SPIRITUALISM AND MR. PEEBLES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 262, 6 February 1873, Page 6

SPIRITUALISM AND MR. PEEBLES.

(To tlie Editor.) Sir, — Though by no meansabelievorin what is called Spiritualism, I have sufficient respect for many of its votaries to at all events accord it some attention. I have quite unexpectedly received a letter from a friend of mine, which is so readable and descriptive, that I presume to request the favor of space in your columns to lay it before your readers. — I am &c, Christian. Dunedin, January 29th 1873. Dear If you were in town, you and I would now be discussing the lecture we should have both heard last night, by Peebles, the " Seer of the Age " as his party call him, but as you were not there, we cannot exchange impressions, yet I think you will like to have mine. Peebles is not — as the Victorian papers led me to believe — an illiterate man, nor coarse in liis manner. He has, perhaps, the outward appearance of both. Ho has been represented as using profane and even blasphemous language. You know lam not by any means predisposed to accept his— nor indeed any other new-fangled doctrine, and as the lecture last night was merely an introductory one, I cannot define yet what his doctrine in its full developeraent may be. So for as yet announced, it is quite in harmony with biblical theology, not as iaterpreted by this or that sec , but by advanced biblical thinkers. He says he was a Calvinist clergyman in the States. He then turned Universalist, and preached for years to congregations of that denomination. But he devoted himself to ascertain the truth or otherwise of the Spiritualist movement, and being convinced, feels impelled to propagate tKe truth, far ancl wide. He is not by any means a refined looking man, nor very American in appearance. He has a large hirsute face, with immense forehead, from which the hair retreats, leaving the fore part of the head somewhat bald, and as he, during his discourse, likened his body to the house, his self (ego) lived in, and his limbs to the timbers, his head to the top story, his eyes to tho windows, from which he looked out upon the world, and his hair to the shingles on the roof, the audience could not refrain from laughter — seeing that there was a. deficiency in these shingles. However inapt tho simile might have been his discourse was a veal treat. He is not eloquent. His diction is however, si far as I could discover, thoioughly grammatical, and hia logical deductions introduced in a very forcible manner. The impression left on my mind, is, that he is thorouglily in earnest, (though lie has a cast of countenance which would appropriately develop itself into a broad grin in the solitude of his chamber, after befooling his audience and the believers in his doctrine). Ido not say — nor even think, that he is capable of indulging in this line of thought, but I merely record that the cast of his face seems capable of suolz an expression. As I said before, I believe he is thoroughly iv earnest. The audience were rapt in attention — all denominations were there ; room full, not crowded. His dialect is provincial, not Yankee as one usually sees it portrayed. Ifis argument wont simply to show that all ages, all na'ions, all great sages, aud all ignorant and untutored savages, from the commencement of the world, had believed in the possibility of some kind or other of intercourse with the unseen world, i. c. with spirits. He mentioned Jacob, Moses, Elijah, Socrates, Plato, St. Paul, Jesus Christ;, Crato, the early Christian fathers, Swedenborg, John Wesley and his family, &c, &c, He startled the audience by saying bluntly he himself did not bellievc it — he did not believe spirits could manifest themselves to human beings ; he did not believe that they were present around us, and at all times. He did not believe these statements which he had made, na Knew Them. He said it was no matter of belief that lie could th^n see the audience and the chairman, he know it ; he had the evidence of his senses, and he had equally the evidence of his senses as to the existence of the spirit world, &c. I think I never heard anything so impressive as the manner in which he worked out his idea aud uttered the climax underlined above. You will think I am somewhat enthusiastic about him, but no, rather otherwise. I have tried to give you some notion of how ho impressed me ; but he really told me nothing that I had not heard or read before — merely culled all the facts which hear upon the belief of past ages in spirit life, so that I look to the next lecture to enlighten its upon the real subject matter of his teaching. He told us the old story of Crato asking Socrates while in death throes, whete he would be buried, and Socrates replying, "bury sate where you like,

but you must ewtch me first " — spoaking of himself as quite distinct from the shell he -was leaving. , My'p&pfers' done. ' • • I forgot to say that so far from profanity, there is a deeply reverent and devout feeling pervading his discourse.