The answer is, that to only one of these religions
or philosophies is this new revelation absolutely
fatal. That is to Materialism. I do not say this in
any spirit of hostility to Materialists, who, so far as
they are an organized body, are, I think, as earnest
and moral as any other class. But the fact is
manifest that if spirit can live without matter, then
the foundation of Materialism is gone, and the whole
scheme of thought crashes to the ground.

As to other creeds, it must be admitted that an
acceptance of the teaching brought to us from beyond
would deeply modify conventional Christianity. But
these modifications would be rather in the direction of
explanation and development than of contradiction. It
would set right grave misunderstandings which have
always offended the reason of every thoughtful man, but
it would also confirm and make absolutely certain the
fact of life after death, the base of all religion. It
would confirm the unhappy results of sin, though it
would show that those results are never absolutely
permanent. It would confirm the existence of higher
beings, whom we have called angels, and of an ever-
ascending hierarchy above us, in which the Christ
spirit finds its place, culminating in heights of the
infinite with which we associate the idea of all-power
or of God. It would confirm the idea of heaven and of
a temporary penal state which corresponds to
purgatory rather than to hell. Thus this new