ORTHODOX TRACK FOR SPIRITUALISM.
By R. F. C.
The nominal churches sustain a similar relation to Spiritualism that laborers on a railroad track do to the running of cars. They may profess opposition to Spiritualism, and the track laborer may, in word, be strongly opposed to the running of cars; but as long as they, respectively, keep the track in good repair, they may take off their hats and see the cars rush onward. The only way successfully to oppose the running of cars is to tear up the track. And in vain may the churches cry out against Spiritualism while they hold such sentiments as the following, published in the Morning Star, the organ of the F. W. Baptists, May 26th, 1858: "O, hearts that never cease to yearn!
O, brimming tears that ne'er are dried!
The dead, though they depart, return
As if they had not died!
"The living are the only dead;
The dead live—nevermore to die;
And often when we mourn them fled,
They never were so nigh!
"And though they lie beneath the waves,
Or sleep within the churchyard dim—
(Ah! through how many different graves
God's children go to him!)
"Yet every grave gives up its dead
Ere it is overgrown with grass!
Then why should hopeless tears be shed,
Or need we cry, Alas!
"Or why should memory, veiled with gloom,
And like a sorrowing mourner craped,
Sit weeping o'er an empty tomb
Whose captives have escaped!" Admitting all this to be true, the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead are thrown into impenetrable shade. In vain would the "voice of the Son of God" call upon "empty tombs" to give up their dead, whose captives had escaped, and that, too, before the graves were overgrown with grass. If the dead "return as if they had not died," and "never were so nigh" while living, why not make their presence known, why not communicate? The foundation of Spiritualism is fairly stated in these few lines. It is also found in every human creed in christendom—181"We believe in the immortality of the soul." This prime article was first announced when the serpent said to the woman, "Ye shall not surely die." And the last great deception of the devil is based upon this article of faith. I apprehend that "them that dwell in heaven" [Rev. xiii, 6] are blasphemed by this theory, which makes the dead our "ministering spirits" instead of the angels of God, which the Scriptures declare to be such. The work began (in the professed church of Christ) when idolatrous Rome began to pray to the Virgin and the saints, and will be fully consummated in modern Spiritualism. Let him that would oppose this work of the devil with any effect, take the plainly expressed and positive doctrines of the word of God, as such, "The dead know not any thing," and, with them, demolish the very foundation of Spiritualism. If you would stop the cars, tear up the track. R. F. C.