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 THE JESSAfiE OF SPIRITDAUSM 
 IN TBE PRESENT CRISIS 
 
 AN ADDRESS BY 
 
 mimm daeow qoetz 
 
 DeKvered before the NATIONAL SPIRITUAUST ASSOCIATION 
 OF AMERICA, OCTOBER 22, 1919, at PITTSBURGH, PA. 
 
THE MESSAGE OF SPIRITUALISM 
 IN THE PRESENT CRISIS 
 
 Address Delivered by 
 
 ELIZABETH HARLOW..GOETZ 
 
 Before the National Spiritualist Association of America, 
 October 22, 1919, at Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
 Reported by I. C. I. Evans 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL SPIRITUALIST ASSOCIATION 
 
 Copyrightfd, 1919, by E. H. Goetz 
 
 PRICE, 25 CENTS 
 
 baltimore, 1919 
 
 Press of Fosnot & Williams Company 
 
 s16 w. franklin street 
 
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 THE MESSAGE OF SPIRITUALISM IN THE 
 PRESENT CRISIS 
 
 By Elizabeth Harlow Goetz. 
 
 The topic which has beeu assigned us is, as you will find 
 upon your program, THE MESSAGE OF SPIRITUALISM 
 IN THE GREAT CRISIS OF THE NOW. 
 
 Every organization wliicla is effectual, political or other- 
 wise, is being asked today, "what it has to offer in this hour 
 when the world is so disturbed?" Therefore, it is in keep- 
 ing while we are among you as a distinctive body to give 
 our thoughts as to the situation. 
 
 Dr. Rhodes Buchanan several years since called the at- 
 tention of the world to the law which expresses in all things 
 known as the law of periodicity. It has been questioned by 
 the majority of thinkers, but slowly they are coming to 
 realize it as a fact in life as they have studied it from its 
 various angles and possibilities. 
 
 The law of periodicity is that which divides for you the 
 running time in life into seasons : it is governed in expres- 
 sion by the plane and its surroundings as to its manifesta- 
 tion. 
 
 In your Temperate zone you have the four seasons. Spring, 
 Summer, Fall and Winter ; in the Arctic region, light and 
 dark seasons, in Tropical, wet and dry. We find all through 
 life this law expressing itself in some degree, but definite 
 and positive. Mankind is but the product of nature ; the 
 most superior and wonderful of life, portraying the throb- 
 bing powers and laws that govern all things. Man, then, is 
 not exempt from the law of periodicity. 
 
 You find in the development of man on this plane : In- 
 fancy, Youth, Manhood and Old Age, each independent, yet 
 running silently and systematically into the other. We find 
 
not only iu mau pliysically but mentally and spiritually 
 this same law manifesting in even tenor. 
 
 This body is but the cloak which the real man wears, 
 through which he awakens to individual and collective in- 
 terests. 
 
 Civilization is man trying to live with his brother. In 
 other words, Civilization is learning how to live together. 
 
 In this process of men learning how to live together we 
 find this law of periodicity making itself most peculiarly 
 pronounced in the systems of social procedur-?. Thus it is, 
 that we talk of the New Age and of the Past Age, and com- 
 pare one state of society to another — it is but the law of 
 periodicity running out a Springtime, a Summer and Au- 
 tumn, or Winter season as it manifests in the great social 
 structure of human life. 
 
 It has been at least for a half century the great keynote 
 of society in all its organized manifestations that 'here was 
 to be born a New Era. All of you, it makes no difference 
 what particular ism, cult or religion you subscribe to, you 
 have all become thoroughly acquainted wii:h the one great 
 prophetic affirmation that a New Era is at hand, tliat New 
 Era is being born. 
 
 You cannot give birth to a newer expression of life in 
 any department without throwing off. stepping out from, 
 leaving behind and entering into new and untried situations, 
 conditions and relationships. 
 
 A great war was precipitated as from a clear sky ; the 
 declaration of war in 1914 sounded like a thunderbolt from 
 a clear heaven on a beauteous summer's day. It was not 
 Relieved by the world at that time that a war of ajiy 
 serious character could long live: you had grown into the 
 thought that war was a thing of the past — especially on this 
 side of the waters. 
 
 Peace had become the one accepted condition of society. 
 You did not believe, and the world in general did not believe, 
 that a great, disastrous war of long continuation could pos- 
 sibly live and produce that which has come to pass. But 
 
that great procedure, my friends, was the coming of iiie New 
 Era — as terrible, horrible and devastating as it has been — it 
 was the last great struggle of autocracy. 
 
 Autocracy is the government of the many by one supreme 
 in authority. It is. as, your attorneys in the business 
 sessions have explained, "Autocracy is that authority which 
 comes from above ; Democracy is authority coming up from 
 the people, lifting themselves with it." 
 
 This war has been the last heart-throb and effort of Au- 
 tocracy to prove that power is right, authorliy Icing anil 
 divine right the all-essential; these are based on the en- 
 slavement of the people. 
 
 Now then, we are at the close of the tragedy ; all things 
 have been upset by the war, men and women coming into 
 the New Era scarcely know which way to turn or what to 
 do, but they are more alive in the inner chambers of the 
 soul. They who are fully alive in this inner chamber can 
 readily see and appreciate the fact that the old period is 
 finished, the new is being born, and much that you have long 
 felt was a positive necessity you will gradually leave behind, 
 much which has held influence over us in the past will never 
 lift its head again. 
 
 The hour has come when Democracy is being born, not in 
 one locality, not beneath one flag, but in the great heart of 
 the world. It will not express itself in all nations alik(\ 
 It will not have the opportunity to express itself at its best 
 for some time to come. The new born child has to begin in 
 embryo, and it takes time, attention and nursing continu- 
 ously to develop and bring forth the great powei' in human 
 life. And so with democracy we are realizing it as a great 
 basic principle and expression that stands before us today. 
 
 You ask us as Spiritualists "What have we to say at this 
 hour?"' Our first answer to you is this: We would first tell 
 you to relieve the pain of the world. The world has posi- 
 tively believed in death. Fear of death has been the great 
 dark shadow that has come over all states of human devel- 
 opment and society. Modern Spiritualism is a study of life 
 
from its natural basis in a sane and natural manner to dis- 
 cover whether this thought that has been projected in refer- 
 ence to death be true or false, and we find that in all the 
 phenomena of Modern Spiritualism it has answered the 
 question that has held the student and the layman "If a 
 man die shall he live again" — and the answer has come in 
 no unmistakable sound. Seventy-two years ago in that tiny 
 cottage in yonder city there was made a sound, and behind 
 that sound was intelligence conveying its presence, and in 
 that primitive way said to the world "I Live." and no great- 
 er thought, no greater message, no more powerful message 
 can be vouchsafed to human kind than the positive thought 
 that I Live after my physical structure has long since been 
 destroyed. 
 
 This was like John the Baptist crying in the wilderness 
 that "another greater than I shall come." The greater one 
 is not apart from, but a development of the essential fact 
 I live. We find as we have followed step by step, type by 
 type, year by year, that the message has led us more and 
 more emphatically into life, life varied, wonderful, growing 
 and natural. 
 
 It teaches us when we stand before the crosses on Fland- 
 ers Field to realize that though they have thrown off the 
 physical form of this life it was not to pass through the 
 dark shadow of death, or separate them from those they 
 love, but was simply saying farewell to the coats they have 
 worn. We have learned to love the coats sweetly and tend- 
 erly, but we know it is not the man. 
 
 We lift our faces and in looking up with a keener and 
 clearer vision have seen — we know they are not dead, but 
 more alive than ever. The message of Spiritualism to the 
 n-orld' today is "Our Boys are not 'Dead, irrespective of na- 
 tionalities they live." They have only changed the coats 
 they wore and it has been a great awakening to them ; they 
 still live and love you and commune with you, touching your 
 thought and atmosphere. 
 
 Thus the Spiritualists' message is one of life and not of 
 
death or despair. It leads us out over the hills where we 
 see not the debris of these terrible battles, but the change 
 ill life that is taking place. You say to us "civilization has 
 become a failure," but we say to you no, for civilization is 
 but man's attempt to live together. Man cannot be a 
 failure ; he is a God, a God-child, "he is born in its image," 
 the book tells you. Therefore, man cannot fail though he 
 may move in the darkness and set in action the motions of 
 life that will not bring back all that is serene and sweet and 
 beautiful — but yet in the returning touch it brings him to an 
 awakening consciousness that re-asserts him and he finds the 
 better way. 
 
 Civilization has not failed, but you have reached the 
 climax and the summit of the old procedure from which you 
 have been working. The New Era is born. The newer 
 civilization is not one of Kings and Slaves, but one simply 
 of Humanity. It will not be one where men are preparing 
 to die, but where they are getting ready to live. It will 
 not be based upon degrees and possession and accumula- 
 tion, but upon the principle of service and association. 
 Therefore, my frineds, you can readily see, if you are to be 
 born into a larger expression of Democracy and Civilization 
 you must get out of the old shell that you were in whether 
 it hurts or not. You remember Parker Pillsbury once said 
 "Great Truths are Dearly Bought." The greater the truth, 
 the greater the price. The truths of the New Era have 
 called upon you to pay the price that is born from the 
 depths of your very being. The winter season of the last 
 cycle has been finished and the spring time is upon us. and 
 you remember as we pass from winter into spring how we 
 pass through the stormy, fretful month of March to the 
 uncertain weeks of April. Right now w^e are in the month 
 of March ; you know not what to expect for men have not 
 yet become alive enough to realize what is taking place. 
 The old is still trying to assert itself. Self-domiuancy is 
 uppermost as yet from the old position ; old ideals in a 
 large measure are still dominating, but occasionally there 
 
breaks through as in the sunny days of March the newer 
 spring-like touch. Then they stop totlaink and feel and see, 
 and as this goes on you will have passed through this ter- 
 rible period of uncertainty, upheaval and destruction into 
 the warm days of April, where you will begin to get hold 
 of yourself. At present many of you have believed the 
 New Era was coming were not prepared to stand the test 
 which is necessary, and have been in a state of confusion 
 as to the new condition, and you are looking about in a 
 questioning manner. 
 
 Spiritualism upon this question says to you "Hold Fast." 
 Man cannot fail ; man continually moves forward, but he 
 only does so as he leaves behind him that which hinders 
 him from expressing his greater concept. It has been said 
 to us that religions have failed, that the world has lost its 
 spirituality. No so, my friends ! The world has not lost 
 its spirituality, but the spirituality of the New Era is not the 
 spiritual concept of the past. You have believed in the past 
 that spirituality was but an expression of faith. You have 
 believed iu God, and have murdered your brother. You 
 have believed iu Salvation, and have created Hell. You 
 have believed in death, and have hoped for future life. 
 
 Spirituality is not belief; it is not faith, it is none of 
 these things. Spirituality is the rising of the soul of man 
 into greater expression. True spirituality is true living. 
 Man is spiritual according to his ability to express the best 
 within him. You have not gone backwai'd, you are not less 
 spiritual. 
 
 Why are you making ready? Why are you anxiously 
 awaiting to receive the coming King and Queen? Because 
 he forgot his crown, he left l)ehind his throne. He laid 
 away all his trappings of divine rights and went with his 
 people. The great spirit of humanity touched him and the 
 soul of the man superseded the Kingship of his inheritance. 
 
 That is why you love the King Albert — that is spirituality, 
 and in this great tragedy that has been upon us the ex- 
 pression of the spirit of humanity has been touched as 
 never before. 
 
You have come together in common aspirations of life 
 until today you are willing to think of the world, not na- 
 tional, but as a world of humanity. You are growing in 
 spirituality, you have come through a terrible Gethsemane, 
 and it has elevated you ; you have grown stronger and better 
 and more God-like because of your experiences. 
 
 The world is entering an era of spirituality whereby re- 
 ligion will not be a system of setting men apart in different 
 sects by set definitions, but bringing men together, where 
 you will consider the Fatherhood of God as never before. 
 On the battlefields they did not ask the boy soldier whether 
 he was Jew or Gentile, or whether he belonged to the Mother 
 Church or the Protestant Church ; but in the great hour of 
 suffering they came to the great appreciation of brotherly 
 kinship, and with the voice of kinship you discovered the 
 great brotherhood of life; so that today there is another 
 condition whereby you stand true and you are coming to- 
 gether. 
 
 The great thought of the hour is stamping out old pro- 
 cedure, it is wiping away National Discriminations in a mar- 
 velous way. While France, Italy, Japan, Russia and all 
 other nations will still have their own home affairs and 
 their own inherited tendencies, their own peculiar methods 
 of carrying out Democracy, Brotherhood and Kinship, yet 
 you will not be setting up statutory distinctions that have 
 been holding you in the past. 
 
 You have crossed the line where there will be a federa- 
 tion of the countries of the world. Believe what you choose ; 
 criticise whom you please, I am here to say, without feai- 
 or favor, the great New Era is one of association and serv- 
 ice, not alone of men nationally but internationally, reaching 
 from every municipality of the smallest possible form to 
 the largest national concept of the world. 
 
 This is the message of Spiritualism at this hour. You 
 cannot go backward, you must go forward. The time was 
 when you could not communicate with nations across the 
 sea. The day was when nations were separated by the 
 
10 
 
 ocean, but today you step into au airsliip aud in 1(J hours 
 you go from Halifax to Ireland — tile day of separatednes.^ 
 is passed. The inventions giving you the telephone, the 
 telegraph and flying machine have given you the power that 
 you may go where you please, when you please — thus weld- 
 ing mankind together. 
 
 There are those who say "that men never can and never 
 will live together without war." My friends, the time was 
 when man said that you could not live in cities without 
 walls, because the others would steal upon you at night aud 
 take your possessions. But the walls have faded away and 
 the men in this generation would consider the individual 
 that recommended them disturbed mentally. The day was 
 when you said "That all differences between individuals 
 must be settled by the blood of the individual." But you 
 have grown out of the custom of duelling and you enter the 
 court of justice. 
 
 The great majority are for peace and order, reason, arbi- 
 tration and consideration. There has grown into your minds 
 demands, not dreams, demands for arbitration of all ques- 
 tions. There was a time when it was thought wonderful 
 for a steamboat or railway train to travel 12 miles an hour. 
 There was a time when automobiles wei-e unthought of, l)ut 
 man has developed and overcome until these apparent dif- 
 ficulties which beset him have faded away, and he has 
 broadened in his individuality and mode of life. You have 
 at last come to the hour where you are devising and work- 
 ing out a system of arbitration of all troubles of the nation 
 aud the worlds-say what you will. 
 
 The message of Spiritualism goes on to say that we have 
 
 diascovered that man is not simply bone and muscle, and has 
 a soul that will live hereafter, but he is a soul now, aud 
 notv possesses his spiritual body. Our mediums often see 
 them ; yoiT have often felt them and wondered what it was. 
 
 It is a growing fact that we are coming to realize that man 
 is not a spirit product ready to be plucked or to be pun- 
 ished, but he is a potential quantity that is unfolding and 
 
11 
 
 growing into expi'ession as opportunity and environment 
 make way for liim. We haA^e discovered tliat men grow 
 only as they are better situated and environed here on the 
 earth plane, by coming to realize that man is essentially 
 divine instead of evil, essentially strong instead of weak, 
 we shall cease praying to God on Sunday to save him and 
 begin to create environments for liim on Monday that will 
 appeal to the aspirations of the soul instead of weakness of 
 the physical. 
 
 When you begin to change the general environments of 
 society with this undei'stauding you will need to pray less 
 and greater works will follow. Men only grow strong, use- 
 ful and good in freedom. Some have said that the world 
 already has too much freedom. Phillips Brooks was once 
 asked what he would recommend when men had too much 
 freedom, and he calmly replied "Give them more freedom." 
 He was then asked his definition of freedom, and he said : 
 "An opportunity for man to do his best." 
 
 The New Era will be an era of creating environments that 
 will recognize and bring forward more of man that he may 
 do his best. This economic situation that faces the world 
 today will be based upon a new redemptive power. You 
 may not realize it, but the world is now in debt to herself. 
 It is not Russia indebted to America, or England indebted to 
 her, but the world in debt to herself, and you will never be 
 able to rise from the situation through the present processes 
 based on competition. 
 
 The old economic basis was based upon commodity values 
 which fluctuated with the rise and fall of commodity uses. 
 The system was one of accumulation, possession and compe- 
 tition. The new consideration is that man is that redeeming 
 power economically. 
 
 A mountain of gold without brains and muscle to use it 
 is but an object. Man, with his brain and muscle, is a 
 vital power of creative wealth. 
 
 Thus we begin to realize that man is the redeeming power. 
 The new system of economic procedure will not be for accu- 
 
12 
 
 mulation, possession and power, but one to develop the brain 
 and muscle of all nations in such manner that the race will 
 grow into a real human being. 
 
 The basis of action will be service and association with the 
 one vision that the individual is a part of the state, and 
 anything that injures or hinders its growth hinders and in- 
 jures the state. The New Era is to be one of character, and 
 it is developed only through opportunities that give ex- 
 pression to the higher qualities, economic and otherwise. 
 Thus an opportunity for men to do his best, economically as 
 well as morally and intellectually. 
 
 That is why America has stood at the head in this world 
 crisis ; America has done more for her common people than 
 any other nation. Therefore, the message of Spiritualism 
 is that' the New Era in all things will be based upon the 
 recognition of a Spiritual basis in all life, and that life is a 
 process of growth. 
 
 The keynote will be education in all departments, and as 
 man comes to know he will learn how to live with his 
 neighbor, locally or world-wide, in a tolerant and peaceful 
 manner. Ignorance is the greatest danger there is in the 
 universe. The New Era is to be one of Enlightenment, the 
 new savior Education. Education that adds to man and 
 prepares him for the spiritual and Immortal as well as the 
 Mortal. You will then begin to realize what is meant by 
 really laying up treasures, both on earth and in heaven. 
 You do not take your gold and silver and other furnishings 
 into the next life, but simply that which you have become. 
 
 The wealth of the future is the real development of men. 
 My friends, the future will be more beautiful and civilized, 
 more spiritual and wonderful because you have come to 
 realize and recognize and pay attention to life's greatest 
 qualities. 
 
 Spiritualism came not alone to demonstrate continuity of 
 life, and that your loved ones can communicate with you. 
 but to purify and uplift while here. It came to wash away 
 the tears and help you over the barriers and to tell the 
 story that man in his spiritual nature is infinite. 
 
13 
 
 You are filled with life's .possibilities now. You are living 
 Gods in the eternal home of the now. You have learned 
 how to pray togetlier, you must now learn how to live to- 
 gether, and all evil will be overcome. 
 
 You are to find the angel that is in man and let him go 
 forth. 
 
 I must now be leaving you, but I wish to say, the message 
 of the hour is one of Life, touched with all the immortal 
 glories that lead you up from the dark spheres and the night 
 of misunderstanding to supernal day of real human rights, 
 where the growing throbbing life in each individual and in 
 all nations shall manifest. Not simply beneath the Stars 
 and Stripes, but among the steppes of Russia, in the sunny 
 vales of Italy; across the vivacious heart of France lifting 
 poor Belgium to her feet. Across the sturdy strength of 
 England, home again to the Stars and Stripes bringing all 
 the world of men to the one great federation of the world 
 (Long, loud applause.) 
 
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