A SERMON ON SPIRITS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 7222, 18 July 1884, Page 7

A SERMON ON SPIRITS.

At St. Peter’s Church last Sunday the Ven. Archdeacon Stock preached from tho 31at verse of the 16th chapter of St. John : “If believe not Moses and tho prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.” In the course of bis sermon the preacher said that in every ago there had been an attempt to gather other knowledge than what had been reveal'd of the existence of another world —to learn especially from the spirits of tho dead what they could teach. The Bible, he remarked, recorded some appearances of the dead and of spiritual forms. Saul, in bis despair, inquired of a woman that had a familar spirit; but it was clear from the narrative that this woman herself, when Samuel appeared, was utterly astonished, for sho evidently intended only to give a message to tho king as if from another world. Angels also had appeared frequently to man, but that was all. And they who held that the Bible was given for a guide, and <specially in spiritual matters, must at once say that any attempts to inquire of tho dead are not lawful. Such inquiries wero common in heathenism. Spirits were consulted, oracles wero resorted to, as guides in the affairs of life. But such inquiries were always condemned in the Old Testament. The return, therefore, to these old practices was certainly contrary to the spirit of Christianity. He did not hesitate to say that the Word of God was their only and sufficient guide, and that any apparently supernatural acts, or any messages apparently from the dead, if they tended to bring the Bible into disrepute, if they professed to reveal more than the Bible revealed, aver© not from good, but from evil spirits. If there were in reality any spiritual force put forth, those who were acting were not messengers of God. They read of a pencil making faint endeavors to stand upright, and thus to write messages from the spirit world upon paper ; they heard of supernatural messages slowly and painfully rapped out by spirits ; they heard of spirits moving heavy articles of furniture, or causing living pictures to float about the room. Yet we could not but say that mch acta were utterly unworthy of the angel Gabriel or of those who were with him. Assuredly an angel sent from God would behave in a way worthy of his high credentials. And yet there was a matter now well worthy tho attention of such spiritual agents. All men alike, of whatever creed, spoke with an utter abhorrence of those who, to gain a political end, were using dynamite for the destruction of the public buildings of England, utterly careless of the misery so horribly dealt out. It was a vile act, done in secrecy and darkness—done so easily that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to discover the agent. If these spirits were seeking to lead men upwards to a purer light, let them unveil these deeds of darkness and so prevent their repetition by the certainty of a full discovery ; or let them do some other good, and not as now, do nothing but excite astonishment to no good end. It had been said in defence of all this, and it was the only reason he had ever seen advanced that was of any value, that men who had no thought of the future, and no belief in anything of life after their present life was ended, were thus learning to belive that there was another world, If their former unbelief bad been caused by want of evidence, this reason would be a good one j but this was not the case. Unbelief was not caused by any such want. In conclusion, Archdeacon Stock said that he had spoken plainly on what bad become common in their midst, as feeling that a congregation should know what it was that their minister held on such a point. He had ns yet read nothing as done at such inquiries which tended for good. He at once excepted mesmerism—that strange power which every one in full health of mind and body possessed—from such condemnations as he gave to any inquiries from spirits. Mesmerism could, as he knew well, be used to give and to restore health to the sick, but for aught else, bo saw no new truth elicited ; nothing but what was known already.