Henry Ward Beecher, through Marcella DeCou Hicks
When my instrument of earth, through whom this discourse comes to the readers of this paper, suggested the heading above as the theme for an article, I was nonplused for a moment, What, indeed, IS my religion? It is a long, long time since I have thought in terms of creed, doctrine and dogma. Suddenly I remembered the theology of my church denomination when of earth. Most of you probably know that I was a Congregational minister, preaching devoutly the necessity of adherence to church, and creed as a matter of eternal salvation, And yet, withal, I was always groping for a freedom of thought not to be found within the confines of my theology, my doctrine, my creed. Not till I passed out of earth life did I learn the inconsequence, I might even say, the futility of dogmatic theology. It just has no place in the scheme of things as I find them over here.
Freedom of Thought
For more than fifty years now I have known absolute freedom of thought; liberty to investigate any phase of anything that engaged my curiosity or attention; liberty to question, likewise, any decision or ruling handed down to me by whomsoever. For fifty years now I have realized that God gives man his mind to use independently—not as a sponge to sop up the ideas of others, and through this blessed privilege of independent thinking and interpretation I have learned much.
(My instrument, who is at times inclined to be facetious, interrupted me here to ask me if I had managed to learn how many angels can dance on the point of a pin! Right well do I remember nonsensical discussions and arguments concerning this moot point, entered into by men of my day. Also do I recall the rages some of the deacons would get into over the ponderously lugubrious question of the exact age of responsibility. Some placing it at seven years, some at twelve and others at fourteen: all of which strikes me as incredibly silly, viewed from my present vantage point.)
Duties of Spirit
So when my instrument suggested the subject matter of this discourse I could only say that over here, we advanced spirit people have no religion and no church in the sense of subscribing to the fiats of dogma, doctrine, or creed. I might put it that religion here consists in acquiring a true conception of the duties of spirit life, its responsibilities and obligations, not only to self but to all others, and in living in accordance with one’s highest conceptions in these regards.
To us, who have advanced out of the “transition period” of illusion, the understanding of these great principles comes more easily than to you Christians of earth for the reason that we feel the knowledge of life’s purpose and the utter LOVE of all humanity, embodied and disembodied, coming in great waves of magnetism or thought through our very bodies and we literally absorb into our beings this great force until we are saturate with it and it is a part of us. And the more we aspire to understand these great surges of inspiration and the more we strive to conduct out spirit lives in accordance with the divine knowledge vouchsafed us, the greater and swifter progress we make toward that faraway goal of perfection.
Vicarious Atonement?
Religion and theology, as referring to dogma, doctrine and creed, are man-inspired, man-made and man-promulgated; at the best, very faulty, full of misinterpretations and fallacies, and much foolishness, conjecture, absurdity and falsehood. Many religions feature the most horrible conceptions of our loving Heavenly Father.
There are churches of earth that still embody in their statement of doctrine the damnation of unbaptized infants; churches that still insist upon the fact of eternal damnation; churches that still teach that one must subscribe to certain articles of faith or be eternally lost.
As a preacher of earth. I must confess that I preached salvation only “through the blood of Jesus.” Here and now, I declare to you that I myself, didn’t quite know what I meant by that phrase. Neither did I, personally, altogether believe that unless a man accepted in its entirety the story of the origin of Jesus—the immaculate conception, the virgin birth, the vicarious atonement—he would be damned to eternal torment. Yet, I say, I preached it at least I didn’t preach against it. I had plenty of courage of a sort but not just the type of courage possessed by my instrument and that is one of the reasons that I am happy that she serves me and that I can be of help to her.
“The Trinity”
Also I preached the doctrine of the “trinity’’ although I didn’t know what that meant either and neither does any one else. I loved Christ Jesus, my Saviour, with what my instrument terms a “fanatical love.” Jesus was and still is my all in all. I loved Him with a worshipful idolatry. I still love Him with a worshipful idolatry. I felt in my lifetime, and I feel now that if there were more Christianity in the world more following of the simple teachings of Christ Jesus and less of so-called religious denominations embodying disputations on points of doctrinal differences people would have a better understanding of the meaning of LOVE. There is Churchianity and there is Christianity, and seldom the twain do meet.
One thing I must make plain. God has been very good in that He has prepared what might be called a “transition phase” for those whose churchly religion and concepts have utterly unprepared them for facts as they ARE in spirit life. For such as these there are in certain aspects of life here churches of every possible creed and denomination and ministers in them voicing all the circumscribed doctrines of earth. This is to create a familiar environment for the bewildered ones of earth who are so steeped in the misconceptions of earthly dogmatism that they would be most unhappy upon entrance into spirit life could they not find a church and a minister and a group of their own particular persuasion.
Mistaken Concepts
Gradually they learn the truth. They find out solid facts and withdraw from their mistaken concepts and take up the privilege of learning the truths of spirit and practicing them.
Churches here are only for those who are accustomed to, and need, that kind of spiritual help. They are newly from earth and if cast into a wholly unfamiliar vibration they could not understand enough to make any advancement. They finally discover that there is only one way to reach God and that is by purifying the spirit and the mind.
“Communion of Saints”
Over here, where we have our spirit life love LOVE is the greatest force we know, The all-purposeful motive; the beginning, the course and the end of all; the basis of all life; the predominant force of all being.
The teachings of spirit life and the spirit world are the teachings of Christ Jesus. Jesus was given strength of His Father to give the world the teachings, the principles of spirit life. He taught the “communion of saints.” and practiced it. And by “saints” I do not mean only the most lofty spirits but all the truly good both in and out of the physical body. If you will look in your dictionary you will find that the definition of “saints” includes not alone those persons said to be canonized but “a godly person and one of moral purity.” And therefore “communion with saints” may well mean communication with any progressive spirits on my side of life, and that is the sort of communion that Jesus taught.
Live the Life!
Ministers of earth, for the most part, preach to the best of their knowledge, If they would confine their talks to the teachings of Jesus, and live, themselves, the Christ life, Christianity might have a chance for real expression in your earth life, but ministers of earth mix up too much man-inspired dogma with their Christianity, until finally, what do you have? Churchianity naught else!
Many a minister will say, “I was inspired to say so and so” or, “write such and such” or “do this or that” assuming to be inspired thus by God. Many really believe that the urge has come from some disembodied human spirit but have not the courage to say so. Their theology, their doctrine won’t permit it. And that was exactly my own predicament. Many times I wondered if it were not possible that some great and good man who had preceded me into eternity was giving me the themes and subject matter for many of my sermons, but since such conjecture was contrary to the letter of my doctrine, I dismissed it. I know now that many of the discourses which brought the multitudes thronging into my congregations were given me inspirationally by teachers I have since met over here.
Life is Continuous
Every minister of earth and every medium has his own personal ideas of spiritual communication; of the continuity of life and love; of conditions to be met with hereafter. And these ideas and conceptions he would foist upon others. But after all, the greatest mission any human can perform is to PROVE to the heart-hungry seeker, or the hopelessly grieving one that LIFE IS CONTINUOUS; that loved ones who have passed through death’s mysterious portals STILL LIVE. The manner of spirit life and the methods of spirit return are less important than the FACT of spirit life and the FACT of spirit return.
And as for answering the profound questions that some seekers think it necessary to ask concerning the BEGINNING of all life, or the ULTIMATE END of all effort, or the WHY of infinity, or WHENCE came God, I can only say that all these things are quite as much a mystery to us in these elementary spheres as they are to you of earth. I do not know the answers to any of these questions nor have I ever met any spirit soul who knows the answers, although many foolish ones profess such knowledge. It may be disillusioning to some of you, but it is nevertheless a fact, that a human being does not become imbued with all knowledge and all wisdom by reason of discarding his house of clay and betaking his spirit soul to its heavenly home. We know more only as we learn more and it takes many years, measured in earth time, to really master the most elementary fundamentals.
The Golden Rule
In conclusion, let me say that all the religion I possess today can be summed up in the golden rule. I subscribe to no creedal fiats. I have no “rule of thumb” theology. I am dictated to by no doctrine— but in all things and in all ways I do as I would wish to have done to me. And if all of you reading this discourse will live with this principle for your daily and hourly guide this after-life will bring you no retribution and no regrets.