A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer.

  • Farmer, John S.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (a.) Because of tlie adequate testimony in its favour. (h. ) Because of the acknowledged intelligeuce of many of its wit- nesses. (c ) Because of the absence of any conceivable motive for perpetual fraud on the part of such witnesses. (d.) Because it supplies a wide-spread need by palpably demon- strating the reality of a continued existence after death. (e.) Because of the practical nature of the inquiry. With reference to clause e, as to the practical nature of the inquiry, I may point out that this is pre-eminently the case as regards both its method and purpose. Spiritualism is, above all, a science of observa- tion, and its conclusions are proved in a rational and natural manner, viz., by an appeal to hard and stubborn facts, the evidence of which cannot be denied. Opinions and theories may be annulled by time, but not so any fact which has once been found to be true after fair and impartial examination. Thus, Spiritual phenomena having been tried and tested by thousands of individuals in all countries, the only logical conclusion at which we can arrive is, that no matter how long and strenuously they may be denied on d priori ground, sooner or later they will, in spite of ail opposition and ridicule, come to be universally acknowledged as true. It required but extended knowledge of natur.-d laws to establish the truth of Gallileo’s proposition concerning the motion of the earth. Had he given no proof of his assertion, it might still have been disbelieved, but all denial falls before a knowledge of the principle. So it is v. ith Spiritu.alism. It requires but a recognition of its absolute foundation upon facts governed by natural laws to render it capable of universal acceptance. Those who deny the possi- bility of spiritual phenomena are in the same false position as those who denied the motion of the earth. They prejudge and declare them absurd, even as a belief in the Antipodes was once held in light esteem. Spiritualism is also practical because of the accessibility of its evi- dences. Unlike a purely scientific fact (e.g. the motion of the earth or its distance from the sun, «S:c.), the proof of which lies not in the hands of the ignorant, but with the learned and educated, the phenomena of Spiritualism can be tested and proved by all the world. I’hey are being repeated day after day, month after month, and year after year, in all quarters of the globe, admitting of repeated testing and re-testing. In its purpose, however, it is of all things the most intenselj' practi- cal. These phenomena, it is claimed, settle beyond the possibility of doubt the question which has from time immemorial troubled and per- plexed the minds of men—‘‘If a man die shall he live again?” It proves undeniably that death is not the suspension or extinction of life ; that the world behind the veil is as visibly and tangibly real as the world of our daily tasks ; that personal individual responsibility remains intaet; and that our destiny is fixed by no arbitrary rule, but rather by the thoughts, feelings, and desires of the present probation- ary stage of existence in short, it points out to demonstration, the exact nature of tho future life ns well as the reality thereof. Do ^ye aiot gain considerably by such knowledge ? Can proof such as will