The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-12-19
FRUITS OF sPIRITUAl-aIsM."
From the New York Express. ]

Our columns TtcOlu tne ueatn OF Two Oe-
levers in the spiritual "lsm, "-One, that Of
John D. Fairbanks, in this city, the particulars
of whose case are already familiar to the
reader-the other that of young lady, Miss
Harriet Eager, of Boston. The first perished
by his own hand--a sell. .murderer-the lat
ter apparently in trance, the newspapers
tell Us. but under circumstances, it seems to
us, strongly suggestive of self-destruction.-
Both were believers in that most pestilent of
all 'isms," "spiritualism," and both died, as
they had latterly lived, apparently with a firm
faith in its fatal doctrines-which" "faith" was,
and is, neither more nor less, in the Judgment
of most rational,men, than-as the Coroner's
jury in Fairbanks case pronounced it-down-
right "insanity."
There is n moral to this story which ought
not to be kept out Of sight. In the case of
Fairbanks, we discover man of intelligence,
good character and position in society, yet
having his moral and mental faculties SO de-
plorably perverted as TO unbalance his mind,
unseat reason, hurry him on to despondency
aud despair, and finally, into the grave of the
suicide. Disappointed in some triiing love
affair, and grown gloomy over the death of
sister-grefs which most men of healthy
intellect, would in time have safely survived
in an evil hour he took to reading spiritual
papers," and meditating upon spiritual" sub
iects, until at length he became convert
He imagined he YVES in close communication
with the inhabitants of the ur seen world. and
came at length TO persuade himself that only
a narrow bridge, as it were, separated him
from all that he had loved on earlh-to cross
which bridge only leap was necessary-and
that leap he took, out of third story win
dow, his body landing, broken and bruised
a ghastly spectacie-on the sidewalk below
and his spirit sent
-"Unannointed, unannealed
With all its imper erfections on its head"
before its Maker in Heaven. Terrible
thought? Bitter fruit Of an impious, mind
perverting, soul,dcstroying imposture!
St. Paul speaks of certain men, in his day,
who "brcame vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish hearts were darkened. Processing
themselves to be wise, they became foolish"
The chief priests and apostles of this "Sprit-
ual Ism," though they do not openly profess
new revelation, setting aside or superseding
the New Testament, yet inculcate IDEAS, and
encourage impressions, il not wholly at war
with the comforting assurances and promises
of the Gospel, at least so unsette mems
minds, touching the life to come, as to render
them indescribably miserable in, and dissatis-
fed with, the life present The inculcaton
or encouragement of belief in positive
intercourse between the material and the
spiritual--a communication, us it were, be-
tween the living and the >dead-ma,erialy
impels the presumptuous to heights and
depths of speculation, where their poor, finite
faculties get bewidered and dizzy, and toppe
down just as the unhappy Fairbanks did-to
death and destruction. The finite, in the
impious endeayor to unravel the infinite un-
derlakes an impossible task, and one which,
il it is not expressly forbidden to enter upon,
at all, is certain to result only in ruin.
This life, at the longest,i il shurt-but short
as it is, it has for all Of us duties enough TO
pei form to employ every moment Of our
time. Why squander and misappropriate
these Geetng hours, then, by seeking to ex-
plore the life TO come, in the face too, of the
sure conviction, that he who so adventures
but rushes upon his own destruetion.-
Christianity has satisfactorily enough settled
the relationship between the living and the
dead, and upon that settlement mankind may
securely rely. Spirtualism, we may depend
upon it, relies upon nothing but itself, and
what is itself, but gloomy and mschievous
imposture! Christianity reconces us to this
life, with all its prvations and mIsfortunes,
and encourages the faiihfal to endure the
matter how miserable-for the
sake of the happy future. Spirtualism, on
the contrary, makes its disciples as miserable
as can be here and by driving them to self
murder, fortei's the promises of happy
hereafter. Christianity enables men to live
well, and die happy. Spirituoism makes its
wretched devotees unhappy in life, and mis-
erable in DEATH Beware of it, therefore, as
you would beware of deadly poison-hee
from it, as you would flee from some horrid
pestilence, that destroys both intellect and |
body and soul
MONTREAL, Dec. 9.-Cmists Church, and |
the Episcopal Cathedral in this city, were
burnt this morning. The loss is estimated |
E3O,O0O, on which there was an insurance
Of fl7,000
.4s- Buchanan's majority in Kentucky, all
the counties being heard from, is given in
The Louisville Courier at 7.l95.
VAYILLA.-The Vanilla Bean, which is so |
much used in flavoring puddngs, jeIlies ices,
&C., grows in Mexico, near Vera Cruz, and |
has become very profitable to the cultivators.
The Bureau at Washington has information