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It is plain, nevertheless, that the character of its moral phenomena is not to be determined by their origin, or by the nature of the physical manifestations which may accompany them, or by any rules of physical science, but by the laws of morality, and the spiritual intuitions of mankind. Practically, then, the origin of the doctrines of the "new dispensation" is of very little consequence, except that the incautious may be more likely to believe and confide in them if supposed to be of spirit-origin. It is certain, that, taken as a whole, they have had their origin from some evil intelligence, and they are to be judged of and practically regarded in precisely the same way, whether that intelligence is in the terrestrial, or any other sphere. Let physical science, then, do what it can, or do nothing. We have all the data necessary to determine the essential origin of this new (so called) development, its essential character, and the science by which to understand and judge it in all its essential and important features, facts, and relations. The spiritits cry out "Galileo," and accuse those who do not adopt their opinions of condemning what they have not investigated, and do not understand, and assure us that, if we would attend the "sittings" and "circles," "the manifestations" would not fail to convince us of their origin in spirit-agency; truly! and what if they should so convince us!

Tables move, bells are rung, guitars are played, pencils write without hands, people are slapt in the face, young ladies' combs are thrown upon the floor, their hair is dishevelled, and their dresses and persons otherwise treated in a very indelicate and unspiritual manner, and all this, and more of the same sort, demonstrably, by the agency of invisible spirits; but the same spirits, by various methods, communicate certain opinions in regard to the character of God, the duty of man, and the destiny of the human soul after death; —therefore!! these opinions are true, and reliable, worthy to command the belief, and to guide the conduct of men! "O most learned Judge! a Daniel come to judgement! yea a

Daniel!" is this the logic by which you would have us investigate "what we do not understand?" by which you would convince us that the consciousnesses which constitute us men in distinction from animals are mere hallucinations? All religious and moral belief resolves itself ultimately into a matter of choice and moral election, that is, into the degree and kind of moral developmeat; "he that is of God heareth God's words;" and these again depend upon a similar choice carrying with it a like spiritual responsibility; he that hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, chooses to remain in darkness.

Let those who choose, or who by the law of affinity are attracted thither, take their place in the animal sphere, emulous of the instinctive virtues and of the happiness of the bee-hive and the ant-heap; seeking as the ultimate earthly aim of man, beyond which "Progress" itself can no farther go in this world, the recovery of that "Law of Association" which is his inherently, and which, originally, did actually constitute and crown his unsophisticated high estate, till, in an evil hour, he learned the use of language (see Nature's Divine Revelations) that fatal invention " for the purpose of concealing one's thoughts," and by that learning fell!! "Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen! then, you and I, and all of us, fell down!"

The "New Dispensation," like other epidemic fanaticisms, will have its day. For all spiritual truth, or untruth, I repeat, is tentative, and a test of the spiritual state, or character, of those to whom it is addressed-hence false doctrine in religion is called apsdis, heresy, or perverse choice. And the doctrines of this development cannot fail to find their fitting soil, and appropriate correlation,-in this period especially, when the "auri sacra fames" has become a wide-spread famine-in the minds of vast numbers of men to whom they are but the expression of their very wishes. Indeed, if we may believe their authors and promulgators, they already

meet glad responses from all directions. This is as it should be. It cannot be, and we need not wish it to be otherwise,for the character is not made worse by the test that reveals it. And in relation to spiritual truth all forms of spiritual falsehood are indifferent. To some, even of these, it may prove useful to find what spirit they are of.

Yet I trust that a large proportion of those who are claimed as believers, I have myself been reckoned one-are mere investigators of the subject, or persons who are indulging a temporary curiosity, already, to my knowledge, satisfied, in many instances,-that very many others who reckon themselves believers, are persons spiritually undeveloped rather than misdeveloped, and to whom therefore the error may not be fatal because not wilful—that many others are carried along, or go along, with the movement, without knowing to what they are committing themselves, their attention having been absorbed by the manifestations without much inquiry in regard to the doctrines which accompany them. To all such, and to all others whose curiosity prompts them to a personal examination of the subject, as say the spiritists, so say I, investigate, investigate, make yourselves fully acquainted with the doctrine, and the whole doctrine in its relation to religion, and—if you like it, if you deliberately choose it, I have not another word to say, "non est disputandum," it is not a matter to talk about. But do not be deceived by the palpable sophism, that, because you cannot account for the phenomena, you are therefore to accept as true doctrines which outrage your religious consciousness. The phenomena of spiritism (let me repeat) should be divided into two not merely distinct, but different classes. 1st, The physical manifestations-which include not only movements of heavy bodies, apparent violations of the laws of gravity, but the method, the modus operandi of all intelligent communications. These let physical and mental science explain—let them demonstrate to us-anybody can theorise-the cause or

causes of them if they are able and if the spirits of dead men are shown to be the agents in the production of the phenomena, be it so, we shall have arrived at the knowledge of one fact, a fact, however, by itself, of very little consequence. 2d, The moral or religious manifestations, that is, the doctrine, or religious character of the intelligent communications -and it is plain that the religious character of these communications, so far as they have any religious character, is not demonstrated to be good, simply because it may have been demonstrated that spirits are the authors of them,—it is plain that the science which has shown us how, and by what causes the communications are produced may be incompetent to determine the character of them as good or evil. This, in order to be rightly determined, must be determined by a different science, but will be determined by each individual very much according to his own personal character.

Let then, those who choose and dare, degra le "The Living God" to a "Principle," and themselves to animals, that they may escape the moral accountability of men; certainly Christians will not shrink from the high, and-above the whole mere nature-sphere of cause and effect-super-natural dignity of humanity because it bring with it correspondingly high and supernatural dangers and responsibilities. At the same time, it is not for us to deny that we have forfeited this divinest birthright; to boast of our goodness and self-reliance; or to distrust the consciousness which asserts our guilt, our weakness, and our hopelessness, except through the "grace" of a Divine Interposition.

Let those for whom it is the highest conception, fancy to themselves a heaven which shall be as this world beatified, where the senses, the tastes, and the social affections shall find their fullest and most perfect enjoyment; for ourselves, let us be content if we may be found worthy to attain to that world where they "neither marry nor are given in marriage;" where the physiological and sensuous give place to higher relations. Let those who need and dare, invite the presence

and influence of familiar spirits, and take counsel of the souls of the dead; for us, it shall suffice, if God take not His Holy Spirit from us. Let those to whose character he is correlative, or to whose wishes he corresponds, fancy to themselves, or find in Nature, a God, who in his moral attributes is far below the demands even of the half unfolded religious consciousness of mankind as if the stream should rise high above its source-a God, who "nec bene promeritis capitur, neque tangitur ira," who cares not for our virtues, and takes no offence at our vices; we will still adhere to Him who is The Holy One, whose definition is also, indeed, The Good, but in whose goodness, along with a Divine Compassion unknown to those who have mistaken for it the moral imbecility of their Epicurean Deity, there is inherent and constitutive, transcendent Justice, which, in its relation to Sin, is, and can only be "a consuming fire." Let those to whom it is appropriate pay their Nature-worship to the great Productive Principle; their aweless and irreverent homage to the unconscious. Immutable Laws; and melt in sentimental emotion at visible beauty, or in poetic gratitude to beneficent Nature: as for us, still unto the King Eternal, Invisible, the transcendently personal "I AM," we will not cease to offer, through Christ Jesus, our love and our fear, become one in Adoration.

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