INVESTIGATING SPIRITUALISM.
UPON the investigation of Spiritualism by Professors Hyslop, James, and Hodgson, the Independent has this to say:— "After rejecting many mediums, this Mrs. Piper has been found trustworthy under all tests; and the conditions have grown more and more favorable. We are not particularly impressed by the succession of spirits that 'control' the medium, from 'Phinuit' to 'Director,' and yet it is not quite incredible that some spirits should be more trustworthy than others, or have better powers of control. At any rate, Professor Hyslop believes that he has received such evidences of genuine communications, through these controlling spirits, from his own relatives long dead, that he does not hesitate to confess himself a believer. He is now devoting the summer vacation to a visit to the region where these friends have lived, so as to test the truth of what he has heard through the medium. It should be said that Professors Hodgson and Hyslop have so controlled Mrs. Piper's conditions and so watched her by detectives that they regard it as quite impossible that she should have learned the facts which she has stated in answer to questions. At present the main difference between those who are engaged in these researches is as to whether there is real intercourse with disembodied spirits, or whether there is some sort of thought-transference. With every prepossession in favor of belief in a spiritual existence after death, and yet against all likelihood of communication between the living and the dead, we pronounce the investigation not only legitimate but necessary. And we do not see why it is not as proper for a university to appropriate funds for this investigation as for other psychological laboratory work. We understand that the Society for Psychical Research has found its greatest difficulty to be the financial one." This shows the prominence which Spiritualism has attained. It is no longer despised, but respected. It is well to investigate, but let God's Word be the standard. Isa. 8:20.