"STRANGE DEATH PACT."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20988, 26 September 1931, Page 12

"STRANGE DEATH PACT."

Sir, —Many persons will refrain from passing judgment on the case reported in your paper under the above heading on September 22. The injunction of Christ, "Judge not, that ye be not judged," will be observed. The meagreness of our information and our inability to question the persons involved makes this course perhaps the wisest. Others will try to follow Christ's other injunction to "Judge righteous judgment." This course your correspondent, Pastor W. Campbell, has possibly tried to follow, but I consider that he has failed. The evidence before us proves that the parents were not of ,T"ld mind, for no sane person would : "Life holds nothing, death everything." Insanity, rather than spiritualism, was the real cause of their mad act. And spiritualists, as a class, do not advocate or justify such actions, nor can they be held responsible for all the actions of individuals professing spiritualism any more than Pastor Campbell would wish himself or his doctrines to be held responsible for the misdeeds of his co-religion-ists. It is easy for Pastor Campbell to deny "the continuity of life" And "the immortality of the soul," and to assert that spiritualists are influenced by none but "seducing spirits," but to prove these things is beyond his power. Rather, the one who claims for the Bible an infallibility which it nowhere claims for itself and sets himself up as an infallible exponent of that Bible gives greater evidence of being actuated by "seducing spirits." As ono who is intimately acquainted with both the doctrines and practices of both the conditional-imniortul-ists and the spiritualists, I maintain, without fear of successful contradiction, that spiritualists have a far grander gospel of the grace of God than conditionalimmortalists. Bible Student. Sir. —Mr. Campbell's sentiments, as expressed in Thursday's Herald, are typical of the misapprehension iegarding the true nature of spiritualism. In the first place, he treats "spritualism" and "spiritism" as synonymous terms. This is not so—in fact, spiritualists strongly denounce "spiritism," in which term they include black magic, witchcraft and other perverted occult practices. In the second place, must the passage, "the dead know not anything," be interpreted literally—in which case it implies extinction, or at least indefinite oblivion—or may it not have a hidden meaning, as is the case with so many Biblical passages, and imply "unconsciousness" of spiritual enlightenment ? Thirdly, how are wo to regard St. Paul's injunction "to try the spirits, whether they be of God," and the statement, "Ye are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses" (invisible) ? The Spiritualists' National Union have summarised their tenets as follows: "Spiritualism teaches that we are spirits now, as much as we ever shall be, though temporarily inhabiting these tenements for purposes of experience. We have no creed and no dogmas, but a set of principles . . . they are seven in number: (1) Fatherhood of God; (2) Brotherhood of man; (3) Continuous existence; (4) communion of spirits and . ministry of angels; (5) personal responsibility; (6) compensation or retribution hereafter, for good or ill done on earth; (7) a path of endless progress. We assert that no man however good, deserves endless bliss for the good he can do in the short space of this earthly career, and no man, however bad, deserves the other extreme. Far fiom being antagonistic to religion, this psychic movement is destined to revivify religion that has long been decaying and becoming a mere formality." I n of the foregoing, Mr. Campbell's accusa, tions of spiritualism aiding and abetting a satanio ruler" and of "venting their malignity upon the race" are manifestly absurd, finally, spiritualism is more emphatic than most religions against suicide as a means of escape from lessons to be leaint on earth, and that the retribution for such an act is most severe and it should never be contemplated. The unfortunate episode of the Australian suicides is an instance of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing, and these misguided people evidently made a tragic mistake, such as is not confined to spiritualism. Religious mania of various types often culminates similarly. Let us have breadth of view, even upon religious matters. Anti-Nothing.