CHAPTER XVII.

PERVERSION OF THE

APOSTOLIC INJUNCTION TO

TRY THE SPIRITS.

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world."-1 John iv: 1,3.

THE Apostle has enjoined on the Church, to "try the spirits" by which prophets claim to be inspired. The Spiritualists, in the absence of a justification for the practice of necromancy, have perverted this text to sanction their practices. To render it subservient to their purposes they make three assumptions. They assume that the object of this trial is to determine the character of different spirits of the dead; that this trial must necessarily require intercourse with these spirits. That this text not only sanctions this intercourse, but absolutely makes it a duty! An examination of the

text will show the incorrectness of their interpretation.

It will be necessary to show what spirits were to be tried, the object of the trial, the test to be applied, and the manner of effecting the trial.

The spirits to be tried were not those who might at any time rap, tip tables, and make such contemptible.manifestations. It was well understood by Christians in those days that all such were evil. The spirits to be tried, were obviously those by whom any prophet claimed to be inspired. The Apostle was speaking of prophets as true or false.

The object of this trial was to discover by what spirit a prophet was inspired. Not indeed whether the inspiration was effected by Moses, or Balaam ; Samuel or Agag; Zacharias or Antiochus. But, whether the prophet was inspired by the spirit of God, or by a demon. "Try the spirits whether they are of God." "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God,"

says the Apostle.

The necessity for this trial was found in the fact that "many false prophets had gone out into the world." In order to decide their truthfulness or falsehood, it was necessary to ascertain by what spirit they were inspired-whether by the spirit of God, or another spirit. If by the former, they were true prophets; if by the latter, they were false.

The test to be applied, according to the apostle, was not whether the spirits who inspired the prophets, told the truth generally, discoursed elo

quently, taught morality and religion, and made pleasing revelations--tests which are now in vogue --but, did they confess that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh? This great question of the incarnation of the Redeemer--whether he was the Son of God, as he professed to be--was the contested question between Christ, the Holy Spirit, and Christians, on the one hand, and Satan, demons, and anti-christians on the other. As public opinion and those in authority were strongly opposed to Christianity, all demons who inspired prophets, like their time-serving "mediums," taught the popular view. Hence said Paul, "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord [by any inspiration] but by [that of] the Holy Ghost."* For these reasons the character of the inspiration was to be decided by the teachings of the prophets on this subject. "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now is it in. the world."

The application of this test, by no means involves intercourse with departed spirits, as some would have us believe. Since God has prohibited. necromancy, it is absurd to suppose that he has given a command which involves the forbidden practice. It is not necessary to leap Niagara in

* 1 Cor. xii: 3.

order to learn the danger of such an experiment. It was only necessary to ascertain what a prophet taught concerning this one point of Christian doctrine in order to decide whether he was inspired by the Spirit of God or by another spirit.

If a prophet taught that Christ was the Son of God, he was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Hence his teachings should be received. If he denied that Christ was the Son of God, he was inspired by a demon, if inspired at all, and he should be treated as a false prophet. Says John, "who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is an antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son"i, e, that the relation of Father and Son exists between the two beings.

Spiritualists can find no justification for their spiritual intercourse in this command to " try the spirits;" on the contrary, they are condemned by the apostle's test. It is well known that the spirits, with their mediums, seers, and followers, generally reject the doctrine of the miraculous conception, and like the ancient false prophets, deny that Christ is "the only begotten Son of God." Hence, according to John, they belong to the family of antichrists.

A clergyman in Philadelphia told Dr. Longshore, a prominent spiritualist, that Christ was the Son of God. The Dr. replied, "We are all sons of God." But," said the former, "he is the Son of God in the same sense that you are the son of your father."

"You can't poke that humbug down the throats of the present generation," was the contemptuous reply.

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As though it were a light thing to deny Christ in all his offices, the spiritualists are publishing deistical books. The majority of their books are such. I have one now before me, written by G. B. Smith, and published by Messrs. PARTRIDGE & BRITTAN, a revamping of the Age of Reason, and quite as blasphemous. The writer recommends the works of A. J. Davis--adopts his blasphemous vocabulary, and speaks of the Bible account of creation as a myth "—the Old Testament as a "vagabond history;" "worse than useless," and that " any attempt to sink the Jewish God to a deeper depth would be futile !" He talks of Christ and the New Testament in such a manner, that he says himself, "Christians, perhaps, may be startled and shocked with my Heaven-daring assertions!" He styles the Apocalypse "St. John's delirious trance,' and compares it to the wild ravings of a man in the delirium tremens." He recommends the Theory of Rain, which Mr. Davis professed to have received from the spirits-but which, in fact, was a garbled plagiarism from a work by Mr. Daniel Vaughan, of Covington, Ky., a copy of which was given to Mr. Davis in Cincinnati-as far superior to anything revealed in the Bible, and the great "remedy" for earth's evils, by which to make "the icy poles and burning sands" "bloom with beauty," conquer "sin and disease," make man a "harmo

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