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Spiritualism
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destroying thousands through the indulgence of the passions, thus
brutalizing the entire nature of man. When the people are led to
believe that desire is the highest law, that liberty is license, and that
man is accountable only to himself, who can wonder that corruption
and depravity teem on every hand? The reins of self-control are laid
upon the neck of lust, the powers of mind and soul are made subject
to the animal propensities, and Satan exultingly sweeps into his net
thousands who profess to be followers of Christ.
But none need be deceived by the lying claims of Spiritualism.
God has given the world sufficient light to enable them to discover
the snare. If there were no other evidence, it should be enough for the
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Christian that the spirits make no difference between righteousness
and sin, between the noblest and purest of the apostles of Christ
and the most corrupt of the servants of Satan. By representing the
basest of men as in Heaven, and highly exalted there, Satan virtually
declares to the world, No matter how wicked you are; no matter
whether you believe or disbelieve God and the Bible. Live as you
please; Heaven is your home.
Moreover, the apostles, as personated by these lying spirits, are
made to contradict what they wrote at the dictation of the Holy Spirit
when on earth. They deny the divine origin of the Bible, and thus
tear away the foundation of the Christian’s hope, and put out the
light that reveals the way to Heaven.
Satan is making the world believe that the Bible is a mere fiction,
or at least a book suited to the infancy of the race, but now to be
lightly regarded, or cast aside as obsolete. And to take the place
of the word of God he holds out spiritual manifestations. Here is
a channel wholly under his control; by this means he can make
the world believe what he will. The book that is to judge him
and his followers he puts into the shade, just where he wants it;
the Saviour of the world he makes to be no more than a common
man. And as the Romish guard that watched the tomb of Jesus
spread the lying report which the priests and elders put into their
mouths to disprove his resurrection, so do the believers in spiritual
manifestations try to make it appear that there is nothing miraculous
in the circumstances of our Saviour’s life. After thus seeking to put
Jesus in the background, they call attention to their own miracles,
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declaring that these far exceed the works of Christ.