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stance to the Jewish nation. It was during those communications that the covenant was from time to time renewed,

the covenant which God had made with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob, that their seed should "multiply as the stars of heaven," that they should be his “chosen people," and that the "land of Canaan should be their inheritance forever." It was their faith in this covenant that sustained them in every adversity and filled them with a pride and a hope which has not yet ceased to be a vitalizing element in their national and religious character. It was inevitable, therefore, that the central idea of their national tradition should be preserved. It was also more than likely that the main feature of the methods and of the paraphernalia employed by Moses in carrying on his intercourse with God should be preserved practically intact in the national tradition. All the other facts and alleged facts of Jewish history up to that time were utterly insignificant beside the one central idea that God had appeared unto Moses, talked habitually and familiarly with him, and had covenanted with them to give them the land of Canaan for an inheritance forever, and to make of them a great nation. It is a corollary of this postulate that the phenomena which Moses and his followers attributed to divine agency actually occurred, substantially as they are related in the Old Testament.

This view of the case will be still further confirmed when we consider the specific character of the phenomena and compare it with cognate phenomena which are occurring every day and which can be experimentally reproduced. In making this comparison it must be remembered that Moses was subject to the same laws, and was hedged about by the same limitations, that control and limit the psychic manifestations of to-day. The same law of suggestion operated to cause his subjective mind to believe itself to be God, that causes that of the modern psychic to believe

itself to be the spirit of any deceased person whose name is suggested. If there could be any possible doubt of the truth of this proposition, it will be set at rest when we consider the nature of the conversation detailed in the foregoing passages. God is there represented as being so deeply moved by anger and jealousy, when he learned that the children of Israel were worshipping other gods, that he wanted to wipe them all out of existence. "Let me

alone," said he to Moses, "that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them." I submit that this is not the language of a God. But when we remember that the subjective mind is the seat of the emotions, and that it is egotistical, vain, selfish, and jealous to the last degree when uncontrolled by objective reason, we have no difficulty in tracing the expression to the subjective mind of Moses himself. This view is still further confirmed by the attitude of objective Moses. His reason told him that it would be highly injudicious, to say the least, to utterly consume the children of Israel; and accordingly he proceeded to argue the question with God and advise him against such heroic measures. So cogent were his arguments, or, to speak in modern scientific phrase, so potent were his suggestions, that God is represented to have "repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people."

It needs no argument to convince the intelligent reader of the absurdity involved in the supposition that finite Moses was able by argument to convict of wrong-doing a God of infinite intelligence, mercy, wisdom, goodness, and power, and cause him to repent of his evil intentions. It is self-evident that the only rational explanation is that given by Maimonides, who flourished in the twelfth century, and was doubtless the greatest Jewish philosopher the world has ever seen; namely, "It was objective Moses talking with subjective Moses."

This is certainly the only explanation that will harmonize all the alleged facts and give coherency and consistency to the Old Testament accounts of the intercourse of God with man during the Mosaic dispensation. The same hypothesis applies with equal force to the intercourse of God with the prophets and seers, from the days of Abraham to the advent of Jesus of Nazareth.

Studied from this point of view, the facts related will be found to be illustrative of the principles and laws which modern scientific research has brought to light. As I have before remarked, the Old Testament is a record of most remarkable psychic experiences, a vast storehouse of misinterpreted and wrongly classified psychic facts. But, as I shall attempt to show in the ensuing chapters, they are facts which, properly classified and intelligently appreciated, are of the most transcendent interest and importance to mankind.

CHAPTER VII.

ANCIENT PSYCHIC PHENOMENA (continued).

The Prophets of Israel. - Elisha's Methods. He saves the Three Kings. Human Characteristics of Elisha's God. - The Evolution of the Monotheistic Idea through Psychic Phenomena. The First Conception of the Idea of a Living God. - The Evolution of the Spiritual Man. The First Great Step through Psychic Phenomena. - The The Jewish Origin of Monotheism God of Abraham. - The Dispensation of Moses. - The Second Great Step in the Evolution of the Spiritual Man.- The Decalogue. The Influence of Egyptian Civilization. - The Wisdom of Moses. Egyptian Ethics and the Jewish Religion. The Progress of the Prophets reflected in their Conception of the Character of God. - Isaiah's God no longer the God of Israel

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HAVING now briefly adverted to a series of psychic

phenomena recorded in the Pentateuch, it remains to note the continuation of the same through the prophets who succeeded Moses. It is undeniable that the phenomena exhibited by the prophets were the same as those of Moses in all essential particulars. They were dominated by the same beliefs, or suggestions, and the resultant manifestations necessarily corresponded, modified only by their different environment and the natural development and progress of the human mind. That the prophets were psychics, is undeniable. Even the methods sometimes employed by them in entering the psychical condition were identical with those often required by the modern psychic when preparing for some signal demonstration.

A striking illustration of this fact is found in the séance which the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom had with the prophet Elisha. The King of Moab, who had formerly been tributary to the King of Israel, had rebelled. The latter had formed an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Kings of Judah and Edom for the purpose of bringing the King of Moab to terms. On their march through the wilderness of Edom towards the land of the Moabites, they found themselves in a region that was devoid of water wherewith to water their stock. In this condition it became evident to them that they would soon fall an easy prey to the King of Moab. In this strait "the King of Israel said, Alas! that the Lord hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab."

"But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him? And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Here is Elisha, the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah."1

Accordingly the three kings sought out Elisha, who, after making some disparaging remarks concerning the King of Israel, consented to do as requested for the sake of Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah.

"But now," continued the prophet, "bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him.

"And he said, Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches." 2

The point to be noted in the foregoing is that, on this great occasion, when the fate of three kingdoms trembled in the balance, Elisha deemed it essential that he should have the aid of music to enable him to enter the subjective state and successfully invoke the name of the Lord. It is needless to remark that it was precisely the condition often 1 2 Kings iii. 10, II. 2 Op. cit., v. 15, 16.

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