I can now turn with some relief to a more impersonal view of this great subject.Allusion has been made to a body of fresh doctrine.
Whence does this come? It comes in the main through automatic writing where the hand of the human medium is controlled, either by an alleged dead human being, as in the case of Miss Julia Ames, or by an alleged higher teacher, as in that of Mr.Stainton Moses.These written communications are supplemented by a vast number of trance utterances, and by the verbal messages of spirits, given through the lips of mediums.Sometimes it has even come by direct voices, as in the numerous cases detailed by Admiral Usborne Moore in his book The Voices.Occasionally it has come through the family circle and table-tilting, as, for example, in the two cases I have previously Page 48detailed within my own experience.Sometimes, as in a case recorded by Mrs.de Morgan, it has come through the hand of a child.
Now, of course, we are at once confronted with the obvious objection -- how do we know that these messages are really from beyond?
How do we know that the medium is not consciously writing, or if that be improbable, that he or she is unconsciously writing them by his or her own higher self? This is a perfectly just criticism, and it is one which we must rigorously apply in every case, since if the whole world is to become full of minor prophets, each of them stating their own views of the religious state with no proof save their own assertion, we should, indeed, be back in the dark ages of implicit faith.The answer must be that we require signs which we can test before we accept assertions which we cannot test.In old days they demanded a sign from a prophet, and it was a perfectly reasonable request, and still holds good.If a person comes to me with an account of life in some further world, and has no credentials save his own assertion, I Page 49would rather have it in my waste-paperbasket than on my study table.
Life is too short to weigh the merits of such productions.But if, as in the case of Stainton Moses, with his Spirit Teachings , the doctrines which are said to come from beyond are accompanied with a great number of abnormal gifts -- and Stainton Moses was one of the greatest mediums in all ways that England has ever produced -- then I look upon the matter in a more serious light.Again, if Miss Julia Ames can tell Mr.Stead things in her own earth life of which he could not have cognisance, and if those things are shown, when tested, to be true, then one is more inclined to think that those things which cannot be tested are true also.Or once again, if Raymond can tell us of a photograph no copy of which had reached England, and which proved to be exactly as he described it, and if he can give us, through the lips of strangers, all sorts of details of his home life, which his own relatives had to verify before they found them to be true, is it unreasonable to suppose that he is fairly accurate in his description of his own experiences Page 50and state of life at the very moment at which he is communicating? Or when Mr.Arthur Hill receives messages from folk of whom he never heard, and afterwards verifies that they are true in every detail, is it not a fair inference that they are speaking truths also when they give any light upon their present condition? The cases are manifold, and I mention only a few of them, but my point is that the whole of this system, from the lowest physical phenomenon of a table-rap up to the most inspired utterance of a prophet, is one complete whole, each attached to the next one, and that when the humbler end of that chain was placed in the hand of humanity, it was in order that they might, by diligence and reason, feel their way up it until they reached the revelation which waited in the end.Do not sneer at the humble beginnings, the heaving table or the flying tambourine, however much such phenomena may have been abused or simulated, but remember that a falling apple taught us gravity, a boiling kettle brought us the steam engine, and the twitching leg of a frog opened Page 51up the train of thought and experiment which gave us electricity.So the lowly manifestations of Hydesville have ripened into results which have engaged the finest group of intellects in this country during the last twenty years, and which are destined, in my opinion, to bring about far the greatest development of human experience which the world has ever seen.
It has been asserted by men for whose opinion I have a deep regard -- notably by Sir William Barratt -- that psychical research is quite distinct from religion.Certainly it is so, in the sense that a man might be a very good psychical researcher but a very bad man.But the results of psychical research, the deductions which we may draw, and the lessons we may learn, teach us of the continued life of the soul, of the nature of that life, and of how it is influenced by our conduct here.
If this is distinct from religion, I must confess that I do not understand the distinction.To me it is religion -- the very essence of it.
But that does not mean that it will necessarily crystallise into a new religion.Personally I trust Page 52that it will not do so.Surely we are disunited enough already? Rather would I see it the great unifying force, the one provable thing connected with every religion, Christian or non-Christian, forming the common solid basis upon which each raises, if it must needs raise, that separate system which appeals to the varied types of mind.The Southern races will always demand what is less austere than the North, the West will always be more critical than the East.One cannot shape all to a level conformity.But if the broad premises which are guaranteed by this teaching from beyond are accepted, then the human race has made a great stride towards religious peace and unity.The question which faces us, then, is how will this influence bear upon the older organised religions and philosophies which have influenced the actions of men.
