SPIRITUALISM

Southland Times, Issue 18963, 9 June 1923, Page 6

SPIRITUALISM

LECTURE BY MR J.'A. FORGES. Mr J. A. Forbes gave an address last night in the Y.M.CA .rooms on “Why I- am a Spiritualist.” There was a fair attendance and Mr Hutchins presided. Mr Forbes said that a great change had come over the religious world during the last 50 years and it was very evident that creeds and dogmas were, it might be said, in the melting pot. No question was more thought and puzzled over than that of Job: “If a man die shall he live again?” Spiritualism was as old as the world, but had its modern rise some 80 years ago in a small town in America by means of what i scalled the “Rochester Knockings.” The wonderful manifestation then given of a power outside that known to mankind led to investigation, and intense interest was awakened both in America and England in regard to the subject of the after life. Scientists such as A R. Wallace (associated with Darwin in his “Origin of Species”) and Sir William Crookes, both of them very sceptical at first, began to give some attention to the subject. Later on came Sir Oliver Lodge, W. T. Stead, Robert Chambers (of Chambers and Sons), Sir Conan Doyle, Lombroso and Marconi. All these and practically all other investigators came to a study of the problem in a spirit of doubt and disbelief. Many instances of spirit manifestation were to be found in the Bible and some clergymen had written books showing the similarity of certain spiritualistic phenomena to those recorded there. The speaker proceeded to relate several personal experiences, which he said had convincd him beyond possibility of doubt of the existence of the spirit world and that there was really no such thing as death. Spiritualism, he concluded, had dispersed much gloom and unnecessary fear from the world for it had taken away the sting of death. Some people who had not given any study to the subject seemed to have the idea that spiritualism made little account of sin. This was quite untrue, for spiritualism emphatically confirmed the absolute truth of the Biblical declaration that “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” It declared that every individual was himself responsible for his life, that for every wrong act and unkind word, and every wrong and uncharitable thought he would be held responsible when on passing to the other side. They certainly did not believe in such monstrous ideas an an eternal Hell, and were assured that there is hope in ,the life beyond for the most sinful, that every soul will progress through the ages to come to heights sublime and glorious where “Love is God and God is Love.” Character was the one essential thing and if they wished to be happy in the next life they must make up their minds to live a clean, straight and unselfish life here and do what they could to make others happy and the world a better place than they found it. A vote of thanks to the speaker closed the meeting.