< The Identity of the Higher Teaching of Spiritualism with Bible Christianity (continued from page 7-224) >
In No. 235, Mrs. Hallock, the wife of Dr. Hallock, the well-known Spiritualist, speaking at a conference held under the auspices of the National Association, said she “had to thank Spiritualism that she was on the side of the Bible.” Dr. Wyld (M.D. Edin.), a member of the Council of the British National Association of Spiritualists, at the same place stated that “modern Spiritualism had not taught him any higher truths than those he arrived at thirty-five years ago by a long and prayerful study of the mind and life of Christ, still it had given him this blessing, that it had by its facts and revelations confirmed him in his belief.” In No. 236, in an account of a seance with “John King,” Mrs. Showers relates that he informed her in direct writing that he found relief from despair in prayer to God. In No. 240, the Hon. J. L. O’Sullivan, formerly American Minister at the Court of Portugal, relates that at a stance at which the late Theodore Parker, the celebrated Unitarian minister, communicated, he informed him in direct writing he now preaches from the text, “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.” In the same relation, Mr. O’Sullivan, referring to a certain Archbishop Hughes whom he had known in the flesh, and who had communicated to him since he departed this life, comments upon the Archbishop’s present spiritual state thus— “One thing is apparent from the Archbishop’s communications, that while still adhering to the Church of which he was a vehement champion as well as a high dignitary, the Catholicism of Archbishop Hughes is now that esoteric Christianity which is at the root, and is the life and heart of all the sects, and indeed of all the religions, and which is simply what Christ himself taught, viz., the immortality of the soul, the Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of men—in other words, ‘our Spiritualism.’” On page 161, Mrs. Woodforde, a well-known medium, in a long and interesting account of spiritual impressions in Romish churches, speaks lovingly and reverently of the Eternal One, with outstretched bleeding hands and thorn crowned brow, breathing into the heart the words, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.” An anonymous writer, a gentleman known to me, a very distinguished medium, through whom a long series of papers were given which appeared in The Spiritualist under the heading “Spirit Teachings,” writing as a medium in No. 242, says—“Read the lesson in the. life of the Anointed One when He came forth to teach His people wisdom, the whole of the spiritual life of the Jewish nation was cold and bare as the leafless tree in winter. The sap had ceased, it seemed, to flow. The branches were bare and gaunt, devoid of their seemly covering of leaves. The weary traveller should look in vain for fruit, or seek a stray flower to gladden his eyes. The death plague was on all. He came, the Anointed Messenger of God, the chosen Messiah, on His missionary labours, the Son of Righteousness and Truth—the Son, who was also the Sun, for there was no difference there—shed His beams of enlightenment and warmth on those dead, dry, naked branches, and see the change! Empty formalism glowed again with spiritual truth, cold precepts were vivified again into exuberant life. What had been said by them of old time gained a new and extended significance. Social life was elevated, reformed, ennobled. Religion was raised to a pitch of spirituality it had never reached before. In place of selfishness there was taught charity; in place of formalism, spirituality; in place of ostentatious ritual, silent, secret prayer; in place of open parade, religion—the seeking to be seen of men—the seclusion of the secret chamber, the lonely communing between self and God!” This is a specimen, and a fair one, of the spirit, the essence, of column after column of spirit-teaching through this same medium, as published in The Spiritualist. Miss Emily Kislingbury, the secretary of the British National Association of Spiritualists, in a communication to No. 243 thus expresses herself:—“Nor can I believe that Spiritualism will create an entirely new form of worship. In the past each new religion has been grafted on the old, and the spirit has gradually passed from one to the other. Christianity grew in the first place out of Judaism, and finally became assimilated with the heathen forms of the various countries in which it took root. It seems more likely that Spiritualism will enter into the Churches and gradually modify and revivify the ancient forms; that a new Church will grow organically out of the old, and that a new spirit will enter into it. . . . To me it seems that if we attempt to do without creeds and forms we shall lose something which appealed to our best instincts and satisfied our highest aspirations; more than that, encouraged a holy frame of mind, and was an incentive to noble deeds.’’ A church clergyman in the same number, in an article on religion and science, says: “As a Broad Churchman I see the great beauty of the spiritualistic theory; it is capable of assimilation by all religions. It is the one fundamental doctrine that lies at the root of all, . . . the method of Spiritualism which is identical with the method of Christ and the early Church.”
I wish time would permit me to repeat to you the sublime and lovely language in which Archbishop Hughes from the spirit-world addressed to the Hon. J. L. O’Sullivan on the subject of the Christian faith, but I can do no more than refer you to page 261, No. 249, In No. 250, page 273, I find Mr. A. Smart saying, “Thousands have had before their apirations ideals of purity and goodness infinitely more lofty than those of any sect or church in Christendom.” This, I suppose, is Mr. Howitt’s justification for his assertion that Spiritualists everywhere boast that they are on the way to discover a new and superior system of faith and worship from the teachings of the spirits. If so, he should have noticed the rebuke administered to Mr. Smart by Mr. J. de Maine Browne in No. 253, page 309, and Mr. Smart’s honourable explanation of an assertion which without it appeared rash and extravagant. The spirit of the trance discourses of Mr. Colville is best expressed by citing from a prayer offered by him before delivering an inspirational discourse to the Dalston Association of Spiritualists, in which he says: “Thou omniscient and omnipotent Father of Lights, . . . may every soul filled with love Divine offer unto Thee, both now and ever, acceptable worship—even the worship of spirit and truth—which shall express itself in love of Thee and of all mankind.” Mr. Alex. Calder, the President of the British National Association of Spiritualists, was accused by a member of the Association, in No. 274, of “irreverence for Jesus Christ,” and an attempt to “supersede Christianity,” in his address to the Association at the opening soiree of the season 1877-8. Perhaps Mr. Howitt read this accusation, but did not see Mr. Calder’s reply in the following number, in which he denies both charges, and asserts that his address “was based on principles similar to those uttered by Jesus, and which may indeed be fairly called His own.” Now, if Mr. Calder did not acknowledge in so many words-that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh, it is very evident he acknowledges it in his effort to regulate his life by His principles, and in disseminating them. Christ said to Peter, when he acknowledged Him to be the Son of God, “See thou tell it no man.’’ He said at another time, “They that do My will shall know of My doctrine.” The doing the will is more than the doctrine, the life more than the most orthodox profession. The Rev. Maurice Davies, D.D., author of Unorthodox London and many other works, in advocating the religious union of Spiritualists, is reported in No. 279 to say, “But what we do not concede is, that the recognition of this intermediate agency would at all lessen the force of Christ’s example, or diminish a man’s sense of the need of the Divine Spirit. Quite the contrary. Again, it would teach him not only to live soberly, not only to live righteously, but also to live godly in this present world. ... If the angels in their graduated hierarchies; if the saints who blazon our calendar do not trench upon the honour of their Master, or lead us to depreciate the aid of the Holy Spirit, why should this be the case when the angel is one who was once for us an angel in the house?” I have now traversed the pages of The Spiritualist for the year 1877, but I could multiply my evidences tenfold, from the records of the year, that the spirit of the dispensation, as manifested in the utterances of representative men and women, is loyal to the Gospel of Christ, and that its higher teachings are identical with Bible Christianity; but I refrain. William Howitt’s assertions are now placed side by side the utterances of the men and women whom he traduces. These judge them.
Christ, the Corner-Stone of Spiritualism by J.M. Peebles, M.D.
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Census of India
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Editor's notes