The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE: Peebles’ Amazing Assumptions for Spiritualism

Thus far our portrayal of Spiritualism has been a composite, built around representative citations drawn from numerous accredited Spiritualist writers. We close our survey by bringing together the basic positions of Spiritualism as set forth by a single representative spokesman, Dr. JAMES MARTIN PEEBLES, ¹ and chosen chiefly from one of his remarkable volumes. ² It was written when he was seventy-four years old and still keen of mind. He died just a few days before his hundredth birthday. CFF2 1111.1

His unusual volume, The Demonism of the Ages, gives us the essence of reputable Spiritualist views and contentions. It comes from a trained mind-a graduate in medicine and surgery from the University of Philadelphia, a teacher, president of a college for four years, owner and editor of several newspapers, a member of several learned societies, editor of one of the leading Spiritualist journals, author of a dozen Spiritualist books, and a world-traveling exponent of Spiritualism. We can properly quote him as a representative spokesman. ³ Incidentally, the book was published in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1904. ⁴ CFF2 1111.2

In our quest we shall range back and forth through Peebles’ volume in order to bring his positions together in logical sequence for our survey. He often touches upon the same point, from different angles and in various places. These are simply brought together in sequential relationship, to get the whole picture compactly before us. First of all let us note the basic principles, or premises, that according to Peebles constitute the essence of Spiritualism. Here is the first of these primary propositions. CFF2 1112.1