Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1888 — MODERN SPIRITUALISM. [ARTICLE]

MODERN SPIRITUALISM.

Spiritualiam Characterized A* a Humbug and Delusion. An Adulterous and Damnable Religion Ar Mog (From HeH-The Principal ( ao»« of J n •*». ity—Wrecking the Honl Immortal and Making Infidel*,of M«n. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at the Brooklyn Tabernacle latt Sunday. Subject, “Modern Spiti ualiam.” Text,Samuel xxxvrii, 78: “Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raimeqt, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to he woman by night; and he said, I pray tthee. divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up whom 1 shall name unto thee.” He said:

I learn first from this subject that Spiritualism is a very old religion. It. is natural that people atould want to know the origin and the history of a doctrine whicn is to widespread in all the villages, towns and cities of the civilised world, getting new converts every day—a doctrine with which many of you are already tinged. Spiritualism in America was bom in 1347. in Hydesville, Wayne county, New York, when one night them was a loud rap heard against the door of Michael Wetktnan, a rap a second time, a rap a third time; and all three times, when the door was opened, there was nothing found there, the knocking having been made seemingly by invisib.e knuckles. In that same house there was a young woman who had a fold hand passed over her face, and tbeie being seemingly no arm attached to it. ghoitly sospicions were aroused. After awhile Mr. Fox and family moved in that house, and then every night there was a banging at the door, andons ni»ht Mr. Fox said, “Are you a spirit?” Two raps, answering in the affirmative. “Are you an injured spirit?’ Two raps, answering in ihe affirmative. And so they lound out, as they say, that it was the ghost or spirit of a peddler who had been murdered in that house many years before for his SSOO. Whether the ghost of tbe dead peddler bad come there to eolket his 1500 or his bones I can not ray, not being a Spiritual^t, but there was a g»eat racket at the door, so Mr. Weekman dec'ared, and Mrs. Weekman, and Mr. Fox and Mrs. Fox and all the little Foxes. Tbe excitement apnal. There was a universal rumpur. The Hon. Judge Edmunds declared in a book that he had actually seen a bell stirt from ihe top shelf of a closet, heard it ring over the people who were standing in the closet; tl en, swung by invisible hand?, it rang over the people in the back parlor and floated through thefolciig doors to the front parlor, rung over the p jople there, and then fell to the floor. N. P. Talmage, Senator of the United States, afterward Governor of Wisconsin, had his head completely turned with Spiritualistic demonstrations. A man as he was lasing along the road said that he was lifted up bodily and carried toward his home through the air. at such a speed he could not count the posts on the fence as they passed, and as he had a handsaw and a square in bis hand they beat, as he passed through lhea f r, most delightful music. And the tables tipped and the stools tilted, and tne bedsteads raised, and the chairs up et, and it seemed that the spirits everywhere had gone into the furniture business! Well, the people said: “We have got something new in this country; it is a new religion.” Oh, no, my friends. Thousands of years ago we find in our text a Spiritualistic seance. Nothing in the Spiritualistic circles of our day has b‘en more strange, nn serious and wonderful than things which have been seen in the past centuries of the world. In all the ages there ha”o been necromancers, those who consult with the spirits of the departed; charmers, those who put their subjects in a mesmeric state; sorcerers, those who by taking poisonous drugs see everything and hear everything and tell everything; dreamers, people who in their sleeping moments can see the future world and hold consultation with spirits; astrologers, who could read a ’ new dispensation in the stars; experts in palmtrtry, who can tell by the lines in the palm of your band your origin and vour history. From a cave on Mount Parnassus, we are told, there was on exhalation that intoxicated tbe sheep and the grata that came any where near it, and a shepherd approaching it was thrown by that exhala’isn into an excitement in which he could forete’l future even's and hold consultation with the spiritual worlJ. Yes, before the time of Christ the Brahmins went through al! the tablemoving, all tbef irnitareexcitement, which the spirit have exolodedin ocr day: precisely the same thing over and over aga>n, under tbemanipulations of the Bah mi in, Now do you say that Spiritualism is different from these? I answer, a'i these I have mentioned beil rng to thesame family. Ttiey are exhumations from ihe unsetn world. What does Gol think of all these delusions? He thinks so severely of them that He never speaks of them but with livid thunders“b’f indign ition. Hasavs: “I will be a swift witness against the so-cerer.” He save: “Thou shall Bofkufisr a witch to live.” And bat you might make some important distinction between SpiriiaHlism and witchcraft, God says, in so many words: “There shall net be among yotr a conanlter of familiar spirit, or wizard, or necromincer; far they that do these 'bings are an abomination un'o the L rd/’ And he says again. “The soul cf torose who seek after such as have familiar spirits, and aybo go whorin».*_t»r them, strt hes’tolL he rtoToff from his peopfe.” The L nd Almighty, in a score of passage s, which I have rot now time to onote. utters His indignat on against all this family of delusions. Alter tba - be a Soiritualist if yon da-e! Still fnr hen we barn from this text how it is that people come to fall into Spiritualism. Saul enough trouble to kill ten men He di I not know where to go for relief. After aw bile he rwo’ved to go and see the Witch of Hodor. He expected that somehow she would atlord him relief. It was his trouble'that drove him there. And I have to tall you now that Spiritualism finds its victims iu the troubled, tbe bankrupt, the sick, tbe bereft. You loose your watch, and you go to the fortune-teller to find where it is. Yotf loose a friend, yon want a Spiritual

world opened, so that you may have communication with him. In a highlyWiought, nervous and -diseased state oT mind, you to and put younelf in that communication. That is- why I hate Spiritualism. It takes advantage of one iu a moment of weakness, which may come upon us at any time. We loee a friend. The trial is keen, sharp, suffocating, almoet maddening. If we could marshal a host, and noun the eternal world, and recaptur* our loved one, tbe host would Koon be marshaled. Tbe house ia so lonely. The world isso dark. The separation is so insufferable. But Spiritual'emuy.: “We will open the future world, and your loved one can come back and talk to you.” Though we may not bear his voice, we may hear the rap of his hand. Bo clear the table. Bit down. Pat your bands on the table. Be very quiet Five minutes gone. Ten minutes. No motion of the tabl*. No response from ihe future world. Twenty minutes. Thir tv minutes. Nervous excitment all the time increasing. Forty minute?. Tbe table shivers. Two rape from tbe future world. Tbe letters of the alphabet are called over. The departed friend’s name is John. At the pronunciation of the letter “J,” two raps. At the pronunciation Of the letter “O,” two rape. At the pronunciation of the latter “H,” two

raps. At the pronunciation of the letter “N,” two rap’. There you have the whole name spelled out J-o-hn, John. Now, the spirit being present, you say: “John, are you happy?” Two raps gives an affirmative answer. Pretty soon the hand of the medium begins to twitch and toss, and begins to write, out, after paper and ink are furnished, a message from the eternal world. What is remarkable, the departed spirit, although it has been amid tbe alluminations of heaven, can not spell as well as it used to. It has lost all grammatical accuracy and can not write as distinctly. I received a letter through a medium once. I eend it back. I srid: “Just pleaee to tell those ghosts that they had better go to school and get improved in their orthographv.” Now, just think of spirits, that the Bible represents as enthroned in g'ory, coining down to crawl under the table and break crockery, and ring tea-bells before tapper is ready, and rap the window-shutter on a gusty night. Is there any consolation in such poor, miserable work compared with the thought that our departed Christian friends, got rid ot pain and languishing, are in the ladiant society of he even, and that we shall joia them there, net in a stifled and myeterious half-uttersnoe which makes the hair ttand on end and the cold chills creep down the back, but in au unhindered and illimitable delight. Yes, my friends, Spiritualism comes to those who are in trouble, and sweeps them ioto its delusions. Saul, in the midst of Lie disaster, went to the Witch of Endor. The vest majority of those who have gone to Spiritual mediums have been sent tbeie through their misfortunes. I learn still further from this subject that Spirituali-m and necromancy are affaiis of the darkness. Why did not Saul go in the day? He was ashamed to go. Betides that, he knew that this Spiritual medium, like all her successors performed her exploits in the night. The Davenports, the Fowlers, tbe Foxes, the Spiritual mediums of all ages, have chosen the night or a darkened room. Why? The majority of their wonders have been swindled, and deception prospers best in the night. S ime of the performances of spirtual mediums are not to be escribed to fraud, t ut to some occult law tuat after awhile nay be demonstrated. But I believe now that nine hundred and ninetv-nine out of every thousand achievement on the put of spiriusl mediums are anant anffunmitigated humbugs. Tne mysterious red letters that used to come out on the medium’s arms were found to have been ma ie by an iron pencil that went heavily over ihe flesh, not tearing it, but bo disturbing tne blood that it came up in great round letters. The witnesses of the seances have locked the dcor, put the key in their pockt t, arrested the operator and found out, by searching tbe loom, that hidden lexers moved tbe tables. The sealed letters that wero mysteriously read without opening have been found to have been cut at the side and then afterward s’yly put together with gum arabic; and the medium, who, with a hravy blanket over h s head, could read a book, has been found to have bad a bottle of phosphoric oil, bv the light of which any body cau read a bo k, and ventriloquism and legerdemain, and slight of hand, and optical delusion account for nearly everything. Deception being the main staple of Bpiritua no wonder it chooses ihe darkness! You have ail teen strange and unaccountable things in the night. Almost everv man hss at some time had a tom hos ha’lucination. Some time azo,' a’ter I had been over-tempted to eat tomethirg indigestible befcre retiring at night, a’ter raiiring I saw tbe president of one of the prominent colleges ssuide tbe foot of the bed. while he demanded <f me tbe loan o‘ five cents! When I awakened I had no idea it was anything supernatural. And I have to advise you, if you hear and ree strange things at night, to stop eating hot mince pie and take a dore of bilious medicine It is an outraged physical organism, enough to deceive the very elect after sundown, and does nearly a’l its work in the'THght. The witch c f Endor held her seances at night, so do ail the wifi hes. Away with this religion cf : ■ ' ' ■ *'•" ' B - : ■ „ . - fit 11 further: I leera from my text tba Soiri’ualism ii doom and death to its ci« o’pie?. King Saul thought he would get help from the “medium,” but the first thing he sees makes him swoon away and no sooner is b* reanssiiafeithaahe w-dold be must die. Spiritualism is doom and death to every one that yields to it. It ruins ’he body. Look io upon an audience of Spiritualists—<a<laveron°, w*ak, nerypuß, ex; Fansted, Ean’cTs clammy and cold. Notting proeperbrs but long hair—soft marshes yielding rank grass. Spiritualism dee>roys the physical health. Its diecipl-s <re ever hearing startling news from the other world.strange beings crot sing the room in wh te; table fidgety, wanting to igrt ito iea|' loose , *Rif to dance; voices ss pul h'rfl and ominous; bewildered with raps. 1 never knew a confirmed Spiritualist who had a bea thv nervous system. It is incip ent ep ilep sy and cvtalepsy. Des rays your nervous system and you might as we 1 be dead. I have noticed.tta* pieople wno are hearing reps from tbe future world have but little strength left to bear the la-d raps nf th swo Id. It is an awful thing to trifle with one’s nervous system. Jt is si deicate—it is so farreaching—its derangements are so terri-

ble. Get tbe nervoui sys'etn a jangle, and so far as your body and soul are concerned-the whois unirerm is a jangle. Better in our ignorance experiment with a chemiit’B retort that mav smite ns desd, or with an engineer’s steam boiler that may blow us to atoms, than expieriment with tbe nervous system. A man can live with one lung < r with ro eye! and be happy ai men have been undar such afflic ions; bnt woe be to the man whose nerves shattered. Spiritaa rim smiles first of a’l, and mightilv, avail st ih« nervous sjH'em, apd makes life miserable. I indict Rpiritnalism also.becauß) it is as>cial and marital curse. Ths worst deeds o’ licent'onaness and the worst orgi se of obscenity have been enacted under its patronage. The story is too si'e tor me to tel). I will not pollute my tongue nor j oor ears with the recital Sometimes the civil law has been evoked to ttop the outrave. Families innumerable have been broken up by it. It has pushed off hundreds of young women into a life cf profligacy. It ta’ka about “elective affinities” and “affinital relations.” and “spiritual matches,” and adopts the whele vocabulary of freelovism. In one of its public journals it declares “ma’riage is the monster curse of civilization. It is a source cf debauchery and intemperance.” If Spiritualism could have its full swing, it would torn this world into a pandemonium of carnalitK lt is an unclean, adulterous, damnable religion, and the sooner it drops into the bell from which it rose the better both for earth and heaven, For the sake of man’s honor and woman’s pority, I say let tbe last vett've of it perish forevr.' I wish I could gather up all the raps it has ever heaid from spirits blest or damned, and gather them all on its own head in one thundering, rap of annihilation.

I further indict Spiritualism for the fact that it is the cause of much insanity. There is not an asylum between Bangor and San Francisco which has not the torn and bleeding victims of this delusion. Go into any asylum, I care not where it is, and the presiding doctor, after you have aaked him, “What is the matter with that woman?” will siy, “Spiritualism dementsd her.” It has taken down some of the brightest intellects. It swept off into mental midnight Judges, Sanatois, Governors, ministers cf the gospel, and cne time caine near capturing one of the Presidents of the United Slates. At Flushing, near this city, a man became absortel with it it, forsook his family, took his onlv 515,000, turrendered them to a spiritual medium in New York, attempted three times to put an end to his life, and then was incarcerated in the State Lunatic Asylum, wheie he is to-day a raving maniac. Put your hand in the hand of this witch of Endor and she will lead you to the bottomless perdition, where she holds her evei lasting see nee. Spiritualism not only mins its disciples. but it ruins the mediums also who give it time. The Gadanean swine on the banks of the Lake of Galilee, no sooner became spiritual mediums than down they went, in an avalanche of pork, tbe consternation of all the herds? men. The office of a medium is bad for a man, bad for a woman, bed for a beast. I bring avainst this delusion a more fearful indictment—it ruins the soul immortal. First it makes a man a quarter of an infidel; then it makes him half an infidel; then it makes’ him who’e infidel. The whole system as I conceive i 8 founded on the insufficiency of the Word of God as a revelation. God says the Bible is enough for you to know about the future world. You say it is not enough, and is where ycu and the Lord differ. You clear tie table, you shove f side the Bible, you put your hand on the tible and say: “Now let ipirits of the future world come and > ell me son ething the Bible has not told me.” And although the Scriptures eay: “Add thou not unto Ills word?, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar,” you risk it and say: “Come back, spirit of my departed father; come back, sprit of my departed mother,cf my companions, of my little child, and tell me some things I don’t know about you and about the unseen world.” If God is ever slapped equare'in the face, it is when a spiritual medium puts down her hand on the table, invoking spirits departed to make a revelation. God has told you all you ought to know, and how dare you be prying into that which is none of your busin ass? You cannot keep the Bible in one hand and Spritualiem in the other. One or tne other will slip out of your grasp, depend upon it. Spiritualism is adverse to the Bible in tbe fact that it has in these last da) s. called from the future world Christian men to testify against Christianity. Its mediums call back Lorenze Dow the celebrated evangelist, and Lorenzo Dow testifies that Christians are idolatbrs. Spittualism calls back Tom Paine, and he testifies that he is stooping in the same house in heaven with John Bunyan. They call back John Wesley, and he testifies against the Christian religion, which he all his life gloriously preached. Andiew Jackson Davis, the grea test of all the Spiritualists, comes io the front and declares that the New Testament is but the dismal echo of a barbaric age, and the Bible only “one of the pen and ink relies of Christianity.” They attempt to substitute the writings of Swedenborg and Andrew Jackson Da\i?, and other religious baldeidaeb, in the place of ttis old Bible. “But,” says some one, “wouldn’t it be of advantage to hear from the fature wcrld? Don’t ycu think it would strengthen Chrutians? There is a great many materialists who do not believe there are souls; but if spirits from the fature world should knock and talk over to us, they would ing words of the Son of God: “If they believe net .Moeee and tfce prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rcse from the dead.” —New ini anity and perdition. I believe these are the da? s of which the Apostle spake when he said: “In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirit?. ”