p. 4 | CANDID ADMISSIONS by G. W. Reaser

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 23, 1901

CANDID ADMISSIONS.

By G. W. Reaser

[From one of the foremost Spiritualists of the Nineteenth Century.]

SPIRITISM, which is sometimes called “Spiritualism,” has inspired hundreds and thousands of noble hearts with the fondest hopes for humanity. Highly-endowed intellects have been, by its immense promises, filled with the most brilliant anticipations. Many of these fond hopes have perished; many a bright promise has been toned down to the verge of despair. Hundreds of the professors of Spiritualism have retired into the frigid, barren, and inhospitable yet popular territories of conservatism.

The movement was, and is, full of aggressive and progressive minds; and it is correspondingly empty of constructive and charitable labors for human advancement. Nowhere on the good Father’s footstool can be found a richer soil so utterly grainless and unproductive. No other existing movement embraces so many enlarged ideas, quickens so many generous instincts, inspires so many impressible minds, opens so many grand scenes to mankind; and yet, to tell the plain truth, no other movement, of the same age and with the same wealth of opportunities, ever exhibited more miserly stinginess in its appropriations for worthy enterprises, or more senseless extravagance in rewarding individuals for the selfish use of their powers.

Says Mr. Davis in his book “The Fountain with Jets of New Meaning”:—

The beautiful tree bears but little practical fruit for the millions of the globe, because of the existence of an error, which, like a devouring worm, lives in the very foundation, and which is day by day eating out its finest roots.

This destructive error is the general misapprehension, entertained by the intelligent and ignorant alike, that the fact of communication with the other world is worthy of exaltation to the dignity of a religion, and that the constant prayer for and enjoyment of such intercourse is the practice of religion.

“In all kindness,” says one of our most prominent writers, “we ask, Is not Spiritualism founded on the revelations of mediums? Could it have sprung into existence without them?” My reply is, “Certainly not; and, simply because Spiritualism has no other foundation, it is radically incapable of becoming a practical religion.” What is such a religion reduced to practise?—It is simply and only and forever nothing more than the private drawing-room developments of mediums, and the night-after-night communications with spirits of every name and nature—with friends and foes alike—and for no purpose other than the immediate gratification which may arise from having your great mental powers applauded and flattered, your fond hopes illuminated with immense promises of wonderful works in store for you, and your feelings poetically excited, and your industry lulled to sleep by assurances that “angels will take care of you,” and that the slowly rolling ages will bring everything straight and smooth all the rough places.

With such delightful convictions, the illogical professor of Spiritualism goes out into the busy world dreamily, like an opium eater, full of enchanting subjective sensations and thoughtful ambitions, but really and practically with but one ever-present and all-mastering motive, personally to enjoy the present life. [Italics in all quotations above are those of Mr. Davis.]

A little later in his book the author says “that he has made the statements quoted without wishing to give a grain of comfort to the enemies of Spiritualism.”

How could the weakness of Spiritism be more plainly set forth, even by its greatest “enemies”? And how could confession be more damaging? Yet perhaps some of its special points of weakness, as indicated in the foregoing, are worthy of brief comment. What can be the strength of a system of religion, claiming the respect of mankind, which has “inspired thousands of noble hearts with the fondest hopes for humanity,” and “filled with the most brilliant anticipations highly-endowed intellects,” “by its immense promises,” only to dash both to the ground, and bring its deluded followers “down to the verge of despair”? Again, a religion that “is full of progressive minds,” and is “correspondingly empty of constructive and charitable labors for human advancement,” is certainly not of divine origin, nor

adapted to the necessities of a world full of want and sorrow; nor is it a system that can in anywise elevate the race.

One of the chief characteristics of the only religion which contains the elements of salvation for the race, is that its Author “went about doing good,” and its true adherents are “zealous of good works;” and instead of “senseless extravagance in rewarding individuals for the selfish use of their powers,” it advocates meekness and humility as among the essential graces of its constituents, and emphatically teaches self-denial and self-abnegation. But Spiritualism is quite fully accomplishing its purpose in the world, notwithstanding its confessedly inherent weaknesses; for it was never designed by its author as a means of help or salvation for humanity, but, contrariwise, as an agency to deceive, if possible, the whole world, and thus cause bitter disappointment and destruction at last.

Like all of Satan’s masterful deceptions, the “tree” is made to appear “beautiful,” but he lacks the power, and has no desire, to make it bear the fruits of the Spirit. While acknowledging an “error” at the root of Spiritism, the author does not go back far enough in the history of the world in locating the error. He should have gone to that statement made by the “old serpent”—the father of Spiritism—in the Garden of Eden, when he said, “Ye shall not surely die.” Then, in the light of the Book of Holy Writ, he could have learned the true source of the original “error” which produced the “beautiful tree” out of whose roots and on whose branches have grown all of the systems of “destructive error” which have plunged the world into darkness, and which will cause the vast majority of the “millions of the globe” to come short of eternal life—as an inevitable result of believing a lie and having “pleasure in unrighteousness,” instead of loving and obeying the truth. How could there be anything other than a “devouring worm” “in the very foundation” of Spiritism, when we recognize its founder as Apollyon, the destroyer? Among the manifold religions invented for the deception and destruction of mankind, all appear to be “beautiful trees,” but are devoid of the fruits of the Spirit, and lack the regenerating power to create in their followers holiness of life and purity of heart, without which no man can see God. “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

Note the questions of Mr. Davis: “We ask, Is not Spiritism founded on the revelations of mediums? Could it have sprung into existence without them?—Certainly not.” Observe this confession, which so accurately fulfils the prophecy made concerning Spiritism over eighteen hundred years ago. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Tim. 4:1), instead of being built upon the only true foundation, the Word of God. The “night-after-night communications” with spirits would obviously signify that they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil, but as to their being of “every name and nature,” we would, on Bible ground, be compelled to take issue with the Spiritist; for the Scripture classes them all, if they speak not according to this Word, as “seducing spirits,” and names them as “spirits of devils,” not spirits of either good or bad men nor holy angels. The author reluctantly confesses the corruption and mercenary motives of Spiritistic mediums, but are these traits not natural results of communion with “seducing spirits”?

Again, this professor of Spiritism says that “if Christianity relied wholly upon miracles for its existence, it would have died when the miracles were suspended. Interior ideas, and not wonderful works, were the vitals of the movement; therefore the cessation of the miracles, which only illustrated the ideas, did not destroy Christianity.” Submit Spiritism to the same test and how long would it live? Remove, if possible, the wonders of Spiritism, including the supposed communications with the spirits of the departed, and how long would it survive? But its communications will not fail, nor its wonders cease, until Christ’s coming, that event which shall consume all the deceived inhabitants of this world. But till that time Spiritism, incapable of perpetuating its existence elsewhere, for it has no underlying principles of truth but rather falsehood, will cling to its “destructive error,” “the fact of communication with the other world;” for, as foretold, Satan will work with “all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

It is literally true that Christianity is not dependent on miracles, in the commonly-accepted view of what constitutes miracles, for its perpetuation; for prophecies fulfilled—some of them even in the condemnation of Spiritualism—and truth inherent in the tidings sent, are stronger proofs of its genuineness and unfailing nature than miracles, signs, and wonders.

The writer has no antipathy against men of any or no religious persuasion, but trusts that in making the above comments the love of Christ and of precious souls for whom He died has constrained him; and he has but one desire for those who may now be in the meshes of Spiritism, namely, that, by heeding the warning and accepting deliverance at the hand of One who is able to take the prey from the strong, they may be snatched as brands from the burning, before the harvest is past and the summer ended, when many will utter the words, full of anguish, “And my soul is not saved.” G. W. REASER.