The Crisis by L. L. Caviness

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 15, 1914

The Crisis

By L. L. Caviness

"Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of Spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of Spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience. 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."—Great Controversy, page 588.

This quotation from Great Controversy is doubtless familiar to many, if not all, of the readers of the Review. Now what are we doing to warn the Protestants of the United States against making these great mistakes? The Protestant Magazine is published with the express purpose of informing the people of this country of the errors of Roman Catholic doctrines, and of warning them of the plan of Rome "to make America dominantly Catholic." This journal is now starting on its sixth year. It has met with a fair degree of success, and is attracting the comment of the Catholic press; but should it not be given a far wider circulation in the future? If it could be given a circulation of one hundred thousand, its influence for good would be correspondingly increased, and the people of the United States would be warned of their dangers. The magazine is one which makes its appeal to the thoughtful man and woman.

"As Spiritualism more closely imitates the nominal Christianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare." This is exactly the condition that now exists. The Spiritualistic leaders have rejected their early antichristian teachings, and are assuming a broad conciliatory attitude of toleration. They advocate a religion of evolutionary progress. This is expressed in one of the articles which have been appearing weekly in one of the great newspapers of Washington:—

"The new is superseding the old, and never is the new entirely like the old. Constant change is the natural expression of universal life, and what is conservatism one moment has been revolutionism at another. Such is life surrounding us. And we ourselves are subject to such changes in body and soul. . . . The true meaning of life is progress Godward. Godward means upward in truth, morals, sincerity, brotherliness, justice, philosophy, and religion."—Washington Post, Dec. 28, 1913.

In a previous article the work of Spiritualism had been explained:—

"Spiritualism calls for the spiritual awakening of the nations from the age-long dream of temporal, materialistic, and godless drifting, to the eternal, spiritual, and divine usefulness. . . . Perfect happiness in love is simply impossible so long as mankind remains as it is, full of selfishness. How can you expect full understanding of your good aims when such aims crucify all the mean desires of the multitude? Spiritualism, more than anything else, has taught me the fact that common human selfishness is so utterly foolish—from whatever standpoint we may look upon it—that the greatest answer to the deepest question resolves itself into the admonition, 'Sell all you have and give it to the poor, and follow the light as revealed through Jesus.'"—Id., Dec. 21, 1913.

Evidently the condition pointed out in the quotation from Great Controversy is being fulfilled; the culmination must be just ahead of us. Spiritualism has been rapidly increasing in its hold upon men of education and ability. This is well expressed in a statement of fact in the introduction to a recent two-volume treatise on Spiritualism, in which the author tries to establish the hypothesis that all the wonders of Spiritualism can be explained on the basis of laws of thought transference not yet sufficiently understood:—

"Within the last decade the strongest evidence adduced in the whole history of the movement for the belief in communion with the dead has been furnished by the trance utterances of Mrs. Piper, as interpreted by Dr. Hodgson's report; while within the same period the physical manifestations occurring in the presence of an Italian medium, Eusapia Paladino, have seemed, and still seem to many persons of eminence in this country and on the Continent, worthy of consideration as testifying to the probable operation of forces unknown to science. That men of such distinction in various fields of thought as Sir Oliver Lodge, the late Mr. F. W. H. Myers, Dr. Hodgson, Prof. William James of Harvard, and Prof. Charles Richet of Paris, should have been strongly affected, and in some cases actually convinced, by the new evidence, while older converts, like Sir W. Crookes and Dr. A. R. Wallace, maintain their belief unimpaired, is proof sufficient that the movement, if on the decline, is visibly still far from its euthanasia, and may at any moment receive fresh accessions of strength with the discovery of new mediums or new forms of manifestation."—Frank Podmore, in Modern Spiritualism, page 13.

As it is true that only those who are entirely free from the false doctrines of Rome and who have the true principles of religious liberty can present a consistent opposition to the effort of Romanism and apostate Protestantism to enforce the observance of that institution which Rome claims as a badge of the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, so it is equally true that the only consistent opposers of Spiritualism are those who stand on the Bible position, "The dead know not anything." Those who believe that the departed are watching over their loved ones who still live, with a tender and loving solicitude, though this is contrary to the Bible teaching, can find little protection against communications pretending to come from these same dead friends, and which bear marks of their friends' personality. Let us be alert to the responsibility which is upon us individually to warn the people against these great delusions which are bringing the final crisis. "They are the 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.