THE SPIRITUALIST FUTURE STATE.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 370, 26 September 1874, Page 2

THE SPIRITUALIST FUTURE STATE.

When we asked to be informed (beyond the testimony of sweet smiles and assurances of felicity), of the nature of the happiness of virtuous deputed souls, we arc confronted with narratives much moi% nearly realizing our notion of humiliating peiiauc™ and helplessness than of glory and freedom ; of Purgatory than of Paradise. The dead, it seems, according to spiritualism, have not, even after -vast intervals of time, advanced one step neaicr to the knowledge of those diviner truths for which the soul of man hungers, than they possessed while on earth.. The hope of immortality is bound up, in religious minds, with tho faith that though no I actual vision can ever be vouchsafed of the all-per- I vaidng spirit, that that some .scn.se beyond any I which .earthly life aifoids, of the presence and lo\e I of tho Father will come to the soul when it has I gone #< home to God," and that doubt will smely b^J left behind' among the cerements of the grave. Bucl spiritualists cheerfully tell us Mich hopes arc quite I as delusive as those of the material crcnvns and I harps of tha New Jerusalem. "Nothing," says I Dr Wallace, "is more common than for leligious I people at seances to ask questions about God and I Ohmt. In; Vepjy tliey never get more than opinions or more frequently the statement that they are spirits, have no more actual knowledge than they had on earth." There are, indeed, Dr Wallace assures ns, Catholic and Protestant, Mahommedan and Hindoo spirits, pwr\ ing that the •' mind with its myriad beliefs is not suddenly changed at death," nor, seemingly, for ages afterwards. Thus from outestimate of the spiritualist state of future felicity, we are called on to make, at stalling, the enoimous deduction of everything resembling leligious piogress. Tho spiritualist is perfectly content with an M ideal Heaven wherein he will remain in just as j much doubt or error as he happens to have entertained upon eaith. Further, as regards his peisonal and social affections, does he at last imagine to himself that he will be nearer and more able to protect and bless his dear ones after death 1 Or that he "w ill pass freely hither and thither, doing seivice liko a guardian angel to mankind, strengthening the weak, comforting the mourner, and awakening the conscience of the wicked? Theie is, so far as we have have tolled the literature of spiritualism, no warrant for such a picture of beneficent activity. Good spirits, as well as bbathed — the souls of Plato and Fenolen, as well as those of the silliest and most wickedest " twaddler " (as Dr Wallace honestly describes many spirits habitue of seeances) — have seemingly spent all the centuries since their demise humbly waiting to be called up by some woman, or child, precisely as if they were lackeys ready to answer the downstairs' bell. In many case avo two led to infer that the dead have been striving for \eais and ages to make themselves known, and now for the last quarter of a centuaiy have very clumsily and imperfectly succeeded in doing so. Let us conceive for a moment a grand and loving soul — a Shakespeare, or Jeremy Taylor, or Shelley, who once spoke to mankind in free and noble speech, a man among men, fumbling about the legs of tables, sciatching like a dog at a door, and eagerly flying to obtain tho services of an interpreter like Mi&s Fox, Mr Hurtle, or Mrs Guppy» — and we have surely invented a punishment and | humiliation exceeding thoEoof any purgatory hitherto invented. If virtue itself has nothing better to hope for hereafter than such a destiny, we may well wish that the grave should prove indeed, after all, the last home of " earth's mighty nation." " Wherp Oblivion's poll shall dnrkly fnll On Ibo dreamless slpcp of annihilation." In conclusion, is it too much now to ask that we may be exonerated, once for all, from the chaigo ; of umeasonable prejudice, if we refuse to imdeitako the laborious inquiry into the marvels of spiritual- ™ ism which its advocates challenge, — an inquiry pursued by methods bordering upon the sacrilegious and terminating either in the exposure of a miserable delusion, or else in the sultiiication and aboitiun of nmn'b immortal Hope 1

Most of us straggle into the world, says the Chicago Times, weighing from 61b to 121b, and struggle out again after a time, weighing from 100 or twice that number of pounds. Having done nothing wonderful during the fattening period, Aye are permitted to glide into the obliv ion of*the tomb unnoticed, just as we heralded. If, however, Nature had arranged that Mrs Oliver, of Dubuque, to introduce some of us into this vale of tears, we would have achieved the notoriety of at leabt a, newspaper paragraph. The thrifty youngster which she did help into distinction weighed just l^lb, is boven inches long, and eats any number of meals a-day. It is mentioned as evidence of the littleness of young Olh er that an ordinary finger-ring will pass over the babe's hand, and might serve as a bracelet.