Dexter and John W. Edmonds, Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court, were the key figures in a circle that met regularly to receive messages from the spirit world, many of the messages purportedly coming from the spirits of Bacon and Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18^th Century Swedish scientist turned mystic.  Both Edmonds and Dexter began as skeptics out to debunk mediumship.  However, they quickly became believers and both turned into mediums themselves.  Both Bacon's and Swedenborg's handwriting differed from each other and differed from Dexter's.   (See four of the prior five blog entries for more information on Edmonds and Dexter.)

Bacon pointed out that the Jewish nation had been agitated upon the fulfillment of certain prophesies about the birth of a man who would restore the glory of the Jewish kingdom and establish a dynasty which would exist forever.  "They ascribed to this personage attributes at once both earthly and divine - a being who would subdue all the nations who had oppressed their race," Bacon began his explanation"..."  

Bacon's further explanations are abridged below.

"[The Jewish priesthood] could not submit to a limitation of power which had been for ages universal, and it became a matter of serious import to them that the very nature of Christ's mission should be misunderstood.  Thus, when we are told that Christ was to be born, we are also told that he was to elevate the people, he was to institute laws which would restore the might and power of the nation, and he was to rule as king, possessing powers derived from and almost equal to God. It was the policy of the priests to inculcate the material mission of Christ, the establishment of a material kingdom, and the institution of laws which should affect the material condition of the nation alone."

"It is not strange, therefore, that when Christ was born in the lowly manger, that he was not recognized by priest or noble, that he was insulted, reviled, and at last crucified.  It is not strange either that his true mission was by the masses misunderstood, and that when he stood in the highways and byways, discoursing on the true nature of man, his duties to himself, to others, and to the world, he could not be comprehended by those who expected him in pomp, in glory, and with all the power and magnificence of a sovereign." 

"To ascertain what was the true mission of Christ, we should attentively consider the character of the man as given in sacred history, and also in profane, and view his daily life and action in reference to the great work he was called to perform.  The earliest indication of any positive ministration was his teaching in the temple when yet a child, and when he confounded the Priest and the Pharisee.  At this time he reasoned of life, death, and eternity, and the groundwork of all his teaching was, that the moral purity of man's life on earth was the guarantee of his happiness after death.  From this period until the time of his death, he sought out every opportunity to utter those sentiments; and were we take the sermon on the Mount as the solitary evidence in support of our argument, we should triumphantly claim that Christ's mission was the reformation of the moral condition of the world; that he taught all that we teach; that love, purity, truth on earth, are the incipient steps of progression; that eternity develops no sentiments more consonant with the nature of  God than progression from these principles."

"But what was the effect of Christ's teaching on earth?  He says, I came not to destroy but to fulfill.  Let us ask what this fulfilling means.  Does it not mean the fulfillment of the great design for which man was created?  Before his advent, the world's conscience was pinned on the sleeve of the priesthood; their faith was the faith of all, and what they chose to inculcate as religion or truth was implicitly recognized by the people.  What did Christ teach?  He taught men to examine their own hearts,  that by the fruits of a man's life was his moral condition to be tested.  He says, Can a good tree bring forth evil fruit?  Can the association with evil develop good?  No; he charges his disciples to be humble, and merciful, and truthful, to regard others in all the relations of life as they would be regarded when similarly circumstanced.  He presents the spirit as a part of God, and says it was from God in the beginning, and he requires that spirit to be pure even as God is pure, that it might dwell with the father forever."

"Christ taught the doctrine of forgiveness, and when asked when man should pray, and for what he should pray, he refers him to God.  He does not associate himself in any with the adoration of the Father, but says, Our Father which art in heaven.  In every act of Christ, in every reference made to his power, or to the power of God, he distinctly refuses to be regarded as any other than a man and the son of man."

"True, he says, I and the Father are one, but he conclusively refers to the accomplishment of the object for which he came on earth; that in spirit they assimilated, he in the holy and intense desire to elevate his race, and God in  the boundless benevolence by which he had permitted man this opportunity for progression.  Even when arrested in the garden, he says, I could pray to my Father, and he would send legions of angels to my aid; emphatically here he admits no power belonging to himself - he refers everything to God."

"Christ found a world buried in ignorance.  No true idea had been given of their destiny; and not until he dispelled the darkness which shrouded his whole moral nature did man make the effort to understand his true relationship to himself, the world, or to God.  Looking back to Christ, we see the light which has been poured through the vista of years till it has now illuminated the whole civilized world, flickering as a spark, and scarcely affording a ray to guide the benighted footsteps of man.  Now we feel its genial influence; now we walk in the glorious beams which lighten up life and death, and send its rays into eternity."

"Christ opened the portals of the dark grave, and exposed the life beyond as one of progress. He brought man near to God, and bid him understand his connection with the Father.  His conditions were, Repent, and in this he sums up all of spiritual doctrines.  Repentance is progress, and progress the eternal happiness of the spirit."

"How profoundly he understood the human heart!  And in the picture which he drew of man's disposition he leaped over centuries of time, and identified the man of his own day and generation with man of the present age in all his attributes and properties."

"To me, in the consideration of this whole subject, there is a most beautiful thought in this mingling of his own elevated nature with the grossness and ignorance and perverseness of the common people.  Teaching them by trite and simple parables, he descended to their comprehension, and came to the very door of the hearts which were not closed against him."

"But there is one feature of his mission which has not been apprehended, or even noticed, by all the divines of every sect who have pretended to explain his teachings since his death, and that is, he spoke, when on earth, to the very feelings and thoughts which could and would improve by the knowledge which he taught.  He kindled a fire in the hearts of all men, slumbering though it has.  While ages have passed and nations have been born, and have been buried, too, with the past; while laws have been established and temples have been built; while those laws have passed away, and those solid temples have crumbled into dust, still this fire has slumbered, but it has been the slumbering of the fires in the mighty volcano of time."

"In the teachings of Christ we have the fundamental principles of every revolution which has succeeded in establishing the rights of man on earth.  In this we have an illustration of the mission of the Savior as a Reformer, and the effect of the progress of man.  And we have, too, the first point of earnest inquiry which his teachings elicited, What is man's destiny after death, and for what was he created?"

Why is Jesus so important to Spiritists? It is because the morally superior spirits were asked:

“What is the most perfect type that God has offered to man as his guide and model?”

They replied, “Jesus.”(The Spirits Book, No. 625)

This was also corroborated by the profound spirit communications received by the medium Rev. William Stainton Moses from England in the book Spirit Teachings and by the spirit communications of “Silver Birch.”

Therefore, famous Spiritist, Miguel Vives from Spain, in his A Practical Guide for the Spiritist - A Handbook on Moral Conduct wrote the following:

“To attain the level of morality that every Spiritist needs in order to fulfill his mission as properly as possible, and to have peace somewhat while on earth, and to attain some happiness in the spirit world, he should fulfill the Divine Law. Where is the Law? It is the Gospel as proclaimed by Jesus. Therefore, every Spiritist should know by memory, if possible, this moral teaching because how can one apply the law if one does not know it?”

The same Divine Laws that Spiritism teaches are the same ones Jesus taught and can be found and explained in The Gospel According to Spiritism. It is a collected work of the moral teachings from the Bible taught by Jesus which “…go to form a universal moral code without distinction to creed.” They are UNIVERSAL MORAL TEACHINGS of a sublime nature that apply to all human beings.

In Kardec’s The Spirits Book, regarding Divine Laws, the spirits state:

Item 626. “Have we not told you that those laws have been written everywhere? All the men who have meditated upon wisdom have therefore been able to comprehend and teach them from the remotest times. By their teachings, imperfect though they were, they have prepared the ground for the sowing of the seed….the moral precepts they consecrate have been proclaimed in all ages…all the elements of the moral law are to found among every nation….”

Item 627. “The teachings of Jesus were allegoric and conveyed in parables; because He spoke to the time and place in which He lived. The time has come when the truth must be understood for all.”

Item 628. “Hitherto, God has never permitted man to receive communications as full and instructive as those which he is permitted to receive at this day.”

We are blessed to understand about mediumship and spirit communications. We now can receive clearer responses from the spirit world about the purpose of material life, why we suffer, what our moral conduct should be, and how it determines our future circumstances, here and in the hereafter.