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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    degraded by the uplifting of Reason. Faith will be the gainer and not the loser by letfang Reason do its work. Reason ploughs ahead, breaks up and plants new fields. Faith will reap the harvest. Faith may often be shaken, and seemingly torn up by the roots ; but it is only to be set out in a larger place. Reason is not the destroyer but the builder of faith. It may, and indeed does, take down the old castles; but it is only that the new and more beautiful may fill their places- The Jews, no doubt, felt it a great loss that their faith and their forms of worship could not hold and dominate the world ; but the old form had to give place to the new life of the spirit. The Church of the 17th century thought it a great loss to give up the geocentric theory of the earth and the heavens ; but it had to be done. Faith would never have passed beyond the Ptolemic theory had not Reason brought in the Copernican ; but now Faith finds herself much happier in her new and larger home of millions of, suns and systems filling all the depths of space. Faith may now feel that she is being driven from her place by the doctrines of evolution and the unbounded presence and reign of law ; but she will yet sing a happier song, when, in the clearer lights of these great truths, she finds that, instead of putting God away they bring Him so constantly near that His presence fills all things—is in the air and in the light, and every form of life, and in the thoughts and hearts of men. Then shall this clinging, trusting Angel of Faith wipe the tears from her eyes, and in her broader and better vision rejoice that Reason led the way to a larger and truer trust, and to a grander and richer home. ” THE NEW BASES OF BELIEF ARE R.ATIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC. The new bases of belief supplied by Spiritualism are rational, and they are also scientific. We get our facts, verify them, and then reason therefrom to a consistent theory. In tliis way a course is followed diametrically opposite to that which has been adopted by Theology, and with which Science has joined issue. The Christian Church had certain theories to uphold, and her facts were made to coincide with them. Spiritualism reverses this method; by so doing joining hands with Science ; and, while putting many of the doctrines of the Christian Church on a lower basis, at the same time places them on an impregnable and surer foundation. I will leave it for others to say which is preferable—an exalted and uncertain position, const.antlj' liable to attack without means of defence, or a lower stand-point, but one at the same time sure of defence and secure from attack. .SPIRITUALISM RECOGNISES THE UNBOUNDED PRESENCE OF L.VW. Spiritualism recognises the unbounded and universal presence of law. Her facts occur in conformity theremth. We, therefore, h.avo to discard all belief in the miraculous and exceptional. This test, applied to the Bible miracles, bad cut all the ground from under the feet of those who brought them forward as worthy of belief, as indicative of the reality of spirit and a future life; and they were relegated to the limbo of the delusions and myths of the p.ast. Here,v . however, Spiritualism steps in and says :—Stay your hand; the ancient miracles are true 1 They occurred in the past, for I can show j'ou the r.