ATTITUDE OF CHURCHES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLI, Issue 9392, 14 December 1920, Page 5

ATTITUDE OF CHURCHES.

REPLY TO SIR CONAN DOYLE

(Per Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, December 13. Spiritualism and Sir Conan Doyle's lectures came ih-for considerable attention in the Auckland churches last

evening. Preaching at St, iMary's Cathedral, the Anglican Bishop: (Dr., Averill) said the Lambeth." Conference, in dealing ■with'the revival of so-called Spiritualism, for it was nothing, new, had dealt gently with the* movement, because it had realised that it was a recoil from soul-dieadening. materialism and the exaggeration of some* aspects of truth which the science of psychology would reveal in due time. "The Conference realised." he said, • " that. the present movement was to some extent the outcome of the Church's failure to teach clearly and authoritatively the full meaning and Comfort of the doctrine of;_ the Communion of Saints, which assures us of our continual fellowship with the departed, and of the fact that death is the gate'to fuller life." .The Conference recognised the honesty, of ,the Psychical-Research Society and its endeavours to winnow the chaff from the wheat, but strongly deprecated the modern.,; tendency' to make a cult or religion of• Spiritualism, for Spiritualism as. a religion was anti-Christian,*-, denying the great truths of the Incarnation and Redemption. "Spiritualism j is purely in the experimental stage," declared the Bishop, "and it is* worse thati folly to. its pronouncements as" established' .facts, and when the science of the mind, and especially the ..effects of self-hypnotism and mental suggestion are more clearly understood, it seems almost certain that they, will explain all the phenomena which Spiritualism claims ■ from the . spirit world. The Conference says such scientific researches have confessedly not reached an advanced stage, and we are supported, by the best psychologists* in warning our people against accepting as final theories which further knowledge may t disprove, . and still more against the indiscriminate and undisciplined exercise Of psychic powers and the habit of recourse to seances, seers, and mediums." - I

One of the most interesting attacks upon Spiritualism came from the Rev. J. W. Sliaw'.'"^Concluding, his remarks at the .Mount .Eden Presbyterian Church, he' said : "When yoruremember that'the alleged spirits tell v._ nothiiur about the life they now lead, but only of earthly things:' tlfat the mediums who are the high priests and priestesses of the cult almost alii suffer moral degeneration as they exercise their sacred office; that ere the strongest minds lose their balance (as witness Sir Conan Doyle's idea that we have in bur spiritual being ;-#"series of. skins like an onion, and 'shed one "at every great emotional crisis^ the skin becoming: a ghost); when you remember that'to the average mind dabbling in Spiritualism produces a wild unrest that all too often ends in the lunatic asylum, you will consult your own interests, and the interests of your friend's,* best by not.worrying your mind over thi. business. Our dead; are safe with Christ. Could you believe in a universe, controlled by the God Jesus revealed, in which our dead are always striving to get into touch with us and cannot except through some medium?"