Spiritualism and the New Theology
IN the last number of a magazine of large circulation devoted wholly to the promulgation of the latest phases of spiritualistic teaching, we find an urgent invitation to join “The Mystic Success Club.” There are “four mystic degrees” through which the members of this club are taken as the certain road to success: “First Degree, we lead you to health, strength, vigor, force, and power, and let you into some of the ancient occult and psychic secrets. The Second Degree leads you to the receptive state, where you begin to draw and attract to your aura, by psychic-mental power, the unseen powers. The Third Degree leads you to the acquirement of that blessed “something” men are pleased to call Personal Magnetism, which is a tremendous factor in all success. The Fourth Degree leads you to a realization of all your powers, and you are put on the road to grand success. . . . At the end of four months all your psychic-mental powers will have been developed to a most wonderful degree, and new doors will be open to you for success, and life will be most beautiful.” In urging readers to join this club it says: “Come, beloved, let us reach you and teach you, and fire and inspire you, and fill and thrill you with vibrations you never before knew about. . . . This is the golden opportunity of your life. If you doubt it, go into the silence, and ask the God within the soul about it.” (Italics ours.) This is only one of the many ways in which the people are being drawn into the net of spiritualism. Under the alluring promise of “health, wealth, a long, useful, and successful career,” it leads thousands of unsuspecting people to accept the teachings and practice the principles of spiritualism. It declares that “some will develop the most perfect clairvoyant and clairaudient powers, which are always helpful to success.” And then it seems to cover the whole scheme with the cloak of Christianity by urging each one to “ask the God within the soul about it.” This seems to be the conception of God which is pleasing to those who belong to this cult, and which they have adopted in their creed. But how much does this idea of God differ from that which is set forth by the new theology, which is now being so widely accepted? Note the following utterance by one of the leading exponents of this scientific religion: “The aspect of prayer is changing. The New Experience does not look out and up to a King upon a great white throne, nor back to a divine Man by the sea of Galilee; it looks within to the God who tabernacles with men.” (Italics ours.) Jesus prayed, “lifting up his eyes to heaven,” and his instruction concerning prayer is, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven.” The psalmist in his prayer addressed God thus: “Thou that dwellest between the cherubim.” But this modern idea of God, which is the outcome of the scientific study of religion, really puts self in the place of God, and as a natural consequence “prayer becomes hardly distinguishable from meditation.” It really means the leaving of the true God altogether out of the account, and the giving up of one's self to that intensity of self-consciousness which opens the door to those various degrees of demoniacal possession which appear in hypnotism, clairvoyance, and spiritual mediumship. And so-called Christendom is being prepared to fall an easy prey to this last-day snare by the current teaching concerning the existence of God. It is true that the God who dwells upon his throne in heaven has promised to dwell “with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,” but this is far different from that teaching which removes God from his throne in heaven, takes away the idea of his personal being, and substitutes for him a “spiritual consciousness.” This is simply the modern way of putting self in the place of God, which always means to give to Satan the place which belongs to Christ. We suggest a plan for success which has borne the test of the ages, and which does not deal in “ancient occult and psychic secrets.” Here it is: “Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: . . . If they hearken and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.” “Turn not from it [the law of God] to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest have good success whithersoever thou goest.”