"WHERE ARE THE DEAD!"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 916, 8 October 1879, Page 2

" WHERE ARE THE DEAD !"

This rather startling title of an .addJreM; which was delivered by Mrs.. HardingeV Britten at Wellington, at the, Theatre Royal, attracted a vast crowd of' peoplo. of all classes. TEbng beforeTthe r timC] announced for comme«ta«g-4heAlß<)turiJ every ijeatdowns&aijrs. and upstairs occupied, and numbers of people, i&v, r ? eluding members of , Parliament and \ ladies, were to seen, standjuig. afl I The lecturer commenced by : stating . that the question,,," Where are th« Dead ?" had ever been one of absorbing interest to persons of all daises jof *"" society, of all kinds of temperaments^ It was asked in deep earnestness wjMptyi; the brave ship went down with all her living freight. It was asked with mournful solemnity when the dwelling* house with all its inmates was reduced [to ashea. It .was asked with terrible sorrow, when the beloved of 6uV heart* faded away before our eys, and vajrisftedV into the dim shadowy regions of thjP} beyond. She would first state brie^y^ what were the opinions of the earliest 1 nations on this momentous question. The Hindoos 'divided life beyoHd<lth<J grave into six spheres below where the crimes of earthly existence were expiated and seven abov«, which were regions of progressive happiness, the last being the culminatiye sphere of perfect bliss. The-, Egyptians held . similar notions. S6-j strong , was their fait£ , jin^tttiaJ respeot, that when a man died, assewors sat, and evidence was taken as to his life. If the evidence 1 in favor of his goodness predominated, Ms body was interred in "the Elysian Fields f'l if the evidence proved him to have J been a wicked man, the body was con* signed to a bituminous lake. This was all emblematical of what was deemed to be the fate of the soul. Mrs Britten contended that this was the origin of the Christian Hell. She asserted that there was amongst Hebrews no notion. of im-, mortality till after the Chaldean cai>tivW-\ and that the Hebrews brought back from the land of bondage their ideas of tKe future state. She affirmed that there was in the Old Testament only, one passage which spoke of life beyond We ' grave, namely, the passage in which id is '<■'■ related that the Witch of Endor raised^ the spirit of the prophet Samuel. The | lecturer contended that all the teaching * of the New Testament pointed; ta; a v probationary, not to a final Btate, as that on which the soul would enter after, death. Mrs Britten then proceeded to u speak in terms of strong condemnation of the Christian teaching that the Soul was doomed to eternal torture for the sins committed during the few briel years of mortal life. She denied ift&&> the doctrine of the Atonement, and asserted that every human being must pay the penalty of his crimes in his own person. She briefly stated the teachings of Spiritualism as to where the dead are, saying that in the life beyond the grave there were various spheres. First, there #as the sphere in, which sinners were confined till they expiated the sins of this life. The other spheres were various conditions of happiness, the highest being that assigned to men whose lives had been made up of ,loye£ and wisdom. To each of these spherjM^ the soul gravitated according to "its merits on "shuffling off this mortal coil." She claimed to have seen glorified spirits, and held&onverse with them.