Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-05-28

lle Dele, tnat II JnaC SllvatlOn IA
not been obtained ere we leave tn
earth-plane, the purifying worl
gees OH in the hereafter. We be
licve that the life-teachings and ex
ample of the meek and lowly Naz
arene are among, If not the brightes
and holiest, that have illumined th'
pages of human history. We woult
gladly see the world emulate him t.
a greater degree. We believe in al
the different gifts that Paul tells u.
Of; we know that there are those, to
day, who are true Christians, wearing
! the robes of Jesus of Nazereth who
heal the sick, make the blind to see
the deaf to hear, the lame to walk
We believe that q perfect faith in
Spiritualism will make every man,
woman and child better and purer,
for
How pure in heart and sound in head
With what Divine affections bold
Should be the man whose thoughts
would hold
An hours communion with the dead"
We believe that Spiritualism opens
the way for many deeds of kindness
which nothing else would. for if we
are surrounded 10y the loving, anx-
ious influences of friends, would
they not incito us to do those things
which would result in the greatest
spiritual good to those they love
Oh earth =? Then, dead friends in
the ministry, what is there in this
belief that you cannot subscribe to-?
What that you condemn?
Among the many questions asked
by the doubters, to-day, are the fol-
lowing: Why do mediums have or
require so many conditions? Why
do not my friends in spirit-liie, come
to me direct? Is it at all probable
that pure, unsullied spirit, who Oh
earth shrunk from contact with any
thing coarse or impure, will control
the organism of q medium who is
known to be both P. Why do mes
sases purporting to come from our
friends, sound SO much more like
the expression of the mediums
thoughts, than those of the spirit?
Why cannot all these phenomena
take place in the light? Why do
mediums use their gifts for the sake
of gain, if they really are sincere
and want to do good? If they wish to
convince the world that what they
preach is true, why do they not give
these proofs of spirit-return to the
world without money and without
price? And last but not least, if all
they say is true, of what good is it?
TO the first question, l can only re-
ply that in my own case, l exact
very few conditions, in my seauces,
which your own sense of propriety
would not suggest. But we Spiritu-
alists believe, however, that an in
exoIable law of cause and effect gov
erns Ill the operations of nature, and
that many of the phenomena occur
ring in the presence of so-called
mediums, are controlled by subtle
magnetic and electric law, under-
stood by the spirit-world better than
by US, and that the conditions"
imposed upon us by our angel guides
are generally necessary. Jesus, in
The exercise of his gifts, showed to
the people that he, too, recognized
and felt these laws, for Mark tells
us, He could do there, no mighty
work, save that he laid his hand upon
q few SICK people and healed them,
and he marveled at their unbelief. "
Here want of faith, alone, seems to
have prevented the power of Jesus,
as it often does that of spirits and
mortals. We are told that He an
nointed the eyes of the blind with
clay made Of spittle, aud to restore
hearing to the deaf man, He put bis
fingers into his ears, and He spit
and touched his tongue with the
saliva. Think you He whose whole
nature was so spirituelle, so refined,
would have resorted to these means,
which seem almost revolving to us,
if he had not felt that only that
cause could produce the desired
effect, and known that he must do
more than simply to command the
disease to depart?
From our study of the Bible, it
seems that the great miracles init re-
corded were only successfully per-
formed under favorable conditions,
and, in view of this fact, it seems
little inconsistent for the Christians
of to-day to make it an objection to
the spiritual manifestations of the
present time that conditions must
be observed.
Every thing in nature proves to
the searching mind, that God, the