Rise of Spiritism
It was in this same year, 1848, that a most singular phenomenon occurred in the little village of Hydesville, New York, at the home of the Fox family. Strange rappings were heard. The two Fox daughters began to respond to the rappings. It seemed like a freak affair. There was nothing to indicate just what it might be, least of all to provide evidence that what was there happening was the beginning of something that would spread far and wide—something of satanic nature. But the months immediately following, while the public at large, as well as occasionally some spokesman for the press or the clergy, was offering vague and casual comments, Mrs. White on March 24, 1849, declared:WBEGW 94.2
“I saw that the mysterious knocking in New York ... was the power of Satan, and that such things would be more and more common, clothed in a religious garb so as to lull the deceived to greater security.”—Early Writings, 43.WBEGW 94.3
How did she know all this? How was she able to say that it would grow and grow, that it would take on a religious garb? How, indeed, could she say for sure that it was of Satan? All these are pertinent questions. We can answer all these easily now, but she wrote before those knockings had developed into something large and sinister.WBEGW 95.1
This was the beginning of modern spiritualism, or, as it is now known, spiritism. All that Mrs. White forecast has come vividly true, particularly with regard to the spread of this phenomenon, for it has spread all over the earth. Sometimes even learned societies on psychic research have concerned themselves with the matter. Has it taken on a religious form? It certainly has, as undoubtedly all our readers know.WBEGW 95.2
Following one of her early visions (January 5, 1849) she declared concerning events that would mark earth’s last days: “The nations are now getting angry.” Then she added that the four angels were presently holding the four winds of strife. (See Early Writings, 36.) For someone today to say that “the nations are now getting angry” or that, indeed, they are presently angry, would hardly cause anyone to raise an eyebrow, much less to express amazement about the insights of the speaker.WBEGW 95.3
But that was not true back in January, 1849. Far from it. Almost the whole world then subscribed to the idea that endless progress lay ahead for this earth. The ungodly believed that material progress lay ahead, and the church believed that spiritual progress loomed in the immediate future, with the Divine Spirit gradually and increasingly infusing the hearts of men until all the world would become holy. This, indeed, was the great point of conflict between the Millerites—who believed that the soon coming of Christ would bring in a better world—and all the religious and secular multitudes around them. Mrs. White, who early began to speak for the post-Millerite Sabbathkeeping group, repeatedly and clearly declared that there loomed ahead, not a better world, but increasing troubles, climaxed by great warfare and the end of the world.WBEGW 95.4