IV
Passing, then, from the first part of our subject, we may summarise as follows:—
(1) The past of Spiritualism is deeply tainted with fraud, and the present is “clouded with a doubt.” There may have been unconscious cheating, but there has been much deliberate roguery.
(2) Even where fraud seems to be eliminated, it is probable that the unexplained phenomena of mediumship will become clear as a wider knowledge is gained of man’s physical and mental powers. “I hold,” says Dr. Barnes, “that all the well-attested evidence, on which the theory of spirit-communication is based, will ultimately be explained by a fuller knowledge of the interchange of consciousness between living persons.”
(3) We reject the crude theory that mediumistic phenomena are caused by diabolic intervention.
(4) We believe that mental and moral ruin may result from “borderland” studies, because in these the personality is peculiarly liable to the loss of will-power and self-control. “We shall do well to keep the doors of the soul shut until we can open them to God.”
Chapter VIII
SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIANITY
Spiritualism, a recent writer[26] says, is more and more proving itself a rival to Christianity. Its votaries cease, almost invariably, to be Christians in any traditional sense of the word. It grips the mind of “dabblers” with an extraordinary fascination, and “seems to demand a self-surrender as great as that which Christianity itself involves, a surrender of the whole personality.”
We propose to ask in this chapter, “What is the attitude of Spiritualist teachers towards the Christian faith?” An exceptional position, let us remark at the outset, is occupied by two of the leaders, Sir W. F. Barrett and Sir Oliver Lodge. The former regards the evidence afforded at the séance as “a handmaid to faith,” and warns beginners “against making a religion of Spiritualism.”[27]
Sir Oliver Lodge, as we know from his writings, has a sincere reverence for the Person of our Lord. He is convinced that grades of being exist, not only lower in the scale than man, but higher also, grades of every order of magnitude from zero to infinity. Among these lofty beings “is One on whom the right instinct of Christianity has always lavished heartfelt reverence and devotion. Those who think that the day of the Messiah is over are strangely mistaken; it has hardly begun.… Whatever the Churches may do, I believe that the call of Christ himself will be heard and attended to, by a large part of humanity in the near future, as never yet it has been heard or attended to on earth.… My own time down here is getting short; it matters little; but I dare not go till I have borne this testimony to the grace and truth which emanate from that divine Being.”[28]
There is something characteristic in the question asked by the bereaved father at an “automatic” séance reported in “Raymond”:
“O. J. L.: Before you go, Raymond, I want to ask a serious question. Have you been let to see Christ?”
“Father, I shall see him presently. It is not time yet.”
Intercourse with the departed means for Sir Oliver Lodge “nothing less than the possibility some day of a glance or a word of approval from the eternal Christ.”