The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-06-09
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/ MOANING.


TuVkBUA aVsss' -
An address ON spirisma'ssna.
Among the religious curiosities oil We"
York. which bids fair TO have AZ e'a"!
Gods as the ancient Athens, Is the resu,a'
Sunday worship Of Spiritasl's's al poas-
v orth's Hall. On a recent occasion, 'uus'
Edmonds, late of the New York supreme
Court officiated, and seems to have per-
formed the proper duties of regular cier-
cvman. He commenced the services by
PRAYER, after which the choir sang several
anthems aud hymns, and his Honor then
nroceedcd to deliver an elaborate discourse
in behalf of Spiritua!ism.
After a long preface on tie subject OF
sswhcre is Truth to be found p Judge Ed
mouds declared that Spirituaiists drew the
evidence Of their belief from sacred history,
from the earliest period of hun.an history,
from profane history, from the universal be-
lief OF mankind. In sacred history, says
the Judge, we are told that an angel APP
peared to Hagar, as recorded in Genesis 6;
three appeared to Abraham, in Genesis Is;
two TO Lot. 10 Genesis 10; one to Hagar, in
Genesis 81: one to Abraham, Genesis %;
one 10 Jacob in dream, Genesis 81; one
Ia Moses. Exodus 3; one before the camp of
Israel. Exodns ID: one to Balaam, Numbers
%: one to the children of Israel, judges 2;
one to Gideon, Judges 6; one to the wife of
Manoah, Judges l3; one 10 Elijah, Kings
10: one to Ornam, Chronicles IL one to
Zachariah, Zachariah /; one to the two
Marys at the sepulchre, Matthew %, one at
the birth of Jesus, Luke l. one at the firth
of John the Baptist; one before the Virgin
Mary: one to the shepherds; two to Jesus,
Peter. James and John; one spoke to John
the Evangelist, in the second of the Revela-
tions. II will not do, in the opinion Of
Judge E., to say that these were angels, or
q distinct order Of beings from men; they
were ''spirits' that seen by Jonn, and
called by him an angel, avowed himself to
be one Of the prophets. Then, in the low
est order of worship-Fetishism- connec-
ton between visible and invisible, could be
found. Brahminisn, which counts Its hum
deeds of millions of worshippers, enume-
rates three hundred and thirty millions OF
spirits which exert an agency in the daily
affairs of human life. Mahomedanism
teaches that two angels attend each mortal
from birth to the grave, and influence him.
Plagiarism believed that the gods intertered
with human acts, and spake to men. 10
roasters at the East, proclaimed that spirits
were both for good and evil. The Founder
of the Christian Religion acknowledged the
existence of good and evil spirits. The de-
nial of Witchcraft was the beginning OF the
age of unbelief which, in the opinion Of
Judge Edmonds, is fast passing away. His
Honor then proceeded to quote from high
authorities to show that Spiritualisis are in
good company. There was Socrates, who
believed himself moved by q divine and
spiritual influence; and Addison and John
son, who did not disbeieve in spirits
Moreover. Spiritualists had the evidences of
their senses. They had seen chairs, tables,
blocks of wood, peck measures, old hats,
moving without mortal contact, and dis
playing intelligence.
1t is strange that such acute minds as
Judge Edmonds can be so befooled, and
that such learned lawyer makes so indif-
ferent theologian. Nobody that We ever
heard Of ever denied that in every religion
that ever existed aDcient or modern, true
or false, and by almost every people, civi.
lized or barbarous, that ever dwelt on the
face of the earth, the existence of spirits is
fully acknowledged. The Judge has piled
up a mountain Of evidence to demonstrate
what no one disputes, and has brought for
ward nothing but naked assertion to es-
tablish what everybody with common sense
doubts, viz that the spirits of the dead
manifest themselves By tipping tables, NOV
ing ''old hats and peck measures" and
obeying the incantatious of the Fishes,
Foxes, media, and impostors and fools in
general, who profess to be able to call
ghosts at their pleasure from the other world.
The question is not-iS there world Of
spirits--but do the spirits of the dead COM
muuicate with man in the form and manner
alleged by Spirituaism If Judge Ed
monds has the evidence of his senses in sup
port of any such monstrosity. he may be-
lieve, but he cannot expect anybody else to
believe unless he furnishes them with SINH
lar testimony, instead Of discourse on
Spiritualsm. Nothing is better ssoer;ained,
than that even the senses may bc deceived.
One of the High Priests of SpirtnsiiSm,
Mr.. Payne, of Worcester, Mass. who has
made great many converts, confesses that
il was all done By trick. Indeed, one OF
the original inventors q - ,.:@.!!:5a-., I3Ss
/ sinarine Fox, admitted to relative, Mrs.
Culver who has published an account Of
the whole transaction, that it was all
humbug, showed her how to make the rapdp
and initiated her in the modus operdnei Of
an imposture which, after all, has nothing
about it as astonishing as some of Slgnor
Blitz's juggling wonders. Judge Edmonds
can scarcely be Ignorant of the unhappy
moral effects of Spiritualism, the insanity,
the orgies of Free Love, the breaking up OF
families which have followed in the wake
of this wre.ched superstition.
At night, discourse against Spiritual
ism was delivered in Dodsvorth's Hall, by
Signor Mont, of Harvard College. He
spoke of Spirituelism as only the revival of
AN old error. The oracles and witchcraii
were the same things as modern Spiritual
ism. 1t is probable that Signor Monii did
not make many converts among the kind
of people who form Spiritualist congre-
cation. However, he did his beat to restore
them to reason, and TO rescue them from the
gulf of boundless licentiousness in whiah
their doctrine has involved SO many Of its
diacinles