THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.
IT is strange how the people and press of a professedly "Christian nation" will turn from the plain testimony of the Word of God—the very revelation of Christianity—to the word of men for a basis of their hopes. An illustration of this credulity is found in the following headlines from a prominent San Francisco paper:— IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL TO BE PROVED SCIENTIFICALLY.
Remarkable Undertaking of Professor Hyslop and Other Savants of Leading Universities.
The educated gentlemen belong to the Psychical Research Society, which for years has been engaged in studying occult phenomena in Spiritualism and elsewhere. This is what Prof. James H. Hyslop, Professor of Logic and Mental Sciences at Columbia University, says:— TO THE EDITOR OF THE Examiner: In one year I hope to be able to demonstrate to the world, by incontrovertible proof, that there is another life beyond this. At present I must contend that there is not one iota of reasonable evidence of immortality outside this sphere and method of psychical research. And when I speak of immortality I mean personal survival, that is, the continuance of consciousness beyond the life of the body. I believe I am in possession of incontrovertible facts which demonstrate immortality. I have witnessed some genuine supernatural phenomena, not explainable by either fraud, illusion, or suggestion, and whose significance will have to be reckoned with by all men of science. I am not now prepared to present my evidence, but within a year I hope to have completed my experiments and investigations, and then be able to prove satisfactorily what has never been demonstrated—the immortality of the soul. And this is what is said by Prof. Richard Hodgson, Professor of Psychology at Cambridge University, England:— TO THE EDITOR OF THE Examiner: The world is on the eve of great developments. Within two years, perhaps before, through the instrumentality of the most remarkable woman that has been born for centuries, I will bring before the people of the entire world a new interpretation of the laws of humanity, of that first great universal religion, which neither dogma nor denomination of to-day can withstand. It will be a new dispensation—a new belief. Suffering humanity, tortured for centuries with doubts, wavering first this way, and then that, will need no explanation. The new and yet ever old truths need only the rehearsing—they compel belief. When Professor Hyslop declared that he had talked with the spirits of those long dead, he told a simple, bare-faced fact. Following is part of the Examiner report:— Briefly stated, we are told that communication has been established with the spirit world; that messages from the dead have been repeatedly received; that life after death has been demonstrated. A woman, Mrs. Leonora A. Piper, of Boston, is the medium through whom these communications have come. To guard against fraud, this woman has been taken into the custody of the scientists and watched day and night by the detectives of the Psychical Research Society. The extraordinary phenomena with which the investigators have been confronted they are unable to explain except upon the theory that they are supernatural—that through Mrs. Piper the living souls of those who have passed from this earth into eternity have returned and furnished convincing evidence of a future life. An Examiner reporter had the following detailed interview on this subject with Prof. Richard Hodgson, the American representative of the English Society for Psychical Research, at the rooms of the society, 5 Boylston Place, Boston:— "For a period ranging over twelve years," said Professor Hodgson, "I have had communication with the spirits of those long dead through the mediumship of Mrs. Piper. To be frank, I first went to Mrs. Piper's house with Professor James for the purpose of unmasking her. That was twelve years ago. To-day I am prepared to say that I am a believer in the possibility of messages being received from what people are pleased to call the spirit land. Two individualities in particular now direct the communications received from her. The first, who now controls her voice, is known to us as 'Imperator'; the second, who now controls her writing, is known to us as 'Rector.' "First of all, I wish you to understand that 'Imperator' is not the spirit of a mortal, but of an infinitely higher being. I have this on his own and Pelham's authority."11 "I have questioned him concerning the Creator. He replied that there was no such thing as an individual or personal God; that He was infinite, without personality or presence; that His love and charity were all-enduring, always present. Men, the earth, the universe were Him and part of Him. I questioned him further concerning the Christ. He replied that the Chosen One was not literally the Son of God, but a missionary from the God (he used that name for the Creator); the divinity of the Christ appeared to be repugnant to him. "Another matter about which I questioned him was on the subject of reincarnation, for which, I will confess, I had always had a lingering fondness. 'Imperator' flatly denied this. He said there was no such thing as an 'individuality, under different personalities, living down through the ages,' but that the average man worked out his own future in one lifetime; that sin and crime while on earth worked out their own punishment after death in intense mental suffering, wherein the ego was forced to start once again at the beginning and work up. "The idea of a personal hell or place of torment was sneered at. Charity—a wonderful, loving, all-enduring, long-suffering charity—was the chief qualification of the Deity. And prayer—earnest, old-fashioned prayer—was as efficacious now as ever in the history of religion. But I will publish my revelation along these lines later, and their publication will cause another cataclysm of religious thought." And then it has been thought a strange thing that Bishop William H. Moreland, of Sacramento, in a sermon in San Francisco, June 18, should declare that there is communion with the unseen world, but that the spirits are evil spirits. Dr. Moreland refuses to call all the phenomena of Spiritualism fraud and trickery and imposture. Many are not genuine, but some are, if the testimony of candid, unbiased men is worth anything. But a greater than Bishop Moreland has spoken concerning man and so-called communication with the dead. The Word of God teaches that man is "mortal," subject to death; that "the soul that sinneth it shall die;" that God "only hath immortality;" that the righteous alone will possess it, and that not until Christ's second coming and the resurrection of the righteous dead; that in death "there is no remembrance of Thee [God];" that "his [the dead's] sons cometh to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them;" that "the dead" not alone do not know their friends, but "know not anything," and that "their thoughts perish" when they die. All this and more is taught in the Word of God concerning man's nature and his rest in the grave. If he is to live after death, it must be by a resurrection from the dead. "But what of these communications with dead friends—father, mother, brother, sister or noted character of the past?"—We reply that these communications are from evil spirits, the fallen angels—demons. These come in the guise of the dead to deceive the longing heart. When the Lord told Adam that if he sinned he should surely die, Satan declared: "Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as God." Gen. 3: 4, 5, R. V. The devil could not beguile men into believing that they were as God in knowledge, or wisdom, or power, or character, and so Satan led them to believe that they were as God in respect to an undying nature; that they possessed a deathless entity, the ego, which consciously survived the death of the body. The next steps were easy; these souls were said to know more than they did here, and could communicate with us; the great of earth, when dead, were exalted to gods and demigods, who ruled nations and presided over men; and thus from the false theory of man's inherent immortality—Satan's first falsehood—the great systems of idolatry have sprung. The great pagan world worshiped these demigods, supposing they were worshiping their ancestors and heroes who were dead. They were really worshiping demons or devils, who came in the guise of the dead. So when Israel "joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead," the Lord declares, "Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils." Ps. 106: 28, 37. "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils [demons], and not to God." 1 Cor. 10: 20. According to the Word of God, therefore, the dead "know not anything." The dead, therefore, do not communicate with the living. The only superhuman power that impersonates the dead are the demons of darkness, the angels of evil. Spiritualism has drawn her vitality from Satan's first falsehood. She has enlarged and beautified it, but it is a lie still, and makes a lie of all hope builded upon it. There will be no revelation of a new dispensation; there will be no demonstration of the immortality of the soul. Men will believe the lie, but it will not affect the truth. Turn to God's Word. "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? On behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, there is no light in them." Isa. 8: 19, 20. See R. V. "The prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream; and he that hath My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord."