A SCRIPTURE promise or two with reference to the limitations on the power of spirits and Spiritists should be given for the comfort of certain sensitive minds.
The Bible truth concerning Spiritism brings home with vivid reality the fact of the actual existence of devils. To some timid souls not acquainted with the Word or power of God, the thought that at any hour of the day or night they may be confronted by an apparition, becomes a source of terror; and not a few suffer under apprehensions lest some hypnotist with evil designs may cast a spell upon them against their will. To all such the Word of the Lord gives the amplest assurance of protection. Let us recall an instance.
The people of the Lord, on their way from Egypt to the promised land, had blotted out from under heaven Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, with all their hosts and subjects. Balak, king of Moab, was in terror lest he should be the next. Well knowing that human prowess and weapons were alike powerless before such an enemy, he sought to paralyze the arm of Israel with divination. Having heard that one Balaam in Mesopotamia was possessed of supernatural power, he sent to him, saying, “Come, I pray thee, curse me this people . . . that we may smite them.” Now Balaam had indeed been a prophet of the Most High, but had apostatized. The Bible says he “loved the wages of unrighteousness”—the magnificent rewards and offers of worldly honor promised by Balak. He would fain therefore have granted the request of the terrified king of Moab. The Scriptures make it plain that he had the mind to do so; but even while he sought the means, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, “Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.”
Enchantment and divination are apt and proper terms to denote the manipulations of Spiritists, hypnotists, and all others that meddle with the occult.
As Jacob had been dead for half a millennium, it is evident that the term as here used is generic instead of personal; and the class to which it refers is shown by the word Israel, which is defined in Gen. 32:30 as one who prevails with God. It means, therefore, all the true children of the Lord—every converted soul; as Paul affirms in Gal. 6:15, 16, where it is stated that in order to belong to “the Israel of God” one must be “a new creature,” and, according to 2 Cor. 5:17, “a new creature” is any man “in Christ.” All of which conclusively demonstrates that no child of God can be harmed by any incantation, spell, or pow-wow of any tool of the devil.
Let it be noted, however, that this promise is only to the Christian. And this is the very reason—namely, that God beheld neither iniquity nor perverseness as He looked down upon the tents of encamped Israel—which He gives as rendering them curse-proof. This will be found in Num. 23:21-23. As to all other persons, that they are not pounced upon by the devil at midnight, disfigured, strangled to death, and thrown out upon the dust-pile, as was the notorious Dr. Faustus, is due neither to their own power nor to the devil’s good will, but to the mercy of God.
The fact that strong-minded persons have been hypnotized apparently against their will, need be no cause of alarm to the weakest Christian. It is merely an illustration of how a mind originally and continuously controlled by “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:3) may by him be turned over to the domination of another mind which he likewise directs. “But we,” says the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 2:16), “have the mind of Christ.” And this mind can not be subjected to Satanic control. You may not feel that you have much will power; but since the Lord’s “strength is made perfect in weakness,” faith may rest without fear, knowing that “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Phantasms.
One important phase of modern Spiritism remains to be noticed. It is one of the most subtle stratagems of the arch-fiend. An illustration will best make the matter clear: Not long since, a young married woman—I mention the fact of her marriage lest some skeptic incline to the notion that the following was the romancing of a sentimental girl—told me that one night, a short time ago, she had just gone to bed with her husband, at their home in Phenix, Arizona, when she plainly saw her mother, who was at that moment in California, enter the room.
“Why, husband,” exclaimed the astonished woman, “there is mother!”
Her husband could not, however, see the apparition. After a time it vanished.
In all probability most persons that read these lines can tell of similar incidents.
Notice now the extreme cunning of this Satanic scheme.
This young woman is, and at that time was, an undoubted Christian.
“There must be,” said she to me, when relating the incident, “some truth in telepathy. There must be a scientific basis for thought-transference. Because I wrote to mother telling her about the incident, and she replied that on that same evening she was very tired and had an unusual longing to see me. She had heard that by concentrating your thoughts upon a distant person, the latter may be led to think of you. She thought that she would try it, and at that time was holding me strongly in mind.”
“Why,” I inquired, “could not the phantasm have been the work of the devil, who by some expression of your mother, knew her thoughts at that time?”
“Because,” was the answer, “I am a Christian.” And here is the exact point: persons get the idea that phantasms do not appear except when a manifestation is willed; or that because they are Christians an atmosphere of righteousness so envelops them that an evil spirit can not so much as work a miracle in their sight. The adversary of souls himself no doubt suggests to our minds—and is delighted when we give the suggestion entrance—that to admit that Satanic agencies appear to us would be a reflection on our own character6as having willed them, and possibly on the power of God to protect. Conscious of our rectitude, we are led to entertain the notion that such an admission would be an imputation upon it which we can not with honesty to ourselves believe, for we know we have not willed such a materialization.
I do not think that self-righteousness is so often the reason we accept this as is failure to remember two important points; namely, first, that temptation is not sin; it is not voluntary on our part; second, that the serpent sported himself under the very eye of Eve and in the Garden of Eden itself.
“But what can possibly be the temptation in such a strange phenomenon?” we are asked. “What purpose could Satan have in such a trick?”
Here is where the very smoke of the pit is puffed into our eyes to blind us. Do we so soon forget that the wily serpent began by exciting mother Eve’s curiosity?
Beelzebub is the keenest mental scientist this side of heaven; nor does he fail to improve that knowledge by seeking to control every psychic function.
His whole scheme is thus laid bare. Curiosity is organic, and few things fascinate us more than the mysterious and occult.
If we can be led to believe ourselves immune to witnessing involuntarily anything of Satanic origin, then, of course, such a manifestation will be to us only the operation of some hidden law. There is certainly no harm in the investigation of a mere law of nature. The result is, we are soon entangled. My mind recurs at this moment to a sad case of this kind. A very consecrated young man of Indianapolis, Ind., began, as a doctor, to experiment with hypnotism for therapeutic purposes; he ended not only as a hypnotist, but also as an infidel.
This is an extremely broad and suggestive subject. Numerous questions arise which might be profitable for discussion; but here we must rest for the present. However, if any persons have questions or experiences which might be used beneficially and will send them to me, I may work them into material for some future articles. J. A. L. DERBY.
