The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-04-11
g.. !, a very remarkable Iam'iy sca''eieo

HTnmdav moEoshes
!. !, very remarkable family scattered
-, tho Northern and Middle STATES "h'e"
- con,r;yed TO make greater NOSE III '.e
.,I ,h.n anv other family We know o. 10
modern tines, except the bonapai'e -.
making the comparison, we beg pa'uo" ', w.
.h.as Of the great Napoleon, and Tue pe'so"
-. Eel. one. OF one Of the members VI "'''
f.u1v ve have already had more 10 say ID 'ne
No.. than has been at ali agreeaoie 10 u.s.
"a 90 sincerely hoped to have done win
s, Ru, every now and then some
."0A' -. s.vs or does something TO excite
o,,r ire and il is impossible for us 10 hold our
,.oce They are the sons and daughters o.
"a vmsn Beecher, half dozen or SO OF the
boys being preachers. and the 'smartest OF the
-;,Js being Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose
x.,y name has grown to US dstastefnl in the
extreme.
OF Henry Ward Beecher our readers know
good deal. He is the Boanerges OF Adolf
tom Div,nes. and is D.D.-a dignity which,
:, his individual case, we should prefer to
write with little DIS and dash-thus id. A
man Of decided talent, he some time ago mar
rowIv escaped prosecution for forgery, in hav-
;ng unwarrantably used the name of a brother
clergyman, the Rev. Joel Parker, and the fine
abilities which now adorn the pulpit OF his
church in Brooklyn, mig bit, if justice had got
its due, have been quenched in the gloom oil
Sing Sing. Since that achievement, Henry
has remained comparatively quiet, but the
rest of them have followed the family Instinc'
of acquiring notoriety, by fuss, with more than
their usual adroitness.
Week before last Harriet sailed for Europe
accompanied by her brother, the Rer. Charies
Reecber of Newark, NJ. We duly chronl.
cle3 the fact, nd congratulated ourselves that
The country was happily rid, for some time a.
least. If two of the breed. But the Rev.
Charles left some thing behind him to kick up
g row, and it has come TO light before he has
vet reached the shores Of England.
This something is long report, now IN the
press Of Putnam, GA Spiritual Rapplngs,
which was vicarously delivered by another
brother. the Rer. Thomas K, Beecher OF VIII
lamsburg, New York, before the Brooklyn
Assoc iation of Congregational Ministers, on
Wednesday last. The grounds taken by this
report are reduced by the Tribune to the fol-
lowing heads:
!. That the rapplngs are verltaole'
Q That electricity has nothing TO do with
them.
8. That they are produced by no living
agency.
4. That disembodied spirits can communi-
cafe with living beings.
S. That these Spiritual Rappngs are real
communications from the dead, but from the
damned.
6. That the proof Of the evil nature of these
spirits is found in their irreligious and diaboic
messages.
If we had not seen this report thus gravely
summed up, and commented upon by the iris
bnne, we should hesitate to believe in its ac-
curacy. We did not suppose message"
no t" diabolic'' could emanate even from
Beecher. We would not, of course, set up
any acquaintance we may have with the Bible,
Though we do sometimes read and ponder that
holy volume,) against the biblical erudlton OF
the Beecher family, but we conceive the doc
trine CT communication, on the part OF earthly
beings, with the world of spirits, utterly unsus-
tanned by any portion of Gods word that has
fallen under our notice. Certainly the idea that
the spirits of the damned can harrow up the
souls of their living relatives with revelation
oftheir lost state, is utterly at war with The Cos
pei ofa mercul Being who does not lightly tor
nent his creatures. Indeed, there are passages
in the sacred text which directly contradict the
position assumed in this report for we know
when Dives, lifting up his eyes in torment, de-
sired that his five brothers might be informed
of his damnaton, and thus be led to repent Of
their sins, he was neither permitted to 60 him.
self, nor to send Lazarus to apprise them. But
we forbear further comment upon this point.
We are chiefly outraged by this report on
spiritual manifestations, because We fear its
consequences upon the weak minds of very
many excellent people who have begun TO re.
gard the rappngs seriously. Already the La
natic Asylums throughout the land are being
filled with the unhappy victims of this mise.
rable deluson. What the state of things vii!
be when mothers are made 10 believe that their
lost children are crying to them from the
realms OF despair, when wives are taught 10
think their departed husbands are warning
them from the flames of eternal perditicn-,he
Imagination refuses, with horror, TO consider,
SPIRIT 0E THE DprSS