Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1870-06-30
When Mr.. Haddock quoted various authors

When Mr. Haddock quoted various authors
in regard to what Spiritualism is, claimed
that while Spirituallsts encourage freed ON of
thought and expression, those opinions are
not received by Spiritualists as authoritative
| This'position my friend would not understand
until illustrated it by quotations from sew
eral christian writer's. the following from the
! Rev. DIR. Emmons being sample:
cit always was. and is. and will, be Gods
secret will that all things shall take place,
which he sees will best promote his own glo-
| nv and the highest good of the universe.
,chether they are good or EVIL, right or WIRING,
| in their opn nature"
There, you see, is a christian SENTIMENT
| IF DIR. Emmons is right, Spiritualsm is wor-
thy of confidence and support. His teaching
| is the very quintessence of DIR. Child's " All
| Right" doctrine. and whose work my broth
err styles an " infamous book" But j showed
that what made Child's view more reasonable
| than EmmoAs', is that the latter believed in
| an endless hell. and the dambation of infants,
| little, sweet, cooling babies, and vet that God
willed that such little innocents should roast
! forever to promote rs orn gloryi but nr.
| Child believes that all evil will be finally
overcome OF good, and in the broadest sense
all things are good.
To my surprise Mr.. Haddock abandoned
his platform and adopted our principle of in
/ Il
| quote Calvin at him. But, l replied, Calvin
was a christian, you want me to abide by
whatever any author who calls himself a
! Spiritualist may say. You quote the diverse
opinions of Spiritualists and say they repre-
sent spirituaism. l want to show YOU that
| YOU do not believe your own theory: but. to
accommodate you. / will quote from your
own leading and most influential Methodist
| papers, the northeastern Christian advocate,
and another paper called Sunday at Home,
and will discover them teaching the Infamous
| doctrines which are credited TO the Spiritual
| lists. Says the Advocdte:
When we see disorders abroad in ihe
word we are apt TO despond, and to cry out.
Lord what wilt thou do for thy great ma me?'
! The Lord however, is gLorifying himself 6y
these things. Then why should We be trou-
| bled?'
! That is Just the same doctrine the Calvin
| list advocated. | wished 10 see whether he
would repudiate his Methodist brethren, as
he did Calvin. and he did, Said he, -. do
not allow my preaching brethren 10 decide
| for me-" Then / showed his whole argument
was against himself and that he had played
q fast and loose" on the principle of the lit
| tie Joker, /" Now you see it. and now YOU
don't see it." He theoretically opposed indi-
vidualsm but was pushed inio its adoption
practically. He had labored under the delu-
sion that system ia to be judged by the ut.
| te2nces and immoral conduct of its believ-
ers, so | was compelled TO give him pam
| oramic view of the sanctity ofhs own house
hold. He then piteously pleaded that | was
taking advantage of hml | quoted few
more Methodist authors; he did not like
| them. Quoted few more Christians in
| general. He said he would not notice them,
| and declared he world not cultivate friendly
i LOTT Int IL -
heap Goals of fire on his head" treated him
| kindly as one should treat an erring brother
| far away from home and kindred few
more from Mr.. Wesley who described how
| one Christian in his time threw out a good
| many hints against another Christian while
| they were debating the Nature of Christ, or
] something of that kind. Wesley said :" he
strewcd his opponent with the flowers of dog,
| devil swine" etc. / wondered if Mr.. Wes-
ley had had prophetic vision of the choice
| expressions which Mr.. Haddock used during
this debate, such as that Spirtualists are
| thieves" liars" " iackasses.' "consum-
ate block-heads," devl-worshipers, -
mean" unmanly," i" immoral" 'vicious,"
" sensual" devilish," licentious.". These
are specimens of my amiable friends classical
expressions. the 4" flowers of his poetry"
| These were the /" crushing arguments" the
unanswerable," which excited the disgust
|
l showed that the propositions winch Mr..
| Haddock stgmatized as ''goose platform"
were taught by Spiritualist writers, even by
| those he himself quoted He then made an
! ate mpt Ia show that we do not believe in
| them because we had stolen them from
| Christianity and Gods blessed book. -
| He evidently had forgotten that he had called
them a goose platform"-rather a doubtful
compliment for his own system and the
book" from which its 4" planks" were sto-
len At first ne did not offer TO show
that we do not believe IN them, not one wr-
| ter he quoted but sustained them; so he at
tempted to escape the difficulty by saying
that we had invented no new truth. But
his argument if good for anything. would
sweep away Professionalism and even the en-
tire Christian system itself. and begged him
to inform me what new truth MethOdism haG
given to the world. No response from Mr.
Haddock on this important point / showed
that even Christianity itself had impaired no
new truth, all borrowed from Plagiarism, a
much older system than even Judaism. Mr.
| Haddock replied that the Golden Rule was
not less valuable because Jesus was not the
| first To promulgate it. In this way he an.
swercd his own objection against Spiritual
| ism. Q said all truth is eternal. and that
therefore Spiritualsts do not claim 10 invent
new truth except in the sense that we have
new combinations of Old truths.
| Another fault our friend found with us is,
we do not disfellowship those who are guilty
of corrupt on. proved that the same was
| true of Jesus Christ; he did not even disfel-
| lowship harlots; he had no more of code of
discipline than Spritualists have aud we
hold that it is the duty of The strong to help
the weak. to lift up the down-trodden. not
cast them out. We are perfectly satisfied
pharisees should have codes of discipline
and rules of fellowship, for the purpose of
cloaking rich sinners. and turning out Gods
| poorer children. He ;hen endeavored 10
show how wicked we Spiritualists are; all
| because we do not have code of discipline,
| and because we believe in the Protestant
] principle of the right OF private Judgment
| 1t was necessary to compare the character and
| standing of SpirItuolists with that of their
| Methodist brethren. in order TO prove Spirit
! ualism worthy of their confidence and sup.
| port. The Spiritualists did not suffer by the
| comparisonl Brother Haddock, however,
| thought it was not fair to go back To the
| corrupt days OF Methodism when they did
not have the culture we have; but that adj
mission damaged his own cause: it was an
acknowledgment of the value of Infidelity.
| of free thought and of free schools. 1t has
| generally been claimed that the early DAYS
Of Methodsm were its pure days. and that
at the present time corruption stalks abroad,
and is found lurking in Gods temples.
His objection that Quoting David Jacob