Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

406 RELIGIOUS ERRORS OF IMR. MAIIAN.fercnt evenings, he said :world, but I cannot believe that.''" I would believe you as soon as any man in theYet the result of that experiment wasnothing more than the fact of bodies moving when uninfluenced by anyapparent mortal agency, accompanied by a demonstration of a governingreason; a result which has been established again and again by myselfwith the greatest precision, and by many other investigators. Evidently,if this had never been repeated, it would have been treated as a mentalhallucination on my part by my comrades in science and all the rest of thecommunity.1971. Such is the difliculty of inducing credence, in enlightened minds,of any thing which is inconsistent with those laws of nature with whichthey have become familiar. Clearly, in the present advanced state of thehuman mind, no miracles would be believed on hearsay testimony.1972. It seems as if facts, incredible at first view, are always believedwhen they are confirmed by being seenby independent and disinterestedand intelligent observers sufficiently often, and under such modifications, asto make all such observers believe in them. We are willing to believe ina mysterious fact as one of a genus, but not when isolated. If I mayjudge by the incredulity with which my observations in Spiritualism havebeen met by those who had previously considered me reliable, I shoulddeem it utterly impossible among intelligent, well-educated people of thepresent day to induce a belief in an isolated miracle; and, as respectsignorant, bigoted sectarians, the difficulty to obtain credence would be atleast as great.1973. Were our heavenly Father now to cause miracles to be performedas wonderful and as isolated as those mentioned in Scripture, asno one would know any thing of them direct from God, excepting thoseby whom they might be witnessed, it would only cause the narrators ofthem to be ridiculed, as those spiritualists were ridiculed who firstassertedtheir belief in spiritual manifestations. In order, therefore, that miraclesshould be believed in by an enlightened community, belief would have tobe instilled by education or supported by reiterated observation, since, inenlightened communities, no miracles would be believed in but those whichshould come within these conditions.197*4. There is not a single miracle mentioned in the gospel which tendsto throw light upon the alleged object of Christ's mission. The object oftheir performance was mainly to prove his supernatural power to thosewho should believe in them, and thus to cause him to be accredited as amissionary from God.So far from their ever having had an effect of thiskind on my mind, gospel miracles tended only to destroy my confidence inthe veracity or discretion of their narrators, upon the same principle thatspiritualists have lost weight with their intelligent friends by mentioningmanifestations which were considered by these as incredible.1975. I can foresee a great triumph for spiritualists, sooner or later, in