The Lyceum.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1455, 15 September 1885, Page 2

The Lyceum.

[Coinmnnicated.] M If man is>inxmprtaV should he not know if?'* was th%iusect of the diacoarse delivered at the Lyceum on Sunday evening by Mr T. E. : Walton. The lecturer stated that throne great hope pent up m mian's exisfimce consisted m looking forward to a continuity of life. The future was doomed lo remain a mystery to us/ Such the lecturer held need not be the case. • Something convincing was necessary;to satisfy the desires of humanity. Nineteenth Century thinkers demand that alignings be submitted to the test of reason. The world had been surfeited; with fiction. Nature's storehouses have to be opened; they must yield to the appliances forged by modern thought and investigation. The knowledge of continued existence, is the common property of man. The question of all times must' be solved :"Tf a man die shall he live again?" .In. all ages, amongst civilized and savage, the question of a existence entered the - heart by intuition. All nature changes but <heth not.. . The natural body was. simply the residence of: the spirituaL The opinions of sages* poets, and philosophers were referred to by the lecturer. The manifestations of modern Spiritual-, ism were dealt with as being a means of solving the question of immortality. Assertions ■ without fects were useless. It; rests with individuals to prove for themselves. The advance; ( of. science haa bridged the gulf ot ages, 'proving that? the spiritual as well as the physical existence was governed by unalterable laws. There .was no supernatural^ nothing ouS side' nature, nothing, outside matter ; spirit was simply sublimated matter. The world could only produce two kinds of thinkers, viz., Spiritualists and-Mateii-alists. Spiritualism did [ liot consist m table rappings and tiltinga ;the enter- [ tamers of sueh 1 erroneous :ideas labor I under delusion— the result of ignorance. Spiritualism was the science of life, penetrating: and sustaining all things. The thread of gold running through the literature and poetry of all ages. The lecturer quoted various authorities, such as Emerson, Professors Mapis, Hare, Crookers. Wallace* Dr Bpbt. Chambers, and numerous others as faithful* and earnest investigators who became convinced of the truths of Spiritualism. Th* various objections were dealt with by tho lecturer. He said such theories andobjections; as that it waa . electricity,, magnetism, od force, deception, deinonology, &c, might be raised by the score, hut honest investigators were prepared to upset them all, and do it honorably. The lecturer concluded by. making reference to the death of "that noble old man " Victor Hugo: who died m May last. He was one of the world's greatest poets, and his contrymen had placed him at the head of all his contemporaries as a man of letters; He" was the great preacher of mercy, instruction, liberty, and peace. Swinburne wrote of him : — ■ " Praised and beloved, that none Of all thy great deeds done Flys- higherthan thy most equal spirits : flight; Praised, that nor doubt nor hope could bend 4 - - Earth's loftiest hope, found upriffht to the end." .-..?. h Previous to his death, he spoke of the coming close of his career with the composure t<vbe expected of one bfjiis. faith. He had investigated Spiritualism' since 1853. His family will ever remember his words, "Those whom, we mourn are not absent — only invisible.'' The lecturer concluded by advising &11 to investigate .for themselves ; m order that they might ascertain reliable proof that •' If a man dies he shall live again."