< Spiritualism and Religion (continued from page 8-301) >
Spiritualism is coming exactly at the time the world is ready for it. Of course, I know with all Spiritualists that there never has been, and never could have been, a time in any sense whatsoever without it, inasmuch as man has had a soul since his creation; but what I mean to say is, that the present development of it is arising in our minds just because we are in a receptive condition. We have emptied our minds, so to speak, and are ready for a fresh influx of divine light. However, as all religions come from God, though some may be more or less injured in their passage through human channels, so we must look upon Christianity as having been the means of strengthening our reasoning faculties, and stimulating our moral natures to righteous action. But where it has erred we now see, and that is in the deadening effect its teaching has had upon us, from the untruth it has been guilty of in saying that it is all over with revelation, and that there is at present a dead silence on all questions between man and his Maker—that, for the present, all is said that is required for our good. And so in this deathly silence sleep many souls in the despair of unbelief. Now, as this saying is that of man only, it is not needful for us to take it as from God, without inquiry as to the probability of its absolute truth. It appears more like an absolute falsehood. And yet this gilded lie has held us in chains for centuries. For a long time we were content in our prison-house; now, starved and dying, we struggle for exit and fresh air. The world demands spiritual knowledge. And, lo! the answer comes—not in anger, not in reproach, not in threatenings, as theologists would have us believe, if any answer would come at all. We find nothing but love and welcome: words of hope and encouragement are the replies we hear. And, like dark clouds of storm and cold, the old fears of the past roll away, and show us the sunshine of the future—a sunshine we could all have enjoyed long ago, and which was waiting for us if we would only have asked for it. This knowledge coming to us is the knowledge of ourselves, of the powers of our own souls, as taught from the old Archaic times by the seers of God’s universe, and in still older times when these men were sons of God on the earth; and, again, in the times of the so-called occult sciences, the sciences pertaining to the emanations of God’s will upon this planet, and our part and parcel in it, in which we have a divine right, we being in the essence of our natures one with Him. Then, again, it was taught in the flood of divine light spreading over the world through the teaching of Jesus Christ, and subsequently mistaught by those who professed to explain His doctrines to the world. This is the knowledge we should all have had; and the knowledge of the Lord would long ago have covered the land as the waters cover the sea, had it not been for the one grand flaw throughout all times, and that was false teaching, and truths being misinterpreted in permeating through false mediumship. So the people have always suffered, and religion after religion has died away, not because it was false in itself, but because false teaching became engrafted on its roots. Once upon a time the priests of ancient religions were all true seers and priests. Their sacred knowledge they held and taught as sacred truths: souls were known and distinguished; to the strong, strong food was given; to the weak, what was suitable to their needs. All was peace and harmony for a time, and then one law after another was infringed and broken, and the material counterparts of spiritual facts took unlawful positions; so on and on, downward, downward, through all the historic times, we read the one fact that it is not good for man to dwell alone. As soon as spiritual pride predominates, and it is said that there is no God, or that we don’t want God; or ideas are invented, and it is said “This is what God’s teaching is or should be,” so surely comes spiritual decline. I won’t say death, but a kind of reverse trance comes over mankind, in which all men’s material faculties are in working order, but their spiritual powers are asleep, and so they deny everything they cannot demonstrate. Most people are in this trance; and were it not for the strong crying of those who are not, this miserable sleep of our higher faculties might go on and on far into the future. Thanks be to God that He has given His angels charge over us, and that signs of awakening are seen in all quarters, and uplifted faces and hands are held to the golden future. I say “golden future,” a common symbol, after all, to express that which may be in store for us. It is in store for us; for we Spiritualists know that what was formerly called “mysterious” and the “unknown” is nothing of the kind; that it was only the laziness and incapacity of our minds which made the mystery.
If, as Buddha rightly argued, we can contemplate and appreciate the works of creation, it follows that we possess somewhat of the faculties of the Creator. Anything that is actually incomprehensible to us is not perceived by us; it is as if it did not exist. If, therefore, we find that we have a spark of the Divinity in us, what hinders us from fanning that spark? Nothing. What would help us 1 Seeking God? Yes! We are told, “Can we, by searching, find out God?” No! we can’t, if we look in the wrong places, and the right ones everyman’s soul knows. Vague directions, vague teachings and preachings, have been, however, our bane for centuries, and we ought to have done with these; for modern Spiritualism teaches us how as nothing else yet has done. It gives no “uncertain sound” or vague directions, telling us to have faith and all will be well; it gives us no material counterparts, and tells us we must imagine spiritual ones. We try to live upon this imagination; but our souls have a material side, that is, they require suitable sustenance, and don’t find it in orthodoxy. Spiritualism has no forms and ceremonies, or outside shows, from which the spirit has fled; nor monotonous services which still go on and on while men wonder at the want of spiritual life in them. Spiritualism has nothing of this, but it says to the soul of each person, “You live, and you can prove and know that you live now and will live hereafter; and there is no mystery or science in the matter; the knowledge is meant for all.” Such is the opening Spiritualism affords us. No need for the poet and artist to go back to spiritual life in old times, and to sigh for the beauty of Aphrodite, or the devotion of Alcestis, or the great deeds of Ulysses, to express the devotion and enthusiasm of their natures; what has been, can be done by man, if once more inspired to grand action. No need for people to bury their feelings in ritual or services which go no higher than the roofs of their cathedrals: if once the enthusiasm and glory of true worship are kindled, when once doubt is for ever removed by the knowledge that that doubt is mere black ignorance; if once all the divine faculties of man are kindled in the flame of true devotion and true enthusiasm; if men know God, if they have found Him, what is to hinder them building finer and larger temples than were ever built in the world before? And when once they understand and know the divine law of mediumship, what is to hinder our having grander prophets than ever we had before? What is to prevent higher truths descending into our midst? If Christ said—and He did say so—that where two or three are gathered together in His name there will He be in the midst of them, what will prevent Him doing so, when the real spiritual stance is held—the real communion of saints? There will be no doubt of His appearance and presence then. <... continues on page 8-303 >