It has been our fate, among all the innumerable generationsof mankind, to face the most frightful calamity that has everbefallen the world. There is a basic fact which cannot bedenied, and should not be overlooked. For a most importantdeduction must immediately follow from it. That deduction isthat we, who have borne the pains, shall also learn the lessonwhich they were intended to convey. If we do not learn it andproclaim it, then when can it ever be learned and proclaimed,since there can never again be such a spiritual ploughing andharrowing and preparation for the seed? If our souls, weariedand tortured during these dreadful five years of self-sacrifice and suspense, can show no radical changes, then whatsouls will ever respond to a fresh influx of heavenlyinspiration? In that case the state of the human race wouldindeed be hopeless, and never in all the coming centuries wouldthere be any prospect of improvement.

Why was this tremendous experience forced upon mankind? Surely it is a superficial thinker who imagines that the greatDesigner of all things has set the whole planet in a ferment, andstrained every nation to exhaustion, in order that this or thatfrontier be moved, or some fresh combination be formed in thekaleidoscope of nations. No, the causes of the convulsion, andits objects, are more profound than that. They are essentiallyreligious, not political. They lie far deeper than the nationalsquabbles of the day. A thousand years hence those nationalresults may matter little, but the religious result will rule theworld. That religious result is the reform of the decadentChristianity of to-day, its simplification, its purification, andits reinforcement by the facts of spirit communion and the clearknowledge of what lies beyond the exit-door of death. Theshock of the war was meant to rouse us to mental and moralearnestness, to give us the courage to tear away venerable shams,and to force the human race to realise and use the vast newrevelation which has been so clearly stated and so abundantlyproved, for all who will examine the statements and proofs withan open mind.Consider the awful condition of the world before thisthunder-bolt struck it. Could anyone, tracing back down thecenturies and examining the record of the wickedness of man, findanything which could compare with the story of the nations duringthe last twenty years! Think of the condition of Russia duringthat time, with her brutal aristocracy and her drunken democracy,her murders on either side, her Siberian horrors, her Jewbaitings and her corruption. Think of the figure of Leopold ofBelgium, an incarnate devil who from motives of greed carriedmurder and torture through a large section of Africa, and yet wasreceived in every court, and was eventually buried after apanegyric from a Cardinal of the Roman Church--a church whichhad never once raised her voice against his diabolical career. Consider the similar crimes in the Putumayo, where Britishcapitalists, if not guilty of outrage, can at least not beacquitted of having condoned it by their lethargy and trust inlocal agents. Think of Turkey and the recurrent massacres of hersubject races. Think of the heartless grind of the factorieseverywhere, where work assumed a very different and moreunnatural shape than the ancient labour of the fields. Think ofthe sensuality of many rich, the brutality of many poor, theshallowness of many fashionable, the coldness and deadness ofreligion, the absence anywhere of any deep, true spiritualimpulse. Think, above all, of the organised materialism ofGermany, the arrogance, the heartlessness, the negation ofeverything which one could possibly associate with the livingspirit of Christ as evident in the utterances of CatholicBishops, like Hartmann of Cologne, as in those of LutheranPastors. Put all this together and say if the human race hasever presented a more unlovely aspect. When we try to find thebrighter spots they are chiefly where civilisation, as apartfrom religion, has built up necessities for the community, suchas hospitals, universities, and organised charities, asconspicuous in Buddhist Japan as in Christian Europe. We cannotdeny that there has been much virtue, much gentleness, muchspirituality in individuals. But the churches were empty husks,which contained no spiritual food for the human race, and had inthe main ceased to influence its actions, save in the directionof soulless forms.This is not an over-coloured picture. Can we not see, then,what was the inner reason for the war? Can we not understandthat it was needful to shake mankind loose from gossip and pinkteas, and sword-worship, and Saturday night drunks, and self-seeking politics and theological quibbles--to wake them up andmake them realise that they stand upon a narrow knife-edgebetween two awful eternities, and that, here and now, they haveto finish with make-beliefs, and with real earnestness andcourage face those truths which have always been palpable whereindolence, or cowardice, or vested interests have not obscuredthe vision. Let us try to appreciate what those truths areand the direction which reform must take. It is the newspiritual developments which predominate in my own thoughts, butthere are two other great readjustments which are necessarybefore they can take their full effect. On the spiritual side Ican speak with the force of knowledge from the beyond. On theother two points of reform, I make no such claim.The first is that in the Bible, which is the foundation ofour present religious thought, we have bound together the livingand the dead, and the dead has tainted the living. A mummy andan angel are in most unnatural partnership. There can be noclear thinking, and no logical teaching until the olddispensation has been placed on the shelf of the scholar, andremoved from the desk of the teacher. It is indeed a wonderfulbook, in parts the oldest which has come down to us, a bookfilled with rare knowledge, with history, with poetry, withoccultism, with folklore. But it has no connection with modernconceptions of religion. In the main it is actually antagonisticto them. Two contradictory codes have been circulated underone cover, and the result is dire confusion. The one is a schemedepending upon a special tribal God, intensely anthropomorphicand filled with rage, jealousy and revenge. The conceptionpervades every book of the Old Testament. Even in the psalms,which are perhaps the most spiritual and beautiful section, thepsalmist, amid much that is noble, sings of the fearsome thingswhich his God will do to his enemies. "They shall go down aliveinto hell." There is the keynote of this ancient document--adocument which advocates massacre, condones polygamy, acceptsslavery, and orders the burning of so-called witches. Its Mosaicprovisions have long been laid aside. We do not considerourselves accursed if we fail to mutilate our bodies, if we eatforbidden dishes, fail to trim our beards, or wear clothes of twomaterials. But we cannot lay aside the provisions and yet regardthe document as divine. No learned quibbles can ever persuade anhonest earnest mind that that is right. One may say: "Everyoneknows that that is the old dispensation, and is not to be actedupon." It is not true. It is continually acted upon, andalways will be so long as it is made part of one sacred book. William the Second acted upon it. His German God which wroughtsuch mischief in the world was the reflection of the dreadfulbeing who ordered that captives be put under the harrow. Thecities of Belgium were the reflection of the cities of Moab. Every hard-hearted brute in history, more especially in thereligious wars, has found his inspiration in the Old Testament. "Smite and spare not!" "An eye for an eye!", how readily thetexts spring to the grim lips of the murderous fanatic. Francison St. Bartholomew's night, Alva in the Lowlands, Tilly atMagdeburg, Cromwell at Drogheda, the Covenainters atPhilliphaugh, the Anabaptists of Munster, and the early Mormonsof Utah, all found their murderous impulses fortified from thisunholy source. Its red trail runs through history. Even wherethe New Testament prevails, its teaching must still be dulled andclouded by its sterner neighbour. Let us retain this honouredwork of literature. Let us remove the taint which poisons thevery spring of our religious thought.

This is, in my opinion, the first clearing which should bemade for the more beautiful building to come. The second is lessimportant, as it is a shifting of the point of view, rather thanan actual change. It is to be remembered that Christ's life inthis world occupied, so far as we can estimate, 33 years, whilstfrom His arrest to His resurrection was less than a week. Yetthe whole Christian system has come to revolve round His death,to the partial exclusion of the beautiful lesson of His life. Far too much weight has been placed upon the one, and far toolittle upon the other, for the death, beautiful, and indeedperfect, as it was, could be matched by that of many scores ofthousands who have died for an idea, while the life, with itsconsistent record of charity, breadth of mind, unselfishness,courage, reason, and progressiveness, is absolutely unique andsuperhuman. Even in these abbreviated, translated, and second-hand records we receive an impression such as no other life cangive--an impression which fills us with utter reverence. Napoleon, no mean judge of human nature, said of it: "It isdifferent with Christ. Everything about Him astonishes me. His spirit surprises me, and His will confounds me. Between Himand anything of this world there is no possible comparison. Heis really a being apart. The nearer I approach Him and thecloser I examine Him, the more everything seems above me."It is this wonderful life, its example and inspiration, whichwas the real object of the descent of this high spirit on to ourplanet. If the human race had earnestly centred upon thatinstead of losing itself in vain dreams of vicarious sacrificesand imaginary falls, with all the mystical and contentiousphilosophy which has centred round the subject, how verydifferent the level of human culture and happiness would be to-day! Such theories, with their absolute want of reason ormorality, have been the main cause why the best minds have beenso often alienated from the Christian system and proclaimedthemselves materialists. In contemplating what shocked theirinstincts for truth they have lost that which was both true andbeautiful. Christ's death was worthy of His life, and roundedoff a perfect career, but it is the life which He has left asthe foundation for the permanent religion of mankind. All thereligious wars, the private feuds, and the countless miseries ofsectarian contention, would have been at least minimised, if notavoided, had the bare example of Christ's life been adopted asthe standard of conduct and of religion.But there are certain other considerations which should haveweight when we contemplate this life and its efficacy as anexample. One of these is that the very essence of it was that Hecritically examined religion as He found it, and brought Hisrobust common sense and courage to bear in exposing the shams andin pointing out the better path. THAT is the hall-mark ofthe true follower of Christ, and not the mute acceptance ofdoctrines which are, upon the face of them, false and pernicious,because they come to us with some show of authority. Whatauthority have we now, save this very life, which could comparewith those Jewish books which were so binding in their force, andso immutably sacred that even the misspellings or pen-slips ofthe scribe, were most carefully preserved? It is a simpleobvious fact that if Christ had been orthodox, and hadpossessed what is so often praised as a "child-like faith," therecould have been no such thing as Christianity. Let reformers wholove Him take heart as they consider that they are indeedfollowing in the footsteps of the Master, who has at no time saidthat the revelation which He brought, and which has been soimperfectly used, is the last which will come to mankind. In ourown times an equally great one has been released from the centreof all truth, which will make as deep an impression upon thehuman race as Christianity, though no predominant figure has yetappeared to enforce its lessons. Such a figure has appeared oncewhen the days were ripe, and I do not doubt that this may occuronce more.One other consideration must be urged. Christ has not givenHis message in the first person. If He had done so our positionwould be stronger. It has been repeated by the hearsay andreport of earnest but ill-educated men. It speaks much foreducation in the Roman province of Judea that these fishermen,publicans and others could even read or write. Luke and Paulwere, of course, of a higher class, but their informationcame from their lowly predecessors. Their account is splendidlysatisfying in the unity of the general impression which itproduces, and the clear drawing of the Master's teaching andcharacter. At the same time it is full of inconsistencies andcontradictions upon immaterial matters. For example, the fouraccounts of the resurrection differ in detail, and there is noorthodox learned lawyer who dutifully accepts all four versionswho could not shatter the evidence if he dealt with it in thecourse of his profession. These details are immaterial to thespirit of the message. It is not common sense to suppose thatevery item is inspired, or that we have to make no allowance forimperfect reporting, individual convictions, orientalphraseology, or faults of translation. These have, indeed, beenadmitted by revised versions. In His utterance about the letterand the spirit we could almost believe that Christ had foreseenthe plague of texts from which we have suffered, even as HeHimself suffered at the hands of the theologians of His day, whothen, as now, have been a curse to the world. We were meantto use our reasons and brains in adapting His teaching to theconditions of our altered lives and times. Much depended uponthe society and mode of expression which belonged to His era. Tosuppose in these days that one has literally to give all to thepoor, or that a starved English prisoner should literally lovehis enemy the Kaiser, or that because Christ protested againstthe lax marriages of His day therefore two spouses who loatheeach other should be for ever chained in a life servitude andmartyrdom--all these assertions are to travesty His teaching andto take from it that robust quality of common sense which was itsmain characteristic. To ask what is impossible from human natureis to weaken your appeal when you ask for what is reasonable.It has already been stated that of the three headings underwhich reforms are grouped, the exclusion of the old dispensation,the greater attention to Christ's life as compared to His death,and the new spiritual influx which is giving us psychic religion,it is only on the latter that one can quote the authority of thebeyond. Here, however, the case is really understated. Inregard to the Old Testament I have never seen the matter treatedin a spiritual communication. The nature of Christ, however, andHis teaching, have been expounded a score of times with somevariation of detail, but in the main as reproduced here. Spiritshave their individuality of view, and some carry over strongearthly prepossessions which they do not easily shed; but readingmany authentic spirit communications one finds that the idea ofredemption is hardly ever spoken of, while that of example andinfluence is for ever insisted upon. In them Christ is thehighest spirit known, the son of God, as we all are, but nearerto God, and therefore in a more particular sense His son. Hedoes not, save in most rare and special cases, meet us when wedie. Since souls pass over, night and day, at the rate of about100 a minute, this would seem self-evident. After a time we maybe admitted to His presence, to find a most tender, sympatheticand helpful comrade and guide, whose spirit influences all thingseven when His bodily presence is not visible. This is thegeneral teaching of the other world communications concerningChrist, the gentle, loving and powerful spirit which broods everover that world which, in all its many spheres, is His specialcare.Before passing to the new revelation, its certain proofs andits definite teaching, let us hark back for a moment upon the twopoints which have already been treated. They are not absolutelyvital points. The fresh developments can go on and conquer theworld without them. There can be no sudden change in the ancientroutine of our religious habits, nor is it possible to conceivethat a congress of theologians could take so heroic a step as totear the Bible in twain, laying one half upon the shelf and oneupon the table. Neither is it to be expected that any formalpronouncements could ever be made that the churches have all laidthe wrong emphasis upon the story of Christ. Moral courage willnot rise to such a height. But with the spiritual quickening andthe greater earnestness which will have their roots in thisbloody passion of mankind, many will perceive what is reasonableand true, so that even if the Old Testament should remain, likesome obsolete appendix in the animal frame, to mark a lowerstage through which development has passed, it will more and morebe recognised as a document which has lost all validity and whichshould no longer be allowed to influence human conduct, save byway of pointing out much which we may avoid. So also with theteaching of Christ, the mystical portions may fade gently away,as the grosser views of eternal punishment have faded within ourown lifetime, so that while mankind is hardly aware of the changethe heresy of today will become the commonplace of tomorrow. These things will adjust themselves in God's own time. What is,however, both new and vital are those fresh developments whichwill now be discussed. In them may be found the signs of how thedry bones may be stirred, and how the mummy may be quickened withthe breath of life. With the actual certainty of a definite lifeafter death, and a sure sense of responsibility for our ownspiritual development, a responsibility which cannot be put uponany other shoulders, however exalted, but must be borne by eachindividual for himself, there will come the greatestreinforcement of morality which the human race has everknown. We are on the verge of it now, but our descendants willlook upon the past century as the culmination of the dark ageswhen man lost his trust in God, and was so engrossed in histemporary earth life that he lost all sense of spiritual reality.