MODERN SPIRITISM.-No 5 by W. A. Colcord

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 2, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 40.

MODERN SPIRITISM.—No 5.

By W. A. Colcord

Taught from Many Pulpits.

THE extent to which Modern Spiritism has spread during the last fifty years is indeed marvelous. Wherever we go, we find it. Into whatever city or town or neighborhood we enter, we meet with persons or learn of families who have had something to do with it. They have had their circles, or sittings, or have attended them somewhere. They have heard the rappings, and know of answers and communications received through them. They have seen tables moved about by some strong, invisible yet irresistible force.

Some have become alarmed, and abandoned the proceedings. Through the nature of the answers received to certain pertinent questions which they or others have asked as to the origin and nature of the forces or intelligences at work, or by some irregularity, unholy influence, or uncovering of the cloven foot, they have come to the conclusion that it emanates from no good source; that it is, in fact, of the devil.

But many—and their number is legion—have not made this discovery. They are still ignorant of its true character. They know not, indeed, but that it is all true. They are quite ready to believe that Spiritism has made a great discovery; that the spirits with which it has to do are in very deed the spirits of the dead, and that through Spiritism the fact has been established that communion with the dead is a thing quite possible.

And why is this so? Why have the people of all lands and of almost every shade of religious belief been so ready to take up with this doctrine? There is but one answer. They have never been taught anything to the contrary. In fact, they have heard from the pulpits of the land that which in essence is the same thing. Had they been taught by their religious teachers the truth as to what God says concerning the nature of man, the state of the dead, the necessity of the resurrection, and the importance of Christ’s second coming, they would not have been so easily deceived by the manifestations and teachings of this modern delusion. Had they heard from the pulpits the texts repeated and emphasized that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord;” that death is an “enemy;” that “the dead know not anything, . . . neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun;” that when man dies “in that very day his thoughts perish;” that death is a “sleep,” and that “if the dead rise not, . . . then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished;” that the soul is not immortal, but that “God only hath immortality,” and that we are to “seek for glory and honor and immortality,”—had they heard these scriptures reiterated, emphasized, and dwelt upon, they would have been prepared to meet the sophistries and teachings of Spiritism, and to denounce them, as they are in fact, a delusion, a lie, and a snare.

But the sad fact is, they have heard no such teaching. They have, in fact, heard the very opposite doctrines taught. At death-beds, by grave-sides, and on funeral occasions, they have been told that the dead are not dead, but that they are alive and now in heaven; that they behold the sorrows and the weeping of those who mourn their loss; and that, in their spirit form, they will return to comfort these mourning ones. As all know, this has been the popular teaching in the past; and, altho the Bible, which teaches no such doctrine, is in everybody’s hand, it is by no means uncommon to hear the same ideas presented at the present time. Popular error has been clung to by a popular ministry most tenaciously.

The following extract from a sermon preached by one of the most noted ministers of the day, and published in the New York Christian Herald, of July 8, 1882, illustrates what we have here stated:—

What are our departed Christian friends, who in this world had their joy in the healing art, doing now?—Busy at their old business. No sickness in heaven, but plenty of sickness on earth; plenty of wounds in the different parts of God’s domain to be healed and to be medicated. You can not understand why that patient got well after all the skilful doctors had said he must die. Perhaps Abercrombie touched him,—Abercrombie, who after many years’ doctoring the bodies and souls of people in Scotland, went up to God in 1844. Perhaps Abercrombie touched him.

I should not wonder if my old friend, Dr. John Brown, who died last month in Edinburgh,—John Brown, the author of “Rab and His Friends,”—John Brown, who was as humble a Christian as he was skilful a physician and world-renowned author,—I should not wonder if he had been back again to see some of his old patients.

What are our departed Christian friends doing in heaven, those who on earth found their chief joy in the Gospel ministry?—They are visiting their old congregations. Most of those old ministers have their people around them already. When I get to heaven,—as by the grace of God I am destined to go to that place,—I will come back and see you all. Yes, I will come to see all the people to whom I have ministered in the Gospel, and to the millions of souls to whom, through the kingdom of the printing-press, I am permitted to preach every week in this and in other lands,—I will visit them all; I give them fair notice.

But what are our departed Christian friends, who, in all departments of usefulness, were busy, finding their chief joy in doing good,—what are they doing now?—Going right on with their work. John Howard visiting dungeons; the dead women of Northern and Southern battlefields still abroad looking for the wounded; George Peabody still watching the poor; Thomas Clarkson still looking after the enslaved,—all of those who did good on earth are busier than before.

With such teachings as this from the pulpits of the popular churches of the day, it is little wonder that the great masses of the people have been unable to detect anything seriously wrong in the teachings of Spiritism; little wonder that many in the churches have been deceived and ensnared by it. When we consider that from the pulpits themselves the people have been taught the essential doctrines of Spiritism,—that the soul is immortal; that the dead are not dead; and that they can and do return and communicate with their friends on earth,—it is no marvel that the popular churches of to-day are honey-combed with Spiritism, and filled with thousands who, though not avowedly and openly known as Spiritists, are nevertheless veritable believers in it. Much, therefore, of the sad results of Spiritism will rest upon the ministers of this age; for they have trampled the truth of God’s Word under their feet, and in its place preferred and taught fables. Holding and teaching such doctrines as they do, they can not successfully resist the encroachments of Spiritism. They have nothing wherewith to shield their flocks from its baleful influences. They have themselves prepared them to receive it in its fulness. This is a sad, melancholy, and awful fact.

The dangers of meddling with Spiritism or having anything to do with it, will be the subject of our next article. W. A. COLCORD.

[The next article in this series is “Danger of Meddling with Spiritism.”]