DESCRIPTION

Published in 1878 | 172 pages | PDF reader required

INTRODUCTION

Receiving the doctrine of a future life as a demonstrated fact, and that the future state is a direct continuance of the present, changed only by environing conditions, what is the morality necessarily flowing from such acceptance, and what are its effects on the conduct of life? We are forced to examine this subject because we are told that Spiritualism is immoral in its teachings, and leads to a depraved life. Such an opinion may be honestly entertained by those who believe in and revere the old, and regard the new with jealous eye. They who have been taught from infancy that their hope of future happiness depends on the reception of certain dogmas, even if their reason rebel, cannot throw aside the shackles of superstition, of education and old time customs. What they have regarded as necessary incentives for right doing, they cannot be convinced are useless, and that man can walk the road of righteousness single handed and alone. They cannot believe such an one can be trusted with himself, and are certain evil and corruption will flow from unfettered human nature. They believe immortality is a gift bestowed by God, as a reward for the acceptance of certain doctrines, and not inherent in the constitution of man.

In the beginning, we make the broad statement that every belief, however ancient, which is not true, is baleful in its influence, and the time for the presentation of a new truth to the world, is the moment it receives birth in the mind of a thinker. If man is immortal, he is such by virtue of his being human, and no fiat of any external power can annul his birthright. The caterpillar is a prophesy of the butterfly. As well might we say that the butterfly state is a gift bestowed on favored caterpillers for believing the theories of ancient caterpillars, as that immortality is bestowed on certain men because they accept certain ancient doctrines. The butterfly arises from the worm by laws of growth, and the change of the latter to the former is inevitable. So the spirit of man must be an outgrowth of laws, and predetermined by his physical constitution.  We are immortal, and cannot blot out our immortality—whether in a heaven of happiness or a hell of misery, we cannot escape the fiat of endless living. The suicide vainly attempts escape on the earth side of life, to be met on the other side of the narrow grave by Eternity. Escape, there is none. We live, and the spark of life which is ours is more enduring than the adamantine mountain—than the stars of space—and shall bloom in youthful verdure when their fires expire and the sun-ashes are drawn like mist to be rekindled at the central forges of the system.

Every human being, as an immortal spirit, stands forever in the center of the universe. From the abysmal beginning up to the present moment all the laws and forces of nature have labored to give him birth. Through all the ages of the future will they labor to sustain and develop his possibilities. The one auxiliary is his own efforts; eventually all gain must come through the exertion of the individual.

A correct system of morals must be founded, not on any supposed revelation or ancient form of faith, but on the constitution of man. It must be the result of the careful study of his physical, mental and spiritual nature. No theory, however long received as infallible; no revelation, however sacred, has the least weight against the demonstrated conclusions of impartial thought. By the simple enunciation of science that man is a creature of evolution, that he has come up out of the night of the past, step by step, until he has acquired his present stature, by denying primitive perfection and fall therefrom, revolutionizes all our methods of thought in regard to his position, duties and obligations. Instead of a distinct creation, amenable to superior powers, he is an integral factor of the world, and has no escape from its laws. As the hand, so exquisitely perfect in man, so soft and beautiful, so nicely adapted for executing the plans of intelligence, is shadowed in the rod-like limb of the proteus, the flipper of the whale, and the forefoot of the quadruped, so is his intellect prophesied in the dim and unarticulated thoughts of the same beings. His mental superiority is no greater than his physical. The hand that makes the engine is equal to the mind that conceives and plans the engine. Mentally and physically man is a creature of growth, and hence he is allied to the world of matter and the world of thought Through him the animal leaps the abyss between the physical and the spiritual. Human history is a bridge spanning interminable marshlands, its further end reaching towards the brutal, its unfinished arches illumined by the sun flooding down from the spiritual firmament.

Along this causeway have been waged the mighty battles of the ages, fought over again in the life of every individual. It is the war between the animal side of man's nature and the spiritual. As the race has unfolded, gathering higher and clearer perceptions of right, truth and justice, age after age, the gain has been on the side of the spiritual. As in the individual, the brute forces of the desires have been co-ordinated with the moral and spiritual perceptions.

Because of this evolution, is there conflict between the two sides of man's nature. Because he is an animal physically, is there war between his physical and his spiritual tendencies. To harmonize this apparent anomaly, by which the aspirations of an angel are linked with the passions of a devil, has been the primary object of all systems of theology. The existence of these spiritual aspirations indicated the innate purity of the spirit and its primal perfection. That it was, in fact, so prone to fly to the ungoverned selfishness and lust of brutes, indicated a fallen and depraved state.

The dogmas growing out of this erroneous view were also dependent on equally false ideas of God. A perfect, infinite and good God, would not create an imperfect man. His creation would be in his own image. Man was far from perfect. His imperfection was the result of sin and wickedness. As his Creator does not wish him to sin, he sins from choice. His free agency shifts the burden of responsibility from God to himself. Created perfect, he has sinned by choice, and became depraved through and by means of his own wickedness. He has corrupted himself. To escape the infinite consequences, he must have faith in a verbal revelation and a certain scheme of redemption. Immortality is not the result of immutable laws, and has no relation to the constitution of things. Men reared in this belief, when they cast it aside are often unbalanced. The passions held by such faith in obeyance, are ungoverned when it is withdrawn, as the higher faculties which should control are untried or inactive. It is said they are examples of the bad influence of the new and want of faith in the old doctrines. Rather are they examples of the blighting effects of the old. Instead of cultivating the spiritual side, that it might control the animal instincts, it has foisted a blind faith in its place. It has made belief of more consequence than harmonious development. This has been the theological solution of the problem of man's redemption. It has been made by honest men, who have thought profoundly and reasoned logically from their data. But granting the theory of evolution, of man's development from the world of brute forces, this solution is entirely false. Man having never fallen, needs no redemption. The problem assumes a new form. How shall the animal aid spiritual be harmonized? In the outset, we must regard matter and spirit as equally sacred. We cannot vent our spleen, as the ascetics of old, against the inherent sinfulness of matter, and think to gain heaven by crucifying the flesh. As long as we are inhabitants of this sphere, our physical being is essential, and the laws and conditions of its development are as pure and holy as those of the spirit. It is not by crushing the instincts under the iron heel of faith, but in their proper and legitimate direction by dominant intellectual and moral faculties, that perfection is to be sought. The accomplishment of this object is the real purpose of life; it has not only a relation for time but for eternity.

The golden messengers from that land beyond the grave, in ideal lives, teach us how to order the conduct of our own. We are not creatures of a day, living for the gratification of our physical being; we have an exalted nature, capable of infinite possibilities, which we ideally represent. When the physical side shall melt, and even the world on which it depends pass away, that nature will only have began its unfolding.

In the tangled web of mortal life, beset on one hand by clamorous instincts, and goaded on the other by the reprovings of angelic aspirations, we still inquire, as did the sages of old, what is truth? what is right? what wrong? how shall we escape?

If we answer, By a just co-ordination of all the faculties of the mind, and a harmony maintained by dominant moral and intellectual power, then is required the methods through and by which this end is attainable.

Most perfectly does Spiritualism answer. Her robes of spotless purity are flung as a mantle of all-comprehending charity over all. She has no word of condemnation and contumely for the wrong-doer, but for the wrong. She points not the finger of scorn at the writhing sinner, but at the sin. She utters no words of partial praise for those who never stumble. As the infinite forces of nature pour out blessings alike on all, so she makes no distinction in the breadth of her benevolence. Her voice is melodious with love while it speaks of eternal and unswerving justice.

Listen, oh, mortal, to her voice, and learn how it is possible to climb the golden stairway of immortal life, becoming day by day, year by year, and century by century, perfected in the infinite capabilities of the spirit—learn how to triumph over the accidents of mortal life, meeting all its duties and bearing all its burdens with cheerful heart, laying the deep foundation of that temple immortal, beyond the shadow of death.