THE REV. ALLAN W. WEBB ON "SPIRITUALISM."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 4852, 5 June 1877, Page 3

THE REV. ALLAN W. WEBB ON "SPIRITUALISM."

The lecture announced to be delivered on the 15th May, by the Rev. A. W. Webb, Baptist minister, drew a crowded audience. The subject also possessed considerable attraction, owing to the excitement that has been occasioned by a few persons who had imposed the latest imported spiritual medium upon the public. Mr. J. C. Firth occupied to the chair, and in opening the proceedings, said in the history of mankind there hadhardiy ever been a time in which claims had not been preferred to open up communication with the spirit-world. Magicians, astrologers, the medicine men of the Red Indian, the tohuiuja of the Maori claimed such commerce with tho unseen universe. Last of all, in this age of civilisation they saw another set of claimants known as "mediums," who say they can hold converse with the spirits of men after death —and they do this with a daring which would be simply ridiculous if it were not that they pretend to control the spirits of those escaped from the joys, sorrows, and toils of a weary world. For himself, he would be well content to allow these wandering professors q£ this ancient art to subside into the insigniticance aud forgetfuluess which will assuredly be their fate, leaving them to the decision of that silent and sensible majority to wkoni they had appealed. The Kev. Mr. Weisb was very cordially greeted upon approaching the lectern from which he was to deliver his discourse. The greatest interest was evidently taken in the lecture, for the attention was more marked than upon ordinary occasious. The lecturer commenced by saying : The present age is an ago of liberty. But in the course of time and in the disregard of reason liberty was extended to be the excuse for unbounded license. Ho appeared before the audience

as a minister of Jesus Christ; to him the word of the Bible was a duality. It was as a minister of religion that he came forward to all professing Christianity, and having any faith in the authenticity of the Scriptures, words of counsel and warning. [The lecturer proceeded to give a brief history of the genealogy of superstition.] The Holy Scriptures had afforded no countenance to the "black art," which professed to converse with the dead. But in this nineteenth century a set of men had risen up whom, in their folly, the ancient necromancers would refuse to own as their sons. These modem fools sought to combine the authority of science and religion, for their folly assumed, to have audible, visible, aud tangible commerce with tho spirits of dead men. This movement originated some thirty years ago with one Andrew Jackson Davis. This person claimed io be the apostle of a new gospel, which was simply a development of pauthoism : he proclaimed that the world was one universal living spirit, and it was in the outcome of this new creed that the pretensions of the Spiritualists had become so confident of their inlluence over the credulous. Was it true that Mrs. Ouppy, Mr. Walker, and the other persons called mediums could call up the spirits? Was it true that in these dark seances reasonable men would recognise the voice of beloved ones in a number of thumps on a table ? Was it true that people- in the dark felt the clammy nands of those who were in the grave ? The lecturer detailed the crucial experiment devised by the late Professor Faraday. It was a fortunate circumstance that men of science had insisted upon applying the tests of experimental appliances aud reason to these impious claims and pretensions. These occult practices had been described by one eminent person as an abominable superstition, beyond even the instinct of the dog. Was it to be believed, asked another distinguished man of science,

" that these persons groping in the kennels of the most senseless abominations and. profanity were, in truth, upon the very threshold of God's spiritual kingdom, and that pretensions were justilied ouch as were never approached in the darkest days of heathenism';" (Cheers.) The fact had been proclaimed by scientific men that the practitioners in this new form of black art would not permit their questioners to observe their practices, except through a medium of a darkness. (Cheers.) If people asked to see, they were told the circumstances were not favourable. Who had testified to the sailing of one medium through the air ? or to the statement that Mr. Home had to be pulled down from going to the skies by his boots. (Laughter and cheers.) There was another aspect of the question which was worth being cousi dored. It was that even the Spiritualists hid been surpassed iu their own feats by devices perfectly natural and rational and accountable, so that in several instances the spirits themselves were terrilied, as was 3t.itod by the chairman. The Scriptures denounced the necromancer, the sorcerer, those who had a familiar spirit, and those who "consulted the dead." Saul died because he took counsel of one who had a " familiar spirit," and inquired not of the Lord. Mauasseh was rebuked for a similar forgetfulness of God's word. The sorcerer, according to the Bible, was "outside the Kingdom of God." Then the so-called revelation of Spiritism was unnecessary. The Bible was sufficient for mau ; these claims of the Spiritualists wore purely a doctrine of demons and an emanation from the father of Jics, for they were iu direct opposition to the Word of God itself. The expedients Spiritualists resorted to had not shrunk from selecting for their purposes the names of men who were distinguished iu connection with religious life aud faith. They imposed upon the dearest beliefs aud hopes of men. The Wesleys, whatever mi"ht be said of the more abstruse opinions involved in Christian doctrine which they had promulgated, had conferred the highest benefits upon all who held by religion as a necessity of humau culture. Vet, these persons had the audacity to proclaim that they had intercourse with the spirits of eminent divines of that and other denominations, from whom they said they had elicited answers which contradicted the whole of the houourcdaud useful lives of these, aud were subversive even of religion itself.

These people had assumed to interrogate Dr. Naylor, and they gave out that they elicited answers to this ell'eet :—"I used to believe that Christ shed his blood to redeem a siuful world ; now 1 know better." Again, "i do not believe in the Trinity now." Again, "As to the Atonement, 1 now know that 1 was in error all my life." They had assumed to have communication with Dr. Wardlaw and Bishop Maut, and the shades of these eminent persons were made responsible fur strange doctrines opposed to all religion. But the Spiritualists as frequently claimed to interrogate Tom Paine or Kobespiorre. What faculty was there in the witnesses to recognise whether it was the spirit of religion or the spirit of atheism gave out its opinion ? There was none, and those who witnessed had no security that they were not the victims of imposture. (Cheers.) If the newspapers of Auckland, whoso tone iu this matter was so worthy of their leadership of public opinion here—(cheers)—if the newspapers were to bu relied upon as faithful reporters, the people here have had within the last few weeks abundant proofs that this Spiritualism was subversive of the dearest holies that revelation engendered. (Loud cheers.) They had before them the records of the doings of those who claimed to be priests of this new demoiiology. Let them have nothing to do with it. .Let it be i nquired into by science by all means; but it tried to evade the inquiry of science. Would Christian people pursue the ignin t'atuus of these delusive mystics? Would they be content with the phosphor gases of the charnel-house ; would they follow those occult arts through the quagmires of seusu ality—would they accept the abominations of these anti-Christian delusions ? No. The asylunia of America were said to be full of men and women who had become insane through these delusions. Were they to bo content with darkness ? No, Christ was the

light iiiKl the lite. Let men turu to the sun ; to the light of Heaven, and shun the way's of darkness through which these mystics would lead their followers. (Loud cheery.) A vote of thanks waa passed to tho lecturer, and the meeting separated.

The new Government school for boys lately erected at JNewniarket, within the .Mount liobson Educational District, was opened on 23rd May. It had been announced that the opening would bo made with some formal ceremony, and consequently at the appointed hour (10 o'clock) a fair innnbe. (if visitors — fricmls and pareni..3 of the children, &o. —were iiresont, besides 70 of the young folks themselves. The proceedings were of a very orderly and pleasant