Jump to content

HPB-SB-3-56: Difference between revisions

HPB-SB-3-56 (view source)

Revision as of 11:39, 31 January 2023

11,007 bytes added ,  31 January 2023
no edit summary
(Created page with "{{HPB-SB-header | volume = 3 | page = 56 | image = SB-03-056.jpg | notes = | prev = 55 | next = 57 }} {{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued | Recent Materialistic Speculat...")
 
No edit summary
Line 9: Line 9:


{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued | Recent Materialistic Speculations Viewed in the Light of Spiritualism |3-55}}
{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued | Recent Materialistic Speculations Viewed in the Light of Spiritualism |3-55}}
...
 
{{Style P-No indent|sor will scarcely thank us for crediting him with, this, namely, that though his belief in matter is so profound, he is not
able to assert precisely what matter is.}}
 
{{Style P-Poem|poem=We mortals stalk, like horses in a mill,
Impassive media of Atomic will.
 
No Great First Cause inspired the happy plot,
But all was Matter, and no matter what.|signature=}}
 
Mr. Huxley’s elaborate argument affirms throughout that an
animal is, or may be, a Conscious Automaton, i.e., a machine
with the attribute of consciousness. It is not necessary to
quote isolated passages from an elaborate address, the whole
tenor of which is to establish this proposition. The elimination of spirit from the individual man, and the destruction of
intelligence at death, is the fitting complement to that Materialism which reduces all things to Matter, and blots out the
Deity from the Universe.
 
What has Spiritualism to say to all this ? In the faith which
is professed by us, have we any points of contact with the
Professors ? Hardly any. The whole teaching, nay, the very
existence of that belief which is called spiritual, is entirely
opposed to the creed of Tyndall and Huxley. They tell us of
Matter, the Unknown and the Unknowable, yet the one Really
Existent Fact. We reply that, even if you can define Matter
at all, which you confess yourselves unable to do, you are but
scantily acquainted with its properties : and as your acquaintance grows, unless you confine yourselves within a narrow
groove, you will find that Matter vanishes and gives place to
Spirit. We tell you that the external manifestation which is
known to us in this sphere of being, is so far from being the
permanent reality which you profess, that it is but the shell
that covers spirit, and that, to borrow the Professor’s language,
Spirit will live, indestructible and eternal, when he, and matter with him, “shall have melted into the infinite azure of the
past.”
 
They tell us of matter as its own Final Cause. We reply that
it is so far from being final or actual that they will find it difficult to demonstrate its real existence, and that Bishop Berkley’s argument is, at least, as forcible as Prof. Tyndall’s. The
very properties which the scientific school of thought has,
with one consent, agreed to regard as invariable in Matter are,
we tell them, open to grave question, and, in some cases, to
easy disproval by the experiments of Spiritualism. The law
of gravitation, supposed by them to act invariably, is seen to
be frequently suspended by the action of a Force of which
they have no knowledge. Solid objects are found, under certain conditions, to be no bar to the passage through them of
other solid bodies, so that even into a closed room, or through
locked doors, solid objects pass in a way which Science has
no means of explaining. Nay more, not only are the properties unknown, and its very existence, as anything more than a
Sensation, not capable of mathematical proof, but those who
are searching most with its qualities, outside of the orthodox
scientific groove,—a groove as rigidly bound by Scientific Dogmatism as ever was the road to truth by Theological Creed,—these men will tell the Professors of that which amounts to
nothing short of a new creation : the formation of that which
is apparently a perfect human form in a room where no such
form naturally exists, and of the resolution of this form again
into empty nothingness before the eyes of careful observers.
They may even obtain scientific evidence touching a new formation of a living body from men who bear appended to their
dames the magic letters F.R.S., the diploma of scientific infallibility.
 
As to Prof. Huxley’s automaton, we tell him that what he
mistakes for man is only the temporary shell which man occupies during his present state of being. That accretion of
atoms round the spirit body which enshrines and protects it
here, is no more really a part of the man—the Individuality—the “ I,” than are his clothes. The time comes, the Professor
and we alike know, when this body of earth is laid aside. For
him it is done with, and for us, too. But for him there remains
nothing else. Fuit is the epithet which he inscribes upon its
grave. The Automaton is dead, and can work no more. For
us the case is far different. The old worn out body is laid
aside, indeed, but only because the Spirit, the Real Man, has no
further need for it. The spirit body with all its faculties, and
with more than all the life it had on earth, has passed to a
higher sphere of existence and a nobler range of work. It
has but undergone a process of development, and has been
“ evolved,” to Borrow language that Mr., Huxley is familiar
with, from the rude body which has served its purpose, and it
is then translated into a higher plane of being. It is not
dead ; for the Spirit knows no death. It has undergone dissolution : and is still a sentient, intelligent individuality in
spite of its separation from what the Professors would call
“ itself.”
 
Prof. Huxley once declined in sarcastic language to investigate the phenomena of Spiritualism. He has a soul, above
“ twaddle,” and “ feels no interest ’’ in the subject. Mr. Tyndall did, on one occasion, so far condescend as to perform at
a seance some remarkable tricks, such as causing a room to
vibrate by nipping a muscle in his leg and playing a solo on an inverted wine glass with his whiskers. One cannot but
hope that the success of this performance may lead him to the
conclusion that there are things which his philosophy has not
yet fathomed, and that he is deluded when he imagines such
remarkable results to be attributed to such unlikely causes.
If he will go on he may find himself a Medium in spite of himself : and, at any rate, he will discover that Spirits do not require to nip a muscle in order to cause a room to vibrate, or
to use whiskers and an inverted wine glass in order to produce musical sounds.
 
Should it ever chance that the Professors should become
experimentally acquainted with the things which they now ignore and condemn, we may hope that their dreary creed which
ends in annihilation may be reversed. It is idle, we know full
well, to quote against this Scientific Nihilism any arguments
derived from the records of Ancient Scripture, or from modern
experiences with which they are not acquainted. Nor is it
necessary. The question is one that reaches further than any
mere opinions held by any men however eminent in special
branches of scientific research. It is a matter which concerns
intimately the whole question of Moral and Religious Belief
and Practice. And in this aspect we invite to it the attention
of the Ministers of Religion and all who have at heart the
cause of truth. Let these consider the alternative that Science
by the mouth of its High Priest has placed before the people
of England and America : and let them ponder on the answer
they are prepared to give. He has spoken, and it is well to
gauge accurately what he has thought right to say. He has
lifted up his voice from the chiefest platform of science, and
his cry, in effect, has been, “There is no God. There is no Spirit. There is no Immortality. Matter exists, and nought else.”
And his cry is taken up and echoed by the voice of one {{Style S-Lost|no^}}
less powerful than himself. “ Man needs not to look outside
himself for the cause or end of his existence. He is but a
Machine.” Away go all the dogmas of Religion. All is useless, since the God to whom adoration and prayer are offered
is wiped out. The very source and spring of all Religion—we
had almost said of all Morality—is gone forever.
 
And what will the Preachers say ? Will they meet together
in hearty accord and point to the unanimous consent of undivided Christendom to the facts which the, Professors deny ?
As well expect the lion to lie down with the lamb as such a
Millennial Miracle. If they could perchance agree in defense
of God and Immortality, they would but turn and send each
other over dry bones of dogma which the world has long since
cast aside. Will they enter into the conflict with the Bible as
their Sword and do battle with the Professors on the ground
of Inspiration and Revelation ? No two of them will agree on
any but the broadest and simplest points. From that book
each has drawn his creed, selecting that which pleases him,
and that creed he vainly endeavors to force upon others :
while they in their turn have their nostrums which they hold
to be of universal application. Or will they boldly prove to
their scientific opponents the facts which they deny ? Will
they demonstrate to them a Present God, operating in their
midst, and life perpetuated after death ? Will they prove the
existence of a Soul apart from a Body, and the reality of a Life
beyond the Grave ? How can they ? The Bible ! “ a farrago
of delusions and contradictions.” The Church ! “a mischievous compound of superstition and credulity, in which ambitious priests compass their own ends by deluding foolish
dupes.” The Faith of Christendom! “ there is no faith, but
many contradictory opinions, each annihilating another. If
priests agree in anything it is only in that, on which their very
existence depends.” Such is the way in which their weapons
will be turned, and assertions which pass currentonly so long
as they are unquestioned will be found to be sorry reeds
when relied on against those who admit nothing, not even
their own soul’s life.
 
Here it is that the creed of Spiritualism steps in, and should, one would think did one not know otherwise, find a cordial welcome from those who wish to defend the faith of God and Immortality. That Bible from which conflicting sects have
drawn their nostrums, we see to be but the record of that progressive revelation of the Supreme which has never ceased
among men. The contradictory views of God which are contained in it, and which they have spent ages of time and
mountains of labor in vain attempts to harmonize, give us no
difficulty, for we see in them the gradual growth of man’s
knowledge, the ceaseless revealing of the Supreme, as man
has been able to bear it. The Miracles and records of the intervention of spirit power which crowd its pages, so unintelligible to them, are familiar occurrences to us. They occur in our midst, and we have no reason to explain their way by processes of tortuous sophistry. To us it is not strange that angels should have talked with men, or even that the three children should have passed unharmed through fire. But what
can orthodox Preachers say to such things ? Miracles ! They
are to be passed by with hurried step, to be accepted only as
events which used to happen, but have {{Style S-Lost|long}} since ceased.
And who told them that they have ceased ? Who, indeed ?
Their cessation dates from the time when ignorant and unspiritual minds practically dethroned God from the government of
 
{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|3-57}}
Retrieved from "https://en.teopedia.org/lib/Special:MobileDiff/8749"