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THE 
 
 RELIGION OF THE FUTURE 
 
 OUTLINES OF SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. SAMUEL. WEIL, 
 
 BOSTON 
 ARENA PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 Copley Square 
 1894 
 

 1 
 
 \ . ^Copyright, 1893, 
 By SAMUEL WEIL. 
 
 • *y%ll» rights reserved. 
 
 16 '03 
 
 Arena Press. 
 
TO 
 MY TRANSFIGURED MOTHER 
 
 IN LOVE 
 DEDICATED BY 
 
 The Authok 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Prologue 
 
 Page 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 THE FACTS. 
 
 1APTER. 
 
 I. Immortality and the Future State 
 II. The Origin of Man 
 
 III. The Destiny of Man 
 
 IV. The Dual Nature of Man . 
 V. Glimpses of the Higher Self 
 
 VI. Transcendental Powers in Man 
 VII. Sleep-Phenomena . 
 VIII. Excursions of the Spirit 
 IX. Second Sight . 
 X. Clairvoyance . 
 XI. Psychological Control 
 XII. Inspiration 
 
 XIII. As It Is in Heaven 
 
 XIV. Retribution . . . 
 XV. Reformation . 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 9 
 r 5 
 18 
 
 21 
 
 25 
 29 
 
 32 
 
 39 
 48 
 
 55 
 66 
 
 7° 
 80 
 86 
 92 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 THE SOURCE. 
 
 XVI. Modern Spiritualism 97 
 
 XVII. Pseudo-Enlightenment 119 
 
 XVIII. The Phenomena of Spiritualism . . .128 
 
 XIX. The Basis of Spiritualism . . . .139 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 XX. The Proofs 144 
 
 XXI. The Scope of Spiritualism . . . .168 
 XXII. Spiritual Evolution 179 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 THE CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 XXIII. The Basis of Ethics 191 
 
 XXIV. Optimism 196 
 
 XXV. Social Problems: The Labor Question . 207 
 
 XXVI. The Religion of the Future . . . 220 
 XXVII. The Bible . . . . . . .237 
 
 XXVIII. Conclusion . . . . . .251 
 
PROLOGUE. 
 
 i. A new and glorious science of man, of his origin and 
 destiny, has been developed within the last few decades. 
 A new philosophy has been evolved of human life here 
 and hereafter, based upon demonstrated facts and data 
 accessible to all. 
 
 Stupendous as the science of objective nature has be- 
 come, it is as the mere shadow thrown upon the canvas 
 of time and matter by the radiant light of immortal 
 spirit. 
 
 Modern agnosticism had set up a way-mark on the road 
 of human progression, inscribed : " No thoroughfare ! " 
 " Unknowable ! " The truths most indispensable for man 
 to know, the destiny of man and the immortality of the 
 soul, were declared absolute mysteries. What ought to 
 have merely been designated as unknown, was declared 
 to be unknowable. This way-mark has to be removed. 
 It is now seen that the doctrine of the Relativity of 
 Knowledge, as formulated by the Kantian school of 
 modern philosophical thought, misled men into too hasty 
 generalizations and unwarrantable conclusions. It needed 
 only the right method to find the way out ; it required only 
 the right key to open wondrous realms to the astonished 
 gaze. Again the supremacy of mind is restored ; the 
 saying is verified that " there is nothing on earth great 
 but man, and in man there is nothing great but mind." 
 
2 PROLOGUE. 
 
 Geology and astronomy have long ago crossed the line, 
 that seemed to divide the finite from the infinite, in the 
 revelations of illimitable space and time, of countless 
 galaxies and solar systems that cannot be numbered. 
 Alike in the macrocosm and microcosm science had 
 crossed the border that seemed to divide the relative 
 from the absolute, the phenomenal from the eternal. To 
 account for the manifestations and attributes of matter, 
 invisible units had to be postulated, called atoms, whose 
 number baffles all human methods of computation. Al- 
 ready the pioneers of physical research had entered the 
 realm of the invisible, by assuming a viewless ether as 
 the medium of light. Matter in its ultimate analysis 
 was found to resolve itself into force which is more akin 
 to mind than to matter. All admitted the indubitable 
 fact that we know more of mind than of matter ; since we 
 know matter only through mind, indirectly ; while mind 
 is directly known. Yet, while the world of matter, exter- 
 nal nature, became more and more wonderful, man re- 
 mained an enigma to science. Objective nature in the 
 disclosures of the telescope as well as in those of the 
 microscope " appeared a beautiful and harmonious whole, 
 the incarnation of a faultless process, from certain 
 premises in the past to an inevitable conclusion in the 
 future ; "( # ) but subjective nature, the moral world, re- 
 mained a chaos. Compared with the astronomical mag- 
 nitudes and distances, with the age of the earth and the 
 solar system, with the immense, inconceivable periods of 
 geologic time, man, with his short span of ephemeral ex- 
 istence, dwindled into insignificance. For once, science 
 agreed with Scripture in the exclamation : " What is man 
 that thou art mindful of him ? " True, science can 
 * The Struggle for Existence, by Prof. Huxley. 
 
PROLOGUE. 3 
 
 only interpret nature in terms of intelligence, and the 
 only intelligence on this planet directly known to us is 
 human intelligence, but this was considered a product of 
 physical organization ; or at best, a phenomenon, corre- 
 lated with a nervous system and dependent for its exist- 
 ence upon this system. 
 
 The exponent of the theory of evolution, Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer, is reported by the Rev. M. J. Savage to have 
 said concerning personal immortality, that " he was in- 
 clined to doubt ; that is, he was not aware of anything 
 that he could regard as satisfactory proof." * 
 
 In saying this, the great philosopher struck the key- 
 note of this problem of problems. Satisfactory proof. 
 Yes, only this can settle the question. Speculative the- 
 ories pro and con, and agnostic assertions there are many 
 and may be ranked alongside the beliefs of the various 
 religious creeds. What the world wants, however, in our 
 age, is present evidence, not evidence adduced from the 
 Bible ; evidence obtainable now, obtainable by all who 
 rightly seek it. As the Ancient Greeks with their unsur- 
 passed acuteness of intellect, made no progress in physical 
 science because of preconceptions and assumptions un- 
 warranted by facts, so we moderns remained ignorant in 
 spiritual science until we resorted to observation and 
 experiment, and divested ourselves of similar preconcep- 
 tions. 
 
 Mankind is fast outgrowing the childhood of faith ; it 
 now wants knowledge, and the demand is amply supplied 
 by glorious revelations, not based upon human authority 
 as of old, not resting upon faith, but upon demonstrated 
 facts. 
 
 The results already obtained constitute a new era for 
 
 * Science and Immortality, Boston, 1887, page 68 
 
4 PROLOGUE. 
 
 mankind ; an era- as much greater than that of the discov- 
 eries of Copernicus and Darwin, Newton and Spencer, 
 as mind is greater than matter, and as, in the mental 
 world, causes are greater than effects. Nothing less 
 than " A new Heaven " is disclosed to our amazing 
 view. There is a spiritual evolution as well as a biologi- 
 cal evolution. Copernicus discovered the physical heaven ; 
 spiritual research discovered the spiritual heaven ; and 
 this illustrious discovery will transfigure the earth. For 
 human nature will be transformed, even as external nature 
 has been transformed. The howling wilderness of human 
 strife, selfishness and crime will be changed into a smil- 
 ing landscape of human concord and fraternity ; so that 
 " the Brotherhood of Man " will no more be a "mere senti- 
 mental phrase but an actual fact. Hitherto, nations, races 
 and sects could not unite and coalesce, because the spirit- 
 ual laws of altruism had not been adequately recognized. 
 Even within a nation there were barriers erected between 
 the various classes. As Mr. Bellamy points out, the rich 
 are divided from the poor, the educated from the unedu- 
 cated. But the system expounded by the spiritual philos- 
 ophy admits of but One religion, being the science of 
 man's spiritual nature, One co-operative fraternity and 
 only One. Sectarianism is doomed. All social evils will 
 spontaneously redress themselves. Slowly, gradually, but 
 surely and irresistibly the Kingdom of God will be inaug- 
 urated on earth. Greater than the ideals of Plato and 
 More, of Henry George and Edward Bellamy ; greater 
 than all Utopias of the past, because based upon the eter- 
 nal laws of man's spiritual nature, the system outlined in 
 this book is superior to all religious and philosophical 
 systems extant in the world. It is nothing less than a 
 wiiversal solvent for the theoretical and practical firob- 
 
PROLOGUE. 5 
 
 /ems of human life. Unlike other systems, it is construct- 
 ive, not destructive ; positive, not negative ; it is a grand 
 synthesis, wherein all that is true in other systems is 
 conserved, and finds its place as part of the great har- 
 monious whole. It completes whatever was hitherto in- 
 complete, makes clear whatever was vague and indistinct, 
 puts knowledge in the place of faith, certitude in the place 
 of belief ; brings indubitable facts, and incontrovertible 
 evidence accessible to all honest seekers after truth. It 
 accredits itself in actually solving the riddle of human ex- 
 istence. It comes, to use a Biblical saying, " Not to de- 
 stroy, but to fulfill. " Nay, it is no exaggeration to see in 
 it the fulfillment of the prophecy of the ancient Seer : 
 "When that which is perfect is come, that which is par- 
 tial shall be done away." * 
 
 2. This book is addressed primarily to skeptics who 
 are seeking after truth. Not all that are skeptical are 
 seekers after truth ; many are satisfied with their doubt- 
 ing state of mind ; negations seem to please them, at 
 least at present. They are in the reactionary state, 
 having emancipated themselves from the dogmas of the 
 church. Will they ever seek a substitute for what they 
 have given up with such alacrity ? Perhaps so, when the 
 novelty of skepticism wears off and they anxiously be- 
 gin to feel the necessity of "Know Thyself!" the neces- 
 sity of finding out the meaning of earthly existence ; and 
 whether this life is all, or only a vestibule to a higher 
 one. Then, perchance, they will seek and inquire with 
 those who exclaim : " Who will show us any good ? " t 
 For mere denial is not a satisfactory state of mind ; doubt 
 is a means, not at end, an incitement to deeper research. 
 Perhaps they are more or less influenced by those learned 
 * i Cor. xiii, 10. + Psalm iv., 6. 
 
6 PROLOGUE. 
 
 men of our time who teach that the problems of human 
 life cannot be solved at all, either now or in future. 
 
 Others there are who, breathing the modern atmosphere 
 of doubt and unbelief, are infected to such an extent that, 
 at any rate, they have virtually given up a good deal of 
 what they were taught when young, and they pay no fur- 
 ther attention to the subject. They give it no thought at 
 all, being engrossed with the practical business of life, 
 with the concerns, duties, and cares of their daily occupa- 
 tion. Religion they ignore altogether. They may, either 
 from mere habit, or from social motives, conform to the 
 customs and usages of society ; they may even perform 
 the religious ceremonies of their denomination ; may at- 
 tend church at stated times, so as not to give offense to 
 their neighbors and relatives. Often, self-interest prompts 
 men to conform externally to the rites and usages of their 
 sect. But in reality they believe nothing and care noth- 
 ing for religion. They are what religious people call 
 worldly-minded, and grope in spiritual blindness. They 
 cannot hope to find the truth, because they do not seek it. 
 Such must be left to the influence of time. There are 
 trees that will not bloom this season nor the next ; yet 
 bloom they will some time in the future. The physical 
 and intellectual stages develop quicker than the succeed- 
 ing moral and spiritual stages. 
 
 To recapitulate. There is inherent in human nature a 
 tendency to rush from extreme to extreme. Having in 
 their youth believed much, they now delight in not be- 
 lieving anything at all, remaining in a state of reaction, 
 or in what is called an agnostic state of mind. 
 
 Now, this book is addressed especially to those who are 
 perplexed by doubts and misgivings concerning religion, 
 and who are anxious to find out what is true and what 
 
PROLOGUE. 7 
 
 must be rejected ; to those who seek present evidence ; 
 who are not satisfied with the evidence of ancient times ; 
 to those who seek a basis for religion, not in faith, but in 
 knowledge ; knowledge verifiable by themselves. On the 
 other hand, let those abstain from reading this book who 
 are absolutely sure in their creed ; who are not in the least 
 troubled by any doubt or misgiving ; who firmly believe 
 their respective religious system and consider doubt a sin. 
 Though the system herein advocated includes all that is 
 true in any creed, it cannot but give offense to orthodox 
 theologians and to their followers, because its statements 
 are not based upon any sacred book nor upon any human 
 authority of sage or prophet, but solely upon the spiritual 
 laws of human nature. 
 
 No appeal can be successful to those who have a fixed 
 creed either in religion or in science. 
 
 3. In regard to the external or logical arrangement of 
 this work, the author hesitated long before he came to a 
 conclusion ; conscious of the prevalent prejudices against 
 the psychic manifestations described in Part Two, he pre- 
 ferred to present first the practical deductions from those 
 demonstrated facts, in the hope of thus predisposing the 
 reader's mind for an unbiased contemplation of the new 
 data. 
 
 This being the writer's first experience in book-making, 
 he hopes to disarm criticism by stating at once, that he 
 lays no claim to literary skill ; but craves, on the contrary, 
 the reader's kind indulgence for any shortcomings in style 
 and form of composition. 
 
 The Author. 
 
 Bradford, Pa., May, 1893. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 
 
 PART FIRST 
 
 THE FACTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IMMORTALITY AND THE FUTURE STATE. 
 
 Death is a transformation and re-birth into a higher 
 life. Not a transformation of intellect and character, but 
 of the outer, physical body into an ethereal body. That 
 is to say, the physical body is abandoned by the ego or 
 individual, and left to dissolution and decay. Then the 
 ethereal or spiritual body which pre-existed forms the 
 vehicle of expression for the person we are wont to call 
 dead, but who, in reality, has entered from the outer into 
 the inner sphere of existence ; having passed out of the 
 shadowed, material realm of rudimentary life and ascended 
 to the spirit world. The former senses of sight, hearing, 
 etc., are now superseded by more exalted modes of cogni- 
 tion. The new-born spirit now stands in new and changed 
 relations to space and time. Being invested with a 
 
 9 
 
io THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 thought-body, the transfigured being passes through space 
 with the speed of light. No more confined by the body 
 of clay, by a material environment ; no more tethered to 
 a certain locality, but free to go wherever the spirit listeth, 
 the only limitations being now want of knowledge and 
 moral deficiency. 
 
 The intellectual and moral character remains what it 
 was before the transition, but, as will be shown further 
 on, great surprises await the new-comer, either joyful or 
 painful. 
 
 Death, then is, negatively, a withdrawal from the phys- 
 ical body, and, positively, a birth into a higher life. 
 
 The modus operandi of the death process cannot here be 
 described minutely. Suffice it to state that, what is called 
 the resurrection, takes place immediately at the death of a 
 human being ; that, what is meant by the word is simply 
 the withdrawal of the spirit from the tabernacle of flesh, 
 and the investing of the individual with a new body. The 
 process can be seen by clairvoyant eyes, and has been 
 often thus seen. In some of the books of the great 
 Seer, A. J. Davis, especially in his, Beyond the Valley, 
 drawings are given to illustrate the process. 
 
 The immortality of man is no more a doctrine, a hope, 
 a belief, but a demonstrated fact, proved by incontrovert- 
 ible evidence, even the evidence of the senses. Hence- 
 forth this great and glorious fact of life beyond the grave 
 ranks with other indubitable facts, such as the existence of 
 the countries of England, France, or Germany. 
 
 " There is a natural (animal) body, Psyche, there is also 
 a spiritual body (Pneuma). That which thou thyself 
 sowest, is not quickened, except it die : and that which 
 thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but 
 a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 1 
 
 kind ; but God giveth it a body, and to each seed a body 
 of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh ; but there is 
 one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another 
 flesh of birds, and another of fishes. There are also ce- 
 lestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial ; but the glory of the 
 celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 
 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the 
 moon, and another glory of the stars ; for one star diff ereth 
 from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection : 
 It is sown in dishonor ; it is raised in glory ; it is sown in 
 weakness ; it is raised in power ; it is sown a natural 
 (animal) body ; it is raised a spiritual body. Howbeit, 
 that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is nat- 
 ural (animal) then that which is spiritual." # 
 
 " Death," says A. J. Davis, " is the kind and welcome 
 servant, who opens the flower-encircled door, to show us 
 those whom we love ! 
 
 There is a spiritual, as well as a physical evolution. 
 Darwinism describes the lower half of man's progressive 
 development, though it is ignorant of the fundamental 
 spiritual factors, to which the known, organic factors are 
 co-ordinated. Nature, that is, human Nature, " makes for 
 righteousness J' The whole universe, though apparently 
 unmoral, has a sublime moral purpose and destiny. Nat- 
 ure is a tremendous workshop for the ultimate perfection 
 of man. When it is alleged by modern scientists that 
 nature is neither moral nor immoral, but simply indifferent 
 or unmoral, the assertion is true as far as it goes, but it is 
 a half-truth and misleading. Nature is a sphinx whose 
 riddles man must guess ; she is inexorable, but yields im- 
 mediately man becomes her master by overcoming. To 
 merely guess the riddles of external nature without guess- 
 ing the greater riddle of human nature, is to imitate the 
 * i Cor. xv. 
 
12 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 unfortunate GEdipus. To solve the enigma of our own 
 life, is the greater task, and has for its aim to overcome 
 our lower nature, and to develop our god-like faculties. 
 
 The extent, magnitude, or scope of the spiritual evolu- 
 tion of man cannot now be stated. What has been ad- 
 duced here was necessary for the comprehension of what 
 is to follow. 
 
 A human life has two stages of growth, one on earth, 
 the other in the spiritual world. " As the seed planted in 
 the soil has a certain growth beneath the surface of the 
 ground, a fuller growth above the surface and fruition 
 there, so the spirit has the fruition of its (earthly) embodi- 
 ment in the state which follows the separation from the 
 body." * 
 
 All men are by nature immortal. There is no condi- 
 tional immortality. All human beings, after they leave the 
 earthly, or " rudimentary life," enter the higher spiritual 
 life inevitably, as the above illustration of plant-life shows. 
 
 We are now prepared to deal with the so-called future 
 state, or the life in the hereafter : Death is " a chemical 
 screen." f All that is material, all that belongs to the 
 animal body is left behind, and the man himself, now 
 clothed upon with a spiritual body, enters the spiritual 
 sphere. This spiritual body exactly expresses the 
 intellectual, and pre-eminently the moral character of the 
 ever invisible ego ; is an accurate index of all mental at- 
 tainments or shortcomings and perversions. Man now 
 stands unmasked, and is either a spirit of light, or a spirit 
 of darkness. 
 
 The earthly or material body partly reveals and partly 
 conceals the real interior character ; but at death all men 
 must unmask ; they now appear as they are ; they now 
 
 * The Soul in Human Embodiments, page 65. t A. J. Davis. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 13 
 
 reap what they had sown, and accordingly are either happy 
 or unhappy. As a thermometer registers the degrees of 
 heat or cold, so the soul registers moral conduct. The 
 book of judgment is within. In the spiritual stage of life, 
 we complete what we have begun on earth, but we cannot 
 obtain what we have not acquired by our own efforts in 
 the earth-life. If we have failed to gain a victory over 
 temptation, failed, that is, if we have not attempted at all 
 to overcome a besetting sin, we cannot gain that victory 
 in a realm where temptation does not exist.* 
 
 A few words as to the mode of life and activity in the 
 hereafter. On earth the greater part of time is spent, in 
 our age at least, as in the past, in procuring the necessaries 
 of physical life, in ministering to the body, to supply its 
 manifold wants, notably food, clothing and shelter. 
 
 In the spiritual state external wants are easily supplied, 
 and the main efforts are in the direction of mental and 
 moral growth and active beneficence. 
 
 Again, a third of our earthly life is spent in sleep, some 
 portion of our time is wasted or lost by sickness and other 
 occurrences and accidents ; we are also dependent upon 
 the health and vitality of the body in our striving after 
 mental achievements. But in the higher spiritual exist- 
 ence these conditions and hindrances do not prevail, and 
 hence, life is more vivid, more active, and, as has been 
 already stated in the preceding chapter, incomparably 
 more free, free from the limitations incident to earthly life. 
 It is perhaps unnecessary to state, what is implied in the 
 foregoing, and what the reader will by this time have an- 
 ticipated, namely, the glorious fact that on entering the 
 spiritual realm, we meet those that have gone before. 
 These transfigured beings make preparation for our recep- 
 
 * The Soul, page 68. 
 
14 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 tion, when we are born through death into the spirit world, 
 just as preparations are made for the birth of a child into 
 the material world.* Tears of joy above for the tears 
 of sorrow below. Oh, blissful, glorious meeting of those 
 who had been seemingly parted for a while, yet in reality 
 were not separated. 
 
 * See Davis' Great Harmonia, vol. I, page 168. 
 
THE RELIGION OE THE EUTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 
 
 The human mind is neither the product of the bodily 
 organization, nor is the body, strictly speaking, the pro- 
 duct of the mind, for both mind and body are the creative 
 product of the spirit. This spirit is itself derived from the 
 soul. It is the soul which is the real Ego, the full entity, 
 which never had a beginning, being uncreate and eternal. 
 As modern physical science is based upon the axiom that 
 matter and force are indestructible ; that not a particle 
 can be created or can disappear, so spiritual science rests 
 upon the axiom that individuality is indestructible. Soul 
 being eternal, never had a beginning in time, and never 
 will come to an end. The soul, as soul, ever remains in 
 a deific state ; but employs the spirit in order to express 
 itself through matter. 
 
 The spirit creates the earthly personality, body and mind. 
 Mind is spirit, matter-limited. " Mind is the conscious- 
 ness of the soul, acting through spirit upon the human 
 organism, producing the process of thought, the most ex- 
 ternal expression of soul." * The spirit presides over 
 the formation of the body ; it does not create the matter, 
 of which the body is composed, nor the organic laws. 
 Creation belongs to the Deity. As one superintends the 
 building of a house he is to inhabit, or the manufacture of 
 
 * The Soul, page 7. 
 
1 6 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 a garment which he is to wear,* so the spirit superin- 
 tends the formation of the body. Man is an incarnation. 
 The evolution of man as an eternal spirit is preceded by 
 involution. Whatever is evolved must have first been in- 
 volved ; whatever is unfolded must have previously been 
 infolded. The seed from which the plant is evolved, con- 
 tains potentially the stalk, leaves, buds, blossoms and fruit. 
 All growth is from within, but the necessary conditions 
 must be given. Soul descends by involution to meet mat- 
 ter. It is a downward process as gradual as evolution, 
 and the point of contact is the embodiment called man. 
 
 " The action of the spirit of man is no more complex, 
 no more difficult of understanding, though more subtle in 
 its various effects upon the human system, than a point of 
 light, that radiates from a center to a great distance. 
 Many rays form a large circle, and yet all the rays maybe 
 traced by each single and separate ray to the one central 
 point of light." f " The spirit does not dwell within the 
 body, any more than the performer on the musical instru- 
 ment dwells within the instrument. The spirit is outside 
 of the body, but adapted to it so far as it is in rapport with 
 the body. So far as there is disease, the spirit is not pres- 
 ent in full action — has lost its control, precisely upon the 
 same principle that a musical performer would lose con- 
 trol of the instrument when One of the keys were out of 
 order." % 
 
 The physical body is, however, not the only product of 
 the spirit, as was stated in the preceding sections. The 
 immortal being called man undergoes many transforma- 
 tions during his evolution or eternal progression. Here it 
 is only now necessary to add, that in the new psychology, 
 
 * Psychopathy, page 38. t Psychopathy, page 20. 
 
 \ Flashes of Light, page 55. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 17 
 
 soul is not only the thinking principle in man, but likewise 
 the formative or organizing principle.* 
 
 " The individual expression of the soul is under the 
 government of the individual soul, while the whole life of 
 the universe is under the government of God, the soul of 
 the universe". What the soul shall express belongs to its 
 individual choice and to its individual life under God." 
 " The soul is a revelation unto outward nature. No ex- 
 ternal thing can reveal God. The soul alone, being of the 
 nature of God, perceives God." " As confidently may you 
 turn to that soul as the source of all possibilities, as the 
 atom turns unto the Sun as the source of all light." t 
 
 Finally, it is necessary to remark that in the new psy- 
 chology the terms mind, spirit, soul, have each a definite, 
 fixed meaning, and cannot be used one for the other, as 
 loosely as of old. Throughout this treatise these words 
 will be used in accordance with the above definitions. 
 
 Both the force called matter and the consciousness 
 known to us called mind, are products of a third essence 
 called spirit, of which mind and matter are different mani- 
 festations. " Spirit includes force and force includes 
 matter." 
 
 * See " Die Monistische Seelenlehre," by Carl du Prel. 
 f The Soul, page 9 to 15. 
 
1 8 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE DESTINY OF MAN. 
 
 Man, as we know him on earth, is a strange creature, 
 half animal, half human. But he is destined to attain a 
 height so inconceivably superior to his present state, that 
 we can only refer to analogous changes in his past. 
 Compare an utter savage with a Sir Isaac Newton, or a 
 cannibal with a Goethe or Shakespeare ! Not only will 
 man, even on earth, in ages to come, have gained im- 
 measurably more dominion over material nature, but he 
 will develop mental powers that will make of him an 
 angelic, celestial being, a very creator in miniature, as it 
 were, for God is the infinite Creator. Man ever remains 
 a finite being, though he become angelic and god-like. 
 But his growth will be gradual ; for in spiritual, as well as 
 in physical evolution there are no sudden jumps or leaps ; 
 his progressive development taking place by imperceptible 
 steps. We cannot see a tree grow ; yet we know that the 
 mighty oak tree was once an acorn. To assume that 
 man as we see him on earth is the highest creature on 
 the planet, the goal and apex of organic life ; the epitome 
 of all below him, the crown and glory of earthly creation, 
 is one thing, being true ; but to imagine him to be the 
 only, or the highest rational being in the universe, is 
 another thing, and utterly erroneous, nay, irrational, even 
 in the light of his past evolution. As irrational, as if 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 *9 
 
 minnows in a brook believed that they were the only 
 living creatures in the world, being confined to their 
 native element and limited surroundings, and having no 
 experience of terrestrial and aerial life. " In the ages yet 
 to be, the men of this earth will reach such sublime 
 heights, degrees and grades of development, that, to even 
 a very exalted mind, they will infinitely surpass the most 
 magnificent conceptions it now has of even a God ; yet 
 that will be but the beginning of further unfoldings. But, 
 while this will be true of men yet encased in the flesh 
 here on earth, it will be as nothing compared to man's ad- 
 vancement in the aromal worlds above." * 
 
 " In the light of revelation, I proclaim the existence of 
 entire orders, kingdoms, empires and republics of Gods : 
 derivative, not original ; personal, not universal ; local, 
 not omnipresent ; powerful, not almighty. Doubtless 
 there are millions of Gods, but they all depend upon One 
 great and unfathomable Over-Soul ; one great and all 
 pervasive and persuasive essence." f 
 
 The reader will perceive in what sense the word God 
 is used in this quotation. Ordinarily, our conception of 
 God is merely highly exalted human nature, and each 
 person's God is according to that person's mental and 
 moral altitude or ideal. Though man is called the image 
 of God, it is undeniable, that God, as conceived by men, 
 is an image of man. Whether we call the future exalted 
 being angel, archangel, or God, it is understood that we 
 use these names to express what is beyond our capacity 
 to comprehend, namely, glorified human beings, beings 
 that have overcome worlds and that are transfigured and 
 irradiated through wisdom and love. Yet all these, how- 
 ever exalted, were once lowly men and women such as we 
 
 * After Death, by P. B. Randolph, page 36. t Ibid, page 35. 
 
20 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 are to-day. It is the spiritual evolution of man, the pro- 
 gressive development through aeons and aeons to his divine 
 destiny. Man descends from the angelic state to matter 
 through involution, and ascends from matter to angelhood 
 through evolution. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 21 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE DUAL NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 We have already mentioned man's twofold constitution, 
 the physical, body and the spiritual body. The spiritual 
 body pre-exists, ready to take the place of the outer form, 
 at whatever time the change occurs which we call death. 
 " There is a natural (animal) body," it is said in the 
 passage quoted in Chapter I., " and there is (not there will 
 be), a spiritual body." That is to say, the spiritual body 
 is co-existent with the fleshly body ; is not created or 
 formed at death, but has existed all along during the 
 earthly life. In virtue of this double nature, man is a 
 denizen of two worlds, not successively, but simulta- 
 neously. His material organism is the instrument that 
 unites him to, and enables him to act in, the material 
 plane, or earth-life ; while his spiritual body unites him 
 with the spiritual plane. Thus man is living in two 
 spheres at the same time. To borrow an illustration of 
 A. P. Sinnett, as a vessel is placed in two mediums, water 
 and air, is acted upon below by one element, being 
 immersed in water, and above is acted upon by another 
 element, the wind, to which the sails respond, so man 
 lives in two mediums, acts in, and is acted upon, by each 
 simultaneously, * though, ordinarily, he is more or less 
 unconscious of his connection with the spiritual realm. 
 
 * The Rationale of Mesmerism, page 99. 
 
22 THE RELIGION OE THE FUTURE. 
 
 " Man, as a spiritual entity, is now and always in the 
 spiritual world." Strictly speaking " we never are em- 
 bodied ; we live now and ever in the spiritual state, 
 but the soul gives forth various impulses, which pro- 
 duce forms, and endows them with more or less per- 
 fection." * 
 
 "The story of Pygmalion and Galatea, in which the 
 statue comes to life and is made to speak, is illustrative 
 of the truth of spiritual evolution. The sculptor produces 
 a marble form by means of his intellect and affections, 
 which somewhat embodies his ideal ; he breathes his life 
 into the work of his own hands ; it could never become 
 himself : still the statue was made to breathe. Man's 
 outward form can have no life in itself. But it is an 
 animated statue made by the soul ; it is will and affection 
 manifest in form. We may even fancy the soul's animated 
 statue to have a wavering, wandering will of its own, 
 which often knows better than it does." f 
 
 The concluding words of this illustration bring us to a 
 point which must be now discussed. The dual nature of 
 man is not fully explained by tracing immoral conduct to 
 its supposed origin, namely to the animal body, and 
 referring conscience to the mind ; for the mind of man 
 is itself now the ally of conscience, and now the ally of 
 the lower propensities. To see in temptation only a 
 struggle between matter and mind is obviously a super- 
 ficial view of the matter. The intellect itself may be, and 
 often is, divided in its allegiance. The intellect, the 
 emotions and the will, may aid and abet the lower nature, 
 may attempt, after an evil deed, to extenuate, to excuse, 
 by what we call sophistical reasoning, and this may be 
 
 * Studies in Theosophy, by W. J. Colville, page 190. 
 t Ibid, page 189. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 23 
 
 done, and is often done, in good faith, in the sincere belief 
 that the evil act is justifiable. 
 
 " Though, as a rule, it may be said that men do wrong 
 in spite of the warnings of conscience. Our ideals are 
 very far from being realized and we somehow fall short 
 in our conduct. " What men themselves recognize as 
 duty, they continually disobey, and what, according to 
 their own standard, they acknowledge to be wrong, they 
 continually do." * 
 
 We speak of the higher self and the lower self, yet we 
 must assume man to be one individual. 
 
 The new psychology confirms the statement of Saint 
 Paul f that there is conjoined in man a sensuous in- 
 tellect and a pure spiritual mentality. The former he 
 calls Psyche, the latter he calls Pnenma. By psyche is 
 meant the natural man, the animal-souled man, and by 
 pneuma, the spiritual man. Now, man's task on earth is 
 to overcome the solicitations of his lower nature, to gain 
 the victory over temptation, and this constitutes one 
 main factor in his spiritual evolution. The antagonism 
 between sensual propensities and spiritual promptings, 
 between selfishness and benevolence, causes the conflict 
 so graphically described by the apostle : " For we know 
 
 that the law is spiritual ; but I am carnal 
 
 For not what I would do I practice : but what I hate, 
 that I do. But if I do that what I would not, I admit 
 that the law is good. So now it is no more I that do it, 
 but sin which dwelleth in me. For the good, which I 
 would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I 
 practice. For I delight in the law of God after the 
 inward man ; but I see a different law in my members, 
 
 * The Unity of Nature, by the Duke of Argyll, chap. vi. 
 t 1 Cor., xv. 45, et seq. 
 
24 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into 
 captivity. wretched man that I am ! " * 
 
 In Galatians, chapter v., we read : " For the flesh 
 lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ; 
 for these are contrary the one to the other." 
 
 The unprejudiced reader will at once perceive that a 
 devil, an outside tempter, is wholly superfluous, the tempta- 
 tion being inherent in the very nature of man. To use a 
 Biblical phrase in its true signification, we may say : Man 
 in his progressive spiritual evolution must " eat from the 
 tree of knowledge," must necessarily be tempted ; must at 
 one time or another eat forbidden fruit, that his eyes be 
 opened, and he learn to discern good and evil. Man 
 must buy his experience, and by stumbling learn to walk. 
 He learns from every blunder, profits from every defeat, 
 grows stronger as he copes with the enemy, and ultimate- 
 ly overcomes all solicitations of his lower nature. 
 
 * Romans, vii, 14-24. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 25 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE HIGHER SELF. 
 
 Though man lives in two media, he is ordinarily more 
 or less unconscious of the influence of the higher. 
 Normally, man feels himself to be One, not a double 
 being, and justly so, for the spirit-vitality is all there is of 
 life, and the spirit-consciousness is all there is of mind. 
 Withdraw the spirit and death ensues. Yet there is a 
 lower and a higher consciousness. The lower is of the 
 earth, earthy ; the higher is the enduring, immortal self- 
 hood. The higher includes the lower, but the lower is, 
 as said above, generally more or less unconscious of the 
 higher. " There is," says A. J. Davis, " an external and 
 corporeal memory, and a memory also, which is wholly 
 internal and spiritual. The former is a tablet whereon 
 the world, of matter and sensuous objects write the 
 evanescent impressions of their panoramic existence ; the 
 latter is the soul's sanctum sanctorum, wherein are de- 
 posited, as imperishable jewels in a casket which none 
 but the possessor can open, the spirit of things, of all im- 
 pressions, of all useful experiences. The most delicate 
 perfume of Thought is thus treasured up, while the body 
 of that thought is impressed upon the external memory, a 
 lifeless mass of material, to be laid aside with its tablet in 
 the tomb. But on the internal memory, the faintest lines 
 of a spiritual reality produce the most permanent impres- 
 
26 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 sions. And yet, in this life, the corporeal faculty is so 
 constantly called into requisition and exercise, that with 
 but rare exceptions, the mind's most interior experiences 
 are seldom remembered." * 
 
 "The senses of the body," says a high authority, " take 
 cognizance of the things of this world, the objective and 
 material life. The senses of the spirit take cognizance of 
 both worlds, live in the inner life, and understand what is 
 being done in the external life." f 
 
 One more quotation from the same source shall here 
 be inserted : " Every individual possesses a double in- 
 dividuality, one belonging to the inner and one to the 
 outer life. The latter is the result of physique, educa- 
 tion : the former of divine inspiration. They are separate 
 and distinct from each other ; although while in the body 
 they hold the closest relationship to each other, yet there 
 is a distinct dividing line ever running between them 
 
 And they are perpetually at war with each 
 
 other, because they are two opposites, and in chemistry 
 when two opposites are brought together, there is violent 
 action, opposition." X 
 
 I have said that, ordinarily and normally, we are 
 scarcely aware of this duality ; but when the equilibrium 
 is disturbed, as in the state of temptation, for instance, 
 we become conscious of our dual nature. The following 
 cases will illustrate this, and disclose at once two great 
 characteristics of the activity of the higher conscious- 
 ness, namely, its activity is more conspicuous, the more 
 the lower consciousness is inactive, or in abeyance ; and 
 it stands in different relations to time and space. " Fech- 
 ner reports the case of a lady who fell into the water and 
 
 * The Inner Life, page 225. f Flashes of Light, page 263. 
 
 % Flashes of Light, page 292. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 27 
 
 came near being drowned. From the moment when all 
 bodily motions ceased, until she was drawn out of the water, 
 about two minutes elapsed, during which, according to 
 her own statement, she lived over again her whole past 
 life, the most insignificant details of which presented 
 themselves before her mental vision." * 
 
 Admiral Beaufort relates from his own experience the 
 following incident, in which the events of a life-time were 
 reviewed in memory within a very few minutes. He fell 
 into the water, and had already lost consciousness. " In 
 this condition there was such intense mental activity, one 
 thought following another with such rapidity, that the 
 process is not only indescribable, but surely also incon- 
 ceivable by one who never passed through a similar ex- 
 perience." First, the immediate consequences of his 
 death for his family presented themselves ; then his reflec- 
 tions turned to his past life ; he repeated his last crusade, 
 a former voyage and shipwreck, his time spent in school, 
 the progress he made in his studies, and the time he 
 wasted, even all his juvenile voyages and adventures. 
 " Thus travelling backwards, I seemed to pass through 
 every incident of my past life in retrogressive succession ; 
 but not in mere outlines did I view these, for I beheld 
 them as a completely elaborated picture, with all, even 
 the minutest features and incidental circumstances; in 
 short, the whole period of my past life appeared in a kind 
 of panoramic survey before the mirror of my soul, and 
 every scene seemed accompanied by a consciousness of 
 right and wrong, or a certain reflection as to cause 
 and effect ; indeed, some trifling occurrences, which I had 
 forgotten long ago, now loomed up and appeared, more- 
 over, as if they had only happened a little while ago." \ 
 
 * Philosophic der Mystic, by Carl du Prel, page 78. t Ibid. 
 
28 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 It is obvious, then, that the line dividing the mind from 
 the spirit is not fixed or immovable. By mind the new 
 psychology understands the consciousness of the spirit 
 focalized in the human organism, producing " the most 
 external expression of the soul." This is the earthly 
 phenomenal personality, which in the old psychology is 
 the whole ego. But it is incontestably proved that man 
 is Janus-faced.'* The lower consciousness is limited, is 
 derived from the higher, and both are united and blended, 
 so that ordinarily, the lower is unconscious of the higher ; 
 but whenever this unity is disturbed, as in the conflict of 
 temptation, or in the cases mentioned, the higher asserts 
 itself unmistakably, and predominates exactly in the pro- 
 portion, in which the lower is suppressed. There are, 
 however, individuals in whom the two natures are more 
 loosely combined, as it were, and who, accordingly, are 
 clearly conscious of the influence of the spirit or higher 
 self, as we shall see further on. Owing to a peculiar sensi- 
 tive, nervous organization, these persons manifest excep- 
 tional transcendental powers. 
 
 A hundred years ago, the German philosopher Kant 
 uttered intuitively this prediction : " It will yet be proved 
 at some future time, I know not where or when, that the 
 human soul, even in this life, is indissolubly united with 
 all immaterial entities in the Spirit world, that the soul 
 alternately acts in the Spirit realm, and receives from this 
 realm influences, of which man however is unaware, as 
 long as everything is all right with him. f 
 
 In the following chapter will be seen how gloriously 
 this prediction is fulfilled to-day, in a degree perhaps 
 hardly inticipated by the Sage of Koenigsberg. 
 
 * See Phil. d. Mystic, by du Prel, page 378. 
 
 t Kant, as quoted by du Prel, Phil. d. Mystik, page 446. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 29 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TRANSCENDENTAL POWERS IN MAN. 
 
 The spiritual evolution of man begins low down at the 
 foot of the ladder, in physical life. Brute force and cun- 
 ning are the weapons used in physical conquest. Next 
 comes the intellectual life, more or less employed by the 
 lower, selfish half of man's nature, engaged in accumulat- 
 ing wealth, in scientific achievements and explorations, 
 but on the whole, unsanctified by the higher spiritual ele- 
 ment. The next, third stage in man's evolution, will be 
 the spiritual, which as yet is in embryo in the majority of 
 human beings on earth. The mere intellect, the natural 
 or animal-souled man, as Saint Paul calls him, has hitherto 
 been engaged mainly in subduing external forces ; in 
 conquests over objective nature ; conquests for self, for 
 the lower self. But in the next stage of spiritual evolu- 
 tion he will subdue human nature, the lower, selfish pro- 
 pensities. The victory will then be not merely for self, 
 but over self.* The dormant spiritual faculties in man 
 will unfold themselves, and man's subjective, inner, im- 
 mortal nature, will be found more wonderful than all 
 the tremendous forces of objective nature. As has been 
 said : " Nothing on earth is great but man, and nothing 
 in man is great but mind. " If we substitute for the word 
 mind here, spirit, the saying is more correct. 
 * See The Soul, pages 34-46. 
 
30 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Thus, spiritual evolution begins, where science and 
 philosophy pause ; science as represented by Darwin, and 
 philosophy as represented by Spencer.* 
 
 Mere intellect is blossom, the fruit of which is often 
 poisonous, producing " the works of the flesh ; " "But 
 the fruit of the spirit, is love, joy, peace, long suffering, 
 kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance." t 
 
 Surely, man possesses now the germs of these divine 
 qualities. Nay, he already manifests them in some de- 
 gree in the relations of family life. Thus, while man 
 shows in his constitution lower traits, survivals of past 
 stages of development, he likewise shows indications of 
 future higher stages, and reveals glimpses of what he will 
 become in future in this earth-life, glimpses likewise of the 
 higher life to which he is transferred after death. 
 
 Man's mind has grown gradually, from the infantile 
 intellect of the savage, to the attainments of civilized 
 modern thought. In his future progressive growth he 
 will develop new, hitherto unsuspected faculties ; facul- 
 ties the world has in past ages called and even now calls 
 abnormal, miraculous, supernatural, occult ; faculties 
 as natural as his other familiar mental powers. As in the 
 wonders of nature and art, such as the motions of the 
 heavenly, bocfr&s* in space, or the inventions of the 
 steam-engine and telegraph, we see only natural forces 
 and results of man's mental inventive powers, so any man- 
 ifestations of man's future higher faculties must be 
 called natural, not supernatural, normal not miraculous. 
 For these faculties, however hidden apparently, lay latent 
 in man's psychic nature. And, throughout history in all 
 
 * See Biology, by Herbert Spencer, vol. ii., par. 372, page 495, and 
 The Destiny of Man, by John Fiske, page 26. 
 t Galatians v. 22-24. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 31 
 
 ages, and in every region where men lived, there were man- 
 ifested, here and there, transcendental powers. Such 
 powers are pre-eminently developing themselves in our 
 age, and are as natural and normal in man's progressive de- 
 velopment, as the more familiar mental faculties that were 
 developed in his past stages of growth. What was hitherto 
 called abnormal is seen to be a normal product of evo- 
 lution. The thing, or phenomenon inexplicable to the 
 orthodox science of our time, from the standpoint of 
 scientific text-books, is simply an effect of a cause, as 
 yet unknown ; it is governed by a force or law not yet 
 discovered in the old way of research. 
 
 Let us then, on the threshold, and before entering 
 the great realm of transcendental forces declare, once 
 for all, that what men heretofore have with bated breath, 
 and feelings of mystery and awe, called occult or miracu- 
 lous, the new psychology simply considers as effects, pro- 
 duced by agencies unknown by the current science. 
 Unknown, not unknowable, natural not supernatural, nor- 
 mal not abnormal. 
 
 Yet, if men insist upon calling these phenomena super- 
 natural, there is no objection, provided they mean by 
 the word that what transcends the known laws of nature, 
 what is above and beyond the natural forces known to 
 the orthodox science of the day. 
 
 In this sense the term occult \s also no't inappropriate ; 
 while it was recently suggested by an investigator, to call 
 the transcendental powers in man supernormal. 
 
 An enumeration of some of these powers is now in 
 order. 
 
32 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SLEEP-PHENOMENA. 
 
 The spirit is the life in man ; if the spirit withdraws, 
 there is death. It acts upon the organism " through the 
 generation and distribution of the vitalizing force ; as a 
 telegraph operator, having arranged his apparatus and 
 system of wires and connections, does not need to be at 
 every point personally, but only at the central point, so 
 the spirit has centered its powers in the brain." * The 
 front brain, or cerebrum, is the center of all vol- 
 untary functions of body and mind. The back brain, 
 or cerebellum, controls and guides the involuntary func- 
 tions, such as respiration, digestion, circulation, assimila- 
 tion and secretion. These organic processes, called 
 sometimes vegetative functions, go on unconsciously j for, 
 normally, the mind does not control them. But the spirit 
 does, not directly, but indirectly, having delegated the 
 control to the posterior brain. During sleep the voluntary 
 functions are suspended, while the involuntary processes 
 continue. The waste of the body is repaired and re- 
 cuperation of the whole organism takes place. A third of 
 our life on earth is spent in sleep. 
 
 During this state the brain proper, the cerebrum, ought 
 to rest ; all its functions ought to be suspended. I say 
 ought to be ; for " in perfect sleep all the faculties of the 
 
 * Psychopathy, by Dr. Rush, page 45. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 7>Z 
 
 mind are in repose." But perfect sleep is comparatively 
 rare. The psychic waves, more or less agitated during 
 the waking state, have not subsided completely and we — 
 dream. These dreams in which the brain proper, the 
 organ of mind, is improperly active, are, as a general rule, 
 devoid of logical coherence, are more or less meaningless, 
 and even irrational and absurd. We remember many 
 such dreams, after awaking, because they are products of 
 the brain, the organ of thought in the waking state. But 
 in perfect sleep, when the mind is in complete repose, the 
 spirit becomes relatively free, and can act in its own realm, 
 and is acted upon. It can then have visions, and behold 
 scenes, which on awaking, cannot be remembered by the 
 mind, in the great majority of instances. How then can 
 we know that the spirit is active, if we cannot remember ? 
 During such profound, sound sleep, do we yet dream at 
 all ? Here the new method of research comes to our 
 help.* Somnambulists act their dreams, as the word 
 sleep-walker signifies. With closed eyes they walk and 
 avoid obstacles, write, or sew, or are engaged in other 
 occupations. " A young clergyman was in the habit of 
 rising from his bed and writing his sermons while asleep. 
 When he had written a page, he would read it aloud and 
 correct it. The Archbishop of Bordeaux is authority for 
 this narrative. Once in altering the expression " ce devin 
 enfant, he substituted the word " adorable " for " devin" 
 which, commencing with a vowel, required that " ce" before 
 it should be changed to " cet ; " he accordingly added the 
 " /." While he was writing the archbishop held a piece of 
 pasteboard under his chin to prevent him seeing what he 
 
 See du Prel, Phil, der Mystik, pages 36-44. 
 
34 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 was writing, but he went on without being in the least 
 incommoded. The paper on which he was writing was 
 removed and another piece substituted, but he at once 
 perceived the change. He also wrote pieces of music 
 with his eyes closed. He once wrote the words under 
 the notes too large, but discovering his mistake, he erased 
 and rewrote them. He certainly did not see with his eyes, 
 and yet the vision was perfect." * W. B. Carpenter quotes 
 the following from Abercrombie's Intellectual Powers. 
 The reader will note that in the case now to be related, 
 the intellectual work done by the spirit during sleep was 
 afterwards remembered as a dream. " An eminent 
 Scottish lawyer had been consulted respecting a case of 
 great importance and much difficulty ; and he had been 
 studying it with intense anxiety and attention. After 
 several days had been occupied in this manner, he was 
 observed by his wife to rise from his bed in the night, 
 and go to a writing-desk which stood in the bedroom. 
 He then sat down, and wrote a long paper which he care- 
 fully put by in his desk, and returned to bed. The 
 following morning he told his wife that he had had a most 
 interesting dream ; — that he had dreamt of delivering a 
 clear and luminous opinion respecting a case which had 
 exceedingly perplexed him ; and that he would give any- 
 thing to recover the train of thought which had passed 
 before him in his dream. She then directed him to the 
 writing-desk, where he found the opinion fully and clearly 
 written out ; and this was afterwards found to be perfectly 
 correct." f 
 
 The reader will now be prepared to go a step further, 
 and observe how science has succeeded first, in inducing 
 
 * Psychic Studies, by Hudson Tuttle, page 50. 
 
 t Mental Physiology, by W. B. Carpenter, page 593. 
 
THE RELIGION OE THE FUTURE. 35 
 
 very deep sleep, second, in making the sleeper talk and give 
 information concerning his mental activity. For the deep 
 sleep can be induced by mesmeric passes ; is called the 
 magnetic sleep, being caused by a subtle, invisible, but 
 potent either or magnetic fluid proceeding from the 
 operator. 
 
 Mr. A. P. Sinnet, speaking of a Paris professor, J. J. 
 A. Ricard, who published in 1841 a volume entitled 
 " Traite theorique et pratique du Magnetisme Animal" con- 
 tinues as follows : " He gives a very full account of his 
 first experience in this region of inquiry with a girl named 
 Adcle Lcfrey, who exhibited a new kind of lucidity at the 
 conclusion of some curative treatment received at her 
 mesmerist's hands. M. Ricard's Adele said to him words 
 conveying exactly the same ideas which I have heard 
 uttered by sensitives under my own influence, young girls 
 to whom the A B C of mesmerism as a branch of knowl- 
 edge was wholly unknown. It may be worth while here 
 to translate a short passage. M. Ricard writes : She 
 was near the completion of her cure, when in the midst of 
 some new medical instructions which he was giving, she 
 said to me in a singular tone, " You hear what he orders 
 me?" " Who," I asked, "is ordering you anything?" 
 " Why, monsieur, do you not hear him? " " No, I neither 
 hear nor see any one.-" " Ah, that is true," she replied, 
 " you sleep while I am awake." " What do you mean ? 
 You dream, my child ; you pretend that I sleep, when I 
 have my eyes open and I can appreciate all that passes 
 before me, while I know that I actually hold you in com- 
 mand by my magnetic influence, and that it only depends 
 upon my will to bring you back to the state you were in 
 recently. You believe yourself awake because you speak 
 to me, and you have to a certain extent your free will, 
 
36 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 although you could not open your eyelids, and might be 
 plunged in an instant into the most profound slumber. 
 You do not reflect upon what you are saying." " You do 
 not understand me, monsieur, but that is nothing surpris- 
 ing." "You are asleep," I replied. "I am, on the con- 
 trary, as completely awake as we shall all be some day in 
 the future. I will explain myself more clearly ; all that 
 you see at present is gross, material ; you distinguish ap- 
 parent forms ; the real beauties escape you. How could 
 it be otherwise ? Your spirit is cramped, obscured, by the 
 exterior impressions that your material senses give you. 
 It can only reach out feebly, while my corporeal sensations 
 are actually annihilated, while my soul is almost disinte- 
 grated from its ordinary fetters. I see what is invisible to 
 your eyes, I hear what your ears cannot hear, I understand 
 what for you is incomprehensible. For example, you do 
 not see what emanates from yourself and comes to me when 
 you magnetize me ; I, on the contrary, see it very clearly ; 
 at each pass you direct toward me I see a little column of 
 fiery dust which comes from the end of your fingers, and 
 seems to incorporate itself in me. Then when you isolate 
 me, I seem surrounded by an atmosphere of this fiery 
 dust, which is often the reason why objects of which I seek 
 to distinguish the forms, take a ruddy tinge for me. I 
 hear, when I desire it, a sound that is made at a distance, 
 sounds which may arise a hundred leagues from here. In 
 a word, I am not obliged to wait till things come to me, I 
 can go to them wherever they are, and appreciate them 
 more correctly than any one could who is not in a similar 
 state to that in which I find myself." * 
 
 I will only add here that clairvoyance, of which I shall 
 speak further on, is not " merely a pathological condition," 
 * The Rationale of Mesmerism, page 52. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 37 
 
 or, in other words, it is not induced or occasioned only 
 by sickness or any morbid affection, though illness may 
 very often produce the sensitive condition. A condition 
 is not a cause. To use Du Prel's apt illustration : The 
 darkness after sunset is not the cause of the appearance 
 of the stars, it is only the necessary condition for our 
 ability to see them ; they were in the sky before ; the 
 darkness only makes them visible to us ; they are always 
 there, but are invisible to us in daytime. There are 
 many occasions when the interior activity of the spirit is 
 disclosed, independently of cerebration or brain-activity. 
 One of these occasions or conditions is very deep sleep, 
 in which " the Ego becomes liberated." 
 
 I conclude this chapter with a quotation from a recent 
 lecture of Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond : " During sleep, 
 when the body yields to the law of rest, and the brain 
 must have repose, do you suppose the spirit sleeps ? If 
 the spirit can sleep one millionth part of a second, anni- 
 hilation is possible. But when the power of law makes 
 the body glad to sleep, the inverse action of the spirit 
 makes the spirit glad, for the time, to be free. It is in 
 the realms of dreams or of dreamless sleep, where the 
 consciousness of the spirit is supreme, and the spirit exists 
 separate from the form, and it has power of its own in a 
 realm of its own. When finally these physical forms are 
 cast aside, and the dim veil that divides the spirit while 
 in this world from the realm of spiritual existence, as 
 spirits you will say : ' Why, this is all familiar, I have 
 known about this before.' And you will discover that 
 about one-third of the time of your so-called natural exist- 
 ence, your consciousness has been in the realm of spirit 
 after all, and that even while pervading your bodies with 
 what you think is all of your consciousness, there is a large 
 
38 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 share of your consciousness that is not employed in the 
 mechanical duties of daily life." # 
 
 This is the reason sound sleep is so refreshing, so re- 
 cuperating, after the toil, the wear and tear of the day. 
 We could not, perhaps, endure the hardships and sorrows 
 of life, if our spirit could not periodically bathe in the 
 celestial ether, and breathe the fragrance of immortal 
 flowers. 
 
 Truly all men have at times visions ; all men hear at 
 times the music of the spheres, as is already said in the 
 thirty-third chapter of the Book of Job : "Ina dream, in 
 a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, 
 in slumberings upon the bed ; then he opened the ears of 
 men." 
 
 Of the bearings of this upon the visions recorded in the 
 Bible, I shall speak in a succeeding chapter. 
 
 * The Celestial Regions, a lecture printed in "The Progressive 
 Thinker," June 25, 1892. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 
 
 39 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EXCURSIONS OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 The spirit is the man or woman, not the body. The 
 relation subsisting between spirit and body is, as already 
 mentioned, as the relation between a musician and his 
 instrument, while playing. The only difference is, that 
 whereas, the musician is never blended with the instru- 
 ment, but exists apart, visibty, the spirit is intimately 
 joined to the body, so much so, that, though it can vacate 
 it temporarily and return to it, it is during such times of 
 absence still united with the body, by what may be called 
 a magnetic cord. If, during the spirit's excursion, this 
 magnetic cord should snap, death would ensue. " I 
 learned," says the great seer, A. J. Davis, while in the 
 clairvoyant state, " that the correspondence between the 
 birth of a child into this world, and the birth of the spirit 
 from the material body into a higher world, is absolute and 
 complete — even to the umbilical cord. . . . The umbilical 
 life-cord, of which I speak, is sometimes not severed, but 
 is drawn out into the finest possible medium of sympa- 
 thetic connection between the body and the spirit. This 
 is invariably the case when individuals apparently die, 
 and, after being absent for a few days or hours, return, 
 as from a peaceful journey, to relate their spiritual expe- 
 riences. Such phenomena are modernly termed Trances, 
 Catalepsy, Somnambulism and spiritual Extasis. There 
 
40 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 are many different stages, or divisions, and subdivisions, 
 of these states. But when the spirit is arrested in its 
 flight from the body, and when it is held in a transitional 
 or mediatorial state, for only a few hours or minutes, then 
 the mind seldom retains a recollection of its experience. 
 
 It is when the spirit entirely leaves the body — 
 
 only retaining proprietorship over it, through the medium 
 of the unsevered umbilical thread of electric wire, as it 
 might be called — that the soul is enabled to abandon its 
 earthly tenement and interests, for many hours or days, 
 and afterwards, to return to the earth — laden with bright 
 and happy memories." * 
 
 Before relating some typical instances of this kind, it is 
 necessary here to call attention to what is generally called 
 the double : the Doppelgcenger, the Germans call it. It ap- 
 pears that in many cases of this sort, the so-called double 
 is a mere phantom projected unconsciously. " Byron was 
 informed by Sir Robert Peel, that he was seen by the lat- 
 ter in 1810 on St. James Street. The poet knew that his 
 counterpart often appeared. Two days after, Peel again 
 saw Byron's double on the street, and showed it to By- 
 ron's brother, who immediately recognized the phantom. 
 Among those who inquired after the health of the king — 
 who was then insane — and who wrote their names into a 
 list, Byron's double was seen signing the name. Byron 
 lay at the time in a violent fever at Patras, in Greece. " I 
 do not doubt," he writes, "that we may, through some un- 
 known process, appear to be double, but which of the two 
 is at this moment the real person, I leave to you to decide. 
 The only thing that I hope and wish is, that my second 
 self behave like a gentleman." f 
 
 * The Great Harmonia, vol. i., page 168. 
 
 t Die Monistische Seelenlehre, by du Prel, page 172. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 41 
 
 It seems that when some persons think intently, or yearn 
 for a distant person or thing, their double appears at or 
 near the object of their thought or feeling. This, by the 
 way, is the philosophy of wraiths, or " the apparition of a 
 person in his exact likeness " at the moment of death or a 
 little after. An amusing instance of a double is given in 
 the Archiv fur thierischen Magnetismus : " Peter Mueller, 
 from the parish of Enge on the Langenberg, was driven 
 by his coachman to church one Sunday morning to attend 
 the Lord's Supper. The driver rode back home immedi- 
 ately and unhitched the horses. When bringing them into 
 the stable he saw in it his master in his dressing-gown and 
 slippers, his head covered with a white cap — as was his ha- 
 bitual morning attire — walking slowly to and fro, with the 
 face turned toward the cattle. This vision had a bad 
 effect upon the hostler, so that he remained long in a per- 
 turbed state of mind. The master, on being taken home 
 again from church, noticed the change in his driver's face, 
 but it was only after coming home, and in response to an 
 urgent command, that the servant told him what he had 
 seen. Immediately the .team was made ready again, and 
 once more the master visited his friend, the pastor Hin- 
 richsen at Leek, who closely questioned the coachman 
 concerning the hour at which he saw the apparition. It 
 turned out that it was exactly the time when the Lord's 
 Supper was administered. " Now, then," said the pastor 
 to Mueller, " tell me frankly to what your thoughts were 
 directed, what you were thinking of, when you stood be- 
 fore the altar ? " " To confess the truth freely," replied 
 Mueller, " I was thinking of my cattle." " Well, here you 
 have the cause of the vision. I know of no other one," 
 concluded the minister. * Prof. Perty gives the par- 
 
 * Die Monistische Seelenlehre, by du Prel, page 178. 
 
42 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 ticulars of the double of a governess ; the young lady could 
 not keep any position long, on account of being frequently 
 seen in two places at the same time. 
 
 Having now disposed of this branch of our subject, we 
 will proceed to contemplate the real separations, however 
 temporary, of the spirit from its tenement. 
 
 The psychic discoveries of recent research which seem 
 so novel and strange to the western world have long been 
 familiar to eastern sages. The Orientals are said to be 
 very conservative, not inclined to make new discoveries 
 in physical science. But in mental science they have been 
 our teachers. All great religions originated in the east : 
 Buddhism, Christianity and Mohammedanism. Mr. A. P. 
 Sinnett says : " The adept (eastern) has found the key of 
 his prison and can emerge from it at pleasure. The body 
 is the prison of the soul for ordinary mortals. It is no 
 longer a prison for the sage — merely a dwelling. In other 
 words, the adept can project his soul out of his body to 
 
 any place he pleases with the rapidity of thought 
 
 As an incidental discovery, it will be observed, he has thus 
 ascertained beyond all shadow of, doubt that he really has 
 
 got a soul he knows he has a soul. He knows 
 
 it just as another man knows he has a great-coat. He 
 can put it from him, and render it manifest as something 
 separate from himself. But remember that to him, when 
 the separation is effected, he is the soul, and the thing put 
 off is the body." * The following case of separation is 
 very curious, and ought perhaps to have been classified 
 with the double. Here, however, the double is no phantom, 
 but the real person. Professor Perty relates : " Miss 
 Sophie Swoboda, twenty years of age in- 1853, had laid 
 
 * The Occult World, by A. P. Sinnett, 2nd Amer. Edition, pages 
 15, 17, 20. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 43 
 
 herself upon the sofa in her mother's room one afternoon 
 on account of severe headache. She finally fell asleep. 
 It seemed to her now as if the mother withdrew softly 
 from the room ; she awoke ; felt now quite easy and free 
 from pain, rose up hastily in order to follow her mother 
 into a third room, to tell her this favorable change. The 
 mother was sitting over her knitting ; the father, opposite 
 her, sat reading aloud to her Schelling's Mystische Ncechte. 
 Sophie placed herself by the side of both parents, to await 
 a pause in the reading for her communication. But neither 
 of them noticed her; although they looked up several 
 times in expressing to one another their opinion of the 
 reading. Surprised at this, Sophie withdrew into the re- 
 cess of one of the windows and listened to the reading. 
 Soon, however, the mother arose, saying : " I am uneasy 
 about Sophie's illness ; I must look after her." Now the 
 latter quickly came forward to reassure her. But the 
 mother did not look at her ; hurried out of the room into 
 the first room. Now Sophie was about to surprise her 
 mother with a kiss, as she followed behind ; but the mother 
 in anxiety hastened to the sofa, whereon Sophie had lain. 
 " How pale she is ! " said the mother to another daughter, 
 Theresa, who was just entering through another door. 
 Sophie, now looking in the same direction, saw to her great 
 astonishment herself lying upon the sofa, ghastly pale and 
 her eyes closed. Mother and sister were bending down 
 anxiously, calling her by name. This induced Sophie to 
 advance close to the spot too. At that moment she felt 
 herself thrown upon the couch as with one blow. Wearily 
 and painfully she opened her eyes, and assisted by her 
 mother and sister she raised herself up. After she had 
 somewhat recovered herself, she related to the parents her 
 experience, and they marveled not a little when she re- 
 
44 THE RELIGION OE THE FUTURE. 
 
 peated the passages the father had read, and the opinions 
 both had expressed, using partly the identical language, 
 yet she had been three rooms distant and the door was 
 shut." * 
 
 Professor Max Perty has compiled an immense number 
 of so-called mystic phenomena, that have occurred in all 
 ages and in every country almost. He who thinks such 
 occurrences are very rare is greatly mistaken; let him 
 read the literature on the subject and he will know better. 
 Even if very rare, they would still be indispensable to the 
 psychological student. Diamonds are comparatively rare 
 compared with common stones ; volcanoes are compara" 
 tively rare compared with other mountains. Genius is 
 rare in the intellectual world. Yet we make investiga- 
 tions concerning these rare elements. Yea, just because 
 genius is rare, we study or contemplate it with so much 
 more diligence. And " if an author were to write a 
 history of English literature, and leave out Shakespeare, 
 maintaining as a reason that such a genius is too great an 
 exception to be considered in literature, we would unan- 
 imously declare such an author a fool. We would 
 reply that, aside from the great influence upon literature 
 of such an exceptional genius, the psychological study of 
 such a mind throws a brighter light upon man's mental 
 powers than a multitude of ordinary men of letters." f 
 
 Nor can other cases of mere superstition or hallucina- 
 tion invalidate authentic evidence. " One indubitable, 
 positive instance cannot be invalidated by a hundred 
 negative ones." t One genuine case is enough for estab- 
 
 * Psychische Studien (1879), quoted by du Prel, Mon. Seelenl. 
 page 194. 
 
 t See Das Zweite Gesicht, by du Prel, page 5. 
 I Der Spiritismus, by E. von Hartmann, page 14. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 45 
 
 lishing the possibility of the occurrence of any kind of 
 phenomena, no matter how numerous the counterfeits or 
 deceptions. " Prisoner ! " said the judge to a culprit, 
 " what have you to say against the testimony of these 
 witnesses that have seen the act?" "Your honor," 
 replied the accused, " I can bring you many more 
 witnesses that have seen nothing." * 
 
 It will be understood then, by the discerning reader, 
 that the instances given in this book of so-called occult 
 phenomena are selected from multitudes of instances ; 
 one, two or three typical ones only are adduced. The 
 following, however, is perhaps one of a class of occur- 
 rences comparatively rarer than others in its particulars, 
 which are exceedingly interesting and instructive. Perty 
 relates : " In the month of April, 1866, a lady whom I 
 know was reading Matzenauer's little book , ' The Human 
 Mind Here and Hereafter,' which she enjoyed greatly : 
 but a scholar who resided in the same town, caused her 
 much chagrin by his avowed unbelief. Otherwise, she 
 highly esteemed the man. So she thought : I would like 
 to prove to the doctor, that the author is right in some 
 things at least ! She firmly made up her mind to pay 
 him a spiritual visit, as soon as she could, in order to 
 convince him by his own experience of man's twofold 
 nature of body and soul. One day she returned from an 
 agricultural exposition fatigued, and with a headache ; 
 she ate little and retired to seek recreation in sleep. At 
 about three o'clock in the afternoon, when not yet fully 
 asleep, she felt herself especially capable of leaving her 
 body and of becoming 'self-active.' When she closed her 
 eyes, she found herself immediately in the familiar room 
 of the gentleman, who was sitting at his writing-desk and 
 
 t du Prel relates this somewhere. 
 
46 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 was taking out a small object from a little box, which cir- 
 cumstance the lady well remembers. He gave expres- 
 sion to his thoughts in a monologue, and though he men- 
 tioned no name, she in her lucid state knew immediately 
 what he was talking about. Yielding to a mischievous 
 impulse, she stepped forward to his right side and 
 whispered in reply to what he had spoken, teasingly, a 
 question into his ear, which he, however, regarded as his 
 own stray thought crossing his mind, causing him to 
 smile. Now, as the lady wanted to be recognized, and 
 she could not make him hear her, she was about to make 
 herself visible to him. Advancing a few steps she stood 
 now opposite him, near the window, gazing at him in- 
 tently with the firm determination that he should see her. 
 He raised his eyes toward her and, to all appearances, 
 she must now have been visible. But he regarded what 
 he beheld as an hallucination, as much as to say : ' Is 
 what I see objective, or subjective ; is it a delusion of the 
 senses, and what has produced it ? ' Thus he looked at 
 the lady longer than she wished ; for, being acquainted 
 with him from youth, she desired to be recognized, and 
 to be spoken to. But as nothing of the sort occurred, 
 she gazed at him almost sternly, regretting his unbelief 
 and his silence. Yet she did not succeed on that day to 
 convince him of the power of the spirit over the body. 
 He only looked at her more sharply, and she concluded 
 to withdraw and end her visit ; but in order to avoid 
 meeting other persons, not to go out through the door, 
 but to vanish characteristically before his eyes. Gradually 
 drawing back, yet still looking steadily at the doctor, she 
 approached the corner in the wall near the window, when 
 she suddenly remembered that naturally this wall would 
 be a physical barrier ; at the same time, however, she re- 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 47 
 
 membered her spiritual power of will. She must get 
 through here. So she retired with head bent backwards, 
 first passing through the furniture that was standing by 
 the wall, next she passed through the wall itself ; it was a 
 so-called main wall. From the gentleman's love of truth 
 she drew the hope that he would some day acknowledge 
 and confirm what to her was such a highly interesting 
 case." * 
 
 I conclude this chapter with a curious instance from the 
 New Testament, where an excarnated spirit is called an 
 angel. In the twelfth chapter of The Acts is recorded 
 how King Herod imprisoned Peter the Apostle, and how 
 the prisoner was released miraculously from confinement. 
 The apostle, on seeking entrance to the house of his 
 friends, who had no intimation of his deliverance, was by 
 them regarded as the spirit of Peter, already slain by the 
 cruel King : " He came to the house of Mary, the mother 
 of John, whose surname was Mark ; where many were 
 gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the 
 door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. 
 And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the 
 gate for joy, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before 
 the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But 
 she confidently affirmed that it was so, and they said, It 
 is his angel." t 
 
 * Mystische Thatsachen, etc., page 32-34. t Acts xii., 12-15. 
 
48 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SECOND SIGHT. 
 
 Ordinarily we cannot see things that are beyond the 
 reach of our eyes, or hear sounds beyond the reach of our 
 ears ; but certain human beings are gifted with a power 
 to see and hear what is distant in time and space. An 
 event of the future is beheld as a present occurrence and 
 scenes that transpire ever so far in the distance, are seen 
 by the seer. The word Seer reminds us forthwith of a 
 scene in the Bible recorded in I. Samuel, Chap. IX. : Saul 
 is seeking some animals that were missing. As he cannot 
 find them, he says to the servants accompanying him in 
 the search : " Behold now, there is in this city a man of 
 God, and honorable ; all that he saith, cometh surely to 
 pass : now let us go thither ; peradventure he can shew 
 us our way that we should go. Beforetime in Israel, when 
 a man went to inquire of God, he spake thus : ' Come, and 
 let us go to the seer ■ ' for he that is now called Prophet 
 was beforetime called a Seer." In II. Kings, Chap. VI., 
 we read of an incident that introduces to us another famous 
 Seer : " Then the King of Syria warred against Israel, 
 and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and 
 such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God 
 (Elisha) sent unto the King of Israel, saying, Beware that 
 thou pass not such a place ; for thither the Syrians are 
 come down. And the King of Israel sent to the place 
 which the man of God told him and warned him of, and 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 49 
 
 saved himself there, not once nor twice." (That is to say, 
 this happened several times that the King of Israel was 
 thus informed.) " Therefore the heart of the King of 
 Syria was sore troubled for this thing ; and he called his 
 servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which 
 of us is for the King of Israel ? " (There must be a traitor 
 among us ; will no one point him out ?) " And one of his 
 servants said, None, my lord, O King : but Elisha, the 
 prophet that is in Israel, telleth the King of Israel the 
 words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber." 
 
 I will at once advance to a modern example. This is 
 the famous case of Cazotte's prophecy concerning the 
 French Revolution. The prediction is recorded by La 
 Harpe in his collected works, published in 1806. He 
 describes himself as having been present, at the com- 
 mencement of the year 1788, at a dinner party given by 
 one of his confreres of the Academy, to a distinguished 
 company, including people of the Court, of legal and liter- 
 ary distinction, and many Academicians. The conversa- 
 tion during the evening ran on the lines of Voltairean 
 infidelity and atheism, then coming so widely into fashion. 
 The party was convulsed with delight at one anecdote told 
 by a guest, whose hair-dresser had said to him, " Look 
 you, sir, though I am but a miserable carabin, I have no 
 more religion than anybody else." The only person who 
 had not taken part in all these pleasantries was Cazotte, 
 an amiable and original man, says La Harpe, but unfort- 
 unately infatuated with the reveries of the mystic. At 
 last he spoke more seriously than the others. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said he, " be satisfied ; you will see this 
 grand and sublime revolution which you desire so much." 
 
 " No need to be a great sorcerer to foresee that," replied 
 some. 
 4 
 
50 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 "True, but perhaps it is necessary to be something of 
 one to see the rest I have to tell you — namely, what will 
 happen during this revolution." 
 
 Count D'Orsay said, with a sarcastic laugh, that a phi- 
 losopher need not be annoyed at encountering a prophet. 
 
 " You, Count D'Orsay," said Cazotte, " will expire on 
 the pavement of a dungeon. You will die of poison 
 which you will have taken to escape the executioner — 
 poison which the happiness of that epoch will oblige you 
 to carry always about you." 
 
 Some sensation followed, and Cazotte was rebuked for 
 giving them a story less amusing than his Diable 
 Amoureux. 
 
 " But what has all that in common with philosophy and 
 the Reign of Reason ? " 
 
 " It is precisely in the name of philosophy and liberty, 
 and under the Reign of Reason and its temples, that these 
 things will happen." 
 
 " Ma foi ! " said Chamfort ; " you will not be one of 
 the priests of those temples." 
 
 " But you, M. de Chamfort, will be one, and you will 
 open your veins with twenty-two cuts with a razor, and 
 nevertheless you will not die until some months after- 
 wards. You, M. Vicq d'Azir, will not open your veins ; 
 you will have them opened six times in one day, during 
 an access of gout, and you will die in the night. You, 
 M. de Nicolai, you will die upon the scaffold. You, M. 
 Bailly, will die on the scaffold ; you, M. de Malesherbes, 
 on the scaffold." 
 
 So far the ladies had taken no part in this prophecy, 
 and the Duchess de Gramont was laughingly congratulat- 
 ing herself that evidently she would be protected by her 
 sex. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 5 1 
 
 " Your sex, ladies, will not secure you this time. You 
 will be treated like the men, without any difference. You, 
 madame la duchesse, you will be conducted to the scaffold, 
 you and many others with you in the charette of the exe- 
 cutioner, the hands tied behind the back." 
 
 The conversation still maintained an air of ridicule, and 
 Madame de Gramont said something about hoping she 
 would at least be allowed to see a confessor. 
 
 "No, madame," said Cazotte, "you will not have one, 
 neither you nor any one. The last victim who will have 
 
 one through grace will be " He hesitated a little 
 
 while. 
 
 " Well, who is the happy mortal who is to receive this 
 prerogative ? " 
 
 " It will be the King of France." 
 
 At this appalling blasphemy the party seems to have 
 broken up, thinking Cazotte's extravagance had been 
 carried to dangerous lengths. 
 
 " M. Deleuze found out the son of M. Cazotte, who de- 
 clared that his father had always been gifted with the 
 faculty of prevision in the highest degree, and had numer- 
 ous proofs of it. Without being able to guarantee the 
 exact language used by La Harpe in his narrative, the 
 son had no doubt whatever about its general truthfulness. 
 A friend of M. Vicq d'Azir, inhabiting Rennes, bore 
 testimony that this celebrated doctor had told the story 
 of Cazotte's prophecy in his presence, several times 
 before the revolution took place. Finally, M. Deleuze 
 appends a letter by the Baron de Langon, in which he 
 says : ' I can assure you on my honor that I have heard 
 Madame la Comtesse de Beauharnais repeat that she had 
 been present on this historic occasion." # 
 
 * The Rationale of Mesmerism, by A. P. Sinnett, page 176. 
 
52 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Emanuel Swedenborg, the famous seer and philosopher, 
 "saw" on the 19th of July, 1759, at Gottenburg, a con- 
 flagration raging in Stockholm, three hundred miles 
 distant, describing it minutely, with feelings of regret. 
 He was agitated and watched, as it seemed, the course 
 of the fire with much solicitude. He first reported the 
 scene a little after six o'clock. At eight he said joyfully : 
 "Thank God, the fire is extinguished, the third door from 
 my house." * 
 
 But it must not be supposed that only philosophers are 
 gifted with this faculty. On the contrary, it is found in 
 quite ignorant persons of either sex or age ; in children, 
 youths, men, women, old men, in fakirs and wandering 
 gypsies. As if particular climates were especially favor- 
 able for the exercise of this gift, the inhabitants of the 
 Scotch isles display the faculty of second sight pre- 
 eminently. In Scotch history it is often spoken of. The 
 historian Molwin, and Lord Clarendon in his " History 
 of the Rebellion," relate of a Scotch nobleman that he 
 foresaw the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham by 
 Captain Felton. Shakespeare has immortalized the vision 
 related by Hector Boethius in his Scotorum Historia 
 (Paris, 1535). "Not long after, there occurred a novel and 
 marvelous event, which disturbed the peace of the realm. 
 For, when Maccabaus (Macbeth) and Banquho were on 
 their journey to Forres, where the King sojourned at that 
 time, and 'were roving for pleasure through field and wood, 
 there appeared to them suddenly three women in unusual 
 manner and dress, approaching them. When they looked 
 at them surprised and more attentively, the first said : 
 ' Hail, Maccabaus, Than of Glammis ! ' The second 
 said : ' Hail, Than of Caldar ! ' but the third said : ' Hail, 
 * Life of Swedenborg, by William White, page 136. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 53 
 
 Maccabaus, the future king of Scotland ! ' Thereupon 
 Banquho : ' Ye, whoever ye may be, seem little in my 
 favor, since ye bring to him, besides the highest honours, 
 even the crown of the realm, but nothing at all to me.' 
 Then answered the first one : ' Much greater things we 
 announce to thee, than we foretold him ; for, though he 
 will reign as king, disaster will be his end, and none of 
 his descendants will justly claim the throne ; thou, however, 
 though thyself wilt never rule, shalt be the ancestor of a 
 long dynasty of grandsons who will reign over Scot- 
 land.' " * 
 
 " The traveler Martin, author of ' Description of the 
 Western Islands of Scotland ' (17 16) gives ample informa- 
 tion concerning second sight ; Dr. Johnson in ' A 
 Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland,' and James 
 Boswell in ' The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides,' 
 speak of it." f 
 
 " Martin, the above-mentioned traveler, was seen by 
 inhabitants of the Islands when yet a hundred miles 
 distant, though he came there accidentally, and they did 
 not at all know him. He relates that the seer, Archibald 
 Macdonald, one evening told his family of a curious 
 vision. He had seen a man with a long, ugly hood, who 
 was constantly shaking his head, and was holding in his 
 hand a small harp of four strings, ornamented with 
 antlers. Four days later there came indeed an old man 
 who was thus disguised ; he played the fool to earn money, 
 had never been seen in that region before, and was twenty 
 miles away when the vision occurred." % 
 
 Perty reports a great many examples of second sight, 
 
 * Das Zweite Gesicht, by du Prel, page 12. 
 t Ibid., page 8. 
 | Ibid., page 9. 
 
54 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Perhaps the power of prevision ; of foreseeing what is not 
 yet even indicated in the present ; of gazing at scenes 
 that will transpire in future, is even more marvelous, than 
 seeing what is distant in space. It is prophecy. 
 
 A very large volume could be filled with authentic 
 narratives of this kind. Edward von Hartmann, the 
 famous philosopher, admits that a case like the following 
 establishes, once for all, the existence of the gift of 
 second sight. A lady, looking out of the window, sees a 
 funeral procession passing through her garden, recogniz- 
 ing the familiar faces of the mourners. She was surprised 
 to see her garden invaded by such a scene, for never 
 before did a funeral take this direction to the cemetery. 
 A few days after, an inundation made the regular way to 
 the cemetery impassable, and the identical funeral with the 
 identical mourners actually passed through her garden.* 
 
 Second sight partakes both of the faculty of prophecy 
 and clairvoyance ; for Seership is a species of which 
 clairvoyance is the genus ; " a condition in which the 
 spirit can enter the past and future, as well as the pres- 
 ent." 
 
 * Der Spiritismus, von E. von Hartmann, page 77. 
 
THE RELIGION OE THE FUTURE. 
 
 55 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CLAIRVOYANCE. 
 
 We have now fairly entered the realm of so-called 
 occult phenomena, of what is often misnamed super- 
 natural, the realm of — miracles. Augustine already per- 
 ceived that a wonder does not occur in contradiction to 
 nature, but in contradiction to what we know about 
 nature. I purposely omit the enumeration of ancient 
 occurrences, in order to lay stress upon modern ones. If 
 we cannot cross-examine ancient witnesses, or sift the 
 testimony of Pythagoras and Plotinus, Socrates and Ap- 
 polonius, we can, if we earnestly desire, and take the 
 right steps, obtain absolute proofs of these phenomena 
 in our own time. If there are transcendental powers 
 in man now, in this busy, modern, material life, why 
 should they not have been manifested by men in the 
 past, especially in the more contemplative East? What 
 was possible then, must be possible now. What happens 
 to-day was possible in past ages. The ancients were 
 more familiar with subjective forces ; we are more fa- 
 miliar with objective forces. Occult phenomena occurred 
 at all times ; but hitherto in the western world science 
 had not investigated them. Just as the force of electric- 
 ity existed anciently as well as to-day, but was un- 
 known by men, because they had not the right method 
 of research. We recently adopted a new method, whereby 
 a large class of seemingly aberrant phenomena is scien- 
 
56 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 tifically classified and explained naturally. What was so 
 aptly said by G. H. Lewes in regard to the inductive 
 method of modern physical science, may be applied to 
 the recent mode of psychic investigation. Recent, that 
 is to say, scarcely half a century old. ' Mr. Lewes, speak- 
 ing of the mistake of the ancients of studying external 
 nature by the same method employed in the study of the 
 mental sciences, says : " But in the course of human evolu- 
 tion a second method grew up, at first timidly and uncon- 
 sciously, gradually enlarging its bounds as it enlarged its 
 powers, and at last separating itself into open antagonism 
 with its parent and rival. The child then destroyed its 
 parent ; as the mythic Zeus, calling the Titans to his aid, 
 destroyed Saturn and usurped his throne. Observation 
 and Experiment were the Titans of the new Method." * 
 
 But in the new method of spiritual research, the 
 monarch destroyed is Materialism, not Philosophy nor 
 Metaphysics, as Mr. Lewes erroneously indicates in 
 reference to modern science. 
 
 The subject of clairvoyance is of such scope and magni- 
 tude that I fear I cannot do justice to it, even approx- 
 imately, in this cursory sketch. The literature of this 
 theme is becoming so extensive, that many volumes would 
 be required to treat it exhaustively. The time is past 
 when a W. B. Carpenter could dare to deny clairvoyance, 
 or declare it a delusion or a trick. " It is not unbelief 
 to deny the reality of clairvoyance," says the philosopher 
 Schopenhauer, " but ignorance." It is with this as it is 
 with mesmerism, now universally recognized as a stupend- 
 ous power, a force that is a great factor in the natural ex- 
 planation of what our forefathers called witchcraft. We 
 
 * History of Philosoph, I., page xiii, introduction. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 57 
 
 have already come upon the faculty of clairvoyance in 
 treating of second sight ; just as we had to refer to the 
 faculty of prevision or prophecy. They are allied phe- 
 nomena. Clairvoyance is seeing, not with the natural, 
 but with the spiritual eye. Clairaudience is hearing with 
 the spiritual ear. In the preceding chapter, mention was 
 made of the prophet Elisha, who heard, if we may call it 
 hearing, what the King of Syria said to his attendants 
 confidential^ far away in another country. As the 
 science of these phenomena is yet in its infancy, the 
 author of this book may perhaps be excused for mixing 
 up clear-seeing with clear-hearing. Clairaudience is the 
 name given to the latter ; but if I am not mistaken, the 
 term clairvoyance is generic, and embraces all modes of 
 cognition transcending our ordinary five senses. A mere 
 presentiment or foreboding may be regarded as incipient 
 clairvoyance. From a vague presentiment to a clear 
 sight or hearing is a gradual step.* The following is from 
 my own experience, and is one of a million of like occur- 
 rences. My father, physically a powerful man, who 
 never was sick, went to America from Germany in 1841. 
 My mother, myself and a brother remained in the old 
 country. When my father was gone about three months, 
 I awoke in the middle of the night weeping and sobbing 
 bitterly. " O, mother," cried the four- year-old boy, 
 " father is dead, I saw him being carried out of the room 
 by some men." My father, who had been especially 
 attached to me, had actually died in New Orleans from 
 yellow fever, then raging epidemically there. Now, the 
 mystery of such clairvoyance disappears, when we find 
 out that there are thought-waves as well as sound-waves 
 
 * See The Debatable Land, by R. D. Owen, and The Night-Side of 
 Nature, by Mrs. Crowe. 
 
58 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 and waves of light. Telepathy is just as natural as 
 telegraphy. 
 
 " It may seem rather late in the day to refer to the pro- 
 ceedings of the British Association, but it will be a long 
 time before it can be too late to ponder the remarkable 
 address given by Professor Lodge as President of its 
 Mathematical and Physical Section. That address turned 
 upon something which he called a fact, connected with 
 a subject to which he referred as one ' lying by the road- 
 side,' 'beyond the pale of scientific orthodoxy' — 'a 
 rather ill-favored and disreputable looking stranger,' but 
 ' not all scamp,' he says, whose present condition, indeed, 
 is ' as much due to our long-continued neglect ' as any- 
 thing else. 
 
 " What, then, is the fact — the strange, uncanny fact — 
 which this scientific master in Israel thinks should be 
 pressed upon the attention of these wonderfully clever 
 people ? We state it in his own words : 
 
 " ' There is the question whether it has or has not been 
 established by direct experiment that a method of com- 
 munication exists between mind and mind irrespective of 
 the ordinary channels of consciousness and the known 
 organs of sense, and if so, what is the process.' ' Is it 
 possible that an idea can be transferred from one person 
 to another by a process such as we have not yet grown 
 accustomed to, and know practically nothing about ? In 
 this case I have evidence. I assert that I have seen it 
 done, and am perfectly convinced of the fact.' 
 
 It ought to interest every one to note what has been 
 happening with regard to this fact. ' The orthodoxy of 
 science ' has scoffed at it. Nay, in the past, keen-sighted 
 and accomplished men have been ruined and hounded 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 59 
 
 into their graves because of it. And now, here stands 
 this chosen man of Science doing vicarious penance, the 
 just for the unjust, to bring these scientific sinners to re- 
 pentance. Such a lesson ! and, even now, this brave and 
 honest man has to say that the territory occupied by this 
 wonderful fact ' seems to be inhabited mainly by savages, 
 many of them, so far as zue can judge from a distance, 
 given to gross superstition.' Yes; judged 'from a dis- 
 tance.' But why ' at a distance ' ? Whose fault is it 
 that God's pioneers look like ' savages ' ? It is good to 
 see this prominent man of science rebuke the stupid 
 scientific orthodoxy of the majority who, in this matter, 
 are so much to blame. There are the facts, he says, but 
 1 the Orthodox man shuts his ears.' He says : 
 
 " ' I doubt if one of the recognized scientific societies 
 would receive a paper on the subject. What I wish is to 
 signalize a danger — which I believe to be actual and 
 serious — that investigation in this and cognate subjects 
 may be checked and hampered by active hostility to these 
 researches on the part of the majority of scientific men, 
 and a determined opposition to the reception of discussion 
 of evidence.' ' For a corporate body of men of science, 
 inheritors of the hard-won tradition of free and fearless 
 inquiry into the facts of nature untrammeled by prejudice, 
 for any such body to decline to receive evidence labori- 
 ously attained and discreetly and inoffensively presented 
 by observers of accepted competency in other branches, 
 would be, if ever actually done and persisted in, a terrible 
 throwing away of their prerogative, and an imitation of 
 the errors of a school of thought against which the struggle 
 was at one time severe.' 
 
 " It is immensely instructive. Even the foremost men 
 (whose business it is to find the facts and deal with them) 
 
60 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 shirk these unfamiliar but enormously important matters— = 
 for fear of losing caste, or dreading the loss of influence-, 
 or fearing persecution from the profession and from 
 1 society.' Oh ! that evil spirit of persecution — that 
 odious readiness to punish a man for being too much of a 
 truthseeker ! How hateful it is everywhere ! 
 
 " The man of science, says Professor Lodge, ought to be 
 open and receptive ; the last man to use the ignorant 
 word ' impossible.' 
 
 " s Our ancestors fought hard and suffered much for the 
 privilege of free and open inquiry, for the right of conduct- 
 ing investigation untrammeled by prejudice and foregone 
 conclusions, • and they were ready to examine into any 
 phenomenon which presented itself. ... It would be a 
 great pity if a too absorbed attention to what has already 
 been acquired, and to the fringe of territory lying im- 
 mediately adjacent thereto, were to end in our losing the 
 power of raising our eyes and receiving evidence of a 
 totally fresh kind, of perceiving the existence of regions 
 into which the same processes of inquiry as had proved 
 so fruitful might be extended, with results at present in- 
 calculable and perhaps wholly unexpected. I, myself, 
 think that the ordinary processes of observation and ex- 
 periment are establishing the existence of such a region ; 
 that in fact they have already established the truth of 
 some phenomena not at present contemplated by science, 
 and to which the orthodox man shuts his ears." 
 
 " ' It is no use theorizing, it is unwise to decline to 
 examine phenomena because we feel too sure of their 
 impossibility. We ought to know the universe very 
 thoroughly and completely before we take up that atti- 
 tude." 
 
 " ' What we know is as nothing to that which remains to 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 61 
 
 be known. This is sometimes said as a truism ; some- 
 times it is half-doubted. To me it seems the most literal 
 truth, and that if we narrow our view to already half-con- 
 quered territory only, we shall be false to the men who 
 won our freedom, and treasonable to the highest claims 
 of science.' ' I care not what the end may be. I do 
 care that the inquiry shall be conducted by us, and that 
 we shall be free from the disgrace of jogging along 
 acustomed roads, leaving to isolated laborers the work, 
 the ridicule, and the gratification, of unfolding a new 
 region to unwilling eyes.' 
 
 It is too early yet to attempt any explanation of the 
 marvelous fact — that mind and mind can communicate 
 without physical contact, sight or speech — but our pro- 
 fessor goes further in referring to one explanation, which, 
 however, is not new. He reminds us that there is ' a gap 
 in our knowledge between the conscious idea of a motion 
 and the liberation of muscular energy needed to accom- 
 plish it : ' and then suggests that the act of will might of 
 itself, and without contact, move an external object. How 
 can a volition move a muscle ? We are so used to it that 
 we need to make an effort to see the gap : but the gap is 
 broad, and it seems impossible to bridge it. If, then, the 
 mind or an act of will can move a muscle, why might it 
 not move, say, a book five feet off ? The only difference 
 may be that we have learnt to do the one but have still to 
 learn how to do the other. But, as to the influencing of 
 one brain by another, our professor, in reminding us how 
 familiar we all are with communication between mind and 
 mind by means of waves of motion in the air, which pro- 
 duce sound, says that we can imagine other waves, in a 
 more subtle atmosphere, which might produce and repro- 
 duce thoughts. It is, indeed, perfectly conceivable. We 
 
62 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 have only to think of an extremely subtile telephone, act- 
 ing in an atmosphere, ether, or electricity of its own. To 
 the majority that will appear monstrous : but, as Professor 
 Lodge says : 
 
 " ' At first, things always look mysterious. A comet, 
 lightning, the aurora, the rainbow — all strange anomalous 
 mysterious apparitions. But scrutinized in the dry light 
 of science, their relationship with other better known 
 things becomes apparent. They cease to be anomalous ; 
 and, though a certain mystery necessarily remains, it is no 
 more a property peculiar to them.' 
 
 " So we everywhere see advance, from the mysterious 
 to the commonplace — from the so-called " impossible " to 
 the actually familiar. Once tabooed subjects are now 
 ' taken under the wing of science after long ridicule and 
 contempt ' : ' facts so strange that they have often been 
 called miraculous are now no longer regarded as entirely 
 incredible ' : ' the possibilities of the universe are infinite.' 
 So, at last, says the official mouthpiece of mathematics 
 and physical science — thanks to the superb pioneers to 
 whom our professor playfully alludes as the uncanny 
 ' savages ' and ' scamps ' — angel revealers in disguise. 
 
 " One inference we cannot pass over : 
 
 " ' It is sometimes objected,' says Professor Lodge, 
 1 that, granting thought-transference or telepathy to be a 
 fact, it belongs more especially to lower forms of life, and 
 that as the cerebral hemispheres develop we become in- 
 dependent of it; that what we notice is the relic of a 
 decaying faculty, not the germ of a new and fruitful 
 sense ; and that progress is not to be made by studying or 
 attending to it. It maybe that it is an immature mode of 
 communication, adapted to lower stages of consciousness 
 than ours, but how much can we not learn by studying 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 63 
 
 immature stages ! As well might the objection be urged 
 against a study of embryology. It may, on the other 
 hand, as W. F. Barret has suggested, be an indication of a 
 higher mode of communication, which shall survive our 
 temporary connection with ordinary matter.' 
 
 " What more likely ? But what follows ? This follows : 
 that we have here the very clew we want to the unseen 
 man. This subtile, penetrating, forceful, independent 
 inner self which moves the body, and orders about other 
 bodies, and acts apart from the body — why should it not 
 survive the always perishing and changing body? It 
 seems so reasonable : and it will certainly be a delightful 
 and almost amusing denouement if the demonstration of 
 the immortality of the soul proceeds, not from the church, 
 but from the laboratory, or from a section of the British 
 Association : if not the priest, but the dreaded ' material- 
 ist,' introduces us to spirits, after all." # 
 
 Clairvoyance may exist spontaneously or may be in- 
 duced by mesmeric passes. The reader is referred to 
 the works of the great modern Seer, A. J. Davis, es- 
 pecially to his elucidation of induced clairvoyance 
 in his Nature's Divine Revelation, pages $2> to 54> 
 where the modus operandi is given. His Autobiography 
 contains a minute description of his experience, when 
 under the influence of an operator, and a diagram illus- 
 trating the process, page 204, et seq. 
 
 Clairvoyance may be used to detect crimes and criminals, 
 and has been so employed. Carl du Prel reports thirty- 
 four cases of such detections, authenticated in judicial 
 proceedings.! 
 
 * From The Coming Day, London, England, quoted by The 
 Banner of Light of Dec. 19, 1891. 
 
 t Hypnotische Verbrechen, by Dr. Carl du Prel. 
 
64 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 There is a species of clairvoyance called Psychometry 
 " A psychometrist is one who, by taking in his hand an 
 object, will, in a few moments, be able to discover whence 
 it came, what have been its surroundings during the past, 
 the conditions under which it has existed, and also what 
 are its component parts. A psychometrist will be able 
 to minutely describe the appearance of an individual 
 whose handwriting is placed before him ; to delineate his 
 characteristics, and to tell about the business life of that 
 person. Thus a psychometrist may come en rapport with 
 another individual merely by holding in his hand a piece 
 of paper on which that other has written a few words, 
 some article which he has handled, or a garment which 
 he has worn." * For an exhaustive treatment of this 
 subject, see Dr. J. R. Buchanan's Manual of Psychometry ^ 
 Boston, 1889. 
 
 In passing, I may here call attention to the fact, that 
 we are now in a position in which we can, with one single 
 modification, accept as authentic, phenomena of clair- 
 voyance or clairaudience recorded in the Bible. In I. 
 Samuel, Chap. III., we read that the boy Samuel heard 
 his name called in the night while asleep. There was only 
 one person reposing in the same apartment. " And he 
 ran unto Eli and said, Here am I ; for thou calledst me. 
 And he said, I called not ; lie down again. And he went 
 and lay down." Again he hears his name called, presents 
 himself to the high priest and is again told that he was not 
 wanted. The sacred writer then remarks that Samuel 
 did not yet know of such manifestations. When the 
 young seer hears the voice for the third time, and rises 
 again and comes to Eli, then " Eli perceived that the Lord 
 
 * The Banner of Light, of Feb. 25, 1893, P a g e 6, See the Soul of 
 Things, by William Denton, 3 volumes. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 65 
 
 had called the child." The only reservation the new 
 psychology has in regard to such cases is, that it under- 
 stands by the Lord, not God Almighty, but a lesser human 
 Intelligence. But this anticipates what will be more 
 fully stated in the sequel, 
 
66 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL. 
 
 The influence of one mind over another is a matter of 
 daily experience. This influence is both conscious and 
 unconscious, voluntary and involuntary. In teaching, 
 training and moral persuasion in leading others, as in 
 military expeditions, in political factions, and party 
 tactics, the influence is consciously exerted. There is 
 also an unconscious influence going out from us unto 
 others, potent for good or evil. Just as some flowers 
 exhale fragrance, and others diffuse a bad odor. Physi- 
 cians are especially aware of the influence they exert 
 over their patients in the ratio of the confidence they 
 inspire. The degree in which the influence of one mind 
 over another is exerted for good or ill, is according to the 
 nature of the agent and of the recipient. The more 
 positive the agent, the more potent the influence ; the 
 more passive or impressive the recipient, other things 
 being equal, the greater the control. Who remembers 
 not, in this connection, the power of a Napoleon I., and 
 the commanding influence of other military geniuses ! Or 
 the fascinating spell of a great orator upon an audience ! 
 Men call it magnetism, and the expression is a happy 
 one, though hitherto perhaps nothing more was meant by 
 the word than a certain invisible, psychic influence, an in- 
 fluence that could not be more definitely defined ; an 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 67 
 
 abstract something, or no-thing ; being conceived as pure 
 mind. The new psychology has penetrated a little deeper 
 into the arcana of nature and especially of human nature, 
 and has discovered, as already indicated in preceding 
 chapters, imponderable forces, more subtile than those 
 known to the physiology of the day. Beyond the organic 
 functions, beyond the blood, beyond the vital aura, beyond- 
 the nerves forming a galvanic battery, as it were, there are 
 electric and magnetic forces ; beyond the electric and 
 magnetic forces is the nerve aura, which is acted upon 
 by a definite psychic force, and beyond this psychic force 
 there is the source of all life, Spirit, itself, as stated in 
 chapter iii an emanation of the Soul, the real entity.* 
 A. J. Davis, in his Stellar Key, page 56, presents this scale 
 as to the cosmos : 
 
 God (Pure Spirit), 
 Ideas (Reason), 
 Principles (Power), 
 Laws (Force), 
 Essences (Magnetism), 
 Ethers (Electricity), 
 Vapors (Atmosphere), 
 Fluids (Water), 
 Solids (Earth). 
 
 " There is a Psychic Ether, related to thought, as the 
 luminiferous ether is to light. This may be regarded as 
 the thought atmosphere of the universe. A thinking 
 being in this atmosphere is a pulsating center of thought- 
 waves, as a luminous body is of light. There is a state 
 of mind and body known as sensitive, or impressible, in 
 
 * See Plate 4 A, in Psychopathy, by Dr. Rush. 
 
68 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 which it receives impressions from other minds. This 
 state may be normal, or induced by fatigue, disease, 
 drugs, "or arise in sleep. The facts of clairvoyance, trance, 
 somnambulism and psychometry prove the existence of 
 this ether, and are correlated to it." * I once more call at- 
 tention to the descriptions of A. J. Davis in the works 
 referred to in the preceding chapter. " Mesmerism is the 
 combined influence of mind with the magnetic forces of 
 the system, and has been usually employed to induce a 
 state of clairvoyance, wherein a diagnosis of disease or 
 description of distant places is received, and sometimes 
 
 specific remedies prescribed The state of 
 
 coma, or external unconsciousness, or semi-conscious- 
 ness is the result of a reversal of the 
 
 magnetic current, either to or from the brain 
 
 The consciousness of the mesmerizer is placed immedi- 
 ately en rapport with the brain of the subject ; he takes the 
 magnetic and psychic currents under his own control, and 
 connects them with his own consciousness or individuality 
 instead of the individuality of the subject — as you would 
 sever the connection of a telegraph wire in a certain 
 direction and establish the current in another direction — 
 the mesmerizer keeping the current of vitality, so that the 
 system does not suffer a depletion of vitality. Any 
 mind acting upon the nervous system of another through 
 the brain, and having communication or sympathy with it, 
 can keep up the current of vitality, not for a protracted 
 period of time, but for a sufficient period to experiment in 
 mesmeric science." f 
 
 The recently published Rationale of Mesmerism, by A. 
 P. Sinnett, is an admirable, though concise treatise on 
 this subject, presenting a historical view from Mesmer's 
 
 * Studies in Psychic Science, by Hudson Tuttle, page 5. 
 t Psychopathy, by Dr. Rush, pages 74 and 76. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 69 
 
 re-discovery of this occult force in 1766, till the present 
 day. Mesmerism has of late years been called Hypnotism. 
 It is merely another name for the same thing. Sinnett, 
 himself a mesmerizer, and a great student of occult 
 forces, is an authority on the subject, while orthodox 
 science is puzzled and has vague and crude theories about 
 it. The reader can learn little from such sources as the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica, or the work of Heidenhain, 
 entiled A?iimal Magnetism. Lacking the facts or data 
 furnished by the researches of psychological experts of 
 the new school, they strain their minds for plausible 
 theories, and their speculations are more misleading than 
 profitable. 
 
 We have seen in Chapter II., that the human body or 
 organism is an instrument formed and controlled by the 
 spirit, just as a musical instrument is played upon by a 
 musician. In this chapter we have learned that another 
 spirit may use the instrument, during which the mental 
 powers of the subject are in abeyance. There are spirits in 
 the flesh and spirits out of the flesh. We now come to a 
 very important revelation of the new psychology, which 
 will solve for us a problem of the Bible that has, until 
 recently, seemed insoluble in the light of the old mental 
 philosophy. 
 
70 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 INSPIRATION. 
 
 The reader has learned in Chapter I. that a human 
 being, on withdrawing from the outward fleshly body, is 
 immediately invested with a spiritual body ; that, intel- 
 lectually and morally, the liberated spirit remains the 
 same being essentially, though a certain exaltation of the 
 faculties takes place. If one has an exquisite painting in 
 a cellar, where the atmosphere is dense and gloomy, the 
 picture does not appear advantageously ; but if taken into 
 the light and removed into a suitable locality, its beauties 
 will be much better perceived. No more tethered to a 
 material body and to a certain locality, the freed spirit 
 can go where it pleases, and can act more freely in its own 
 sphere, and in those lower spheres, whose dwellers are 
 ministered to by the higher. A sphere is a condition, not a 
 circle. To illustrate : Vicious characters on earth maybe 
 said to live in a different sphere from virtuous characters ; 
 both may meet bodily, but there is a moral barrier between 
 them. Another illustration : Poets live in a sphere of 
 their own, and that noted prosaic mathematician, who 
 after reading Milton's Paradise Lost exclaimed in- 
 quiringly : " What does it prove ? " certainly did not live 
 in the poet's sphere. There are as many heavens as there 
 are spheres or conditions. 
 
 The fact that character is not suddenly transformed by 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 71 
 
 the change called death, is in accordance with analogy : 
 Nature makes no sudden leap or jump in organic evolu- 
 tion, much less in mental and moral growth. This fact, 
 then, is in conformity with natural law, especially with the 
 great law of development, of progressive evolution. A 
 sudden transformation of the mental and moral nature 
 would be a miracle, a miracle in the impossible sense of 
 the term. 
 
 The other fact upon which I desire to lay stress here, 
 is, that throughout the illimitable spiritual universe, the 
 higher beings minister to the lower, as is very partially 
 done in this lower sphere of earth-life, though it is enjoined 
 in Scripture that " The strong ought to bear the infirmities 
 of the weak." It is the Divine Law in all spiritual realms, 
 and that is the meaning of the prayer : " Thy will be done 
 on earth, as it is in Heaven." Even in this life phil- 
 anthropists exert themselves to elevate the lowly, the 
 undeveloped ; and great minds devote themselves to 
 the noble task of ameliorating the condition of the toil- 
 ing masses of the poor and oppressed. The ideal is 
 realized in family life, wherein the strong do " bear the 
 infirmities of the weak." It is therefore natural that the 
 higher spirits should minister to the lower. Now, excar- 
 nated spirits do, under certain favorable conditions, com- 
 municate thoughts and sentiments to spirits yet in the 
 flesh. As a matter of fact, this is taking place to-day, 
 and it has taken place in all ages ; pre-eminently at the 
 commencement of a new era or dispensation in the 
 spiritual evolution of mankind. As, for instance, at the 
 advent of the introduction of the ethical element, through 
 the Hebrews, into the ceremonial religion of antiquity, of 
 which the Old Testament is a memorial ; and at the advent 
 of Christianity, of which the New Testament is a record. 
 
72 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Before speaking of the modus operandi of inspiration let 
 me state, once for all, the attitude of the spiritual philos- 
 ophy in this great question, which hitherto was considered 
 as belonging exclusively to the domain of theology. Theo- 
 logians have various theories concerning inspiration. The 
 spiritual philosophy does not advance theories, but facts , it 
 knows, it does not surmise. Even orthodox theologians teach 
 that revelation, the product of inspiration is progressive, 
 relative, adapted to the degree of development and power 
 of comprehension of men in a given age. Thus, the pro- 
 phetical writings are correctly regarded as higher in ethical 
 and spiritual value than the books of Genesis, Exodus, 
 Leviticus and Numbers ; while these portions of the Mosaic 
 law are in turn an advance, a progressive step from gross 
 idolatry. When we come to the New Testament, to the sub- 
 lime teachings of Jesus, we stand on still higher ground of 
 moral and spiritual culture. Yet, while admitting, and even 
 teaching that revelation is progressive and relative, not 
 absolute and final, theologians, with glaring inconsistency, 
 declare that the New Testament is an absolute and final 
 revelation. This is the doctrine of plenary inspiration, or 
 infallibility, which the Catholic reposes in the Pope, and 
 the Protestant confers upon the Bible. It is a monstrous 
 error, and was the root of all religious persecution and 
 intolerance of the past. The spiritual science declares 
 that the divine method of human education is a uniform 
 method, and that this method is a gradual progression in 
 all departments of human attainments whatsoever. As no 
 man, however high in mental and moral culture, may say: 
 " Now I know all ; now I am morally perfect." So no 
 class or race of men can declare rationally to be in posses- 
 sion of perfect truth, of final truth, of a complete system of 
 revelation. The excarnated spirit is still a human being 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 73 
 
 indeed, and no more infallible than it was when incarnated 
 in the fleshly tabernacle. What it teaches mortals through 
 a medium, must be subjected to the same tests, as we 
 apply to teachers yet in the flesh. There can be no 
 ready-made truth inserted from an outside source into the 
 human brain, to be accepted without examination as 
 absolute truth. Truths are not " obtained," they must be 
 " acquired." Whatever is given by inspiration must be 
 mentally digested and assimilated. In this process of 
 mental digestion the nutritive portions are admitted into 
 the system, and the innutritious and deleterious portions 
 are ejected. No more can spiritual science adopt a fixed 
 creed than physical science. The moment either of the 
 two sciences does adopt a fixed creed, it commits suicide. 
 As the rays of the sun only then give light and heat when 
 they reach the atmosphere of the earth, so must spiritual 
 rays from above be refracted in the human mind. When 
 the time comes for the child in school to take up a certain 
 branch of study, the proper time and not before, then the 
 experienced teacher introduces the new branch of study, 
 and moreover, adapts his mode of instruction, the very 
 terms he uses, to the comprehension of the child. The 
 youth is ripe for still harder studies ; and when approach- 
 ing manhood, he will have given up the belief in the 
 " man in the moon," and in other childish notions. Even 
 so do wise spirits in higher realms await the proper time 
 for the revelation of higher truths. Such a time is now 
 on hand. " W T hen I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt 
 as a child, I thought as a child : now that I am become 
 a man, I have put away childish things." # 
 
 How a human brain can be made the instrument for 
 another intelligence, was already briefly explained in the 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiii, 11. 
 
74 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 preceding chapter. I shall now quote the statement of 
 one who is constantly engaged in the beneficent work of 
 instructing mortals through a sensitive or medium. Next, 
 I shall find in the Bible examples constituting perfect par- 
 allels, thereby proving incontestably that inspiration did 
 not cease with the New Testament, and that modern inspi- 
 ration is, as to its modus operandi, exactly like the Biblical. 
 
 Mesmerism is the expression of the power of mind 
 over mind, as exercised by Mesmer, the scientist, as we 
 are pleased to call him, or the physician scientist, who 
 discovered that the mind of a sensitive patient can be 
 brought under the subjection of a more positive mind, 
 and made to reflect the thought and desire of the operator 
 in the expression and movement of the patient. Mes- 
 merism has become known more thoroughly in these latter 
 years than formerly. At first it was scoffed at, and de- 
 nied by the leading physicians and scientists of the day, 
 and, of course, by the people in general, who were unfa- 
 miliar with the occult laws of human life ; but in the 
 present age its power is recognized more or less by 
 scientists and the mass of mankind. 
 
 Hypnotism seems to be only a new name given to mes- 
 merism, meaning the exercise of the same power, that of 
 the positive will-forces of a human being directed toward 
 the mind of another human being. It is what we spirits 
 and Spiritualists call psychology. And why called psy- 
 chology ? Because it is of the soul. It belongs to the 
 realm of psychics more thoroughly, perhaps, than to the 
 realm of physics, for, although physicians may claim that 
 hypnotism is merely the exercise of the potential physical 
 force directed by intelligent mind toward a sensitive sub- 
 ject, or a diseased patient, yet we of the higher life know 
 that this magnetic power of the physical body is managed 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 75 
 
 and directed by an intelligent spirit, whether that spirit 
 is inhabiting a mortal form as a mesmeric operator, or 
 whether it is a spirit excarnated who stands behind the 
 mortal operator, and exercises his power of magnetic force 
 and will upon his subject. 
 
 Hypnotism and mesmerism then, we claim to be one 
 and the same force exercised upon human beings by pos- 
 itive minds, subjecting them to their will and desire, and 
 making them conscious or unconscious, as the case may 
 be. Some who are mesmerized (or hypnotized) are con- 
 scious of what they are made to do, but are unable to 
 resist the power. Others are totally unconscious, and do 
 not know what words they express, or what they do while 
 under the influence of this occult force. The spirit-con- 
 trol of a medium is the exercise of this same psychologi- 
 cal power, only the operator is in the unseen world, but 
 is an intelligent mind, just the same as is the mesmeric 
 operator, and this unseen intelligence directs his thought 
 and magnetic force toward his medium, making the medium 
 sensitive to his power and subjecting his or her brain to 
 his will, so that it becomes a positive instrument in his 
 hands, and is thus caused to reflect into external life the 
 thoughts which he impresses upon it. Spirit-control, 
 then, is the action of intelligent mind separated from a 
 physical body upon another intelligent mind in the mortal 
 flesh. Hypnotism or mesmerism is the exercise of intel- 
 ligent mind that uses for its vehicle a physical form, and 
 directs its power upon another intelligent mind encased 
 in the material frame." * 
 
 Before citing examples from the Bible, it is well to 
 point out that, as intimated in the above quotation, 
 the recipient of spiritual communication is often in a 
 
 * Banner of Light, March 4, 1893, P a g e 6. 
 
76 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 trance, is entirely passive, uttering words of another. 
 This may correspond to what theologians call verbal 
 inspiration. Sometimes, however, only the ideas and 
 thoughts are instilled into the mind of the medium, and 
 the recipient, being in an exalted condition of heightened 
 consciousness, all the mental and moral faculties glowing, 
 as it were, under the influx of inspiration, supplies the 
 language, clothing the given ideas with words. 
 
 Prophets and seers of old were thus inspired, their 
 minds were "reflecting- surfaces for the truths of heaven." 
 Henry Ward Beecher, in a sermon on Inspiration, says 
 (I quote from memory) that inspiration is not confined 
 to the ancient prophets, seers and heroes ; it is universal 
 like sunshine, and that in a given case, it is not always 
 possible, nor is it necessary, to separate the ideas im- 
 parted, from the medium's own ideas. Beecher illustrates 
 this aptly by a steamship in motion, the motion being the 
 resultant of several motive powers, as of steam and wind, 
 etc., whereby it would be impossible to measure the re- 
 spective quota of each toward the combined result. 
 
 In Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. III., page 
 2599, the prophetic trance is described as follows : " 1st. 
 The bodily senses were closed to external objects, as in 
 deep sleep. 2d. The reflective and discursive faculty 
 was still and inactive. 3d. The spiritual faculty (Pneutnd) 
 was awakened to the highest state of energy." On the 
 same page in column b it is stated that the prophets had 
 not, and could not have, a full knowledge of the import 
 of their utterances. " They were the ' spokesmen ' 
 merely." 
 
 In the book of Numbers, chapters xxii.-xxiv. we are 
 introduced to a trance speaker who declares over and 
 over again that his speeches are not his own ; that he is 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. jj 
 
 not accountable for what he says ; that he is constrained 
 to give verbal expression to the thoughts of another intel- 
 ligence, whose mouth-piece he is. " Lo, I am come unto 
 thee," he says to the King of Moab, "have I now any' 
 power at all to speak anything? the word that God 
 putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak." # In the tenth 
 chapter of Daniel, the prophet relates how he prepared 
 himself by abstinence for a spiritual revelation. " Three 
 whole weeks I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh 
 nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all. 
 And in the four-and-twentieth day, etc., I lifted up mine 
 eyes, and looked, and behold a man clothed in linen, etc. 
 And I, Daniel, alone, saw the vision : for the men that 
 were with me saw not the vision." Then the trance-state 
 into which he fell is described : " And there remained no 
 strength in me : for my comeliness was turned in me into 
 corruption and I retained no strength," i. <?., his physical 
 vitality left him and a deadly pallor supervened. " Yet 
 heard I the voice of his words." He heard, not with the 
 external, but with the inner spiritual sense of hearing. 
 In chapter viii., on a similar occasion it is plainly stated, 
 verse 18, " Now, as he was speaking with me, I fell into 
 a deep sleep with my face toward the ground." In 
 Zechariah, chapter iv. we read: " And the angel that talked 
 with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is 
 wakened out of his sleep. And he said unto me, " What 
 seest thou ? " Here is a revelation in the form of a vision 
 or allegorical representation, but the subject of prophetic 
 visions and dreams would require special treatment, 
 which cannot be undertaken in this mere outline of such 
 phenomena. 
 
 In all cases where the prophet tells us that he saw, we 
 
 * Num. xxii. 38. 
 
78 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 are not to understand ordinary vision, as in Isaiah vi. i ; 
 in Micah i. i ; in Hab. i. i ; in Acts x. n; Rev. i. 12. 
 But the special point I wish to call attention to, is the fact 
 that in most cases of this kind the external senses are 
 closed, and the ordinary normal activities of the mind are 
 in abeyance. 
 
 Now, we have to-day, in the United States alone, hun- 
 dreds of trance-speakers exhibiting precisely the same 
 characteristics as those Biblical personages. Pre-eminent 
 among them is Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond in Chicago. 
 This inspirational orator, told me that in her ordinary state 
 she is not possessed of such knowledge as she gives ex- 
 pression to in the trance state. " I could not speak a 
 single sentence in my normal state of mind." To Mr. 
 L. C. Howe Mrs. Richmond said that though she has 
 delivered innumerable discourses during the last thirty 
 years, she has absolutely no remembrance of any of her 
 utterances. All she does remember is the fact of having 
 been on the platform. Another famous lady in this 
 line is Mrs. R. S. Lillie, at present residing in Cincin- 
 nati. The author of this book was told, likewise person- 
 ally, by Mrs. Lillie that her own mind has absolutely no 
 part in her eloquent utterances. But entranced she is not, 
 as it seems ; for she declared to me that while her tongue 
 utters the words given by the spirit who controls her, she 
 can carry on a train of thoughts of her own. " When I 
 utter an impromptu poem," she said to me, " I often 
 wonder, after speaking a line, with what word the follow- 
 ing line will end, so as ' to make it rhyme.' At the same 
 time I can in my own mind think of other things ; for in- 
 stance, while speaking philosophically on high themes, I 
 can critically examine the attire of the ladies in the audi- 
 ence ; often, on looking at a dress of a lady, I reflect on 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 79 
 
 its shape and make, how it could be made over, and how 
 I would trim it, if I had to fit it for my own wear." 
 This is paralleled again in the Biblical characters. 
 Elisha was a farmer and was in the act of plowing, when 
 suddenly Elijah threw his mantle over him. Both were 
 susceptible to spiritual influence. Not a line did either 
 of them write ; very likely they could not write at all. The 
 prophet Amos was by occupation a cow-herd. " The words 
 of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa." " I 
 was no prophet ; neither was I a prophet's son, but I was 
 an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamores. And the Lord 
 took me as I followed the flock and said unto me, Go, 
 prophesy unto my people Israel." # 
 
 Thus the parallel is complete between the modus oper- 
 andi of the inspiration of the prophets of old, and that of 
 our modern, living, inspirational speakers. 
 
 * Amos, i. 1; vii. 14-25. 
 
So THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " AS IT IS IN HEAVEN." 
 
 In the preceding chapter I have called attention to the 
 fact that in the present stage of human development on 
 earth the divine injunction of universal benevolence is 
 very partially observed. As a general rule, the strong do 
 not "bear the infirmities of the weak." * Only here and 
 there we see men and women engaged in " binding up the 
 broken-hearted ; " f in ministering to the unfortunate ; 
 the poor and the down-trodden ; in trying to heal the 
 moral diseases, generally called vice or crime, being the 
 offspring largely of poverty and ignorance. Here and 
 there we behold noble men and gentle women devoting 
 their time and energy to the task of redeeming men from 
 sin and degradation ; but the majority of men are as yet 
 selfishly engaged in taking advantage of their fellow-men 
 in" the struggle" of mere existence. In the household 
 alone, the ideal is realized, an ideal yet to be realized 
 universally by the human race on earth. Hence the 
 prayer : " Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven."$ 
 It is not owing to ignorance of the divine law that men at 
 present are not united in co-operating with each other ; 
 that those who are mighty in intellect and influence do 
 not, as a rule, devote their energies to elevate the lowly 
 and oppressed ; for it is plainly stated : " Whosoever 
 
 * Romans, xv. i. t Isaiah, lxi. i. \ Matt. vi. 10. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 81 
 
 would become great among you, shall be your servant, 
 and whosoever would be first among you, shall be servant 
 of all.* In the sequel of this work the reason will be 
 stated why hitherto this sublime commandment remained 
 on the whole, a dead letter. For the present I merely 
 wished to sketch a background for the picture I desire to 
 draw of the ministrations of spirits in the higher realms 
 of the unseen universe. Throughout this stupendous and 
 illimitable universe the higher beings do serve the lower. 
 Imagine a high mountain, and men climbing up on all 
 sides round about; some are just beginning to ascend, 
 being yet at the base ; others are a little way up ; still 
 others have climbed higher; so that all parts of the 
 mountain are occupied by men in every possible degree 
 of altitude. Now, imagine further, that those at the base, 
 who are just beginning to climb, are helped by those im- 
 mediately above them ; the latter being helped in turn by 
 the next higher grade, and so on, up to the highest on 
 top ; those above reaching down helping hands to those 
 below ; all being ministered to, and all being engaged in 
 ministering. The higher one has ascended, the greater 
 his power to assist others, and in the exercise of this 
 power consists the advancement of all who climb the 
 mountain. He who has risen above others has acquired 
 more power, a greater momentum ; but he does not use 
 this power to push others down, he uses it to help them 
 up ; not self-assertion, but self-surrender is his attitude. 
 Instead of striving selfishly to ascend higher, ignoring the 
 needs of those toiling below him, he forgets self, and 
 devotes his energies to help others. Yet, this very self- 
 forgetfulness is his progress, his advancement, and, though 
 he did not seek it directly, he finds it indirectly, as a 
 
 * Mark x. 43, 44. 
 
82 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 reward, as it were, for not seeking. " For whosoever 
 would save his life shall lose it : and whosoever shall lose 
 his life for my sake shall find it." * The Pharisee, literally 
 " the Separated" who separates himself from his fellow- 
 men whom he regards as sinners, lifting up his skirt, so 
 as not to touch them that he might not become polluted, 
 is himself polluted by mean self-conceit and egotism. 
 The healthy need no physician; the sick need healing; 
 virtuous men should seek to reclaim sinners, the righteous 
 should try to redeem the wicked from their self-destroying 
 course. " As it is in Heaven." Let the reader now 
 apply the foregoing illustration to the higher life, wherein 
 God's divine injunction of "Love ye one another!'' 
 is fulfilled, in universal, spiritual and angelic ministra- 
 tion. 
 
 If the old conception of the future state were true, 
 namely, that good men and women immediately after 
 death are transferred to that kind of heavenly bliss 
 which consists of singing the praises of God with golden 
 harps in their hands, what aid could they render to their 
 unfortunate fellow-men whom death introduces into a 
 higher life for which they are not prepared, or which 
 reveals their moral diseases or deformities ? Who should 
 receive and care for the children arriving daily on the 
 heavenly shores ? Singing the praises of God is proper 
 enough at proper times, but even down here on earth we 
 certainly would regard with indignation the act of so-called 
 worship that would consist of praying and singing, in the 
 midst of human suffering, mishap, disaster, and other 
 perils, where help is needed most urgently. Most, I should 
 say all, sensible persons would find this sort of divine 
 worship blasphemy. Suppose a great disaster, say a 
 
 * Matt, xvi., 25. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 83 
 
 shipwreck to occur, and the shipwrecked sufferers, half 
 starved, sick and bereaved, were to be set on shore, and 
 no one to care for them ; all that could render aid being 
 engaged in idly singing "the praises of God!" Now 
 what is to be noted here is this : that just such ship- 
 wrecked persons arrive on the shores of the spirit world 
 daily and hourly ; unfortunate men, women and helpless 
 children, that need help, sympathy and guidance. " O, 
 it's the angels that help them," some will exclaim. 
 Most assuredly, gentle readers, it is the angels. But not 
 the winged creatures of your imagination. Nay, the very 
 men and women whom you have supposed sitting upon 
 thrones, with crowns on their heads, golden harps in their 
 hands, shouting hymns, these are the ministering angels 
 that help their fellow-men. This is their worship ; this the 
 homage they pay to our Heavenly Father ; they worship 
 by doing the Father's will. " Not every one that saith 
 unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of 
 Heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is 
 in Heaven." * Then shall the King say unto them on his 
 right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
 Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
 world : for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat ; I 
 was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and 
 ye took me in •, naked, and ye clothed me j I was sick 
 and ye visited me ; I was in prison and ye came unto me. 
 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when 
 saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee ? or athirst, and 
 gave thee drink ? and when saw we thee a stranger, and 
 took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? and when saw 
 we thee sick, or in prison and came unto thee ? And the 
 King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto 
 * Matt. vii. 21-22. 
 
84 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
 these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." * 
 
 As said above, helping the unfortunate is a means of 
 advancement. Self-seeking is retrogression ; is indeed 
 finding the lower, but it is losing the higher. And " what 
 shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose 
 his own soul ? " f As to the need of ministration, let the 
 reader consider for a moment what sort of people are 
 daily born into the higher life ! Some entirely absorbed 
 in material pursuits, never giving a thought to anything 
 else, being of the earth, earthy. Having starved, as it 
 were, the spirit within, they arrive in the spirit world as 
 veritable paupers. Or go a step farther down the scale 
 of human evolution and contemplate the fate of those 
 who have perverted their nature, who are guilty of crimes 
 committed against self or against others. Now, what will 
 be their condition when they unmask, for at death all are 
 unmasked. Shame, bitter remorse, despair seizes them. 
 Here are diseased wretches that need healing, sympathy, 
 loving hearts that will show them the way out of their 
 darkened condition. Who would not throw himself into 
 the arms of one's own mother, and say : " O mother, I am 
 miserable ; I come to thee for succor ; comfort thou me ; 
 thou on whose bosom I nestled when a babe ! " " As 
 one whom his mother comforteth." t For " Can a woman 
 forget her child, that she should not have compassion on 
 the son of her womb ? " § The transfigured mother who 
 had passed to the higher life before her wayward son, is 
 not a stranger to him ; she has attended and watched 
 over him even more tenderly and affectionately since her 
 translation ; she knows all about him, and the son, 
 
 * Matt. xxv. 34-40. t Mark. viii. ifi- 
 
 \ Isaiah lxvi. 13. § Isaiah xlix. 15. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 85 
 
 morally diseased, is safe in the hands of such a nurse. 
 This touches upon the subject of Guardian Spirits, on 
 which I cannot dilate in these outlines. Perhaps in 
 another book that I may write, I shall present these de- 
 tails, so interesting and instructive. For the present it 
 must suffice to remark, that there are innumerable bands 
 of spirits engaged in this missionary work of the good 
 Samaritan. * 
 
 "The variety of states after death is greater, if pos- 
 sible, than the variety of human lives upon this earth." f 
 " It takes all sorts of people to make a world," is as ap- 
 plicable to the spiritual sphere of existence as to earth- 
 life. How sublime the divine dispensations of Providence, 
 whereby, throughout the spiritual realms of immensity, the 
 higher minister unto the lower, these higher being minis- 
 tered to in turn by beings still higher, and these by still 
 higher, celestial beings, in the hierarchy of the Kingdom 
 of God above. Oh, may God's will be done on earth "As 
 it is in Heaven" 
 
 * Luke x. 33. 
 
 t Esoteric Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett, page 165. 
 
86 THE RELIGION OE THE FUTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 RETRIBUTION. 
 
 There is patience required on the part of the reader 
 in the perusal of this work. The subject is stupendous, 
 all-important, and all-comprehensive ; dealing, as it does, 
 with the whole problem of human existence. Many 
 points can only be alluded to, or briefly touched upon 
 in a synoptical treatise like this. There will probably 
 start up in the reader's mind many queries, if not objec- 
 tions, which I hope will find an answer in the sequel ; 
 or hints and suggestions will be given by which the 
 unbiased reader will himself find his way out of per- 
 plexity. A calm perusal of these facts is requisite, as 
 well as a disregard of traditional notions with which 
 they seem to conflict. What we want to get at, is truth. 
 There can be no useful errors ; there are no harmful 
 truths. " Let the dead bury their dead." * I write not 
 for those who are prejudiced; I know that compara- 
 tively few minds are prepared for receiving new ideas. 
 Men love fixed creeds, not only in theology, but in science 
 likewise. One of the greatest pains to human nature is 
 the pain of a new idea. It is, as common people say, 
 so " upsetting ; " it makes you think that, after all, your 
 favorite notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill- 
 founded ; it is certain that till now there was no place 
 allotted in your mind to the new and startling inhabitant, 
 * Matt, viii., 22. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 87 
 
 and now that it has conquered an entrance, you do not 
 at once see which of your old ideas it will or will not turn 
 out, with which of them it can be reconciled, and with 
 which it is at essential enmity. 
 
 "Naturally, therefore, common men hate a new idea, 
 and are disposed more or less to ill-treat the original man 
 who brings it. Even nations with long habits of discus- 
 sion are intolerant enough."* The most enlightened 
 nation on the face of the globe, the ancient Greeks, had 
 not patience enough to listen calmly to the novel views of 
 Socrates. The greatest moral genius the world has seen 
 was crucified between two thieves. May I here call atten- 
 tion to a little book that ought to be read by every fair- 
 minded man and woman : John Stuart Miffs Essay on 
 Liberty. 
 
 Modern physical science has given us novelties enough : 
 why should we not be ready to accept new and higher 
 truths in psychic science ? If men had been mistaken 
 in regard to the material universe ; if modern astronomy 
 and biology have created for us a new heaven and a new 
 earth ; why should we be reluctant to accept new views in 
 regard to the moral or spirtual universe ? 
 
 Without endorsing the main thesis of Mr. Fiske's essay 
 on The Christ of Dogma, I take the liberty to quote his 
 remarks concerning ancient views of the world. " In the 
 Jewish theory the universe is like a sort of three-story 
 house. The flat earth rests upon the waters, and under 
 the earth's surface is the land of graves, called Sheol, 
 where after death the souls of all men go, the righteous 
 as well as the wicked, for the Jew had not arrived at the 
 doctrine of heaven and hell. The Hebrew Sheol corre- 
 sponds strictly to the Greek Hades, before the notions of 
 
 * Physics and Politics, by W. Bagehot, page 163. 
 
88 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Elysium and Tartarus were added to it — a land peopled 
 with flitting shadows suffering no torment, but experiencing 
 no pleasure, like those whom Dante met in one of the 
 upper circles of his Inferno. Sheol is the first story of 
 the cosmic house ; the earth is the second. Above the 
 earth is the firmament or sky, which, according to the book 
 of Genesis, (chapter, i.) is a vast plate hammered out by 
 the Gods, and supports a great ocean like that upon 
 which the earth rests. Rain is caused by the opening of 
 little windows or trap-doors in the firmament, through 
 which pour the waters of this upper ocean. Upon this 
 water rests the land of heaven, where Jehovah reigns, 
 surrounded by hosts of angels. To this blessed land two 
 only of the human race had ever been admitted — Enoch 
 and Elijah, the latter of whom had ascended in a chariot 
 of fire, and was destined to return to earth as the herald 
 and forerunner of the Messiah. Heaven forms the third 
 story of the cosmic house. Between the firmament and 
 the earth is the air." * 
 
 As contracted as the universe was conceived, were the 
 views concerning the Deity. God was a kind of magni- 
 fied man, says Matthew Arnold. " I remember distinctly," 
 writes Mr. Fiske, " the conception which I had formed 
 when five years of age. I imagined a narrow office just 
 over the zenith, with a tall standing desk running length- 
 wise, upon which lay several open ledgers bound in coarse 
 leather. There was no roof over this office, and the 
 walls rose scarcely five feet from the floor, so that a per- 
 son standing at the desk could look out upon the whole 
 world. There were two persons at the desk, and one of 
 them — a tall, slender man, of aquiline features, wearing 
 spectacles, with a pen in his hand and another behind his 
 * The Unseen Universe, by John Fiske, page 104. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 89 
 
 ear — was God. The other, whose appearance I do not 
 distinctly recall, was an attendant angel. Both were dili- 
 gently watching the deeds of men and recording them in 
 the ledgers. To my infant mind this picture was not gro- 
 tesque, but ineffably solemn, and the fact that all my 
 words and acts were thus written down to confront me at 
 the day of judgment, seemed naturally a matter of grave 
 concern." * 
 
 Probably a good many men and women have no 
 higher conception of the divine mode of administering 
 justice than Mr. Fiske had when a child of five. 
 
 Commensurate with the ancient views of the universe 
 and the Deity, were the views of retribution. There was 
 one heaven to which all orthodox believers were admitted, 
 and, correspondingly, there was one hell to which all un- 
 believers and wicked people were consigned. While " by 
 the very nature of the system described there are infinite 
 varieties of well-being in Devachan (heaven) suited to the 
 infinite varieties of merit in mankind. If ' the next world ' 
 really were the objective heaven, which ordinary theology 
 preaches, there would be endless injustice and inaccuracy 
 in its operation. People, to begin with, would be either 
 admitted or excluded, and the differences of favor shown 
 to different guests within the all-favored region would not 
 sufficiently provide for differences of merit in this life." f 
 
 Has not the prophet of old already said : " For my 
 thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways 
 my way3, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher 
 than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and 
 my thoughts than your thoughts." + 
 
 * The Idea of God, etc., by John Fiske, page 116. 
 t Esoteric Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett, page 140. 
 \ Isaiah, lv. 8-9. 
 
9° 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Now, the new spiritual heavens are to be expected to 
 be at least as great an improvement as the new material 
 heavens are, as contrasted with former notions. " If I 
 have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how 
 shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ? " * The 
 " carpenter theory " of creation has been supplanted by 
 the natural process of evolution, whereby the divine agency 
 is not excluded. No one excludes the inventive human 
 mind from a machine, however ingenious and automatic 
 it may be. Nay, the more exquisite the mechanism of 
 any machine, the more we admire the mind that invented 
 it. Some unphilosophical minds, however, imagine that 
 the moment we find out how a thing is done, we can dis- 
 pense with God. " It is all nature ; it is mere natural 
 law," is an expression often used by men. But a law is 
 only a method, not a cause. 
 
 If now the reader will turn again to chapter i, he will 
 find there the true system of retribution outlined, and his 
 own sagacity will infer the fuller details. He must not 
 exclude the Deity, because the system is natural, and an- 
 alogous to human wisdom in educational methods. Mr. 
 Herbert Spencer's book on Education has the great merit 
 of pointing out the incongruity between a child's failure in 
 completing a task and a barbarous cowhiding. The ir- 
 relevant punishment leaves the task unfinished and has 
 a very demoralizing effect upon the young offender. The 
 natural discipline he suggests is simply to compel the 
 child to finish the work somehow. The irksomeness of 
 doing so, will hardly be resented by the child and will 
 serve as warning. It is some years ago that I read Mr. 
 Spencer's Education ; but if I am not mistaken there is 
 not a single instance suggested of either an arbitrary pen- 
 
 * John, iii. 12. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 91 
 
 alty or reward. The child in doing what is its duty reaps 
 the reward, and in neglecting duty it simply punishes it- 
 self ; it is made to see by the wise teacher or parent the 
 1 consequences" of its conduct. A thing to be done is not 
 to be done because somebody commands it ; but because 
 it is necessary for the child's welfare and for the welfare of 
 others. Not because it is forbidden by any authority, 
 human or divine, should man avoid sin ; but because 
 sin is self-hurt ; is a transgression of the laws of our being. 
 This attitude is called by E. Von Hartmann Autonomy, 
 while he calls the wrong attitude Heteronomy. * Already 
 the ancient philosopher Job exclaimed : " Look unto the 
 heavens, and see ; and behold the skies, which are higher 
 than thou. If thou hast sinned what dost thou against 
 him ? If thou be righteous, what givest thou him ? Or 
 what receiveth he of thine hand."t 
 
 If we observe the laws of our bodily organization, our 
 reward will be health and strength ; if we transgress the 
 sanitary laws, we punish ourselves, in sooner or later reap- 
 ing the evil consequences of our transgression. Why 
 should it be otherwise in regard to our moral or spiritual 
 constitution? "Say ye of the righteous, that it shall be 
 well with them ; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 
 Woe unto the wicked ! it shall be ill with him : for the 
 t doing of his hands shall be given him." X 
 
 I shall state in the next chapter how we can atone for 
 our sins ; for atone we must ; that is, we ourselves, and 
 no other. " Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : for 
 whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." § 
 
 * See Hartmann's great work : Das Sittliche Bewusstsein. 
 
 t Job, xxxv. 5-7. $ Isaiah, iii. 10-11. § Gal. vi. 7 
 
92 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 REFORMATION. 
 
 We have seen in Chapter II. that Involution precedes 
 Evolution ; that man descends from the angelic state to 
 matter through involution, and ascends from matter to 
 angelhood through spiritual evolution. " Through this 
 long line of involution the Soul is making ready to expe- 
 rience a voluntary blindness of the celestial state, to ex- 
 perience voluntary forgetfulness. As a man preparing to 
 descend into the water equips himself, shutting out the 
 light of day, shutting out the wondrous sunshine and air, 
 to the intent that he may find the pearl that is beneath 
 the wave, so in putting on this outside armor of forgetful- 
 ness of the Angel, descending into the outward waters of 
 the great sea of time, in being thus engulfed, the Soul is 
 not only, as Soul, aware, but voluntarily puts aside the 
 celestial state for the expression that is to be given through 
 matter."* Man must eat of the tree of knowledge ; man 
 is not tempted by the devil ; his carnal state involves 
 temptation, that he may gain experience and return 
 through overcoming, to the state of angelhood. This 
 is the Incarnation, or if you will call it so, the " Fall of 
 Man." 
 
 "The perfectly unfolded soul is represented astrologically 
 in the twelfth chapter of Revelations as a woman clothed 
 
 * The Soul, by Mrs. Richmond, page 22. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 93 
 
 with the sun, in contrast to Adam and Eve, who were rep- 
 resented in the Garden of Eden as naked, signifying 
 ignorance, though innocent; that is, in a state of moral 
 infancy. Their adoption of clothing signified growth in 
 knowledge through experience. Eve, though innocent 
 and perfect in virgin beauty, wore no crown ; chaste as 
 marble, pure as ice, with beauty unsullied, she was still 
 no queen, no conqueror. She is the representative of in- 
 fantile innocence, but one to whom no one need apply 
 for advice or instruction, as she has no knowledge of the 
 world or its trials. While fair and pure, she was only a 
 little child who could not serve as teacher, counselor or 
 guide. Now gaze upon the other picture — a woman stand- 
 ing in regal glory, clothed with the sun, the moon beneath 
 her feet, a crown of twelve stars upon her head ; a woman 
 with all the chastity that could be imagined as pertaining 
 to the pure Edenic virgin, but chastity combined with all- 
 commanding knowledge, intelligence united to purity, 
 love married to wisdom. Between these two, a great gulf 
 is fixed ; but it is the Edenic woman who has developed 
 into the radiant queen of the Apocalypse."* At one time 
 or another every human being must have succumbed; 
 must have coped with temptation, must have learned the 
 strength and power and guile of the evil propensities, of the 
 passions, of appetite, selfishness, and animal malignity, in 
 order eventually to triumph over all these, to put all be- 
 neath his conquering heel. Man is not a fallen creature 
 in the sense of the current Christian theology; he is not 
 inherently depraved, bears no hereditary taint from Adam. 
 But man may pervert his nature ; he can sink lower than 
 brutes, as it were, because while the animal is protected 
 by wholesome instincts, man can pervert his instincts ; 
 * Studies in Theosophy, Colville, page 227. 
 
94 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 and he who is destined to such ineffable greatness, has 
 the fatal prerogative to sink so low. A. J. Davis, in a very 
 remarkable essay on Individual and Social Culture, says: 
 "There are three sources of evil. First, progenitive or 
 hereditary misdirection ; secondly, educational or sym- 
 pathetic misdirection ; thirdly, circumstantial or social 
 misdirection. Man is an incarnated divinity, and there- 
 fore he is not intrinsically evil though he may be 
 
 bent or misdirected while in the twig state, and grow up 
 crooked and despised by sensuous observers."* Man 
 is born ignorant, and must work out his own salva- 
 tion through overcoming self — the lower self. Mr. W. 
 J. Colville says very aptly : " Churchmen have made 
 a grave mistake in limiting probation to one lifetime, 
 and in regarding as eternal the period which follows 
 one life and precedes another. It is utterly impossible 
 that a just God should make an eternity depend on 
 our acts in one temporal life; but a temporary result 
 ever follows a temporary cause." f Man must suffer the 
 consequences of his misdeeds, just as he suffers the conse- 
 quences of any violation of the laws of his lower physical 
 nature. If he has transgressed the laws of health, he will 
 have to bear the penalty, and no docter can "forgive him" 
 nor can another suffer for his transgression ; he himself 
 must atone for his sins ; must by better obedience to law, 
 reform his conduct and outgrow the evil. Spiritual mal- 
 adies are curable exactly like physical maladies, with that 
 difference : physical maladies may become incurable, 
 spiritual maladies are never incurable ; man has an eter- 
 nity before him in which to reform and regenerate himself. 
 Evil is negative, temporary, a mere shadow which will 
 
 * Great Harmonia, vol. ii., page 163. 
 t Studies in Theosophy, page 214. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 95 
 
 be ultimately conquered by the light. Eternal hope, not 
 eternal damnation is the divine dispensation. The Soul 
 is not impelled by God to incarnate itself ; it does so of 
 its own free will, and accordingly, it presides over its own 
 destiny under the divine dispensation. This is the Au- 
 tonomy of the soul. It is the architect of its own fortune, 
 carrying within the record of its deeds and misdeeds. No 
 need for an outside, arbitrary Power to weigh in a balance 
 its good and evil acts, or to keep a book of merit and 
 demerit. The book of judgment is within, as the King- 
 dom of God is within. Hence Atonement, in the sense of 
 appeasing or propitiating, is absurd, as God is not injured 
 or offended or "angry." In sinning, we are not rebelling 
 against the mandates of an Almighty King. What we 
 do by sinning, is simply this : we are transgressing the laws 
 of our being, which is self-injury, causing discord within, 
 arresting or retarding our spiritual development. No Al- 
 mighty Potentate can "forgive" sin, or issue a decree of 
 amnesty or pardon. That would interfere with our prog- 
 ress, with our spiritual development. "Justice is the 
 universal solvent, the sole interpreter of all the mysteries 
 
 of existence It is often our duty to forgive 
 
 others, because we are imperfect. God can never change 
 His mind ; He can never change His attitude toward His 
 children. Being perfect, He can never become angry, 
 and therefore He has nothing to forgive. God is never 
 anything but infinite love and wisdom. It is carnally 
 human to err; it is humanly divine to forgive; because 
 when man forgives, he puts away his own error. It was 
 once thought that in the thunder-clap God revealed His 
 anger ; the lightning flash was interpreted by the Romans 
 as the fury of imperial Jove, but storms are now regarded 
 as footprints of Divine Goodness. The true philosopher 
 
96 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 sees only infinite love and wisdom in everything ; all is 
 good, even when incomprehensible. * 
 
 " All Nature is but Art unknown to thee ; 
 All chance, direction which thou canst not see ; 
 All discord, harmony not understood ; 
 All partial evil, universal good ; 
 And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, 
 One truth is clear, whatever is, is right." t 
 
 The old Calvinistic theology has formulated the dogma 
 of M Eternal damnation" The new Spiritual Science an- 
 nounces the truth of "Eternal Hope" and eternal pro- 
 gression. 
 
 * Studies in Theosophy, by W. J. Colville, lecture xi. 
 t Pope's Essay on Man. 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
 THE SOURCE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 The movement called modern spiritualism began as 
 lowly, as the one of nineteen hundred years ago, called 
 Christianity. Christ was born in a stable ; the Spiritualism 
 of the nineteenth century was born in a village near 
 Rochester, N.Y., in March, 1848. The teachings of Jesus 
 were not fashionable in official circles ; only " the common 
 people heard him gladly." Though he taught publicly 
 and performed miracles, very few of his brethren accepted 
 his teachings, or believed that his miracles were wrought 
 lawfully. When the reality of the miracles could not be 
 denied, they were declared demoniacal, as the work of Satan 
 or his emissaries. The a priori -prejudice against the young, 
 wondrous teacher was strong. Hailing not from the 
 official center of learning and authority, but from an ob- 
 scure, despised province, men exclaimed : " Can there 
 any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " Yet every one 
 could convince himself of the truth by hearing the teach- 
 ings and witnessing his miraculous power. " Come and 
 see ! " was said to one objector.* But prejudiced peo- 
 
 * John i. 46. 
 
 97 
 
98 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 pie either refuse to look, or looking, they misconstrue the 
 facts. When Galileo in 1609 discovered the moons of 
 Jupiter through a telescope invented by himself, he was 
 forthwith denounced as a heretic. " Come and see ! " said 
 he, " look for yourself ! " But look they did not. It is 
 easier to call names than to investigate. When the Car- 
 penter of Nazareth had opened the eyes of a man who was 
 blind from his birth, the ecclesiastical authorities of the 
 Jewish church, seeing the popular sensation the miracle 
 had created, forthwith ignored the marvelous cure by rais- 
 ing an irrelevant question, namely, " Is it not a desecra- 
 tion of the Sabbath to make a blind man see?" Thus 
 the learned official authorities.* And when, after the 
 death of Jesus, the new sect avowed and promulgated 
 his teachings, these were declared to be mere foolish- 
 ness by the learned of that age. f " But God hath 
 chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the 
 wise." % 
 
 It was never the learning, the fashionable education, 
 that produced the prophets and seers of the world, though 
 mere learning ranked very high in the estimation of men. 
 To have official titles and occupy the front seats in the 
 synagogue, keeping aloof from the ignorant and trans- 
 gressors of the Law, seems to have been the ambition of 
 even the disciples of Jesus, as is inferable from the follow- 
 ing episode : " In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, 
 saying, Who then is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven ? 
 And He called to him a little child, and set him in the 
 midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye 
 turn, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into 
 the Kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall hum- 
 
 *Johnix. 16. t 1 Cor. i. 23. J 1 Cor. i. 27. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 99 
 
 ble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in 
 the Kingdom of Heaven." * 
 
 A recent writer, whose name I cannot ascertain, de- 
 scribes the fashionable culture of our age in these words : 
 " Many a man educates himself in science for the practice 
 of villainy. Scientific culture is often pursued for its own 
 sake, without any thought of the added power acquired by 
 its posessor to do good in the world. It is often arro- 
 gant and aristocratic. Scientific men are often as bigoted 
 as theologians. They have never distinguished themselves 
 as a class by any unqualified devotion to an unpopular re- 
 form. Like priest and Levite, they are every day passing 
 indifferently by the claims of the wounded, neglecting the 
 laboring classes, and joining hands with the great robber- 
 chieftains who got rich by oppressing the poor. The ap- 
 plication of science to manufacturing in the invention of 
 machines for the production of everything that is made with 
 the sole purpose of making money faster, is one of the 
 most infamous and barbarous cruelties that ever cursed 
 the world. When science becomes religious, and religion 
 becomes scientific, what we glory in as civilization, will be 
 known as the very climax of barbarism. Then men and 
 women will think of the age that turned millions of men 
 and women for the production of wealth into mere supple- 
 mentary wheels and cogs in a great machine, in the same 
 light as we do of the age that sustained the Inquisition 
 and lit the fires of religious persecution." 
 
 Prophets and Reformers, men of intuition, original 
 thinkers, are generally unpopular. To swim with the cur- 
 rent is what is expected of prominent men. Jesus lived 
 in obscurity ; He was not famous ; He was not in fashion ; 
 He created little stir even in His own native place. All his 
 
 L. of C. * Matt - xviii. 1-4. 
 
ioo THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 disciples forsook him when he paid the penalty for his 
 originality. Peter, who was believed to be a rock of stead- 
 fastness, denied Him thrice. Nicodemus cautiously ap- 
 proaches the Master ; he comes to Him in the night, under 
 cover of darkness. Shall a ruler of the synagogue pub- 
 licly avow himself an adherent of this unpopular Teacher ? 
 Nicodemus is a type of moral cowards, of men who love 
 popularity more than the truth. 
 
 Modern Spiritualism is unpopular as yet, though it ex- 
 ercises indirectly a powerful influence upon the church ; 
 and ministers of all denominations are more or less in- 
 fluenced in their preaching by its facts. Henry Ward 
 Beecher knew the truths of Spiritualism ; Victor Hugo 
 was a Spiritualist ; Queen Victoria believes ; Abraham 
 Lincoln, like another King Saul, consulted mediums. No 
 honest, persistent investigator ever failed to be convinced, 
 and no one ever recanted. Spiritualism is the only means 
 of redeeming atheistic materialists from hopeless pessim- 
 ism. A scientist of the caliber of Alfred Russel Wallace, 
 the co-worker of Darwin, is not so easily deluded, nor a 
 man of the capacity of William Crookes, F. R. S., or Pro- 
 fessor Zollner of Germany ; Professor de Morgan of Eng- 
 land ; Professor Robert Hare, the foremost chemist in the 
 United States, Professor Mapes, Judge Edmunds, Prof. 
 Henry Kiddle, A. B. Richmond, the acute criminal lawyer, 
 and numerous other original thinkers in every civilized 
 country of the globe. Within forty years Spiritualism has 
 gained more adherents than Christianity had gained in the 
 first five hundred years of its existence. It counts its fol- 
 lowers by the millions, though, as yet, it has not become 
 fashionable or popular. Men are ashamed to confess 
 that they have been convinced by irrefutable evidence. 
 Generally investigators begin as would-be exposers of 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 101 
 
 Spiritualism, and end by becoming zealous adherents. 
 That is to say, investigators who are possessed by what 
 Mr. Matthew Arnold calls " intellectual seriousness ; " men 
 who really seek the truth in single-minded earnestness ; 
 men, moreover, who have the courage of their opinions, 
 a rare quality. There are to-day able men in all profes- 
 sions, notably in theology, who by investigation have come 
 to the truth, who but hesitate to avow it, for fear of losing 
 their positions, or because they have not enough courage 
 or manliness to advocate an unpopular cause. 
 
 " I have for fifteen years investigated Spiritualism," said 
 a popular Unitarian minister, " and I think there must be 
 something in it." Societies of so-called " Psychical Re- 
 search " have, after years of research, declared that "there 
 is something in it, but we cannot explain it." No wonder, 
 with their old method of research. The old bottles will 
 not hold the new wine. Livingstone taught a negro how 
 to use a spoon for eating soup. What was the surprise of 
 the great traveler when the negro poured each spoonful of 
 soup into the hollow of his hand and thus still ate his soup 
 in the old way. " There is something in it," cry the mem- 
 bers of the psychical research societies, " there is some- 
 thing in it ; but we cannot explain it." We never expected 
 you would. But the explanation is already here. If a 
 society were appointed to investigate the sun, to find out 
 whether the sun shines or not ; and it is already day, and 
 the flowers are open, and the birds are singing, and the 
 world is moving on joyfully to its appointed task, and the 
 society should say : ' Yes, something is true about the sun, 
 but we do not know what it is,' the world would have a 
 right to laugh and angels to pity." * 
 
 * Lecture by Mrs. Richmond, published in " The Progressive 
 Thinker " of January 23, 1892. 
 
102 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 The following list, compiled by Light, of London, 
 England, shows the status of Spiritualism throughout the 
 world. 
 
 Testimony as to Spiritual Phenomena. 
 
 The following is a list of some eminent persons who, 
 after personal investigation, have satisfied themselves of 
 the reality of some of the phenomena generally known as 
 psychical or spiritualistic : 
 
 Science. — The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, 
 F.R.S., President R.S.A. ; W. Crookes, Fellow and Gold 
 Medalist of the Royal Society; C. Varley, F.R.S., C.E. ; 
 A. R. Wallace, the eminent Naturalist; W. F. Barrett, 
 F.R.S.E., Professor of Physics in the Royal College of 
 Science, Dublin ; Dr. Lockhart Robertson ; Dr. J. Elliot- 
 son, F.R.S., sometime President of the Royal Medical 
 and Chirurgical Society of London; Dr. Wm. Gregory, 
 F.R.S.E., sometime Professor of Chemistry in the Uni- 
 versity of Edinburgh; Dr. Ashburner, Mr. Rutter, Dr. 
 Herbert Mayo, F.R.S.; Professor de Morgan, sometime 
 President of the Mathematical Society of London, etc., 
 etc. 
 
 Professor F. Zollner, of Leipzig, author of "Transcen- 
 dental Physics," etc. ; Professors G.T. Fechner, Scheibner, 
 and J. H. Fichte, of Wurzburg; Professor Perty, of 
 Berne; Professors Wagner and Butlerof, of Petersburg; 
 Professors Hare and Mapes, of U. S. A. ; Dr. Robert 
 Friese, of Breslau ; M. Camille Flammarion, Astronomer, 
 etc. 
 
 Literature. — The Earl of Dunraven, T. A. Trollope, 
 S. C. Hall, Gerald Massey, Sir R. Burton, Professor 
 Cassal, LL. D. ; Lord Brougham, Lord Lytton, Lord 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 03 
 
 Lyndhurst, Archbishop Whately, Dr. R. Chambers, 
 F.R.S.E. ; W. M. Thackeray, Nassau Senior, George 
 Thompson, W. Howitt, Serjeant Cox, Mrs. Browning, 
 Hon. Roden Noel, etc., etc. 
 
 Bishop Clarke, Rhode Island, U. S. A. ; Darius Lyman, 
 U. S. A. ; Professor W. Denton, Professor Alex Wilder, 
 Professor Hiram Corson, Professor George Bush, and 
 twenty-four judges and ex-judges of the U.S. Courts ; Victor 
 Hugo, Baron and Baroness Von Way, W. Lloyd Garrison, 
 U.S. A.; Hon. R. Dale Owen, U. S. A.; Hon. J. W. 
 Edmonds, U. S. A. ; Epes Sargent, Baron du Potet, Count 
 A. de Gasparin, Baron L. de Guldenstubbe, etc., etc. 
 
 Social Position. — H.I.H. Nicholas, Duke of Leuch- 
 tenberg, H.M.S.H. the Prince of Solms, H.S.H. Prince 
 Albrecht of Solms, H.S.H. Prince Emile of Sayn 
 Wittgenstein, Hon. Alexander Aksakof, Imperial Coun- 
 cilor of Russia ; the Countess of Caithness and Duchesse 
 de Pomar ; the Hon. J. L. O'Sullivan, sometime Minister 
 of U. S. A. at the Court of Lisbon ; M. Favre Clavairoz, 
 late Consul-General of France at Trieste ; the late Em- 
 perors of Russia and France ; Presidents Thiers and 
 Lincoln, etc., etc. 
 
 What is said of Spiritual Phenomena. 
 
 J. H. Fichte, the German Philosopher and Author. — 
 " Notwithstanding my age (83) and my exemption from 
 the controversies of the day, I feel it my duty to bear 
 testimony to the great fact of Spiritualism. No one 
 should keep silent." 
 
 Professor de Morgan, President of the Mathematical 
 Society of London. — " I am perfectly convinced that I 
 have both seen and heard, in a manner which should 
 
104 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 make unbelief impossible, things called spiritual, which 
 cannot be taken by a rational being to be capable of 
 explanation by imposture, coincidence or mistake. So 
 far I feel the ground firm under me." 
 
 Dr. Robert Chambers. — " I have for many years known 
 that these phenemena are real, as distinguished from 
 impostures ; and it is not of yesterday that I concluded 
 they were calculated to explain much that has been 
 doubtful in the past ; and when fully accepted revolution- 
 ize the whole frame of human opinion on many important 
 matters." — Extract from a letter to A. Russel Wallace. 
 
 Professor Hare, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in the 
 University of Pennsylvania. — "Far from abating my 
 confidence in the inferences respecting the agencies of 
 the spirits of deceased mortals, in the manifestations of 
 which I have given an account in my work, I have, within 
 the last nine months (this was written in 1858) had more 
 striking evidences of that agency than those given in the 
 work in question." 
 
 Professor Challis, the late Plumerian Professor of 
 Astronomy at Cambridge. — " I have been unable to resist 
 the large amount of testimony to such facts, which has come 
 from many independent sources, and from a vast number 
 
 of witnesses In short, the testimony has been 
 
 so abundant and consentaneous, that either the facts 
 must be admitted to be such as are reported, or the pos- 
 sibility of certifying facts by human testimony must be 
 given up." — Clerical Journal, June, 1862. 
 
 Professors Tornebom and Edland, the Swedish 
 Physicists. — "Only those deny the reality of spirit phe- 
 nomena who have never examined them,but profound study 
 alone can explain them. We do not know where we may 
 be led, by the discovery of the cause of these, as it seems, 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 05 
 
 trivial occurrences, or to what new spheres of Nature's 
 kingdom they may open the way ; but that they will bring 
 forward important results is already made clear to us by 
 the revelations of natural history in all ages." Aftonblad 
 (Stockholm), October 30, 1879. 
 
 Professor Gregory, F.R.S.E. — "The essential question 
 is this: what are the proofs of the agency of departed 
 spirits? Although I cannot say that I feel yet the sure 
 and firm conviction on this point which I feel on some 
 others, I am bound to say that the higher phenomena, 
 recorded by so many truthful and honorable men, appear 
 to me to render the spiritual hypothesis almost certain 
 
 I believe that if I could myself see the higher 
 
 phenomena alluded to I should be satisfied, as are all 
 those who have had the best means of judging the truth 
 of the spiritual theory." 
 
 Lord Brougham. — "There is but one question I would 
 ask the author : Is the Spiritualism of this work foreign 
 to our materialistic, manufacturing age ? No ; for amidst 
 the varieties of mind which divers circumstances produce 
 are found those who cultivate man's highest faculties; 
 to these the author addresses himself. But even in the 
 most cloudless skies of skepticism I see a rain cloud, if it 
 be no bigger than a man's hand — it is modern Spir- 
 itualism." Preface by Lord Brougham in The Book of 
 Nature, by C. O. Groom Napier, F.C.S. 
 
 The London Dialectical Committee reported. — " 1. That 
 sounds of a varied character, apparently proceeding 
 from articles of furniture, the floor and walls of the room, 
 the vibrations accompanying which sounds are often dis- 
 tinctly perceptible to the touch, occur without being pro- 
 duced by muscular action of mechanical contrivance. 2. 
 The movements of heavy bodies take place without me- 
 
106 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 chanical contrivance of any kind, or adequate exertion of 
 muscular force on those present, and frequently without 
 contact or connection with any person. 3. That these 
 sounds and movements often occur at the time and in the 
 manner asked for by persons present, and by means 
 of a simple code of signals, answer questions and spell 
 out coherent communications." 
 
 Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S. — "Twenty-five years 
 
 ago I was a hard-headed unbeliever Spiritual 
 
 phenomena, however, suddenly and quite unexpectedly 
 
 were soon after developed in my own family 
 
 This led me to inquire and try numerous experiments in 
 such a way as to preclude, as much as circumstances 
 would permit, the possibility of trickery and self-decep- 
 tion. " He then details various phases of the phenomena 
 which had come within the range of his personal experi- 
 ence, and continues: " Other and numerous phenomena 
 have occurred, proving the existence (a) of forces un- 
 known to science ; (b) the power of instantly reading my 
 thoughts ; (c) the presence of some intelligence or intelli- 
 gences controlling those powers That the phe- 
 nomena occur, there is overwhelming evidence, and it is 
 too late to deny their existence." 
 
 Camille Flammarion, the French Astronomer and mem- 
 ber of the Academie Franchise. — " I do not hesitate to 
 affirm my conviction, based on personal examination of 
 the subject, that any scientific man who declares the phe- 
 nomena denominated 'magnetic,' 'somnambulic,' 'me- 
 diumic,' and others not yet explained by science, to be ' im- 
 possible,' is one who speaks without knowing what he is 
 talking about ; and also any man accustomed, by his pro- 
 fessional avocations, to scientific observation — provided 
 that his mind is not biased by preconceived opinions, nor 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 107 
 
 his mental vision blinded by that opposite kind of illusion, 
 unhappily too common in the learned world, which con- 
 sists in imagining that the laws of Nature are already 
 known to us, and that everything which appears to over- 
 step the limit of our present formulas is impossible — may 
 acquire a radical and absolute certainty of the reality of 
 the facts alluded to. " 
 
 Alfred Russel Wallace, D. C. L., LL. D.— " My posi- 
 tion, therefore, is that the phenomena of Spiritualism in 
 their entirety do not require further confirmation. They 
 are proved quite as well as any facts are proved in other 
 sciences, and it is not denial or quibbling that can dis- 
 prove any of them, but only fresh facts and accurate de- 
 ductions from those facts. When the opponents of Spir- 
 itualism can give a record of their researches approaching 
 in duration and completeness to those of its advocates; 
 and when they can discover and show in detail either how 
 the phenomena are produced or how the many sane and 
 able men here referred to have been deluded into a coin- 
 cident belief that they have witnessed them ; and when 
 they can prove the correctness of their theory by produc- 
 ing a like belief in a body of equally sane and able un- 
 believers — then, and not till then, will it be necessary for 
 Spiritualists to produce fresh confirmation of facts which 
 are, and always have been, sufficiently real and undis- 
 putable to satisfy any honest and persevering inquirer." — 
 Miracles and Modern Spiritualism. 
 
 Dr. Lockhart Robertson, — "The writer (/. <?., Dr. L. 
 Robertson) can now no more doubt the physical manifes- 
 tations of so-called Spiritualism than he would any other 
 fact — as, for example, the fall of the apple to the ground, 
 of which his senses informed him. As stated above, there 
 was no place or chance of any legerdemain or fraud in 
 
108 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 these physical manifestations. He is aware, even from 
 recent experience, of the impossibility of convincing any 
 one by a mere narrative of events apparently so out of 
 harmony with all our knowledge of the laws which govern 
 the physical world, and he places these facts on record 
 rather as an act of justice due to those whose similar state- 
 ments he had elsewhere doubted and denied, than with 
 either the desire or hope of convincing others. Yet he 
 cannot doubt the ultimate recognition of facts of the truth 
 of which he is so thoroughly convinced. Admit these 
 physical manifestations, and a strange and wide world of 
 research is opened to our inquiry. This field is new to 
 the materialist mind of the last two centuries, which even 
 in the writings of divines of the English Church doubts 
 and denies all spiritual manifestations and agencies, be 
 they good or evil." — From a letter by Dr. Lockhart Rob- 
 ertson, published in the Dialectkal Society's Report o?i 
 Spiritualism, p. 24. 
 
 Nassau William, Senior. — "No one can doubt that 
 phenomena like these (Phrenology, Homoeopathy and 
 Mesmerism) deserve to be observed, recorded and ar- 
 ranged ; and whether we call by the name of Mesmerism, 
 or by any other name, the science which proposes to do 
 this, is a mere question of nomenclature. Among those 
 who profess this science there may be careless observers, 
 prejudiced recorders and rash systematizers ; their errors 
 and defects may impede the progress of knowledge, but 
 they will not stop it. And we have no doubt that before 
 the end of this century the wonders which perplex almost 
 equally those who accept and those who reject modern 
 Mesmerism will be distributed into defined classes, and 
 found subject to ascertained laws — in other words, will 
 become the subjects of a science." These views will pre- 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 109 
 
 pare us for the following statement made in the Spiritual 
 Magazine, 1864, p. 336 : " We have only to add as a fur- 
 ther tribute to the attainments and honors of Mr. Senior, 
 that he was (by long inquiry and experience) a firm believer 
 in spiritual power and manifestations. Mr. Home was 
 his frequent guest, and Mr. Senior made no secret of his 
 belief among his friends. He it was who recommended 
 the publication of Mr. Home's recent work by Messrs. 
 Longmans, and he authorized the publication under in- 
 itials of one of the striking incidents there given, which 
 happened to a near and dear member of his family. 
 
 Baron Carl du Prel (Munich), in Nord und Sild. — "One 
 thing is clear — that is, that psychography must be ascribed 
 to a transcendental origin. We shall find: (1) That the 
 hypothesis of prepared slates is inadmissible. (2) The 
 place on which the writing is found is quite inaccessible 
 to the hands of the medium. In some cases the double 
 slate is securely locked, leaving only room inside for the 
 tiny morsel of slate pencil. (3) That the writing is 
 actually done at the time. (4) That the medium is not 
 writing. (5) The writing must be actually done with the 
 morsel of slate or lead-pencil. (6) The writing is done 
 by an intelligent being, since the answers are exactly 
 pertinent to the questions. (7) This being can read, 
 write and understand the language of human beings, 
 frequently such as is unknown to the medium. (8) It 
 strongly resembles a human being, as well in the degree 
 of its intelligence as in the mistakes sometimes made. 
 These beings are, therefore, although invisible, of human 
 nature or species. It is no use whatever to fight against 
 this proposition. (9) If these beings speak, they do so 
 in human language. (10) If they are asked who they 
 are, they answer that they are beings who have left this 
 
HO THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 world, (i i ) When these appearances become partly visible, 
 perhaps only their hands, the hands seen are of human 
 forms. (12) When these things become entirely visible, 
 
 they show the human form and countenance 
 
 Spiritualism must be investigated by science. I should 
 look upon myself as a coward if I did not openly express 
 my convictions." 
 
 The author of this work was as prejudiced against 
 Spiritualism as the enlightened spirit of the age demands. 
 Ridicule and contempt seemed the most fitting attitude 
 toward it. He, too, swam with the current of the average 
 opinion of educated men and women of our time. It was 
 not till 1874 that he for the first time read a serious con- 
 troversy on the subject. W. B. Carpenter of England 
 tried to explain away all occult phenomena, when Alfred 
 Russel Wallace wrote in the Fortnightly Review a powerful 
 essay entitled A Defense of Modern Spiritualism, reprinted 
 in the Eclectic Magazine of August and September, 1874. 
 Absolute proofs, however, came only then when he earnestly 
 sought them. There is perhaps not a single town in the 
 United States, not to speak of other countries, where there 
 are not residing Spiritualists, either organized in societies, 
 or unavowed, Motives of secular self-interest keep men 
 and women back from an open confession. Fear of ridi- 
 cule and of expulsion from the church closes the lips of 
 many. Few dare to brave public opinion. More homage 
 is paid to Mrs. Grundy than to the august goddess of 
 Truth. 
 
 Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, the greatest inspirational 
 orator of America, gave expression to the following his- 
 torical facts, in the Carnegie Music Hall of New York 
 City, March 27th, 1892, on the forty-fourth anniversary 
 of modern Spiritualism. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 1 1 
 
 " When the baby was born, nobody knew what to call it. 
 It had not been expected ; there had been no prophet to 
 announce its coming, unless it was Mother Ann Lee, of 
 the Shakers, and she was not an appointed prophet. No 
 prediction had been made by seers or kings, and no wise 
 men came up out of the east with gold, jewels and pre- 
 cious stones to lay at the feet of this new-born babe. As 
 the child came into existence, men of science pressed 
 their heads, and said, ' It is but another trick ; it has no ex- 
 istence ! ' Theologians came and heard the sounds, heard 
 the voices through the messengers, heard the children 
 speak beyond their years, and they said, 'It is another 
 trick of Satan to lead men astray.' Finally men of 
 science took a new turn and investigated the matter some- 
 what, saying, ' It is an undiscovered law of nature,' 
 and stopped there. But the child grew. Some who pro- 
 fessed to aid it, did so to obtain notoriety. But we passed 
 
 through this age Spiritualism served as a vehicle 
 
 for anything but the one thing it came to announce. 
 
 " Mr. Beecher is credited with having said : ' If a man 
 of the age of forty years has not earned a home, then he 
 might as well say his life is a failure, even though that 
 man earned but a dollar a day.' Spiritualism has not any 
 home ; it is forty-four years old ; it has not any church ; 
 it is not accepted in the halls of science, as old as it is, 
 but it has a home as vast as the heavens, and the hearts 
 of humanity dwell therein. During all the while that 
 Spiritualism has been here, everybody celebrates the an- 
 niversary of the advent of Spiritualism from the date when 
 it came to them. Immortality has been demonstrated 
 over and over again since man began to think. Religion 
 has been in the world ever since man began to pray. 
 Phenomena akin to those of Spiritualism have accom- 
 
H2 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 panied every religious outpouring the world has ever 
 known. There are plenty of people in the world to-day, 
 not professed spiritualists, who can reason you into or 
 out of Spiritualism. There is a process of reasoning go- 
 ing on in the world that can take both sides of the ques- 
 tion, and prove either side. All this is possible. The 
 scientific method of demonstrating immortality from the 
 time of Socrates to the present day is in a philosophical 
 mist. Whenever you have received a message for the first 
 time from a loved one whom you had mourned as dead, 
 that is the beginning of your Spiritualism. You celebrate 
 that day forever and ever in your hearts. The moment 
 the space has been bridged over, that moment you begin 
 to let in new light, whatever the atmosphere may have 
 been : the medium through whom the first message came, 
 that one is cherished in your heart of hearts forever. 
 There is not a medium in the world at the present time 
 who has not demonstrated the presence of somebody's 
 loved ones who have gone before. 
 
 " Spiritualism is now beyond the period of being 
 assaulted ; it is now beyond the prophecy that said this 
 child would not live, while science has taken a new light, 
 and comes round to investigate Spiritualism by the door 
 of psychic research. That is a door that leads to Spirit- 
 ualism as well as any other, and no one ever ventured to 
 question concerning the manifestations from the unseen 
 realm without landing safe and sound in the very midst of 
 Spiritualism. A great crop of physical healers, mind 
 curers, faith curers, alleged Christian scientists, as well as 
 Spiritual scientists, have sprung up from the seeds that 
 Spiritualism sowed forty, thirty-two, twenty-five, twenty 
 years ago. When Dr. J. R. Newton, the healer of the 
 sick, was in New York City, twenty-five or thirty years ago, 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 13 
 
 Bishop Hughes was so startled by the numbers who went 
 to the doctor to be healed, that the bishop gave a special 
 dispensation to one of the priests of the city to heal the 
 sick publicly. Why ? For fear that Dr. Newton, the 
 healer, might take away from the papal flock — since mir- 
 acles in modern times are not denied by the Roman 
 Church. Thousands of spiritual healers have been pass- 
 ing on from year to year manifesting their powers ; but 
 they having denounced spiritual healing, it would not do to 
 call the thing by that name. So long as Spiritualism is the 
 thing that the name represents, it will be called by that 
 name in the world. 
 
 " No one more than ourselves can possibly respect the 
 records of the past of the Spiritualism in the world ; no 
 one more than ourselves can know the strong foundation 
 upon which these religions rested, and no one has greater 
 reverence for the truth so recorded than ourselves. The 
 time is now, and is more and more manifest, when theology 
 will depend more upon Spiritualism to demonstrate the 
 manifestations recorded in the Bible, than Spiritualism 
 will depend upon theology. The time is coming when 
 the theologian will have to turn to Spiritualism as his 
 only refuge, and so show to the people these things to be 
 true, that the materialist, the scoffer and the agnostic 
 declare to be impossible. Can any one deny that the time 
 was ripe for Spiritualism? Can any one say that the 
 world was not in great hunger for this new manifesta- 
 tion of the bread of life ? Without churches, schools, 
 colleges or universities that train priests, Spiritualism is 
 the high-priest i?i the world to-day. Spiritualism is the 
 interpreter of the new science of life in man's nature." * 
 
 "Both the Old and the New Testaments are full of 
 * The Banner of Light, of April 9, 1892. 
 
114 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Spiritualism, and Spiritualists alone can read the record 
 with an enlightened belief. The hand that wrote upon 
 the wall at Belshazzar's feast, and the three men unhurt 
 in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, are for them actual 
 facts which they need not explain away. St. Paul's 
 language about 'spiritual gifts,' and ' trying the spirits,' 
 is to them intelligible language, and the ' gift of tongues ' 
 a simple fact. When Christ cast out ' devils ' or evil 
 spirits, he really did so — not merely startled a madman 
 into momentary quiescence ; and the water changed into 
 wine, as well as the bread and fishes continually renewed 
 till five thousand men were fed, are credible as extreme 
 manifestations of a power which is still daily at work 
 among us." * 
 
 Though the Spiritual manifestations since 1874 have 
 increased immeasurably in quantity as well as in quality, 
 it is worth while for the reader to read the essay of A. 
 R. Wallace, on account of the lucidity of style and com- 
 prehensiveness of treatment of the subject. It has been 
 reprinted recently in a volume emanating from the pen of 
 Mr. Wallace, entitled Miracles and Modern Spiritualism. 
 
 That we are undergoing a great crisis in religious 
 thought, every thoughtful man and woman is aware. 
 Our age is pregnant with great changes and reforms. 
 " We have reached, religiously, politically, physically and 
 spiritually, a certain point, which will develop, as we 
 pass beyond it, very great changes, which will reveal that 
 which has never been revealed to us before. The earth 
 and its products have been steadily rising in the scale of 
 being till the present, and that present is pregnant with 
 
 great changes The established religions 
 
 of the world are about to be swept away, and the fine 
 
 * A. R. Wallace, in The Eclectic Magazine, September, 1874, page 
 356' 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 115 
 
 gold of good that there is in them is to be revealed. 
 Those which have enough to perpetuate themselves in 
 the future will do so ; those which have not, will become 
 extinct. At certain periods or cycles in the world's 
 history, great changes have taken place. It always has 
 been so ; it always, doubtless, will be so. As the earth 
 has grown older, and man has become more mature, and 
 the spirit has gathered to itself elements through which 
 it can more perfectly express itself, you must expect that 
 the changes that are upon you will be greater than all those 
 that have preceded this time in the world's history. The 
 present is the most momentous period, at least since the 
 Christian era dawned, because it holds within itself so great 
 an influx of spiritual truth which acts in religion, in philoso- 
 phy, in all the arts and sciences with which you are engaged, 
 that it is in one sense overturning the world, mentally 
 and socially. Now, every effect has its cause. What is 
 the cause of this ? Why, your human minds and bodies 
 unfold in correspondence with the growth of the earth. 
 As you are passing through changes, so is the earth. 
 Materially our planet has grown into that condition, as to 
 be able to sustain our connection with those great 
 spiritual truths that are finding manifestation through 
 human bodies all over the land. The time was when 
 these truths could not be uttered." * 
 
 "'You cannot bear them now,' was said of old. In 
 these words we may find the clue to the late appearance 
 of modern Spiritualism. Certain debasing superstitions 
 had to disappear before the world was worthy of it. Why 
 not sooner, long ago, centuries since? In reply one 
 might suggest that the Atlantic has always been there, 
 though thousands of years elapsed ere a Columbus ad- 
 * Flashes of Light, pages 343, 363. 
 
1 1 6 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 ventured its passage. One might ask when the diurnal 
 motion of the earth, when the circulation of the blood, 
 when the fall of aerolites, were first accepted as truths by 
 science." * 
 
 Spiritualism is unlike any religion extant, in that it re- 
 quires no faith, no acceptance of any doctrines or prop- 
 ositions on mere authority. For its fundamental facts 
 it has a solid basis of irrefutable evidence, evidence 
 accessible to all, evidence of the senses ; so that for the 
 first time in the world's history, the humblest, the most 
 illiterate human being can find out for himself those truths 
 which hitherto were in the custody of priests. The only 
 prerequisite for investigation is freedom from bias or 
 preconception, honesty of purpose, and observance of the 
 conditions which nature prescribes. Again it can be said 
 as of old, but with more literal interpretation : " Seek 
 and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto 
 yon ! " Again we can reply to those who exclaim : " Can 
 there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" " Come 
 and see /" 
 
 AIDS TO INVESTIGATORS. 
 
 Besides the works mentioned in the text, the following may be 
 consulted : — 
 
 The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism. By Epes Sargent. 
 If a Man Die Shall He Live Again ? By Alfred Russel 
 
 Wallace. (A Lecture.) 
 Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse. By A. J. Davis. 
 Researches in Spiritualism. By Wm. Crookes, F. R. S. 
 
 * The Debatable Land, by Robert Dale Owen, page 198. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 117 
 
 Transcendental Physics. By Prof. Zoellner ; translated by 
 
 C. C. Massey, of Lincoln's Inn, London, England. 
 Is Materialization True ? With eleven other lectures by 
 
 Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond. 
 Materialized Apparitions : If not Beings from a?wther 
 
 life, what are they ? By E. A. Brackett. 
 Religion of Spiritualism : Its Phefiomena and Philosophy. 
 
 By Rev. Samuel Watson, thirty-six years a Methodist 
 
 minister. 
 Unanswerable logic. By Thomas Gale Forster. 
 What I saw at Cassadaga in 1888 , together with a Review 
 
 of the Seybert Commissioner's Preliminary Report. 
 
 By A. B. Richmond. 
 Seers of the Ages. By Dr. J. M. Peebles. Treats upon 
 
 Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Spiritualism, tracing 
 
 Spirit Phenomena through India, Egypt, Phoenicia, 
 
 Syria, from the days of Christ to the present time. 
 Nineteenth Ce?itury Miracles ; or, Spirits and Their Work 
 
 in Every Country on Earth. By Emma Hardinge 
 
 Britten. 
 Real life in Spirit Land. By Mrs. Maria M. King. 
 The Next World Interviewed. By Mrs. S. G. Horn. 
 Strange Visitors. By Mrs. S. G. Horn. 
 Immortality and Our Employments Hereafter. By Dr. J. 
 
 M. Peebles. 
 Spiritual Spheres (Pamphlet). By Mrs. Cora L. V. 
 
 Richmond. 
 Solar and Spiritual Light (Pamphlet). By Mrs. Cora 
 
 L. V. Richmond. 
 The Rationale of Spiritualism. By Frederick F. Cook ; a 
 
 paper read before the Chicago Philosophical Society. 
 A Book Writte?iby the Spirits of the So-called Dead. Com- 
 piled and arranged by C. G. Helleberg. 
 
n8 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 The Modern Bethesda; or, The Gift of Healing ; etc., being 
 an account of the marvelous cures wrought by Dr. 
 J. R. Newton. 
 
 The Psycho-Physiological Sciences and their Assailants. 
 Being a response by Alfred Russel Wallace of Eng- 
 land, LL. D., F. L. S., etc. ; Prof. J. R. Buchanan, 
 Darius Lyman, and Epes Sargent. 
 
 Flashes of Light from the Spirit World. By Allan Put- 
 nam ; an exquisitively instructive book. 
 
 In Germany the profoundest writer is Carl du Prel, 
 Ph. D. His important work, Die Philosophic Der 
 Mystik, has been translated in England. All books 
 of this kind may be had, as well as catalogues, of the 
 Messrs. Colby & Rich, publishers, Boston, Mass. 
 
 Of the weekly papers published in this country, that are 
 exponents of the Spiritual Philosophy, The Banner of 
 Light, published at Boston, by the above-named pub- 
 lishers, ranks first as a pioneer, having been started 
 in April, 1857, and continued uninterruptedly until 
 now. 
 
 In Cincinnati The Light of Truth, also an excellent paper, 
 is published, and in Chicago appears The Progressive 
 Thinker. 
 
 The Carrier Dove, another weekly, published in San 
 Francisco, is also a good paper. 
 
 Of extraordinary interest are the words of Andrew Jack- 
 son Davis, the great Seer of our Age, published by 
 Messrs. Colby & Rich. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 119 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PSEUDO-ENLIGHTENMENT. 
 
 Where there is much light, there is much shade. The 
 unprecedented progress of modern physical science so 
 dazzled scientific specialists, that metaphysics was looked 
 upon with disdain, if not with contempt. The progress 
 in physiology induced naturalists more and more to seek 
 in the nervous system the explanation, if not the cause of 
 mental phenomena. Though the more cautious thinkers 
 were somewhat reserved concerning the connection be- 
 tween body and soul, there was, on the whole, a leaning 
 towards the materialistic hypothesis. At any rate, lesser 
 minds became more outspoken and decided in the ten- 
 dency to adopt materialism. "Water is produced by the 
 union of hydrogen and oxygen ; " writes Professor Huxley, 
 "we do not assume that a something called aquosity 
 has entered ; why then should it be assumed that besides 
 protoplasm there is something in living beings called vi- 
 tality ? " Yet Huxley is not a materialist ; he is an agnos- 
 tic ; but the average student is too impatient to halt be- 
 tween two opinions ; and it must be confessed that lan- 
 guage like the following is misleading to men not acquainted 
 with the fundamental principles of philosophy or even 
 psychology. Professor Huxley says : "The materialistic 
 terminology is in every way to be preferred, for it con- 
 nects thought with the other phenomena of the universe. 
 
120 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Thus there can be little doubt that the further 
 
 science advances, the more extensively and consistently 
 will all the phenomena of nature be represented by 
 materialistic formulae and symbols."* From symbols to 
 reality is an easy step. The average educated or mis- 
 educated youth is about to emancipate himself from the 
 religion in which he was brought up ; he is apt to go from 
 one extreme into another. The average physician, too, 
 has little time for more profound psychological researches, 
 so he adopts a theory which his experience seems to con- 
 firm every day. There is so much sound common-sense, 
 as it were, in materials, that ordinary educated men and 
 women easily become ensnared in it. Even scientific 
 specialists are apt to forget that commo?i-sense can no 
 more penetrate into the deeper mysteries of nature than 
 our eyes and ears. 
 
 The educated may now call the Copernican view of the 
 universe common-sense. But we all know that common- 
 sense had not discovered the true motion of the planets ; 
 nay, the discovery contradicted the senses, as well as 
 what we call common-sense. 
 
 Materialism, even after it was disavowed by science as 
 a suicidal theory, lingered long, and is lingering yet in the 
 minds of educated men and women. 
 
 Now, what was and is the attitude of men of science in 
 our age toward the more recondite phenomena of nature ? 
 Dazzled by the brilliant results of modern physical re- 
 search ; conscious of victories won in the arena of theo- 
 logical controversy, concerning astronomical matters and 
 the age of the world, it was apparently assumed that the 
 principal laws of nature were already discovered, so that 
 additional new facts had only to be co-ordinated under, 
 * The Physical Basis of Life. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 2 I 
 
 and classified with, the ready-made scientific categories ; 
 everything belonged either to one or the other pigeon- 
 hole. If anything could not thus be co-ordinated or 
 classified, it was declared to be impossible. Professor 
 Tyndall in his address before the Birmingham and Mid- 
 land Institute in 1877, endeavors to show that we are not 
 justified in assuming a Soul in man ; he says : " But to 
 return to the hypothesis of a human soul, offered as an 
 explanation or simplification of a series of obscure 
 phenomena. Adequate reflection shows that instead of 
 introducing light into our minds, it increases our darkness. 
 You do not in this case Explain the unknown in terms oj 
 the known, which, as stated above, is the method of science, 
 but you explain the unknown in terms of the more 
 
 unknown From the side of science all that we 
 
 are warranted in stating is that terror, hope, sensation, 
 etc., are psychical phenomena produced by, or associated 
 with, the molecular processes set up by waves of light in a 
 previously prepared brain." * The words I put in italics 
 express a great fallacy, and are extremely unscientific for 
 a man of science. 
 
 " Mr. G. H. Lewes, who was not a scientific specialist, 
 but a philosophical thinker, nevertheless fell into the same 
 error: " To reach the unknown we must pass through the 
 avenues of the known; we must not attempt to reach it 
 through the unknown." f The italics are mine. Philos- 
 ophy henceforth is with Lewes as with Herbert Spencer, 
 a mere generalization of know?i facts. " The truths of 
 Philosophy," writes Spencer, "bear the same relation to 
 the highest scientific truths, that each of these bears to 
 lowest scientific truths. As each widest generalization of 
 
 * The Eclectic Magazine, January 1878, page 73. 
 t History of Philosophy, vol. i., page xvii. 
 
122 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 science comprehends and consolidates the narrower 
 generalizations of its own division ; so the generalizations 
 of Philosophy comprehend and consolidate the widest 
 
 generalizations of science Science is partially 
 
 unified knowledge ; Philosophy is completely unified 
 knowledge." * This novel definition of Philosophy as the 
 highest generalization of the facts of science is in accord- 
 ance with the Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. Mr. 
 Spencer is about to construct the philosophy of the 
 know able. He need not wait for any more new data in 
 the domain of matter or in the province of mind. The 
 First Principles are already ascertained. The materials 
 are at hand for the erection of the temple of truth. 
 Philosophy in the old sense of the word is doomed. Pro- 
 fessor Bain speaks with disdain of metaphysics. Mr. 
 Matthew Arnold casts his shafts of ridicule and contempt 
 on metaphysical study, while he himself indulges in such 
 definitions of religion as " the power, not ourselves, which 
 makes for righteousness." How delightfully simple and 
 unmetaphysical ! Mr. Lewes is a follower of Comte. 
 "Philosophy," says Lewes, "never will achieve its aims, 
 because those aims lie beyond all human scope. The 
 difficulty is impossibility. No progress can be made be- 
 cause no certainty is possible. To aspire to the knowl- 
 edge of more than phenomena — their resemblances, co- 
 existences and successions — is to aspire to transcend the 
 inexorable limits of human faculty." f 
 
 "To influence persons in this frame of mind," says 
 A. R. Wallace in his A Defense of Modern Spiritualism, 
 " it is evident that more personal testimony to isolated 
 facts is utterly useless. They have, to use the admirable 
 
 * First Principles, page 133, second edition, 
 t History of Philosophy, vol. i., page xii. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 2 3 
 
 expression of Dr. Carpenter, no place in the existing 
 fabric of their thought, into which such facts can be 
 fitted." 
 
 This a priori fallacy underlies all the Biblical criticism 
 of modern iconoclasts. Renan in France and Strauss in 
 Germany endeavored to undermine the belief in the so- 
 called supernatural, by which was meant all that is related 
 in the Bible that does not fit into the pigeon-holes of 
 modern scientific theories. The love of truth, however, im- 
 pelled some eminent naturalists to declare, that we are not 
 warranted to assume the a priori impossibility of miracles, 
 since we do not as yet know all forces of nature. Con- 
 sequently they affirmed that the question is solely one of 
 evidence. Is the evidence in the Bible for the occurrence 
 of marvelous facts sufficient ? Certainly not. We cannot 
 cross-examine the alleged witnesses ; and since no such 
 marvels occur in our time, where we could examine 
 them in the light of modern science, we must reject the 
 questionable and vague testimony that comes to us from 
 ancient times of superstition. This attitude would be 
 defensible, if there were not like occurrences at the present 
 day. Nay, in every age and in all countries throughout 
 the past there were here and there persons of peculiar 
 nervous organization, sensitives, or mediums, as they are 
 now called, who were possessed of abnormal powers. 
 True, we do not to-day look upon them with awe, as being 
 especially favored by God and commissioned to reveal His 
 will. We interpret these powers more rationally as throw- 
 ing light upon man's mental nature. But to ignore them 
 as a priori impossible, or to refuse to witness the mani- 
 festations is utterly unscientific ; it is going to the other 
 extreme ; it is to deprive ourselves of most valuable data 
 for the definition of the human soul. To hold that the 
 
124 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 miracle proves the doctrine, or that the performer of a 
 miracle is divinely commissioned, is one thing ; to deny 
 the very possibility of a miracle is another. 
 
 The great mistake of the ancients consisted in regard- 
 ing such powers as supernatural ; our mistake consists in 
 considering them as products of superstition, hallucina- 
 tion or deception. If any person to-day displays extraor- 
 dinary healing powers, we say he is abnormally endowed 
 with a gift that certainly deserves to be called spiritual, 
 if used to alleviate human suffering.* But the ancients 
 made the healer a priest, if not a chief and ruler. Mr. 
 Herbert Spencer in his Sociology says : " A satisfactory 
 distinction between priests and medicine-men is difficult 
 to find. Both are concerned with supernatural agents." f 
 Carl du Prel says in substance (I am unable now to 
 find the passage) : " In the middle ages persons who had 
 mesmeric or mediumistic powers were regarded as being 
 in league with the devil, as being sorcerers or witches, or 
 as being possessed by evil spirits. The Church as well 
 as the State authorities were bent to suppress and to 
 punish all who manifested any abnormal faculties. Not 
 only those were persecuted who used their powers to harm 
 others, as can be done to-day by mesmerists, but innocent, 
 inoffensive persons were visited by severe penalties, tor- 
 ture or capital punishment." " The witchcraft mania," 
 says A. R. Wallace in a recent lecture, " which prevailed 
 during the middle ages, grew in intensity and horror until 
 it culminated in the 16th and 17th centuries, at which time 
 thousands and tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds 
 of thousands of persons, most of whom were perfectly in- 
 nocent, and many of them far wiser and better than their 
 
 * See 1 Cor. xii., 9. 
 
 t Sociology, part vi., sec. 589. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 125 
 
 accusers, were tortured and massacred in the belief that 
 they held actual personal communication with Satan. 
 The whole religious world was permeated with a belief in 
 diabolism, so that any accusation was sufficient to cause 
 a person once arrested as a witch or a wizard to be con- 
 victed. Some who visited the sick and healed them were 
 accused of effecting cures by Satanic power and burned 
 
 as witches The result was that all having these 
 
 peculiar gifts were exterminated out of the world, and 
 naturally the phenomena occurring through their agency 
 ceased to exist till a fresh crop, as it were, of these 
 peculiarly gifted individuals had grownup." * 
 
 Mr. Lecky, in his important work on The History 0/ 
 Rationalism in Europe, says that this change of opinion 
 (in our time) was not founded on evidence and reason, 
 but merely on feeling and impulse. He admits that the 
 facts and arguments were alike in favor of the beholders 
 of the reality of the phenomena of witchcraft. Such men 
 as Glanvil, Dr. Henry More, and Robert Boyle, the most 
 illustrious scientific man of his age, with all the judges of 
 England, including Lord Hale, men who had all of them 
 either personally investigated the facts or carefully weighed 
 the evidence, were met only with ridicule or with the 
 weakest show of argument ; when judges refused to con- 
 vict and punish witches, the whole subject dropped out 
 of sight and knowledge of the intellectual world." Du 
 Prel applies to this subject the Darwinian principle of 
 selection. " The result was," he says, " that the medium- 
 istic faculties in men were suppressed by centuries of sys- 
 tematic extermination, so that in this indirect way only 
 the normal faculties survived. Suppose all black sheep 
 would be exterminated, the negative result would naturally 
 
 * " If A Man Die Shall He Live Again ? " a lecture, pp. 4-5. 
 
126 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 be the disappearance of dark-colored sheep, and the posi- 
 tive result would be that all sheep would be white. Or, 
 suppose all white horses were destroyed, or all kinds of 
 Indian corn that were of a dark-red color, or imagine any 
 variety or sub-variety of plants or animals thus interfered 
 with, the result would be similar. On the other hand, if 
 man did not exterminate wild beasts, or injurious insects 
 or weeds ; or if he did not kill off sheep and cattle for 
 food, the result would be an inordinate increase or mul- 
 tiplication of these beasts, insects, noxious plants, cattle 
 and sheep. So with the decrease of witches, there van- 
 ished likewise the belief in witchcraft. The reaction from 
 the horrors of persecution was naturally more confined to 
 intellectual and humane persons. " They perceived that 
 much of what was believed was certainly false ; they too 
 hastily concluded that there was no truth underlying. 
 The moral result of this was," continues Du Prel, "a time 
 of shallow enlightenment. With the lack of empirical 
 evidence for the existence of supersensual powers, there 
 vanished also the belief in the supersensual and the soil 
 was prepared for materialism." 
 
 Mr. Lecky, himself the apostle of modern enlighten- 
 ment, declares quite naively in the opening chapter of his 
 work, that : " There is certainly no change in the history 
 of the last 300 years more striking or suggestive of more 
 curious inquiries, than that which has taken place in the 
 estimate of the miraculous. At present, nearly all edu- 
 cated men receive an account of a miracle taking place in 
 their own day, with an absolute and even derisive incre- 
 dulity which dispenses with all examination of the evi- 
 dence." * 
 
 * History of Rationalism in Europe, by W. E. H. Lecky, vol. i., 
 page 27. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 127 
 
 But not satisfied with this negative position, men of sci- 
 ence and other literary persons often undertake to declaim 
 against those who have by investigation acquired such 
 knowledge ; thus proscribing an immense realm of psychic 
 manifestations, just because they themselves happen to be 
 utterly ignorant therein. The attitude of these enlight- 
 ened critics is anything but scientific. Goethe charac- 
 terizes this pseudo-enlightenment in Faust, where he puts 
 into the mouth of Mephisto these words : 
 
 " Therein I recognize the learned man ! 
 What ye don't touch, remains beyond your ken ; 
 What ye don't grasp, is hidden from your view ; 
 What ye don't see, ye hold to be untrue ; 
 What ye don't weigh, for you it has no weight ; 
 And counterfeit is all, whatever you don't rate." 
 
 Aye, " There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio. 
 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 
 
128 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIL 
 
 THE PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 "Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren," says St. 
 Paul, " I would not have you ignorant. Now there are 
 diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. For to one is 
 given through the Spirit the word of wisdom ; and to an- 
 other the word of knowledge ; to another faith (will- 
 power) ; and to another gifts of healing ; and to another 
 workings of miracles ; and to another prophecy ; and to 
 another discernings of spirits (mind-reading) ; to an- 
 other diverse kinds of tongues (languages) and to another 
 the interpretation of tongues." * 
 
 Biblical critics of the type of Strauss and Renan, have 
 written a good deal of nonsense in regard to these spirit- 
 ual gifts. Others, who had also eaten from the tree of 
 knowledge of modern physical science were perplexed. 
 Even theologians of rational proclivities were ready 
 either to deny " miracles " altogether, or to adopt some 
 new theory that would satisfy science and at the same 
 time save the essence of the Bible. Already humiliated 
 by many other concessions such as the six days of 
 creation, and other geological and astronomical facts, the 
 defenders of the Bible were ready for a compromise in the 
 matter now under consideration. The words of Scripture 
 had already proved to be so elastic, as to be capable of 
 
 * i Cor. xii., i-io. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 129 
 
 stretching, and even straining for the purpose of making 
 the sense harmonize with modern scientific theories. M. 
 Renan, whose influence upon the religious thought of our 
 time is perhaps greater than that of Strauss, makes short 
 work with miracles. " We will admit, therefore," he 
 writes, " unhesitatingly, that acts which would now be con- 
 sidered traits of illusion or of hallucination, figured largely 
 in the life of Jesus." * George Eliot, before she exerted 
 her genius in giving to the world her incomparable novels, 
 translated Strauss' Life of Jesus into English, and so in- 
 troduced the great critic to the English-speaking races. 
 " No matter," says Strauss, " how ample the evidence, even 
 the testimony of eye-witnesses, we cannot believe a miracle, 
 because it contradicts our experience." f But in another 
 place in the same book the arch-infidel actually stumbles 
 upon the true rationale of miracles without being aware 
 of it. There is one and only one definition of a miracle, 
 he says in substance, which is unassailable, namely the 
 definition which understands by a miracle a phenomena 
 wrought by a force or law not yet known to science. In 
 that case, however, adds Strauss, the miracle loses its 
 evidential value as a supernatural manifestation. $ Ex- 
 actly here lies the stumbling-block of Protestant theology, 
 according to which miracles are the external evidences of 
 Divine Revelation. It assumes 1st, that the New Testa- 
 ment revelation is final ; 2d, that it was accompanied 
 by miracles ; 3d, that the miracles of the Old and New 
 Testaments were the only genuine, lawful miracles in the 
 world ; 4th, that miracles ceased with the close of the 
 Christian dispensation. 
 
 * Life of Jesus, Translation, New York edition, page 237. 
 t Das Leben Jesu, vierte Auflage, page 189. 
 I Ibid, page 190. 
 
 9 
 
130 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 The Catholic Church, on the other hand, more consist- 
 ently admits the possibility of miracles at any time, actu- 
 ally recording many in the life of the mediaeval saints. 
 Both, however, declare the revelation of the New Testa- 
 ment final and infallible. The older church vesting the 
 infallibity in the Pope, the younger in the Bible. Both 
 churches oppose modern spiritualism. The Catholic 
 church disdains and rejects any miracle alleged to have 
 occurred outside the pale of the Mother Church. If a 
 miracle occurs within, it is all right ; if one is reported 
 outside, it is declared either to be fraud, or wrought by 
 Satan or evil spirits. Protestantism, on the other hand, 
 is compelled by its premises to deny modern or mediaeval 
 miracles. " I do not dispute the reality of this super- 
 natural phenomena," said a Presbyterian clergyman to 
 the author. The conversation had been about indepen- 
 dent slate-writing, that is, writing obtained without human 
 agency. " I do not deny that this is possible, on the 
 contrary, I myself have conclusive evidence that such 
 writing is actually obtained ; but it is the work of Satan or 
 evil spirits, seeking to seduce Christians by false revela- 
 tions." On asking him to point out an instance of false 
 revelation, he replied : " Your very attitude toward the 
 word of God proves my assertion to be true ; you select 
 from the Bible what you like, and reject a good deal, 
 whereas the book must be believed from cover to cover, 
 from Genesis to Revelation." I will not weary the reader 
 by recording my rejoinder. (See page 248.) 
 
 Before describing the phenomena, a few remarks must 
 be devoted to those vague objections to spiritualism made 
 by educated men and women in general, who are free 
 from theologic bias. These simply reflect the spirit of the 
 times. Men and women who can hardly listen to reports 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 131 
 
 of spiritual manifestations without scorn, or a smile of 
 contempt for those who, as they allege, are so weak- 
 minded as to be duped by clever mediums. They 
 would do anything else rather than examine seriously and 
 diligently the evidence at hand, or undertake to acquire 
 conviction by personal investigation. " What ! submit 
 to such suspicious conditions ? Why must the seance 
 room be dark ? the very condition for deception ! " A 
 little inquiry and thought would teach them that certain 
 electrical sparks can only be seen in a darkened room ; 
 that in such subtle phenomena the vibrations of light are 
 hindrances, just as the photographer excludes the light 
 in his chemical manipulations, being only able to develop 
 his pictures in a dark chamber. Every seed must be de- 
 posited in the dark soil in order to sprout. All living 
 creatures are born out of darkness. Gestation proceeds 
 in the dark. 
 
 " The discussion in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1868, and 
 a considerable private correspondence, indicates that 
 scientific men almost invariably assume, that in this in- 
 quiry they should be permitted, at the very outset, to im- 
 pose conditions ; and if, under such conditions, nothing 
 happens, they consider it a proof of imposture or delusion. 
 But they well know that, in all other branches of research, 
 Nature, not they, determines the essential conditions, 
 without a compliance with which, no experiment will 
 succeed. These conditions have to be learnt by a 
 patient questioning of nature, and they are different for 
 each branch of science. How much more may they be 
 expected to differ in an inquiry which deals with subtle 
 forces of the nature of which the physicist is wholly 
 and absolutely ignorant ! To ask to be allowed to deal 
 with these unknown phenomena as he has hitherto dealt 
 
132 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 with known phenomena, is practically to prejudge the 
 question, since it assumes that both are governed by the 
 same laws." # 
 
 Darkness is not always a necessary condition at seances, 
 many manifestations take place in broad daylight, as the 
 reader will find out if he chooses to make inquiries. The 
 author has received seven slates full of writings without 
 human agency at Cassadaga in August, 1888, in broad 
 daylight, with the sun shining fully into the seance room 
 through the uncurtained windows. 
 
 Some people classify the phenomena with the tricks of 
 jugglers. If they were familiar with spiritual manifesta- 
 tions and the circumstances attending them, they would 
 certainly refrain from such a comparison. The juggler is 
 a professional trickster ; he boasts of his skill of de- 
 ception ; he admits it, and deception is his very stock-in- 
 trade ; he makes his arrangements, and brings his own 
 apparatus ; has his assistants or confederates ; and is 
 mostly sure of succeeding in his magic feats. The me- 
 dium is seldom beforehand sure of success ; for this 
 depends on various subjective and objective conditions. 
 Any apartment in any house whatever can be used for a 
 seance, and the medium brings to the seance no ap- 
 paratus of any kind, nor uses any confederates. If, 
 however, unprincipled, mercenary mediums have been 
 detected in fraud, it shows merely that there are black 
 sheep in every fold. Let the reader consider that there 
 are hundreds of thousands of private mediums, men and 
 women in all ranks of society, who do not earn money, 
 nor are seeking notoriety by being instrumental in the 
 production of spiritual phenomena. If one has made any 
 
 * A Defence of Modern Spiritualism, by A. R. Wallace. Eclectic, 
 Aug., 1874, page 145. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 133 
 
 inquiries at all, one must have met a dozen private 
 mediums in the retirement of family-life, before having 
 witnessed the manifestations of professional mediums in 
 public seances. 
 
 Three members of the author's family produce auto- 
 matic writing, and are at times clairvoyant. Two others 
 are also mediumistic, so that there happen to be six 
 mediums in his own household, for he himself is strongly 
 mediumistic. 
 
 This egotistic piece of information, is, I hope, ex- 
 cusable, if it be conceded for once, that the end sanctifies 
 the means. It would certainly not have been inserted 
 here, if it were not necessary to refute absolutely the 
 jugglery hypothesis. Any one who wishes to compre- 
 hend how the Messrs. Maskelyne, and Cook, Dr. Lynn, 
 or Herr Dobler perform some of their most curious feats, 
 has only to read the lecture of Dr. George Sexton, M.D., 
 M.A., LL.D., entitled Mediums and Conjurers. 
 
 No less a philosophical thinker than Edward von Hart- 
 mann, the author of The Philosophy of the Unconscious, 
 committed the exquisite Irish bull of writing a book on 
 Spiritualism, in order to prove that the phenomena are the 
 sole product of the psychic power of mediums, at the same 
 time informing his readers, that he himself never once wit- 
 nessed any of the phenome?ia of Spiritualism. 
 
 " Da ich selbst niemals einer Sitzung beigewohnt kabe, so 
 bin ich auch nicht in der Lage, mir iiber die Realitat der 
 fraglichen Erscheinungen ein Urtheil zic bilden."* 
 
 Yet he is noble and candid enough to refute the above- 
 mentioned groundless objections respecting darkened 
 seance rooms, alleged tricks of jugglery, and other ac- 
 cusations. f 
 
 * Der Spiritismus, page 16. f Ibid, pages 8-10. 
 
134 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 The German Philosopher is not the only thinker who 
 undertakes to judge a subject of which he is ignorant. 
 Many and many a writer descants in the magazines and 
 journals of the day on Spiritualism without having suffi- 
 ciently investigated it. What would be thought of a person 
 utterly, or very superficially, versed in the science of 
 electricity, who should presume to criticise adversely the 
 theories of expert electricians, or to declare a product of 
 the inventive genius of an Edison a humbug ? We know 
 that a man may be skilled and able in his own profession 
 or line of pursuit, without any competency in other lines 
 of human research. Evidently the only safe attitude for 
 such a man is — silence. "I remember," says Sinnett, 
 " when the phonograph was first invented, a scientific 
 officer in the service of the Indian Government sent me 
 an article he had written on the earliest accounts received 
 of the instrument — to prove how the story must be a 
 hoax, because the instrument described was scientifically 
 impossible. He had worked out the times of vibrations 
 required to reproduce the sounds and so on, and very 
 intelligently argued that the alleged result was unattain- 
 able. But when the phonographs in due time were im- 
 ported into India, he did not continue to say they were 
 impossible, and that there must be a man shut up in each 
 machine, even though there did not seem to be room. 
 That last is the attitude of the self-complacent people who 
 get over the difficulty about the causation of occult and 
 spiritual phenomena by denying, in face of the palpable 
 experience of thousands — in face of the testimony in 
 shelvesful of books they do not read — that any such phe- 
 nomena take place at all.* 
 
 " Meteors or meteorolites were called by the ancients 
 * The Occult World, by A. P. Sinnett, page 76. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 '35 
 
 the Arrows of Jupiter, with which expression they des- 
 ignated their cosmic origin, not yet having perfected 
 their astronomy. A shower of meteoric stones, said to 
 have even been foretold by the philosopher Anaxagoras, 
 fell near Aigospotamos in 47 b. c, of which one stone, 
 blackened by fire, survived yet in the lifetime of Pliny, 
 so large that it could scarcely be removed in a wagon. 
 The lapidibus pluisse is a current expression of the 
 ancients. There is hardly a nation among savages that 
 did not believe in stones that ' fall from heaven.' The 
 traveler Pallas was informed by the Tartars in 1771, that 
 such a stone was in their possession. It was deposited 
 upon a flat slate-mountain at Njerim, near Krasnojarsk, and 
 was venerated as sacred. In Vienna the stones of twenty- 
 two meteoric showers of the past century were kept, among 
 which was the meteorolite of Hradschin, weighing 39 kilo- 
 grams, which fell on May 26th, 175 1, into an arable field 
 in the province of Agram, sinking deep into the ground. 
 To this day there can be seen in the consistory, or dio- 
 cese, the affidavits of witnesses as to the reality of the 
 occurrence, because the learned men of Vienna regarded 
 the belief in such fables an inexcusable weakness. As- 
 tronomy, it is true, had greatly advanced at that time, but 
 must have been considered by them as finally complete ; 
 there was no place therein for meteorites. When accord- 
 ingly the municipal authorities of Juliac and Barbaton 
 sent to Paris a report of a shower of stones, that had oc- 
 curred on July 29, 1790, the celebrated physicist, Berth o- 
 lon, pitied the irrational public for giving credence to 
 such popular clamor, as the thing is physically impossible. 
 A genius of the caliber of Lavoisier expresses the suspi- 
 cion that those stones, which really had been found hot, 
 had been warmed artificially. Even an expert, the astron- 
 
136 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 omer Laplace, laughed to scorn the belief in meteorites. 
 Another astronomer, Arago, on hearing the report of 
 Pictet, an eye-witness to another meteoric shower, only 
 exclaimed : l Nous e?i savons assez de fables fiareilles? 
 It was not till 1803, when near l'Aigle in Normandy, stones 
 up to 18 pounds fell with roaring noise from a smoking 
 cloud during five minutes, upon a territory four English 
 miles in circumference, that people in Paris began to con- 
 sider this matter seriously. Though this report was at 
 first also ridiculed, and the enlightened newspapers found 
 the report of the superstitious burgomaster, with which 
 the latter troubled the government, a good joke. Two 
 months after, however, the academician Biot was dis- 
 patched by the government, who visited the place and 
 convinced himself of the truth. Notwithstanding, as late 
 as 18 19 when Chladini endorsed the belief, the learned 
 scholars not only charged him with folly, but attacked his 
 moral character. Chladini reports in his book on Meteor- 
 olites, 18 19, that the unbelief of his time was yet so great, 
 that most meteoric stones that had been preserved in pub- 
 lic collections were thrown away, for fear of being laughed 
 at, and regarded as superstitious, although it was conceded 
 that the phenomenon was possible." 
 
 Du Prel, from whose work on Die Monistische See- 
 lenlehre this interesting account of meteorites is trans- 
 lated, adduces in the introductory chapter of that book 
 many more instances, showing the undue conservatism of 
 the exponents of science. Du Prel calls it the " hered- 
 itary mistake of science." The circulation of the blood 
 is said to have been discovered already in 1594 but, as 
 this author proves from history, it was at first kept secret 
 from fear of the Inquisition. When, however, there was 
 nothing to fear any more from this quarter, the learned 
 
THE RELTGION OF THE FUTURE. 137 
 
 laymen bitterly opposed Fra Paolo, the discoverer, all of 
 them having been his antagonist for thirty years, with the 
 exception of the subsequent convert, Zacharias Sylvius. 
 Fra Paolo's whole life had been embittered, and his 
 reputation as a practitioner defamed by bringing him into 
 the repute of being a fool.* I believe it is Professor 
 Bain who states somewhere in his Logic that when 
 Harvey first announced the discovery of the circulation 
 of the blood, most physicians in England that were over 
 forty years of age, rejected the theory. Napoleon I. dis- 
 believed in the fact that steam can be used as a motive 
 power, but when on his voyage to Saint Helena, he 
 actually saw a steamship in full motion pass by. " Na- 
 poleon, when apprised by Fulton of his discovery, at the 
 Camp de Boulogne, commanded investigation of the 
 matter by the Academy of Science. Thereupon this 
 learned body proved, mathematically, that the thing is 
 impossible as proposed, and called Fulton a visionary." f 
 
 As early as 1766 Anton Mesmer published a dissertation 
 on the mysterious power now called by his name ; yet it 
 was not till 183 1 that official science grudgingly recognized 
 the discovery as a fact. Mr. Sinnett says : " A very 
 ludicrous aspect is thus put, for students of mesmeric 
 literature, on the ignorant conceit of the dominant ma- 
 jority, who were all the while denying the possibility of 
 that which was actually occurring." X 
 
 A modern philosopher truly remarks : " That what 
 mostly prevents men from discovering truth is not the 
 false appearance under which things are viewed, nor is it 
 directly the weakness of the intellect ; it is the bias, the 
 
 * Die Monistische Seelenlehre, pages 14-17. 
 
 t Ibid, page 17. 
 
 % The Rationale of of Mesmerism, page 41. 
 
138 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 prejudice, which, in the form of false assumptions, oppose 
 truth and impede progress ; like an adverse wind driving 
 the ship from the only direction where land is ; making 
 ineffective the agency of rudder and sail." * 
 
 * Parerga, by A Schopenhauer. Quoted by du Pre. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 139 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE BASIS OF SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 Truth is stranger than fiction. In Shakespeare's 
 Hamlet, Scene I., Horatio says to Marcellus : 
 
 " Let us impart what we have seen to-night 
 Unto young Hamlet ; for, upon my life, 
 This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him." 
 
 Horatio, who had been away from Denmark, meets his 
 friend Hamlet and is informed by the prince how soon 
 after his father's death the queen celebrated her wedding. 
 Hamlet is grieved ; he thinks of his beloved father. 
 
 Ham. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven, 
 
 Ere ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! 
 
 My father, — methinks I see my father. 
 Hor. Oh where, 
 
 My Lord ? 
 Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. 
 Hor. I saw him once ; he was a goodly King. 
 Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all 
 
 I shall not look upon his like again. 
 Hor. My Lord ! I think I saw him yesternight. 
 Ham. Saw ! Who ? 
 Hor. My Lord, the King, your father. 
 
 Ham. The King, my father? 
 
 Hor. Season your admiration for awhile 
 
 With an attent ear ; till I may deliver, 
 
 Upon the witness of these gentlemen, 
 
 This marvel to you. 
 Ham. For God's love, let me hear." 
 
140 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Why, if man survives death, and enters a higher sphere 
 of life, should he not be able to return to his former scene 
 of activity ? Why indeed ? Is it logically inconceivable ? 
 Is there an antecedent impossibility, or even improbabil- 
 ity ? Nay, is it not, on the contrary, reasonable to assume 
 that the excarnated man, now no more tethered and con- 
 fined to certain localities, can go where he desires ? Why 
 should not a father or a mother desire to continue the 
 watchful care over children left behind ? Does the 
 metamorphosis called death make men unnatural, put an 
 end to maternal love, extinguish a father's affection, or 
 sever the ties of friendship ? Ah, if it were not for pre- 
 conceptions, preconceptions of false theology, men would 
 antecedently expect that the relations between kindred 
 and friends continue, when by death one or the other is 
 only optically removed. 
 
 It is with theological preconceptions, as it is w r ith the 
 prejudices of mis-educated, so-called enlightened persons. 
 Both have become illogical somehow. Our public schools 
 and high schools have been accused, and with reason, of 
 producing artificial stupidity. The cramming method of 
 book-learning is apt to give youths the conceit of knowl- 
 edge without the reality ; the " little learning," which is 
 dangerous. The stubborn, irrational opposition to Spirit- 
 ualism can only thus be explained. Naturally, men are 
 not so stupid, hence it must be artificial. " It is related 
 of a learned judge, that he once praised a retiring wit- 
 ness in the following words : i You are entitled to great 
 credit, sir. You must have taken infinite pains with your- 
 self. No man could naturally be so stupid.' " 
 
 Let the unbiased reader think for a moment of the 
 absurdity of imagining one's transfigured friend six feet 
 under ground, or slumbering in a kind of comatose state 
 
THE RELIGION OF. THE FUTURE. 141 
 
 till the day of judgment, or the " end of the world ! " In 
 some regards the inspired poet, by intuition, is true to 
 nature, as when he makes the "ghost," appear, " in the 
 same figure like the king that's dead. Together with that 
 fair and war-like form in which the majesty of buried 
 Denmark did sometimes march." For purposes of rec- 
 ognition spirits do, as they certainly can, assume their 
 former guise. As, for instance, in materializations where 
 spirits having died as children, and being now grown into 
 youth, or manhood and womanhood, assume the small 
 stature of the child, in order to be recognized. 
 
 In other regards Shakespeare shares the opinion of his 
 fellow-men, as is evident from the oft-quoted line : 
 
 " The undiscovered country, from whose bourn 
 No traveler returns." 
 
 This is no more a truism, but an exploded fallacy. 
 
 Again, the dead are supposed to be in their coffins, 
 and "ghosts," must, if they would appear or "walk," 
 leave the coffin, the idea being perhaps that the individ- 
 ual is by death transformed into a body-less, immaterial, 
 no-thing, into a little bluish light, or some such unsub- 
 stantial luminosity. Now a " ghost " of this kind, if it 
 wishes to appear to mortals, must, if not altogether repos- 
 ing within the coffin, at any rate, make use of the old 
 body ; must resume the fleshly form. This notion under- 
 lies Hamlet's address to the apparition : 
 
 " But tell, 
 Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, 
 Have burst their cerements ! why the sepulchre, 
 Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned, 
 Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, 
 To cast thee up again ! " 
 
 The transformed caterpillar, now a winged butterfly, 
 
1 42 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 soaring freely in its new element, the air, in which, as a 
 caterpillar, it could not soar, can certainly visit the old 
 cabbage field ; and, if it were endowed with intelligence 
 enough, and its mortal friends were susceptible, might be 
 conceived as being even anxious to reveal its presence. 
 The caterpillar casts off its skin several times before it 
 prepares for the final metamorphosis. " In due time — 
 sometimes in a few days, sometimes not until another sum- 
 mer, and in one instance, after as many as seven years — 
 the time comes for the last, and most glorious transforma- 
 tion. The poetical Greeks found in this change a type of 
 the liberation of the soul from its mortal tenement, and 
 its entrance into a higher and happier life ; hence they 
 called the Butterfly, Psyche, the soul. This idea is most 
 natural. The worm seems to spin its own shroud, to 
 make its own coffin, often to enter its own grave. Yet 
 
 within this shroud, this coffin, this grave, it lives ; 
 
 then it bursts its cerements, and emerges in a new and 
 beautiful garb, into a brighter existence.* 
 
 If the reader has carefully read the chapters on Sleep, 
 and Excursions of the Spirit, he will find no difficulty in 
 the fact of spirit-return. That is to say, he will not only 
 have no a priori objections, but, if possible, he will, from 
 logical necessity, expect such a fact. Given the premises, 
 and the conclusion follows of itself. The actual proofs I 
 reserve for the next chapter. In this one I merely wished 
 to meet the objections of inherited theological notions, 
 and refute the illogical assumptions of " enlightened," 
 scoffers. 
 
 What Longfellow expressed in the following poem, is a 
 reality to-day : 
 
 * Cecil's Book of Insects, Alden edition, page 215. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 143 
 
 " When the hours of day are numbered 
 
 And the voices of the night 
 Wake the better soul that slumbers 
 
 To a holy, calm delight ; 
 Ere the evening lamps are lighted, 
 
 And like phantoms, grim and tall, 
 Shadows from the fitful fire-light 
 
 Dance upon the parlor wall. 
 
 " Then the forms of the departed 
 
 Enter at the open door ; 
 The beloved ones, the true-hearted, 
 
 Come to visit me once more. 
 With slow and noiseless footsteps 
 
 Come these messengers divine ; 
 Take the vacant chair beside me, 
 
 Lay a gentle hand in mine." 
 
 The truth of spirit-return is a most sacred admonition 
 for us in the conduct of life. 
 
 " Know ye not our dead are looking 
 Downward with a sad surprise, 
 All our strife of words rebuking 
 With their mild and loving eyes ? 
 Shall we grieve the holy angels ? 
 Shall we cloud their blessed skies ? " 
 
144 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE PROOFS. 
 
 In two ways the truth is established in any department 
 of human research : by logic and facts ; theory and verifi- 
 cation. In response to the demands of our age, we have 
 received sensuous evidence for the truths of Spiritualism. 
 Hypercritical persons have, it is true, asserted that we can- 
 not trust our senses in such matters. They fail to dis- 
 criminate between physical phenomena and metaphysical 
 propositions. Edward von Hartmann, a reluctant wit- 
 ness, says : " He who considers his five senses incompetent 
 to distinguish spiritual manifestations from feats of jug- 
 glery, virtually declares the senses of man incompetent to 
 establish any facts whatever, and must consequently 
 reject all testimony given in courts of justice ; nay, he 
 must relinquish all scientific research." # The evidence 
 on hand, and daily and hourly increasing is so ample, so 
 abundant, so overwhelmingly and absolutely conclusive, 
 that those who have long been familiar with these truths 
 can scarcely imagine a state of mind utterly ignorant of, 
 or disputing them. The allegations of doubting Thomases 
 should, however, not be hastily resented by spiritualists. 
 Writers on Spiritualism often forget that invective is not 
 proof. The author, from experience of well-nigh forty 
 years in teaching, always endeavors to put himself in the 
 
 * Der Spiritismus, page n. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 45 
 
 place of those who do not know, or are improperly in- 
 formed concerning a given truth. But he stands con- 
 founded when confronted by persons who not only are 
 not teachable, but who are irrationally determined to 
 oppose whatever does not fit into the fabric of their 
 minds. He well knows how stubbornly men of a priori 
 proclivities resist the truth in our age. Strange, nay, odd 
 and unfair objections are raised by such. Mr. Julian 
 Hawthorne, in a recent controversy with the Rev. M. J. 
 Savage, published in The Arena, protests against the evi- 
 dence of the senses : " Hitherto our belief in a world to 
 come has been based on an alleged Divine Revelation, 
 appealing to an intuitive or supersensuous apprehension 
 of Divine Truth." Mr. Savage, referring to the capitals 
 in the above sentence, facetiously quotes Professor Huxley 
 as saying that "the big capitals always remind him of the 
 English grenadiers who wear big bearskin caps for the 
 purpose of making little men look more formidable." 
 Mr. Savage then remarks aptly: "What is the nature of 
 the proof for this that the l alleged divine revelation ' con- 
 tains ? Is it not of precisely the same kind, in every 
 single instance, that Spiritualism claims to offer to-day ? 
 That is, it is the alleged appearance of spirits or mes- 
 sengers from the invisible world. Both the Old Testament 
 and the New are full of stories of occurrences of this sort. 
 And to what do they appeal ? To our poor abused and 
 deceptive senses every time. From Jacob wrestling with 
 the angel, clear down to the angels at the sepulcher of 
 Jesus, on what evidence do the appearances rest ? Surely 
 on the evidence of the senses, and on nothing else. Did 
 Peter, and James, and John have anything better than eyes 
 with which to see Moses and Elias on the Mount of 
 Transfiguration?" — The Arena, May, 1891. 
 
 10 
 
146 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Our age, being skeptical as to the supernatural element 
 in the Bible, demands evidence ; but when the evidence is 
 presented, fastidious minds reject or disdain to exam- 
 ine it. 
 
 Who can explain why the disciples of Jesus, who had for- 
 saken the Master when he was arrested, afterwards were so 
 zealous in avowing Christ's teachings, and were ready to lay 
 down their lives, and suffer martyrdom in promulgating the 
 new truths ? Who can explain the paradox, but he, who 
 accepts the fact of the appearance of Jesus in a materialized 
 body after his death. As a matter of fact, St. Paul rests 
 the evidence for the truth of Christianity solely on the 
 resurrection. " But if there is no resurrection of the dead, 
 neither hath Christ been raised ; and if Christ hath not 
 been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is 
 vain.* 
 
 In Chapter VI., we have contemplated the fact, that 
 there are dormant in man transcendental faculties, which 
 betray their presence occasionally. Already the man- 
 dates of conscience are, as was shown in Chapter V., 
 glimpses of man's higher self. Then we studied the ab- 
 normal states of sleep and dreaming ; the lucidity in the 
 magnetic sleep, and in Chapters VIII. to XII., the wander- 
 ings of the spirit away from its outward body ; the phenom- 
 ena of Second Sight, Clairvoyance, Psychometry, Mes- 
 merism or Psychological control, and Inspiration. Logic- 
 ally, these phenomena should prepare any one who contem- 
 plates them, for the acceptance of the further truth im- 
 plied in them, that the spirit world is in close proximity 
 to the material world ; that a human being need not, after 
 the withdrawal from the fleshly body, travel to any great 
 distance, in order to reach the spirit world. The very 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 13-14. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 147 
 
 act of separation from the mortal envelope ushers the 
 spirit into the higher sphere. In other words, the next 
 world is not so much (often not at all) a change of locality, 
 as it is a change of organism. It is a transition from the 
 outer material, to the inner spiritual sphere of life. In- 
 deed Inspiration, as contemplated in Chapter XII, in- 
 volves and implies both spirit-return and spirit-communion. 
 But there are a good many persons who require, like 
 Thomas, tangible or visible proof ; who say with the 
 ancient skeptic : " Except I shall see in his hands the 
 print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the 
 nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." * 
 In a very remarkable and highly instructive book of 
 Carl du Prel, immortality is proved conclusively from the 
 phenomena of somnambulism, and the author asserts that 
 Spiritualism is mainly valuable for confirming by empirical 
 facts the conclusions derived from somnambulic observa- 
 tions and experiments. f Yet not everyone has the time 
 and ability to read such psychological treatises, and, there- 
 fore, many can only be convinced by facts, facts appealing 
 to eye, ear or touch, in other words, by the evidence of 
 the senses. " For the cardinal maxim of Spiritualism is, 
 that every one must find out the truth for himself. It 
 makes no claim to be received on hearsay evidence ; but, 
 on the other hand, it demands that it be not rejected 
 without patient, honest and fearless inquiry." $ 
 
 In presenting now some typical, representative proofs, 
 I am at a loss where to begin, as there is such a variety 
 and such an immense number of them. I begin with the 
 rap, since, historically, modern Spiritualism began with 
 sounds or knockings, which turned out to be signals, by 
 
 * John xx., 25. f Die Monistische Seelenlehre, page 320. 
 
 J A Defence of Spiritualism, by A. R. Wallace (concluding words). 
 
148 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 means of which intelligent communications can take place 
 between human beings in the flesh and beings out of the 
 flesh. The author gets these raps daily, mostly on his 
 own body, and especially on his teeth, so that he can carry 
 on an intelligent communication with spirits at any time or 
 hour, day or night, unnoticeable to others. Not being a 
 medium for physical manifestations, he rarely obtains raps 
 on furniture, on the table at which he is sitting, or upon the 
 chair he occupies, or on the floor of the room, that is to say, 
 in comparison with the countless raps he gets on his arms, 
 neck, temples and many other parts of his body, the raps 
 he receives otherwise are less frequent. These sounds 
 are sometimes faint, sometimes loud ; they are often like 
 the tick of the telegraph, and may increase in loudness 
 till they sound like the blows of a heavy sledge-hammer. 
 
 As stated in a previous section, this personal informa- 
 tion would not be given, if so much nonsense had not 
 been written by way of proving that the rap is fraudu- 
 lently produced by tricks. As if private, unprofessional 
 mediums, men, women and children in America, England, 
 France, Italy, Spain, etc., all had a tacit understanding, 
 though unknown to each other, to use a certain trick in 
 order to deceive their fellow-men. It is for this reason 
 that the author alludes here once more to the many 
 thousands of private mediums, though among professional 
 mediums not a single case of counterfeit raps has yet been 
 proved, as far as I know. 
 
 Mrs. Richmond, in speaking of the raps that occurred 
 in the house of the Fox family, says : " The peculiarity of 
 these sounds is past imitation. Any one who has heard a 
 genuine spirit rap, or any number of them, cannot be de- 
 ceived. They do not occur upon the thing, but within it. 
 They do not sound like an outside force that knocks 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 149 
 
 against a door, or a window, or a wall, but like a minute 
 explosion of something, and that sound, whether on the 
 floor, ceiling, glass or wood, or wherever it occurs, has 
 this peculiar quality, that it seems as if the power produc- 
 ing it was inside of the article or the substance. For this 
 reason a great many people, supposing it to be electricity, 
 placed the girls, when they were little, on glass plates, put 
 their chairs in glass tumblers, put their feet upon plates 
 of glass, and the rapping still went on. Not the smallest 
 indication by the thousandth part of a vibration was 
 there of any electrical property in the rappings. The 
 principal force attending them was intelligence, and that 
 was the one force that scientific men were intent upon 
 studiously ignoring, desiring to find out in the realm of 
 material science an explanation of an intelligent manifes- 
 tation without ascribing it to intelligence, and of course, 
 they never succeeded ; and from the snapping of the toe 
 joints to unconscious cerebral action, there never has 
 been any explanation that was not utter nonsense, in 
 science, philosophy and common sense. 7 ' * 
 
 Now, what is the rationale of the spirit-rap ? Imagine 
 yourself, gentle reader, personally present in a room with 
 kindred and friends, without being visible, audible or 
 tangible to them. Your body being a Thought-body, and 
 as such invisible and imperceptible to mortals, you can 
 see their thoughts and feelings. Perhaps they are just 
 now talking affectionately of you ; but by no means are 
 you able to manifest your presence to them. You are, like 
 a bird, in a different element from that of a fish. Yea, 
 the element you are in differs more from the material plane 
 in which your mortal friends are, than air differs from water. 
 
 * Anniversary Address, by Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, in The 
 Progressive Thinker, of April 22, 1893. 
 
*5° 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Now, that is exactly what you will surely experience some- 
 times. You yearn to give a sign, signal, or token of your 
 presence ; you are eager to assure them that you are not 
 dead, that you still live, not a shadowy existence in a 
 realm of shades, but a life of more intense activity. Pres- 
 ently the door opens and another person enters. You 
 perceive at once that this is a sensitive or medium. Now 
 the spirit has a chance, however slight, to produce some 
 effect. Of himself not being able to act freely in the 
 material element of the earth-plane, he borrows from the 
 medium as much physical force as is required to produce 
 a rap. Let there be an understanding or agreement on 
 the part of the medium and spirit, that one rap signifies 
 No, three raps Yes, and two raps doubtful, and the 
 means of communication are at hand. Or let the Alpha- 
 bet be used in connection with the signals. 
 
 The spirit may also use the hand of the medium to 
 write. This is automatic writing. Thousands, nay myr- 
 iads of messages are thus written continually. My wife 
 and two of my daughters write thus automatically, and 
 I possess hundreds of messages thus produced. A 
 friend of mine who passed away in Chicago over a year 
 ago, wrote his name and a few words of greeting through 
 one of my daughters. I told him on a later occasion that 
 I informed the family he left behind of this, and that, as 
 is usually the case, they did not believe. " No," was the 
 written reply, " nor will they ever believe till they come 
 over themselves." 
 
 Then there is direct writing ; writing, that is to say, ob- 
 tained without any human agency; writing in any lan- 
 guage, German, French, Italian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, 
 Chinese, Mexican, Welsh, etc., in the presence of mediums 
 who know only English. A very famous species of direct 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 J 5i 
 
 writing is the so-called independent slate-writing, of which 
 I obtained specimens, as stated in Chapter XVIII. Draw- 
 ings and paintings are also obtained in the same manner. 
 If the medium be clairvoyant, the spirit is seen and de- 
 scribed, other persons in the room seeing nothing. Woe 
 to a murderer who is mediumistic ; he may be pursued 
 by the victim, as Macbeth was. (See Scene IV. in Act 
 III. of Shakespeare's Macbeth.) 
 
 I will now proceed to another species of manifestation, 
 called materialization. I can only present an infinitesi- 
 mal fraction of each kind of phenomena, and perhaps 
 only very imperfectly, not for want of the requisite 
 knowledge, but because I am more concerned with 
 the deductions and essential teachings of Spiritualism 
 than with the classification of the various phenomena. 
 Materialization is the process of investing with a 
 material, temporary coating any ethereal or spiritual 
 object, parts of the spirit body, or the whole body 
 thus making the object or body visible to ordinary 
 sight, and palpable to ordinary touch. In Chapter II. it 
 was stated, that man is a materialized spirit. Now, in 
 the presence of certain mediums, under suitable condi- 
 tions, spirits can use the psychic emanations exuding from 
 the medium's organism, with which they can fashion a 
 temporary material form, resembling the material form they 
 inhabited when living in the earthly sphere. I believe 
 full-form materialization lasts from a very few minutes to 
 a quarter of an hour or even longer. Often the process 
 is seen by the spectators. A luminous spot is first beheld 
 on the floor, which, increasing in shape, develops into a 
 human form. On disappearing, the form, a living man or 
 woman of flesh and blood, sinks into the floor, as it were, 
 thus vanishing from sight. If the earthly friend happens 
 
*5 S 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 to hold the materialized spirit by the hand, the hand so 
 retained is kept intact, till its turn finally comes to melt 
 away, when it dissolves and disappears. 
 
 It is the German thinker, Du Prel, who, after proving 
 conclusively that the soul fashions the body of every 
 human being, says somewhere in his work, " Die Mom's- 
 tische Seele7ilehre" that no one need be amazed at tempo- 
 rary materializations in seances, in consideration of the 
 fact that man is a materialization enduring for threescore 
 years and ten. A good work on this subject is " Mate- 
 rialized Apparitions" by E. A. Brackett. The title.of this 
 book is in full : If not Beings from A?iother Life, What 
 are They ? 
 
 If, like another Rip Van Winkle, one of us had gone to 
 sleep, say before the advent of the modern inventions of 
 steam and electricity, and would awake now, what would 
 be his feelings of amazement on beholding a railway train 
 in full motion, or on receiving a telegraphic despatch 
 from Europe transmitted on the same day, not to mention 
 the telephone, and a score of other marvelous contriv- 
 ances ? Naturally the first impulse would be, before see- 
 ing those things with his own eyes, and being merely told 
 of them, to consider the report a hoax, or to express his 
 incredulity. If now the reader will consider that these 
 marvels are the product of mind primarily, mind that dis- 
 covers, uses and manipulates these subtle forces of nature, 
 and that, analogous to the study of matter, we now make 
 discoveries and acquire triumphs in the realm of mind- 
 research, he will not find the marvels of Spiritualism in- 
 credible. 
 
 " How can these things be ? " said Nicodemus. " Jesus 
 answered and said unto him, Art thou a teacher of 
 Israel, and knowest not these things ? If I told you 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 153 
 
 earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if 
 I tell you heavenly things ? " * 
 
 Preparing thus my readers for the last kind of spiritual 
 manifestations that I shall mention, and that can be seen 
 and proved to be an objective reality by a crucial test, I 
 will begin by stating at once what results can be obtained, 
 and then proceed to explain, however imperfectly, the 
 modus operandi, as well as point out the sources for fuller 
 information. As happens often, my father, who died 
 when I was a child, left no portrait of himself behind, and 
 the knowledge of the tentative processes of photography 
 in the year 1841, had not reached the rural German dis- 
 trict in which we resided. Naturally, I often deeply 
 regretted that I had no likeness of my father. In August, 
 1888, I visited the mediumistic photographer, Dr. Keeler, 
 at Lily Dale (Cassadaga) Chautauqua County, New York, 
 and obtained, to my inexpressible delight, a photograph 
 of my father, depicted on the same card whereon my own 
 photograph appears. The spirit's bust is seen to the 
 right of mine, and the features are quite plain and dis- 
 tinct, though usually such photographs are somewhat 
 fainter than those of mortals. I possess a photograph, 
 besides, of my transfigured mother and two children of 
 mine that had died. In the summer of 1889, 1 visited Dr. 
 Keeler again and obtained two more photographs, repre- 
 senting other deceased relatives, and even the photograph 
 of a lady who used to be a member of my flock. Alto- 
 gether I am in possession of four photographic cards, 
 cabinet size, containing the photographs of twelve spirits. 
 The numbers of spirit photographs that are yearly pro- 
 duced, especially at spiritualistic camp-meetings, are 
 countless. Mr. A. R. Wallace, in his A Defence of Modern 
 
 * John iii. 9-12. 
 
154 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Spiritualism, gives the particulars of the circumstances 
 that attended the discovery of the phenomenon. The 
 discovery was accidental. " The accounts of spirit-photog- 
 raphy caused many spiritualists in this country (England) 
 to make experiments ; but for a long time without success. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, who are both amateur photograph- 
 ers, tried at their own house, and failed. In March, 1872, 
 they went one day to Mr. Hudson's, a photographer living 
 near them (not a spiritualist) to get some cartes de visite of 
 Mrs. Guppy. After the sitting, the idea suddenly struck 
 Mr. Guppy that he would try for a spirit-photograph. He 
 sat down, told Mrs. Guppy to go behind the background, 
 and had a picture taken. There came out behind him a 
 large, indefinite, oval, white patch, somewhat resembling 
 the outline of a draped figure. Mrs. Guppy behind the 
 background was dressed in black. This is the first spirit- 
 photograph taken in England, and it is perhaps more sat- 
 isfactory on account of the suddenness of the impulse 
 under which it was taken, and the great white patch which 
 no impostor would have attempted to produce, and which, 
 taken by itself, utterly spoils the picture. A few days 
 afterwards, Mr. and Mrs. Guppy and their little boy went 
 without any notice. Mrs. Guppy sat on the ground, hold- 
 ing the little boy on a stool. Her husband stood behind, 
 looking on. The picture thus produced is most remark- 
 able. A tall female figure, finely draped in white, gauzy 
 robes stands directly behind and above the sitters, look- 
 ing down on them, and holding its open hands over their 
 heads as if giving benediction." * Then Mr. Wallace 
 goes on to give further instances of photographs increas- 
 ing in distinctness and being recognized as deceased rela- 
 tives or friends. 
 
 * A Defence, etc., by A. R. Wallace, Eclectic, Sept., 1875, P> 349* 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 155 
 
 Though we have to-day abundant evidence and more 
 knowledge on the subject, it is worth while for the reader 
 to read Mr. Wallace's lucid account. 
 
 A very few typical cases only can be here adduced. 
 
 The following is from The Light of Truth, January 27, 
 1894: 
 
 SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER APPLIES THE TEST. 
 
 I desire to say a few words about Rev. C. C. Howland, 
 the medium, and his wonderful gift of spirit photography. 
 Being myself a photographer by profession and somewhat 
 a believer in Spiritualism, and hearing of this medium's 
 powers as a spirit artist, I desired to test them for my- 
 self. 
 
 I repaired to the home of the medium, taking with me 
 my own camera, plates, etc., as well as a background of my 
 own. The medium met me with a pleasant good morn- 
 ing. After the usual preliminaries I told him I had heard 
 of him as a spirit photographer, and asked him if he had 
 any objections to using my camera, plates, etc. He said 
 certainly not, and that I might manipulate the instrument 
 myself \i I desired to. This proposition suited me, and I 
 made an exposure of a plate having no sitter. I told the 
 medium I should prefer developing my own plate and 
 would take it home and do so, and would let him know 
 whether there was anything on it or not. I bade Mr. 
 Howland good morning and hastened to my rooms to 
 develop the plate. Imagine my surprise to find four faces 
 thereon, and after finishing up the picture to find them to 
 be exact likenesses of my wife, my father, and my two 
 children, all in spirit life. 
 
156 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 I informed Mr. Howland of our success, but he did not 
 seem a bit surprised, for he said he had been tested in 
 that way many times. He also informed me that he had 
 as good success with a lock of hair or picture sent by the 
 person desiring a sitting. He said he could not guarantee 
 results, however, as he never knew what he would get. 
 Mr. Howland never touched the plate or background. He 
 simply laid his hands on the camera when I made the 
 exposure, and this was done in the light. I know that 
 this is the most wonderful picture that I have ever taken, 
 and that Mr. Howland is the most wonderful medium 
 that I have ever met. 
 
 Chas. Stafford. 
 
 SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 Seeing the card of R. L. Green in the Light of 
 Truth — spirit photographer — and not having any ex- 
 perience in this phase of mediumship, and being an in- 
 vestigator, of course I had but little confidence in obtain- 
 ing anything satisfactory, at any rate I concluded I would 
 try. I forwarded to Mr. Green my picture, which was 
 treated the same as if I were sitting in person. My wife, 
 who is a non-believer, in fact, has no inclination to in- 
 vestigate, I thought it best not to apprise of my proposed 
 sitting until I knew the result. A few days ago I re- 
 ceived my spirit photo, and I assure you, dear readers, it 
 is more than satisfactory. Five spirit faces appeared on 
 the picture, two faces I recognized, and my son, who re- 
 cently passed away. I might add that the loss of my son 
 was the cause that led me to investigate Spiritualism. 
 The other face was that of my father. I handed the 
 picture to my wife, and she, without the slightest 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 157 
 
 hesitancy, recognized the faces of our son and my 
 father. 
 
 I certainly feel overwhelmed with my success, for I un- 
 doubtedly have received evidence of spirit-return. Trust- 
 ing you will find space in your most valuable paper to re- 
 late this fact for the benefit of my many fellow investiga- 
 tors, I am respectfully yours, 
 
 John Y. Golerion. 
 
 The following is from Modern Society, May 28, 1892. 
 "A few years ago," says Colonel Burgess Leigh, "the 
 favorite daughter of a clergyman in one of the larger 
 cities, fell into a decline. The father's grief was bitter as 
 he saw the life ebbing. One day when the arrival of the 
 rider of the pale horse was hourly expected, the dying girl 
 whispered to her father to be resigned. ' We shall not 
 even have the comfort which a picture of you would afford, 
 for we have none,' he moaned. She seemed to be con- 
 scious for an hour or more, when, opening her eyes, she 
 again whispered : 'If it be possible, I will come back to 
 you, father, and you shall have a picture.' Those were 
 her last words, which may be the reason why they made 
 such a strong impression on the doctor, although he had 
 no faith in the supernatural. Passing a photographic 
 studio one day he had an irresistible impulse to enter. 
 When he went back to see the negatives, the artist 
 noticed a look of disappointment come into his patron's 
 face. He inquired wherein the pictures failed to please 
 him. The good old gentleman answered kindly that they 
 seemed to be very life-like, and that he had no fault to 
 find. A few months passed, and Dr. Dean being near 
 the same photographer's rooms, felt the same impulse to 
 go in. The artist was a little surprised, but supposed 
 
158 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 that some of the rector's congregation had been pressing 
 him for pictures. Good poses were obtained, and when 
 the negatives were ready the artist said to himself that the 
 doctor would surely be pleased. Dr. Dean examined each 
 proof closely, and again an expression of pain and dis- 
 appointment overspread his face. At this the photog- 
 rapher was hurt, and tenderly and earnestly sought the 
 cause, recalling to the doctor the fact that he had been 
 disappointed the first time, but would not explain. On 
 the anniversary of his child's death, Dr. Dean sat in his 
 library for hours. That yearning which those who have 
 loved ones know, possessed him. Finally, this gave way 
 to a sad sweetness, as something like a soft, gentle pres- 
 ence seemed to fill the room. That impulse which he had 
 felt twice before seized him. Quietly he rose and pro- 
 ceeded to the photographer's and was given a sitting at 
 once. It was a balmy, sunshiny day, and the mildest 
 zephyr breathed through the open windows. A few days 
 later the doctor received an urgent message to go to the 
 gallery at once. The operator had just finished a picture. 
 As Dr. Dean's eyes rested upon it, he was violently 
 agitated. He trembled and sank into a chair, clutching 
 the photograph and gazing at it intently. It was a serious 
 dramatic scene. There in the picture was a fine likeness 
 of the rector, and looking directly into his eyes was the 
 face of one not of this world. This face was veiled by 
 something like a mist or cloud. 
 
 " i My daughter ! ' the doctor exclaimed. It was a spirit- 
 picture, a likeness of his dead child. 
 
 " ' I remember,' said the operator, ' that some cloud-like 
 object passed before the camera at the moment I exposed 
 the plate. I looked, and it was gone.' 
 
 " Not only the doctor, but all the members of his 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 159 
 
 family and many friends who have seen the photo, 
 pronounce the spirit-face a good likeness of their dead 
 relative." 
 
 The spirit-photograph I obtained in 1 888 of my mother, 
 though distinct, is somewhat dim. I consulted a pho- 
 tographer of this city, as to whether anything can 
 be done to make it clearer. The man, smiled know- 
 ingly, saying : " Ah, I know how such pictures are 
 made, it is a delusion." This brings us to the 
 counterfeit pictures that have been and that can 
 be produced. Mr. Wallace says : " Most persons have 
 heard of these 'ghost-pictures,' and how easily they can 
 be made to order by any photographer, and are therefore 
 disposed to think they can be of no use as evidence. 
 But a little consideration will show them that the means 
 by which sham ghosts can be manufactured being so well 
 known to all photographers, it becomes easy to apply 
 tests or arrange conditions so as to prevent imposition. 
 The following are some of the more obvious : 
 
 " 1. If a person with a knowledge of photography takes 
 his own glass plates, examines the camera used and all 
 the accessories, and watches the whole process of taking 
 a picture, then, if any definite form appears on the nega- 
 tive, besides the sitter, it is a proof that some object was 
 present capable of reflecting or emitting the actinic rays 
 although invisible to those present. 
 
 "2. If an unmistakable likeness appears of a deceased 
 person totally unknown to the photographer. 
 
 "3. If figures appear on the negative having a definite 
 relation to the figure of the sitter, who chooses his own 
 position, attitude and accompaniments, it is a proof that 
 invisible figures were really there. 
 
160 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 " 4. If a figure appears draped in white,and partly behind 
 the dark body of the sitter without in the least showing 
 through, it is a proof that the white figure was there at the 
 same time, because the dark parts of the negative are 
 transparent, and any white picture in any way superposed 
 would show through. 
 
 "5. Even should none of these tests be applied, yet if a 
 medium, quite independent of the photographer, sees and 
 describes a figure during the sitting, and an exactly cor- 
 responding figure appears on the plate, it is a proof that 
 such a figure was there." # 
 
 Here again let the reader consider that imitation im- 
 plies the genuine, that the counterfeit implies the true, 
 and that one genuine case of spirit-photography counter- 
 acts a hundred cases of fraud. Moreover, there are many 
 private men who have become amateur photographers, 
 who obtain these pictures. 
 
 Mrs. J. M. Burchfield, wife of a prominent and pros- 
 perous business man of Bradford, Pa., a highly esteemed 
 lady, obtained through the photographer, Mr. W. M. 
 Keeler, three photographs, on one of which there are ten 
 spirit faces which she and her husband recognized as 
 deceased relatives. Being mediumistic herself, but of 
 course not a professional medium, she, after acquiring 
 the art of photography as an amateur, obtained in her 
 own home nine spirit photographs, on which are seen 
 very plainly and distinctly fourteen spirit faces, eleven of 
 which are recognized. Mrs. Burchfield has kindly shown 
 these photographs to the author and permitted to use her 
 name in this connection. 
 
 John T. Taylor, Editor of the British Journal of Photog- 
 raphy, a gentleman, says Light, who deservedly occupies 
 * A Defence, etc., page 349. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 161 
 
 a high reputation in the photographic world, has been 
 conducting experiments with David Duguid as medium, 
 and, March 9th, narrated his experience at a meeting of 
 the London and Provincial Photographic Association, a 
 full report of which was given in the British "Journal of 
 March 17th. It is needless to say that he applied the 
 most crucial tests known to science during his experi- 
 ments. Here is one passage from his report : 
 
 " The psychic figures behaved badly. Some were' in 
 focus ; others not so ; some were lighted from the right, 
 while the sitter was so from the left ; some were comely, 
 others not so ; some monopolized the major portion of 
 the plate, quite obliterating the material sitters ; others 
 were as if an atrociously badly vignetted portrait or one 
 cut oval out of a photograph by a can opener, or equally 
 badly clipped out, were held up behind the sitter. But 
 here is the point : not one of these figures which came out 
 so strongly in the negative was visible in any form or 
 shape to me during the time of exposure in the camera, 
 and I vouch in the strongest manner for the fact that no 
 one whatever had an opportunity of tampering with any 
 plate anterior to its being placed in the dark slide, or im- 
 mediately preceding development." 
 
 And now for the modus operandi. It is a very simple 
 matter. The camera obscura with its apparatus is ex- 
 actly like a human eye, though, be it said, by the way, 
 the discoverer or inventor of the art was not mindful of 
 this. Just as hinges are like the joints in the human body ; 
 levers like the bones, pulleys like the tendons, ropes or 
 chains like the muscles. Du Prel uses these facts to 
 prove that the same Spirit in man created both. We in- 
 vent machines and find out afterwards that their proto- 
 * The Banner of Light, April 14, 1893. 
 II 
 
i62 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 types exist already in the mechanism of the human bod) r . 
 Thus the heart is a pump ; the brain a galvanic battery ; 
 the ramification of nerves a telegraphic system ; the skull 
 is an arch ; the spine a series of springs ; the anatomy of 
 the breast a suspension-bridge ; the ear a piano, the lungs 
 a pipe-organ, etc.* 
 
 But this is a digression here. If anywhere, this sub- 
 ject belongs more properly to Chapter II. in this book, 
 where the fact is stated that the human body is the pro- 
 duct of the creative spirit. 
 
 To return, then, to the similarity between a human eye 
 and the photographer's instrument. It is a fact that the 
 camera or artificial eye has greater visual powers than the 
 natural eye. " Vision arises from outside of the eye, from 
 light, else we could see in darkness. The optic nerve is 
 suscepitble to impressions of light caused by excitation of- 
 the retina, its special, terminal organ. The optic nerve- 
 fibers convey the change to the brain, the result being 
 sight. If light were to act uniformly over the retina, there 
 would not be seeing, only a general consciousness of light, 
 things, objects, would not be seen. Hence, something 
 more is needed for seeing objects, the formation of an 
 image on the retina like the camera obsciwa. Science has 
 supplemented the very limited vision of man. There is 
 only a limited number of vibrations of light or color that 
 the human eye can perceive ; but the spectroscope re- 
 veals many more. With the aid of telescope and micro- 
 scope man enters a region of which he has no possible 
 conception through vision, only through mathematics. 
 Long before the discovery of added lens that enable man 
 to discover the position of planets, mathematics had dis- 
 
 * See the important work of Ernst Kapp, Philosophie der Technik, 
 Braunschweig, 1877. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 163 
 
 covered them, and long before the microscope had dis- 
 covered the many millions of vibrations of life that are not 
 traceable by the human eye, man knew by chemical anal- 
 ysis and by mental analogy that these forms of life were 
 there." * 
 
 Speaking of the compound solar ray under analysis, Mr. 
 Fiske remarks : " First, we have the visible rays of medium 
 refrangibility, ranging from red to violet, and sometimes 
 called the Newtonic rays. Beyond the violet, in the out- 
 lying portions of the spectrum, lie the so-called Ritteric 
 rays, of greatest refrangibility, which are not visible, but 
 are manifested through their actinic or chemical effects ; 
 these are the rays with which we photograph." f 
 
 Already, in 1874, spirit-photography had been conclu- 
 sively demonstrated by private gentlemen working inde- 
 pendently as amateur photographers in different parts of 
 England. Mr. Wallace mentions three ; he says : " These 
 
 separately confirm the fact of spirit-photography 
 
 The experiments of Mr. Beattie and Dr. Thompson are 
 alone absolutely conclusive ; and, taken in connection 
 with those of Mr. Slater and Dr. Williams, and the test 
 photographs, like those of Mrs. Guppy, establish as a 
 scientific fact the objective existence of invisible human 
 forms, and definite invisible actinic images." % 
 
 The question may be raised as to whether spirits mate- 
 rialize to some extent their spirit-forms in order to be 
 recognized. Whatever opinion may be formed concern- 
 ing this, the following, at any rate, is an example of mate- 
 rialization. It is a fascinating story, and if true, stranger 
 than fiction indeed. 
 
 * Spiritual Optics, by Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, a Lecture, p. 138. 
 t Cosmic Philosophy, by John Fiske, i., 119. 
 % A Defence, etc., page 352. 
 
1 64 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 The Harbinger of Light, Melbourne, Australia, says in 
 its issue of November ist, 1892, that a photographer of 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main, who is not a Spiritualist, con- 
 tributes to a professional publication, the Allgemeine 
 Anzeigeblatt filr Photografihie, issued in that city, the fol- 
 lowing plain, unvarnished statement of facts : 
 
 " I have been a photographer for many years past. 
 One day while I was eating my frugal meal, a very beauti- 
 ful woman entered my studio, and wished to be photo- 
 graphed, because her husband strongly desired to possess 
 her portrait. I immediately complied with her wish, and 
 took her in various positions, but when I returned from 
 the dark-room, the lady had disappeared. The incident 
 had an untoward appearance, as I feared I should lose 
 by it. Nevertheless I finished the portrait, in the hope that 
 the lady might, some day or another, return and pay me 
 for it. And a few days afterward she did so. She admired 
 the execution of it, although it appeared to me to be a 
 little faint. At length she selected one of the copies, 
 with these words : ' Place this in your window, and write 
 underneath it Margaret Arlington.' This surprised me, 
 because, as you know, ladies do not like to have their por- 
 traits thus publicly exhibited, and I concluded by supposing 
 she was an actress. I thanked her, and she gave me a bank- 
 note for two pounds ten (fifty marks), and not having any 
 change, I went into the chemist's shop on the ground 
 floor, in order to obtain it, and give her the twenty-five 
 shillings due to her. I placed the bank-note in his hand, 
 or, at least, I thought I did, but he asked, ' Where is it ? ' 
 It had disappeared. I searched upon the counter, and so 
 did he and his assistant, but nothing could be found. I 
 went back, examining the stairway, but no bank-note was 
 visible. What was I to say to the lady who was waiting 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 165 
 
 above for her change ? I resolved to tell her what had 
 happened, as perhaps I might have received nothing. 
 Entering the room I found the lady had disappeared, 
 leaving five copies on the table. Here was a pretty state 
 of things ! At length I quieted myself with the thought 
 that perhaps she was an actress, who was playing me this 
 trick by way of advertising herself. At any rate, I deter- 
 mined to exhibit the picture in the window. And I did 
 well by it. Every day people came to sit, attracted by the 
 photograph of the ' beautiful blonde, 5 as they called her, 
 the story of which brought me in a good deal of money ; 
 so much so, that I would willingly have presented her 
 with the five copies of it, and would have thanked her be- 
 sides. Still, I had a presentiment that I should, sooner 
 or later, hear something of her, and so it fell out. A 
 year after the occurrence, a gentleman in traveling cos- 
 tume entered my studio, and seemed pale and agitated. 
 'There is,' said he, 'in your window, the photograph of 
 a beautiful lady. Her name is Margaret Arlington, is 
 it not ? ' ' Yes,' I replied, ' that is her name.' ' Do 
 you know the lady ? ' he asked. ' Only from having 
 photographed her. Perhaps you are acquainted with 
 her ? ' I continued. ' She is my wife ; but I never knew 
 anything of this photograph.' ' Thus it is,' I rejoined ; 
 ' the lady informed me that it would give her husband 
 great pleasure to possess her portrait, as she had been 
 for a long time separated from him.' The gentleman 
 turned pale, and, trembling, asked, ' When did this hap- 
 pen?' 'A year ago,' I answered. 'My wife died five 
 years ago,' said the gentleman ; ' and you will perhaps 
 doubt my sanity when I say that last night she appeared 
 to me in a dream, saying, " Go through the city ; examine 
 the windows of all the photographers, and you will find 
 
1 66 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 my portrait." The dream was so ?'eal, that I obeyed her^ 
 and thus have found her picture here? 
 
 11 I related to him all that had happened, and we were 
 both convinced that the spirit of the lady had sat to me. 
 I handed over to him the five copies, which appeared to 
 me to be the best I had ever taken, and he insisted upon 
 paying me for them. I refused, but he laid a bank-note 
 for £2$ upon the table and quitted the room. This is my 
 narrative of spirits. No one will believe it ; but, never- 
 theless, my statement is the sacred truth." # 
 
 The concluding words of this story remind me of what 
 Mr. Sinnett has said as to the incredulity of ordinary folk 
 in our time. He writes : " The situation may remind 
 the reader of the farceur, who undertook to stand on 
 Waterloo Bridge with a hundred real sovereigns on a tray, 
 offering to sell them for a shilling apiece, and who wagered 
 that he would so stand for an hour without getting rid of his 
 stock. He relied on the stupidity of the passers-by, who 
 would think themselves too clever to be taken in." | 
 
 Although no one need to believe the facts of Spiritual- 
 ism on the authority of another, as all can acquire per- 
 sonal conviction, it seems to the author inexcusable in 
 many enlightened men and women to sneer at things of 
 which they are ignorant. " No one, it is true, deserves 
 blame for leaving any subject that does not attract him 
 altogether unstudied. But, in most cases, people who are 
 conscious of limited intellectual resources entertain a 
 decent respect for others better furnished. A man may 
 be nothing but a sportsman himself and yet refrain from 
 asserting that chemists and electricians must be impostors. 
 And a chemist may know nothing of Italian art, and yet 
 
 * The Banner of light, Jan. 7., 1893. 
 t The Occult World, page 183. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 167 
 
 may refrain from declaring that Raphael never existed. 
 But all through the commonplace world, whether in its 
 upper or lower strata, people who are ignorant of psychic 
 science, encourage one another in the brainless and 
 absurd denial of facts exhibited in the encyclopaedias, 
 and in even a more grotesque and impudent fashion by 
 the newspapers of the day, whenever any of its phenomena 
 come up for treatement. The average country grocer, 
 the average newspaper reporter, the average student of 
 physical science, are all steeped in the same dense in- 
 capacity to understand the propriety of respecting the 
 knowledge oi others, even if they do not share it them- 
 selves, whenever they brush up against any statement relat- 
 ing to the work of those who are engaged in any branch 
 of psychic inquiry." * 
 
 Can every one investigate spiritualism ? Is it worth 
 while to do so ? And what are the essential conditions 
 for investigating ? These queries will be briefly answered 
 in the next chapter. 
 
 * The Rationale of Spiritualism, by A. P. Sinnett, page 82. 
 
1 68 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE SCOPE OF SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 Spiritualism, in the narrower sense of the word, is the 
 knowledge of spirit-return and of the mode of life in the 
 hereafter. Men on earth did not originate, nor did they 
 by their researches discover this glorious truth. The 
 initiative came from the spirit-world ; the denizens of 
 the supernal realm first knocked at the doors of toiling, 
 struggling, suffering mortals, eager to communicate the 
 fact that there is no death ; that what is so-called is but 
 " an event in our eternal life ; a birth into a new and more 
 perfect state of existence." It may be fitly called divine ; 
 for all that is good is of God, and all finite wisdom and 
 love are within the Infinite Spiritual Macrocosm. The 
 following words recently fell from the lips of Mrs. Cora 
 L. V. Richmond, who is controlled by high and advanced 
 intelligences : " Mediumship is a formulated process of 
 manifesting the life of the spirit-world, disti?ictly engrafted 
 by an outside power upon the mental thought of this day 
 and generation." 
 
 The information received through modern mediums all 
 over the globe is subjected by students to systematic 
 arrangement and classification. A consensus is thus form- 
 ulated of revelations obtained through mediums. 
 
 But Spiritualism, in the wider sense, is the system of 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 169 
 
 truth revealed by celestial beings to advanced spirits, who 
 in turn communicate it to mankind through specially 
 chosen mediums, that is ; instruments prepared for trans- 
 mitting to mortals the teachings of angels and archangels. 
 A system of truth is thus obtained concerning the problems 
 of human life, or, in other words, the laws of man's 
 spiritual evolution. The great text-book of spiritual 
 philosophy now in the world, is The Soul in Human Em- 
 bodiments, given through Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, 
 Chicago, 1887. This little book of 1 18 pages is designed 
 to (i solve the problems of the universe." In order 
 to state correctly the relation between Spiritualism, 
 in the restricted sense, and the teachings of this great 
 work, I can do no better than to avail myself of the 
 language of the guides of Mrs. Richmond. On page 69, 
 the attitude of Spiritualism towards the Spiritual Philos- 
 ophy is described thus : 
 
 " Spiritualism without these lessons is as the moon 
 revolving around the earth. In the moonlight of exist- 
 ence, limited by certain spiritual states, you may glow 
 and shine after the state of earth, but when you find the 
 source of the light of the spirit, it is this Soul-life which in- 
 cludes all spiritual states and all human existence. Under 
 its divine and solvent radiance you are not only recon- 
 ciled to birth and death, but to any birth and to the 
 death that is in human life ; you are reconciled to all 
 different conditions in outward existence ; to all those 
 states in spirit-life that are not provided for in theology, 
 and that Spiritualism only touches lightly or not at all, 
 and cannot explain, and cannot answer." 
 
 Yet the system presented is not one more revelation, in 
 the old sense, to be accepted on authority. " Rest as- 
 sured," it is said in the valedictory, " that we neither ask 
 
170 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 you to accept it on our authority, nor will we seek to en- 
 force it by argument. Truth, like mathematics, is its own 
 demonstration, when the principles on which it rests are 
 known." What is meant here is something like the fol- 
 lowing : The riddles of existence are here solved ; the 
 several answers or solutions are here given. It is for you to 
 compare these with the facts for verification. " Not all at 
 once can the mind grasp any truth, and never until there 
 
 is preparation from within The presentation of 
 
 truth to the mind is of no avail unless the soul comes 
 forth to meet it." (Valedictory.) Psychologists, teachers, 
 and philosophical thinkers will understand fully what is 
 here asserted. The author at first did not mentally digest 
 or assimilate the teachings of this book. His mind had 
 first to expand ; his former erroneous conceptions had to 
 be erased from his metal tablet. Thus the soil was pre- 
 pared for the reception of the seeds of truth. 
 
 The scope of the Spiritual Philosophy is therefore as 
 wide as the universe. But, as I shall have to revert to this 
 again, let the explanation given here suffice for the present. 
 
 Returning to Spiritualism as a demonstration of con- 
 tinued life after death, we can now undertake to answer 
 the questions propounded in the concluding paragraph of 
 Chapter XX. 
 
 The question, " Is it worth while to study this sub- 
 ject ? " is, I hope, already answered by the above remarks. 
 " Spiritualism," by which name the whole movement is 
 designated, must in time be the religion of humanity ; it 
 must be the philosophy which shall reconcile seeming 
 inconsistencies, harmonize all discordant forces, be a 
 science in relation to human life, which will demonstrate 
 to man the immortal truths of the universe, from which 
 there can be no appeal ; appearing as a religion, as a 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 171 
 
 philosophy, as a science for humanity, it must assuredly 
 spiritualize, broaden out, and elevate the entire human 
 soul and bring it into relationship and active sympathy 
 with the Divine Mind." Being the highest generalization 
 of spiritual facts, it must include all lesser systems, and 
 thus constitute a synthesis of all religions ; inasmuch as 
 the superior includes the inferior, the spiritual philosophy 
 supersedes all theological, man-made dogmas and creeds. 
 " When that which is perfect is come, that which is 
 partial shall be done away," says St. Paul. I repeat what 
 I * have said elsewhere : Modern Spiritualism is as much 
 superior to current Christianity, as pristine Christianity 
 was superior to the Rabbinical Judaism of Christ's time. 
 However great the tendency may be to magnify one's 
 own particular denomination, and, by ecclesiastical au- 
 thority, declare one's creed absolute and final, time is 
 against it, and nature is against it, and God and the 
 Divine law is against it. Moses is reported to have said 
 concerning the Law : " Thou shalt not add thereto nor 
 diminish from it" * Then, after thus making a fixed 
 creed, the logical effect was that the great Legislator lays 
 down in the same chapter the most barbarous injunctions, 
 how heretics should be put to death. " Neither shall thine 
 eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou 
 conceal him : But thou shalt surely kill him." Then he 
 goes on to sa)^ that if one city hears that another city 
 worships other gods, the good orthodox city shall hold an 
 inquisition over the infidels, " and, behold, if it be true 
 that the thing is certain, that such abomination is wrought 
 among you ; then shalt thou surely smite the inhabitants of 
 that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, 
 and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge 
 
 * Deut. xii., 32. 
 
172 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 of the sword."* Here was a warrant for the bloody per- 
 secutions committed by the unworthy followers of Jesus ; 
 just as the command : " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to 
 live," (Ex. xxii., 18) served as a warrant for the perse- 
 cutions of witchcraft. "Thou shalt not add thereto nor 
 diminish from it," is the characteristic of fixed creeds. 
 Modern Spiritualism has not only no fixed creed ; it has 
 no formulated creed at all. I believe it is Professor Hux- 
 ley who said, " If Science were to adopt a creed, it would 
 commit suicide." It is the same with Spiritualism. The 
 spirit of persecution has not died out yet, even in the 
 United States. To wit : On March 2d, 1893, a Bill was 
 introduced by Mr. E. Meyer in the legislature of the State 
 of Illinois, which was read, ordered printed, and referred 
 to Committee on Judiciary. The Bill is as follows :• " For 
 an act for the suppression of fortune-telling, and the prac- 
 tice of other alleged and pretended arts by means of 
 supernatural and occult powers, or otherwise ; to prohibit 
 the advertising thereof, and to fix a penalty for a violation 
 of this act." It is the fixed creed and the spirit of fanati- 
 cism which declares that this is " a Christian country ; " 
 which give us the Sunday legislation, the Blue-laws, and 
 the legal holidays of Good Friday and Christmas. It is 
 the domineering spirit of the Christian Church which 
 caused Congress of the United States to manifest for once 
 its puritanical littleness in the enactment which closes the 
 World's Fair on Sunday. 
 
 Is it worth while to investigate Spiritualism ? which 
 will deliver us ultimately from the evil of sectarianism ? 
 Spiritualism, which has no creed and no church, which 
 uses only the " sweet reasonableness " of Jesus ? (Jesus 
 formulated no creed.) Spiritualism, which dispenses with 
 * Deut. xiii. 15. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 173 
 
 priests, which is as broad as the universe, and as free as 
 the air ? 
 
 The next question : Can any one investigate Spiritual- 
 ism ? is easily answered : Does Spiritualism rest on 
 facts ? and are those facts within the purview of the 
 senses ? I have shown in the preceding chapter that the 
 fundamental facts of Spiritualism address themselves to 
 eye and ear and touch ; in short, that they constitute a 
 body of physical manifestations demonstrable to the 
 senses, the same senses that cognize other physical facts 
 of natural science. " Come and see ! " is the dictum of 
 Spiritualism, not " believe and be saved ; disbelieve and 
 be damned ! " If a man live a pure and noble life, observ- 
 ing all the laws of his being, in his physical, intellectual, 
 moral and spiritual nature, being aspirational, and devoting 
 his energies to uplift and benefit his fellow-men, then no 
 matter what his notions are concerning God or heaven, 
 whether he be Catholic or Protestant ; Jew or Gentile ; 
 Atheist or Spiritualist ; that man lays up for himself 
 treasures in heaven. 
 
 Yet the author is not one of those who believe that, 
 ordinarily, it is immaterial what notions we have concern- 
 ing " man's place in nature ; " on the contrary, he believes 
 that without the right principles, there can hardly be 
 good conduct, no more than there can be practical appli- 
 cations without correct theories, in science, art, and the 
 various trades and professions. Theory precedes practice 
 and moral conduct implies and involves sound principles. 
 If Spiritualism is a solution of the problem of human life, 
 it ought to be studied. 
 
 And now the question remains as to the conditions 
 requisite for investigation. Some of the essential condi- 
 tions are : 
 
174 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 i. Docility; readiness to learn, no matter from what 
 source ; not to say : " Can anything good come out of 
 Nazareth ? " The question is not : whence do these facts 
 come; but are they true? "The true investigator," says 
 John Herschel, " will keep his eyes open, as it were, in all 
 departments of his researches, in order to espy at once 
 any manifestation, which, according to the accepted theo- 
 ries ought not to occur ; for these are the facts that lead to 
 new discoveries." 
 
 2. Persistence ; patient investigation and study of the 
 subtle conditions ; not to conclude from inadequate, insuf- 
 ficient observations, that the thing is not true ; but to sift 
 the matter thoroughly to the bottom. John W. Edmunds, 
 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the State of New 
 York, writes : " It was in January, 185 1, that I first began 
 my investigations, and it was not until April, 1853, that I 
 became a firm believer in the reality of spiritual inter- 
 course." There are persons, it is true, who investigate 
 for years and come to no conclusion. The author met a 
 clergyman at the Spiritual Camp-meeting at Cassadaga 
 in 1888, who said that he had investigated Spiritualism 
 ever since its origin in 1848 ; had visited the Fox family 
 in Hydesville, Arcadia, Wayne County, N. Y. where 
 spiritual raps first occurred, that he had studied the sub- 
 ject all these many years (he is a man over 60 years of 
 age) and that he has not yet come to a definite conclusion 
 either one way or another. A similar instance is given in 
 a discourse delivered through Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond. 
 One who had been an investigator in the earth-life inspired 
 the discourse. " Now, the one addressing you," so runs the 
 address, " approached the investigation of the phenomena 
 of Spiritualism on the basis of science ; on the basis of 
 what is called reason ; using the senses and faculties with 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 175 
 
 which he had been accustomed to judge of other subjects, 
 and whether you believe it or not, he never got beyond 
 the standpoint of an investigator. Not that there is any- 
 thing attached to this term of opprobrium, but sometimes 
 it is a disgrace to investigate a subject for twenty-five or 
 thirty years and arrive at no conclusion. It either shows 
 a very intricate subject, or a very weak mind, or a mind 
 totally unfitted and unprepared for the subject that is 
 being investigated. The latter I will choose, for the sake 
 of self-esteem, as the state I was in. The mind was 
 totally unprepared." 
 
 We must not attempt to explain new, unknown mani- 
 festations in terms of the known, as was explained in 
 Chapter XVII. : For new facts, new categories must be 
 created ; the new wine will not keep in the old bottles. 
 We would acquire no further additions to our knowledge, 
 if we always interpreted the new in terms of the old. 
 Scientific experts know well enough that induction 
 means something more than the mere collection of 
 facts. What is the principle that governs the search for 
 facts ? Is the investigator prepared to admit an unseen 
 universe with its unseen beings ? Is he perfectly un- 
 biased ; free from a priori notions ? Is he ready to accept 
 the truth at any cost ? " What will become of science," 
 cries no less a man than Professor Wundt, "if we accept 
 the spiritual phenomena as true ? " Is this obvious fal- 
 lacy not a perfect parallel to the orthodox clergyman's ex- 
 planation : " What will become of Christianity if Spiritual- 
 ism be accepted as true ? " Bigotry is bigotry, whether 
 found in a professor of physics, or in a minister of the 
 gospel. 
 
 3. The investigator must not expect in the average spir- 
 itual message transcendent wisdom or lofty teachings and 
 
176 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 revelations. He must remember that the excarnated boor 
 is still a boor, though he has a better chance now of 
 acquiring culture ; the ignorant, the selfish, the narrow- 
 minded, are not suddenly transformed ; moral develop- 
 ment is slow and gradual. If then, messages are received 
 that are mere twaddle, it is just what is to be expected 
 from the average earth-bound spirit. " People sometimes 
 ask what kind of messages I get, purporting to come from 
 the other side ? If they are not trash ? I generally reply, 
 they are about on the level of my average daily mail. I 
 get letters not otherwise, not always spelled correctly, not 
 always grammatical. But I do not say, these letters come 
 from nobody, because they are not up to the level of Plato 
 and Shakespeare. . . . Even when a man lies to me, I do not 
 doubt therefore that he is alive. It takes a man even to 
 tell a lie. If I get a message over the telegraph wires, it 
 may be ever so foolish or false, but I know there is some 
 kind of an intelligence at the other end.* As a general 
 rule, like attracts like. If one is pure and aspirational, 
 seeking the truth for the elevation of himself and others, 
 he will attract to himself spirits of lofty character. On 
 the other hand, it is unreasonable to expect a Bacon, a 
 Newton or a Goethe to visit habitually an undeveloped or 
 vicious mortal. That is the glory of Spiritualism, that it 
 is natural, not preternatural, as to its disclosures respect- 
 ing the future state. Mr. A. R. Wallace in a reply 
 to Prof. Huxley, says : " Many scientific men deny the 
 spiritual source of the manifestations, on the ground that 
 real genuine spirits might reasonably be expected not to 
 indulge in the commonplace trivialities which do undoubt- 
 edly form the staple of ordinary spiritual communications. 
 But surely Professor Huxley, as a naturalist and philoso- 
 
 * A Reply to Mr. Hawthorne, by Rev. M. J. Savage. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 177 
 
 pher, would not admit this to be a reasonable expecta- 
 tion. Does he not hold the doctrine that there can be no 
 effect, mental or physical, without an adequate cause ; 
 and that mental states, faculties and idiosyncrasies, that 
 are the result of gradual development of life-long — or 
 even ancestral — habit, cannot be suddenly changed by any 
 known or imaginable cause ?.-... The thing would be 
 a miracle, the greatest of miracles, and surely Professor 
 Huxley is the last man to contemplate innumerable mir- 
 acles as part of the order of nature ; and all for what ? 
 Merely to save these people from the necessary consequences 
 of their mis-spe?it lives" 
 
 I have spoken of returning spirits, but many spirits do 
 not return, for the simple reason that they do not go away ; 
 they are the so-called earth-bound spirits. " The earthly 
 loves, those belonging to the carnal nature, are not always 
 left behind because the spirit has sloughed off the mortal 
 flesh. It is the likes and the inclinations, the tendencies 
 of the mind and heart, which determine the surroundings 
 and conditions of a spirit. If one here fosters selfish- 
 ness, becomes filled with the spirit of avariciousness, and 
 so overreaches his neighbor, and also commits deeds 
 which are not in accordance with the law of brotherly love 
 and kindness, his spiritual nature becomes warped, and 
 does not unfold in loveliness. Therefore, when he passes 
 out of the flesh, he is not qualified to enter the spiritual 
 country of light and peace. True, he is a spirit, and so 
 are you all spirits, even though walled about by fleshly 
 bonds. The likes, the inclinations, the tendencies and 
 attractions of that spirit who has lived the life mentioned, 
 all tend to weigh him down to the external condition or 
 atmosphere. He has not suddenly become a pure and 
 good man because he has cast off the outer garment. He 
 
 12 
 
178 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 may be just as arrogant, just as selfish and impure in 
 thought and character as he was before. Such may very 
 naturally be drawn into contact with others like them- 
 selves who are still on earth." * 
 
 It is well for one who wishes to investigate to read first 
 a manual, such as The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism, by 
 Epes Sargent ; Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, by A. 
 R. Wallace ; Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse, by A. J. 
 Davis ; The Inner life ; Spirit Mysteries Explained, by A. 
 J. Davis ; Unanswerable logic, by Thomas Gales Forster. 
 The author would advise inquirers by all means to read first 
 either one or more of these works, before undertaking 
 personal investigation. Any serious-minded man or 
 woman who, from pure motives, enters into such re- 
 searches, and observes the foregoing conditions, will 
 surely be successful. " Seek and you shall find." 
 
 * From an answer from the controlling spirit to a question in the 
 Banner of Light, March 25, 1893. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 179 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION. 
 
 I now approach the fundamental principle of the spirit- 
 ual philosophy, namely, the mode of the soul's eternal 
 progression. It is here, especially, where I most feel the 
 feebleness of my powers to describe, however compen- 
 diously, the process of spiritual evolution. In view of the 
 fact, that all the essential principles of evolution are laid 
 down in Mrs. Richmond's great work, The Soul, having 
 been handed down to the Guides of this medium by 
 higher celestial beings, I may well feel a kind of awe in 
 attempting to give an abstract of it. But I cannot shirk 
 the difficult task of condensing, as it were, into a small 
 compass, what should be a large picture with the proper 
 distribution of light and shade, it being essential to the 
 object and aim of this book. In Chapters I. to III., 
 and elsewhere in this work, statements occur which must 
 now be substantiated. 
 
 Mr. Herbert Spencer in his Biology speaks somewhat 
 tentatively of the future Evolution of man. After re- 
 marking that, probably man will not evolve greater bodily 
 strength in the course of future development, nor swift- 
 ness or agility; he suggests that in mechanical skill, " in 
 the better co-ordination of complex movements," he will 
 advance " most likely in some degree." " Will it be in 
 intelligence ? " he asks next, and answers : " Largely, no 
 
180 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 doubt." " Will it be in morality ? " " Largely also : per- 
 haps most largely."* 
 
 That is the best this profound thinker can do from the 
 premises laid down in his First Principles. Yet even 
 with such premises, and while unconscious of the funda- 
 mental factors, the great philosopher comes to optimistic 
 conclusions in his The Data of Ethics *[ 
 
 It is not intended here to show, as could easily be done, 
 the defects of The Data of Ethics; I only desire to 
 call attention to Mr. Spencer's mechanical system ; to 
 his boldness of constructing his Synthetic Philosophy, 
 while lacking the fundamentally efficient factors. Surely, 
 great is the power of the constructive intellect, that can 
 rear up such a gigantic structure from such meager data. 
 
 As to Mr. Darwin's The Descent of Man, I would 
 advise students to read the recent work of Alfred Russel 
 Wallace, entitled Darwinism, more especially would I 
 recommend a work, wherein the factors omitted in Dar- 
 win and Spencer are supplied, viz.: Psychopathy, by 
 the spirit of Dr. Benjamin Rush, through the mediumship 
 of Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond. All that is true in Dar- 
 win is therein recognized, and the missing factors are 
 supplied. 
 
 But it is time I should begin my task. A few words 
 must prepare the reader's mind for the reception of what 
 may seem to many strange, if not grotesque, views. 
 
 " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
 bear them now." This was said to the disciples of Jesus 
 by the Master himself ; the implication being that, though 
 they were not prepared at that time for further revela- 
 tions, they would at some future time be ready to under- 
 
 * Principles of Biology, vol. ii., sec. 372. 
 f See The Data of Ethics, chapter xvi. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 181 
 
 stand and to accept all requisite additional teachings ; 
 their minds would expand under the quickening influ- 
 ences of inspiration, so that they could then bear still 
 greater truths. " Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, 
 is come, He will guide you into all truth." * 
 
 All mysteries are relative, not absolute. What we can- 
 not comprehend in childhood, becomes plain to us in 
 youth ; and what at an early age in the history of man- 
 kind appears as a profound, impenetrable mystery, be- 
 comes later soluble in the rays of advancing knowledge. 
 Whatever concerns human development is knowable. 
 Else "the world must seem to be stranded upon the shore 
 of the sea of doubt and of degradation, from which there 
 is no escape." f 
 
 Problems hitherto considered as insoluble, easily solve 
 themselves in the universal solvent of the spiritual phi- 
 losophy. The problem of evil and human suffering ; the 
 natural inequalities of human life ; the perplexing ques- 
 tion of free will and predestination, and many more 
 awful enigmas, all find their solution on the basis of 
 absolute justice and infinite wisdom and love. 
 
 But to win this great prize, to acquire this truth, we 
 must be ready to entertain — new ideas. Strangers never 
 seen before will meet us as we approach the sacred pre- 
 cincts of the temple of Truth. Before w r e are permitted 
 to enter, we must divest ourselves of all prejudices and 
 hereditary or acquired preconceptions. These must be 
 sacrificed upon the altar that stands outside, near the en- 
 trance of the holy temple. Let us not recoil or shrink 
 timidly like children from the strangers that will meet us. 
 
 They are the guides that will lead us unto higher 
 truth. 
 
 * John xvi., 12-13. t The Soul, page 15. 
 
182 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 " Fear not," says the adage, " to entertain strangers ; 
 for by thus entertaining strangers, men have unawares en- 
 tertained angels." Nor expect answers at once easy and 
 fully comprehensible; for the questions are hard, and 
 have puzzled philosophers ever since thought began on 
 earth. 
 
 Remember that 
 
 " Great truths are greatly won, not formed by chance, 
 Nor wafted on the breath of summer dream ; 
 But grasped in the great struggle of the soul, 
 Hard buffeting with adverse wind and stream." 
 
 We now approach Spiritual Evolution, or the modus oper- 
 andi of the soul's eternal progression, in distinction from 
 that evolution which Darwin and Spencer present, and 
 which constitutes only a segment of the stupendous whole. 
 The scope and sublime grandeur of man's spiritual evolu- 
 tion is such, that the author of this work is not a little em- 
 barrassed at attempting to give even a bare outline of it. 
 But he must overcome his diffidence ; for it is necessary 
 that the mind be directed to the method of the soul's evo- 
 lution toward its glorious, ineffable destiny, during the 
 aeons of endless time. My object indeed will already have 
 been attained, if by the following very incomplete state- 
 ments, the reader should be induced to seek better and 
 fuller explanation in Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond's work: 
 The Soul in Human Embodiments. 
 
 The earth is the sphinx whose hard riddles man must 
 solve. Our material planet is the great school of the 
 soul's discipline and attainment. No one single life can 
 gain all the discipline, or acquire all the varied experi- 
 ences the planet affords, and man does not leave the great 
 school before he has achieved all that can be achieved in 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 183 
 
 it. We here come to diverse and usually perplexing 
 questions which are only answerable through the spiritual 
 philosophy herein recommended. It was stated in Chap- 
 ter II. that a human life has two stages of growth, an 
 earthly one and a spiritual one. " As the seed planted in 
 the soil has a certain growth beneath the surface of the 
 ground, a fuller growth above the surface and fruition 
 there, so the spirit has the fruition of its (earthly) embodi- 
 ment in the state which follows the separation from the 
 body." In the spiritual stage of life we complete what 
 we have begun on earth, but we cannot obtain what we 
 have not acquired by our own efforts in earth-life. If we 
 have failed to gain a victory over temptation, failed, that 
 is, if we have not attempted at all to overcome a besetting 
 sin, we cannot gain that victory in a realm where tempta- 
 tion does not exist.* " Each one must experience every 
 fault, failing and foible, until they are overcome." All 
 must attain whatever is attainable, and all must 
 graduate with the same honors ultimately. Now, many 
 Spiritualists imagine that whatever we fail to acquire in 
 one single, short, earthly career, we can obtain in the 
 spiritual state following this career. It is assumed that 
 we live only one short life on earth, then enter the spirit- 
 ual state which lasts forever. It is further assumed that 
 we can gain experience by proxy in the spirit-world, which 
 is contradicted by all experience in the present life. " No 
 human life can have experience for another." No one can 
 acquire intellectual or artistic ability for another ; the son 
 does not inherit the skill of the father ; all must buy their 
 experience. Besides, if it be necessary for one human 
 being to live threescore years and ten on earth, why should 
 another be exempt from it altogether, by dying shortly 
 
 * See The Soul, page 68. 
 
1 84 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 after birth, or living only a few years ? What, then, is the 
 solution of this problem ? Simply this, that there are many 
 embodiments, and that if we use our opportunities in one 
 life to develop in the right direction, we shall in the next 
 life have a higher start. This explains the inequalities of 
 human life.* But immediately this great law of embodi- 
 ments is stated, readers are perhaps shocked at the idea 
 of living the hard, toiling, struggling and suffering earth- 
 life over again. This is not so. No one lives his life 
 over again a second time. It would be contrary to all 
 that we know about nature. How, then, can this paradox 
 be explained and resolved ? By the fact that in all em- 
 bodiments man is the same individual, but not the same 
 earthly personality. That the earthly personality is not the 
 real, full, whole Ego, is, I think, observable in the phenom- 
 ena of mesmerism. The mesmerized subject is easily 
 transformed into another personality : that is to say, is led 
 to imagine himself or herself to be another. The writer 
 witnessed such a scene where a young man of about 
 twenty years of age was made to believe himself a 
 woman. And all the more wonderful was the change in 
 the youth's consciousness in considering that a few 
 seconds during which the mesmeric passes were made, 
 sufficed to effect such a startling transformation. 
 
 " It takes some mental effort," says Mr. Sinnett, 
 " to realize the difference between personality and individ- 
 uality, but the craving for the full recollection always of 
 those transitory circumstances of our present physical life 
 which make up the personality, is manifestly, no more 
 than a passing weakness of the flesh.t Contemplate the 
 analogous changes in the consciousness of our present 
 life. The child loses its personality in the youth, and the 
 
 * See further on, page 260, etc. f Esoteric Buddhism, page 293. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 185 
 
 immature self-conciousness of the reckless youth is merged 
 into the higher self-consciousness of the ripe and experi- 
 enced man of fifty. 
 
 " The spirit puts forth man for moral achievement, and 
 it is in this wise that man enriches the spirit ; per contra, 
 when the man enters the spirit (by death) he realizes him- 
 self more or less under another aspect or form of con- 
 sciousness, which, however, has always co-existed with 
 him — and thus, step by step, he proceeds to make the 
 acquaintance of his larger spiritual self, by entering more 
 fully into the self-existent consciousness of his spirit. 
 Life and death are thus made complimentary modes of 
 exchange. The human personality is a certain amount of 
 expression by soul (through spirit) in matter, which takes 
 in man the form of self-consciousness ; and, as the same 
 thing is never twice expressed, or rather, as no two ex- 
 pressions can ever be just alike, — it follows that, humanly 
 speaking, no life can live itself over again." # 
 
 ' ' The spirit of each embodiment is expressed as long 
 in mortal or spiritual life as there is any call or demand 
 for it . . . , . . People say : I would not like to go into 
 spirit life and not find my friends. If they are your friends 
 you will find them, if they are not, you would not wish to. 
 All real ties are found to last in spiritual existence, and 
 form a portion of the soul's possessions. The larger 
 sphere includes the smaller one. It does not detract from 
 the relation of the moon to the earth because both revolve 
 around the sun. Nor does it render the relation of the 
 planets in the solar system any less important, because 
 the entire system, including the sun, revolves around a 
 more distant central sun. Children leave their parental 
 
 * From a masterly essay contributed by Frederick F. Cook to 
 the Progressive Thinker of June 6th, 1891. 
 
1 86 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 homes to form other ties of marriage and parentage, but 
 
 are none the less children The mother who has 
 
 passed to the spiritual life, whose child is left upon the 
 earth, does not change her natural or spiritual relation- 
 ship. She fills her function toward that child. When 
 there is an added expression upon the earth, in another 
 embodiment, it is after all possible duties have bee7i fulfilled 
 toward the child ; and that relation of mother and child, 
 if it be real, is included as a portion of the soul's treas- 
 ures." * 
 
 The graduates from our planet, those that have gained 
 all that the earth can give, have overcome one world. 
 They are angels. They now minister to others that are 
 toiling upward in their evolution. Ministering angels 
 these are. As long a period as occupied their own past 
 evolution, they remain as angels of the earth in the spir- 
 itual earth-sphere. As in the Darwinian system of de- 
 velopment we count the years by the millions, during 
 which our globe gradually cooled, and prepared for or- 
 ganic life, vegetable, animal and human, so we must be 
 prepared to contemplate for spiritual development yet 
 greater periods, greater, in the proportion in which moral 
 or spiritual growth is slower than physical and intellect- 
 ual growth. " If any one has endeavored to measure the 
 periods or cycles of time in connection with earthly and 
 planetary expression, it would almost be fruitless ; al- 
 though it is possible to state in numbers the years included 
 in the vast cycles that intervene between the commence- 
 ment and close of expression on a planet, also the cycles 
 that intervene between the planetary expressions, when 
 the soul is in a state of being instead of existence, also 
 the aeons that intervene between expressions in systems 
 *The Soul, page 66. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 187 
 
 of planets ; but those figures would convey no idea that 
 the human mind could grasp, so vast would be the num- 
 ber." * 
 
 And now a few remarks concerning other planets. " In 
 my Father's house are many mansions." We are not to 
 suppose that our planet is the only planet inhabited by 
 human beings. It is simply one belonging to a solar sys- 
 tem, and the solar systems are innumerable. There are 
 in our solar system older planets than ours, which are 
 higher in the scale of spiritual development, having be- 
 gun their career earlier. In them human beings exist 
 who are as superior to us, as we are superior to the savage 
 races on our globe. The angel of the earth, in approach- 
 ing the next higher planet for embodiment, finds himself 
 at the foot of the ladder there. 
 
 " The planet Mars, being next the earth in the as- 
 tronomical order of your solar system, has no lower 
 expression of life than your highest and most spiritual 
 expression here. So, any embodiment upon the planet 
 Mars would represent a higher state of expression than 
 the highest embodiment upon the planet Earth ; would be 
 like your angels. While the lowest expressions of souls 
 on the planet Jupiter are higher than the highest on the 
 planet Mars. If some of the inhabitants of the planet 
 Mars were presented to you, were it possible for you to 
 perceive them with your earthly vision or spiritual per- 
 ception, you would consider that they belong to a race of 
 angels ; yet these would be but the human beings of Mars ; 
 they would seem to you as gods. Such is the next step 
 of expression To typify the states of plane- 
 tary life — what they are — we will say : where you crawl, 
 they walk ; where you walk they may fly ; where you 
 
 *The Soul, page 115. 
 
1 88 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 dream, they fulfill." * The reader will find in the 
 source from which I draw this information a more com- 
 plete description. As to the authenticity of these state- 
 ments, I quote again : " Spirits can only give you this 
 knowledge from beyond the orbit of the earth through the 
 angels of earth, because the angelic states alone perceive 
 and impart this knowledge, unless the planet be beneath 
 the earth; if it is, then spirits can minister to that planet 
 under guidance, but if above the earth, the spirit can only 
 be shown those states and degrees by the angels of your 
 planet." t 
 
 Why do we not remember previous lives ? It is true, 
 as a general rule, mortals and spirits have hardly what is 
 called a remembrance of former existence. But many 
 have more or less vague reminiscences. Few, I believe, 
 are the persons who, like Pythagoras, distinctly recollect 
 their former lives. It seems that for wise purposes there 
 should be forgetfulness, purposes, however, that are by 
 no means inscrutable. " Reminiscences of previous em- 
 bodiments do not exist in ordinary life on earth, nor in 
 the spirit state following the ordinary life ; therefore it is 
 not strange that mortals do not receive these teachings 
 from spirits usually ; for unless the earthly embodiment 
 is ready to receive them, the spirit state following the 
 embodiment will not reveal them. It is with spirits 
 as with mortals : very few mortals know ; but there 
 are in each individual, in mortal and in spirit life, if 
 the indications were carefully noted, certain flashes of 
 reminiscence : we mean in such lives as have reached 
 any degree of thought or intuition upon these or kindred 
 themes." t 
 
 * The Soul, page 90 et seq. Ibid., page 91. 
 
 % Ibid., page 67. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 189 
 
 I think in the following illustration given by the guides 
 of the medium, through whom these revelations are made, 
 a satisfactory explanation is given : " We may illustrate 
 this by citing the one who is ascending a mountain : while 
 he is in the valley, or even during the ascent, when he is 
 struggling, entangled in the woods and briers amid rocks, 
 or descending into valleys between the hills, he cannot 
 see the path by which he has ascended, nor yet the way 
 before him, but when he comes to one height he can look 
 back along the mountain and see the devious path by 
 which he has ascended. He also has a glimpse of the 
 way before him, of the higher height to be attained, and 
 once more he plunges into the valley, or ravine, or tangled 
 maze, to ascend. So at a certain height, or a certain 
 degree of unfoldment in human existence, glimmerings of 
 reminiscence begin; the consciousness of having lived 
 before, of having suffered with the sufferer, of having 
 traveled along the shaded human ways." 
 
 Mr. Sinnett says beautifully : " The exquisite symmetry 
 of the whole system is in no way impaired by that feature 
 which seems obnoxious to criticism at the first glance — 
 the successive baths of oblivion, through which the re- 
 incarnating spirit has to pass. On the contrary, that ob- 
 livion itself is in truth the only condition on which objec- 
 tive life could fairly be started afresh. Few earth-lives 
 are entirely free from shadows, the recollection of which 
 would darken a renewed lease of life for the former per- 
 sonality. And if it is alleged that the forgetfulness in 
 each life of the last involves waste of experience and effort 
 and intellectual acquirements, painfully or laboriously ob- 
 tained, that objection can only be raised in forgetfulness 
 of the Devachanic spiritual life, in which, far from being 
 wasted, such efforts and acquirements are the seeds from 
 
190 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 which the whole magnificent harvest of spiritual results 
 will be raised." * 
 
 The word Re-incarnation is generally employed for the 
 Successive Embodime?its ; but the latter term is preferable 
 in view of the rationale of the matter. 
 
 In conclusion let it be noted that the progressive evo- 
 lution of man is a spiral ascent, " extending in new lines 
 as one advances. In the steps of expression, although 
 there is a continual ascent, there are also, seemingly, de- 
 clensions, as between mountains there are depressions ; 
 but the valleys there are higher than the preceding mount- 
 ain-tops." f 
 
 Besides the great text-book of Mrs. Richmond, the stu- 
 dent may consult the interesting and entertaining work of 
 E. D. Walker, entitled Re-incarnation, which contains a 
 bibliography of the subject. In addition to the author's 
 dissertation, the book presents a compilation of ancient 
 and modern views of re-incarnation in prose and poetry, 
 the perusal of which may be more effective in convincing 
 readers that we have here a great and fundamental truth, 
 than the imperfect abstract here presented. (See con- 
 cluding chapter of this work). 
 
 * Esoteric Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett, page 276. 
 t The Soul, page 46. 
 
PART THIRD. 
 
 THE CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE BASIS OF ETHICS. 
 
 It must be left to the thoughtful reader to draw for him- 
 self all the consequences of the foregoing revelations. 
 Some of the main ones will be enumerated and briefly dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 True, absolute morality is imperatively enjoined only by 
 the system here expounded. By absolute morality I, of 
 course, mean doing right at any cost and under all cir- 
 cumstances, regardless of immediate unpleasant conse- 
 quences, regardless of lower self-interests, or adverse 
 social results. In short, I mean the realization of the 
 highest spiritual Ideal in conduct, no matter how much 
 suffering may be involved to our lower self, or how it may 
 injure our secular interests; uncompromising, absolute 
 honesty in business ; purity in thought and feeling, and 
 universal philanthropy, that knows no barriers whatever, 
 either national, or religious, political or social; a philan- 
 thropy that is based upon the recognition of the Father- 
 hood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. 
 
 This morality is imperatively enjoined by the laws of 
 
 191 
 
192 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 our being, the laws of human nature, of human develop- 
 ment. To abstain from evil conduct is to obey the laws 
 of our nature and secure spiritual health and moral growth ; 
 to do wrong either to self or to others, is to inflict self- 
 injury, impair the health of our soul, disfigure or deform 
 the spirit, which deformity becomes publicly manifested 
 after death — after unmasking — and entails keen suffering 
 in the hereafter. " It is well known," writes Judge Ed- 
 monds, " to all observers, and students of medicine, that 
 the soul is capable of experiencing more intense suffering 
 than the body. Despair, remorse, and a desire for re- 
 venge, cause greater torment than pain inflicted upon the 
 body, so that individuals resort to suicide and all species 
 of bodily torment to decrease the anguish of the soul. 
 
 Therefore, as the spirit becomes many more times sus- 
 ceptible to ecstatic pain or pleasure, when released from 
 the body, the clairvoyant pictures of Heaven and Hell, 
 as endured by the soul, are emblematic of states, and not 
 veritable places ; as, for instance, the sea of ice de- 
 scribed by Dante, the Houri's heaven of the Moham- 
 medan, or the burning lake of fire of the Christian." * 
 
 On the other hand, obedience to the laws of our nature 
 insures our well-being, our moral health, our spiritual 
 soundness, and furthers our progress. " According to the 
 current view," says L. B. Hellenbach, " the labors of one 
 generation always benefit the succeeding generation. 
 Now, even if in some remote future the golden age would 
 ultimately be arrived at, only those latest generations 
 would reap the harvest ; all the countless preceding gen- 
 erations would have toiled and suffered without compen- 
 sation, and when finally the last races of men would have 
 died out, the whole stupendous process would appear as a 
 *The Next World, by Mrs. S. G. Horn, page 239. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 193 
 
 useless, though cruel enough, expenditure of energy. 
 Here, however, in the new view, man is his own heir ; the 
 Individual, the real Ego, is heir to all attainments of the 
 Person ; whatever is acquired in intellectual and moral 
 pursuits in the various earthly lives, remains as one's 
 achievement, as character. The law of the Conservation 
 of Force is seen, therefore, to reign in the realm of mind, 
 as well as in the physical world.* 
 
 Thus, man reaps the reward for obedience to the spirit- 
 ual laws of his being, just as he reaps the reward for 
 obedience to the objective, physical laws of external nat- 
 ure ; and any transgression of spiritual law is detrimen- 
 tal to his spiritual nature, just as the violation of physical 
 law brings its penalty, or as transgression of the sanitary 
 laws causes impaired health. Du Prel quotes the dictum 
 that " the real test of any philosophical system is, in the 
 last resort, the moral proposition flowing from it. The 
 crucial test of any view of the world is ethics ; because 
 what is true, is inseparable from what is good : consen- 
 sus boni et veri ; and what is false is inseparable from 
 evil : consensus mali et falsi. Man in this system is the 
 product of his own development ; he builds his own char- 
 acter, his fate is in his own hands." f 
 
 Thus, man must work out his own salvation ; he is the 
 architect of his own happiness ; creates his own heaven 
 or hell. As stated in the chapters on Retribution and 
 Reformation, no one can, by any conceivable act of piety, 
 transfer the penalty for wrong-doing to another ; the 
 effect follows the cause as inevitably as in natural law. 
 Sin is moral disease, and must be treated as rationally as 
 bodily disease. Though the real teachings of Jesus are 
 
 * Der Individualisimus, by L. B. Hellenbach. Section xi. 
 
 * Philosophie Der Mystik, page 530-537. 
 
 *3 
 
i 9 4 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 superior to the teachings of the Old Testament, the im- 
 puted teachings concerning original sin and vicarious 
 atonement, are far inferior to the ethical doctrines of the 
 Hebrews. The Old Testament is said to be rigidly just 
 and stern. " An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." 
 But the theological doctrine that teaches that we can es- 
 cape from the evil consequences of our sins of commis- 
 sion, or omission, by recognizing another as having un- 
 dertaken to bear the penalty for us, is certainly worse 
 than the principle of inflexible justice. Boys and girls 
 are gravely taught in orthodox Christian Sunday-schools 
 that they can wash away their sins in the blood of Jesus. 
 Some one has drawn a contrast between a murderer who 
 gets converted and becomes a Christian a few weeks or 
 a few days before his execution, and consequently is 
 "saved" ; he goes to Heaven ; and his victim, the mur- 
 dered man, who has not "taken religion," who is not a 
 Christian, is consigned to Hell. What a flagrant incon- 
 gruity ! As a matter of fact, there are shocking crimes 
 committed in Christian countries in these latter days of 
 civilization and material progress, and the depravity and 
 insolence of some of our boys in the streets, seems to 
 imply that there must be a serious defect in the ethical 
 teachings of the churches. Unlike modern iconoclasts, 
 the author dislikes to animadvert on the current creeds. 
 Nor would he mention this fact, if it were not for the im- 
 portant consideration that American children and youths 
 generally depend upon the churches for moral education. 
 No morality is taught in our public schools as a branch 
 of education. Why? Because there is no other basis for 
 morality recognized, than the theological basis of the 
 churches. 
 
 On the other hand, without a belief in immortality, the 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 195 
 
 materialist or agnostic will never be able to find a basis 
 for absolute ethics. Even a philosophical genius of the 
 type of Herbert Spencer does not succeed in such an en- 
 terprise, as is obvious in his Data of Ethics. As a 
 mere social problem, there can, of course, be formulated 
 an ethical system of relative morality. For, even if this 
 earthly life be all, and there were no life beyond the 
 grave, it would still be necessary to formulate a system of 
 morality ; to enjoin and to enforce righteous conduct 
 among men, else social life would be impossible, and the 
 manifold processes of industry, commerce, etc., could not 
 be properly carried on. This is Mr. Spencer's Relative 
 Ethics. 
 
 Again, there are various standards of human conduct, 
 relatively more or less praiseworthy. To be honest, for 
 instance, because honesty is the best policy, is mere self- 
 ish calculation, not genuine honesty. Single individual 
 examples of men in or out of the church, who are inher- 
 ently of noble character, cannot be adduced to disprove 
 the thesis here maintained. The problem is to find 
 a basis for absolute ethics of universal authority ; a basis 
 as imperative as that of the physical laws of the universe ; 
 and this basis is only found in the sovereign dicta of the 
 spiritual philosophy. 
 
 See Chapter XXV., for the practical application of 
 these principles, and the shortcomings of all other stand- 
 ards. 
 
196 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 OPTIMISM. 
 
 The Spiritual Philosophy solves the riddle of human life. 
 " A riddle is solved when the answer explains all that 
 is proposed for conjecture. A problem in arithmetic is 
 solved when the proof reveals the correctness of the sum." 
 By the solution of the problems of human existence is, 
 of course, meant the main riddle of the destiny of man, 
 and the moral tendency of the universe. And now we 
 see the reason why great scientific and philosophical 
 thinkers either declared these problems insoluble, or fell 
 into pessimism. They merely judged from data appertain- 
 ing to earth-life, which is only an infinitesimal part of an 
 infinite whole. " The doctrine that correlatives imply one 
 another," says Herbert Spencer, " has for one of its com- 
 mon examples the necessary connection between the con- 
 ceptions of whole and part. Beyond the primary truth 
 that no idea of a whole can be framed without a nascent 
 idea of parts constituting it, and that no idea of a part 
 can be framed without a nascent idea of some whole to 
 which it belongs, there is the secondary truth that there 
 can be no correct idea of a part without a correct idea of 
 the correlative whole. If the part is conceived without 
 any reference to the whole, it becomes itself a whole — an 
 independent entity ; and its relations to existence in gen- 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 197 
 
 eral are misapprehended. By a savage, who has never 
 seen a vehicle, no idea can be formed of the use and 
 action of a wheel. Even a mechanician, if he has never 
 looked into a piano, will, if shown a damper, be unable to 
 conceive its function or relative value. The moon's move- 
 ments cannot be fully interpreted without taking into 
 account the movements of the solar system at large." * 
 No sane man would undertake to write the biography of 
 a Bismarck, if he had only seen him as a schoolboy and 
 never heard anything about him since. Seeing or read- 
 ing merely one or a few scenes in the first act of a great 
 drama, the denouement of which occurs in the latter 
 part of the fifth act, would not enable one to under- 
 stand the plot or to judge of the merits of the whole com- 
 position. 
 
 John Stuart Mill judges nature and the Deity in the 
 fallacious manner here exemplified. His conclusion is 
 that "the scheme of nature regarded in its whole extent, 
 cannot have had for its sole or even principal object, the 
 good of human or other sentient beings." f Mr. Mill 
 fails to apprehend correctly the relation between man and 
 his environment, because he sins against the logical canon 
 laid down in his own logic, and expressed thus by Mr. 
 Spencer : " Still more when part and whole, instead of 
 being statically related, only, are dynamically related, 
 must there be a general understanding of the whole before 
 the part can be understood." % Tacitly assuming an an- 
 thropomorphic Deity, he comes to the conclusion that 
 God is either limited in power, is not omnipotent, or has 
 not createdthe universe exclusively from benevolent pur- 
 
 * The Data of Ethics, page 3. 
 
 t Three Essays on Religion, page 65. 
 
 % The Data of Ethics, page 4. 
 
198 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 poses. Writing these essays on " Nature," and " Theism," 
 between the years 1850 and 1858, Mr. Mill seems to have 
 taken no account of " Evolution," which, to my best 
 knowledge, had then already been sketched out by Mr. 
 Spencer. From the old standpoint of the " Carpenter 
 theory of Creation," the great logician could come to no 
 other conclusions. * 
 
 Professor Huxley, an exponent of the evolution theory, 
 but an agnostic as to a future life beyond the grave, can- 
 not, of course, grasp the true attitude of nature toward 
 man, though, like even Mill himself, he perceives clearly 
 enough that man's destination cannot be to imitate nature, 
 i.e., the spontaneous processes of material forces ; that, on 
 the contrary, human 7iature as it ought to be is different in 
 kind from physical nature ; is alone moral, while nature 
 is neither moral nor immoral, but indifferent or unmoral. 
 Professor Huxley says : " The vast and varied procession 
 of events which we call nature affords a sublime spectacle 
 of an inexhaustible wealth of attractive problems to the 
 speculative observer. If we confine our attention to that 
 aspect which engages the attention of the intellect, nature 
 appears a beautiful and harmonious whole, the incarna- 
 tion of a faultless logical process, from certain premises in 
 the past to an inevitable conclusion in the future. But if 
 she be regarded from a less elevated, but more human, 
 point of view ; if our moral sympathies are allowed to in- 
 fluence our judgment, and we permit ourselves to criti- 
 cise our great mother as we criticise one another ; then 
 our verdict, at least so far as sentient nature is con- 
 cerned, can hardly be so favorable If we desire to 
 
 represent the cause of nature in terms of human thought 
 and assume that it was intended to be that which it is, we 
 
 * Three Essays on Religion, page 191-195. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 99 
 
 must say that its governing principle is intellectual and 
 not moral." * 
 
 In John W. Draper's The Intellectual Developme?it of 
 Europe, vol. n., page 360, it is plainly asserted that: 
 " The aim of nature is not at moral, but intellectual 
 development." 
 
 Mr. Frederic Harrison, the English exponent of M. 
 Comte's Positivism, is almost sure that man has no per- 
 sonal conscious life after death. " We have not," he says, 
 " the slightest reason to suppose that the consciousness of 
 the organism continues. " But to avoid the consequences 
 of such a standpoint, Mr. Harrison recommends the 
 adoption of a pseudo-belief in immortality; namely, "the 
 belief that the posthumous effects of our activities and 
 conduct continue after our death to benefit the race." t 
 There can still be religion, cries Mr. Harrison : " Let us 
 worship humanity; all the great men that ever lived!" 
 Mr. Herbert Spencer utterly demolishes this idol set up 
 by Positivism, in showing the unworthy motives of a good 
 many "great men," and in pointing out that the post- 
 humous effects of men's conduct include likewise the evil 
 acts committed ; so that Mr. Harrison's " Religion of 
 Humanity," is, at least, a questionable substitute for the 
 current religions of the day. " Though the outcome," 
 writes Mr. Spencer, " of those struggles for supremacy in 
 which, during European history, so many millions have 
 been sacrificed, has been the formation of great nations 
 fitted for the highest types of structure ; yet when, here- 
 after, opinion is no longer swayed by public-school ethics, 
 it will be seen that the men who effected these unions, did 
 
 * The Struggle for Existence. A Programme. In the Nine- 
 teenth Century for Feburary, 1888. 
 
 f A Modern Symposium. The Soul and Future Life, page 47. 
 
200 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 so from desires which should class them with criminals 
 rather than with the benefactors of mankind." * 
 
 That modern unbelief had come to a crisis, had reached 
 an extreme, is not only manifest in the materialistic or 
 agnostic school of thought, but, strange to say, even in 
 modern systems of decidedly spiritualistic tendencies there 
 is no ray of hope for man. On the contrary, the conclu- 
 sion is that this world is the worst conceivable. I refer to 
 the systems of Schopenhauer and Hartmann and their 
 followers. The outcome of these systems is pessimism ; 
 pessimism as a world-theory. The paradox is that this 
 school of thought is utterly antagonistic toward scientific , 
 materialism. Mind originated the universe ; not such 
 mind as we know in man, but omniscient spirit, called by 
 Schopenhauer Will, and by Hartmann The Unconscious, 
 or Super-conscious. Individuality is only possible in sen- 
 tient creatures on earth, and without a material organism 
 there cannot be individuality. Death destroys both ap- 
 parently. 
 
 " Along with the idea of a future retribution, the idea 
 of individual immortality has become obsolete. Like the 
 waxen wings of Icarus, man's aerial hopes are melting in 
 the sunbeams of scientific research." f 
 
 According to Schopenhauer, " pain greatly predominates 
 
 in life He sees no remedy for this deplorable state 
 
 of things, but in abnegating the activities of existence, not 
 by self-destruction, but by stilling the will, crucifying all 
 desire, and crushing out all interest in life." % Hartmann, 
 while he rejects Leibnitz's views of the privative character 
 
 * Retrogressive Religion, by Herbert Spencer. Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury, June, 1884. 
 
 t Das Sittliche Berrusstsein, von E. von Hartmann, page 41, Zweite 
 Auflage. J Conflicts in Nature and Life, p. 22. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 201 
 
 of evil and its ultimate extinction in a millennial future, 
 accepts his theory of " the best possible world." The evil 
 so far transcends the good, that it is a very bad world, but 
 it is, nevertheless, the best possible. It is the best, be- 
 cause it is the production of the Unconscious, All-one, 
 which never errs (unless it possibly did so when by a 
 " blind impulse of the will," it brought this bad world into 
 existence). Still, it is the best possible, because it is 
 capable of being eventually annihilated." * 
 
 Pessimism, as a system, has largely permeated modern 
 thought. " Is life worth living? " is considered a proper 
 subject for debate and controversy. The Spectator (Eng- 
 land) called attention, a few years ago, to The Melancholy 
 of the Educated. Even the sacred precincts of poetry 
 are invaded by pessimism ; an anomaly indeed, but grow- 
 ing out naturally of modern morbid thought concerning 
 man's place in nature : 
 
 " Are God and Nature then at strife 
 That Nature lends such evil dreams ? 
 
 O life as futile then, as frail ! 
 O for the voice to soothe and bless ! 
 What hope of answer or redress 
 Behind the veil, behind the veil ? " 
 
 Has not the time come in the history of our planet for 
 the solution of the riddle of the sphinx ? The very fact 
 that men, no more satisfied with childish explanations and 
 dogmatic assertions of theology, ask those questions, 
 proves that they are ripe for receiving the answer. 
 
 * Conflicts in Nature and Life, page 23. See chaps. 12-14, Phil- 
 osophic des Unbewussten, Neunte Auflage. 
 
202 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 And this is my justification, if justification be demanded 
 by spirits in and out of the flesh, for promulgating the 
 great truth of successive embodiments, as taught in Mrs. 
 Richmond's The Soul, and as outlined in Chapter XXII., 
 and in the concluding chapter of this work. For, surely, 
 the disclosure can no more be considered premature. 
 The plea that the public are not yet ripe to receive such 
 knowledge, cannot be fully sustained in view of the prev- 
 alence of skepticism and agnosticism among the intelli- 
 gent classes of our time ; though it is true that such 
 revealments are apt to be met with repugnance, opposi- 
 tion and even scorn and ridicule. He who advocates an 
 unpopular cause must be willing to incur the world's dis- 
 pleasure. As it was said of old : " If ye were of the 
 world, the world would love its own ; but because ye are 
 not of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Re- 
 member the word that I said unto you, The servant is not 
 greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they 
 will also persecute you ; if they kept My word, they will 
 keep yours also." # 
 
 It will be gathered from what has been said in preced- 
 ing chapters that Nature is the sphinx whose riddles man 
 must guess ; it is a hard school of discipline, involving 
 obstacles and difficulties, the temptations of the flesh and 
 the allurements of sense. Spirit is incarnated in matter 
 in order to overcome it. All souls must begin low down 
 at the foot of the ladder. The boy does not begin with 
 algebra, he must first master the lower branches of arith- 
 metic. At first, in the lower stages of spiritual evolution, 
 man is controlled by the forces of nature, is at the mercy 
 of circumstances, as is often seen even in the gait and 
 walk and posture of the undeveloped. As man advances, 
 * John xv. 19-20. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 203 
 
 he in turn controls nature's forces, gradually subduing 
 them to his service, making them subservient to his sway 
 and behest. First a servant, he afterwards becomes a 
 master. Speaking of earthquakes, Humboldt remarks : 
 " The day will come when man, by the aid of science, will, 
 through premonitory symptoms foresee the coming events, 
 even as the wise physician can discern the time when his 
 patient's soul will leave its body. Nature, misunderstood, 
 is a fearful mystery ; but understood, she is a simple and 
 beautiful piece of mechanism. * The solution of the 
 problem of evil is fully contained in the vicissitudes of 
 man's spiritual evolution. Speaking of the formation of 
 the body by the spirit, W. J. Colville says : " If the 
 question arises, ' Why then do we not all have the bodies 
 we would like ? ' we must bear in mind that we cannot al- 
 ways externalize our thought perfectly, even in the making 
 of a dress or coat. We have not as yet perfect power over 
 material, even with the best patterns before us. The ideal 
 always antedates the actual ; a perfect expression of the 
 ideal is reserved for a condition in this world, or some 
 other, where we have gained complete ascendency over 
 all material ; then we shall be clothed upon with bodies 
 of glorious spiritual form." 
 
 Even Mr. Spencer, from the stand-point of his defective 
 system, says : " Slowly, but surely, evolution brings about 
 an increasing amount of happiness : All evils being but 
 incidental." f 
 
 Suffering is the labor-pain of progressive evolution. 
 Evil is not an entity ; is not something positive, enduring, 
 but is destined to be utterly expunged. 
 
 " How did evil originate ? was the question recently 
 asked. Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond answered it thus : " It 
 * Strange Visitors, page 215. t Biology, vol. i., page 354. 
 
204 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 did not originate. The necessity of naming the night 
 darkness, and the day light, is a necessity that is relative, 
 and does not pertain to the absolute state at all. All 
 matter and whatever pertains to matter is relative ; the 
 necessity of naming something as black and something as 
 white is the result of human conditions and material en- 
 vironments ; yet we are perfectly well aware that there is 
 no absolute darkness, and we are perfectly well aware that 
 no human vision has seen the absolute light. We know that 
 the blackest substance which human discovery has per- 
 ceived is coal-tar ; but when tested and divided, and 
 when certain chemical processes are applied to it, it 
 reveals the most brilliant of all dyes and colors with 
 which human vision is familiar. That, in other words, 
 blackness and brightness, the vibrations of light and shade, 
 are but relative terms. For God there is the absolute, 
 for man there is the relative. Evil is the absence of 
 manifest good ; the negation, the night ; the winter ; 
 the coal-tar of earthly existence, out of which the 
 Divine Alchemist brings the aniline dyes of spiritual 
 perfection." 
 
 If, then, the hardest of all problems is soluble in the 
 light of this system, we need not remain any longer in 
 perplexity respecting lesser problems, and the student will 
 find no difficulty in finding the solution of the problem of 
 Free Will, in what has been said in regard to man's 
 autonomy, to the soul's sovereignty under God, presiding 
 over its own destiny. As to the inequalities in human 
 life, these must necessarily exist, if spiritual evolution be 
 the Divine dispensation. Some souls are as yet at the 
 very foot of the mountain, like some of the savage races ; 
 others are in the physical stage of development ; still 
 others are in the intellectual, and others in the spiritual 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 205 
 
 stage.* Let all the pupils of the schools and colleges 
 and universities assemble in one huge amphitheatre, from 
 the boy or girl in the primary classes, to the youth and 
 maiden of Harvard and Yale, and there will be found 
 variety and difference enough, to serve as an illustration ;• 
 with that important additional consideration ; that moral 
 or spiritual attainments are to be taken into account, 
 besides the mere intellectual or artistic acquirements. From 
 the assumption that effect follows the cause, that men ever 
 reap what they have sown, and from the premises laid 
 down in the chapters on Retribution and Reformation, it 
 follows inevitably that even this present earthly life must 
 be to some a heaven, to some a hell, and to most, perhaps, 
 a purgatory, according to their conduct in a previous 
 existence and to the use they have made of their opportu- 
 nities therein. Yet, how infinite the hope for all, that 
 they, sooner or later will reach a beatific state of moral 
 grandeur ! 
 
 Thus, in a profounder sense than imagined by the 
 current theology, it is true that 
 
 " Whatever is, is right." 
 
 " That nothing walks with aimless feet ; 
 That no one life shall be destroyed 
 Or cast as rubbish to the void, 
 When God hath made the pile complete." 
 
 And thus we can exclaim, with the voice of inspiration : 
 
 "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 
 
 He goeth forth weeping as he goeth, bearing the handful of 
 
 seed ; 
 He shall surely come with rejoicing, bearing his sheaves." t 
 
 * See Mrs. Richmond's The Soul, page 34, et seq. 
 t Psalm cxxvi., 5-6. 
 
206 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 And with the voice of the inspired apostle in the New 
 Testament : 
 
 " For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not 
 . worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."* 
 
 * Romans viii., 18. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 207 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SOCIAL PROBLEMS : THE LABOR QUESTION. 
 
 Not being versed in the technicalities of Political 
 Economy, the author belongs to that large majority who 
 recognize with profound gratitude the undying merit of 
 Mr. Edward Bellamy, in having made easy to popular 
 comprehension the propositions of that science, at least as 
 far as the practical questions of industry are concerned. 
 
 The subject is here contemplated from the moral stand- 
 point ; that is to say, from the standpoint of spiritual 
 philosophy. 
 
 Very likely the moral aspect is the great arbiter in this 
 momentous issue. As the race advances, it deviates 
 more and more from the animal " Struggle for Existence," 
 and inclines toward its opposite — Co-operation. There is 
 strength and power in unity, while there is waste and fric- 
 tion in competition. This is a platitude, it is true, in the 
 sense of being a well-known truth. But the question is 
 not, Is this truth old ? the question is, Is it practiced ? 
 And practiced it is not in the industrial world, except in col- 
 lective monopolies, which indicates the tendency, says Mr. 
 Bellamy, toward the establishment of the One Great Mo- 
 nopoly of universal co-operation. The great capitalists and 
 syndicates may sneer at such a proposition, just as the 
 great barons and noblemen sneered at democratic propo- 
 sitions in feudal times. But if there is a spiritual evolu- 
 
208 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 tion as well as a physical, there is a " Struggle for Exist- 
 ence " in the moral realm, as there is in the material, and 
 what is good, will prevail ultimately over what is evil, in 
 conformity with the great law of the Survival of the Fittest. 
 Who are the fittest in the moral realm ? Not those who 
 possess brute force ; not the princes of Mammon ; not 
 those who are wily, cunning, shrewd, crafty, selfish ; but 
 those who excel in the fruit of the spirit, in " love, 
 kindness, goodness," etc.* Yea, as the inspired Seers 
 of the Old Testament say : " The meek shall inherit 
 the earth." As mankind progress in spiritual develop- 
 ment, the works of the flesh, " strife, jealousies, wraths, 
 factions, divisions," will be left behind ; only the fruit 
 of the spirit will survive. What is there to sneer at in 
 Mr. Bellamy's ideal ? Thus did the political leaders in 
 Israel of old, when Seers held up before them a mirror for 
 self-inspection, calling them to righteousness ; but they 
 found out, as did the aristocratic lords of feudal times, 
 that the Seers w r ere right after all when they complained 
 that, " Thy princes are companions of thieves : every one 
 loveth gifts and followeth after rewards : they judge not 
 the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come 
 unto them.f 
 
 The princes of Mammon support the church, where 
 they insure the salvation of their souls by contributing 
 to the poor-fund. They believe in charity, not in jus- 
 tice ; they believe in the sacrament of the sanctuary, 
 not in visiting the wretched hovels of the poor, or in 
 devising means for improving their condition ; they pat- 
 ronize the minister ; they love the front seats in the syna- 
 gogue, they offer oblations. The officiating priest or 
 minister rarely has the courage to address them in the 
 * Galatians v. t Isaiah i. 23. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 209 
 
 words of the prophet of old, saying : " To what purpose 
 is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? Bring no 
 more vain oblations ; incense is an abomination unto me. 
 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul 
 hateth. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will 
 hide mine eyes from you ; yea, when ye make many 
 prayers, I will not hear : your hands are full of blood. 
 Wash ye, make you clean ; put away the evil of your 
 doings. Learn to do well ; seek judgment, relieve 
 the oppressed." * Your sneering at the efforts of the toil- 
 ing millions to achieve by organization and unions what 
 as individuals, they can never hope to achieve, is as inef- 
 fectual as the barking of a small dog at a railway train. 
 True, when the train just begins slowly to start, the dog 
 does seem to scare the locomotive a little ; but after a 
 awhile the wheels of progress will leave the barking dog 
 far behind. No doubt, labor-unions make mistakes ; and 
 are in minor things unfair. To err is human. They may 
 not always employ just means for the ends they have in 
 view. But though the end does not sanctify the means, 
 this end is nothing less than the realization of the ideal 
 of the fraternity of man and the inauguration of the King- 
 dom of God on earth. " Whom the gods wish to destroy, 
 they first make blind ; " blind to their own true interests 
 as well as to others ! Else they would perceive that the 
 undue, selfish accumulation of wealth is an insane mania, 
 which dwarfs and deforms the spirit. They would per- 
 ceive that such a tremendous uprising on the part of the 
 toiling masses, all over the civilized world, indicates that 
 the time is at hand in the world's history, when " a form 
 of society which is founded on the pseudo self-interest of 
 selfishness, appealing solely to the anti-social and brutal 
 
 * Isaiah i. 11 -17. 
 14 
 
210 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 side of human nature, shall be replaced by institutions 
 based on the true self-interest of a rational unselfishness 
 appealing to the social and generous instincts of men." * 
 
 How can an organism be healthy, if one organ receive 
 an enormous quantity of blood and another organ a too 
 scanty supply ? Congestion is impeded circulation. The 
 social organism is in an unhealthy condition, in a mor- 
 bid state ; hence the eruptions on its surface ; hence the 
 poverty and crime, pauperism and degradation. 
 
 In ancient times parents in the east sacrificed their 
 children to Molech, a god represented by an image of 
 brass, " hollow within, his face like a calf, and his arms 
 stretched forth like a man who opens his hands to receive 
 something. And they kindled it with fire, and the priest 
 took the babe and put it into the hands of Molech, and 
 the babe gave up the ghost." f These things were done of 
 old in the Valley of Hinnom. To-day parents are com- 
 pelled by poverty to sacrifice the health, growth and edu- 
 cation of their children to the god Mammon. The 
 fiery image of Molech was recently brought to the writer's 
 mind as he stood in the sight of one of the fiery furnaces 
 in a glass factory in one of the towns of Beaver County, 
 near Pittsburgh, Pa., where he saw boys, mere children, 
 working and inhaling the fiery vapor through glass blow- 
 ing. Seventy-five boys are employed in this factory. The 
 act approved by the Governor of Pennsylvania May 20, 
 1886, forbidding children under twelve years of age to be 
 employed, is a dead letter. " How old are you ? " I 
 asked a little fellow. " Nine years," was the reply. In 
 another glass-house in the same town, from 400 to 500 
 boys are employed, boys who ought to attend school. 1 
 
 * Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy, page 276. 
 t Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. III., page 1992. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 2 1 1 
 
 was told that the intense heat creates thirst for — Kquor, 
 and, as a matter of fact, the taste of strong drink is not 
 unknown to these youthful toilers in the glass factories of 
 that region. Thus are these unfortunate children not only 
 deprived of elementary education, but are exposed to 
 demoralizing influences. In those mammoth stores in our 
 big cities, such, for instance, as " The Fair " in Chicago, 
 where all imaginable merchandise is sold, hosts of little 
 girls are employed. The pittance these " cash girls " 
 earn is at the fearful sacrifice of deprived school-educa- 
 tion. To pay the rent for their wretched tenement houses 
 and eke out a scanty subsistence, parents are thus con- 
 strained to sin against their own children. 
 
 It is strange how the wealthy can enjoy their refine- 
 ments and luxuries while aware of the poverty, the un- 
 healthy occupations and wretched, unwholesome dwell- 
 ings of their fellow-men ; poverty that induces parents 
 to sacrifice their children to the god Mammon ! As if 
 they, the rich, belonged to another species or race. It 
 reminds one of the man who visited a church ; the 
 preacher preached a very pathetic sermon and all eyes 
 were wet with tears except those of the visitor, who sat 
 utterly unmoved with stern features. Being asked why 
 he remained so stolid, he replied : " I am not a member." 
 Mr. Bellamy says : " As for those whose parents and 
 grandparents before them had been so fortunate as to 
 keep their seats on the top, the conviction they cherished 
 of the essential difference between their sort of humanity 
 and the common article was absolute. The effect of such 
 a delusion in moderating fellow-feeling for the sufferings 
 of the mass of men into a distant and philosophical com- 
 passion, is obvious." # 
 
 * See Civilization's Inferno, or Studies in the Social Cellar, by 
 B. O. Flower. f Looking Backward, page 13. 
 
212 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Mr. Bellamy draws a contrast between the ornamental 
 residences of private homes and the unsightly public 
 places and thoroughfares. This is Individualism with a 
 vengeance indeed. The rich display taste enough in con- 
 structing their mansions, in the furniture, carpets, and 
 oil-paintings within, and in the lawns and flower-gardens 
 without, but they disregard public interests, as is manifest 
 in the streets full of mire in wet days, almost impassable ; 
 in the absence of public parks and fountains in smaller 
 cities ; in the unhealthy tenement-houses in large cities, 
 houses in which the children of workingmen are deprived 
 of God's free air, in being reduced to the wretched alter- 
 native of playing indoors. Mr. Bellamy depicts the con- 
 trast between the culture and refinement of the rich, and 
 the ignorance and vulgarity of the poor thus : " Is a man 
 satisfied, merely because he is perfumed himself, to 
 mingle with a malodorous crowd? Could he take more 
 than a very limited satisfaction, even in a palatial apart- 
 ment, if the windows on all four sides opened into stable- 
 yards ? Like one up to the neck in a nauseous 
 
 bog solacing himself with a smelling-bottle." * It is 
 because the cultured are so insensible to the wants and 
 sufferings of the laboring classes, that the latter organize 
 themselves into societies and unions. It is because the 
 educated, those who ought to take the initiative in social 
 reforms, are either indifferent, or irrationally conservative, 
 that workingmen form themselves into associations ; it is 
 because the enormously wealthy, who have influence and 
 leisure, do not spend any of their time, energy and means 
 in behalf of millions of their fellow-men, who, like animals, 
 are engaged in the fierce struggle for existence, for pro- 
 curing the necessaries of life, to supply their bodily wants. 
 * Looking Backward, p. 220. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 213 
 
 It is on account of this, that again, as in the case of the 
 ancient Hebrews, the people of God, " sighed by reason 
 of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up 
 unto God, and God heard their groaning." * It is on 
 account of the re-enactment of ancient scenes, wherein 
 the mighty capitalists repeat the wily saying, " Come, let 
 us deal cunningly with them ! " f Let us, by the 
 sweating system, avail ourselves of the fruit of their toil ; 
 let us oppress, by reason of our monetary power, and 
 keep down the creators of the national wealth / It is on 
 account of these things that strikes occur, those alarm- 
 bells of outraged humanity ; those rude strikes which are 
 the harbingers of the advent of freedom, of the emancipa- 
 tion of the white slaves. Ay, they are the battle-cry for 
 liberty. Again a Moses is needed to deliver the people 
 of God ; again heroes are needed like William Lloyd Gar- 
 rison ; again we need orators like Wendell Phillips ; 
 statesmen like Charles Sumner ; poets like James Russell 
 Lowell, and great-hearted martyrs like Abraham Lincoln. 
 Again we need men of original mind and iron will, who 
 say : "We will fight it out on this line if it takes all sum- 
 mer." Ay, God will raise up great philanthropists and 
 bold reformers who will redeem not only the oppressed 
 working-classes, but will save deluded millionaire-capitalists 
 and rich gamblers in wheat and other products, from moral 
 bankruptcy, and teach them the lesson of the brotherhood 
 of man. 
 
 How will this consummation be effected ? By legisla- 
 tion ? I think not. I agree with Mr. Herbert Spencer 
 thus far as to the negative part of his political creed. In 
 an essay published a few years ago in the Conte??ifiorary 
 Review, he says : " The laws it (the government) passes 
 
 * Exodus ii., 23-24. | Exodus i., 10. 
 
214 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 are not in themselves sacred ; whatever sacredness they 
 have, is entirely due to the ethical sanction — an ethical 
 sanction which is derivable from the laws of human life. 
 
 And there will come the corollary, that 
 
 when they have not this ethical sanction, they have no 
 sacredness, and may rightly be challenged." * Still 
 more to the point is the following passage, which occurs 
 in another essay of the philosopher : " There seems no 
 getting people to accept the truth, which nevertheless is 
 conspicuous enough, that the welfare of a society and the 
 justice of its arrangements are at bottom dependent on 
 the characters of its members ; and that improvement in 
 neither can take place without that improvement in char- 
 acter, which results from carrying on peaceful industry 
 under the restraints imposed by an orderly social life. 
 The belief not only of the socialists, but also of those so- 
 called Liberals who are diligently preparing the way for 
 them, is that by due skill an ill-working humanity may be 
 framed into well-working institutions. It is a delusion. 
 The defective natures of citizens will show themselves in 
 the bad acting of whatever social structure they are 
 arranged into. There is no political alchemy by which 
 you can get golden conduct out of leaden instincts." f 
 This opinion is shared by a great political economist of 
 the New Era, Baron von Hellenbach, who says : " Having 
 as a born member of two legislative bodies gained the 
 conviction in political life that all theories are frustrated 
 by the selfishness of the majority of citizens and espe- 
 cially of politicians, I have given up all efforts in this 
 direction. I consider the curbing of selfishness as the 
 first and most urgent task of the present generation, after 
 
 * The Great Political Superstition. 
 The Coming Slavery : Contemporary Review 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 215 
 
 which, questions of social and economical import will 
 solve themselves spontaneously." # 
 
 Here Mr. Bellamy's views seem not to agree with the 
 spiritual philosophy. On page 60 of his charming book, 
 Looking Backward, Mr. West, in contemplating the Utopia 
 of Dr. Leete's age, exclaims : 
 
 " Human nature must have changed very much." To 
 which the reply is, " Not at all." " We have no parties," 
 says Dr. Leete, " or politicians, and as for demagoguery 
 and corruption, they are words having only an historical 
 significance." With human nature unchanged, with the 
 selfishness and cupidity that characterize the industrial 
 and commercial world of to-day, it is hard to believe that 
 mere external arrangements are able to accomplish the 
 desired end. On the contrary, the gradual evolution of 
 better social institutions can only take place pari passu 
 with moral progress or spiritual development. 
 
 It is needless here to mention the fact, that red-hot 
 measures of brute force and dynamite arguments of an 
 explosive character are utterly abhorred by the spiritual 
 science expounded in this book. " Not by armed force, 
 nor by power (physical), but by my spirit, saith the Lord 
 of hosts." t 
 
 The Religion of the Future is, what Mathew Arnold 
 calls, "the sweet reasonableness of Jesus." A reason- 
 ableness that will make it obvious to selfish capitalists 
 that they are pursuing a suicidal course ; that, though they 
 may amass millions, they are fast becoming spiritual pau- 
 pers, and that they lay up for themselves suffering and 
 remorse in the future. This is the great feature in the 
 new dispensation, namely, men will be deterred from 
 
 * Der Individualismus, Zweite Auflage, page 230. 
 t Zachariah iv. 6. 
 
216 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 transgressing moral law, just as men are deterred from 
 transgressing physical law. Self-interest will prompt right 
 conduct, and fear of the inevitable penalty will restrain a 
 man from over-reaching another, just as fear of bodily in- 
 jury will prevent a man from putting his hand into the fire. 
 And here once more the reader's attention is called to 
 the immense superiority of the ethics of spiritual philoso- 
 phy. No matter how lofty the moral teachings of liberal- 
 minded and enlightened Christian ministers, absolute 
 honesty is impossible in the commercial world of to-day. 
 " The co-existence of a perfect man and an imperfect soci- 
 ety is impossible," writes Mr. Spencer. " Ideal conduct, 
 such as ethical theory is concerned with, is not possible 
 for the ideal man in the midst of men otherwise consti- 
 tuted." * Mr. Spencer, accordingly, designates that con- 
 duct which is only possible in an imperfect society, Rela- 
 tive Ethics. He devotes a whole chapter to the discussion 
 of the difference between the absolute and a relative moral 
 standard. He argues that, as the laws of motion are 
 merely ideal abstractions, serving as standards for the 
 real actual motion of the planets, which motion takes 
 place under perturbing influences, so is there an ideal 
 moral law serving as an ideal standard for the real, actual, 
 possible conduct of men, which he calls Relative Ethics. 
 So in mechanics, in physiology, in geometry, there are 
 formulated ideal laws, perfect standards, by which alone 
 the real concrete principles can be determined. The ideal 
 laws are never realized, as such, in the system of nature. 
 It is not otherwise, says Mr. Spencer, with ethics : " There 
 exists an ideal code of conduct formulating the behavior 
 of the completely adapted man in the completely evolved 
 societv. Such a code is that here called Absolute Ethics 
 
 * The Data of Ethics, page 279, et s" 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 217 
 
 — as distinguished from Relative Ethics — a code the in- 
 junctions of which are alone to be considered as abso- 
 lutely right, in contrast with those that are relatively right 
 or least wrong ; and which, as a system of ideal conduct, 
 is to serve as a standard for our guidance in solving, as 
 well as we can, the problems of real conduct." * 
 
 If now we ask Mr. Spencer : What are the ideal laws of 
 human conduct ? we shall find that from his standpoint of 
 evolution, he recognizes no life beyond the grave, hence 
 he himself flagrantly transgresses the logical law he lays 
 down on the first page of his Data of Ethics, to wit : " If 
 the part is conceived without any reference to the whole, it 
 becomes itself a whole — an independent entity ; and its rela- 
 tions to existence in general are misapprehended" I have 
 put these words in italics to show how even a Herbert 
 Spencer must necessarily misapprehend man's place in 
 nature, if he conceives the part without any reference to 
 the whole. Necessarily to Mr. Spencer, ethics is only a 
 social problem. He is an optimist, not a pessimist. But 
 what is the nature or scope of his optimism ? In some 
 very remote future there will be " an altruistic competi- 
 tion, analogous to the existing egoistic competition," be- 
 cause men will have become so sensitive, that it will give 
 them pain to know that others are uncomfortable. Yet 
 "numerous problems" in ethics, "alike important and 
 difficult," remain problems " admitting only of empirical 
 solutions." A few of these " numerous problems, admit- 
 ting only of empirical solutions," are enumerated, and the 
 conclusion is reached that : " Evidently to these and many 
 kindred questions included in this division of Relative 
 Ethics, approximately true answers only can be given, f 
 
 * The Data of Ethics, page 275. 
 t Ibid., pages 287 and 288. 
 
218 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 But, waiving this objection to the philosopher's concep- 
 tion of the future ideal society, let us, for argument's sake, 
 assume all problems solved in a future Utopia : will that 
 compensate the countless generations of the past, the mill- 
 ions of human beings that have toiled and struggled and 
 suffered on our globe ever since the race began to exist ? 
 " Are the sufferings of mankind during millions of years 
 not too high a price to pay for the questionable happiness 
 of generations in so remote a future ? " * 
 
 The Spiritual Philosophy recognizes no two standards ; 
 it has only one true, absolute standard for the conduct of 
 life. " Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a 
 great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house 
 divers measures, a great and a small. A perfect and just 
 weight shalt thou have, a perfect and just measure." f 
 Three thousand years ago, the Hebrew Legislator or- 
 dained that there shall be no private ownership of land. 
 "And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the 
 land is mine : for ye are strangers and sojourners with 
 me." % Thirty centuries before Henry George was born, 
 Moses aimed at the abolition of poverty. " Howbeit, 
 there shall be no poor with thee." § The Spiritual Phi- 
 losophy demands the reconstruction of social institutions 
 into a state wherein honesty is possible ; absolute honesty ; 
 a state of society wherein " love thy neighbor as thyself ! " 
 will be a precept actually realizable in practical conduct ; 
 a state of society wherein all that is preached can be 
 practiced ; where there is no mere Sunday religion, but a 
 holy every-day life ; where we need no priests as agents 
 to transport us to heaven ; for we know absolutely that 
 we go to heaven anyhow. We shall still need teachers or 
 
 * Philosophic des gesunden Menschenverstandes, von L. B. Hel- 
 lenbach, page 237. 
 
 t Deut. xxv. 13-15. I Lev. xxv. 23. § Deut. xv. 4. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 219 
 
 preachers, if the word be preferred, to instruct men and to 
 persuade them ; but the ideal is to make every man to be 
 his own priest, if so be that the laws of his being are 
 written upon the tablet of his own heart ; a state of society 
 wherein the rich will have to dispense with one of the 
 measures devised for attaining bliss in heaven — alms- 
 giving ; for there will be no poverty : in short, the spiritual 
 philosophy, the universal religion of the future, impera- 
 tively demands a just distribution of wealth, so that all 
 men, not merely the rich, can devote their lives to higher 
 spiritual aims, and thus be no more compelled to spend 
 all their energies to procure the necessaries of life and to 
 act meanly toward their fellow-men in rivalry and ignoble 
 competition. Not all at once does the new dispensation 
 hope to achieve this, but gradually in accordance with the 
 laws of spiritual evolution. The Seers of our age may 
 say with the ancient prophet : " I will stand upon my 
 watch and set me upon the tower and look out." They 
 likewise are inspired from above to " Write £he vision and 
 make it plain upon tablets, that he who runs may read it 
 easily. For the vision is for an appointed time, but at 
 the end it shall speak, and not lie : though it tarry, wait 
 for it, for it will assuredly come to pass." * Mankind has 
 waited long. Our age is near to the era of the inaugura- 
 tion of the Kingdom of God on earth. Smitten with 
 spiritual blindness, the selfish princes of Mammon, the 
 worshippers of the god of this earth, all those who pay 
 undue homage to the golden calf, cannot perceive the 
 tremendous factors already preparing the irresistible advent 
 of a state of society wherein " Thy will be done on earth 
 as it is in Heaven." Hence the first and most urgent task 
 of all enlightened philanthropists of our age is the pro- 
 mulgation of the truths of the Spiritual Philosophy. 
 
 * Habakkuk ii. 1-3. 
 
220 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 There can be but one true science of man, of his 
 origin, his destiny and of the laws of his spiritual evolu- 
 tion. There cannot be more than one true system of ex- 
 ternal Nature, as the word cosmos implies. Likewise, 
 there cannot be more than one true science of subjective 
 nature, of the mental cosmos. It were absurd to speak of 
 two sciences of astronomy ; for if they were both true, 
 they would be identical and would constitute but one 
 science, since things which are equal to the same thing, 
 are equal to one another. If they were unlike, and one of 
 them be the true science, the other would necessarily be 
 wholly or partially false. The reason why there are so 
 many diverse religions in the world is because the true 
 one had not yet been discovered. Now that the true is 
 known, the diversity will be superseded by unity ; and, 
 for the first time in the history of our planet, one universal 
 religion of humanity is possible ; the universal recognition 
 of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. 
 
 In a noble and delightful book by Mr. John Fiske, the 
 Herbert Spencer of America, the philosophical author casts 
 a prospective glance at the " Manifest destiny " of man- 
 kind. " I believe that the time will come," writes Mr. 
 Fiske, " when it will be possible to speak of the United 
 States as stretching from pole to pole — or, to speak with 
 Tennyson, to celebrate the parliament of man and the 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 221 
 
 federation of the world Our survey ends with 
 
 the picture of a world covered with cheerful homesteads, 
 blessed with a sabbath of perpetual peace." * 
 
 What induces Mr. Fiske to form this conclusion is not 
 sentiment, but logic. The premises underlying his con- 
 clusion are simply the recognition of the " Struggle for 
 Existence " in the realm of ideas, with its concomitant 
 " the Survival of the Fittest." Applying these principles 
 to political evolution, Mr. Fiske shows, that the American 
 or republican form of government is the fittest, and must, 
 as such, supplant ultimately all other forms. The same 
 principles apply to religion. The law of the survival of 
 the fittest and the impossibility of having more than one 
 true science of man, establishes the fact that all existing 
 religions will eventually be merged into one. This one 
 and sole religion will be a synthesis of all religions and 
 philosophical theories concerning man's place in nature. 
 Therefore, no one need fear that any truth contained in 
 his own distinctive religion will be lost, since all that is 
 true in any system or creed whatsoever, will be conserved. 
 The higher includes the lower; the superior comprises 
 the inferior. " When that which is perfect is come, that 
 which is partial shall be done away." f 
 
 On the other hand, if it be conceded that no error, how- 
 ever venerable, by reason of its antiquity, is, or can be 
 truly useful, but must be misleading, then the giving up 
 of erroneous doctrines, of false theological dogmas, ought 
 not to be a matter of regret. The original thinker, the 
 true investigator, will willingly part with lead if he can 
 exchange it for gold. 
 
 In the foregoing chapters, untenable traditional doctrines 
 are either expressly repudiated, or their rejection is im- 
 * American Political Ideas, page 152. t 1 Cor. xiii. 10. 
 
222 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 plied in the elucidations of the true doctrines. A few of 
 the essential ones must here be briefly mentioned. 
 
 The unworthy conception of a man-like God, or 
 rather a powerful king who issues strict commands as to 
 how he must be worshipped; who reveals the rules of 
 how men must serve him ; the minute prescriptions of 
 that service, the rites and ceremonies, the sacraments and 
 ritual. These things seem borrowed from the code of 
 ceremonies due to oriental kings or rather tyrants, whose 
 subjects cringe or kneel before him in abject servility, 
 and who is absolute Lord over their lives, and virtually 
 owns them and their possessions. Many religious cere- 
 monies are survivals of usages of primitive modes of wor- 
 ship, worship consisting of bloody sacrifices and other 
 barbarous rites that had no other object than to pro- 
 pitiate the angry gods or to gain their favor. In the book 
 of Numbers we read : " And the Lord spake unto Moses, 
 saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto 
 them, My offering, even My bread for My sacrifices made 
 by fire, for a sweet savour unto Me, shall ye observe to 
 offer unto Me in their due season. Two lambs of the 
 first year day by day for a continual burnt offering. The 
 one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other 
 lamb at evening." * Here is the conception of a morn- 
 ing meal for God, as well as of an evening repast ; break- 
 fast and supper of the great Jehovah, as it were. The 
 incense is a " sweet savour " unto Him. In the book of 
 Exodus, the Almighty is represented as giving minute in- 
 structions as to the tabernacle and its furniture : the 
 texture and color of the curtains, the construction of 
 the altar and candlestick, the priestly garments and 
 sacred vessels. He who desires to know the origin 
 * Numbers, xxviii., 1-4. 
 
THE RELIGION- OF THE FUTURE. 223 
 
 of many modern usages in synagogues and churches, as 
 well as in social and domestic life, will find ample 
 information in Mr. Herbert Spencer's " Principles of 
 Sociology. " 
 
 The principal theme of theologians has been hitherto 
 " the relation and duty of man toward God." Now, as to 
 the relation of man toward God, there are many analogies 
 that define this relation much better than any ecclesiasti- 
 cal authority or ecumenical council ever did. What is 
 the relation of each drop of water to the whole ocean ? 
 What is the relation of each bird to the air in which it 
 lives, moves, and has its being ? 
 
 As regards the duty of man towards God, the one 
 thing that theology considers of prime significance, is 
 to serve him. In the German language worship is called 
 Gottesdienst, equivalent to our divine service, from the 
 Hebrew Avodah, service, consisting of prayers, prescribed 
 or spontaneous, ceremonies, various acts and rites, such 
 as the so-called sacraments, etc. But in the new religion 
 the main worship of God consists in the service of man. 
 The duty of man is to cultivate the divine that is in his 
 own nature, and to devote his life to the service of — 
 humanity. The prophets in Israel made some attempts 
 to direct the minds of their contemporaries to this true 
 service or worship of God. Their aim, however, of sub- 
 stituting an ethical religion in the place of mere ceremonial 
 piety, was frustrated by the popular love of priestly cere- 
 monial. 
 
 The essence of the new religion is the spiritual growth 
 of man. The progressive steps in man's spiritual evolution 
 are indicated by the great modern Seer, A. J. Davis, in 
 the following ascending scale : " In the Love, or actuat- 
 ing Principle, are — 
 
224 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 i. Self-Love. 4. Fraternal Love. 
 
 2. Conjugal Love. 5. Filial Love. 
 
 3. Parental Love. 6. Universal Love. 
 
 " The last and highest, namely Universal Love, is that 
 which St. Paul so inimitably described in the 13th chapter 
 of 1 Corinthians, and which is the kind of service the re- 
 ligion of the future will render unto God. " If I speak with 
 the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am 
 become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I 
 have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all 
 knowledge ; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mount- 
 ains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all 
 my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be 
 burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love 
 surTereth long, and is kind ; love envieth not ; love vaunteth 
 not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, 
 seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account 
 of evil ; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth 
 with the truth ; beareth all things, believeth ail things, 
 hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never 
 faileth : but whether there be prophecies, they shall be 
 done away ; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; 
 whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For 
 we know in part, and we prophesy in part ; but when that 
 which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be 
 done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I 
 felt as a child, I thought as a child : now that I am be- 
 come a man, I have put away childish things. But now 
 abideth faith, hope, love, these three ; and the greatest 
 of these is love." # 
 
 The following is the ascending scale in the Wisdom, or 
 the governing principle : 
 
 * The Revised New Testament, 1 Cor., chap. xiii. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 225 
 
 1. Use (self-interest). 
 
 2. Justice, 
 
 3. Power, 
 
 4. Beauty, 
 
 5. Aspiration, 
 
 6. Harmony. 
 
 The ideally religious man is called by Davis the Har- 
 monial man. The following table will make this clearer, 
 as given by this author : 
 
 Self Love Use Individuality. 
 
 Conjugal Love Justice Marriage. 
 
 Parental Love Power Offspring. 
 
 Fraternal Love Beauty Socialism. 
 
 Filial Love Aspiration Elevation. 
 
 Univeral Love Harmony Happiness. 
 
 The reader is referred to the essay of Mr. Davis, where- 
 in these terms are fully explained as to their application. 
 For instance, in the triad named Parental Love, etc., the 
 power extends to all productions of the human mind, 
 brought forth by contrivance and invention, constituting 
 offspring. In the triad of Filial Love, Aspiration, and 
 Elevation, there is comprised the veneration and admira- 
 ation of all great and good men and their deeds ; the 
 aspiration after all that is great and noble and godlike. 
 So that one can find in this Essay something like a pro- 
 gramme of the progressive spiritual development of 
 man. * 
 
 It must not be supposed that, besides the homage paid 
 to God through self-culture and philanthropy, there is in 
 the new religion no real worship, in the proper and pri- 
 mary sense of the word. Ay, there is ; and though the 
 
 * Individual and Social Culture. In Vol. II. of The Great Har- 
 monia, by A. J. Davis, page 123-180. 
 15 
 
226 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 real worship is not called " service" as something due to 
 God, it is as exalted an exercise of the soul as can be 
 imagined, being an expression of the soul's aspiration 
 and longing for communion with, and inspiration from the 
 Divine Spirit. It instinctively seeks poetic forms of lan- 
 guage ; the music and poetry of sacred hymns ; as instinc- 
 tively as the lyrical poet seeks effusion in measured 
 verses ; as natural and spontaneous as the song of the 
 nightingale and the fragrance of flowers. In engaging in 
 sacred meditation of public instruction, in touching the 
 chords of divine themes, in contemplating the ineffable 
 heights which every human being is destined to reach in 
 due time, it would be strange indeed if there were no out- 
 pouring of the soul's aspiration and sentiment in prayer 
 and invocation ! True worship is as the dew of heaven 
 distilled in diamond drops ; and tears of emotion, long- 
 ing for righteousness, and supplication for Divine succor 
 are the spontaneous effusions of true devotion. 
 
 But the one thing lacking in the religion of the future is 
 — a fixed creed. As it is said of science, that if it were 
 to adopt a creed, it would commit suicide, so a fixed creed 
 would contradict, glaringly, the fundamental principle of 
 eternal progression. The religion of the future has no 
 creed at all, no authoritative system of belief, no shib- 
 boleth and no priests ; no ritual, except the altar erected 
 by the spiritual intuitions of the human heart. 
 
 Ah, the world has had enough of creeds, of authorita- 
 tive systems of "believe and be saved, disbelieve and be 
 damned." However spurious the alleged saying of Jesus 
 may be, as recorded in the New Testament, to wit : 
 
 " He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he 
 that believeth not is condemned already. " * It was evi- 
 * John iii. 18. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 227 
 
 dently regarded by theologians as a warrant, if not a call, 
 for forcible measures to make men believe a man-made 
 creed, and to prevent their deviating from it. " He who 
 believes that his neighbor's heresy is destined to be pun- 
 ished after death by excruciating tortures of infinite dura- 
 tion, will not scruple to use the most violent means for 
 rescuing him from his perilous condition. Obviously, 
 such a conclusion may be entertained without sophistry. 
 Once admit that salvation is possible only within the 
 limits of your own sect, and it may well be argued that 
 you are bound, in benevolence, if not in Justice, to com- 
 pel all dissenters to " enter in " to that sect. If persecu- 
 tion be needful to obtain such an object, then, on this 
 view of the case, it would really be hard-hearted to 
 refrain from using it. If pulleys and thumb-screws can 
 substitute eternal happiness for future torments like 
 those described by Dante, then pulleys and thumb-screws 
 are instruments of charity and kindness. On this view of 
 the case the typical religious persecutor is a man in whom 
 unselfish philanthropy has become such an uncontrollable 
 impulse that, no matter how great the violence to his 
 natural feelings of humanity, he will not hesitate to 
 employ the most rigorous and appalling measures to re- 
 strain his fellow-creatures from incurring the risk of endless 
 misery. Such men exist to-day (according to the opinion 
 
 of the late Dr. Buckle) But they no longer 
 
 use such rigorous and appalling means of constraining 
 the opinions of their fellow-creatures, because — for one 
 thing — they have not the power to do so. And they 
 have lost the power to do so, because such a general 
 skepticism has come to pervade the community, that the 
 dogma of exclusive salvation has become discredited." * 
 * Excursions of an Evolutionist, by John Fiske, p. 215. 
 
228 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 In Chapter XXI. of this work, attention was called to 
 the domineering spirit of the Church to-day, in this so- 
 called free country; to the hypocritical compliance of 
 Congress of the United States with the demand of religi- 
 ous fanatics to close the Chicago World's Fair on Sunday, 
 by which thousands of laboring men, women and children 
 are virtually deprived of the privilege to see the great 
 exhibition. Attention was called to the unconstitutional 
 Sunday laws, and legal holidays of Good Friday, etc., to 
 which I will now add the following outgrowth of modern 
 fanaticism : 
 
 " LAW AND ORDER LEAGUE. " 
 
 " Law and order societies are being formed in many 
 counties in Pennsylvania and New York, and it wouldn't 
 be surprising if steps were soon taken to form a similar 
 organization in Bradford. The order is now doing effec- 
 tive work in many states. A peculiar feature of the League 
 is that one member does not know any other member. 
 Two partners in a business firm may be members of the 
 organization, yet each ignorant of the other's interest 
 in the work. One of the main objects of the order is 
 to compel the observance of the Sunday and liquor laws. In 
 various places the order contains business me7i ivho are 
 afraid to support openly any law and order movement, for 
 the reason that it affected their business. But under the 
 rules of this secret society every one is e?iabled to give his 
 assistance without fear of detection" * 
 
 Here we have a veritable Inquisition in miniature, 
 which, if it lack the cruelty of its terrible prototype, 
 excels that infamous tribunal in cowardly meanness. 
 * From the Bradford Daily Era, of February 8, 1893. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 229 
 
 As I write, the following comes to my hands : " In the 
 New York State Senate at Albany, a bill was lately in- 
 troduced by Senator Edwards, forbidding any person, 
 for reward, to tell fortunes or forecast future events, etc., 
 by means of astrology, clairvoyance, divination, spiritu- 
 alism, palmistry, trance mediumship, or by means of any 
 other alleged or pretended supernatural or occult powers. 
 Such persons shall be deemed common swindlers and 
 fined $25. Advertising by such persons is forbidden under 
 the same penalty, and the printing or circulation of such 
 advertisements is forbidden." * 
 
 The cardinal principles of the religion, known as the 
 Spiritual Philosophy, are no more a creed than the Prin- 
 cipia of Newton, or the astronomical laws of the Coperni- 
 can system. If I can persuade my neighbor to study the 
 laws of gravitation or electricity, well and good; if he 
 disbelieve these laws, well and good, too, though not so 
 good for him, in case he should in his ignorance trans- 
 gress those laws, and reap the penalty. It is the same 
 with the laws of spiritual evolution. Like the laws of 
 gravitation, electricity and other physical laws, the laws 
 of man's spiritual nature can and ought to be studied, 
 and to persuade men to do so, is all that the teachers 
 of the new religion can do. 
 
 To sum up : A truer conception of God involves a 
 purer worship, does away with an authoritatively pre- 
 scribed code of " service," or ceremonial ; recognizes 
 universal benevolence as the most appropriate homage to 
 the Deity, and repudiates a formal system of belief. 
 
 The religion of the future being based upon the funda- 
 mental laws of human nature, the laws of Ego-altruism, 
 
 * See an important paper : The Menace of Medical Monopoly, by 
 Dr. B. O. Flower, editor, in The Arena for February, 1894. 
 
230 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 by which every individual is by nature related to every 
 other individual and to the whole human race, so much 
 so, that self-culture involves indispensably the unselfish 
 devotion of one's life to the service of humanity ; and that 
 in the great chain of mankind every single link is precious 
 and indissolubly united with the whole ; this fundamental 
 principle of the natural fraternity of the human race, will 
 overthrow gradually, but surely, the sectarianism now di- 
 viding men ; dividing them in opinion and often in feeling 
 and sympathy, as the terms Jew and Gentile, Catholic and 
 Protestant, Buddhist and Mohammedan suggest. If all 
 men are brothers and sisters by birth, then they are natu- 
 rally brethren and need no sect or lodge to fraternize 
 them. Being a member of the same church or lodge, Mr. 
 A. calls Mr. B. Brother, and considers himself in duty 
 bound by the laws of his creed or lodge to treat him fra- 
 ternally, aid him, and help to rescue him when in distress, 
 etc. But how about his next door neighbor, Mr. C, who 
 is not a member of Mr. A.'s church or lodge ? Is he not 
 veritably his brother also ? Away with these distinc- 
 tions, they were the curse of mankind long enough ! 
 Ay, sectarianism is doomed. The Spiritual philosophy 
 has sentenced it inexorably to extinction, " not by force, 
 nor by power, but by my Spirit." * And the execution 
 of the sentence is entrusted to natural agencies, to the 
 divine laws of progress : " All these denominations which 
 have stood apart so long, whose theology has been so 
 antagonistic, are now merging into one church. In the 
 face of the great danger which Spiritualism or Liberalism 
 has brought to their sight, they endeavor to return to their 
 first estate, but in returning they lose their identity. This 
 result is sure, though unperceived by them. One by one, 
 * Zech. iv. 6. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 231 
 
 they will give up this point of difference and that point of 
 difference, this creed and that creed, for the sake of har- 
 mony. This vestment they lay aside, and that form, until 
 they will all be swallowed up, and neither Methodists nor 
 Calvinists, Baptists nor Lutherans, Armenians, Jews nor 
 Gentiles will remain. Then the primitive church of Christ 
 will be revived again upon earth, simple and unostenta- 
 tious ; its creed will be the creed of Jesus Christ : " The 
 brotherhood of man, and the love of God for his chil- 
 dren." * 
 
 It is related in the New Testament that when Jesus 
 began to instruct the masses (" and the common people 
 heard him gladly "), his kinsmen " heard of it, and they 
 went out to lay hold on him : for they said, He is beside 
 himself." " Then, one said unto him, Behold, thy mother 
 and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with 
 thee. But he stretched forth his hand towards his dis- 
 ciples and said, Behold my mother and my brethren ! For 
 whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in 
 heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." f 
 
 Alas ! this sublime and grand teacher was deified ; but 
 his teachings were neglected or perverted, and so mis- 
 construed by a false theology, as to produce effects dia- 
 metrically opposed to what was intended by the great 
 teacher. Christianity exalted the messenger and neglected 
 the message. "Truth takes upon itself two forms of 
 manifestation ; one is the declaration of the principle it- 
 self, the other is the instrumentality of its presentation. 
 Most people consider the method quite as much as the 
 truth, and often magnify the instrumentality more than 
 that which is given. The visible Christ seemed to be 
 more important then the message he brought ; the imper- 
 
 * Strange Visitors, page 209. t Matthew xii. 47-50. 
 
232 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 sonated Vishnu in the form of Buddha more real than the 
 truth declared. For this reason Christs have been born 
 in lowly places ; for this reason truth has often sought out 
 unfamiliar ways for expression — the lowliest, the humblest, 
 the most despised — in order that name and greatness, 
 and place and power might not dominate the mind with 
 reference to the declaration. For this reason the lowliness 
 of the birth of Christ has often been referred to, and the 
 fact that he came from the Nazarenes, a despised class of 
 people, has often been dwelt upon ; as often, to-day, if a 
 spiritual message does not come through authorized 
 sources, if church and state and science are not consulted, 
 there are many people who object to it on that account ; 
 not remembering that there never has been a new pres- 
 entation of truth that was accepted by those who were 
 already established in crystallized forms of thought. If 
 the truth related to the state, then kings and rulers ob- 
 jected ; for were not their laws perfect? If the truth 
 related to religion, the church objected ; for was not its 
 authority supreme and its revelation final ? Could the 
 Brahmins accept Buddha, when they had all the ancient 
 records to fall back upon and the interpretations of ages ? 
 Could the Jews accept Jesus of Nazareth, one of the low- 
 liest among the people, when they had all the laws of 
 the prophets and all the interpretations thereof? And 
 could there come any good out of Nazareth ? This has 
 been asked in every age. The same is true with ref- 
 erence to science. The established forms of thought are 
 often supposed to be final, and though it is exceedingly 
 unscientific to declare anything completed in science, it is 
 the practice of scientific men to ignore anything not dis- 
 covered by themselves or not authoritatively established 
 by formula and testimony. Notwithstanding this, the 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 233 
 
 electric flashes traverse the globe, the steam-horse bears 
 our burdens, and the modern steamship transports us 
 across the ocean. Notwithstanding law and precedent in 
 religion and state, new forms of thought take up their 
 abiding place in whatever Nazareth they choose to select, 
 and the more humble and lowly, the more wonderful the 
 manifestation. Notwithstanding these established pre- 
 cedents and customs, the world grows steadfastly toward 
 the new expressions of thought in every direction, and 
 whatever is latest is liable to be true. No man can say : 
 1 1 had all the truth yesterday and need nothing more to- 
 day. ' Instrumentalities are to be considered in exact 
 proportion to the importance of the message that is 
 given. The blind worship of the visible form of Christ 
 has led to all the creed and idolatry of the Church." # 
 
 In this citation I have partly anticipated the question : 
 " What place must be assigned to Jesus in the pantheon 
 of spiritual progress ? " Jesus was an incarnation, so 
 is each human being ; Jesus was the son of God, so is 
 each human being. But in the light of what has been 
 said in Chapter XXII. of this book, on " Spiritual Evolu- 
 tion," it must be evident to the thoughtful student that 
 Jesus had already attained a great height in his spiritual 
 evolution, when he once more incarnated himself in order 
 to bring the light of higher truth to his expectant brethren. 
 Jesus came on a great mission. Having, perhaps ages 
 ago, graduated from our planet as an angel and reached 
 a high altitude, the spiritual philosophy sees no improba- 
 bility in the alleged statement of Jesus : " I have over- 
 come the world." f He was rejected as Messiah by the 
 Jews because his kingdom was not of this world, and they 
 
 * From an address by Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, in The Pro- 
 gressive Thinker, of April 22, 1893. t John xvi. 33. 
 
234 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 expected a political redeemer and material power and 
 dominion, along with spiritual ascendency. The spirit- 
 ual ascendency, however, could only be gained by 
 abandoning mechanical religion and mere letter-wor- 
 ship, and substituting spiritual religion, in accordance 
 with what their own prophets had already taught : " Be- 
 hold the days come, said the Lord, that I will make a 
 new covenant with the house of Israel," was the prediction 
 of Jeremiah, not like the old covenant, but " this is the 
 covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, saith 
 the Lord ; I will put my law in their inward parts, and in 
 their heart will I write it." * Recognizing their extreme 
 conservativeness, the fruit of retrogressive Rabbinism, 
 Jesus saw before him, what we moderns would call, a 
 priest-ridden race. So he adapted his teachings to their 
 state of mind ; taught them what they were prepared to 
 receive in the form of pleasant parable or allegory. The 
 literal truth was too dazzling for their weak spiritual sight, 
 so he veiled it in proverb and parable, such as of old 
 delighted the popular mind in the poetical part of Talmud 
 and Midrash. " He spake many things to them in 
 parables." " Without a parable spake he not to them." f 
 Hiding the truth, as it were, within an apparently enter- 
 taining story, the incomparable teacher made the bitter 
 medicine palatable through a sweet coating. " And the 
 common people heard him gladly." They were amused 
 by the parable, which was the shell containing a precious 
 kernel. By and by, as they grew spiritually, the real 
 truth intended would be revealed in the allegory. This 
 condescending of Jesus to the low level of the masses, 
 explains the concessions made by Jesus to the popular 
 views regarding the sacred record of their scriptures. 
 
 * Jer. xxxi., 31-33. t Mark, iv., 34. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 235 
 
 " Jesus of Nazareth was undoubtedly a powerful medium 
 or instrumentality, through whose organism spiritual gifts 
 and powers could be exercised. Directed by unseen, but 
 wise, intelligences, and drawing much of his power from 
 the spiritual atmosphere, he became, as it were, a reservoir 
 of force, which he supplied to the needy and sick. Im- 
 parting his magnetic life to those who were suffering, he 
 brought them back to a condition of health and comfort ; 
 giving ministrations of kindly word, and instruction to 
 the unfortunate ; those who were depraved or distressed 
 by external environments, he brought to them a new light 
 and impetus to rise above their darkened condition, and 
 to search for truth and happiness. He dispensed that 
 which was really his life — the magnetic power of his being, 
 — whether expended in healing the sick or in imparting 
 strength of mind to those who were depressed and who 
 needed comfort. The same signs will follow those who 
 seek for them and who are laboring unselfishly in the 
 spiritual vineyard of truth for the benefit of humanity ; 
 for all who desire to perform such work are sufficiently 
 mediumistic to have their atmosphere impinged upon by 
 that of spiritual intelligences seeking to befriend humanity. 
 As they enter upon their work and become interested in 
 it — not because of the honor or glory it may bring them, 
 but because of the good it does to others — they will find 
 their mediumship increasing in strength and expression, 
 and so they will become the recipients of that bounty 
 which the angels have to bestow, and gain more and more 
 of the power of working what, in ancient days, were called 
 miracles, but which are only the outgrowth of the expres- 
 sion of natural law in human life. 
 
 " So there may be healers who impart magnetic strength 
 and stimulus to the weak and suffering ; so there may be 
 
236 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 inspired speakers, giving the bread of life and the word 
 of truth unto those who seek for knowledge and who pine 
 for consolation concerning not only the laws and the con- 
 ditions of this life, but also of the life beyond ; so there 
 may be workers in various fields of helpfulness and re- 
 form, dispensing their powers and giving their strength, 
 and the signs of their life and work may follow them in 
 the results wrought in the lives of those ministered to. 
 If they are faithful and honest, and seek only for the out- 
 working of the best spiritual powers, it matters not whether 
 these workers are known in the vineyard of what is called 
 Christianity, out upon the broad planes of liberal thought, 
 or even among those who know nothing of the various 
 forms of religion ; it matters not by what name a man or 
 woman is called, the power may be inherent within, and 
 it may be brought out and expressed in helpful ways unto 
 mankind, if the work is entered upon unselfishly, devotedly 
 and with fidelity to purpose." * 
 
 That Christ's mission was not to be the bearer of a 
 final Revelation is obvious from His declaration : " I 
 have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot hear 
 them now." f And because men were not prepared as 
 yet for certain higher definitions of still more advanced 
 truths, they were told : " Howbeit, when the Spirit of 
 truth is come, He will guide you into all truth." % 
 
 The spiritual movement in this latter half of the nine- 
 teenth century is, therefore, the advent of a New Dis- 
 pensation. It announces what was announced at the 
 advent of a former dispensation : I am not come to destroy, 
 but to fulfil. 
 
 * From the Controlling Spirit's answer to a question, in the Message 
 department of " The Banner of Light," April 15, 1893. 
 
 t John xvi. 12. % Ibid., verse 13. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 237- 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
 Though modern scientific materialism is now dis- 
 avowed by science and by philosophical thinkers as 
 utterly untenable, and, what is called Agnosticism has 
 taken its place, the attitude of modern thought toward the 
 miraculous element in the Bible is still that of utter unbe- 
 lief. Biblical criticism of the type of Strauss and Re- 
 nan advances various theories, not only to disprove mira- 
 cles, and to explain them away, but to show how they 
 originated in the superstitious and unscientific minds of 
 ancient men. Other men who are experts in their own 
 chosen field of scientific research, feel impelled to go out 
 of their way and write essays, and even books, to show 
 that if men would only give up the belief in the supernat- 
 ural, the Bible would become a rational, enjoyable book. 
 Mr. Matthew Arnold is a prolific writer on this theme, 
 and he is a popular author, his style being as lucid and 
 charming as that of M. Renan. In one of his books he 
 sets himself this problem : " to find for the Bible a basis 
 in something which can be verified." * 
 
 As regards miracles, he comes to the conclusion that 
 
 they not only cannot be satisfactorily proved, but that 
 
 the popular belief in them is doomed by the very spirit of 
 
 the time we live in. " Our point is," he says, " that the 
 
 * Literature and Dogma, Preface, page ix. 
 
238 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 objections to miracles do, and more and more will, without 
 insistence, without attack, without controversy, make their 
 own force felt ; and that the sanction of Christianity, if 
 Christianity is not to be lost along with its miracles, must 
 be found elsewhere." * 
 
 The spirit of our time is no more disposed to even dis- 
 cuss the subject of miracles, says Mr. Lecky in his Ra- 
 tionalism in Europe. " At present," he writes, in Vol. I, 
 page 27, "nearly all educated men receive an account of 
 a miracle taking place in their own day, with an absolute, 
 and even derisive incredulity, which dispenses with all ex- 
 amination of the evidence. In a further larger book on 
 God and the Bible, Mr. Arnold scorns to reply to Dr. 
 Mozley's Bampton Lectures on Miracles. Observe how 
 he verifies the above assertion of Mr. Lecky. " To write 
 a refutation of his (Dr. Mozley's) Bampton Lectures is 
 precisely, in our opinion, to do what Strauss has well 
 called " going out of one's way to assail the paper fortifi- 
 cations which theologians choose to set up." To engage 
 in an a priori argument to prove that miracles are impos- 
 sible, against an adversary who argues a priori that they 
 are possible, is the vainest labor in the world. So long 
 as the discussion was of this character, miracles were in 
 no danger. The time for it is now past, because the hu- 
 man mind, whatever may be said for or against miracles 
 a priori, is in fact now losing its reliance upon- them ; and 
 it is losing it for this reason ; as its experience widens, 
 it gets acquainted with the natural history of miracles, it 
 sees how they arise, and it slowly, but inevitably puts 
 them aside. f 
 
 Of men, masters in their own particular branch of 
 scientific research, that have entered the arena of theo- 
 * Literature and Dogma, page 139. t " God and the Bible," page 42. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 239 
 
 logical controversy, we may mention Prof. John Fiske 
 and Prof. Huxley. The former is a profound philosopher 
 and a cautious writer. Prof. Fiske almost " fears to 
 tread "where others "rush in." "Already," he writes, 
 "we have more than once shown that the possibilities of 
 thought are not co-extensive with the possibilities of 
 things." * 
 
 This is really a philosophical maxim of prime importance. 
 But Mr. Fiske is not always mindful of his own preaching. 
 He goes on to say : " All knowing is classifying." This is 
 laid down in his philosophy as a canon of thought. " It is 
 admitted on all sides that the perception of an object 
 necessarily implies the recognition of the object. What do 
 we mean when we say that any given phenomenon has 
 been explained ? We mean simply that it has been 
 ranked along with similar phenomena, which, having pre- 
 viously been grouped together, are said to be under- 
 stood." f Applying this logical principle to the origin of 
 myths, Mr. Fiske says in his Myths and Myth-makers, 
 page 21, "A thing is said to be explained when it is clas- 
 sified with other things with which we are already ac- 
 quainted. That is the only kind of explanation of which 
 
 the highest science is capable But the primitive man 
 
 explained the same thing to his own satisfaction when he 
 had classified it along with the well-known phenomena of 
 human volition." 
 
 That the human mind itself is a reservoir of forces, that 
 lie latent in all men, and that exceptional phenomena, 
 unknown to modern physical science, have been wrought 
 in all ages by what Mr. Fiske depreciates as human voli- 
 tion, does not enter as a factor in this author's " Origin of 
 Myths." 
 
 * Cosmic Philosophy, vol. ii., page 431. 
 t Ibid., vol. i., 11, 27. vol, ii., 106, 297. 
 
240 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Professor Clifford tolerates no new thing that does not 
 resemble old and known things. " We may believe what 
 goes beyond our experience, only when it is inferred from 
 that experience by the assumption that what we do not 
 know is like what we know." * 
 
 This formidable sentence means, in simple language, 
 this : that, if there is already a pigeon-hole at hand into 
 which a new discovery can be made to fit, the discovery 
 may be welcomed ; otherwise, it must be duly rejected." f 
 
 Professor Huxley feels called upon to write on religion ; 
 not, however, from the standpoint of the sacred singer in 
 Israel, who says : " I believe, therefore I speak." $ Con- 
 trariwise, the Professor says : " I believe not, therefore I 
 speak." For he is eager to show why he does not be- 
 lieve, and to prove that we cannot know whether man is 
 immortal or not. He labors hard to demolish the belief 
 in the Biblical miracles, by invalidating the evidence ; he 
 even undertakes to give us an essay on The Evolution of 
 Theology. 
 
 Even in fiction, in the form of novels, the reading pub- 
 lic is entertained by typical instances of the tendency of 
 our age to discredit the marvelous part of Scripture. The 
 Rev. Robert Elsmere is thus changed from an orthodox 
 believer into a modern unbeliever, though it well-nigh 
 breaks the heart of his saintly wife.§ 
 
 Though the a priori objection against miracles is theo- 
 retically given up as unscientific, it is still in vogue with 
 most writers and iconoclastic lecturers, being tacitly as- 
 sumed, if not expressly stated. Prof. Huxley excepted, 
 
 * Prof. Clifford on The Ethics of Belief, in the Contemporary 
 Review. 
 
 t See above, Chap. XVII. \ Psalm cxvi. 10. 
 
 § Robert Elsmere. A Novel. By Mrs. Humphrey Ward. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 241 
 
 who relies more on other tactics. It is with this tacit 
 assumption of the antecedent impossibility of miracles, as 
 it is with the assumption of materialism, notwithstanding 
 its former disavowal. Materialism can be made so plaus- 
 ible to the popular mind with very little effort, that spirit- 
 ual demagogues can hardly resist the temptation to do so. 
 // stands to reason, or, " it is common sense that mind is the 
 product of organization," are the phrases usually em- 
 ployed ; but the truth is, that common sense is as fallible 
 as the senses ; as the eye, for instance, which informed 
 men for thousands of years that the sun revolves around 
 the earth, and that the earth is stationary. The hasty 
 conclusion that miracles are impossible, that all evidence 
 for them is to be rejected without examination ; that ac- 
 counts of miracles are attributable either to superstition, 
 hallucination, or imposture, is a convenient conclusion 
 for lazy or shallow minds. Goethe says : " Truth, like 
 pearls, lies deep in the bed of the ocean ; few are those 
 who are prepared to dive, while error floats on the sur- 
 face . " 
 
 Even modern representatives of that gifted race, the 
 Hebrews, are guilty of forming hasty conclusions in 
 regard to miracles. In sheer reaction from Rabbinical 
 traditions and ceremonials, they go to the other extreme 
 and endeavor to explain away the supernatural element 
 in the Old Testament, which endeavor is about as success- 
 ful as the attempt, for instance, to present the play of 
 Hamlet with the Prince of Denmark left out. 
 
 One prominent Jewish Divine actually wrote a new 
 version of the History of Israel, saying, by way of adver- 
 tisement : (I quote from memory) " Here I give you a 
 history of Israel without miracles or mysteries." In a 
 conference of the radical wing of American Reform 
 
 16 
 
242 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 Rabbis held at Pittsburg, Pa., in 1885, it was the sense of 
 the meeting to declare in a new, so-called platform that all 
 accounts of miracles in the Bible are to be regarded hence- 
 forth as the childlike fancies of their ancient ancestors. 
 The writer, who was present as a member of that confer- 
 ence, earnestly protested, and the proposition was aban- 
 doned. Intelligent Jewish men and women should not 
 blindly follow the teachings of such false prophets, upon 
 whom the mantle of Elijah did not fall. " Be not rash 
 with thy mouth," says the old book, " and let not thine 
 heart be hasty to utter anything before God." # I fer- 
 vently hope that the Israelite of the near future awake 
 from his dormant spiritual state and investigate this sub- 
 ject for himself. " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken 
 not unto the words of those prophets that prophesy 
 unto you ; they teach you vanity ; they speak a vision 
 of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the 
 Lord."t 
 
 Have ye therefore forsaken the teachings of orthodox 
 Rabbis, in order to fall into the meshes of cold unbelief ? 
 Or shall we never become independent of authority ? Is it 
 not predicted : " And they shall teach no more every man 
 his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the 
 Lord ; for they shall all know Me."| But when ye investi- 
 gate, beware that ye judge not superficially, or follow the 
 current of the fashionable opinion of the day. Be original, 
 as the future man is to be, and as the prophet Isaiah de- 
 scribes him : " He shall not judge after the sight of his 
 eyes, neither decide after a hearing of his ears." § 
 
 Then shall be fulfilled what is said in Scripture concern- 
 ing the future : " And all thy children shall be disciples 
 
 * Eccles. v. i. 1" Jeremiah xxiii. 16. 
 
 % Jer. xxxi. 34. § Isaiah xi, 3. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 243 
 
 of the Lord ; and great shall be the peace of thy chil- 
 dren." * 
 
 But to return to the general aspect of the matter, it is 
 evident that the Bible has become an unintelligible book 
 to those, learned or unlearned, who reject the miraculous 
 element therein. Again the great Seer of old can repeat : 
 " And all vision is become unto you as the words of a 
 book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is 
 learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I 
 cannot, for it is sealed ; and the book is delivered to him 
 that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he 
 saith I am not learned."f But the difficulty is one which 
 pseudo-enlightenment has created for itself in assuming a 
 priori that miracles are impossible, which is an unscien- 
 tific assumption, and in neglecting a whole realm of 
 psychic or occult forces and occurrences of the past and 
 present, by which is revealed the fact that miracles have 
 occurred universally, everywhere and in all ages, so that 
 the Biblical evidence for them is taken out of the realm 
 of impossibility and improbability. Nay, it would be 
 strange and abnormal if, during so many centuries, from 
 Abraham to Christ, there had occurred no miracles in con- 
 nection with the various religious upheavals and the appear- 
 ance of so many extraordinary men, who created new 
 epochs in spiritual thought. 
 
 The reader who has attentively perused the chapters on 
 The Transcendental Powers in Man, 011 Sleep, Visions, Ex- 
 cursions of the Spirit, Second Sight, Clairvoyance, Psycho- 
 logical Control, Inspiration, and, more especially, the 
 chapters on Modern Spiritualism, will find the Bible an 
 intelligible book, as far as miracles are concerned ; for he 
 has seen that the definition of a miracle does not involve 
 * Isaiah liv. 13. Isaiah xxix, n-12. 
 
244 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 a contravention of natural law, but an employment of a 
 higher psychic force, by which lower, material forces are 
 counteracted ; the employment of human volition, of intel- 
 ligence, for achieving certain results ; the use of unknown, 
 not supernatural forces. 
 
 What do miracles prove ? They do not prove moral 
 propositions, miracles do not prove doctrines. The mere 
 performance of a miracle does not prove that the per- 
 former is endowed with anything more than a gift latent 
 in most men, but abnormally developed in him, a gift of 
 producing phenomena called occult or marvelous. Some 
 gifts of this nature were often committed in olden times, 
 " not to the principal champions of the Christian cause, 
 but to boys, to women, and above all to private and obscure 
 laymen, not only of an inferior, but sometimes also of a 
 bad character. This only proves, however, that they were 
 in a measure dependent, like magnetic power, on certain 
 physical conditions. 
 
 The modern examples among us confirm this. Never- 
 theless, the highest order of spiritual gifts appear to attach 
 themselves only to those who are, in a corresponding de- 
 gree, morally and spiritually elevated. Hence, doubtless, 
 the unexampled pre-eminence of Christ's powers." * As 
 was recently said in answer to a question concerning the 
 promised signs and wonders that were to follow those 
 who would be followers of Christ, in going about doing 
 good : " So few of those who claim to preach the gospel 
 of Christ at the present time really follow in His footsteps 
 and go about — unmindful of personal comfort or happi- 
 ness — among the poor and unfortunate, breathing the 
 spirit of love and helpfulness to other lives, that we do not 
 wonder the signs which he promised do not follow them." 
 
 * The Debatable Land, by Robert Dale Owen, page 168. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 245 
 
 Generally speaking, however, the rule is that miracles 
 have no evidential value, such as is ascribed to them in 
 orthodox theology under the appellation of " External 
 Evidence." In the Mosaic Economy it is laid down as a 
 law that miracles alone do not prove doctrines." * In 
 the Talmud it is related that Rabbi Eliezer had a learned 
 dispute with Rabbi Joshuah, and in order to prove that 
 he was right, he performed in succession three miracles, 
 but his opponent did not recognize such marvelous feats 
 as proofs, when Rabbi Eliezer forthwith called for Bath 
 Kol, a voice from Heaven, to decide the matter. Then a 
 voice from Heaven said : " Why dispute with Rabbi 
 Eliezer ? he is always right." But the undaunted Rabbi 
 Joshuah replied : " The Law is not in Heaven." (Deut. 
 xxx. 12.) We regard not the Bath Kol. 
 
 In the book of Genesis there are in the first eleven 
 chapters undoubtedly myths and legends as well as al- 
 legories of esoteric origin ; but with the twelfth chapter 
 begins sober history. Abraham hears a voice that tells 
 him to emigrate from his native land ; the Lord appears 
 to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ; Abraham entertains 
 three men, who predict a future event and read the 
 thoughts of the wife of Abraham, who is in another apart- 
 ment. (Genesis, xvii.) Of course, the orthodox Chris- 
 tian interpretations can no longer be accepted. For 
 instance in the Speaker's Commentary, vol. i., page 123, it 
 is declared, that of the three men who visited Abraham 
 " two were angels and one was Jehovah himself ; that the 
 trinity is symbolized in the three men, and that Jehovah 
 had taken on the shape of a man, in the person of the 
 Lord Jesus. In Smith? s Dictionary of the Bible the phrase 
 the angel of Jehovah or the angel of God is declared to 
 * Deut. xiii., 2-4. Heb. Bible. 
 
246 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 mean " a manifestation of God himself in the form of man? 
 being the second person in the trinity.* 
 
 In the light of modern spiritual knowledge, however, we 
 see in the Biblical angels what the word angel signifies : 
 Messengers, spiritual visitants, who, if materialized, can 
 partake of food, as the spiritual guests of Abraham did. 
 The angel, however, who appeared to Manoah and his 
 wife declined earthly food. " Though thou detain me, I 
 will not eat of thy bread," t which is explainable on the 
 supposition that this messenger appeared as a spirit, not 
 materialized. 
 
 In the East, life was more subjective. Eastern races 
 are more contemplative ; not in such feverish haste to 
 explore external nature; not absorbed as we are in fierce 
 competition. They did not, as we do, study external 
 nature, but concentrated their mind on mental studies, 
 hence excelled in philosophy, ethics and metaphysics. 
 They lived more natural, less artificial, not enfeebled by 
 our luxuries and stimulants. Oriental nations, to this day. 
 are more susceptible to spiritual influences, as all races 
 are who live nearer and closer to mother nature. Our 
 North American Indians are possessed of more powerful 
 magnetic forces than the pale-faced men. As a matter of 
 fact, all our great religions came from the East ; and 
 Western Europe and America are now only rediscovering 
 psychic forces and spiritual truths, which had been known 
 for many centuries in India, Egypt, Asia Minor, Arabia, 
 and Palestine. Miracles were wrought and are wrought 
 to this day in the East, psychic powers are displayed by 
 the humblest fakirs, which are ignorantly disbelieved by 
 our materialistic western world. But not alone in Asia ; 
 all over the globe there were anciently, and there are to- 
 
 * Smith's Diet, of the Bible, i., 95. t Judges xiii. 16. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 247 
 
 day, mediums. Hence miracles are not confined to the 
 Bible.* 
 
 The mistake of the ancients was to assume manifesta- 
 tions from invisible intelligences to be divine. We in- 
 terpret them more rationally. If a person nowadays is 
 dairaudient and hears a voice not proceeding from a 
 mortal, he does not, if well informed, attribute the voice 
 to Almighty God, but to a spirit ; and he would, moreover, 
 not attach any authority to utterances of this sort. He 
 would know that a human being, though out of the fleshly 
 body and invested with a more ethereal body, is still a 
 human, finite intelligence ; in character either good, bad, 
 or indifferent, wise or otherwise. Now, this point is of 
 extreme importance in the interpretation of the ancient 
 sacred record ; for we see, at once, how the Deity must be 
 exonerated from charges of unrighteousness in commands 
 purporting to come from God, commands which must have 
 emanated from spiritual chiefs. 
 
 Let it be noted that there are powers and principalities 
 in the spirit-world, as well as on earth, and that tribal 
 organizations exist above as well as below. If good spirits 
 can influence and control mediums, so can revengeful or 
 domineering spirits ; spirits who seek to make their earthly 
 tribes powerful and who act on the principle that the end 
 sanctifies the means. What a flood of light this throws on 
 many a command of questionable morality, purporting to 
 issue from the ineffable Being whom we mortals can only 
 apprehend as the dual unity of infinite Love and infinite 
 Wisdom. 
 
 Likewise, there is no more conflict between science and 
 the Bible, since we regard the book no more as a final 
 
 * See The Wonders of Hindoo Magic, in The Arena for Decem- 
 jer, 1893, fr° m the pen of H. Hensoldt, Ph. D. 
 
248 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 revelation from God. We know, on the other hand, that 
 the other book, called the book of Nature, is a revelation 
 from God, and therefore no alleged other book from God 
 can gainsay what modern Astronomy, Geology and Biology 
 have discovered. We see in the Bible a number of sacred 
 books of very unequal value, which address themselves to 
 man's spiritual and intellectual faculties, subject to the 
 principle : " Prove all things ; hold fast that which is 
 good ! " 
 
 I know that it is taught from orthodox pulpits, that 
 there can be no selecting and rejecting ; that the Bible 
 must be accepted and believed as a whole, from Genesis 
 to Revelation. I also know that there are many intelli- 
 gent men and women who refrain from using their own 
 reason in this matter, the same reason, discrimination and 
 sound logic, that assures their success in other pursuits. 
 It is easier to take truths ready made from the man in the 
 pulpit, than to " search the Scriptures " for one's self. 
 Even those who in some measure abandon the orthodox 
 standpoint, do not succeed to get entirely rid of a certain 
 vague awe, when called upon to decide between reason 
 and so-called revelation. 
 
 On saying to a very cultured lady that some things in 
 the Bible must be rejected, she exclaimed, somewhat 
 shocked : " How is it possible to reject some parts 
 and still accept others ? " She, as the principal of a 
 high-school, firmly believes in the Copernican theory, 
 hence, does actually reject, by implication the Biblical 
 astronomy ; yet the proposition to apply the principles of 
 selection to the Bible has a startling, if not an appalling 
 effect upon her religious sensibilities. I may mention here 
 another case of illogical reasoning on the part of an eminent 
 Logician, who, from opposite reasons, comes to an illegiti- 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTUR E. 249 
 
 mate conclusion. Professor Alexander Bain, in an essay on 
 Metaphysical Study, mentions with approval the example 
 of a gentleman who duly abandoned the Bible altogether 
 on finding out that the six days of creation, as described in 
 Genesis, are rejected by modern science. This gentleman 
 acted, says the Professor, on the Principle of " Falsus in 
 uno, falsus in omnibus; Wrong in one thing, wrong in 
 everything y One would expect better reasoning from a 
 Professor of Logic in an English university. 
 
 The task of "reconciling " the texts of the Bible with 
 modern physical science in matters of astronomy or anthro- 
 pology, etc., will also be relinquished ; for there is nothing 
 to reconcile ; no more necessity to stretch texts so as to 
 make them more plausible to students of modern science ; 
 for we regard the Bible in a different light. 
 
 But to return to the question of miracles. It was 
 stated above, that miracles have no evidential value as so- 
 called external evidence of a divine revelation. Let me add 
 to this that, what miracles do prove is, that there are 
 transcendental powers dormant in the human soul ; that 
 there is a spirit in man ; that man is immortal, and that 
 there is an unseen universe, a realm of reality unlike the 
 shadowy, fleeting phenomenal world of material existence. 
 
 Thus is this problem of the Bible solved in the universal 
 solvent, the spiritual philosophy, and the prestige of the 
 book is restored. 
 
 And now we can perceive why hitherto men and women 
 of deep religious sensibilities still cherished the sacred 
 book, notwithstanding the adverse criticism of modern 
 iconoclasts. 1st. The supernatural element in the Bible 
 is its essence from the religious point of view, being 
 bound up with man's hopes and spiritual aspirations. 
 2nd, No substitute was offered by negative criticism for 
 
250 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 the precious and comforting truths of religion ; the only 
 alternative seemed hopeless pessimism and moral chaos. 
 The old adage is true : " A man convinced against his 
 will, is of the old opinion still." 3d, No convincing 
 rationale had yet been offered of the origin of miracles, 
 only guesses, theories and speculations. 
 
 All this is now changed by the facts of the new psychic 
 and spiritual researches. Again the assurance is repeated : 
 " I come not to destroy, but to fulfil." Ay, if there are 
 no useful errors, then all should abandon them with alac- 
 rity and accept the truth, for there can be no harmful 
 truths. Thus the spiritual philosphy does show the way 
 out of perplexity, doubt and unbelief. It comes, a friend, 
 not a foe, to the Church, and it is the only friend that can 
 help the Church out of its perplexing condition. What- 
 ever is true in the Bible and in Christianity can only be 
 conserved through the truth of Modern Spiritualism. 
 
 If theologians really want to save the Scriptures, let 
 them aid, not oppose, Spiritualism. 
 
 If they, however, will continue to attack it, either by 
 calling the spiritual phenomena tricks of imposture, or 
 by stigmatizing them as emanating from demoniacal or 
 satanic agencies, then let them know that they are pursu- 
 ing a suicidal course ; for then they are sawing off the 
 branch upon which they themselves are sitting. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 251 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 A modern seer, in reiterating Job's saying : " Touch- 
 ing the Almighty, we cannot find Him out," * conveys, in 
 the following words, the thought that man, as we know him 
 cannot even comprehend a human being who has attained 
 r certain altitude in spiritual growth. A. J. Davis says : 
 " No human spirit has yet conceived a thought, or uttered 
 a word, as it conceives of the Father, sufficiently magna- 
 nimous, sublime or expressive, to be applied to even one of 
 the glorious individuals, who, though once a resident upon 
 some earth, now treads the beautiful paths and flowering 
 valleys of the Spirit Home. " f If the heights man is 
 destined to reach, as he develops into angel, archangel 
 and beyond, are inconceivable to us at present, how can 
 we aspire to understand the Divine Nature ? In order to 
 know more, we must be more. Therefore the Spiritual 
 philosophy refrains from denning that which is Infinite. 
 " There is no time nor space, nor matter in the Infinite." 
 " By and by," writes P. B. Randolph, "in ages ten or twenty 
 thousand millennia hence, there will arise an organ whose 
 function will be that of more clearly cognizing God." Of 
 one thing we may be sure and that is, God cannot be less 
 than man. If man is an entity, an individual, God can 
 only be more, and, as Mr. Spencer says somewhere, there 
 
 * Job xxxvii. 23. t Special Providences, page 60. 
 
252 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 may be a state of being as much higher than Individuality, 
 as Individuality is higher than an impersonal object or thing. 
 " The Infinite cannot be comprehended, but can be con- 
 ceived of through perception, " it is said in The Soul; 
 or, as we would say : God can be apprehended, but not com- 
 prehended. " The conceptions (apprehensions) of the mind 
 are prophecies, and the comprehensions of the mind are lim- 
 itations." * Mr. Herbert Spencer says we can only have 
 a symbolic conception, not a real conception of many things. 
 "Great magnitudes, great durations, great numbers, are 
 none of them actually conceived, but are all of them con- 
 ceived more or less symbolically. " " When, on the sea- 
 shore we note how the hulls of distant vessels are hidden 
 below the horizon, and how, of still remoter vessels, only the 
 uppermost sails are visible, we realize with tolerable clear- 
 ness the slight curvature of that portion of the sea's sur- 
 face which lies before us. But when we seek in imagination 
 to follow out this curved surface as it actually exists, slowly 
 bending round until all its meridians meet in a point eight 
 thousand miles below our feet, we find ourselves utterly 
 baffled. We cannot conceive in its real form and magni- 
 tude even that small segment of our globe which extends 
 a hundred miles on every side of us, much less the globe 
 as a whole." f Speaking of the aeons of geological time, 
 Mr. Fiske remarks : " If these periods seem short in com- 
 parison with the enormous quantity of work that has been 
 done, both in the tearing down and rebuilding of the 
 earth's crust and in the modification of the forms of 
 animals and vegetables, it is no doubt largely due — as 
 both Mr. Darwin and Mr. Croll have reminded us — to the 
 fact that it is almost impossible for us to frame an ade- 
 
 * The Soul, by Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, page 9. 
 t First Principles, Sec. 9 and 10. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 253 
 
 quate conception of what is meant by a million years. 
 We are wont to use these great arithmetical figures 
 glibly and without comprehending their import." Mr. Croll 
 has done something to help us in this matter. " Here is 
 one way," he says, " of conveying to the mind some idea 
 of what a million of years really is. Take a narrow strip 
 of paper, an inch broad or more, and 83 feet 4 inches in 
 length, and stretch it along the wall of a large hall, or 
 round the walls of an apartment somewhat over 20 feet 
 square. Recall to memory the days of your boyhood, so 
 as to get some adequate conception of what a period of a 
 hundred years is. Then mark off from one of the ends 
 of the strip one-tenth of an inch. The one-tenth of an inch 
 will then represent one hundred years and the entire 
 length of the strip a million of years." * 
 
 These illustrations are here quoted in order to recall 
 once more what was said above in Chapter III. on The 
 Destiny of Man, and in Chapter XXII. on Spiritual 
 Evolution. Man begins low down, and passes through 
 all ascending stages. From the savage, of the type 
 represented by the natives of Tierra del Fuego, of 
 whom Mr. Darwin says : " The astonishment which I 
 felt on first seeing a party of Fuegians on a wild and 
 broken shore will never be forgotten by me, for the reflec- 
 tion at once rushed into my mind — such were our ances- 
 tors. These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed 
 with paint, their long hair was tangled, their mouths 
 frothed with excitement, and their expression was wild, 
 startled and distrustful." f From such a one to the 
 angel or seraph is an enormous distance, but analogy 
 from the lower or material evolution lessens our amaze- 
 
 * Excursions of an Evolutionist, by John Fiske, page 16. 
 t The Descent of Man, page 618, Am. Edition. 
 
254 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 ment. " If you measured the height of an oak every day 
 for a week, and found it always forty feet high, that ob- 
 servation would not prove that it would always be forty 
 feet high. It would only prove that whatever change of 
 height took place in a week was too small to be found 
 out by your way of measuring it. We know that the oak 
 was once an acorn, so that it passed from one condition 
 to the other. It did so gradually, by tiny steps, and not 
 by great jumps. We know that all the living matter on 
 the earth was once inorganic, so that it has passed from 
 one condition to the other somehow." * 
 
 Now, if we must count physical evolution by millions of 
 years, how much more time must we give to the slower 
 processes of moral and spiritual evolution. " Take two 
 persons, one a Hottentot, Digger-Indian or thick-lipped 
 Negro of the ' stupid ' tribe — two or three specimens of 
 whom may be often seen waddling up and down the 
 streets of Boston, listlessly staring in the shop windows 
 and fancying themselves ultra-human, when but three 
 removes from the horn-headed gorilla — the other shall be 
 a glorified seraph from the galactic girdle of the universe 
 of universes. They are both men, — -are the same exter- 
 nalized idea, but what a difference ! one would eat his 
 brother — the Hottentot ; one is ignorant of God's exist- 
 ence — the Digger ; one, the thick-lipped Negro, is wholly 
 unprincipled, incapable of refinement or true civilization, 
 and would swear away the liberty or life of his best friend 
 with perfect nonchalance and moral unconcern ; — while the 
 last, the seraph, would plunge into the seething hell — if 
 one existed — to save his most malignant foe. It is the 
 difference of a lump of charcoal against the Koh-i-noor, 
 the largest and most costly diamond known ; and these 
 
 * From a reply to Dr. Elam, by Prof. W. K. Clifford. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 255 
 
 last are again both identical in substance — the very same 
 idea, each being carbon ; but one is valued at ten cents a 
 bushel, the other at two million pounds sterling, — an em- 
 peror's ransom twice told." * 
 
 Mr. Davis tells us in one of his books (Answers to 
 Questions, page 121,) that "Spiritual progression does 
 not take place in a straight line ; the eternal process is 
 undulating and spiral ; at the uppermost point of one 
 spiral, the spirit merges upon the base line of a new diver- 
 gence, from the pivotal goal of the last experience." " Eter- 
 nal progression of the individual, when justly compre- 
 hended, is — to speak paradoxically — a truth beyond all 
 comprehension ; which is another way of saying this : 
 Eternity is an impossible conception, except as it is divided 
 up into ' times,' just as Infinity is incomprehensible, ex- 
 cept as it is divided into ' spaces.' Therefore eternal 
 progression means to a man's mind, and always must mean, 
 an endless succession of periods, eras, or ages, through 
 which his mind makes pilgrimages, retaining and main- 
 taining his identity by memory of only the substance or 
 essences of all his experiences ; but perpetually losing 
 memory of the details of every experience ; thus forever 
 keeping the universe new, his spiritual appetite for uni- 
 versal feeding forever healthy, and his aspirations eternally 
 youthful towards the whole, and away through into all its 
 countless parts and varieties. So the human mind, like 
 the sun, has its aphelions and perihelions ; it travels to the 
 extreme of its orbit in one great Sphere ; then it retraces 
 its steps back to its center ; and then, planet-like, it starts 
 immediately out upon another journey through the bound- 
 less fields of an unfathomable Univerccelum." | 
 
 * After Death, by P. B. Randolph, page 100. 
 
 t Views of our Heavenly Home, by A. J. Davis, page 174. 
 
256 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 »■ 
 
 The law of action and reaction is thus operative. Im- 
 agine a traveler who has to climb over a successive chain 
 of hills and mountains of ever-increasing height. After 
 reaching the top of one mountain he must descend into 
 the valley to reach the next higher one. Yet the valley of 
 spiritual reaction is often higher than the mountain left 
 behind, so that the descent is part of the following higher 
 ascent, the reaction being a preparation for greater prog- 
 ress. There are also false heights with counterfeit vir- 
 tues and false elevations, from which individuals and races 
 must painfully go down into the valley of humiliation, in 
 order to ascend the real heights. But the outcome is 
 glorious. 
 
 In the strife and turmoil of earthly materialism ; in the 
 wilderness of the present struggle for existence, there is 
 heard again " the voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the 
 wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert 
 a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and 
 every mountain and hill shall be made low : and the crooked 
 shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth : and 
 the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall 
 see it." * 
 
 If this doctrine of u Eternal hope" in the place of u Eter- 
 nal damnation" seem to the theologian less capable of 
 restraining men from sin, let him remember that man is 
 ever accompanied by the nemesis of absolute justice, and 
 that retribution is ever operative. Besides, what is more 
 rational and equitable than " working out one's own sal- 
 vation " ? Here is a divine verity ready to take the place 
 of a human dogma, the dogma of vicarious atonement 
 Surely, no one need feel apprehensive in exchanging error 
 for truth. Sin is moral disease ; means are provided for 
 
 * Isaiah xl, 3-5. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 257 
 
 its cure, for restoring moral health. " The methods, em- 
 ployed for healing are often called punishments ; in reality 
 they are remedial penalties, and form a necessary part of 
 the discipline of the human soul." 
 
 When Jesus said to Nicodemus : " Verily, verily, I say 
 unto thee, Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the 
 Kingdom of God " (John iii. 3), the learned master of 
 Israel exclaimed : How is that possible ? In stating his 
 objection, however, he "betrayed his misapprehension, his 
 taking the words in the wrong sense. Just so it is with 
 many modern masters, who object to the law of re-birth. 
 The proposition being to take the metaphorical words of 
 Christ literally, namely, that a man cannot enter the higher 
 spheres unless he be born again and again. 
 
 The self evident truth that what is evolved must be in- 
 volved, that whatever has no end can have had no begin- 
 ning, seems to be overlooked by most opponents of Re- 
 embodiment. 
 
 Even the great seer and writer, Dr. Andrew Jackson 
 Davis, scouts the idea of pre-existence. In Vol. V. of the 
 Great Harmonia, page 392, he says : " Minds of no little 
 intelligence have been, and are still, groping after a ' pre- 
 existence ' of the personality of the soul, in order to fix 
 philosophically the belief that it will never cease to ex- 
 ist The interior deductive Philosophy teaches 
 
 that the spirit, as an entity, begins to exist here." Mr. 
 Hudson Tuttle also strongly argues against re-embodi- 
 ments. See his Religion of Man, page 184, etc. One of 
 the guides of Mrs. Lillie is reported to have declared 
 facetiously : " If I am ever caught or found taking on an 
 earthly body, now that I am once free, you will catch me 
 napping." (Banner of Light, Feb. 20, 1892.) 
 
 Mr. Clegg Wright, I understand, rejects the doctrine ; 
 
 i7 
 
258 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 and Miss Abbey A. Judson, states formally her objections 
 a priori in the Light of Truth of Feb. 3, 1894. 
 
 Now, if successive embodiments take place, the process 
 is governed by law ; is a fact in nature against which 
 a priori arguments will not avail. Moreover, if the awful 
 problem of evil and of the natural inequalities in human 
 life is only soluble in the light of this doctrine, it follows 
 a posteriori, that men, in and out of the flesh, should think 
 twice before they, in their capacity'as public teachers, dis- 
 miss this doctrine almost with scorn, often with sarcasm. 
 The question is : How do we spend our eternity ? What 
 is the modus operandi of Spiritual Evolution ? Can we 
 gain experience and discipline by proxy ? As a matter of 
 fact we cannot now, in this life, gain these by proxy ; why 
 should we be able to do so in the higher life ? " We 
 know of a very philanthropic clergyman in England who, 
 in order that he may sympathize with the state of the 
 prisoner, locks himself up with the criminals and shares 
 their food and lodging. This is about as absurd as it 
 would be for a man to be hanged for murder, who has not 
 committed murder, that he may know how a murderer 
 feels. The state of the murderer is in the heart ; one 
 cannot take the place of the criminal unless he is in a 
 state of crime. He may endure, physically, what the crim- 
 inal is called upon to do, but he has the armor with which 
 to do it; the armor of innocence. So that which is a 
 penalty to the criminal, is simply the heroism of self- 
 appointed martyrdom to him who shares the dungeon, 
 but has not the darkness of guilt." {The Soul, page 57.) 
 An excarnated intelligence, who calls himself Wm. Bar- 
 ron, declares in The Light of Truth, Feb. 3, 1894, that 
 " many spirits who had done no work on earth, who have 
 not discharged their proper earth duties ; also suicides, 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 259 
 
 are often remanded back to earth to affix or polarize them- 
 selves on to some mortal, and often remain thus for many 
 years." This is what is called obsession. " I can say, as 
 a spirit," he continues, " who has lived in the spirit world 
 for many years, that there is no re-incarnation." 
 
 A better informed spirit, the illustrious Father Pierpont, 
 justly inveighs against this, saying : " It would be unjust 
 to the individual upon whom such a spirit would impinge 
 in mortal life, or obsess ; for in order to reap the entire 
 experience necessary to round out the soul, that spirit 
 would constantly have to impinge upon the mortal, and 
 thus drain it of the elements necessary for its own suste- 
 nance and experience. This would, in fact, deprive that 
 mortal sensitive of that discipline which belongs to it 
 alone, and consequently the spirit has no right and no 
 power to do this for a term of years in succession." {The 
 Banner of Light, December 3, 1892.) 
 
 As in physical life we cannot grow by proxy, nor eat or 
 digest by proxy, nor study by proxy, neither acquire any 
 skill or moral qualities by the dexterity or self-control of 
 others, so we must not expect a miracle, a miracle in the 
 impossible sense, when we ascend to a higher sphere. " I 
 have pain in my left side," said a young lady to a pretended 
 physician, a very bold-faced quack, who declared that 
 he could cure all and every disease human flesh is heir to. 
 "You have liver-disease," said he. The patient replied: 
 " But, Doctor, the liver is situated on the right side and 
 my pain is in the left." " Ah," was the rejoinder, " that 
 was so in olden times ; but now, we modern physicians 
 have changed that, and the liver is now on the left side ! " 
 Are not the Divine Laws immutable ? If there were no 
 uniformity of nature, we would be in perpetual confusion. 
 Already nineteen centuries ago it was said that with God : 
 
260 the religion oe the future. 
 
 "There can be no variation, neither shadow of turning." 
 (James i. 17.) "For," says Saint Paul, "God is not the 
 author of confusion, but of peace " (harmony). (1 Cor. xiv. 
 
 33-) 
 
 Father Pierpont declares : " Certain tribes of remote 
 times are not to be found in the spirit world, either in 
 the condition in which they existed on earth, or in a more 
 advanced state ; like the bushmen of Africa, whose spirits 
 are not to be found in the spirit world. They have been 
 re-embodied upon some portion of the earth, to undergo 
 an experience in contact with matter." " Also those who 
 passed out as idiots," etc. {The Banner of Light, March 
 18, 1893.) 
 
 Again, how can we explain the appalling evils and 
 natural inequalities of earth-life ? One human being is 
 born of noble parents with good inherited tendencies, and 
 starts out in life with the best chances for mental and 
 moral development. Another child is born of ignorant or 
 vicious parents, born with a defective brain, bad inherited 
 tendencies, amid degrading surroundings, and thus starts 
 out in life under fearfully bad auspices. Now, where is 
 the Divine Justice in these awful disparities ? These 
 problems already perplexed the ancients, and the author 
 of Ecclesiastes boldly declares them inexplicable. " That 
 which is crooked, cannot be made straight." 
 
 He boldly charges the Deity with injustice. Mark his 
 words : " Consider the work of God ; for who can make that 
 straight, which he hath made crooked ? " (Ecc. vii. 13.) 
 
 A. J. Davis grapples with this problem ; but to my 
 mind he fails to solve it adequately, which failure is 
 inevitable from his premises. Instead of seeing in the 
 law of heredity a mere secondary cause, he postulates it 
 as the primal cause. In vol. ii., Great Harmonia, page 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 261 
 
 165, he says : " The primary source of evil is hereditary 
 organization .... And here we find the foundation of 
 evil — its origin." The italics are mine. " Who," he con- 
 tinues, " shall receive the blame ? Who deserves it ? The 
 parents ? — They were, perhaps, born with similar defects 
 of physical organization and character. Shall the evil be 
 imputed to previous generations ? Perhaps they were no 
 less perfect. So questions may be asked as to the 
 proper subjects of blame or praise, until we lose ourselves 
 ip the animal kingdom — and still echo responds, " W 7 ho ? " 
 I cannot express adequately how much I owe to this 
 great seer and inspirational writer, and how much I revere 
 him as my teacher, guide and counselor. But in the in- 
 terest of truth he will pardon my assertion that the above 
 quoted explanation leaves the problem just where it was 
 before. I do not overlook the law of heredity as a factor, 
 but I contend that heredity is not the primary, efficient 
 cause of evil. Back of this law is ever the merit or de- 
 merit of the spirit, the Karma, which determines the 
 status into which the child shall be born. Every indi- 
 vidual creates his or her own opportunities ; is the molder 
 of his own destiny ; the architect of his own fortune. 
 Like the indestructibility of matter and the conservation 
 of force in the material world, every deed, thought, or 
 motive, good or evil, is distilled into Karma; is being 
 woven into the texture of the web and woof of character. 
 Thus, and only thus, is Divine Justice administered, and 
 we behold Absolute Equity in the moral world. 
 
 To assume that man begins to exist on Earth as an 
 Entity, is to still maintain that portion of Darwinism which 
 must now be abandoned in the light of recent discoveries. 
 Even from the mere standpoint of biological science Mr. 
 A. R. Wallace has proved conclusively that man's mental 
 
262 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 and moral faculties were not derived from the lower 
 animals. See pages 461-478 of Darwinism, by A. R. 
 Wallace. Macmillan & Co., 1889. 
 
 Thus is the way prepared for the true conception of the 
 Origin of Man. Evolution involves Involution. Eternity 
 implies Pre-existence. The Cause must be adequate to 
 produce the Effect, as was shown in these pages, and as 
 is more fully stated in Mrs. Richmond's book on Psy- 
 chopathy, and especially in her work The Soul. The 
 reader is also referred to the lucid exposition of Mr. 
 W. J. Colville in his admirable book, Studies in 
 Theosophy. 
 
 I may also mention the fact that the foremost writers 
 in Germany, Carl du Prel and L. B. Hcllenbach, teach Re- 
 incarnation as a fundamental fact in the new science of 
 man. French Spiritualists, as a rule, accept Re-incarna- 
 tion, Allan Karder having been an enthusiastic exponent 
 of this natural law, which he himself discovered in his 
 own reminiscence of a former life. 
 
 All human attainments are self-acquired. Given un- 
 limited time, and the rudest human being may, nay, will 
 become angelic. All must pass through all possible ex- 
 periences and discipline, and the highest conceivable 
 celestial being must have once been a humble individual 
 such as we are. " For we have not an high priest which 
 cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but 
 was in all points tempted like as we are" (Heb. iv. 15.) 
 
 Innumerable minor problems thus solve themselves. 
 Such, for instance, as the so-called innate attributes of 
 men ; the phenomenon of what we call genius, which is 
 a culmination in a certain direction ; the anomalies of an 
 Esau born from refined parents, and of a noble son, the 
 offspring of vicious parents. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 263 
 
 Some children seem superior to their parents ; some far 
 inferior to all their ancestors. Take an Esau and give him 
 the best chances for acquiring culture, he is innately un- 
 able to avail himself thereof ; he is not yet ready for higher 
 attainments ; while a " Mozart," at four years of age, 
 composed pieces of music. " To amuse ourselves," says 
 the father, in a letter to a friend, " I explained the pedals 
 to Wolfgang. He began immediately, stante fiede, to try 
 them, pushed the stool back, and preluded standing, and 
 treading the bass, as if he had practiced many months." 
 
 The reader must fill the gap from his own similar ob- 
 servations. 
 
 Mr. A. P. Sinnett in his Esoteric Buddhism says : "The 
 time spent by an individual in earth-life is a small fraction 
 — the larger part of the time — as we reckon duration of 
 time — is obviously, therefore, spent in the spirit world. 
 
 Assume that the average life of each incarnation 
 
 was a century ; even then we should only have 12,000 
 years out of a million spent in physical existence, against 
 988,000 years spent in the spiritual state, which would be 
 at the ratio of 80 to 1 at least. Then surely man's spirit- 
 ual existence is more important than his physical." As 
 to the hardships of earth-life he says aptly : " The spirit- 
 life is ever at hand to receive, refresh and restore the Soul 
 after the struggles, achievements or sufferings of incarna- 
 tion." 
 
 Will the patient reader once more contemplate what is 
 quoted in another chapter : Every incarnation of the pre- 
 existing spirit passes through the earthly phase into the 
 succeeding spiritual state, " the latter being the continua- 
 tion or fruition of each embodiment. As the seed planted 
 in the soil has a certain growth beneath the surface of the 
 ground, a fuller growth above the surface, and fruition 
 
264 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 there, so the spirit has the fruition of its embodiment in 
 the state which follows the separation from the body." 
 {The Soul, p. 65.) 
 
 Lessing is reported to have exclaimed when dying : " O 
 God, give me great thoughts ! " I submit, that these are 
 great thoughts, which will transfigure our prosaic every 
 day life and enable us to shout triumphantly : 
 
 " Lend, lend your wings ! I mount ! I fly I 
 O Grave ! where is thy victory ? 
 O Death ! where is thy sting ? " 
 
 To answer, in detail, all possible minor questions, is im- 
 possible within the limits of this book, which is concerned 
 only with the outlines of a stupendous system, a system 
 the divinely symmetrical proportions of which can only 
 gradually reveal themselves to the contemplating soul. 
 With Kant I can confidently say that " there is not a 
 single problem in human life which is not solved here, or 
 for the solution of which the key has not been given." 
 
 Not only this, but the spiritual philosophy reveals the 
 fallacies of other systems, as no other philosophy can, 
 because of its lofty standpoint, from which it commands 
 a view of all avenues of approach. Instead of beginning 
 with man and mind, to explain the world and matter, 
 modern materialistic thought began with matter to explain 
 man and mind ; an inverted method that could only pro- 
 duce preposterous results. " Ye turn things upside down ! 
 Shall the potter be counted as clay ; that the thing made 
 should say of him that made it, He made me not ; or the 
 thing framed say of him that framed it, He hath no under- 
 standing ? " * 
 
 " He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself 
 is judged of no man."f 
 
 * Isaiah xxix. 16. t I Cor. ii. 15. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 265 
 
 Let the reader beware of systems and methods of re- 
 search that begin apparently with the criticism of the 
 Bible only, but end with subverting Christianity, and 
 with denying the Immortality of the Soul. Both Strauss 
 and Renan came to such fatal conclusions. Though M. 
 Renan is sentimental and at times assumes a sort of co- 
 quettish tone toward religion, he in reality has boasted of 
 the fact that even peasants in France believe no more 
 in a hereafter. As regards Strauss, he began with vilify- 
 ing the Bible and ended with utter bankruptcy in faith, 
 with no God, no immortality ; reminding one of the 
 words of Frederick II. , to the runaway soldiers at a lost 
 battle " Hwtde ! wollt ihr ewig leben ? " "Ye dogs ! do 
 you want to live forever ? " * 
 
 M. Renan, lately deceased, is reported to have said 
 something sentimental on his death-bed concerning a 
 future life. But sentimental gush has always character- 
 ized that author and cannot atone for the mischief he has 
 done in frequently ridiculing the hope of compensation 
 in a future life for the trials, privations and bereavements 
 of this world. It seems as if nature had stunted some 
 human beings in spirituality, so that they do not even ear- 
 nestly desire to find the essential truths of religion veri- 
 fied. Abnormal such a state of mind certainly is. " The 
 natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : 
 for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know 
 them, because they are spiritually discerned." f 
 
 With the acceptance of, and practical conformity with 
 the great principles outlined in this book, the human race 
 will, after having passed the physical and intellectual de- 
 
 * See Strauss ' Der Alte unt der Neuer Glaube, 1882. 
 f 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
266 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 grees of expression, enter upon the third or spiritual stage 
 of development.* Already the atmosphere is pregnant 
 with forebodings of great impending reforms and social 
 transformations. Hitherto, " Love thy neighbor as thy- 
 self ! " was preached but not practiced. This precept, 
 said to be as old as Confucius, who lived many centuries 
 before the Christian era, has not yet been realized ade- 
 quately and universally in human conduct, because the in- 
 stitutions of society constrain men to be selfish and over- 
 reaching. But the religion of the future, being an every- 
 day religion, not a system of mere ceremonial piety, has for 
 its aim the reconstruction and gradual transformation of 
 these institutions, not by force nor by might, but by the 
 spirit ; the spirit of equity and true brotherhood. The 
 weapons of this warfare will not be carnal, but spiritual, 
 and the victory will consist in overcoming self, the lower 
 self. Then this precept can be obeyed ; then men can prac- 
 tice every day w T hat is preached on Sunday ; then the 
 golden rule will no more be a dead letter. It is a con- 
 summation devoutly to be wished for. 
 
 When, as at present, the problem of pure water for the 
 great city of Chicago is an unsolved one, one cannot but 
 think that, if, instead of being a matter of health, it were 
 a matter of money-making, the problem would have been 
 solved long ago. Yes, the time will come when men will 
 use their energy and the appliances of science for sanitary 
 purposes in order to prevent disease ; for prevention of 
 disease will be the great doctor of the future. The time, 
 when men of intellectual and financial resources will think 
 more of deeds of philanthropy than of amassing wealth ; 
 when the strong will " bear the infirmities of the weak, 
 instead of pleasing themselves." 
 
 * See The Soul, page 44. 
 
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 267 
 
 But the one thing demonstrated by the spiritual phi- 
 losophy which is transcendently glorious and of tremen- 
 dous consequences for man, is the certainty of immortality. 
 Soon the long streamers of black crape, the cerements of 
 woe, will have vanished from sight and the more fitting 
 white color will have taken their place. True, the parting 
 of friends will always be sad ; but the sadness attending 
 transition will ever be transfigured by the blessed con- 
 sciousness of being reunited in a higher sphere. 
 
 With these hopes I now bring this work to a close, not 
 unmindful of the supernal aid of great and good intelli- 
 gences, of the Spirits of Love and Wisdom who have in- 
 spired my humble pen. I also beg to express my profound 
 obligation to those Authors from whose works I have 
 taken the liberty to quote. 
 
 The book I now conclude comes with no modest mien, 
 but with mighty claims. Modesty befits the mere instru- 
 ment used by higher powers for transmitting great truths 
 but the truths themselves are irresistibly victorious. 
 
 If, like the greater books of modern seers, this present 
 volume should be listlessly received by this generation, the 
 ardor of the writer would not in the least be dampened, 
 knowing, as he does, that the great principles here laid 
 down will be truisms in succeeding ages, and that posterity 
 will hail any instrumentality by which the Kingdom of 
 God will be inaugurated on earth. 
 
 No claim is made by the author to literary skill or ele- 
 gance of style. His absorbing aim was to make intelligible 
 to the popular mind the truths of the Spiritual Philosophy 
 or the Religion of the Future. 
 
 THE END. 
 
From the press of the Arena Publishing Company . 
 
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 work can anticipate. . The style of the essays reminds the 
 reader occasionally of the older English humorists, but 
 there is added a suggestion of French sparkle and wit and 
 vivacity and lightness of touch. 
 
 Ihe History of a iSreat Social Experiment* 
 
 Price in handsome cloth, $2.00. 
 BROOK FARM. Memoirs, Historic and Per- 
 sonal. 
 
 Dr. John T. 
 
 Codman 
 
 The History of a 
 Great Social and 
 Intellectual 
 Awakening 
 
 A complete history of the famous Brook Farm experi- 
 ment has been one of those books which demanded writ- 
 ing to complete the most interesting era of American 
 literature and social thought, and at last we have a volume 
 that covers the whole ground adequately — Dr. John 
 Thomas Codman's " Brook Farm : Memoirs, Historic and 
 Personal." Dr. Codman is one of the few surviving 
 members of the Brook Farm community, and his work 
 has, therefore, the special value of intimate personal 
 knowledge of the inner workings of the scheme and of the 
 character and personalities of the group of famous men 
 who were interested in it. The book will have an im- 
 mediate claim upon the interest of all students of American 
 literature, and of social thought everywhere. 
 
 For sale by all newsdealers, or sent postpaid by 
 
 Arena Publishing Co., Boston, Mass. 
 
A Bundle of New Books. 
 
 B.O. Flower 
 
 The Social 
 Factors at Work 
 in the Ascent of 
 Man 
 
 & 3SfeuJ Booh of Social Hhought Just Published. 
 
 Price, paper, 25 cents; cloth, $1.00. 
 
 The New Time : A Plea for the Union of 
 the floral Forces for Practical Progress. 
 
 This new work, by the author of "Civilization's In- 
 ferno,", deals with practical methods for the reform of 
 specific social evils. The writer does not bind together a 
 mere bundle of social speculations, that would seem to 
 many to have only a remote and abstract relevance to 
 everyday life. He deals with facts within every one's 
 knowledge. "The New Time" brings its matter di- 
 rectly home to every man's bosom and business — follow- 
 ing Bacon's prescription. 
 
 It is published especially to meet the wants of those 
 who wish to apply themselves to and interest their friends 
 in the various branches of educational and social effort 
 comprised in the platform of the National Union for Prac- 
 tical Progress ; but, from its wide sweep of all the factors 
 in the social problem, it will also serve to introduce many 
 readers to a general consideration of the newer social 
 thinking. 
 
 Price, paper, 50 cents ; cloth, $1 .00. 
 
 The Irrepressible Conflict between 
 Two World=Theories. 
 
 Five lectures dealing with Christianity and evolutionary 
 thought, to which is added " The Inevitable Surrender of 
 Orthodoxy." By the famous Unitarian divine, advanced 
 thinker and author of "Psychics: Facts and Theories." 
 Mr. Savage stands in the van of the progress of moral, 
 humane and rational ideas of human society and religion, 
 which must be inextricably commingled in the new think- 
 ing, and a stronger word for moral and intellectual free- 
 dom has never been written than " The Irrepressible 
 Conflict." We are now going through the greatest revo- 
 lution of thought the world has ever seen. It means 
 nothing less than a new universe, a new God, a new man, 
 a new destiny. 
 
 For sale by all newsdealers or sent postpaid by 
 
 Arena Publishing Co., Boston, Mass. 
 
 Rev. 
 
 Minot J. 
 
 Savage 
 
 A New World, a 
 New God, a New 
 Humanity 
 
 The New Relig- 
 ious Thinking 
 deals only with 
 Verities 
 
From the press of the Arena Publishing Company. 
 
 A Stirring Drama of Iftar-iCimes. 
 
 Hary 
 Holland Lee 
 
 Price, paper, 50 cents ; cloth, $1.25. 
 
 ! MARGARET SALISBURY. 
 
 The setting of the story is vivid and picturesque, bridg- 
 ing the period of our Civil war, and its touches upon New 
 England and Virginia life are full of local color, provincial 
 phraseology and dramatic power. The tale opens with a 
 description of Three Oaks, a fine Virginia estate, the fate 
 of whose owners is curiously interwoven with the three 
 gigantic trees from which the place receives its name. 
 Mrs. Lee strikes the note of heredity firmly, and the most 
 tragic complication of her plot hinges upon the unlawful 
 use of hypnotic power. The world of books is far too 
 poor in well-told stories of our war, to accord anything 
 less than enthusiastic welcome to this latest comer, so full 
 of rich detail and striking scenes both North and South, 
 and so winning in the even, impartial temper with which 
 the sad struggles of the great Rebellion are incidentally 
 set forth. It will attract that great army of readers which 
 turns to books for amusement and distraction. 
 
 " Margaret Salisbury " is the brave and loyal heroine of a 
 stirring drama of the Civil War. Her love story is a sad one 
 and long in telling, but it affords the author opportunity to intro- 
 duce pictures of Southern life in anti-bellum days and some 
 startling episodes of army times. The sympathetic interest of 
 the reader will be aroused by a succession of unusual incidents. 
 — Public Opinion, Washington, D. C. 
 
 North and South, their people and principles, are the text of 
 the book. The slavery question is treated from an unprejudiced 
 standpoint. The Negro, Yankee and Southern characters are 
 lifelike under skilful moulding. As a love story it is pure, sim- 
 ple, strong and pathetic. — The American Newsman, New York 
 City. 
 
 " Margaret Salisbury " is a story of the war, and is charm- 
 ingly told. Its heroes are of the real kind who believe what 
 they profess because they Avere born to believe so. The story is 
 enlivened by a vein of rather exquisite humor and toned up by 
 clean, pure and healthy sentiment, altogether furnishing a most 
 entertaining tale of heroic times. — Kansas City Journal. 
 
 For sale by all newsdealers, or sent postpaid by 
 
 Arena Publishing Co., Boston, Mass* 
 
From the press of the Arena Publishing Company. 
 
 A Sequel to "Looking Bachu>ar6. J 
 
 Rabbi 
 Solomon 
 Schindler 
 
 Civilization 
 
 under National- 
 ism in the 
 Twenty-Second 
 Century 
 
 YOUNG WEST. 
 
 Price, cloth, $1.25 ; paper, 50 cents. 
 
 The author of ■ ■ Looking Backward " and others did a 
 good work in introducing to the general reader many ideas 
 which had been discussed for a long time by the best 
 scientific writers of our day, but which were and are un- 
 fortunately removed from popular sympathy through the 
 strictly scientific character of the literary vehicles in which 
 they appeared. But the author of " Looking Backward," 
 probably on account of the limited compass of his book, 
 has not given in detail a description of all the social con- 
 ditions of the brighter future which is to witness the tri- 
 umph of altruism. He has merely whetted the appetite of 
 the reader, but he has not satified his hunger. " Young 
 West " (the son of Julian West) will indirectly answer all 
 these questions. Describing his own eventful career from 
 his first awakening to consciousness to his age of three- 
 score and ten, the hero of the book will picture life in its 
 various phases, as it will be acted out by a citizen of the 
 United States of America in the twenty-second century. 
 
 The book is intended primarily to answer the many 
 questions which are asked about the practical workings of 
 nationalism and socialism. 
 
 A Stirring Story of the TJIar. 
 
 Helen H. 
 Gardener 
 
 Price, cloth, $1.25 ; paper, 50 cents. 
 
 AN UNOFFICIAL PATRIOT. 
 
 This is a story of the Civil War, but it is the first story 
 of its kind that has appeared in our literature. It deals 
 with a phase of the war entirely new in fiction. It is a 
 departure from all Helen Gardener's previous stories, and 
 is perhaps the strongest piece of work she has produced. 
 The Boston Hoine Journal says : " Is in many ways the 
 most remarkable historical novel of the Civil War which 
 has yet appeared. The story is filled with strong dramatic 
 incidents, and there is a bit of charming romance. Mrs. 
 Gardener has produced a book that will take very high 
 rank in the historical literature of the War of the Rebellion ; 
 for although presented in the form of a novel, its historical 
 value cannot be questioned. 11 
 
 For sale by all newsdealers, or sent postpaid by 
 
 Arena Publishing Co., Boston, Mass. 
 
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