Address Against Weltmerism

1901

"Weltmerism Destroyed and Zion Ever Triumphant." This is the subject of an address to be delivered by Rev. James R. Adams, B. D., tomorrow afternoon, at 3 o'clock, in Zion tabernacle, No. 608 Commercial street. S. A. Weltmer and his secretary, J. H. Kelly, have pleaded guilty and thrown themselves upon the mercy of the federal court, which recently tried them for fraud in Kansas City. Thus perish, one by one, the satanic counterfeits of God's work of free grace in Zion. Those who have been deceived and robbed by the so-culled "magnetic healing" are especially welcome at this service, All seats free to everybody. Free-will offerings. "Christ is all and in all." — J. R. A.

—Waterloo Daily Reporter, Waterloo, IA, April 27, 1901, p. 4.


Excerpt from The Mystery Revealed or the Hand-Book of Weltmerism, By Prof. S.A. Weltmer, 1901:

WELTMERISM

Weltmerism is the term applied to the teachings of the author by a magazine writer who paid him a visit in May, 1899. It was used by him to distinguish the teachings of the author from those of other exponents of Mental Healing and its allied branches.

The peculiar feature of my teaching is this: I believe that every person is born with equal rights; that the spiritual part of each person is born in the image and likeness of the Creator; that the same power which produced man produced everything; and that all things, animate and inanimate, have their continual being in accordance with the laws of this Creator.

I believe the power that created man is omnipotent, possesses all the power there is; hence, the power is all in the Creator. This Creator in action is Law, and this Creator is known by the names Law, Law of Nature, Law of Being, God, and designated by Jesus Christ as "My Father which is in Heaven."

Man's power does not consist in any inherent, inborn, latent ability that he may possess; his power consists solely in his ability to grasp the meaning of the Law that governs him and to comply with it. His knowledge of this Law and how to comply with it constitutes his power. I recognize in the language contained in Matt. 18:19, a statement biblical in its origin and both theological and scientific in its meaning; and take the position that a thorough understanding of the language couched in that verse of scripture forms the basis of compromise and unity between science and religion. I believe the religion Christ taught and the works He did were based upon scientific truths, and when applied according to His instruction are capable of demonstration. I believe Christ's entire teachings are as true to-day as they were the day He gave them utterance. I do not believe Christ would teach us to do a work we cannot do.

A strictly undeviating course, based upon the principle involved in His aforesaid statement, constitutes the fundamental doctrine of Weltmerism. Based upon this principle, I claim that any person in the world can do what I do if he knows what I know. The purpose of my life is to teach others what I know. I have no creed except the following: "I do not claim for myself any power or virtue that I do not freely concede to all other men; I do claim for myself all power and virtue conceded to any other man."