Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

INTRODUCTORY 13
as to things unseen; but this society had succeeded
in awakening in them a sense and a belief in another
and a higher world, and possibly prepared their
minds for an intelligent hearing and acceptance of
Christianity. These would undoubtedly be regarded
by Christians as travelling on the "up" lines.
On the Down Grade
The rest, and probably the majority, on the
contrary, represented lapses from the Christian
faith, and their presence that night their acceptance
of modern Spiritism in its place. To believers, the
shifting sands of the vague utterances of mediums
seems but a poor and doubtful substitute on which
to build one's faith, when compared with what
Gladstone used to call "the impregnable rock of
Holy Scripture." From a truly spiritual point of
view, the same position in this society side by side
represented, in the one case, the zenith, and, in the
other, the nadir of their place with regard to Christianity;
for, as I shall hope to show in this monograph,
while there is much, very much, of interest
in all researches into the unseen and unknown, the
Spiritist faith, which, as we shall see is gradually
being formulated into dogmas, contradicts categorically,
point by point, all the fundamentals of
Christianity.
True Spiritualism Wanted
One wonders sometimes if it is too much to hope
for, that some day a true Spiritual quest may be
established, not for necromancy, nor for the mountebank
performances so common to-day, but for the