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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S so far from being of any real benefit to humanity, these surface cures merely give rise to a confusion of ideas, sadly mixing up the true and false, the real and apparent, blinding the sufferer to the actual state of his condition, while building up a semblance of health on a basis of perverted and collapsible vital ity.— From a copyright pamphlet by a Los Angeles physician. SPIRITUALISM Why Obscure Persons? If indeed spirits of departed men can be called up from the “ vasty deep,” and if, indeed, they can and will respond, we may surely ask how it is that those who are called, and to whose words we are supposed to listen, are invariably obscure persons, of whose identification, in the nature of the case, it is impossi ble to assure ourselves. There have been great men in past days, men who made unmistakable impression on their contemporaries, and who affected for good later generations of the human race. These were men who served their fellowmen, and in the light of whose wisdom men have shaped their laws and directed their energies. If it is disputed whether or no man is a fallen being, one word from Adam would settle what ever doubt exists. Did Moses write the Pentateuch? Could he write at all? Would, not Moses tell us if he were asked? Has Newton learned nothing since he passed the bourne? With his enlarged experience and clearer vision could he not aid us in the solution of many serious problems? It may be pro posed in all seriousness to Sir Oliver Lodge that he should call upon his great predecessor in scientific research to come to his help in the solution of the problems of relativity, for example. We respect Sir Oliver Lodge in his grief, but we are bound to say to him that he has given his strength to a purely pri vate and domestic concern in which the world at large has no further interest. If indeed he has caught a glimpse of
truth, let him follow it out in a larger way, where it will be possible to test the professed discoveries with a thorough ness not possible when the material for investigation is of a purely personal and intimate character. The truth is that as the water can not rise above its source, so the pro fessed “ spirit” utterances do not rise above the capacity of the medium or of the spirit who is personating the dead. — C. F. Hogg. Phenomena of Demons The learned and level-headed Dr, St. Clair Tisdall believes that back of much spiritistic phenomena is nothing else than demonism, and in an article on the subject in “ Evangelical Christendom” gives this bit of evidence: “ In India a native friend of mine many years ago used to relate, that hav ing as an ascetic made a toilsome pil grimage to Cape Comorin from his home in the Punjab, he had there some strange and terrible mental or spiritual experience so awful that he never dared tell any one the details. Years later, when a convert to Christianity and on a preaching tour in the Punjab, he heard related to him in fluent Sanskrit by an ignorant village woman, when claiming to be under demoniac possession, the exact details of his fearful experience. This she did in order to convince him that she was possessed, and she suc ceeded. . . . What is. called automatic writing may or may not be altogether deliberate fraud, but writing inside a planchette is less easily accounted for. Cases aré well vouched for in which language of the vilest description has been written in this way by an invisible hand.” RUSSELLISM The Test of Heresy Russelli'sm is known as Millennial Dawn, or Watch Tower and Tract So ciety, or Metropolitan Pulpit, or People’s Pulpit Association, or Brooklyn Taber nacle, or International Bible Students
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