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Chapter 13

Unprofitable Communications

THERE is one verdict that can be truthfully rendered concerning all communications that "come through" from the so-called spirits of the dead. It is this: "Empty and unprofitable." No great thoughts, no new truths, have ever come to the knowledge of mankind through spirit intercourse. Spiritists, of course, take the position that such is not necessary -- that the important thing is that communications do "come through," thus proving the continuity of life -- and, of course, incidentally proving the Bible untrue in its statements concerning the condition of man in death.

'But the fact that something does "come through" from somebody does not necessarily prove the continuity of human life, nor the Bible untrue. The first thing which must be established is that that which "comes through" comes from the one from whom it purports to come. No proof for that has ever been given, nor will it ever be given. The dead still sleep, awaiting the call of the Life-giver. Those who profess to speak for the dead are the same beings whom our Saviour cast out of "possessed" individuals when He was upon earth. They misrepresent God, and Jesus Christ, and the de ad, and themselves.

Now as to the communications received. Let us see whether they are helpful, elevating, ennobling, or in any sense worth while. On Sept. 27, 1915, Sir Oliver Lodge and Mrs. Lodge had a sitting with A. V. Peters, at the home of Mrs. Kennedy. In the record of that sitting as prepared by Mrs. Kennedy are the following statements directed to Mrs. Lodge:

"What a useful life you have led, and will lead! You have always been the prop of things. You have always been associated with men a lot. You are the mother and house prop. You are not unacquainted with Spiritualism. You have been associated with it more or less for some time. I sense you are living away from London -- in the North or Northwest. You are much associated with men, and you are the house prop -- the mother. You have no word in the language that quite gives it -- there are always four walls, but something more is needed -- you are the house prop.

"You have had a tremendous lot of' sadness recently, from a death that has come suddenly. You never thought it was to be like this. . . .

"There is a gentleman here who is on the other side -- he went very suddenly. Fairly tall, rather broad, upright, . . . rather long face, fairly long nose, lips full, moustache, nice teeth, quick and active, strong sense of humor -- he could always laugh, keen sense of affection. He went over into the spirit world very quickly. There is no idea of death because it was so sudden, with no illness. . . .

"Before you came, you were very down in the dumps. Was he ill three weeks after he was hurt? [Sir Oliver Lodge interposes here, "More like three hours, probably less."] . . .

"When he was young, he was very strongly associated with football and outdoor sports. You have in your house prizes that he won, I can't tell you what. [Sir Oliver interposes again: "Incorrect; possibly some confusion in record here; or else wrong."] . . .

"Before he went away he came home for a little while. Didn't he come for three days? ["There is a little unimportant confusion in the record about 'days,'" interposes Mrs. Kennedy.] . . .

"And he wanted me to tell you of a kiss on the forehead.

"[Mrs. Lodge interposes, "He did not kiss me on the forehead when he said good-by."]

"Well, he is taller than you, isn't he?

" [Yes.]

"Not very demonstrative before strangers. But when alone with you, like a little boy again.

"[Mrs. Lodge interposes, "I don't think he was undemonstrative before strangers."]

"Oh, yes, all you English are like that."-- "Raymond," pp. 130-135.

Now, all this, and much more of a similar character "came through" from some kind of intelligence to demonstrate to Sir Oliver and Lady Lodge that Raymond was still alive and able to use his intellect, though through another. How it can do what it is supposed to do is beyond the comprehension of the writer, and surely the reader must agree that it is beyond his comprehension as well.

On Oct. 22, 1915, Sir Oliver and Lady Lodge had a sitting with Mrs. Leonard. They were seeking to get some "evidential" matter through the medium, and the idea of cross-correspondence was suggested. Sir Oliver makes this observation:

"I rather doubt if cross-correspondence of this kind can be got through Mrs. Kennedy, though she knows we are going to try for them. The boys are quite willing to take down any jumble, but she herself likes to understand what she gets, and automatically rejects gibberish." -- Id., pp. 160, 161.

Then evidently a good deal that "comes through" from the spirits is recognized by both mediums and sitters as "gibberish." This is one of the rewards of disregarding the Scripture warning against seeking to the dead.

On Oct. 23, 1915, Mrs. Lodge and others were having a sitting in Mrs. Kennedy's home with the medium A. V. Peters. While the sitting was in progress, the controlling spirit known as "Madam" relinquished control of the medium, and Sir Oliver makes this observation:

"Then an impersonation of my uncle Jerry was represented, with the statement, 'Your husband will know who he is;' but this part of the record is omitted as comparatively unimportant. It was unintelligible to the sitter."-- Id., p. 166.

Then there was a change of control, and this "came through:"

"I want to come. Call mother to help me. Because you know. You understand. It wasn't so bad. Not so bad. I knew you knew the possibility of communicating, so when I went out as I did, I was in a better condition than others on the other side.

"But no, wait. Because they tell me. I am not ashamed. I am glad. I tell you, I would do it again. I realize things differently to what one saw here. And, oh, thank God, I can speak! But . . . the boys help me. You don't know what he has done. Who could help? But I must keep quiet, I promised them to keep calm. The time is so short. Tell father that I am happy. That I am happy that he has not come. [On page 248 of "Raymond" the same spirit, purporting to represent Raymond, says, "You know that I am longing and dying for the day when you come over to me. It will be a splendid day for me."] If he had come here, I couldn't have spoken. I find it difficult to express what I want. Every time I come back it is easier. The only thing that was hard was just before. The 15th, do you understand? And the 12th. [Sir Oliver interposes, "We do not clearly understand these dates."] But every time I come it is better. 'Grandma helped or I couldn't. Now I must go Broken. . . . But I have done it, thank God."-- Id., pp. 167, 168.

Then another spirit takes control of the medium, and this is what "comes through:"

"I am an old Irishwoman. [To Mrs. Kennedy] You don't realize that the world is governed by chains, and that you are one of the links. I was a washerwoman and lived next a church, and they say cleanliness comes next to godliness! One of my chains is to help mothers. Well, I am going. But for comfort, the boy is glad he is come. [To Mrs. Kennedy] Your husband is a fine man. I love him. His heart's as big as his body, and it is not only medicine, but love that he dispenses." -- Id., pp. 168, 169.

Thus page after page of this kind of matter could be given, but who could be helped by it? What inspiration or uplift could humanity receive from it? Empty, unprofitable, and foolish; yet the system that is being built upon it is sweeping the world like a prairie fire, and proposes to supplant Christianity. Sir A. Conan Doyle, at the beginning of his lecture tour in America, had the assurance to declare that within fifty years "Spiritualism will replace present-day religion," and that "the churches in England are quietly adopting the tenets of Spiritualism." When Spiritism fulfils that prediction, it will be indeed "woe to the inhabiters of the earth." When men leave the sure foundation of the gospel to flounder in the swamps of spirit revelation, they will have turned their faces toward ruin, certain and absolute.

In spite of the senseless jargon that Sir Oliver Lodge has recorded in his book "Raymond" as the utterances of disembodied spirits, he makes this astonishing declaration:

"If departed human beings can communicate with us, can advise us and help us, can have any influence on our actions, then clearly the doors are open to a wealth of spiritual intercourse beyond what we have yet imagined."-- Id., p. 390.

One is compelled to ask in blank amazement, "In what does the wealth consist?" Inexperienced miners frequently " pan out " ounces or pounds of a substance which they think is real gold. They think they have struck wealth. But it turns out to be "fool's gold." They are poorer than they were before, for they have spent time and money for naught. The wealth which Sir Oliver imagines lies just at the point of his pick, is "fool's gold" only; and time and money invested in its exploitation are worse than wasted. He who sinks his shaft there must first turn his back upon the real gold, the real truth of God, and every step in that direction is a step away from God and eternal life.

Probably most of those who read these pages have some knowledge of the uplifting and sublime utterances of the Bible, and have learned to revere its sacred pages because of the intrinsic value of their divinely inspired utterances. Compare them for a moment with the spirit communications recorded on preceding pages, and then read the following:

"Why should God have sealed up the founts of inspiration two thousand years ago? What warrant have we anywhere for so unnatural a belief?

"Is it not infinitely more reasonable that a living God should continue to show living force, and that fresh help and knowledge should be poured out from Him to meet the evolution and increased power of comprehension of a more receptive human nature, now purified by suffering?"--" The Life Beyond the Veil," book I, Introduction, p. xxxiv.

And when we ask Spiritists for a sample of what God is pouring out now for the benefit of this "more receptive human nature," we get such material as that previously quoted in this chapter from spirit mediums. How can we call it anything but brazen effrontery even to infer that such "gibberish" is the modern manifestation of divine inspiration in the gift of prophecy? The wonderful messages that have come to us from God through Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and John, did not come as incoherent mutterings from a squirming, squeaking medium, nor by means of a tattoo beat out on a wooden table, nor through the staggering wanderings of a planchette over a sheet of paper. God's messages are clear, majestic, commanding, uplifting.

The Rev. G. Vale Owen, whose hand was used by a spirit to write of the "life beyond the veil," adds this note after the conclusion of one message:

"While writing the first part of this message, I could not see the drift of the argument, which seemed to me to be rather thin and muddled. On reading it over, however, I am by no means sure of my estimate."-- Id., p. 16, note.

If the one who has written it does not know what it means and its purpose, and whether it is really "thin and muddled" or something that is worth while, and is not sure about it even after reading it a second time, the rest of us may be excused if we decide that Mr. Owen's first estimate was the correct one. In fact, a careful perusal of the first three books of the Vale Owen scripts leaves the writer with the most decided opinion that the whole script is thin and muddled, empty, unprofitable, false. A lying spirit, a member of the host that fell with Satan from the courts of glory, has taken possession of the hand of a minister of the gospel, and is using that hand to foster the cunning falsehood of the leader of that fallen host,-- to teach that the dead continue to live and love and exercise every prerogative of sentient beings in ever-ascending spheres from the lowest hell up to "summerland" and beyond. A perusal of such books makes one feel as if he had been dragged through a succession of madhouses.

Communications that deal in uncertainties, where the inspiring spirit himself is uncertain, can never make one feel that he is grounded in certainty when he has finished with them. The author of the Vale Owen script, in speaking of certain laws which seemed complex, says:

"But if we could trace them up-stream and arrive at the origin, we should find, I think, that they were few and simple."-- Id., book 2, page 45.

Again he says:

"All the diversity you 'see around you is due, as it seems to us," etc.-- Id., p. 46.

Here is another illustration:

"Were it not for faculties we possess other than that of sight, we should, as I suppose, have difficulty in finding our way about."-- Id., page 53.

In another place he gives us this astonishing bit of uncertainty:

"So there are here, also, many who say that Christ is not God, and so saying think they have made an end of the matter."-- Id., p. 68.

I have italicized the words which show the uncertainty, and therefore emphasize the worthlessness, of these communications.

On one occasion Mr. Vale Owen requested his controlling spirit to give an illustration of what he meant in asserting that fairy tales and such like were the surviving descendants of the science of the past. These are the illustrations given:

"There is the story of Jack and the beanstalk. In the first place, look at the name. Jack is colloquial for John, and the original John was he who wrote the book of the Revelation. The beanstalk is an adaptation of Jacob's ladder, by which the upper, or spiritual, spheres were reached. . . . Punch and Judy might represent the transactions in which the two who stood out most reprobate were Pilate and Iscariot."-- Id., pp. 82, 83.

Is not this an attempt to make the sublimity of the Scripture record appear ridiculous? It unveils itself as the emanations of an enemy mind. The emptiness and cheapness of these spirit communications have already been mentioned; but note this statement:

"Yes, my inquiring friend, it is I who am writing. But you did not suppose I imagined for a moment that you would be satisfied with my own small talk, did you? "-- Id., p. 22.

At the next sitting this "came through:

"When we find difficulty in speaking so that we be heard of you, or make mistakes in our wording or even in the matter of the message, then be patient," etc.-- Id., p. 24.

With what astonishment and dismay would we view such guessings and such uncertainties and such admissions of error in the Book of God! We do not find them there. On page 96, book 3, of the Vale Owen script, occurs this expression:

"So far as we can penetrate, the reason for this decision," etc.

Such expressions as these are frank admissions that God is not speaking through these spirit authors; that they are left in the darkness to grope their unguided way in the faint glimmer of their own guessing. But the wonder of wonders is that human beings will leave the white light of God's Word to flounder through the slough of despond!

Prof. William F. Barrett, F. R. S., who is an ardent Spiritist, says:

"It is sometimes urged that the manifestations of life in the unseen are so paltry as to excite contempt."-- "Are the Dead Alive?" p. 289.

So they would be even if they were what they purport to be,-- evidences of survival after death. But they are not even that. They are evidences only that there are intelligences which we cannot see, and that these intelligences are really able to make their own existence manifest. But no shred of evidence has ever appeared anywhere, at any time, through any method, to prove that they are the spirits of the departed. They represent themselves so to be; but as they have demonstrated themselves, even on the admission of ardent Spiritists, to be conscienceless fabricators of falsehood, we are not warranted in believing any "revelation" that comes through or from them.

Spiritists have taken it for granted that the communications that come through spirit mediums purporting to come from their dead friends are genuine. The point to be proved is right there; and it never is proved. An unseen and cunning impostor, personating a dead friend, with every act of whose life that impostor is familiar, picks out incidents in that dead friend's life with which only that friend and one or two others are familiar, and uses his knowledge of those incidents to demonstrate that he is the spirit of that dead friend. Because he knows of that incident, it is reasoned that he must be that friend's spirit; and that therefore that friend, though dead, still lives and moves and has his being.

But not so. It is a cruel imposition, a truly fiendish misrepresentation. The departed one is still sleeping. Says Job: "If I wait, the grave is mine house." Job 17:13. Again he testifies:

"As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. O that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that Thou wouldst keep me secret, until Thy wrath be passed, that Thou wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? 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: 11-15.

Until the day of our Lord's return, when the heavens depart "as a scroll when it is rolled together" (Rev. 6:14), and the mountains and islands are moved out of their places; until the trumpet of God sounds, and the dead are called forth from their graves, Job expected to sleep in the tomb. Then he, with all who are judged worthy of eternal life, will awake and sing in the glad morning of the resurrection. (See Isa. 26: 19.)

Job further tells us, in refutation of the idea that the dead still live: "He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more." Job 7:10.

Every one of Spiritism's "demonstrations" is made for the purpose of proving that statement false, with all similar statements made throughout the Book of God. Both cannot be true. We must depend either upon the Bible or upon the statements of spirits who tell the truth only when it pleases them, and lie without scruple when it pleases them better.

As an illustration of this, I quote the following from records made concerning séances held with the famous medium, Mrs. Leonora Piper, in England:

"Séances, often two a day, were held for several weeks; and though some were almost complete failures, others were marked with conspicuous success. True incidents were often given in such a mass of error as to make it necessary to discount their value. Some sittings have all the appearance of the ordinary medium's talk and associational reproductions. Names were often given in a manner to suggest guessing and 'fishing,' and even though they were strikingly right, their significance had to be skeptically received or wholly rejected."-- "Science and a Future Life," by Hyslop, p. 163.

Prof. Frederic C. Myers, a member of the Society for Psychical Research, who attended the same séances, speaks thus of them:

"Phinuit -- to use his own appellation, for brevity's sake [one of Mrs. Piper's spirit controls]-- is by no means above 'fishing.' . . . There were some interviews throughout which Phinuit hardly asked any questions, and hardly stated anything which was not true. There were others throughout which his utterances showed not one glimpse of real knowledge , but consisted wholly of 'fishing' questions and random assertions."-- Quoted in "The Widow's Mite," by Funk, p. 250.

Another spirit calling himself "Pelham" frequently took control of Mrs. Piper; and in speaking of the difference between the two "controls," Fremont Rider, himself a Spiritist, makes this observation:

"With Pelham's advent, Mrs. Piper's mediumship took on a newer and improved stage. Phinuit was always a bit of a rascal, and something of a faker."--" Are the Dead Alive?" p. 305.

So through fakers and rascals, through admitted mistakes, errors, and falsifications, the newer and broader revelation is to come to humanity, the richer wealth of spiritual truth! We are neither enamored of the prospect nor anxious for its realization.

The writer last quoted tells us in the preface to his work, when speaking of spirit rappings, materializations, table levitations, trance speaking and writing, telepathy, and clairvoyance, that --

"Every one of these subjects has been, and is, so permeated with fraud that with most of them there is the gravest doubt if so much as one genuine example ever occurred. Yet a few keen-eyed and clearheaded investigators have braved ridicule and indifference, and assert that they have found beneath a tremendous accretion of error a nucleus of truth. . . . He [the author] has endeavored to give an impartial presentation of a subject, tangled perhaps more than any other, with conflicting theories and obscured with the grossest fraud."-- Id., Preface, page ix.

And then the author admits that when asked, as he had been by many, whether he could "recommend a thoroughly reliable medium," through whom they could communicate with their dead, he had had to reply:

"No, alas! he could do none of these things; and the wisest researcher in psychical science will tell you, if he be honest, that he cannot."-- Id., pp. ix, x.

If the leading exponents of Christianity could make such sweeping denunciatory statements concerning the Bible, the work of evangelists, and the fruit of the gospel generally, as Fremont Rider and other Spiritists have made concerning Spiritism and spirit mediums, they would be asked to give their attention to something more worth while, and it would be expected of them that they would. If such things could truthfully be said of Christianity, it would go down to defeat and ruin, and would well deserve its fate.

Fremont Rider admits that there is much rubbish in the matter given out by spirit mediums, but yet holds to his belief in Spiritism. He says:

"If I have made you believe that there is there, among a great deal of rubbish, a little very much worth while, I shall have achieved my purpose."-- Id., p. 340.

Whatever there may be that he considers worth while among that "great deal of rubbish," is put there by the deceiver of souls only as bait to lure men and women away from all that is truly worth while, and so bind the cords of his deadly deception more firmly about them. If they could find nothing at all that they considered worth while, they would drop Spiritism in disgust, and turn to safer and saner things.

The authors quoted are not the only ones who admit the trivialities of the " revelations "from" spirit land." Prof. G. Henslow, M. A., in an effort to excuse the worthlessness of such "revelations," says:

"It is forgotten that they are human beings just as we are, and are on earth still, only deprived of their bodies. Their characteristics remain the same. If one he frivolous here, he or she is still so on the other side. If serious here, they remain the same there; but it must also be understood that as earth is a training ground for the spiritual education of the same, still more it is so on the other side."-- "The Proofs of the Truths of Spiritualism," p. 26.

But the trouble with this hypothesis is that it refuses to operate. They never advance. Their last communications are as senseless and frivolous as their first. Even the best of them are mere generalizing platitudes that lead nowhere save away from the Bible, away from the Christ of God as the Bible reveals Him, and away from the gospel conception of sin and salvation. And when the truth is realized that these spirits are only the deceptive impersonators of the dead, the wickedness of their deceptive work and the ridiculousness of the whole psychical program are all the more strikingly emphasized. 

Professor Henslow gives the following incident from his own experience:

"A member of the family was appointed to go to India. A spirit reiterated that he would not go. At last he went; still the spirits asserted that he would not go. On being informed that he had gone, they remarked: 'Oh! we did not know!'"--Id., p. 39.

With such results, why continue to seek to the dead on behalf of the living?

The prophets of God were never afraid to tell their names. God had given them messages of importance; and they were not ashamed to let it be known that they had been thus used and honored. Not so with spirit revelators. Professor Henslow says of them:

"In spite of their frequently expressed desire to enter into communication with us, many spirits show a strange aversion to revealing their names. They give fake names or refuse to give their exact appellations. Some always assume pseudonyms."--Id., p. 72.

There are some people still living on this earth who specialize in writing anonymous letters. They are not generally considered the pillars of society here; nor need we expect that any beings who thus write to us from "beyond the veil" are worthy of our society or friendship or trust. Emanuel Swedenborg, who will hardly be accused of being an opponent of Spiritism, issued the following statement concerning spirit communications:

"When the spirits begin to talk to man, he must beware that he believes nothing they say; for nearly everything they say is fabricated by them, and they lie; for if they are permitted to narrate anything as to what heaven is, and how things in heaven are understood, they will tell so many lies that a man would be astonished."-- The Banner of Light, March 20, 1869.

Here is one more testimony as to the value of spirit intercourse, this time from Mr. Frederick C. Spurr. The article from which the following is taken appeared in the Australian Christian World, and was republished in the Southern Cross, of July 18, 1919:

"After having heard many of these trance addresses, I am bound to confess that they leave me entirely unconvinced regarding their value as a revelation of the beyond. They are often weak, windy, and so vague as to he entirely worthless."

The dangers of holding intercourse with the alleged spirits of the dead have been faithfully pointed out in preceding pages, together with the profitlessness of investigations into that realm. The opposition of Spiritism to the work of the gospel and to the true spirit of Christianity, has also been set forth. But the writer feels certain that if all his readers could get even a glimpse of the foolishness displayed and practised by the spirits and the mediums they control, no temptation to indulge in it would ever succeed with them.

In Sir Oliver Lodge's book" Raymond," there are scores -- I might even say hundreds -- of pages that are utterly senseless, devoid of any possible value to any human being. Much of it is not only without sense or value, but is literally foolish. Not wishing to weary my readers with a tedious recitation of such folly, even to convince them of the foolishness of Spiritism, I will give but a few samples of the material that makes up this now famous book.

"Mrs. Leonard went into a sort of trance, I suppose, and came back as a little Indian girl called 'Freda,' or 'Feda,' rubbing her hands and talking in the silly way they do."--"Raymond," p. 120.

"Then Feda murmured, as if to herself, 'Try and give me another letter.' . . . It is a funny name, not Robert or Richard. He is not giving the rest of it, but says 'R' again; it is from him. He wants to know where his mother is; he is looking for her; he does not understand why she is not here."-- Id., p. 126.

"I am aware that some of the records may appear absurd. Especially absurd will appear the free-and-easy statements quoted later, about the nature of things 'on the other side '--the kind of assertions which are not only unevidential but unverifiable, and which usually either discourage or suppress."-- Id., p. 171.

If the matter suppressed is more valueless, more absurd, and more ridiculous than the larger portion of that published, one cannot wonder at Sir Oliver's reluctance to bring it out into the light of day. But to continue the exhibition:

"He [Raymond] thinks he could get through in his own home sometime. . . . He really is going to get through. He really has got through at home; but silly spirits wanted to have a game."-- Id.. p. 194.

"A chap came over the other day, would have a cigar. 'That's finished them,' he thought. He means he thought they would never be 'able to provide that. But there are laboratories over here, and they manufacture all sorts of things in them. Not like you do, out of solid matter, but out of essences, and ethers, and gases. It's not the same as on the earth plane, but they were able to manufacture what looked like a cigar. He didn't try one himself, because he didn't care to; you know he wouldn't want to. But the other chap jumped at it. But when he began to smoke it, he didn't think so much of it; he had four altogether, and now he doesn't look at one."-- Id., p. 197.

"Everything dead has a smell, if you notice; and I know now that the smell is of actual use, because it is from that smell that we are able to produce duplicates of whatever form it had been before it became a smell. . . . Apparently, as far as I can gather, the rotting wool appears to be used for making things like tweeds on our side. But I know I am jumping, I'm guessing at it. My suit I expect was made from decayed worsted on your side. . . . You know flowers, how they decay. We have got flowers here; your decayed flowers flower again with us -- beautiful flowers ."-- Id., pp. 198, 199.

"Love to her what 'longs to you, and to Lionel. Feda knows what your name is, 'Soliver,' yes. (Another squeak.)"-- Id., p. 204.

"Paul's worried 'cos medium talk like book. Paul calls Feda 'Imp.' Raymond sometimes calls Feda 'Illustrious One.' I think Yaymond laughing! Always pretending Feda very little, and that they've lost Feda, afraid of walking on her, but Feda pinches them sometimes, pretend they've trodden on Feda. But Feda just as tall as lots of Englishes."-- Id.. pp. 2 35, 236.

"He [Raymond] does wish you would come over. He will be as proud as a cat with something tails -- two tails, he said. Proud as a cat with two tails showing you round the places. He says, Father will have a fine time, poking into everything, and turning everything inside out. . . . Feda's not fair; she's not brown, but olive colored; her hair is dark. All people that's any good has black hair."--Id., p. 269.

The only way to demonstrate to my readers the emptiness and the worthlessness of the matter that is "coming through" from such sources, is to let them see a few out of thousands of samples that might be given. It does not impress the writer that the nonsense and trivialities and the foolishness which are pouring out upon the world today from the mouths of thousands of spirit mediums are blessings in disguise, that they have any tendency whatever to uplift or better humanity; and when it is understood that the real purpose of the whole spirit campaign is to blind the eyes of human beings to the truths of God's Word, and to their need of a Saviour, and to their responsibility to their God, one can but look with dread and abhorrence and dismay upon Spiritism's far-flung propaganda. That it should succeed at all among thinking human beings, when it has only falsehood and folly to offer, would seem to demonstrate the truthfulness of the old saying that "mankind loves to be fooled." It is the acme of inconsistency, the crowning paradox of our day. are It may be suggested that other spirits and other mediums producing higher grade and more helpful matter. We will submit a few samples from the works of other authors than Sir Oliver Lodge:

"Jacolliot, in his 'Occult Science in India,' tells of a Hindu fakir, on the former's [Jacolliot's] own veranda, who extended both hands toward an immense bronze vase full of water. Within five minutes the vase commenced to rock to and fro on its base, and approach the fakir gently with a regular motion. As the distance diminished, metallic sounds escaped from it, as if some one had struck it with a steel rod. . . . The immaterial drummer obeyed the request of M. Jonciéres; but Sir William Crookes notes that the raps are 'frequently in direct opposition to the wishes of the medium,' and in Dr. Maxwell's case the noises displayed a most waggish perversity."--" Are the Dead Alive?" p. 46.

"The first thing it [the disembodied spirit] is called to do, on entering the spirit land, is to erect its own habitation, and make provisions for its own sustenance, by a careful cultivation of the soil there [in the empty space, five thousand miles from the surface of the earth]."-- "Modern Mysteries," p. 37.

"Upon his breast the man bears the twin insignia of his erstwhile womanhood, and physiologists will tell you that a like correspondence is not wanting in the other half which, with himself, makes one whole unit of humanity."--" The Life Beyond The Veil," book 3, p. 98.

"Earth and the whole cosmos of matter is the body of Christ."-- Id., p. 130.

"What may originate [in spirit land] as a book, may, before it reaches you, have been so much transfigured as to become an act of Parliament, or a play, or even a commercial enterprise."-- Id., pp. 32, 33.

"They [the spirits] are sometimes amusingly exigent; one will suddenly say when we are out of doors, 'We want some music!'

"As another example, I had 'been playing a long piece by Moskowski; and I asked what they would like next. The reply came, 'We think we should like a "Rag;"' so I played a 'Cakewalk,' of which they highly approved. We suspected that the listeners were not our usual musical audience. . . . I asked, 'What denomination do you belong to?' They replied: 'We are freethinkers and are very strict as to Sunday.' I asked again, 'Who directed you to be so strict?' 'We direct ourselves,' came the reply. Soon after they had gone, our usual friends spoke: 'We are sorry we asked those freethinkers to come and hear the music; but will not do so again.' "--" The Proofs of the Truths of Spiritualism," pp. 29, 30.

"Our friends [the spirits] often suddenly come out with quaint remarks, quite disconnected with anything gone before. Thus the hand wrote: 'We think our Little Man is very well, but not so glib as he used to be in his walking.' As I was then eighty-two, there is some truth in this very appropriate remark! On another occasion, the lady 'sensed' that some one wished to write, and the remark came: 'We think the Little Man will make good old bones.' "--Id., p. 34.

"I told the spirits beforehand [before a certain lecture], and they promised to be present. . . . Their 'report' was as follows: 'We thought it was a splendid lecture' and enjoyed it very much. We wish we could remember it, but we can't.' "-- Id., p. 38.

"Foretellings are often given us by the spirits; but they cannot be implicitly trusted."-- Id., p. 39.

Page after page might be filled with these empty and worthless vaporings; but sufficient, yes, more than sufficient, has been given to show the utter folly of looking to communications from the spirits for anything substantial or helpful or dependable. Spiritism is but an ignis fatuus. whose shifty glimmerings only intensify the darkness and lead one's footsteps into the dismal bogs of despair and eternal loss.

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