THE REVELATION
I can now turn with some relief to a more impersonal view of this great
subject. Allusion has been made to a body of fresh doctrine. Whence
does this come? It comes in the main through automatic writing where
the hand of the human medium is controlled, either by an alleged dead
human being, as in the case of Miss Julia Ames, or by an alleged higher
teacher, as in that of Mr. Stainton Moses. These written
communications are supplemented by a vast number of trance utterances,
and by the verbal messages of spirits, given through the lips of
mediums. Sometimes it has even come by direct voices, as in the
numerous cases detailed by Admiral Usborne Moore in his book The
Voices. Occasionally it has come through the family circle and
table-tilting, as, for example, in the two cases I have previously
detailed within my own experience. Sometimes, as in a case recorded by
Mrs. de Morgan, it has come through the hand of a child.
Now, of course, we are at once confronted with the obvious
objection--how do we know that these messages are really from beyond?
How do we know that the medium is not consciously writing, or if that
be improbable, that he or she is unconsciously writing them by his or
her own higher self? This is a perfectly just criticism, and it is one
which we must rigorously apply in every case, since if the whole world
is to become full of minor prophets, each of them stating their own
views of the religious state with no proof save their own assertion, we
should, indeed, be back in the dark ages of implicit faith. The answer
must be that we require signs which we can test before we accept
assertions which we cannot test. In old days they demanded a sign from
a prophet, and it was a perfectly reasonable request, and still holds
good. If a person comes to me with an account of life in some further
world, and has no credentials save his own assertion, I would rather
have it in my waste-paperbasket than on my study table. Life is too
short to weigh the merits of such productions. But if, as in the case
of Stainton Moses, with his Spirit Teachings, the doctrines which are
said to come from beyond are accompanied with a great number of
abnormal gifts--and Stainton Moses was one of the greatest mediums in
all ways that England has ever produced--then I look upon the matter in
a more serious light. Again, if Miss Julia Ames can tell Mr. Stead
things in her own earth life of which he could not have cognisance, and
if those things are shown, when tested, to be true, then one is more
inclined to think that those things which cannot be tested are true
also. Or once again, if Raymond can tell us of a photograph no copy of
which had reached England, and which proved to be exactly as he
described it, and if he can give us, through the lips of strangers, all
sorts of details of his home life, which his own relatives had to
verify before they found them to be true, is it unreasonable to suppose
that he is fairly accurate in his description of his own experiences
and state of life at the very moment at which he is communicating? Or
when Mr. Arthur Hill receives messages from folk of whom he never
heard, and afterwards verifies that they are true in every detail, is
it not a fair inference that they are speaking truths also when they
give any light upon their present condition? The cases are manifold,
and I mention only a few of them, but my point is that the whole of
this system, from the lowest physical phenomenon of a table-rap up to
the most inspired utterance of a prophet, is one complete whole, each
attached to the next one, and that when the humbler end of that chain
was placed in the hand of humanity, it was in order that they might, by
diligence and reason, feel their way up it until they reached the
revelation which waited in the end. Do not sneer at the humble
beginnings, the heaving table or the flying tambourine, however much
such phenomena may have been abused or simulated, but remember that a
falling apple taught us gravity, a boiling kettle brought us the steam
engine, and the twitching leg of a frog opened up the train of thought
and experiment which gave us electricity. So the lowly manifestations
of Hydesville have ripened into results which have engaged the finest
group of intellects in this country during the last twenty years, and
which are destined, in my opinion, to bring about far the greatest
development of human experience which the world has ever seen.
It has been asserted by men for whose opinion I have a deep
regard--notably by Sir William Barratt--that psychical research is
quite distinct from religion. Certainly it is so, in the sense that a
man might be a very good psychical researcher but a very bad man. But
the results of psychical research, the deductions which we may draw,
and the lessons we may learn, teach us of the continued life of the
soul, of the nature of that life, and of how it is influenced by our
conduct here. If this is distinct from religion, I must confess that I
do not understand the distinction. To me it IS religion--the very
essence of it. But that does not mean that it will necessarily
crystallise into a new religion. Personally I trust that it will not
do so. Surely we are disunited enough already? Rather would I see it
the great unifying force, the one provable thing connected with every
religion, Christian or non-Christian, forming the common solid basis
upon which each raises, if it must needs raise, that separate system
which appeals to the varied types of mind. The Southern races will
always demand what is less austere than the North, the West will always
be more critical than the East. One cannot shape all to a level
conformity. But if the broad premises which are guaranteed by this
teaching from beyond are accepted, then the human race has made a great
stride towards religious peace and unity. The question which faces us,
then, is how will this influence bear upon the older organised
religions and philosophies which have influenced the actions of men.
The answer is, that to only one of these religions or philosophies is
this new revelation absolutely fatal. That is to Materialism. I do
not say this in any spirit of hostility to Materialists, who, so far as
they are an organized body, are, I think, as earnest and moral as any
other class. But the fact is manifest that if spirit can live without
matter, then the foundation of Materialism is gone, and the whole
scheme of thought crashes to the ground.
As to other creeds, it must be admitted that an acceptance of the
teaching brought to us from beyond would deeply modify conventional
Christianity. But these modifications would be rather in the direction
of explanation and development than of contradiction. It would set
right grave misunderstandings which have always offended the reason of
every thoughtful man, but it would also confirm and make absolutely
certain the fact of life after death, the base of all religion. It
would confirm the unhappy results of sin, though it would show that
those results are never absolutely permanent. It would confirm the
existence of higher beings, whom we have called angels, and of an
ever-ascending hierarchy above us, in which the Christ spirit finds its
place, culminating in heights of the infinite with which we associate
the idea of all-power or of God. It would confirm the idea of heaven
and of a temporary penal state which corresponds to purgatory rather
than to hell. Thus this new revelation, on some of the most vital
points, is NOT destructive of the beliefs, and it should be hailed by
really earnest men of all creeds as a most powerful ally rather than a
dangerous devil-begotten enemy.
On the other hand, let us turn to the points in which Christianity must
be modified by this new revelation.
First of all I would say this, which must be obvious to many, however
much they deplore it: Christianity must change or must perish. That is
the law of life--that things must adapt themselves or perish.
Christianity has deferred the change very long, she has deferred it
until her churches are half empty, until women are her chief
supporters, and until both the learned part of the community on one
side, and the poorest class on the other, both in town and country, are
largely alienated from her. Let us try and trace the reason for this.
It is apparent in all sects, and comes, therefore, from some deep
common cause.
People are alienated because they frankly do not believe the facts as
presented to them to be true. Their reason and their sense of justice
are equally offended. One can see no justice in a vicarious sacrifice,
nor in the God who could be placated by such means. Above all, many
cannot understand such expressions as the "redemption from sin,"
"cleansed by the blood of the Lamb," and so forth. So long as there
was any question of the fall of man there was at least some sort of
explanation of such phrases; but when it became certain that man had
never fallen--when with ever fuller knowledge we could trace our
ancestral course down through the cave-man and the drift-man, back to
that shadowy and far-off time when the man-like ape slowly evolved into
the apelike man--looking back on all this vast succession of life, we
knew that it had always been rising from step to step. Never was there
any evidence of a fall. But if there were no fall, then what became of
the atonement, of the redemption, of original sin, of a large part of
Christian mystical philosophy? Even if it were as reasonable in itself
as it is actually unreasonable, it would still be quite divorced from
the facts.
Again, too much seemed to be made of Christ's death. It is no uncommon
thing to die for an idea. Every religion has equally had its martyrs.
Men die continually for their convictions. Thousands of our lads are
doing it at this instant in France. Therefore the death of Christ,
beautiful as it is in the Gospel narrative, has seemed to assume an
undue importance, as though it were an isolated phenomenon for a man to
die in pursuit of a reform. In my opinion, far too much stress has
been laid upon Christ's death, and far too little upon His life. That
was where the true grandeur and the true lesson lay. It was a life
which even in those limited records shows us no trait which is not
beautiful--a life full of easy tolerance for others, of kindly charity,
of broad-minded moderation, of gentle courage, always progressive and
open to new ideas, and yet never bitter to those ideas which He was
really supplanting, though He did occasionally lose His temper with
their more bigoted and narrow supporters. Especially one loves His
readiness to get at the spirit of religion, sweeping aside the texts
and the forms. Never had anyone such a robust common sense, or such a
sympathy for weakness. It was this most wonderful and uncommon life,
and not his death, which is the true centre of the Christian religion.
Now, let us look at the light which we get from the spirit guides upon
this question of Christianity. Opinion is not absolutely uniform
yonder, any more than it is here; but reading a number of messages upon
this subject, they amount to this: There are many higher spirits with
our departed. They vary in degree. Call them "angels," and you are in
touch with old religious thought. High above all these is the greatest
spirit of whom they have cognizance--not God, since God is so infinite
that He is not within their ken--but one who is nearer God and to that
extent represents God. This is the Christ Spirit. His special care is
the earth. He came down upon it at a time of great earthly depravity--a
time when the world was almost as wicked as it is now, in order to give
the people the lesson of an ideal life. Then he returned to his own
high station, having left an example which is still occasionally
followed. That is the story of Christ as spirits have described it.
There is nothing here of Atonement or Redemption. But there is a
perfectly feasible and reasonable scheme, which I, for one, could
readily believe.
If such a view of Christianity were generally accepted, and if it were
enforced by assurance and demonstration from the New Revelation which
is coming to us from the other side, then we should have a creed which
might unite the churches, which might be reconciled to science, which
might defy all attacks, and which might carry the Christian Faith on
for an indefinite period. Reason and Faith would at last be
reconciled, a nightmare would be lifted from our minds, and spiritual
peace would prevail. I do not see such results coming as a sudden
conquest or a violent revolution. Rather will it come as a peaceful
penetration, as some crude ideas, such as the Eternal Hell idea, have
already gently faded away within our own lifetime. It is, however,
when the human soul is ploughed and harrowed by suffering that the
seeds of truth may be planted, and so some future spiritual harvest
will surely rise from the days in which we live.
When I read the New Testament with the knowledge which I have of
Spiritualism, I am left with a deep conviction that the teaching of
Christ was in many most important respects lost by the early Church,
and has not come down to us. All these allusions to a conquest over
death have, as it seems to me, little meaning in the present Christian
philosophy, whereas for those who have seen, however dimly, through the
veil, and touched, however slightly, the outstretched hands beyond,
death has indeed been conquered. When we read so many references to
the phenomena with which we are familiar, the levitations, the tongues
of fire, the rushing wind, the spiritual gifts, the working of wonders,
we feel that the central fact of all, the continuity of life and the
communication with the dead, was most certainly known. Our attention
is arrested by such a saying as: "Here he worked no wonders because
the people were wanting in faith." Is this not absolutely in
accordance with psychic law as we know it? Or when Christ, on being
touched by the sick woman, said: "Who has touched me? Much virtue has
passed out of me." Could He say more clearly what a healing medium
would say now, save that He would use the word "Power" instead of
"virtue"; or when we read: "Try the spirits whether they be of God," is
it not the very, advice which would now be given to a novice
approaching a seance? It is too large a question for me to do more
than indicate, but I believe that this subject, which the more rigid
Christian churches now attack so bitterly, is really the central
teaching of Christianity itself. To those who would read more upon
this line of thought, I strongly recommend Dr. Abraham Wallace's Jesus
of Nazareth, if this valuable little work is not out of print. He
demonstrates in it most convincingly that Christ's miracles were all
within the powers of psychic law as we now understand it, and were on
the exact lines of such law even in small details. Two examples have
already been given. Many are worked out in that pamphlet. One which
convinced me as a truth was the thesis that the story of the
materialization of the two prophets upon the mountain was
extraordinarily accurate when judged by psychic law. There is the fact
that Peter, James and John (who formed the psychic circle when the dead
was restored to life, and were presumably the most helpful of the
group) were taken. Then there is the choice of the high pure air of
the mountain, the drowsiness of the attendant mediums, the
transfiguring, the shining robes, the cloud, the words: "Let us make
three tabernacles," with its alternate reading: "Let us make three
booths or cabinets" (the ideal way of condensing power and producing
materializations)--all these make a very consistent theory of the
nature of the proceedings. For the rest, the list of gifts which St.
Paul gives as being necessary for the Christian Disciple, is simply the
list of gifts of a very powerful medium, including prophecy, healing,
causing miracles (or physical phenomena), clairvoyance, and other
powers (I Corinth, xii, 8, 11). The early Christian Church was
saturated with spiritualism, and they seem to have paid no attention to
those Old Testament prohibitions which were meant to keep these powers
only for the use and profit of the priesthood.