Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1855-03-11
From the Spiritual Telegraph
TPuBLlsHED BY REQUEST.
SPIRITUAL MASS MEETING.

SPIRITUAL MASS MEETING.
IMMENSE GATHERING 1T THE TABEKNAcLE!
The friends of Soirtuaism in this city ard
vicinity assembled at the Broadway Tabernacle
on Friday evening, the 10th inst, to the number
of nearly 1000 persons. 1t had been previously
announced that Rev. T. l.. Harris would deliver
his last discourse previous to his departure for the
South, and also that ex Governor Tallmadge and
Judge Edmonds would be present and address the
public on the occasion. The weather was not
very Propitous and the streets were still in bad
condition, owing to the recent storms but the
interest awakened was so intense and so widely
dfused, that the elements opposed no obstacle
TO the success of the meeting. Long before the
hour arrived for the exercises TO commence the
multitude began to assemble, and when the speak
ers ascended the platform every seat was occupi !
ed, and the vast area including the spacious gal
leries, aises, and spaces about the walls above
and below, were densely crowded. Many persons !
have vainly imagined that the so called ''seven |
days wonder had departed-the papers said So
but the audience at the Tabernacle was startling
revelation to all such visionary mortnls OF the |
fact that Spiritualism is power in the land /
against which all human devices and morta op- /
position, are utterly unavaiinG. 1t is now appa-
rent 70 all that this ereatTFuth has taken deep
and everlasting hold on the minds and hearts of
thousands of our best citizens. So noisess'y has
it made its way in the community. that very few /
persons, even among the believers, were prepared
to witness such demonstration. As the eye OF
the silent spectator wandered over the sea of up
turned faces, and his heart felt the impulse from
the resistless tide Of feeling and thought among
the people, he was filed with profound astonish
ment. Moreover, when we remembered that only
three years since the friends OF this cause were
generally denounced rs fools and impostors, we
could not resist the conviction that the presence
of the Divine Providence is Clear y revealed in the
great Spiritual Reformation Of the nineteenth
century.
The following speech oftbe Rev. 7. L HARRIS,
delivered on the OCCASION was list d to with pro-
found attention:
A compact statement of what Spiritualism is,
will be, perhaps the most useful contribution
that can add to the intellectual wealth of the
audience before me. | labor under the same
difficulty that a man might who attempts TO con-
dense Homer into verse, Solomon into proYerb,
or the Bible into aPhorism. Spiriualism as
we define it, is twofold-subective and objective
There is first of all, under rhs subject of Spiritu
alism empire of interior principles, that realm
Of pure thought which peryades all minds from
the ONE MIND, that domain from whence in all
ages genius has come forth 10 do its mighty work
and poetry to cheer, and artto adorn and religion
to instruct the nations.
There is, serondIy, an external territory, an
immense realm for aFt-1henOmena, language phe-
nomena, and sensible demonstrations of spirit in
matter cognzable by all the senses, facts of the
world of facts, and serving as the basis OF a grand
inductiye philosophy whose rings and rounds of
ike those of Jacob's ladder, are
founded on the very surfaces OF the natural sphere,
and rise into the heavens.
When the disciples of John the Baptist asked
of Jesus, cart thou He that should come, or DOVE
look for another!" the answer that he gave was /
an appeal 10 the senses. He pointed to the blind
made to see, to the dead raised, and replied ''Go
and tell John what We have seen and heard"
Thus we do tonight. Entering into no q priori {
argument we simply point to realities. The I
sylphs and gnomes OF the Rosorucian philosophy, t
the gay and airy localities Of mythiC systems OF I
The past, the stately generalitics of the mere
heOrist who specuiates OF the universe he can {
not see--all these we set aside. The facts of i
Spritualism its best argument, and for the {
purpose OF our present statement We classify /
hem under seven heads c
We assert first, that Spiritualism-the doctrine /
IF mans intercourse with immortal inteiligences i
-istrue, because material conclusions conveying c
Intelligence reveal the intelligent agency Of the c
departed. Much as spirit raPpings, so styled, t
3re spit upon by the dres5Iakers OF literature who
Zeal in the haberdashery OF rhetoric ideas thrill d
ng of significance and epic strength have been S
md are communicated through Spirt-raPPirgs. e
Style is nothing to the man after facts. Tne n
ost daughter is equally dear, whether she wear q
eturning from her long captivity, the adornments a
# fashion, or bat the simple dTapery Of the In Q
Ian maid It's the speaking eye, it is the beat S
ng heart, it is the love-fraug!t and love tuned Ii
icing, and not the drapery of the person, that we
ee. 1t is essentially vulgar, and bespeaks a n
epraved taste, to Judge the grandeur of fact, Of
principle, by its mode of expression Spirit il
eegraphing through explosive sounds comes TO
5 in that same matter of fact, American way in ST
7hich our iron-rbbed Oak-buiIt steamers plow b
he Atlantic, and our Frosaic railroads clasp with is
ron hands the virgin waist of the continent o
hey dear to US from their very simplicity. Ii
'oets of coming ages, when the present has mel u
owed into the past, shall sing them, and find b
rander themes poetry than we find in the land o
ng of Pilgrims and the crossing Of the May Il
ower. To US especially they come as burning n
nd potent facts. We listen to Spirit rapPings a
S We saw people listen at the Office Of the tele f
raph fer from the passengers Of the Arctic. Ia
'Eey did not ask to have the Instruments spell e.
ut sentences in Johnsonian style. they asked, a
5 my mother or my daugl ter safe! and when the q
nswer came through but Yes, it was as if from Fl
he solid adamant form of the loved one had Il
topped forth and said, 81 live - il
Have we not loved ones gone out over q DINNER S,
nd darker sea, whose beating waters gather a
bout the world! Have not prophes Of unuih- Il
aIOh tiioL tiG iBCA lic4ssitpH f''ii ONt II
immortal hopes has struck the rock Of oblivion o.
nd gone down beneath the icy biliOws of ami n
latoH aye shall wait and weep they cry, n
but never, never shall ye meet them more 81
Nnd have not another class-tbe prophets Of the p
iaming vortex and the everlasting ire--have Il
hey not told US that the barqua that held them
It'll hoated butdritad forever and forever on the
ea whose very drops are fiery a5onos, and whose il
molten hrmament rains down ma ajncss, till keel,
md ribs, and deck and cabin clasped the doomed c
mes IN an iron shroud and streaming, sailed 8
live with endless flame blown by the furnace s.
,rea,h OF torture, bore them through the ever il
asting ages, burning, uuc9usumed, dying, yet i
lever dead! il
Well, now against this terrible fear for the de- o
,ar;ed, of annhation on the one side and per n
lioa on the other side, when teIegraphc wire n
uns ont and connects US with that vast world, b
where they have gone, what do we ask! Pomps $
# dciion, CicereniGn c'oqucnce, the swelling t,
Dhrases with which ignorance covers Up its oyc= c
ess sockets and masks its dead he art! No | e
want TO have ny friends tell me first Of all. j.! t.
hey can toit, If they are safe. What do l care r
or STYLE! don, TO 10 thar telegraph as a critic O
u words, an epioar, Of hoaeyed cn'eDcos, Eor n
O YOU A. fathers and mothers, as husbands a
nd wives, and children We 90 there. and if that
esr mother s7Csks. md tjat dear wife or child S
So they give ma some proof that n
i they, | don PsS them ia live ne Chapn's f
iOquencc, nor ca'j j. "uonn hine dr. zzle" If Il
20. 20 n