"THE NEW REVELATION."

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 17019, 16 December 1920, Page 6

"THE NEW REVELATION."

DEATH AND THE HEREAFTER. LECTURE BY CONAN DOYLE. Before a great gathering at tho i Theatre Royal last night. Sir Arthur : Conan Doyle lectured on "'Death and I tha Hereafter, the New Revelation." I He appoared as an apostle of Spiritual- ! ism, and for an hour and a half piloted I his hearers along "the uncharted coast : fringing the undiscovered couutry." I ilo opened by discussing the relation jof Spiritualism to Christianity. The ►Spiritualists, ho said, had been somewhat bitterly attacked by members of all sorts of sects, and on tho other hand they numbered among their adherents clergymen of overy sect. The majority, however, were opposed to tho Spiritualists, and imagined they wero contemplating some harm to Christianity, llv thought that came from tho Church people" taking a rather narrow view of the present position of religion. The world was not balanced between one faith and another, but between thoso ■ who believed in religion and thoso who . did not. That was, ho thought, what the clergy failed to remember. The fight was between those who believed ill spirit and thoso who beiieveu ut w- , tor, and it was going to be a fight to a finish. So far tho materialist had been winning, and never for a moment had his victorious onset boor, checked. Wo liaci now come to such a point that, in tho city of London, it was calculated that not one person in ten ever entered a church. The educated layman, when he found his reason confronted by dogma, did net' arguo about it, but went away. Ho considered materialism was a dangerous and bleak creed. When , one reflected how necessary it wns that tho bases ot religion should bo strengthened, it wns not good policy on tho part ; of the churches to.look t<lo narrowly ■ how ono little doctrino might bo affected or another, rather than to tho i broach issue of what is spiritual and , that everything essential in religion should become part of the conmioa knowledge of humanity. The .position of tho Christian arguing against tho ! materialist was a perfectly hope ess ono, and vet it was extraordinary that, I whilo ho 'was fighting the arcb onemy, !of all religion, Christian c crgvraea should bo stabbing him m the back. ' The point was tho absolute want of rcaj son and knowledge involved. Tho lecturer then sketched tho history , 'of tho Spiritualist movement from its , birth in 1848. If it was a now revela- « mvstenous had been tho ways of God. Nothing had como from above m - hunan sense; it. had always been from below and tho last to get it had. been the intellectuals. Ho quoted copiously from tho reports of endorsement to leading men of science, who had devoted limo and caro to the tests, ami claimed there was no doubt but that the belief of tho Spiritualist- was true. There was no other alternative. Wo detailed also his own personal investigations and experiences and snid that 1 when the war camo and ho looked out on the world and saw, the misery there was—ftachel mourning for■ hor children —all over tho world, and particularly "n Kneland—when ho saw that he telt that if tho belief could be. proved it would be an enormous bdbn. to mankind. . . , , . j Ho quoted communications no nnawith his son killed at Mons, and with other relatives and friends wnott" during tho war. and continued. Wnat nro the messages from the dead P Wnether tho question is answered in Jajgland, France, Iceland, or anywhcrouWj? .., messages are practically tho samo.tffcey explain death as a perfectly painless _~, process more ploasant than otherwise. ■.. They describe that every body has got a Rocond body insido it, or co-terminou! with it, exactly what St. Paul meant when ho said, 'We have a natural and a spiritual body. . The peculiarity (rt this body is that it. is an absolute facsimile of the physical body.. Tnw . ■ otherie bnrly sometinies detaches ltsoli in life. "When you die it is a permanent detachment. The first thing that happens is that you aro conscious of the facSs of those you have loved and lost bending over you. They come to help von at that terrible crisis of. your lite, the last crisis. Just there it is that tho punishment of tho wicked man be. gins, for it is only lovo that can bring those people. The next thing that happens to them is that they are put to rc"st. -That rest, I think, is for • tho purpose of wiping away .from their minds all thoso pressing cares which a dying man may carry away with him. . At tiio oid of that period of rest the young soul finds itself * surrounded by Wing forms and is Jed into the new liloi We ask them what they are doing, and they any everything intellectual on your earth. All these things are so much higher among us that wo look upon anything you hare ns something filtered through to you by our means. They say that that Heaven is ; a good deal better than this world, but it is not final. You pass to higher ' stages and finally reach a blaze of glory which tho human imagination cannot 1 face." , ... Tho lecturer dealt at some lengta 'with other phases of tho new life, and ' continuing, said the Reformation nwdjj two great mislakes. They abolished. purgatory and substituted hell, whereas tho truth was the exact reverse. There was 110 hell, but there \tas something • which corresponded to purgatory. The other mistake was - tho abolition of the prayers for tho dead. The dead all I agreed that our most loving thought* were helpful to them, and every 200 a spiritualist always prayed for the dead. Tho lecture was hearkened to throughout in impressive silenco, bufc S ; r Arthur was warmly applauded when he closed. ; Tn-iiprnt tho second and final lecture Trill bn"given and a number of unique pictures of psychic Tihenoiriena will be shown. Mony of the«o pictures have boon lent to Sir Arthur for tho pun .•noses of the provnt t«nr and are to be returned at its conclusion.