For years I was a searcher after Truth. Born and cradled in the lap of stout Baptist orthodoxy; compelled by my parents to attend Sunday School, Bible class and preaching twice a day on Sunday, I nevertheless was skeptical, and gave my good Baptist parents some trouble on account of my unbelief as I grew older. Somehow. I could not make myself believe in their plan of salvation and would steal off and go fishing on Sunday, despite their protests well laid on, for they, that is, my father, believed strongly in the old precept that "to spare the rod was to spoil the child." And so my jacket was often dusted in real old Puritanical style.
But I was a born skeptic. As I grew older and cut loose from the parental apron strings, I boldly asserted my independence and commenced to investigate—commenced my search after Truth. After long and patient investigation, I decided that "all was vanity"; that all religions were man made; that none of the various sects were Christians as Christ was; that none of them pretended to do the works that Christ was represented as doing, and that the Bible itself, was of doubtful inspired origin.
I investigated Spiritualism thoroughly. I took all the Spiritualist journals and read all the literature bearing on the subject. I attended seances and lectures, but after several years I concluded that Spiritualism was a dazzling fraud, and that spirits had nothing whatever to do with the physical manifestations presented, some of which were inexplicable and puzzling. In the meantime my father, two uncles, and my two brothers and sister had become Spiritualists, and were very much offended when I pronounced it a humbug and a fraud.
