THE RELIGION OF GHOSTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1776, 1 September 1884, Page 2

THE RELIGION OF GHOSTS.

"Behold,.there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor, And Saul diiguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, ami two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee."— iSAM.xxxviii 7, 8,

(concluded prom our last.) ';: You have all seen strange and unaccoun- ;: ' table things in the night. Almost every man has at some time hid a touoh of. hallucination. Somo time 'ago afterlhadi' . A been.over tempted to eat- something jStk. '' indigestable before retiring at night, after retiring at night I saw the president of one .■/ of the prominent colleges astride the foot of. . j,, 1 the bed, while he demuided of me a loan of . .$ five cents, When I awakened I had no idea A. :A' it was an> thing supernatual. And I have to -, j: \ advise you if you hear and see strange things < A at night, to stop eating hot miuoe pie and take a dose of bilious mediciue. It is an outraged physical organisation, and not,to. .; deceive the very elbot after sundown, does ■'.•■..-' ... all its work in the night, En-dor held her '■■;■., seances at nignt j to do all the witches.- '-.'.. 'Away with this religion of spooks. Spirit(\ialifm is a curse to its disciples, ■ Still further. I leain from my text that . ■ Spiritualism is doom and death to its disciple*: -.-' .. King Saul thought that he would get help •■ from the'.'medium;" but the first thing that / . he Bees makes him swoon away, and ho sooner is he resußeiated than he is told he ... ; .... must-die, Spiritualism is doom and death .- . ; .. to everyone who yields to it. It ruins the .'.;-■ body. Look in upon an audience of spirit- ~ •.-.-; ualists. Cadavtrous, Weak, Nervous, A, - Exhausted. Hauds clammy and cold; Nothiuß prospers but long 'hair—soft ~< .- marshes yielding rank gra>s, , Spiritualism '. ~ destroys the physical health. Its• discipleS '.' are ever hearing startling nevfß from the,', other world, Strange beings Crossing the A room in white. Table wanting t) ; get its s ieet loose as if to dance. Voices.-.--.. ffl| sepulchral and ominous., Bewildered with".. raps. I knew a confirmed spirtualist'.; ' ■ who had a healthy nervous system, It is-" -,.,:•: iucipjent epilepsy, and catalepsy. Destroy -.,,. you| nervour system and you might as well ,-. lie dead. I have, noticed that people who ' ... | are hearing raps from the future world have but little strength left to bear the hard : ' araps of this world. It is so delicate—it is ..'.' so .far reaching—its derangements are so. . terrible. Get the nervous,system a jangle, . and ao far as your body and soul are ' concerned, the whole uuiverse is a jangle! Belter in our ignorance experiment with a chemist's retort that may smite us dead, or with an engineer's steam boiler that may blow us to atoms, than experiment with the nervous system, A man can live with 0n1y.... one lung, or with no eyes, and ba happy, as men hwo been under such afflictions j' but woe be to thi man whose nerves.are shattered, Spiritualism finites first of all, and mightily,.against the nervous system, uud so makes We miserable.

I indict Spiritualism also, because U is "a social and marital curse. The worat deeds of licentiousness and the worst orgies of obscenity have been enacted under its patronage. The story is ton vile for me to Ah tell. I will not pollute my tongue nor your ears with the recital, Sometimes the civil law has been evoked to atop the outrage. Families innumerable have been broken up by it. It has pushed on hundreds of young women into a life of profligacy. It talks about " elective affinities" and " aflinital relation," and "spiritual matches,"- and adopts the whole vocabulary of free lovism; In one of its public journals it de"lares "marriage, is the monster curse o/eivilieatiou" "It is.a source of debauchery and intemper.» ance," If Spiritualism could have its full swing, it would turn this world into a' pandemonium of carnality. It is an unclear adulterous, damnable religion, and the sooner it drops into the hell from which itrose, the better both for earth and heaven, For the sake of man's honor and woman's purity, I say let the last prestige of it perish for ever. I wish I could gather up all the raps it has ever heard from spirits Most or damned and gather them all on its own bead in one thundering rap of annihilation I I further indict Spiritualism for the fact that it is Hit cause of much insanity. There is not an asylum between Bangor and Sail Franoisco which has not the torn and bleeding victims of this 'delusion. Go into any asylum, I care not where it is, and the. presiding doctor, after you have asked him : " What is the matter with that man ?" will say: "Spiritualism demented him;" or, " What is the matter with that woman!" he will say: "Spiritualism demented her," It has taken down some of the brightest intellects, It swept off into mental midnight judges, senators, governors, ministers of the A. Gospel, and one time .came near capturing ™ one of the presidents of the United States, At Flushing, near this city, a man became absorbed with it, forsook his family, took ~; his only fifteen thousand dollars, surrendered them to a spiritual medium iu New York, attempted three times to put an end to his own life, and then was incarcerated in the State Lunatic Asylum, where he is today a raving maniac, Put your hand in the hand of this witch of En-dor, and she will lead you to bottomless perdition, where she leads her everlasting seance. Many years ago the steamer Atlantic started from Europe for the Unitod States. Getting mid(ocean the machinery broke, and she floundered around day after day, and week after week, for a whole month after she was due people wondered, and finally gave her up. There was great anguish in the cities, for there were many who had friends aboard that vessel. Some of the women in their distress, went to the spiritual mediums, and inquired as to the fate of that vessel The ■ mediums called np' the spirits and the raspings on the table indicate J the steamship lost with all on board. Women .vitnt raging mad, and were carried to the lunatic asylum. Alter awhile one day a ruu was. heard off quarantine, The flags went up on tha shipping and. the bells of the churches were rung, The boys ran through the streets crying: "Extral Iks Atlantic is fifi safe I" There wjb the embracing as from th& ▼ dead, when friends came again to friends-; but some of these passengers went up to find their wives in the lunatic asylum, where this cheat of infernal Spiritualism had put them, A man in Bellevue Hospital dying from wounds made by his 1 own hand, was asked why. they did it, replied, "Spiritualism demanded it;" It is the? patroniqer and forager for the mad house. Judge Edmunds, in Broadway Tabernacle,

New York, delivering a looture in behalf of Spiritualism, admitted, in so many words; "There is a faeomation about consultation With the spirits of the dead that has a tendency to load people off from their- right judgment, and to instil into them a fanaticism that is revolting to the natural mind." I It not only rains its disciples, but it ruins ■ • the mediums also, only give it time, The Gadarean swine, on the banks of the Lh'ab of Galilee, no aoouer became spiritual"mediums .thandowntlioyweut,,iiran avalanche of * n ths-tnSSterafttion of all the herdsmen, The office of a medium is bad for a man, bad for a woman, bad for a boast. I bring against this delusion a moro fearful indictment: it ruins the soul immortal. First, it makes a man a quarter of an Jjfinfidol; then it makes him half au infldol; & then it makes him a whole infidel, Tlio whole system as I conceive it, is founded on the iuauffioiency of the Word of God as a revelation, God says the Bible is enough for you to know about the fuiure world, You say it is not enough, and there is where you and the Lord differ. You clear the table, you shove aside the Bible, you put your hand on the table, and say: " Now let the spirits of the future world come and tell me something the Biblo has not told me.". AnWthough tbo scriptures say: "Add thjftot unto His words, lest He reprove the?/ and thou be found a liar," you risk it, and say: " Come back, spirit of my departed fathor; come lick, spirit of my departed mother, of my companions, of my child, and tell me fome things I don't know about you and about tko unseen world." If God is ever slapped square in the face, it is when # spiritual medium puts down her hand on e table invoking spirits departed to make a revelation. God has told you all ynu ought to know, and how dare you he pryintt into that which is none of your business ? You cannot keep the Bible in one hand and ■' spiritualism in tho other, One or the other "will slip out of your graßp, depend upon it. Spiritualism is adverse to the Bible in the . fact that it has in these last days called from the future world Christian men to testify against Christianity, Its mediums call back Lorenzo Dow, the celebrated evangelist, and Lorenzo Sow testifies that Christians are idolaters. .Spiritualism calls hack Tom Payne, and he testifies that ho is stopping ' at the same liouso in heaven with John Bunyan. They call back John Wesley, and ho testifies against the Christian religion which he all his life gloriously preached, Andrew Jackson Davis, the greatest of all the spiritualist's, comes to the front and declares that the New Testament is.but " the dismal echo of a barbaric age," and the

Bible only " one of the pen and ink relics of

'Cbjftiianily." The; attempt to substitute thqgpitiDgs'of Swedenborg, and Andrew \ Jackson Davis, and otber religiouß balder- ' ] dash, in the place of this old Bible. I have '«D my house, a bools.which was used in this city in the public service of spiritualists, It jp well worn with much service, I open ttt&t book, and it says: "What is our baptism? Answer: frequent ablutions of '•' wator, What is our inspiration ? Plenty of ' fresh air and sunlight. What in our prayer ? •■' Abundant physical exercise. What is our ' love-feast ? A clear conscience and sound sleep." And I find from the somn book that the chief item m their public worship is gymnistio exercise, and that whenever tin y want to,ronae up their boujb to a very high • pitch of devotion they sing page sixty-five: "Thenight has gathered up her moonlit fringes;" or;page sixteen: "Come to the woods, heighp!"' You say you are not Buch a fool as that; but you will be if you keep in the track you hare started. " But," says some One," wouldn't it be of advantage to hear from the future world f Don't you think- it could strengthen! Thero are a great many Miterialists'. who do not believe there are Bouli', but ijf spirits from the future world should knock and talk oyer to us, they would be persuaded." To that I answer, in ... the ringing'words of the Son of God; "If .not Moses'and the prophets, neijHtariJl they be persuaded tnpugh one rosSSKm the dead." Ofow I believe, under God, that this jjpmon will 'save many from disease, insaniy, and perdition. I believe these are the days of which the Apostle spake when he Baid: " In/the latter times some shall

depart from 'the faith, giving heed to reducing spii its;" I think my audience, as well as other'audiences in this day,' need to have reiterated in their hearing the.passages I quoted some minutes ago: "There shall not be among you a consulter of familiar Bpirits, or wizard, or necromancer; for they that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord;" and "The soul that turneth after flu'eh as have familiar spirits, 1 will set myself against them, and they shall be cut from theii people," But I invite you this morning to a ChrUian seance, a noonday Beance, This congre- • gation is only one great family. Here is the church table. Come around the church table, take your teats for this great Christian spauce, put your Bible on the table, pnt your hands on the top of your Bible, and then listen,' and hear if there are any voices coming from the eternal world," I think there are. Listen I " Secret things belongftto the Lord our Owl, but things that Wrevealed belong to ua and our children?' Surely that is a voice from the (spirit world i But before you rise from this iHjristian seance, I want you to promise me f«i will be satisfied with the Djvjue revelation until the light of the eternal tbrono breaks npon your vision. Do not go after the witch of En-dor. Do not sit down at table rappings either in sport or in dead earnest. Have your tables so well made and their legs bo evec, that they will not Up and rattlo, 11 the table must move, let it he under the offices of industrious houfievifei'y. Teach your children there are no ghosts to be seen or heatd in this world, save those who walk on two feet or four, human or bestial, Remember that Spiritualism at the best is a useless thing; for if it tells, what the Bible reveals it is superfluity, and if it tells what the Bible does not reveal, it is a lie. Instead of going out to get other people to tell your fortune tell jour own fortune by putting your trust in God and doing the best you can. I will tell your' fortune: '"All things work together for good to them who love God." Insult not. your departed friends by asking them to come down and scrabble under an extension-table. Remember that there is only.ono Spirit whose dictation you have ft light to evoke, and that is the holy, blessed, and omnipotent Spirit of God, Hark I He is rapping now, not on a table or the floor, but on the dcor of your'heart and every rap is an invitation to Christ and a warning of judgment to come. 0, grieve Him not away. Quench Him not. He has been all iSpluAyou this "morning. He w.ib all wrajßou last night,' He has been around you alTvour lives. Bark I Thero comes a voice dropping through the roof, breaking through the windojw, filling all the house • from door to door and from floor to ceiling with tender and overmastering intonation, Baying: •' My spirit.shall not alwayß strive,"