no sudden change in the ancient routine of our religious
habits, nor is it possible to conceive that a congress of theologians
could take so heroic a step as to tear the Bible in twain, laying one
half upon the shelf and one upon the table. Neither is it to be
expected that any formal pronouncements could ever be made that the
churches have all laid the wrong emphasis upon the story of Christ.
Moral courage will not rise to such a height. But with the spiritual
quickening and the greater earnestness which will have their roots in
this bloody passion of mankind, many will perceive what is reasonable
and true, so that even if the Old Testament should remain, like some
obsolete appendix in the animal frame, to mark a lower stage through
which development has passed, it will more and more be recognised as a
document which has lost all validity and which should no longer be
allowed to influence human conduct, save by way of pointing out much
which we may avoid. So also with the teaching of Christ, the mystical
portions may fade gently away, as the grosser views of eternal
punishment have faded within our own lifetime, so that while mankind is
hardly aware of the change the 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 which will now be discussed. In them may be found the
signs of how the dry bones may be stirred, and how the mummy may be
quickened with the breath of life. With the actual certainty of a
definite life after death, and a sure sense of responsibility for our
own spiritual development, a responsibility which cannot be put upon
any other shoulders, however exalted, but must be borne by each
individual for himself, there will come the greatest reinforcement of
morality which the human race has ever known. We are on the verge of
it now, but our descendants will look upon the past century as the
culmination of the dark ages when man lost his trust in God, and was so
engrossed in his temporary earth life that he lost all sense of
spiritual reality.

CHAPTER II

THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT

Some sixty years ago that acute thinker Lord Brougham remarked that in
the clear sky of scepticism he saw only one small cloud drifting up and
that was Modern Spiritualism. It was a curiously inverted simile, for
one would surely have expected him to say that in the drifting clouds
of s