Great Minds on a Great Theme.

For the information of those who have not hitherto devoted any attention to this profoundly interesting subject, and whose only knowledge of it is derived from the police court prosecutions of charlatans and imposters—who hold a similiar relationship to Spiritualism as hypocrites do to the Church—it may be as well to explain that Spiritualism is not a thing of yesterday. It is, on the other hand, as old as mankind itself, and its teachings are hoary with antiquity. Thousands of years ago it pervaded the religions of Greece and Rome, of Assyria, Phoenicia, Persia, India, Egypt and China; both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures abound in its phenomena, and in every savage race we find the prevailing belief in the survival and return of the spirit to earth.

Zoroaster, the Persian seer and one of the great reformers of Asiatic religion, proclaimed the existence, of good and evil spirits who, occasionally, he said, revealed themselves to human beings; the Hebrews evoked spirits with the aid of certain formulae, of which the principles were consecrated by the Talmud; all the Prophets possessed mediumistic gifts and were known as Seers; Porphyry, a Greek Philosopher of the Neo-Platonic School says that "spirits are invisible; nevertheless they reveal themselves sometimes in visible form;" Plato taught the same thing; Socrates, being clairvoyant and clairaudient—spiritual senses which are to-day Scientifically acknowledged—both saw and heard his guardian spirit; whilst Pindar, Plutareh, Plotinous and Philo the Jew, were avowedly of a similar belief; the Romans believed that every human being is accompanied by a guardian spirit from the moment of his birth, and Cicero declared the air to be "full of immortal spirits, "adding that "they knew and taught many things unknown to mortals."

In the New Testament we find St. Paul enumerating the "gifts of the Spirit," and amongst these he mentions the "discerning of spirits." What did he mean by that? To "discern" is to "see." To discern spirits is therefore to see spirits. And if they are to be seen they must be here. To say that they are not here is tantamount to saying that Paul did not know what he was talking about. But Paul did know. He, had, doubtless, seen them and, therefore, he was able to declare—"We are encompassed about by a great cloud of witnesses." He, moreover, understood their mission. It was page 63 not Satanic—for he exclaims, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation."

I do not, however, think that this statement is literally correct. Paul may not be responsible for that. They are not all ministering spirits in the sense in which Paul meant. Many of them are malign in nature and intent. They have carried forward their evil tendencies and, consequently, are unclean and deceivers still. Hence St. John wisely issues the warning—"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God?" Every level-headed investigator tries, or tests, the communicating intelligence in order to establish his identity, and that is what Sir Oliver Lodge and Professor Hyslop have been doing with such remarkably successful results.

During the dark interval of the Middle Ages spirituality was almost crushed out of existence; the most hideous religious wars supervened, and all the mediums were sent to the stake as "witches" or "wizards." The movement, therefore, received a tremendous set-back, but in later years it recovered by spasmodic outbursts, and in the year 1848 Modern Spiritualism came into active life in an obscure township in the State of New York. It spread like wild-fire throughout the country and during the succeeding 50 years made marvellous progress in every nation in Europe. To-day it commands the attention of the intellect of the world and seems destined to eventually cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Those who are keeping abreast of recent developments can easily perceive that the subject will soon be the dominating thought in the minds of men and that the time is drawing near when the man who is ignorant of its mentally-illumining influence will be considered sadly deficient in intellectual culture.

It was well-known in certain inner circles that the late Queen Victoria was anything but a stranger to this ancient belief, and it will not surprise a few to learn that the late Mr. Gladstone was an Honorary Member of the English Psychical Research Society, and that, in writing to its Secretary, he stated—"The work in which you are engaged is the most important that can possibly occupy the human mind—by far the most important"

John Wesley, the honored Founder of Methodism, was likewise personally familiar with many of the phases of psychic phenomena. Read what he has to say about the mysterious happenings in his father's house, and when you find the excitement is growing too intense, take up, as a sort of sedative, his delightful sermon on "Good Angels," from which it will be found that, as he page 64 expresses it,—"If our eyes were opened we would see—

A convoy attends,

A ministering host of invisible friends."

He, moreover, brings these "ministering friends" down to earth and makes them work. Some discharge the functions of doctors, others are nurses, and others, again, defend us from assaults in body and soul.

"And who can hurt us," he joyfully continues, "while we have armies of angels and the God of angels on our side ? . . Does He frequently deliver us by means of men from the violence and subtlety of our enemies ? Many times He works the same deliverance by these invisible agents. These shut the mouths of the human lions so that they have no power to hurt us. And frequently they join with their human friends (although neither they nor we are sensible of it) giving them wisdom courage or strength, without which all their labour for us would be unsucessful. Thus do they secretly minister, in numberless instances, to the heirs of Salvation, while we hear only the voices of men and see none but men around us. . . In the meantime, though we may not worship them (worship is due only to our common Creator) yet we may esteem them very highly in love for their works' sake."

Dr. Adam Clarke, the celebrated Wesleyan Minister and distinguished Commentator, was evidently of a similar opinion to his illustrious chief and pronounces thus—"I believe there is a supernatural and spiritual world, in which human spirits, both good and evil, live in a state of consciousness. I believe that any of these spirits may, according to the order of God, in the laws of their place of residence, have intercourse with this world and become visible to mortals"

Canon Wilberforce takes a most inspiring view. He says:—"It is a strengthening, calming consideration that we are in page 65 the midst of an invisible world of energetic and glorious life, a world of spiritual beings than whom we have been made for a little while lower. Blessed be God for the knowledge of a world like this. It is evidently that region or condition of space in which the departed find themselves immediately after death; probably it is nearer than we imagine, for St Paul speaks of our being surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. There, it seems to me, they are waiting for us."

The Dean of Rochester (Dr. Reynolds Hole) writing to a friend in grief, in November, 1877, said:—"The 'dead' are, I believe, more with us and can do more for us than the living. In a very short time you will know this."

Ven. Arehdeacon Colley, Rector of Stockton, War-wickshire, and who insists on writing after his name the words, "And a Spiritualist," says:—"Spiritualism comes as a real God-send to save men from the Sadducean Materialism that looks for no hereafter beyond the grave." And he further declares—"If the Church ignores the testimony of Modern Spiritualism, or speaks of it as necessarily evil, or Satanic, it will indubitably grow beyond the Church to guide it Christianly."

Arehdeacon Wilberforce, speaking at Newcastleon-Tyne in 1881, remarked:—"The strength of Spiritualism lies in the knowledge, partial and imperfect though it be, of the future life, while the weakness of the Churches, as opposed to the strength of Modern Spiritualism, is in the ignorance of that life, and in the misapprehension of Scripture concerning it"

Rev. Dr. J. P. Newman, of Madison Avenue Congregational Church, New York, observes:—"In Bible times the two worlds met and there was communication between them as there is now between New York and London, though not so frequently of course. . . But do communications between the two worlds continue to this day ? Let us rise to the sublimity and purity of this great Bible truth and console our hearts therewith."

Rev. Arthur Chambers, M.A., Associate of King's College, London, and Vicar of Brockenhurst, Hants, in his delightful work—"Thoughts of the Spiritual," referring to the antagonistic attitude assumed by many professing Christians towards the phenomena of Spiritualism, says—"No doubt these good people would be terribly shocked by the suggestion that had they been living when Jesus manifested Himself after death they would, in all probability, no more have believed the fact than did the ecclesiastical authorities who put Him to death. As far as testimony is concerned, the fact of the post mortem appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ is not so well or so universally attested as are the spiritual phenomena of the present day. The Christian folk who profess to believe the one and scout as absurd the other, do well to remember this. Let them be consistent. . . Thus we regard these manifestations of Spirit life as an ordering of God."

Rev. John Page Hopps, well-known in England for his robust and inspired preaching, says:—"What you say about the interest now excited by things psychical is, I imagine, true the page 66 world over. Everywhere the interest increases both in width and depth. Believers in our spiritual happenings are eager: unbelievers are modifying their scorn or are becoming antagonists who believe in the happenings but excitedly trace them to the Devil or to demons. Scientists, novelists, poets, newspaper scribes and scribblers are all busy, and flutter about the subject at various rates of excitement; and meanwhile, the evidence in confirmation of our testimony is becoming overwhelming"

Rev. R. Heber Newton, D.D., of New York, one of the ablest thinkers amongst the Broad Churchmen of the American Episcopal denomination, declares himself thus:—"If one mind on earth can thus communicate, without physical media, with another mind, it is no difficult thing to believe that unseen intelligences can thus communicate."

Bishop Mercer, the well-known and popular Anglican prelate of Tasmania, says:—"Taking the human being as the telephone, the transmission of spiritual messages would depend largely for their clearness on the maintenance of the connection and the condition of the instrument."

Dean Parkyn, of Ballarat, when speaking at the graveside at Hamilton in September last, said :—"My brethren, these things (referring to several deaths that had recently taken place) are happening constantly all around us, and I say that man is foolish beyond the power of speech to express who lives only for the seen and forgets that which is unseen. I know you cannot see the other world. But it is all around us, and I believe at this very moment we are encircled by a cloud of invisible intelligences."

These are only a few of the Church authorities from whose utterances I might quote. But they will suffice. Now let us pass on to the realms of Literature, Philosophy, and Art.

Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.S., F.G.S., says :—"Up to the time when I first became acquainted with the facts of Spiritualism, I was a confirmed philosophical sceptic, rejoicing in the works of Voltaire, Strauss, and Carl Vogt, and an ardent admirer—as I am still—of Herbert Spencer. I was so thorough and confirmed a Materialist that I could not at that time find a place in my mind for the conception of Spiritual existence, or for any other agencies in the universe than matter and force. Facts, however, are stubborn things. . . The facts beat me."

Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., replying to some of his critics:—"It was taken for granted by the writers that the results of my experiments would be in accordance with their pre-conceptions. What they really desired was not the truth, but an additional witness in favour of their own foregone conclusions. When they found that the facts which those investigations established could not be made to fit those opinions, why—'so much the worse for the facts.' . . I have observed some circumstances which seem conclusively to point to the agency of an outside intelligence, not belonging to any human being in the room."

Professor Lombroso, the great Italian Scientist, writing to Professor Falcomer, of Venice, in 1896, said—"I am, in Spiritualism, like a pebble swept along by a current. At present I lie upon the bank, but every fresh wavelet carries me further onward, and I believe that I shall end by swallowing it all, even the astrality—yes, I shall finish by accepting it completely." Since this was written Lombroso has, indeed, "swallowed it all," and now tells us that he has "conversed with and embraced his deceased mother."

Professor Flournoy, of the University of Geneva, writes—"The question of immortality, and the intervention of Spirits, maintains its Scientific importance, and deserves to be discussed with the calm serenity, with the independence and with the analytical rigour which are proper to the experimental method."

M. Camille Flammarion, the great French Astronomer, says—"Although Spiritualism is not a Religion, but a Science, yet the day may come when Religion and Science will be reunited in one single synthesis."

M. Theirs, Ex-President of France, declares emphatically—"I am a Spiritualist, and an impassioned one, and I am anxious to confound Materialism in the name of Science and good sense."

John Ruskin affords a notable instance of what Spiritualism is capable of doing in the regeneration of men. Holman Hunt the celebrated artist, whose impressive picture, "The Light of the World," was recently exhibited in Australia, had a conversation with Ruskin on the question of the Immortality of the Soul, which the great writer and philosopher once denied. Reminded of his former disbelief Ruskin brightened up and replied—"Yes, I remember it very well. That which revived this belief in my mind was, more than anything else, the undeniable proofs of it offered by Spiritualism. I am not unacquainted with the mass of fraud and follies which are mixed up with this doctrine, but it contains sufficient truth to convince me of the evidence of a life independent of the body and it is this which I find so interesting in Spiritualism."

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe was a medium and a Spiritualist. She says—"I did not write Uncle Tom's Cabin; it was given to me; it passed before me. And in her "Key" she explains how she obtained the material for her immortal work.

Charles Dickens, the novelist, was also a mediumistic soul, and in a letter to his friend Forster, he wrote—"When in the midst of this trouble and pain I sit down to my books, some benificent power shows it all to me and tempts me to be interested, and I don't invent—really I do not—but see it and write it down."

M. Leon Faure, Consul-General of France, declares emphatically "I have long, carefully and conscientiously studied spiritual phenomena. Not only am I convinced of their irrefutable reality, but I have also a profound assurance that they are produced by the spirits of those who have left the earth; and, further, that they only could produce them."

J. Herman Fichte, German Philosopher, says—"It is page 68 absolutely impossible to account for these phenomena, save by assuming the action of superhuman influences, or unseen spirit intelligences."

M. Victorien Sardou, the eminent French dramatist, has produced a play, entitled "Spiritualism," and has announced that—"He has had frequent interviews with the spirits of friends who are 'dead," and that he has received messages, spirits guiding his hand to write them as they were communicated to him. He is convinced of the objective reality of the spirit world and of its desire and power to enter into relations with humanity."

Professor W. F. Barrett, F.R.S., Professor of Experimental Physics and Dean of the Faculty of the Royal College of Sciences, Ireland, states—"The impressive fact of the phenomena is the intelligence behind them and the evidence of an unseen individuality as distinct as our own."

Professor Herbert Mayo, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, King's College, London, avers—"That the phenomena occur there is overwhelming evidence, and it is too late now to deny their existence."

Professor Challis, Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, Cambridge University, asserts—"The testimony has been so abundant and consentaneous that either the facts must be admitted to be such as reputed or the possibility of certifying facts by human testimony must be given up."

Professor Robert Hare, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, and inventor of improvements in the Oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe, says—"Far from abating my confidence in the inference respecting the agencies of the spirits of deceased mortals, I have had even more striking evidences of that agency than those given in the work I have published."

W. M. Thackeray, author and novelist, delivers himself thus—"It is all very well for you, who have probably never seen any spiritual manifestations, to talk as you do; but if you had seen what I have witnessed, you would hold a different opinion."

H. W. Longfellow, poet, and a thorough-going Spiritualist, says:—"The spiritual world lies all about us, and its avenues are open to the unseen feet of phantoms that come and go and we perceive them not save by their influence, or when at times a mysterious Providence permits them to manifest themselves to mortal eyes."

Sir Edwin Arnold, author of "The Light of Asia," speaks in this strain—"All I can say is this: that I regard many of the manifestations as genuine and undeniable, and inexplicable by any known law, or collusion, arrangement, or deception of the senses; and that I conceive it to be the duty and interest of men of Science and sense, to examine and prosecute the enquiry as one that has fairly passed from the regions of ridicule."

To this batch of illustrious names might be added those, past and present, of Professors A. de Mingen, W. James (Harvard University), Butlerow, Hoffman, Wagner, Ochorowitz, Pertz, Schiebner, Mapes, Falcomer and upwards of a score of others; Lords Brougham, Adare, Dunraven, the first Lord Lytton, Lindsay, Lyndhurst and Radnor; the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, Sir Charles Isham, Arehbishop Whately, Rev. H. R. Haweis, M.A., Rev. W. E. Channing, and a great number of American clergy; the late Countess of Caithness; Shakespeare, Mrs. Oliphant, Theodore Parker, Washington Irving, Charlotte Bronte, Horace Greeley, Victor Hugo, Alex. Dumas the elder, Abraham Lincoln, William Howitt, S. C. Hall, W. Blake, the poet-painter, Flaxman, the sculptor, Alexander von Humboldt, R. S. Wyld, the astronomer, Mrs. Browning, the late Robert Chambers, a number of eminent members of the medical faculty in all parts of Europe, and many others celebrated in Literature and Art, whilst Mr. W. T. Stead, in an "In Memoriam" article on the late Sir Henry Campbell-Banner-man, Prime Minister of Great Britain, in the "Review of Reviews" of July of this year, says that in his last days the dying statesman "was heard speaking from time to time as of old to the life-long companion of all his joys and sorrows, his beloved wife, graciously permitted to return from the other side to cheer and comfort with her visible presence the husband who was so soon to rejoin her in the land of endless life."

So from the world of Spirits there descends
A bridge of light connecting it with this.

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.

The Conclusion of the Matter.

To briefly review the mass of evidence submitted in these pages I presume it will be, at least, admitted that however much these phenomena may have been ridiculed in the past, the time has arrived when it must be acknowledged that, to quote the words of the most brilliant Scientists of the age, they are "absolutely real—absolutely genuine."

A pronouncement of this character is of portentous importance, apart altogether from the cause of the manifestations, and when we come to consider the latter point in the light of the conclusions arrived at by so many eminent minds, we are faced by an hypothesis which is sufficiently startling to make the most rigid mental fabric quiver.

We are, in short, told by all the best-endowed and most conspicuous leaders of Scientific thought that conclusive demonstrative proof has been obtained that the Spiritual world, which has hitherto been placed in the abysmal depths of the stars, is really in immanent contact with the earth, and that its ethereal denizens, who formerly "lived and moved and had their being" with their fellows in the flesh, can and do, communicate with us and manifest themselves in tangible form.

This conclusion is so momentous that it is little wonder that these Scientific intellectuelles have devoted such a great number of years to their investigations before determining to announce to the world the conviction at which they have arrived. Sir Oliver Lodge page 74 says "Not easily and not early" has this supreme information been broken to wondering mankind. It is the outcome of unusually-protracted experiments, and such an overwhelming volume of corroborative evidence, that there has been no possible escape from arriving at this stupendous decision. The more searching the inquiry the more deeply-rooted has become the certainty that the human personality survives the ordeal of death and that Man possesses a spirit that will never die.

This admission is the more striking when we remember that most of these gifted investigators were impregnated with rank Materialism when commencing their work of exploring the Invisible. The idea of a Spiritual existence was altogether foreign to their mode of thought. Their mental vision was bounded by the physical, and to them the grave ended all. The scales, however, have now fallen from their eyes, the veil has been rent in twain, and they to-day find themselves confronted with a future life guaranteed by such an abundance of mental and objective evidence that it cannot be overthrown. One after another, in rapid succession, they are being supported by similar declarations from other eminent minds in various parts of the world, and millions of "ordinary people" are adding their testimony in support of the intellectual giants who are in the van of Spiritual progress.

Let the world laugh at these men if it likes! Ignorance is always swift to jeer at intellect, and prejudice is ever ready to quench the flame of Truth. But neither ignorance nor prejudice can avail to stem this tide if it is the Spirit of Truth that is breathing upon the waters. The philosophers of Padua refused to look through the telescope of Galileo because they considered it impious to drag the planets down to earth and to dissect the moon. But the planets have, nevertheless, been brought within our grasp and the innermost recesses of the lunar orb have been laid bare to the eye of Man.

The advance of Science, in fact, has been impeded at every turn, and there are well-meaning people to-day who would even give the quietus to its efforts to demonstrate to groping humanity that a glorious country awaits the righteous just beyond the confines of death, that the Soul of Man has been endowed with an immortal spark, and that there is—

One God, one law, one element
Towards which the whole creation moves.

Personally, I do not require the verdict of these Scientific inquirers to assure me that there is a life to come. I know it. I know it instinctively—an instinct derived from a deeply-religious and spiritually-minded mother. But I also know that there are thousands of better men than I—men who are among the flower of Creation, whom the Church can never reach, and to whom the light will never come unless it be revealed through the agency of these convincing tests.

Jesus performed "many wondrous works" to undermine the scepticism by which He was confronted, and the divine power of page 75 God is working to-day for the fulfilment of a similar purpose. Call it Spiritualism, or by any other name you prefer, it emanates from the Supernal realms and its manifestations may be those "greater things" which the Master declared would be witnessed by mankind. To-day it may truly be said—

There are rifts within the darkness,
And the light is breaking through.

It is already shining in the lives of the great minds I have mentioned, and in a letter recently received by a Melbourne friend from Professor Larkin he makes the courageous and significant confession—"You know how strenuously I have written during just 40 years this month all over the world in 70 different papers and magazines on Natural Science and rigid Materialism—over 4000 articles which I now see clearly were on the wrong side. Now I am studying and writing all the time on psychology and mental subjects."

These are very striking words from such a source, and a singular triumph for the spiritualising influence of this transcendent theme. It has taken Professor Larkin many years to reach this stage in his development, but he has gripped the Truth at last and has now discovered that Death is only a name.

There is no death; what seems so is transition.
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life Elysian
Whose portal we call death.

So sang Longfellow. And so have sung all the inspired poets of all the ages.

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen
Both when we sleep and when we wake

says the immortal Milton. And Tennyson takes up the strain when he exclaims—

Eternal process moving on,
From state to state the spirit walks.
That nothing walks with aimless feet,
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete.

Tennyson was himself a trance medium. He acknowledged this much in a letter to a friend in 1874, and corroboration of the page 76 fact is to be found in his Memoir written by his son. Only a Spiritualist could have written "In Memoriam," more particularly the verse—

How pure at heart and sound in head,
With what divine affections bold
Should be the man whose thoughts would hold
An hour's communion with the dead.

Two thousand years have elapsed since the advent of Christ, and now a new revelation is about to dawn on the world. "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear (understand) them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come." The Spirit of Truth may have started on his mission; mankind may be witnessing some of the wonders he has been sent to reveal, and the clay may not be very far distant when the fiat will go forth in the name of official Science that Heaven has been discovered and that the doctrine of Immortality has been Scientifically proved.

This would be the most joyful news proclaimed to the world since the herald angels sang—"Peace on earth, good-will to men." It would unite the earth to the Spiritual realms and link mankind by a chain of love to the very throne of God. It would be the crowning triumph of Scientific research and men and women would then drink deep from the Supernal fount of eternal Truth.

Death would be robbed of its mystery, and from the knowledge thus gained, the right-living man—the man who had shown his love to God by loving his fellow men, who had tempered justice with mercy, who had walked humbly in the sight of his Maker and whose life had been consecrated by the humanitarian spirit of Christ—would no longer regard his approaching transition with dread, for he would know for a certainty where he was going and that he had nothing to fear when he had "crossed the bar," whilst the selfish and evil-living man would know with equal certitude, from the experiences of others who had "gone before," that a just and exacting self-imposed retribution awaited his arrival on the other side and that he would assuredly have to face the consequences of an ill-spent life in all their remorse-engendering detail.

In that day the Scientist and the Theologian will walk along together, the one teaching Man how he ought to live and the other offering experimental proof of a life beyond the grave. When that beneficent era dawns there will be a great awakening of all the Spiritual forces of the earth; Religion will become established on the immutable rock of Scientific Truth; the Materialist will become an interesting factor of the past; the human family the wide world o'er will recognise the Fatherhood of God and the Universal Brotherhood of Man; Jesus will be understood, and His peerless life and sacrificial death will become a truly vitalising, truly energising, truly potent force in moulding the characters and shaping the destinies of men.