In Spiritualism alone is to be found an expression of the religion of
Jesus of Nazereth. It is truly democratic, giving to saint and sinner
alike both here, in this life, and after death, an opportunity for
redemption. Its first mission to the world is the proof it gives of a
continued existence in which is still experienced all the
idiosyncracies which marked the individual in earth life. This fact
has either been ignored by certain classes of minds, or has been taken
by them as proof positive of the hellish origin of its phenomena,
whereas in this very expression of characteristic life lies its
wonderful power and potency. From long-continued educational influence
people out of churches, as well as inside of the influence of their
superstitions, have come to idealize death, its awe-inspiring mystery
and its strange variety. It is thought, by them, to be a sudden
translation from a lower condition to a higher, wherein, through some
divine hocus-pocus, the members of certain so-called "Evangelical"
churches, no matter how worldly-minded, and selfish, or however false
to their teachings they have been, or how false their lives to the
divine ethics taught by the Lord, whose name they assume as their
prerogative, that their through tickets to the supernal spheres are
assured. It is believed that death purges them of all their sympathy
with and attraction to mortal life, and that they are forever absolved
from all their responsibilities, and freed from dependence upon the
inter-relationships between the two conditions. Exactly the reverse is
true. Multitudes of souls only begin their true living, their
comprehension of life's meanings, after death has sifted them out of
the ashes and lifeless embers of their mistaken ideas, or vicious
indulgences. Shall these, then, be brought beneath the ban of
limitless darkness, and exiled from the "many mansions" of our Heavenly
Father's and Mother's house? A tiny rap, untraceable to any material
source, a table moved by invisible force, a closed and locked piano
skillfully played upon by unseen hands; these were the first links in
an endless chain of eternal benefits pouring down from the smiling
heavens upon the benighted children of earth. Again was heard "the
voice as of one crying in the wilderness" of this world's marts for
barter, and selfish gain; "Let him who hath ears to hear, let him
hear." "The grave has lost its victory" and death is but a halt called
in mercy and loving tenderness, that your weary souls may be refreshed
by a draught from nature's founts and bountiful resources that you may
mount upward as on the mighty wings of eagles; or discover for your
wandering feet the path of rectitude and safety.