Changing Spiritualism by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 28, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 17.

Changing Spiritualism

By Editor

[This article is written from the fullest newspaper clippings on the recent Spiritualists' Convention, and from full notes furnished by our occasional correspondent, Mr. John S. Wightman, and from many years' observation of the movement.—Editor.]

It is noteworthy in how many variations one tune can be rendered by the musician; nevertheless one can readily recognize throughout all these the one unchangeable theme. And, too, it is remarkable how many changes the evil one can ring in on his first great lie to man; yet one can readily perceive through all these the one unvarying falsehood.

Satan is the originator of error. "He is a liar, and the father of it." John 8:44. But of all the lies he has ever told, of all the error he has ever fathered, none has been more uniformly successful in misleading mankind than his first old lie in Eden. His assertion that divinity is man's natural heritage, and immortality his destiny, has ever been the most pleasing fable he could invent for man. It is preeminently Satan's great falsehood, for all error is but a variation of the one old untruth. Through all the ages from that day to this it has been taught in some form or another. It is Satan's masterpiece of falsehood: "Ye shall not surely die. . . . Ye shall be as God."

For the past sixty-five years, especially, modern Spiritualism has sought to actually demonstrate by a series of vague facts that man has enough of divinity in his make-up to survive the grave, and equal God. At the recent Spiritualists' Convention, held at Kansas City, Mo., February 24 to 26, one of their prominent speakers said:

"We are not Spiritualists because of something we have been taught to believe. It is a matter of personal experience. Death is not the end, but the beginning of life. Those phenomena of communicating with those who have passed into the other world are true phenomena. . . . I know it, I know it."

Altho the basic idea of Spiritualism, that death does not end life, is believed by a vast majority of mankind to-day, yet because of its grossness, modern Spiritualism has never been a popular movement. The old idea now, however, is being clothed in new and more attractive garments. Our special correspondent has a word to say on this point that is significant:

"By careful observation, and from some investigation of conditions we are satisfied of one thing,—Spiritualism, as an organization, as an organized force having influence and growing in numbers, is slowly but surely dying. As a psychic force, as a belief, Spiritualism is rapidly gaining ground, winning its converts under some other more plausible and attractive hypotheses, sailing under more attractive banners."

The above words are a part of the expression of the hope of the old Idumean patriarch Job, who wished that they might be "printed in a book" and "graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever." See Job 19:23-27. His prayer has been answered and his hope echoed and re-echoed by the faithful in after ages. That hope centers in the resurrection of the dead at the second coming of Christ. It is the only hope of future continued life. 1 Cor. 15:12-23; 1 Thess. 4:13-17.

Modern Spiritualism sees in the work of the Society of Psychical Research both an enemy and an ally: an enemy, because it refuses to credit modern Spiritualism as an organization and is furthermore antagonistic to it; an ally, because it is doing exactly the work as Spiritualism, dealing with the same phenomena precisely, only in far more attractive and seductive guise.

At the convention mentioned above, Dr. George B. Warne, president of the National Spiritualists' Association, said:

"Professor Hyslop and his confrères are not so very far away from us. Our ways are nearly parallel to-day, but like the lengthening reach of rails, they meet and continue on together in the distance. I plead with you to be just a little patient; wait, for Professor Hyslop is nearer, very much nearer, our side of the line than many of you think."

"The Psychical Research Society," said another speaker, "is doing much to disarm the suspicion of the public by their study of the phenomena that attend the spiritualistic seance in the same way that they pursue their studies of physical phenomena."

In one of his lectures during the convention, Dr. Warne admitted that "the propagation of Spiritualism may be taken out of our hands by others receiving communications from the spirit world."

Christian Science, New Thought, Psychical Research, Pantheism, and the like, are teaching the old claim of man's divinity and deathlessness in a form far more attractive to the mass of mankind than modern Spiritualism can do it. They are winning thousands where the other captured dozens.

But the basic belief of these more popular organizations is identical with that of Spiritualism. And in this connection it is intensely interesting to read a statement made in a book issued by the Pacific Press, the publishers of this periodical, more than twenty years ago:

"Spiritualism is now changing its form, and, veiling some of its more objectionable features, is assuming a Christian guise. But its utterances from the platform and the press have been before the public for nearly forty years, and in these its real character stands revealed. These teachings can not be denied or hidden."

From another page of the same book (page 588) we quote:

"As Spiritualism more closely imitates the nominal Christianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan himself is converted, after the modern order of things. He will appear in the character of an angel of light. Through the agency of Spiritualism, miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will profess faith in the Bible, and manifest respect for the institutions of the church, their works will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power."

Thus the great delusion is becoming more effective in misleading souls as its forms more nearly approach a likeness to Christianity. But the new order of things is only a new and more seductive way of telling the old false story, the story that was first uttered by the evil one in Eden. They are all in one form or another an assertion of man's inherent divinity. Each and all claim a

natural immortality for man, and that every man has enough of the divine in him, if developed, to gain for him salvation. They all accept as much of the Bible as suits their purpose, and reject the rest. Claiming man to be divine, Jesus Christ as the Redeemer is set aside, and God Himself brought down on a level with humanity.

"Only under Spiritualism," said Dr. Grimshaw, "can man reach his highest moral development. For Spiritualism teaches us that we must all pay our own debts." But this is also the basic teaching of Christian Science, Modern Thought, Theosophy, and similar teachings. All of these declare that for us to push off our misdeeds on another is unfair. Ignoring the fact that the bankrupt can not pay, these declare that each of us must pay our own moral debts.

Therefore, all of these forms of spiritualistic thought have no need of a divine Redeemer or of a supreme God. We read in the published reports of the Spiritualists' Convention that "Spiritualists have a hymn-book in which reference is made to angels instead of Jehovah and Christ. They have changed the future world from an absolute monarchy to a democracy where all spirits are equal." One of their speakers (Dr. Grimshaw) said: "We have only taken from the head of Jesus Christ the false crown of godship and in its place have set the crown of noble manhood and goodness."

The idea of an inherent divinity in man, a divinity that makes a man immortal, that enables him to be his own saviour, that fits him for the society of the angels, that stands him on an equality with Jesus Christ, and that constitutes him a part of God, is the confessed teaching of Spiritualism, but not necessarily of Spiritualism in its grosser form as it has stood recognized throughout the past. These same are also the fundamental tenets of a Spiritualism, or spiritism, which as an angel of light is now deluding thousands who have only fear or contempt for the grosser form.

We can not any of us afford to be misled by these delusions, by these various and specious phrasings of the old falsehood of the tempter. We trust that all our readers will give close attention to the articles on Spiritualism from the pen of Professor Rine, now appearing in these columns. And above all things let us study our Bible, for here only can we find definite truth regarding man and his destiny. Thus and thus only shall we be put on guard against those "spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. 16:14. R.