98 



The Review of Reviews. 



July 1, I$06. 



and reflect upon the whole subject the more I am 

 convinced that it is here where the decisive battle 

 will be fought and won. 



THE ANGLICAX CHURCH A>'D SPIEITrALISM. 



The Rev. Percy Dearmer has been contributing 

 to the CommomveaWt a series of notable papers on 

 " The Communion of Saints." In these articles we 

 have a frank confession that the decay of faith in 

 the reality of the cloud of invisible witnesses is being 

 arrested by the attention now being paid to psychical 

 research. He says: — 



Every lack of faith in the Church leads to the uprising of 

 some sect which bears witness to the forgotten truth. This 

 truth was forgotten, and thousands of people have taken 

 refuge in Spiritualism. Many of the greatest minds are 

 convinced by the evidence that the power of the depart-ed, 

 not only to know about us. but to communicate with us, 

 has been proved. 



It would be interesting to know what Bishop Gore, 

 for instance, would think of a teacher in a Church 

 school who ventured to interpret " I believe in the 

 Communion of Saints " after the fashion of Mr. 

 Dearmer. 



THE THEOSOPHISTS. 



The Theosophists have succeeded in establishing a 

 world-wide organisation based upon the most clear, 

 definite, and dogmatic statements as to the reality 

 and nature of Life after Death. The book by Mr. 

 C. W. Leadbeater, which gives the title to this ar- 

 ticle, is one of the most lucid and most categorical 

 of all their writings. 



Nothing can be more categorical than the claim 

 made by Mr. Leadbeater for the authenticity of his 

 revelations. While philosophers speculate and theo- 

 logians wrangle concerning the significance of an- 

 cient revelations, Mr. Leadbeater boldly claims that 

 he and his fellow-students speak of what they actu- 

 ally know by first hand investigations. When he 

 speaks of what exists on the other side of Death, he 

 speaks of what he has seen and heard, because he 

 has been there himself. 



KNO^^LEDGE AT FIEST HAND. 



Lest anyone should doubt the fact that any living 

 man can actually in serious earnest make such a 

 claim, I quote Mr. Leadbeater's exact words: — 



There is a far more definite and satisfactory method by 

 means of which we may acquaint ourselves with every de- 

 tail of the life of this other world— in so far, that is, as it 

 is possible for us to comprehend it while still upon the 

 physical plane. It is perfectly possible for man while still 

 what we call alive to penetrate into this other world, to 

 investigate it at his leisure, to communicate with its in- 

 habitants, aJid then to return into our present state of 

 existence and describe what he has seen. 



When it is found that a number of such investigators 

 are constantly in the habit of making separate investiga- 

 tions and then comparing notes, and that broadly they 

 always agree on all points of importance, the e\-idenc'e 

 seems considerably strengthened. When it is further found 

 that their investigations fully confirm, and even in some 

 cases explain, the teaching given on these subject.s in all 

 the older religions of the world, it is evident that a very 

 strong case is made out in their favour, and it would be 

 foolish to refuse to allow them full weight in the discussion 

 on such subiect.s. 



.\n.v minister of any church will have his version of the 

 xtates after death to put before us; and in support of it 

 he will exnlain that the Church teaches this or that, or 

 that the Bible tells us so and so. But he will nevr - .- to 



us, " I who speak to you have been into this heaven or 

 this hell which I describe; I myself have seen these things, 

 and therefore know them to Ije true." But that is precisely 

 what the Theosophical investigators are able to say, for 

 they do know that of which they speak, and they are 

 dealing with a definite series of facts which the.v have 

 personally investigated, and therefore they speak with the 

 authority and certainty which only direct knowledge gives. 



HOW THE LIVING VISIT THE OTHER WORLD. 



It is unnecessary here to enter into any discussion 

 as to whether this bold claim is justified. Suffice it 

 to say that Mr. Leadbeater claims that the faculty 

 for making excursions into the region beyond the 

 grave is common to all men. We all spend our 

 sleeping lives in that mysterious region. But the 

 f;iculty of exploring it intelligentlv needs to be cul- 

 ti\ated. And it is very difficult to bring back into 

 our waking consciousness the memory of what we 

 have seen and heard when our physical senses are 

 asleep. The Theosophists say that they have learned 

 the art of developing what they call their astral 

 consciousness, so that they have the benefit of the 

 use of the senses and powers belonging to it during 

 waking life as well as when they are asleep. Hence 

 Mr. Leadbeater asserts : " There are among us an 

 ever increasing body of people for whom these things 

 are no longer a matter of speculation but of know- 

 ledge." 



Without accepting or denying the truth of this 

 assertion, it cannot fail to interest every one to hear 

 what it is, these adventurers beyond the bourne have 

 to tell us as to the nature of life after death. 



WHAT THET HAVE DISCOVEKEB. 



According to Mr. Leadbeater and his co-voyagers 

 the Christian teaching, especially the teaching of 

 the Catholic Church, is not very far from the fact, 

 with one considerable exception. Heaven there is, 

 purgatory there is, but hell, in the popularly under- 

 stood sense of a place of purposeless torture eter- 

 nally renewed, there is not. Its place is taken by 

 what Mr. Leadbeater describes as " the merciful truth 

 of seonian suspension." When, after some millions 

 of years spent in purgatory, or in periodical reincar- 

 nations, any human soul is proved to be incorrigible, 

 it drops out into a condition of comparatively sus- 

 pended animation, where it remains until the advent 

 of another scheme of evolution, when it will begin 

 again the attempt to ascend. 



THE TRUTH OP PURGATORY. 



Purgatory is not a place of fierj' torment. But 

 it is a place of purgation, in which the sin of a man 

 works out its punishment by natural process. For 

 instance, a confirmed drunkard at death carries with 

 him into the beyond the craving for drink. But as 

 he has no longer a physical body by which he can 

 satisfy that craving, he remains tortured by the un- 

 satisfied appetite until, through terrible suffering, 

 the evil desire wears itself out, and the soul, purified 

 by this purgatorial torment, can pass on to a higher 

 stage. When he is reincarnated he will be refitted 

 with a body capable of responding to the alcoholic 



