ABC of Spiritualism 25 & 26/100

25. It is boldly charged that by denying the dogma of eternal punishment and asserting that man can work out his own salvation, Spiritualism tends to immorality. What answer can be made to this charge?

All writers on Criminology agree that it is not the severity of any proposed punishment but the certainty of the punishment that deters men from crime. It has been found that the death penalty—owing to the difficulty of convicting by jury and the possibility of pardon—does not deter from murder. So the threat of eternal punishment is not the strongest motive for abstaining from evil, but the certainty that punishment suited to the transgression will follow. Eternal punishment as a motive to good conduct has lost its power over human minds because men almost universally doubt a dogma so abhorrent to reason and man’s moral sense. Spiritualism by making rewards and punishments a part of nature’s order and not an arbitrary arrangement, has furnished men the strongest motive possible to good living. From the very nature of the case it may be boldly asserted that no salvation wrought out by another person can be of any real value to a man. Unless a man takes himself in hand, seeks and follows the truth, and develops the spiritual nature (the Christ) within, no Saviour or system of religion can bring him freedom and peace.

26. What effect does the teaching of Spirit Communion have upon human conduct?

It naturally lifts our thoughts and affections above the dust and tends toward the spiritualizing of the life. The fact that our departed friends are often near us, that they are more or less conversant with our lives ,that they are interested in all that, concerns us, that our conduct is known to them, certainly has a tendency to restrain us from unworthy thoughts, motives and deeds. The man who will not be restrained from wrong doing by the knowledge that the eyes of a sainted mother, sister or friend, are upon him, will surely not be influenced by some threat of future punishment.