SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIANITY.
By W. N. G.
WHATEVER may be said of the “absurdities” of Spiritualism and the delusion of Spiritualists, we must give them the credit of knowing something of the numerical strength of the adherents to that doctrine and who those adherents are. Taking this for granted, we have no doubt that one of their leaders spoke the truth when he said, at their recent anniversary at Rochester, N. Y.:— Warfare between the churches and us is coming to an end; they are coming nearer and nearer to us, until soon there will be no difference at all between Spiritualism and the churches. Another expression is equally significant, namely:— In spite of all opposition there are to-day twenty million Spiritualists. Spiritualism has gained more converts in fifty years than Christianity gained in three centuries. This is a virtual admission (tho perhaps unwitting) that Spiritualism and Christianity are two different ideas. We know they are the extremes of opposite thought and spirit, and that makes it all the more ominous that the professed Christian world should be the recruiting ground of Spiritualism. When Spiritualism arose in its modern form, it was for a time ultra infidel, and made comparatively slow progress in the United States and other professed Christian countries until it assumed a quasi Christian guise. Here it met an affinity that logically could not have been expected. However, there is a reason for it, which crops out in the statement of another speaker, who said that Spiritualism “gives us the proof that spirits can and do return to earth to teach us that death has lost its sting, and the grave its boasted victory.” This is the seductive charm, the siren song, that lures many professed Christians to their ruin. This is the subtle flattery that draws the game into the “snare of the fowler.” The foundation for this delusive theory was laid in the Garden of Eden, when the author of Spiritualism beguiled the woman with the artful assurance, “Thou shalt not surely die.” The masses of the professed Christian world still adhere to that falsehood; in other words, they believe that man has an undying soul. Thus, being anchored to the very groundwork of Spiritualism, they fall easy victims to all that may be adduced from its root principle,—the immortality of the soul. If they would adhere to the Word of God, in which they profess to believe, they would be secure from all such delusions. The Word says: “The dead know not anything. . . . Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.” Eccl. 9:5, 6. As to death losing its sting, and the grave its victory, the apostle Paul applies that to the resurrection of the righteous at the coming of Christ in glory. It never can be true of those who do not believe in Christ, who is “the resurrection, and the life.” John 11:25. It never can be true of those who do not fully accept His teachings; for He plainly says, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63. The victory over death and the grave, to which allusion is made, is thus described and located by Paul: “When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1 Cor. 15:54, 55. But how is this victory gained? is it by virtue of anything that the victor has within himself?—No; “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Verse 57. Of those professed Christians who are carried away by the wiles of Spiritualism, we might reasonably ask the question that Paul propounded to the Galatians: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” Gal. 3:1. W. N. G.