Spirit Communications from Hermes, the Egyptian IV

Hermes, the Egyptian, tries to give us something more of his mission work—

Did the other priests adhere to you in your work of reformation?

The priests of Egypt were supported by a tax on the landholders, who were grievously oppressed by such burdens. These priests were the lords of the land, and possessed great riches, and you may easily imagine that it required great faith in them to leave their wealth, and begin to fight against the corrupt system by which that wealth was obtained. I fear it would be the same in your day. A few of the lower orders took part with me. We went out to the work depending on the Great God, our Father. If we got a meal in the morning, we were as sure of it in the evening; and we were always sure of a roof to shelter us at night, even though that were but a tree of God's own planting.

Hermes gives us bits from a discourse he delivered to his countrymen when he began his work of reformation in Egypt. These, he extols, may still be of service, for though we live in an advanced period in our history, we have not gone so far into their old modes of thought as we fancy we have done. They may be accounted old and worn-out in their religious ideas and we may imagine that we are now far in advance, but it is not so. In the matter of science, we are doubtless in advance, but in theology, our progress has been very little indeed—we are but imitators of the ancients.

I feel a degree of difficulty in reproducing these discourses. I do not get my ideas conveyed to you exactly as I want them—depending as I do on the translation of the Medium, who is liable to go wrong now and again. For this, however, neither of us is to be blamed. He may err in translating us, and we may misapprehend your questions and give you incorrect answers. It would be much better had we the language. But, on the whole, we do wonderfully well. It was somewhat in this fashion I spoke—

Fellow countrymen, hearken unto me. You have long known me as a priest—as one who has gone out and in amongst you, and my character is well known to you all. But here I stand this day to declare to you that henceforth I am no longer a priest. My eyes, once closed, are now open to see the monstrous idolatry and absurdity of our temple service. At these altars on which we kindle fires and burn incense and offer up sacrifices to gods of stone and wood—gods of iron, of silver, and of gold—at these altars I will serve no longer; to such senseless forms of beast, bird, and reptile, I will no longer bend my knee in worship; no longer can I look upon them even as symbolical representations of what has been called the attributes of the Great God; for he whose eyes have been opened to all this delusion and absurdity can never be satisfied with such an excuse. Our whole religious system is corrupt and cries aloud for reformation.

Our ancient records go far back in the history of the world—even down the long ages to the formation of the Earth by the fiat of the Great and Mighty God, the Creator and the Sustainer of all things in Heaven and in Earth. But who amongst the sons of men can say, God is like this, or God is like that? Not one. We can form no conception of his shape or form. He is above and beyond all form. He is INTELLIGENCE.

In the sacred writings of the nations— Egyptian, Persian, Hebrew—various attributes have been ascribed to the Great Spirit, such as Omnipotence, Omniscience, Foreknowledge, Justice, Truth, Love, Mercy, and Goodness. These, and many more besides, have been spoken of as belonging to God; and men, led away by their own conceits, and false conceptions of the Great and Infinite One, have symbolised these attributes in the forms of birds and beasts and crawling reptiles; and the people, having little knowledge of symbols, and no one inclined to show them a better way, have fallen down and worshipped these as gods—the senseless blocks of wood and stone and metal! Away with it altogether! How long shall we tolerate such a system? God is One. He is complete. He is Intelligence. These so-called attributes are but the conceptions of man; they are not of God. Finite men, for their own convenience, have used these terms, and spoken in such a way as to lead others to imagine a God divided. But He is one—Intelligence. And being so, He is the All-Powerful—the All-Wise—the All-Good—the All-Loving—the All-Merciful—the All-Just God. Where all is Good, there can be no such thing as evil. Where all is Truth, there can be no lie. There can be no evil existing with Infinite Intelligence. Evil is the result of man's ignorance. Why, then, you say, create man in ignorance? Because it is decreed by our Creator that we should acquire knowledge by the exercise of the powers He has granted us. Man is not born wise and good and loving, but he is born with all the faculties by which he may, during his lifetime, become wise and good. There can be only one All-Powerful Being—the One Perfect Intelligence, from whom we spring, and of whose nature we are partakers, but in a finite degree—and it is our duty to grow in likeness to Him. But ah! how unlike are we to the Great Spirit—the Ever-Living God, whose goodness, whose light flows out to all eternally! It goes far beyond all that we can conceive.

Do not think that I mean to say there is no such thing as sin. I do not contradict myself. If I make a bargain with a man, and afterwards break the contract, I sin against that man—I injure him—and by all that is just, I must account for it. The sin—the injury is done to my neighbour, but I must account to the Great Intelligence for that sin. I must be judged, and I must suffer, even though I should wander in Hades for thousands of years.

Seeing we have been endowed by the Great Creator with powers so great, let us do our duty in respect to our fellow men wherever we go and at all times. Let us try to raise the fallen; to give a helping hand to those who are downtrodden; to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and by every means let us seek to dispel the darkness of ignorance by imparting to others that light which we ourselves possess. It may be we can give but a dim light, but if but a spark let it be given, so that it, in time, may lighten up the benighted ones around us.

Now, brethren, if you are convinced that I am speaking words of truth—truth worthy your acceptance, and still refuse to accept it, you are responsible to the Great Spirit, the Father and Creator of All. Do not think that He will fail to call you to account. Judgment awaits you. Be persuaded, then, to abandon the course you have hitherto pursued. Cast away these senseless idols; be men, and acknowledge the Great Intelligent One as your God and Him only. Thus changed in mind, you will strive to conduct yourselves as the children of God. But if not—if you still persist in your idolatries, when you come to cross the river, beware! You may be sent back in disgrace in the boat with an ape at the helm ... All mankind are our brethren—a universal brotherhood; all are related, as system to system in the starry heavens—all bound to God the Great Father, the Life-giver, the Infinite Intelligence.

I am not sure about what you said in reference to sinning against God and our neighbour—willyou explain?

I said—or meant to say—that in sinning against men we might escape from man's judgment, but we cannot escape from the Infinite Intelligence. We are created ignorant, and that which we do in ignorance is not reckoned sin. If you place a number of human beings on an island, totally ignorant, having no knowledge of God and his laws, what would be the result? All manner of evil. But would you punish these men and women for their lawless deeds? Could you—dare you? No; assuredly not. But, on the other hand, were these persons somewhat enlightened, and conscious that they were doing that which they ought not to do, you might justly condemn them as worthy of punishment. When sin is committed, an injury is done to man. You cannot, really, by sinning, injure God. Still, God will hold you accountable for all you do against the light of his truth within you. Be assured of this.

You said your addresses were chiefly delivered to the unlearned or poorer class of the people; if so, was it likely they would fully comprehend such a discourse?

You must understand that we were not like you in our beliefs. The people of Egypt were generally instructed in many of the mysteries of the symbolical worship that prevailed under our corrupt system of theology. We paid great attention was paid to the consideration of the attributes of the Deity; and we (the priests) studied by every means to represent these attributes by various animals, so as to convey to the uninitiated some idea of truth; but all this would not do; inherently bad from the first, though containing some truth, such a theology, step by step, led the people into idolatrous practices in their worship, and in course of time, long before my day, the whole system had become a mass of absurdity and corruption. All this I wanted reformed, and instead of seeing them bowing down ignorantly to idols, to get their minds directed to the One Great Spirit, the Maker of all things, and the only object of man's worship. I was incited to pursue this course of reformation by Spirit influence, for, as I spoke to the people, I felt the very words welling up into my mouth. I do not know how this was done, but, conscious they were not mine, 1 concluded they were from a high and holy source. Yes, if men would but put reliance at such seasons on the Great Spirit, rather than dependence on their own mental powers, or on their knowledge gained by study, the results would be much greater and more beneficial to their fellow men. Men sent by God, and who place themselves under his guidance, need give no anxious concern as to what they shall say; when in the right condition, the heavenly help will be at hand. But it will not do to rely on us in every case; for in many men this would beget laziness, and their thinking powers would lie dormant. It is man's duty to cultivate every faculty of his nature, and at the same time strive to have his soul in such a condition that influences from the Spirit World may not be shut out. With us there is ample room for every thinking being—ample opportunities for the cultivation of his highest nature—for the study of creation. How often have men made a blade of grass the object of inquiry and thought, and found their Earth-life too short to pursue the loved study. Here they will find time! Here, too, the honest doubter will find his doubts dispelled—the darkness of doubt annihilated by the light of truth. It is even good for men to doubt; it sets them eagerly on the search for truth, and they are benefitted in the arduous struggle to reach it.

Do you now adhere to the doctrines yon advocated in your discourse?

Certainly; I hold them now. But if I found anything which I taught on Earth to be discordant with the truths of this life—life in the Spirit World—I would at once cast it off—not, however, without first picking out the precious stones from amongst the rough rubble.

O great and glorious Spirit, Fountain of all Truth, Source and Centre of all Intelligence, Creator and Preserver of all things throughout the wide universe—Our Father, send forth, we pray Thee, Thy bright messengers to guide and guard these mortals, our brethren, into all truth. And may their souls' thirst be fully quenched from the ever-flowing fountain of Thy truth and Thy wisdom. Depending on Thee alone in their Earth-pilgrimage, may they, when they pass over to us, be welcomed into the Summerland, which Thou, O loving Father! hast prepared for them.

Hafed, Prince of Persia—His Experiences in Earth Life and Spirit Life; being spirit communications received through Mr David Duguid, the Glasgow trance-painting medium; with an appendix, containing communications from the spirit artists, Ruisdal and Steen. Illustrated by facsimiles of various drawings and writings, the direct work of the spirits; David Duguid, Hay Nisbet; James Burns, London, 1876