Glimpses Of The Next State.Pdf - Spiritualists' National Union

195Coming, as they do, from an Archbishop of York, these are important words. Dr. Mageedenies that the alleged vicarious sufferings of Christ expiated the sins of men. We find in this littlework of his that he believes that the death of Christ had some effect in reconciling the Almighty tosinful man. What that effect was he professes himself to be entirely ignorant.In the chapter on the “Atonement” in Lux Mundi, a writer takes just the opposite view. Thefact is, it was not Christ, but Paul, who insisted upon the mystical reasons of the death of the greatTeacher becoming a matter of dogma in the new Church. All the theories revolving round thecrucifixion are in a hopeless muddle. So, also, are the doctrines relating to the Holy Ghost, who issaid in the Nicene Creed to be the father of Jesus, and yet to proceed from him. No suchcontradictory doctrines are found to come from spirits. All over the civilised world they agree thatman cannot shelter himself behind either God or man to rid himself of the consequences of his acts.Effects strictly follow causes, and he has to suffer for injuring his fellow-mortal, or himself, more orless according to the motive of his actions and the degree of the wrong accomplished.Some ministers of the Anglican Church believe in spiritism, and are daily trying to reconcileits evidences with Church dogmas. It is a very difficult task; but I think it is quite safe to predictthat Christianity, as at present taught, will before many years have to surrender much of itsoutworn dogma, and assimilate the teachings of the invisible entities around us. Thoughtful menare beginning to see that the resurrection of a God is no encouragement to a man, whereas thespiritual resurrection of a man who possessed Godlike attributes affords hope that other men maybe equally favoured. There have been many avatars in history; many were born on December 25,and of a virgin; many were crucified, or suffered ignominious deaths; many arose again from thegrave, and disappeared in a miraculous manner. Jesus of Nazareth was the last of the avatars. Asarchetypal man, his life, death, and spiritual resurrection are of the greatest value to mankind; allcan try and achieve to his exalted level. But if he were supernatural, of a type lifted infinitely higherthan those he came to teach, his ministry can have no permanent effect.Psychical research is yet in its infancy, and it would be sheer dogmatism to attempt anyforecast of what its future may bring forth. So far, only individuals here and there have beenfavoured with tests which enable them to arrive at positive conviction of the existence of the nextstate of consciousness. But there are a few points in its study which appear to be fairly plain,standing out in so conspicuous a manner that there is small probability of their being refuted in anyfuture advance of knowledge. One is that investigators are dealing with intelligences who arefunctioning in more than three dimensions, and who cannot describe, except symbolically, what aretheir occupations. When they enter the atmosphere of the earth plane they recur to earth speech,thought, and actions; if well practised by constant visits, they are able to do this so effectively as tomake the illusion that they occupy an earth body quite complete. It is amazing! At the same time,they perform acts which demonstrate that they have powers not limited to our three dimensions.They appear and disappear in the fraction of a second; they precipitate a picture complete in everydetail, though the face of another canvas is locked to it ; dematerialise flowers ; pass ponderablesubstances through walls; form as phantoms through which the observer can walk; carry aboutarticles in a room; sing without a throat; whistle without a break, and talk for as much as an hourwithout the faltering of a note.A few weeks before these lines were written I was sitting one morning in a dark room withMrs. Wriedt, between two tables. Upon one of them was a large bowl full of roses; on the other(behind me) were vases full of carnations. A phantom approached me, and talked through thetrumpet. I then heard the roses in the bowl in front of me being moved; after an interval of aboutfive minutes a rose with a very thorny stem was put into my hand. When the lights were switchedon, a rose and a carnation were found on the floor at my feet. The carnation must have been takenfrom the vase behind me, yet I heard no disturbance of the flowers or any other noise at my back.The flower in my hand was the best out of the bowl in front of me—a full-blown red rose.It is a frequent jibe that spirits do not explain to us what they are doing. How can they? Letthe reader imagine himself trying to explain how he is occupied to a two-dimensional being. As aninstance, let us suppose that he takes a sheet of paper, and asks his two-dimensional friend how hewould join two corners of the paper diagonally. The latter could only know of one method—that of