CHAPTER XVII.

JESUS NO LOVER OF CREEDAL DISSENTION.

Here is what Macaulay, the English historian, says of the Catholic energy in the latter part of the sixteenth century:

"Instead of toiling to educate human nature to the noble standard fixed by divine precept and example, he had lowered the standard till it was beneath the average level of human nature. He gloried in multitudes of converts who had been baptized in the remote regions of the East; but it was reported that from some of those converts the fact on which the whole theology of the gospel depends had been cunningly concealed, and that others were permitted to avoid persecution by bowing down before images of false gods, while internally repeating Paters and Aves.

"Nor was it only in heathen countries that such acts were said to be practiced. It was not strange that people from all ranks, and especially of the highest ranks, crowded to the confessionals in the Jesuit temples; for from those confessionals none went discontented away. There the priest was all things to all men. He showed just so much vigor as might not drive those who knelt at his spiritual tribunal to the Dominican or Franciscan Church. If he had to deal with a most truly devout, he spoke in the saintly tones of the primitive fathers; but with that large part of mankind

which has religion enough to make them easy when they do wrong and not religion enough to keep them from doing wrong, he followed a different system. Since he could not reclaim them from vice, it was his business to save them from remorse. He had at his command an immense dispensary of anodynes for wounded consciences.

"In the Books of Casuistry, which had been written by his brethren and printed with the approbation of his superiors, were to be found doctrines consolatory to transgressors of every class. There the bankrupt was taught how he might, without sin, run off with his master's plate. The pander was assured that a Christian man might innocently earn his bribe by carrying letters and messages between married women and their gallants. The high-spirited and punctilious gentlemen of France were gratified by a decision in favor of duelling. The Italians, accustomed to darker and baser modes of vengeance, were glad to learn that they might, without any crime, shoot at their enemies from behind hedges.

"To deceit was given a license sufficient to destroy the whole value of human contracts and of human testimony. In truth, if society continued to hold together, it was because common sense and common humanity restrained men from doing what the Order of Jesus assured them that they might with a safe conscience do."

What more evidence does one need to prove that Jesus is no longer with such Christians? Are they not a blot on the history of civilization, and is it to be wondered at that the whole spirit world is now aroused to the situation of these unholy men that have combined themselves together for the purpose of making a society so strong that no power on earth can disturb them or even make them afraid? This same style of energy exists to-day, as it did two hundred years ago, and yet they continue to multiply and grow strong, and have less fear of being disturbed than ever before. Is it any wonder that crime is on the increase, and that humanity is even now on the verge of destruction?

When a Church assumes to give the people license to commit all manner of crimes that now exist, in the name of goodness where are we drifting to, and what will become of the people if this kind of Christianity is not ended?

They claim to have the power to even pray a man out of purgatory if he happens to die so far away from a priest that he cannot get salvation granted him for the crimes he has committed.

America and Europe boast of being civilized nations, and go swimmingly along through life with heads up and full of assurance that they have reached the highest point of civilization. They boast of their standing armies; of their iron-clad ships; of their forts and coast defences, and finally they defy each other in open combat. Their people rob, cheat, and plunder each other, and are hanged for murder. The rich are constantly scheming and doing all in their power to get from the laboring man all he earns. They loan money at high interest; take mortgages on houses and farms, and, if not paid when due they are confiscated by law.

They scheme to make all the money they can through the week, and on Sunday go to church and act exceedingly pious. They sometimes pray to three Gods, and sometimes to only one. They profess to be Christians and claim to be the only true followers of Jesus whom they worship as a God. They have men among them they call divine beings; men who are paid to preach Bible doctrine to them on Sunday, and when they retire that night they begin to scheme for more plunder.

Their religion never interferes with their business plans. They claim it would be wicked to exchange property or do business on Sunday, but no harm would be done if they talked matters over on Sunday and made the exchange on Monday.

Christianity comes under the head of a business religion. It is true they worship three Gods, but manage, in some

way to hoodwink them, and get one or more on their side when a good bargain is to be made.

If a lie is required to make a good bargain, they do not forget how to tell it. Many of them are no strangers to whiskey or good wine, and they take to it as naturally as the child does to its nursing-bottle.

However, the signs of the times point to a more hopeful way to the incoming generation as being more ready to accept the truths of Spiritualism. None are so blind as those that will not see.

The spiritual philosophy and its visible phenomena were first arranged in the heavenly spheres, and, by the efforts of the angels, are now being given to us as fast as we are ready to receive them. It is true Spiritualism is as old as the hills, and the Bible is full of it, but, notwithstanding all that, we find millions of Christians unfamiliar with its holy truths, and loth to accept any of its fundamental teachings.

Jesus taught the truths of Spiritualism and did all in his power to teach others some of its beautiful truths; but he was in advance of the times, and the consequence was he was deprived of his life on the earth, and was compelled to go away and take up his abode with the angels. His life was short on the earth, but for a short time he was permitted to return and let himself be known to some of his followers and then finally bid them adieu.

For nearly two thousand years he has been talked about, preached about, lied about, until finally it has become so unbearable that a grand effort has been made on the part of his friends and himself to give to the world the truth and the practicability of his past teachings.

However, the Christians are the last ones to accept it, and the first to condemn it. But, no matter, the truth must be known though the heavens fall. This is a matter that the angels control, and it matters not how long it takes the Christians to learn it, the plan is to redeem the world from its unenlightened condition, and establish the only true reli gion that the world has ever known.

War commenced in the primitive days of Christianity, and they have furnished money and voted means to carry it on ever since. Fighting Christianity has failed to redeem the world from sin, except to fight itself into power.

I may be radical in some of my expressions, but the angels know as well as I do, that I have not strayed far from the truth.

My only object in writing these lines is to give to the Modern Christians the truth. Our truth is not like old theology a vision, but a reality.

England and France have been the battlefields of many a religious contest between Catholics and Protestants. A State religion was finally established in England known as the Episcopal or Church of England, and for many years after a war was kept up between this and the first named. It is said all this turmoil and fighting was done for the love of Jesus; but where the love comes in is hard to tell.

One thing we feel quite sure of, and that is that Jesus never took any part in their actions. He is no friend of orthodox creeds.