Chapter 6
The Church Challenged by Spiritism
THE Christian church today is challenged by Spiritism -- not
merely by the fact that Spiritism is sweeping around the globe like a
spiritual influenza epidemic; but an actual challenge is thrown out by
Spiritism, demanding that the church show a reason for the continuation
of its existence. Until the church accepts Spiritism, the Spiritist
claims that she is standing still and refusing to progress.
Mr. W. Britton Harvey, editor of the Harbinger of Light,
speaks thus of the church's refusal to progress -- along the lines of
Spiritism:
"It is a great drawback to the spiritual enlightenment of the
people of Australia that there is no outstanding representative of the
Christian church who 'will boldly declare that, inasmuch as the
revelation of truth is a progressive process, it is possible that we
have reached an age in which the outpouring is being accentuated, and
that what is known as Spiritualism may be the channel divinely
selected for the manifestation of the purposes of the Most High. We do
not suggest that this should be definitely asserted as a fact, but
that the possibility should be admitted ; and that, consequently, the
varied phenomena associated with Spiritualism should be closely
examined, and in every respect approached with an open mind.
"This does not appear to be a very unreasonable proposition,
and if applied to any other department of inquiry -- a new scientific
theory, for instance -- would be readily assented to. Otherwise there
could be no progress in knowledge. We should be at an intellectual
standstill. But when we ask that the same principle be applied to
religion, we are usually met with a flat refusal, and assured that the
truth has been revealed once and for all, and that there can be no
revision. We, therefore, reach stagnation, and declare, in effect,
that progressive revelation is nothing but a myth. The words of the
Christ, that there were many things yet to be revealed, thus become
meaningless. In other words, puny man presumes to limit the operations
of the Almighty, and make Him indifferent to the growing spiritual
needs of a seeking and progressive generation."-- Harbinger of
Light, June 1, 1921.
What Mr. Harvey is pleading for, professedly in the interests of the
church itself, is that influential ministers of the gospel should take a
bold stand in encouraging their parishioners to investigate Spiritism,
upon the possibility that Spiritism may be the channel through which the
Most High will pour out the Holy Spirit upon the churches. Can we grant
that there is such a possibility? Can we logically presume that what
Jehovah cursed and absolutely prohibited under the patriarchal and
Levitical dispensations, He will sanction and bless and use under the
Christian dispensation? He says, "I am the Lord, I change not;
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Mal. 3: 6. Again ;
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever."
Heb. 13: 8.
Truth is eternal, rather than progressive, or in need of
revision, because it is of the nature of God. We speak of things or
individuals as progressive that are not yet perfect. We cannot speak
thus of the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal God as progressive.
We may progress from truth to truth, and thus come nearer and nearer
to the divine likeness; but God and truth are eternally the same; and
His truth is in no more need of revision than He is in need of change.
Through the eternal ages it will continue true that salvation from
sin was provided of God in Jesus Christ, and that there was no other
provision made, no other through whom salvation could come to man. But
Spiritism, upon the assumption that revealed truth needs revision,
discards the principle of life through Christ and through Him alone, and
teaches mankind to believe that life is continuous; that we do not need
Jesus Christ to make eternal life possible; rather, that it is
impossible to cause life to cease. That is not truth progressive or
revised; it is truth contradicted; it is truth made to appear a lie. The
Christ Himself declared, "I am come that they might have life, and
that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10. According to
this declaration of our Lord, what would have been the result had Christ
not come?-- The absence of life. So He is called the Life- giver.
"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
appear with Him in glory." Col. 3:4.
These are fundamental truths of the gospel, as declared by the Son of
God Himself, and by Inspiration through the apostle Paul. This apostle
found some among the Galatians who were preaching a different gospel
from that revealed to him by the Lord Jesus Christ; and of them and
their "progressive revelation" or "revised truth" he
says:
"Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be
accursed." Gal. 1: 8, 9.
Spiritism is certainly a different gospel from that taught by Jesus
Christ or His apostle Paul. Whereas the true gospel teaches salvation
through Jesus Christ alone, Spiritism teaches salvation as a progressive
process, going on in a life beyond the tomb; and in the assertion of
that life, it denies the explicit teaching of Holy Writ that the dead
sleep until the resurrection.
Mr. Harvey pleads that the churches should investigate Spiritism as
we do any other scientific theory; but Spiritism is not on the same
basis as scientific theories. Spiritism is a denial of the most
fundamental principles of the gospel, and seeks to prove itself true and
the things it denies untrue by psychical demonstrations, spirit
photography, table-rapping and table-moving, levitation, automatic
writing, planchette and ouija-board messages, trance-medium speaking,
etc. When we investigate these manifestations to see whether or not
Spiritism's claims are true, admitting at the same time the possibility
that they may be true, then by that same token and in that same
investigation we are seeking to determine whether the fundamental
principles of the gospel are true or not, and we are admitting the possibility
that they may not be true; because Spiritism denies the gospel's
very foundation; and if Spiritism be true, Christianity with all it
stands for is a fabrication of the mind founded upon the shifting sand
of human fancy.
Shall we, then, admit the possibility that the gospel as outlined in
Holy Writ is untrue? that Jesus was mistaken in His teachings and gave
His life for naught? that the disciples were hoodwinked into the
acceptance of a system of religion founded upon misrepresentation and
falsehood, and deluded in placing their hope and trust in One who was
mistaken in His mission? that Paul was indeed beating the air when he
was contending for the faith once delivered to the saints? We admit the
possibility of all that when we investigate the phenomena of Spiritism
to determine whether that or the gospel is the truth; whether that or
Jesus Christ is false.
Mr. Harvey considers it necessary to make this investigation and to
follow the leadings of Spiritism, else we shall "be at an
intellectual standstill." Until we have learned and exhausted all
the treasures of divine truth revealed in the Word of God, it is not
necessary to look elsewhere for spiritual leadership. God has left us a
mine of intellectual and spiritual wealth as inexhaustible as Deity
itself, in the Book given to us through inspired prophets and apostles
and the teachings of the Christ Himself. Are these empty now and
exhausted? If this were possible, it were better for us to wait until
the Deity Himself had filled them again, rather than accept a system of
intellectual progress that denies them and leads away from them into the
hopeless abyss of oblivion. Even though that way were studded with
myriads of scintillating diamonds, if it leads away from the gospel, it
leads to the pit of doom.
Mr. Harvey complains that Spiritism's plea for an investigation of
spirit phenomena is met by the church "with a flat refusal."
Well would it be for the church if this were as true as it ought to be
and as he says it is. He is "assured [by the church] that the truth
has been revealed once and for all, and that there can be no
revision." Very well; truth that needs revision is not truth. Who
will revise the truth of God? Are the peeping and muttering and
table-breaking spirits fit workmen for that task which even Divinity
will not attempt? We deny both their capacity and their authority.
It is indeed true that Jesus said, "I have yet many things to
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16:12); but
nowhere did He declare that when He should tell them, they would
contradict or be a revision of the things already told. Those things
which His disciples could not bear then, He told them later, or revealed
through Peter and Paul and James and Jude and John in their epistles,
and through John again in the Revelation. In none of these do we find a
denial of the basic principles of the gospel.
Spiritism comes to us now, claiming to have those other revelations;
but it bears the earmarks of the counterfeit, for it denies the very
foundations upon which the others builded, and denies the necessity for
the sacrifice of Christ. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews
declares: "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of' many; and
unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin
[or not as a sin offering] unto salvation." Heb. 9: 28. "But
this Man [Christ], after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His
enemies be made His footstool." Heb. 10: 12, 13.
In Spiritism's creed, salvation does not depend upon the sacrificial
offering of Christ. From a work written by Rev.) G. Vale Owen at the
dictation of a spirit who called himself Zabdiel, I take this
significant statement:
"I have heard, moreover, and believe it true, that those who
worship the Father God by other rules than the Christian are likewise
tended at their great festivals by their own special guiding, watching
angels."--"The Life Beyond the Veil," book 2, p.
157.
What are we to infer from this, except that those who follow
Confucius, Buddha, and Mohammed are as certain of eternal life as those
who trust in the sacrifice offered for man on Calvary? Each seems
equally acceptable to God, according to this teaching of Spiritism, in
spite of the plain and very positive declaration of God's Word that
"there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved." Acts 4:12. And yet Spiritism uses the very language
of Scripture, and some of the very words of our Saviour Himself, in
which to conceal the subtle poison of its deadly doctrine.
The pure gospel of Jesus Christ does not "limit the operations
of the Almighty," nor "make Him indifferent to the growing
spiritual needs of a seeking and progressive generation." A seeking
and progressive generation must be saved through exactly the same
sacrifice and by exactly the same process that men are saved by who
lived in the days of Christ and of Paul, of Luther and the Wesleys.
There is no respect of persons and no partiality with God. The
"operations of the Almighty" cannot be limited by humanity,
nor can they be revised or extended by mutterings from the spirit world
which deny the need for Calvary's offering and contradict the plan of
God by teaching salvation through one's own efforts in a continuation of
life beyond the tomb. God is not necessarily limited in His revelations
to prophets and apostles; but all further revelations from Him will be
in harmony with those already given. Revelations which purport to come
from Him, but which contradict those already given, bear their own stamp
of fraud and deceit. "To the law and to the testimony: if they
speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them." Isa. 8: 20. That is the divine touchstone, the divine acid
test; and the verse immediately preceding the one quoted shows that it
is to be applied to Spiritism primarily.
Mr. Harvey, continuing his plea that the church investigate
Spiritism, says:
"This is the only way of adding to our store of spiritual
knowledge. And it is knowledge -- knowledge that shall buttress a
wavering faith in the only things that really matter -- that
thoughtful men and women are seeking today. Above all else they want
to know: 'If a man die, shall he live again?' They put that question
to the church, and the church replies: 'Yes.' Then they ask for proof.
'We have none,' is the reply, 'apart from the statements contained in
the Scriptures.' But 'statements' are not 'proofs,' and as no further
advance can be made, the hungry are sent empty away. The church, in
short, has no proof that there is a spiritual world at all. As Canon
Adderley admits: 'The church can only assume that there is another
world. It does not know. It has remained for science to provide the
proof, and yet, notwithstanding all the evidence adduced, the church
still prefers to cling to mere assumption.' "--Harbinger of
Light, June 1, 1921.
But let us look into these most astonishing statements. Here is
Spiritism professing to be setting forth the revised truth of God for
"the growing ' spiritual needs of a seeking and progressive
generation," and what is its attitude toward the truth of God
already revealed, as we have it in the Bible? The statements found in
that Book of truth, spoken by the Christ Himself, or written by His
inspired penmen, are not "proof" to them; they are only
"statements," "assumption." And when we give them to
persons hungry for the truth,-- and that is all we have to give,-- these
hungry seekers "are sent empty away." After such statements as
these, it is incomprehensible to the writer how Spiritism can make any
claim at all to a belief in the God of the Bible, or in Jesus Christ as
even a great teacher.
Jesus Christ answered the question, "If a man die, shall he live
again?" in these plain words:
"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all
that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth;
they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that
have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." John: 28,
29.
Does that not answer the question? or is it only assumption, and not
proof? If that is only a "statement," only
"assumption," and not "proof," then we can put no
dependence in any of the teachings of the Man of Nazareth, and He is not
what He said He was,--" the way, the truth, and the life."
It was Job who asked the question, "If a man die, shall he live
again? "and under the spell of inspiration he answered it:
"All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change
come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee: Thou wilt have a desire
to the work of Thine hands." Job 14: 14, 15.
He says that he will wait till his change shall come. But where will
you wait, Job? Job answers: "If I wait, the grave is mine house: I
have made my bed in the darkness." Job 17:13. Therefore in the
grave Job would wait; he would be in the grave during all his
"appointed time," until God should call; and when God does
call, Job will stand up and answer. He will be among those of whom the
prophet Isaiah speaks, who will "awake and sing." I have
already quoted Isaiah's wonderful words; but inasmuch as they also
answer the question of a future life, I will quote them again:
"Thy dead men shall live, together with My dead body shall
they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as
the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Isa.
26: 19.
The psalmist also expresses the assurance of eternal life when he
says, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Ps. 23:
6. In that assurance he could "walk through the valley of the
shadow of death" and "fear no evil." He it was also who
declared: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy
likeness." Ps. 17:15. Job, in spite of his misery, had the same
glad assurance and hope when he declared:
"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at
the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for
myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another [or not as a
stranger]; though my reins be consumed within me." Job 19: 25-27.
The apostle Paul, whose writings were indited by the Spirit of
Inspiration, and who tells us that the gospel which he preached be did
not receive from man, but from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Gal. 1:
12-19), has given his testimony concerning the prospect of man's living
again. Let us hear him:
"Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is
written, Death is swallowed up in victory. . . . Thanks be to God,
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1
Cor. 15: 51-57.
Paul speaks as the veritable mouthpiece of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
declares, as our Lord declares with His own lips, that man shall live
again. The dead will leave their graves at the summons of the
Life-giver.
"I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the
books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the hook of
life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written
in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it; and death and hell [" the grave," margin ]
delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every
man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the
lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found
written in the hook of life was cast into the lake of fire." Rev.
20: 12-15.
Upon such testimony as the foregoing the Christian church bases its
belief in the affirmative answer to Job's question, "If a man die,
shall he live again?" Are these positive testimonies of prophets,
apostles, and of Jesus Christ Himself, to be tossed aside as mere
"statements" unproved, assumptions founded upon nothing
tangible, while we place our confidence and hope and trust in the inane
mumblings of those who, through "familiar spirits," seek to
the dead on behalf of the living? Woe betide those who do; for they are
casting away every possibility of immortality while they follow the ignis
fatuus of satanic falsehood into the quicksands of eternal death.
Nor is it easy to understand the position of Canon Adderley, that
"the church can only assume that there is another world;" that
"it does not know;" and that "notwithstanding all the
evidence adduced [by Spiritism], the church still prefers to cling to
mere assumption." The church does know, if it believes the Christ
who founded it, and the apostles through whom He spoke to it, and who
sealed their testimony with their blood. Surely a canon of the church
will not say that such positive declarations as we have read from our
Saviour are only "statements" and "assumption,"
unless he has accepted the destructive philosophy of the "higher
criticism," which is Ingersollism in a clerical collar and stole;
or unless the wanderings of a planchette over a sheet of paper have
convinced him that he ought to deny the Lord who bought him. Only under
such circumstances can we understand the "assumptions of the canon;
for the authorship of all such messages has to be assumed. They purport
to come from the dead; he assumes that they tell the truth, because they
speak of things which only he and the departed friend or relative knew
about, forgetting that invisible watchers are intimately acquainted with
every detail of one's life, and that some of these invisible watchers
are of the fallen hosts of heaven, against whom heaven warns the
inhabiters of earth.
Another doctor of divinity (Rev. Dr. Nixon) who seems to have left
the sure foundation for one of shifting sand, is quoted by Mr. Harvey as
saying:
"The attitude of the church seems to me to be strange, since
we would naturally suppose every churchman to be in the way of
becoming a Spiritualist, if not one already."
The churchman who places the Scriptures simply on a par with other
literature, who feels at liberty to discard whatever portions do not
agree with his own ideas, and who has imbibed the doctrine that
immediately at death the soul enters upon its eternal reward or
punishment, really has no logical reason to give as to why he should not
believe in Spiritism. The phenomena of Spiritism, when the fraud, which
even Spiritists admit, has been eliminated from them, do demonstrate
that there is an intelligence and a power connected with Spiritism which
are entirely outside of and beyond the human. Why, then, if these are
spirits of the dead, as they affirm they are, should not their earthly
friends communicate with them? To be sure, certain portions of the Bible
forbid witchcraft, wizardry, necromancy, and consulting with
"familiar spirits." But what of that? It is the fashion now
among many theologians, who have been educated in the schools of the
"higher critics," to discard portions of the Bible which do
not appeal to them as essential, and why should not the would-be
Spiritist do the same?
We are living in a generation that is taking all kinds of liberties
with the hidden forces of nature, and why not take liberties also with
the records of revealed religion? Surely if the theologians can condense
the ten commandments, which were spoken by the lips of Jehovah and
written by their Author's own finger, eliminating the
"nonessential"(!) portions; and if doctors of divinity can
condense the Bible itself into a Shorter Bible," eliminating all
"nonessentials"( !), such as all texts referring to the second
coming of Christ, and even eliminating the divine prohibition against
tampering with Holy Writ (Rev. 22: 18, 19), surely the would-be
Spiritist may be excused for eliminating such texts as do not comport
with his ideas and wishes. And he does it, and then takes to his bosom
the practices of Spiritism, which the unmutilated Book forbids.
It might be logical, as Dr. Nixon feels, for churchmen who believe in
the inherent immortality of man, to adopt Spiritism; and yet it is a
fact that many of them, while holding to beliefs that make the doctrines
and the practice of Spiritism logical, refuse to be, for the present at
least, ensnared in it. They realize that when their belief in the
inherent immortality of mankind is carried to the logical extent of
communicating with the supposed spirits of the dead, they are entering
upon dangerous ground. Across the pathway leading thitherward Jehovah
has set a danger signal and a warning, "Thou shalt not; that way
lies madness and the wreck of human hopes."
One professed representative of the Christian church, the Rev. F.
Fielding-Ould, M. A., vicar of Christ Church, Albany Street, London, who
has published a work entitled, "The Wonders of the Saints in the
Light of Spiritualism," is quoted by Mr. Harvey as saying:
"The leaders of thought, enlightened by divine inspiration and
afire with living intuitions, speak as prophets and seers, and march
in the forefront of the moving hosts of mankind, while the priests are
too often searching the musty authorities of the past until compelled
for their very life, and with a very great loss of prestige, to accept
what has become self-evident."-- Harbinger of Light, June 1 ,
1921.
This clergyman speaks as one who is thoroughly convinced that the
claims of Spiritism are true, and has therefore left the "musty
authorities of the past" (the Word of God) for what Spiritism has
to give; for none but "higher critics" and Spiritists can
speak of Holy Writ as a "musty" authority. How far such
leadings beguile away from the divine channel of truth and blessing, is
seen in this very declaration of a clerical convert to Spiritism. He
deprecates dependence for the essentials of religious faith and practice
upon the authoritative, heaven-inspired Book, the Bible. But God expects
us to depend upon that Book for those essentials. He has revealed His
will; He has never authorized any man or men to amend it, and has never
intimated that anything else would ever take its place. Here is His
admonition concerning just such suggestions as the aforementioned
clergymen have thrown out:
"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask
for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye
shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk
therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of
the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken. Therefore hear, ye
nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth:
behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their
thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto My words, nor to My
law, but rejected it." Jer. 6: 16-19.
They had turned away from the "musty authorities of the
past," even as Rev. Fielding-Ould advises this generation to do.
The principles of the gospel are eternal. The gospel is indeed "the
power of God unto salvation," and is capable of exercising its
divine functions equally in every age. This "progressive age"
does not require a revision of the divine plan of human redemption in
order that it may find the way to the Author of salvation. God was
displeased with the majority of His church in Jeremiah's day because
they deserted Him and His Word for the "progressive religious ideas
found in other systems, and He declared His displeasure in these words:
"Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will lay
stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons
together shall fall upon them; the neighbor and his friend shall
perish." Jer. 6: 21.
That destruction which God said would come upon the people because
they turned away from His authoritative plans and requirements, did
come, swift and certain. Now this generation is being led in the same
way that Jeremiah's generation was led,-- away from the authoritative
teachings of Jehovah, after the new, the mysterious, and the
"progressive." Has Jehovah warned us of a similar result?
"Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the
brightness of His coming: even Him, whose coming is after the working
of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they should
believe a lie: that they might be damned who believe not the truth,
but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2 Thess. 2: 8-12.
God did not take halfway measures with His people anciently when they
turned away from Him and were turned unto fables. He instructed them,
pleaded with them, and warned them. They persisted in their stiff-necked
attitude, and would have none of His authority; and then came the
judgment which He had in love warned them of and had pleaded with them
to escape. His warning to us is even more emphatic than to them; and as
certainly as night follows day, so certainly will the divine judgments
fall upon the people of this generation who sneer at the "musty
authorities of the past," turn a deaf ear to God's warnings, and
follow as a religion the system of satanic deception which Jehovah
denounced through His prophets of old; viz., seeking to the dead on
behalf of the living.
God called that practice "abomination," and outlawed it
among His people; and concerning His people's refusal to be bound by His
authoritative Word, He speaks thus through the prophet Isaiah:
"Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul
delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions,
and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did
answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine
eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not." Isa. 66: 3, 4.
This is the exact course which the above-named clerical Spiritist
advises this generation to pursue,-- to turn away from the musty
authorities of the past." But Isaiah tells us also what the result
will be of following that advice:
"Behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots
like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with
flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with
all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many." Isa. 66: 15,
16.
Leaders of heathen systems challenged the church in those ancient
days even as they do today, and sneered at her respect for the ancient
authorities. The church failed then as she seems to be failing today;
and the swift retribution which followed those apostasies is an
unmistakable prototype of the destruction which Paul says awaits the
church of this last generation when she follows those examples of
apostasy from the truth of God.
One of the most dangerous developments of our day is the
re-enforcement of the ranks of Spiritism from the clergy. Clergyman
after clergyman has gone over to it, and written books and preached
sermons in favor of the practice of necromancy. A Spiritist journal
says:
"A great many of the clergy of Great Britain -- particularly
in the Church of England -- have unquestionably arrived at a similar
conclusion [to that of the bishop of Southwark], and it may be only a
matter of time when they will obtain that convincing personal
experience which, in most cases, is absolutely necessary for the
removal of "the. remaining vestiges of doubt."-- Harbinger
of Light, June 1, 1921.
The bishop of Southwark, Dr. C. F. Garbett, had 'said he "was
bound to say that, when all that could be said against Spiritism had
been said, there remained a residue which could only be accounted for at
the present time by the hypothesis that there was some communication
with those who were not of this world. That was only a hypothesis which
might be disproved. There was, however, a strong case for investigation,
but it must be an investigation by competent people."
Thus do some of the leading clergy answer the challenge of the prince
of ruin. They answer it either by denying the fundamentals of their own
faith and accepting his delusions, or by weakly admitting that he has
presented a good case, worthy of serious consideration. So did Eve; so
did Adam; and so we have death and ruin in the world today; and so will
come, as God has so plainly declared, the judgments of the great Judge
upon a generation that stops its ears to the word of God speaking to us
from the past. This generation, that ought to be standing fast and
asking for "the old paths" surveyed by our own Saviour through
this wilderness of sin, is setting its face into that wilderness on a
path of its own choosing, but which the cunning deceiver has surveyed
for it,-- a path which leads straight down into the pit of everlasting
ruin. Says the wise man:
"When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is
pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding
shall keep thee: to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from
the man that speaketh froward things; who leave the paths of
uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness." Prov. 2: 10-13.
They who counsel us to fling aside the "musty authorities of the
past," are enticing us to "leave the paths of
uprightness;" and, doing so, we shall indeed "walk in the ways
of darkness," in the path that leads to the precipice of
destruction. If it is our firm intention to be humble followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and to share in the eternal inheritance which He has
promised, we will follow the divine admonition to "ask for the old
paths, where is the good way, and walk therein;" then we shall
indeed find rest for our souls.
When the prince of ruin challenges us, to desert the infallible
standard of divine truth, and sneers at that standard as the "musty
authorities of the past," it is time for us to answer that
challenge as did our Saviour in the wilderness of temptation: "Get
thee behind me, Satan." It is as necessary for us in the wilderness
of our temptation to be true to the Father as it was for Him; and the
power to enable us to do it "awaits our demand and reception."
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