The Vital Message(主信)

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THE VITAL MESSAGE

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

THE VITAL MESSAGE

PREFACE

In "The New Revelation" the first dawn of the coming change has

been described. In "The Vital Message" the sun has risen higher, and one

sees more clearly and broadly what our new relations with the Unseen

may be. As I look into the future of the human race I am reminded of how

once, from amid the bleak chaos of rock and snow at the head of an Alpine

pass, I looked down upon the far stretching view of Lombardy,

shimmering in the sunshine and extending in one splendid panorama of

blue lakes and green rolling hills until it melted into the golden haze which

draped the far horizon. Such a promised land is at our very feet which,

when we attain it, will make our present civilisation seem barren and

uncouth. Already our vanguard is well over the pass. Nothing can now

prevent us from reaching that wonderful land which stretches so clearly

before those eyes which are opened to see it. That stimulating writer, V. C.

Desertis, has remarked that the Second Coming, which has always been

timed to follow Armageddon, may be fulfilled not by a descent of the

spiritual to us, but by the ascent of our material plane to the spiritual, and

the blending of the two phases of existence. It is, at least, a fascinating

speculation. But without so complete an overthrow of the partition walls

as this would imply we know enough already to assure ourselves of such a

close approximation as will surely deeply modify all our views of science,

of religion and of life. What form these changes may take and what the

evidence is upon which they will be founded are briefly set forth in this

volume.

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.

CROWBOROUGH,

July, 1919.

THE VITAL MESSAGE

CHAPTER I

THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS

THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTSTHE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS

THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS

It has been our fate, among all the innumerable generations of

mankind, to face the most frightful calamity that has ever befallen the

world. There is a basic fact which cannot be denied, and should not be

overlooked. For a most important deduction must immediately follow

from it. That deduction is that we, who have borne the pains, shall also

learn the lesson which they were intended to convey. If we do not learn it

and proclaim it, then when can it ever be learned and proclaimed, since

there can never again be such a spiritual ploughing and harrowing and

preparation for the seed? If our souls, wearied and tortured during these

dreadful five years of self- sacrifice and suspense, can show no radical

changes, then what souls will ever respond to a fresh influx of heavenly

inspiration? In that case the state of the human race would indeed be

hopeless, and never in all the coming centuries would there be any

prospect of improvement.

Why was this tremendous experience forced upon mankind? Surely it

is a superficial thinker who imagines that the great Designer of all things

has set the whole planet in a ferment, and strained every nation to

exhaustion, in order that this or that frontier be moved, or some fresh

combination be formed in the kaleidoscope of nations. No, the causes of

the convulsion, and its objects, are more profound than that. They are

essentially religious, not political. They lie far deeper than the national

squabbles of the day. A thousand years hence those national results may

matter little, but the religious result will rule the world. That religious

result is the reform of the decadent Christianity of to-day, its simplification,

its purification, and its reinforcement by the facts of spirit communion and

the clear knowledge of what lies beyond the exit-door of death. The shock

of the war was meant to rouse us to mental and moral earnestness, to give

us the courage to tear away venerable shams, and to force the human race

to realise and use the vast new revelation which has been so clearly stated

and so abundantly proved, for all who will examine the statements and

THE VITAL MESSAGE

proofs with an open mind. Consider the awful condition of the world

before this thunder-bolt struck it. Could anyone, tracing back down the

centuries and examining the record of the wickedness of man, find

anything which could compare with the story of the nations during the last

twenty years! Think of the condition of Russia during that time, with her

brutal aristocracy and her drunken democracy, her murders on either side,

her Siberian horrors, her Jew baitings and her corruption. Think of the

figure of Leopold of Belgium, an incarnate devil who from motives of

greed carried murder and torture through a large section of Africa, and yet

was received in every court, and was eventually buried after a panegyric

from a Cardinal of the Roman Church--a church which had never once

raised her voice against his diabolical career. Consider the similar crimes

in the Putumayo, where British capitalists, if not guilty of outrage, can at

least not be acquitted of having condoned it by their lethargy and trust in

local agents. Think of Turkey and the recurrent massacres of her subject

races. Think of the heartless grind of the factories everywhere, where work

assumed a very different and more unnatural shape than the ancient labour

of the fields. Think of the sensuality of many rich, the brutality of many

poor, the shallowness of many fashionable, the coldness and deadness of

religion, the absence anywhere of any deep, true spiritual impulse. Think,

above all, of the organised materialism of Germany, the arrogance, the

heartlessness, the negation of everything which one could possibly

associate with the living spirit of Christ as evident in the utterances of

Catholic Bishops, like Hartmann of Cologne, as in those of Lutheran

Pastors. Put all this together and say if the human race has ever presented

a more unlovely aspect. When we try to find the brighter spots they are

chiefly where civilisation, as apart from religion, has built up necessities

for the community, such as hospitals, universities, and organised charities,

as conspicuous in Buddhist Japan as in Christian Europe. We cannot deny

that there has been much virtue, much gentleness, much spirituality in

individuals. But the churches were empty husks, which contained no

spiritual food for the human race, and had in the main ceased to influence

its actions, save in the direction of soulless forms. This is not an over-

coloured picture. Can we not see, then, what was the inner reason for the

THE VITAL MESSAGE

war? Can we not understand that it was needful to shake mankind loose

from gossip and pink teas, and sword-worship, and Saturday night drunks,

and self- seeking politics and theological quibbles--to wake them up and

make them realise that they stand upon a narrow knife-edge between two

awful eternities, and that, here and now, they have to finish with make-

beliefs, and with real earnestness and courage face those truths which have

always been palpable where indolence, or cowardice, or vested interests

have not obscured the vision. Let us try to appreciate what those truths are

and the direction which reform must take. It is the new spiritual

developments which predominate in my own thoughts, but there are two

other great readjustments which are necessary before they can take their

full effect. On the spiritual side I can speak with the force of knowledge

from the beyond. On the other two points of reform, I make no such claim.

The first is that in the Bible, which is the foundation of our present

religious thought, we have bound together the living and the dead, and the

dead has tainted the living. A mummy and an angel are in most unnatural

partnership. There can be no clear thinking, and no logical teaching until

the old dispensation has been placed on the shelf of the scholar, and

removed from the desk of the teacher. It is indeed a wonderful book, in

parts the oldest which has come down to us, a book filled with rare

knowledge, with history, with poetry, with occultism, with folklore. But it

has no connection with modern conceptions of religion. In the main it is

actually antagonistic to them. Two contradictory codes have been

circulated under one cover, and the result is dire confusion. The one is a

scheme depending upon a special tribal God, intensely anthropomorphic

and filled with rage, jealousy and revenge. The conception pervades every

book of the Old Testament. Even in the psalms, which are perhaps the

most spiritual and beautiful section, the psalmist, amid much that is noble,

sings of the fearsome things which his God will do to his enemies. "They

shall go down alive into hell." There is the keynote of this ancient

document--a document which advocates massacre, condones polygamy,

accepts slavery, and orders the burning of so-called witches. Its Mosaic

provisions have long been laid aside. We do not consider ourselves

accursed if we fail to mutilate our bodies, if we eat forbidden dishes, fail

THE VITAL MESSAGE

to trim our beards, or wear clothes of two materials. But we cannot lay

aside the provisions and yet regard the document as divine. No learned

quibbles can ever persuade an honest earnest mind that that is right. One

may say: "Everyone knows that that is the old dispensation, and is not to

be acted upon." It is not true. It is continually acted upon, and always will

be so long as it is made part of one sacred book. William the Second acted

upon it. His German God which wrought such mischief in the world was

the reflection of the dreadful being who ordered that captives be put under

the harrow. The cities of Belgium were the reflection of the cities of Moab.

Every hard-hearted brute in history, more especially in the religious wars,

has found his inspiration in the Old Testament. "Smite and spare not!" "An

eye for an eye!", how readily the texts spring to the grim lips of the

murderous fanatic. Francis on St. Bartholomew's night, Alva in the

Lowlands, Tilly at Magdeburg, Cromwell at Drogheda, the Covenainters

at Philliphaugh, the Anabaptists of Munster, and the early Mormons of

Utah, all found their murderous impulses fortified from this unholy source.

Its red trail runs through history. Even where the New Testament prevails,

its teaching must still be dulled and clouded by its sterner neighbour. Let

us retain this honoured work of literature. Let us remove the taint which

poisons the very spring of our religious thought.

This is, in my opinion, the first clearing which should be made for the

more beautiful building to come. The second is less important, as it is a

shifting of the point of view, rather than an actual change. It is to be

remembered that Christ's life in this world occupied, so far as we can

estimate, 33 years, whilst from His arrest to His resurrection was less than

a week. Yet the whole Christian system has come to revolve round His

death, to the partial exclusion of the beautiful lesson of His life. Far too

much weight has been placed upon the one, and far too little upon the

other, for the death, beautiful, and indeed perfect, as it was, could be

matched by that of many scores of thousands who have died for an idea,

while the life, with its consistent record of charity, breadth of mind,

unselfishness, courage, reason, and progressiveness, is absolutely unique

and superhuman. Even in these abbreviated, translated, and second- hand

records we receive an impression such as no other life can give--an

THE VITAL MESSAGE

impression which fills us with utter reverence. Napoleon, no mean judge

of human nature, said of it: "It is different with Christ. Everything about

Him astonishes me. His spirit surprises me, and His will confounds me.

Between Him and anything of this world there is no possible comparison.

He is really a being apart. The nearer I approach Him and the closer I

examine Him, the more everything seems above me." It is this wonderful

life, its example and inspiration, which was the real object of the descent

of this high spirit on to our planet. If the human race had earnestly centred

upon that instead of losing itself in vain dreams of vicarious sacrifices and

imaginary falls, with all the mystical and contentious philosophy which

has centred round the subject, how very different the level of human

culture and happiness would be to- day! Such theories, with their absolute

want of reason or morality, have been the main cause why the best minds

have been so often alienated from the Christian system and proclaimed

themselves materialists. In contemplating what shocked their instincts for

truth they have lost that which was both true and beautiful. Christ's death

was worthy of His life, and rounded off a perfect career, but it is the life

which He has left as the foundation for the permanent religion of mankind.

All the religious wars, the private feuds, and the countless miseries of

sectarian contention, would have been at least minimised, if not avoided,

had the bare example of Christ's life been adopted as the standard of

conduct and of religion. But there are certain other considerations which

should have weight when we contemplate this life and its efficacy as an

example. One of these is that the very essence of it was that He critically

examined religion as He found it, and brought His robust common sense

and courage to bear in exposing the shams and in pointing out the better

path. THAT is the hall-mark of the true follower of Christ, and not the

mute acceptance of doctrines which are, upon the face of them, false and

pernicious, because they come to us with some show of authority. What

authority have we now, save this very life, which could compare with

those Jewish books which were so binding in their force, and so

immutably sacred that even the misspellings or pen-slips of the scribe,

were most carefully preserved? It is a simple obvious fact that if Christ

had been orthodox, and had possessed what is so often praised as a "child-

THE VITAL MESSAGE

like faith," there could have been no such thing as Christianity. Let

reformers who love Him take heart as they consider that they are indeed

following in the footsteps of the Master, who has at no time said that the

revelation which He brought, and which has been so imperfectly used, is

the last which will come to mankind. In our own times an equally great

one has been released from the centre of all truth, which will make as deep

an impression upon the human race as Christianity, though no

predominant figure has yet appeared to enforce its lessons. Such a figure

has appeared once when the days were ripe, and I do not doubt that this

may occur once more. One other consideration must be urged. Christ has

not given His message in the first person. If He had done so our position

would be stronger. It has been repeated by the hearsay and report of

earnest but ill-educated men. It speaks much for education in the Roman

province of Judea that these fishermen, publicans and others could even

read or write. Luke and Paul were, of course, of a higher class, but their

information came from their lowly predecessors. Their account is

splendidly satisfying in the unity of the general impression which it

produces, and the clear drawing of the Master's teaching and character. At

the same time it is full of inconsistencies and contradictions upon

immaterial matters. For example, the four accounts of the resurrection

differ in detail, and there is no orthodox learned lawyer who dutifully

accepts all four versions who could not shatter the evidence if he dealt

with it in the course of his profession. These details are immaterial to the

spirit of the message. It is not common sense to suppose that every item is

inspired, or that we have to make no allowance for imperfect reporting,

individual convictions, oriental phraseology, or faults of translation. These

have, indeed, been admitted by revised versions. In His utterance about the

letter and the spirit we could almost believe that Christ had foreseen the

plague of texts from which we have suffered, even as He Himself suffered

at the hands of the theologians of His day, who then, as now, have been a

curse to the world. We were meant to use our reasons and brains in

adapting His teaching to the conditions of our altered lives and times.

Much depended upon the society and mode of expression which belonged

to His era. To suppose in these days that one has literally to give all to the

THE VITAL MESSAGE

poor, or that a starved English prisoner should literally love his enemy the

Kaiser, or that because Christ protested against the lax marriages of His

day therefore two spouses who loathe each other should be for ever

chained in a life servitude and martyrdom--all these assertions are to

travesty His teaching and to take from it that robust quality of common

sense which was its main characteristic. To ask what is impossible from

human nature is to weaken your appeal when you ask for what is

reasonable. It has already been stated that of the three headings under

which reforms are grouped, the exclusion of the old dispensation, the

greater attention to Christ's life as compared to His death, and the new

spiritual influx which is giving us psychic religion, it is only on the latter

that one can quote the authority of the beyond. Here, however, the case is

really understated. In regard to the Old Testament I have never seen the

matter treated in a spiritual communication. The nature of Christ, however,

and His teaching, have been expounded a score of times with some

variation of detail, but in the main as reproduced here. Spirits have their

individuality of view, and some carry over strong earthly prepossessions

which they do not easily shed; but reading many authentic spirit

communications one finds that the idea of redemption is hardly ever

spoken of, while that of example and influence is for ever insisted upon. In

them Christ is the highest spirit known, the son of God, as we all are, but

nearer to God, and therefore in a more particular sense His son. He does

not, save in most rare and special cases, meet us when we die. Since souls

pass over, night and day, at the rate of about 100 a minute, this would

seem self-evident. After a time we may be admitted to His presence, to

find a most tender, sympathetic and helpful comrade and guide, whose

spirit influences all things even when His bodily presence is not visible.

This is the general teaching of the other world communications concerning

Christ, the gentle, loving and powerful spirit which broods ever over that

world which, in all its many spheres, is His special care. Before passing to

the new revelation, its certain proofs and its definite teaching, let us hark

back for a moment upon the two points which have already been treated.

They are not absolutely vital points. The fresh developments can go on

and conquer the world without them. There can be no sudden change in

THE VITAL MESSAGE

the ancient routine of our religious habits, nor is it possible to conceive

that a congress of theologians could take so heroic a step as to tear the

Bible in twain, laying one half upon the shelf and one upon the table.

Neither is it to be expected that any formal pronouncements could ever be

made that the churches have all laid the wrong emphasis upon the story of

Christ. Moral courage will not rise to such a height. But with the spiritual

quickening and the greater earnestness which will have their roots in this

bloody passion of mankind, many will perceive what is reasonable and

true, so that even if the Old Testament should remain, like some obsolete

appendix in the animal frame, to mark a lower stage through which

development has passed, it will more and more be recognised as a

document which has lost all validity and which should no longer be

allowed to influence human conduct, save by way of pointing out much

which we may avoid. So also with the teaching of Christ, the mystical

portions may fade gently away, as the grosser views of eternal punishment

have faded within our own lifetime, so that while mankind is hardly aware

of the change the heresy of today will become the commonplace of

tomorrow. These things will adjust themselves in God's own time. What is,

however, both new and vital are those fresh developments which will now

be discussed. In them may be found the signs of how the dry bones may be

stirred, and how the mummy may be quickened with the breath of life.

With the actual certainty of a definite life after death, and a sure sense of

responsibility for our own spiritual development, a responsibility which

cannot be put upon any other shoulders, however exalted, but must be

borne by each individual for himself, there will come the greatest

reinforcement of morality which the human race has ever known. We are

on the verge of it now, but our descendants will look upon the past century

as the culmination of the dark ages when man lost his trust in God, and

was so engrossed in his temporary earth life that he lost all sense of

spiritual reality.

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THEVITALMESSAGE1THEVITALMESSAGEARTHURCONANDOYLETHEVITALMESSAGE2PREFACEIn"TheNewRevelation"thefirstdawnofthecomingchangehasbeendescribed.In"TheVitalMessage"thesunhasrisenhigher,andoneseesmoreclearlyandbroadlywhatournewrelationswiththeUnseenmaybe.AsIlookintothefutureofthehumanraceIamremindedofhowonce,...

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