The Religious Aspect.

Misconceptions Corrected.

I do not propose to deal at any length with either the Philosophic or the Religious aspect of this question. The object of this treatise is rather to set forth the present position of the movement in relation to Science and to show that, so far as the acknowledged leaders of present-day Scientific thought are concerned, they have committed themselves unreservedly to the conclusion that the material and immaterial worlds interblend; that, as in days of old, we are still receiving undoubtedly genuine communications from the Beyond, and that it is equally undoubted that materialisations of visitors from the invisible realms occur.

A passing reference, however, may be made, in a general way, to the religious teachings of Spiritualism, if only to endeavour to remove certain serious misconceptions which evidently lurk in the minds of certain people. I am induced to thus far depart from my original intention because of a recent experience, and because I have reason to believe that the misapprehension underlying that experience is far too prevalent.

Not many weeks ago I met a dear old Christian lady who, to page 70 my surprise, was greatly concerned in respect to my Spiritual welfare. "I am so sorry," she said, "to hear that you have given up Christ and taken up with Spiritualism." I beamed on the good old soul as benignantly as my horrified feelings would permit, and ventured to suggest that she had been slightly misinformed. "But haven't you given up Christ, then ?" she inquired in much more joyous tones. "Given Him up," I exclaimed, "Why, I never found Him properly until I began to study this subject. This has made Him a reality and has shed new light upon His miracles." The aged, saintly soul looked both perplexed and elated, and when, at her request, I had given her my views of the Man of Sorrows, the tears welled in her eyes and she went away with the parting assurance—"I am going home now to pray for myself, instead of praying for you!"

The moral of this little incident is obvious—"Judge not that ye be not judged," a command which so many professing Christians persistently disregard, to the incalculable injury of their sacred Cause.

Oh we judge each other harshly,
Knowing not life's hidden force,
Knowing not the fount of action
Is less turbid at its source.

Seeing not amid the evils
All the golden grains of good,
We should love each other better
If we only understood.

It is only necessary to add that Spiritualism recognises God as the Supreme and Beneficent Ruler of the Universe, the Father and Lover of All, that Christ is the foundation and superstructure combined of the Spiritualistic edifice, and that the watchwords of the sincere adherents of the cause are the commands of Jesus—"Pray without ceasing," and "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."

The sublime and practical teachings of the Sermon on the Mount form the basis of the Higher Spiritualism, whose ethical ideals are so exalted as to be almost unattainable by mortals, and if mankind were permeated with its Christ-like perfection there would be no selfishness in the world to-day, no wars, no oppression of the weak, no neglect of the poor, and no battening of the few at the expense of the many—this earth would be a Paradise, and the great millennial reign of peace would dawn upon a socially-regenerated and Spiritually-uplifted world. That is what the Religion of Spiritualism means!

It is, moreover, a religion that makes men think. It seems to me that the last thing the majority of mankind do to-day is to think on any serious subject at all. They appear to have utterly failed to grasp the significance of the Saviour's assurance—"Seek and ye shall find." It is only the thinkers who really seek. This fact is clearly revealed in the history of the human race. The man who thinks is never satisfied, and, consequently, he is always seeking—seeking some further revelation of divine Truth, and when he finds it he proclaims it to the world—and is generally ridiculed for his pains! page 71 That has happened through all the ages, it is happening to-day, and it will continue to happen all the while a comfortable state of ignorance is preferred to the enlightening influence of the inflow of Truth.

The ocean of Truth is illimitable and we can never hope to fathom its depths all the while we are subject to the limitations of the flesh. But that is no reason why we should not grasp as much of it as we possibly can, and patiently await the fuller knowledge which will be revealed in the realm beyond. Yet the men who, in this respect, are doing the bidding of their Master, are often jeered at by their fellows and not infrequently persecuted by more or less insidious methods.

And this is the language of a prominent Church of England clergyman, an Associate of King's College, London, and to-day the Vicar of Brockenhurst. Hampshire, whose enlightening work entitled : "Our Life after Death," has met with such a phenomenal demand that it has passed through one hundred and four editions. He is an inspired and fearless writer, and furnishes a striking illustration of the fact that it is to the sincere and open-minded man that God speaks—the man who is prepared to accept the Divine invitation—"Come, let us reason together."

The spirit of bigotry, still so rife amongst us, has always been in evidence throughout the annals of mankind; and the experience of Jesus himself was no exception to the general rule. He was undoubtedly regarded as the greatest heretic of His day. That was why the orthodox Church assailed Him so violently and why a spiritually-darkened priesthood eventually instigated His death. And men and women are to-day termed "heretics" if they dare to emulate their Master by proclaiming what they believe to be Truth.

And this term, forsooth, is supposed to represent an epithet involving obloquy. Obloquy, indeed! There is no obloquy about it to the man who knows that the Captain of his Salvation was similarly described. He rather rejoices to be considered worthy to bear this imaginary stigma and is inspired with the knowledge, to quote the language of Arehbishop Clarke, of Melbourne, that "experience has shown that the heretic of to-day has often been proved to be the bearer of the torch of Truth on the morrow."

"He that confesseth Me before men, him will I confess before My Father which is in Heaven." And the real and practical way page 73 to "confess" Jesus is by proclaiming the truths He came to reveal and to emulate His example by working for the Spiritual emancipation of the world. That which is regarded as heterodox to-day will, a few years hence, be stamped with the hall-mark of orthodoxy. The flowing tide of religious thought is already running in that direction, and its impetus will increase as "the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns."

In Religion, as in Science, Politics and the amelioration of our social conditions, there must necessarily be progress. If this law had not obtained in the past we should still be imbued with those crude notions of God which seemed to satisfy the immature conceptions of the races of antiquity. The religious ideas of one age, in short, are discarded by succeeding generations, who formulate an entirely different set of creeds and beliefs, and these, in turn, are modified or cast aside in favor of other, and more modern views. Every student of sacred history is, of course, familiar with these developments in progressive revelation and thus history repeats itself in this direction as in many other ways. In other words—

Our little systems have their day,
They have their day and cease to be,
They are but broken lights of Thee,
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.