The first requisite for an organization is a nucleus of the character of the organization you wish, which nucleus may consist of one, two, or half dozen individuals. The individual who is seeking to establish an organization must look for the nucleus in himself, not in his neighbor. The idea of looking out of yourself for an organization is all false. The idea that you must look to a distance for some being out of yourselves as a representation or reflection of the perfect attributes of Deity, is erroneous. The individual who feels the need of an organization must first understand that that organization must be built up by the law of affinity; and that as each individual becomes a particle to be incorporated into the organism in his love and affection, he must grow to retain his position. The vital principle must be felt by himself. If he wishes to redeem the world, he must commence by redeeming himself. If he wishes help in redeeming the world from its various evils, he must first find in himself that spirit which he wishes infused into the helping association.
If a principle has not succeeded in saving me, I need not hope that it will save the world. Therefore, when we are about to organize a society upon any principle, the first thing to be ascertained is whether this principle has saved us. If not, we may just as well drop it. If a person wishes to form an organization to make the world Christian in faith and practice, you should ask him if he has been made a Christian in faith and practice. If he wants fidelity to truth and righteousness, ask him if he is faithful to truth and righteousness. Let the individual be tried by that which he wishes to accomplish. If he can not stand the test, he is not the proper person for a nucleus for such an organization. Before one mourns over the lusts of the world, let him look after his own lusts. So in respect to every thing necessary to make a truly upright man, a man who shall live in all good conscience before God and the world, and before the inmost of his own soul. Let him see to it that after he has made a perfect examination of his own breast, there is nothing found lacking. Let him be so satisfied with his examination of his own character, that he will be content to have mankind redeemed up to the plane he occupies. Then let his life be the incarnation of the principle. Let the world, when they look upon him, be constrained to say, “He has been with Jesus,” if Jesus is to be the model of the church. Let his life correspond exactly to the high and beautiful ideal of the church he is wishing to have established; and then an influence will go out from him which will become attractive to all who, like him, are thirsting for that life. He will find it unnecessary to throw out catechisms, because there will be the true affinity which will come forth from the character, and attract all who, like him, are hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Form a church by the application of external tests, and there will be conflict all the time; while concord will characterize one formed in accordance with the natural principle of organization.
Spiritualists have become very numerous. I doubt whether there is any other class of believers so numerous as those now known as Spiritualists. They now number millions, and they are men and women who have come from under the restraints of authority—of external law—a "thus saith the Lord"—and have assumed the prerogative of acting for themselves. One article of their creed has attached to them the name of “Spiritualists”. They profess to believe that our disembodied Spirit-friends are near to us, and hold converse with us; and when any one says that he believes in that, he is called a Spiritualist. That appears to be the only test. But that external belief or assent is not better as the basis of an organization than is the creed, “I believe that God fore-ordained whatever comes to pass.” The idea that such an assent could be made the basis of an external organization is entirely unnatural and supremely ridiculous. If you should attempt to organize upon such a basis, you would be guilty of the error into which all previous organizations have fallen.
Many entertain the idea, that because we have overcome our blind deference to authority, refused to be ruled by the "thus-saith-the-Lord"—because we have come to the conclusion to examine all questions for ourselves—we have taken all the steps necessary for our own reformation and that of the world. But what has been the influence exerted by this new faith—New Philosophy as it is sometimes called—upon the lives and character of those who have accepted it. You say, perhaps, that when you drive all the church dogmas out of the way, there will be nothing in the way of redeeming man. So far as you are concerned, they are driven out of the way, and what has been done for you? How much better are you morally, religiously, than the man you call a bigot? You wish all the world to be converted to a belief in the possibility and actuality of Spiritual intercourse; but suppose that all the world are converted to this faith, what are they to gain if it produces no better fruits in them than in you? While we are trying to get the motes from our religious brother’s eye, is it not possible that we have very extensive beams in our own? We are calling for organization to unite the moral power and energy of the millions of Spiritualists; but if the influence of Spiritualism has not served to redeem us, how are we to expect that it is to redeem the world? If Spiritualism does not save you, how are you to reproach the church for its inconsistency in sending its missionaries to convert the heathen to what they themselves do not practice—when even slave-holders are received to the bosom of the church, while the slave toils in the rice and cotton swamps of the South, while the babe is torn from its mother’s breast. If the church were to turn round and point out similar inconsistencies among Spiritualists, what would the Spiritualists of New York reply?
Spiritualists should see to it that the work which is wrought in them by Spiritualism testifies what will be its work in others. If it does not touch their own character; if it does not make the false man true, the corrupt man better, what reason shall we give in favor of its being received by the world? We have Spiritualists enough to convert the world if they were only spiritualized. There is the difficulty. It is one thing to be a Spiritualist, and another thing to be spiritualized. What we want is something that shall take our Spiritualists and spiritualize them. We want to find some key which shall open up a fountain deeper in any man’s soul than has yet been opened by these manifestations—which shall call out higher, holier, and purer aspirations after eternal life than have yet been called out. We all know this. We find every thing on the right hand and the left to admonish us that when the whole world shall have been converted to our faith, it will be a bad world still. What then is needed is, that you and I set about a work which is peculiarly intrusted to us. We shall then redeem the world.
I must look for the coming of my Lord in my own affection. He must come in the clouds of my spiritual heavens, or he can not come for any benefit to me. I must place myself in that condition that shall invite him to come and reveal to me the way by which I am to be redeemed; and then I shall learn the way by which you and all mankind must be redeemed. When all my falsehood, injustice, selfishness, lust, appetite, and passion are dead, and when the God of heaven shall live and work in me, then there will be laid in my soul the foundation of that true spiritual affinity which shall go forth, not seeking others to unite with me, but, of its own plentitude, uniting with me those who have the same affinity—uniting us stronger than any creed. We shall not then be obliged to ask permission to join or withdraw from such a church as we should establish, but each man would join or withdraw according to affinity or repulsion. Each man will stand upon his own responsibility. I shall not be responsible for you, nor you for me. I stand not here to give you Christian character, nor you to give me Christian character. Each man must have a communication for himself with the Fountain of all love and truth. We must all draw our water from the same well, and it will become in us a fountain springing up into eternal life.
Each must prepare himself for the kind of church he needs. Let each seek to redeem himself. The Spiritualists of New York and throughout the United States will be ready to form a church just as soon as they have prepared themselves to give forth the true affinity; and you will find that it will not be necessary to have any creed or catechism, any thing external by which to try the faith of this or any other movement. If you make up your mind to lead a true life, to speak the truth, to be pure and just—if you make up your mind that whoever comes within your influence shall breathe in of your truth and righteousness—you will find none will seek to come unto you unless they desire to breathe that atmosphere.
The difficulty of the old organizations has been, that no man or woman supposed it was necessary to make themselves the representatives of that which they believe to be necessary for the redemption of the world. Their faith was not in their own righteousness, but in the righteousness to be wrought in somebody else. They worked to be righteous by proxy. They hoped to be saved by the righteousness of another. Consequently they organized upon an external basis, as their organizations were not based upon a true affinity of character. They did not understand that they must possess the true character, consequently they did not labor to attain it. The individual seeking to form a church only labored to form a creed. He did not suppose it necessary to form a character which he wished to have infused into the church. The world, however, can never be saved until the false opinion that it can be saved by the righteousness of another is done away. The world would put away its lusts, appetites, and passions, were it not that it loves them. Although they do not confer the happiness the soul feels it needs, they confer more happiness than they know how to obtain from any other source. Therefore the world is not willing to put away its lusts, appetites, and passions, and to become absolutely pure and just; and if you will offer them a religion which offers to save them from the consequences of sin, and yet permits them to continue in their sins, they will willingly pay for it, especially if its ceremonies and the decorations of the church gratify the taste. If they can have nice things in their churches, it is considered nearly as good as to put them in their parlors. But tell them these things will avail them nothing, that they must love their neighbors as themselves, that they must put away lust, appetite, and passion, and you offer them a salvation they are unwilling to accept.
CHAPTER X.
WHAT CONSTITUTES THE SPIRIT.
The idea which has sometimes prevailed, that when the spirit enters the Spirit-world it becomes divested of certain states of affection, certain loves or delights, and that it becomes so changed in its character or station as to seek its delight in some other direction, is very general among Spiritualists. They believe that all our evil passions and affections pertain to this body, and that when the spirit leaves it, his disposition to do evil or to enjoy the fruits of his evil desires ceases. Now, I wish to investigate this subject thoroughly upon principles which commend themselves to every individual’s consciousness.