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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Mrs. E, F. Dacoimium
 
 THE RELIGION OF 
 THE SPIRIT WORLD 
 
 Writfen hy the Spirits Themselves 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. PROF. G. HENSLOW, M.A. 
 
 r.L.S., F.Q.S., F.8.H.S. 
 
 Author of The Proofs of Spirit Forces, Spirit PsycTiometry, 
 
 Spiritual Teaching of Christ's Life, Christian Beliefs Be-. 
 
 considered in the Light of Modern Thought^ etc. 
 
 THE MARLOWE PRESS 
 
 223 W. Eric Street 
 
 CUICAGO, ILL.
 
 Copyright 1920
 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 I BEG to offer my most grateful thanks and to ac- 
 knowledge my indebtedness to the authors and 
 publishers whose works I have herein quoted. As 
 this most important subject depends entirely upon 
 what the Spirits have told us, the book could not 
 have been compiled without making free use of all 
 the communications I could find. 
 
 I wrote, I believe, to every one of the publishers 
 or authors from whom I quoted one or more para- 
 graphs. The great majority replied, not only with 
 complete acquiescence, but often mth words of 
 approval and encouragement. In one or two cases 
 the publishers had left and could not be traced. If 
 it be found I have accidentally omitted to write to 
 any publishers, I trust they will forgive me, for 
 the sake of the importance of the subject. 
 
 Vi 
 
 1003966
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 Introduction — General Considerations 
 
 of Life in the Future our 1 
 
 I. The Passing Over — The Eeception of 
 
 Ourselves and of our Little Ones.... 18 
 II. The Necessary Pre-acquired Mental 
 Conditions for Securing Happiness 
 
 in the Next World 39 
 
 HE. Man's Conception of God; Man and 
 
 his Duties, Here and Hereafter 48 
 
 IV. The Laws of Eternal Life 62 
 
 V. The Gospel of Character, Preached 
 
 and Practiced in the Next Life 77 
 
 VI. ** Jesus Christ, the Same Yesterday, 
 
 Today and for Ever" (Heb. 13, 8) 88 
 Vn. Imperator and his Eeligious Position ; 
 
 What is True Christianity? 99 
 
 VHL The Acquisition of the Christ-like 
 Character and Conduct is Every- 
 thing Hereafter, and must be 
 striven for on Earth. 108 
 
 vii
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 IX. 'Agape, the True Christian Love., i.e., 
 the ''Enthusiasm of Humanity" is 
 the Greatest Feature of the Next 
 
 World 114 
 
 X. The True Spiritual Meanings of 
 
 ''Heaven" and "Hell" 136 
 
 XL The Doctrine of the Atonement not 
 Accepted in the Next World, but 
 Replaced by the "At-one-ment," 
 i.e., the Reconciliation of Man to 
 God, on his Sincere Repentance and 
 Amendment of Life — the Sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper 148 
 
 XIL The Fate of the Suicide— A Terrible 
 
 Warning 182 
 
 XIIL A Future Annihilation Possible, but 
 
 Self- Wrought 193 
 
 XIV. Spiritualism in the Bible, e.g.. The 
 Witch of Endor, and the Holy 
 Seance on the Day of Pentecost 199 
 
 XV. The Nature of Man, Here and Here- 
 after 214
 
 Religion of the Spirit World 
 
 INTKODUCTION 
 
 GIINERAL CONSIDEEATIONS OF OUE LIFE 
 IN THE FUTURE 
 
 The world is awakening to the fact that we can 
 communicate with those who have gone before, 
 and that they can respond to us. 
 
 The first thing to be done, was to prove by the 
 strictly scientific methods of Induction and Ex- 
 perimental Verification, that these facts were gen- 
 uine truths and not a priori assumptions or trick- 
 ery; let us ''prove all things and hold fast to that 
 which is good." 
 
 In my Proofs of the Spirit Forces I proceeded 
 to follow these lines, assisted by practical demon- 
 strations of spirit-photographs of persons recog- 
 nized or not, as the case may be; as well as by 
 autographs, identified or otherwise, usually called 
 "Psychographs" ; together with numerous "auto- 
 matic handwritings." 
 
 Since spirits all tell us that when we awake on 
 the other side with our spirit-bodies, we are in 
 other respects mentally exactly the same as when
 
 2 INTEODUCTION 
 
 we left this earth, it is only to be expected that the 
 friends and relations from whom we have parted 
 hasten to assure us of their presence. With regard 
 to difficulties of communication, Iniperator* said: 
 "We would point out to you that all our inter- 
 course with the material plane is governed by 
 laws which your science has not yet defined. 
 Neither we, nor you, know as yet many of the 
 causes which interfere with our power. We are 
 not able to lay down laws for your guidance, 
 scarce even for our own. ... No proper care is 
 taken of our mediums. The instrument is out of 
 tune, unstrung, or overworked. The atmospheric 
 conditions vary. We do not always know how 
 to meet the various effects so caused. Circles 
 are not properly composed; any many things 
 combine to make it impossible that phenomena 
 should always be similar in their nature, or be 
 evoked with precise regularity.'' 
 
 It has been said by a writer who disbelieved in 
 spiritualism, that, as regards any religious value 
 in it, it must ever be useless. Such an assumption 
 will be disposed of by the present collection of 
 teachings from the other side. 
 
 The first and most important truth which all 
 
 *Spirit Teachings, p. 117. (Office of Light.) Imperator was the 
 assumed name of a highly intellectual and religious spirit, who 
 wrote by means of the Rev. Stainton Moses' hand nearly all that 
 is recorded in his 8vo. volume, containing some 100,000 words. If 
 any reader should have doubts about the genuineness of the Rev. 
 Stainton Moses' reports, or of his mental characteristics, etc.,- 
 I would refer him to Ch. vi., pp. 60-69, of Mr. J. Arthur Hill's 
 work, entitled, Spiritualism, its History, Phenomena, and Doctrine 
 (Cassell).
 
 INTEODUCTION 3 
 
 the spirits who communicate vnth. ns on religions 
 matters, is, that we should take to heart the indis- 
 putable fact that we must regard this world as 
 the opportunity for preparing ourselves for the 
 next, by means of the forming of Character, by 
 exliibiting on all occasions the Christ-like Conduct. 
 For when we have passed over the border-line, 
 our eyes vnll be opened to the fact that our condi- 
 tion and place there "uoll have been, so to say, auto- 
 matically and already determined by our character 
 acquired on earth. Such is God's method of 
 ** Judgment by Natural Law." They may be 
 bright or gloomy, enjoyable or painful; we may be 
 welcomed by loving relations and friends, or 
 shunned ; not only because of having done wrong 
 to others ; but because we have left undone what 
 we ought to have done.* 
 
 But this is no more than all may learn from the 
 New Testament. Let the reader prepare himself 
 by reading St. James' definition of the Christian 
 Religion. As he was Our Lord's ovm brother, 
 he doubtless knew Jesus more intimately than 
 any one elsef. Then let the reader turn to the 
 results of the life spent on earth t- Then read the 
 parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus; though 
 WTitten in s^nubolical language, we can read the 
 truth that '' Gehenna'' means mental agony, while 
 ^'Abraham's bosom" indicates restful hliss. 
 
 Secondly; as all terrestrial environments are 
 gone for ever, all their interests generally go with 
 them. The enjoyment of the use of money is gone, 
 
 •See Matt., 25, 31 ff. ■fJas. 1, 27. |3/«(<. 25, 31 ff.
 
 4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the pleasures of the body cease for ever* with its 
 death, though cravings may remain, but the soul 
 can rise to far greater joys. The intense enjoy- 
 ment of the intellect is endless; the pleasure of 
 benevolence knows no limit; the ennoblement of 
 the character by the Christ-like conduct is open 
 to all for ever. Religion is conduct as revealed by 
 our lives, as St. James implies. 
 
 The so-called ''Evangelical" School of Thought 
 will miss what is considered by its members the 
 ''Gospel," namely the Doctrine of the Atonement. 
 For, as mil be shown in Chapter 13, it was a 
 wrong interpretation of Scripture, and due to the 
 Latin translation (expiatio). The word "Redemp- 
 tion^ 't also is from the Latin Vulgate and not the 
 original Greek, which means "rescue" and "For- 
 giveness of sins, literally a "loosening away by a 
 price"; but the "purchasing" and "price" were 
 metaphors only. All that God asks for, as Jesus 
 did, is true repentance and a new life. Repentance 
 carries forgiveness with it. The word "Atone- 
 ment" has lost its meaning of "At-one-ment" but 
 has been rightly replaced by "Reconciliation" in 
 the only passage where it occurred in the New 
 Testament!. 
 
 The Roman Catholic branch of the Chnrch will 
 
 *A Spirit said to me in reply to the question whether it was 
 a man or woman writing: "We have no passions." They often 
 refuse to state their sex. f See Eph. 1, 7. Eedemption and For- 
 giveness are synonymous. |Though meaning "At-one-ment," it 
 was pronounced as now and spelt " att-oon-ment, " as double o 
 meant the long sound of o, still retained as also in "alone" 
 i.e., "all-one.") Eom. 5, 11.
 
 INTEODUCTION 5 
 
 miss the dogma of a *'Eeal, mystical, substantial 
 Presence"; for there is no scriptural ground for 
 it, and the Preaching Spirits have nothing to say 
 about it. It and the Lord's Supper are simply 
 ignored. It originated in the declarations of an 
 obscure monk in the seventh century, who wished 
 to oppose the edict of the Greek Emperor to put 
 down image-worship, by substituting the worship 
 of the bread and mne. 
 
 One objection, which opponents of spiritualism 
 make, is the so-called ''trivialities" of the com- 
 munications from the other side ; but they do not 
 tell us what we ought to expect. The subject must 
 be regarded from two points of view, a connnon- 
 sense aspect and a serious one. When people pass 
 over and come and talk with us, or write by our 
 hands a few days afterwards, why should it be 
 supposed that they must have changed all at once? 
 "What they were, so they are. They talk and laugh 
 just as they did before their decease. This very 
 naturalness is a witness to the truth that they are 
 the same, and we recognize them by it. Similarly 
 a preacher on earth may become a preacher there, 
 and when such an one revisits us, he talks seri- 
 ously, learnedly and reverently, and often perhaps 
 more wisely than some of our clergy do when still 
 on earth. 
 
 It may be desirable to say a few words on a 
 few spirit-photographs and psychographs alluded 
 to*. 
 
 •I must refer the reader to my Proofs of Spirit Forces for 
 thom and many other illustrations mentioned in this book.
 
 6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Since spirit-photographs show our friends at 
 the age and in the dress, etc., which we can recog- 
 nize, sceptics at once assume they must he frauds. 
 Such assumptions are worse than useless, for they 
 intensify prejudice. The only way to find out the 
 truth is to learn what the Spirits have to tell us ; 
 and when you find they all say the same thing, 
 wherever in this world they can communicate, 
 you have no alternative but to accept their uni- 
 versal statement that all such "materializations'* 
 are made by thought, temporarily, for a definite 
 purpose. Hoiv it is done is another matter*, which 
 they tell us, they cannot further explain. In writing 
 they use our pens and ink, but "not the same,'* as 
 a spirit told me, but he could not explain it. See 
 the spirit-photograph (No. 18) and compare 
 Archdeacon CoUey's signature with (No. 19) in a 
 fragment of a letter to me before he passed over. 
 
 In the present book I have confined myself to 
 what the spirits have to say on the most important 
 subject on earth and in heaven, namely that of 
 Religion. The result of their teaching is that 
 the Church and the world have a great deal to 
 unlearn before the human mind will be "at one" 
 with what they ^n\\ have to learn on quitting this 
 earth. 
 
 I will explain it by something I overheard. A 
 clergyman was talking to a young lady about the 
 great self-sacrifice some one was making in doing 
 good in the "slums." She replied by a question: 
 
 •This is explained by Spirits as fully as they can, and given 
 in mj other book.
 
 INTKODUCTION 7 
 
 "But what has all that got to do witk Chris- 
 tianity ?'' 
 
 She was not the only one who does not know 
 that the Christian Religion is this very thing, as 
 St. James puts it tersely: "Pure Religion is to 
 visit the fatherless and mdows*." 
 
 If any reader is inclined to ask the same ques- 
 tion, let him read Mr. Heslop's letters to his wife, 
 from the other world, entitled Speaking Across the 
 Border-linei. 
 
 Religion on the other side, as we learn from 
 spirits, is simply what it ought to be on this earth 
 — the Christ-like Character and Conduct based on 
 a Self-Sacrificing Enthusiasm of humanity — called 
 * ' Love. ' * Ecclesiastical dogmas are not recognized 
 in Heaven. 
 
 The reader will find various repetitions in this 
 book; or it proceeds by Induction; that is, the 
 accumulation of quite independent statements, 
 which corroborate one another, and so establish 
 the Truth of all. Moreover, I quote the same pas- 
 sage twice if it require fresh emphasis. 
 
 That Imperator and others were really spirits 
 communicating with Rev. Stainton Moses is 
 proved by the mass of matter in Spirit Teachings, 
 which could not possibly have been Mr. Moses' 
 writing unconsciously, because it was diametric- 
 ally opposed to what Mr. Moses had been brought 
 up to believe; yet after some years of Imperator's 
 
 •Jag. 1, 27. fPublishocl by C. Taylor, Warwick Lano, London, 
 E. C. See also Private Dowding (same publisher).
 
 8 INTEODUCTION 
 
 teaching, he found he became "regenerated" by it, 
 as he tells us. 
 
 In addition, a little event occurred at a seance 
 which was very convincing to him. He describes 
 it as follows : 
 
 ' * One very striking case occurred, thus : A spirit 
 who had long communicated with us was cross- 
 examined by one of our circle from a book which 
 recorded some facts of his life. The book had 
 lately been published, and no one of us, except 
 the questioner, had seen it. The names and dates 
 had got jumbled in his head, and it was most 
 striking to find the unseen intelligence correcting 
 every mistake, refusing flatly and persistently to 
 acquiesce in an error and even spelling out words 
 that had been mispronounced. 
 
 *'The sounds were made most expressive of an- 
 noyance, irritation and vexation. The corrections 
 were rapped out with the greatest promptness be- 
 fore a question was complete, and in all cases with 
 literal exactness. It was impossible to doubt that 
 one was dealing with an entity whose individuality 
 was a strong as ever, whose memory was by no 
 means impaired, and who had lost nothing of the 
 energy that characterized him in his embodied 
 state. I refer to that evening the growth in my 
 mind of a strong conviction that the Intelligences 
 who communicated were really the persons they 
 pretended to be . The accent of denial was so 
 perfect, the irritable rejoindei' and corrections 
 were so natural, that I do not lxli';7' f p'^rsonatrr
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 could have done it, or would have thought of such 
 a subtle trait. On the following morning I ques- 
 tioned on the subject. (Mr. Moses writes his own 
 conunents and answers in italics.) 
 
 / was much struck by your corrections last night. 
 
 "The book was wrong and imperfect in many 
 
 ways. I did make acquaintance with before 
 
 he became my pupil, and I told you truly that I 
 studied at Paris." 
 
 / don't doubt it. You were eidently in earnest 
 and quite angry. 
 
 ''It is provoking to me to be questions wrongly, 
 and from imperfect information imperfectly re- 
 membered, I knew what I said. ' ' 
 
 / can't affect to he sorry; for it brought out the 
 best proof of identity I have had yet. Of course we 
 only value it as such. 
 
 "Yes. But you watch for an opportunity of 
 entangling. ' ' 
 
 Oh, no! I only wanted proof. 
 
 "You have proof which it would be hard to 
 increase."* 
 
 This spirit doubtless refes to hnperator's com- 
 munications; which supply ample proofs to all 
 unprejudiced minds. 
 
 I ^\^I1 add a remarkable proof of identity of my 
 own experience. When I had partially written 
 the manuscript of this book, I entrusted it to a 
 friend. A few months followed and I saw an 
 obituary notice of him. Being anxious to recover 
 my manuscript, I wrote to his "Executor," not 
 
 'Spirit Teachings, pp. 18 ff. (Office of Light.)
 
 10 INTRODUCTION 
 
 knowing anything of his family. The manuscript 
 was returned by his wife. On the same evening Mr. 
 
 wrote by automatic handwriting as follows : 
 
 **Mrs. will have no difficulty in finding your 
 
 manuscript, as it is on the writing table, over the 
 right hand drawer on the top." On subsequently 
 enquiring if this had been correct, the reply came 
 that it was "absolutely correct in every word.'* 
 
 One more example. I had lent a book on Botany 
 to a friend, who most unexpectedly died three days 
 afterwards. He wrote : ' ' Please tell Mr. Henslow 
 I was much obliged to him for lending me the 
 book." The mediumistic lady who wrote auto- 
 matically knew nothing about it. 
 
 There are two ways by which spirits can com- 
 municate with us by means of photographic plates. 
 One is in the ordinary way of taking a photo by 
 daylight — provided a medium is present; but he 
 need take no part in the procedure. The second 
 is by holding a packet of plates unopened, in the 
 left hand, with the right on the top; then each 
 member of the "Circle" puts his or her hands in 
 the same way. Lastly, the control of the medium 
 (in trance) similarly holds them. In about 30 
 seconds the control removes the medium's hands. 
 All the others follow suit, when the former states 
 on which plate or plates, faces, or writing, will be 
 found. The owner takes the packet, still un- 
 opened, home and develops those only which were 
 mentioned. They always prove to be correct, as 
 the Spirit control foretold. All trickery larid decep- 
 tion are of the question in both cases
 
 INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 In my book on The Proofs of Spirit Forces my 
 object was simply to prove that our departed 
 friends can and do communicate with us, and we 
 with them. There was nothing particularly edify- 
 ing, as a rule, in what the spirits wrote or said, 
 excepting in the religious discourse of Ajax, who 
 always commences the seances at Dr. Hooper's 
 house, the latter being the medium. My object in 
 all other cases was to secure as much variety of 
 evidence as possible. 
 
 In this present work my aim is different. A 
 certain number of Spirits do communicate with us 
 on highly spiritual matters and their writings 
 have been published. Such are Imperator's Spirit 
 Teachings, a book containing 100,000 words, which 
 are only a portion of all that he wrote by means 
 of Rev. Stainton Moses' hand; Julia's After 
 Death; she wrote by the late Mr. W. T. Stead's 
 hand, the anonymous writer of Christ in You; Mr. 
 Heslop's Speaking Across the Border-Line, and 
 many others. 
 
 The late Rev. Arthur Chambers' widely read 
 book. Our Life After Death*, has reached 110 
 editions, and has for its object to treat of the 
 ** Intermediate State," i.e., the ** period every one 
 passes through, called 'Hades.' " The word 
 ''Heaven" — the origin of which is unknown — 
 stands for one or more higher spheres than Hades. 
 St. Paul tells us of threet ; the lowest of the series 
 is perhaps Hades itself or our place of probation. 
 
 "(Gay and Hancock), fll Cor., 12, 2.
 
 12 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The parable of the rich man and Lazarns points to 
 some separation of the good from the bad ; as the 
 disciple said of Judas, he **went to his own 
 place."* 
 
 That such is the case the Spirits assure us; so 
 that this belief seems to have been accepted by 
 the disciples. 
 
 Sympathy or Love is the uniting link in the 
 Beyond, being the basis of the ''Communion of 
 Saints," i.e., all true Christians. 
 
 In regard to the future life, Mr. Chambers pro- 
 ceeds to establish from the Bible three ** Propo- 
 sitions"! here epitomized. 
 
 No. 1 : The Continuity of a conscious personal- 
 ity. This is abundantly confirmed by Spirit-com- 
 munications, however made. 
 
 No. 2: Man does not pass at once into either 
 Heaven or Hell. As a Spirit Control (Ajax) ob- 
 served: **We do not become either angels or 
 devils on passing over.'* 
 
 No. 3 : We enter at once into the Intermediate 
 state, or Hades-life. 
 
 As the "cloud of witnesses "t are all about us 
 and communicate with us the moment we address 
 them, it is obvious that they are still on or near 
 the earth, but invisible to us, unless one be clair- 
 voyant. 
 
 Mr. Chambers draws five deductions as follows : 
 
 •■"Place" seems to mean "conditions" created automatically by the man 
 himself. See Private Dovding's account. 1[0p. cit, p. 37. iHeb., 12* I.
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 "1. There is no break of continuity in passing 
 from Earth-life to the Hades-life. 
 [Spirits have spoken to me within a few 
 days of the departure, as e.g., the Ven 
 Archdeacon CoUey.*] 
 
 2. In Hades-life we shall he in relationship 
 
 with those we knew on earth. 
 [I have experienced this fact, but reversed.] 
 
 3. That there are different spheres of experi- 
 ence in the Hades-life. 
 
 [We are told of certain friends to whom this 
 applies.] 
 
 4. A work of perfecting and developing will go 
 on in the Hades-life. 
 
 [But it depends upon our own will and 
 energy.] 
 
 5. There is preaching of Christ's Gospel in this 
 Intermediate life, which ivarrants us in be- 
 lieving that the work of saving mankind is 
 extended beyond the grave." 
 
 Mr. Chambers, then, establishes these truths by 
 appealing to Scripture. I cannot improve upon his 
 Propositions and Deductions, so quote them, for 
 my object is to prove that he is right from the 
 evidence of the Spirits themselves; that is to say, 
 the actual words from the inhabitants of Hades, 
 for such is much more convincing than any argu- 
 mentative expositions.! 
 
 In an Appendix! Mr. Chambers discusses ** Fu- 
 ture Punishments'* and God's "Purpose of the 
 
 *Ps^chogTaf)h, No. 20. tFragment of a letter to show identities. No. 
 !I9. top cU., p. 203.
 
 14 INTEODUCTION 
 
 Ages'' ; but he does not make it quite clear enough 
 that there are no *' punishments" or "rewards" 
 from without as with the Israelites*, nor, that 
 there is no ** judgment" in the ordinary manner at 
 all; for we shall be all "Self -justified" or "Self- 
 condemned," according to the great spiritual, but 
 Natural, Law of Conscience established by God. 
 Mr. Chambers says : "We would by no means deny 
 that there is in the World Beyond a very real and 
 awful judgment upon all sin and impenitence."! 
 It is only the word "Judgment" which may be 
 misleading. He says, "To us the words of Christ 
 are too emphatic to be mistaken. Christ spoke of 
 a "Darkness without," "a weeping and gnashing 
 of teeth," "a Gehenna of fire."! But these are all 
 our self-wrought or natural consequences: hence 
 their absolute justice. 
 
 This and much more is of course true, since 
 Christ said it. Moreover Spirits themselves con- 
 firm it, as the reader will see in Mr. Heslop's 
 Speaking Across the Border-Line, for he was ap- 
 appointed as a missionary to visit the awful 
 places, and Private Dowding describes his own 
 experiences. 
 
 The point to be remembered is that whatever 
 is suffered as a mental infliction is in exact pro- 
 portion to the sins of the sufferer. We may call 
 it "Judgment" but, I repeat, it is self-wrought 
 
 *DeuL, Chs. 6. 7; 28, 15 ff. top. dl., p. 205. $These are symbols 
 of mental chagrin at the self-brought tortures.
 
 INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 and must be self-home, and we mnst he self-raised 
 out of it ; though helpers are always at hand. 
 
 This law is expressed in the words: "What- 
 soever a man soweth that shall he reap.'* Hence, 
 as Mr. Heslop and others tell us from the other 
 side, it is no use for the sufferer to pray for relief 
 — like the rich man in the parable — as long as he 
 shows no sign of true repentance, but only self- 
 regrets for what he is enduring. 
 
 That there is no Judgment in the ordinary sense 
 of the word, Our Lord makes it quite clear; for 
 we read: ''AH judgment is given unto the Son*; 
 but Christ says: *'I judge no man ... I came 
 not to judge but to save"! and adds: "The Word 
 shall judge you at the Last Day."| In one word, 
 it is the Conscience. 
 
 So that when He gives us a parable of the Judg- 
 ment Day all the King does is to separate those 
 compared with sheep, from the goats — like the 
 tares from the wheat ; that is all who have followed 
 His Word, and all who have neglected to do so.§ 
 
 Mr. Chambers argues in favor of "Univer- 
 salism," i.e., that all will be ultimately saved; but 
 he omits to quote passages which clearly show, the 
 possibility of a man's annihilation. 
 
 The Greek word olethros means "absolute de- 
 struction"; as of the temple, of which our Lord 
 said not one stone should stand upon another||. 
 So too Christ said: "Fear Him, who can destroy 
 both body and soul in Gehenna".'* 
 
 John, 5, 22. ^John, 8, 15; 12, 47. tJohn, 12, 48. %Matt., 
 B5, 31 ft. \\Matt., 13, 2. "Matt., 10, 28.
 
 16 INTRODUCTION 
 
 This seems to correspond with the *' Second 
 DeathH", i.e., of those who utterly refuse to make 
 any effort to recover themselves, and persistently 
 reject all offers of help to amend. As a Spirit 
 said in my hearing: "While the good continue 
 to rise, the utterly impenitent sink and disappear; 
 and we do not know what becomes of them." 
 
 I asked another if this were true. The reply 
 was: *'Yes; but we do not think there are many 
 who do, but it is true." 
 
 Mr. Chambers adds: **A11 future punishments 
 are Fatherly, remedial and terminable." This is 
 true, provided the sufferer himself will make the 
 requisite effort to escape and rise out of his mental 
 thraldom into a higher life. This self-effort is 
 absolutely necessary. 
 
 Unless this be remembered, the word "all" is 
 apt to mislead. Thus Mr. Chambers observes that 
 Christ said :" I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
 draw all men unto me*." He meant that He would 
 have wished all men to come and be saved ; but we 
 know that the Jews who crucified Him never did 
 allow themselves to be drawn to Him; for they 
 persecuted the Christians soon afterwards!. 
 Again, it is said : God "willeth that all men should 
 be savedt/' but St. Paul said: "Quench not the 
 Spirit*^," implying it was possible to do so, for 
 man has a Free-will and can choose to follow 
 Christ or "do despite to him."|| 
 
 *John, 12. 32. IfAcis. 6. S. p. Tim., 2. 4. §/. Thess., 5, 19. 
 \\Heb., 9, 29. CD Rev.. 2. II.
 
 INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 Neither God nor Christ, therefore, can save a 
 man, if he determinedly refuse to be saved. 
 
 Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was attribut- 
 ing what was good to an evil source. A man whose 
 mind is so warped cannot be forgiven as long as he 
 wills to retain this belief, for he does not want or 
 care for forgiveness. But, if he should in time 
 come to ** change his understanding" as the Greek 
 word for ''repent" really means; then, he can put 
 himself into a state which God's love can recognize 
 as humble repentance; when, forgiveness and 
 reconciliation to God the Father are a natural 
 result. 
 
 I would refer the reader to an excellent epit- 
 omized History of Spiritualism and its Phenomena 
 and Doctrine, which has lately appeared, in two 
 parts, No. I : Historical and Evidential; and Part 
 II: Religious Aspect and Criticisms. (Cassell, 
 1918.).
 
 Religion of the Spirit World 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE PASSING OVER. THE RECEPTION OF 
 OURSELVES AND OF OUR LITTLE ONES 
 
 Experiences of crossing the Border-line: Mr, Heslop's and 
 that of Private Dowding. His description of the flowers.-^^o 
 words can explain or describe the other world.*— 'Excessive grief 
 for the departed harmful to them. — Examples of psychographs 
 of tender sympathies from the Beyond and a friendly New 
 Year 's Greeting to the * ' Crewe Circle, ' ' and to the present writer 
 from the Ven Archdeacon Colley. — The Great Law of Evolution, 
 or "Self-adaptation to changed conditions of life," applies to 
 man spiritually; as to all other beings of the Creation, bodily. — 
 1^ Heaven" is what you choose to make it on this earth. — 
 
 flowers on the other side Law of Evolution. The reception 
 
 6t Little Children by Guardian Spirit-foster-mothers. — Spirit- 
 photographs: face and clothes for identification assumed tem- 
 porarily by thought. 
 
 My first extract shall be from a small but interest- 
 ing book, consisting of letters from her husband, 
 written by Mrs. Heslop's hand automatically. 
 
 The circumstances connected with the Passing 
 Over may be very different in the cases of many 
 souls; but as a hopeful example, I quote that of 
 Mr. Heslop*, who thus writes: "You would like 
 
 *I would strongly recommend all who are interested in Spiritual- 
 ism to read Spealcing Across the Border-line, by F. Heslop (G. 
 Taylor). 
 
 18
 
 THE PASSING OVER 19 
 
 me to tell you how I passed to spirit life. When I 
 died, I simply fell into a state of unconsciousness, 
 and was taken at once into my mother's loving 
 care. In this condition I remained for a fortnight, 
 by your time. Then, by the help of my mother 
 and other dear ones, I revived. Gradually the 
 wonders and beauty of this new world unfolded 
 themselves. The loveliness of the trees and flowers, 
 the grandeur of the mountains, the glint of distant 
 lakes, seemed familiar, yet all spiritualized. It was 
 some time before I could realize what had hap- 
 pened, and that death had really passed ; so I re- 
 joiced, for my sufferings on earth had been very 
 great, and I had longed to die. Then spiritual 
 illumination came to me. I developed wonderful 
 new powers and was literally born again. They 
 carried me to my beautiful home, and every flower 
 I loved was there to greet me. Oh, such roses! 
 Would that you could see them too. In this exqui- 
 site world all things are pervaded by the law of 
 affinity — two halves of a complete whole. Thus, if 
 you gather one of these flowers, the affinity of the 
 flower is still there. It does not fade and die, as 
 with you. When you have finished with it, it flies 
 back to its other soul, and is absorbed into it 
 again."* 
 
 "I have promised to tell you more of my own 
 experiences in this land of light and beauty. They 
 have been very wonderful, many of them, but the 
 most wonderful cannot be explained in words, for 
 the simple reason that there are no words that 
 
 *0p. cit., p. 1. This fact was told mo some years ago, before 
 Mr. Heslop's statement was published, corroborating it.
 
 20 THE PASSING OVER 
 
 can give you any idea of them, no parallel on earth 
 by which to compare them. To you these experi- 
 ences are a sealed book until you have joined me 
 here and can take part in them."* 
 
 "Private Dowding"t describes his experiences 
 on passing over. He says: '* Physical death is 
 nothing. There really is no cause for fear. This 
 is what happened. I have a perfectly clear mem- 
 ory of the whole incident. I had no special intima- 
 tion of danger until I heard the whizz of a shell. 
 Then followed an explosion, something struck 
 hard, hard against my neck. I fell, and as I did so, 
 without passing through my apparent interval of 
 .unconsciousness, I found myself outside myself, 
 helping two of my pals to carry my body down the 
 trench labyrinth towards a nursing station. Death 
 for me was a simple experience — no horror, no 
 long-drawn suffering, no conflict. When I found 
 that my two pals could carry my body without mj^ 
 help, I dropped behind. I just followed in a curi- 
 ously humble way. Then I lost consciousness and 
 slept soundly. "$ 
 
 "Julia" in her first letter says on her death: 
 ' ' I found myself free from my body. It was such a 
 strange new feeling. I was standing close to the 
 bedside on which my body was lying. I saw 
 everything in the room just as before I closed my 
 eyes. I did not feel any pain in 'dying*; I felt 
 only a great calm and peace. "§ 
 
 *0p. cit., p. 80. The reader will recall St. Paul's worda: Rom. 
 8, ISff. Other Spirits continn this. fThe title of a book pub- 
 lished by J. M. Watkins. %0p. cit., pp. 6 ff. (abridged). ^After 
 Death, pp. 1 ff. (L. T. Stead, Portugal Street, London.)
 
 THE PASSING OVER 21 
 
 This first experience of being able to see every- 
 thing seems to indicate that the *'cord of life" is 
 not actually severed at first, when the ** spirit- 
 body" has escaped from the body of flesh. For, 
 subsequently, as our spirit friends tell us, they 
 can see no physical objects without a medium be- 
 ing present, but can "read our thoughts." 
 
 With regard to the spirit-body, Dowding writes : 
 **I am still evidently in a body of some sort; but 
 I can tell you very little about it. It is convenient 
 and does not ache or tire, it seems to be similar 
 in formation to my old body. There is a sulDtle 
 difference, but I cannot attempt analysis."* 
 Others speak in a very similar way. 
 
 The author of Christ in you\, experienced the 
 same thing as others describe: "Heaven is not a 
 place to which you go, it is just where you are. 
 You can enter 'heaven' noiv. Good men and 
 women from time to time have made this discov- 
 ery, and henceforth 'All is well.' They have 
 ceased to hurry, for the journey is over. They are 
 no longer pilgrims and strangers, but children in 
 the Father's home." 
 
 "The first thing we understand when we awake 
 is, that there has not been any journey or passing 
 over and through vast spaces. We are just where 
 we always have been — at home ; but alive for ever- 
 more. There is no separation from any one we 
 love, or from any good that is ours. To enter 
 'heaven' is to become fitted into a larger conscious- 
 
 * Private Dnwdinfj (J M. Watkins), p. 13. fOp. cit, pp. 4Sff. 
 (pub. by J. M Watkins).
 
 22 THE PASSING OVER 
 
 ness of God ; and in this consciousness we possess 
 much more really all those whom we love. We are 
 nearer to you, and we often talk together. There is 
 no parting, but only greater unity." 
 
 A most important injunction from the other 
 side, which is repeatedly enforced by spirit writ- 
 ers, is that those who are left behind are not to 
 grieve for them. Useless bewailing, they say, is 
 positively harmful, by distressing them, while they 
 are powerless to tell you so. ''What are the 
 facts?" (writes Mr. Heslop to his wife.) **When 
 anyone dies, upon awakening in their new sur- 
 roundings they naturally think of those they have 
 left behind. If they are in great happiness they 
 long to tell their loved ones not to grieve for them. 
 They want to describe their new and beautiful 
 country to which they have come. With their 
 clearer vision they are often able to guide those on 
 earth in their human affairs, and above all they 
 want them to realize how love is deeper, stronger, 
 purer, than it ever was on earth." 
 
 **Well, then, the cords of their great love draw 
 them back to earth, and in spirit form they enter 
 the old homes. Their first sorrow is their total 
 inability to make their presence known. Their 
 desire to comfort is unavailing; they watch the 
 agony of grief, and can do nothing. In their 
 distress they often seek someone of psychic devel- 
 opment, and send a tender message of love and 
 consolation. But, alas ! too oten the bereaved will
 
 THE PASSING OVER 23 
 
 not receive the message, they are only frightened 
 or incredulous."* 
 
 I can confirm this experience. A friend passed 
 over and soon afterwards wrote by the hand of a 
 mediumistic member of our family, that he had a 
 most important message for his wife. On being 
 informed, she would not hear of it, and wished us 
 never to refer to the matter again. The message, 
 therefore, never came. 
 
 Julia wrote through Mr. W. T. Stead's hand to a 
 dear friend who was utterly broken down by ex- 
 cessive grief over the death of a beloved relation. 
 She wrote as follows : ' ' My own beloved, what do 
 you mean by mourning as one who has no hope? 
 Is it then all mere talk that Christ brought life and 
 immortality to life? A^^y is it that with the cer- 
 tainty of the continued existence of your loved 
 ones, you feel as disconsolate and forlorn as if 
 there were no other world, and as if Christ had 
 never triumphed over death and the grave?" 
 
 The Spirit-photo (No. 21), crossed by a com- 
 munication from the late Archdeacon Colley to the 
 "circle" at Crewe, who meet round Mr. Hope, the 
 medium, is an illustration of what all our friends 
 still feel for us. This "communion of saints" is 
 "unbroken, if we did but all know it. The reader 
 must believe it, even if he have no opportunity of 
 proving it to be true himself. 
 
 "My dear Friends, I am sent to comfort you. 
 Times seem black with everyone just now, and 
 you in Crewe feel the pall that now hangs over you 
 
 * After Death, p. 12 (pub. by W. I. Stead).
 
 24 THE PASSING OVEE 
 
 nationally. May be it is the dark hour before the 
 dawn. Greeting to Friend Thomas and all of 
 you kindly excuse more at present. T. Colley* 
 (Aug. 20, 1914).'^ 
 
 The photo was taken and developed by ** Friend 
 Thomas'*; whose photo thus carries the Arch- 
 deacon's message across it, but reversed; as is 
 often the case. The message is first written on a 
 "spirit-tablet" and then impressed upon the 
 photographic plate ; and if held wrongly the mes- 
 sage comes out reversed. This, at least, seems to 
 be the explanation. 
 
 In No. 18, also from the Archdeacon and from 
 the Spirit-friends (above), it is not reversed. Tke 
 letter is as f oUowst : 
 
 "Our Dear Friends, 
 
 "Again it is our pleasure to wish each one 
 of you a very happy new year. May your souls 
 be flooded with the light and love of God. Look- 
 ing back on the twelve months we see there have 
 been times of difficulty, sadness, and much 
 misunderstanding, but, thank God, you have 
 overcome all. Now as to future events, we 
 cannot tell you what will happen, but judging 
 by circumstances that are around you at pres- 
 ent, we should say that success will attend your 
 efforts ; that is, if you keep your hands firmly 
 clasped on those of your loved ones; and wlie:" 
 trials and difficulties meet you, just bring thern 
 to us and let us reason together, and we will do 
 
 '^Proofs of the Truths of Spirit Forces, p. 159. 1[0p. cit, p. 157.
 
 THE PASSING OVER 25 
 
 our best to help you, God willing; for as you 
 know we are very much interested in you, so 
 again, we wish you God speed. We are just 
 making way for your old and valued friend to 
 say a few words. God bless you." 
 **My Dear Friends, 
 
 '*I write at this, our Family Worship, my 
 psychic message to let you three know I wish 
 you the season's best greetings. So please give 
 this to Miss S and the Rev. Professor Hens- 
 low, and I wish you all the kindly greeting. I 
 will tell you many things soon. 
 
 ''Still faithfully yours, 
 
 *'T. COLLEY." 
 
 No. 19 is a fragment of an old letter, for com- 
 parison of the handwriting. 
 
 Mr, Stead also tells us that **they are all press- 
 ing and eager to make those loved ones mourning 
 them here realize they are not dead."* As Sir 
 Oliver Lodge wrote in a message to the bereaved : 
 **They would like their friends and loved ones to 
 recognize that, and not to mourn unduly, "t 
 
 On the other hand there is a peculiar trait men- 
 tioned, as characterizing many on the other side 
 for the spirits tell us that what afflicts so many 
 spirits is, that they are continually enduring a 
 longing for at first the lost things of this life; 
 which they miss so much when they have left it.t 
 
 'Nash's Magazine, November, 1916 (p. 163). -j-Bavwond 
 (Mothuen & (Jo.). XAftcr Death, by "Julia," p. 12. This if 
 corrritborateil by the writer of Christ ui You; and he intimates 
 a reason for it; that it is far more difTicnlt to amend a damaged 
 life on the other side, than on this earth.
 
 26 THE PASSING OVER 
 
 We are, however, warned against this, both by 
 Christ and His apostles. Our Lord began by say- 
 ing to Thomas, who exclaimed "My Lord and my 
 God," on seeing Him after His resurrection: 
 ''Because thou hast seen Me, hast thou believed! 
 Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have 
 believed."* 
 
 So St. Peter says to his readers : *' Ye, whom, not 
 having seen, ye love; on Whom, though now ye 
 see Him not, yet having faith ye rejoice greatly." 
 
 Similarly St. Paul says: *'We look not at the 
 things which are seen, for things which are seen 
 are temporal, but the things which are not seen 
 are eternal." 
 
 In other words, the true Christian looks forward 
 to the future, and is never disappointed. 
 
 St. Paul's meaning is clear. He does not con- 
 demn the things of this life ; but he would condemn 
 the very thing which our spirits also bid us not to 
 set too high a value upon, i.e., to have an over- 
 estimation of terrestrial things. If we do so esti- 
 mate them, then, when we are taken away from 
 them, the loss is naturally bewailed. 
 
 In other words, there has been no sufficient 
 preparation or "self -adaptation" for the changed 
 conditions of life, which we shall discover when 
 it is too late for us to be prepared. 
 
 Therefore, if a man will not hegin to fit himself 
 for the next world, while living in this one, i.e., if 
 he will make no effort to ada^t and befit himself
 
 THE PASSING OVER 27 
 
 for the Kingdom of Heaven, he will join the dis- 
 contented crowd and suffer mentally accordingly. 
 
 We may here see the significance of the last 
 verse of St. Paul's "Psalm of Love"*. "Now we 
 see as in a mirror, darkly, but then face to face. 
 . , . But now abideth Faith, Hope and Love, but 
 the greatest of these is Love.'' 
 
 The man who spends his life upon himself, has 
 no love in the religious sense; for this is simply 
 an Enthusiasm for helping and doing good to 
 others. 
 
 The persistently selfish man cannot realize that 
 it is "more blessed to give than to receive"; nor 
 does he understand what it is "to prefer one 
 another in honor," nor that the highest motive is : 
 "Whatsoever ye do for the least of My brethren 
 ye do it unto Me." 
 
 On the other hand, the self-sacrificing Nurse, 
 Doctor, or "Tommy," wlio risk their lives in sav- 
 ing lives, do see, for to save a soul alive gives joy 
 to them here, as it does to save it spiritually to the 
 angels in Heaven. 
 
 Agape, the Greek word for "love" here, is a 
 foretaste of love hereafter, which rules the spirit- 
 world ; and if one will not believe it here ; neither 
 is he likely to enjoy it in the future. 
 
 But there is always Hope, as well as Faith, that 
 he will awaken to the truth; and learn then that 
 Agape is unselfishness. It is practical, and that is 
 why it is the greatest of all virtues. Nothing can
 
 28 THE PASSING OVER 
 
 surpass the ''Enthusiasm of Humanity." That is 
 the Christian Religion*. 
 
 With regard to our reception on the other side, 
 Mr. Heslop writes as follows : ''In this Homeland 
 our occupations are very varied. Part of our work 
 is to help and teach those who come here, ignorant 
 of all spiritual life. When they pass from earth 
 they are often confused when they wake up, so we 
 go to them and help them to realize where they 
 are. Everything being entirely spiritual here, if 
 they have no spiritual insight, they see no beauty 
 around them. Hence you may remember in read- 
 ing the accounts of such waking to spirit-life they 
 say that they found a gloomy desert land, not the 
 loveliness at all which they had expected. Now 
 when this is so, their distress and astonishment 
 are very great ; and we go to any who can see us 
 and try to explain, and give comfort where we can. 
 
 "Then, when spirits who have lived entirely 
 for self come here, they are confronted with the 
 record of their lives, and the revelation often 
 drives them almost to despair. And we tell them 
 how the past may be redeemed, and the evil atoned 
 for and undone, and take them to the place where 
 they can do this, and be helped to a higher life. 
 Others come timid and ignorant, but loving much. 
 So, because they love much, there is a great wel- 
 come of love all ready for them, and we bring them 
 
 *Jas., 1, 27. This phrase was suggested by Sir John Seeley, 
 in his iicce Homo.
 
 THE PASSING OVER 29 
 
 the good tidings, and they are taught and com- 
 forted, and their weary spirits soothed and rested. 
 Then, when the pure and noble of your world come 
 to ours, we join the great company and welcome 
 them, crying, 'Well done, good and faithful ser- 
 vant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' "* 
 
 We find a contrast to this in Private Dowding's 
 experience. He describes himself thus: "I was 
 an orphan, somewhat of a recluse, and I made 
 friends very slowly. ' ' No one met him on passing 
 over, nor did he see any spirits ; but after a time 
 he wrote: "I am no longer alone. I have met my 
 dear brother William. He could not get near me 
 for a long time, he says. The atmosphere was so 
 thick. He is working among the newly arrived 
 and has wide experience." 
 
 "Strange," he writes, "that the only person I 
 came across for a long time was my brother. He 
 tells me that I have never been alone. The mist 
 around me, shutting me off, has emanated from 
 myself, he says. I suppose my loneliness of life 
 and character whilst on earth have followed me 
 here. I always lived in books, they were my real 
 world.! 
 
 "I begin to see now that my type of mind would 
 find itself isolated^ or rather would emanate iso- 
 lation, when loosed from earthly trammels. I 
 shall remain near earth conditions whilst learning 
 lessons I refused to learn before.! 
 
 'Speaking Across the Border-line, p. 74, f. jfOp. cit., p. 22. 
 ifLikc "Julia" and others, all have to learn the duties required 
 by the laws of the Spirit world.
 
 30 THE PASSING OVER 
 
 ''It is dangerous to live to and for oneself. Tell 
 this to my fellows with emphasis. ... I cannot 
 remember doing anything really worth while. 
 I never looked outside myself. ' ' 
 
 All Spirits confirm this fact, that each of us is 
 responsible for his or her own special conditions 
 on the other side. 
 
 "Each of us," he writes, ** creates his own pur- 
 gatorial conditions. If I had my time over again, 
 how differently I should live my life ! I erred, for I 
 neither lived enough among my fellow-men nor 
 interested myself sufficiently in their affairs. 
 Well, I have created my own purgatory. I must 
 live it through somehow. Good night." 
 
 Vice-Admiral W. Osborne Moore, in his book 
 Glimpses of the Next State, has a long Appendix 
 on ''Waking the so-called Dead." He gives 
 twelve reports of seances held with the express 
 object of helping the so-called "dead" to realize 
 their position, and thus assisting them to pass 
 naturally into spirit-life. It often happens that 
 they cannot at all understand at first that they are 
 not still on earth, especially when an accidental, 
 sudden death has occurred. The spirits were often 
 identified on enquiries being made about them. 
 The reports given are verbatim conversations 
 taken down by a stenographer at the time. 
 
 Mr. Heslop and other spirit controls speak of 
 beautiful flowers on the other side. 
 
 The photograph. No. 25, is of the Ven. Arch- 
 deacon Colley, who is seen standing in the midst
 
 THE PASSING OVER 31 
 
 of what look like our Scarborough Lilies. It will 
 be observed that the flowers are arranged iii a 
 circular manner, his head appearing through the 
 middle of one flower, two buds stand erect, and 
 are transparent, for his hat can be traced through 
 the lower part of the flower-buds : the size of the 
 flower, spread open, the lowermost is in circum- 
 ference as large as his head and hat together ! 
 
 They were quite invisible to him as he stood for 
 his portrait. He writes at the back of the plate I 
 possess : — ' ' This psychic photograph was taken on 
 December 22nd, 19i9, on my owai slide. I devel- 
 oped it and found that my late wife 'Lily' had thus 
 again been invisibly present with me, as in the 
 drawing of a lily in her psychograph to me on 
 March 9, 1909 ; so making this the second symbol 
 of her botanical name by which she was known 
 and last called by me in Natal over thirty years 
 ago." 
 
 Our Lord bids us observe *'how the lilies of the 
 field grow," and drew a potent lesson from them; 
 so we shall be able to obey His wish on the other 
 side of the veil, as well as on earth. 
 
 Darwin was the first to draw our attention to 
 the way by which animals can change their struc- 
 ture in order to adapt themselves to "changed 
 conditions of life." He tells us that he discovered 
 a rat of the Old World kind, i.e., our common one, 
 in an island of the Galapagos, off the West Coast 
 of South America, in 1835. He wrote: "I can 
 hardly doubt that this rat is merely a variety, pro- 
 duced by the new and peculiar climate and food,
 
 32 THE PASSING OVEE 
 
 to which it has been subjected."* In Ascension he 
 found two more varieties : "One is of a black color, 
 with fine glossy fur and lives on the grassy sum- 
 mit ; the other is brown and less glossy, and lives 
 near the sea." He then repeats what he had said 
 before — that they must have "varied from the 
 effect of the new conditions to which they have 
 been exposed, "t 
 
 Our late great botanist, Mr. G. Bentham, de- 
 scribes the water-buttercup or Crowfoot, as it is 
 usually called|. "Many of the forms it assumes 
 are striking and have been distinguished as 
 "species," but the characters, although often to a 
 certain degree permanent, appear at other times 
 so inconstant, and even to depend so much on the 
 situation the plan grows in, that we can only 
 consider them as mere varieties." 
 
 The late Sir J. D. Hooker, however, in his 
 Students' Flora of the British Isles, gives us no 
 less than eight well defined "species" ; so that the 
 difference between a "species" and a "variety" 
 depends upon the opinion of the describer. But 
 that all have arisen by "self -adaptation" is not 
 only a matter of opinion but of experimental 
 verification; for Dr. Warming, of Copenhagen, 
 tells us it is "external factors which evoke numer- 
 ous changes in plants," and he gives the names of 
 
 *A Naturalist's Voyage Hound the World, p. 378. Of course, 
 the change is brought about by Life; quite unconsciously by the 
 animal, or plant. It is an automatic result of the Directivity 
 in all life. fOp. cit., pp. 492 ff, %Handhoolc of the British Flora. 
 %Oecology, p. 370,
 
 THE PASSING OVER 3 
 
 Q 
 
 eighteen botanists who have proved it by ex- 
 perinients§. 
 
 This law applies equally to man's body, hence 
 have arisen the various races of Man, as Euro- 
 pean, Negroes, Red Indian, etc. ; but no man, any 
 more than a plant, "willed" himself to change, or 
 than a pigeon, and we know that the many sorts 
 of this bird have all arisen from the wild rock 
 pigeon, under domestication. 
 
 If we ask how can the numerous details of 
 structure all change simultaneously into new 
 forms in direct adaptation to the new environment, 
 we cannot answer the question, but can only recog- 
 nize a Power of directing, or a "Directivity" in 
 Life ; in obedience to which the changes arise, in a 
 manner we call "automatically," for there ap- 
 pears to be no consciousness of the changes go- 
 ing on, as if they were determined by the being. 
 
 Now, we regard God as the Creator of life ; and, 
 therefore, we look to Him as having endowed life 
 with His own directing powers. Life is not a 
 "force," as is sometimes said, because, as Sir 
 Oliver Lodge points out, it cannot fall into line 
 with all the forces kno^\ii, e.g., Light, Heat, Elec- 
 tricity, etc., which can be "weighed" and repre- 
 sented in foot — pounds. Not so life : it escapes all 
 attempts to estimate it in any similar way. 
 
 "It, therefore, is not a force," but to use Sir 0. 
 Lodge's expression — it is a "Director of force." 
 
 As Our Lord said: "Consider the lilies, how 
 they grow." I am here doing so, and we discover 
 the fact that they do for themselves bodily just the
 
 34 THE PASSING OVER 
 
 same thing that Man is called upon to do for him- 
 self spiritually, for the preceding leads us to a 
 parable. Man alone has something which tran- 
 scends all other animal life. He is conscious of 
 himself. He can thi^ik: *'This is I." He knows he 
 can employ and direct forces and invent and make, 
 say, a camera. He discovers his eye to be a camera 
 and argues that Somebody must have made it. He 
 thus finds he can entertain Abstract ideas, namely 
 that of a God, that is, ideas, not of a material 
 nature or appreciable by the senses. 
 
 This leads him on to discover what we call 
 Morality, and frames Moral Laws; and then, he 
 necessarily regards God as a Moral Being. He 
 realizes the difference between right and wrong, 
 and discovers he has a "conscience,"* and so 
 reaches the notion of being a "Spiritual" being, 
 as distinct from all animals. 
 
 St, Paul contrasts the "natural," i.e., the "ani- 
 mal" man ^^ith the "spiritual" man; for it is the 
 ' ' spirit, ' ' or consciousness of higher powers, which 
 separates him: "Now the natural man receiveth 
 not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are 
 foolishness unto him and he cannot know them; 
 because they are spiritually judged. But he that is 
 spiritual judgeth (discerneth) all things." That 
 is, he can see and realize the value of the "higher 
 life" ; i.e., morality, and the religious life, of which' 
 Christ is our Great Example. Consequently, as 
 the animal body disappears at death, the spiritual 
 body had lost its earthly accompaniment with its 
 
 *Thi3 is the lesson of the story of Adam and Eve.
 
 THE PASSING OVER 35 
 
 passions, and he is now solely ''adapted" for the 
 existence beyond the grave. There, the spirit 
 is everything, the terrestrial existence has gone 
 for ever. The great lesson of earth-life is, there- 
 fore, to "adapt ourselves," in Character and 
 Conduct, here, by the Imitation of Jesus Christ, 
 i.e., to live in harmony mth the requirements of 
 the next world. 
 
 This is why we are told that many on the other 
 side long to return. It is because they find them- 
 selves unprepared and ''ill-adapted" for the new 
 existence, and they realize that they have neglected 
 to begin to prepare by spiritual cultivation of the 
 soul for the next world while on earth. If the 
 reader will study the second and third chapters of 
 the First Epistle to the Corinthians, he will realize 
 the distinction and the necessity of preparing for 
 the future. 
 
 Thus is it that what we learn from the Spirits 
 throws invaluable light, not only on the New 
 Testament, but on what we are taught from 
 Nature herself. 
 
 "Consider then the Lilies of the Field, hoiv they 
 grow." We know now, and the parable they can 
 teach us as well. 
 
 Besides Our Lord's teaching from the lilies of 
 the field, we all know the spiritual lesson He gave 
 us from little children ; and how He blessed them 
 and said: "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 They are not often seen on Spirit-photographs; 
 but two are figured in my book on The Proofs of 
 the Spirit Forces, one of a little negress whom
 
 36 THE PASSING OVER 
 
 Dr. Hooper saw clairvoyantly and photographed 
 (No. 12). The other of them, the little girl with 
 her father, figured (No. 11) was an adult, assum- 
 ing the apearance of a child, just as she was 
 known when she left this sphere. 
 
 I have heard the whole story from Dr. Hooper, 
 and recorded it in my book; but in brief it is as 
 follows: The gentleman sitting at the table was 
 a patient of the doctor's. He said one day that he 
 felt as if someone was near him*. Dr. Hooper saw 
 the child clairvoyantly, and told him that he was 
 quite right, as there was a beautiful little girl near 
 him. He then photographed her ; and his patient 
 at once exclaimed it was his own child who had 
 passed over thirty years previously. It was recog- 
 nized at once by others. 
 
 This feeling as if someone was present, though 
 invisible, is also mentioned by "W. T. P.,'* who 
 published Private Dotvding. He says in the 
 Introductory Note: ''On Monday, 12th March, 
 1917, I was walking by the sea when I felt the 
 presence of someone. I looked round, no one was 
 in sight. All that day I felt as if someone were 
 following me, trying to read my thoughts." In the 
 evening he wrote automatically the first communi- 
 cation from this soldier. He went to France in 
 July, 1916, and was killed in August. 
 
 Spirits can not only "put on" the dress, but 
 
 *Dr. Hooper is not only a medium but a great Spirit-healer. 
 He was engaged in trying to help a relation of mine living in 
 Canada, he himself residing in Birmingham. The patient told 
 me he had felt as if someone was near him; but he had not been 
 informed of the fact at the time.
 
 THE PASSING OVER 37 
 
 assume the appearance of the face of a previous 
 period for the purpose of recognition or identifica- 
 tion.* It is a very comforting thought to know for 
 a certainty that our little ones, even from birth, 
 are at once taken in charge by loving foster-spirits, 
 as we might call them, and brought to maturity 
 with every loving care possible, for such is what is 
 told us by spirits who write or talk to us about 
 them; fully corroborating what Christ said that 
 they have their (Guardian) Angels 'Svho do 
 always behold the face of my Father which is in 
 heaven."! 
 
 Mr. Heslop thus speaks of little children on the 
 other side: 
 
 "In the children's sphere they are cared for and 
 watched over by foster parents. Only those are 
 selected for this work Avho have special love for 
 the little ones. In their schools they are taught 
 entirely by object lessons. The teachers have 
 power to project their thoughts in such a way as to 
 produce living pictures all in movement, not 
 stationary as yours are. When the lesson is over, 
 the teacher absorbs their thought-forms back into 
 herself. They gradually grow up to the age of 
 perfection and are radiantly happy in the beauty 
 and love that surrounds them." 
 
 •In the book mentioncrl I have given a spirit-photo of ;*^-« 
 Archdeacon Colley's Mother; who had never been photograpL"' 
 in earth life; but she told one of the circle of Crewe, who was 
 Jboth clairvoyante and clairaudiente, that she would appear as 
 "he knew her" many years before. The likeness was at once 
 recognized by hor old friends at Leamington. -fMatt., 18, 10.
 
 38 THE PASSING OVER 
 
 Julia gives us her own experiences, after pass- 
 ing over the other side. 
 
 "When I found my friends there were about 
 five or six of those relatives and near friends who 
 had been on this side for some time. My dear 
 little sister was the lovingest and dearest of all. I 
 saw before me the semblance of her childhood, just 
 as she was in the long years ago. When I had 
 parted with her it seemed for ever. But she was 
 only assuming the child-form to gain recognition. 
 After a time, when I learned more about the life 
 here, she revealed herself to me as we see her now, 
 as a spirit who is a woman grown."* 
 
 * After Death, p. 56.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE NECESSARY Pi^EACQUIRED MENTAL 
 
 CONDITIONS FOR SECURING HAPPINESS 
 
 IN THE NEXT WORLD 
 
 "Julia confirms Mr. Heslop, and strongly insists on the ne- 
 cessity of ^'^elf-preparat ion ^'f}; t^^ TiPTft^wnrlrl — Religion is Char- 
 acter and Conduct (JasTl, 27). -^^e surprises of the next life. — 
 Oar permanent identity. — Like goes to like. — The "Loss" of the 
 soul here, and how to regain it. — The "Oneness" between this 
 and the next life. — The apparent and the real man. — Belief is 
 not Faith. — No break of continuity — The "Bridge Bureau" 
 prepared. — Its value. — "S^ "made out next life on earth." — 
 fHie law of spiritual growth. — ' ' The last shall be first, and the 
 first last," illustrated.— jThe natural law of inevitable conse- 
 quences in the next li fey' which follow on that on earth. — No 
 "Judgment" from without, but " self -selection " by Conscience. 
 
 The friend of the late Mr. W. T. Stead, called 
 "Julia," who held long correspondences with him 
 from tlie other side*, fully corroborates all other 
 spirits, that Religion on the other side, as it should 
 be on this, is based on Character and Conduct, 
 namely the ''Christ-like." This is what St. James 
 meant by Religion when he defined it as follows; 
 ''Pure Religion and undefiled before God the 
 Father is this — to visit the fatherless and widows 
 in their affliction and to keep hunself unspotted 
 from the world."* 
 
 * After Death. fJa^., 1, 27. 
 
 39
 
 40 HAPPINESS IN THE NEXT WORLD 
 
 ''Julia," in After Death*, observes in the sec- 
 ond chapter, entitled ''The Surprises of the New 
 Life" : "When the soul leaves the body it remains 
 exactly the same as when it was in the body . . . 
 the mind, the knowledge, the experiences, the 
 habits of thought, the inclinations — they remain 
 exactly as they were. ... It is the mind which 
 makes character. Hence, the thoughts and the in- 
 tents of the heart, the imaginations of the mind, 
 these are the things hy which ive are judged; for 
 it is they which make up and create, as it were, 
 the real character of the inner self, which becomes 
 visible after the leaving of the body." 
 
 We know that "Like goes to like," by the par- 
 able of Dives and Lazarus ; so, too, the spirits tell 
 us is the case now. 
 
 So far from the conditions on the other side 
 being "Too much like those on earth," we soon 
 learn that they are "like," yet at the same time 
 different, whether for the "good" or the "bad." 
 
 Our Lord said : ' ' What shall a man be profited, 
 if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his 
 
 souir't 
 
 Julia echoes this : ' ' The worst evil of the present 
 day is not its love of money, nor its selfishness. 
 No, but the Loss of the Soul. You forget that the 
 Soul is the thing. And that all that concerns the 
 body, except so far as it affects the Soul, is of no 
 importance. But what you have to realize is, that 
 men and women in this generation have lost their 
 souls. It is not w^hat we used to think of losing 
 
 *A personal Narrative, by "Julia " (W. T. Stead). ^Matt., 16, 26.
 
 HAPPINESS IN THE NEXT WOELD 41 
 
 the soul in hell, after laying aside the body. It is 
 a thing, not of the future only, but of the present. 
 Your Soul is lost, now; and you have to find it. 
 You are immersed in matter and you have lost 
 your soul ! The loss of the Soul, that is the malady 
 of the Day; and to find this Soul is the *Way 
 of Salvation.'* 
 
 ' ' Now I will go on to speak as to how to find the 
 Soul. There is only one way. There is no chance 
 of salvation, if you never give yourself time to 
 think on things that are timeless, that transcend 
 time, that will be when time shall be no more. 
 
 "You have no time but for the things of time, 
 which perish with the using .... You are 
 getting less and less spiritual. What seems to 
 me quite clear is, that the indifference to the Soul 
 is caused by not understanding that the Soul is 
 the Real Self, the only part of you which lasts, 
 the ' ' divine ' ' in you, which you are sacrificing to 
 the things of the day. 
 
 **What I say is, that the Soul has divine 
 powers ;t and if you will but find your Soul, and 
 develop its divine potency, there is open before 
 you a New Heaven and a New Earth, in which 
 Absence is not, nor Death, and where the whole 
 Universe of Love is yours. "I 
 
 * After Death, p. 137, 8. f^hat Julia appears to mean by 
 "divine powers" would seem to be what is called the "Spirit" 
 of man; that is the attributes of self-consciousness, the power 
 of abstract reasoning, hence the conception of God; the con- 
 BCiousncss of the power of choice, with its consequence of the 
 recognition of right and wrong, or of Good and Evil. Hence 
 man alone can be moral. All animals are non-moral and act by 
 mental automatism. X^ftvr Death, p. 9: Letter vi., pp. 13.5 ff.
 
 42 HAPPINESS IN THE NEXT WORLD 
 
 Tlie soul is, in Tact, indicated by Character and 
 Conduct, whicB makes the Character. 
 
 Mr. Stead says he thought: *'I wonder if the 
 new life surprised Julia much.'' Instantly she 
 wrote: "Yes. I was not prepared for such * one- 
 ness' in the life on both sides. Wlien the soul 
 leaves, it remains exactly the same as when it was 
 in the body; the soul is only the real self which 
 uses the mind and the body as its instruments, 
 and has no longer the uses or the needs of the 
 body." 
 
 ''The most extraordinary thing which came to 
 my knowledge when I passed over, was the differ- 
 ence between the apparent man and the real self. 
 It gave quite a new meaning to the warning 'Judge 
 not,' for the real self is built up even more by the 
 use it makes of the mind than by the use it makes 
 of the body. There are here men wlio seemed to be 
 vile and filthy to their fellows, who are far, far 
 superior, even in purity and holiness to men v/ho 
 in life kept an outward veneer of apparerxt good- 
 ness while the mind rioted in all wantonness.* It 
 is the mind (which prompts or decides conduct) 
 that makes character. Hence the thoughts and 
 intents of the heart, the imaginations of the mind 
 (which are the moving springs of conduct), these 
 are the things by which we are judged; for it is 
 they which makes up and create as it were the real 
 character of the inner self,t which becomes visible 
 after the leaving of the body."! So the publicans 
 
 *Cp. Matt., 21, 32. ■fMatt., 5, 8; 12, 34, 35; 15, 14; Eeb., 4, 
 12. :j:fl-e&., 12, 1; After Death, p. 9.
 
 HAPPINESS IN THE NEXT WORLD 43 
 
 and harlots entered the Kingdom of Heaven while 
 the Scribes and Pharisees were excluded. 
 
 If this be true, and it cannot be denied that our 
 Lord preached the same teaching, we have gone 
 wrong in laying too much stress on believing theo- 
 logical dogmas and Creeds; as if Belief of itself 
 were soul-saving. Belief concerns the head — love, 
 the heart. 
 
 *' Believe* on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
 shalt be saved" would be true had the Greek word 
 been rightly translated by "have faith in." But 
 St. James — our Lord's own brother — adds: 
 ''Faith without works {i.e., conduct) is dead," by 
 which he meant 'Belief.' 'Belief is only the be- 
 ginning of conviction that Christ-life is the best 
 possible example we can have. Belief must be de- 
 veloped into Faith, involving the determination to 
 imitate Him and so live the "Christ-life" our- 
 selves, and thereby prove ourselves worthy to be 
 called "Christians." 
 
 On the other hand we all know the opening 
 sentence of the Athanasian (so-called) Creed, 
 while to "believe" that Christ is "divine" is an- 
 other "belief" which is thought to qualify a man 
 as being a "Christian" without works. 
 
 As other spirits say, so Julia more than once 
 writes: "There is no sudden transformation. 
 You are here as you were. There is no break of 
 
 •"Believe" has come to us through the Vulgate, for the Latin 
 word is credo; though "Faith" is derived rightly from the Latin 
 fides. To "believe" here means to have faith in trying our 
 utmost to imitate Christ.
 
 44 HAPPINESS IN THE NEXT WOELD 
 
 continuity. You start where you left off, what you 
 are you remain, until you endeavour to improve. 
 
 *'You will find that we, on this side, who have 
 been able to see and feel and know that God is 
 love, will also tell you that love, no more on this 
 side than on yours, precludes pain and sorrow and 
 the phenomena of imperfection. We have not 
 attained, we 'press forward to the mark of our 
 liigh calling' here as there. Tliink you that we 
 are transfigured into the fulness of His glory be- 
 cause the earthly home of our tabernacle is dis- 
 solved? Nay verily. We are as we are, when our 
 earthly garment decays : we remain. 
 
 " The increase of this sense of the continuity of 
 existence, of the reign of law and of the responsi- 
 bility of time for eternity, and all that that im- 
 plies, will have the greatest changes that your 
 Bureau can make."* 
 
 The chief change (writes Julia) that will be 
 made by the ** Bridge Bureau" will be to increase 
 to a quite inconceivable extent the consciousness 
 of responsibilities. **You may think it strange that 
 fhe verification of another life should increase the 
 importance of yours; but such is the fact, and 
 you can never understand the importance of your 
 life until you see it from this side. You are never, 
 for one moment, idle from influencing eternity. 
 You may think this is a figure of speech, but it is 
 not You are, far more really than you imagine, 
 
 *0p. cit., pp. 100-101. The Bureau for intercommunication 
 was established until Mr. W T. Stead lost his life in the 
 "Titanic."
 
 HAPPINESS IN THE NEXT WORLD 45 
 
 making this worlcl of ours (for yourself) in that 
 world of yours." 
 
 (''You make your own life," writes Mr. Stead 
 in a heading). 
 
 ''Yes, this is a manufactured article, so to 
 speak. You are, in the loom of time, weaving the 
 fabric of this world. You make your next life. 
 Yes, and you make your life on earth. You make 
 your next life. You do it day by day, you do it 
 hour by hour." 
 
 "The Law of Spiritual Gro^rth" is the subject 
 of the Fifth Communication from Julia to the late 
 Mr. Stead. It runs as follows: — 
 
 "Spiritual growth depends upon love and ser- 
 vice ; and you limit the area of both when you put 
 a wall of iron between the spheres .... Life 
 is ministry and sacrifice and service and love .... 
 
 "As Jesus saved us, we also must save others, 
 walking so far as we can in our Lord's steps . . . . 
 Do you think that we on this side, because we live 
 more visibly in the presence of God, and are more 
 consciously in the light of the love of our Lord, 
 therefore love less those whom we loved on earth? 
 I tell you, nay, it is quite the opposite. We love 
 them more and more and more continually, as we 
 grow in grace and in tlie knowledge of the Lord. ' ' 
 
 Julia, who had been in the Spirit-world for 
 several years, and speaks from experience says: 
 "On this side things seem so topsy-turvy. The 
 first are last, the last first. I see convicts and 
 murderers and adulterers, who worked their wick-
 
 46 HAPPINESS IN THE NEXT WOELD 
 
 edness out in the material sphere, standing far 
 higher in the scale of purity and of holiness than 
 some who never committed a crime; but whose 
 minds as it were, were the factory and breeding 
 ground of thoughts which are the seed of crimes in 
 others. I do not mean by this that it is better 
 to do crimes than to think them; only that the 
 doing is not always to be taken as proof of wick- 
 ed-heartedness. ' ' 
 
 Instances of such have been described in the 
 war; burglars and drunkards have risked their 
 lives to save others; such is the noblest kind of 
 Christian Love {agape). 
 
 "What do we learn from this ? Simply just what 
 Christ and His Apostles told us: Faith (not only 
 Belief) and "Works ; Words and deeds are neces- 
 sary. Character and Conduct are the Sole Tests in 
 the next world, but to be first acquired in This. 
 
 This conclusion to be drawn is the greatest 
 fact of importance thus revealed by Spiritualism, 
 with the inevitable consequences which follow the 
 life here. There is no judgment in the popular 
 sense of the word, but exactly what Christ taught, 
 namely, natural residts; as shown in the parable 
 of Dives and Lazarus and in the imaginary scene 
 of the Last Day. It is clear that those whom the 
 King ''separates" as "sheep" from those as 
 "goats" have become so by their own habits of 
 life — Character and Conduct — so that they are 
 "self -judged" by their own Consciences. 
 
 Dives was in "purgatory" in consequence of
 
 HAPPINESS IN THE NEXT WORLD 47 
 
 his neglect of his ''duty" to Lazarus, for he did 
 not help hiiii of his own free-will. 
 
 Spirits fully corroborate this. I once knew a 
 man who "lived solely for himself." His wife 
 once told me she ^' never saw him except at meal- 
 times." He died, and our spirits said he was in 
 "purgatory," and is still there after several 
 years.
 
 CHAPTER in 
 
 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD; MAN AND 
 HIS DUTIES, HERE AND HEREAFTER 
 
 f Imperator's teaching about God, and how He is regarded in 
 Ct^ higher spheres.— The fallacy of the "Fall. "—To learn man's 
 progressive development leads to knowledge and happiness. — 
 Man's responsibilities for Progress, Culture and Purity. — To 
 which we must add Love or Enthusiasm of humanity. — The 
 rejectors of Christ may be compared with those who repudiate 
 Spiritualism. — Mr, Moses' position of hesitation — a transitional 
 mental condition. — Imperator sympathizes with him, but the 
 difficulties of the Sadduces were greater. — Can any good thing 
 come from a carpenter? — Mr. Moses now grasps what he could 
 not realize before. — He recognizes Imperator as "truthful, con- 
 sistent and external to himself, and that his teaching is elevat- 
 ing"; — a temporary reaction. — "Can it be due to Satan in 
 the garb of an Angel of Light?" — Imperator appeals to th§ 
 purity of his teaching as its warranty. — The Bible and Inspiration 
 considered by the Author of Christ in You, who follows the 
 teaching of Imperator. — The meaning of "Bread" in a spiritual 
 sense as a Symbol of Christ and of His Church. — Eeturning to 
 Imperator, he speaks of the spiritual influence of the Bible and 
 explains the error of the early transcribers, e.g., certain laws of 
 King Khammurabi's Code (in the time of Abraham) embodied in 
 Exodus and Leviticus. — Tlie Old Testament shows the pro- 
 gressive ideas until we reach the prophets. — St. John the Baptist, 
 the forerunner of Christ. 
 
 In reply to a question by Rev. Stainton Moses, 
 as to whether Imperator's teaching might not be 
 regarded as implying Deism, Theism or to some, 
 even Atheism, lie said: '' Doubtless we teach that 
 there is one Supreme Being over all; one who is 
 not manifested as man has fancied, but who has 
 always announced to His creatures from time to 
 
 48
 
 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 49 
 
 i 
 time, such facts about Himself as they were able ' 
 
 to comprehend ; or more strictly has enabled them 
 to develop in their minds truer views of Himself 
 and of His dealings. We tell you, as Jesus told 
 His followers, of a loving, holy, pure God, who 
 guides and governs the universe; who is no im- 
 personal conception of the human mind, but a 
 real spiritual Father; a really existent Being, 
 albeit known to you only by His operations, and 
 through your conceptions of His nature and 
 attributes.* 
 
 "But though we have not seen Him, we know 
 yet more and more of the fathomless perfection of 
 His nature, through a more intimate acquaintance 
 with His works. We know, as you cannot, the 
 power and wisdom, the tenderness and love of the 
 Supreme. We trace it in a thousand ways which 
 you cannot see. We feel it in a thousand forms 
 which never reach your lower earth. And while 
 you, poor mortals, dogmatize as to His essential 
 attributes and ignorantly frame for yourselves a 
 being like unto yourselves, we are content to feel 
 and to know His power as the operation of a Wise 
 and Loving and All-pervading Intelligence. His 
 government of the Universe reveals Him to us 
 as potent, wise and good. His dealings with our- 
 selves we know to Be tender and loving. 
 
 'Spirit Teachings, p. 119. This book was written by Rev. 
 Stainton Moses, being dictated by Imperator, and taken down 
 by automatic handwriting. It contains some 100,000 words; 
 yet it is only a portion of the entire quantity of communications. 
 It should be carefully studied by all interested in Religion in tho 
 next world. (Office of Light.)
 
 50 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 
 
 (if 
 
 The past has been fruitful of mercy and lov- 
 ing-kindness; the present has been instinct with 
 love and tender considerations; into the future 
 we do not pry. We are content to trust it in the 
 hands of One Whose power and love we have 
 experienced. And we do not, as curious mortals 
 please themselves with imagining, picture a future 
 which has its origin in our own intelligence and is 
 disproved by each advancement in knowledge. 
 We trust Him too really in care to speculate. We 
 live for him and to Him. We strive to learn and 
 do His will, sure that in so doing we shall benefit 
 ourselves and all created things whom we tend; 
 the while we Day to Him the honor which is His 
 due, and the only homage which His Majesty can 
 accept. We love Him; we worship Him; we 
 adore Him ; we obey Him ; but we do not question 
 His plans, nor pry into His mysteries."* 
 
 As Imperator pointed out the fallacy of the 
 dogma of Atonement,t so does he that of the 
 "^Fall." 
 
 *'0f man" (he says) **we "know more than we 
 are permitted to tell, as yet we are not charged to 
 gratify curiosity, nor to open out to you views and 
 speculations which would but bewilder your mind. 
 Of the origin of man, you may be content to know 
 that the day will come when we shall be able to tell 
 you more certainly of his spiritual nature, its 
 origin and destiny; whence it came and whither 
 it is going. For the present you. may know that the 
 
 * Spirit Teachings, pp. 152. fSee below, chap. 13.
 
 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 51 
 
 theological story of a Fall from a state of purity to 
 a state of sin, as usually detailed and accepted is 
 misleading . . . You may better direct your atten- 
 tion for the present to man's condition as an 
 incarnated spirit and seek to learn how progres- 
 sive development, in obedience to the laws which 
 govern hun, leads to happiness in the present and 
 advancement in the inmiediate future ... It is im- 
 portant that we should speak of man's duty and 
 work in the earth-life. Man is a spirit temporarily 
 enshrined in a body of flesh, a spirit with a spirit- 
 ual body which is to survive its severance from 
 the earth body. This spiritual body it is the object 
 of your training in the sphere of probation to 
 develop and fit for its life in the sphere of spirit. 
 That life, so far as it concerns you to know, is 
 endless. You cannot grasp what eternity means 
 . . . Sufficient now that we demonstrate to you 
 enduring existence, and intelligence existing after 
 the death of the physical body." 
 
 Imperator then briefly describes what man, as 
 a ''responsible spiritual being," must do, under 
 the term "Progress, in knowledge of Iiimself 
 and all tliat makes for spiritual development. 
 Culture, not in one direction but all; and Purity 
 in tliouglit word and act." 
 
 Respecting his duty to his neighbors, it is 
 summed up in Charity (A.V.), i.e., Love (R.V.), 
 or, ])etter, "Enthusiasm of humanity" (Seeley). 
 
 Impc rotor's expression, "Knowledge of him-
 
 52 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD, 
 
 self reminds one of a lately discovered "Saying of 
 Jesus," found in the ruins of Oxyrhyncus: 
 
 "Jesus saith, Ye ask 'who are those that draw 
 us to the Kingdom, if the Kingdom is in Heaven T 
 The fowls of the air, and all the beasts that are 
 under the earth o ■ upon the earth, and the fishes 
 of the sea, these are they which draw you, and the 
 Kingdom of Heaven is within you; and whoever 
 shall hnoiv Imnself shall find it. Strive therefore 
 to know yourselves, and ye shall be aware that ye 
 are the sons of the Almighty Father ; and ye shall 
 know that ye are in the City of God, and ye are 
 the city.'* 
 
 To know thyself, therefore, is to find one's soul. 
 As long as time and sense, the outward things of 
 life, the material world, the work of the flesh and 
 the pride of life are all in all to us, then self, the 
 true spiritual self, is forgotten and lost. 
 
 Imperator draws a comparison between those 
 who rejected Jesus Christ and His teaching, and 
 the unbelievers in Spiritualism today, who scorn 
 the teaching they give us. Mr. Moses writes : "The 
 parallel is comprehensible, '^' and he thinks it was 
 excusable. He says he is not like having one in 
 the flesh to talk to, but an intangible, irresponsible 
 "impersonal influence" to deal vnth. "I have 
 notliing to lay hold of. As for you {i.e., Imperator) 
 I know nothing of you, even if you be an entity at 
 all. But on the whole I msh that you would leave 
 me alone ! ' ' This was written as a heading to the 
 14th Section. There are 33 Sections in all. Before
 
 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 53 
 
 the end came. Rev. S. Moses fully accepted 7m- 
 perator's teaching, because, as he says: — "I 
 found it to be in exact accordance with Christ's 
 teaching" ; only having been brought up to believe 
 in the importance of ecclesiastical dogmas, he did 
 not see that to live the Christ-life IS Christianity 
 and nothing else. Mr. Moses describes his conflict 
 as follows: *'I had in fact become wearied out 
 with this strenuous conflict between my o\\ii 
 strongly-conceived opinions and those of an In- 
 telligence so powerful in statement and so co- 
 herent in argument. I was torn by conflicting 
 emotions, and undergoing, in doubt, a state of 
 preparation necessary for what was to follow." 
 
 Imperator replies: "Friend, we sjTiipathize 
 wfth your questionings, and will try to aid you. 
 You say that the sceptical Sadducee was better off, 
 in that he had the definite personal Jesus before 
 him. Doubtless he had ; but so far from that being 
 a help to him, it would be an additional cause of 
 perplexity. He would find it far harder to asso- 
 ciate the son of the Carpenter of Nazareth with 
 God's new revelation than you do to associate us 
 with the supreme. . . For he would see all around 
 him the tangible and palpable difficulties which he 
 could not surmount. 
 
 ''With you the case is otherwise. You have to 
 deal with no external difficulties. You have simply 
 to battle witli intellectual doubt. You know and 
 acknowledge that the words which have been 
 spoken to you are such as you might reasonably
 
 54 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 
 
 expect from a teacher sent from God. They arc 
 fraught with a message, the need of which you 
 feel, the beauty of which you admit, and the moral 
 grandeur of which commends itself to all who are 
 fitted to receive it. You know full well that it 
 originates in some source external to yourself. 
 You must know that no unconscious effort of your 
 own mind could produce that which contradicts 
 the outcome of your own thoughts. When this 
 phase of doubt through w^hich you are now passing 
 has gone, j^ou will wonder how you can ever have 
 imagined that I am not an entity as real as your- 
 self, as real as any embodied intelligence whom 
 you call "Man" .... 
 
 "You say that you know nothing of me. Why 
 will you confuse the messenger with his message'? 
 Why will you insist on associating A\dth that which 
 is Divine the vehicle through which it is conveyed? 
 
 Mr. Moses tells us later what was the result in 
 himself: "I began to grasp, as I had been unable 
 to grasp before, the tendency of the teaching, and 
 to separate it from the individuality of the mes- 
 senger. I grasped, as I could not grasp before, 
 what was to me, in very truth, a new Revelation. 
 The messenger became lost in the importance to 
 me of his message; and the desire to probe and 
 prove minute points of detail was lost in the full 
 blaze of conviction that then first burst upon me. 
 ... I estimated the experience of a year, during 
 which I could discover no departure from strict 
 truth. And I came clearly to the conclusion that
 
 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 55 
 
 the Power which was in action was: (1) External 
 to myself; (2) Truthful and consistent in its state- 
 ments; (3) Pure and elevated in the religious 
 teaching which it conveyed." 
 
 Mr. Moses tills nearly two pages with his 
 thoughts. Imperator replies : "You must bide your 
 time as patiently as may be ; meantune the train- 
 ing is valuable to you. You will know the why as 
 you knew it not before; and impulse and enthus- 
 iasm will yield to experimental knowledge and 
 carry conviction. The venerable belief which has 
 been assented to, rather than accepted, will pale 
 before the knowledge of truth which is born of 
 investigation and logical analysis. AVliat we have 
 said merits the deepest study: We claim to be 
 judged by our whole communion with you, by 
 words and deeds alike; by the moral effect of our 
 teaching, no less than by its relation to previous 
 needs ; by the spiritual atmosphere which we bring 
 with UP, no less than by the imperfect utterances 
 in whicli logical subtlety may readily find a flaw." 
 
 Speaking of the true use of the Bible, the Author 
 of Christ in You thus explains it: "The real value 
 of the Bible is in the spiritual or inspired writer, 
 who has opened your understanding to the things 
 of God. . . Millions of people have been lifted by 
 it, by their belief in it. In this we recognize the 
 working of a law unknown to you. I can best 
 explain it as the law of transmigration. The 
 working out is as follows: You can lift everything 
 into the highest place, until it becomes transmuted
 
 56 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 
 
 and purified, changing into very gold the basest 
 metal of earth. This is the philosopher's stone, 
 the transmutation into heavenly values by our 
 faith in absolute truth." 
 
 "I am putting this key into your hands, that 
 you too may begin even now to turn every experi- 
 ence into an opportunity to lift it into the highest 
 until it becomes purified, transmuted to pure gold 
 tried in the fire of God* ; and not only this, but it 
 returns to you a thousand fold, filled with richest 
 meaningt for all time." 
 
 *'The Bible has become to you THE Book; but 
 I would also have you know that God has inspired 
 men and women with power to reveal, in our own 
 time, even greater things, and ever fresh unfold- 
 ings from the heart of life. Above all things, we 
 want you to have the open vision to-day, for great- 
 er things are coming, and God is doing wonders 
 among you. Eejoice in the new revelation, abound- 
 ing in hope. The new will reveal the old to you 
 afresh. Have no doubts. Launch out into the 
 deeps of God, and fear not. Eternity is nowt-" 
 
 With regard to ''Inspiration," the writer of 
 Christ in You says: "Inspiration is the one spirit 
 'using for its channels many books and many 
 methods ; it is ever seeking avenues to pour out the 
 abundant wealth and wisdom of God. Inspiration 
 is possible to all men. That you can from the 
 spiritual plane use sense or empty words, so that 
 they become vehicles of spiritual power, is a great 
 
 *Matt., 10, 42. fLulce, 6, 38. %Christ in You, pp. 39 ff. 
 This is a valuable little book, evidently taken down by automatic 
 handwriting. (Pub. by J. M. Watkins).
 
 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 57 
 
 and glorious truth. This, too, is genius, for God 
 has spoken, and the ordinary language of time and 
 sense is made eternal and spiritual. 
 
 "In just this way, Jesus took the word 'bread,' 
 and gave it a holy and spiritual meaning. When 
 we pray: 'Give us this day our daily bread' we 
 are using words of great and significant meaning 
 — seeking the nourishment that shall sustain us in 
 very deed. In all things we are to bring reality 
 and truth where nothingness and limitation have 
 made chaos and darkness." 
 
 "With regard to this reference to bread, it is cus- 
 tomary to suppose that by "daily bread," Christ 
 meant an actual loaf, and not solely a spiritual 
 gift, as in all other sentences of the Lord's Prayer. 
 But to ask for a loaf is equivalent to asking for the 
 money to buy it ; and to expect a coin to come to 
 each and all who say this prayer every day, is to 
 ask for a miracle. Where are the coins to come 
 from? 
 
 On the other hand, the bread will only come 
 through working for it: Lahorare est orare. 
 
 Our Lord has so clearly shown us what He 
 meant by bread, when contrasting Himself with 
 the manna, and in the Lord's Supper, viz., that 
 while the "loaf" represents His body; which 
 stands for the Church; so His Flesh represents 
 His Character which all "the members of His 
 body" or of His Church are to possess. The 
 Author quoted therefore, seems to be nearer the 
 truth than is the general interpretation of a ma- 
 terial rather than spiritual bread.
 
 58 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 
 
 Imperator gives an epitome of the development 
 of early man's progress under the spiritual in- 
 fluence of chosen men. He thus writes of the Old 
 Testament : 
 
 ''It is well that we warn you that you must learn 
 to discriminate in the ancient records between 
 that which is record of fact and that which is only 
 expression of belief. The writings which give the 
 history of those early days are full of inconsistent 
 statements. They were not the compilation of their 
 reputed authors, but were compiled from tradi- 
 tional beliefs, in a far later age, at a time when 
 history had merged into legend, and much of mere 
 opinion and belief had become stamped with the 
 mark of authenticity. So though it be most true 
 that fact is embodied in these records, as indeed 
 in the sacred books of other faiths, you must be- 
 ware how you accord implicit belief to every iso- 
 lated statement contained in them. Hitherto you 
 have read these stories from a standpoint of un- 
 questioning assent. It is needful now that you 
 study them in a new light — one more profitable 
 and not less interesting*." 
 
 "God did not associate with man after the 
 anthropomorphic fashion described in Genesis; 
 nor did He personally govern a favored nation 
 
 *Spirit Teachings, p. 184, f. The above was written on Nov. 
 2, 1873; the same year in which Mr. G. Smith's discoveries in 
 Babylon were published; while Dr. Sayce's Eibbert Lectures 
 were delivered in 1887; and his work on the Beligions of Ancient 
 Egypt and Babylonia in 1902. So that Imperator 's information 
 preceded the great discoveries in Babylonian Literature, showing 
 resemblances and even identities between the earliest chapters 
 in Genesis and Babylonian accounts.
 
 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 59 
 
 save through His selected instruments. His deal- 
 ings with man have been uniform through the 
 ages — intimate in proportion as man cultivated 
 spirituality, remote as his animal nature asserts 
 itself, and he becomes corporal and material in his 
 instincts." 
 
 Imperator then passes in review the work of 
 Abram, Melchizedek, Moses and Elijah, and then 
 replies to the question by Mr. Moses: *'As to the 
 Pentateuch, is it the work of one author?" 
 
 ' ' The books to which you refer are the compila- 
 tion of the days of Ezra. They were compiled from 
 the more ancient records, which were in danger of 
 being lost, and some parts of which had to be 
 supplied from tradition or memory. The original 
 records of the days previous to Moses did not 
 exist, and the record which you have in Genesis 
 is partly imaginary, partly legendary and partly 
 the transcript of records. The account of the Crea- 
 tion and the story of the Deluge are legendary.* 
 The account of the Egyptian Ruler, Joseph, is 
 transcribed from records. But in no case are the 
 books as they now stand the work of their reputed 
 authors. They are the compilation of Ezra and" 
 his scribes and do but embody the conceptions and 
 legends of the period. The accounts which concern 
 the Mosaic Law are more exact, because precise 
 records of the Code were preserved as sacred 
 books and from these the particulars were drawn 
 upt." 
 
 "Both are now traceable to Babylon. -fSpirit Teachings, 
 p. 188, f.
 
 60 MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 
 
 The preceding quotation is particularly interest- 
 ing, referring to the Mosaic Law ; because we now 
 know that several of the laws {e.g., in Exodus, ch. 
 21, and Leviticus, ch. 6) are almost verbatim quo- 
 tations from Khammurabi's Code, which consists 
 of upwards of 200 laws. He was King of Babylon 
 in the time of Abraham, in the third Millenium, 
 B.C. The English translation appeared in 1903*. 
 
 The reader will probably now know that the 
 story of Adam and Eve, and of the Flood as re- 
 corded in Genesis, can be paralleled by accounts 
 discovered in Babylon, and fully described by Dr. 
 Sayce and others. Indeed a picture of presumably 
 Adam and Eve, or their representatives, with the 
 date-tree and erect serpent, was found on a Baby- 
 lonian seal and is figured in The Sacred Treei. 
 
 The Old Testament represents the progress 
 which men made in the conception of God in the 
 most primitive times till Christ appeared to reveal 
 Him in the flesh. Imperator observes: *'Man has 
 progressed in knowledge since the days when he 
 feigned for himself a vacillating puny God who 
 repented and was grieved at the failure of his 
 plans in man's creation, and who was compelled 
 to undo them as a failure. If you seek for concep- 
 tions more sublime and true you will go to a later 
 age; when man had unlearned somewhat of his 
 folly and had ceased to be content with a God 
 framed after the devices of a barbarous imagina- 
 
 *The Oldest Code of Laws in the World, translated by C. H. L. 
 John (T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh). fPubUshed by Macmillan 
 & Co., 1897.
 
 ]\IAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 61 
 
 tion and undeveloped mind. The barbarous age 
 could grasp nothing nobler, and accordingly noth- 
 ing nobler could be revealed. That is in accord- 
 ance with the universal practice ,viz., that God's 
 revelation is proportional to man's mental plane. 
 The error has been that you have labored to per- 
 petuate these foolish and crude views. They have 
 been held by your theologians to be of Divine *' in- 
 spiration" binding for all time. This fallacy we 
 desire utterly to uproot."* 
 
 St. John Baptist was the fore-runner of Jesus 
 Christ, but he was still a legalist. He preached 
 practical morality, in obedience to the old laws 
 written on tables of stone; whereas Christ 
 preached the same and more, as natural laws on 
 the fleshy table of the heart ; hence the least in the 
 Kingdom of Heaven was greater than He ; for the 
 Kingdom of Heaven is within us. 
 
 *0p, cit., pp. 200 ff.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE LAWS OF ETERNAL LIFE 
 
 r^awS in the next world to be learned and obeyed. — Duties 
 arc appointed to the new arrivals. — We must not be too in- 
 quisitive as to our future conditions, but there is great promise 
 for students. — The most important Law governing the Here 
 and the Hereafter is illustrated by the parable of Dives and 
 Lazarus. — Missionary spirits cannot help if the man in "purga- 
 tory" will not try to help himself. — The cruel German soldier. — 
 Purgatory may be long, but that depends upon the sufferer's 
 >will. — It is more difficult to recover on the other side than on 
 earth. — There is no vicarious atonement or substitution. — The 
 meaning of salvation is spiritual health of the soul. — The re- 
 nunciation of sin, not dependent on any atonement, is necessary 
 to be made by all. — A Psychograph on Eesurrection received from 
 the other side. 
 
 All spirits agree in saying that they have to obey 
 laws. Thus Dr. F. D. Monck (Adanijah)* says: 
 *'I am privileged to write, etc." So it was with 
 Julia. 
 
 A Guardian Angel, or "guide," sent to meet 
 Julia on passing over, observed: "I am sent to 
 teach you the laws of the new life." 
 
 *I have reproduced some of Monck 's writings to the late 
 Archdeacon Colley in my book The Proofs of the Truths of Spirit 
 Forces. He was a great friend of the Archdeacon for many 
 years before he passed over. He always spoiled Adanijah with 
 an a instead of an o in earth life, and having retained this on 
 the other side still does so. These two agreed upon two proofs 
 of his identity in future communications before he died; one 
 •was to add the accompanving figure, here reproduced. 
 See p.' 196 in "Proofs." 
 
 On shaking hands with the Archdeacon, when controlling Dr. 
 Hooper in a trance, he always interlocked his fingers with those 
 of the Archdeacon in a prearranged manner. 
 
 62
 
 THE LAWS OF ETEENAL LIFE 63 
 
 Julia and her new friend went to where her old 
 friends were ; who, she says, ' ' told me that I must 
 learn its laws and endeavor to be as useful as 1 
 could. The spirit friends had their life much as it 
 was here. They lived and loved, and if they had 
 not to work for their daily bread they had still 
 plenty to do."* 
 
 ' Similarly our "domestic" spirit-friends replied 
 to a question from myself on these matters : ' ' The 
 Little Man is too matter of fact for the next world. 
 He will have to wait till he gets here before he 
 puts things douTi as facts. We have to obey orders 
 and are not allowed to say things which we may 
 not tell you." 
 
 I suppose they meant what I should call "scien- 
 tific evidence." I ask too many questions which 
 they are sometimes miable, at others, not allowed, 
 to answer. Nevertheless, I trust my readers will 
 be quite satisfied with the amount of facts I have 
 accumulated of evidence in The Proofs of the 
 Spirit Forces, as well as in this. Beyond that 
 we must live in Hope and Faith, and all will 
 be W(>11 with us if we supplement these with Agape 
 or Love.t 
 
 Julia's hint about learning affords a good pro- 
 mise or Students. "There is one passion that 
 increases rather than diminishes on this side, and 
 tliat is the desire to know and learn. We have so 
 much to learn and such facilities. We shall never 
 
 "After Death, p. 2. This latly had been on earth a friend of 
 tho late W. T. Stea<l, and wrote this book by means of his hand, 
 f/ Cor., 12, 13.
 
 64 THE LAWS OF ETERNAL LIFE 
 
 be able to say we know everything about this 
 world, for the maji'vellous wisdom of God is past 
 finding out. Wlien we reach what we think the 
 ultimate, there is a new vista of marvels which 
 we see before us. We pass through, and when we 
 come to a stand, beyond us again stretches a new 
 invisible marvel- world, into which we also may at 
 some new stage of development begin to see"* 
 
 Our spirits say that the inclination to work on 
 the other side is put into the minds of the new 
 comers ; i.e., presumably if it is not there already 
 acquired on this side. 
 
 There is one of the spiritual laws on the other 
 side which cannot be too strongly impressed on all 
 before they pass over. Occasions arose, more than 
 once while I was compiling this book, to allude to 
 it, but I shall repeat it here Vvdth an illustration. 
 It may be expressed thus: The sinner's self -re- 
 grets caused by his consequent mental sufferings 
 are of no avail for any mental mitigation until he 
 realizes that he has sinned against a loving God 
 and Christ. The moment a true spark of real 
 repentance is visible, then God's spiritual messen- 
 gers are ever eagerly waiting to help him or her 
 and come at once to do so.f 
 
 All spirit writers who deal with this subject are 
 unanimous in agreement on this. It agrees per- 
 fectly with our Lord's parable of the Rich Man 
 and Lazarus.l He prays to "Father Abraham'* 
 to send Lazarus — ^w^hom he never cared to help in 
 
 * After Death, p. 50. fSee Speaking Across the Border-line, 
 pp. 31 ff. tLuke, 16, 19 ff.
 
 THE LAWS OF ETERNAL LIFE 65 
 
 his life— ''that he may dip the tip of his finger 
 in water and cool my tongue." So far from show- 
 ing any regrets or his callous behavior, he now 
 wants Lazarus to serve him; utterly unconscious 
 that he has been shirking God's Law of humanity 
 all liis life. 
 
 Abraham refuses at once, just as the missionary 
 spirits, however willing to help they may be, 
 cannot help one who will not help himself. ''The 
 great gulf" stands for that state of mental re- 
 pulsion to repent, to which the rich man had 
 brought himself by years of self-indulgence, and 
 it will require years of his best efforts to conquer 
 it on the other side. 
 
 The following incident occurred w^hen our own 
 spirit-friends took the occasion to impress upon us 
 the same law. The lady's hand suddenly began to 
 w^rite, but in such a rapid way that she could not 
 make out what it was. Moreover, the words did 
 not seem to be English. On asking our spirit 
 friends to explain it, if possible, they at once re- 
 plied saying: — "It is a German who says that he 
 has been dreadfully wicked and asks you to pray 
 for him. He says he has killed Belgian women 
 and strangled a priest. We think he cannot be 
 speaking the truth; but he really wants to be for- 
 given for his sins; but we do not think he knows 
 what he is asking for. He is miserable and wants 
 relief from his misery. He says he was shot 
 through the heart." 
 
 A week later the German wrote again, but the 
 lady could not read what he wrote, but could only
 
 66 THE LAWS OF ETERNAL LIFE 
 
 infer from his agitation that he was still in the 
 same state of distress. 
 
 I then asked our spirit friends why the German 
 soldier (like the suicide described mSpirit-Psycho- 
 metry)* came to seek relief from this side, and not 
 from those on the other. The reply was as follows : 
 
 "We do not think you realize the situation. We 
 will explain why they apply on earth. It is because 
 they are in a dreadful trouble and fly to anybody 
 they can to try to get out of it. We want to explain 
 to you that they do appeal to us too ; but they are 
 not really repentant, so we can do nothing until 
 they are truly repentant. They have a great deal 
 to go through before they can be really penitent. 
 We will tell you anything you like." 
 
 Another spirit-writerf says with regard to Re- 
 pentance and Remorse : **I am anxious to impress 
 upon mortals how much more difficult it is here, 
 than even upon earth, to resist the evil influences 
 around; even although the sufferings are so in- 
 tense; but all appears so hopeless. This the un- 
 happy spirits may remain in such a state even for 
 centuries, especially as it is repentance, not re- 
 morse which must be awakened; grief for their 
 sins; not anger at the penalty incurred. A little 
 progress, however, being made, they thirst for 
 more, and thus by degrees they may reach the next 
 sphere. But again and again a kind of apathy 
 seems to take possession of them ; and sometimes 
 
 *CompiIea and edited by the present writer and published 
 by Messrs. Rider and Sou. -'-I regret I have lost the reference 
 to this quotation, and apologize to the author for entering it here.
 
 THE LAWS OF ETEENAL LIFE 67 
 
 they even retrograde, so that the progress through 
 the lower spheres is generally very lengthened. '^ 
 
 But good spirits are untiring in their efforts to 
 help these wretched ones. Their Love is insatiable 
 in the cause of salvation. 
 
 There is one short lesson in Christ in You* on 
 •'Renunciation," i.e., the turning to God in Christ 
 from sin. Like Imperator, this unknown spirit- 
 writer has not a word to say of any "Atonement" 
 or "Substitution" made by Christ for man; for 
 the changes must always be done by us, ourselves. 
 It can never be done "for" us ; i.e., as it is wrong- 
 ly thought, "instead of ourselves making them." 
 
 Sin is often compared with disease, and the 
 Vulgate in translating the Greek word for "Sal- 
 vation" used the Latin word salus i.e. "health" ;t 
 for it meant the "saving" of the soul from sin. 
 That was why he was called "Jesus," according 
 to St. Matthew's Gospel. t 
 
 "Renunciation" — continues the writer — implies 
 a complete and deliberate stand for Truth, aban- 
 doning all else. It is the step which, once taken, 
 opens up before you the Christ existence. It is 
 not, as supposed, the giving up of wealth, posi- 
 tion and friends to become poor and desolate ; it is 
 rather withdrawal from submission and obedience 
 to the prince of this world — the creation of moral 
 sense — that you may deliberately follow the 
 Christ in every thought, renouncing all other 
 
 *0p. cit., p. 112. fThis word is rotaincd in the General 
 Confession: "We have no health in us," and in the Baptismal 
 Service: "for his soul's health." XMatt., 1, 21.
 
 68 THE LAWS OF ETEKNAL LIFE 
 
 rights over you. Thus, Renunciation becomes 
 Acquisition. You lay down, in order to take up; 
 but with a great difference."* 
 
 "You are a spiritual being sent out from God 
 to do His work and will. The material plane is 
 your place of action and your work commences 
 with the dawning consciousness of God. Your 
 scriptures are full of this teaching ; Jesus has gone 
 every step of the way for your guidance. There 
 are pathfinders in your midst to-day. Follow Met 
 says Christ, and the spiritual and real man re- 
 nounces all, to follow the King." To walk as He 
 walked; says St. John, for that is Union with 
 Christ.! 
 
 The writer conclude this "Lesson" with the 
 following words: 
 
 "At present you are to conquer" the fleshly 
 body, ruling in love, but always ruling. There is 
 a beautiul work before you. Jesus said: — "The 
 prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in 
 Me.§ These were words of life and power. These 
 may be your words too ; so that nothing can touch 
 you, hidden in God, doing His work and ^\illing 
 His will. You may reach the place where you no 
 longer hear two voices, but one only — that of the 
 living Christ. "II 
 
 The Renunciation of Sin and the self-applica- 
 tion to work for Christ involves a spiritual resur- 
 rection. 
 
 I insert, therefore, here a Sermon preached by 
 
 *0p. cit., p. 113; see II Cor., 10, 5. -fLiilce, 9, 20 ff, $7 John, 
 2, 6, ^John, 14, 30. \\Christ in You, pp. 115 ff.
 
 THE LAWS OF ETERNAL LIFE 69 
 
 the late Ven. Archdeacon Colley in his Church at 
 Stockton (Warwickshire). It came, as sho^\ai by 
 the Replica of the photographic plate, as described 
 by the Archdeacon himself. (No. 41). Proofs of 
 the Truths of Spirit Forces, p. 299. 
 
 SPIRITUAL EESUEEECTION 
 
 BEHSTG A SERMON FOE EasTER 
 
 WRITTEN BY NO MORTAL FINGERS 
 on a half photo-plate sealed up from all access of light. 
 
 {as we understand it) and held between the twelve 
 
 hands of six Christian Spiritualists for thirty-nine seconds, 
 
 Wednesday evening, March 9, 1910, as one of the many "signs 
 
 following" our Domestic Worship of Prayer and Praise. 
 
 (Every two lines form one in the Psycograph.) 
 
 " Friends 
 
 At present we would like to speak to you on the subject of the 
 
 spirit-world and the destiny of man. 
 The thought of a future state in relationship to man, has in 
 
 some form or other ever been opposed and 
 frowned upon by men of sceptical minds. To go no further 
 
 back than the days of the great Teacher Jesus, 
 we find there existed a sadducean class, who denied all future 
 
 existence to man. They said there were 
 no spirits either of angels or men; and therefore regarded 
 
 the stupendous doctrine of the resurrection 
 of humanity as a fanciful thing, and denounced it aa such. 
 
 In these modern times infidelity has 
 become more rampant and positive, and has endeavored to 
 
 the very utmost, to confirm and 
 establish its most repulsive and cheerless theories by deductions 
 
 of science. Not a single science 
 has ever been found out that has not been eagerly sought 
 
 after by the enemies of our common 
 immortality, to help their godless theories; which are fully 
 
 bent, if possible, on despoiling your 
 spiritualism of hor brightest ornament; which is proving the 
 
 lofty and glorious truths of God's 
 revelation, which proclaims with great power the deathlessnesa 
 
 of man. But we are glad to say that every science 
 like an advancing tide, has thrown back upon them their own 
 
 baseless thoughts; and roiled onward, bearing 
 on its bosom, its mighty and resistless testimony of the truth 
 
 of God, and the immortality of man. The last form
 
 70 THE LAWS OF ETERNAL LIFE 
 
 of argument which has assailed the future existence of human- 
 ity, is the materialistic theory, or doctrine of 
 homogeueousness. Its advocates have asserted that man has 
 
 but one identical nature, that he is altogether earthly 
 and earthborn, that his intelligent mind is nothing more than 
 
 the delicate offspring of matter. Their 
 favorite argument is, that the mind grows and dies with the 
 
 body, that it is infantile with the infant 
 body, and perfect in the adult; and therefore it must perish 
 
 with the body at death. Now if man be 
 nothing more than simple matter, if the mighty spirit correspond 
 
 exactly, in all cases to the size of 
 the human body, then, there is a strong presumption that the 
 
 dissolution of the physical organization 
 is the utter extinction of the entire man; but such conclusions 
 
 are repugnant to reason and fact. It is 
 readily granted that the soul manifests greater power, as the 
 
 body ripens to maturity, and that when the 
 body yields to the withering touch of time, the soul often seems 
 
 to yield, too; but this is not because it 
 either grows or declines, but because the body as a habitation 
 
 is too weak and frail for other than a 
 limited and gradual development of its great powers. How 
 
 often has some unexpected news, so excited 
 the immortal spirit that its very emotional workings, have 
 
 proved too powerful for its frail 
 tenement, and the body has given way under the strain. It 
 
 is the body therefore that is infantile and 
 weak and not the soul. Such being the nature of the spirit in 
 
 man, the death of the body can no 
 more affect its existence, than the mere throwing off of a gar- 
 ment can annihilate the person of its 
 wearer. Everlasting life pulsates in every faculty. There is, 
 
 therefore, a spirit life. When the world's Creator breathed 
 into man's nostrils the breath of life. He beheld in him the 
 
 image of His own great self; He saw divinity assuming 
 humanity, and humanity becoming immortal. In the eyes of 
 
 God there are no dead; all who have been still are, their 
 spirits have not been spent as a lightning flash, they are still 
 
 living, loving, conscious, and still active. We would 
 remiofl you of a verse from your hymn book, * ' Life is real, life 
 
 is earnest, and the grave is not its goal. Dust thou art, 
 
 to dust 
 returnest was not spoken of the soul." The spirits after con- 
 dition, is a theme which touches you all ; many who were dear 
 to you have passed over, they have thrown off their mortal 
 coil, and taken on the immortal, firmly trusting in God's love
 
 THE LAWS OF ETERNAL LIFE 71 
 
 and mercy, and fondly hoping to behold his glory the very 
 
 moment they put off the mortal. Are you to regard them 
 
 as deaf 
 speechless, and blind? And will such be your destiny when you 
 
 make the grand transition? Is the power of hope to be 
 • blasted when 
 in fullest bloom? Will the river of life be checked when its 
 
 flow towards the eternal ocean is the greatest? Is it all a 
 
 mockery, or a 
 delusion? True it is that in the Bible, death is depicted under 
 
 the beautiful and peaceful image of sleep; but such repre- 
 sentation 
 invariably, refers to the body, and not to the soul. The moment 
 
 death 's shadow falls upon the entrance of the gateway of life 
 and in the twinkling of an eye, the disembodied spirit is receiving 
 
 the reward of its works, while in the body, just as the 
 arctic sun dips into the ocean, it hastens again in its glorious 
 
 career up the sky; so the instant the natural eye is eclipsed 
 in death, the spiritual eye opens in eternity. One step and the 
 
 soul is on the spirit-side of life. A troop of angelic beings 
 unseen, crowd the chamber of death, and are ready with out- 
 stretched arms to welcome and bear the spirit to its home 
 immediately on its emancipation. What a moment of wonders, 
 
 one moment surrounded by weeping friends, and 
 bleeding hearts, and taking the last fond embrace this side 
 
 the grave, the next a companion of happy spirits, leaving 
 
 their 
 friends wondering why this should be. But here we would say, 
 
 they know only in part, they see as through a glass darkly, 
 
 the 
 greatest efforts of your greatest men, are as the opinions of 
 
 children, and in the words of your Bible we say, "eye hath not 
 seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of 
 
 man the things which God hath prepared for them that love 
 Him." Yet though the eye, and the ear and the mind of men, 
 
 arc inadequate to the giant task of grasping this, when 
 
 christian 
 people say that they have communion with the saints, they 
 
 gladly avow their firm belief, of being able to speak with 
 
 their loved ones. 
 No. Friends, doath has not really separated us from you. Of 
 
 course, as far as the mere physical relationship is concerned, 
 
 it has; 
 but there are spiritual, holy affinities which it cannot sever. 
 
 The mortal flesh becomes pulseless clay, under its cold 
 
 withering 
 touch, the compound unity of man's disembodied person is
 
 72 THE LAWS OF ETEKNAL LIFE 
 
 dissolved by it, into the distinctive principles of flesh and 
 
 spirit. 
 Yet while the flesh perishes and becomes food for worms, the 
 
 spirit lives on defying its power, and laughs at the corruption 
 of the grave. Therefore along with us, you can rejoice together 
 
 and say in very truth, "O grave where is they victory, O 
 death, where is thy sting?" For Friends, we tell yoii that 
 
 neither life, nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
 
 height, nor depth, 
 nor anything else shall separate you from the love of God, and 
 
 your loved ones. With what a lot of love, and kindly 
 
 affection, 
 you look forward to a reunion with your dear ones! their 
 
 forms, faces, and smiles, are constantly floating before you, 
 
 their 
 voices sound sweetly on your ears, their well-remembered names 
 
 are as pouring oil on troubled waters. You love them still, 
 you cannot forget your sainted dead. No, you have known 
 
 them too well for that, you have wandered hand in hand with 
 them, through the tangled woods of life; you have seen them 
 
 wrestle and strive with circumstances in that life : and at 
 last, you have seen them place their foot on the boundarv land 
 
 of another world; you have seen the heavens open, and the 
 angels descending, and they have been bourne away from your 
 
 sight. How, then, can you cease to remember them? But no 
 sooner are they lost to your sight, than questions such as these 
 
 come to yoH, shall we meet them, shall we love and be 
 loved by them again? To answer these, we will turn first of all 
 
 to the Bible for support. Turning to the second book of 
 
 Kings, the 
 sixth chapter, the sixteenth and seventeenth verses, you will 
 
 find these words, "And he answered. Fear not, for they 
 
 that be with us 
 are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, 
 
 and said. Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see 
 
 And the 
 Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and 
 
 behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of 
 
 fire round 
 about Elisha. Then, again, the eighth chapter of Ezekiel, 
 
 third verse, there you will find how a spirit-hand lifted 
 
 him up. Then 
 again, Moses appeared in a visible form at the transfiguration 
 
 of Jesus on Tabor, while his body was still lying in a valley 
 in the land of Moab. Again, there is Samuel who hearing a 
 
 voice, said "Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth. " All
 
 THE LAWS OF ETERNAL LIFE 73 
 
 these and many more we could mention give proof of a continued 
 
 existence. And here are a few thoughts from your 
 modern great men on the same subject. * ' We think we have 
 seen our loved one die, but if our eyes could be opened, if 
 only for one moment we should see that life was uninterrupted; " 
 
 this from one of the ministry of the Church of England. 
 And now, Friends, we bring this little message to a close, but 
 would like to remind you once again that you stand at the 
 vestibule of an eternal world; so make the best use of your 
 
 time here, sow to the spirit, place God first in all you 
 do; then, when you have finished your work in the body, you 
 
 will be able to say with the apostle, "1 have fought a 
 good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, 
 henceforth there is laid up for me a crowTi of righteousness. ' ' 
 May the peace and joy which passeth all human understanding 
 
 be yours. 
 God bless jon."— Easter Day, March 27, 1910, 
 ■'The smailness of the eopper-plate-like writing renders it 
 impossible to be reproduced by any engraving; while at times 
 with onr greatly esteem.ed unpaid mediums, in various circles, 
 the writing on our usual i^'P^^*^^ ^^ S'' microscopic, that, to 
 enable us to read it, a high-power lens is necessary. And the 
 character of the caligraphy in English, Archaic Greek, Latin, 
 Hebrew, Italian, French, Arabic, varies continually in our 
 several, separate domestic, devotional and private gatherings, 
 in places from twenty-four to seventy-seven miles apart, where 
 we meet as directed (St. Matt, xviii. 20) in Faith and Love, 
 KNOWING, from long experience, the inscrutable power of 
 Almighty God, 'the God of the spirits of all flesh' (Numbers 
 1G:22 and 27:16), v.dio, thus, and in other ways, permits the 
 Angel- World to be operative in this, and the Kingdom of Heaven 
 to have rule abidingly with us here on earth." 
 
 Ven. Archdeacon Collet. 
 The psycograph (Mo. 41) is given in The Proofs, Etc., p. 209. 
 
 Rev. Stainton Moses wrote in his Diary on 
 Easter Day, 1875: "I had been conscious of the 
 presence ot' a great number of spirits in the morn- 
 ing." After some reference to this, it was written 
 under an entirely new influence, though by the 
 usual amanuensis : 
 
 "We liave told you that we always celebrate 
 anniversaries, and Easter is with us a festival as 
 well as with vou, though we celebrate it from other
 
 74 THE LAWS OF ETEENAL LIFE 
 
 reasons and with a higher knowledge. Easter is 
 to us the Festival of Resurrection, but not of the 
 body. To us it symbolizes not Resurrection 0/ 
 Matter, but Resurrection from matter, the Resur- 
 rection of Spirit; and not this alone, but 
 Resurrection of Spirit from material beliefs and 
 surroundings; the emancipation of f soul from 
 the earthly and material, even as the spirit rises 
 from the dead body with which it has done for 
 ever. 
 
 **You have learned that there is a spiritual 
 significance in everything, even as there is a spirit 
 underlying every material object. So the dogma 
 that Christendom celebrated to-day is to us of 
 special significance. Christians keep festival in 
 memory of the rescue of their Master, the Lord 
 Jesus, from the grasp of death; and when they 
 erroneously believe that the material body was 
 revived, they do in ignorance celebrate the great 
 spiritual truth that there is no death. The festival 
 to us is one of joy over the partial recognition of 
 a truth divinely seen by man : and of still greater 
 rejoicing over the mighty work consummated on 
 this day. It is not that death was vanquished, as 
 you say, but that man began dimly to see a vision 
 of eternal life. . . . 
 
 **The life of the Christ, so far as it was public, 
 was compressed within three years and a few 
 months. For that, the previous thirty years hsu\ 
 been a preparation. During all that time he was 
 receiving instruction from those exalted angela 
 who inspired him with zeal and love for his mis-
 
 THE LAWS OF ETERNAL LIFE 
 
 7^ 
 
 sion. He was a constant communer wdth this woria 
 of spirits and was the more able to drink in their 
 teachings that his body was no heir to his spirit."* 
 
 Unless the story was of later origin, i.e., after 
 our Lord had used the phrase "My Father" for 
 God, it may be suggested that it was due to spirit 
 control, for it is very improbable that a child of 
 twleve could have spontaneously expressed it.f 
 
 I have italicized a few words wliich are of great 
 importance. We ordinarily believe that Christ re- 
 turned from, exactly as he had entered, the tomb, 
 excepting the grave-cloths. Yet we read of His 
 entering a room with closed doors, and that He 
 vanished in a moment. He tells us that He had 
 received the power to lay doAvn his life and to re- 
 take it, from the Father. We cannot yet explain 
 how the change of "properties" of ordinary body 
 can have come about; but Modern Science has 
 throMm some light upon it and Spiritualism, a 
 great deal more. Science says that everything is 
 compoised of infinitcsimally small electrons. Hence 
 we can conceive that the difference between the 
 terrestrial l)ody and spiritual body may he in the 
 (liferent arrangement of our electrons, as between 
 ice and vapor or steam. Spirits are invisible to us ; 
 but our bodies appear invisible or "shadoAv^y" to 
 them; while they are "solid" to each other. Now 
 it may tentatively be suggested that Christ never 
 parted with liis terrestrial body, but changed it 
 into his spiritual body.t That when he appeared 
 
 *0p. cit., p. 251. fLvke 2, 49. %iVit is as invisible as the 
 vapour of watrr; but liquid water and liquid air appeal to the 
 senses. So may it be with the terrestrial and spiritual body.
 
 76 THE LAWS OF ETERNAL LIFE 
 
 in the closed room He * ' dematerialized " it i.e., 
 changed the electrons from forming a spiritual 
 into one resembling a material body, and vice 
 versa. 
 
 When Mahedi* was materialized through Dr. 
 Monck, and further controlled by Samuel, who had 
 been the Archdeacon CoUey's former friend, he 
 offered him a baked apple, just as our Lord ate 
 broiled fish and honeycomb. But to his astonish- 
 ment, he did not eject the skins, for they fell from 
 the mouth of the medium. Dr. Monck! He kept 
 them and I have seen them. 
 
 Something of the above kind of change appar- 
 ently took place, for as Imperator says, that Jesus 
 did not reassume his old body, but He must have 
 changed its character. 
 
 When Mahedi* sat at a table, the Archdeacon 
 rested his arm on his shoulder to see what resist- 
 ance was felt. The Archdeacon told me it was just 
 like that of any ordinary man ; but, when he acci- 
 dentally breathed on Mahedi 's helmet, it appeared 
 at once to begin to dissolve! (No. 51). 
 
 *A materialized spirit who wrote his name "Mahedi," pro- 
 duced in my The Proofs of the Spirit Forces, under a second 
 control, "Samuel," No. 38, who had been Archdeacon's great 
 friend, as well as of F. W. Monck. He always wrote his e's 
 with the Greek form of the letter, as reappeared in his spirit- 
 writing. 
 
 The above account is given more in detail in the book above 
 mentioned, p. 250, ff.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF CHARACTER PREACHED 
 AND PRACTICED IN THE NEXT LIFE 
 
 It has been asked: "What is the 'good' of Spiritualism?" — 
 The answer is: Bj means of it we are assured of the most im- 
 portant fact it is possible to learn. — It is that our future happi- 
 ness is proportional to our ch'araeter acquire^.jiL this world. — As 
 we have lived, so are we on awakening iifT^dga^There are no 
 external "punishments" or "rewards" awaiting us, but just 
 the natural or inevitable results of our earthly life. — Moreover, 
 we learn that is more difficult to 7indo the effects of wrong beliefs 
 and Christless conduct. — Imperator's Gospel is the same as that 
 of Jesus Christ. — Illustration by Mr, Heslop. — To understand the 
 Truth, we must depend upon Keason. — We must "express God in 
 our earth-life." — Purity of motive is everything. — Spirits return 
 to earth to help. — The Heart as well as the Head is necessary. — 
 The "Good Man" is the "philosopher and philanthropist in one." 
 — All selfishness must be eradicated. — Christ is our Example. — 
 
 An exhortation of Impcrator to Rev. S. Moses A psychographic 
 
 illustration of advice from St. Luke's Gospel. (Nos. 46, 47.) — 
 Spiritualism as a Religion. — The Golden Chain. — A Spiritual 
 Catechism, essentially Christian. 
 
 It is sometimes asked: *'Even if it be true, of 
 what use is Spiritualism? Is there any spiritual 
 'Good' derivable from itT* 
 
 The answer is so important that it is desirable 
 to give sufficient illustrations of what the Spirits 
 themselves toll us a])out Religion ; so that we may 
 have a clear idea of what will be expected of us on 
 the other side, and especially how we must live 
 here; for the Spirits are unanimous in insisting 
 upon the truth wliich our Lord emphasized: — that 
 we must prepare ourselves in this life for the 
 
 77
 
 78 THE GOSPEL OF CHARACTER 
 
 next; so that we may be already "at one" with 
 Christ and God when we wake up on the other 
 side.* 
 
 As we have lived, so shall we be ; there will be no 
 external ''punishments" or "rewards" immedi- 
 ately awaiting us but simply the natural results or 
 inevitable consequences of our manner of life on 
 this earth. Such truly, but symbolically represent 
 the meaning of the parable of the rich man and 
 Lazarus. 
 
 As regarding all who disbelieve in Spiritualism, 
 and do not care to take the trouble to ascertain 
 wherein lie the proofs of its many truths, and that 
 it is possible to communicate with those who have 
 gone before, it is hopeless to expect them to believe 
 that we now know how Religion, or the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ, is regarded in the Unseen World; 
 or, in what way the future concerns us here ; who 
 must, in time, follow all who have gone before. 
 Huxley is reported to have said: "Even if Spir- 
 itualism be true, it does not interest me." 
 
 All who call themselves "Spiritualists" will 
 perhaps appreciate any effort to put in a concise 
 form what each should regard as his real object of 
 life on earth; so that we should now try to avoid 
 having to undo much of a more or less mistaken 
 
 *Remember Our Lord's words: "That Servant, which knew 
 his Lord's will, and made not ready, nor did according to His 
 will, shall be beaten with many stripes." {Luke, 12, 47). And 
 with regard to those who neglected to do good: Christ says: 
 "These shall go away into age-long correction," as the Greek 
 words mean. (Matt., 25, 46.) Our knowledge of Spiritualism 
 fully confirms this.
 
 THE GOSPEL OF CHARACTER 79 
 
 belief and career in this world. Moreover, I re- 
 peat, the Spirits tell us that it is more painful to 
 undo a wrong belief after we have left this plane. 
 
 In the first place we learn from the New Testa- 
 ment that Christianity does not consist of Dog- 
 mas, beyond the belief or conviction of the exist- 
 ence of the Creator, who is a God of Love, or 
 rather that *'God is Love," and in all that Jesus 
 Christ did to reveal by His o^\^l, the Character of 
 the Father ; or what we must believe of God Him- 
 self. Not only ' ' He who hath seen Me hath seen 
 the Father"; but "Blessed are they who have not 
 seen Me, and yet hath believed," and hath faith. 
 
 Imperator says that we "progress on the other 
 side by persistence through the instruction of 
 higher intelligences, and by a gradual and labor- 
 ious undoing of sin and sinful habits. ' ' 
 
 A practical illustration corroborative of Im- 
 perator' s words will be found in Mr. Heslop's 
 conversations with his wife entitled: Speaking 
 across the Border-line. Mr. Heslop thus wrote 
 by his wife's hand: "I have been away on a mis- 
 sion to the "Land of Darkness." I had a sudden 
 call to go there, to help one to whom I was ap- 
 pointed a minister. 
 
 ' ' Your world is in darkness when compared with 
 the Christ sphere, but it is brilliant when con- 
 trasted with these regions where I have just been. 
 There are souls there filled with the torture ot re- 
 morse more bitter than anything you can conceive 
 possible. Truly must they 'work out their own
 
 80 THE GOSPEL OF CHAEACTER 
 
 salvation with strong crying and many tears.' 
 And we go to carry comfort to them. To speak of 
 the love of the Divine Saviour, which" alone can 
 lead them out of darkness into His glorious 
 light."* 
 
 Now to proceed in our enquiry upon Religion. — 
 Imperator says very truly that "man must judge 
 according to the light of Reason! that is in him. 
 That is the ultimate standard, and the progressive 
 soul will receive what the ignorant or prejudiced 
 will reject. God's truth is forced on no man. He 
 offers, and they who are prepared receive, the 
 message. The ignorant and unfit reject it."i 
 
 "As the soul lives on this earth, so does it go to 
 the Spirit-life. Its tastes, its predilections, its 
 habits, its antipathies, they are all with it still. 
 It is not changed, save in the accident of being 
 freed from the body . . . The soul's Character 
 has been a daily, hourly growth. It has been a 
 weaving into the nature of the spirit that which 
 becomes part of itself, identified with its nature 
 inseparable from its character. It is no more pos- 
 sible that that character should be undone, save 
 hy the slow process of obliteration, than that the 
 woven fabric should be rudely cut and the threads 
 remain intact." 
 
 Mr. Heslop, as well as "Julia" and others, all 
 speak of the same necessity of living the Christ- 
 
 *0p. eit., p. 29. This is a hint that there was no "Atonement" 
 upon which the sinner can rely. See the Appendix to Mr. 
 Heslop 's book. fSee I Thess., 5, 2, f . "Prove all things; hold 
 fast that which is good"; "being always ready to give answers 
 to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that 
 is in you." (7 Pet., 3, 15.) ^OP- cit., p. 11, ff.
 
 THE GOSPEL OF CHAEACTER 81 
 
 life here, to be sure of happiness hereafter; for 
 such is "Religion," or Christianity. 
 
 "You hardly realize," writes Mr. Heslop ,"that 
 you have power (on earth) to "express God" in 
 your lives. The acts and deeds which I had thought 
 good, and of which I was rather proud, were not 
 regarded here ; but some little word or deed almost 
 forgotten, stood out clear and distinct. It was the 
 purity of motive that gave it value, nothing else. 
 Remember that you are building your home in 
 Paradise all the time you dwell on earth. It is the 
 outer expression of your thought. All spiritual and 
 beautiful thought produces beautiful surround- 
 ings; so that as you walk about here, you can 
 gauge the spiritual quality of the inhabitant by the 
 beauty of his dwelling. There are no mysteries in 
 Paradise, all is open, and every secret thought is 
 kno-wn." 
 
 The following extract confirms Imperator's as- 
 sertion. 
 
 Spirits have sometimes said they like to come 
 and conmiunicate with us ; and the writer of Christ 
 in You adds a remarkable sentence: "Since the 
 mind is the seat of pain, do you not see that unless 
 you have the mind of Christ, you cannot acquire 
 it by freedom of the body of flesh only? It is 
 more difficult to conquer on the plane of spirit; 
 in fact you may long to come back ! Just where you 
 are is the place to learn; therefore, we who love 
 you come to help you at your present stage, not 
 only for your own sake, but in order that the great
 
 82 THE GOSPEL OF CHAEACTER 
 
 Self, of which you are a part, may not be ignor- 
 antly hidden. 
 
 ''Begin by opposing sense suggestions. You are 
 not born to suffer and decay, but are here for a 
 purpose. There is a reason for ^your place in the 
 great plan of life, and no one else can do your 
 work. Reject the suggestion that your environ- 
 ment makes triumph impossible. These very con- 
 ditions can be made steps of ascent, you can begin 
 now to readjust your life . . . You will find that 
 this is the very opportunity for the higher self to 
 speak. Many join with us as you read these words 
 in prayer and strong encouragement that you fail 
 not. Begin, as we suggest, in the simplest way, 
 to realize that it is God that worketh in you to 
 will and to work for His good pleasure." 
 
 As a Heading to Section II., Rev. Stainton 
 Moses writes: "Much was made of the heart as 
 well as of the head and the orderly development 
 of the whole powers of the body, intellect and af- 
 fection were insisted upon. It was said that want 
 of balance was a great cause of retrogression, or 
 of inability at any rate to progress." 
 
 *'I suggested" (Mr. Moses adds) "the philan- 
 thropist as the man who came nearest to the 
 ideal. ' ' The reply was as follows : 
 
 "The true philanthropist is he who grows likest 
 God every hour. He is enlarging by constant 
 exercise the sympathies which are eternal and 
 undying, and in the perpetual exercise of which 
 man finds increasing happiness. The philanthro-
 
 THE GOSPEL OF CHAEACTER 83 
 
 pist and the philosopher, the man who loves 
 mankind, and the man who loves knowledge for 
 its own sake, these are God's jewels of priceless 
 value, and of boundless promise." 
 
 "The philosopher, hampered by no theories of 
 what ought to be, bound by no subservience to 
 sectarian opinion, to the dogmas of a special 
 school, free from prejudice, receptive of truth, 
 whatever that truth may be, so it be proven — he 
 seeks into the mysteries of Divine wisdom and 
 searching, finds his happiness. He need have no 
 fear of exhausting the treasures, they are without 
 end. His joy throughout life shall be to gather ever 
 richer stories of knowledge, truer ideas of God. 
 
 "The union of these two — the philosopher and 
 the philanthropist — makes the perfect man. Those 
 who unite the two, progress further than spirits 
 who progress alone." 
 
 Just as St. James identified "Religion" with 
 Character and Conduct, so Imperator thus depicts 
 the ideal character to be striven for in this life 
 to be acquired in full in the life to come. 
 
 With regard to the preceding description, Mr. 
 Stainton Moses replied to Imperator: ''But you 
 have described a perfect character/' He replied: 
 "We must eradicate selfishness in all its many 
 forms. There must be no obtruding of self, or we 
 can do nothing. There is nothing so absolutely 
 fatal to spirit influence as self-seeking, solf-pleas- 
 ing, boast fulness, arrogance or pride. The intelli- 
 gence must be subordinated or we cannot work
 
 84 THE GOSPEL OF CHAEACTER 
 
 upon it. If it be dogmatic, we cannot use it. If it be 
 arrogant and selfish, we cannot come near it. Self- 
 abnegation has been the virtue which has graced 
 the wise and holy men of all time. The seers who 
 bore of old the flag on which was inscribed for 
 their generation the message of progressive truth 
 were men who thought little of themselves, and 
 much of their work. They who spoke to the Jews, 
 whose messages you have in your sacred records, 
 were men of self-denying purity and singleness of 
 grand and magnificent instance of the highest self- 
 life. Jesus, when He lived amongst men, was a 
 abnegation and earnestness of purpose. He lived 
 with you a life of pure self-denial and practical 
 earnest work and He died a death of self-sacrifice 
 for truth. In Him you have the purest picture that 
 history records of man's possibilities. They who 
 since have purged the world from error, and have 
 shed on it the beams of truth, have been one and 
 all men of self-denial and earnest devotion to a 
 work which they knew to be that for which they 
 were set apart. Socrates and Plato, John and Paul, 
 the pioneers of truth, the heralds of progress, all 
 have been unselfish souls, souls who knew nought 
 of self-seeking, of proud aggrandisement, of boast- 
 ful arrogance. To them earnestness and single- 
 ness of purpose, devotion to their appointed work, 
 forgetfulness of self and its interests were given 
 in a high degree. Without that they could not have 
 effected what the}^ did. Selfishness would have 
 eaten out tlic heart of their success. Humility, 
 rincfi'itv ar-"^ - -: -vr'tness bore them on.
 
 THE GOSPEL OF CHAEACTER 85 
 
 ''This is the character we seek. Loving and 
 earnest, self-denying and receptive of truth, with 
 single eye to God's work, and with forgetfnlness 
 of earthly aims. Rare it is, rare as it is beautiful. 
 Seek, Friend, the mind of the philosopher, calm, 
 reliant, truthful and earnest; Seek the spirit of 
 the philanthropist, loving, tolerant, ready to help, 
 quick to give the needed aid. Add the self-abne- 
 gation of the servant of God who does his work 
 and seeks for no reward. For such a character, 
 work, high, holy, noble, is possible. Such "we 
 guard and watch mth jealous care. On such the 
 Angels of the Father smile and tend and protect 
 them from injur^^" 
 
 Imperator concludes the second section with this 
 exliortation to the Rev. Stainton Moses : 
 
 "Friend, when others seek from you as to the 
 usefulness of our message, and the benefit which 
 it can confer on those to whom the Father sends it, 
 tell them that it is a Gospel which will reveal a 
 God of tenderness and pity and love, instead of a 
 fabled creation of harslmess, cruelty and passion. 
 Tell them that it will lead them to know of In- 
 telligences whose whole life is one of love and 
 mercy and pity and helpful aid to man, combined 
 with adoration of the Supreme. Tell them that it 
 will lead man to see his own folly, to unlearn his 
 fancied theories, to learn how to cultivate his in- 
 telligence that it may progress, to use his oppor- 
 tunities that they may profit him, to serve his 
 fcHow-men, so that when they and he meet in the
 
 86 THE GOSPEL OF CHAEACTER 
 
 hereafter, they may not be able to reproach him 
 that he has been, so far as he could, a clog and an 
 injury to them. Tell them that such is our glor- 
 ious mission; and if they sneer, as the ignorant 
 will, and boast of their fancied knowledge, turn 
 to the progressive souls who will receive the teach- 
 ing of wisdom; speak to them the message of 
 Divine truth that shall regenerate and elevate the 
 world; and for the blind ones pray that, when 
 their eyes are opened, they may not despair at the 
 sight which they shall see.'' 
 
 As an instance of a Control appealing to Scrip- 
 ture in order to tender advice to one of this side of 
 the Border-line, I produced an interesting psycho- 
 graph of a passage of St. Luke's Gospel. 
 
 I have given a longer account of this remark- 
 able psychograph in The Proofs of the Truths of 
 Spiritualism, but will here state the chief facts. 
 (No. 46). 
 
 A photograph of the Mother of one of the circle 
 at Crewe (Mr. Hope being the medium) was pro- 
 mised by the Control, and in addition a message 
 in Greek on another plate, the number (fifth) be- 
 ing selected by the Control; who stated: "The 
 passage will be found in the British Museum un- 
 der a glass shade. That is the only one in exist- 
 ence; it was given by Cyril Lucar of Constanti- 
 nople to Charles I." 
 
 Before going to London I compared the psycho- 
 graph with the specimens of ancient MSS in 
 Young's Concordance, and found that it agreed
 
 THE GOSPEL OF CHARACTER 87 
 
 with the Alexandrine MS. I soon found the Codex 
 Alexandnnus in the British Museum, but could 
 not get near it, as it is railed round. The keeper 
 of the M S.S. Department possesses a photo- 
 graphic facsimile; so the Archdeacon was thus 
 enabled to take a photograph from the original; 
 which I have produced. (No. 47.) 
 
 A careful comparison of the two shows that the 
 psychograph is not a photographic, but a written 
 copy, as the lines are not strictly parallel nor the 
 upstrokes vertical as in the original; though the 
 same words begin and end each line respectively. 
 The reader can refer to Luke, 17, 5, if he wishes 
 to read the passage in English,
 
 CHAPTEE VI 
 
 ''JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, 
 TO-DAY AND FOR EVER."— (^efe., 13, 8.) 
 
 Imperator's cleseription of Jesus Christ. — His mission is the 
 same as Christ's. — "To preach Jesus Christ as our Great 
 Example"; to bring about a "Unity" with ffim; or "Christ in 
 you" as St. John defines it. — This is only to be secured by 
 
 imitation of His Character and Conduct The Gospel of 
 
 Humanity. — Eev. S. Moses tells Imperator that his teaching will 
 not be accepted, because Imperator cancels the leading dogmas 
 of the Church, represented by erroneous terms. — (Atonement, 
 Substitution, Redemption, Propitiation of the Father, and 
 Vicarious suffering.) — Eeligion to be true must be practiral and 
 not based^on barren beliefs or dogmas. — The Spirit Creed. — -The 
 True Christ. — Eev. Stainton Moses' "Eegeneration" through 
 Imperator 's teaching. 
 
 ''You enquire of us" (wrote Imperator) "what 
 position we assign to Christ?" In reply he de- 
 votes the eighteenth section of Spiritual Teach- 
 ings to this important matter. 
 
 "It is our task to do for Christianity what 
 Jesus did for Judaism. We would take the old 
 forms and spiritualize their meaning and infuse 
 into them new life. We do not abolish one jot or 
 one tittle of the teaching which the Christ gave to 
 the world. We do but wipe away man's material 
 glosses and show you the hidden spiritual mean- 
 ing which has been missed. 
 
 "This was the mission of Christ. He claimed 
 for Himself the 'fulfilment'* of the Law; not its 
 abolition or abrogation, was His intent. He 
 
 *This word in Greek really means the "filling full," that is, of 
 spiritual meaning, wanting in the bare letter of the law. 
 
 88
 
 JESUS CHRIST 89 
 
 stripped off the rags of Pharisaical ritual, the 
 glosses of Rabhinical speculation, and laid bare 
 the divine truth that was beneath all the grand 
 principles divinely inspired which man had well 
 nigh buried. He was not only a religious but a 
 social reformer; and the grand business of His 
 life was to elevate the people, spirit and body, to 
 expose pretenders, and to strip off the mask of 
 hypocrisy; to take the foot of the despot from the 
 neck of the struggling slave, and to make man 
 free by virtue of that truth which He came from 
 God to declare : " Ye shall know the truth, and the 
 truth shall make you free; and ye shall be free 
 indeed.' "* 
 
 *'He reasoned of life and death and eternity; 
 of the true nobility and dignity of man's nature; 
 of the way to progressive knowledge of God. He 
 came as the Great Fulfiller of the law; the man 
 who showed as never man showed before the end 
 for which the law was given — the Amelioration of 
 Humanity. He taught men to look into the depths 
 of their hearts, to test their lives, to try their 
 motives, and to w^eigh all they did by the one 
 ascertained balance — the fruits of life as the test 
 of religion.t He told men to be humble, merciful, 
 truthful, pure, self-denying, honest in heart and 
 intent, and He set before them a living Example^ 
 of the life which he preached." 
 
 *(Jp. cit., p. 14'J; John, 8, '62. The words italicized are 
 applirablc to-<lay, for the Allies wore fiRhting for Christ. fCf. 
 Jas., 1, 27. J/ Pet., 2, 21. To copy or imitate Him is described 
 as having union with Him; so that f Christ, really Hia Character, 
 is said to be in us, and wo in Him. (John, 17, 20 ff. ; also 
 / John, 2, 6.)
 
 90 JESUS CHRIST 
 
 This agrees with St. John, who wrote: "Wlioso 
 keepeth His Word, in him verily hath the love oL' 
 God been perfected. Herein we know that we are 
 i7i Him. He that abidcth in Him ought himself 
 also to walk even as He Avalked."* 
 
 So Imperator observes: ^^TJie Gospel of liuman- 
 ityi is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the only- 
 gospel that man needs; the only one that can 
 reach his wants and minister to his necessities. 
 
 ''We continue to preach that same evangel. By 
 commission from the same source, do we come now 
 as apostles of this heaven-sent gospel. We declare 
 truths the same as Jesus taught. We preach His 
 Gospel, purified from the glosses and misinterpre- 
 tations which man has gathered around it. We 
 would spiritualize that which man has hidden un- 
 der the heap of materialism. 
 
 *' We would bring forth the spirit truth from the 
 grave, in which man has buried it ; and would tell 
 to the listening souls of men that it lives still — the 
 simple yet grand truth of man's progressive des- 
 tiny, of God's unceasing care, of Spirits' unslum- 
 bering watch over incarnated souls, "t 
 
 Mr. Stainton Moses, in commenting on this teach- 
 
 *Dr. Westcott, writing on 7 John, 2,6, says: "The sign of 
 union with God is found in the Imitation of Christ. As the sign 
 of knowledge is to be seen in the keeping of the divine com- 
 mandments in their unity (v. 3) and in the keeping of the divine 
 word in its verity (v. 5) ; so the sign of fellowship is to be seen 
 in the copying the divine life. {The Epistles of St. John, p. 50.) 
 fSir John Seeley in his work Ecce Homo adopts the phrase 
 ** Enthusiasm of Humanity" for "Love." jOp. cit., p. 149 f.
 
 JESUS CHRIST 91 
 
 ing, said : *'It will not be accepted"* ; for one class 
 looks to the "Atonement"; another to "Ritual- 
 ism"; but few to Character and Conduct as being 
 the Essentials of Christianity. 
 
 Mr. Moses prefaces the Eighth Section with 
 some important information about himself: 
 "From the standpoint that I then occupied it 
 seemed to me that such teachings might be called 
 by opponents atheistic or diabolic. I, at any rate, 
 should call them Latitudinarian, and I maintained 
 at some length a view more nearly approaching to 
 orthodox teaching." 
 
 He tells us that he was "trained in strict accord- 
 ance with Protestant Church principles," that 
 he "had accepted the tenets of that portion of the 
 Church of England called 'Anglican,' or 'sound 
 High Churchman.' " He subsequently tells us what 
 was the effect, i.e., after some years, of Inipera- 
 tor's teaching upon himself. He wrote as follows: 
 
 "From this time commenced that state of great 
 spiritual exaltation, during which I was profound- 
 ly conscious of the presence and influence of one 
 commanding Intelligence, and of an action on my 
 mind which eventuated in a development of 
 thought amounting to nothing short of spiritual 
 regeneration. ' ' 
 
 Imperator replied to Mr. Moses in the following 
 words: "You have objected to our teachings that 
 they are not consistent witn the received creed of 
 orthodoxy and Religion. Tiie Spirits' healthful 
 
 *Hc was right; for I published a book entitlod: The /Spiritual 
 Teaching of Christ's Life.
 
 92 JESUS CHRIST 
 
 life has two aspects — the one pointing to God, the 
 other to man. What says the spirit-creed of God? 
 
 '*In place of an angry, jealous tyrant, it reveals 
 a loving Father, who is not loving in name only, 
 but in very deed and in truth ; into whose dealings 
 nought but love can enter, Wlio is just and good 
 and full of affection to the lowest of His creatures. 
 
 "/^ does not recognize any need of propitiation 
 towards this God. It rejects as false any notice of 
 this Divine Being vindictively punishing a trans- 
 gressor, or requiring a vicarious sacrifice for 
 sin."* Dr. Westcott shows that "our propitia- 
 tion" meant Christ would "propitiate" the sinner, 
 by offering him His Flesh and Blood. 
 
 Imperator thus teaches that the only true Reli- 
 gion is one of a practical character and without 
 
 dogmas A 
 
 On the continuance of life Imperator says: 
 **This mortal existence is but a fragment of life. 
 Its deeds and their results remain when the body 
 is dead. The ramifications of wilful sin have to be 
 followed out, and its results remedied in sorrow 
 and shame. For there is no vicarious ' Substitution. ' 
 
 "The consequences of deeds of good are simi- 
 larly permanent, and precede the pure soul and 
 draw around it influences which welcome and aid it 
 in the spheres. 
 
 "Life, we teach you, is one and indivisible; one 
 in its progressive development; and one in the 
 effect on all alike of the eternal and inmiutable 
 
 *I shall consider in a later chapter (No. 11) the true meaning 
 of "Atonement," and the false ideas which have been attributed 
 to this word. fSo also says St. James. Jas., 1, 27.
 
 JESUS CHRIST 93 
 
 laws by which it is regulated. None are excused as 
 favorites ; none are punished mercilessly for error, 
 which they were unable to avoid. Eternal justice* 
 is the correlative of eternal love. *We preach the 
 religion of work, of prayer, of adoration. We tell 
 you of your duty to God, to your brother and to 
 yourself — soul and body alike. ' ' ' 
 
 The following is the hnperator's Spirit-Creed: 
 DUTY TO GOD 
 
 Honor and love your Father, God (Worship). 
 DUTY TO NEIGHBOR 
 
 Help your brother onward in the path of prog- 
 ress (Brotherly Love). 
 
 DUTY TO SELF 
 
 Tend and guard your own body (Bodily culture). 
 
 Cultivate every means of extending knowledge 
 (Mental progress). 
 
 Seek for fuller views of progressive truth (Spir- 
 itual growth). 
 
 Do ever the right and good in accordance with 
 your knowledge (Integrity). 
 
 Cultivate communion with the Spiritland by 
 prayer and frequent intercourse (Spiritual nur- 
 ture). 
 
 Within these rules are roughly indicated most 
 that concerns you here. Yield no obedience to any 
 sectarian dor/mas. Give no blind adherence to any 
 teaching that is not commended by Reason.' 'f 
 
 In Section IX Mr. Stainton Moses again raised 
 objections against/mji:)erflior^s* unorthodox views.' 
 
 •This phrase is applicable, but it is a self-actinp Law. Many 
 acts recoil upon the doer himself, be they good or bad. jfOp. cit.. 
 p. 57.
 
 94 JESUS CHRIST 
 
 Imperator replies: "No doubt it seems to the 
 unprepared spirit to be new and destructive of 
 older forms of faith. But it is not so. It would be 
 commendable to all who are not hampered by old 
 prejudices. We said that we must clear away 
 much rubbish; that the work of destruction must 
 precede the work of construction ; that the old and 
 unserviceable must first give place; that in short 
 we must clear before we build." 
 
 "Yes," replies Mr. Moses, "but that 'rubbish' is 
 precisely what Christians have agreed in all ages 
 to consider cardinal doctrines of the faith." 
 
 "No, friend," replies hnperator, "not quite so. 
 If you wdll read the records which so imperfectly 
 record the earth-life of Jesus, you will not find that 
 He claimed for Himself any such position as the 
 Christian Church has since forced upon Him. He 
 was what we preach Him, not such as the Church 
 has made Him." 
 
 Then followed a crucial question by Mr. Moses: 
 "I cannot think so. And the Atonement: What 
 do you make of that? Your teaching is pure and 
 beautiful, but surely it is not Christian? Nor is 
 it the teaching which one who uses the sign of the 
 Cross would reasonably be expected to promul- 
 gate. So it seems to me." 
 
 Imperator replies: "It shall be given in due 
 course, cease now." After four days it came and 
 occupied ten pages of the book. It concludes with 
 the words: "We would have you know that the 
 spirihial ideal of Jesus, the Christ, is no more like 
 the human notion, with its accessories of atone-
 
 JESUS CHRIST 95 
 
 ment and redemption, as men have grasped them, 
 than was the calf ignorantly carved by the ancient 
 Hebrews like the God who strove to reveal Him- 
 self to them .... we would tell you of the true 
 significance of the life of the Christ, and show you, 
 as we can, how low and mean are the views of Him 
 which we are striving to do away with.'' 
 
 ** You ask how the sign of the Cross can be pre- 
 fixed to such teaching. Friend, the spiritual truth 
 of which that sign is typical is the very cardinal 
 truth, which it is our special mission to declare. 
 The self-denying love which would benefit human- 
 ity even at the sacrifice of life and home and earth- 
 ly happiness — the pure spirit of the Christ, this is 
 what we w^ould declare to you as the Godlike 
 Spirit. This is the true salvation from meanness 
 and self aggrandizement, and self-pleasing and 
 luxurious sloth, w^hich can redeem humanity, and 
 make of men the children of God. This self-abne- 
 gation and incarnate love is that which can * atone' 
 for sin, and make man like God. This is the true 
 'atonement.' Not, indeed, a reconciliation of sin- 
 stained Immanity to an angry and holy God, pur- 
 chased by the sacrifice of His sinless Son; but a 
 higher and truer atonement [at-one-ment] in the 
 ennobling of the nature,the purifying of the spirit ; 
 the making of the human and divine ONE in aim 
 and purpose, the drawing of man's spirit even whilst 
 incarned, up nearer and nearer to the Divine. 
 
 "This was tlie mission of Christ; in this He was 
 a manifestation of God; the Son of God; the 
 Saviour of man ; the Eeconciler ; the * Atoner' [i.e., 
 putting man and God *at one']. And herein we
 
 96 JESUS CHRIST 
 
 perpetuate His work, we carry on His mission, 
 we work under His Symbol, we fight against the 
 enemies of His Faith, against all who ignorantly 
 or wilfully dishonor Him, even though it be under 
 the banner of orthodoxy and under the protection 
 of His Name. 
 
 "The days shall come when men shall recognize 
 the Oneness of Christ's teaching on earth with 
 ours ; and the human garb, gross and material, in 
 ^vhich it has been shrouded, shall be rent asunder, 
 and men shall see the true grandeur of the life and 
 teaching of Him whom they ignorantly worship. 
 In those days they shall worship with no less 
 reality, but with a more perfect knowledge; and 
 they shall know that the sign ( 4* ) under which we 
 speak is the symbol of purity and self-sacrificing 
 love to them and to their brethren for all time. 
 This end it is our earnest endeavor to attain. 
 Judge of our mission by this standard, and it is of 
 God, godlike ; noble as He is noble ; pure as He is 
 pure; truth-giving as He is true; elevating and 
 saving, and purifying the spirit from the grossness 
 of earthly conceptions and raising it to the very 
 atmosphere and neighborhood of the spiritual and 
 the divine."* 
 
 In another chapter I will endeavor to prove, 
 from a study of the Greek text, that Imperator is 
 certainly right ; and our interpretations have gone 
 astray, by translating the Vulgate or Latin ver- 
 sion, instead of the original Greek text, to make 
 our English Bible, in the sixteenth century.f 
 
 fSee The Vulgate, the Source of *Spirit Teachings, p. 71. 
 False Doctrines (Williams and Norgate).
 
 JESUS CHEIST 97 
 
 The great war has brought to the front the true 
 Spirit of Christ; first as the uniter of mankind, 
 within the bounds of our o'wn *' Units" of the 
 Army, and has found expression in the words,, 
 * * Comrades of the War" ; but all the men of all the 
 different nations fighting with us are now united 
 in the common purpose of fighting for Jesus Christ 
 and the Kingdou of Eighteousness. We are all 
 *'At One" with that object. 
 
 Imperator says: "The days shall come when 
 men shall recognize the Oneness of Christ's teach- 
 ing on earth with ours . . . men shall see the true 
 grandeur of the life and teaching of Him whom 
 they ignorantly worship. In those days they shall 
 worship with no less reality but with a more per- 
 fect knowledge they shall know that the sign ( 4* ) 
 under which we speak is the symbol of purity and 
 self-sacrificing love to them and to their brethren 
 for all time. ' ' 
 
 Are not the following instances illustrations of 
 a fulfillment of Imperator' s words! 
 
 A certain incumbent had some wounded Indians 
 located in his parish. One died, and the question 
 was raised: Where should he be buried I It was 
 suggested to the Vicar that it should be in uncon- 
 secrated ground. He took the opposite view and 
 buried the man in the consecrated church yard, 
 adding a stone with the inscription as a heading : 
 There is One God and Father of All. 
 
 The native Indian officer thanked him and said : 
 "Those beautiful words will do more to unite us 
 TTohammedans with you than all the political
 
 98 JESUS CHEIST 
 
 bonds could effect." The officer brought all his 
 men on a little pilgrimage to the grave of their 
 comrade before leaving; and they all expressed 
 their grateful thanks to the incumbent of the 
 parish. 
 
 ''One touch of Nature — for Love is a human 
 instinct — makes the whole world kin." 
 
 The foUomng Avell illustrates the spontaneous 
 awakening of the truly natural Christian spirit of 
 Agape. 
 
 On November 20th, 1917, came a letter from 
 some disabled Japanese soldiers : " To the Honor- 
 able and Brave." It was written by Surgeon Col- 
 onel Ikutaro Goto, on behalf of 248 disabled Jap- 
 anese soldiers. After expressing their "heart-felt 
 sympathy," he proceeds to say : ''You have brave- 
 ly fought in the cause of humanity. In sending 
 you a letter of our deep sympathy and love . . . 
 Humanity is one and the same everywhere 
 throughout the whole world. It hnotvs neither na- 
 tional harriers nor racial distinctions. Our heart 
 is yours; your heart is ours. So I beg you to kindly 
 accept our profoundest sympathy . . . The glory of 
 the final victory is alwa3^s with the side of the 
 righteous and is awaiting your brave and patriotic 
 comrades now at the front. May Heaven bless all 
 our allied peoples." 
 
 This letter is an expression of pure Christianity, 
 whatever the professed "religion" of the 248 
 Japanese soldiers may be. The reader will at once 
 recognize the "Christian expressions," which T 
 have italicized.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 IMPERATOR AND HIS RELIGIOUS POSI- 
 TION; WHAT IS TRUE CHRISTIANITY? 
 
 Imperator's religious position, based on Love. — He appeals to 
 Reason. — Love replaces Beliefs. — Religion based on ecclesiastical 
 terms, requires restatement. — The Christ-like Character and Con- 
 duct only essential. — The Imitation of the simplicity and sin- 
 cerity of Jesus' teaching. — "Will this teaching be accepted?" 
 asks Rev. S. Moses. — The present writer's experiences. — Imperator 
 dismisses theological Creeds as being unnecessary to make a 
 Christian. — Restatements required. — Imperator 's reply to Rev. 
 Stainton Moses. — The Judgment Day. — Results depend upon our 
 
 acquired characters in this world Mr. Heslop on the "Germ 
 
 of Truth ' ' being only taught on earth. — Purity of motive the 
 determining value. — Rev. Stainton Moses' oivn "regeneration" 
 through Imperator 's influence. — The character of this great 
 spirit's teaching. — The Duty of the Church. — The present crav- 
 ing for Unity in the Churches and the Bishop of the Philippines' 
 discourse. 
 
 This great control of the Rev. Stainton Moses 
 again emphasizes his position, as Expounder of 
 the Religion held on the other side: — "If you will 
 further recollect the standpoint ^ve have selected, 
 you will see that in place of blind faith [or rather 
 'Beliefs'] which accepts traditional teaching — the 
 old merely because it is old — we appeal to Reason; 
 and in place of credulity we demand rational, in- 
 telligent investigation and acceptance grounded on 
 conviction." 
 
 Such is the only true and scientific, i.e., rational, 
 way to discover the trutli. It is not any "advance- 
 ment" of the Truth that is required now; for it is 
 exactly what Jesus Christ and His Apostles
 
 100 IMPERATOE'S RELIGIOUS POSITION 
 
 taught. Such alone is really and trul)^ everlasting. 
 It is the false theology of later days which has dis- 
 turbed it and coined a number of theological terms 
 which "fixed" the erroneous conceptions involved. 
 
 What the Church now requires — and that ur- 
 gently — is to go back, restudy and restate the 
 exact teaching of Christ. This can only be done by 
 restoring the true meanings of the Greek in our 
 New Testament, and eliminating every erroneous 
 word* and misleading idea, and wrong term in our 
 English Bible, and so recover the exact meaning of 
 our Lord's words. In that way we shall discover 
 that He was solely concerned with Character and 
 Conduct, for it is these Avhich constitute Salvation, 
 i.e., Spiritual Health and Eternal Life. 
 
 Imperator well says: ''Had men devoted their 
 energies to the hyiitation of the simplicity and sin- 
 cerity, the loving toil and earnest purpose, the 
 self-sacrifice and purity of thought and life, which 
 elevates and distinguishes the Christ, they would 
 have wrangled less of His nature and have wasted 
 few words upon useless metaphysical sophistries. 
 Those of your theologians who dwelt in the days 
 of darkness, and who have left to you an accursed 
 heritage in their idle and foolish speculations, 
 would have turned their minds into a more useful 
 channel, and have been a blessing instead of a 
 curse to mankind. ' 't 
 
 Again the Rev. Stainton Moses replied to all 
 
 *I have endeavored to show this in my little book : The Vulgate 
 the Source of False Doctrines (Williams and Norgate). ■\Spirit 
 Teachings, p. 90.
 
 IMPERATOR'S RELIGIOUS POSITION 101 
 
 Imperator's expositions by saying: "It will not be 
 accepted." Tiie present writer can corroborate 
 this as far as the past is concerned, but trust me 
 not in the future. I had no theological training, as 
 Mr. Moses tells us that he had, when I was or- 
 dained in 1858. I had to find out for myself what 
 theology meant ; as I was taught nothing at Cam- 
 bridge. I began as a Curate, to read Robertson's, 
 Kingsley's, and Harvey Goodwin's sermons; as I 
 used to hear the last preacher in his own Church in 
 Cambridge. They seemed to me to lead one into 
 the right path, and my first realization was that 
 **Charity," now called Love (R.V.), ivas the corn- 
 er-stone of Christianity. On that rock I built my 
 Creed. 
 
 Finding out that doctrinal terms did not always 
 correspond in meaning with the original Greek 
 text, I wrote a book called The Vulgate the Source 
 of False Doctrines. My object was to show that 
 since the English New Testament was not trans- 
 lated from the original Greek, but from the Lati7i 
 Vulgate, many English words have given wrong 
 meanings, because they were founded upon the 
 latter. 
 
 In all, my object was to uphold Christ as our 
 Great Example, as St. Peter calls Ilim. For, if we 
 wish to be "perfect as our Heavenly Father is 
 perfect," we must live the Christ-life, for tliat is 
 being a Christian, or being Christ-like. St. James 
 describes or defines "Pure Religion" as being 
 nothing else than purity in oneself and self-sacri- 
 ficing love towards otliers in affliction.
 
 102 IMPERATOR'S RELIGIOUS POSITION 
 
 With regard to ecclesiastical dogmas and creeds, 
 Imperator writes as follows: "When we deal with 
 special forms of theological creed, we strive, in so 
 far as we can, to spiritualize previous opinion, 
 rather than to eradicate it. We know — as you can- 
 not know — of how trifling moment are forms of 
 faith, provided the faith be alive and spiritual; 
 and we strive, therefore, to build on the founda- 
 tions already laid. To this end, however, whilst the 
 broad outlines, which are themselves partially 
 truthful, or which embody as much truth as the 
 intelligence can grasp, are preserved, much that is 
 false and delusive must be cleared away. So the 
 work of destruction precedes the work of construc- 
 tion. The soil is purged of gross error, and the 
 truth is refined and purified as far as may be. 
 Hence it is that we do usually teach a modification 
 of the views of truth held by those to whom we 
 speak. 
 
 I shall have occasion to give Imperator' s view of 
 the Atonement later on. Elsewhere Imperator 
 makes this remark on Dogmas : "The burdens that 
 a dogmatic priesthood has bound upon men's 
 backs, we fling them to the winds; the dogmas 
 which have hampered the soul, and dragged do-wn 
 its aspirations, we tear them asunder, and bid the 
 soul go free. Our mission is the continuation of 
 that old teaching which man has so strangely al- 
 tered ; its source identical ; its course, parallel ; its 
 end the same." 
 
 The final test of a religious life, according to 
 Imperator — and he only sums up Our Lord's
 
 IMPERATOR'S RELIGIOUS POSITION 103 
 
 teaching — will be best illustrated by Christ's para- 
 ble of the Judgment* ; wherein He shows the fact 
 that Character and Conduct, i.e., tiie "Yvord" He 
 preached are the ''Judge and Jury"; in other 
 words our own Conscience. 
 
 Wliatever value dogmas may have, we shall 
 clearly not be judged by Head-heliefs; but by 
 what may be called Heart-practice; i.e., effected 
 by the enthusiasm of Lovet- 
 
 The following examples perhaps will explain the 
 cause of the feeble reception of the above-named 
 books. A Canon said in a sermon I heard, after 
 reading my book on the Vulgate: "If I did not 
 believe in 'Substitution,'! I would never enter 
 this [his o^^^l] pulpit again." 
 
 A clergyman wrote to a magazine (in which I 
 had written an article showing the origin of the 
 mistaken sense of "Atonement") and he said: "I 
 know some think so, but I am too old to change 
 my view; and I represent a large number of the 
 clergy." As if age could be any excuse for clinging 
 to what is false ! 
 
 Agreeing with Imperator, all other spirits who 
 speak of religion at all, are unanimous in saying 
 rites, ceremonies, dogmas and doctrines or theol- 
 ogy in general — as we understand them on earth — 
 are unkno\m on the other side; for Religion is 
 
 *'Matt., 25, 31-46. fZ Cor., 13. JThis is a synonym for 
 "Atonement"; which regards Christ's death as a vicarious 
 substitution, instead of man, to appease the wrath of God and 
 satisfy His justice. It is forgotten that "Ood was in Christ, 
 reconciling (i.e., at-onc-ing) the worlil unto Himself and not 
 reckoning their trespasses unto them" {Earn., 5, 19.)
 
 104 IMPERATOE'S RELIGIOUS POSITION 
 
 wholly centered in Love and loving actions. Thus I 
 repeat what Mr. Heslop wrote to his wife : 
 
 *'I see now that only the germ of truth is taught 
 on earth, overladen by much error and supersti- 
 tion. You hardly realize that you have power to 
 express God in your lives. The acts and deeds 
 which I have thought good, and of which I was 
 rather proud, were not regarded here; but some 
 little word or deed, almost forgotten, shows out 
 clear and distinct. It was the purity of motive that 
 gave it value, nothing else," 
 
 So too, our Lord said : * ' The good man out of his 
 good treasure bringeth forth good things." 
 
 Mr. Stainton Moses, at first, as we have seen, 
 again and again, objected to Imperator' s exposi- 
 tion, recognizing, however, that "it was pure and 
 beautiful, but surely," he asks, **it is not Christ- 
 ian? . . . Nor is it the teaching which one who 
 uses the sign of the Cross would reasonably be 
 expected to promulgate. . . I was not content," 
 he wrote, *'and took time to consider what had 
 been written. . . It had a tendency to take the 
 backbone out of faith," i.e., of course, belief, from 
 his dogmatic point of view. 
 
 Nevertheless, the time came when he saw, not 
 only the beauty, but the truth, of Imperator's 
 teaching ; and when reviewing the past he tells us 
 in the Introduction that : "It was a period of Edu- 
 cation, in which I underwent a spiritual develop- 
 ment that was in its outcome a very regeneration. 
 I cannot hope, I do not try, to convey to others 
 what I then experienced. But it may possibly be
 
 IxMPERATOR'S RELIGIOUS POSITION 105 
 
 borne in upon the minds of some, who are not 
 ignorant of the dispensation of the Spirit in their 
 own imiei selves, that for me the question of the 
 beneficent action of external Spirit on rny ovth self 
 was thus finally settled. I have never since, even 
 in the vagaries of an extremely sceptical mind, and 
 amid much cause for questioning, ever seriously 
 entertained a doubt." 
 
 Of the communications he concludes: *'It is 
 their intrinsic claim, the end disclosed, the inlier- 
 ent and essential truth that they contain, which 
 marks their value. To many they will be utterly 
 valueless ; because their truth is not truth to them. 
 To others they will be merely curious. To some 
 they will be an idle tale. I do not publish them 
 in any expectation of general acceptance. I shall 
 be quite content that they be at the service of 
 any who can find them helpful."* 
 
 Mr. Myers writes at some length upon the value 
 of the evidence of the automatic handwriting of 
 Mr. Moses, under seven separate headings;! but 
 he omits what, to the present writer, seems the 
 most convincing of all, namely, the character of 
 the religious teaching of Imperator; which was so 
 greatly at variance with Mr. Moses' beliefs in 
 which he had been brought up. Nevertheless, he 
 was completely converted or ''regenerated," as he 
 himself says ; as stated above. 
 
 No better, no stronger proof of Imperator's 
 existence could well be demanded. But — will the 
 Churches ever side with Imperator? The following 
 
 *0p. cit., Introduction, p. 7, f. Tho Communications wore 
 mafic during the years 1873-1877. -fnuman Personality, p. 325.
 
 106 IMPEEATOR'S EELIGIOUS PO^iTiON 
 
 quotation is somewhat appropriate here, as it 
 deals with Spiritual Unity based on common Fel- 
 lowship. 
 
 ' ' The Bishop of the Philippines, in his inspiring 
 sermon preached at St. Paul's on April 20th, 1917, 
 on the occasion of the entry of the United States 
 into the war on behalf of Ffeedom, Humanity and 
 Peace, dealt in his peroration with the duty of 
 Christian Churches to assist the promotion of uni- 
 versal peace by promoting ecclesiastical unity. 
 
 ** Wliat the Bishop said is not new, but spoken on 
 a historic occasion, it should come home with pe- 
 culiar force to the Christian leaders in the 
 country : 
 
 ' ' Once more and finally ; the Soul of democracy 
 is — I will not say religion — but organized religion. 
 The day is passed for individualistic attempts to 
 redeem mankind by visions that are not tuned to 
 the infinite, the eternal and the universal. Only 
 this morning I received a letter from a layman in 
 America, a man who has done more for the unity 
 of the Church of Christ than any other man of his 
 generation, and this is what he says: ''It is, I 
 think, becoming increasingly clear, that the ques- 
 tion of world peace and of Christian reunion go 
 together, for only the visible unity of the Church 
 of Christ will be competent to remove the obstacles 
 in the way of the establishment of His Kingdom of 
 peace and righteousness and love. " It is true. It is 
 true. The world is craving for the unit}^ that comes 
 from God, and that is maintained by the operation 
 of the Spirit of God. That unity is going to come
 
 IMPEKATOR'S RELIGIOUS POSITION 107 
 
 just as fast as we will let God bring it to us ; the 
 only obstacle is our stu])bornness, our obstinacy. 
 There is — and here is the root of the matter — a 
 Prussianism in the Churches to-day. The supreme 
 unit of the Churches is the Church. The watch- 
 word of the Churches must be Unity. Either 
 Churches must justify their claims to be the fa- 
 vored or exclusive residence of God by exhibiting 
 in their works a holiness or a superiority nowhere 
 now apparent, or else they must admit the favors 
 of God towards other Churches of lesser preten- 
 tions. A large part of the public has already 
 served notice on the Churches that, unless we ob- 
 serve the elementary principles of peaceableness 
 and fairness and fellovrship, they will get on with- 
 out us. God defend us from the day when the 
 sheep of Christ's flock turn upon the shepherds 
 because of the shepherds' littleness and inability 
 to be true leaders. But I see a vision, I see a great 
 movement, a movement not of men, but of God, 
 coming sweeping tlirough this vrorld of ours and 
 gathering into its embrace all right-minded men. I 
 see a united Church, a Church worthy of the resi- 
 dence of Jesus Christ among men, the shrine and 
 instrument of His Spirit, a Cliurch which will 
 bring holiness and power to all the people of God — 
 that is the end of the vision, and that is the su- 
 preme thing to which we must commit ourselves 
 today." 
 
 I had been reading this aloud; and the Spirits, 
 who are always present with us, said: ''Tell the 
 Little Man, that is exactly what we are all taught 
 here."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE ACQUISITION OF THE CHRIST-LIKE 
 CHARACTER AND CONDUCT IS EVERY- 
 THING HEREAFTER; AND MUST BE 
 STRIVEN FOR ON EARTH 
 
 Our charaetera can be seen and our thoughts be visible to all 
 spirits, as the writer to the Hebrews asserts. — This leads to the 
 Fellowship of the "like." An illustration of a spirit witnessing 
 one 'a acts and words and reporting them. Their seeing and 
 hearing require a medium. — Progress in spirituality, our right 
 object on earth and hereafter. — Example: "We are certain you 
 will win the war; but what is of more importance is to be 
 ready to die for God." — Julia's contribution to the subject. — 
 Eeal Eeligion. — St. Paul 's corroboration of the reiterated assertion 
 that Love (Agape) is of the first and vital importance in a Chris- 
 tian. — Conscience will be our Judge. — Each should find time to 
 think of God. — Imperator's final prayer. 
 
 The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (12, 1) 
 uses the expression: "Seeing we are compassed 
 about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us 
 lay aside the sin which doth so easily beset us." 
 
 Who are these witnesses? Certainly not as a 
 rule human beings on earth; for the sinner who 
 had a ''secret sin" is not likely to seek publicity, 
 but avoids it; but he cannot avoid it in the spirit 
 world, for we now know that we are, here on earth, 
 with at least one or more friendly, helping spirits, 
 but others are always about ; who, if they cannot 
 see or hear well without a medium, they assure us 
 that they can read our thoughts; and they can do 
 
 108
 
 THE CHEIST-LIKE CHARACTER 109 
 
 both if a medium happens to be present. Thus, 
 those who attended my lectures discovered a 
 medium who was one of three people who were the 
 only ones j)resent at the time ; so that in any larger 
 group of men and women there would probably 
 be one or more with mediumistic powers, though 
 without being aware of it themselves. 
 
 This reading of each other's thoughts leads to 
 close fellowship among all who are like-minded 
 on the other side ; as is pre-figured in the parable 
 of the rich man and Lazarus. 
 
 The following incident will illustrate the possi- 
 bility of hearing what you are talking about ii- 
 private and then the spirit subsequently repeating 
 it through a medium. 
 
 On January 15th, 1917, I went to the Bank to 
 invest in the "War Loan" for a friend. I subse- 
 quently asked the Manager as to the advisability 
 of selling out some long-standing stock for the 
 same purpose. As I expected, he advised me not 
 to do so. When I returned home, our medium said : 
 "The spirits tell mo you have been consulting the 
 Manager about investing yourself in the Loan!" 
 
 I had not mentioned that I had any intention of 
 doing so ; indeed, I only thought of it just as I was 
 going to the Bank, so I asked the spirits how they 
 came to know. The reply was: "We were there." 
 So they could hear what the conversation was 
 about. In this case no one else beside the Manager 
 and myself wero present; so one of us tivo was 
 presumably sufTicionlly mediumistic to carry the 
 words to their auditory organs, whatever they
 
 110 THE CHRIST-LIKE CPIARACTER 
 
 may be in a spirit-body. I am not aware of having 
 any such poAver ; for I tried an experiment. I told 
 our music-loving spirit-friends that the lady would 
 go out of the room while I played a piece of music ; 
 when she returned, I asked if they could hear it. 
 The reply was to the effect that it was *'next to 
 impossible ; what they did hear was not worth list- 
 ening to. ' ' 
 
 This will be sufficient to warn my readers of 
 the truth of the words of the writer to the 
 Hebrews. 
 
 As we have trials on this earth and must bear 
 them in order to progress in siDirituality ; and 
 since, when we pass over, we continue the same 
 life that we had here, so must we continue to grow 
 in grace there, as our domestic spirits tell us. The 
 following observation came from them quite un- 
 expectedly, and it has been often repeated by oth- 
 ers in other words. 
 
 I happened to be reading aloud about the War : 
 ''We know you will win ; but what is of much more 
 importance is being ready to die for God. We have 
 great trials liere to surmount, before we attain to 
 the little joy we possess." 
 
 On hearing this I remarked aloud: "I quite un- 
 derstand; since we all pass over very imperfect, 
 our trials will probably continue to discipline us 
 and so enable us to go on improving." 
 
 The comment followed: "The Little Man does 
 not seem to be surprised; but it is quite true." 
 
 Julia also writes on character, which is tb.o
 
 THE CHEIST-LIKE CHARACTER 111 
 
 essence of the Christian Religion here and here- 
 after. 
 
 "The worth of character must be seen as we see 
 it here to be appreciated. We see men as they are 
 . . . we see the nature of the soul, and the factor 
 that decides is the character . . . You can hardly, 
 by any stretch of imagination, realize w^hat a 
 change it is to live in a place where tlie only test is 
 character; Avhere property, station and work do 
 not count — no, nor religious professions. 
 
 "We see things as they are, not as they are 
 labled. We have such surprises to encounter ; such 
 amazing upturns and revolutions of the estimate 
 in which men and women are held. . . Judge not 
 until at least you see the man as he is. 
 
 "We don't ask what Church. We never ask 
 about these things except so far as they stand in 
 the way of the real religion. We lament and have 
 continually to deplore the fact that men have sub- 
 stituted church connections for the love which is 
 tlie fulfilling of the law. The degree of love with 
 which anyone loves measures his religion." 
 
 If the reader will study St. Paul's chapter on 
 Love; by which he means "the enthusiasm of hu- 
 manity"; and then St. James' Defmition of Chris- 
 tianity, he will see at once that Julia is simply 
 telling us that the Christian Religion, in the only 
 true sense of the word, is the same here and here- 
 after, namely, the Christ-like Character and Con- 
 duct. 
 
 With those two roforonces lot him compare Our 
 Lord's description of the result of the Judgment
 
 112 THE CHRIST-LIKE CHARACTER 
 
 Day, which is in reality and not parabolically ex- 
 pressed — the Day we pass over to the other side; 
 when our Conscience will stare ns in the face and 
 pronounce the sentence we deserve. 
 
 If the preceding words be true, then Julians 
 warning is appropriate: ''You must have time to 
 think of God and of His manifestation of Love, 
 otherwise you will crowd God out of your life ; and 
 life without Love is a life witJiout God. "What 
 chance have you of realizing the truths of the 
 Other World if you are perpetually racing to 
 catch trains in this 1 I know you must catch trains, 
 but what I plead for is, that you should make 
 time, at least for a few minutes a day, in which to 
 catch Eternity, or a glimpse of it and of eternal 
 things." 
 
 IMPERATOR'S Final Prayer. 
 
 The Evangelists have recorded "The Lord's 
 Prayer." St. John has given us Our Lord's last 
 prayer before finally quitting this world in the 
 body. I here give Imperator's prayer at the con- 
 clusion of his arguments upon Religion on the 
 other side. 
 
 ' ' Father ! Eternal, Infinite, All-wise. We draw 
 near to Thee, and lay before Thee our petitions, 
 knowing that Thou dost hear us and wilt answer 
 our prayers. Eternal God, remove from our path 
 the bars and clogs that hinder and hamper us. 
 Loving Father, shed into the doubting heart a 
 beam of light to illumine the dark corners and to 
 drive out the lurking foe. IMighty Master, bear
 
 THE CHRIST-LIKE CHARACTER 113 
 
 doA\Ti to us that consolation which we need in our 
 labor. Great and labor, great must be the love. 
 Great is the work, great must be the power. Grant 
 it, Almighty Power! and to Thee will we render 
 our praises. Before Thee we will testify of our 
 grateful adoration, and to Thee \vill we bring the 
 free will offering of our loving homage. Glory 
 and blessing and honor and praise be to Thee 
 from Angel and Spirit, throughout Thy Uni- 
 verse!" 
 
 ►Mmperator.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 AGAPE, THE TEUE CHEISTIAN LOVE, i.e., 
 THE ENTHUSIASM OF HUMANITY IS 
 THE GREATEST FEATURE OF THE NEXT 
 
 WORLD 
 
 Mr. Heslop's conversion from anti-spiritualism, and both his 
 and Mr. Stainton Moses', to the spirit-teaching of Christianity. — 
 The Communion of Saints and consolation.-pS^ulia, now indif- 
 ferent to earthly ' ' religious beliefs, ' ' as all th>rseparate dogmatic 
 teachings are replaced by Lo*», i-e., the basis of the true Christian 
 character.— £3%ie required to abandon erroneous beliefs, and 
 their non-existence on the other side. — Consolation of affection. 
 — The abolition of Creeds. — Julia's Bureau and its use. — Explan- 
 ation of Love as being "Christ in You." — Married people and 
 their love on the other side. — The Author of "Christ in You" 
 on the Communion of Saints. — Private Dowdmg on Love. — 
 Clement of Alexandra. — Mr. Heslop corroborates others. — 
 hnperator's exposition of Love. — An Indian Yogi on Love. — 
 Imperator's Summary. — Mistaken view of a Roman Catholic 
 Spirit that I ' ' should do more for the Virgin Mary. ' ' — The par- 
 allel in the Middle Ages (12th century) of the supplanting Christ 
 ,by St. Edmund, at the Abbey, Bury St. Edmunds. — Love and 
 Salvation. — The "Little Angel Adjutant" of the Salvation Army. 
 — Imperator's comment. — The unpardonable sin, and why it is so. 
 
 Mrs. Heslop thus writes of her departed husband : 
 "It was well known that John, in his earth-life, 
 was intolerant of all idea of spirit-communication. 
 He could not even endure the subject spoken of 
 before him. It was, therefore, rather perplexing 
 to his friends when I said that he had come into 
 
 114
 
 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 115 
 
 communication with me again after his physical 
 death. Overhearing* a discussion on the point, he 
 wrote as follows: "Our friend is quite right in 
 thinking that when on earth I bitterly opposed all 
 suggestions of spirit-communion. I thought there 
 was blasphemy in the very idea. My whole early 
 training had bent my mind in the wrong direction. 
 Now, with my fuller vision and stripped of all the 
 theological misconceptions of my youth, I see how 
 utterly tvrong I was, and to me, one of the most 
 wonderful discoveries of this wonderful life here, 
 ic that it is possible to return to full conmiunica- 
 tion with you; and continue with perfect and un- 
 broken joy, the union our Church consummated 
 twenty years ago.' "t 
 
 It is interesting to compare Mr. Heslop's "con- 
 version" to that of the Rev. Stainton Moses, who 
 was not only converted, but ' ' regenerated, " as he 
 says, througli his communications with hnperator, 
 while he himself was still on earth. 
 
 The late Rev. Arthur Chambers, who wrote the 
 Forevord for Mrs. Heslop, says: "If I am not 
 mistaken, many Avill rise up from the reading of 
 this volume and will say: "It has given me a 
 fuller, grander and more comforting conception of 
 what is implied by the term, ^^The Communion of 
 
 Saints.' 't 
 
 I do not know where or when the phrase "Com- 
 
 *Our spirits, too, hear everj'thing we say through the lady 
 automatist; and often make remarks on what may be beinp 
 talked about. fThis ought to convnuce us of the foolishness of 
 bemoaning our relations' and friends' departure to the othei 
 world +// Cr.r., 13, 14.
 
 116 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 
 
 munion" of Saints first occurred; but this word 
 only appears four times in the New Testament, 
 and means "fellowship" according to the Greek 
 {koinonia), as ''The Fellowship of the Holy 
 Ghost. " " Saint ' ' and ' ' holy ' ' are words used to 
 signify a "Christian" in general. 
 
 St. Paul uses the word "fellowship" when ex- 
 plaining the Bread and Wine of the Lord's Supper 
 as representing our union within Christ's Church. 
 
 As an example of the use of the word "holy," 
 St. Paul tells the Corinthians that if a child have 
 one parent a Christian, that sanctifies the children, 
 and they are "holy," that is they are Christians 
 by birth, and of adult Christians he says: "The 
 temple of God is holy; which temple ye are." Of 
 course, "holiness" means the Christ-like char- 
 acter. 
 
 On this subject Julia writes: "As to the com- 
 munion of saints, you say and sing all manner of 
 things about the saints above and below being one 
 army of the Living God ; but when any one of us 
 on the other side tries to make any practical effort 
 to enable you to realize the oneness and to make 
 you feel that you are encompassed about by so 
 great a cloud of witnesses, then there is an outcry : 
 "It is against the will of God," "It is tampering 
 with demons. ' ' Be not deceived by these specious 
 outcries! Am I a demon? Am I doing what is 
 contrary to the will of God when I constantly try 
 to inspire you with more faith in Him, more love 
 for Him and aU His creatures ; and, in short, try
 
 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHEISTIAN LOVE 117 
 
 to bring yon nearer and closer to God I Yon know 
 I do all this. It is my joy and the law of my be- 
 ing. I should go on doing it even if yon were to 
 refnse to let me use yonr hand. I am only doing 
 consciously to you what is being done to others 
 who are more or less unconscious of the influences 
 they are subject to."* 
 
 It is often asked whether Spiritualism will as- 
 sure "consolation" to the bereaved by being able 
 to communicate with the beloved ones. 
 
 In reply to this question, Miss F. R. Scatcherd 
 thus writes about Sir Oliver Lodge's new book, 
 Raymond, under The New Science, its Testimony 
 to Human Survival: 
 
 * ' This precious volume reveals those aspects of 
 humanity that are eternal in their appeal to man- 
 kind. It testifies to fatherly and filial affection 
 never obscured by the slightest cloud — to a 
 'IMother's Lament' — 'Ra^nuond, darling, you have 
 gone from our world, and, oh, to ease the pain, I 
 want to know if you are happy, and that you 
 yourself are really talking to me, and no sham." 
 
 "For the sake of other Fathers and ;Mothers 
 stricken as they have been, these parents have set 
 aside the reticence natural in such circumstances, 
 and a record, endorsed by tlie uhole family circle, 
 has been issued. Tlierein lies its uniqueness and 
 its universal appeal, "t 
 
 •After Death, p. 29 f. She is addressing the late Mr. W. T. 
 Stoad, whose hand she is controlling. \Eevicw of Reviews, Dec, 
 1916.
 
 118 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 
 
 Like other Spirits, as Imperator, who allude to 
 religion, following Christ's teaching to the letter, 
 Julia writes : ''I soon became accustomed to disre- 
 gard all the distinctions I had made so much of 
 when on earth. Then I used to ask if So-and-so was 
 "religious," i.e., whether he belonged to this, or 
 that, or the other 'church.' Now these things do 
 not interest me anj^ more than the new frills and 
 facings of fashion. "We don't ask what church . . . 
 we never ask except so far as they stand in the 
 way of real religion. We lament, and have con- 
 tinually to deplore, the fact that they are substi- 
 tuted for the love which is the fulfilling of the 
 law. The degree of love with which anyone loves 
 measures his religion. Those who do not love are 
 those who sit in outer darkness and in the valley 
 of the shadow of death. Sin consists in the living 
 without God, that is to say, without love." 
 
 By "love," Julia, of course, means Agape; and 
 St. Paul's "Psalm of Love" is the best descrip- 
 tion of it, while Love is identical with St. James* 
 Definition of the Christian or "True Religion." 
 
 Such disavowal of the "views" of all the 
 "sects," "parties" or "divisions" in the Chris- 
 tian Church on Earth — ^l3ased on erroneous inter- 
 pretations of Scripture — does not necessarily 
 come all at once, on the other side. We know from 
 his own words how long it took Rev. Stainton 
 Moses to be "regenerated," as he calls it, from 
 false "Anglican" or "High Church" views, even 
 while on earth. 
 
 On the other side it may be as many or more
 
 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 119 
 
 years of tuition, for amongst our own spirit - 
 friends who come to communicate we have had 
 Roman Catholics, Freethinkers, and Methodists, 
 as they have still described themselves. 
 
 Again in alluding to the use of the proposed 
 Bureau, Julia adds : ' ' You will destroy, as if by a 
 sword-cut or razor-slash, the whole theory of the 
 future life that is conventionally held and believed 
 by the Churches. You will allow those of us who 
 are here to speak as to what we know, and see and 
 feel. And it is not what you have been conven- 
 tionally taught to expect. Now I do not think that 
 you will find that what we have to tell you differs 
 from what the more intelligent and spiritual be- 
 lievers have arrived at or have received by in- 
 spiration. The fundamental principles are the 
 same. We have nothing to tell you that vras not 
 kno^\Ti to the seers and that was declared by 
 Jesus." 
 
 The first three Gospels have little to say about 
 Love. The disciples did not understand it until 
 after the Resurrection; but St. John's Gospel and 
 Epistles are full of it. 
 
 In an ethical sense it is not the same thing as 
 what is ordinarily understood. It has been asked 
 in one of our newspapers : ' ' How can I love my 
 enemies if they be the Huns!" Let us begin at 
 the original source of Love as affection. It appears 
 to be a feeling implanted in tlie constitution of 
 animals as well as man, for mating purposes, and 
 for tlie parental care for helpless offspring. This 
 is outwardly shown by acts of affection. AVith man
 
 120 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHEISTIAN LOVE 
 
 it begins with the family; with the tribe it loses 
 tliis first element, for "affection" is replaced by 
 ''regard" to establish the bond of unity, especi- 
 ally for making defense against any common foe. 
 It is the primitive form of entente cordiale. As 
 tribes become Avelded into a nation, this "Com- 
 mon-Aveal" is called Patriotism, Love of one's 
 country, etc. Before Christ came there it ended. 
 Every nation was "naturally" at war with every 
 other. Any nation might attack, provided no 
 treaty existed, any other country, making it tribu- 
 tary. There was no crime felt in sacking a town, 
 making all the inhabitants slaves, or even in 
 killing them; unless there had been a treaty* 
 
 Wliat did Christ do? He began with the indi- 
 vidual. He took the two ancient commandments : 
 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy 
 neighbor as thyself. ' ' But loving God then simply 
 meant obeying His commandments, under the 
 stress of temporal punishments and with the 
 promise of temporal rewards. It was a "Scholas- 
 tic" system; so that St. Paul called the Law a 
 "Schoolmaster"! to bring man to Christ. 
 
 As an example of loving one's neighbor the old 
 law was to help any poor brother Israelite in dis- 
 tress, by lending him such as he needed, and not 
 to harden his heart, etc4 
 
 This kind of compulsory good behavior does 
 not tend to develop spontaneous generosity, nor 
 
 *The Kaiser did not even respect this. ^iGal., 3, 24. ^Deut, 
 15, 7 ff .
 
 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 121 
 
 even a conscience; not that the conscience did not 
 exist, but it was as a general rule undeveloped ; so 
 that there was no name for it in Hebrew. Never- 
 theless, David was conscience-stricken after he 
 had been rebuked by the prophet Nathan. 
 
 St. Paul, on the other hand, frequently uses tho 
 word. This shows one chief difference between 
 the two Testaments. The tables of stone are re- 
 placed by the fleshy table of the heart. The Law 
 was external; now it is a natural one and internal. 
 The use of threatened punishments is gone, and 
 natural results take their place. Tliere is no 
 longer any temporal reivard, but consequences of 
 a good life will follow in this and the next world. 
 Such depend upon the cultivation of **Love" in 
 this world, as Our Lord clearly shows in His par- 
 able of the Judgment Day; which should never 
 he forgotten. 
 
 This proves what Love clearly means ; affection 
 may or may not be present. It is the Reverence 
 for God and Christ coupled with FaitJi which, 
 however, remains simply a "head-belief" and is 
 of no value, until it is proved by icorks of love. It 
 is respect coupled with a ivilling self-sacrifice — a 
 spontaneous and eager wish — to help others in 
 any way one can, even to risking one's life, for a 
 friend, stranger or foe. Has not the war revealed 
 that abundantly'? Pity for a wounded foe was 
 thought to be contemptible by the ancients. 
 Thanks to Christ, we treat a wounded Hun just as 
 one of our own soldiers. This is to love the enemy 
 
 •P»., 51 ; // Sam., 12, 13. ^Matt., 25, 31 ff. JJos., 2, 14 ff.
 
 122 AGAPE, THE TKUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 
 
 in the true Christian sense. It grows by cultiva- 
 tion until it can become a passion to do and self- 
 sacrifipp is a pleasure. It is the greatest one can 
 entertain, when once it is realized; as has been 
 done by many of our great philanthropists and 
 workers for God and Christ. Now this is the 
 *'Love" on the other side as well as on this; for 
 such is the universal attestation by all spirits who 
 talk of love, such as Julia, Imperator Mr. Heslop ; 
 and our o^svii domestic spirit-friends. 
 
 I liappened to be explaining the above to a 
 friend, and a spirit suddenly broke in: *'Tell the 
 Little ]\Ian he is quite right ! 
 
 Our Lord took a common Greek word for love, 
 and elevated it to the highest place of honor in 
 Christianity. It is Agape. 
 
 AVhen He gave that test-question to Peter: 
 **Lovest thou Me?" He used the corresponding 
 verb: ''Agapes thou MeT't Peter did not under- 
 stand Him, and replied with the ordinary verb 
 then in use: *'Thou knowest that I philo Thee."| 
 
 A different Hebrew word was used to kiss 
 
 *See 7 Cor., ch. 13. fJo/jn, 21, 15. JThe verb "to love" 
 and the noun "Love" in Greek had a variety of significations, 
 as used in the Septuagint. Thus: (1) Marital love as of Jacob for 
 Eachel {Gen., 29, 10) ; It is the same word for a lover {Can- 
 tides, passim) ; (2) It is used to mean respect and consideration 
 for others, as neighbors {Lev., 19, 18); and for the proselyte 
 {Deut., 10, 18). It passed into a meaning for abstract ideas as for 
 Eighteousness and Salvation {Ps., 70, 4) ; to love the Law {Ps., 
 119, 166); Love of the keeping of her Law." 
 
 Another word was phiJein to "love" as: "Savoury meat such 
 as I love," Gen., 27. 4. Wisdom says "1 love {agapan) them that 
 love me" philein {Prov., 8, 17). Similarly, "whoso loevth 
 wisdom" {Prov., 29, 3); to love cakes of raisins {Eos., 3, 1).
 
 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 123 
 
 {Gen., 27, 26.), but philein subsequently meant 
 "to kiss" also;* for in classical Greek this verb 
 was practically confined to personal love and 
 also in later times to be fond of doing things, etc. 
 Hence to Peter himself it was more appropriate 
 than the "reverential love" implied by Agape 
 and Agapan.i 
 
 It does not replace ordinary love by casting out 
 affection ; but tends to carry it with it. It is even 
 shown by spirits to ourselves on earth. Controls 
 frequently express their love for those to whom 
 they write. Thus one invariably addresses our 
 Lady writer: "Love, we, etc." They are good 
 enough to express their love for myself. 
 
 Julia has much to say — and she says it enthusi- 
 astically — about Love on the other side. The fol- 
 lowing are a few sentences extracted almost at 
 random from her communications. 
 
 "There is nothing to which you can compare 
 our constantly loving state in this world: To love 
 anyone really, truly, means that we are puttinp 
 ourselves in his place, loving him as ourselves, 
 that we desire for him the best and give up our 
 selves and our pleasure in order to secure it for 
 him. This is true love, and wherever you find it, 
 you find a spark of God." 
 
 Writing across the border to a dear Friend, 
 Julia says to her: "0, Ellen, Ellen! If I could 
 come back and speak in the ears of the childre]i 
 of men I thiiik I should wish to say nothing but 
 this — Love, Lovo is the fulfill iiig of the law; Love 
 
 'Matt., 26, 48. .Judas kissed .Jesus, -fjohn, 21, 55 ff.
 
 124 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 
 
 is the seeing of the face of God. Love is God, God 
 is Love. If you wish to be with God — Love! If 
 you wish to be in Heaven — Love! Love is the 
 first and last word." 
 
 Like Julia and others, the writer of Christ in 
 You has frequent allusions to the prevailing 
 *'Love" on the other side. 
 
 ''Heaven is not a place, but a consciousness of 
 God ... As you emerge into this all-pervading 
 love, the true life becomes manifest and is alwaj'^s 
 the answer to the deepest and highest aspirations 
 of the soul. It is Love fulfilling itself. 
 
 "Do not only weep with those who weep, but 
 help them by a mighty love." 
 
 *'Love is pressing through the very atmosphere 
 round about us and you. Love requires readiness 
 and obedience ; and we are called to do its bidding. 
 Are you willing to obey even unto the death of the 
 Cross? That cross is the place of your sacrifice 
 for all men. All must go to Calvary, there to be- 
 come one with the Father. Greater love hath no 
 man than this. Love is the atmosphere wherein 
 all that is highest is nourished and fed. Love 
 dwells in every human life, however degraded it 
 may seem to you. Love much, and Christ shall 
 do His work through you; for He loves your 
 "world, and \^^ll never cease until it has become the 
 Kingdom of Heaven." The loving personality re- 
 mains. 
 
 **I can tell you for a certainty that you will 
 retain your personality just as long as you neer' 
 it; and you will need it much longer yet. I am
 
 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 125 
 
 allowed to say that the meeting with your loved 
 ones will be sweetly familiar, a great deal better 
 than you can imagine, for they and you will be 
 enriched by the love between you. Your loss is 
 always gain. You can help them by your love and 
 prayer, and they help you; think often of them. 
 . . . There is nothing untoward or strange. You 
 are here just what you have made yourselves, and 
 they who love you would not have you with them 
 until you have finished. In fact, you are near them 
 now; but the veil is over you at present. Love, 
 Love, Love. This is the potent force!* c 
 
 *'As your Scriptures tell you repeatedly the 
 continuity of life is no more broken when the 
 breath leaves the body than the continuity of 
 child-life broken by the incident of birth. St. Paul 
 says that Christ Jesus abolished death and 
 brought life and incorruption to light.f It is the 
 means by which life is liberated, becoming more 
 intense. Memory exists, although we have learned 
 the power to dissolve [it?] into nothingness — this 
 is true forgetfulness — all that is not of use.t But 
 I would have you know that you are greater than 
 your form, that you have no limit. "§ 
 
 As Julia and others, including our own. spirit- 
 friends, speak of ''Love," so Private Dowding 
 writes: "I want to say a few words about love. 
 Also, because love is spoken about too much al- 
 
 *0p. cit., p. 132. f/Z Tim., 1, 10. Jl have remarkori olso- 
 where that Bpirits seem to forget much of their life passed en 
 earth. ^Christ in You, p. 134. If a medium asks a spirit, iii 
 the habit of communicating with ua: "Are you here now?" 
 The reply may be : " No, we are not here at present. ' '
 
 126 AGAPE, THE TRD'E CHEISTIAN LOVE 
 
 ready, whereas it should he lived." By which he, 
 of course, ireans Agape or Spiritual Enthusiasm 
 of doing good. "Never cease from loving. Jesus 
 said a good deal about Love. Look up what He 
 said and live it. 
 
 "Love God by pouring yourself away. Love 
 your fellows by giving them all you possess of 
 light and truth. 
 
 "Love, LOVE, for her o^vn blessed sake. Such 
 love will bring you nearer heaven."* 
 
 Let the reader remember how St. James defines 
 "Religion": "Pure Heligion and undefiled before 
 God the Father is — to visit the fatherless and 
 widows in the affliction; and to keep himself un- 
 spotted from the world."! That is Love. 
 
 Now turn to St. Paul's "Psalm of Love"| and 
 lastly to the "Final Reward. "§ 
 
 Another spirit writer sajs the same thing in the 
 following words: "This countless spirit multi- 
 tude all know and love one another. They gather 
 together from the far parts of space and from the 
 higher worlds to communicate the result of their 
 missions and labors. No jealousy and no after- 
 thought can arise in these pure spirits. Love, 
 Faith and Sincerity preside over tl.ose re- 
 unions. "|I 
 
 No wonder is it that St. Paul could conclude his 
 memorable "Psalm of Love" with the words: 
 "Now abidetli these throe, Faith, Hope and Love; 
 but the greatest of these is Loi;e."° 
 
 *0p. cit., pp. 65 fF. fJas., 1, 27. %! Cor., 13. %MaU., 25, 31 ff. 
 Here and Hereafter, by M. Leon Denis, p. 238. °I Cor., 13, 13.
 
 AGAPE, THE TEUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 127 
 
 Love or Agape, tlie Eiitliuciasm for doing good, 
 Is the Rock of Cliristianity. It vras undeveloiDed 
 and even unknov/n in the days covered by most of 
 the Old Testament, wherein the '^ Righteousness 
 of the Law" took its place, i.e., merely obedience 
 to eternal connuands under threats of punishment 
 or hopes of reward.* 
 
 With regard to the difierence between this 
 world and the net, Clement of Alendria, writing 
 at the end of the first century ujDon Our Lord's 
 words, says: '' 'In this world' (says the Saviour) 
 'there is marriage and giving in marriage,' in 
 which alone the difference between male and fe- 
 male is to be discovered ; but ' in that which is to 
 come, it is not so.' There the enjoyments of that 
 friendly and holy life which arises out of mar- 
 riage, will not be confined to male and female ; but 
 v/ill belong to man generally as a species, when 
 earthly desires and he have parted company; for 
 man is the general name conuiion to both sexes, "t 
 
 This exactly tallies with what the spirits say 
 today. Though many are known to have been 
 men or women, others decline to say. If we asl:i 
 
 *Some of our spirit friends rebuked me for thinking too little 
 of the value of the Old Testament; so T asked for some particular 
 as an example. They said: "In the matter of rifjiitenusness. " 
 So I replied b/ askijiff if they had rememljcrcd what Christ 
 KaitI: "Unless your righteousn*^3S exceed" — that of the Old 
 Testament, i.e., the rijrhteousness of merely obeying the Law 
 tiiiough fear. — "Ye shall not enter the kingdom of Heaven." 
 The Spirits observed: "We had forgotten that!" They said in 
 iv-ply to a question: "V/c are Methodists." ■\C]iristia:i Doctrine 
 'f Practice in the Second Century. (Illustrated in the writings 
 of Clement of Alexandria; A. D. 180 to A. D. 202). 1857,
 
 128 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 
 
 one which he was, the reply is: ''We decline to 
 say; we have no passions." 
 
 Similarly Mr. Heslop says: ''It is only as we 
 pass into this fuller life here, that we can in any 
 adequate measure grasp its real meaning, the full 
 glory of love. For here it is the very air we 
 breathe, the essence of our being. It is all love, 
 radiating from the Divine Father, and filling us 
 with unutterable joy and bliss." 
 
 I have italicized two phrases; to remind the 
 reader that St. John used the same expression of 
 "glory" as applicable to both God and Christ, an 
 echo of Our Lord's own words, summed up in 
 "God IS Love," while "glory" means "Char- 
 acter," or "grace and truth." 
 
 Mr. Heslop 's eulogy of Love runs strictly par- 
 allel with that of Julia and is echoed by other 
 writers; while our own domestic spirit-friends, 
 who tell us they "know nothing of theology but 
 all practice love." 
 
 Mr. Heslop has much to say on the practical 
 work of Love on the other side f^hown by the re- 
 deeming spirits. For example. 'We are rejoic- 
 ing to-day because we have brought up one out of 
 the bitterness of despair into the first glimmering 
 of hope and light and love. So you see I have been 
 at work and my labors have not been in vain." 
 
 "You see, we can do absolutely nothing till the 
 desire for purity and goodness aivakens within 
 the soul. We have watched th.is one, longing for 
 the first gleam of desire after holiness, and, thank
 
 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 129 
 
 God, this was my message on Monday. So I flew 
 to him with other loving spirits, that we might 
 foster that little flame of good desire, for fear it 
 flickered out into despair. Truly there is joy 
 among the angels when one sinner shall repent."* 
 
 Imperator enumerates in his Spirit Teachings 
 the following as being all embraced by Love or 
 Agape: "Tolerance for divergence of opinion; 
 charitable construction of doubtful words and 
 deeds ; kindliness in intercourse ; readiness to help 
 without any desire for recompensef; courtesy! 
 and gentleness^ of demeanor ; patience under mis- 
 representations, honesty and integrity of purpose, 
 tempered by loving-kindness and forbearance; 
 sympathy with sorrow; mercyll, pity and tender- 
 ness of heart; respect for authority in its sphere]! 
 and respect for the rights of the weak and frail.^I 
 These and kindred qualities, w^hich are the very 
 essence of the Christ-like character, which we sun^ 
 up in the one Avord "Charity" or "Active Love."" 
 
 Imperator, in replying to Mr. Stainton Moses' 
 question as to the perpetuation of marriage ties 
 hereafter, observes; "That depends entirely on 
 similarity of taste and equality of development. 
 In the case of this being attained, the spirits can 
 
 *Speaking across the Border-line, pp. 30, 32. ^Luke, 6, 35. 
 XI Pet., 3, 8. §" Gentleness" as applied to Christ (7/ Cor., 
 10, 1) means "kindly considerate," as the rich man in the 
 parable of the king and his servants (Matt., 18, 27) ; while the 
 converse is seen in the wicked servant, 5, 30, Cp. Jos. 3, 17: 
 "Gentle, easy to be entreated." (The second word explains 
 the first). ||/ Pet., 2, 17. ^Jas., 1, 27. °" Spirit Teachings, p. 
 155. The word "Charity" is derived from the Latin Caritas 
 of the Vulgate, through the French Charite.
 
 130 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 
 
 progress side by side . . . but there can be no 
 community of interest save between congenial 
 souls. Consequently no tie can be perpetuated 
 which is not a help to progress. The loving bonds 
 which encircle souls are the greatest incentive to 
 mutual development and so the relations are per- 
 petuated. All souls that are mutually helpful re- 
 main in loving intercourse as long as it is profit- 
 able to them. Wlien the period arrives at which 
 it is more profitable for them to separate, they go 
 their way without sorrow ; for they can still com- 
 mune and share each other's interests. You can- 
 not understand how souls can be apart, as you 
 count space, and yet be, as you would say, inti- 
 mately united. We hnoiv no time, no space. 
 
 ''Love unites spirits at whatever distance, e.g., 
 the T\ife may love the degraded, besotted ruffian 
 who mutilates her and strives to crush her spirit. 
 The hour of dissolution will free her from slavery 
 and pain. She will soar w^hile he will sink, but the 
 bond of love will not be snapped, though the 
 spirits may no longer consort together. Space 
 with us does not exist; so you may dimly under- 
 stand that with us union means identity of devel- 
 opment, community of interest, mutual and affec- 
 tionate progression. We know of no such indis- 
 soluble ties as exist w^ith 5^ou."* 
 
 St. James in his Definition of the Christian 
 Religion adds a man's Duty to Himself, as well as 
 Love to others; viz., in the words: ''Keep himself 
 unspotted from the world."! 
 
 *Spirit Teachings, pp. 45, 46. fJas., 1, 27.
 
 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 131 
 
 Imperator sums up this part of man's duty as 
 i'ollows : 
 
 "Let him crush self, purify his inmost Spirit, 
 driving out impurity as a plague, and elevating 
 his aims to their highest possible. Let him love 
 Truth as his Deity, to which all else shall how; 
 let him follow it as his sole aim, careless whither 
 the quest may lead him, and round him shall circle 
 the messengers of the most High, and in his in- 
 most soul he shall see light." 
 
 •^ Imperatok. 
 
 Such is the preparation of a man's o^^^l char- 
 acter, not onl}^ for the negative duty of ''keeping 
 unspotted from the world"! but for the active 
 life of humanitj^, or practical v/ork on behalf of 
 others; but whatever is done to them is done to 
 
 Christ.t 
 
 Some of our domestic spirits once suddenly 
 remarked: "We want you to do work for the 
 Virgin Mary. We are Roman Catholics; you 
 Protestant Religion has too much ritual. There 
 should be more of the inner man." 
 
 I did not reply with a tu quoque; but this re- 
 quest showed that they had not 3^et learned to see 
 that Roman Catliolicism had tended to displace 
 Christ from His supreme position, on the other 
 side. They had probably forgotten His saying: 
 ''Whatsoever ye do unto the least of these My 
 brethren, ve do it unto Me." 
 
 It is interesting to fmd that in the Middle Ages 
 a Saint could likewise completely take the place 
 
 ♦Op. Cii., p. 285. ^Jas., 1, 27. X^ati., 25, 40.
 
 132 AGAPE, THE TKUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 
 
 of Our Lord. In the Chronicle of Jocelin of 
 Brakeland (Bury St. Edmunds) dating from 1173 
 to 1202, Mr. F. E. Tomlins, who translated it, 
 writes as follows: ''Throughout the whole of 
 Jocelin 's Chronicle {i.e., of the events at the Ab- 
 bey, -when Sampson of Pettington was Abbot) the 
 name of the Saviour is never once mentioned. 
 'God at St. Edmund,' 'The Abbot,' and 'St. Ed- 
 mund' are phrases of common occurrence; in- 
 deed, nothing short of a narrative of this descrip- 
 tion could fully develop the degradation of the 
 Christian religion by means of Saint-worship. 
 The King and martyrs' influences upon his vo- 
 taries is supported by the fear of vengeance . . . 
 Tlie Chronicler evidently felt convinced that true 
 religion and devotion consisted in the monkish 
 observances he is so accurate in detailing." 
 
 Contrast this gross misimderstanding of 
 Christianity with the following example of what 
 the Truth really is, as to Our Lord's teaching. 
 
 We have seen how Mr. He slop was sent to the 
 debased spirits to try and elevate them on the 
 other side. The following is what is being done 
 on this earth. 
 
 The nearest approach to this loving work car- 
 ried on by Spirit-Missionaries on the other side, 
 is the voluntary efforts of the Salvation Army to 
 rescue the fallen and debased all over the world. 
 Hear one from London. 
 
 After describing the awful state of the streets 
 in "A Part of London," the writer proceeds: 
 "Lot me put the common question but with real
 
 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 13? 
 
 emphasis : Would you allow a dog to live in these 
 streets ? 
 
 "Well, into these streets come day after day, 
 and every Sunday, the little vigorous corps of the 
 Salvation Army stationed in this quarter of Lon- 
 don. The Adjutant of this corps some years ago 
 was a beautiful and delicate girl. She prayed at 
 the bedside of dying men and women in these 
 lodging houses. She taught children to pray ; she 
 went into public houses and persuaded the violent 
 blackguards of the town to come away ; she plead- 
 ed with the most desperate women of street corn- 
 ers ; she preached in the open streets on Sundays ; 
 she stood guard over the doors of men mad for 
 drink and refused to let them in. On one occasion 
 this little woman was walking home through evil 
 streets after midnight, when a drunken man 
 asked her if he might travel by her side. After 
 going some way the man said: 'No, you aren't 
 afraid'; and then he muttered to himself: 'Never 
 insults the likes of you because you care for the 
 likes of us* 'Ah!' exclaimed an old gaol-bird, 
 showing me the photograph of this woman, 'If 
 anybody goes to heaven, it'll be that little angel 
 of God.' " 
 
 "They call her the 'Angel- Adjutant.' " ^¥hai 
 is this but a beautiful, practical illustration of 
 Agape? 
 
 "The Gospel of humanity," writes Imperator, 
 "is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the only 
 
 •.Tuat BO 8ai<l a Hindu. Agape or Christian Love or En- 
 thusiasm of Humanity is the practical saving of the world.
 
 134 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 
 
 Gospel that man needs, the only one that can 
 reach his wants and minister to his necessities." 
 ''We continue to preach that same evangel. By 
 'commission from the sam.e God, by authority and 
 inspiration from the same source, do we come no\\ 
 as apostles of this heaven-sent Gospel. We declare 
 truths purified from the glosses and misinterpre- 
 tations wliich man has gathered round it. We 
 would spiritualize that which man has hidden 
 under a heap of materialism." 
 
 Of such missionaries Imperator observes : "You 
 have among you on earth spirits bright and noble, 
 whose mission in the earth-life is among the dens 
 of infamy and haunts of vice, who are preparing 
 for themselves a crown of glory, whose brightest 
 jewels are ^elf-sacrifice and love. So amongst us 
 there are spirits who give themselves to work in 
 the spheres of the degraded and abandoned. By 
 their efforts many spirits rise, and when rescued 
 from degradation, work out a long and laborious 
 purification in the probation spheres, where they 
 are removed from influences for evil, and en- 
 trusted to the care of the pure and goorl. So the 
 desire for holiness is encouraged and the spirit 
 is purified." 
 
 *'They that will not seek for anything that is 
 good, that Y\^allow in impurity and vice, sink lower 
 and lower, until they lose conscious identity, and 
 become practically extinct, so far as personal ex- 
 istence is concerned." 
 
 ''This is the unpardonable sin. Unpardonanh-
 
 0-. 
 
 AGAPE, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE 13 
 
 not because the Supreme vnll not pardon them, 
 but because the sinner chooses it to be so. Unpar- 
 donable, because the pardon is imijossible where 
 sin is cognenial and penitence unfelt." 
 
 ''Punishment is ever the immediate consequence 
 of sin; it is of its essence, not arbitrarily meted 
 out, but the inevitable result of tJie violatioyi of 
 laiv. The consequences of such transgression can- 
 not be altogether averted, though they may be 
 palliated by remorse, the effect of which is U 
 breed a loathing for sin, and a desire for good. 
 This is the first step, the retracing of false steps, 
 the undoing of error, and by consequence the 
 creation in the spirit of another longing. The 
 spiritual atmosphere is changed, and into it good 
 angels enter readily and aid the striving soul. 
 It is isolatod from all evil agencies. Remorse and 
 sorrow^ are fostered. The spirit becomes gentle 
 and tender, amenable to influences of good. So 
 the results of former sins are purged away, and 
 the length and bitterness of punishment allevi- 
 ated. This is true for all time."
 
 CHAPTEK X 
 
 THE TRUE SPIRITUAL MEANINGS OF 
 ''HEAVEN" AND ''HELL" 
 
 LifebeyrmJ^tlifi , Bo rder-lin e.— The Universality of Love. 
 
 TnTimir&ble la^vs govern our Heeds on Earth As "Heaven," is 
 
 within us (L^lke, v7, 21), so is "Hell."— No punishment from 
 ;\vithout but natural results of the consciousness of sin. — Always 
 remedial by repentance. — M. Leon Denis on "Judgment" by 
 the Conscience. — The meaning of Gehenna. — Julia's expression 
 "Hatred is Hell" and "Love is Heaven." — The Sinner cannot 
 "see God"; but the pure in heart shall (Matt., 5, 8). — The 
 effects of selfishness. — Our characters become visible to all on 
 the other side. — Private Dowding's experiences. — Further con- 
 firniatioDs.— Mr. Heslop 's mission to the " lost. "—Julia 's account 
 of the Messengers of Love, who meet all alike, good and bad, 
 on their passing over; but the latter cannot see them; — thus 
 confirming Dowding's own experience of the "clouds" around 
 him. — "The sin of omission" not specified by the spirits, but 
 strongly condemned by Jesus Christ (Matt., 25, 31 ff). 
 
 hnperator writes: "Immntable laws govern the 
 results of deeds. Deeds of good advance the 
 spirits, whilst deeds of evil degrade and retard 
 them. Happiness is fomid in progress and in 
 gradual assimilation to the God-like and the per- 
 fect. The spirit of divine love assimilates the acts 
 and in mutual blessing the spirits find their hap- 
 piness. For them there is no craving for sluggish 
 idleness, no cessation of desire for progressive 
 advancement in knowledge. Human passions 
 and human needs and wishes are gone with the 
 body and the spirit lives a spirit-life of purity, 
 progress, and love. Such is its heaven. We know 
 
 136
 
 HEAVEN AND HELL 137 
 
 of no hell save that -within the soul — a hell which 
 is fed by the flame of unpurified and untamed 
 lust and passion, which is kept alive by remorse 
 and agony of sorrow, whi?h is fraught with the 
 pangs that spring unbidden from the results of 
 past misdeeds; and from which the only escape 
 lies in retracing the steps and cultivating the 
 qualities which shall bear fruit in love and the 
 knowledge of God. 
 
 "Of 'punishments' we know, indeed, but it is 
 not the vindictive lash of an angry God; but the 
 natural outcome of conscious sin, remediable by 
 repentance and reparation, personally wrought 
 out in pain and shame, not by coward cries for 
 mercy. ' ' 
 
 Here again, as our own spirit friends said of 
 the German soldier: "He comes to us, too, but we 
 can do nothing until he truly repents. These re- 
 grets for what he is suffering will not help him." 
 
 M. Leon Deuis confirms Imperator by what he 
 too learned from the spirit land. This writer dedi- 
 cates his book Here and Hereafter: "To the 
 Great and Noble Spirits who have revealed to me 
 the august Mysteries of Destiny, Whose Teach- 
 ings have strengthened within me the Sentiment 
 of Justice, the Love of Wisdom and of Duty." 
 
 He tlius gives us the views of the Spirits on 
 The Judgment: "The recompense of Chastise- 
 ment of tlie spirit proceeds from its own Con- 
 science. It comes from witliin and not from witli- 
 out. The Spirit is its own judge; when the vest-
 
 138 HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 ment of flesh has fallen away, the light penetrates 
 and the soul is laid bare; then, within it there 
 appear, clear-cut as a living picture, all its deeds, 
 thoughts and desires . . . This evocation of the 
 past entails the dread sentence — the Judgment 
 of his own Conscience, which is, in a manner, the 
 judgment of God. Painful though this self-exami- 
 nation may be, it is necessary, for it may form 
 the basis of a new resolve which will lead to re- 
 generation."* 
 
 Our Lord again and again doomed certain 
 characters to Gehenna;! which gave rise to the 
 idea of hell, where sinners were supposed to burn 
 for ever! Julia says: *' People do not believe in 
 the hell of fire any more, but they have by their 
 recoil forgotten that there is a *real hell/ for 
 Hatred is hell, and God is with all who love, and 
 those who do not love are without God" . . . 
 ''There is, when the loveless soul comes here, as 
 much care taken to welcome it as when the soul 
 of love arrives. But the selfish soul is blind and 
 dark, and shudders in the dark. The imagination, 
 which here is far more powerful than with you, 
 fills the solitude with spectres, and the sinner 
 feels he is encompassed by the constantly renewed 
 visions of his deeds. Nor is this all; he sees those 
 whom he has injured, and he fears. If ever a sou^ 
 
 *0p. cit., pp. 2, 6 ff. iA valley named after the "son of Hin- 
 noni," a man of whom nothing is known. Human sacrifices were 
 offered there; and it was the place of destruction by fire of the 
 offal and refuse of the city of Jerusalem; and so kept constantly 
 burning. Hence it became a sy<mbol of the imaginary placo of 
 d'^struction of the wicked.
 
 HEAVEN AND HELL luv 
 
 needs a Saviour and Deliverer, it is when imagi- 
 nation and memory tvithout love recreate all anew 
 the selfish acts of a loveless life." 
 
 ^*The sinfulness of sin (writes Julia) chiefly 
 shows itself in the inability to 'see' God.* The 
 'punishment' of sin which is remedial, is the sense 
 of a loneliness and darkness which overwhelms 
 the loveless souls when they come into this world ; 
 the atmosphere of which is eternal love. This 
 they endure until such time as they love. "Wlien 
 they love, they turn to God, and see in the dark- 
 ness a ray of the Love, infinite and everlasting, 
 in which they are able to realize, as we do, that 
 the}'' live and move and have their being."! 
 
 Julia here applies to the other v^orld precisely 
 what St. Paul said of the heathen Greeks who 
 w^ere seekers after God.:j: 
 
 M. Leon Denis again thus writes^: ''Selfish 
 men, those ^^^ho are exclusively taken up with their 
 0"\vn pleasures and interests, are preparing for 
 themselves a painful future. Loving but them- 
 selves — having neither helped, sustained nor con- 
 soled any other soul in need — they now find in 
 this new life neither sympathy nor aid. Lonely 
 and abandoned, time cows for them monotonously, 
 and slowly on. A gloomy spleen, an anguished 
 expectancy, takes possession of them. The regret 
 of lost hours, of a wasted life, a hatred for the 
 wretched interests that once absorbed them, tor- 
 
 •This may be contrastofl with "The pure in hnart shall sec 
 God." ^ After Death, pp. 39, 40. {Matt., 5, 8). J Jets, 17, 22-28. 
 \Eere and Hereafter p. 246.
 
 140 HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 ments and crazes them. They suffer and wander 
 on until some charitable thought at last occurs to 
 them, glowing* in the darkness of their night like 
 a heaven-born ray of hope ; but the dawn does not 
 finally appear until, acting on the advice of some 
 enlightened and kindly spirit, they sever, hy an 
 act of volition, the fluidic network that enmeshes 
 them and resolutely determine to undertake a bet- 
 ter career. ' ' 
 
 Julia writes as follows: ''The thought and in- 
 tents of the heart, the imaginations of the mind, 
 these are the things by which we are judged ; for 
 it is they which make up and create as it were the 
 real character of the inner self, which becomes 
 visible after the leaving of the body."i 
 
 ''Every thought has a form; and this shape 
 created by the will [rather, automatically by a 
 natural law?] is photographed in us, as in a mirror 
 wherein reflections would imprint themselves. One 
 fluidic envelope reflects and preserves like a reg- 
 ister all the facts of our existence [hence. Mem- 
 ory?] This register is closed during life. The flesh 
 is the thick cover which hides its contents from 
 us, but at death it slowly opens, and its pages are 
 spread out beneath our eyes. The disembodied 
 spirit thus bears within it, visible to all, its heaven 
 or its hcll.t" As Christ told the Jews that Heaven 
 is within us§ ; so is Hell. 
 
 *Cp., Matt., 12, 20. -fAfter Death, p. 10. iHere and Eere- 
 after. (Leon Denis) p. 218. The above description may seem 
 strange but if ' ' thinking " is a form of force, and all forces, as 
 well as "matter" are formed of electricity — electrons — then, 
 thought passes under the same category ; and can presumably take 
 on its proper form just as the Spirit body does. %LuJce, 17, 20 f.
 
 HEAVEN AND HELL 141 
 
 Speaking of the Spirit-world, Private Do^vding 
 saj^s: "It is everjAvhere. The life of Spirit is 
 eternal, perfect, supreme. We humans hide from 
 the light. We grovel among the illusions created 
 by our thoughts. We surround ourselves with 
 misconceptions; we refuse to rise into the Christ 
 sphere. The Christ sphere is every^vhere, and yet 
 by some strange paradox we are able to shut it 
 out from view."* 
 
 One's o^\^l character appears to create the dark 
 screen, not the human will. 
 
 Dowding speaks of a most deplorable being, in 
 "Hell," i.e., a "thought region" . . . "not a 
 place" . . . "My brother had been told off to 
 rescue him. At first I refused to go. Then I went 
 . . . An angel of light came to protect us, otherwise 
 we should have been lost in the darkness of the 
 pit."t 
 
 Just as others write, Dowding thus speaks of the 
 "darkness": "We descended gloomy avenues. 
 The darkness grew. Even the angel's light grew 
 dim." He describes an extraordinary but evil at- 
 traction associated vnth. this place: "Something 
 sensual within me leaped and hiirned." "Those 
 who die filled with thoughts of selfishness and 
 sensuality are attracted down the grey avenues to- 
 wards this hell of the senses." ^'This hell consists 
 in believing the unreal to be real. It consists in the 
 lure of the senses without the possibility of grati- 
 
 *0p. cit., p. 40 f. fOp. cit., p. 57. Mr. Heslop similarly wrote-. 
 "I was called away just as you wcro taking down my sugges- 
 tions. I went to the dark places," etc. {Speaking across the 
 Border-line, p. 31.)
 
 142 HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 fying them." ... It is: "All the thoughts of lust 
 and passion, greed, hatred, env^^, and above all, 
 selfishness, passing through the minds of men and 
 women, generate the 'condition' called hell. Pm^ga- 
 tory and hell are different states. Wo all must 
 needs pass through a purging, purifj-ing process 
 after leaving earth life. I am still in purgatory, 
 some day I shall rise above it. Tlie majority who 
 come over here rise above, or rather tlirough purg- 
 atory into higher conditions. A ^ninority* refuse 
 to relinquish their thoughts and beliefs in the 
 pleasures of sin and the reality of the sense life. 
 They shik by the weight of their OT^m thoughts. No 
 outside power can attract a man against his ^vill."t 
 
 Such is precisely in accordance with Mr, Hcs- 
 lop's experience: "You see," he says, "we can do 
 absolutely nothing till the desire for purity and 
 goodness awakens within the soul."t In Mr. Hes- 
 lop's case the man did show a spark, or "gleam, of 
 desire," so he, with other loving spirits, at once 
 flew to aid him. Not so, in the case of Dowding's. 
 The angel and his brother had to return for "He 
 would not come away ; they had to leave him . . . 
 Fear held him. He said his existence w^as awful ; 
 but he was afraid to move lest worse conditions 
 should befall him."§ 
 
 Another writer]] supplies an interesting com- 
 ment on the words of St. Paul; it came from a 
 "Messenger," one of a group led by "The Strong 
 
 *So our spirit said he believed that there were but few who 
 thus annihilate themselves in the ' ' Second Death. ' ' f Private 
 Dowding, 55, ff . %SpeaJcing across the Border-line, p. 32. §0p. 
 cit., p. 57. WAutomatic Speahing and Writing, p. 43.
 
 HEAVEN AND HELL 143 
 
 Spirit" and ''The Priest": ''Imagine for a mo- 
 ment what that change must be to the individual 
 whose individuality is almost entirely mortal. The 
 immortal spirit comes like an untimely birth into a 
 spiritual world* — and man, giving up the ghost 
 where is he ? Oh ! lost souls are no dream ! Lost 
 souls by thousands come into spirit-life, and are 
 lost in this way ; that the mental individuality is 
 gone, and the immortal spirit gropes and wails, 
 and requires to be fed, and is as helpless as the 
 infant born before its time. The rightly appointed 
 process has not been carried on. The poor im- 
 mortal spirit has been entombed in the mortal flesh 
 so that it has not gro\vn or developed . . . On the 
 other hand, if you had seen out of the poor claj^ 
 such spirits or souls arise, as I have seen rise, 
 strong, gentle and brave, ready for the warfare 
 vritli evil and sorrow in the next life ; if you had 
 heard the 'Well done, good and faithful,' you 
 would understand that there is joy in the presence 
 of the angels of God over one sinner that repent- 
 eth, or rather, over one mortal, who on earth-life 
 can so put on immortality as to enter spirit-life, a 
 spirit royal and beautiful and loving. 
 
 "I want you to see that those men and women 
 who are redeemed in mortal life are born redeem- 
 ers in spirit-life, and are ready to take orders 
 when they come." 
 
 A spirit who lately passed over remarked to us 
 — what may l)e a common condition: "We are all 
 
 •"The natural man rcceiveth not the things of God; for they 
 are foolishneaa unto him." (/ Cor., 2, 14.)
 
 144 HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 7iot very happy, for we all feel tliat we might have 
 done better on earth." 
 
 One can well believe such to be a universal ex- 
 perience at first; but there are plenty of helpers 
 there to show us how to rise at once if we only will 
 to rise.* 
 
 Yet another communication from Mr. Heslop — 
 he writes to his wife from the other world, which 
 bears on this subject. *'I have been away on a 
 mission to the Land of Darkness. I had a sudden 
 call to go there to help one to whom I am appointed 
 to minister. 
 
 "Your world is in darkness when compared with 
 the Christ sphere; but it is brilliant when con- 
 trasted with those regions where I have just been. 
 There are souls there filled with the torture of 
 remorse, more bitter than anything you can con- 
 ceive possible. Truly they must work out their own 
 salvation with strong crying and many tears, "t 
 We go to carry comfort to them. To speak of the 
 love of the Divine Saviour, which alone can lead 
 them out of darkness into His glorious light. 
 
 "We are rejoicing to-day because we have 
 brought up one out of the bitterness of despair 
 into the first glimmering of hope and light and 
 love. So you see I have been at work, and my 
 labor has not been in vain." 
 
 What Julia says about the wicked ones is as 
 follows : "So far as I have been able to ascertain, 
 
 *That is who have of themselves turned from wickedness and 
 done that which is right, and thus saved their souls alive. {Es., 
 18, 27). jOv. cit., p. 29.
 
 HEAVEN AND HELL 145 
 
 the Messengers of Love and Mercy meet all men 
 when they die. In this there is no distinction made 
 between the saved and the lost.* But the latter 
 have not the faculty to see him. The former not 
 only profit by his counsels, but feel him and know 
 he is w^ith them. It is to all that the good Lord 
 ministers — to all on your side and on this. His 
 loving kindness is over all His creatures. But 
 some know Hun not, and when He would dra^v 
 them nearer to His heart, they are as if they saw, 
 heard, felt nothing. They suffer, as it is necessary 
 that they may be rid of the sin-stains which their 
 loveless life has left upon their souls. 
 
 * ' The sinfulness of sin chiefly shows itself in the 
 inability to 'see God,' whereas Our Lord said: 
 'The pure in heart shall see God.' The punish- 
 ment [or rather the natural and inevitable result], 
 of sin which is remedial, is the sense of loneliness 
 and darkness! which overwhelms the loveless souls 
 when they come into this world, the atmosphere 
 of which is eternal love. This they endure until 
 such time as they love.t "Wlien they love, then 
 they turn to God, and see in the darkness a ray of 
 the Love infinite and everlasting in which they are 
 able to realize, as we do, that thej'^ live and move 
 and have their being. 
 
 ''There is, when the loveless soul comes here, 
 
 "Julia moans of course the "gnorl" and the "bad"; "saved" 
 and "lost" imply ultimate conditions, which cannot apply to 
 new arrivals on the other side. fMr. lleslop also speaks of this 
 "darkness." ^So too, Mr. lleslop is emphatic on the fact that 
 nothing can be done for them until the first sign of true repen- 
 tance is there.
 
 146 HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 as mucli care taken to welcome it as when the soul 
 of love arrives. But the selfish soul is blind and 
 dark, and shudders in the dark. The imagination, 
 which here is far more powerful than with you, fills 
 the solitude with specters, and the sinner feels he 
 is encompassed by the constantly renewed visions 
 of his deeds. Nor is this all ; he sees those whom 
 he has injured, and he fears. If ever a soul needs 
 a Saviour and Deliverer, it is when imagination 
 and memory without love recreate all anew the 
 selfish acts of a loveless life." 
 
 Julia leaves out of consideration the **sins of 
 omission." They are implied by *' Selfishness," 
 but Christ laid special stress upon them ; as in His 
 parable of the rich man and Lazarus and specially 
 in His parable of the Judgment Day. We must 
 assume that the absence of love, as Julia says of 
 the sinner, is the same thing as doing nothing for 
 Love's sake. 
 
 I quote the following extract of spirit-teaching, 
 through Mr. Leon Denis: ''With the passing of 
 centuries, Christianity has become vitiated until it 
 now exercises but a feeble and inadequate action 
 over man's life and character. Spiritualism has 
 now come to take up and to carry on the task that 
 was allotted to Christianity. Upon the invisible 
 spirits has developed the mission to set all things 
 straight, to enter into the humblest as well as into 
 the proudest dwellings and — immeasurably strong 
 — to undertake the regeneration of humanity. 
 The notion of demons [in N. T. miscall^ "? 'devils ?]
 
 HEA\^N AND HELL 147 
 
 and of a place of endless torment can no longer 
 be entertained by any sensible person. Satan is 
 a myth, and no creature is eternally condemned to 
 evil." But he may disappear in the Second 
 Death, if he choses to ''quench the Spirit," and 
 to bring upon himself self-annihilation.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT NOT 
 ACCEPTED IN THE NEXT WORLD, BUT 
 REPLACED BY THE *'ATONE-MENT," i.e., 
 THE RECONCILIATION OF MAN TO GOD, 
 ON HIS SINCERE REPENTANCE AND 
 AMENDMENT OF LIFE.— THE SACRAMENT 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 
 
 Imperafor's erplanation of the false doctrine of the Atone- 
 ment — corroborated by Mr. Heslop. — Will the World receive their 
 revelation of the Truth? — Mr. Heslop 's reply to one who ex- 
 claimed : " If the Lord Jesus Christ did not die in my stead, then 
 I am for ever lost!"— Mr. Heslop 's conversion to the truth on 
 the other side, compared with Eev. Stainton Moses' regeneration 
 on this earth. — God's forgiveness to the contrite sinner is Christ's 
 teaching and not any vicarious suffering on His part. — Our sina 
 confront us on passing over. — The Bible has been misread. — The 
 meaning of sacrifice. — Ezekiel, on man's own responsibilities. — 
 The meaning of "for" in the New Testament. — Forgiveness 
 follows true repentance instantaneously. — St. Paul's teaching of 
 God * ' reconciling man to Himself. ' ' — Man 's free-will, an essential 
 element. — His Conscience, the sole judge of his conduct. — Mr. 
 Lamb's pamphlet on "Unbelief the World's greatest sin." — The 
 true meanings of words used in a wrong sense. — What Christ 
 teaches us. — Agape, called "Love," is really the "Enthusiasm of 
 the spirit of humanity." — St. James' Definition of the Christian 
 Eeligion. — Mr. Lamb's false statements. — The Old and the New 
 Covenant — ^Dr. Westcott's interpretations. — The supposed "Im- 
 putation" of righteousness from Christ to man, impossible- 
 Terms explained. — The true meaning of our Lord's death upon 
 the Cross. — St. James' Definition of the Christian Religion. — This 
 is summed up in Faith and Love. — Dt. Westcott's interpretation. 
 — Illustration of false teaching in the "Revival" of 1858. — No 
 trace of the Atonement in the earliest Christian writers, the 
 "Opostolic Fathers." — The Spirits view of The Lord's Supper. 
 
 148
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 149 
 
 The Atonement is treated at lenth by Imperator* 
 and also by Mr. Heslop; and they are perfectly 
 "at one" on this important subject. The follow- 
 ing is Imperator' s position: 
 
 "You ask how the sign of the Cross can be pre- 
 fixed to such teaching. Friend, the spiritual truth 
 of which that sign is typical is the very cardinal 
 truth which it is our special mission to declare. 
 The self denying love which would benefit human- 
 ity even at the sacrifice of life and home and 
 earthly happiness — the pure spirit of the Christ — 
 this is what we would declare to you as the God- 
 like spirit. This is the true salvation from mean- 
 ness and self-aggrandizement, and self-pleasing 
 and luxurious sloth, which can 'redeem' humanity 
 and make of men the children of God. This self- 
 abnegation and incarnate love is that which can 
 * atone 't for sin, and make man like to God. This 
 is the true Atonement ! not, indeed, a reconciliation 
 of sin-stained humanity to an angry and holy God, 
 purchased by the sacrifice of His sinless Son, but 
 a higher and truer atonement in the ennobling of 
 the nature, the purifying of the spirit ; the making 
 of the human and the divine, ONE in aim and 
 purpose — the drawing of man's spirit, even whilst 
 incarned, up nearer and nearer to the Divine. 
 
 "This was the mission of the Christ. In this 
 He was a manifestation of God, the Son of God, 
 the Saviour of man, the Reconciler ; the * At-one-r ' ; 
 
 •Spirit Teachings, p. 70. ^Imperator here uses the word iu 
 its original sense of ' * reconcile. 
 
 ) J
 
 150 DOCTEINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 and herein we perpetuate His work, we carry on 
 His mission, we work under His symbol, we fight 
 against the enemies of His faith, against all who 
 ignorantly or wilfully dishonor Him, even though 
 it be under the banner of orthodoxy and under the 
 protection of His name. 
 
 "Much that we teach must still be new and 
 strange even to those who have progressed in 
 knowledge; but the days shall come when men 
 shall recognize the oneness of Christ's teaching on 
 earth with ours ; and the human garb, gross and 
 material, in which it has been shrouded, shall be 
 rent asunder, and men shall see the true grandeur 
 of the life and teaching of Him whom they ignor- 
 antly worship. In those days they shall worship 
 with no less reality, but with a more perfect knoAvl- 
 edge; and they shall know that the sign under 
 which we speak is the symbol of purity and self- 
 sacrificing love to them and to their brethren for 
 all time. This end is our earnest endeavor to 
 attain. Judge of our mission by this standard, 
 and it is God, god like ; noble as He is noble ; pure 
 as He is pure ; truthgiving as He is true ; elevating 
 and saving, and purifying the spirit from the 
 grossness of earthly conceptions and raising it to 
 the very atmosphere and neighborhood of the 
 spiritual and the divine. Ponder our words : and 
 seek for guidance, if not through us, then through 
 Him who sent us even as in earlier days He sent 
 that exalted spirit of purity, charity and self- 
 sacrifice, whom men called Jesus, and who was the 
 Christ.
 
 DOCTEINE OF ATONEMENT 151 
 
 **Hiin we adore even now. His name we 
 
 reverence, 
 His words we echo. His teaching lives igain 
 
 in ours. 
 E» and we are of God: and in His name we 
 
 come.'' 
 
 ►!*Imperator.* 
 
 I will show later how this teaching is strictly in 
 accordance with the New Testament, when the 
 origj^nal Greek words are correctly interpreted. I 
 will now only quote one text to show that St. Paul 
 agrees perfectly with Iviperator in regarding tho 
 *' Atonement" as signifying simplj^ "Reconcilia- 
 tion" of man to God: "If, while we were enemies, 
 v;e were reconciled to God, through the death of 
 His Son ; much more, being reconciled, shall we be 
 saved by His life; and not only so, but we also 
 rejoice in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 through whom we have now received the recon- 
 ciliation." (R.V.) (A.V. Atonement, i.e., atone-, 
 
 ment.)t 
 
 Mr. Heslop thus expresses himself on the same 
 subject : "Try and keep quite clearly in your mind 
 what Our Lord's atonement really was, and what 
 it was not. Tho atonement was the expression 
 through Christ of the love of the Father even unto 
 death, for every human soul. It enables us to draw 
 nearer to the Father than was possible before 
 
 •Spirit Teachings, p. 70, f. j:Fom., 5, 10 ff. This waa the only 
 passaj^o where the word "AtoDcmcnt" occurred in the New 
 TfRt.an-.ent. (A.V.)
 
 152 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 Christ died. But this is a great mystery which you 
 cannot fully understand. By assuming the human 
 form, Christ gave the crowning dignity to human- 
 ity and so caused an at-one-ment between us and 
 God. Now that this at-one-ment is accomplished 
 by Christ, the Holy Spirit can take complete pos- 
 session of the heart, and by filling it with the 
 Divine Presence gradually purify it from sin. It 
 was to bring us into this soul-union that Christ 
 lived and died. 
 
 '*It is the doctrine of the * substitution' of Christ 
 the Sinless One, to satisfy the laws the sinner has 
 broken, that has done so much evil. It has lulled 
 the wicked into a false security. The first thing 
 they fi.nd when they come here is the record of 
 their lives, and every man goes to the place he has 
 made for himself, according as that life has been. 
 . . . Absolute, impartial justice is meted out to 
 every man, of every clime and every race, for that 
 justice is his own involuntary creation. However 
 feeble have been the glimmerings of godness and 
 truth, here they are fostered and strengthened till 
 thy burn brightly for God. The ignorant are in- 
 structed, the weary are soothed, and the broken- 
 hearted are comforted. Gradually those who at 
 first fled from the purity and brightness here, are 
 brought in by the all-embracing love of God ; and 
 we who minister to these lost ones, rejoice on the 
 birth of a soul into those higher regions of light 
 and progress." 
 
 Such is the At-one-ment ; which brings about not
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 153 
 
 only the Communion of Saints* but unity with 
 God and Christ, whe^i man has repented of his sins. 
 
 How will the Christian world receive this inter- 
 pretation? My own experience is as follows: I 
 published a book in 1884 entitled Christian Beliefs 
 Reconsidered in the Light of Modern Thought, 
 wherein I called attention to the meaning of the 
 word ''Atonement," namely "Reconciliation" or 
 At-one-ment. A clerg>Tnan for whom I had fre- 
 quently preached, said I should ''never enter his 
 pulpit again." A. Canon said in a sermon when I 
 was present : "If I did not believe in ' substitution, ' 
 I would never preach again in this pulpit." I 
 wrote an article on the subject in The Pulpit, and 
 a correspondent wrote to say : " It may be right, 
 but I am too old to change any views." Rev. 
 Stainton Moses was right when he told Imperator 
 that his teaching "would not be accepted." 
 
 Mrs. Heslop received the following words from 
 one who had read what her husband had said: 
 "If the Lord Jesus Christ did not die as my sub» 
 stitute, then / am for ever lost." 
 
 Her reply to the friend, she tells us, was inspired 
 by her husband, and quotes it in full. 
 
 Slie writes : ' ' My former view was that the only 
 way to the Father lay through the sacrificial work 
 of Jesus Christ ; that by His death on the Cross He 
 paid the penalty of my sins, and through faith in 
 His sacrifice they were blotted out for ever. Christ 
 liaving suffered in my stead, I was set free. This 
 is the doctrine of the Atonement as preached in 
 
 •"Saint" in the New Testament signifiea any Christian,
 
 154 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 the Christian churches. Now it has been told me 
 from the Christ-sphere that this is a mistaken view 
 of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. . . The great 
 mission of Jesus was to show us our union with the 
 Father, whose name is Love, and to make our at- 
 one-ment* with Him a realized fact. ' 'f 
 
 Mrs. Heslop adds the following to her hnsband's 
 words from the other side : **Much of John's work 
 is to welcome souls newly passed into the spirit- 
 life. He tells me that many are filled mth distress 
 and perplexity when they are confronted by the 
 sins of their past lives ; they had thought all had 
 been obliterated by their faith in the atoning sacri- 
 fice of Jesus Christ, and he begs me to try and 
 throw light on this doctrine. 
 
 "I know there are many texts in the Bible which 
 Leem to confirm the evangelical view; but I am 
 told that they allude to the ultimate cleansing after 
 repentance and restitution, such completing our 
 reconciliation to God, and not to the total oblitera- 
 tion of a special sin by an act of faith." 
 
 **It is right to dwell on the forgiveness of Go-l 
 to the contrite sinner, for this is a glorious truth : 
 but it is the consquences of sin that will confroiit 
 us when the veil of the flesh no longer hides them 
 from our sight. But if they have been faced and 
 the debt paid whilst on earth, our sins can no long- 
 er confront us in the Spirit-world, but are in very 
 deed *cast into the depths of the sea' for ever."t 
 
 *i.e., **At-one-ment" the only meaning in the TBth century. 
 fOp. cit., p. 155. XSpcaJcing across the Border-line: Appendix 
 on The Meaning of Atonement. A Bay of Light on a diffimlt 
 Doctrine, by F. Heslop, pp. 150 ff .
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 155 
 
 The question now arises, how has the Bible been 
 misread so that many persons come to believe in 
 the so-called Atonement or the "Substitution by 
 Christ" instead of man suffering for his sins? 
 
 If we go back to the beginning of things, we find 
 the original meaning of sacrifice was to please and 
 appease the deities, for all sorts of troubles and 
 afflictions were thought to be due to them, as pun- 
 ishments for unknown crimes as well as known de- 
 linquencies. Thus we read after the flood Noah 
 offered a sacrifice of sweet savour and Yahveh is 
 said to have promised that for the future such a 
 flood should not occur again. But this same story 
 is found on the ancient Babylonian tablets ; but in 
 them it is polytheistic, and not monotheistic as 
 represented in Genesis. 
 
 Similarly after the matter of Korah, Moses 
 stayed the plague, called the ''Wrath" of Yahveh, 
 by offering sweet-scented incense. 
 
 We know that the idea of diseases, etc., were 
 looked upon as inflicted by God, down to the time 
 of Christ; for the Jews asked: "Who sinned, the 
 man born blind or his father?" to account for it. 
 Like Job of old, who protested against his friends 
 arguing that he must have sinned to be so troubled, 
 our Lord denounces the theory altogether. Eze- 
 kicl had long before strongly condemned the idea 
 that any man should be held responsible for his 
 son's misdemeanors or vice versa. Everyone must 
 stand or fall in accordance with his own doings, for 
 which he alone is responsible. It is obvious, there-
 
 156 DOCTEINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 fore, that this righteous law is violated if Christ 
 died, as a man, instead of sinners having to bear 
 their natural consequences. 
 
 If we turn to the original Greek text of the New 
 Testament, we find that it is never said that Our 
 Lord died '* instead of" (in Greek, anti) but al- 
 ways "on behalf of" (in Greek, huper) man; or 
 ''in the matter of" (peri) our sins. He died as 
 all the subsequent martyrs did, for His Great 
 Cause — the Salvation of Man from his sins; but 
 how is this to be done ? All through the Old Testa- 
 ment as also in the New, forgiveness of sins in- 
 variably follows immediately on sincere repent- 
 ance. Let us take an example from the Old Testa- 
 ment. The prophet Nathan reproves David for his 
 sins of murder and taking Bathsheba. David's 
 conscience is awakened and he cries: **0, God, 
 against Thee only have I sinned. ' ' Nathan at once 
 says: ''The Lord hath put away thy sin." 
 
 The publican in the temple prayed: ''God, be 
 merciful to me a sinner," and he left the temple 
 "justified." This word obviously means here 
 "forgiven" ; while the self-righteous Pharisee was 
 not. David, the publican, the woman who bathed 
 our Lord's feet with her tears, Zacchaeus the 
 exorbitant publican, and the thief on the cross 
 were all similarly "justified"; because Christ 
 could read their hearts and knew that their re- 
 pentance was sincere. 
 
 All sinners, or as St. Paul calls them, "aliens" 
 or "enemies," are "at two" with God; but He
 
 DOCTEINE OF ATONEMENT 157 
 
 would reconcile them unto Himself, and so be *'at 
 one, ' ' i.e., in ' ' union ' ' with Himself. The only way 
 by which it can be affected is by the sinner's own 
 repentance and then living the Christ-life. God 
 has endowed man ^vitli a free ivill. It is that which 
 makes a man responsible for his ov/n conduct. 
 
 The doctrine of the Atonement leaves the man 
 himself too much, if not altogether, out of the New 
 Covenant. It gives hun a false sense of security 
 if he looks to Christ's death as a "substitution" 
 for the effects of his own sins in this world. He 
 \\all have a rude awakening on the other side : " As 
 a man sows, so shall he reap." God's laws are 
 immutable and perfectly just; because whatever a 
 man does consciously, whether good or bad, he 
 regulates his oivn consequences upon himself. As 
 stated, there will be no Judge hereafter ; as Christ 
 said: "All Judgment is in the Son,"* but the Son 
 declines to judge, for He "came not to judge but 
 to save."! His "Word"| is the judge, and that 
 means His teaching; and if we choose to pay no 
 heed, knowingly going astray, our own conscience 
 will judge, when it is too late to amend our way 
 in this life. 
 
 As many people still pin their faith upon Christ 
 as being a "substitute," it is perhaps desirable to 
 add a few more w^ords to expose the error. 
 
 The late Mr. A. S. Lamb wrote a little book 
 called Unbelief, the World's Greatest Sin,^ in 
 which he discusses this false theory of salvation 
 
 *John, 5, 22. ^John, 8, 15. tJohn, 12, 48. §tbe last edition 
 completed 1,125,000 copies. Drummond's Tract Depot, Stirling).
 
 158 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 as if it were true. He says: ''Justification means 
 notliing short of this. It is far more than bare 
 pardon. It is a making for all judicious purposes, 
 before the heavenly tribunal, the unjust, just.'' 
 
 But how was this to be effected? *'To create a 
 righteousness which could be imputed was the 
 prime object, so far as we sinners are concerned, 
 of Our Lord and Saviour's incarnation, His life of 
 obedience, and His atoning death." ... *'It is in- 
 deed true that for those who have, by God, through 
 the Holy Spirit, been led to lay their sins on Jesus, 
 and to put their trust for justification in God's 
 sight solely in the great work completed on Cal- 
 vary, the eternal punishment of sin has been act- 
 ually and fully borne." 
 
 This is all totally unscriptural and false ! 
 
 *'To lay our sins on Jesus," like the sentence, 
 ''He bore our iniquities," are simply metaphorical 
 expresions based on the account of the scape-goat, 
 when Moses laid his hands upon it, and sent it 
 adrift into the desert. What on the other hand the 
 whole Bible teaches is that sins are only forgiven 
 on repentance. Yet Mr. Lamb asserts: "Repent- 
 ance of itself is no ground for reconciliation!" 
 
 If that were true, why did Our Lord say that 
 the publican in the temple — after praying for for- 
 giveness — went away "justified." To justify and 
 justification are legal terms making a man, as we 
 say, "not guilty." It is a purely negative position. 
 To he just requires a man to have do7ie positive 
 acts of justice, such as Zacchaeus promised to do ; 
 thereby proving that his repentance was sincere.
 
 DOCTEINE OF ATONEMENT 159 
 
 It is Ms own conduct alone that can make a man 
 *'just" or "righteous.'* 
 
 ''As a sinner is 'justified' from all things," 
 writes Mr. Lamb, "through the obedience, suffer- 
 ing and death of Christ as his substitute, and so 
 delivered from the guilt and punishment due to his 
 sins" . . . "To create a righteousness which can 
 be imputed was the prime object of our Lord and 
 Saviour's incarnation. It was to work out the 
 complete available satisfaction of the demands of 
 eternal truth and justice that His obedience, suf- 
 fering and death, as our substitute were indis- 
 pensably necessary." 
 
 This process is said to appease God and propi- 
 tiate His wrath. But God is Love and requires 
 nothing of the sort, only man's repentance, then 
 *'He reconciles the sinner unto Himself." 
 
 All the words italicized in Mr. Lamb's account 
 have erroneous meanings; for example: 
 
 Believe: There was no special word in Greek 
 before Christ came, for "to have faith in"; so the 
 common word for "believe"* had to be taken over. 
 The two meanings are well distinguished by St. 
 James. He says: "AVhat doth it profit, if a man 
 say he hath faith {pistis), but have not works?" 
 Will faith alone, i.e., mere "belief," save him? 
 And he gives an illustration which the reader can 
 refer to. In the 19th verse he uses the verb 
 (pisteuo) in the old sense of "believe": "Thou 
 belie vest that God is one God: Thou doest well: 
 
 •ITiiB comes from tho Latin credo, which stand for the Greek 
 pisteuo.
 
 160 DOCTEINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 The devils also believe, but shudder.** No one 
 would impute to them any faith in Jesus Christ. 
 
 Consequently it is not *' belief" or ''unbelief" 
 that Mr. Lamb is writing about ; for, belief is solely 
 concerned with reason or "head-knowledge"; 
 whereas faith, not only includes this, but must 
 prove itself by "heart-practice.** 
 
 Moreover, no man's goodness or badness can be 
 "imputed" to another person; for Mr. Lamb uses 
 the word as if it meant "imparted,** as he speaks 
 of Christ's righteousness as a "gift** to us. The 
 word "impute" can only mean "laying to one's 
 charge, ' ' and in the case of a good man, regarding 
 him as righteous. In either case the good or bad 
 man must be proved by his works; as is done in a 
 law court. 
 
 Moreover, Ezekiel, long before, declared as a 
 fundamental law of God, that no one could be 
 punished for the iniquities of another, nor be 
 righteous instead of another person. The idea of 
 "substitution" is in defianc3 of God*s word. 
 
 St. Paul gives a very different explanation to 
 that of Mr. Lamb : "God was in Christ reconciling 
 the world unto Himself and not reckoning their 
 trespasses unto them.** Such reconciliation was on 
 one presupposed condition — that the world had 
 repented. It is a self-acting law. Forgiveness 
 follows in the wake of sincere repentance, and is 
 proved by the sinner "turning away from his 
 wickedness and doing that which is lawful and 
 right" — and above all showing an enthusiasm in
 
 j)r\nv 
 
 OCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 161 
 
 doing good to others — then **he shall save his soul 
 alive. '^ 
 
 Salvation is nothing more or less than living the 
 Christ life to the best of our ability on this earth. 
 The Greek Y\'ord soteria was well translated in the 
 Latin Vulgate by salus, i.e., spiritual "health"; 
 and the word was used till the twelfth century, 
 Yvhen it began to be replaced by *' salvation. " It 
 has been retained, however, in the General Con- 
 fession: "We have no health in us," and in the 
 Baptismal Service. Christ came to save us from 
 our sins, not from Gehenna; that is left for the 
 sinner himself to do, by acquiring salvation, by 
 working it out, tliough in fear and trembling. As 
 the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, so may Hell 
 be. 
 
 The danger lurking in this theory, therefore, 
 docs not seem to be noticed by Mr. Lamb. He says : 
 "Christ is the end of the law" because He has 
 satisfied the law, through His work finished on 
 Calvary. He has brought in a righteousness which 
 is now avaliahle for us, as a ground of justification, 
 without a personal keeping of the law." 
 
 But if the reader will carefully study Bom. 10, 
 he will see that St. Paul is contrasting the Old Law 
 witli the New Covenant ; so that when Christ came 
 to establish the latter He put an end to the old 
 Scholastic system. The "righteousness of the 
 Law" was obedience enforced or encouraged by 
 temporal punishments or rewards, respectively. 
 He abolished this and substituted "Faith," that
 
 162 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 is a law written on the fleshy table of the heart and 
 not on tables of stone, and the man is free to obey 
 his own conscience and no longer a task-master. 
 Mr. Lamb quite fails to realize this. 
 
 "Redemption" — this and other expressions, 
 such as "ransomed," "bought with a price," etc., 
 are all metaphors taken from the Old Testament. 
 No payment of any kind was made to anyone ; but 
 we still use the phrase if a man "rescues" another 
 from fire, but gets burnt, we say that he paid a 
 heavy price for his noble action; so when "God 
 redeemed Israel from Pharoah" the word only 
 meant ' ' rescued. ' ' No price was paid to the King 
 of Egypt. 
 
 St. Paul even uses the word translated "re- 
 demption" as a synonjan for another for "for- 
 giveness," both words in Greek, as stated is the 
 riddance of sin.* 
 
 With regard to the word "Atonement," which 
 now means "making amends for," it had only one 
 in the 16th century, viz., to put "at one," i.e., 
 " at-one-ment. " It is frequent in Shakespeare's 
 plays: thus Desdemona says: "I would that I 
 could atone them," meaning make the Moor and 
 Cassio friends again, or "at one." This sense of 
 "making amends" or "expiation" is traceable to 
 the Vulgatet; then to Archbishop Anselm's book. 
 Cur Deus Homo? {i.e., Why did God become 
 man?)t and finally to Calvin'^ ; hence his followers 
 
 "EiJh., 1, 7. fFourth Century. ^Twelfth Century. §Sixteenth 
 Century. The false meaning "became general in books on re- 
 ligion about 1650.
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 163 
 
 who accept this erroneous teaching of Salvation 
 are called Calvinists. 
 
 If we search through the writings of the Apos- 
 tolic Fathers of the first and following centuries 
 we find no support for the theory of Substitution. 
 They deal solely with Repentance and living a holy 
 life as the essentials of a Christian, such as St. 
 Clement, in the first and second century, calls ' ' the 
 Glorious and Venerable Rules of our Holy Calling. 
 Let us consider what is Good and Acceptable, and 
 well pleasing in the sight of Him that made Us. 
 Let us look steadfastly to the Blood of Christ, and 
 see how Precious His Blood is in the sight of God : 
 which being shed for our salvation has obtained 
 the Grace of Repentance for all the World . . . 
 to all such as would turn to him, Noali preached 
 Repentance. Jonah denounced Destruction against 
 the Ninivites. However, they repented of their 
 Sins, and appeased* God by their Prayers and 
 were saved, though they were strangers to the 
 Covenant of God. ' 't 
 
 *' Hence we find how all the ministers of the 
 Grace of God have spoken by the Holy Spirit of 
 Repentance. And even the Lord of all has Himself 
 declared with an oath concerning it: "As I live,*' 
 saith the Lord, '*I desire not the death of a sinner, 
 but that he should repent." He refers also to 
 similar utterings of the Prophets. He continues by 
 showing how our regeneration to holiness is the 
 outcome of repentance." 
 
 *Ez., 33, 11. Jcr., 3, 4, 19. Is., 1, 16. f 'Appeased" is not 
 a very happy word; "pleaaoJ" is nearer the truth.
 
 164 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 St, Clement Imows nothing of Clirist having 
 been crucified as our ' ' Substitute. ' ' He died at the 
 end of the First Century, similarl^r is it v/ith all 
 the ablest of the Apostolic Fathers. 
 
 What, then, does Our Lord's death upon the 
 cross teach us 1 It is the great end and object of all 
 His teaching, i.e., His ** Word" — to lay down one's 
 life if called upon to do so, on beJialf of others. 
 
 Self-sacrifice is the great law of Love, in Greek 
 Agape, which means an enthusiasm for doing 
 good to, and for, others. 
 
 What is St. James' definition of the Christian 
 Religion? 
 
 "Pure Religion and undefiled before God our 
 Father is this : To visit the fatherless and widows 
 in their affliction; and to keep himself unspotted 
 from the world. ' ' Such again is Agape or ' ' Love. ' ' 
 
 Our Lord does not turn to those whom He com- 
 pared to the goats and say, in the words of Mr. 
 Lamb: "Believe on Me" because I have done 
 "obedience," borne "suffering and death" as 
 your "substitute," and so "delivered you from 
 the guilt and eternal punishment due to your 
 sins"; and that I can "impute my righteousness" 
 to you; which you can "accept as a satisfaction 
 for your sin" ; since "I have fulfilled and satisfied 
 God's Law," etc. 
 
 On the other hand. Our Lord's own words were : 
 "Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire, 
 which is prepared for the devil and hi^s angels." 
 The reader can study this conclusion for-himself. 
 
 If the reader has read the former part of this
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 165 
 
 parable of the Judgment, he will see what happens 
 to the "justified "who had 7nade themselves righte- 
 ous by living and doing what Christ did. They "go 
 into eternal life." Such is the whole teaching of 
 Jesus Christ, sunnned up in the two words "Faith" 
 and "Love," or an Enthusiasm for doing good to 
 others. This is the result of reconciliation to God, 
 metaphorically expressed by eating His flesh, that 
 is, acquiring His character, and by drinking His 
 blood, tliat is, living His life on earth, and so in 
 every way imitating His conduct. "Imitation" is 
 what is meant by "Union" with Him and the 
 Father. 
 
 Let us once more turn to our greatest Expositor 
 of the meanings of words in St. John's Epistles. 
 Dr. "Westcott thus writes in his notes: "Man's 
 estrangement from God by sin can be regarded in 
 two ways. Sin cannot but be a bar to God's love; 
 and, conversely, man as sinful cannot love God. 
 He requiros a change in condition, and a change in 
 feeling."* Propitiation [i.e., Christ offers Himself 
 to the sinner] and Reconcilement [of the sinner to 
 God]. . . The Love of God [is seen] in the mission 
 of His Son which calls out man's love, as St. John 
 says: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but 
 that He loved us, and sent His Son to be a pro- 
 pitiation [i.e., to propitiate man] : for He is ''our 
 propitiation." He propitiates the sinner by offer- 
 ing up Himself, i.e., His flesh and blood for the 
 sinner to eat and drink, "t 
 
 •The Qrork worrl translated Ropontance rrnlly meana a 
 "change of mind" or of " undei standing, " -j-Sco I John, 4, 10.
 
 166 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 Dr. Westcott sliows that both in the Oreek 
 Septuagint version of the old Hebrew Testament, 
 as well as in the New Testament, the verb hilasJces- 
 thai (to *' propitiate") stands in remarkable con- 
 trast with the classical usage . . . The Scriptural 
 conception is not that of appeasing [i.e., ''pro- 
 pitiating"] one who is angry against the offender, 
 but of altering the character of that which occas- 
 ions alientation [such of course being the sins of 
 man]. Such phrases as ''propitiating" God or 
 God being reconciled to man are foreign to the 
 language of the New Testament. Man is recon- 
 ciled to God.* There is a propitiation of the sinner. 
 The Love of God is the same throughout.**! 
 
 As an illustration of the cluster of verbal errors 
 involved in the popular misunderstanding of the 
 so-called "Atonement," I will refer to an event in 
 the year 1858. In that year there was what was 
 called a "Revival," which spread more or less all 
 over England. At all events it reached Suffolk, 
 where I happened to know a certain curate of a 
 country parish who was strongly infected by it. 
 A description of his method of impressing "Salva- 
 tion" upon the villagers was as follows — Taking 
 his text: ''Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
 thou shalt be saved.' 'X His address might be 
 capitulated somewhat as follows : Christ voluntar- 
 ily submitted to be crucified on the Cross, i.e., in a 
 vicarious manner, as a substitute in your stead, in 
 order that — if you will only &e?iet;e the words of the 
 
 *n Cor., 5, 18. 'Rom., 5, 10. fWesteott, "Notes on The Epistles 
 cf St. John, p. 87. t^cts, 16, 30 ff.
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 167 
 
 text to be true, you will be saved from Hell; be- 
 cause by His death He propitiated and ap- 
 peased the Father's wrath, and satisfied His jus- 
 tice; i.e., by His bearing the penalty due, not 
 only for your sins, but for the sins of the ivhole 
 world.'' 
 
 Were the theory true, one would expect to find 
 some reference to it in Our Lord's Parables; but 
 there is not a trace. The late Eev. Prof. B. Jowett 
 thus writes: "The Parables have a natural and 
 ethical character, reading them simply and natur- 
 ally we find in them no indication of the doctrine 
 of atonement or satisfaction. There is no hint 
 contained in them of that view of the death of 
 Christ which is sometimes regarded as the center 
 of the Gospel. There is no difficulty "in the na- 
 ture of things," which prevents the father going 
 out to meet the prodigal son (nor the Father for- 
 giving a repentant sinner). No other condition 
 is required of the justification of the publican ex- 
 cept the true sense of his own umvorthiness. The 
 power of Son of the Man to forgive sins is not 
 dependent on the satisfaction which He is to offer 
 for them. 
 
 One can understand the meaning of Our Lord's 
 self-sacrifice better if we contrast it with those 
 under the Old Covenant. This was, so to say, ex- 
 ternal; whereas the New Covenant is internal; 
 the one written on tables of stone, the other on the 
 fleshy table of the heart. The sacrifices of old were 
 irresponsible animals compelled to die as symbols
 
 168 DOCTKINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 under the idea of obeying the outward Laws of 
 Yahweh under the aspect of propitiatory offer- 
 ings to appease Him. 
 
 Christ offers Himself as our propitiation, as He 
 is our righteousness, i.e., a voluntary self-sacrifice 
 on behalf of the Great Cause — the Salvation of 
 the world. He offers Himself His flesh and blood 
 — as a propitiation to man to come to eat and 
 drink and be ''at one" with Him and so save him- 
 self. The flesh of the victim in olden times was 
 eaten by the people ; but the blood was sprinkled 
 upon them, i.e., externally; but Christ's flesh and 
 blood are (metaphorically) taken internally. 
 
 The spiritual meaning is that flesh stands for 
 Character and blood for Life. 
 
 As Yahveh pleaded with His chosen people, 
 thus, for example, God says: *'They who handle 
 the law knew Me not : the rulers who transgressed 
 against Me. . . Wherefore I will yet plead with 
 you saith the Lord." So, too, Christ pleads from 
 His Cross, for He would draw the whole world 
 nigh to Him. Though in Heaven He still pleads 
 to man on earth against His opponent. Sin. His 
 one offering once made is a perpetual propitia- 
 tion to all the world for all time to come to His 
 cross and be saved. 
 
 As God pleaded iwith the Israelites, so does 
 Christ plead from the cross for all to *'draw 
 night" to Him and He continues to plead in the 
 presence of God. 
 
 To plead is not to ask for forgiveness, but a 
 metaphorical expression for ''arguing a case with
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMEInT 
 
 
 an opponent" and Christ's opponent is 
 His once offering of Himself was an historicai 
 event which can never cease to have occurred. Tlic 
 Cross can go on pleading for ever. Hence the 
 Covenant is completed and drawn out at length by 
 the writer to the Hebrews who uses phrases only 
 strictly applicable to the old sacrifices, but are 
 metaphorically applied to Clirist; and he con- 
 cludes — using Isaiah's expression: *'So Christ, 
 having once offered to bear the sins of man," 
 meaning that He suffered not ''instead of" but 
 on behalf of man to induce him to repent, and so 
 free himself from sins for ever. 
 
 In one point the comparison cannot be made. 
 To repent of his sins is not mentioned in the 
 Pentateuch as a conmiand for each individual 
 among the Israelites. He w^as, so to say, lost in 
 the nation. But now Christ's death appeals to 
 every one of us individually. 
 
 The fundamental error v/ill now be clearly seen 
 to be that the idea that Christ died instead of us 
 h taken from the Old Testament victims. Where- 
 as the responsibility now rests upon each indi- 
 vidual man, who is answerable to his o^^^l con- 
 science — a word unknowni to the Old Testament; 
 though it occurs frequently in St. Paul's Epistles. 
 
 That Our Lord spoke metaphorically is obvious 
 when we turn to the Gospel and read what He said 
 to the Jews: ''Except ye eat the flesh of the Son 
 of Man and drink His ])lood, ye have no life in 
 you." The Jews ridiculed the idea, asking:
 
 170 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 *'How can this man give us his flesh to eat!" In 
 reply to His disciples, Our Lord said: *'It is the 
 Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth noth- 
 ing. The Words that I speak unto you, they are 
 spirit and they are life."— ''He that hath faith in 
 Me, hath everlasting life." 
 
 Consequently, if His flesh symbolizes His 
 Words, the bread when eaten symbolizes them 
 too ; but His words mean His teaching, and there- 
 fore to act up to His teaching is to prove our 
 faith in His Words. Such produces our Char- 
 acter, and St. Paul uses * 'flesh" in indicate it. 
 
 Now the Church has read into the ivords "flesh 
 and blood" what we may call "actuality," just as 
 the Jews did, in that they are supposed to carry 
 Our Lord's actual Spirit when applied to the 
 bread and wine. So His Spirit is thought to be 
 conveyed to the recipients of the Communion, and 
 the consequence to be eternal life. 
 
 Such is Mysticism, of which there is not a trace 
 in either the Epistles of St. Paul or of other writ- 
 ers in the New Testament. 
 
 As I have been discussing the view held in the 
 Spirit- World with regard to the Atonement, I 
 will here add what they have to say about the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper; such, according 
 to the Prayer of Consecration in our Prayer- 
 Book, is closely connected with the Atonement; 
 with details of which this prayer commences. 
 
 Our own "domestic" spirits, as I call them, 
 replied to my question: "How do you regard the
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 171 
 
 Lord's Supper in your world?" The reply came 
 at once: "We do not think anything about it." 
 
 I asked Dr. Hooper, the well-kno^\^l Medium, to 
 whom I am greatly indebted — as the reader of my 
 Proofs of the Spirit Forces mil know — to en- 
 quire of the Spirit *'Ajax," well known in his 
 earth life as a celebrated preacher in Chicago. 
 Ajax sent me a long reply, which was taken down 
 in shorthand. I counted, roughly, 1,150 words in 
 the transcript. It dealt mth other kindred mat- 
 ters besides the Sacrament. 
 
 With reference to the service, AJax was brief, 
 but he quite agrees with the previous communi- 
 cation. He is very insistent upon the uselessness 
 of all the ritual associated with it, more espe- 
 cially in the Roman Church. 
 
 The following is the portion which refers to my 
 special question: "We have no such ceremony or 
 anything analogous to it in the Spirit- World. " 
 "The ceremony of the Last Supper" was simply 
 Christ's method of impressing upon the minds of 
 the disciples the fact that He was leaving them, 
 to fix it upon their minds, that this was the last 
 occasion when He would be with them. He wishes 
 it to be passed on from generation to generation, 
 that He should never be forgotten." 
 
 Ajax, then, adds what others have said, that the 
 motive for partaking of the bread and wine lies in 
 the symbol of union amongst all His followers, and 
 he compares it with (e.g.) "Tlie Red Indians, with 
 whom there is tlie custom of mingling of blood by 
 the opening of an artery in the left arm. The blood
 
 172 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 is mingled between the two and thus brotherhood 
 is established to the end of all time." 
 
 As a fact, the ''cult" called Totemism of sav- 
 ages, is now recognized as recorded in the Old 
 Testament, representing the degradation from 
 tlie religion of Jehovah.* 
 
 Ajax suggests that Our Lord would have had in 
 His mind some such custom as that of eating bread 
 and salt together, to indicate the Fellowship or 
 Unity, whicliHe wished to establish in His Church. 
 
 St. Paul certainly saw it in this light, for he 
 asks — evidently expecting the Corinthians to at 
 once agree with him — *'Is not the bread [loaf] a 
 fellowship of Christ's body? Is not the wine a 
 fellowship of Christ's blood?" 
 
 The late Sir John Seeley well expresses this in 
 his well-known work, Ecce Homo: *' Christ did 
 not regard it as possible to unite men to each 
 other, but by first uniting them to Himself. And 
 in the Lord's Supper, in which the union of Chris- 
 tians is symbolized, it is represented as depend- 
 ing, not merely on the natural passion of human- 
 ity implanted in their breasts, nor merely on the 
 command of Christ calling that passion into ac- 
 tivity, but upon a certain intimate personal con- 
 tact between Christ and His followers. The union 
 of mankind, but a union begun and subsisting 
 only in Christ, is what the Lord's Supper sacra- 
 mentally expresses. "J 
 
 *See a paper by Dr. H. L. D. Astly in The Interpreter, vol. 15, 
 p. 90 (1919) entitled: — Survivals of Primitive Cults in the Old 
 Testament. Other works are therein referred to bearing on this 
 subject. jfEccc Homo (small ed. 1903), ehap. XV., p. 196 f.
 
 DOCTEINE OF ATONEMENT 173 
 
 i(\ 
 
 The ceremony," continues Ajax, "is pure 
 ritual, as it is known and practiced to-day. "We 
 claim no adherence to it whatever. Christ was 
 trying to impress upon His disciples that He had 
 chosen them, that He wished them to carry on 
 with the work; and He received them into true 
 Brotherhood, that they should not forget Him, as 
 He was a part of them and they a part of Himself. ' 
 
 With regard to the ceremonial accessories, es- 
 pecially in the Eoman Church, Ajax adds : 
 
 *'Man will worship that w^hich he does not un- 
 derstand. He has worshipped and gone Sunday 
 after Sunday to partake of the Holy Communion, 
 which he does not understand. It is simply a 
 Mystery created by the Churches, and those who 
 were interested in the subjection of mankind." 
 
 A little analysis of the metaphorical meanings 
 of Our Lord's words may make the above clear. 
 The Bread (Loaf) represents the disciples, i.e., 
 the Church, while each portion eaten is an indi- 
 vidual communicant, and also stands for Christ's 
 Character to be acquired. 
 
 The Wine represents His Blood, i.e.. His Life. 
 The New Covenant is kept by living the Christ- 
 life. So no one is a perfect Christian who does 
 not try his utmost to live the Christ-life. 
 
 It was the last occasion when Christ would eat 
 the Passover and close the Old Covenant. It was 
 a type of the *'end of tlie Law," and also of the 
 beginning of the New. So, He added, '*I will no 
 more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day 
 when I drink it new in the Kingdom of Heaven. ' '
 
 174 DOCTEINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 In saying this He seems to contrast the life un- 
 der the Old Covenant with that under the New 
 Covenant, i.e., the Law is now in the heart, and 
 not on tables of stone. Ajax continues: 
 
 ** During this Wliitsun week [1919], just think 
 of the Churches ancl Cathedrals, and everything 
 that appertains thereto, of the different vestments 
 that will be worn, the various ceremonies that will 
 be performed. Does the priest make himself a 
 mimic of the stage, or is he a true man,amemberof 
 the Brotherhood, of the Fatherhood of God, and of 
 Eighteousness,both in Soul and Spirit upon earth? 
 
 ''These latter are the things which we ask you 
 on earth to look well at. Think not of the ritual, 
 think of the 'natural life.' You can do very well 
 without the 'unnatural' things of ritual. Look 
 at the natural man and woman. Look at them 
 that are starving, the fatherless and motherless, 
 at the halt and the blind. Worship, but help 
 humanity, and think not of ceremonies that are 
 performed by the clergy to strike fear into the 
 hearts of humanity." 
 
 It will be noticed that Ajax uses the word 
 "Mystery." It also occurs in our Communion 
 Service. Wliat does it mean, and how can the 
 term be applied to this or other sacraments? 
 
 The mystical interpretation of the Lord's Sup- 
 per arose about the 2nd or 3rd century, when the 
 "theologists" of the day could not distinguish 
 between a metaphor and a supposed reality. Thus, 
 when Christ said: "This is My body," and "This 
 cup is the New Covenant in My blood," they
 
 DOCTEINE OF ATONEMENT 175 
 
 thought He meant that Ee Himself was in the 
 bread and in the wine, in some miraculously in- 
 fused way, so that by our eating and drinking, 
 the bread and wine could nourish our body and 
 soul spiritually, and so "preserve us unto ever- 
 lasting life," as stated by the priest to each com- 
 mmiicant in our service. Ajax continues: 
 
 **Let us look at what the Atonement means. 
 The man in the street seems to think that some- 
 one, the gentle Nazarene, laid doMTi His life and 
 paid the penalty for all sins before He came into 
 the world and since. We from the spirit side of 
 life say that it is not true. No one has been enabled 
 to pay the debt of your personal responsibility, 
 and if a man connnits a crime or a sin and thinks 
 that at some future date he can gain forgiveness 
 by laying his sin or his crime upon the shoulders 
 of an innocent individual, then his crime is 
 doubled. 
 
 "We have watched the death-beds of many 
 thousands of individuals as they have passed over 
 to this side of life from the child in the cradle to 
 the old man that is decrepit — the man that dies of 
 senile decay, the man that has lived through the 
 whole gamut of human suffering, of human happi- 
 ness and Imman turmoil. We have seen and we 
 know. 
 
 "If we examine closely into the subject we find 
 the Atonement is held by him or her that blindly 
 believes. But we say that faith without works is of 
 no avail in the Spirit World. If a man believes
 
 176 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 that he will be enabled to gain the Kingdom of 
 Heaven after living a life here of sordid crime by 
 a death-bed repentance, then we say that it is not 
 true, for he must 'work out his own salvation' in 
 the Spirit World. Those whom he has wronged, 
 those to whom he has brought suffering and tears, 
 must be approached and forgiveness obtained 
 from them before he is enabled to climb the Lad- 
 der of Progress in the Spirit Eealms. We would 
 rather take the word as' At-one-ment.' With what? 
 With the ideal state, the ideal life, what the gentle 
 Nazarene of old described *to be your brother's 
 keeper,' 'to do unto others as you would be done 
 by,' to be honest, to be just, to be at one with God, 
 or to be at one with your conscience, which is the 
 same thing. Some peoples' consciences are made 
 of elastic, it stretches very much indeed. AVhat 
 is wrong to one is right to another. It is according 
 to the cranial development of the individual, there- 
 fore there can be no one law whereby all humanity 
 can be judged. As I have explained to you in days 
 gone by, if a child is totally devoid of melody or 
 harmony or the organ of sound, then it is almost 
 impossible to teach that child music. If a child is 
 devoid of the organ of color and like organs in the 
 brain, which would enable him to limn upon canvas 
 beautiful pictures, it is almost a total failure to 
 strive to teach that child to paint or to draw. You 
 would not punish him because he could not draw 
 or play music, for the simple reason that child is 
 devoid of the sense and of the organs of the ma- 
 terial body that would enable him to draw or paint
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 177 
 
 or to plaj^ beautiful music. It is the same with a 
 man or woman who has a flat-topped head. You 
 will find that the German people were at one time 
 called 'flat-heads' for the simple reason that they 
 have no moral propensities. They have been 
 brought up in materialism to look upon Force and 
 the Sword as all-powerful. If a man or woman is 
 deficient in the moral organs, undoubtedly they 
 will go astray, according to the light of the other 
 people upon earth who are endowed or gifted 
 with moral propensities. 
 
 ''Another individual has the spiritual propen- 
 sities largely developed, they love their Church or 
 their Chapel, they revel in such things, whilst he 
 who has a flat-topped head and whose reasoning 
 faculties are largely developed, cannot believe be- 
 cause his reason mil not allow him. He cannot 
 sense things that are spiritual, of the spiritual 
 world, and those vibrations that are for ever vi- 
 brating around him. He knows nothing of them, 
 he can only deal with material matters. He has 
 nothing of the spiritual within his composition. 
 
 "What of the Atonement for that individual? 
 The man tliat cannot believe, that cannot follow 
 the traditions that others have followed: That 
 by some magical process he will be saved and be 
 made into an angel in the Spirit World? We know 
 of no such process by which poor frail humanity 
 can be made into angels or archangels. Each one 
 of you is a man or woman witli the feelings of men 
 and women, with tlie attributes of goodness, of 
 courage, of moral vision. Each man and woman
 
 178 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 is simply made up of just a little good and just a 
 little evil, and we believe and fully hope and trust 
 that the good is in tlie ascendency. The cry of the 
 widow and orphans means nothing to the man who 
 has hoarded wealth and who has gained it, never 
 mind how. He didn't care as long as the wealth 
 was his, so long as his bank account was swelled : 
 while that man lived, it mattered nothing to him 
 if the Atonement were true. On his death-bed he 
 would have to give everything up and it would not 
 be fair for him to be able to enter the Kingdom of 
 Heaven without paying the penalty of the wrongs 
 he had done or left undone. That man was never 
 spiritually at one with himself and could not be at 
 one with God, at one with the spiritual world, or 
 with his own conscience. He had to live a life of 
 feverish activity for the simple reason he must 
 forget. He dare not dwell on that which is within 
 his heart. 
 
 ''There is no efficacy in the Atonement. Man 
 builds his life here moment by moment, hour by 
 hour, day by day. Man must of necessity work 
 out his own salvation here. He has committed 
 some crime and he is punished and his conscience 
 is purged of the crime. Then he will not suffer in 
 the Spiritual Realms if he has gained full pardon 
 from those individuals that he had wronged whilst 
 upon Earth. 
 
 *'Let us examine life as it is presented to us. 
 During the first seven years of childhood, the child 
 spends quite half of its time in sleep, and it is al- 
 most impossible, or the child is incapable, of com-
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 179 
 
 mitting any crime. The next seven years the child 
 is learning day by day. He may do wrong, little 
 things, that do not attain to any immensity. You 
 must understand this, that the growing child is 
 suffering from hereditary tendencies and the en- 
 vironment in which he is placed. There are the 
 sins of the fathers and the mothers. The child 
 has taken after a vicious father or a vicious 
 mother. He may be the victim of hereditary 
 tendencies and environment and it is impossible 
 for him to live a clean, righteous and pure life. 
 In the next decade, development is taking place 
 more rapidly. Manhood or womanhood begins to 
 spring forth. Again at least a third of the time is 
 spent in sleep so that there is not much time for 
 the youth or the maiden to commit crime. Then 
 perchance at the next decade, marriage takes 
 place, home-ties are there for them either to make 
 or to mar. Possibly the young man and the maiden 
 are full of the responsibilities of the upbringing 
 of children and attending to the career and 
 worries of domestic life and even then a third of 
 the time is spent in sleep. We go right through 
 until a man or woman attains the sixtieth year, 
 when thought becomes more apparent to the indi- 
 vidual. They begin to think and to delve and to 
 look back and realize, to be sorry for the wrongs 
 that they have committed. They begin re-living 
 their lives once again, purging themselves of their 
 sins and then step by step, day by day, tottering 
 onwards to the grave. Poor Humanity is beset 
 with frailties. Poor Humanity was born not a
 
 180 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 
 
 perfect Being, but with environments and condi- 
 tions and vibrations around them that only a 
 saint could live through and not be smirched 
 with sin. 
 
 ''But what is Sin and what is right and what is 
 wrong? What to one is wrong, is right to another. 
 No two individuals hold the same ideal regarding 
 right and wrong. They are the victims of circum- 
 stances, of the hereditary tendencies, of the en- 
 vironment in which they lived in their younger 
 days. Then Death claims them. 
 
 "People who have been members of some church 
 or chapel, possibly of the Salvation Army, may be 
 narrow-minded, they may be Brothers in Christ, 
 or belonging to the Church of Christ, and they 
 may fully believe that no one except themselves 
 will be saved ; although they may have committed 
 sins, they are righteous in their own estimation, 
 but are they more righteous than the others of 
 God's children? They find that when they pass or 
 emerge into the Spirit World, that the Atonement 
 avails them nothing, that it has been just a blind 
 belief. But if their conception of the Atonement 
 has been lived up to, if it has enabled them to live 
 a better and nobler life, better men and women, 
 mothers and fathers, and better citizens, then it 
 has helped them through this Mother Earth. 
 
 "But if it has only been a belief, if they have 
 committed crimes or wrongs, or if they have 
 robbed their fellow men and women, in the belief 
 that at some future day they will be able to obtain
 
 DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 181 
 
 forgiveness and be saved, then indeed they are 
 mistaken. When they emerge into the Spirit 
 World, and they stand alone and recall the whole 
 of their past lives, they become as it were counsel 
 for the prosecution and for the defense, and 
 judge and jury combined, and they see everything 
 as it is. This is what Christ meant when He said 
 that every deed was entered in the Book of Life, 
 in the Book of Judgment. That is your conscience, 
 your memory, that has lived and will live again 
 in the Spiritual world. There you will be happy 
 or unhapp5% contented or discontented, and you 
 will be drafted to that place or that sphere in the 
 Spirit World that you are most fitted to live in, 
 according to your life and according to your do- 
 ings here upon Earth," [Ajax.]
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE FATE OF THE SUICIDE— A TERRIBLE 
 
 WARNING 
 
 Cheiro saves a would-be suicide. — Mr. Leon Denia' description 
 received from the other side.— Imperator's homily on the suicide 
 of a friend of Rev. Stainton Moses.— The suicide of three College 
 Tutors known to the present writer, — The record of B. Peruzzi 
 di Medici. — Swedenborg's experiences. — The female suicide who 
 controlled Olwen, the Welsh medium. — Vice Admiral W. Usborn 
 Moore's information on the subject.— Chinese belief of the fate 
 
 of suicides. — Jessie Adelaide's story The Salvation Army's 
 
 Anti-suicide Bureau and its work. 
 
 Cheiro, in his Memoirs, devotes a chapter to "A 
 Spiritualistic Seance and its Sequel." He tells of 
 a gentleman, aged about 60, who had wanted for 
 close on twenty years to marry the one woman he 
 had ever cared for. He was a doctor, a splendid 
 noble-hearted man, but a rank Materialist. After 
 the death of the lady's husband he married her; 
 but in ten days she died. ''There are no words 
 to describe the state of grief into which this man 
 was plunged ; he had no religion to go to for con- 
 solation, he had no God to plead with that they 
 might meet again — nothing, nothing but the most 
 absolute despair." He soon contemplated 
 suicide. 
 
 182
 
 FATE OF THE SUICIDE 183 
 
 Cheiro happened to pass, mtli him, the house of 
 a friend who was a medium. ' ' I said to the doctor- 
 Come with me for a moment, we are passing the 
 house of a man who I knew to be an honest 
 medium, and thinlv how^ happy you would be if you 
 could get even the slightest courage from Anna. ' * 
 
 "The medium was soon entranced — then fol- 
 lowed a seance I shall never forget. In less than 
 five minutes the doctor was holding a clear and 
 distinct conversation with his wife. There was no 
 mistaking her voice. The medium's face even be- 
 came like hers, for she had a peculiar droop in the 
 left side of the upper lip, and this was the first 
 thing my friend noticed.* 
 
 "Clearly and distinctly she told him that he 
 must not commit suicide, for she said: 'You will 
 retard our meeting still more.' His life was to be 
 used in work for others, she pleaded, until the 
 moment came when death would release him 
 naturally. 
 
 "I will only add that if Spiritualism never did 
 more, it had at least brought peace to one man's 
 heart, and during the two years he labored after- 
 wards, many hundreds of human beings received 
 the benefit." 
 
 M. Leon Denis says in his work: Here and 
 Hereafter, containing the record of Spirit-com- 
 munications : — "The fate of the self-destroyer has 
 much in common with that of the criminal ; some- 
 
 *I have myself observed the same fact; when different con- 
 trols come, the face of the meiliuin assumes appearances totally 
 unlike his own characteristics accordingly.
 
 184 FATE OF THE SUICIDE 
 
 times it is even worse. To commit suicide is a 
 cowardly act, a crime of which the consequences 
 are terrible. To borrow the expression of a spirit, 
 he who commits suicide evades suffering only to 
 encounter torture. Each of us has duties and a 
 mission to fulfil on earth ; trials to endure for our 
 own good and improvement. To seek to evade 
 these and to liberate -ourselves before our time 
 from human sufferings is to violate natural law; 
 and every violation of natural law brings down 
 a terrible reaction upon the violater. Suicide is 
 not a way out of physical suffering. The spirit 
 remains bound to the carnal body which it thought 
 to destroy ; slowly it suffers from every phase of 
 decomposition, and its painful sensations are mul- 
 tiplied rather than diminished." 
 
 A friend of Rev. Stainton Moses had commit- 
 ted suicide, about whom Imperator has much to 
 say. The following is part of his discourse. '*We 
 would speak Avith you of your friend. How should 
 he be blest? He lifted sacriligious hands against 
 the shrine in which the All- Wise had placed his 
 spirit for its progress and development. He 
 wasted opportunities and destroyed, so far as he 
 was able, the temple in which dwelt the Divine 
 spark, which was his portion. He sent forth his 
 spirit alone and friendless into a strange world 
 where no place was yet prepared for it. He im- 
 piously flew in the face of the Great Father. How 
 should he be blest? Impious, disobedient, wilful in 
 his death, heedless, idle, selfish in his life, and yet 
 more selfish in bringing pain and sorrow on his
 
 FATE OF THE SUICIDE 185 
 
 earthly friends by his untimely death — ^how 
 should he find rest? Miserable, blind and unde- 
 veloped, there is no rest for such as he, till re- 
 pentance has Jiad its place and remorse leads to 
 regeneration. 
 
 ''It is not necessary to go through in detail 
 the story of that wasted life. Its spirit was eaten 
 out with cruel selfishness, and its end was destruc- 
 tion of self-consciousness. 
 
 "That spirit which neglects to use its powers, 
 which acts not, but morbidly dwells on fancied 
 ills or suffering, assuredly breeds in itself disease. 
 The law of existence is work — for God, for 
 brethren, for self; not for one alone, but for all. 
 Transgress that law and evil must come. The 
 stagnant life becomes corrupt . . . 
 
 "When the cord of earth life was severed, the 
 spirit found itself in darkness and distress. For 
 long it was unable to sever itself from the body. It 
 hovered round it, even after the grave had closed 
 over the shrine which it had violated. It found 
 no rest, no welcome in the world to which it had 
 come unbidden. Darkness surrounded it, and 
 through the gloom dimly flitted the forms of con- 
 genial spirits who had made shipwrecks of them- 
 selves, and were in unrestful isolation. 
 
 "It was not till the first shudder of awakening 
 conscience attracted the ministering spirits, that 
 any tiling could be done to palliate the misery, not 
 yet half felt or acknowledged, or to minister heal- 
 mg to the soul. When it stirred amid the dark- 
 ness, the ministers drew near and strove to
 
 186 FATE OF THE SUICIDE 
 
 quicken the seared conscience and to awaken re- 
 morse. For long after their efforts availed little, 
 hut by degrees they succeeded in awakening some 
 measure of consciousness of sin, and the spirit be- 
 gan to grope blindly for some means of escape 
 from a state which had become loathsome to it. 
 Frequent relapses dragged it back . . . 
 
 *'The hope for the spirit is that it may be 
 nerved to occupy itself with some beneficent work 
 and so to work out its own salvation. To this end 
 it must journey on through remorse and uncon- 
 genial labor ; for by no other means can it be puri- 
 fied. Selfishness must be eradicated by self-sacri- 
 fice. Idleness must be rooted out by laborious toil. 
 The spirit must be purified by suffering. 
 
 ' ' Such help as the ministers can give will not be 
 withholden. It is their glorious mission to help 
 on the aspiring, and to cheer the fainting soul. 
 But, though they may comfort, they cannot save 
 one pang, nor palliate by one jot the penalty of 
 transgression. No vicarious store of merit can 
 avail; no friend may bear the burden or lift it 
 from the weary back. It must be borne by the 
 soul that sinned, though helps and aids be given 
 to strengthen and support the failing energies.'' 
 
 In the case of three friends of the writer, all 
 tutors of colleges, who committed suicide, their 
 life was different. They did their work well, were 
 clever men, took high degrees and became lec- 
 turers and teachers; but from one cause or an- 
 other they left their rooms in college to live in the
 
 FATE OF THE SUICIDE 187 
 
 country. Their occupation had gone. It appears 
 to have been this Vv^hich unhinged their minds. 
 Nature called for the usual mental work; which 
 no longer existed. The "automatic" part of the 
 brain ceased to work. The result, suicide.* "A 
 natural law was violated." 
 
 Another writer, Miss M. C. Pfloulkes in My Own 
 Past, says: "The Ex-crown Princess of Saxony 
 told me at a "sitting" with Signor Toselli (the 
 medium) that "the earth-hound spirit of her ill- 
 fated lover, B. Peruzzi de Medici, had informed 
 her that he was suffering torments of punishment 
 for his act of self-destruction, as his spirit was 
 forced to remain in company with his decaying 
 body and to witness all the attendant horrors of 
 corruption."^ 
 
 Swedenborg corroborates this result: "The 
 spirit of a suicide came to me . . . holding a knife 
 in his hand, as though he would plmige it into his 
 breast ; but with which he strove hard as if wish- 
 ing rather to cast it from him, but in vain. For 
 what happens in the hour of death remains a long 
 time before it vanishes away, as was told me."! 
 
 In Spirit Psychometry^ will be found the ac- 
 count of a female (who controlled the medium, 
 Olwein) : she had committed suicide three or four 
 
 *A parallel from animal life will illustrate this. I once had 
 a linnet in a nursery, taught to draw up its water which hung iii 
 a little bucket outside the cage. The maid somehow broke the 
 string, and to save trouble, put the bucket inside the cage. The 
 linnet refused to drink out of it, moped, and in three days died. 
 Previously it had been perfectly well and singing regularly. 
 fOp. cit., p. 274. %!ii)iritual Diary, p. 33G-7; On Suicides. ^Op. 
 cit., p. 96.
 
 188 FATE OF THE SUICIDE 
 
 years previously. Mr. Jaybee — who took down in 
 English every thing this Welshwoman said in her 
 trances (for she could not speak a word of Eng- 
 lish) observed: *'she fell into a trance and was 
 thrown into a terrible state of commotion, wailing 
 terribly and almost screaming. Then would fol- 
 low some gurgling in the throat which appeared 
 to have prevented her yelling. At this juncture 
 one could imagine by the gurgling noise that the 
 breath had some large exit other than through 
 the mouth or nostrils, etc."* 
 
 Mr. Jaybee was not aware at the time that the 
 woman had cut her own throat. This fact was 
 subsequently learned from Little Dora, the black 
 control, who supplied details which were all sub- 
 sequently verified. 
 
 It would appear, as she had entered and con- 
 trolled Olwen, that the period during which she 
 would have been presumably remained united to 
 her own body, about three years, had by no means 
 passed. 
 
 Vice-Admiral W. Osborne Moore mentions three 
 cases of Suicides in Glimpses of the Next State: 
 In the first he asks the question of a control: 
 *'What is the spiritual fate of the suicide?" The 
 reply was : ' * Their fate must be worked out in this 
 phase or the next. Trouble can only be overcome 
 by endurance. You can never escape the Law of 
 Consequences . . . One Soul must work out the 
 evil of each life in its successive phases."! 
 
 The next reference was to one who had been on 
 
 ^Spirit Psychometry, p. 86 (Eider). -fOp. cit., p. 145.
 
 FATE OF THE SUICIDE 189 
 
 the same ship with the Admiral himself twenty 
 years previously and had shot himself in his cabin, 
 because as the man said: '*I was impelled to do 
 it." (A groan). "Admiral, she would not marry 
 me, as I had not enough money; and there was 
 a richer man than I in the background." (A 
 groan). 
 
 The third case was that of a mother who had 
 killed herself and her three children. 
 
 The following occurred at one of many seances 
 especially organized for helping those, who had 
 just passed over in great distress, to realize their 
 position. The Spirit's agony is expressed in the 
 first word she uttered ; 
 
 "What have I done? Oh, my God! Oh, look 
 at my dear ones! Oh! God! Oh! Why did I 
 do it! Oh, baby! baby! baby! But what was I 
 to do? Oh! I Avish I had begged; but oh! the 
 pride of my heart. It was so hard I If I could only 
 rest — rest—-" 
 
 Mr. B: "You will find rest soon, and find your 
 little ones. Your little ones are now happy." 
 
 Spirit: "Oh! Sir, I didn't want to do it. J did 
 it because I loved them so ! I loved them so ! Oh ! 
 you all feel that I am bad." 
 
 Mr. B : Oh no, we feel sorry for you. We feel 
 you made a mistake, but you didn't do it inten- 
 tionally. You were partially out of your mind 
 tlirough trouble." 
 
 Spirit: "Oh, I was most crazy, I could not see 
 them starve," etc.
 
 190 FATE OF THE SUICIDE 
 
 I quote this fragment to give tlie reader an idea 
 of how much sympathy can be given to such poor 
 souls. 
 
 A view somewhat parallel to the above state- 
 ment is held by the Chinese. The authoress of a 
 work entitled Two Years in the Forbidden City 
 writes: "It is believed by the Chinese that when 
 a person commits suicide their spirit remains in 
 the neighborhood until such time as they can en- 
 tice somebody else to commite suicide ; when they 
 are free to go to another world, and not before. ' ' 
 
 It will not be out of place to quote a confession 
 of a would-be suicide from one of the Salvation 
 Army's books entitled The Salvation Army Officer 
 at Work. The chapter has this interesting Head- 
 ing: 
 
 THE SALVATION ARMY OFFICER 
 
 AS 
 
 LIFE-REPAIRER. 
 
 LiFE-EEPAIEING DoNE HeRE. 
 
 Broken Life-springs Adjusted. Vanished 
 Hope Recovered. Shattered Faith Re- 
 built. Lost Ideals Restored. 
 
 The Anti-Suicide Bureau has saved thousands 
 of intentional suicides; an account of some of 
 which are given. The "patients" were promised:
 
 FATE OF THE SUICIDE 191 
 
 (1) — Inviolable secrecy; (2) — Consultation and 
 advice free; (3) — No guaranteed financial help. 
 
 One case — that of Rudolf Schultz, he permitted 
 liis name to be published. "He had been a gradu- 
 ated pharmacist; so that he was always able to 
 get morphine by writing a prescription and pre- 
 senting it at a drug store. He had sunk very low, 
 and tried to conmiit suicide. A letter from him 
 in an American paper tells the rest." 
 
 *'To The Star. Seeing a few lines in jotit last 
 evening's edition concerning a man named R. 
 Schultz, who tried to connnit suicide by taking 63 
 grains of morphine and failed, I wish to state, I 
 am the person. For years I have been addicted to 
 the worst curse that humanity has ever knoAVii — 
 i.e., the morphine and cocaine habit. 
 
 *'In my despair I went to the Salvation Army 
 
 Anti-Suicide Bureau, and told Colonel my 
 
 troubles, and ah ! what a great-hearted friend this 
 gentleman is ! 
 
 *'We went do"WTi on our knees and prayed; he 
 encouraged me and uplifted me. I was filthy and 
 ragged. He cleaned me personally, clothed me, 
 supplied me with a room in their Headquarters, 
 gave me good and substantial food and called a 
 doctor who is attending me twice daily. Oh ! how 
 much he has done and is still doing for me! I 
 was an outcast — a homeless, friendless stranger 
 — and he uplifted me from the verge of death, and 
 gave me new life and hope. More than a dozen 
 times a day he conies up to my room and encour-
 
 192 FATE OF THE SUICIDE 
 
 ages me, and gives me little tokens of kindness . . . 
 * ' Next week I am going to the Fresh- Air Camp ; 
 and it is my greatest desire that the public shall 
 know what these Salvation Army people are do- 
 ing for the poor and unfortunate. 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 EUDOLF SCHULTZ."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 A FUTURE ANNIHILATION POSSIBLE, 
 BUT SELF-A\^OUGHT 
 
 Mr. Emmet's interpretation of "Destruction." — Spiritualism 
 supports the view of a possible annihilation. — The Greek word 
 olethros and others imply "total destruction." — Preb. C. A. 
 Eow, on this meaning, as contrary to the ideas of ' * everlasting 
 torment." — Texts in support of the truth that it depends upon 
 man 's free-will. — Dr. Gore also writes on annihilation with no 
 everlasting torment. — Dr. Streeter's description of the future, 
 quite confirmed by the Spirits, in allusion to the joys of a future 
 life, of which the determinately wicked deprive themselves for 
 ever. — Dr. Alford's interpretation of the "Second Dath. " 
 
 The Rev. C. W. Enimet, B.D., comes to the con- 
 clusion that the alternative result to everlasting 
 punishment is a natural process of annihilation of 
 the soul with an incorrigible, wdlful persistence in 
 evil. His words are : ' ' There might be a difference 
 of opinion as to the existence of any who could be 
 regarded as irremediably bad; but it would be 
 agreed, that if there were such, some form of an- 
 nihilation was the only end which could be con- 
 ceived for them."* 
 
 He also refers to / Thess., 5, 3, and // Thess., 
 1.6, if., and observes: *' These passages suggest 
 annihilation rather than indefinite torment." 
 
 •Essay on The Bible and Hell in Immortality, p. 171. (Mac- 
 millan). 
 
 193
 
 194 FUTURE ANNIHILATION POSSIBLE 
 
 On the other hand: "So long as there is the 
 faintest spark of the divine life in the soul, there 
 remains the possibility of better things, and the 
 love of God has something on which to work. We 
 dare not abandon the hope of progress and for- 
 giveness after death for such a soul. Only where 
 the Spirit is definitely quenched will the soul cease 
 to be."* 
 
 Mr. Emmett adds in a note: "This is not quite 
 the doctrine of 'conditional immortality.' That 
 says the Soul is not immortal till it has won 
 eternal life ; this says it is innnortal till it has for- 
 feited its boon, by an extreme of wilful sin. More 
 and more we see that it is goodness which is essen- 
 tially immortal and there is no serious philoso- 
 phical difficulty in believing in the dissolution of 
 the completely bad personality." 
 
 This view is thoroughly in keeping with the ex- 
 perienced truths of Spiritualism. The very fact 
 that good and bad spirits can and do communicate 
 with us, as well as our own relations, and familiar 
 friends, is a practical proof of immortalityf ; while 
 the deduction of annihilation by * self -caused spiri- 
 tual atrophy' or something akin to it, is a natural 
 assum^ption by analogy as well as being in accord- 
 ance with direct information on the subject from 
 the other side. Thus a spirit told me: "They 
 gradually disappear, and we do not know what 
 becomes of them," i.e., the wilfully impenitent. 
 
 *0p. cit., p. 216. fi.e., in the sense of passing through our 
 Bo-ealled "Death." The ''Second Death" terminates fhe life 
 hereafter.
 
 FUTURE ANNIHILATION POSSIBLE 195 
 
 The late Preb. C. A. Bow discusses the question, 
 explaining the several Greek words which imply 
 ** destruction" in an absolute sense, as signifying 
 the anniliilation of Man's soul, and not a continu- 
 ous suffering of some punishment. For example : 
 "He that loveth his life {i.e., soul) shall lose it 
 [literally 'destroy' it]; but he that hateth life 
 [soul] in this world, shall keep it into age-long 
 life." On this he remarks: ''The Greek-speaking 
 Christian would understand by the word 'lose' 
 the ordinary idea denoted by the term 'destroy'; 
 and the word would wholly fail to convey to him 
 that of any existence in never-ending torment, 
 without some previous intunation that such was 
 its intended meaning." 
 
 Again : ' ' The word of the cross is to them that 
 are perishing, foolislmess (/ Cor., 1, 18)." Here 
 the words evidently denote an act not yet com- 
 pleted ; and as far as the words are concerned, one 
 which may be of long or short duration, but which 
 will ultimately terminate in destruction. 
 
 Prebendary Row concludes the chapter as fol- 
 lows: "The general idea which the passages 
 (quoted and others) are calculated to suggest to 
 the mind of the reader, may be well expressed in 
 the words of the author of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews: 'It is a fearful tiling to fall into the hands 
 of the living God!' For aught we know, sin wil- 
 fully persisted in, i.e., by evil become inherent and 
 irremediable, which resists every means of cure 
 consistent with the preservation of free agency, in 
 a moral being, may bring about the destruction of
 
 196 FUTURE ANNIHILATION POSSIBLE 
 
 the sinner in the course of God's ordinary govern- 
 ment of the moral and spiritual world, without the 
 necessity of any special intervention on His part ; 
 just as disease brings about the destruction of the 
 body under God's ordinary government of the 
 natural world."* 
 
 A few texts may illustrate that God would have 
 all men to be saved, but that they can *' quench 
 the spirit" and refuse its influence. 
 
 "We have our hope set on the Living God ; Who 
 is the Saviour of all men ; especially of them that 
 believe."! That is, He offers Himself to all, but 
 they may reject the offer. 
 
 '^Denying ungodliness. . . And worldly lust, 
 ive should live soberly and righteously and godly 
 in this present world."! 
 
 "Have I pleasure in the death of the wicked? 
 Saith the Lord God; and not that he should re- 
 turn from his way and live," i.e., of his own free 
 will. 
 
 "I have no pleasure in the death of him that 
 dieth, wherefore turn yourselves."^ 
 
 "Wlien the wicked man turneth away from his 
 wickedness, etc. 
 
 "I 
 
 Man's free will decides which he will do. 
 
 The Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Gore, has arrived at 
 the same conclusion: "I do not think ... we are 
 absolutely shut up into the almost intolerable 
 belief in never ending conscious torment for the 
 lost. . . Final moral ruin may involve, I cannot but 
 
 *Future Retribution, Ch. IX., p. 238. -fl Tim., 4, 9; Cp. 2, 4. 
 :j:ritu8, 2, 11. %E2., 18, 32. ||See the first sentence in the 
 Prayer Book.
 
 FUTURE ANNIHILATION POSSIBLE 197 
 
 think, such a dissolution of personality as carries 
 with it the cessation of personal consciousness. In 
 this way the final ruin of irretrievably lost spirits, 
 awful as it is to contemplate, may be found con- 
 sistent with St. Paul's anticipation of a universe 
 in which ultimately God is to be all in all — which 
 does not seem to be really compatible with the 
 existence of a region of everlastingly tormented 
 and rebellious spirits."* 
 
 The final result, therefore, depends upon Free 
 will alone: *'The general teaching of the New 
 Testament appears to be that, on the one hand, 
 the choice between good and evil in this world is 
 one which involves abiding consequences extend- 
 ing far beyond the limits of this life ; but, on the 
 other hand, there is no clear evidence that any of 
 the writers contemplated for the sinner an un- 
 ending existence in a state of torment and re- 
 bellion against God." 
 
 The Greek word {Olethros)^^ therefore, pre- 
 cludes the idea that all, without exception, might 
 be finallv saved. AMien Christ said: '*If I be lifted 
 up, I will draw all men to Myself," He could only 
 mean, 'provided they consent to be drawn.' For we 
 know He could not draw the rulers of Israel, who 
 crucified Him, and persecuted His followers after- 
 wards. 
 
 Salvation, I repeat, depends upon man's free 
 will, and he must work it out himself, though it 
 may be in fear and trembling.! 
 
 "Quoted by Mr. Emmot; lor. cit., p. 208. ^OUiTiros Bignifiea 
 total destruction, as our liord said of the temple, "not ono 
 stone would bo left on another." %Ph,il., 2, 12.
 
 198 FUTURE ANNIHILATION POSSIBLE 
 
 Of our prospects of activities in the world to 
 come, an eminent writer* says : " I would empha- 
 size (the belief) that the life of God must not only 
 be said to be, but actually imagined as something 
 fuller, richer, and more alive, as something more 
 concrete, not less so, than the life of man; and 
 that the life of Heaven must be thought of as 
 more, not less, teeming with varied content than 
 that of earth. Life here would be intolerable 
 without variety, and the life of a world which is 
 better than this, would have in it more, and not 
 less, variety, than that of this world.*' 
 
 Dr. Streeter maj^ like to know that what he says 
 in the preceding paragraph represents what Spir- 
 its are constantly assuring us is the case. It is 
 from this, which the Suicide and (at least tempo- 
 rarily) the determinedly wicked, voluntarily ex- 
 clude themselves, if they utterly refuse to repent, 
 and annihilation is the inevitable and natural 
 result. 
 
 With regard to the Second Death mentioned in 
 Revelations,t Dr. Alford observes: "As those in a 
 second and higher life, so those also in a second 
 and deeper death. And as after that life there is 
 no more death, so after that death there is no 
 more life.'* 
 
 We might, perhaps, make a comparison ; as the 
 present body perishes if it be not fed with bread, 
 so the spiritual body and soul, if not fed with the 
 Bread of Life, perish for ever. 
 
 *Dr. B, H. Streeter, The Life of the World to come, in Im- 
 mortality p. 152. fBev., 2, 11; and 20, 14.
 
 CHAPTEE XIV 
 
 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE, e.g., THE 
 
 WITCH OF ENDOR, AND THE HOLY 
 
 SEANCE ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST 
 
 Saul 's visit to the Witch of Endor. — The f eatnres identical with 
 present-day spiritualism. — The Day of Pentecost, the phenom- 
 ena described, of frequent occurrence in present-day seances: 
 e.g., Wind, ' ' tongues of fire, ' ' controlling by spirits, etc. — Corrobo- 
 rations by other writers. — Similar phenomena, recorded in the 
 Old Testament. — Dr. Hooper's experiences of physical phenomena 
 at seances. — The source of the wind — spirit lights a common- 
 feature, described by other observers — they can move intelli- 
 gently, implying the presence of an unseen spirit indicated by 
 them; hence they can enter and control the sitters. — Dr. Hooper's 
 remarks on the day of Pentecost. — A communication from Ajax 
 on the phenomena.— Spiritual Healing, Dr. Hooper's power of, 
 and experiences. 
 
 Spirits call onr attention to the fact that the 
 phenomena of Spiritualism, vAih which we are 
 now very familiar, are often mentioned through- 
 out the Bible. I possess six psychographs out of 
 twelve plates ; four are crowded with texts, all of 
 which were in an unopened packet. On the fifth 
 was the entire Ode of Horace in Latin, beginning 
 Ehul fugaces Posthume, Posthume; while a sixth 
 has several beautiful female faces, the remaining 
 plates were vacant.* 
 
 •The last-mentioned plate is reproduced in my book The 
 Proofs of the Spirit Forces; with a full description by quotation 
 of all the many texts referred to by "Ajax." 
 
 199
 
 200 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 
 
 I will take two examples, the ''Witcli of En- 
 dor" and the ^* Seance on the Day of Pentecost," 
 for all the p] enomena therein described are of 
 conmion occurrence at present day seances; 
 though the matter spoken by the control is not 
 always spiritual, nevertheless a portion consists 
 of a religious discourse, following the reading of 
 a portion of the Bible and hymns sung by the 
 members of the circle; for all true seances par- 
 take more or less of a religious meeting. 
 
 In the case of the *' Witch of Endor,'' if the 
 reader will turn to the passage, it will be seen that 
 Saul comes to consult her as to his difficulties. He 
 disguises himself, and being under the false im- 
 pression that the Witch or Medium had the power 
 to "command" (through a "familiar" or ser- 
 vant-spirit) anyone to appear, Saul says: "Di- 
 vine unto me, I pray thee, by the familiar spirit, 
 and bring me up whomsoever I shall name unto 
 thee." Samuel, hearing Saul's voice through the 
 medium, appears clairvoyantly to the woman ; but 
 he cannot be seen by Saul, so he asks her who it 
 is. She recognizes Samuel, and then probably 
 passes into a trance, so that Samuel can control 
 her and speak directly to Saul. As soon as he had 
 finished [v. 19) Saul falls to the ground and the 
 woman comes to herself again and entertains 
 Saul; analogous features occur at many seances. 
 With regard to the phenomena of the "Day of 
 Pentecost" all of them occur at seances at the 
 present day; only instead of supposing the Holy
 
 SPIEITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 201 
 
 Ghost, i.e., God, speaking through each and all 
 simultaneously, each speaks as he was controlled 
 by a separate spirit indicated by the ** spirit- 
 light" sent from the spirit world. 
 
 The history of the use of the word ** spirit" 
 shows that it was thought in earlier times that all 
 emotions were due to spirits sent by God, good 
 and bad alike, as an ''evil spirit from the Lord" 
 came upon Saul. This we should now call a 
 furious fit of jealousy. Conversely a good impulse 
 was regarded as due to a good spirit, and the 
 higher expression "Holy Spirit" is used in the 
 New Testament. But the Creed emphasizes the 
 truth that since "God is Spirit" the Holy Spirit 
 is God; as stated in the Athanasian Creed 
 
 We read : ""When the dav of Pentecost was now 
 come, they were all together in one place. And 
 suddenly there came from heaven a sound of the 
 rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the 
 house where they were sitting. And there ap- 
 peared unto them tongues parting asunder like 
 as of fire." (No. 6.) A Spirit-light often settles 
 on each of the sitters of the circle at a seance. 
 Such may be another method of controlling the 
 speech without the individual being in a trance. 
 Similarly to the spirit controlling the hand in 
 "automatic" writing. 
 
 This suggests the probability that the man at 
 Gadara was "possessed," as he at once called out: 
 "What have we to do with Thee, thou Son of
 
 / 
 
 202 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 
 
 God? Art Thou come to torment us before the 
 time?" 
 
 The spirits in ordinary automatic handwriting 
 always say ''we" and not "I" or "me." 
 
 Similarly the slave girl at Philippi said : "These 
 men are the servants of the most High God, v/hich 
 proclaim unto you the way of salvation." 
 
 Smiilarly, too, it may have been a spirit speak- 
 ing through Jesus when only twelve years old: 
 "Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's 
 House?" Because in each case the words spoken 
 were appropriate, yet at the same time incon- 
 gruous with the persons who spoke them. 
 
 The tongues of fire sat upon each of them.. And 
 they were all filled with the Holy Ghost (or as we 
 might call it "spiritual illumination"), and began 
 to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit [s] gave 
 them utterance." (No. 6.) 
 
 The expressions italicized correspond with phe- 
 nomena which are frequent at present day se- 
 ances. I will now add a description by Dr. Hooper 
 who has experienced all of them. I have not per- 
 sonally seen "spirit lights" nor felt the wind; 
 but I have heard a control speaking in a tongue 
 (Italian) unknown to the medium. 
 
 On asking Dr. Hooper what experience he has 
 had of the occurrences, his reply is as follows: 
 "With regard to 'lights,' * rushing wind,' 'tongues 
 of fire,' we get them nearl}^ every Sunday; in fact 
 they are always the prelude to a successful physi- 
 cal seance. All our members have experienced
 
 SPIRITUALISM IN TEE BIBLE 203 
 
 these phenomena. The wind blows most power- 
 fully at onr Trmnpet-seances. The other sitters 
 {not clairvoyants) see me, (the medium) sur- 
 rounded by a white vapourous light." 
 
 In the Old Testament a very similar phenom- 
 enon is recorded in connection with communica- 
 tions from the Deity. "Behold the Lord passed by 
 and a great and strong wind rent the mountain." 
 
 * ' Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirl- 
 wmd. ' ' 
 
 Dr. Hooper further writes me as follows re- 
 garding his own experiences which tally A\'ith the 
 phenomena described in the Day of Pentecost. 
 
 *'My own observations of the Seance-room 
 where I have seen successful occurrences, are as 
 follows : They begin AAith a gentle breeze over the 
 hands which gradually increases in power. Then 
 the legs become cold and a peculiar sensation, as 
 of a Avind or a force passing round the circle. It 
 has been so violent that the members shiver mth 
 the violence of the rushing of power. Then 'globes' 
 of misty luminosity appear that break upon con- 
 tact with the table or floor with a violent con- 
 cussion, and loud noises. At other times they are 
 tiny pencil-points of light that produce tiny raps, 
 tongues of fire appear suddenly among the sitters; 
 and directly these tongues of fire are absorbed by 
 a sitter they pass under control of a spirit en- 
 tity." (Just as recorded in the gathering on the 
 Day of Pentecost.) 
 
 'I have been present at seances," Dr. Hooper 
 
 < <'
 
 204 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 
 
 continues, ''where the sitters have been glad to 
 wrap themselves in anything that was handy even 
 on a summer's evening. 
 
 *'I have seen and felt the floor, walls and con- 
 tents of a room violently vibrate with the power 
 of the mighty rushing wind. Considerable force 
 must have been present to see a piano weighing 
 5 cwt. rock; and I have heard the keys played 
 upon although the case was locked. 
 
 '*I have seen a convertable six-legged dining- 
 room table with a slate bed raised 18 inches from 
 th« floor in a good light. I was present at a seance 
 when a gentleman weighing over twelve stone was 
 carried from one side of the room to another. He 
 was an investigator and not a spiritualist nor a 
 medium, and it took place in his owti dining-room. 
 
 "Twenty years' experience has taught me to 
 believe such phenomena to be inseparable from 
 the mighty rushing wind and the genuineness of 
 the physical phenomena." 
 
 With regard to the source of the rushing wind 
 at seances. Dr. Hopper writes me as follows : "The 
 forces (wind, etc.) manifested at seances proceed 
 from us on earth. I am fully of opinion that it is 
 our * organic' force that is manipulated by the 
 spirits and that mediumship is a peculiar organic 
 quality that can be cultivated to a certain degree ; 
 
 *Cp., Acts, 8, 40. This process is now called " levitation. " 
 Azotus, the Greek form of Ashdod, is now called Astud. See 
 Glimpsca of the next State, p. 420. A relative (a boy) of Arch- 
 deacon Colley, was levitated a distance of thirty yards, while 
 lying in « hut r««aing. The hut fell down immediately after- 
 wards. He kept the book as a memento.
 
 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 205 
 
 but a medium is horn one, and can be developed, 
 but not made. What makes me so strongly of this 
 opinion is that some people I knew in Bristol 
 (the town where the famous Dr. Monck, (Adani- 
 jah*) had his livhig) were anxious to investigate 
 Spiritualism. They met regularly twice a week 
 for some twelve months. The result were nil — 
 not even a rap or tilt of the table. They heard of 
 my mediumship and asked me to attend one of 
 their seances ; which I did, with most marvellous 
 results; yet in the follomng weeks there was an 
 absence of the slightest phenomenon. They were 
 sincere and conformed to all the rules, yet they 
 were barren of results. This proved that my 
 presence brought the necessary organic (radium- 
 istic?) qualities that constitute the medium be- 
 tween the two worlds. This force, emanating from 
 our bodies, can be measured by instruments." 
 
 Spirit lights are a common phenomenon. The 
 following is a description from Do the Dead Re- 
 turn? 
 
 **A candle was burning on the mantelpiece 
 when the first signs (taps, and cold breezes pass- 
 ing over hands and faces) were given of spirit 
 presence. We sang a hymn, and then, by request of 
 the * invisibles' read parts of Holy Scripture, both 
 from the Old and New Testaments, chapter and 
 verse in each case being evidently well kno-wn and 
 clearly and emphatically indicated. A quarter 
 of an hour or so thus passed away, the tokens of 
 
 •As in earth, so as a spirit, he always spelled this word with 
 an n, insto.-Kl of an o.
 
 206 SPIEITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 
 
 the presence of invisible power becoming more and 
 more marked. We were now requested to ex- 
 tinguish the light. Almost immediately there ap- 
 peared floating through the room a number of 
 small lights passing round the circle, past our 
 faces and over our heads with extraordinary 
 rapidity. 
 
 ' ' These little balls of light sparkle and twinkle 
 like stars as they pass through the room,* now 
 increasing, now decreasing in brilliancy; again, 
 now high up in the air, near the ceiling, now close 
 to the sitter, and almost touching his face." 
 
 '"At subsequent sittings with the same lady, I 
 have seen lights of much larger size and of greater 
 brilliancy, in shape resembling a tongue of fire or 
 a flame such as is produced by an ordinary small 
 oil lamp."! A further description of lights is 
 given by Mr. Speer, at Moses' seances. t 
 
 We have seen above that spirit lights can move 
 intelligently, and in response to the wishes of the 
 sitters of a seance. They are therefore a means of 
 indicating their presence. The- alighting on the 
 head of a medium w^ould correspond to the ordi- 
 nary way a spirit enters and controls one, by 
 passing through the head into the body, as de- 
 scribed in Vice-Admiral Osborne Moore.|| 
 
 I had asked Dr. Hooper if he could supply me 
 with a spirit-photograph of "spirit tongues of 
 
 *They are often very small, almost microscopical, as in the 
 photo of forked tongues of light (No. 6). fOp. cit., p. 27. 
 ^Biography of Rev. Stainton Moses, by C. T. Speer, p. xiii, in 
 Spirit Teachings. WGlimpses of the Next State, p. 557.
 
 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 207 
 
 fire." The following is his description of the tak- 
 ing No. 6 (Jan. 1917): "On December 17th, we 
 acted upon your suggestion and made an exposure 
 vsith the camera in our seance. The camera was 
 placed about six feet from myself, pointing to- 
 wards me, and during the physical portion of our 
 seance, held in complete darkness. Mr. Bailey 
 turned the bulb to open the shutter, and it was 
 left open for about one and a half hours in total 
 darkness. No light was used whatever. 
 
 ''The large tongue gives a very good represen- 
 tation of the lights as seen; the myriad of light 
 dots (best seen in the photograph through a pock- 
 et-lens) I think must represent the tiny pin points 
 of lights that are constantly seen during our se- 
 ances. The light at the bottom portion, I think, 
 must represent the luminous mist that the sitters 
 always see in front of me. The edge of the table 
 was just where it appears when focussed on the 
 ground glass screen. The topmost head — is it the 
 Archdeacon ? He was very much in evidence that 
 evening and spoke for a long time through the 
 trumpet. The lower face we do not recognize." 
 
 A close comparison of this head with that of the 
 Archdeacon shows some points of resemblance; 
 but the totality leads one to the conclusion that 
 it is not he. 
 
 Dr. Hooper adds a few more words touching the 
 Day of Pentecost: "At tlie Day of Pentecost, 
 there were gathered togetlier the disciples of 
 Christ, who were undoubtedly chosen because of
 
 208 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 
 
 their mediumistic gifts. That is proved by their 
 being told not to tliink of what they were to say, 
 as the words would be put into their mouths. 
 
 ** Sceptics often sneer at the absence of pheno- 
 mena because of unbelievers being present; but 
 I believe even Christ, who demonstrated such 
 wonderful powers, had to retire from a people 
 with whom He could not work any miracles be- 
 cause of their unbelief." 
 
 All testify to the necessity of harmonious con- 
 ditions at a seance; any discordance appears to 
 arrest the spirit's capabilities of communicating. 
 An evil spirit may so harm a medium that another 
 following is prevented from talking. This oc- 
 curred with Dora, as she said. 
 
 Lastly, judging by modern experiences, we may 
 assume that the various dialects of Aramaic 
 spoken by those on whom the spirit-lights rested, 
 were uttered by the spirit-controls in them. **As 
 the spirit gave them utterance," was the expres- 
 sion of the describer, but not strictly accurate as 
 a matter of fact. 
 
 The following is a communication on the Day 
 of Pentecost, from the other side. '*Ajax," in 
 earth-life, was a well known preacher in Chicago ; 
 but I do not know his real name ; he was asked to 
 give his explanation of the phenomena of the Day 
 of Pentecost. It was a very long discourse, of 
 which the following are a few items of more spe- 
 cial importance. He at once recognized it as a 
 great spiritualistic meeting, and observed: **The
 
 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 209 
 
 mighty rushing wind was just as you have ex- 
 perienced it here, so many times in this seance 
 room. It is ahnost impossible for important or 
 great manifestations to take place unless you have 
 that mnd. AVhat does it consist of I It is a psychic 
 force. Whence does it emanate I From the bodies 
 of the sitters. It is a power which cannot be seen 
 by the naked eye. A magnet, as you term it, has 
 both north and south poles, and it is possible to 
 depolarize those poles by mean^ knoAvn to your 
 scientists. The spirits, as they come in your 
 seance room, make use of the forces from your 
 bodies. They gather them together from out of 
 the battery that is made, as it were, by those who 
 are meeting there, and they utilize the forces, in 
 order that they may demonstrate their presence 
 to you here upon earth. 
 
 ''Depolarization is known to be a fact; what 
 is it? They know it is a force, but what the force 
 is, they cannot explain to you; and such being 
 the case it is no wonder that spiritualistic phe- 
 nomena are wrapt in so much mystery. 
 
 "Spiritualism has proved to you that the com- 
 monly termed "dead" can and do return through 
 our various mediums to-day. They have spoken 
 in divers tongues; and not only so, but persons 
 who have been present have recognized the lan- 
 guage that has been used, and have said that it is 
 without fault. 
 
 "How many of your spiritualistic men have 
 been aware that the spirits of the departed have
 
 210 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 
 
 given forth outpourings of which they are totally 
 ignorant; and persons have been present that 
 have been able to converse with them in languages 
 of which the medium is entirely ignorant? 
 
 ''Then, again, we must consider the definition 
 of 'tongues of fire.' How many of you spiritual- 
 ists that are gathered here have seen the tongues 
 of fire descend and come in contact "with your 
 medium? For this is a very common occurrence, 
 and has been acknowledged by men of science. 
 
 "This form of phenomenon is true; the only 
 difference is that you spiritualists acknowledge 
 the phenomenon to be produced by the spirits of 
 the departed, while those of the old days, who 
 were gathered together after the death of Christ, 
 thought that it was th Holy Spirit of God that de- 
 scended upon them. 
 
 "You must take your mind back and think of 
 the ignorance in which the people of those days 
 were steeped." 
 
 This of course applied to the disciples. In the 
 Old Testament, every emotion of man, good or 
 bad, was attributed to some spirit semt by God to 
 rest upon the man. Thus, as stated, Saul's fit of 
 jealousy was thought to be such. David's own 
 determination to number the people, though 
 wrong, was actually attributed to God in the older 
 account, whereas after the Captivity having heard 
 about the "evil spirits" recognized in the East, 
 they took an old Hebrew word meaning "ac- 
 cuser," and so attributed David's sin of number- 
 ing the people to "Satan."
 
 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 211 
 
 Ajax continued: ''Christ was a great medium 
 who selected his disciples from amongst people 
 whom He knew to be mediumistically inclined; 
 and when these people were brought together to 
 hold their seance — because there were so many 
 mediums present and so much sjonpathy between 
 them — the conditions were all that could be washed 
 for; and the knowledge of spirit conununication 
 was then and there demonstrated to the world. 
 
 ' ' Mediumship in those days was brought to the 
 apex of perfection, because the conditions under 
 which the mediums were developed were of the 
 best that could be obtained; that being so the 
 best results were given to the people, in healing, 
 prophesying [i.e., preaching] and the gift of 
 speaking in divers languages, or 'tongues,' and 
 the interpretation of the tongues." 
 
 Ajax, it is presumed, means that spirits of vari- 
 ous capacities spoke tlirough the modiumistic 
 disciples. Thus one spirit might speak the dia- 
 lect of Aramaic of the "parts about Cyrene" or 
 Eg}^pt, another knowing both that and Palestine 
 could interpret it. 
 
 Ajax concluded his address thus: "Spiritual- 
 ism demonstrates to you that the 'Days of Pente- 
 cost' are not passed, but that they are still with 
 you to-day. And it is only necessary for you to 
 meet together with a firm belief and a truly re- 
 ligious frame of mind to demonstrate this truth." 
 
 One of the commonest of plienomena at present- 
 day seances is the presence of hands only. These
 
 212 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 
 
 have been so often described that I would refer 
 the reader to my book on the Proofs of the Truths 
 of Spiritualism, in which I have introduced the 
 photograph of a bureau over which a hand ap- 
 peared. It recalls the account in the Book of 
 Daniel where he described Belshazzar's feast and 
 the hand-writing on the wall : Mene, Mene, Tekel, 
 Upharsin. (No. 7.) 
 
 Belshazzar was the son of Nebuchadnezzar, and 
 the last King of Babylon (B. C. 550). As the Book 
 of Daniel was written about B.C. 150, or some four 
 hundred years afterwards, it must contain what 
 had been handed down from the earlier period, 
 mixed with legend. But as we now know, not 
 only do isolated hands appear but sometimes take 
 up a pencil and write as well. 
 
 With regard to the gift of healing, this is large- 
 ly possessed by Dr. Hooper himself as his innum- 
 erable and grateful patients (of which I am one) 
 know so well. He tells me that he has no idea 
 whence the power comes; but when manipulating 
 a patient — ^who may have tried every resource 
 and failed to get relief, and then faithless comes 
 as a last chance to him — Dr. Hooper says he feels 
 as if some force ** pulsated" by throbs through 
 his body and the moment his hand passes over the 
 injured place, it is at once felt by the patient, 
 though the latter cannot see him, as when the 
 spine is injured, and he is lying face do-vvnwards.* 
 
 *Dr. Hooper's expression reminds one of what is recorded by 
 St. Mark: "Jesus perceiving in Himself that the power proeeed- 
 in(T from Him had gone forth, etc." — Marie, 5, 30.
 
 SPIRITUALISM IN THE BIBLE 213 
 
 When Archdeacon Colley first went to see Dr. 
 Hooper it was to try his skill on a very painful 
 knee. He told me it was agony to kneel at the 
 Conununion service. In twenty minutes he was 
 cured, and he never had any return of the pain. 
 The reader must form his own conclusion or 
 ''theory" to account for this phenomenon. 
 
 Another friend of mine, high sheriff for his 
 county, has a similar power of healing. I had 
 been much troubled with abdominal pains, and I 
 asked him if he could do me any good. He offered 
 to try, he living in Wales and I in Bournemouth. 
 After a few days he wrote : ' ' Did your pains leave 
 you last Saturday, because I had them!" I wrote 
 at once to say they had; and from that day, six 
 years ago, I have never been troubled with. them. 
 If this is possible noiv, can we wonder at our Lord 
 curing patients at a distance as He did?
 
 CHAPTEE XV 
 
 THE NATUEE OF MAN, HEEE AND HEEE- 
 
 AFTEE 
 
 The material and spirit composition of man. — Difficulty of 
 distinguishing "soul" from "spirit." — "What life is. — It is not a 
 Force. — Indications of the presence of Life. — Psyche and Pneuma. 
 — The abuse of the useful becomes immoral and sinful. — The 
 Spiritual, a higher grade than the psychical. — Reasoning on the 
 concrete plain (animal) ; on the abstract plain (man only). — 
 Illustrations. — Animals cannot rise above the concrete or psy- 
 chical stage. — The theoretical origin of man. — He acquires the 
 power of reasoning on abstract ideas. — Examples of structures; 
 the camera and the eye. — The Origin of Morality. — Man alone has 
 Freewill, as contrasted with animals, which act automatically. — 
 Laws of Communities necessary. — Kammurabi's Code. — O. T. 
 Laws, Scholastic. — Motives of obedience, temporal rewards and 
 punishments. — Conscience undeveloped. — Christ stimulated the 
 freewill of man to follow His steps through Love for Himself, 
 without rewards, excepting that of a good conscience. — ^Love, the 
 root or rock of Christianity. — The enthusiasm of humanity. 
 Pneuma transcends Psyche. — The great spiritual Revolution in- 
 troduced by Christ. — The Spirit body. — A suggested explanation. 
 — The empty tomb. — The information from Spirits about the 
 differences between man and spirit. 
 
 We speak of a man as having a living body of 
 flesh, bones, etc., and a spirit as well as a soul. 
 When he passes over, he dispenses with his ma- 
 terial body, and reveals himself in his spirit-body. 
 Otherwise, he remains precisely the same in all 
 the chara'^teristics of his personality. 
 When we attempt to answer categorically the 
 
 214
 
 THE NATURE OF MAN 215 
 
 question: What are his soul and spirit? and what 
 constitutes his spirit-body I We can only reply in 
 a more or less suggestive manner, for we are un- 
 able to deal with them solely by- the scientific 
 methods of inductions and experimental verifica- 
 tions, as we can his material system. 
 
 Let us start mth Life. "WTiat it is, in its essence, 
 nobody knows. It is certainly not a Force, for it 
 cannot be brou^'^ht into line with all the well- 
 known forces. Its presence can only be recog- 
 nized by certain phenomena, none of which can 
 be discovered in minerals. Two of the universal 
 and most significant characteristics of Life are 
 Assimilation and Respiration, i.e., the taking in 
 of food for growth and development, and breath- 
 ing. 
 
 We recognize tliat our fingers are alive, because 
 we see our nails grow, and a cut will heal. But life 
 in ourselves and animals is indicated by much 
 more important things, such as thought and rea- 
 son, as well as by emotions, etc. These are com- 
 mon to man and all animals provided with brains. 
 AVe speak of man as having not only life, but a 
 soul and spirit. Can these be distinguished? We 
 talk of his intellect or of his stupidity, of his free 
 Avill, memory; where do these find their home? Do 
 they belong to his soul or spirit, or both? The 
 Greek words are psyche for the soul and pneuma 
 for the spirit. Both primarily mean ** breath,'* 
 and we still speak metaphorically of the ''breath 
 of life."
 
 216 THE NATUEE OF MAN 
 
 St. Paul distinguishes them by using corre- 
 sponding adjectives; for '' Spiritual, ' ' pneuma- 
 ikos, and for ''soul," Psycliikos; this being trans- 
 lated by ''natural" in our Bible. 
 
 The Psyche, or soul, would appear to include 
 the properties of life, such as desires, affections, 
 or passions, etc., which are common to man and 
 animals, and "natural" as being developed as 
 our body grows. They all have their root in what 
 we may call self-considerations. 
 
 Several, though good and useful in themselves, 
 when indulged to excess by us, become bad and 
 immoral, or sinful traits in us; St. Paul then 
 groups them as "sins of the flesh," which are only 
 possible in man, for he is conscious of having a 
 free ivill. No animal possesses this, for they are 
 mentally automatic, and remain non-moral. 
 
 On the other hand, the qualities which are 
 called "Spiritual" {pneumatikos) are of a higher 
 kind of natural or psychical qualities. Thus man 
 alone can reason on the ahstract plane, while ani- 
 mals are restricted to reasoning on the concrete 
 only, i.e., as far as a study of their actions can 
 be relied upon, animals do not rise beyond the 
 psychical level. 
 
 Man alone ascends to the pneumaticaL The 
 Spirit is not an absolutely distinct entity, but 
 might be more accurately called the highest type 
 of the psyche; neverthless. there is a sharp line 
 of demarcation between the two. 
 
 The distinguishing features which mark man
 
 THE NATURE OF MAN 217 
 
 as distinct from animals, are best seen by illus- 
 trations. Birds, for example, discover by experi- 
 ment how to build nests which they, presumably, 
 think best suited to their kind. They require rea- 
 son, as does the making of a bird-cage; but it is 
 mentally automatic; while in plants perfect 
 '* reasonable" adaptations to the visits of special 
 insects in flowers, is secured without any previous 
 mental conceptions. You may take the eggs from 
 a nest of one kind of bird, hatch them under a 
 totally different one, so that when they build their 
 nest (having supplied them with necessary ma- 
 terials) they will build a nest exactly like that of 
 their parents and just as perfect, without having 
 been taught. The process becomes hereditary and 
 automatic in the race. 
 
 Animals, therefore, do not appear able to rise 
 above the psychical. How came man to reach any 
 higher level, if he was evolved from some animal? 
 
 The late eminent scientist, Dr. "W. B. Carpenter, 
 proposed the following theory: Contrasting man's 
 skull vdi\\ that of some anthropoid ape, he calls 
 attention to the massive jaw, the large canine 
 teeth, serviceable for offense or defense, when op- 
 posed by enemies. Their use demands powerful 
 muscles, deep-seated in the temples. This implies 
 great depressions, which limit the internal 
 capacity for the brain. 
 
 The young ape of to-day has a globular skull, 
 but as it grows, it takes the more elongated form 
 of its species. The conclusion which Dr. Car-
 
 218 THE NATURE OF MAN 
 
 penter drew, was that the external conditions of 
 life demanded their fighting apparatus. 
 
 Now supposing a certain kind became free from 
 enemies, lived and thrived in isolation. Atrophy- 
 would set in by constant disuse, the jaw would 
 become smaller, the canine teeth reduced, as tlioy 
 are in ourselves, the temporal muscles of little 
 account, the deep depression no longer exists, the 
 skull retains the globular form, and the brain can 
 now develop itself. This then acquires new pow- 
 ers, and the first and most important one is that 
 the first "Man" would be able to reason in the 
 abstract plane. He would realize that he, him- 
 self, was not part of his body. The *'I" or ^' Ego," 
 was probably his first abstract conception, i.e., 
 not appreciable by the senses. He then reasons 
 from this fact that other men must have **Egos." 
 His mind begins to rise to the conclusion that 
 many Egos must be the source of all the actions 
 of forces in nature, as he could make, say, a hut, 
 or weapon, so then natural invisible Egos could 
 make things too, such as all the plants and ani- 
 mals he sees about him. 
 
 He advances in knowledge and experience in 
 constructing things for himself, and he in time 
 makes, let us say, a camera. He discovers that 
 his own eye is constructed on precisely the same 
 principles. It has a dark chamber, a sensi- 
 tive ** retina" at the back, a bi-convex lens on the 
 front, etc., and all far more complete and perfect 
 than hie own work. He has not to extract a plate 
 from the back of his eye ; for the picture itself is
 
 THE NATURE OF MAN 219 
 
 conveyed as vibrations along the ** optic nerve" 
 to a definite place in the brain, where a reverse 
 process seems to take place, for the picture ap- 
 pears to the sense of sight outside, near or far as 
 the case may be. Moreover, the microscopic pic- 
 ture on the retina is inverted just as it is in a 
 camera. 
 
 The Being who can do all this must be some- 
 thing like himself but vastly superior. 
 
 Another thing which distinguishes man from 
 animals is that he soon discovers he cannot do 
 what he likes with other people's property. Some- 
 thing must be done in conmaunities to secure or- 
 der. So the community makes laws and invents 
 the word '* right" and '* wrong," or their equiva- 
 lent, according as men obey or disobey the laws. 
 Such is, apparently, the origin of the conscious- 
 ness of morality. **I had not known sin, but by 
 the law," says St. Paul. 
 
 The difference between man and animals comes 
 in here, for man alone has a free will to choose. 
 Animals have no free will, but act automatically 
 in following the strongest motive. They have no 
 naturally developed conscience, though a dog will 
 be ashamed of himself if he has violated his 
 master's rule, who punishes him with the stick. 
 Such is a rudiment — and as the same scholastic 
 system prevailed in Israel, and later — there is no 
 word for conscience in the Old Testament. 
 
 Some men, however, mil break the laws of a 
 community, so temperal punishments are ar- 
 ranged for each kind of misdemeanor.
 
 220 THE NATUEE OF MAN 
 
 A good example is seen in the oldest code in 
 existence, that of Khammurabi, King of Babylon, 
 when Abraham was living there. Everyone of the 
 200 or more laws has its equivalent punishment 
 following it. Several have been copied and re- 
 appear in the book of Exodus and Leviticus, such 
 as "an eye for an eye,*' "a tooth for a tooth;'' 
 but Khammurabi adds, *'a slave for a slave," and 
 a "son for a son." 
 
 This system of punishment for breaking laws, 
 is still universal; and we carry it out in schools. 
 But in the Old Testament, besides the punish- 
 ments of famine, pestilence, and defeat in war 
 being threatened for disobedience to Jehovah's 
 laws, promises of reward are given, such as peace 
 and prosperity. 
 
 Such a system is evidently scholastic, and only 
 suited to a primitive class of mind; so St. Paul 
 says: "The law was a schoolmaster to bring man 
 to Christ." 
 
 It does not tend to develop the Conscience, con- 
 sequently this word is not to be found in the 
 Old Testament at all. 
 
 On the other hand we sometimes say to the 
 more intelligent school boys: "I do not intend 
 to punish you, but I will put you on your honor 
 not to do it." 
 
 This is something like what Christ introduced 
 into the world. Just as a boy might miss a reward 
 at first, he discovers a new kind in the apprecia- 
 tion held of his behavior, just so the Christian. 
 He discovers the reward of a good conscience is
 
 THE NATURE OF MAN 221 
 
 ample. He soon discovers that the results of self- 
 sacrifice — the rock of Christianity — is Love, which 
 leads to an enthusiasm for doing good, and that 
 "it is more blessed to give than to receive." Thus 
 does the pneumatikos surpass the psychicos, and 
 we have entered the Spiritual world. 
 
 St. Paul, at the conclusion of his Psalm of Love, 
 says: *'Now remaineth these three. Faith, Hope, 
 and Love, but the greatest of these is Love." 
 
 "Faith" is not only — much less the same thing 
 as — "belief " it is a firm conviction that the 
 Christ-life is the only one all men and women 
 should follow ; but Faith includes the fulfilment of 
 this conviction. This is what St. James says: 
 ^' Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. . . . 
 Thou believest that God is one; the devils also be- 
 lieve, and shudder," but no one will credit them 
 with faith in Christ. 
 
 Hope is the enthusiasm of the spirit of human- 
 ity, and which each of us must have if we profess 
 to walk as our Master walked. 
 
 Whoever has these three and lives up to them, 
 is the "perfect" man, i.e., as far as it is possible. 
 Such is pyieumaticos. He who only lives a moral 
 life is psychicos. As the new life was introduced 
 by Christ, as our example, it required a new word 
 whereby to express it. St. Paul chose the word 
 pneumaticos, i.e., "Spiritual," while the old laws 
 of the Decalogue, etc., were "natural," or psychi- 
 cal, for men could discover their necessity for 
 themselves. 
 
 St. Paul sharply distinguishes the "natural"
 
 222 THE NATURE OF MAN 
 
 from the " ** spiritual": *'The natural man re- 
 ceive th not the things that are spiritual." A 
 simple and only too common example is the selfish 
 profiteer, who gives to no one, and the open- 
 handed philanthropist. 
 
 Hence it is the Christian Religion that consti- 
 tutes Christ's '"Word," is spiritual. The teach- 
 ing of the old laws was natural or psychical. 
 
 There is here something akin to a revolution. 
 For the Christian's motive for keeping Christ's 
 words is interior, i.e., Love in his heart; whereas 
 the motive was external before Christ came, 
 namely the fear of punishment, or else the prom- 
 ise of material rewards, the laws being on tables 
 of stone. 
 
 The Soul and Spirit, therefore, stand for a natu- 
 ral or psychical life on the one hand, and the 
 Christian life, on the other. 
 
 What is the Spirit-body which we acquire on 
 parting from our material one? We do not know; 
 but the results of modern science are suggestive. 
 We are told that all material things consist of 
 electrons or the ultimate corpuscules of elec- 
 tricity. As solid ice is the same thing as liquid 
 water and gaseous steam, their difference only 
 resulting from being subjected to different de- 
 grees of temperature; a consequence of which is 
 that the molecules are more and more drawn 
 asunder. So may be (perhaps) the difference be- 
 tween the material and spirit-body made out of it, 
 for when a materialized spirit appears the weight 
 of the medium decreases.
 
 THE NATURE OF M,4N 223 
 
 May we apply these resTilts of science to Our 
 Lord's Resurrection? He tells us that He re- 
 ceived the power to raise Himself, from the 
 Father. Being a great Medium Himself he re- 
 quired none other and so we may suppose that He 
 converted His own material, earthly, body into 
 what we call a materialized spirit-body, His new 
 clothing being "thought-apparel" according to 
 the information we receive from spirits to-day 
 and we can photograph them. 
 
 As clairvoyants can see the spirits pass through 
 material doors or walls now, so did Our Lord 
 when with His disciples. 
 
 St. John's account of his and St. Peter's visit 
 to the empty tomb is corroborative of the same 
 suggestion. If the reader will turn to St. John's 
 Gospel and read the story in the 20th Chapter, 
 he will see that that Apostle describes the cloths 
 ''lying," i.e., undisturbed on the stone slab upon 
 which Our Lord's body had lain, while the napkin 
 or fillet, which was bound round His head still re- 
 mained coiled in a circular form as the Greek 
 ward implies ''rolled in." 
 
 In our English Bible it is said St. Peter, who 
 did not enter the tomb before St. John came up, 
 merely "saw," i.e., In Greek caught sight of, the 
 white cloths in the darkness. But when St. John 
 went into the tomb he "beheld," that means in 
 Greek was strongly impressed at the sight. 
 
 When they came out he "saw" and "believed" 
 what the Resurrection meant, i.e., as the Greek 
 implies, with his mind, and that he understood.
 
 Noted Prophecies 
 
 PREDICTIONS, OMENS AND 
 LEGENDS of the 
 
 GREAT WAR 
 
 AND THE GREAT CHANGES TO FOLLOW 
 
 By THE COUNTESS ZALINSKI 
 
 One of the most remarkable of the many strange and unusual 
 facts incident to the Great War in which all Civilization is involved, 
 is the bringing to light of many ancient prophecies, and many mod- 
 ern predictions, all of which have unerringly pointed out to the 
 present terrible happenings. 
 
 Not only have astrologers for many years past pointed out that 
 the position of the planets and the fixed star inevitably indicated 
 the beginning of the most startling and terrible events in the year 
 1913 or 1914, and also the necessary outcome of the same great 
 struggle, and the end and fate of many of the great personages 
 taking part therein; but also many modern prophets have for the 
 past twenty-five years predicted the same thing, basing their pre- 
 dictions upon the great book of prophecies, i. e., The Old Testament. 
 
 There have been for centuries past current in various parts of 
 Europe, many old and popular prophecies which have pointed out 
 in plainly understood terms the history of the events leading up 
 to the Great War; the beginning of the War itself and the outcome 
 thereof. In some of these old prophecies even the names of the 
 rulers of the warring nations have been stated — hundreds of years 
 before these monarchs were born. I'n one of the oldest of these 
 ancient prophecies, even the name of the present Pope is plainly 
 and unmistakably stated; in others the name of the Kaiser is 
 mentioned, and his physical and mental characteristics described. 
 In several of these centuriesold predictions the Place of the Last 
 Great Battle is plainly stated. 
 
 The publishers of the book named above have at a great expense, 
 and much labor, had gathered together by a competent authority 
 on Occult Prophecies and Astrological Predictions, namely the 
 Countess Zalinski, now temporarily residing in Switzerland where 
 she is engaged as the correspondent for leading journals of Europe 
 and America, the most important and authentic of these wonderful 
 instances of man's power to foretell the future. The result of this 
 gifted lady's work appears in the present book, which is destined 
 to attract the attention of the thinking public all over the world. 
 
 Bound in Cloth, 168 Pages, Price $1.10 Postpaid
 
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 Our Self After Death 
 
 (^^^jv|j,:^. :-.>--:;;; ;H[ 
 
 ■•ii' '-^ i ' - ". ■ , ' - 
 
 OaR-SELF : 
 AFTER DEATH 
 
 
 [ ARTHUR CHAMBERS | 
 
 " f '.. 
 
 By The 
 
 REV. ARTHUR CHAMBERS 
 
 Associate of King's College, London, England 
 
 The Author Has Studied This Great 
 Subject for More Than Twenty Years 
 
 The Great Inquiry. What of our Self After Death? No 
 question of more Vital interest. People are not satisfied 
 with what they have been told. 
 
 Wrong and Inadequate Answers Given to the Great Inquiry. 
 
 Advice to Those That Shudder at the Thought of the Grave 
 of Oblivion for Themselves and Their Dead. 
 
 The Answer of Christ to the Great Inquiry. 
 
 A Very Wonderful Change Has Come Over the World of 
 Scientific Thought During the Last Thirty Years. 
 
 What Christ Taught as to the Continuance of the Self at 
 Death. 
 
 In the Innumerable Instances of Persons Seen After Death, 
 They Have Borne the Form and Even the Character of 
 Dress by Which They Had Been Known Before Departure 
 From This Life. 
 
 The Evidence Conclusively Proves That Discarnate Souls Can, 
 and Do Establish at Times Communications Between the 
 Spirit- World and This World. 
 
 The Advancing Self in Spirit-Life Has the Power of Trans- 
 mitting Mental and Spiritual Impulses Which Can Be 
 Consciously Received by Us Here. 
 
 No One Can Read This Scholarly Work and Not Receive a 
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 The Author says: "It is possible for us who live in an age 
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