The Fundamentals II. ATTRACTIONS OF SPIRITUALISM
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Spiritualism, like all systems of error, works to a large extent underground. I t does not present itself in its true col ors to the uninitiated. Once a dupe is caught in its toils he is drawn farther and farther away from God. Some are attracted to it through sheer curiosity. The love of the unknown allures them. Some, believing it to be mere trickery, think they can detect the fraud, and so get entangled in the real thing. That there is trickery in it is certain; but with full allowance for all this, there are effects produced which can be attributed only to the influence of personating demons. Others again are drawn into it by the deep desire to fill the aching void made by the death of a loved one. When David, after agonizing prayer for the life of Bathsheba’s child, heard of his death, he asked, “Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, BUT HE SHALL NOT RETURN TO ME" (2 Sam. 12:23). David evidently knew nothing of intercourse with the spirits of the departed. III. REFUSES TEST OF SCRIPTURE A well-known' spiritualistic author, writing under the nom de plume, ‘'Oxford, M. A . " says: “So long as you reply to our arguments with a text, we cannot teach you. Any one who can so reply is beyond reach of reasonable teaching” ( “Spirit Teachings,” p. 198). The author of “Outlines of Spiritualism for the Young,” says: “To assert that it [the Bible] is a holy and Divine book, that God inspired the writers to make known His Divine will, is a gross outrage on, and misleading to, the public. . . . The truth is, the Old Testament is neither more nor less than Jewish history. . . , The New Testament is made up of traditions and theological speculations by unknown persons. A book so full of errors . . . requires to be read with care” {“Outlines,” pp. 13, 14). Refusal of the Bible could not be more explicit.
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