritualist mediums, has been overlooked. No account has been taken of what the Scriptures say about the “spirits of devils, working miracles,” and which are able to impersonate the dead, and speak with their familiar voices. Nor has attention been given to plain statements from the Word of God regarding the state of the dead, and the evil of seeking to hold communication with them. “The dead know not anything.” Eccl. 9:5. “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:19, 20. Between seeking to “the living God” for knowledge and seeking to dead mortals6for it, there is a difference as vast as the world, one which no Christian should ever think of disregarding. Are we on the eve of a revival of spiritualism? Certain it is that much remains to be done by it in the fulfillment of prophecy, and this is to be accomplished in the brief time that remains before the end.