第26章

He said, 'When I come again, I shall not be known to you.' Spiritualism is that second coming of Christ."-- Banner of Light, Nov. 18, 1865. But the Bible description of this event is, the revelation of the Lord himself in the clouds of Page 91 heaven in the glory of the Father, the reverberating shout of triumph, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, the flash of his presence like that of the lightning, the wailing of the tribes of the earth, as they thus behold him, while unprepared to meet him, and the resurrection of the righteous dead. And where and when have these inseparable accompaniments of that event been seen? They do not occur when a person is converted from sin, nor do they occur in time dying chamber, nor have they occurred in Spiritualism; and until they do take place, the second coming of Christ is not accomplished.

Many seek to dispose of such testimony as this, by making it all figurative, or meeting it with a bold denial, as in the case of the resurrection of the body. And the way has been too well prepared for this condition of things, by much of the teaching of popular orthodoxy, which turns the early records of the Bible into childish allegory, perverts the true doctrine of the coming and kingdom of Christ, and denies the resurrection of the dead, by destroying its necessity through the immortality of the soul.

On the vital point of the resurrection, Dr. Clarke makes this noteworthy remark: -- "One remark I cannot help making,-- The doctrine of the resurrection appears to have been thought of much more consequence among the primitive Christians than it is now! How is this?-- The apostles were continually insisting on it, and exciting the followers of God to diligence, obedience, and cheerfulness through it. And their successors in the present day seldom mention it! So the apostles preached, and so the primitive Christians believed;so we preach and so our hearers Page 92 believe. There is not a doctrine in the gospel on which more stress is laid; and there is not a doctrine in the present system of preaching which is treated with more neglect."-- On 1 Corinthians 15 (original edition). [1] In view of the way the Bible has been treated by its professed friends, it is no wonder that infidelity prevails, and Spiritualism prospers.

3. They Deny the Bible. -- The denial of God and Christ, as set forth above is, of course, a denial of the Bible; and not much need therefore be added on this point. We quote only a few representative utterances.

Doctor Hare ("Spiritual Science Demonstrated," p. 209) says:-- "The Old Testament does not impart a knowledge of immortality, without which religion were worthless. The notions derived from the gospels are vague, disgusting, inaccurate, and difficult to believe." As to the Old Testament, it would seem doubtful whether Mr. Hare ever read far enough to find (1) Job exclaiming: "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not another; though my reins be consumed within me" (or, as the margin reads: "My reins within me are consumed with earnest desire [for that day];" or (2) David: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Page 93 thy likeness;" or (3) Isaiah: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust;"or (4) Ezekiel: "Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves;" or (5) Daniel: "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt;" and (6) Hosea: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death." Job 19: 25-27;Ps. 17: 15; Isa. 26: 19; Eze. 37: 12; Dan. 12: 2; Hosea 13: 14. And as for the New Testament, it is no doubt "disgusting" to many Spiritualists to read that "the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death;" and that without the city "are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." Rev. 21:8; 22:15.

Communications from spirits are offered in place of the Bible as a better source of instruction, the Bible being denounced, as above quoted, as "vague, inaccurate, and difficult to believe." A brief comparison of the two will furnish pertinent evidence on this point. Take, on the Bible side, for example, a portion of the record of creation (Gen. 1: 1-5): -- "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was Page 94 upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." The facts stated in this record, the profoundest minds can never comprehend;the language in which they are expressed, a little child can understand.

The statements are plain and simple, a perfect model of perspicuous narrative.

Place by the side of this an account of the same event as given us from the "spheres." The spirits have undertaken to produce a new Bible, beginning, like the old, with the creation; and this is the way it starts out, through the medinmship of "Rev." T. L. Harris:-- "1. In the beginning God, the Life in God, the Lord in God, the Holy Procedure, inhabited the dome, which, burning in magnificence primeval, and revolving in prismatic and undulatory spiral, appeared, and was the pavilion of the Spirit: In glory inexhaustible and inconceivable, in movement spherical, unfolded in harmonious procedure disclosive.