The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-12-19
FRUITS OF SPIRtTUAl-"1SM."
TFrom the Nsw York Express1

levers in the spiritual "Ism,"-one, that of
John D. Fairbanks, 10 this city, the particulars
of whose case are already familiar to the
rcnder-the other that Of young lady, Miss
Harriet Eager, Of Boston. The first perished
by his own hand--a selfmurdercr-the lat
ter apparently In trance, the newspapers
tell us, but under circumstances, it seems to
W, strongly suggestive of seIfdestruc,on.-
Both were believers in that most pestlent of
all "isms," "spiritualism," and both died, as
they had la,ierly lltd, apparently with firm
faith in its fatal doc sues-which "hith" was,
and is, neither morehof less, in the judgment
Of most rational men. thnn--as the c,proner's
jury in F'd'hqnks' cxsprOnOunced it-down.
right "insanity."
There is moral this story which ought
not to-bc Kept out 9f ight. In the case of
we discover man of intelligence,
good character and position in soci' y, yet
having his moral and mental fncutiesso de-
plorably perverted as to unbalance his mind,
unseat reason, hurry him on to despondency
and despair, and finally, into the gIave of the
suicide. Disappointed in some trihng love
affair, and grown gloomy over the death of
sister-griefs which most men of healthy
intellect, would in time hye safely survived
in an evil hour he took to reading spiritual
papers," and meditating upon spiritual" sub.
jrcts, until Mt length he became convert
He imagined he was in close communication
with the inhabitants of the ur seen world, and
came ut length TO persuade himself that only
II narrow bridge, ns it were, separated him
from all that he had loved on earlh-to cross
which bridge only Il leap was necessary-and
that leap he took, out of third story win
dow, his body landing, broken and truiscd-
ghastly spectacle--on the sidewalk below
and his splrit sent
- -"Unannointed, unannealed,
With all its mpeffections on its head,"
-bef"re its Maker in Heaven. Terrible
thought! Bitter fruit of an impous, mind
perverting, sou.dcstroyng imposture!
st. Paul speaks of certain men, in his dav,
who "brcame vain in their imnginations, and
their foolish hearts were darkcned, Professiny
themselves TO BE- wise, they became foolish"
The chief priests and apostles of this "Spirit.
ual lsln," though they do not openly profess
II new revelation, setting aside or superseding
the New Testament, yet inculcu,e ideas, and
encourage Impressions, II not wholly at war
with the comforting assurances and promises
of the Gospel, ut least so unsetlle mems
minds, touching the life to come, as to render
them indcscribably y miserable in, and dssatis.
fled with, the life. present. The incucation
or encouragement Of a belief in n positive
intercourse between the material and the
spiritnal-a communication, as it were, be-
tween the living and the drad-materially
lmpels tho prcsumpluous to heights and
depths of speculation, where their poor, finite
faculties get bewildered and dizzy, and topple
down just as the unhappy Fairbanks did-to
death and destruction. The finite, in the
impious endeayor to unravel the infinite, un-
dertakes nm impossible task, and one which,
i: it is not expressly forbidden to enter upon,
ut all, is certain to result only in ruin.
This life, at the longest, is short-but short
ms it is, it has for all of US a1,tics enough 10
perform to employ every moment of our
time. Why squander and msapproprate
these lleeiing hours, then, by seeking to ex-
plore the life TO come, in the face, too, of the
sure conviction, that he who so adventures
hut rushes upon his own destrue etion.-
has satisfactorily enough settled
the relationship between the living and the
dead, and upon that settlement mankind NAV
securely rely. Spirituaism, we may depend
upon it, relies upon nothing but itself, and
what is itself, but gloomy and mischevous
impos,ure! Christianity reconciles us to this
life, with all its privations and nIsfortunes,
and encourages the faithful TO endure tire
present-no matter how miserabe-for the
sake of the happy future. Spiri,uaism, on
the contrary, makes its disciples as miserable
MS can be here, and by driving them to self
murder, forieits the promises of happy
hereafter Christianity enables men to live
well, and die happy. Spiriiualism makes its
wrelched devotees unhappy in life, and mis-
erable in death. Beware of it, therefore, as
you wea1 bs,,Sre eI deadly poison-Aee
- p ATsoS 81: COOKE, Ice from some horrid