As to other creeds, it must be admitted that an acceptance of the
teaching brought to us from beyond would deeply modify conventional
Christianity. But these modifications would be rather in the direction
of explanation and development than of contradiction. It would set
right grave misunderstandings which have always offended the reason of
every thoughtful man, but it would also confirm and make absolutely
certain the fact of life after death, the base of all religion. It
would confirm the unhappy results of sin, though it would show that
those results are never absolutely permanent. It would confirm the
existence of higher beings, whom we have called angels, and of an
ever-ascending hierarchy above us, in which the Christ spirit finds its
place, culminating in heights of the infinite with which we associate
the idea of all-power or of God. It would confirm the idea of heaven
and of a temporary penal state which corresponds to purgatory rather
than to hell. Thus this new revelation, on some of the most vital
points, is NOT destructive of the beliefs, and it should be hailed by
really earnest men of all creeds as a most powerful ally rather than a
dangerous devil-begotten enemy.
On the other hand, let us turn to the points in which Christianity must
be modified by this new revelation.
First of all I would say this, which must be obvious to many, however
much they deplore it: Christianity must change or must perish. That is
the law of life--that things must adapt themselves or perish.
Christianity has deferred the change very long, she has deferred it
until her churches are half empty, until women are her chief
supporters, and until both the learned part of the community on one
side, and the poorest class on the other, both in town and country, are
largely alienated from her. Let us try and trace the reason for this.
It is apparent in all sects, and comes, therefore, from some deep
common cause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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