"_Q._-Could you explain to us those laws?

"_A._-Courses of teaching from our side are as necessary for you to understand even the rudimentary laws of Being, as courses in your colleges; and guessed-at spirit knowledge from your bounded view must always fail in accurate wording."

It will be perceived that the answers to these questions are, from the beginning, evasive; but the real idea entertained clearly shines through the thin veil drawn over to conceal it. The questions pertain to the source, or authorship, of the "laws of spiritual life;" and this would generally be understood to be G.o.d. But on a technicality the spirits refuse to answer. The question is made plainer, and the answer is that "spirits are not bondaged by _persons_;" that is to say that spirits have nothing to do with personalities, and that no personal being has anything to do with those laws. There is therefore no G.o.d who formulates and promulgates them. No wonder the question followed, how they came to know these laws; and it was a very convenient answer that we will know when we get there and have lost all physical perceptions. A desire for some explanation of those laws is met with the not very satisfactory information that they (the spirits) would have to give those in our sphere a course of teaching, like a college course, before we could understand even the rudimentary laws of Being. The only thing clear in all this is that there is no G.o.d; at least no personal G.o.d such as the Bible reveals.

To the "grand whole," whatever that may be, they give the name of the "All of Being." In answer to a question concerning "personalities," they are called "atoms emanating from the same source-parts of the great All of Being, partaking of the general characteristics of the grand whole."-_Page 149._

Reader, how does all this compare in your own mind with the G.o.d of the Bible, the Creator of all things, the loving Father of us all, who has for his creatures more tender regard and pity than a father can feel for his own children, whose very name and nature is Love, and who has purposed infinite good for all men, and will carry it out unless they, as free moral agents, by their own sin, prevent his doing for them what he desires to do? The Bible is not responsible for the aspersions cast upon G.o.d by a false theology, which misrepresent his character and give occasion for the charges of vindictiveness and vengeance and awful tyranny, so freely made by fallen angels and wicked men. They do not belong to him who is the source of all goodness and mercy; and we would labor to bring those who have perverted views of G.o.d back to a right conception of the great Friend of sinners, as he has revealed himself in his holy word.

2. _They Deny Jesus Christ._-Christ is revealed as the divine Son of the Father; and to deny that he was or is any more than any other man is surely to deny him; and the scripture says that "whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father." 1 John 2:23. The following is what the "spirits" began to teach in the earliest stages of Spiritualism concerning Christ:-

"What is the meaning of the word Christ?-'Tis not, as generally supposed, the Son of the Creator of all things. Any just and perfect being is Christ. The crucifixion of Christ is nothing more than the crucifixion of the spirit, which all have to contend with before becoming perfect and righteous. The miraculous conception of Christ is merely a fabulous tale."-_Spiritual Telegraph, No.

37._

How fully does this declaration that any good man is Christ open the way for the fulfilment of the Saviour's prophecy that in the last days many false Christs and false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. See Matt. 24:24. A prospectus of the _Truth Seeker_ contained these words: "It shall be the organ through which the christs of the last dispensation will choose to speak."

A little later, July 19, 1862, there was published in the _Banner of Light_ a lecture on Spiritualism by Mrs. C. L. V. Hatch, in which she spoke of Christ as follows:-

"Of Jesus of Nazareth, personally, we have but little to say.

Certain it is, we find sufficient that is divine in his life and teachings, without professing to believe in the fables of theologians respecting his birth and parentage. We are content to take the simple record as it stands, and to regard him as the son of Joseph and Mary, endowed with such purity and harmony of character as fitted him to be the Apostle and Revelator of the highest wisdom ever taught to man. It is the fundamental article in the creed of modern Christianity, that Jesus was divine in his nature, and of miraculous origin and nativity. Now, no human being of ordinary intelligence, unwarped by educational bias, would ever profess to believe in such a monstrous figment, which only shows the blindness of superst.i.tious prejudice."

Here is something twenty-four years later. A seance reported in the _Banner of Light_, Oct. 9, 1886, gives the following questions and answer:-

"_Ques._-Do 'spirits' generally believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ; that he was the Son of G.o.d; that he was crucified, dead, and buried, and rose again the third day for the saving of all who should believe in him?

"_Ans._-No; spirits generally-advanced spirits, those who are intelligent, having studied deeply into the principles of life-do not accept the theory of the divinity of Jesus Christ; they do not believe that he was crucified for mankind, in the accepted understanding of that term."

Some years ago a cla.s.s was formed in New York City for the purpose of investigating what is called the spiritual philosophy. Before that cla.s.s, Dr. Weisse said:-

"Friend Orton seems to make rather light of the communications from spirits concerning Christ. It seems, nevertheless, that all the testimony received from advanced spirits only shows that Christ was a medium and reformer in Judea; that he now is an advanced spirit in the sixth sphere; but that he never claimed to be G.o.d, and does not at present. I have had two communications to that effect. I have also read some that Dr. Hare had. If I am wrong in my views of the Bible, I should like to know it, for the spirits and mediums _do not contradict me_."

The peculiar insult here purposely offered to the Saviour will be appreciated when it is noted that at about the same time the spirits located Thomas Paine, the well-known skeptic, in the seventh sphere, one sphere above that of Christ. He must therefore have progressed very rapidly, seeing he so quickly surpa.s.sed Christ, who had over 1700 years the start of him.

Before the same cla.s.s Dr. Hare is reported to have spoken as follows, which we give without a.s.suming any responsibility for the spiritual grammar therein exhibited:-

"He said that he had been thus protected from deception by the spirits of Washington and Franklin, and that they had brought Jesus Christ to him, with whom he had also communicated. He had first repelled him as an impostor; but became convinced afterward that it was really him. He related that he had learned from that high and holy spirit, that he was not the character that Christendom had represented him to be, and not responsible for the errors connected with his name, but that he was, while on earth, a medium of high and extraordinary powers, and that it was solely through his mediumistic capabilities that he attained so great knowledge, and was enabled to practice such apparent wonders."

When Christ was upon earth, it was envy, jealousy, and malice that moved the Pharisees against him (Matt 27:18); and it seems that he is followed by the same feelings in the spirit world. This is natural; for he who fired the hearts of the Pharisees with their malignant spirit, is the same one, as we have seen, who is working through the powers of darkness in the unseen world to-day. Any way to degrade Christ in the minds of men to a level with, or below, the mediums of our time, and make it appear that they can do as great wonders as he, seems to be the object in view.

There is plainly manifest an irrepressible desire on the part of spirits and mediums to show Christ to be inferior to the leaders of other great religions of the world, as Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, etc. Thus, at a seance held in 1864 (_Banner of Light_, June 4), the spirits were questioned as follows:-

"_Ques._-Have you ever seen Confucius or Zoroaster?

"_Ans._-Yes, many times.

"_Q._-In the order of degree, which stands the higher in moral excellence-Jesus Christ, Confucius, or Zoroaster?

"_A._-Confucius stands in morality higher than the other two....

Jesus himself claims to have been inspired to a large extent, by this same Confucius. And if we are to place reliance upon the records concerning each individual, we shall find that Jesus spoke the truth when he tells us that he was inspired by Confucius."

Indeed! Where are the records referred to? Where and when did Jesus "speak" the words attributed to him? And where does he tell _us_, that he was inspired by Confucius? So we are to believe, are we, that the gospel of Jesus Christ, is only a rehash of what was originally wrought out in the brain of Confucius, and not words fresh from the fountain of light given him by his Father in heaven, to speak, as he claimed them to be? Yet he was a high and _holy_ medium. We wonder what standard of holiness and perfection the spirits can have.

But still later, in 1896, we find the spirits putting forth the same teaching in reference to Jesus Christ. In "Automatic, or Spirit Writing,"

pp. 148, 149, we have this:-

"_Ques._-Do you accept Jesus as the model of spiritual knowledge?

"_Ans._-Shall you give us a better example?

"_Q._-Well, we are willing to accept him as one of many, but not as chief.

"_A._-Change the name. Call him by other names-Buddha, Krishna, or Mohammed, the spirit is one-is ever and ever the same. Spirit is one, not many, however often the name is changed.

"_Q._-Were not Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed distinct personalities?

"_A._-No more than all atoms emanating from the same source-parts of the great All of Being, partaking of the general characteristics of the grand whole-but yielding to environments, showed marked individualism, such as the force of the times in which they appeared would create in their characters.

"_Q._-Are these leaders of religious thought not distinct individualities now?

"_A._-No, not on spiritual planes, which do not recognize any now."

Thus they persist in denying that Jesus holds any pre-eminent position as a religious teacher. He may as well be called Buddha, Krishna, or Mohammed as Jesus. They are all the same spirit, all atoms of the great "All of Being," all as much alike as three drops of water from the same ocean, and what is more bewildering still, they have now all lost their individuality in the spirit world. How, then, can it be told that Christ is in the sixth sphere, and Paine in the seventh? Such teachers, though they may claim to be good spirits, are branded as antichrist by both John and Jude. John says: "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." 1 John 2:22. Again, "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of G.o.d." 1 John 4:3. According to the spirits, Jesus Christ has no more come in the flesh than have Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Zoroaster, or any other religious teacher. They all simply yielded to their environments, and showed marked individualism while on this earth, and have now become absorbed in the "great whole" in the spirit world. Thus, as Jude says (verse 4), they deny "the only Lord G.o.d, and our Lord Jesus Christ."