Their brave, unselfish devotion must do something to cleanse the
name for which they fought and suffered. It was they who nursed
the system which promises to be, not a new religion--it is far
too big for that--but part of the common heritage of knowledge
shared by the whole human race. Perfected Spiritualism, however,
will probably bear about the same relation to the Spiritualism of
1850 as a modern locomotive to the bubbling little kettle which
heralded the era of steam. It will end by being rather the proof
and basis of all religions than a religion in itself. We have
already too many religions--but too few proofs.
Those first manifestations at Hydesville varied in no way
from many of which we have record in the past, but the result
arising from them differed very much, because, for the first
time, it occurred to a human being not merely to listen to
inexplicable sounds, and to fear them or marvel at them, but to
establish communication with them. John Wesley's father
might have done the same more than a century before had the
thought occurred to him when he was a witness of the
manifestations at Epworth in 1726. It was only when the young
Fox girl struck her hands together and cried "Do as I do" that
there was instant compliance, and consequent proof of the
presence of an INTELLIGENT invisible force, thus differing
from all other forces of which we know. The circumstances were
humble, and even rather sordid, upon both sides of the veil,
human and spirit, yet it was, as time will more and more clearly
show, one of the turning points of the world's history, greater
far than the fall of thrones or the rout of armies.
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