Spiritualism.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 240, 6 September 1884, Page 2

Spiritualism.

In a lecture on Spiritualism de-^ liverod m Wellington by the |tdv. Th. Ji6 Mcnant des ;Chesnais, the concluding portion of the lecture was devoted to the view which Christians ought to take of Spiritism. It was abundantly evident from Scripture that God forbade attempts to converse., with ,the spirits of. -the, dead. However, the manifestations were produced, they were certainly not produced by the help of God, atid it was therefore only fair to assume that the spirit of evil was the author; of them.. The lecturer pursued t)»i& theory to its full extent, and warned his hearers against giving jvay !to ; their' curiosity 1 by participating m spiritist seance*, and wound tip his address by> stating that froiu sincere conviction and scientific investigation he held that spiritism was one of the most dangerous engines of the demon to ruin : Christianity and morality, and bring back iv a new form idolatry or demon worship. In a letter sribi*. scquently written by "him to a Wellington paper, the same gentleman writes as follows :— " We admit God can cause lioly spirits to appear, but not to satisfy vain' curiosity ;. not through the agency of a person m trance, a tabled &c. The fact of Belsshaztir is, m like manner, a divine warning, not a spiritic raauifrstatiou through consulting a medium. What I condemn, is the consultation of spirit-mediums, tables &c. Bui I fully admit every well-attested supernatural manifestation . I ugain repeat that tho«e who consult spirilrmeJiams cannot be excused from sin. I have already shown m my lecture that it is forbidden by. the law of God ; and that anyone 'who tries to obtain from creatures what he believeis God would not grant, him, especially .when the thing is above the power of man, implicily consents to obtain it throitgh the. agency of evil spirits, who being* more powerful than man, can do certain wonders m order to gratify those who consult then). The text " try ye the spirits, and see whether they be. of : good or evil/ (1 Epis. St. John, .iv.,-1) has nothing , to do with this matter. In this text wo are told to, examine, false land true teachers, and. see Uy the spirits that animate them,'; whether they be inspired by ,Gqii or are the agents of the demon. But to imagine that &O(I tells us m, this texi&to consult spirit mediums is both foolish and impious. God , never • contradicts himself; how could he .throughout the Scriptures forbid spirit, magicians, stones, wpoc[,.elc<,; and then tell us, m another .place, we.- are to: try them, and see. whether they be gQod or eyii? /. .■ _ !i ./'r";?' ': . ' ',_:.. i " Investigator " pretends that if nay! theory' were true "the sinners sent . fiom here are not m. Hades, because, 4 if there, they would be u noble to. come back. It would be difficult for " Investigator " to prove tiiat God could per mil the reprobate m hell to appear. Many facts m history seem to show the contrary ; but even if the reprobate could'not appear, the evil spirits or demons can certainly take their', form, imitate their voice, and so deceive 'men, as t\\ey frequenty have. done. The works^l have quoted at the beginning of this letter contain many, striking illuitiratiohs of this, '* luvesiigator " makes the say tjiat [ " the seanoe room is only' place where morals are likely to be tairiper- ; cd' witti. >|f I frever said any such thing ; but I gave proofs showing the spiritic . seances were^, dangerous to moiality, bemuse the opera tor haaari absolute power over the medium, because he can do with him undetected i whatever h& pleases, bucauud through him he can find but the secrets of families which should never be revealed, and because, the medium; has no ; recollection after < the; seance of what has taken place during his : tradce.' All; these oir6umstancw render spiritic experiments most dangerous to morals, : par tioularly if the operator be not a -man, of tender and delicate conscience.' t should be glad to see - the result , of the investigation of tjhe London Dialectal Sociotyj al!though I have ample evidence to .show it isj alas.! a fact, spiritio seances excite the nervous system m :i mostfatal manner, and sometimes are the frightful, cause of J)3'ste.ric.s t .<ntalepsy," land suicide. Jf desired to do so, I wilj produce that evidence, at least m part, for it would fill volumes; ■■■■. 1 am not " an out and out Spiritualist,;*; which I condemn, as false m its theory and, dangerous m its practice;, but I believe m the influence of evil spirits, and do not wish to communicate with them. V .