full of minor prophets, each of them stating their own
views of the religious state with no proof save their
own assertion, we should, indeed, be back in the dark
ages of implicit faith. The answer must be that we
require signs which we can test before we accept
assertions which we cannot test. In old days they
demanded a sign from a prophet, and it was a perfectly
reasonable request, and still holds good. If a person
comes to me with an account of life in some further
world, and has no credentials save his own assertion, I
would rather have it in my waste-paperbasket than
on my study table. Life is too short to weigh the
merits of such productions. But if, as in the case of
Stainton Moses, with his Spirit Teachings, the
doctrines which are said to come from beyond are
accompanied with a great number of abnormal gifts--and
Stainton Moses was one of the greatest mediums in all
ways that England has ever produced--then I look upon
the matter in a more serious light. Again, if Miss
Julia Ames can tell Mr. Stead things in her own earth
life of which he could not have cognisance, and if
those things are shown, when tested, to be true, then
one is more inclined to think that those things which
cannot be tested are true also. Or once again, if
Raymond can tell us of a photograph no copy of which
had reached England, and which proved to be exactly as
he described it, and if he can give us, through the
lips of strangers, all sorts of details of his home
life, which his own relatives had to verify before they
found them to be true, is it unreasonable to suppose