THE LIFE BEYOND.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 292, 7 December 1920, Page 9

THE LIFE BEYOND.

(To the Bditor.) Sir,—ln response to 'Mr. Clement L. Uragges challenge to show any fla-w in hie reasoning that there is no devil, and that all mankind will enjoy a more or lees blissful after-life, 1 venture to advance a few considerations. Like many others fifty years ago I embraced the Tcnnysonian philosophy, with its faint trust that

"Good shall fall sometime, somewhere, at last to all And every winter cuauge to spriuj; '

This conception of the scheme of tilings is Mattering to our humanitarianism. disposes of Satan, and accords with pcntimental ideas of the goodness of God. But extended observation and mature rejection have shown mc that the notion ie entirely false and contralto all reason, experience, and natural analogy.

There is in Xature and in .man's mental make-up a principle of duality, whereby the mention of one quality immediately and inevitably leads us to recognise the existence of its opposite. Thus, truth suggests the existence of falsehood; and we have light and darkness, white and black, good and evil (or God and Devil). ;Now, if God is a person, why should not the Devil be one also 7 As a matter of fact, there is in the world to-day more evidence of the Devil's existence and potency than there is of God's. The principle of evil is more active around us than the principle of good. The AllGood and All-Perfect cannot be the author of evil and imperfection; and if not, who is? We are supposed to have abolished a personal Devil, but the query of a Yankee rhymester is pertinent: "Who carries the business on?" If you say evil ie 'but a principle, and the Devil a phantasm of the brain, could not the came with equal truth 'be predicated of goodness and God? Reason surely asserts the existence of both God and Devil as entities; else 'how comee it that all the religions of earth personify the powere of good and evil? Are Jews, Christians. 'Mohammedans, 'Hindus, and Parsees all wrong; and is no one right but those few lop-sided Spiritualists who see good in everything and nowhere a trace of evil or of evil spirits?

Reason and revelation apart, let mc speak from experience, and adopt .Mr. Wragge's dogmatic style. I 'know that God exists, and that I personally shall live for ever; but I cannot logically deduce from this knowledge that, all ■men -will accept God's gift of eternal life. My experience of people I have known ie that about ninety per cent of them have no realisation of the Being of God, no assurance of eternal life, and no wish for it. Fifty years ago. when [ 'began dabbling in "table-turning" and other physical demonstrations of socalled Spiritualism, I was fully pereuaded there was no Devil or bad spirits, and that all evil originated with (human beinge. 'Long and intimate inquiry into psychic phenomena has convinced mc of the existence of a Satanic Power, with legions of demonic servants, ac taught in the Scriptures of all religions. That is what modern Spiritualism has done for mc! I know there is a "life beyond for all; ibut that life is in many caees a hopelese misery—happily, soon to be terminated by extinction, or "the second death," which these unhappy people have decreed lor themselves by refusing the offer of eternal life. lam firmly convinced, also, that all thie is in accord with the highest conceptions of the All-Wise and All-Merciful, and in perfect agreement with the facts and analogies of Nature. Of course, evil must, ultimately be vanquished, and abolished from God's universe. How that ie to be accomplished we know not; but assuredly it is not to be attained by pretending that evil and evil spirits do not exist at present.—l am, etc., J. LIDDELL KELLY. Devonport, December 5, 1920. (To the Editor.) Sir, Mr. Wragge asks, "Who and IWto-at ie Satan?" Satan is the adversary who seeks for dominion over the souls of men, in opposition to the freedom offered them by the Lord. Satan means the hater, the accuser. The ancients personified the states of the soul. Hence, Batan is spoken of as a person. But strictly, Satan ie the spirit that bates and accuses, ■and one wholly given over to hating can properly be called a aatan. The namej ■was given because the character was known to exist. Two terms are used in the Bible, viz., the Devil and Satan, and these two are usually thought to bs the same. But there is a difference, and the use of the two words is to teach truly of the two evil states into which men fall. There are those who do evil from a perverted wills these ar; they who are in the power of the devil. On the other hand there are those who do evil from a perverted understanding; these are they: who are in the power of Satan. The origin of evil is in fch« rational powers •men possess. By the use of reason man is able to know God and love Him. or turn from God, hate Him and deny Him, and men do both of these tilings. Evil is more than negation. Good descends from God in degrees or eteps from good that is divine to good that is natural and diminishes until there is absence or negation of good. (But this ie not the end. Evil, which is the perversion not the afeence of good, then appears, and .perversions march in J«grces opposing the goods to which they are opposite and of which they are perversions. This is not God's provMins. but man's choosing. Of course "there ie hope for a!l mnnkind." echoes Mr. WTagge. and he puts forth evolution as the answer. Ylere be is deficient in knowledge. Jesus has been a power in the world. He impressed the people of His own time as different from other teachers. "He taught as one having authority.' . He poured out His soul in pleading with men and women to turn — repent —to cease from evil for their very life's cake, and the plea will always have the same urgency. NV> evolution enn save any man without repentance. To believe so is not to understand either evolution or religion. ''What is there to fear?" "Be just and fear not," is the answer. But be unju?t and you have all the fears of the damned to fear. "How can Spiritualism be a Satanic power?" By spirits of perverted understanding being the controlling spirits. They arc then Satans and have n power of meleading that is amazing, oven to being able to "deceive the very elect."' This is known to those who (have -practised and investigated Spiritualism.—lam,etc* 1 ROBERT J. STRONG., i