Modern Spiritualism by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 31, 1879

Modern Spiritualism.

By Editor

(Continued.)

1 Tim. 4: 1. "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."

Some suppose there can be nothing irreligious in Spiritualism, as its advocates profess to prove its claims by the Bible. Whatever their profession may be, it is easy to see they fulfill this prophecy of the apostle,—they deny the faith; they give heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, or demons.

We offer some evidence—from the much we might offer—from their own writings.

THEY DENY THE BIBLE.

Mr. J. M. Peebles, a preacher of Spiritualism in Michigan, lately published a work on this subject, in which he says:—

"The policy of importing our religion from Asia, even though booked and labeled, 'Holy,' is exceedingly questionable."

A. J. Davis says that nature is "the true and only Bible."

Dr. Weisse read a lengthy paper before the "investigating class" of New York, to prove that the Bible is a mere transcript of heathen fables, and remarked:—

"If I am wrong in my views of the Bible, I should like to know it, for the spirits and mediums do not contradict me."

Dr. Hare exalts Spiritualism above the Bible, because the former teaches the immortality of the soul, and the latter does not; he says:—

"The Old Testament does not impart a knowledge of immortality, without which religion were worthless. The notions derived from the gospel are vague, disgusting, inaccurate, and difficult to believe."—Spir. Sci. Dem., page 209.

Again he says, page 138:—

"The Bible of the Spiritualist is the book of nature—the only one which by inward and outward evidence can be ascribed to divine authorship."

Deacon John Norton (a spirit), through Mrs. Conant, medium, says:—

"I can assure my friends on earth it is very hard for me to give up believing in the Bible."

"The Christian would say, You must not alter one word of that book. I once believed thus, and I do not blame the people of your day for doing so; for the tide is mighty, and the multitude is being borne that way. A few have stemmed the torrent, and are struggling against wind and water. When a majority of the souls shall perceive the new light [Spiritualism], the tide will flow the other way" [against the Bible].

Of this we have no doubt. We think "the spirits" are laboring for this end.

Says Warren Chase, in a lecture on the "Relation of Spiritualism to Christianity":—

"Say what you please, do what you can, your Bibles will get dusty, and the large old volumes will be sold for paper makers to work over into new, clean sheets for mediums to write communications from spirits on, to the living."—Gist of Spiritualism, p. 72.

Abraham Langworthy (a spirit who said he was formerly a Baptist) said:—

"I should like to speak with some of the friends I used to know. I don't think I shall do them any harm. If I should happen to say the Bible is not all true, they need not believe it if they do not want to. They will, though, when they come here. My son will think this is dreadful, but I'm going to say it—the Bible is no better than any other book."

Their denial of the Bible direct is not so frequent as their denial of its truths, which, of course, amounts to the same thing. But as they teach that man needs some instruction "from the spheres," they have set up their teachings as a substitute for the Bible. Sometimes they offer to get up more correct versions of the Scriptures, parts of which have at different times been published. But these have been abortive attempts to pervert the testimony of the word on points of vital importance, or a mere display of high sounding, unmeaning words.

Accounts of the greatest acts and events are given in the Bible in plain, simple language. Take the record of creation for an example: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night; and the evening and the morning were the first day." Gen. 1: 1-5.

Here are facts, the greatness of which the minds of the wisest can never comprehend, expressed in language that a child can understand. The whole history is a model of simplicity. With this, contrast this extract from a record of creation professedly given by an exalted spirit, under the imposing head of "Disclosures from the Interior," through the mediumship of Rev. T. L. Harris.

"1 In the beginning God, the Life in God, the Lord in God, the Holy Procedure inhabited the dome, which, burning in magnificence primeval and revolving in prismatic and undulatory spiral, appeared, and was the pavilion of the Spirit: in glory inexhaustible and inconceivable, in movement spherical, unfolded in harmonious procedure disclosive."

"2. And God said, Let good be manifest! and good unfolded andelar-mental germs, ovariums of heavens, descended from the Procedure. And the dome of disclosive magnificence was heaven, and the expanded glory beneath was the germ of creation. And the Divine Procedure inbreathed upon the disclosure, and the disclosure became the universe."

"11. And God made two great lights to rule the Zodiac, and those for creative disclosure, disclosive manifestation, manifest glory, glorious radiation, interpenetrative aggregation; and thence vortices, vorticle suns, suns of vortices, solariums, vortical planetariums, planets, floral universes, universal paradises, paradisaical heavens, heavens of spiritual universes, celestial heavens, seraphic habitations, seraphimal universes, cities of heavenly seraphima, and final consociative universal intelligence in unity of innumerable individuality, in triunity of unfolding universes, adoring and ascending in beatification unto eternal life."

Such a piece of nonsense—such a stringing together of words without meaning, we venture to say, cannot be found beyond the limits of Spiritualism. And it is truly strange that any one that has capacity to pronounce these meaningless phrases should think it an improvement on the Holy Scriptures!

THEY DENY GOD.

To destroy all just ideas of God is surely to destroy his worship—to dishonor him. This is Satan's great aim, and the teachings of Spiritualism in this respect fully prove its Satanic origin. In the Banner of Light, Feb. 3, 1866, the "controlling spirit," through Mrs. Conant, medium, said:—

"It should be understood that there are as many Gods as there are minds needing Gods to worship; not only one, two, or three, but many. . . . The noble forest trees, sun, moon, and stars, all things are Gods to you; for they minister unto the needs of your soul. It is vain to suppose you can all bow down to, and truly serve, one God."

By the same medium, and in the same paper of Dec. 2, 1865, it was said:—

"We understand God to be life, simply life; that is everywhere, no more in one place than in another."

Spiritualists talk a great deal about the love and goodness of God, but when we examine their teachings, we find that they all tend to Pantheism or Atheism. Those who are most intimately acquainted with them, having been long connected with them, say that such is their tendency.

Joel Tiffany, a Spiritualist lecturer and publisher, in his Monthly of June, 1858, said:—

"In an article entitled 'Spiritualism,' published in the December number of the Monthly, among other faults and errors, I charged that its influence had tended to create a kind of moral and religious Atheism that awakened religious aspirations in the minds of those who had been the subjects of them. To this charge many took exceptions, as being too severe. I have carefully investigated its truth since that time, and find the charge to be just. My experience has been, go among Spiritualists where you will, and, as a general thing, they have no faith in a living, conscious, intelligent, Deity, possessed of love, volition, affection, etc., as an object of religious aspiration and worship. They feel no demand for worship themselves, and they denounce and ridicule its exercise in others."

On an examination, both of their theoretical and practical faith, in you will find that it amounts to nothing but an indefinite and incoherent Pantheism.

Dr. Randolph, after eight years' experience as a spiritual medium and lecturer, said:—

"Harmonialism robs God of personality, converts him into a rarefied gas many million times finer than electricity! according to Davis, and elevates Reason to the throne of the Universe by deifying human intellect. God, Nature, Love, Panthea, Rarefied Gas, and Sublimated Oxygen, and Ether, are, by this lexicon, convertible terms and essences."

The above charge is strictly true, and the standard works of Spiritualism will justify it.

The "Healing of the Nations" says:—

"If God is one, all must be fractional parts of him, and he alone be all." Page 297.

This is Pantheism, through the mediumship of Charles Linton, published by N. P. Tallmadge.

J. C. Woodman says:—

"I believe in one God, and that God exists in one person; that the universe is filled with an immense ocean of life or spirit, which is the body of God."—Reply to Dwight, page 81.

A spirit, in the Banner of Light, says:—

"God's face is seen in the violet, and man may well worship this tiny flower."

A. J. Davis, in his "Pantheon of Progress," says:—

"Yesterday I thought, with Paul, that God was hidden from me except through the medium of a particular 'Jesus,' and all at once I beheld immeasurable quantities of worthlessness in every direction. Of the swarming millions that had lived, are now on earth, and there will be, only a poor group here and there, and felt any faith adequate to the imperative demand. Death and destruction, like the demons of universal despair, went arm-in-arm into every part of the world. Gloom and dimmed glory filled the whole land with suffocating clouds. Amid all, I tried to behold the great mercy and wisdom of 'Our Father,'—to be thankful for love I did not behold, and for knowledge I did not possess. Presently, as I walked the fields, the curtain was lifted mountain-high. 'Incarnation' of an infinite Father was nowhere particular. His manifestations in material organizations, and in combinations, were like himself impersonal. The sun shone with a thousand-fold more splendor. The wave of barbarism had rolled away. My whole spirit breathed from the roots of the super-animal consciousness. Like a rose, I felt glad in the sunlight, and my thoughts swept like uncaged birds through the fragrant air.

Mysterious beauty held me as a psychological spell. Every tree from top to germ was a divine image; it was just so much true incarnation of the Infinite Duality. Animals, insects, creeping things, no longer offended and detracted from my soul's dignity and happiness. My fellow-men all were unfallen demi-gods. I beheld their spiritual interiorness, their susceptibility to the common divinity." Pages 129, 130.

It is difficult to tell whether the "interiorness" of this and the majority of spiritualistic writings is Deism, Pantheism, or Atheism. They are rather a strange mixture of all together.

The Scriptures reveal God as not only a kind Father, but a Supreme Ruler, and a just Judge. The attribute of Justice and character of Judge are entirely ignored by Spiritualism, which denies probation, and substitutes fatalism in an eternal and necessary progression.

As the "Healing of the Nations" says that every man is his own judge, weighed in his own scales, so it is said Paine was told on his arrival in the seventh sphere:—

"Your own minds are white thrones. As you are now pure, you can judge. But no mind will judge you. All judgment is with you. Each mind will judge itself, and not another. The judgment will be pure, because purity resides in you. The judgment will be right, because it is the judgment of the self. . . . The throne is within you. On that white throne determine your works. It is your inalienable prerogative. It belongs to no one else."—Pilgrimage, page 223.

Hon. J. B. Hall, in a lecture, reported in the Banner of Light of Feb. 6, 1864, says:—

"I believe that man is amenable to no law not written upon his own nature, no matter by whom it is given. . . . By his own nature must he be tried—by his own acts he must stand or fall. True, man must give an account to God for all deeds; but how? Solely by giving account to his own nature—to himself."

In the Banner of Light of July 23, 1864, the controlling spirit gives the following answers:—

"Q. Are all human beings parts of one great Spiritual Being? "A. Yes, certainly. "Q. From whence does the Infinite Spirit derive its principles of life? "A. You are constantly giving to all things, and receiving from all things. This, then, proves that God, or the Great Infinite Spirit, has as much need of you as you have need of him."

Yet Dr. Hare praises Spiritualism because it gives exalted views of God!

The Western editor of the Banner of Light, J. M. Peebles, who once believed and preached the Bible, but now finds therein no higher object of worship than the spirit of a dead man, under date of April 4, 1866, says:—

"The 'God of Israel' that spake to Moses; the 'wrestling angel' of Jacob; the 'Redeemer' of Job; the 'Gabriel' of Daniel; the 'young man clothed in a long, white garment' of Mark; the 'faithful witness' of John on Patmos; the 'demon' of Socrates; the 'Apollo' of the Grecians; the 'My Father' of the Nazarene; the 'Lord' of Swedenborg; the 'guardian angels' of the Catholics, and other similar phrases, have, with slight shades of difference, the same primal meaning. In this age of Spiritualism, we term them 'ministering spirits,' 'spirit guides,' and 'spirits.'"

In the Banner of Light, Nov. 4, 1865, are the following question and answer; the answer by the "controlling spirit" through Mrs. Conant:—

"Q. Do you know of any such spirit as a person we call the devil? "A. We certainly do. And yet this same devil is our God, our Father."

This is surely an honest confession. See John 8: 44. So it was not without meaning that the Spiritualist lecturess in Boston opened her meeting with a prayer to the devil!

Candid reader, are we not right in saying that this "harmonial philosophy," instead of elevating, is awfully degrading? Under its influence, multitudes are relapsing into the grossest heathenism, even to worshiping 'the devil!' and that openly and confessedly. Sun, moon, stars, trees, self, everything is worshiped but the true and living God. Truly, the words of inspiration are being fearfully fulfilled; the truth is abhorred, and "doctrines of devils" are received with greediness.

EDITOR.

(To be Continued.)