Daughters of the King; and other groups—all contributed their share and helped to make it possible for the Convention to keep a high plane. A very quiet but most important group was that which gathered about Mr. James Moore Hickson, who carried on a healing mission in Christ Church during the latter part of the Convention. Mr. Hickson met and addressed the clergy of the Convention on one evening and the laymen at another time. Besides this he gave unstintedly of his time to private conferences and in every way possible he helped make clear his great purpose to assist the Church in restoring her work of spiritual healing. He created a profound impression and many men went home determined under God to try to be more faithful in their ministry to the sick both in mind and body.

Some Recent Spiritualistic Literature

REV. FRANK H. HALLOCK, D.D.

Crawford, W. J. Hints and Observations for Those Investigating the Phenomena of Spiritualism. New York, 1918.

Herbine, Charlotte G. The Meeting of the Spheres or Letters from Dr. Coulter. New York, 1919.

Hill, J. Arthur. Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine,

with an Introduction by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. New York, 1919. Martin, Alfred W. Psychic Tendencies of Today. New York, 1918. "Sciens." How to Speak With the Dead. New York, 1918.

Watson, Albert D. The Twentieth Plane, A Psychic Revelation. Philadelphia, 1919.

Forster, Arthur Haire. Four Modern Religious Movements. Boston, 1919.

IN

N the present-day popularity of spiritualism one may find many evidences of good. It indicates a reaction from previous misconceptions: from materialism, from the over-emphasis upon religion as a matter primarily of

this world, from the current tendency to make religion merely a code of ethics. As Mr. Martin says,-associating Spiritualism with Christian Science, Theosophy and New Thought,-"each of these movements arose to stem the tide of skepticism, to check the growth of philosophical materialism and of that practical materialism which is far more dangerous than any erroneous speculations of the philosophers; the materialism, whose gospel is creature-comforts, sensualism, and starvation of the spirit; life self-centered and unconsecrated" (p. 22). Spiritualism bears witness to the hunger for immortality which naturalism and the conceptions just noted have forced into the background. We may rejoice in the increasing interest in the supernatural-even though it is not the highest form of the supernatural with which spiritualism concerns itself; for a supernatural that does not begin with God can never be an adequate, satisfying supernatural. Spiritualism is also a reaction from our failure, in practice, to make use of the doctrines of the Intermediate State of the Communion of Saints, and of the possibility of our communication with the departed through the medium of prayer. In the case of those who have never grasped any positive idea of the larger life beyond and, by their failure, have done violence to a fundamental craving of their nature, there is a longing for some communication with the departed, for some assurance of their survival, with which it is easy and natural for us to sympathize. A study of some of the more recent writings does not, however, deepen this a priori sympathy which we may instinctively feel. The alleged communications may in some cases appeal to our emotions, but they leave our reason untouched-unless it be moved to reject them.

We should make it clear that Spiritualism is not a form

of Christianity in any orthodox acceptation of the term. Mr. Hill (p. 180) asserts that it is: "it is a form of Christianity; though some of its adherents prefer not to say this, because by 'Christianity' they mean an ecclesiastical and creedal system which, not without reason, they regard as not necessarily good or representative of the mind of Christ." But in the Spiritualistic service which Mr. Hill reports (pp. 184 sqq.) God is mentioned only once and the Holy Spirit once, and the service is concerned so largely with communications from the departed that one may regard the receiving of such communications as the chief purpose of the meeting; certainly it is not prayer, praise, thanksgiving or worship. In spite of this evidence Mr. Hill is insistent; he continues (p. 215): "It is not a worship of spirits. Neither is it merely communication with spirits. As already stated, its first principle is the fatherhood of God, and this is a religious principle." This may be so, but it is a princiiple of which they apparently make small use. To the reader who examines the subject from without, the religious side seems narrowed down to the one subject of communications; which concerned with the supernatural, it does not at all act as though it were in the presence of the supernatural; "the human or secular element is rather strongly present in the atmosphere of their meetings. The good people are friendly and chatty, but a moderately orthodox stranger would probably feel that the devotional element is rather small. The proceedings are interesting except when a speaker is long-winded and platitudinous-and everyone is affable; but there is a lack of dignity and reverence" (ibid, p. 219). One may hesitate to accept the rather airily-given conclusion: "And anyhow it is perhaps better than the other extreme, which often becomes mere dead ceremonialism." Whatever else it may

be, it is not Christianity. Mr. Martin would have the orthodox generally in agreement with him when he says: "In passing it may be permitted me to remark that not only did the Ethical movement originate in 1876, but its birth was due to the self-same cause that brought these psychic movements into existence, viz., the deeply-felt need of a satisfying religion to take the place of the Judaism and Christianity that had failed to make a satisfying appeal" (p. 23). Its ultimate fate is sealed in the fact that it does not minister to the fundamental instinct of worship.

Since Mr. Hill has introduced the subject of orthodoxy, let us look into that aspect next. The "Catechism" for the instruction of children contains, we may note, phrases from Tom Paine as illustrative. The evidence for survival is compared to the Apostolic reception of the Resurrection on the evidence given: "If then it was right for them to believe on the basis of things perceived by their senses-the material and phantasmal appearance of Jesus after His death,—it is difficult to see how it is wrong for people nowadays to base their belief on similarly objective evidence" (Hill, p. 251). In none of the books examined do we find any satisfactory teaching concerning the hideousness of sin. On the contrary, we find a very low view of its nature and consequences. Dr. Crawford is a little more definite than most, though in his communication we find only a sentence: "the entities" (communicating spirits) "say that in their state of existence there are in reality 'dark' places -places which should be avoided at all cost, the way to avoid them, so we are told, being to live a normal life while on earth" (p. 21). "Normal life" is not more strictly defined, and we cannot but wonder if it means a sin-free life. Comforting, if we can accept it, is the "truth" communicated to Basil King (Cosmopolitan Magazine, August,

1919), when the spirit asserts, "Emphasis is never laid upon the past, always upon the future." In its conception of God it is pantheistic throughout; thus S. T. Coleridge, speaking from the exalted twentieth plane, says: "Re God: Get this for your plane-the Universe (based on principles so well enunciated by Spinoza, later thought extending the idea into the domain of pure Kantian reason), specifically, as an utterance of fact without the most minute grain of dissimulation, teaches that The Universe is God. Now, this is our first premise. We of the Twentieth Plane know, based on extensive empirical thought-endeavours in the chambers of concentration, that God, the Universe, is really one great all-comprehensive, omniscient, omnipresent soul-mind, divided into three great divisional strata. These are: (1) The passive physical world, (2) The great area of imagination (and at the apex), (3) The serene, rare, pure inspirational centre of God's intelligence" (Dr. Watson, pp. 235-235). Hartley Coleridge, being asked whether "It is necessary to have a theory of God in order to understand the world?", replies: "No; because you are a part of God" (ibid, p. 241). Ingersoll bears his evidence to the same effect (ibid, p. 283). Spinoza (pp. 187-189) reaffirms the teaching that he delivered while on earth. Dr. Coulter, in his communications, often tells us the same, e. g., "Fruits and flowers are the things which help us, through their colour and perfume, which are part of God's spirit" (p. 43). "There is no supernatural, since all is natural, all is Nature" (p. 167). "We are the universe; we represent God, we are a demonstration from God" (p. 282). This is made clearer by a communication on the next page: "The idea of God has been changed to meet the minds of the people and of the popes and priests of different ages. Though each man may thus make his own God, the God of