MR PEEBLES IN EXPLANATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3144, 18 March 1873, Page 2

MR PEEBLES IN EXPLANATION.

To the Editor.

Sie, —While assuming that printed letters and public discourses, rightly reported, are public property, it may be noted that some of the clergy in the Province and ourself are working quite in harmony, so far as Scriptural references and candid admissions are concerned, touching the genuineness of the spiritual phenomena. The Kev. Mr Watt admits, with rare manliness, that upon “the validity of human testimony . . • • the

marvels of Spiritualism and the Christian miracles stand or fall together. This should be carefully treasured by Dt* Copland, ihe Rev. Mr Watt further allows the “curious thin" to be that the facts of Spiritualism are a return to the Bible instead of a departure from it ” ; while the Rev. Mr Reid, though admitting the reality of the phenomena, thinks them anti-biblical—the works of the devil ! Bishop Nevill, believing in a God who is a Spirit, said emphatically—“ I am a Spiritualist.” It was the burden of his lecture to sustain the position that both good and evil angels, feeling an interest in men, influence the inhabitants of earth. Dr Copland contends that the record of phenomena, compiled or Avitnessed by the Hon. Mr Owen and multitudes of other living witnesses, may be satisfactorily explained upon the known principles of science, Avithout a resort to spiritual causes. How forcibly this jargon of clerical contradictions reminds us of the time Avhen all of the “Chief Priests,” aiming to destroy the influence of, sought for “ witness against Jesus.” And “ many bear false witness against him,” says the the Evangelist, Mark; “ but their Avitness agreed not together.” Jeering Atheists insist that those who professed to see angels and spirits in prophetic and apostolic times were the subjects of diseased imaginations or optical illusions ; Dr Copland alleges the same of mediums, clairvoyants, and many thousands of upright honorable men of to-day, Avho solemnly testify to having witnessed many of the spiritual marvels of the present. Sceptics of the Thomas Paine school, while stoutly affirming that human testimony in connection with reason must be the umpire in these matters, press the point that Christian belief in Peter’s release from prison by the bands of an angel (Acts xii) rests solely upon the testimony of Peter—the same Peter Avho falsified, who “cursed and swore, and denied his Lord.” It is recorded in St. Matthew’s Gospel that “ The graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and Avent into the holy city and appeared unto many.” If one of our Dunedin clergymen could by any chance have been in Jerusalem in those days, and had been told—“ What do you think? My sainted father has risen from his grave ; I saw him ; others have seen Lfm,” what would have been his ansAver t “ Impossible, my dear sir \ it was a Spectral illusion; or bad digestion has produced a ferversed imagination, And then, do not our Scriptures say by Isaiah, “They are dead, they shall not live ; they are deceased, they shall not rise.” Strange spectacle! Irreligious scoffers and Christian ministers working (though, perhaps, unwittingly) in concert to overthrow the evidences of immortality. Every well-put point against the reality of modern spiritual manifestations, is an infidel javelin hurled at the temple of true Christianity. The stale charge that I have attacked Christianity—that is, the ethical teachings of Jesus and the Apostles—is unqualifiedly false. My warfare has not been against Christianity rationally interpreted and properly understood ; nor against that “ pure and undefiled religion” mentioned by b’t. James; but against a “hireling” priesthood, and narrow cramping creeds. Why cling to antiquity ? Avhy rifle the graves of the centuries ? and why desecrate God’s living present by piling upon it mouldy parchments from the shelves of a persecuting bast \ ' E Christ founded no opulent Church, suggested no articles of faith, nor referred to “ yearly stipends,” neither did the Apostles. “Original sin,” “vicarious atonement,” “ endless punishment,” and other evangelical doctrines, Avere not taught by Jesus Christ; neither are such phrases mentioned in the New Testament. But the Augsburg and other Confessions of Faith say: “Original sin is the corruption of the whole nature, and an hereditary taint with which even the very infants in their mothers’ womb are polluted 1 ; and which, as a noxious root, produces-all kinds of Sins in''man ,' arid is so filthy ahd abominable a'thing iri the sight of (Hod, that it is sufficient for the condemnation of the whole human race. . . . We tbifeve that tßisLdntia'triily sin, because it mak6a all and every man, not even those little ones excepted’ that lie hid in their mothers’ womb, guilty of eternal death in the sight of God.” The “ Short Catechism for Young Children” (published by Kobert Carter and fiVotheps, JSpw R as this teaching. “What kind of a heart have you by nature ? A heart filled with all unrighteousness. What will become of you if you die in your sins? I must go to hell with the wicked. What kind of a place is hell ? A place of endless torment; being a place that burns Avith fire and brimstone. Doth original sin wholly defile you? Yes. What are you then by nature? 1 am an enemy of God, a child of Satan, and an heir of hell.” “ Orthodox ” creeds teach and evangelical clergymen preach, the absolute eternity of hell torments. The Rev. Mr Walworth, in a sermon upon the “rich man in hell,” says “In these eternal fires every limb and member of their bodies (the wul M® p/r ®v®f racked and tor tinted 'and yet''never consumed.” The Bev. Gi Sutherland, formerly of this City, treating Of eternal punishment in a published volume, speaks of “the body scarred and ppjrqpt” lying ip the pit of perdition, a prey to the worm that nevey dies, apd to the flame that shall never be quenched,” And again he says of the sinner—“ Smitten from behind by the blast of divine vengeance . . . how certain and speedy his doom, when be is at the same time dragged by the devil and driven by the Almighty !” If this is not blasphemy, will some define it? Is it strange that the ablest scientists and most profound thinkers of to-day—the Euskins, Carpenters, Masseys, Darwins, Huxleys, Lewes, Lyclls, Mills, Owens, Spencers, Tyndalls, Wallaces, Varleys, Lockycrs, etc., etc. —arc in n-a way connected Avith tho evangelical ptmriihes of Christendom ? 1 Spiritualism relating to the past and present —to faith and at once a science and a religion. It may be defined briefly thus: knowledge of a future existence through a present converse with angels and spirits, coupled with belief in God as the Divine Presence, Christ as “the way, the truth, and the life,” and obedience to Divine law as the true means of attaining happiness and heaven. Leon Favre, ex-Consul-General of France, said to me in his Parisian residence, some three years since most learned men of Europe to-day are Spiritists.” C. F. Yarlcy, Fellow of the Royal Society, and by common consent the most eminent living electrician, wrote, in July, 1871, to Prof. William Crookes, who is investigating Spiritualism—- “ 1 know of no instance, either jn tfie now or old world, ini whichliany clear-headed man, who has carefully examined the phenomena, has failed to Become a convert to the spiritualist hypothesis.” The famous naturalist, H. It. Wallace, F.R.G.S., declares that—“ Spiritualism, teaching the naturalness of spirit communion, and resting upon the testimony of the living, must become a leading power in the world.” The distinguished moral philosopher, J. H. Von Fichte, wrote, July 7th, 1872, to Mr G Constantine Wittig, Breslau—“l have come to the conclusion that it is absolutely impossible to account for these phenomena, save by assuming the action of superhuman influences.” The Rev. Mr Beecher, admitting the manifestations tp hep spiritual, says emphati ally F Spiritualism settles faith,” The testimony of such men is worthy of th® deepest consideration !

That there is an “alarm in Zion,” may be inferred from the Rev, Mr Roseby’s recent address in Lawrence, who, after begging of his hearers not ‘ to be influenced by false prophets,” besought them, “ Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, Episcopalians, and even Roman Catholics (may such unity and brotherly love continue), to “combine” against the “new and beautiful faith,” — Spiritualism ; and then warming up, and becoming more thoroughly inspired, he admitted that Spiritualism had begun to overthrowfcot only the ignorant and unlettered

people, but men of science and education. It was insinuating itself into every corner, an” was propagated by intelligent and highminded people. Yes, “ high-minded people, ami scholars in all lauds. How appropriate, in closing, the language of James Anthony Fronde, M.A.! In a volume just published this eminent historian speaks of the spiritual phenomena, as “ an outcome of the scientific culture of England in the nineteenth century.”—l am, &e., J. M. Peebles. Dunedin, March 17.