Modern Spiritualism A Subject of Prophecy and A Sign of The Times by Uriah Smith

Modern Spiritualism
A Subject of Prophecy
And a Sign of the Times
by
Uriah Smith
Copyright 1896
Published by the Review and Herald
Modern Spiritualism by Uriah Smith
Preface
Chapter One
Opening Thought
A Manifestation of Power
A Manifestation of Intelligence
The Progress of Spiritualism
Chapter Two
What Is the Agency in Question?
Credentials of the Bible
An Impossibility
The Soul Not Immortal
Chapter Three
The Dead Unconscious
Chapter Four
They Are Evil Angels
Warnings Against Evil Spirits
Chapter Five
What the Spirits Teach
They Deny all Distinction Between Right and Wrong
Dangers of Mediumship
Miscellaneous Teaching
Spirits Cannot Be Identified
Chapter Six
Its Promises: How Fulfilled
Chapter Seven
Spiritualism a Subject of Prophecy
Conclusion
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PREFACE
FOR over one hundred years Spiritualism has been before the world. This surely is time enough to enable it
to show its character by its fruits. "By their fruits ye shall know them," is a rule that admits of no
exceptions. If evil fruits appear, the tree is corrupt.
Spiritualism has made unbounded promises of good. It has claimed to be the long-promised second coming
of Christ; the opening of a new era among mankind; the rosy portal of a golden age, when all men should
be reformed, evil disappear, and the renovation of society cause the hearts of men to leap for joy, and the
earth to blossom as the rose.
Has it fulfilled all, or any, of these promises? If not, is it not a deception? and if a deception, considering its
wide-spread influence, and the number of its adherents, is it not one of the most gigantic and appalling
deceptions that has ever fallen upon Christendom? The Bible in the plainest terms, declares that in the last
days malign influences will be let loose upon the world; false pretensions will be urged upon the minds of
men; and deceptions, backed up by preternatural signs and wonders, will develop to such a degree of
strength, that, if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect.
Is it possible that Spiritualism may be the very development of evil, against which this warning is directed?
To investigate these questions, and to show by unimpeachable testimony, what Spiritualism is, and the
place it holds among the psychological movements of the present day, is the object of these pages. Not a
few books have been written against Spiritualism; but most of them endeavor to account for it on the
ground of human jugglery and imposture, or on natural principles, the discovery of a new and heretofore
occult force in nature, etc., from which great things may be expected in the future. But rarely has any one
discussed it from the standpoint of prophecy, and the testimony of the Scriptures, the only point of view, as
we believe, from which its true origin, nature, and tendency, can be ascertained.
Many features in the work of Spiritualism would seem to indicate that the source from which it springs is
far from good; but it is based upon a church dogma, firmly established through all Christendom, which in
many
minds is of sufficient weight to overbalance considerations that would otherwise be considered ample
grounds for shunning or renouncing it. It is therefore the more necessary that the reader, in examining this
question, should let the bonds that have heretofore bound him to preconceived opinions, sit loose upon
him, and that he should put himself in the mood of Dr. Channing when he said: "I must choose to receive
the truth, no matter how it bears upon myself, and must follow it no matter where it leads, from what party
it severs me, or to what party it allies." And he should remember also, as the eminent and pious Dr. Vinet
once sagaciously observed, that "even now, after eighteen centuries of Christianity, we are very probably
involved in some enormous error, of which Christianity will, in some future time, make us ashamed."
In view, therefore, of the importance of this question, and the tremendous issues that hang on the decisions
we may make in these perilous times, we feel justified even in adjuring the reader to canvass this subject
with an inflexible determination to learn the truth, and then to follow it wherever it may lead.
Uriah Smith
Battle Creek, Mich., 1897.
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1. OPENING THOUGHT
WHAT think ye? Whence is it -- from heaven or of men? Such was the nature of the question
addressed by our Saviour to the men of his time, concerning the baptism of John. It is the crucial
question by which to test every system that comes to us in the garb of religion: Is it from heaven
or of men? And if a true answer to the question can be found, it must determine our attitude
toward it; for if it is from heaven, it challenges at once our acceptance and profound regard, but if
it is of men, sooner or later, in .this world or in the world to come, it will be destroyed with all its
followers; for our Saviour has declared that every plant which our heavenly Father has not
planted shall be rooted up. Matt. 15:13.
To those who do not believe in any "heavenly Father," nor in "Christ the Saviour," nor in any
"revealed word of God," we would say that these points will be assumed in this work rather than
directly argued, though many incidental proofs will appear, to which we trust our friends will be
pleased to give some consideration. But we address ourselves particularly to those who still have
faith in God the Father of all; in his divine Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whose blood we
have redemption; in the Bible as the inspired revelation of God's will; and in the Holy Spirit as
the enlightener of the mind, and the sanctifier of the soul. To all those to whom this position is
common ground, the Bible will be the standard of authority, and the court of last appeal, in the
study upon which we now enter.
A MANIFESTATION OF POWER
Spiritualism cannot be disposed of with a sneer. A toss of the head and a cry of "humbug," will
not suffice to meet its claims and the testimony of careful, conservative men who have studied
thoroughly into the genuineness of its manifestations, and have sought for the secret of its power,
and have become satisfied as to the one, and been wholly baffled as to the other. That there have
been abundant instances of attempted fraud, deception, jugglery, and imposition, is not to be
denied. But this does not by any means set aside the fact that there have been manifestations of
more than human power, the evidence for which has never been impeached. The detection of a
few sham mediums, who are trying to impose upon the credulity of the public, for money, may
satisfy the careless and unthinking, that the whole affair is a humbug. Such will dismiss the
matter from their minds, and depart, easier subjects to be captured by the movement when some
manifestation appears for which they can find no explanation. But the more thoughtful and
careful observers well know that the exposure of these mountebanks does not account for the
numberless manifestations of power, and the steady current of phenomena, utterly inexplicable on
any human hypothesis, which have attended the movement from the beginning.
The Philadelphia North American, of July 31, 1885, published a communication from Thomas R.
Hazard, in which he says: --
"But Spiritualism, whatever may be thought of it, must be recognized as a fact. It is one of the
characteristic intellectual or emotional phenomena of the times, and as such, it is deserving of a
more serious examination than it has yet received. There are those who say it is all humbug, and
that everything outside of the ordinary course which takes place at the so-called séances, is the
direct result of fraudulent and deliberative imposture; in short, that every Spiritualist must be
either a fool or a knave. The serious objection to this hypothesis is that the explanation is almost
as difficult of belief as the occurrences which it explains. There must certainly be some
Spiritualists who are both honest and intelligent; and if the manifestations at the séances were
altogether and invariably fraudulent, surely the whole thing must have collapsed long before this;
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and the Seybert Commission, which finds it necessary to extend its investigations over an
indefinite period, which will certainly not be less than a year, would have been able to sweep the
delusion away in short order."
The phenomena are so well known, that it is unnecessary to recount them here. Among them may
be mentioned such achievements as these: Various articles have been transported from place to
place, without human hands, but by the agency of so-called spirits only; beautiful music has been
produced independently of human agency, with and without the aid of visible instruments; many
well-attested cases of healing have been presented; persons have been carried through the air by
the spirits in the presence of many witnesses; tables have been suspended in the air with several
persons upon them; purported spirits have presented themselves in bodily form and talked with an
audible voice; and all this not once or twice merely, but times without number, as may be
gathered from the records of Spiritualism, all through its history.
A few particular instances, as samples, it may be allowable to notice: Not many years since,
Joseph Cook made his memorable tour around the world. In Europe he met the famous German
philosopher, Professor Zöllner. Mr. Zöllner had been carefully investigating the phenomena of
Spiritualism, and assured Mr. Cook of the following occurrences as facts, under his own
observation: Knots had been found tied in the middle of cords, by some invisible agency, while
both ends were made securely fast, so that they could not be tampered with; messages were
written between doubly and trebly sealed slates; coin had passed through a table in a manner to
illustrate the suspension of the laws of impenetrability of matter; straps of leather were knotted
under his own hand; the impression of two feet was given on sooted paper pasted inside of two
sealed slates; whole and uninjured wooden rings were placed around the standard of a card table,
over either end of which they could by no possibility be slipped; and finally the table itself, a
heavy beechen structure, wholly disappeared, and then fell from the top of the room where
Professor Zöllner and his friends were sitting.
In further confirmation of the fact that real spiritualistic manifestations are no sleight-of-hand
performances, we cite the case of Harry Kellar, a professional performer, as given in "Nineteenth
Century Miracles," p. 213. The séance was held with the medium, Eglinton, in Calcutta, India,
Jan. 25, 1882. He says: --
"It is needless to say that I went as a skeptic but I must own that I have come away utterly unable
to explain by any natural means the phenomena that I witnessed on Tuesday evening."
He then describes the particulars of the séance. An intelligence, purporting to be the spirit of one
Geary, gave a communication. Mr. Kellar did not recognize the name nor recall the man. The
message was repeated, with the added circumstances of the time and particulars of a previous
meeting, when Mr. Kellar recalled the events, and, much to his surprise, the whole matter came
clearly to his recollection. He then adds: --
"I still remain a skeptic as regards Spiritualism, but I repeat my inability to explain or account for
what must have been an intelligent force which produced the writing on the slate, which, if my
senses are to be relied on, was in no way the result of trickery or sleight-of-hand."
Another instance from "Home Circle," p. 25, is that of Mr. Bellachini, also a professional
conjuror, of Berlin, Germany. His interview was with the celebrated medium, Mr. Slade. From his
testimony we quote the following: --
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"I have not, in the smallest degree, found anything to be produced by prestidigitative
manifestations or mechanical apparatus; and any explanation of the experiments which took place
under the circumstances and conditions then obtaining, by any reference to prestidigitation, is
absolutely impossible I declare, moreover, the published opinions of -laymen as to the "How" of
this subject, to be premature, and according to my views and experience, false and one-sided."--
Dated, Berlin, Dec. 6, 1877.
When professional conjurors bear such testimony as this, while it does not prove Spiritualism to
be what it claims to be, it does disprove the humbug theory.
In addition to this, it appears that two propositions, one of $2000, and the other of $5000, have
been offered to the one who claimed to be able to duplicate all the manifestations of Spiritualism,
to duplicate two well-authenticated tests; but the challenge has never been accepted, nor the
reward claimed. See Religio-Philosophical Journal, of Jan. 15, 1881, and January, 1883.
A writer in the Spiritual Clarion, in an article on "The Millennium of Spiritualism," bears the
following testimony in regard to the power and strength of the movement: --
"This revelation has been with a power, a might, that if divested of its almost universal
benevolence, had been a terror to the very soul; the hair of the very bravest had stood on end, and
his chilled blood had crept back upon his heart, at the sights and sounds of its inexplicable
phenomena. It comes with foretokening and warning. It has been, from the very first, its own best
prophet, and step by step, it has foretold the progress it would make. It comes, too, most
triumphant. No faith before it ever took such a victorious stand in its very infancy. It has swept
like a hurricane of fire through the land, compelling faith from the baffled scoffer, and the most
determined doubter."
Dr. W. F. Barrett, Professor of Experimental Physics in the Royal College of Dublin, says: --
"It is well known to those who have made the phenomena of Spiritualism the subject of
prolonged and careful inquiry, in the spirit of exact and unimpassioned scientific research, that
beneath a repellent mass of imposture and delusion there remain certain inexplicable and startling
facts which science can neither explain away nor deny."--"Automatic, or Spirit, Writing," p. 11
(1896).
In the Arena of November, 1892, p. 688, Mr.
M. J. Savage, the noted Unitarian minister of Boston, says: --
"Next comes what are ordinarily classed together as 'mediumistic phenomena.' The most
important of these are psychometry, 'vision' of 'spirit' forms, claimed communications by means
of rappings, table movements, automatic writing, independent writing, trance speaking, etc. With
them also ought to be noted what are generally called physical phenomena, though in most cases,
since they are intelligibly directed, the use of the word 'physical,' without this qualification, might
be misleading. These physical phenomena include such facts as the movement of material objects
by other than the ordinary muscular force, the making objects heavier or lighter when tested by
the scales, the playing on musical instruments by some invisible power, etc. . . Now all of these
referred to (with the exception of independent writing, and materialization) I know to be genuine.
I do not at all mean by this that I know that the 'spiritualistic' interpretation of them is the true
one. I mean only that they are genuine phenomena; that they have occurred; that they are not
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tricks or the result of fraud."
In the Forum of December, 1889, p. 455, the same writer describes his experience at the house of
a friend with whom he had been acquainted eight or ten years. When about to depart, he thought
he would try an experiment. He says: --
"She and I stood at opposite ends of the table at which we had been sitting. Both of us having
placed the tips of our fingers lightly on the top of the table, I spoke, as if addressing some unseen
force connected with the table, and said: 'Now I must go; will you not accompany me to the
door?' The door was ten or fifteen feet distant, and was closed. The table started. It had no casters,
and in order to make it move as it did, we should have had to go behind and push it. As a matter
of fact we led it, while it accompanied us all the way, and struck against the door with
considerable force."
From the same article, p. 456, we quote again:--
"I add one more experiment of my own. I sat one day in a heavy, stuffed armchair. The psychic
sat beside me, and laying his hand on the back of the chair, gradually raised it. Immediately I felt
and saw myself, chair and all, lifted into the air at least one foot from the floor. There was no
uneven motion implying any sense of effort on the part of the lifting force; and I was gently
lowered again to the carpet. This was in broad light, in a hotel parlor, and in presence of a keen-
eyed lawyer friend. I could plainly watch the whole thing. No man living could have lifted me in
such a position, and besides, I saw that the psychic made not the slightest apparent effort. Nor
was there any machinery or preparation of any kind. My companion, the lawyer, on going away,
speaking in reference to the whole sitting, said: 'I've seen enough evidence to hang every man in
the State -- enough to prove anything excepting this.'
"Professor Grookes, of London, relates having seen and heard an accordion played on while it
was enclosed in a wire net-work, and not touched by any visible hand. I have seen an approach to
the same thing. In daylight I have seen a man hold an accordion in the air, not more than three
feet away from me. He held it by one hand, grasping the side opposite to that on which the keys
were fixed. In this position, it, or something, played long tunes, the side containing the keys being
pushed in and drawn out without any contact that I could see. I then said, 'Will it not play for
me?' The reply was, 'I don't know: you can try it.' I then took the accordion in my hands. There
was no music; but what did occur was quite as inexplicable to me, and quite as convincing as a
display of some kind of power. I know not how to express it, except by saying that the accordion
was seized as if by some one trying to take it away from me. To test this power, I grasped the
instrument with both hands. The struggle was as real as though my antagonist was another man. I
succeeded in keeping it, but only by the most strenuous efforts.
"On another occasion I was sitting with a 'medium.' I was too far away for him to reach me, even
had he tried, which he did not do; for he sat perfectly quiet. My knees were not under the table,
but were where I could see them plainly. Suddenly my right knee was grasped as by a hand. It
was a firm grip. I could feel the
print and pressure of all the fingers. I said not a word of the strange sensation, but quietly put my
right hand down and clasped my knee in order to see if I could feel anything on my hand. At once
I felt what seemed like the most delicate finger tips playing over my own fingers and gradually
rising in their touches toward my wrist. When this was reached, I felt a series of clear, distinct,
and definite pats, as though made by a hand of fleshy vigor. I made no motion to indicate what
was going on, and said not a word until the sensation had passed. All this while I was carefully
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watching my hand, for it was plain daylight, and it was

in full view; but I saw nothing."
We need not multiply evidence on this point. A remark by T. J. Hudson ("Law of Psychic
Phenomena," p. 206, McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1894) may fitly close this division of the subject.
He says: --
"I will not waste time, however, by attempting to prove by experiments of my own, or of others,
that such phenomena do occur. It is too late for that. The facts are too well known to the civilized
world to require proof at this time. The man who denies the phenomena of spiritism to-day is not
entitled to be called a skeptic, he is simply ignorant; and it would be a hopeless task to attempt to
enlighten him."
A MANIFESTATION OF INTELLIGENCE
From the testimony already given it is evident that there is connected with Spiritualism an agency
that is able to manifest power and strength beyond anything that human beings, unaided, are able
to exert. It is just as evident that the same agency possesses intelligence beyond the power of
human minds. Indeed, this was the very feature that first brought it to the attention of the public.
Spiritualism, as the reader is doubtless aware, originated in the family of Mr. John D. Fox, in
Hydesville, near Rochester, N. Y., in the spring of 1848. Robert Dale Owen, in his work called
"Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World," p. 290, has given a full narration of the
circumstances attending this remarkable event. The particulars, he states, he had from Mrs. Fox,
and her two daughters, Margaret and Kate, and son, David. The attention of the family had been
attracted by strange noises which finally assumed the form of raps, or muffled footfalls, and
became very annoying. Chairs were sometimes moved from their places, and this was once also
the case with the dining-room table. Heard occasionally during February, the disturbance so
increased during the latter part of March, as seriously to break the nightly repose of the family.
But as these annoyances occurred only in the nighttime, all the family hoped that soon, by some
means, the mystery would be cleared away. They did not abandon this hope till Friday, the 31st
of March, 1848. Wearied by a succession of sleepless nights, the family retired early, hoping for a
respite from the disturbances that had harassed them. In this they were doomed to especial
disappointment. We can do no better than to let Mr. Owen continue the narrative, in his own
words: --
"The parents had removed the children's beds into their bedroom, and strictly enjoined them not
to talk of noises, even if they heard them. But scarcely had the mother seen them safely in bed,
and was retiring to rest herself, when the children cried out, 'Here they are again!' The mother
chided them, and lay down. Thereupon the noises became louder and mere startling. The children
sat up in bed. Mrs. Fox called her husband. The night being windy, it was suggested to him that it
might be the rattling of the sashes. He tried several to see if they were loose. Kate, the younger
girl, happened to remark that as often as her father shook a window-sash, the noises seemed to
reply. Being a lively child, and in a measure accustomed to what was going on, she turned to
where the noise was, snapped her fingers, and called out, 'Here, old Splitfoot, do as I do!' The
knocking instantly responded.
"That was the very commencement. Who can tell where the end will be?
"I do not mean that it was Kate Fox, who thus, in childish jest, first discovered that these
mysterious sounds
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seemed instinct with intelligence. Mr. Mompesson, two hundred years ago, had already observed
a similar phenomenon. Glanvil had verified it. So had Wesley, and his children. So we have seen,
and others. But in all these cases the matter rested there and the observation was not prosecuted
further. As, previous to the invention of the steam engine, sundry observers had trodden the very
threshold of the discovery and there stopped, so in this case, where the royal chaplain, disciple
though he was of the inductive philosophy, and where the founder of Methodism, admitting, as he
did, the probabilities of ultramundane interference, were both at fault, a Yankee girl, but nine
years old, following up more in sport than in earnest, a chance observation, became the instigator
of a movement which, whatever its true character, has had its influence throughout the civilized
world. The spark had been ignited,-- once at least two centuries ago; but it had died each time
without effect. It kindled no flame till the middle of the nineteenth century.
"And yet how trifling the step from the observation at Tedworth to the discovery at Hydesville!
Mr. Mompesson, in bed with his little daughter (about Kate's age), whom the sound seemed
chiefly to follow, 'observed that it would exactly answer. in drumming, anything that was beaten
or called for.' But his curiosity led him no further.
"Not so Kate Fox. She tried, by silently bringing together her thumb and forefinger; whether she
could obtain a response. Yes I It could see, then, as well as hear. She called her mother. 'Only
look, mother,' she said, bringing together again her finger and thumb, as before. And as often as
she repeated the noiseless motion, just as often responded the raps.
"This at once arrested her mother's attention. 'Count ten,' she said, addressing the noise. Ten
strokes, distinctly given I 'How old is my daughter Margaret?' Twelve strokes. 'And Kate?' Nine.
'What can all this mean?' was Mrs. Fox's thought. Who was answering her? Was it only some
mysterious echo of her own thought? But the next question which she put seemed to refute the
idea. 'How many children have I? ' she asked aloud. Seven strokes. 'Ah!' she thought, 'it can
blunder sometimes.'
And then aloud, 'Try again.' Still the number of raps was seven. Of a sudden a thought crossed
Mrs. Fox's mind. 'Are they all alive?' she asked. Silence for answer. 'How many are living?' Six
strokes. 'How many are dead?' A single stroke. She had lost a child.
"Then she asked, 'Are you a man?' No answer. 'Are you a spirit?' It rapped. 'May my neighbors
hear, if I call them?' It rapped again.
"Thereupon she asked her husband to call her neighbor, a Mrs. Redfield, who came in laughing.
But her cheer was soon changed. The answers to her inquiries were as prompt and pertinent, as
they had been to those of Mrs. Fox. She was struck with awe; and when, in reply to a question
about the number of her children, by rapping four, instead of three, as she expected, it reminded
her of a little daughter, Mary, whom she had recently lost, the mother burst into tears."
We have introduced this narrative thus at length not only because it is interesting in itself but
because it is of special interest that all the particulars of the origin, or beginning, of such a
movement as this, should be well understood. The following paragraph will explain how it came
to be called "The Rochester Knockings," under which name it first became widely known. It is
from the "Report of the 37th Anniversary of Modern
Spiritualism," held in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 31, 1885, and reported in the Banner of Light the
25th of the following month: --
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"After a song by J. T. Lillie, Mrs. Leah Fox Underhill, the elder of the three Fox sisters (who was
on our platform), was requested to speak. Mrs. Underhill said that she was not a public speaker,
but would answer any questions from the audience, and in response to these questions told in a
graphic manner how the spirits came to their humble home in Hydesville, in 1848; how on the
31st of March the first intelligent communication from the spirit world came through the raps;
how the family had been annoyed by the manifestations, and by the notoriety that followed; how
the younger sisters, Catherine and Margaret, were taken to Rochester, where she lived, by their
mother, hoping that this great and apparent calamity might pass from them; how their father and
mother prayed that this cup might be taken away, but the phenomena became more marked and
violent; how in the morning they would find four coffins drawn with an artistic hand on the door
of the dining-room of her home in Rochester, of different sizes, approximating to the ages and
sizes of the family, and these were lined with a pink color, and they were told that unless they
made this great fact known, they would all speedily die, and enter the spirit-world.
"Gladly would they all have accepted this penalty for their disobedience in not making this truth
known to the world. She told how they were compelled to hire Corinthian Hall In Rochester; how
several public meetings were held in Rochester, culminating in the selection of a committee of
prominent infidels, who, after submitting the Fox children to the most severe tests, --they being
disrobed in the presence of a committee of ladies, --reported in their favor All the time she was on
our platform, there was a continuous rapping by the spirits in response to what was being said by
the several speakers, also in response to the singing, and all our exercises."
In the same volume of the Forum from which quotations have already been made, M. J. Savage
states many facts which have a determinate bearing on the point now under consideration;
namely, the intelligence manifested in the spiritual phenomena. From these we quote a few. He
says (p. 452 and onward): --
"I am in possession of quite a large body of apparent facts that I do not know what to do with. . .
. That certain things to me inexplicable have occurred, I believe. The negative opinion of some
one with whom no such things have occurred, will not satisfy me I am ready to submit some
specimens of those things that constitute my problem. They can be only specimens; for a detailed
account of even half of those I have
laid by, would stretch to the limits of a book.
"A merchant ship bound for New York was on her homeward voyage. She was in the Indian
Ocean. The captain was engaged to be married to a lady living in New England. One day early in
the afternoon he came, pale and excited, to one of his mates, and exclaimed, 'Tom, Kate has just
died I have seen her die!' The mate looked at him in amazement, not knowing what to make of
such talk. But the captain went on and described the whole scene -- the room, her appearance,
how she died, and all the circumstances. So real was it to him, and such was the effect on him, of
his grief, that for two or three weeks, he was carefully watched lest he should do violence to
himself. It was more than one hundred and fifty days before the ship reached her harbor. During
all this time no news was received from home. But when at last the ship arrived at New York, it
was found that Kate did die at the time and under the circumstances seen and described by the
captain off the coast of India. This is only one case out of hundreds. What does it mean?
Coincidence? Just happened so? This might be said of one; but a hundred of such coincidences
become inexplicable."
The following is another instance mentioned by the same writer: --
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"I went to the house of a woman in New York. She was not a professional. We had never seen
each other before. We took seats in the parlor for a talk, I not looking for any manifestation. Raps
began. I do not say whether they were really where they seemed to be or not; I know right well
that the judgment is subject to illusion through the senses. But I was told a 'spirit friend' was
present; and soon the name, time, and place of death, etc., were given me. It was the name of a
friend I had once known intimately. But twenty years had passed since the old intimacy; she had
lived in another State; I am certain that she and the psychic had never known or even heard of
each other. She had died within a few months."
Mr. Savage then gives examples where the power in question was exclusively mental: --
"The first time I was ever in the presence of a particular psychic, she went into a trance. She had
never seen, and, so far as I know, had never had any way of hearing of my father, who had died
some years previously. When I was a boy, he always called me by a special name that was never
used by any other member of the family. In later years he hardly ever used it. But the entranced
psychic said: 'An old gentleman is here,' and she described certain very marked peculiarities.
Then she added: 'He says he is your father, and he calls you ,'using the old childhood name of
mine."
Again, same page: --
"One case more, only, will I mention under this head. A most intimate friend of my youth had
recently died. She had lived in another State, and the psychic did not know that such a person had
ever existed. We were sitting alone when this old friend announced her presence. It was in this
way: A letter of two pages was automatically written, addressed to me. I thought to myself as I
read it,--I did not speak,-- 'Were it possible, I should feel sure she had written this.' I then said, as
though speaking to her, 'Will you not give me your name? ' It was given, both maiden and
married name. I then began a conversation lasting over an hour, which seemed as real as any I
ever have with my friends. She told me of her children, of her sisters. We talked, over the events
of boyhood and girlhood. I asked her if she remembered a book we used to read together, and she
gave me the author's name. I asked again if she remembered the particular poem we were both
specially fond of, and she named it at once. In the letter that was written, and in much of the
conversation, there were apparent hints of identity, little touches and peculiarities that would
mean much to an acquaintance, but nothing to a stranger. I could not but be much impressed.
Now in this case, I know that the psychic never knew of this person's existence, and of course not
of our acquaintance."
Mr. Savage then mentions cases which he calls still more inexplicable, because the information
conveyed was not known either to the psychic (which seems to be the new name for medium) or
to himself. He says: --
"But one more case dare I take the space for, though the budget
is only opened. This one did not happen to me, but it is so hedged about and checked off, that its
evidential value in a scientific way is absolutely perfect. The names of some of the parties
concerned would be recognized in two hemispheres. A lady and gentleman visited a psychic. The
gentleman was the lady's brother-in-law. The lady had an aunt who was ill in a city two or three
hundred miles away. When the psychic had become entranced, the lady asked her if she had any
impression as to the condition of her aunt. The reply was, 'No.' But before the sitting was over,
the psychic exclaimed, 'Why, your aunt is here She has
already passed away.' 'This cannot be true,' said the lady; 'there must be a mistake. If she had
11
died, they would have telegraphed us immediately.' 'But,' the psychic insisted, 'she is here. And
she explains that she died about two o'clock this morning. She also says that a telegram has been
sent, and you will find it at the house on your return.'
"Here seemed a clear case for a test. So while the lady started for her home, her brother-in-law
called at the house of a friend and told the story. While there the husband came in. Having been
away for some hours he had not heard of any telegram. But the friend seated himself at his desk
and wrote out a careful account, which all three signed on the spot. When they reached home, --
two or three miles away, --there was the telegram confirming the fact and the time of the aunt's
death, precisely as the psychic had told them.
"Here are most wonderful facts. How shall they be accounted for? I have not trusted my memory
for these things, but have made careful record at the time. I know other records of a similiar kind
kept by others. They are kept private. Why? The late Rev. J. G. Wood, of England, the world-
famous naturalist, once said to me: 'I am glad to talk of these things to any one who has a right to
know. But I used to call everybody a fool who had anything to do with them; and' with a smile --
'I do not enjoy being called a fool.'
"Psychic and other societies that advertise for strange phenomena, must learn that at least a
respectful treatment is to be accorded, or people will not lay bare their secret souls. And then, in
the very nature of the case, these experiments concern matters of the most personal nature. Many
of the most striking cases people will not make public. In some of those above related, I have had
so to veil facts, that they do not appear as
remarkable as they really are. The whole cannot be told."
A quotation from this same writer ("Automatic Writing," page 14), Says: --
"I am in possession of a respectable body of facts that I do not know how to explain except on
the theory that I am dealing with some invisible intelligence. I hold that as the only tenable theory
I am acquainted with."
In the same work (page 19), the author, Mrs. S. A. Underwood, as the result of her
communications from spirits, says: --
"Detailed statements of facts unknown to either of us [that is, herself and her "control"], but
which weeks afterward were learned to be correct, have been written, and repeated again and
again, when disbelieved and contradicted by us."
On this point, also, as on the preceding, testimony need not be multiplied. The facts are too well
known and too generally admitted to warrant the devotion of further space to a presentation of the
evidence. The question must soon be met, What is the source of the power and intelligence thus
manifested? But this may properly be held in abeyance till we take a glance at
THE PROGRESS OF SPIRITUALISM
during the fifty years of its modern history. It began in a way to excite the wonder and curiosity
of the people, the very elements that would give wings to its progress through the land. Men
suddenly found their thoughts careering through new channels. An unseen world seemed to make
known its presence and invite investigation. As the phenomena claimed to be due to the direct
agency of spirits, the movement naturally assumed the name of "Spiritualism." It was then hailed
12
by multitudes as a new and living teacher, come to clear up uncertainties and to dispel doubts
from the minds of men. At least an irrepressible curiosity was everywhere excited to know what
the new "ism" would teach concerning that invisible world which it professed to have come to
open to the knowledge of mankind. Everywhere men sought by what means they could come into
communication with the spirit realm. Into whatever place the news entered, circles were formed,
and the number of converts outstripped the pen of the enroller. It gathered adherents from every
walk of life -- from the higher classes as well as the lower; the educated, cultured, and refined, as
well as the uncultivated and ignorant; from ministers lawyers, physicians, judges, teachers,
government officials, and all the professions. But the individuals thus interested, being of too
diverse and independent views to agree upon any permanent basis for organization, the data for
numerical statistics are difficult to procure. Various estimates, however, of their numbers have
been formed. As long ago as 1876, computations of the number of Spiritualists in the United
States ranged from 3,000,000 by Hepworth Dixon, to 10,000,000 by the Roman Catholic council
at Baltimore. Only five years from the time the first convert to Modern Spiritualism appeared,
Judge Edmonds, himself an enthusiastic convert, said of their numbers: --
"Besides the undistinguished multitudes, there are many now of high standing and talent ranked
among them,--doctors, lawyers, and clergymen in great numbers, a Protestant bishop, the learned
and reverend president of a college, judges of our higher courts, members of Congress, foreign
ambassadors, and ex-members of the United States Senate."
Up to the present time, it is not probable that the number of Spiritualists has been much reduced
by apostasies from the faith, if such it may be called; while the movement itself has been growing
more prominent and becoming more widely known every year. The conclusion would therefore
inevitably follow that its adherents must now be more numerous than ever before. A letter
addressed by the writer to the publishers of the Philosophical Journal, Chicago, on this point,
received the following reply, dated Dec. 24, 1895:--
"Being unorganized, largely, no reliable figures can be given. Many thousands are in the
churches, and are counted there. It is claimed that there are about five million in the United
States, and over fifty million in the world."
The Christian at Work of Aug. 17, 1876, under the head of "Witches and Fools," said: --
"But we do not know how many judges, bankers, merchants, prominent men in nearly every
occupation in life, there are, who make it a constant practice to visit clairvoyants, sightseers, and
so-called Spiritual mediums; yet it can scarcely be doubted that their name is legion; that not only
the unreligious man, but professing Christians, men and women, are in the habit of consulting
spirits from the vasty deep for information concerning both the dead and the living. Many who
pass for intelligent people, who would be shocked to have their Christianity called in question,
are constantly engaged in this disreputable business."
The following appeared some years ago, in the San Francisco Chronicle : --
"Until quite recently, science has coldly ignored the alleged phenomena of Spiritualism, and
treated Andrew Jackson Davis, Home, and the Davenport brothers, as if they belonged to the
common fraternity of showmen and mountebanks. But now there has come a most noteworthy
change. We learn from such high authority as the Fortnightly Review that Alfred H. Wallace, F.
R. S.; William Crookes, F. R. S. and editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science; W. H. Harrison,
F. R. S. and president of the British Ethnological Society, with others occupying a high position
13
in the scientific and literary world, have been seriously investigating the phenomena of spiritism.
The report which those learned gentlemen make is simply astounding. There is no fairy tale, no
story of myth or miracle, that is more incredible than their narrative. They tell us in grave and
sober speech, that the spirit of a girl who died a hundred years ago, appeared to them in visible
form. She talked with them, gave them locks of her hair, pieces of her dress, and her autograph.
They saw her in bodily presence, felt her person, heard her voice; she entered the room in which
they were, and disappeared without the opening of a door. The savants declare that they have had
numerous interviews with her under conditions forbidding the idea of trickery or imposture.
"Now that men eminent in the scientific world have taken up the investigation, Spiritualism has
entered upon a new phase. It can no longer be treated with silent contempt. Mr. Wallace's articles
in the Fortnightly have attracted general attention, and many of the leading English reviews and
newspapers are discussing the
matter. The New York World devotes three columns of its space to a summary of the last article
in the Fortnightly, and declares editorially that the 'phenomena' thus attested 'deserve the rigid
scientific examination which Mr. Wallace invites for them.' This is treating the matter in the right
way. Let all the well-attested facts be collected, and then let us see what conclusions they justify.
If spirit communication is a fact, it is certainly a most interesting one. In the language which the
World attributes to John Bright, 'If it is a fact, it is the one besides which every other fact of
human existence sinks into insignificance.'"
One of the reasons why it would be quite impossible to state the number of real Spiritualists in
our land to-day has already been hinted at in a foregoing extract. It is that "many thousands," and
we think the number might in all probability be raised to millions, who are in reality Spiritualists,
do not go by that name. They are in the various churches, and are counted there. Yet they believe
the phenomena of Spiritualism, accept its teachings in their own minds, and quietly and
constantly, as the Christian at Work avers, consult clairvoyants and mediums, in quest of
knowledge. The grosser features of the teachings of Spiritualism which were painfully prominent
in its earlier stages, which there is no reason to believe are discountenanced or abandoned either
in theory or practice, are relegated to an invisible background, while in its outward aspect it now
poses in the attitude of piety and the garb of religion. It even professes to adopt some of the more
prominent and popular doctrines of Christianity. In this phase the average churchgoer cannot see
why he may not accept all that Spiritualism has to give, and still retain his denominational
relationship. Besides this, the coming to light, every now and then, of the fact that some person of
national or world-wide fame is a Spiritualist, adds popularity and gives a new impetus to the
movement. Such instances may be named as the founder of the Leland Stanford University, of
California; the widow of ex-Vice-President Hendricks, of Indiana, who, it is said, is carrying on
some very successful financial transactions by direction from the spirit world; and Mr. W. T.
Stead, London editor of the Review of Reviews, who, in 1893 started a new quarterly, called The
Border Land, to be devoted to the advocacy of the philosophy of Spiritualism, which he had then
but recently espoused. In other countries it has invaded the ranks of the mobility, and even seated
itself on the thrones of monarchs. The late royal houses of France, Spain, and Russia are said, by
current rumor, to have sought the spirits for knowledge. No cause could covet more rapid and
wide-spread success than this has enjoyed.
2. WHAT IS THE AGENCY IN QUESTION?

HAVING now shown that there are connected with Spiritualism supermundane phenomena that
cannot be denied, and equally evident superhuman intelligence, sufficient to give to the
14
movement unprecedented recognition in all the world, the way is open for the most important
question that can be raised concerning it, and one which now demands an answer; and that is,
What is the agency by which these phenomena are produced, and by which this intelligence is
manifested? This question must be examined with the utmost care, and, if possible, a decision be
reached of the most assuring certainty; for, as Mr. M. J. Savage says, "Spiritualism is either a
grand truth or a most lamentable delusion."
It is proper that the claim which Spiritualism puts forth for itself, in this regard, should first be
heard. This is so well known that it scarcely need be stated. It is that there is in every human
being a soul, or spirit, which constitutes the real person; that this soul, or spirit, is immortal; that it
manifests itself through a tangible body during this earth life, and when that body dies, passes
unscathed into the unseen world, into an enlarged sphere of life, activity, and intelligence; that in
this sphere it can still take cognizance of earthly things, and communicate with those still in the
flesh, respecting scenes which it has left, and those more interesting conditions still veiled from
mortal sight; that it is by these disembodied, or "discarnated" spirits
that raps are given, objects moved, intelligence manifested, secrets revealed, slates written, voices
uttered, faces shown, and epistles addressed to mortals, as friend would write to friend. If this be
true, it opens what would indeed be considered a grand avenue of consolation to bereaved hearts,
by giving them evidence that their departed friends still lived; that they recognized, loved, and
accompanied them, and delighted still to counsel and instruct them. If not true, it is a masterpiece
of superhuman craft and cunning; for it takes Christendom on the side where it is least guarded;
as the view is everywhere held that the dead are conscious, and the only question would be as to
their power to communicate with persons still living in the body; and it throws its arms around
the individual when the heart is the most tender, when plunged into a condition in which every
pang of bereaved sorrow, every tie of affection, amid every throb of love, press him to crave with
all his being that communication with the dead may be proved a fact, and to constrain him to
accept the doctrine, unless kept from it by some power stronger than the cords that bind heart to
heart in deathless love. If it be a deception, it occupies a vantage ground before which men may
well tremble.
But, as has been already stated, the question is here to be discussed from the standpoint of the Bib
le; the Bible is to be taken as the standard of authority by which all conflicting claims respecting
the nature of man,
must be decided. The authenticity of the Scriptures, in reference to those who deny their
authority, is an antecedent question, into the discussion of which it is not the province of this little
work to enter. A word, however, by way of digression, may be allowed in reference to its
authorship.
CREDENTIALS OF THE BIBLE
1. The Bible claims to be the word of God. Those who wrote it assert that they wrote as they
"were moved by the Holy Ghost;" and they append to what they utter, a "Thus saith the Lord."
2. If it is not what it claims to be, it is an imposture invented by deceivers and liars.
3. Good men would not deceive and lie; therefore they were not the ones who invented the Bible.
4. If, therefore, it was invented by men at all, it must have been invented by bad men.
5. All liars and religious impostors are bad men; but --
15
6. The Bible repeatedly and most explicitly forbids lying and imposture, under the threatening of
most condign punishment.
7. Would, therefore, liars and impostors invent a book which more than any other book ever
written, denounces lying and imposture, thus condemning themselves to the severest judgments
of God, and at last to eternal death?
8. If, then, the Bible is not the invention of good men,-- because such men would not lie and
deceive; nor of evil men,-- because such men would not condemn themselves; nor of good or evil
angels, for the same reasons, who else can be its author, but he who claims to be, that is, the
living God?
9. If, therefore, from the very nature of the case, it must be God's book, why not believe it, and
obey it?
To return: Appeal is therefore made to the Bible; and the object is to learn what the Bible teaches
about Spiritualism. When the claim is put forth that it is the disembodied spirits of dead men who
make the communications, the Bible reader is at once aware of a conflict of claims. In times when
the Bible was written, there were practices among men which went under the names of
"enchantment," "sorcery," "witchcraft," "necromancy," "divination," "consulting with familiar
spirits," etc. These practices were all more or less related, but some of them bear an unmistakable
meaning. Thus, "necromancy" is defined to mean "a pretended communication with the dead." A
"familiar spirit" was "a spirit or demon supposed to attend on an individual, or to come at his call;
the invisible agent of a necromancer's will."-- Century Dictionary. Spiritualists do not deny their
their intercourse with the invisible world comes under some, at least, of these heads. But all such
practices the Bible explicitly forbids.
Deut. 18: 9-12: "There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter
to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a
witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that
do these things are an abomination unto the Lord." Lev. 19:31: "Regard not them that have
familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God." See
also, 2 Kings 21: 2, 6, 9, 11; Rev. 21:8; Gal. 5: 19-21; Acts 16: 16-18; etc. Thus plainly in both
the Old and New Testaments, are these practices forbidden.
AN IMPOSSIBILITY
But why does the Bible forbid such practices as necromancy, or a "pretended" communication
with the dead? -- Because it would be only a pretense at best; for such communication is
impossible. The dead are unconscious in their graves, and have no power to communicate with
the living. Let this truth be once established, and it is the death-blow to the claims of Spiritualism,
in the cases of all who will receive it. Allusion has already been made to a popular and wide-
spread dogma in the Christian church which furnishes a basis for Spiritualism. It is that the soul is
immortal, and that the dead are conscious. Spirits make known their presence, and claim to be the
spirits of persons who have once lived here in human bodies. Now if the Bible teaches that there
is no such thing as a disembodied human spirit, a knowledge of that fact would enable one to
detect at once the imposture of any intelligence which from behind the curtain should claim to be
such spirit. Any spirit seeking the attention of men in this life, and claiming to be what the Bible
says does not exist, comes with a falsehood on its lips or in its raps, if the Bible is true, and thus
16
reveals its real character to be that of a deceiver. In this case the Bible believer is armed against
the imposture. No man likes to be fooled. No matter therefore how nice the communicating
intelligence may seem, how many true things it may say, or how many good things it may
promise, the conviction cannot be evaded that no real good can be intended or conferred by any
spirit, or whatever it may be, masquerading under the garb of falsehood, or pretending to be what
it is not. On such a foundation stable superstructure can be reared. It becomes a deathtrap, sure to
collapse and involve in ruin all those who trust therein.
It is very desirable that the reader comprehend the full importance of the doctrine, as related to
this subject, that the dead are unconscious and that they have no power to communicate with the
living. This being established, it sweeps away at one stroke the entire foundation of Spiritualism.
Evidence will now be presented to show that this is a Bible doctrine; and wherever this is
received, the fabric of Spiritualism from
base to finial falls; it cannot possibly stand. But where the doctrine prevails that only the thin veil
that limits our mortal vision, separates us from a world full of the conscious, intelligent spirits of
those who have departed this life, Spiritualism has the field, beyond the possibility of
dislodgment. When one believes that he has disembodied spirit friends all about him, how can he
question that they are able to communicate with him? and when some unseen intelligence makes
its presence known, and claims to be one of those friends, and refers to facts or scenes, known
only to them two, how can the living dispute the claim? How can he refuse to accept a claim,
which, on his own hypothesis, there is no conceivable reason to deny? But if 'the spirits are not
what they claim to be, how shall the inexplicable phenomena attending their manifestations be
explained? -- The Bible brings to view other agencies, not the so-called spirits of the departed, to
whose working all that has ever been manifested which to mortal vision is mysterious and
inexplicable, may be justly attributed.
THE SOUL NOT IMMORTAL
Spiritualism declares it to be the great object of its mission, to prove the immortality of the soul,
which, it says, is not taught in the Scriptures with sufficient clearness, and is not otherwise
demonstrated. It well attributes to the Scriptures a lack of plain teaching in support of that dogma;
and it would have stated more truth, if it had said that the Scriptures nowhere countenance such a
doctrine at all. But, it is said, the Scriptures are full of the terms, "soul" and "spirit." Very true;
but they nowhere use those terms to designate such a part of man as in common parlance, and in
popular theology, they have come to mean. The fact is, the popular concept of the "soul" and
"spirit" has been formulated entirely outside the Bible. Sedulously, unremittingly, for more than
six thousand years, the idea has been inculcated in the minds of men, from the cradle to the grave,
that man is a dual being, consisting of an outward body which dies, and an inward being called
"soul," or "spirit," which does not die, but passes to higher spirit life, when the body goes into the
grave. The father of this doctrine is rarely referred to by its believers, as authority, possibly
through a little feeling of embarrassment as to its parentage; for he it was who announced it to our
first parents in these words: "Ye shall not surely die!" Gen. 3: 4. When men began to die, it was a
shrewd stroke of policy on the part of him who had promised them that they should not die, to try
to prove to those who remained that the others had not really died, but only changed conditions. It
is no marvel that he should try to make men believe that they possessed an immaterial, immortal
entity that could not die; but, in view of the ghastly experiences of the passing years, it is the
marvel of marvels that he should have succeeded so well. The trouble now is that men take these
meanings which have been devised and fostered into stupendous strength outside the pale of
Bible teaching, and attach them to the Bible terms of "soul" and "spirit." In other words, the
mongrel pago-papal theology which has grown up in Christendom, lets the Bible furnish the
17
terms, and paganism the definitions. But from the Bible standpoint, these definitions do not
belong there; they are foreign to the truth, and the Bible does not recognize them. They are as
much out of place as was the inventor of them himself in the garden of Eden. Let the Bible
furnish its own definitions to its own terms, and all will be clear. The opinion of John Milton, the
celebrated author of Paradise Lost, is worthy of note. In his "Treatise on Christian Doctrine," Vol.
I, pp. 250, 251, he says: --
"Man is a living being, intrinsically and properly one individual, not compound and separable,
not, according to the common opinion, made up and framed of two distinct and different natures,
as of body and soul, but the whole man is soul, and the soul, man; that is to say, a body or
substance, individual, animated, sensitive, and rational."
In this sense the word is employed many times; but whoever will trace the use of the words "soul"
and "spirit" through the Bible, will find them applied also to a great variety of objects; as, person,
mind, heart, body (in the expression "a dead body"), will, lust, appetite, breath, creature, pleasure,
desire, anger, courage, blast, etc., etc., in all nearly fifty different ways. But it is a fact which
should be especially noted, that in not a single instance is there the least hint given that anything
expressed by these terms is capable of existing for a single moment, as a conscious entity, or in
any other condition, without the body! This being so, none of these, according to the Bible, are
the agency claimed to be present in Spiritualism.
Another fact in reference to this point, should be allowed its decisive bearing. The question now
under investigation is, Is the soul immortal, as Spiritualism has taken upon itself to teach, and
claims to demonstrate? The Bible is found to be so lavish in the use of the terms "soul " and
"spirit," that these words occur in the aggregate, seventeen hundred times. Seventeen hundred
times, by way of description, analysis, narrative, historical facts, or declarations of what they can
do, or suffer, the Bible has something to say about "soul" and "spirit." The most important
question to be settled concerning them, certainly, is whether they are immortal or not. Will not
the Bible, so freely treating of these terms, answer this question? Very strange, indeed, if it does
not. But does it once affirm that either the soul or the spirit is immortal? -- Not once! Does it ever
apply to them the terms "eternal," "deathless," "neverdying," or any word that bears the necessary
meaning of immortal? -- Not in a single instance. Does it apply to them any term from which
even an inference, necessary or remote, can be drawn that they are immortal? Even reduced to
this attenuated form, the answer is still an emphatic and overwhelming, No! Well, then, does it
say anything about the nature and capabilities of existence of that which it denominates soul or
spirit? -- Yes; it says the soul is in danger of the grave, may die, be destroyed, killed, and that the
spirit may be wounded, cut off, preserved, and so, conversely, made to perish.
It is sometimes claimed that it is not necessary that the Bible should affirm the immortality of the
soul, because it is so self-evident a fact that it is taken for granted. But no one surely can suppose
that the immortality of the soul is more self-evident than that of Jehovah; yet the Bible has seen
fit to affirm his immortality in most direct terms. 1 Tim. 1: 17: "Now unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." 1 Tim. 6:16:
"Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no
man bath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen." Let, then, similar
Bible testimony be found concerning the soul; that is, that it is "immortal," or "hath immortality,"
and the taken-for-granted device will not be needed.
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3. THE DEAD UNCONSCIOUS

FROM the fact now established that the soul is not immortal, it would follow as an inevitable
conclusion, that the dead are not conscious in the intermediate state, and consequently cannot act
the part attributed to them in modern Spiritualism. But there are some positive statements to
which the reader's attention should be called, and some instances supposed to prove the conscious
state which should be noticed.
1. The Dead Know not Anything.-- As a sample of the way the Bible speaks upon this question,
let the reader turn to the words of Solomon, in Eccl. 9:5,6,10: "For the living know that they shall
die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of
them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have
they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done under the sun. . . . Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom,
in the grave, whither thou goest."
This language is addressed to the real, living, intelligent, responsible man; and how could it be
plainer? On the hypothesis of the commonly believed distinction between the soul and the body,
this must be addressed to the soul; for the body considered as the mere material instrument
through which the soul acts, is not supposed of itself to know anything. The body, as a body,
independent of the soul, does not know that it shall die; but it is that which knows, while one is
alive, that it shall die -- it is that same intelligent being that, when dead, knows not anything. But
the spirits in Spiritualism do know many things in their condition; therefore they are not those
who have once lived on this earth, and passed off through death; for such, once
dead, this scripture affirms, know not anything -- they are in a condition in which there is "no
work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom." This is a plain, straightforward, literal statement;
there is no mistaking its meaning; and if it is true, then it is not true that the unseen agents
working through Spiritualism, are the spirits of the dead.
2. The Spirit Returns to God.-- Another passage from the same writer and the same book, may
recur to the mind of the reader, as expressing a different and contradictory thought. Eccl. 12: 7.
"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."
A careful analysis of this passage reveals no support for Spiritualism; for it does not say that the
spirit, on returning to God, is conscious, or is capable of coming back and communicating with
mortals. It is not denied that different component parts enter into the constitution of man; and
that these parts may be separated. Solomon himself may therefore tell us what he means by the
term "spirit" which he here uses. He employs the same word in chapter 3: 21 of this same book,
but says that beasts have it as well as men. And then in verse 19, he explains what he means, by
saying that they (man and the lower animals) all have one breath. The record of man's creation in
Gen. 2: 7, shows that a vitalizing principle, called the "breath of life," was necessary to be
imparted to the organized body, before man became a living being; and this breath of life, as
common to man and to all breathing animals, is described in Gen. 7: 21, 22, by the term
[HEBREW CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT] (ruahh), the same word that is used for
"breath," in Eccl. 3:19, "spirit," in verse 21, and "the spirit," which God gave to man, and which
returns to God, in chapter 12:7. Thus it is clear that reference is here made simply to the "breath
of life" which God at first imparted to man, to make him a living being, and which he withdraws
to himself, in the hour of man's death. Job states the same fact, and describes the process, in
chapter 34: 14, 15:
"If he [God] set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his [man's] spirit [same word] and
19
his breath; . . . man shall turn again unto dust." No one can fail to see here that Job refers to the
same event of which
Solomon speaks.
And at this point the question may as well be raised, and answered, "Whence comes this spirit
which is claimed to be the real man, capable of an independent and superior existence without the
body? Bodies come into existence by natural generation; but whence comes the spirit? Is it a part
of the body? If so, it cannot be immortal; for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." John 3: 6.
Is it supplied to human beings at birth? If so, is there a great storehouse, somewhere, of souls and
spirits, ready-made, from which the supply is drawn as fast as wanted in this world? And if so,
further, is it to be concluded that all spirits have had a pre-existence? and then what was their
condition in that state? And again, how does it happen, on this supposition, that this spirit in each
individual exhibits so largely the mental and moral traits of the earthly parents? These hypotheses
not being very satisfactory, will it be claimed that God creates these spirits as fast as children are
born to need them? and if so, who brings them down just in the nick of time? and by what process
are they incarnated? But if God has, by special act, created a soul or spirit for every member of
the human family since Adam, is it not a contradiction of Gen. 2: 2, which declares that all God's
work of creation, so far as it pertains to this world, was completed by the close of the first week
of time? Again, how many of the inhabitants of this earth are the offspring of abandoned
criminality; and can it be supposed that God holds himself in readiness to create souls which must
come from his hands pure as the dew of heaven, to be thrust into such vile tenements, and
doomed to a life of wretchedness and woe at the bidding of defiant lust? The irreverence of the
question will be pardoned as an exposure of the absurdity of that theory which necessitates it.
3. The Spirits of Just Men Made Perfect.-- This expression is found in Heb. 12: 23, and seems, by
some, to recognize the idea that spirits can exist without the body, and are to be treated as
separate entities. Thus interpreted it might appear to give some support to Spiritualism. But it will
by no means bear such an interpretation. The apostle is contrasting the privileges of Christians in
the present dispensation, with the situation of believers before the coming of Christ. What he sets
forth are blessings to be enjoyed in the present tense. Yes, says one, that is just what I believe:
We are come to spirits; they are all about us, and tip and talk and write for us at our pleasure. But
hold! nothing is affirmed of spirits separately. The whole idea must be taken in. It is the "spirits of
just men made perfect; " and the participle "made perfect" agrees with "just men," or literally "the
just made perfect" [GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT], not with "spirits." It is the
men who are made perfect to whom we are said to have come. But there are only two localities
and two periods, in which men are anywhere in the Scriptures said to be made perfect. One is in
this life and on this earth, and refers to religious experience ("Be ye therefore perfect, even as
your Father which is in heaven is perfect"); the other is not relative, but actual and absolute, and
refers to the future immortal state when all the people of God will enter upon eternal life together
("God having provided some better thing for us, that they [the ancient worthies] without us
should not be made perfect." Heb. 11: 40). Thus, taken in either of the only two ways possible,
the text furnishes no proof of Spiritualism. It doubtless refers to the present state, the expression,
"spirits of just men," being simply a periphrasis for "just men, "the same as the expression, "the
God of the spirits of all flesh "Num. 16: 22), means simply "the God of all flesh," and the Words
"your whole spirit, and soul, and body" (1 Thess. 5: 23), means simply the whole person.
4. Spirits in Prison.-- The apostle Peter uses an expression, which, though perhaps not often
quoted in direct defense of Spiritualism, is relied upon extensively in behalf of the doctrine of the
conscious state of the dead, which, as already shown, is the essential basis of Spiritualism. And
such texts as these are here noticed to show to the general reader, that the Bible contains no
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testimony in behalf of that doctrine, but positively forbids it, as further quotations will soon be
introduced to show. The passage now in question is 1 Peter 3:19, where, speaking of Christ, it
says: "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." By the use of strong
assumption, and some lofty flights of the imagination, and keeping in the background the real
intent of the passage, a picture of rather a lively time in the spirit world, can be constructed out of
this testimony. Thus the spirits are said to be the disembodied spirits of those who were destroyed
by the flood. See context.
They were in "prison," that is, in hell. When Christ was put to death upon the cross, he
immediately went by his disembodied spirit, down into hell and preached to those conscious
intelligent spirits who were there, and continued that work till the third day when he was himself
raised from the dead. A thought will show that this picture is wrong, (1) in the time, (2) in the
condition of the people, (3) in the acting agent, and (4) in the end to be attained. Thus, when
Christ had been put to death, he was "quickened" (or made alive), says the record, "by the Spirit."
This was certainly not a personal disembodied Spirit, but that divine agency so often referred to
in the Scriptures. "By which," that is, this Spirit of God, he went and preached. Then he did not
go personally on this work The "spirits " were the antediluvians for they were those who were
disobedient in the days of Noah. Now when were they preached to Verse 20 plainly tells us it was
"when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah." In accordance with these
statements now let another picture he presented: Christ, by his Spirit which was in Noah (1 Peter
1: 11), and thus through Noah, preached to the spirits, or persons, in Noah's time, who were
disobedient, in order to save all from the coming flood who would believe. They were said to be
"in prison," though still living, because they were shut up under condemnation, and had only one
hundred and twenty years granted them in which to repent or perish. Thus Christ was
commissioned to preach to men said to be in prison, because in darkness, error, and
condemnation, though they were still living in the flesh. Isa. 61: 1. Dr. Adam Clarke, the eminent
Methodist commentator (in loco), places the going and preaching of Christ in the days of Noah,
and by the ministry of Noah for one hundred and twenty years, and not during the time while he
lay in the grave. Then he says
"The word [GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT] (spirits) is supposed to render this
view of the subject improbable, because this must mean disembodied spirits; but this certainly
does not follow; for the spirits of just men made perfect (Heb. 12: 23), certainly means righteous
men, and men still in the church
militant: and the Father of spirits (Heb. 12 9) means men still in the body: and the God of the
spirits of all flesh (Num. 16: 22 and 27: 16), means men, not in a disembodied state."[1]
5. Cannot Kill the Soul.-- "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:
but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. 10: 28. We know
what it is to kill the body; and by association of ideas, it seems quite natural to form a like
conception of the soul as something that can be treated in the same way. Then if the soul cannot
be killed like the body, the conclusion seems easy of adoption that it lives right on, with all
sensations preserved, as it was with the body before its death. If it were not for the pagan
definition of "soul," which here comes in to change the current of thought, such conclusions
drawn from this text would not be so prevalent; and a little attention to the scope of Christ's
teaching here will readily correct the misapprehension. This is brought out clearly in verse 39:
"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." This is
easily understood. No one will question what it is to lose his life; and Christ says that he who will
do this for his sake, shall find it. Any one who has been put to death for his faith in the gospel has
"lost his life" (had the body killed) for Christ's sake. But Christ says, Do not fear them, even if
they do this. Why? -- Because ye shall find it -- the life you lost. When shall we find it? -- In the
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resurrection. John 6: 40; Rev. 20: 4-6. The expression, "shall find it," thus becomes the exact
equivalent of the words, "are not able to kill the soul;" that is, are not able to destroy, or prevent
us from gaining that life he has promised, if we suffer men, for his sake, to "kill the body," or
deprive us of our present life. The correctness of this view is demonstrated by the word employed
in these instances. That word is [GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT] (psuche). It is
properly rendered "life" in verse 39, and improperly rendered "soul" in verse 28. This lesson, that
men should be willing to lose their life for Christ's sake, was considered so important that it is
again mentioned in Matthew, and reiterated with emphasis by Mark, Luke, and John; and they all
use this same word [GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT] which is rendered "life." In
one instance only in all these parallel passages have the translators rendered it "soul;" and that is
Matt. 10: 28, where it is the source of all the misunderstanding on that text.
6. Souls Under the Altar. As a part of the events of the fifth seal as described in Rev. 6: 9-11,
John says he saw the souls of the martyrs under the altar, and heard them crying for vengeance. If
they could do that, it is asked, cannot disembodied souls now communicate with the living? Not
to enter into a full exposition of this scripture, and the inconsistencies such a view would involve,
it is sufficient to ask if these were like the communicating spirits of the present day. How many
communications have ever been received by modern Spiritualists from souls confined under an
altar In glowing symbolism, John saw the dead martyrs, as if slain at the foot of the altar; and by
the figure of personification a voice was given to them just as Abel's blood cried to God for
vengeance upon his guilty brother (Gen. 4: 10), and just as the stone is said to cry out of the wall,
and the beam out of the timber to answer it. Hab. 2: 11.
7. The Medium of Endor. Aside from the direct teaching of the Scriptures, it is still held by some
that there are scenes narrated in the Bible which show that the dead must be conscious. The first
of these is the case of
Saul and the woman of Endor, whom he consulted in order to communicate with the prophet
Samuel, as narrated in 1 Samuel 28. Here, it must be confessed, is brought to view an actual case
of spirit manifestation, a specimen of ancient necromancy; for the conditions, method of
procedure, and results, were just such as pertain to the same work in our own day. But then, as
now, there was no truth nor good in it, as a brief review of the narrative will show. (1) Samuel
was dead. (2) Saul was sore pressed by the Philistines. Verse 5. (3) God had departed from him.
Verse 4. (4) He had cut off those who bad familiar spirits and wizards, out of the land, because
God had forbidden their presence in the Jewish theocracy, as an
abomination. Verse 3; Lev. 19: 31. (5) Yet in his extremity he had recourse to a woman with a
familiar spirit, found at Endor. Verse 7. (6) She asked whom she should bring up, and Saul
answered, Samuel. Verse 11. (7) Saul was disguised, but the familiar spirit told the woman it was
Saul, and she cried out in alarm. Verse 12. (8) Saul reassured her, and the woman went on with
the séance. Verse 10. (9) She announced a presence coming (not from heaven, nor the spheres,
but) up out of the earth, and at Saul's request gave a description of him, showing that Saul did not
himself see the form. Verse 13. (10) Saul "perceived" that it was Samuel (not by actual sight, but
from the woman's description; for the Hebrew [HEBREW CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT]
and the Septuagint, [GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT]
signify to know, or perceive, by an operation of the mind.) Verse 14. (11) The woman supposed it
was Samuel; Saul supposed it was Samuel; and that personation is, then, by the law of
appearance, spoken of, in whatever it said or did, as Samuel; as, "Samuel said to Saul," etc. Verse
15. (12) Was Samuel really there as an immortal soul, a disembodied spirit, or as one raised from
the dead -- No because (a) immortal souls do not come up out of the ground, wrapped in mantles,
and complain of being disquieted and brought up; (b) Samuel was a holy prophet, and if he was
conscious in the spirit world, he would not present himself at the summons of a woman who was
22
practicing arts which God had forbidden; (c) God having departed from Saul and having refused
to communicate with him on account of his sins, would not now suffer his servant Samuel to
grant him the desired communication through a channel which he had pronounced an
abomination; (d) Samuel was not present by a resurrection, for the Devil could not raise him, and
God certainly would not, for such a purpose; besides Samuel was buried at Ramah, and could not
be raised at Endor; (e) It was only the woman's familiar spirit, personating Samuel as he used to
appear when alive -- an aged man clothed with a mantle. His object was to make both the woman
and Saul believe it was Samuel, when it was not, just as communicating spirits to-day try to palm
themselves off for what they are not. As a specimen of ancient Spiritualism, this case is no
particular honor to their cause and as a proof of the immortality of the soul, and the conscious
state of the dead, it is a minus quantity.
8. The Transfiguration.-- Jesus took three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, apart into a
high mountain, and was transfigured before them; his face became as the sun, and his raiment was
white as the light, just as it will be in the future kingdom of glory, which this scene was designed
to represent. And there then appeared Moses and Elias talking with Christ. But Moses had died in
the land of Moab nearly fifteen hundred years before, and it is at once concluded that the only
way to account for his appearance on this occasion, is to suppose that he was still alive in the
spirit world, and could appear in a disembodied state, and talk with Jesus as here represented. But
such a conclusion is by no means necessary. Jesus was there in person, Elias was there in person;
for he had not died, but had been translated bodily from this earth. Now it would be altogether
incongruous to suppose that the third member of this glorious trio, apparently just as real as the
others, was only a disembodied spirit; an immaterial phantom. Unless the whole scene was
merely a vision brought before the minds of the disciples, Moses was as really there, in his own
proper person, as Jesus and Elias.
But there is no way in which he could thus be present, except by means of a resurrection
from the dead; and that he had been raised, and was there as a representative of the resurrection,
is proved, first by his actual presence on this occasion, and secondly, by the fact that Michael
(Christ, who is "the resurrection and the life," John 11: 25) disputed with the Devil (who has the
power of death, Heb. 2: 14) about the body of Moses. Jude 9. There could be no other possible
ground of controversy about the body of Moses except whether or not Christ should give it life
before the general resurrection. But Christ rebuked the Devil. Christ was not thwarted in this
contest, but gave his servant life; and thus Moses could appear personally upon the mount. This
makes the scene complete as a representation of the kingdom of God, as Peter says it was (2 Peter
1: 16-18); namely, Christ the glorified King, Elias representing those who will be translated
without seeing death, and Moses representing those who will be raised from the dead. These two
classes embrace all the happy subjects of that kingdom. This view of the matter is not peculiar to
this book. Dr. Adam Clarke, on Matt. 17: 3, says: "The body of Moses was probably raised again,
as a pledge of the resurrection.'[2] And Olshausen says: "For if we assume the reality of the
resurrection of the body, and its glorification,-- truths which assuredly belong to the system of
Christian doctrine,-- the whole occurrence presents no essential difficulties. The appearance of
Moses and Elias, which is usually held to be the most unintelligible point in it, is as easily
conceived of as possible, if we admit their bodily glorification."
Those passages which speak of Christ as the "first-fruits," the "first-born front the dead," the
"first-born among many brethren," "of every creature," etc., refer only to the chief and pivotal
importance of his own resurrection, as related to all others; and Acts 26: 23 does not declare that
Christ should be the first one to be raised from the dead, but that he first, by a resurrection from
the dead, should show light to the Gentiles. (See the Greek of this passage.) These scriptures
therefore prove no objection to the idea that Moses had been raised from the dead, and as a victor
23
over the grave, appeared with Christ upon the mount. Thus another supposed stronghold affords
no refuge for the conscious-state theory, or for Spiritualism.
9. The Rich Man and Lazarus.-- With the features of this parable, as found in Luke 16, which is
supposed to prove the dead conscious, and Spiritualism possible, the reader is doubtless familiar.
It should ever be borne in mind that this is a parable; and in a parable, neither the parties nor the
scenes are to be taken literally, and hence no doctrines can be built upon such symbolic
representations. But not only is it a parable, but it is a parable Based upon traditions largely
entertained by the Jews themselves in the time of Christ. Thus T. J. Hudson ("Law of Psychic
Phenomena," p. 385) says:--
"It is a historical fact, nevertheless, that before the advent of Jesus, the Jews had become imbued
with the Greek doctrine of Hades, which was an intermediate waiting station between this life and
the judgment. In this were situated both Paradise and Gehenna, the one on the right, and the other
on the left, and into these two compartments the spirits of the dead were separated, according to
their deserts. Jesus found this doctrine already in existence, and in enforcing his moral precepts in
his parables, he employed the symbols which the people understood, neither denying nor
affirming their literal verity."
Thus Christ appealed to the people on their own ground. He took the views and traditions which
he found already among them, and arranged them into a parable in such a way as to rebuke their
covetousness, correct their notions that prosperity and riches in this life are tokens of the favor
and approbation of God, and condemn their departure from the teachings of Moses and the
prophets. As a parable, it is not designed to show the state of the dead, and the conditions that
prevail in the spirit world, But if any persist that it is not a parable, but a presentation of actual
fact, then the scene is laid, not in the intermediate state, but beyond the resurrection; for it is after
the angels had carried Lazarus into Abraham's bosom. But the angels do not bear any one
anywhere away from this earth, till the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead.
Matt. 24: 30, 31; 1 Thess. 4: 15-17. Finding no support .in this portion of scripture for the
conscious-state theory, with its spiritualistic possibilities, appeal is next made by the friends of
that theory to the case of --
10. The Thief on the Cross.-- Luke 23: 39-43. When one of the malefactors who were crucified
with Jesus, requested to be remembered when he should come into his kingdom, according to the
record in the common version, the Lord replied, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." To
go from death into paradise the same day, means to go into the spirit world without a body, or
discarnated, as Spiritualists claim. And so it would be if such was Christ's promise to the thief;
but it was not.
The little adverb "to-day" holds the balance of power as to the meaning of this text. If it qualifies
Christ's words, "Verily I say unto thee," it gives one idea; if it qualifies the words, "Thou shalt be
with me in paradise," we have another and very different idea. And how shall the question of its
relationship be decided? -- It can be done only by the punctuation.
Here another difficulty confronts us; for the Greek was originally written in a solid line of letters,
without any punctuation, or even division into words. Such being the case, the punctuation, and
the relation of the
qualifying word "to-day," must be determined by the context. Now it is a fact that Christ did not
go to paradise that day. He died, and was placed in the tomb, and the third day rose from the
dead. Mary was the first to meet him, and sought to worship him.. But he said, "Touch me not, for
24
I am not yet ascended to my Father." John 20: 17. Paradise is where the Father is (see 2 Cor. 12:
2-4; Rev. 2:7; 22: 1, 2), and if Christ had not been to his Father when Mary met him the third day
after his crucifixion, he had not then been to paradise; therefore it is not possible that he made a
promise to the thief on the day of his crucifixion, that he should be with him that day in paradise.
Page 60
But further, the day of the crucifixion was the day before the Sabbath; and it was not lawful to
heave criminals on the cross during that day. John 19:31. If they were still living when the time
came to take them from the cross, they were taken down, and their legs were broken to prevent
their escape. The soldiers on this occasion broke the legs of the two thieves because they were
still alive; "but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his
legs." Verses 32, 33. The thief therefore lived over into the next day.
Thus there are two absolutely insuperable objections against allowing the adverb "to-day," to
qualify Christ's promise, "Thou shalt be with me in Paradise:" (1) Christ did not go to paradise
that day; and (2) The thief did not die that day. Before these facts the conscious-state argument
built upon this incident, vanishes into thin air. Just place the comma (a punctuation mark not
invented till 1490) after "to-day" instead of before it, and let that word qualify the verb "say" and
emphasize the time when it was spoken, and all is harmonious. The thief's request did not pertain
to that day, but looked forward to the time when Christ should come into his kingdom; and
Christ's promise did not pertain to that day, but to the time in the thief's request; so he did not
falsify it by not going to his Father for three days afterward The thief is quietly slumbering in the
tomb; but Christ is soon coming into his kingdom. Then the thief will be remembered, be raised
from the dead, and be with Christ in that paradise into which he will then introduce all his people.
Thus all is as clear as a sunbeam, when the text is freed from the bungling tinkering of men.
The strongest texts and incidents which are appealed to in defense of the conscious-state theory,
have now been examined. If these do not sustain it, nothing can be found in the Bible which will
sustain it. All are easily harmonized with these. Thus in Paul's desire to "depart and be with
Christ" (Phil. 1: 23, he does not there tell us when he will be with Christ; but he does tell us in
many other places; and it is at the resurrection and the coming of Christ. Phil. 3: 11; 1 Thess. 4:
17. When he speaks of our being clothed upon with our house from heaven (2 Cor. 5: 2), he tells
us that it is when "immortality" is "swallowed up of life." But that is only at the last trump. 1 Cor.
15: 51-54. If we are told about the woman who had had seven husbands (Matt. 22: 23-28), no hint
us given of any reunion till after the resurrection. If God calls himself not the God of the dead,
but of the living" (Matt. 22: 32), it is because he speaks of "those things that be not as though
they were" (Rom. 4: 17), and the worthies of whom this is spoken, are sure to live again (Heb. 11:
15, 16), and hence are now spoken of as alive in his sight, because they are so in his purpose.
Texts which speak of the departure and return of the soul (Gen. 35: 18; 1 Kings 17: 21, 22, are
referable to the "breath of life," which is the meaning of the word in these instances rendered
"soul."
Three passages only have been referred to, which declare positively that the dead know not
anything. It was thought preferable to answer certain objections, before introducing further direct
testimony. But there are many such passages, a few more of which will now be presented, as a
fitting conclusion to this branch of the subject. The reader's careful attention is invited to a few of
the various texts, and the conclusions that follow
therefrom.
25
1. Death and Sleep.-- Death, in numerous passages is compared to sleep, in contrast with the
wakeful condition. See Ps. 13: 3; Job 7: 21; John 11:11; Acts 7:60; l Cor. 11:30; 15:51; 1 Thess.
4:14; etc. But there is only one feature in sleep by virtue of which it can be taken as a figure of
death; and that is, the condition of unconsciousness which shuts up the avenues of one's senses to
all one's environment. If one is not thus unconscious in death, the figure is false, and the
comparison illogical and misleading.
2. Thoughts Perish.-- So David testifies: "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in
whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his
thoughts perish." Ps. 146: 3,
4. The word "thoughts" does not here mean simply the projects and purposes one has in view,
which do often fail, when the author of them dies, but it is from a root which means the act of
thinking, the operation of the mind; and in death, that entirely ceases. It cannot therefore be the
dead who come out of the unseen with such intelligence as is shown in Spiritualism.
3. Job's Statement.-- Speaking of a dead man, Job (14: 21) says: "His sons come to honor, and he
knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." If the dead cannot
take cognizance of matters of so much interest as these, how can they communicate with the
living as the spirits do?
4. No Remembrance of God.-- David, in Ps. 6: 5 and 115: 17, again testifies: "For in death there
is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?" "The dead praise not the
Lord, neither any that go down into silence" Is it possible that any righteous man, if he is living
and conscious after going into the grave, would not praise and give thanks to the Lord?
5. Hezekiah's Testimony.-- Hezekiah was sick unto death. Isa. 38: 1. But he prayed, and the Lord
added to his days fifteen years. Verse 5. For this he praised the Lord, and gave his reasons for so
doing in the following words (verses 18, 19): "For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot
celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he
shall praise thee, as I do this day." This is a clear affirmation that in death he would not be able to
do what he was able to do while living.
6. New Testament Evidence.-- The New Testament bears a corresponding testimony on this
subject. None will be saved except such as Christ raises up at the last day. John 6: 39, 40. No one
is to receive any reward before the resurrection. Luke 14: 14; 2 Tim. 4: 8. No one can enter God's
kingdom before being judged; but there is no execution of judgment before the coming of Christ.
2 Tim. 4:1; Acts 17:31; Luke 19:35; etc. If there is no avenue to a future life by a resurrection,
then all who have gone down in death are perished. 1 Cor. 15: 18. Such texts utterly forbid the
idea of consciousness and activity, on the part of any of the human family, in death.
This part of the subject need not be carried further. It has been dwelt upon so fully simply
because of its determinate bearing on the question under discussion. Spiritualism rests its whole
title to credence on the claim that the intelligences which manifest themselves are the spirits of
the dead. The Bible says that they are not the spirits of the dead. Then if the Bible is true, the
whole system rests upon deception and falsehood. No one who believes this will tamper with
Spiritualism. One cannot have Spiritualism and the Bible, too. One or the other must be given up.
But he who still holds on to the theory that the dead are conscious, contrary to the testimony of
the Scriptures has no shield against the Spiritualistic delusion, and the danger is that he will
sooner or later throw the Bible away.
26
Notes
[1] Original edition.
[2] Original edition. Not found in the mutilated edition, revised by Dr. Curry.
4. THEY ARE EVIL ANGELS

AS the Bible plainly shows what the spirits which communicate are not, it just as clearly reveals
also what they are; so that in no particular is one left to conjecture or guesswork. There is an
order of beings brought to view in the Scriptures, above man but lower than God or Christ, called
"angels." No Bible believer questions the existence of such beings. It is sometimes asserted that
angels are departed human spirits; but this cannot be; for they appear upon the stage of action
before a single human being had died, or a disembodied spirit could have existed. When the
world was created, Job declares that "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy." These are two of the names applied to these beings, but they are also known by
a number of others. They are 167 times called angels; 61 times, angel of the Lord; 8 times, angel
of God; 17 times, his angels; 41 times, cherub and cherubim. There are also such names as
seraphim, chariots, God's hosts, watchers, holy ones, thrones, dominions, principalities and
powers, -- all referring to the different orders of these heavenly beings.
A part of this host fell into sin, and thereby became evil, or fallen, angels. A reasonable statement
of how this came about can be given, but no reason for the act itself. Sin cannot be explained. To
explain it would be to give a reason for it; and to give a reason for it would be to excuse it; and
then it would cease to be sin. In the beginning a condition existed which was in itself right and
essential; but which nevertheless made sin possible. It is one of the inevitable conditions of the
highest glory of God, that all his creatures should serve him from choice, under the law of love,
and not by compulsion, as a machine, under the law of necessity. To secure this end, they must be
made free moral agents. Thus to angels was given the freedom of the will, the same as to man.
They were in a state of purity and happiness, with every condition favorable for a continuance in
that condition; but in the free choices of their free wills, they of course had the power, if they
should unaccountably see fit so to use it, to turn away from truth and right, and rebel against God.
This some of them did. So we find Jude speaking of "the angels that kept not their first estate"
(Jude 6), and Peter, of "the angels that sinned" (2 Peter 2: 4); and these they further declare, were
cast down to Tartarus, and are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of
the great day.
There must have been to this rebellion an instigator and leader; and we accordingly find the Bible
speaking of such a personage; the whole company being described as "the Devil and his angels."
Our Lord pointed out this leader in evil, and his work, in John 8: 44: "Ye are of your Father the
Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode
not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own:
for he is a liar and the father of it." This reveals the great facts in his case. He abode not in the
truth. Then he was once in the truth; and as he is a liar, and the father of it, he was the first one to
depart from truth and introduce falsehood and evil into the universe of God.
In Isaiah (14: 12-14) this being is addressed as Lucifer, or the day-star; and the prophet exclaims,
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations!" The following verses indicate that the nature of his
transgression was self-exaltation and pride of heart: "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will
ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount
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of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will
be like the Most High." Paul, in 1 Tim. 3: 6, intimates that it was this
pride that caused the ruin of this once holy being. Of an elder he says that he must not be a
novice, "lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil," or that sin for
which the Devil was condemned.
In Ezekiel 28, Satan is again spoken of under the pseudonym of "the prince of Tyrus." Verse 2
shows his pride: "Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat
of God," etc. Verses 12-15 describe his beauty, wisdom, and apparel, and his exalted office as a
high cherub, before his sin and fall. Verse 15 reads: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day
thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee."
These passages give us a sufficient idea of the origin of Satan and how such an incarnation of evil
has come to exist. The Tartarus into which he and his angels were cast, according to Peter, is
defined by leading lexicographers, as meaning the dark, void, interplanetary spaces, surrounding
the world. Using the serpent as a medium, this apostate angel., thus cast out, plied our first
parents with his temptation by preaching to them the immortality of the soul, "Thou shalt not
surely die," and alas! seduced them also into rebellion. The dominion which was given to Adam
(Gen. 1: 28), Adam thus alienated to Satan, by becoming his servant; for Paul says, "Know ye
not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?"
Rom. 6: 116. Now, consequently, such titles as "prince of this world," "prince of the power of the
air," "god of this world," etc., are applied to him, because he has by fraud usurped that place. John
14: 30; Eph. 2: 2; 2 Cor. 4: 4. He, of course, employs "his angels" to co-operate with him in his
nefarious work.
Thus clearly do we have set before us just the agencies, -- the Devil and his angels, -- which are
adapted, both by nature and inclination, to carry on just such a work as is seen in Spiritualism.
But how do we know, some one may ask, but that Spiritualism is the work of the good angels? --
We know that it is not, because good angels do not lie. They never would come to men,
professing to be the spirits of their dead friends, and imitate and person-ate them to deceive,
knowing that the mediums did not know, and could not ascertain that they were altogether
another and different order of beings. But the evil angels, led by the father of lies, and cradled,
and drilled, and skilled, and polished, in the school of lying, would be delighted to deceive men in
this very way, by pretending to be their dead friends, and then by working upon their affections
and love for the ones they could skilfully personate, bring them under their influence and lead
them captive at their will.
These evil angels are experts in deception. They have had more than six thousand years'
experience. They are well acquainted with the human family. They can read character. They study
temperament. They acquaint themselves minutely with personal history. They know a thousand
things which only they and the individual they are trying to ensnare, are aware of. They know
many things beyond the knowledge of men. They can easily carry the news of the decease of a
friend, and the description of a deathbed scene, to other friends thousands of miles away, and
months before the truth through ordinary channels can reach them, so that when it is verified,
their influence over them may be increased. (See page 23.)
There is nothing that has yet taken place, of however inexplicable a nature, and nothing which
even the imagination may anticipate, which is not, and will not be, easily attributable to these
unseen angels. They are lying spirits; for the fundamental principle on which they are acting is a
lie; but they tell enough truth to sway and captivate the minds of men. It matters not how sacred
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the field in which they tread, nor how hallowed the associations which they invade, they press
into every spot where it is possible, by spinning another thread, to strengthen their web of
deception.
And in what dulcet and siren tones they woo their victims to lay aside all resistance to their
influence, to become receptive and passive, and yield themselves to their control; and when they
have them thus helpless in their arms, they deliberately and cruelly instil into their minds the
virus of ungovernable lust, the leprosy of inconquerable rebellion against the government of
heaven. That this language does not misrepresent nor slander them, will be shown from their own
testimony, before the close of this book.
The thought is not overlooked that many even of those who do not profess to be Spiritualists,
deny the existence of any such being as a personal Devil, or of personal evil angels, his agents,
He is no doubt well pleased with this, as such people can the more easily be made the victims of
his wiles. But these same persons would no doubt acknowledge time existence, as real beings, of
God, Christ, and the good angels. This fact being established, by parity of reasoning the Devil
and his angels become real beings also. The same arguments which show that God and Christ
exist as personal beings may be used to show that the Devil and his angels are personal beings
also. He who denies that there is a personal Devil, must be prepared also to deny that there is a
personal Christ. So far as the argument for personal existence is concerned, Christ and good
angels stand on one side of the equation, and the Devil and his angels on the 'other; and whoever
would rub out the one, must rub out the other also.
Christ said that he "beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Luke 10:18. John in the
Revelation (12: 7) beheld a war in heaven. "Michael [Christ] and his angels fought against the
dragon [Satan]; and the dragon
fought, and his angels." On the ground that there is no Devil, this would be a wonderful battle --
Christ and his angels, who are real beings, fighting furiously against myths and nonentities which
have not even the
substance of a phantom.
To endorse the doctrine of a personal Devil, is not to endorse time grossly absurd caricatures
conjured up by morbid imaginations, amid popular theology, -- a being with bat's wings, horns,
hoofs, and a dart-pointed
tail. Yet upon such pictorial fables he doubtless looks with complacency; as they are calculated
still further to destroy faith in his existence, and enable him the better to cover his tracks and
carry on his work among men. Nevertheless the only rational hypothesis on which to account for
the present condition of this world (which every one must admit is full of devilishness), the
existence of evil, and the presence of sickness, suffering, and death, is the account the Bible gives
us of fallen angels and fallen men. Unfallen angels are beings of mighty power. One of them slew
in one night 185,000 Assyrians (2 Kings 19: 35); and the one who appeared at the time of Christ's
resurrection had a countenance like the lightning, and raiment white as snow, and before him the
keepers of the tomb fell like dead men. Matt. 28: 3, 4. A fall from their high estate, though it
would impair their strength and power, cannot be supposed to have wholly deprived them of these
qualities; therefore the fallen angels still have capabilities far superior to those of men. The only
defense mankind has against them is found in Christ, who circumscribes their power (for they are
kept in chains, 2 Peter 2: 4), and makes provision by which we may resist them. Eph. 6: 11; James
4: 6-8; 1 John 5: 18. The question why they are permitted to continue finds solution in the
thought that God is consistently giving to sin time and opportunity to develop itself, fully show
its nature, and manifest its works, to all created intelligences, so that when it shall finally be
29
wiped out of existence, with all its originators, aiders, and abetters, as in God's purpose it is to be
(Rev. 20:14, l5; 2 Peter 3: 7, 13; Rev. 5:13), there will ever after remain an object-lesson
sufficient to safeguard the universe against a repetition of the evil.
WARNINGS AGAINST EVIL SPIRITS
The Scriptures plainly point out the working of these agents of wickedness, and warn us against
them. In 1 Tim. 4: 1, we read: "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." This shows
that these spirits make it an object to seduce, or deceive, to draw men away from the true faith,
and cause them to receive, instead, the doctrines they teach, which are called "doctrines of
devils;" and this scripture is written to. put men on their guard against them.
Again Paul says: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness [margin,
"wicked spirits"] in high places." Eph. 6: 12. And he adjures his readers to put on the whole
armor of God to be able to resist them.
The apostle Peter exhorts to the same purpose: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the
devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the
faith." 1 Peter 5: 8, 9. If our ears do not deceive us, a good deal of this roaring is heard in the
ranks of Spiritualists, where, by invisible rapping, agitated furniture, clairvoyance, clairaudience,
writing, speaking, marvels, and wonders, he seeks to set the world on tiptoe of curiosity and
expectation, and bewilder men into a departure from the faith and the acceptance of the doctrines
of devils. He is cunning enough not to "roar" in a way to frighten and repel, but only to attract
attention, and lead multitudes, through an overweening curiosity and wonder at the marvels, to
come thoughtlessly within the sphere of his influence.
The prophet Isaiah also has something to say directly upon this subject: "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? for the living to the dead?" Isa. 8: 19. That is, is it
consistent for living people to go to dead ones for their knowledge? The following verse shows
where we should go for light and truth: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." The time has certainly come when
many are saying just what the text points out, and seeking to the dead, to
familiar spirits, and wizards, for knowledge. Those practices which in the Bible are enumerated as
"charming," "enchantment," "sorcery," "witchcraft," "necromancy," "divination," "consulting
with familiar spirits," etc., are more or less related, and are all really from one source. So in
modern times different names indicate substantially the same thing. Thus Mr. Hudson, in
"Psychic Phenomena," p. v, says: --
"It has, however, long been felt by the ablest thinkers of our time that all psychic manifestations
of the human intellect, normal or abnormal, whether designated by the name of mesmerism,
hypnotism, somnambulism, trance, spiritism, demonology, miracle, mental therapeutics, genius,
or insanity, are in some way related."
Seven, at least, of the foregoing names are no doubt in the warp and woof of Spiritualism; and he
might have added mind-reading and Christian Science. And Spiritualists admit that their work is
the same as that described by the Bible terms above quoted. Thus, Allen Putnam, a Spiritualistic
writer, says: --
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"The doctrine that the oracles, soothsaying, and witchcraft of past ages were kindred to these
manifestations of our day, I, for one, most fully believe."
In a pamphlet by the same author, entitled, "Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Witchcraft, and Miracle,"
p. 6, he says:--
"As seen by me now, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Witchcraft, Miracles, all belong to one family,
all have a common root, and are developed by the same laws."
To all these, therefore, the text under notice (Isa. 8: 19, 20) applies. We are to bring them to the
standard of "the law and the testimony," and "if they speak not according to this word . . . there is
no light in them." The
living should not seek to the dead.
In Rev. 16: 13, 14, the same spirits are again brought to view, and called "unclean spirits" and
"spirits of devils." Their last work of deception is to go forth to the kings of the earth, and of the
whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. Thus all that is
revealed of them from beginning to end (and scriptures might be multiplied on the point)
furnishes the most cogent reason why all should be keenly awake to their existence and their
work, and be ever watchful against their influence and approach.
5. WHAT THE SPIRITS TEACH

IT has been shown in the preceding chapters that the unseen "controls" (the beings who control
the mediums) in Spiritualism, are not the spirits of the dead, but are fallen angels or spirits of
devils. This fact will be confirmed by a brief glance at some of their teachings; for we are to
remember that if they speak not according to the law and the testimony there is no light in them.
It matters not that what they teach may be supported by signs and wonders beyond the
comprehension of the human mind. That is no guarantee of truth; for such phenomena are to be
wrought, as will soon be shown, to prove a lie. The Lord anciently put his people on their guard
in this respect. Deut. 13: 1-3, 5: "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and
giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto
thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou
shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your
God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul." "And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath
spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, . . . out of the way which the Lord thy God
commanded thee to walk in."
Thus the fact that one who professed to be a prophet could perform a sign or wonder, showing his
connection with some unseen power, was not enough to shield him from condemnation and
punishment, if what he undertook to prove by that sign or wonder was contrary to the truth, and
tended to lead away from God. The teaching of any system is an important part of the fruit it
bears; and by: that, according to our Lord's own rule, we are to judge it, and not by any power or
mighty works connected with it, however wonderful they may be.
"'Tis not the broad phylactery

Nor stubborn fasts, nor stated prayers
31
That make us saints. We judge the tree

By what it bears."
-- Alice Carey.
It is therefore pertinent to look sufficiently at the teachings of the spirits to ascertain their
character. . Here we shall find some most damaging testimony; for --
1. They Deny God.-- It is no pleasure to transcribe the utterances of practical atheism; yet enough
should be given to show what they teach on the great fundamental principles of Christianity. At a
séance, reported in
the Banner of Light, July 11, 1868, the following questions were addressed to the spirits, and the
accompanying answers received: --
"Ques.-- It is said in the Bible that man is made in the image of God. Please tell us what that
image is,
"Ans.-- He is made in the image of everything that ever was, that is, or that ever shall be. He
holds within his caliber everything that exists, that ever has existed, or that ever will exist. Now,
God is included in this. If he exists at all, he exists everywhere (and we have taken in everything),
every place, every name, every condition. I believe that the human stands above all things else,
and holds within its embrace all the
past, present, and future. In this sense he is created and exists in the image of God.
Q. --What is God essentially?
"A.-- Everything. Essentially you are God, and I am God -- the flowers, the grass, the pebbles, the
stars, the moon, the sun, everything is God."
The Devil, through the serpent in the garden, taught Adam and Eve that the soul is immortal, and
has transfused the same idea very successfully through paganism, Romanism, and Protestantism;
but he also said, "Ye shall be as gods;" and now, it seems, he is trying to make the world swallow
his other leg of his falsehood; but by putting it forth under the form of the old pagan pantheism,
that everything is God, and God is everything, he betrays the lie he uttered in Eden; for in that
case, Adam and Eve were no more gods after they ate than they were before.
Another séance, reported in the Banner about twenty years later than the one quoted above, April
28, 1888; an inquirer addressed to the "spirits" a question about God, and received answer, a
portion of which is presented below: --
"Ques.-- Some Spiritualists, I learn, believe in a God; otherwise they would not pray to him --
taking for granted that there is such a being. Please enlighten us.
"Ans.-- We have yet to come in contact with a thorough Spiritualist, one who understands
something of spiritual life and the revelations made by returning spirits, who directly believes in
a personal God. True, many Spiritualists and many returning spirits offer their invocations to the
'Great Supreme Spirit of all life and intelligence,' not because they expect to change the order of
law, or to come into direct communication
with, or nearness to, a Great Supreme Being, clothed in the image of man, but because they
desire to enter an atmosphere of harmony, to uplift their own souls to a plane of thought which
will bring spiritual inspiration to their minds. We make a distinction between that Great Supreme
Overruling Force which we
may call the Superior Spirit of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Love, and the personal Deity, clothed
in the image of man, gigantic in stature, jealous and revengeful by nature, which has been set up
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and worshiped as the Christian Jehovah. We know of no Spiritualist--let us repeat it--who

believes in such a personal God; but we can believe and accept the idea, though it may pass
beyond almost our finite comprehension, that there is a grand universal Spirit permeating all
forms of existence; that this great source of light, of activity and vitality vibrates with
intelligence, and that it is superior to all organic forms, however grand they may prove to be."
The same views have been taught all along by the "spirits" of Spiritualism, as could be shown by
extracts dating as far back as 1858, only ten years after the "Rochester Knockings." And though
Spiritualism is now assuming more of the sedate speech of organized Christianity, the spirits do
not modify their teaching in respect to God. In "Automatic, or Spirit, Writing," p. 148 (1896), are
given many messages from the spirits through the mediumsbip of Mrs. S. A. Underwood, wife of
the editor of the Philosophical Journal, Chicago. The " spirits" set forth their teaching in answer
to questions by the medium, some of which have reference to God, though his name is not used.
Thus on page 148, this conversation is given:
"Ques.-- You often in these communications speak of the binding laws of spiritual life--that
because of them you cannot give us such and such information, etc. Now who makes those laws,
and whence came they, and how are they taught?
"Ans.-- Thou say'st 'who'-- therefore we cannot answer. Go back to the first question and ask one
at a time.
"Q.--Well, who makes the laws?
"A.-- Spirits are not bondaged by persons.
"Q.-- Then how do you come to know those laws?
"A.-- Pharos will now answer. Spiritual laws are spiritually perceived, as soon as the physical
perceptions are got rid of.
"Q.-- Could you explain to us those laws?
"A.-- Courses of teaching from our side are as necessary for you to understand even the
rudimentary laws of Being, as courses in your colleges; and guessed-at spirit knowledge from
your bounded view must always fail in accurate wording."
It will be perceived that the answers to these questions are, from the beginning, evasive; but the
real idea entertained clearly shines through the thin veil drawn over to conceal it. The questions
pertain to the source, or authorship, of the "laws of spiritual life;" and this would generally be
understood to be God. But on a technicality the spirits refuse to answer. The question is made
plainer, and the answer is that "spirits are not bondaged by persons;" that is to say that spirits
have nothing to do with personalities, and that no personal being has anything to do with those
laws. There is therefore no God who formulates and promulgates them. No wonder the question
followed, how they came to know these laws; and it was a very convenient answer that we will
know when we get there and have lost all physical perceptions. A desire for some explanation of
those laws is met with the not very satisfactory information that they (the spirits) would have to
give those in our sphere a course of teaching, like a college course, before we could understand
even the rudimentary laws of Being. The only thing clear in all this is that there is no God; at least
no personal God such as the Bible reveals. To the "grand whole," whatever that may be, they give
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the name of the "All of Being." In answer to a question concerning "personalities," they are called
"atoms emanating from the same source -- parts of the great All of Being, partaking of the general
characteristics of the grand whole." -- Page 14.9.
Reader, how does all this compare in your own mind with the God of the Bible, the Creator of all
things, the loving Father of us all, who has for his creatures more tender regard and pity than a
father can feel for his own children, whose very name and nature is Love, and who has purposed
infinite good for all men, and will carry it out unless they, as free moral agents, by their own sin,
prevent his doing for them what he desires to do? The Bible is not responsible for the aspersions
cast upon God by a false theology, which misrepresent his character and give occasion for the
charges of vindictiveness and vengeance and awful tyranny, so freely made by fallen angels and
wicked men. They do not belong to him who is the source of all goodness and mercy; and we
would labor to bring those who have perverted views of God back to a right conception of the
great Friend of sinners, as he has revealed himself in his holy word.
2. They Deny Jesus Christ.-- Christ is revealed as the divine Son of the Father; and to deny that
he was or is any more than any other man is surely to deny him; and the scripture says that
"whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father." 1 John 2: 23. The following is what
the "spirits" began to teach in the earliest stages of Spiritualism concerning Christ: --
"What is the meaning of the word Christ? 'IT is not, as generally supposed, the Son of the
Creator of all things. Any just and perfect being is Christ. The crucifixion of Christ is nothing
more than the crucifixion of the spirit, which all have to contend with before becoming perfect
and righteous. The miraculous conception of Christ is merely a fabulous tale." -- Spiritual
Telegraph, No. 37.
How fully does this declaration that any good man is Christ open the way for the fulfilment of the
Saviour's prophecy that in the last days many false Christs and false prophets shall arise, and shall
deceive many. See
Matt. 24: 24. A prospectus of the Truth Seeker contained these words: "It shall be the organ
through which the christs of the last dispensation will choose to speak."
A little later, July 19, 1862, there was published in the Banner of Light a lecture on Spiritualism
by Mrs. C. L. V. Hatch, in which she spoke of Christ as follows: --
"Of Jesus of Nazareth, personally, we have but little to say. Certain it is, we find sufficient that
is divine in his life and teachings, without professing to believe in the fables of theologians
respecting his birth and parentage. We are content to take the simple record as it stands, and to
regard him as the son of Joseph and Mary, endowed with such purity and harmony of character as
fitted him to be the Apostle and Revelator of the highest wisdom ever taught to man. It is the
fundamental article in the creed of modern Christianity, that Jesus was divine in his nature, and of
miraculous origin and nativity. Now, no human being of ordinary intelligence, unwarped by
educational bias, would ever profess to believe in such a monstrous figment, which only shows
the blindness of superstitious prejudice."
Here is something twenty-four years later. A séance reported in the Banner of Light, Oct. 9, 1886,
gives the following questions and answer: --
"Ques.-- Do 'spirits' generally believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ; that he was the Son of God;
that he was crucified, dead, and buried, and rose again the third day for the saving of all who
34
should believe in him?
"Ans.-- No; spirits generally -- advanced spirits, those who are intelligent, having studied deeply
into the principles of life -- do not accept the theory of the divinity of Jesus Christ; they do not
believe that he was crucified for mankind, in the accepted understanding of that term."
Some years ago a class was formed in New York City for the purpose of investigating what is
called the spiritual philosophy. Before that class, Dr. Weisse said: --
"Friend Orton seems to make rather light of the communications from spirits concerning Christ.
It seems, nevertheless, that all the testimony received from advanced spirits only shows that
Christ was a medium and reformer in Judea; that he now is an advanced spirit in the sixth sphere;
but that he never claimed to be God, and does not at present. I have had two communications to
that effect. I have also read some that Dr. Hare had. 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."
The peculiar insult here purposely offered to the Saviour will be appreciated when it is noted that
at about the same time the spirits located Thomas Paine, the well-known skeptic, in the seventh
sphere, one sphere above that of Christ. He must therefore have progressed very rapidly, seeing
he so quickly surpassed Christ, who had over 1700 years the start of him. Before the same class
Dr. Hare is reported to have spoken as follows, which we give without assuming any
responsibility for the spiritual grammar therein exhibited: --
"He said that he had been thus protected from deception by the spirits of Washington and
Franklin, and that they had brought Jesus Christ to him, with whom he had also communicated.
He had first repelled him as an impostor; but became convinced afterward that it was really him.
He related that he had learned from that high and holy spirit, that he was not the character that
Christendom had represented him to be, and not responsible for the errors connected with his
name, but that he was, while on earth, a medium of high and extraordinary powers, and that it was
solely through his mediumistic capabilities that he attained so great knowledge, and was enabled
to practice such apparent wonders."
When Christ was upon earth, it was envy, jealousy, and malice that moved the Pharisees against
him (Matt 27: 18); and it seems that he is followed by the same feelings in the spirit world. This is
natural; for he who fired the hearts of the Pharisees with their malignant spirit, is the same one, as
we have seen, who is working through the powers of darkness in the unseen world to-day. Any
way to degrade Christ in the minds of men to a level with, or below, the mediums of our time, and
make it appear that they can do as great wonders as he, seems to be the object in view.
There is plainly manifest an irrepressible desire on the part of spirits and mediums to show Christ
to be inferior to the leaders of other great religions of the world, as Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster,
etc. Thus, at a
séance held in 1864 (Banner of Light, June 4), the spirits were questioned as follows: --
"Ques.-- Have you ever seen Confucius or Zoroaster?
"Ans.-- Yes, many times.
Q.-- In the order of degree, which stands the higher in moral excellence --Jesus Christ,
Confucius, or Zoroaster?
35
"A.-- Confucius stands in morality higher than the other two. . . . Jesus himself claims to have
been inspired to a large extent, by this same Confucius. And if we are to place reliance upon the
records concerning each individual, we shall find that Jesus spoke the truth when he tolls us that
he was inspired by Confucius."
Indeed! Where are the records referred to? Where and when did Jesus "speak" the words
attributed to him? And where does he tell us ,that he was inspired by Confucius? So we are to
believe, are we, that the gospel of Jesus Christ, is only a rehash of what was originally wrought
out in the brain of Confucius, and not words fresh from the fountain of light given him by his
Father in heaven, to speak, as he claimed them to be? Yet he was a high and holy medium. We
wonder what standard of holiness and perfection the spirits can have.
But still later, in 1896, we find the spirits putting forth the same teaching in reference to Jesus
Christ. In "Automatic, or Spirit Writing," pp. 148, 149, we have this: --
"Ques.-- Do you accept Jesus as the model of spiritual knowledge?

"Ans.-- Shall you give us a better example?
"Q. --Well, we are willing to accept him as one of many, but not as chief.
"A.--Change the name. Call him by other names-- Buddha, Krishna, or Mohammed, the spirit is
one -- is ever and ever the same. Spirit is one, not many, however often the name is changed.
"Q.-- Were not Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed distinct personalities?
"A.-- No more than all atoms emanating from the same source -- parts of the great All of Being,
partaking of the general characteristics of the grand whole--but yielding to environments, showed
marked individualism, such as the force of the times in which they appeared would create in their
characters.
"Q.-- Are these leaders of religious thought not distinct individualities now?
"A.-- No, not on spiritual planes, which do not recognize any now."
Thus they persist in denying that Jesus holds any pre-eminent position as a religious teacher. He
may as well be called Buddha, Krishna, or Mohammed as Jesus. They are all the same spirit, all
atoms of the great "All of Being," all as much alike as three drops of water from the same ocean,
and what is more bewildering still, they have now all lost their individuality in the spirit world.
How, then, can it be told that Christ is in the sixth sphere, and Paine in the seventh? Such
teachers, though they may claim to be good spirits, are branded as antichrist by both John and
Jude. John says: "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that
denieth the Father and the Son." 1 John 2: 22. Again, "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." 1 John 4: 3. According to the spirits, Jesus Christ has
no more come in the flesh than have Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Zoroaster, or any other
religious teacher. They all simply yielded to their environments, and showed marked
individualism while on this earth, and have now become absorbed in the "great whole" in the
spirit world. Thus, as Jude says (verse 4), they deny "the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus
Christ."
So much for their denial of Christ in his person. They also deny him in his offices; for to deny
and ridicule what he came to do, is one of the most effectual ways of denying him. The great
work of Christ was the shedding of his blood to atone for the sins of the world; and the spirits are
particularly bitter in denouncing that idea. If such sentiments were uttered only by open and
professed scoffers, it would not do so much harm; but it is not unusual to find those bearing the
title of "Reverend" descanting on these themes in a manner to show themselves antichrist,
36
according to the definition of that term by John. And even this need not surprise us; for the sure
word of prophecy has foretold that some who have once held the true faith will depart therefrom
to give heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. 1 Tim. 4: 1.
One R. P. Wilson, to whose name is attached the ministerial title, in his lectures on "Spiritual
Science," said: --
"Although as a believer in true spiritual philosophy, we cannot receive the orthodox views of
salvation, yet we recognize the birth of a Savior and Redeemer into the universal hearts of
humanity, wherein truly the deity is incarnate, dwelling in the interior of man's spirit. We believe
that each soul of man is born with his or her Savior within them; for as man is an embodiment of
the universe in epitome, he contains in his central nature an incarnation of deity. The germ of
immortal unfoldings resides within the spirit of it, which needs only appropriate conditions to
call forth the expanding and elevating powers of the soul."
In "Spiritual Science Demonstrated," p. 229, Dr. Hare said: --
"Since my spirit sister's translation to the spheres, she has risen from the fifth to the sixth sphere.
It has been alleged by her that her ascent was retarded by her belief in the atonement."
A "spirit" calling himself Deacon John Norton, as reported in the Banner of Light, said: --
"I used to believe in the atonement; I honestly believed that Christ died to save the world, and
that by and through his death all must be saved if saved at all. Now I see that this is folly -- it
cannot be so. The light through Christ, the Holy One, shone in darkness; the darkness could not
comprehend it; and thus it crucified the body, and Christ died a martyr. He was not called in that
way, that by the shedding of his blood, the vast
multitude coming after him should find salvation. Everything in nature proves this false. They
tell me here that Christ was the most perfect man of his time. I am told here also that he is worthy
to be worshiped, because of his goodness; and where man finds goodness he may worship. God's
face is seen in the violet,
and man may well worship this tiny flower."
In the pantheism of Spiritualism, every object in nature, the tiny flower, the pebbles, the trees, the
birds and bees, are worthy to be worshiped as much as Christ. In one breath the spirits extol him
as a most perfect man, pre-eminent in goodness and worthy to be worshiped, and in the next,
place him in a position which would make him the greatest fraud and impostor that ever lived.
Such inconsistencies show that Christ is a miracle which evil men and evil angels know not how
to dispose of.
As they deny Christ, they must, logically, deny the doctrine of his second coming. This doctrine
is made of especial importance and prominence in the New Testament. The nature of that coming,
its manner, and the circumstances attending it are so fully described, that no one who adopts the
Bible view can possibly be deceived by false christs. But the church and the world have been
turned away from the true doctrine of the second advent, and the way is thus prepared for the
great deceptions of the last days. Spiritualism is one of these, and claims that it is itself that
second coming. Joel Tiffany, a former celebrated teacher of Spiritualism, has said: --
"I must look for the coming of my Lord in my own affection. He must come in the clouds of my
spiritual heavens, or he cannot come for any benefit to me."
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And through Mrs. Conant, a famous medium of the early days of Spiritualism, the controlling
spirit said: --
"This second coming of Christ means simply the second coming of truths that are not themselves
new, that have always existed. . . . He said, 'When I come again, I shall not be known to you.'
Spiritualism is that second coming of Christ."--Banner of Light, Nov. 18, 1865.
But the Bible description of this event is, the revelation of the Lord himself in the clouds of
heaven in the glory of the Father, the reverberating shout of triumph, the voice of the archangel,
the trump of God, the flash of his presence like that of the lightning, the wailing of the tribes of
the earth, as they thus behold him, while unprepared to meet him, and the resurrection of the
righteous dead. And where and when have these inseparable accompaniments of that event been
seen? They do not occur when a person is converted from sin, nor do they occur in time dying
chamber, nor have they occurred in Spiritualism; and until they do take place, the second coming
of Christ is not accomplished.
Many seek to dispose of such testimony as this, by making it all figurative, or meeting it with a
bold denial, as in the case of the resurrection of the body. And the way has been too well prepared
for this condition of things, by much of the teaching of popular orthodoxy, which turns the early
records of the Bible into childish allegory, perverts the true doctrine of the coming and kingdom
of Christ, and denies the resurrection of the dead, by destroying its necessity through the
immortality of the soul. On the vital point of the resurrection, Dr. Clarke makes this noteworthy
remark: --
"One remark I cannot help making,-- The doctrine of the resurrection appears to have been
thought of much more consequence among the primitive Christians than it is now! How is this?--
The apostles were continually insisting on it, and exciting the followers of God to diligence,
obedience, and cheerfulness through it. And their successors in the present day seldom mention
it! So the apostles preached, and so the primitive Christians believed; so we preach and so our
hearers believe. There is not a doctrine in the gospel on which more stress is laid; and there is not
a doctrine in the present system of preaching which is treated with more neglect."-- On 1
Corinthians 15 (original edition).[1]
In view of the way the Bible has been treated by its professed friends, it is no wonder that
infidelity prevails, and Spiritualism prospers.
3. They Deny the Bible.-- The denial of God and Christ, as set forth above is, of course, a denial
of the Bible; and not much need therefore be added on this point. We quote only a few
representative utterances. Doctor Hare ("Spiritual Science Demonstrated," p. 209) says:--
"The Old Testament does not impart a knowledge of immortality, without which religion were
worthless. The notions derived from the gospels are vague, disgusting, inaccurate, and difficult to
believe."
As to the Old Testament, it would seem doubtful whether Mr. Hare ever read far enough to find
(1) Job exclaiming: "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see
God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not another; though my reins
be consumed within me" (or, as the margin reads: "My reins within me are consumed with earnest
38
desire [for that day];" or (2) David: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness;" or (3)
Isaiah: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing,
ye that dwell in the dust;" or (4) Ezekiel: "Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and
cause you to come up out of your graves;" or (5) Daniel: "Many of them that sleep in the dust of
the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt;" and
(6) Hosea: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death." Job
19: 25-27; Ps. 17: 15; Isa. 26: 19; Eze. 37: 12; Dan. 12: 2; Hosea 13: 14. And as for the New
Testament, it is no doubt "disgusting" to many Spiritualists to read that "the fearful, and
unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters,
and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the
second death;" and that without the city "are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and
murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." Rev. 21:8; 22:15.
Communications from spirits are offered in place of the Bible as a better source of instruction, the
Bible being denounced, as above quoted, as "vague, inaccurate, and difficult to believe." A brief
comparison of the two will furnish pertinent evidence on this point. Take, on the Bible side, for
example, a portion of the record of creation (Gen. 1: 1-5): --
"In the beginning God created the heaven 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."
The facts stated in this record, the profoundest minds can never comprehend; the language in
which they are expressed, a little child can understand. The statements are plain and simple, a
perfect model of perspicuous narrative. Place by the side of this an account of the same event as
given us from the "spheres." The spirits have undertaken to produce a new Bible, beginning, like
the old, with the creation; and this is the way it starts out, through the medinmship 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 and moral-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."
We will inflict no more of this "undulatory spiral" nonsense on the reader. He now has both
records before him, and can judge for himself which is the more worthy of his regard. There have
been Spiritualists who, writing in their normal state, and not yet fully divorced from the influence
of their former education, have acknowledged the authenticity of the Bible, and the doctrines of
Jesus as recorded in the gospels. But these, it is claimed, are to be understood according to a
spiritual meaning which underlies the letter; and this spiritual meaning generally turns out to be
contrary to the letter, which is a virtual denial of the record itself. But the quotations here given
39
(only a specimen of the multitudes that might be presented) are given on the authority of the
"spirits," whose teachings are what we wish to ascertain.
THEY DENY ALL DISTINCTION BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG
There is implanted in the hearts of men by nature, a sense of right and a sense of wrong. Even
those who know not God, nor Christ, nor the gospel, possess this power of discrimination. This is
what Paul, in Rom. 2: 15 calls "the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." That
this distinction should now be denied by a class in a civilized community, professing to be
advanced thinkers and teachers, among whom are found the learned, the refined, and the
professedly pious, shows that we have fallen upon strange times. To be sure, many of them talk
fluently of the beauty and perfection of divine laws; but in the sense in which they would have
them understood, they rob them of all characteristics of law. The first great essential of law is
authority; but this they take away from it; the next is penalty for its violation; but this they deny,
and thus degrade the law to a mere piece of advice. The "Healing of the Nations," an authoritative
work among Spiritualists, pp. 163, 164, says: --
"Thus thy body needs no laws, having been in its creation supplied with all that could be
necessary for its government. Thy spirit is above all laws, and above all essences which flow
therein. God created thy spirit from within his own, and surely the Creator of law is above it; the
Creator of essences must be above all essence created. Amid if thou hast what may be or might be
termed laws, they are always subservient to thy spirit. Good men need no laws, and laws will do
bad or ignorant men no good. If a man be above law, he should never be governed by it. If he be
below, what good can dead, dry words do him?
"True knowledge removeth all laws from power by placing the spirit of man above it."
A correspondent of the Telegraph said of this work, "The Healing of the Nations:
"According to its teaching, no place is found in the universe for divine wrath and vengeance. All
are alike and forever the object of God's love, pity, and tender care -- the difference between the
two extremes of human character on earth, being as a mere atom when compared with perfect
wisdom."
This is a favorite comparison with them,-- that the difference between God and the best of men is
so much greater than the extremes of character among men,-- the most upright and the most
wicked, -- that the latter is a mere atom, and not accounted of in God's sight. That there is an
infinite difference between God and the best of men, is all true; for God is infinite in all his
attributes, and man is very imperfect at the best. But to argue from this that God is inferior to
man, so that he cannot discern difference in character here, even as man can plainly discern it,
seems but mad-house reasoning. What would we think of the man who had the same regard for
the thief as for the honest man, for the murderer as for the philanthropist? To ignore such
distinctions as even men are able to discern would destroy the stability of all human governments;
what then would be the effect on the divine government? God has given his law -- holy, just, and
good -- to men, and
commanded obedience. He has attached the penalty to disobedience: "The soul that sinneth, it
shall die," "The wages of sin is death." Eze. 18: 20; Rom. 6: 23. And in the judgment, the
distinction God makes in character will be plainly declared; for he will set the righteous on his
right hand, but the wicked on the left. Matt. 25: 32, 33.
40
This view of the failure of law, and the absence of all human accountability, naturally leads to a
bold denial of sin and the existence of crime. The "Healing of the Nations," p. 169, says: "Unto
God there is no error; all is comparatively good." The same work says that God views error as
"undeveloped good." A. J. Davis ("Nature of Divine Revelation," p. 521) says: "Sin, indeed, in
the common acceptation of that term, does not really exist."
A discourse from J. S. Loveland, once a minister, reported in the Banner of Light, contained this
paragraph:
"With God there is no crime; with man there is. Crime does not displease God, but it does man.
God is in the darkest crime, as in the highest possible holiness. He is equally pleased in either
case. Both harmonize equally with his attributes--they are only different sides of the same Deity."
In "Automatic Writing" (1896), p. 139, a question was asked concerning evil, meaning sin and
crimes among men. The spirit answered that these were conditions of progress, and were so
necessary to elevation that they were to be welcomed, not hated. The questions and answers are
as follows: --
"Ques.-- Can you give us any information in regard to the so-called Devil--once so firmly
believed in?
"Ans.-- Devil is a word used to conjure with.
"Q.-- Well, then, as the word itself doubtless arose from the word 'evil,' which means to us
unhappiness, can you give us an explanation of tile existence of evil
"A.-- Evil--as you who are the greatest sufferers from it, name one of the conditions of progress--
is as necessary, aye, more so, than what you call good, to your and our elevation to higher
spheres. It is not to be hated, but welcomed. It is the winnowing of the grain from the chaff.
Children of truth, don't worry over what to you seems evil; soon you will be of us and will
understand, and be rejoiced that what you call evil persists and works as leaven in the great work
of mind versus matter.
" Q.-- But it seems to us impossible that brutal crimes like murder, assassinations, or great
catastrophes, by which the innocent are made to suffer at the hands of malicious and cruel
persons, should work for ultimate good?
"A.-- Percipients of the grand whole of Being can understand but may not state to those on your
plane, the underlying good making itself asserted even through such dreadful manifestations of
human imperfections as the crimes you name.
"When asked why certain wrongs were allowed to be perpetuated, this answer was given: --
"There is a law of psychical essence which makes necessary all these ephemeral entanglements
which to you seem so severe, and you will yet see from your own standpoint of reason why such
hardships must be endured by questioning souls on the highway of progress.
"Q.-- But do you from your vantage ground of larger knowledge grow careless that such injustice
is done?
"A.-- We do care, but cannot remedy.
"Q.-- --Why can't you remedy?
41
"A.-- Because humanity is but an embryo of existence.

"Q.-- If you can perceive the trials and sorrows of mortals, and can interfere to save them, why
do you not more often do so?
"A.-- When undeveloped souls pay the price of development, we stand aloof, and let the play go
on. Interference will do no good."
In view of such a confession, what becomes of the many claims put forth by other spirits that they
are ever hovering near their friends to assist amid guard them, to help and inspire them, and keep
them from evil and danger? These say that those terrible crimes (and this would include all
crimes) are all necessary, that they are tending to develop souls, and bring them to higher spheres,
and thus are just as laudable as good actions; so they settle back in a gleeful mood, and "let the
play go on;" let wicked men cultivate and develop and practice their evil propensities, and the
innocent suffer. Well may men pray to be delivered from such a spirit assembly as that.
In "Healing of the Nations," p. 402, Dr. Hare says: --
That anything should, even for an instant, be contrary to his will, is inconsistent with his
foresight and omnipotency. It would be a miracle that anything counter to his will should exist."
A lecture on the "Philosophy of Reform," given by A. J. Davis, in New York City, bears
testimony to the same effect: --
"In the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, it is affirmed that sin is the transgression of the law. But
by an examination of nature, the true and only Bible, it will be seen that this statement is
erroneous. It gives a wrong idea of both man and law. . . . It will be found impossible for man to
transgress a law of God."
Thus they very illogically assume that if God has the will or the power to prevent evil, it could
not exist, and therefore, if there is such a God, he is responsible, forgetting that God is long-
suffering, and bears long with vessels of wrath fitted, for destruction, before they pass beyond the
limits of his mercy and perish. But Mr. Davis says further: --
"Reformers need to understand that war is as natural to one stage of human development as peace
is natural to another. My brother has the spirit of revenge. Shall I call him a demon? Is not his
spirit natural to his condition War is not evil or repulsive except to a man of peace. Who made the
non-resistant? Polygamy is as natural to one stage of development as oranges are natural to the
South. Shall I grow indignant, and because I am a monogamist, condemn my kinsman of yore?
Who made him? Who made me? We both came up under the confluence of social and political
circumstances; and we both represent our conditions and our
teachers. The doctrine of blame and praise is natural only to an unphilosophical condition of
mind. The spirit of complaint – of attributing 'evil' to this and that plane of society –is natural; but
is natural only to undeveloped minds. It is a profanation sort of atheism of which I would not be
guilty."
The Bible says, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light and
light for darkness." Isa. 5 20. And it makes another declaration which finds abundant
confirmation in the sentiments quoted above: "Because sentence against an evil work is not
executed speedily, therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Eccl. 8:
11.
42
Having thus attempted to destroy in the minds of men all distinction between good and evil, all
being alike in God's sight, and all equally good, they try to make the way a little broader and
easier for men to give full rein to all the propensities and inclinations of an evil heart, by teaching
that there is no Lawgiver and Judge before whom men must appear to give an account of their
deeds, but that they are responsible to themselves
alone, and must give account only to their own natures. Thus Hon. J. B. Hall, in a lecture reported
in the Banner of Light, Feb. 6, 1864, said: --
"I believe that man is amenable to no law not written upon his own nature, no matter by whom
given By his own nature he must be tried -- by his own acts he must stand or fall. True, man must
give an account to God for all his deeds; but how?-- Solely by giving account to his own nature--
to himself."
At a séance reported in the Banner of Light, May 28, 1864, the following question was proposed,
and the answer was by the communicating spirit: --
"Ques.-- To whom or to what is the soul accountable?

"Ans.-- To no Deity outside the realm of its own being, certainly; to no God which is a creation
of fancy; to no
Deity who dwells in a far-off heaven, and sits upon a white throne; to no Jesus of Nazareth; to no
patron saint; to no personality; to no principle outside our own individual selves."
The "Healing of the Nations," p. 74, says: --
"Man is his own saviour, his own redeemer. He is his own judge--in his own scales weighed."
A little over twenty years after the birth of Spiritualism, Aug. 25, 1868, the Fifth National
Convention of Spiritualists was held in Corinthian hall, Rochester, N. Y., at which a formal
"Declaration of Principles" was set forth. From time seventh and eighth paragraphs, under
principle 20, we quote the following: --
"Seventh, To stimulate the mind to the largest investigation . . . that we may be qualified to judge
for ourselves what is right and true: Eighth, To deliver from all bondage to authority whether
vested in creed, book or church, except that of received truth."
This is the same principle of man's responsibility to no one but himself, authoritatively adopted.
What a picture have we now before us! Destroy man's belief in, and reverence for, God and
Christ, as they do; lead him to ridicule the atonement, the only remedy for sin; make him
disbelieve the Bible; take away from his mind all distinction between right and wrong, and assure
him that he is accountable to no one but himself; and how better could one prepare the way to
turn men into demons. All this the spirits, by their teaching, seek to do. And can any one fail to
foresee the result? Comparatively a small proportion of the inhabitants of this country have
committed themselves to these views; consequently but little of the legitimate fruit as yet appears;
but take human nature as it is and suppose all the inhabitants of this land to act on these
principles, and then what would we have? -- A pandemonium, a scene of anarchy, riot,
bloodshed, and all depths of rottenness and corruption -- in short, a world where no place and no
human being would be safe.
43
That this statement is none too strong, will appear as we look a moment at some of the results
which have already developed themselves among the friends of such views, and as their
inevitable fruit. The tendency can by no possibility be otherwise than to atheism amid all
immorality. As has been already remarked, the repulsive features were made much more
prominent in the early stages of Spiritualism than at the present time. They are now held in the
background. The literature touching these points has been remodeled, and an air of respectability
and religion assumed. Most of the quotations therefore date some years back, and would be
charitably withheld were there any evidence of reform either present or prospective. But where or
when have these principles ever been officially repudiated, and evidence given that the
consequent practices had been abandoned? That there are many Spiritualists of upright and moral
lives, and honorable members of society, in the best sense of that term, we gladly believe; but is
not this because they are living above their principles; and due, not to the influence, but rather to
the non-influence of real Spiritualism upon their lives? The quotations given are from those who
have been prominent among Spiritualists as authors and speakers. If they overdraw the picture,
the responsibility is with them. Dr. B. P. Randolph, author of a work "Dealings with the Dead,"
was eight years a medium, then renounced Spiritualism long enough to expose its
character, then returned to it again, unable to break entirely away from the spell it has fastened
upon him. He gives his opinion of it in the following scathing words:--
"I enter the arena as the champion of common sense, against what in my soul I believe to be the
most tremendous enemy of God, morals, and religion, that ever found foothold on the earth -- the
most seductive, hence the most dangerous, form of sensualism that ever cursed a nation, age, or
people. I was a medium about eight years. during which time I made three thousand speeches and
traveled over several different countries, proclaiming its new gospel. I now regret that so much
excellent breath was wasted, and that my health of mind and body was well nigh ruined. I have
only begun to regain both since I totally abandoned it, and to-day had rather see the cholera in my
house, than be a spiritual medium.
"As a trance speaker, I became widely known; and now aver that during the 'entire eight years of
my mediumship, I firmly and sacredly confess that I had not the control of my own mind, as I
now have, one twentieth of the time; and before man and high heaven I most solemnly declare
that I do not now believe that during the whole eight years. I was sane for thirty-six consecutive
hours, in consequence of the trance and the susceptibility thereto.
"For seven years I held daily intercourse with what purported to be my mother's spirit. I am now
fully persuaded that it was nothing but an evil spirit, an infernal demon, who, in that guise, gained
my soul's confidence, and led me to the very brink of ruin. We read in Scripture of demoniac
possession, as well as abnormal spiritual action. Both facts exist, provable to-day; I am positive
the former does. A. J. Davis and his clique of Harmonialists say there are no evil spirits. I
emphatically deny the statement. Five of my friends destroyed themselves, and I attempted it, by
direct spiritual influences. Every crime in the calendar has been committed by mortal movers of
viewless beings. Adultery, fornication, suicides, desertions, unjust divorces, prostitution,
abortion, insanity, are not evils, I suppose. I charge all these to this scientific Spiritualism. It has
also broken up families, squandered fortunes, tempted and destroyed the weak. It has banished
peace from happy families, separated husbands and wives, and shattered the intellect of
thousands."
The following is an extract from the writings of J. F. Whitney, editor of the New York Pathfinder.
His view of the subject accords with that of Dr. Randolph: --
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"Now, after a long and constant watchfulness, seeing for months and for years its progress and its
practical workings upon its devotees, its believers, and its mediums we are compelled to speak
our honest conviction, which is, that the manifestations coming through the acknowledged
mediums, who are designated as rapping, tipping, writing, and entranced mediums, have a
baneful influence upon believers, and create discord and confusion; that the generality of these
teachings inculcate false ideas, approve of selfish individual acts, and endorse theories and
principles, which, when carried out, debase and make men little better than the brute. These are
among the fruits of Modern Spiritualism, and we do not hesitate to say that we believe if these
manifestations are continued to be received, and to be as little understood as they are, and have
been since they made their appearance at Rochester, and mortals are to be deceived by their false,
fascinating, and snakelike charming powers, which go with them, the day will come when the
world will require the appearance of another Saviour to redeem the world from its departing from
Christ's warnings. . . . Seeing, as we have, the gradual progress it makes with its believers,
particularly its mediums, from lives of morality to those of sensuality and immorality, gradually
and cautiously undermining the foundation of good principles, we look back with amazement to
the radical change which a few months will bring about in individuals; for its tendency is to
approve and endorse each individual act and character, however good or bad these acts may be.
"We desire to send forth our warning voice, and if our humble position as the head of a public
journal, our known advocacy of Spiritualism, our experience, and the conspicuous part we have
played among its believers, the honesty and the fearlessness with which we have defended the
subject, will weigh anything in our favor, we desire that our opinions may be received, and those
who are moving passively down the rushing rapids to destruction should pause, ere it be too late,
and save themselves from the blasting influence which those manifestations are causing."
Every one who knows anything about Spiritualism has heard of Cora Hatch, who traveled
extensively, and manifested her powers as an extemporaneous lecturer before astonished
multitudes. One of her husbands, Dr. Hatch, renounced Spiritualism, and the following is from
the testimony he bore concerning it: --
"The most damning iniquities are everywhere perpetrated in spiritual circles, a very small
percentage of which ever comes to public attention. I care not whether it be spiritual or mundane,
the facts exist, and should demand the attention and condemnation of an intelligent community. . .
. The abrogation of marriage, bigamy, accompanied by robbery, theft, rape, are all chargeable
upon Spiritualism. I most solemnly affirm that I do not believe that there has, during the last five
hundred years, arisen any people who are guilty of so great a variety of crimes and indecencies as
the Spiritualists of America.
"For a long time I was swallowed up in its whirlpool of excitement, and comparatively paid but
little attention to its evils, believing that much good might result from the opening of the avenues
of Spiritual intercourse. But during the past eight months I have devoted my attention to critical
investigation of its moral, social, and religious bearing, and I stand appalled before the revelations
of its awful and damning realities."
Much testimony of this nature might be given from those who have had similar experiences and
equally favorable facilities for judging of the character of Spiritualism. We present only a few
extracts more.
Dr. Wm. B. Potter of New York, in an article under the head of "Astounding Facts," and also in a
tract entitled, " Spiritualism as It Is," gives the result of his experience and observations. His
45
testimony is the more valuable, since he writes not from the standpoint of one who has renounced
Spiritualism, whose feelings may for the time be overwrought, and his language stronger than
would be used in calmer moments. When he wrote, he was still an advocate of Spiritualism, and
spoke as a friend who would, if possible, induce Spiritualists to reform their faith and their
manner of living. He says: --
"Fifteen years of critical study of Spiritual literature, an extensive acquaintance with the leading
Spiritualists, and a patient, systematic, and thorough examination of the manifestations for many
years, enable us to speak from actual knowledge, definitely and positively, of 'Spiritualism as It
Is.' Spiritual literature is full of the most insidious and seductive doctrines, calculated to
undermine the very foundations of morality and virtue, and lead to the most unbridled
licentiousness.
"We are told that 'we must have charity,' that it is wrong to blame any one, that we must not
expose iniquity, as it will harden the guilty,' that 'none should be punished,' that 'man is a
machine, and not to blame for his conduct,' that 'there is no high, no low, no good, no bad,' that
'sin is a lesser degree of righteousness,' that 'nothing we can do can injure the soul or retard its
progress,' that 'those who act the worst will progress
the fastest,' that 'lying is right, slavery is right, murder is right, adultery is right,' that 'whatever is,
is right.'
"Hardly can you find a Spiritualist book, paper, lecture, or communication that does not contain
some of these pernicious doctrines; in disguise, if not openly. Hundreds of families have been
broken up, and many affectionate wives deserted by 'affinity-seeking' husbands. Many once
devoted wives have been seduced, and left their husbands and tender, helpless children, In follow
some 'higher attraction.' Many well-disposed but simple-minded girls have been deluded by
'affinity' notions, and led off by 'affinity hunters,' to be deserted in a few months, with blasted
reputations, or led to deeds still more dark and criminal, to hide their shame."
The same writer also mentions a fact which shows where the responsibility of all this looseness of
morals belongs. He says: --
"At the National Spiritual Convention at Chicago, called to consider the question of a national
organization, the only plan approved by the committee, especially provided that no charge should
ever be entertained against any member, and that any person, without any regard to his or her
moral character, might become a member."
The fact that no plan could find approval which did not provide that they should never be blamed
nor called to account for any of their deeds, shows on what points they felt the most anxious, and
plainly proves that they belong to the class of which Christ spoke, who loved darkness rather than
light, and who would not come to the light lest their deeds should be reproved. John 3 : 19-21.
It is unpleasant to wade through pools of filth, and we therefore spare the reader quotations from
those Spiritualists who have not only avowed the most revolting practices of free love, but openly
advocated the same, and endeavored to induce others to come out likewise, on the ground that
they were only honestly and publicly admitting what the others believed and practiced in secret.
For the same reason we pass by the notorious Woodhull and Claflin, and Hull and Jamieson
episodes, in this field, which, in the illustration and language of another, "burst upon the country
like a rotten egg three thousand miles in diameter!"
46
It may be said that these thing are in the past and the situation has now greatly changed. For the
benefit of those who thus flatter themselves we introduce one more quotation. It is from "The
Law of Psychic Phenomena," by T. J. Hudson (A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1894). The
language is candid and conciliatory, and the author cannot be accused of any undue prejudice on
the question of which he speaks. On page 335, he says: --
"I do not charge Spiritualists as a class with being advocates of the doctrines of free love. On the
contrary, I am aware that, as a class, they hold the marriage relation in sacred regard. I cannot
forget, however, that but a few years ago some of their leading advocates and mediums
proclaimed the doctrine of free love in all its hideous deformity from every platform in the land.
Nor do I fail to remember that the better class of Spiritualists everywhere repudiated the doctrine,
and denounced its advocates and exemplars. Nevertheless the moral virus took effect here and
there all over the country, and it is doing its deadly work in secret in many an otherwise happy
home. And I charge a large and constantly growing class of professional mediums with being the
leading propagandists of the doctrine of free love. They infest every community in the land, and
it is well known to all men and women who are dissatisfied or unhappy in their marriage
relations, that they can always find sympathy by consulting the average medium, and can,
moreover, find justification for illicit love by invoking the spirits of the dead through such
mediums."
We have italicized that passage in the foregoing which shows that the deadly evil is still working
in secret, and that a large and constantly growing number of professionals are aiding and abetting
the iniquity.
DANGERS OF MEDIUMSHIP
A few testimonies will show that when one gives himself or herself up to the control of the spirits,
such ones take a most perilous position. The spirits insist on their victims becoming passive,
ceasing to resist, and yielding their whole wills to them. Some of their persuasive words are these:
"Come in confidence to us;" "Let our teachings deeply impress you;" "You must not doubt what
we say;" "Learn of us;" "Obey our directions and you will be benefited;" "Seek to obtain
knowledge of us;" "Have faith in us;" "Fear not to obey;" "Obey us and you will be greatly
blessed;" etc., etc. Mesmerists operate in the same way. They gain control of their subjects in the
same way that the spirits mesmerize their mediums and when under their control, the spirits cause
them to see whatever they bring before them, and hear according to their wills, and do as they
bid. And the things they suppose they see and hear, and what they are to do, are only such things
as exist in the mind of the mesmerizing power. The subject is completely at the mercy of the
invisible agency; and to put one's self there is a most heaven-daring and hazardous act. Mr.
Hudson ("Law of Psychic Phenomena," p. 336) says: --
"To the young whose characters are not formed, and to those whose notions of morality are
loose, the dangers of mediumship are appalling."
To further gain the confidence of mortals, the spirits claim to be the ones who answer their
prayers. lit "Automatic Writing," p. 142, we have this:--
"Ques.-- Will our friends tell us whether from their point of view, there is any real efficacy in
prayer?
"Ans. [by spirits].-- Shall not 'a soul's sincere desire' arouse ill discarnate and free spirits effort to
47
make that sincere desire a reality? What good can come from aspirations on mortal planes, save
through the efforts to make those aspirations realized on spiritual planes, by the will of freed
spirits?"
Mediums are unable to resist the powers of the unseen world when once under their control.
Professor Brittan (" Telegraphic Answer to Mahan," p. 10), concerning mediumship, says: --
"We may further add in this connection that the trance mediums for spirit intercourse are equally
irresponsible. Many of them are totally unable to resist the powers which come to them from the
invisible and unknown realms."
Dr. Randolph ("Dealings with the Dead," p. 150) shows the dangers of mediumship, as follows: --
"I saw that one, great cause of the moral looseness of thousands of sensitive-nerved people on
earth, resulted from the infernal possessions and obsessions of their persons by delegations from
those realms of darkness and (to all but themselves) unmitigated horror. A sensitive man or
woman -- no matter how virtuously inclined -- may, unless by constant prayer and watchfulness
they prevent it and keep the will active and the sphere entire, be led into the most abominable
practices and habits."
This same writer, in the same work, pp. 108, 109, says:--
"Those ill-meaning ones who live just beyond the threshold, often obtain their ends by subtly
infusing a semi-sense of volitional power into the minds of their intended victims, so that at last
they come to believe themselves to be self-acting, when in fact they are the merest shuttlecocks
bandied about between the battledores of knavish devils on one side, and devilish knaves upon
the other, and between the two the poor fallen wretches are nearly heart-reft and destroyed."
A work by A. J. Davis called "The Diakka, and their Earthly Victims," mentions the nature of
these denizens of the spirit world, and their wonderful location. The country (to speak after the
manner of men) which they inhabit, is so large that it would require not less than 1,803,026
diameters of the earth to span its longitudinal extent. This he had from a spirit he calls James
Victor Wilson, a profound mathematician! This space is occupied by spirits who have passed
from earth, who are " morally deficient" and affectionally unclean."--
Page 7. The same spirit, Wilson, describes the diakka as those "who take insane delight in playing
parts, in juggling tricks, in personating opposite characters to whom prayers and profane
utterances are of equi-value; surcharged with a passion for lyrical narrations; one whose every
attitude is instinct with the schemes of specious reasoning, sophistry, pride, pleasure, wit, subtle
convivialities; a boundless disbeliever, one who thinks that all private life will end in the all-
consuming self-love of God."-- Page 13. On page 13 he says further of them, that they are "never
resting, never satisfied with life, often amusing themselves with jugglery and tricky witticisms,
invariably victimizing others; secretly tormenting mediums, causing them to exaggerate in
speech, and to falsify in acts; unlocking and unbolting the street doors of your bosom and
memory; pointing your feet into wrong paths, and far more."
What this "far more" is, we are left to conjecture. The advertisement of this book says that it is
"an explanation of much that is false and repulsive in Spiritualism." W. F. Jamieson, in a
Spiritualist paper, called these diakka "a troop of devils," and quoted Judge Carter as saying:
"There is one thing clear, that these diakka, or fantastic or mixed spirits, are very numerous and
48
abundant, and take any and every opportunity of obtruding themselves."
Hudson Tuttle, author of "Life in Two Spheres" and other Spiritualistic works, speaks of "a
communication, through a noted medium, to Gerald Massey from his 'dog Pip,' the said Pip
'licking the slate and writing with
a good degree of intelligence.'" He adds, "Mr. Davis would say that 'Pip' was a 'diakka,' and to-
morrow he will communicate as George Washington. Theodore Parker, or Balaam's ass. This
diakka is flesh, fish, or fowl, as you may desire."
Some idea of how the spirits sometimes torment the mediums, as hinted at above, may be gained
from the following instance. In "Astounding Facts from the Spirit World," pp. 253, 254, Dr.
Gridley describes the case of a medium sixty years of age, living near him in Southampton, Mass.
The sufferings inflicted upon him "in two months at the hands of evil spirits would fill a volume
of five hundred pages." Of these sufferings, the following are specimens: --
"They forbade his eating, to the very point of starvation. He was a perfect skeleton; they
compelled him to walk day and night, with intermissions, to be sure, as their avowed object was
to torment him as much and as long as possible. They swore by everything sacred and profane,
that they would knock his brains out, always accompanying their threats with blows on the
forehead or temples, like that of a mallet in the hands of a powerful man, with this difference,
however; the latter would have made him unconscious, while in full consciousness he now
endured the indescribable agony of those heavy and oft-repeated blows; they declared they would
skin him alive; that he must go to New York and be dissected by inches, all of which he fully
believed. They declared that they would bore holes into his brain, when he instantly felt the
action suited to the word, as though a dozen augers were being turned at once into his very skull;
this done, they would fill his brain with bugs and worms to eat it out, when their gnawing would
instantly commence. . .
These spirits would pinch and pound him, twitch him up and throw him down, yell and
blaspheme, and use the most obscene language that mortals can conceive; they would declare that
they were Christ in one breath, and devils in the next; they would tie him head to foot for a long
time together in a most excruciating
posture; declare they would wring his neck off because he doubted or refused obedience."
Who can doubt that such spirits are the angels of the evil one himself? Dr. Gridley in the same
work, p. 19, gives the experience of another medium, for the truthfulness of which he offers the
fullest proof: --
"We have seen the medium evidently possessed by Irishmen and Dutchmen of the lowest grade--
heard him repeat Joshua's drunken prayers [Joshua was a strong but brutish man he had known in
life], exactly like the original, --imitate his drunkenness in word and deed --try to repeat, or rather
act over his most brutal deeds (from which for decency's sake, he was instantly restrained by
extraordinary exertion and severe rebuke) -- snap and grate his teeth most furiously, strike and
swear, while his eyes flashed like the fires of an orthodox perdition. We have heard him hiss, and
seen him writhe his body like the serpent when crawling, and dart out his tongue, and play it
exactly like that reptile. These exhibitions were intermingled with the most wrangling and
horrible convulsions."
These descriptions, it would seem, ought to be enough to strike terror to any heart at the thought
of being a medium. But there is yet another phase of the subject that should not be passed by.
49
These fallen spirits who are engineering the work of Spiritualism, to maintain their "assumed
characters," and "play their parts" like the aforesaid diakka, represent that disembodied spirits
"just over the threshold," still retain the characteristics they bore in life, such as a disposition to
sensuality and licentiousness, love of rum, tobacco, and other vices, and that they can, by causing
the medium to plunge excessively into these things, thereby still gratify their own propensities to
indulge in them. The following sketch by Hudson Tuttle, a very popular author among
Spiritiualists, is somewhat lengthy, but the idea could not better be presented than by giving it
entire. In "Life in Two Spheres," pp. 35-37, he says:--
"Reader, have you ever entered the respectable saloon? Have you ever watched the stupid stare
of the inebriate when the eye grew less and less lustrous, slowly closing, the muscles relaxing,
and the victim of appetite sinking over on the floor in beastly drunkenness? Oh, how dense the
fumes of mingled tobacco and
alcohol! Oh, what misery confined in those walls! If you have witnessed such scenes, then we
need describe no further. If you have not, then you had not better hear the tale of woe. Imagine to
yourselves a barroom with all its sots, and their number multiplied indefinitely, while conscience-
seared and bloated fiends stand behind the bar, from whence they deal out death and damnation,
and the picture is complete. One has just arrived from earth. He is yet uninitiated in the mysteries
and miseries of those which, like hungry lions, await him. He died while intoxicated -- was frozen
while lying in the gutter, and consequently is attracted toward this society. He possessed a good
intellect, but it was shattered beyond repair by his debauches.
"'Year' a fresh one, aint ye?' coarsely queried a sot, just then particularly communicative.
"'Why, yes, I have just died, as they call it, and 'taint so bad a change after all; only I suppose
there '11 be dry times here for the want of something stimulant.'
"'Not so dry; lots of that all the time, and jolly times too.'
"'Drink! Can you drink, then?'
"'Yes, we just can, and feel as nice as you please. But all can't, not unless they find one on earth
just like them. You go to earth, and mix with your chums; and when you find one whose thoughts
you can read, he's your man. Form a connection with him, and when he gets to feeling good,
you'll feel so too--There, do you understand me? I always tell all fresh ones the glorious news, for
how they would suffer if it was n't for
this blessed thing.'
"'I'll try, no mistake.'

"'Here's a covey,' spoke an ulcerous-looking being; he's of our stripe. Tim, did you hear what an
infernal scrape I got into last night? No, you didn't. Well, I went to our friend Fred's; he didn't
want to drink when I found him; his dimes looked so extremely large. Well, I destroyed that
feeling, and made him think he was dry. He drank, and drank, more than I wanted him to, until I
was so drunk that I could not break my connection with him, or control his mind. He undertook to
go home, fell into the snow, and came near freezing to death. I suffered awfully, ten times as
much as when I died.' . . . Reader, we draw the curtain over scenes like these, such as are daily
occurring in this society."
In these cases the whole evil of the indulgences of course falls upon the mediums; and who would
wish to assume personal relation with such a world, and be forced to bear in their own bodies the
evils of the unhallowed indulgences of unseen spirits, against their will?
50
Other scenes represented as taking place in the spirit land, are most grotesque and silly and would
be taken as a burlesque upon Spiritualism, were they not put forth in all gravity by the friends and
advocates of that so-called new revelation. Thus Judge Edmunds, giving an account of what he
had seen in the spirit world, mentions the case of an old woman busy churning, who promised
him, if he would call again, a drink of buttermilk; he speaks of men fighting, of courtezans trying
to continue their lewd conduct; of a mischievous boy who split a dog's tail open, and put a stick in
it, just to witness its misery; of the owner of the dog, who, attracted by its cries, discovered the
cause, and beat the boy, who fled, but was pursued and beaten and kicked far up the road. See
Edmund's "Spiritualism," Vol. II, pp. 135-144, 181, 182, 186, 189. Surely here are the diakka
playing their pranks in all their glory.
MISCELLANEOUS TEACHING
On the leading points of faith as held by Christians generally, quotations have been given to show
sufficiently what the spirits teach, and the object they are trying to effect. But the reader will be
interested to learn what they teach on some other points which incidentally appear in their
communications.
Spiritualists object most strenuously to the idea of unconsciousness in death, or to the Bible
declaration, "The dead know not anything." But the spirits themselves teach this very thing. Thus
Judge Edmunds, Vol. II, Appendix B, p. 524, quotes the confession of a spirit that he was totally
unconscious for a time, he could not tell how long, and awoke to consciousness gradually; and
that the state of unconsciousness differs with different persons, depending on circumstances. A. J.
Davis admits that Professor Webster was eight days and a half unconscious.--"Death and the
After Life," pp. 18, 19.
Through Mrs. Conant, medium, in Banner of Light, June 3, 1865, we have this information: "It is
said that some spirits require a thousand years to awake to consciousness. Is this true? -- Yes, this
is true." In "Automatic Writing," p. 93, the spirits teach the same thing to-day. If others deny such
statements, it only shows that their testimony is contradictory and therefore unreliable. Again, the
Bible doctrine that the incorrigibly wicked must cease from conscious existence, is denounced by
Spiritualists; but on this point the
spirits confess also: --
"Ques.-- Do I understand you to say that a diakka is one who believes in ultimate annihilation?
"Ans.--Only yesterday one said to a lady medium, signing himself 'Swedenborg,' this:
'Whatsoever is, has been, will be, or may be, that I AM, and private life is but the aggregative
phantasms of thinking throblets rushing in their rising onward to the central heart of eternal
death.' "--"Diakka" p. 11.
"Q.-- Does every human being continue life on higher planes?
"A.-- Shall not all who are abortions die?
"Q.-- Do you mean that some born on this plane may spiritually die from lack of force to persist?
"A.-- Yes--both women and men are born into the divine humanity who must necessarily perish,
because they have not sufficient soul strength to persist." -- "Automatic Writing," pp. 101, 102.
There is, it seems, a purgatory in the spirit world. In answer to a question, a spirit replied: --
"There is a sphere in spirit life allotted to those who leave the earthly plane in spiritual ignorance,
which is not pleasing to dwell upon, yet which is absolutely necessary to spiritual soul growth."-
Id., p. 90.
51
Spiritualism is claimed to settle the question of immortality; but the spirits confess themselves
ignorant of it:
"Ques.-- On your plane do you arrive at certainty in regard to immortality?
"Ans.-- We here are as ignorant as you are as to the ultimate of existence. Immortality is still an
undetermined issue. One life at a time seems as pertinent with us as with you."-- Id., p. 103.
The spirits' heaven, it seems, is not so desirable a place that it prevents their being homesick.
"Ques.-- Why are you homesick?
"Ans.-- Have not found out the real reason; things are so different from former ideas."-- Id., p.
111.
Spirits are not allowed to tell too much about their condition, as the following question and
answer show: --
"Ques.-- Can't you tell us what makes it pleasanter,-- describe so we can understand?
"Ans.-- You'll find out as I did -- 'gainst the rules here to tell. . . . Just be patient--it's all easy
enough when you learn how. I was puzzled, but it all seems straight enough now."-- Id., p. 115.
They teach the pre-existence of souls, and the old pagan doctrines of the reincarnation of souls,
and the final absorption of all into Nirvana. A spirit having answered that all had been asserted in
some other forum, questions and answers followed from which we quote: --
"Q.-- Is that statement an intimation of the truth of reincarnation?

"A.-- Souls of all who have preceded you are centered in you in spite of your childish protests.
Ask not of those predecessors; for they yet live in you, and you in them.
Long ago you and I went over the ground under eminent names. . . . Were not we together when
Socrates and Aspasia talked?" -- Id., pp. 151, 152.
Q.--Can you tell us, at least, whether spirit, as a whole or in its individual atoms, exists eternally?
"A.--Yes; spirit as a whole is eternal--exists--did exist – by force of Powers you cannot

understand. But you as individual, self-conscious, atomistic particles of spirit wholeness, are not
eternal, and must return to the Primal Source."--Id., p. 133.
SPIRITS CANNOT BE IDENTIFIED
Having now sufficiently examined the teaching of the spirits, a final question arises in regard to
them, whether it is possible to identify them, and determine with any absolute certainty whether
they are the spirits of the particular individuals they claim to be, or even spirits of the dead at all,
or not. It should be distinctly borne in mind, always, that evil angels, whose existence has been
proved from the Bible, whose nature and
delight is to deceive, can walk the earth unseen, imitate and personate any individual, and reveal
their characteristics of thought, writing, acts, form, and features, and make so perfect a counterfeit
52
as to defy detection. How, then, can it be told what spirit it is, even though it shows the face and
features of some well-known friend? On this topic, as on preceding questions, Spiritualists
themselves may produce the evidence. President Mahman ("Discussion with Tiffany and Rhen,"
p. 13) remarks: --
"Certain experiments have been made, in order to determine whether spirits are present.
Individuals go in as inquirers, and get definite answers-- in the first place, from departed spirits of
persons yet living; in the second place, from departed spirits of persons who never existed here or
anywhere else; in the third place, from the departed spirits of brute beasts."
When it is considered, as already noted, that spirits do their work through mesmeric power, it is
easy to understand how the medium is made to believe that such and such a spirit is
communicating when it is not so at all. This question of identity came up in the very early stages
of Spiritualism, and is no nearer settled, on their own confession, now than then. A Mr. Hobart, in
1856, who claimed to be the first Spiritualist in Michigan, made the following admission: --
"The spirit sometimes assumes the name of an individual belonging to the same church, to induce
them to hear. This is necessary with some who are so bigoted they would not believe unless a
name was assumed which they respected."
An article in the Spiritual Telegraph, of July 11, 1857, begins as follows:
"The question is continually being asked, especially by novitiates in spiritual investigations, How
shall we know that the spirits who communicate with us are really the ones whom they purport to
be? . . . In giving the results of our own experience and observation upon this subject, we would
premise that spirits unquestionably can, and often do, personate other spirits, and that, too, often
with such perfection as, for the time being, to defy every effort to detect the deception. . . . If
direct tests are demanded at all, we would recommend that they be asked for the purpose of
proving that the manifesting influence is that of a spirit, rather than to prove what particular spirit
is the agent of its production."
This is an entire begging of the whole matter in question; for it is not denied that it is a spirit; we
want to know what particular spirit it is; but for that we must not ask; for it cannot be ascertained.
The same article states that other and lower spirits often crowd in and take the place of the spirit
communicating, without the knowledge of the medium. We might also quote "Spiritualism as It
Is," p. 14, that "not one per cent, of the manifestations have had a higher origin than the first and
second spheres, which are filled with low, ignorant, deceptive, mischievous, selfish, egotistical
spirits;" and "Dealings with the Dead," p. 225, that
"the fact is, good spirits do not appear one tenth as often as imagined."
Jan. 7, 1888, the following appeared in the Bamner of Light: --
"Ques.-- What is the cause of our receiving inconsistent and untruthful communications? Does
the blame, if any there is, rest with us or the controlling intelligence?
"Ans.-- There are spirits who delight in imposing upon mortals; they realize their power outside
of material things, and that those who seek knowledge from them cannot see nor get hold of
them; therefore to an extent they exercise a certain power over those mortals who approach; and
if the mortals are themselves tricky by nature, insincere, ready to take advantage of others,
whether it be at the time of sitting or in their daily life, rest assured they may be imposed upon by
53
spirits from the other side who occupy a like plane of existence with themselves."
Mediums themselves will not trust the spirits, according to statements made as late as 1896. Mrs.
S. A. Underwood, medium, in "Automatic Writing," p. 55, says: --
"With all my experience in it, I would not to-day venture upon any change, business venture,
friend ship, or line of conduct, advised from this source, unless my own common material sense
endorsed it. Indeed, I would not take as fact any of its even reasonable advice without question,
because it is not reliable as
a guide in earthly affairs."
Spirit communication, then, certainly does not amount to much as a heavenly instructor, a
celestial guide to enlighten the ignorance of men. Whatever we know ourselves, we may rely
upon; all else is uncertain. Again, on p. 56, she says: --
"Then the assumption of great names by apparently common-place minds is a very strange thing.
I was horrified and annoyed when this occurred under my own hand, because that is one of the
things which disgusted me with spiritual messages before this writing came to me, as I had
occasionally glanced over such messages. When I protested against such assumption, I was told
that 'Elaine and Guinevere' were not real beings, but types. So somewhere in our sphere are spirits
who embody cleverness in creations of their own fancy, and adopt names suited to that fancy."
Thus the spirits themselves confess that the names they often assume are not those of real beings,
but typical and fanciful. Nothing more, it would seem, is necessary to complete the condemnation
of Spiritualism, so far as its own nature is concerned. When in addition to all else, it appears that
the spirits cannot be identified; that the whole underlying claim that the spirits are the spirits of
the dead, must itself be assumed; and that, too, in the face of the numberless known falsehoods
and deceptions that are constantly issuing from the unseen realm,-- there is nothing left for it to
stand upon.
Notes
[1] The revision of Dr. Clarke's Commentary by Dr. Curry, proves the truthfulness of what the
doctor here says, for this important passage is entirely eliminated, and its place filled with
statements which Dr. Clarke
did not make, and sentiments which he did not believe. It is no less than a crime to treat a dead
man's work in this manner.
6. ITS PROMISES: HOW FULFILLED

IT is fair to call Spiritualism to account as to the fulfilment of the promises involved in its
challenge to the world when it stepped upon the stage of action. No movement ever opened with
more magnificent promises. It posed before the world as an angel of heavenly light. It claimed to
be the second coming of Christ. It claimed to have been sent to regenerate mankind, and renovate
the world. We give herewith a few of its spirit-inspired pretensions. Its "Declaration of
Principles," Article 20, says: --
"The hearty and intelligent convictions of these truths [the teachings of spirits] tend to energize
the soul in all that is good and elevating, and to restrain from all that is evil and impure, . . . to
54
quicken all philanthropic impulses, stimulating to enlightened and unselfish labors for universal
good."
In behalf of the cause of woman it says: --
"Spiritualism has done more for the advancement of true womanhood than the Church or any of
its accessories."-- Dr. Watson, in Banner of Light, April 16, 1887.
Miss A. L. Lull, in the Religio-Philosophical Journal of Jan. 23, 1886, said: --
"Spiritualism is the saviour of humanity, because it is reaching out toward the criminal, and in
its effort to lift humanity to a higher plane, it is laying the foundation for future generations. . . .
Spiritualism comes to cleanse out the dregs and wretchedness of humanity."
Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, in a mediumistic discourse reported in the Banner of Light, April 3,
1886, said: --
"The Great Reformer of the world is Spiritualism. When modern Spiritualism made its
appearance, it said in so many words, I come to reform the world Spiritualism came to put the ax
at the root of the tree of human evil, it came to decide upon the most important and vital thing
connected with existence; i. e., Is man
only an evanescent, material, earthly being, or is he immortal? . . . Spiritualism came to reform
death, to resolve it into life; came to reform fear, to resolve it into trust and knowledge; came to
reform the darkness which rests upon humanity concerning the nature of man's existence."
In the same paper, April 6, 1887, was given the following prediction of the future of Spiritualism:
--
"Modern Spiritualism will grow, and deepen, and broaden, and strengthen, until all false creeds
and dogmas shall be swept from the earth -- when faith shall be buried in knowledge, when war
shall be known no more, when universal brotherhood shall prevail to bless mankind."
In "Nineteenth Century Miracles," p. 79, M. Jaubert speaks as follows: --
"Affirm to your people that man never dies, that his immortality is proved, not by books but by
material and tangible facts, of which every one can convince himself; that anon our houses of
correction, and our prisons, will disappear; suicide will be erased from our mortuary tables; and
nobly borne, the calamities
of earth shall no longer produce madness."
Mrs. R. S. Lillie, in a speech at the Thirty-eighth Anniversary services in Horticultural Hall,

Boston, Mass., and reported in the Banner of Light, of April, 1886, said: --
"Christianity never had a Pentecost to be compared with modern Spiritualism. The latter is as far
in advance of the former, as the electric light is in advance of the tallow dip of the past; for it is
nineteen centuries ahead of it."
These are most astounding claims; and if there is any truth in them, Spiritualism ought to have
shown itself as a great uplifting moral power, provided it has been able to get any foothold among
the people. We
55
therefore inquire what its success has been. On this point Professor Keck, at the Thirty-ninth
Anniversary of Modern Spiritualism, at Bridgeport, Conn. (Banner of Light, April 9, 1887), said:
--
"It [Spiritualism] has made converts of more scientific men and profound thinkers than any other
sect in the world. In thirty-nine years it has grown to ten or fifteen millions of believers, with
thousands of mediums, a literature printed in every known language, and converts in every
quarter of the globe."
With all these facilities and all this success, it surely has been able to make good its claims, and
fulfil its promises, if its nature is such as it assumes, and its promises are good for anything; and
its course should be
marked by a great decrease of crime, by the promotion of virtue and a general improvement in the
moral tone of society, wherever it has gone. For over one hundred years it has now been
operating in the world; and with all its glowing professions of what it was able to do, and its
millions of converts, "energized to all that is good and elevating," its impress for good should
everywhere be seen.
But what are the facts? -- Just the reverse of what has been promised. Free love, which is free
lust, has followed in its wake; homes have been ruined, families scattered, characters blighted;
while insanity and suicide have been the fate, or the last resort, of too many of its victims. And
outside of its own ranks, in the world at large, the one hundred plus years since the advent of
Spiritualism have been years of increase of crime and every evil in a fast growing ratio. Liquor
drinking, tobacco using, gambling, prostitution, defalcations, robberies, bribery, municipal
corruption, divorces, thefts, insanity, suicide, and murder, have increased in far more rapid ratio
than the population itself.
The reader will remember the testimony of Dr. Randolph, p. 105, that five of his friends
destroyed themselves, and he attempted it for himself, by direct spirit influences. The
Philadelphia Record, of Feb. 17, 1894, speaks of the suicide of May Brooklyn in San Francisco,
Cal.: --
"The letters and papers left by the dead woman show plainly that in her grief over the death of
Love craft she had dabbled in Spiritualism, and had finally reached the conclusion that her only
chance of happiness lay in joining her lover in the other world."
A few figures, as samples, will be given just to emphasize the general statements. The following
is from the Chicago Tribune of Jan. 1, 1893:--
"The number of persons who have committed suicide in the United States during the year (1892)'
as gathered from telegraph and mail report to the Tribune, is 3860, as compared with 3331 last
year (1891), 2640 in 1890, and 2224 in 1889. The total is much larger than that of any of the
eleven preceding years."
The Christian Reformer gives the following figures of murders, suicides, and embezzlements
from 1891-1893: --
"Murders in 1893, 6615; increase over 1891 of 709.

"Suicides in 1893, 4436; increase over 1892, 576; 1891,1105.
"Funds embezzled in 1893, $19,929,692; increase of 100 per cent. over 1892."
56
It may be asked, What has this to do with Spiritualism? -- It is a test of the value of its promises.
Spiritualism has been posing for more than one hundred years as the "world's reformer," the great
energizing, uplifting force to elevate mankind, the mighty power which has come to empty our
workhouses and prisons, abolish suicides and all crime, the "electric light" compared with the
"tallow dip" of the gospel. And yet with all these claims, with its millions of adherents, and the
funds and influence at its command, it is allowing, year by year, crime to increase much faster
than the population. Now if Spiritualism was the purifying, renovating power which it claims to
be, such results could not have been seen. It is very evident, that, as a power in the world in
behalf of righteousness and humanity, it has been of no account; and as between the forces of
good and evil, its weight has been on the side of evil instead of good. It is thus that the author of
Spiritualism, the father of deception, fulfils the promises made through that channel to deceive
mankind. What organized, aggressive efforts against evil has Spiritualism ever shown? Where are
its schools and colleges? Where are its hospitals and benevolent institutions? Where are its
organized charities? and what are its millions of members doing to relieve suffering and distress,
and turn men to better ways of living? The very aspect it presents to the world to-day, stamps the
brand of Cain upon its brow. The Boston Herald of Dec. 17, 1874, said: --
"Let Spiritualism produce some idea, utter some word, or perform some deed, which will have
novelty, and yet be of manifest value to the human race, and it will make good its claims to our
serious consideration. But it has not done this. For nearly thirty years it has been before the world
in its present shape, and in all that time, with all its asserted command of earthly and
superterrestrial knowledge, it has never done an act, or breathed a syllable, or supplied an idea
which had any value as a contribution to the welfare of the race, or to its stock of knowledge. Its
messages from learned men who are dead, have been the silliest bosh; its stories about life upon
the planets are wretched guesses, many of which can be proved false by the astronomer; its
visions have frightened scores of people into madhouses, and made semilunatics of hundreds of
others."
If this charge was good as late as 1874, it is equally so at the present time. And thus are we forced
to the conclusion that Spiritualism, judged by the light of its fair promises, is one of the most
lamentable of delusions, and most stupendous of failures.
7. SPIRITUALISM A SUBJECT OF PROPHECY

WE come now to one of time most timely and important features of this whole subject; for God in
his word has foretold and forewarned the world of the movement here passing under review. He
has made known the time which it should appear, the character it would bear, and the work it is to
do. He has also connected this with the great event of all-overshadowing importance to this
world, of which it is a startling sign and sure
precursor; namely, the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask the special attention of
the reader to this part of the subject.
A word of digression may be allowed as to the place which prophecy holds in the word of God.
Prophecy is that feature of the sacred volume which constitutes it a lamp to our feet and a light to
our path. Ps. 119: 105; 2 Peter 1: 19. It is that which enables that word to be a guide to the hosts
of Israel through the weary journey and the gloomy shades of time, giving to every era its
"present truth," and showing the progress of the slow-revolving ages toward the great
consummation. It is the golden credential which the Bible holds up to the world of its
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genuineness and authenticity.
Prophecy is peculiar to the Christian Scriptures. No other so-called sacred books contain this
feature. It is not found in the Vedas, Shasters, or Puranas of the Hindus, nor the Zend Avestas of
the Parsees, nor the Kojiki Nohonki, of the Shintos of Japan, nor the law books of Manu, nor the
Koran of the Mohammedans, nor the Kan-Ying-Peen or Tao-Te-King of the Chinese, nor the
Tripitakas of the Buddhists. The reason is obvious. Neither the minds of men nor of angels either
good or bad, can read the future. Divine omniscience alone can see the end from the beginning
and foretell the great events that shall mark the history of time world, and affect the interests of
the church. It is this that stamps the Bible as divine, and lifts it immeasurably above all other
books. It is indeed passing strange that all cannot see this. Instead of being a book that grows
obsolete and out of date with the passing years, like the productions of men, it is the only book
ever seen upon time earth which is ever abreast of the times in every age, and lifts time veil of the
future before him who honestly and reverently seeks its pages for a knowledge of the truth. Those
who ignore or despise the prophecies, rob the Bible of one of the brightest stars in its crown of
glory. To be entitled to claim credit as divine, any book or system should be able to show that it
can correctly foretell the future. The spirits see this, and, knowing that they cannot do it,
discountenance and discourage all such
efforts. Here is a little of their teaching on the subject: --
"Ques.-- Why are so many predictions made through mediums, which prove false?
"Ans.-- Wonderful guesses are sometimes made by daring spirits.
"Q.-- Can you tell us anything of the future?
"A.-- Pharos says you must not ask questions of the future -- spirits who prophesy are not good
spirits
" Q.-- Do you mean that it is not best for us to know the future?
"A.-- Souls on your plane are undergoing discipline, and it would cost more than it is worth to
foretell the future of your state." -- "Automatic Writing," pp. 141, 142.
Spiritualists rail at God for prohibiting from Adam and Eve, in the garden, time tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, to keep them in ignorance. What will they say to these spirits who
coolly answer that "it would cost more than it is worth" to give them any knowledge of future
events? This, perhaps, they will consider all right because it isn't God who says it.
1. Let us then see what God has said of the time and work and significance of Spiritualism. Over
seven hundred years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah wrote of our time, as follows: "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 for the living to the dead? To the law and to
the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
Here is certainly a prophecy that a time would come when just such a work as Spiritualism is now
doing would be a distinguishing feature of the age. The present must be the time referred to,
because it has never been so in any past age; and the present meets the specifications in every
particular. It shows that time only safety for any one now is to seek unto his God, and make the
law and the testimony, the word of God, the great standard by which to try all spirits. 1 John 4: 1.
And another great event is directly connected with this, that is, the second coming of Christ; for
according to verses 16-18, the disciples then looking for him.
2. Matt. 24: 24: "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs
and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."
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A deception of no ordinary power is here brought to view. It really results in the division of
Christendom; for all but the elect are carried away by it. In its own claims, Spiritualism fulfils the
"Christs" and "prophets" part of the declaration, claiming of course to be true, while the Bible
says it is "false." The signs and wonders are beginning to be seen in the many "inexplicable"
phenomena attending Spiritualism. But many more startling exhibitions, as will be presently
shown, are yet to appear. We charge upon Spiritualism, so far, the fulfilment of this prophecy.
But mark! this occurs when the Son of man is about to appear "as the lightning cometh out of the
east, and shineth even unto the west" (verse 27); and it is one of the prominent signs of that event.
See the prophecy from verse 23 to verse 35. Mark and Luke also dwell upon the same prediction,
as gathered from the lips of our Lord himself.
3. Heb. 10: 28, 29: "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three
witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was
sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"
It is the bold stand which Spiritualism has taken against Christ and the atonement, that makes this
scripture applicable to that work. The apostle is speaking of the times when the great "day is
approaching "(verse 25);
when it is but a little while, and he that shall come, Will come and will not tarry (verse 37), and
the introduction of verse 29, in such a connection, becomes a prophecy that such an outbreak
against Christ and his atoning work would be seen when he is about to come again. And the
fulfilment we are now beholding in Spiritualism.
4. Rev. 12:12: "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto
you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."
This scripture locates itself. It is when Satan knows that he has but a little time to work, and hence
it must be in the last days. At this time he descends upon time world in an avalanche of wrath.
"Wrath" is a misleading term. The words [GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT]
[GREEK CHARACTERS IN
PRINTED TEXT] signify the strongest and most intense emotion of the mind. If the object is to
accomplish some particular end, they would indicate the most intense, concentrated, energetic,
and persistent efforts to that purpose, using every means, and bringing to bear every influence to
reach the result in question. Satan, as we have seen, has an object in deceiving the human family,
as far as possible, to their destruction, by signs and wonders. In this work, according to the
prophecy before us, he will go to the extent of his power, and show his most potent signs.
Bringing the supposed forms and features of the dead before living witnesses, is his most
successful method at the present time. But as this work is, as yet, done largely in the dark, it gives
more room for jugglery amid imposition. The time will come, however, when, in open light,
counterfeit materializations of the dead will swarm on earth, and deceive, if it were possible, the
very elect -- i. e., all who cannot meet the deception with the potent weapon-- "It is written, The
dead know not anything, neither have they any more a portion forever [in the present state of
things] in anything that is done under the sun."
5. Rev. 13:13,14: "And he does great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on
the earth in the sight of men, and deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means of those
miracles which he had power to do."
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This prophecy relates to some earthly government represented by a symbol with two horns like a
lamb.
Verse 11. It is part of a prophecy beginning with chapter twelve, and ending with verse 5 of
chapter fourteen. It is not the place here to introduce an exposition of this prophecy. It is only
necessary to state that the position taken is that the lamb like symbol represents our own
government, the United States of America.[1] And the great wonders that he does, apply to the
marvelous manifestations of Spiritualism. It is a significant fact that Spiritualism arose in this
country, thus fitting itself exactly to the prophecy. The climax of the wonders brought to view in
the text, making "fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men," has not yet been
reached. More is therefore to be developed. Yea, this wonder-working power is to go forward till
that which, in the time of Elijah, was the test between the false god Baal and the Lord Jehovah, is
brought to pass, and fire is made to come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And
the sad feature of this case will be that the multitudes, not perceiving the change of issue, will
take the act down here to be a test of truth, as it was in the days of Elijah.
Taken in connection with other portions of the book of Revelation, this prophecy reveals clearly
what the agency that works the miracles is. The dragon, representing paganism (Rev. 12: 3, 4);
the beast, representing the papacy (Rev. 13: 1-10); and the lamb like symbol, representing
Protestantism, or more specifically, Protestant America (Rev. 13: 11-17), constitute the symbols
of this prophecy. For convenience, let us designate them as A, B, and C, respectively. C works his
miracles in sight of B; B and C are again brought to view in Rev. 19: 20, and there C is called
"the false prophet." We know the false prophet here is the same as C, because he works miracles
before B, the same as C does in chapter 13: 14. All together, A, B, and C are brought to view in
Rev. 16: 13, and unclean spirits like frogs are said to come out of their mouths; and then verse 14
tells what they are: "For they are spirits of devils, working miracles." This, then, not the spirits of
dead men, is the agency that works the miracles of chapter 13:13, 14. We follow the subject so
far, at this point, merely to identify the agency that works the miracles, and shall have more to say
upon it. But before passing, we would remind the reader that here also the subject is connected
with the second coming of Christ; for the prophecy of Revelation 13 ends with the redemption of
the church which immediately follows. Rev. 14: 1-5.
6. 2 Thess. 2: 9-12: "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and
signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God
shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Here, again, we have the great fact brought out with still more startling emphasis, that there is to
be a great out breaking of Satanic power among men, just before and up to, the coming of Christ.
And if we already see the preliminary and even far-advanced working of this power in
Spiritualism, the world should stand aghast at the perils of the times in which we live. The
coming of Christ is brought to view in verse 8, and verse 9 states that at that time Satan will be
working with all power. The common version is calculated to obscure this passage. The words
"even him" (verse 9) are wrongly and unnecessarily supplied. Literally rendered, the last clause of
verse 8, and the first of verse 9 would read as follows: "Whom the Lord . . . shall destroy with the
brightness of his [Christ's] coming; of whom [Christ] the coming is, after [or at the time of] the
working of Satan," etc. The word "after" is from, the Greek [GREEK CHARACTERS IN
PRINTED TEXT] (kata), which when referring to time, as in this case, does not mean "after or
according to," but "within the range of, during, in the course of, at, about," as in 2 Tim. 4: 1,
60
where it is rendered "at."
So here is a plain declaration that at the very time when Christ comes Satan will be working in the
bight of his power, by signs and lying wonders (wonders to prove a lie) to keep the people under
falsehood and deception. Verses 10-12 tell who his victims are, and why they become such: they
are those who preferred the pleasures of sin to the practice of righteousness, and so would not
receive the truth, nor the love of it. In all such cases God's throne is clear. He always, as in this
case, sets truth first before the people, gives them a chance, and calls upon them to embrace it,
and be saved. But when men, as free moral agents, whom God will not force into his kingdom,
refuse to receive the truth, shut their eyes, close their ears, and steel their hearts against it, and
find their pleasure in unrighteousness, in going in just the opposite direction; -- what can God do
for them? We leave the skeptic himself to answer. For more years than Spiritualism, in its present
phase, has been before the world, several religious bodies have made a specialty of the great
Bible truth concerning the state of the dead, and life only in Christ, which effectually shields all
those who receive it against the rapping delusion.
7. Rev. 18: 2: "And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is
fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, amid the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of
every unclean and hateful bird."
Among the many predictions given in the word of God touching the last days, is one which fore-
tokens a wide-spread and lamentable declension in the religious world. The phrase which
embodies it, is the one just quoted, "Babylon is fallen." The term "Babylon" is not intended nor
used as a term of reproach, but rather as a descriptive word setting forth the very undesirable
condition of "mixture" and "confusion" in the religious world. It is certainly not the Lord's will,
who prayed that all his people should be one, that scores or hundreds of divisions and sects
should exist within his church. That is owing, exclaims the Catholic, to the Protestant rule of
private judgment. It is not. It is owing to that Pandora's box of mystical interpretation placed in
the church by old Origen, that prince of mischief-makers. By this method, which has no method
and no standard, the interpretations of God's word will ever be as various and numerous as the
whims and fancies that may find a place in the minds of men.
But all this confusion must be remedied in that church which will be ready for the second advent;
for no people will be prepared for translation but such as worship the Lord in both spirit and truth.
To bring the church to this point, a call has been sent to Christendom in the special truths for this
time. Most turn away, but some are taking the stand to which these circumstances summon them.
The process is simple. It is but to read and obey God's word in the light of what is called the
literal rule of interpretation. No other rule would ever have been thought of, if the Devil had let
the minds of men alone. By this rule the true Sabbath would always have been maintained a
perfect safeguard against idolatry in the earth; the law would have held its place as a perfect,
immutable, and eternal rule of conduct, a safeguard against the antinomianism of all ages and the
Spiritualism of to-day; the view that the dead remain unconscious in the grave till the
resurrection, would always have been held, and then there could have been no purgatory, no
masses for the dead, no Mariolatry, no saint worship -- in short, no Roman Catholicism, and no
Universalism, nor Spiritualism; the true nature of the coming and kingdom of Christ would not
have been lost sight of, and the peace and safety fable of a temporal millennium never could have
existed.
To say nothing of other errors that would be corrected, suppose all Christendom stood together on
these four simple truths, how much division could there have been in the Christian world? A
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second denomination could not have existed. And what would have been the condition of things?
– As different from the present condition as one can well imagine – no paganism, no Roman
Catholicism, no Protestantism, no multiplied sects, no Spiritualism, -- but Christianity, broad,
united, free, and glorious. Some are taking their stand on these truths, and so will be shielded
from the delusions of these last days, for which the way, by ages of superstition and error, has
been so artfully prepared. Every one must stand upon them who is governed by the literal rule of
interpretation; for they are read in so many words out of the sacred volume itself. But the
churches generally reject them, often with bitterness, scorn, and contempt, and some even with
persecution. And this is why Babylon has fallen.
That organization, called in Rev. 17: 5: "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots
Abominations of the Earth," has been very generally applied by Protestants to the Roman
Catholic Church; but if that church is the mother, who are the daughters? This question has been
asked for many years. Alexander Campbell said: --
"The worshiping establishments now in operation throughout Christendom, incased and

cemented by their voluminous confessions of faith, and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not
churches of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that mother of harlots -- the Church of
Rome."
Loreuzo Dow said: --
"We read not only of Babylon, but of the whore of Babylon, styled the mother of harlots, which
is supposed to mean the Romish church. If she be a mother, who are her daughters? It must be the
corrupt national established churches that came out of her."
The great sin charged against Babylon, is unlawful connection with the kings of the earth. The
church should be entirely free from the state. But now the churches of America, which have for
long years borne so noble a part, are clamoring for a union with the state, calling for a recognition
of God's name in the Constitution, and God's law in the courts, and that the government be run on
Christian lines. Old, antiquated laws which they find upon the statute books of various States,
they are beginning to use to persecute those who differ in belief with them; and they seek for the
enactment of more stringent Sunday laws for the same purpose. And when they shall succeed in
getting full control of the state, they will have severed the last link that has held them to their high
estate, show themselves true members of the Babylonian family, and sink in spirit and practice to
the level of the elder Rome.
Rev. 14: 8 was fulfilled in 1844.[2] Since then the churches have been going down in spirituality
and godliness, catering more and more to the world, indulging in carnal amusements, festivals,
wife auctions, and kissing bees, to the very border line of decency, but especially filling up with
the influences mentioned in Rev. 18: 2, till the leaven of Spiritualism is fast penetrating the whole
mass. Yet there are a multitude of God's people connected with these churches, who deplore the
situation, and for whom a crisis is approaching. The cry is again to be raised, "Babylon is fallen,
come out of her my people." We verily believe the time has come when that call should be made
and heeded; for a little further progress in the evil path upon which we have entered, will surely
provoke the just judgments of heaven. Verses 4, 5.
8. 2 Tim. 3: 8: "Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth
men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."
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The first five verses of this chapter portray a dark list of eighteen sins which will characterize
professed Christians in the last days; for those who bear the characters described, have a form of
godliness, but deny the power thereof. The three following verses plainly describe certain
members of the spiritualistic fraternity; and they are said to be of the same sort. This prophecy
therefore becomes parallel to that which has just been examined. The fall of Babylon prepares the
popular churches for Spiritualism. Here the practice of these sins in the churches, makes them of
the same sort with Spiritualists, so that they fraternize well together. Jannes and Jambres
withstood Moses by the wonders they were able to perform; so these will resist the truth through
the wonders of Spiritualism. And this is in the last, days where we now are. So Babylon's fall just
precedes the coming of Christ.
9. Rev. 16:14: "For 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."
The work of the spirits reaches its climax in the scene here brought to view. Their last mission is
to go to the kings of the earth to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. In
this conflict, so far as
this earth is concerned, the great controversy between Christ and Satan closes in the triumph of
Him who rides forth on a white horse at the head of the white-horsed armies of heaven. The beast
and false prophet are hurled into a lake of fire, and the remnant, the kings of the earth and their
armies, are slain by the sword of him upon whose vesture is inscribed the all-conquering title,
"King of kings and Lord of lords." Rev. 19:
11-21.
But before these spirits can thus influence the kings of the earth, they must make their way to
them and bring them under their control. They have already shown great facility in this work,
giving promise of what they will be able to do in the near future. A work by Hudson Tuttle,
"What Is Spiritualism?" p. 6, names the following among the late and living crowned heads,
nobility, etc., who have been supporters of Spiritualism: --
"Emperor Alexander, of Russia; Louis Napoleon, of France; Queen Victoria, of England; Prince
and Princess Metternich; Prince Wittgenstein, Lieutenant Aide-de-camp to the emperor of Russia;
Hon. Alexander Axahof, Russian Imperial Councilor, St. Petersburg, Russia; Baron Guldenstuble,
of Paris; Baron Von Schick, of Austria; Baron Von Dirkinck, of Hoimfield, Holstein; Le Comte
de Bullet, of Paris; Duke of Leuchtenberg, of Germany. Of England there are Lord Lyndhurst,
Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare, Lord Dunraven, Sir W. Trevilyan, Countess Carthness, Sir T.
Willshire, Lady Cowper, Sir Charles Napier, Sir Charles Isham, Bart., Colonel E. B.
Wilbraham,of the English army," etc.
The late Alexander III, of Russia, and the queen of Spain are also reckoned among the number.
Thus, so far as the agency of the spirits is concerned, there is nothing in the way of the speedy
fulfilment of Rev. 16: 14.
CONCLUSION
The reader now has before him, in brief, the main outline of this momentous
subject.
1. Spiritualism, so far as its phenomena are concerned, is not humbug and trickery, but a real
63
manifestation of power and intelligence.
2. But the marvels and wonders are not performed by the spirits of the dead.
3. Evil spirits step in and counterfeit what are supposed to be the spirits of the dead, in which men
have been taught to believe, simulating points of identity to any minute particular that may be
required.
4. Besides starting on this false assumption, all their teaching shows that they are agents of evil,
not of good, and their work is to degrade, not elevate.
5. The world by long resistance of the truth, has prepared the way for this deception, which the
spirit that works in the children of disobedience is not slow to improve.
6. Even the churches of Christ, by rejection of the truth, are preparing themselves for the same
snare.
7. The Scriptures have plainly pointed out this great outbreak of time working of Satan, and
invariably connected it with the last days amid the second coining of Christ.
8. Spiritualism is thus a subject of prophecy, and an infallible sign and precursor of the soon-
coming end.
9. The great day of the Lord is near and hasteth greatly; and all things now call upon all men to
prepare for its eternal decisions.
Is this the lesson? Who will heed it and thus escape the delusions and perils of these last days, and
be finally saved in the kingdom of heaven?
64

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Modern Spiritualism

Battle Creek, Mich., 1897.

In the Arena of November, 1892, p. 688, Mr.

M. J. Savage, the noted Unitarian minister of Boston, says: --

tricks or the result of fraud."

From the same article, p. 456, we quote again:--

watching my hand, for it was plain daylight, and it was

The following is another instance mentioned by the same writer: --

Again, same page: --

THE PROGRESS OF SPIRITUALISM

2. WHAT IS THE AGENCY IN QUESTION?

CREDENTIALS OF THE BIBLE

2. If it is not what it claims to be, it is an imposture invented by deceivers and liars.

5. All liars and religious impostors are bad men; but --

THE SOUL NOT IMMORTAL

3. THE DEAD UNCONSCIOUS

4. THEY ARE EVIL ANGELS

WARNINGS AGAINST EVIL SPIRITS

5. WHAT THE SPIRITS TEACH

"'Tis not the broad phylactery

That make us saints. We judge the tree

and worshiped as the Christian Jehovah. We know of no Spiritualist--let us repeat it--who

"Q.--Well, who makes the laws?

"A.-- Spirits are not bondaged by persons.

"Q.-- Then how do you come to know those laws?

"Q.-- Could you explain to us those laws?

should believe in him?

"Ques.-- Have you ever seen Confucius or Zoroaster?

"Ans.-- Yes, many times.

"Ques.-- Do you accept Jesus as the model of spiritual knowledge?

In "Spiritual Science Demonstrated," p. 229, Dr. Hare said: --

THEY DENY ALL DISTINCTION BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG

"A.-- Because humanity is but an embryo of existence.

In "Healing of the Nations," p. 402, Dr. Hare says: --

"Ques.-- To whom or to what is the soul accountable?

The "Healing of the Nations," p. 74, says: --

abundant, and take any and every opportunity of obtruding themselves."

"'I'll try, no mistake.'

"Ques.-- On your plane do you arrive at certainty in regard to immortality?

"Ques.-- Why are you homesick?

"Q.-- Is that statement an intimation of the truth of reincarnation?

"A.--Yes; spirit as a whole is eternal--exists--did exist – by force of Powers you cannot

SPIRITS CANNOT BE IDENTIFIED

An article in the Spiritual Telegraph, of July 11, 1857, begins as follows:

Jan. 7, 1888, the following appeared in the Bamner of Light: --

6. ITS PROMISES: HOW FULFILLED

In behalf of the cause of woman it says: --

Miss A. L. Lull, in the Religio-Philosophical Journal of Jan. 23, 1886, said: --

In "Nineteenth Century Miracles," p. 79, M. Jaubert speaks as follows: --

Mrs. R. S. Lillie, in a speech at the Thirty-eighth Anniversary services in Horticultural Hall,

"Murders in 1893, 6615; increase over 1891 of 709.

7. SPIRITUALISM A SUBJECT OF PROPHECY

genuineness and authenticity.

where it is rendered "at."

"The worshiping establishments now in operation throughout Christendom, incased and

Loreuzo Dow said: --

manifestation of power and intelligence.