1. THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS
It has been our fate, among all the innumerable generations
of mankind, to face the most frightful calamity that has ever
befallen the world. There is a basic fact which cannot be
denied, and should not be overlooked. For a most important
deduction must immediately follow from it. That deduction is
that we, who have borne the pains, shall also learn the lesson
which they were intended to convey. If we do not learn it and
proclaim it, then when can it ever be learned and proclaimed,
since there can never again be such a spiritual ploughing and
harrowing and preparation for the seed? If our souls, wearied
and tortured during
these dreadful five years of self-sacrifice and suspense, can show no radical changes, then what
souls will ever respond to a fresh influx of heavenly
inspiration? In that case the state of the human race would
indeed be hopeless, and never in all the coming centuries would
there be any prospect of improvement.
Why was this tremendous experience forced upon mankind?
Surely it is a superficial thinker who imagines that the great
Designer of all things has set the whole planet in a ferment, and
strained every nation to exhaustion, in order that this or that
frontier be moved, or some fresh combination be formed in the
kaleidoscope of nations. No, the causes of the convulsion, and
its objects, are more profound than that. They are essentially
religious, not political. They lie far deeper than the national
squabbles of the day. A thousand years hence those national
results may matter little, but the religious result will rule the
world. That religious result is the reform of the decadent
Christianity of to-day, its simplification, its purification, and
its reinforcement by the facts of spirit communion and the clear
knowledge of what lies beyond the exit-door of death. The
shock of the war was meant to rouse us to mental and moral
earnestness, to give us the courage to tear away venerable shams,
and to force the human race to realise and use the vast new
revelation which has been so clearly stated and so abundantly
proved, for all who will examine the statements and proofs with
an open mind.
Consider the awful condition of the world before this
thunder-bolt struck it. Could anyone, tracing back down the
centuries and examining the record of the wickedness of man, find
anything which could compare with the story of the nations during
the last twenty years! Think of the condition of Russia during
that time, with her brutal aristocracy and her drunken democracy,
her murders on either side, her Siberian horrors, her Jew
baitings and her corruption. Think of the figure of Leopold of
Belgium, an incarnate devil who from motives of greed carried
murder and torture through a large section of Africa, and yet was
received in every court, and was eventually buried after a
panegyric from a Cardi
nal of the Roman Church — a church which
had never once raised her voice against his diabolical career.
Consider the similar crimes in the Putumayo, where British
capitalists, if not guilty of outrage, can at least not be
acquitted of having condoned it by their lethargy and trust in
local agents. Think of Turkey and the recurrent massacres of her
subject races. Think of the heartless grind of the factories
everywhere, where work assumed a very different and more
unnatural shape than the ancient labour of the fields. Think of
the sensuality of many rich, the brutality of many poor, the
shallowness of many fashionable, the coldness and deadness of
religion, the absence anywhere of any deep, true spiritual
impulse. Think, above all, of the organised materialism of
Germany, the arrogance, the heartlessness, the negation of
everything which one could possibly associate with the living
spirit of Christ as evident in the utterances of Catholic
Bishops, like Hartmann of Cologne, as in those of Lutheran
Pastors. Put all this together and say if the human race has
ever presented a more unlovely aspect. When we try to find the
brighter
spots they are chiefly where civilisation, as apart
from religion, has built up necessities for the community, such
as hospitals, universities, and organised charities, as
conspicuous in Buddhist Japan as in Christian Europe. We cannot
deny that there has been much virtue, much gentleness, much
spirituality in individuals. But the churches were empty husks,
which contained no spiritual food for the human race, and had in
the main ceased to influence its actions, save in the direction
of soulless forms.
This is not an over-coloured picture. Can we not see, then,
what was the inner reason for the war? Can we not understand
that it was needful to shake mankind loose from gossip and pink
teas, and sword-worship, and Saturday night drunks, and self-seeking politics and theological quibbles — to wake them up and
make them realise that they stand upon a narrow knife-edge
between two awful eternities, and that, here and now, they have
to finish with make-beliefs, and with real earnestness and
courage face those truths which have always been palpable where
indolence, or cowardice, or vested interests have not obscured
the vision. Let
us try to appreciate what those truths are
and the direction which reform must take. It is the new
spiritual developments which predominate in my own thoughts, but
there are two other great readjustments which are necessary
before they can take their full effect. On the spiritual side I
can speak with the force of knowledge from the beyond. On the
other two points of reform, I make no such claim.
The first is that in the Bible, which is the foundation of
our present religious thought, we have bound together the living
and the dead, and the dead has tainted the living. A mummy and
an angel are in most unnatural partnership. There can be no
clear thinking, and no logical teaching until the old
dispensation has been placed on the shelf of the scholar, and
removed from the desk of the teacher. It is indeed a wonderful
book, in parts the oldest which has come down to us, a book
filled with rare knowledge, with history, with poetry, with
occultism, with folklore. But it has no connection with modern
conceptions of religion. In the main it is actually antagonistic
to them. Two contradictory codes have
been circulated under
one cover, and the result is dire confusion. The one is a scheme
depending upon a special tribal God, intensely anthropomorphic
and filled with rage, jealousy and revenge. The conception
pervades every book of the Old Testament. Even in the psalms,
which are perhaps the most spiritual and beautiful section, the
psalmist, amid much that is noble, sings of the fearsome things
which his God will do to his enemies. "They shall go down alive
into hell." There is the keynote of this ancient document — a
document which advocates massacre, condones polygamy, accepts
slavery, and orders the burning of so-called witches. Its Mosaic
provisions have long been laid aside. We do not consider
ourselves accursed if we fail to mutilate our bodies, if we eat
forbidden dishes, fail to trim our beards, or wear clothes of two
materials. But we cannot lay aside the provisions and yet regard
the document as divine. No learned quibbles can ever persuade an
honest earnest mind that that is right. One may say: "Everyone
knows that that is the old dispensation, and is not to be acted
upon." It is not true. It is continually
acted upon, and
always will be so long as it is made part of one sacred book.
William the Second acted upon it. His German God which wrought
such mischief in the world was the reflection of the dreadful
being who ordered that captives be put under the harrow. The
cities of Belgium were the reflection of the cities of Moab.
Every hard-hearted brute in history, more especially in the
religious wars, has found his inspiration in the Old Testament.
"Smite and spare not!" "An eye for an eye!", how readily the
texts spring to the grim lips of the murderous fanatic. Francis
on St. Bartholomew's night, Alva in the Lowlands, Tilly at
Magdeburg, Cromwell at Drogheda, the Covenainters at
Philliphaugh, the Anabaptists of Munster, and the early Mormons
of Utah, all found their murderous impulses fortified from this
unholy source. Its red trail runs through history. Even where
the New Testament prevails, its teaching must still be dulled and
clouded by its sterner neighbour. Let us retain this honoured
work of literature. Let us remove the taint which poisons the
very spring of our religious thought.
This is, in my opinion, the first clearing which should be
made for the more beautiful building to come. The second is less
important, as it is a shifting of the point of view, rather than
an actual change. It is to be remembered that Christ's life in
this world occupied, so far as we can estimate, 33 years, whilst
from His arrest to His resurrection was less than a week. Yet
the whole Christian system has come to revolve round His death,
to the partial exclusion of the beautiful lesson of His life.
Far too much weight has been placed upon the one, and far too
little upon the other, for the death, beautiful, and indeed
perfect, as it was, could be matched by that of many scores of
thousands who have died for an idea, while the life, with its
consistent record of charity, breadth of mind, unselfishness,
courage, reason, and progressiveness, is absolutely unique and
superhuman. Even in these abbreviated, translated, and second-hand records we receive an impression such as no other life can
give — an impression which fills us with utter reverence.
Napoleon, no mean judge of human nature, said of it: "It is
different with Christ. Every
thing about Him astonishes me.
His spirit surprises me, and His will confounds me. Between Him
and anything of this world there is no possible comparison. He
is really a being apart. The nearer I approach Him and the
closer I examine Him, the more everything seems above me."
It is this wonderful life, its example and inspiration, which
was the real object of the descent of this high spirit on to our
planet. If the human race had earnestly centred upon that
instead of losing itself in vain dreams of vicarious sacrifices
and imaginary falls, with all the mystical and contentious
philosophy which has centred round the subject, how very
different the level of human culture and happiness would be to-day! Such theories, with their absolute want of reason or
morality, have been the main cause why the best minds have been
so often alienated from the Christian system and proclaimed
themselves materialists. In contemplating what shocked their
instincts for truth they have lost that which was both true and
beautiful. Christ's death was worthy of His life, and rounded
off a perfect career, but it is the life which He
has left as
the foundation for the permanent religion of mankind. All the
religious wars, the private feuds, and the countless miseries of
sectarian contention, would have been at least minimised, if not
avoided, had the bare example of Christ's life been adopted as
the standard of conduct and of religion.
But there are certain other considerations which should have
weight when we contemplate this life and its efficacy as an
example. One of these is that the very essence of it was that He
critically examined religion as He found it, and brought His
robust common sense and courage to bear in exposing the shams and
in pointing out the better path. That is the hall-mark of
the true follower of Christ, and not the mute acceptance of
doctrines which are, upon the face of them, false and pernicious,
because they come to us with some show of authority. What
authority have we now, save this very life, which could compare
with those Jewish books which were so binding in their force, and
so immutably sacred that even the misspellings or pen-slips of
the scribe, were most carefully preserved? It is a simple
obvious fact that if Christ had been
orthodox, and had
possessed what is so often praised as a "child-like faith," there
could have been no such thing as Christianity. Let reformers who
love Him take heart as they consider that they are indeed
following in the footsteps of the Master, who has at no time said
that the revelation which He brought, and which has been so
imperfectly used, is the last which will come to mankind. In our
own times an equally great one has been released from the centre
of all truth, which will make as deep an impression upon the
human race as Christianity, though no predominant figure has yet
appeared to enforce its lessons. Such a figure has appeared once
when the days were ripe, and I do not doubt that this may occur
once more.
One other consideration must be urged. Christ has not given
His message in the first person. If He had done so our position
would be stronger. It has been repeated by the hearsay and
report of earnest but ill-educated men. It speaks much for
education in the Roman province of Judea that these fishermen,
publicans and others could even read or write. Luke and Paul
were,
of course, of a higher class, but their information
came from their lowly predecessors. Their account is splendidly
satisfying in the unity of the general impression which it
produces, and the clear drawing of the Master's teaching and
character. At the same time it is full of inconsistencies and
contradictions upon immaterial matters. For example, the four
accounts of the resurrection differ in detail, and there is no
orthodox learned lawyer who dutifully accepts all four versions
who could not shatter the evidence if he dealt with it in the
course of his profession. These details are immaterial to the
spirit of the message. It is not common sense to suppose that
every item is inspired, or that we have to make no allowance for
imperfect reporting, individual convictions, oriental
phraseology, or faults of translation. These have, indeed, been
admitted by revised versions. In His utterance about the letter
and the spirit we could almost believe that Christ had foreseen
the plague of texts from which we have suffered, even as He
Himself suffered at the hands of the theologians of His day, who
then, as now, have been a curse to the world.
We were meant
to use our reasons and brains in adapting His teaching to the
conditions of our altered lives and times. Much depended upon
the society and mode of expression which belonged to His era. To
suppose in these days that one has literally to give all to the
poor, or that a starved English prisoner should literally love
his enemy the Kaiser, or that because Christ protested against
the lax marriages of His day therefore two spouses who loathe
each other should be for ever chained in a life servitude and
martyrdom — all these assertions are to travesty His teaching and
to take from it that robust quality of common sense which was its
main characteristic. To ask what is impossible from human nature
is to weaken your appeal when you ask for what is reasonable.
It has already been stated that of the three headings under
which reforms are grouped, the exclusion of the old dispensation,
the greater attention to Christ's life as compared to His death,
and the new spiritual influx which is giving us psychic religion,
it is only on the latter that one can quote the authority of the
beyond. Here, however, the
case is really understated. In
regard to the Old Testament I have never seen the matter treated
in a spiritual communication. The nature of Christ, however, and
His teaching, have been expounded a score of times with some
variation of detail, but in the main as reproduced here. Spirits
have their individuality of view, and some carry over strong
earthly prepossessions which they do not easily shed; but reading
many authentic spirit communications one finds that the idea of
redemption is hardly ever spoken of, while that of example and
influence is for ever insisted upon. In them Christ is the
highest spirit known, the son of God, as we all are, but nearer
to God, and therefore in a more particular sense His son. He
does not, save in most rare and special cases, meet us when we
die. Since souls pass over, night and day, at the rate of about
100 a minute, this would seem self-evident. After a time we may
be admitted to His presence, to find a most tender, sympathetic
and helpful comrade and guide, whose spirit influences all things
even when His bodily presence is not visible. This is the
general teaching of the other world communications
concerning
Christ, the gentle, loving and powerful spirit which broods ever
over that world which, in all its many spheres, is His special
care.
Before passing to the new revelation, its certain proofs and
its definite teaching, let us hark back for a moment upon the two
points which have already been treated. They are not absolutely
vital points. The fresh developments can go on and conquer the
world without them. There can be no sudden change in the ancient
routine of our religious habits, nor is it possible to conceive
that a congress of theologians could take so heroic a step as to
tear the Bible in twain, laying one half upon the shelf and one
upon the table. Neither is it to be expected that any formal
pronouncements could ever be made that the churches have all laid
the wrong emphasis upon the story of Christ. Moral courage will
not rise to such a height. But with the spiritual quickening and
the greater earnestness which will have their roots in this
bloody passion of mankind, many will perceive what is reasonable
and true, so that even if the Old Testament should remain, like
some obsolete appendix
in the animal frame, to mark a lower
stage through which development has passed, it will more and more
be recognised as a document which has lost all validity and which
should no longer be allowed to influence human conduct, save by
way of pointing out much which we may avoid. So also with the
teaching of Christ, the mystical portions may fade gently away,
as the grosser views of eternal punishment have faded within our
own lifetime, so that while mankind is hardly aware of the change
the heresy of today will become the commonplace of tomorrow.
These things will adjust themselves in God's own time. What is,
however, both new and vital are those fresh developments which
will now be discussed. In them may be found the signs of how the
dry bones may be stirred, and how the mummy may be quickened with
the breath of life. With the actual certainty of a definite life
after death, and a sure sense of responsibility for our own
spiritual development, a responsibility which cannot be put upon
any other shoulders, however exalted, but must be borne by each
individual for himself, there will come the greatest
reinforcement of
morality which the human race has ever
known. We are on the verge of it now, but our descendants will
look upon the past century as the culmination of the dark ages
when man lost his trust in God, and was so engrossed in his
temporary earth life that he lost all sense of spiritual reality.