Modern Spiritualism.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5330, 21 September 1888, Page 3

Modern Spiritualism.

In a sermon preached recently by the Rev Dr. Talmage ho said " I have recently become a Spiritualist. At least some of tho journals of that belief declare." And he then proceeded to deuounce modern spiritualism in ono of those vigorous discourses for which he is so famous. He took his text from that passage in FSainuel that tells of Saul's visit to the witch of Enelor. , ,-, ~ ._,;..•-.., ~ dramatic picture of the iti-lvi-i ~ ceiiid, " The Lord Almighty, in ,' a score of passages which I havo not now time to ipiote, utters His indignation against all this great family of delusions. After that, boa Spiritualist if you dare".' Dr. Talmage went on to say :—We leant from this text how it is that people came to fall into Spiritualism. Saul hud enough trouble to kill ten men. He did not know where to go for relief. He resolved to go and see the witch of Endor, expecting that somehow she would afford him relief. It was bis trouble that drove him there. And I have to tell you now that Spiritualism finds its victims in the troubled, the bankrupt, the sick, '.he bereft. You lose your watch, and you go to the fortune - teller to find where" it is. You lose a friend, you want the spiritual world opened, so that you may havo communication' with him. In a highly-wrought, nervous, and diseaseel state of :nind, f you go and put in that communication. That is why I hate Spiritualism. It takes advantage of one in a moment of weakness, which may * come upon us at any time. We lose a friend. Tlie trial is keen, sharp, suffocating, and almost maddening. If we could marshal a host, and storm the eternal worid, and re-capture our loved one. tho Lost would soon be marshalled. The house is so lonely. The world is so dark The septration is so insufferable. But Spiritualism says :" Wo will open the future world and your loved one can como back and talk to "you." Though we may not hear his voice, we raayhear the rap of his hand. So, clear the table. Sit down. Put your bunds on the table. Bo very quiet. Five minuter gone. Tonminutes. Nomotionof the tabled No response from the future world. Twenty minutes. Thirty minutes. Nervous excitement all the time increasing. Feirty rnimitos. The table shivers. Two raps from the future world. The letters of the alphabet are called over. The departed friend's name is John. At the pronunciation of tho letter "J," two raps. At the pronunciation of the letter " O " two nips. At tho pronunciation of the letter "11, two nips. At the pronunciation of the letter " N," two raps. There you have the whole name spelled out, J-o-h-n, John. Now, tho spirit being present, you say, "John, are yon happy'"' 'I"'o raps give an affirmative answer. Pretty soon the hand of the medium begins to twitch nnd tons, and begins to write out, after paper and ink aro fumwbed, a message from the eternal world. What- is remarkable, the departed spirit, although it hue been amid the illumination* of Heaven, cannot spelt as •well as it used to. It has lost all grammatical noottrte?., awl cannot write as distinctly. Now, just think of spirits, that the Bible represents as enthroned in glory, eotWug down to oawl the table, and break orockery, and ring tea bells be tore supper is ready, and rap the window shutter on" a gaAy ni S*t. }» "">" consolation in such poor inferable work compared with the thnuirht that our departed Christian fnenus, rid of pain aud fanguirtiiiifc'. »re in the radiant society oi Heaven, and that we shall join them there, not a stifled und mysterious half-utteruuee, „hieh makes the hair stand on end and tho Cold chills mtep the back, but in an unhindered and illimitable delight .< King Saul thought that he would get help from the "medium"; but the first thing that he sees make* him swoon away, and no sooner if he reßuw.-iUU.-d than he is told he must die. Spiritualism is doom and death to evervoue that yields to it. It™ 1!1 » the body. Look in upon an audience oi Spiritualists. Cadaverous, weak, nervous, exhausted. Hands clammy aud cold. Nothing prospers but long hair--soft marsi.es yielding rank grass. I never knew a connrm'ed Spiritualist who had a healthy nervous system. It is incipient epilepsy and caUk W Destroy your nervous aratein and v«u might as well be dead. I have noticed that people who arc heM.'.ner wtw from tlie future world have but little etrWh Id* * bHir the . b , ftrd T ap * ' V world. A man can live with only one lung or with no eyes, and be happy, as men have been under auoh afflictions; but woe bo to the man whose nerves are shattered. Spiritualism smites first of all and mightily against the nervous xyatito, und so makes life miserable. , .. . I indict Spiritualism also, because * is a aocial curse. The worst deeds of licentiousnew, and the worst orgira of obscenity, have ton acted under its patronage The sforv » too vik for mo to tell. I will not pollute my tontrue nor your ears with the recital. Families innumerable have been broken up fcv it It has pushed off hundreds of young urameti into «. life «£ proflw"-y- ~l E» .t ^„l abeut " elective affinities," and " ufcnita relations," and " spiriui.il matx-hes uud adopt* the whole vocabulary nt frec-lousm. Inouuof its public journals it declares "marriage is tlio monster cur,* of civilisation." Dis a source of deWnehery and intemperance. H Spiritualism could have iU full swing it wmil tun, this world mo si iKindemonium «f carnality. It is an un clean, adulterous, damnable religion, and the sJontt it drops into tlie hell from which It nJteflic better for both earth aud Hewn. For tee *ako of man's honor and V.mian s purity I aay let the hist vestige ot tfc perish for ever. , . , ; . Go into any asylum, I care not where it is, and the presiding doctor, utter you have asked him : " What is the matter with tha manr" will say: " Spiritualuin demented Win." It has taken down wane of .tile brightest intellects. It .wept off into meutalmidiiight judges,senator*, governors, ministers of the Gospel, and one time came near capturing one of the President*! of the United States. Many years ago the steamer Atlantic started from Europe for the Lmted States. Getting mid-ocean the machinery broke and she rtoumlertid around day after .day and week after we*k, and for a whole month after she was due people wondered, and finally gave her up. I here was (treat anguish in the cities, for many had friends aboard. Some uf the women, m their distress, went to the spinal mediums. widcmpiircdastohcrfate The mediums Sod vi. the spirits, and the rapping* on the table indicated the Hteaiaship lost, with all on board. Women went ravmjy mud, and were carried to the lunatic asylum. A iter a while one day a gun was hciiil ,tt Quarantine. The flu;;* went up on tha Sipping, and the bell* of the church,. 3 rung. The toys ran through Sierttcetsrorying: "Extra! The Atlantic is safe •" There was the embracing as iiom the dead, when friends came again to friends; but some of those passengers yeut up to tind their wives in the liimttiu usyJunj. fiAiere this cheatof fufernal bpintuahsm had nuf' them. . , . . V Tt not only ruins its ditctplcs, but it ruins the mediums also, only give it time. Ihe swine, on the banks of the Lake of Gamee «<> "M""* becilUl6 *PP tml m,nhstliu'l flown * lm f WCnt * "'lmediums tin. consternation ot is bad for a man, baa ««" » ™ ulill > ba(i ln * Itog against this delusion * ™" f ful indictment:—lt rums the soul laituoit.il. First, it makes a man a quarter.ot (t»'tjfldid. then half an infidel, then whj'lv infidel. The whole system, as I conceive it is founded on the insufficiency of the Word of God as a revelation. God says the Bible is enough for you to know aoout the future You sa vit is not enough, and there is where you and the Lord differ \ou clear Se teblef you shove aside the Bible, you put your hand on the table, and .say: "Now let spirite of the future world come and to no .Smethhig the Bible has not told me And although the Scriptures say : Add thou not unto His words, lest He .prove thee, and thou be found a liar, you nsk v and say. '• Gome back, spirit ot my departed father, of my departed mother, ot my compamons, of my ifttle child, and tell me some thiiws I don't know about you and about thUnseon world." God has tola you a you ought, to know, and how dare you be prying into that which is none of your business i" , , Yon have all seen strange and unaceouutubU- things iv the night. Almost every man has 'at some time had a _ touch ot hallucination- Some time ago, after I had. been over-tempted to cat something mdimwtiblo before retiring at night, »fter retiring I «*w the pi/nuuout ot t.no ot It prominent coll«gtw astride the foot of the bed while he demanded of ruu the loan ol five'eents'- Wheu 1 awakened I had no ide'i it was anything sup3niatm-al. Aud I advise you, if jrou hear and sec stiange tbiu.'s at night, to stop cuton* h"t mn-.cc lie "and take a dose of bibnus medicine. Spiritualism r-jipeals te.an outrajfed organism, enough to deceive the after rundown, and does nearly all i!s « orK in tlie ni'iht-