Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1853-04-30
For the Southern Standard.
Spirit RappingS.

Spirit RappingS.
Mr.. EDITOR My duties as Scribe still detains
me in Columbus, and from the various exciting
topics now engrossing the minds of the people, I
know not how much longer l may remain. The
subject now before me is Spirit Rappng % and
from report there has been some very remarkable
developments made by spirits, not yet disembod-
led, as to the faculty of quizzing and, by the
way, if some of the revelations made by these
spirits in the presence of lawyers, doctors, dvines
and grey headed sires, together with maids and
matrons, young and old, had found place in your
paper together with paragraph asserting that
US and WE, heard, saw, &c., that with many
it would have been received as undoubted testi-
mony, that departed spirits continued to take deep
interest in the number of cotton bales made by the
prairie planters, the number of negroes owned by
them, the annoyance of church bells, &c.
l am glad, however, that the editors of the va
rious journals of this place, were able to discover
the kind of spirits that caused inert matter to
move, to the utter establishment of the unnitated,
and that they withheld from the pages of their
circulating media, an extension of the marvellous
posed to have come direct from the spirit land
l would not be understood, by the above re-
marks, as contending against known and establish
ed facts. They are truly stubborn things, And
further, as there are laws of nature not yet fully
understood, will not take upon myself the re-
sponsibility of denying that an influence may be
exerted, both attractive and repulsive, upon even
3Da bx- I
friends. But at the same time, am unwilling to
admit that dsembodied spirits from paradise, or
the supposed purgatory of Popish origin, has any
agency whatever in the transaction of the crap
pers;" and myreason for coming to this conclu-
sion, is founded upon the nfalable word of God
from which alone, we derive our knowledge of
spirits and their place of abode. In the account
given by Christ himself, in the XVI chapter of the
Gospel, recorded by St. Luke, respecting the re-
quest of the rich man who died, land in hell
lifted up his eyes, being in torment and beheld
Lazerus afar off in Abraham's bosom, goes at
least to establish the fact that spirits in torment
could not communicate with the living, however
anxious they might be to do so; for, if allowed
such privilege, Dives would have left his place
Of torment, in order to warn his FIVE brethren, in
stead of calling upon Abraham to send Lazerus
for that purpose while the answer of Abraham
favours the idea that Lazerus could not go on such
an errand, unless he first rose from the dead.
Again, when Christ was crucifel, and his body
secured by the Roman guard, he held no farther
interview with the world. not even with his discon-
ISOLATE decples until after the angel descended and
rolled back the stone from the door of the sepul-
chre, and his body resurrected. After this he
conversed with his deciples and instructed them as
to how they should act. And farther, the case
recorded in the XVI of I. Samuel, respecting
Sauls visit to the women of En-dor may also be
taken as proof that departed spirits can only COM
municate with the living by words. But some are
probably ready to say that this woman was
first class medium, and that she could call up any
spirit that might be demanded. The sacred text
however, does not justify such conclusion, for
she is represented having ga familiar spirit,
that is, one spirit, that she was familiar with,
and consulted on all occasions, or in other words,
that she understood some law of nature, or slight
of hand, by which she could make others believe
that she could raise spirit.
That this woman did not expect Samuel to rise
by her ncantations, will appear evident, from the
fact that she was alarmed when Samuel made his
apparence, and even ''cried with a loud voice, y
and when Saul told her mot to be afraid" and
enquired what it was that she saw, she answered,
II saw Gods ascending out of the earth" This
sight alarmed her-it was something she did not
expect.
In place of her familiar spirit, she saw can old
man come up covered with MANTLE" Samuel
then in his appearance to Saul, came forth from
the earth. soul and body, united. and in this con-
dition conyersed with Saul face to face, so as to
leave him in no doubt, with regard to whom
he conversed, nor the certainty Of the reye-
lation made to him.
These facts then. selected from the infalable
word Of God, discountenance the idea that depar.
ted spirits, when in disembodied state, can hold
I any converse whatever with the living.