SPIRITUALISM.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3692, 25 October 1880, Page 3

SPIRITUALISM.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sis,—Among Spiritualists there is not one uniform opinion on theology. They do not propose to organise one particular sqct and that to overthrow every other, tut to spread their views amongst all parties and thus to derate the whole. They are not so much destroyers as builders, and their elevated views will gradually take the place of dogmas, and supplant them with facts. It will go hardly with those religious bodies that arte based on the conservative principle that nothing must be altered, because their! forefathers have not allowed them the power to alter any part of their creed. They will have first to pass a reform bill, or they will be left behind in the onward inarch of progress. Although Spiritualists differ in opinion on some things, I might give you an outline of what is generally held. One peculiar feature is, they do not take the Bible-or any /other sacred book for their guide, j they say it is not safe to take them, for in some things they give opposite directions, and why take a dirty stream when they can go to the fountain. They do not feel any special interest when the Bible was written nor who wrote it; what is good they take, and what is bad they reject; bnt instead of taking any book, priest, or teacher for their guide, they are guided by the voice of God within, or man's inward conscience, which is the echo of God's spirit upon man's spirit, and this is the only safe guide to purity, goodness, and happiness. All the Old and New Testament writers are brought to this .test, and all that will not bear it are laid to one side. They were only men, and liable to make-mistakes; even Christ himself made mistakes. They look upon Him as pure-minded, and as the greatest medium in his day, but only*a man; that the Father is the only one God, and Christ is his son, but not a God. This same Jesus made mistakes; be made one when he said the world should be at an end in that genera- j tion; he made another when he said "He that believeth and is baptised shall be laved, but he that believeth not shall be damned;" and he made another when he said that no one could be his disciple without they first hated father and mother brother and sister. Spiritualists will not submit to anyone's sayings or commands blindly, but all must agree with reason and the inward voice. The plainest mood or spiritual law that can be made is of no service to man until they are first submitted to the spirit within; the voice may be small at first, but if listened to it will grow louder, and the light will be clearer, and no one need miss their way in anything.—l am, Ac, ':•....■. „- \:<:■...-,.- ■■■ '■■■-..■■, , • ' J. Hobn.