nsidering its wide-spread influence, and
the number of its adherents, is it not one of the most gigantic and
appalling deceptions that has ever fallen upon Christendom? The Bible in
the plainest terms, declares that in the last days malign influences will
be let loose upon the world; false pretensions will be urged upon the
minds of men; and deceptions, backed up by preternatural signs and
wonders, will develop to such a degree of strength, that, if it were
possible, they would deceive the very elect. Is it possible that
Spiritualism may be the very development of evil, against which this
warning is directed?

To investigate these questions, and to show by unimpeachable testimony,
what Spiritualism is, and the place it holds among the psychological
movements of the present day, is the object of these pages. Not a few
books have been written against Spiritualism; but most of them endeavor to
account for it on the ground of human jugglery and imposture, or on
natural principles, the discovery of a new and heretofore occult force in
nature, etc., from which great things may be expected in the future. But
rarely has any one discussed it from the standpoint of prophecy, and the
testimony of the Scriptures, the only point of view, as we believe, from
which its true origin, nature, and tendency, can be ascertained.

Many features in the work of Spiritualism would seem to indicate that the
source from which it springs is far from good; but it is based upon a
church dogma, firmly established through all Christendom, which in many
minds is of sufficient weight to overbalance considerations that would
otherwise be considered ample grounds for shunning or renouncing it. It is
therefore the more necessary that the reader, in examining this question,
should let the bonds that have heretofore bound him to preconceived
opinions, sit loose upon him, and that he should put himself in the mood
of Dr. Channing when he said: "I must choose to receive the truth, no
matter how it bears upon myself, and must follow it no matter where it
leads, from what party it severs me, or to what party it allies." And he
should remember also, as the eminent and pious Dr. Vinet once sagaciously
observed, that "even now, after eighteen centuries of Christianity, we are
very probably involved in some enormous error, of which Christianity will,
in some future time, make us ashamed."

In view, therefore, of the importance of this question, and the tremendous