Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

CHAPTER II
THE HISTORY OF SPIRITISM
MODERN SPIRITISM is, according to its exponents,
merely a new development, clothed in new words
of a cult thousands of years old; one might have
said, with equal truth, well-nigh as old as the
human race.
In the Encyclopaedia Britannica Spiritism is defined
as "a belief that the spirit world manifests itself by
producing in the physical world effects inexplicable
by the known laws of nature"; but later, in the
Spiritist Magazine, the definition is further developed
as follows. Spiritism is defined as "a belief based
on facts through a system of mediumship. Its
cardinal truths being that of a world of spirits; and
the continuity of the existence of the individual spirit
through the momentary eclipse of death."*
*
To this we may add the following from "The True Light,"
by G. G. Andre-, F.G.S., A.M.I.C.E. (1907): "What is this
spiritism, and what is this theosophy, in which the movement is
said to have its origin?" (xi.). "All who call themselves
Christians should be constrained to admit the lawfulness of its
foremost purpose, for the persistence of life beyond death was
the spiritual lesson of Christ's resurrection" (p. 3). "It takes
Christ's teaching as a whole; and if it be objected that the
Church also does this, the reply is, 'The Church had also the
doctrine of a vicarious atonement' " (p. 12). "If for convenience
we designate the high ranks (of the departed) Angels, and
the lower as Evil Spirits, let us be careful not to lose sight of the
fact that they differ only as elder and younger" (p. 76). "There
is no room in the Universe for an essentially evil thing" (p. 77).
"We must reject the conception of fallen creatures. By the
Fall we understand the descent of spirit into matter" (p. 162).
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The New Theology is the old Wisdom to which Christ gave