Correspondence. GEORGE MILNER STEPHEN AND HIS CURES

Dunstan Times, Issue 1083, 26 January 1883, Page 2

Correspondence.

GEORGE MILNER STEPHEN AND HIS CURES

We do not hold oursehes responsible for the opinion express by our correspondents.

TO THE EDITOR. c ir—T see by a piranraph in your naper win hj seems to bo no Hi,' the rounds tif the Pies-", tone aceou it of the cures said to have been iff cse I in Wellington hy >!r S'ephen. t onsidering it provable that Mr Stephen will soon be heard of nearer th n Weli gton. I ha/e fioa.h" some reunik3 on the subject might he useful. From the fact that Mr S epHen imputes his power* to the Almighty, it w.ll doubtless oe tb■•uj; it by most persons that Mr Stephen r.-gar.ls bim.se f as an o 3 ;ct of special favour—one of the "elect" chosen b Go.l ami that so there is a good ileal 01 the character of a religious fanatic in Mr St-pb n. But. in b t a heolo.lca' an I metaphysical ■•eiiße the i fas of God ami " miracle," and their relation t>> religion, as undersioil by the I opttlar mind, are wholly opposed to the views of Mr Steph. n and th.; school of thou.hr. to which he belongs, as nny ba s-eati in a Binall work wri ten hy his son. Mr Harold S.ephen. giving an aecouut of Mr Stephen's ear.'y c ires and his conversion to Spiii'ualism. We are therein told tbat.it ha 1 been intimated to Mr Stephen by the spirits that he bad b. en appointed to do a gr at woik fur S:« i ualisin. but he was not to trouble lviinse f-about it, and in due season it would he made known to him. 1 Mr Stephen, it Beens, tbm.'ht he was about to become a ' tranc«i.s;.cakt.r, his I training as a barrister having ft-.ted bin, for ; HUx.b a vocation. Mr Stephen had, it is • stated, ' for a considerable time prayed to f-'o I that he might the ' power ' of, convincing thous nils of I is fellow creatures of Ihe holy truths of Spiritualism." But whether Mr Stephen's powers came f om spi it or mar.ter, it surely is one of the mn.it ! won erfnl facts cuu cte 1 with the age that a e'ass of persons, r«"j eting the accepted views iu the orthodox on Go and Christianity, should arise iu succession as j the. .-Zouave Jacob. L)r Newton, Mr I S eolleh, and others, and perform cures in a ! manner as miraculous as hose im mte 1 to j Christ and bis Apostles; an 1 tin>re wnder- | ful sill, that sn-h. men, beating pnpu ar li> iora.ee an 1 pr ju ic: an 1 iha hj >Br,tli;y of ; the cler.iy. shonM labour as man Ija-tng a I mission to restore to th.; human mind in a, better form he fist fa ling be tef iu he immortality of the soul, and the reality of a human sr.ar.e. both of whioh modern science j and ortho !o* Christian 'y are labouring to destroy hy 'heir narrow inti rpretat ois of '•law" aJid <Jii isiian doctrine. The m tb dim and distant God and the si- it w rid can be male to appear as a rule, the more enamoured the Ch istian b j o unes of his faith, and so, as Gjruld Mas-v si\s eonc-rninu Spiritualism of Christians in general— u Their ri.st feeling is to draw -down the blin '8 against any light on the su'j jc." But whether the light, as it apneais to '■hose who see it as Mr S ephen Sees i% cones f-oni Ihe spirit wirl 1 or not, the facts con nee el with the cures bv hint an I oth .rs, threw a e'eir 111 1 livnl lijht upon the Christian mirades ju»fc as we reuiH them, as due to the same or • off jie-it an e>. And this appears certain, 'hat science an 1 philosophy w id leave small t;rou "I for the Christian faith to staid 01 »ben it shall have been proved that the cures an I o hir m ini'natation* of power blieved hy Spiri ualist.s to be due t. • the operation ..f s;>ii.ml agencies an I forces 111 and armnl us, can he traced to d id f Tees in m it'er anl their organisation in the hu iivi brain Thus", therefne. wlO are mterestet in Christian Uuth should not •drav dowi the blinds"' against S (in. tuahsm By so doing they can no more st>n its p'ojiess <m the current of frvetbou'iht than the opponents of Gallileo (O Id stop the world from : ning round ths siin The hetween religion ari t science ad freeth>ught is only made n eesia'y and inevitable because Christian t- aehen, prefer their ancient prejn lie s 1; 5 sec ari in interests to knowled e, an 1 i.fa e.:i imate deduc ions derived from their own fundamental princip es. And so, as he writer trom whom I hare quote I says of Go i, '■ They have shut Him up in a book and decreed that He shall speak no more in this His woild, nor make any further " revelati ins ot" the Spirit." But the "Spiri ,' n. see ns, is cter of r.r-e Is any more tba 1 of person*, an I as croig for thosi oti'si'e the c lU'C'es as well as for those within, is not satisfied wi hj this ortl.olox arrangement of its liberty and powei ; and that, therefore, th nugh the age ev of miracle workers like Mr Steohen. anl through the minis of areat writers lik» Hu son Tu tie an I A. J, Davis, and the efforts of numbers of others eminent in science and literature, it has chosen to give lioht to each and all ac-orling to their desires and the measure of 1 heir capacity. That such should lie, and is, to tiiy mind appears clear, as in accordance with the highest conceptions of the wisdom an 1 power of God.—l am, fcc, I January 2llth, 1883. Jx>,