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The movement which is destined to bring vitality to the dead
and cold religions has been called "Modern Spiritualism." The
"modern" is good, since the thing itself, in one form or another,
is as old as history, and has always, however obscured by forms,
been the red central glow in the depths of all religious ideas,
permeating the Bible from end to end. But the word
"Spiritualism" has been so befouled by wicked charlatans, and so
cheapened by many a sad incident, that one could almost wish that
some such term as "psychic religion" would clear the subject of
old prejudices, just as mesmerism, after many years of obloquy,
was rapidly accepted when its name was changed to hypnotism. On
the other hand, one remembers the sturdy pioneers who have fought
under this banner, and who were prepared to risk their
careers, their professional success, and even their reputation
for sanity, by publicly asserting what they knew to be the truth.
Their brave, unselfish devotion must do something to cleanse the
name for which they fought and suffered. It was they who nursed
the system which promises to be, not a new religion--it is far
too big for that--but part of the common heritage of knowledge
shared by the whole human race. Perfected Spiritualism, however,
will probably bear about the same relation to the Spiritualism of
1850 as a modern locomotive to the bubbling little kettle which
heralded the era of steam. It will end by being rather the proof
and basis of all religions than a religion in itself. We have
already too many religions--but too few proofs.
Those first manifestations at Hydesville varied in no way
from many of which we have record in the past, but the result
arising from them differed very much, because, for the first
time, it occurred to a human being not merely to listen to
inexplicable sounds, and to fear them or marvel at them, but to
establish communication with them. John Wesley's father
might have done the same more than a century before had the
thought occurred to him when he was a witness of the
manifestations at Epworth in 1726. It was only when the young
Fox girl struck her hands together and cried "Do as I do" that
there was instant compliance, and consequent proof of the
presence of an INTELLIGENT invisible force, thus differing
from all other forces of which we know. The circumstances were
humble, and even rather sordid, upon both sides of the veil,
human and spirit, yet it was, as time will more and more clearly
show, one of the turning points of the world's history, greater
far than the fall of thrones or the rout of armies. Some artist
of the future will draw the scene--the sitting-room of the
wooden, shack-like house, the circle of half-awed and half-critical
neighbours, the child clapping her hands with upturned
laughing face, the dark corner shadows where these strange new
forces seem to lurk--forces often apparent, and now come to stay
and to effect the complete revolution of human thought. We may
well ask why should such great results arise from such petty
sources? So argued the highbrowed philosophers of Greece and
Rome when the outspoken Paul, with the fisherman Peter and his
half-educated disciples, traversed all their learned theories,
and with the help of women, slaves, and schismatic Jews,
subverted their ancient creeds. One can but answer that
Providence has its own way of attaining its, results, and that it
seldom conforms to our opinion of what is most appropriate.
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