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vol. title: vol. period: 1882 pages in vol.: 231 |
Notes by the Way
I am afraid I have shocked Dr. Potter. It is sad, but I shall be the loss sorry if the mental shock causes him to strike out for himself a new and more rational, as well as healthier line of thought. His “when a Spirit lifts me and carries me about against my will, I will believe it,” is of the same type as the cry of old, “Come down from the cross, and we will believe on Thee.” Dr. Potter should know what answer that obtained. His conversion, however important to himself, is hardly of sufficient moment to warrant a special interposition of Spirit for the levitation of his body. When Dr. Potter further says that I ‘'practically reject the whole teaching of Christ and Christianity,” he is writing that which he has means from my published writings of knowing to be untrue. I do nothing of the sort. But I do reject very decidedly the nonsensical explanations of phenomena which Dr. Potter is ignorant enough to put forward: and the calumnious story about Miss Fox, which he heedlessly and recklessly circulates.
The nonsense that newspapers write about Spiritualism and all connected with it is inconceivable. It has pleased Dr. Buchanan, in the exorcise of his undoubted discretion, to take unto himself a wife in the person of Mrs. Decker, and I beg to felicitate him on the auspicious event. The Two Worlds contains a full description of the interesting ceremony, which was performed by Dr. S. B. Brittan in a manner that was at once simple and impressive. He pointed out that the ceremony, as performed by the Church, was expressly limited to the period of life on this earth — “so long as ye both shall live”—but that the Spiritualist, whoso view is not bounded by the grave, regards marriage as “the union of two souls in harmony with the Divine laws of our spiritual being.'’ Ho appositely quoted St. Paul’s words: “Neither death nor life.... shall be able to separate us from the love of God,” the Divine love as revealed in kindred souls; — at least as elevating a view of the obligations and privileges of marriage as is usually exemplified in the Belgravian code of morals, as it seems to mo. Not so to the Evening Standard. In a short article, winch compresses into its shortness as much shallow fatuity as I ever saw in the same space, this paper points out to “orthodox persons among our own clergy and others who dally with Spiritualism,” that “this latest development of it puts it right athwart of the Gospel declarations that the dead ‘neither marry nor are given in marriage,’ and the equally explicit declaration of the apostle, ‘that a woman is not bound to her husband after ho is dead’”—a most remarkable piece of exegesis! Who ever said that the dead do marry? Dr. Buchanan is not dead, or was Hot at that time, surely! And if the union of those two be of that intimate nature which the Christian ideal of marriage contemplates, is that more or less in accord with the mind and will of Christ and his apostles, than the standard of society, with its necessary adjunct, the Divorce Court? But any stuff is good enough to write about Spiritualism.
In a late number of the Rock, the Rev. G. W. Weldon writes a long account of his experiences among the Spirits. The Spirits whom he “tried” were of the “Irresistible” type, and Mr. Weldon was not impressed with their philosophy, nor with the value of the information afforded by them. It does not seem to have occurred to him that there are degrees of intelligence and development among Spirits, weather in or out of the body, and that “Irresistible” may be doing excellent work without being able to talk philosophy, or even to preach a sermon. It was, however, the denial of some of the most pronounced Christian or rather Church dogmas that led Mr. Weldon to conclude that these Spirits were not of God, but of the devil. He was told that many had been converted by these means “from Atheism and sensualism to a belief in God and to the cultivation of purity and holiness of life.” “I know,” he says, “that it has been the moans of inducing many to believe in the continuity of human life after death. But I also know that I never yet have met a Spiritualist, however removed from Iris or her past worldliness and infidelity, that acknowledged the supremacy of God’s Word as the sole guide of life, or the efficacy of the Atonement as the only means of man’s redemption.” So that purity and holiness of life in place of sensuality and Atheism are of no account. The animal has learned that it has a soul, and that wallowing in the mire of sensual indulgence is not its fitting occupation. The Christ-life has replaced the animal life. But the priest passes by on the other side. He has no sympathy with a struggling soul that does not profess a dogmatic theology of his own special type. That seems to me sectarian rather than Christian, and Pharisaic rather than Christ-like.
Some of Mr. Weldon’s incidents are well told, and may well have puzzled him as they did. He seems to have got his best evidence in the house of “a lady of very high social position, in one of the fashionable squares of Belgravia.” She should have imparted a religious as well as a fashionable sanction to the investigation, for she was, as Mr. Weldon naively puts it, “a Spiritualist, but a believer in the Divinity of Christ, and a devout and constant reader of the Bible.” Surely here was a Spiritualist who answered to Mr. Weldon’s theological test of purity! In her house a small room was placed at Mr. Weldon’s disposal, who brought his sceptical friends, while the lady-provided the medium. All precautions against deception haring been taken, the medium was held by Mr. Weldon on one side and by Sir----- on the other “as tightly as possible without inconvenience to him.” But the story is best told in the writer’s own words: “We are both strong men. The medium was a small man, and by no means muscular; but even if he were, it would have been impossible by sheer force of muscular effort for any man to get away from the fast grip with which we held him. His two hands were kept as firmly bound as if they were in a vice. And yet, strange to say, in spite of all our strength and utmost effort, the medium after a time began to rise out of his chair, and to ascend higher and higher towards the ceiling, till both ho and the chair on which he had been seated when the gas went out wore lifted up above our heads and planted right on the centre of the table. This was his position when the lights were turned on. We wore holding him still by the hands, which we never let go for a moment. He was seated on the chair—a cane-bottomed one—looking dreadfully pale and half dazed. ‘Well, Sir— —, what do you think of that?’ I asked. ‘It puzzles me,’ was the reply. ‘Yes; and me also,’ I added. Tim strangest part of the proceeding was that the anus of the medium were projecting through the upper opening of the back of the chair, so that by some unaccountable way his hands and arms were inserted through this open portion of the chair, while we were holding him fast all the time! That which added to my perplexity was the fact that the medium, who had his coat on him when the proceedings commenced, was now in Iris ‘shirtsleeves, his coat having disappeared, and that too while Sir— — and I were continuously holding his hands.”
Mr. Weldon may lie excused for his surprise. Another incident is familiar enough to Spiritualists, but is worth quoting <... continues on page 12-56 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ Notes by the Way by M.A. (Oxon), Light, v. 2, No. 55, January 21, 1882, pp. 25-6
Sources
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Light, v. 2, No. 55, January 21, 1882, pp. 25-6