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vol. title: vol. period: 1881 pages in vol.: 439 |
< Conditional Immortality and "Elementary" Spirits (continued from page 11-352) >
think, shows such intelligence as no animal can possibly demonstrate; and though it may be the intelligence of malice, lying, and hatred, it is still the intelligence of the mind of a man. The very fact of the Zulus commencing with their deceased fellows, who they believe are turned into animals at their decease, is evidence of what I have affirmed, that a spirit appearing as an animal is, in fact, the spirit of a man in the form of an animal. I think, also, that spirits who assume the form of animals are not necessarily the worst spirits. I have some reason for believing that such spirits have greater power in producing an aggravating bodily disease, than in causing mental anguish or wickedness. We must remember, as Hue says, that the Buddhists attribute all disease to evil spirits. And I am inclined to believe that the spirits who obsess men most dangerously are spirits that are heard clairaudiently; for how many poor madmen are so obsessed. And what an awful public example we have lately had of such an obsession, and its extreme danger if heeded and not fought against, in Lefroy, supposing the whole tale were not a lie. But are these unheard tempters to lying? True, Guiteau, too, declares the assassination of General Garfield to have been “an inspiration.” When asked, what he meant, he answered: “I understand inspiration to exist in a case where a man’s mind was taken possession of by a supreme power, and he acted outside himself.” Guiteau said also: “I knew the Lord employed me, because he always employs the best material. At first I was horrified.” Now here Spiritualists have a great advantage over the “orthodox,” who discard spirits and the idea of them; because the former know not only, by experience, that they exist, but their powers, if yielded to; and how often their promptings are false, therefore for ill; and they ought to know also that bad fruit must come from a corrupt tree, which Guiteau did not calculate on. And how many Spiritualists does this knowledge save from evil, as well as from the madhouse! Where, indeed, are the guardian Angels? There is no more safety among some spirits, than in the streets of London. That, alas! has been a cry only too frequent of late, and it is to be feared with some reason on its side. What is to keep the moth from the candle? Well, if it had common sense, this would be as good as a guardian angel, if not better and more watchful, it is to be feared. It would be remembered that, even now, in these days of scorn, the proper language of the very law-courts is, that when men commit great offences they are tempted of the devil; for which term, if we put, “a demon or demons,” as the Revised Testament advises, thanks to the American Committee, we cannot, perhaps, go far wrong.
And what are the doctrines of the Bible on the questions we have been considering? They are composite. This destruction of the soul is, without doubt, most plainly taught in both the Old and the New Testaments, and this is in accord with the doctrine of the Theosophist; but as certainly do both the Old and the New Testament teach, and this in disaccord with the Theosophist, that, so long as the soul exists, the spirit is co-existent with it. Quite as plainly do the Old and New Testament teach re incarnation. We can hardly doubt, too, I think, that the new Testament teaches also progress by re-incarnation, for surely John the Baptist was a nobler character than Elijah; for the Baptist was a grand, self-denying teacher of righteousness; while Elijah, with many powerful qualities, was chiefly remarkable, like the patriarch Jacob, as being a very powerful physical medium indeed (and consequently as such “an astral man” according to Col. Olcott) who proved himself blood-thirsty to a degree in the hour of his greatest success; and the reverse of brave when he fled away from the angry women who would have avenged his indiscriminate slaughterings. Though “astral man” or no, he is said to have re-incarnated and thereby got back his immortal spirit, for, according to Theosophy and Col. Olcott, every boy and girl about seven years old gets the immortal spirit. The avengement was left till Elijah’s second coming, when he was himself slain, through the revenge of a woman. Surely, too, the prediction of the second coming of Jesus denotes progress, progress in world—power at least. The New Testament teaches, also, progress without re-incarnation. We have this in the doctrine of the few and many stripes, for the many as well as the few must have an end. We have progress taught also in the doctrine of paying the last farthing. Both these apply to Hades, opened up to the laity by the revised Testament. And so we see that the Bible gives argument to the Spiritists, and to the Spiritualist also, as it does likewise to the Theosophist. Did I not say that it is composite in character? So is it also cosmopolite.
And here I would desire to make a very few remarks on an observation of Col. Olcott’s. He says:—“Did you ever understand what Jesus meant in saying that a man could lose <... continues on page 11-354 >