The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-01-11 00:00:00

A SPIRITUALIST SERVICE.

" A Curious Inquirer " has sent the following letter
to the Daily News:—

The prominent correspondence on Spiritualism which has
been published 'luring the past week attracted my attention,
In common with that of many others and as I happen to be
among these who have sought spiritual manifeatations on
every conce'vable opportunity, but foxed them not, f deter-
mined to give myself and the spirits another fiance. Ordi-
nary annnuncements, however, I have long mistrusted, but
a letter which appeared in The 'I thin a few days since,
stating that "the very highest manifestations of the develop-
ment of Spiritualism were to be w Deemed at the C---h
Rooms on Sunday evenings," lulu, ut nie to fled out the par-
ticular rooms indicated. Thither I acoordiogly repaired this
evening, anxious to behold these superior manifeetationc ft
was extremely disappointing to find that the medium whose
"trance state" on the previous Sunday had caused such a
selioua isPinal to the scientific worth was not to be present.
Indeed, at seven o'clock, when the " service ' began, the
room, which Is not a large one, was very scantily tenanted,
althoosh the audience or congregation Included the great
Medium, Mr. D. D Home, and several ladies and gentlemen
who had a "spiritualistic" look. That the gathering was
mainly one of professed Spiritualists wll.l evident when a
gentleman, who acted as conductor of the proceeding., gave
out a hymn from &Spiritualist manual. With the exception of
tee .1. six individuals, all present produced books from their
res hls. The hymn was a reverent offering of thee ks to "the
Ler and "theme who made en free," and epeeist mention
was made of the poor mopli who defied "the Monarch's
sword, the Prelate'. pride, the Church's cum, and the Ern-
pire• ban." The hyom was very fairly sung to the old
Hundredth. and was accompanied by a harmonium. The
gentleman whom I will speak of as the preaident, thee,
Without thy kind of prefatory announcement, read the
s.cc,4int it the casting out of Hagar and the boy Ishmael.
This conebided, he Introduced "• young man from New
York,' whose name I failed to catch clearly, but who, the
President t.dd us, was now for the first time to make hie public
aliemirani.e on any platform. This statement drew general
scrutiny upon the person Indicated, afresh round-faced young
gentlemar,. who naturally blushed and hung his head.
The President thereupon explained that it was one of the
Peculiarit es of spiritualism that Its apostles often started off
on create ireers without any previous training, thus reamed,-
beg the ancient Individual who sprung out of the earth
hilly armed. The young man delivered his address in a
decniedly English, if not metropolitan accent, and without
any indication that he was assisted by any supernatural aids
le public speaking, although it must he admitted that, tor a
first atteend " any platform," he spoke extremely well.
Ile boldly ,aserted at the outset that what he intended to do
was tu show us that spiritualism was founded on Scriptural
fact..

_
It was i`ouldful by this time whether we were Where any
"highest inanitestatio.," but here .•411, at any rate, a
Chance of learning something My ideas of sermonising
Were certainly a little shocked when the young gentleman
salil he noil,i hest fulfil his promise by "taking a kind of
bird's-eye ilee of the Book of Genesis;" and It soon b.
ca"le &Diluent that his mode of argument was to
make a soccesaion of statements without any pretence of
supporting them by reasons. He therefore had the field,
as it were, all to himself. His assertion reduced to a
plain eunrinary waa this :—That the writers we have been
taught to regard as Inspired were simply mediums ; that
the first si•anee ever held was in the Garden of Eden,
With Admit as medium. and the creation of Eve as the
result that Noah was a medium also, and the confusion of
tongues a remarkable exhibition of the Spiritualism of that
era that Abraham was a medium of quite a high class,
likewise his relative Lot; that Jacob's dream was, after all,
not the heavenly vish.n we have been erroneously taught it
was but a particularly successful Spiritualistic performance ;
that the putting of Jacobi thigh snit of joint was a trium-
phant refutation of modern acepti., who deny that spirits
can Resume materialistic shapes, and that Joseph was the
best medium of them AIL Indeed Joseph, according to the
lectuier, was the Home of the period, his whole career
being planned by the spirits tor the guidance of Spiritualists
at an ages Just at the moment when we were all expect-
ing an argumentative clincher to this "bird's-eye view,"
the "young man from New York " somewhat abruptly
sat down. The President followed, very unkindly expressing
a hope that the youthful lecturer would to -and-by learn to
think and Speak at one and the same time, and vaguely
hinting that t, do this successfully was a gift of spiritualism.
The lecturer, St any rate, had kept close to his subject. The
President, however, proceeded to pour out a string of
platitudinarlan sentences that put a girdle round the earth,
anti air, anti thy In considerably leas than the time allotted
by Shakespeare. If his object was to fill up the time which
the lecturer hail failed to occupy he admirably aucceeded if
to throw light, however taint, upon the question of
WU, he Masks Wed.

Another hymn was finally annonnotid—Popas—velldniown
Univereal Prayer. The singing of the first verse was so
eccentric that I began to hope the spirits were coming at
last. At the ...mei stanza the inetrumentalist wandered off
into such inharmonious regions that the elegies, in point of
fact, broke down Ignettlitilously. It wae a familiar tune
named " Trench," but the player, while doing justice to the
Mr with his right hand, appeared to have devoted his left
to quite another tune of both different key and time.
Accidents of this kind will occur fn the best regulated
choirs, and I should have been charitab ) silent concern-
ing it but for the presidential interpretation of it. The
president having promptly suppressed the player of the
harmonium, and directed the singing of the hymn with ut
his muhdance, apologised and explained The organist,
he said, was • medium himself, and really a very gool
musician, but the fiasco had no doubt beea occasioned by the
Interference of •' our spirit friend.," in what way wasnot more
Melte], explained. The president with great ingenuity at
once made the occurrence a ground for hinting to spiritualist.
geturelly to support " the movement" a little more warmly
than had been their wont, end the proceedir ge concluded
with a good many announcements of a practical and pecuniary
nature I left "the C—h rooms," having learued thst these
meetings have only jest been esteblished, and astonished at
the insigeificant source from which the great controversy of
the past week has arisen.