Moses, W.S. Spirit Teachings

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We have spoken to you with care, and with a due sense of the importance of what we say. Dwell on it
with care. Ponder it with single desire for truth, and seek the Divine aid ministered to all who pray for it.
+IMPERATOR.
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[I am reluctant to publish what is so private in its nature and bearings: but I am constrained to do so, and
my justification is that what was the experience of one may be the experience of many, and the history of
my mental and spiritual struggles may be helpful to others who are passing through a similar phase. After
an interval of some days, during which I received no communication on the subject of the religious
teaching of spirits, I requested permission to state further objections which pressed strongly on my mind.
As I recall my state, I was perplexed and startled by what had been said. I was unable to accept what
was so new; and the great point that weighed with me was that of Spirit Identity. It seemed in my then
state that I must have complete proof of the earth identity of the communicating spirit before I could
accept the statements made. I believed such direct demonstration to be procurable; and I was distressed
that it was not given I did not know then (July, 1873) as I do now that the evidence of conviction is what
alone is to be had; and that no cut-and-dried plan such as I propounded would really have carried with it
the conviction I imagined. Moreover, I was distressed by the feeling that much that passed current for
spirit communication was silly and frivolous, if not mischievous. I compared the teaching of the Christian
moralists with spirit teaching very much to the disadvantage of the latter. I also considered that there was
very wide divergence between teachings given by spirits, and that all sorts of opinions were professed.
Most of these I disliked personally, and I did not believe that they benefited the people who received
them. I fancied that many such were enthusiasts and fanatics, and was repelled by the idea. Neither from
internal nor external evidence was I greatly attracted, and the objections that I put at that time were
directed to the points above noticed. They related principally to evidence about identity, to what I
thought would be the probable dealings of God with mankind, and to the general character and outcome
of Spiritualism. The next answer made to me was as follows: ]
FRIEND, we are pleased to converse with you again; and if it be impossible for us to answer all your
queries, and to solve all your problems, we can at least rectify some errors into which you have fallen as
to the dealings of God with man, and the tendency of the mission which we have in charge.
The root of your error seems to lie in a false conception of God and of His dealings with mankind.
Surely the page of human history bears upon it the story of one uniformly progressive revelation of One
and the same God. The attempts of men to realise and picture to themselves the God whom they
ignorantly worship have led to the strangest and most fallacious notions as to His nature and operations.
In the early days of man s history the crude notion of a God inherent in His spiritual nature took shape as
a fetish, which was alternately prayed to with reverence or cast aside with contumely, in proportion as
the prayer was granted or delayed. Men knew not that the block before which they bowed was
powerless, and that round them hovered ever the bands of spirit ministers who were ready to succour
and defend them, and to bear to them answers to their reasonable prayers. They could grasp no more of
God than that. The tangible, palpable image was to them the embodiment of their idea. Mark this! of
their idea of God, not of God Himself, but of the crude conception which was the best idea they could
frame. Drawing their information from their own dealings, they imagined for themselves certain rules of
conduct by which they proceeded to judge the God whom they had created. They feigned for Him
human passions such as they found worthy of respect in their fellows. They credited Him with some
failings which were inseparable from humanity as they knew it. He was jealous of His honour; long-
suffering and of tender pity; according as they who spoke of Him imagined that He ought to be. He was,
in short, a glorified man a man endued with omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. They
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feigned Him such and made Him act accordingly. Consequently all the revelation of God is characteristic
of the age in which it is given. It grows with human development, and is progressively proportioned to
the development of human intellect and refinement, simply because the human medium becomes capable
of being impressed with more accurate views of the Deity in proportion as he has shaken himself free
from his former fetters of ignorance, and has himself progressed towards light and knowledge.
We have frequently said that God reveals Himself as man can bear it. It must needs be so. He is
revealed through a human medium, and can only be made known in such measure as the medium can
receive the communication. It is impossible that knowledge of God should outstrip man s capacity. Were
we now to tell you if we could of our more perfect theology it would seem to you strange and
unintelligible. We shall, by slow degrees, instil into your mind so much of truth as you can receive, and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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