HPB-SB-14-62: Difference between revisions

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued|Notes by the Way.|14-61}}

{{Style P-No indent|the ''Daily News'' publishes on the Psychical Research Society. The Proceedings of that body would seem to have found their way into the editorial hands, and to have been assigned to someone whose ignorance of the whole matter is apparent throughout his article, with instructions to be funny at its expense. The fun is dreary enough, and the article falls very decidedly under the President’s class of “uninstructive contempt.” “The unbelievers say that given two psychical researchers, a large family circle, and a little girl, and granting that the little girl reads the thoughts of all, then collusion is a more acceptable hypothesis than the presence of some unrecognised mode of perception.” The writer surely cannot have read the elaborate experiments recorded in the Proceedings. If he has, some sterner criticism is his due than that of mere carelessness. But given a leader-writer, with a little knowledge, and “a largest circulation,” and granting that his little knowledge is to be aired in dire fear of the great god Circulation, before which he bows, and who knows what stuff may come of it? It is by such utterances, respecting which it is not too much to say that they are by no means creditable to writer or journal, that the public is led to form its idea of these obscure matters. A few flippant sentences, a little airy sneer, and the scribe trips off—to return, perhaps, to deal in similarly exhaustive and accurate fashion with the future of Egypt, or the origin of life, the nature of comets, or the prospects of the discovery of a big gooseberry next spring. Such is penny journalism!}}

The latest of the Leake Bijou reprints is entitled “Christ and Buddha Contrasted.” It is extracted from a larger work by an Oriental, who has visited Europe. If any one desires to see himself as this other Oriental sees him, he will find a possibly instructive, probably one-sided, and certainly plain-spoken expression of opinion in this little book. I may as well say at once that it is not complimentary, and the writer has in many cases signally failed to do justice to Christianity, chiefly because he has, almost of necessity, taken a superficial view of its teachings. The parallel made out between the sacred books of the two faiths might be greatly extended, but it is sufficiently elaborated to attract merited attention. The parallelism in the events of the lives of Gotama, Chrishtna, and Jesus are many:—

Descends to hell, and rises to heaven, like ''Gotama''.}}

''The Christian Herald and Sign of Our Times'' (rightly named—it is a sign of the times) gives an extraordinary account of Christopher Blumhart, founder of the German faith-healing homes. He used the apostolic “prayer of faith” alone, and, if the reports can be relied on, worked some marvellous cures. There are, it seems, some houses of healing in London, the chief one at 6, The Terrace, Green Lanes, N. conducted by Dr. Boardman. It is vain to quote any of the cases recorded. The record is loose, and the critic is met with the same difficulty that he finds in dealing with all—or almost all—cases of alleged healing. There is no exact scientific description either of the symptoms that demonstrate the presence of the disease, or of the permanence of the cure said to be effected. But, with all limitations, Blumhart’s life work was one of beneficence.

{{Style P-Quote|1=“In a short time several claimants will arise to the throne of Jerusalem. Anti-Christ the Sultan (!) will support one of them. . . . In a short time all the nations of the earth will be in trouble. . . . A sharp winter shall end the year. The spring shall be sickly. . . . Israel in England and America is fruitful in saints of the Lord. In England the Jewish religion shall prevail. . . . Not one ignorant man or woman will be found on the earth. . . . One universal language will prevail (English). . . . Simplicity of living will always characterise the best society in the new earth.”}}

These anticipations of the good time coming are not culled from the pages of Zadkiel, nor are the excerpts from “The Great Tribulation,” which the late Dr. Cumming arranged for us. They are scattered up and down in the first few pages of what is described as a “Spiritual Essay,” and is called “The New Earth.” According to the writer, who seems to know all about it, that new earth which is to replace this effete old planet will be a highly uncomfortable place to live in. It is distressing to read that “when children have attained the age of twelve years they will be obliged to go through an examination of their knowledge. If it is not satisfactory, they will be relegated to the care of teachers for another period of time.” Plucking children of twelve! and in the millennium too! No; surely there will be an Act to apply to such cruelty to animals.

“Ingersollism or Christianity” is a camp-meeting discourse by our friend Dr. Peebles. It is published by Plato and Peebles—(has the Pilgrim gone into partnership with a materialisation? He is quite capable of it, or of anything that will advance the cause for which he labours)—and is a strong assault upon the position of the sceptic, and a somewhat successful defence of the Christianity of the New Testament as understood by the writer. Truth to tell, the position of Ingersoll which Peebles describes as “I don’t know,” is a very strong one, for when the total of human knowledge is summed up, it does not amount to much, while the Agnostic would require much time and space to formulate all his “I don’t knows.” How should it be otherwise, being what we are, and living in a world of mystery?

{{Style P-Signature custom|M. A. ({{Style S-Small capitals|Oxon.}})|align=right|1 style=plain}}

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