The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

III. Typical Service in a Spiritualist “Church”

1. ROBERTS OUTLINES FEATURES OF TYPICAL SERVICE

How Spiritualism operates in its churchly role is told by C. E. Bechhofer Roberts, in The Truth About Spiritualism. Here he describes a typical Spiritualist service, with its Spiritualist hymn (such as “Home in the Spirit-Land”), prayer, offering, and address, stressing the point that at last the “barrier” of death has been broken and Spirits have returned to tell of the fuller life in the Spirit-Land-a “truth” that is to “revolutionize the world.” Finally, the public clairvoyant brings “messages” from the “Spirits” to various persons in the audience, identifying the individuals by describing them. Then the chairman calls upon the audience to rejoice over this further example of “spirit” intervention, and prays that eyes may be opened to See the great “truths” of Spiritualism, to bless the mediums who communicate the messages and to “hasten the day when Spiritualism shall triumph throughout the earth.” ¹⁸ CFF2 1077.1

2. EARLY SPIRITUALIST HYMNALS STRESS “SPIRIT” CONCEPTS

As to hymns, one of the early Spiritualist hymnals was Spiritual Songs for the Use of Circles, Camp Meetings, and Other Spiritualist Gatherings, compiled by Mattie E. Hull, wife of Moses Hull. It affords a clear picture of the predominant note. Here are typical hymn titles: “Death’s Stream Bridged”; “Beautiful Shore”; “Spirit Greetings”; “Sweetly Falls the Spirits Message”; “Light Ahead”; “To Our Risen Friends”; “Rap, Rap, Rap” (to the tune of “Tramp, Tramp Tramp”); “In the Still Hours of Night”; “Sweet Spirit Land”; “There’s a Good Time Coming”; “I Cannot Trace the Way”; and “The Angels’ Presence.” And there was a perverted doxology, appealing for Spirit guidance: CFF2 1077.2

“O, blessed Ones from upper Spheres
Now as we separate, draw near.
Guide us while in earth’s path we rove,
And bind our souls in perfect love.” CFF2 1077.3

In another collection, The Golden Echoes, with words and music by S. W. Tucker, appear such other hymn titles as “Angel Visitants”; “Beyond the Weeping”; “Heavenly Portals”; “My Spirit Home”; “The Homeward Voyage”; “The Unseen City.” CFF2 1078.1

3. OFFICIAL HYMNAL MAINTAINS SPIRITUALIST CONCEPTS

The current official Spiritualist Hymnal, of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches of the United States of America ¹⁹ includes the following, which sustain the typical Spiritualist contention: CFF2 1078.2

“Beautiful, Beckoning Hands”; “Come, Gentle Spirits”; “Come, Thou All Transforming Spirit”; “Hand in Hand With Angels”; “He Healeth Me! O Blessed Thought”; “Make Channels for the Streams”; “Message From the Spirit Land”; “O Life That Maketh All Things New”; “O Spirit, Source of Light”; “Spirit Calls Us”; “Sweetly Falls the Spirit Message”; “The Great Oversoul”; “The Other World”; “There Is No Death”; “Till I See Death’s Lifted Curtain”; “Trust in the Spirit”; “Under the Guidance of Angels”; “What Is Death?”; “Whisper to Us of Spirit Life.” CFF2 1078.3

Outside the named Spiritualist circles there is widespread dabbling into the occult in every strata of society. Curiosity is often the motive, or adventure into the mystic. Those who thus tamper with the commonly known phenomena of Spiritualism may not come to any conclusion as to origins, but they are usually left wondering whether valid communication with those who have “gone beyond” is a possibility. Here is a case in point. CFF2 1078.4