MRS. HARDINGE-BRITTEN’S LECTURE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5760, 15 September 1879, Page 2

MRS. HARDINGE-BRITTEN’S LECTURE.

Last night Mrs. Hardinge-Britten, the inspirational speaker and authoress, lectured at the Theatre Royal. The attendance was largo —the dress circle being crowded, and the lower part of the house very well filled. The subject of the lecture was “ The Ministry of Angels.” The lady was accompanied on the platform by her husband, Mr. HardingeBritten, by whom she was introduced to the audience. In doing so he announced that she would lecture in the Athenaeum Hall on the evening of Wednesday, and that suggestions would be received from the audience as to the subjects upon which she should treat. On rising to speak, the lady was received with a slight manifestation of applause, and at difrent times throughout the course of the lecture these were repeated in a more defined form. The lecture extended over an hour and a half, and was characterised throughout by impassioned eloquence and deep pathos, which held the audience in rapt attention down to the close of the proceedings. Her remarks were accompanied by gesticulations and movements sufficient to lend force and effect to her enunciations, without in any way detracting from the grao dul accomplishments of the lady orator. Before- proceeding with the address, Mrs. Britten offered up a fervent invocation to the “Great Spirit, whose Church was creation, whose word was inspiration, and whose manifestation was light and love.” The stylo and language employed was in all respects representative of the “ new and beautiful faith” of which she averred herself an apostle. In proceeding with her lecture, she said the ministry of angels was the accepted belief of all religious sects. It had formed a part of every faith known to humanity, and tinctured the poetry, music, and art, as well as the doctrinal opinions, of all ages and all lands. Was this universallyreceived belief, she asked, a fiction or a reality ? If the latter, who and what were all angels thus enshrined in human faith, and by what means and through what methods did they make their ministry known to mortals? The speaker next alluded to the new dispensation of modern Spiritualism, which she asserted to be—first, the direct ministry of angels ; next, a set of phenomena strictly in harmony with similar proofs of spiritual presence in antiquity ; and finally she asserted that both ancient and modern phenomena all tended to prove it was produced by the spirits of humanity. In other words that the souls of men were in reality the ministering angels of all ages. Ihe lady then gave a brief review of the spiritual faith of India, Egypt, Greece, and other classical and antique nations, claiming that their scriptures, monuments, and traditions all went to prove that these nations were all believers in spiritual revelations, and that these revelations were made through dreams, visions, trances, signs, and tokens, exactly in accordance with spiritualism. She then went nn to cite the various versions of the Old Testament to show the simplicity of the means by which spirits communicated. Abraham, Baalam, Joseph, Moses, Elisha, Samuel, and the prophets were severally referred to, and the way in which the phenomena they produced would be regarded in modern times, was commented upon with scathing satire. Referring to the New Testament, the lecturer referred to the words of Jesus as authorising the belief that signs and wonders should ever be wrought by faith in Christ. She referred to the appearance of Samuel, Moses, and Elias on the Mountain of Transfiguration, and the angel who appeared to John in the Isle of Patmos as proof of the ministry of those the world called dead. She also traced the miracles of the early Christian fathers, and the proofs of spiritual intercourse in the persecutions for witchcraft and sorcery in the Middle Ages, and brought her review through the inspirations of all ages, down to the opening of the gates and the final demonstration of who and what were the angels who ministered to men in the phenomena of modern spiritualism. She adduced a number of arguments to show that the ancient and modern phenomena paralleled each other, that all were produced by the same agency, viz., the souls of departed human beings, and that the modem movement was teeming with deep and momentous significance to the religious interests and opinions of mankind. Before concluding, she invited questions on the subject, and as no one appeared to respond to the invitation, she announced that at the Wednesday evening lecture a vote of the audience would be taken as to whether she should lecture on the subject announced or on any of those suggested by the audience. She also requested those who desired to hear her again to bring the questions and subjects on which they wished to hear her in writing.