MODERN Spiritualism has at last thrown off the mask, and it now speaks against the doctrines of the Bible more blasphemously than infidels. Every important truth is boldly denied, and even ridiculed.
In the Spiritualist paper, the Banner of Light (?) for March 7th, 1868, Henry C. Wright gives a list of Bible truths, and then remarks:
“To doubt any or all of these propositions, is to be damned, as the theology of Christendom counts damnation. There is nothing in the mythology of heathen Greece and Rome, nor in the religion of Hindoostan, more utterly absurd and opposed to the facts of human nature, than are all these dogmas; yet we must swallow them all without choking or nausea, or be cast into hell-fire. To doubt any of them is to be damned by the church and priesthood.
To doubt them is, in my view, the first step toward the kingdom of God, which is made up of the facts of nature.
The following are some of the propositions, which are in the above pronounced more absurd than all the darkness and falsities of heathenism:
“THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE as the only infallible rule of faith and practice for the human race, in all ages and nations.
“That God ever commanded children to be stoned to death because their fathers stole a wedge of gold.
“That a child was ever born of woman without a human father.
“That one man can be saved from “the wrath of God and the pains of hell” by the merits of another, i. e. of Christ.
“That our bodies, after we have thrown them aside and they are returned to their original elements, are to be resurrected.”
We are exhorted to “try the spirits,” and a rule is given by which we may know them. “Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God.” Jno. iv, 3.
In one of the above propositions they condemn themselves, as the spirit of antichrist.
When they have destroyed the people’s confidence in the Bible, they are then prepared to receive the strong delusions of Spiritualism.
“To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
M. E. CORNELL.
Heed the Testimonies.
By Geo. W. Parker
LET those who reject the Testimonies, or any other truth connected with the message, write fairly down in a book all the absurdities which they do believe instead, and they will find that it requires more faith to reject them than to embrace them. One is a dead faith, and has its reward; the other is a living faith, and points to light, and the tree of life. Pen cannot describe the reward of the humble followers of these instructions.
GEO. W. PARKER.
Rochester, N. Y.
BUSINESS AND PERSONAL.
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To all wishing Hygienic treatment, the subscriber offers his services. Terms, one half usual rates. Address by letter, or telegraph. J. H. GINLEY, M. D.,St. Charles, Saginaw Co., Mich.
Appointments.
And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
PROVIDENCE permitting, we will meet with the church in Gainesville, Kent Co., Mich. June 6 and 7. Bowne, “ 10 “ 11. Vergennes, Sabbath and first-day, “ 13 “ 14. JOSEPH BATES.
THE next Monthly Meeting in Convis, Mich., will be held in the Austin school-house, the second Sabbath in this month, June 13.
PROVIDENCE permitting, I will hold meetings in Sutton, C. E. at the house of Bro. C. Smith, on Sabbath and first-day, June 13 and 14; at Bristol, Vt., June 20 and 21; and at Jamaica, Vt., commencing June 27. A. C. BOURDEAU.
THE next Quarterly Meeting for Northern N. Y., will be held at Buck's Bridge, July 4 and 5. Eld. C. O. Taylor and others are expected. Hope all will make some sacrifice to come. H. HILLIARD.
THE next Quarterly Meeting of the Monroe church will be held at Monroe, Wis., June 20 and 21. We hope to have preaching on this occasion. JOSEPH G. WOOD.
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For California Mission.
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The Cruelties of Christendom
The article in the Historical Department, on “The Cruelties of Christendom,” is from the Signs of the Times, by H. L. Hastings.
To Correspondents.
J. CHASE, of Wis.: We think the person to whom the word, “coming,” refers in 2 Thess. ii, 9, is Christ, and that the coming is his second advent, now near at hand. This event is to take place “after,” or, as the original word signifies in some other places, “during,” or “at the time of,” the working of Satan with all power. The commencement of this working, we see in modern Spiritualism.
T. P. McREYNOLDS, of Iowa: Your difficulty on Gen. vii, if we understand it, we think arises from the use of the word, “selfsame,” in verse 13: In the selfsame day entered Noah, &c., into the ark. Does this assert that the very day that Noah entered into the ark, the flood came? We think not. Verse 10 plainly states that it was seven days after Noah and the animals were duly installed in the ark, before the rain came. Verse 11 gives the day when the fountains of the great deep were broken up; and verse 12 carries us forward through the period during which the rain was descending upon the earth. In verse 13 we are again taken back; but to what point? Not necessarily, we think, to the day mentioned in verse 11; for the context requires that it should be referred back to verse 9. Hence there is no contradiction between verse 13, and the first part of the chapter.