Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-02-15
Prof. Bates and HIS Lectures.
0.e Editor of N.e Comn.ercial :

To DE Editor Of d,e Commercial:
A writer in the COMMERCIAL Of the 18th inst,
under the above caption, has seen proper to
make all attack on Prof. Bates, now that he is
gone. Sand writer says "Mr. Bates appears
to think that whatever can be done by man il
never done by any spiritual agency" This is
his mode of reasoning. "Because he can oppa,
entity turn water into wine by natural means,
therefore Christ never did turn water into wine
by any other power"
Now this writer is either profoundly ignorant
of MIR. Bates clans or wilfuly determined to
misrepresent him. The only allusion Prof.
Bates made to scripture manifestations was this
That spiritual mediums claimed that Q,etr
performances in this respect-tuining water i'll
to wine-were parallel with the miracle Of
Christ" and he simply exposed their fraud The
extent of Prof. Bates claim was this, as hia al
vertsements clearly show He "would dupl-
cate any manifestation which the mediums OF
modern spirituasm could produce, after seeing
it performed three times" and further, he would
remain week, to give them an opportunity To
produce test medium. Now, why WAS not this
writer present to vindicate the claims OF Spirit
ualism? Why at this late day resort to igao-
| rance or misrepresentation, and thus seek to
create wrong impression by saying that he
denies all the miracles spoken of in scripture !?
Is this honest? Is it just? II 80, why was it
not done when the Professor was here? But,
would the writer have us believe that the spirtts
ulclre, Or unbolted the prison doors aud let the
apostles out OF prison? il 30, we beg leave to
demur. We deny einphatically that any such in-
telligencc .eXists, and to assume this as the
teaching OF scripture is to deny scripture itself.
How strange it IL, that scripture must be warped
and twisted, and pressed into the service of the
grossest absurdites i'll order to give them a
moral tone. But when the scripture reveals the
existence of the conscious sp,rtt OF dead per-
son it will be time enough to claim it as Bible
truth.
The writer's alluson to the towering, fear
less, moral grandeur of John Wesley" il rather
amusing. This compliment is paid to Mr.. Wes-
ley because of some ghost sforaes which appear
in his "Journals" which many of his most de-
voted friends think should never have been pub
lished and not published at all as the litera-
ture of Methodlsm. But suppose MIR. Wesley
did relate some wonderful ghost stories. was
the moral grandeur of Mr. Wesley, in the ranks
OF Spiritualists, above that Of Robert Dale Owen,
or Or. Child? And where we're two men more
efTectually duped2
Now | venture the assertion that if Prof.
Bates had been an accredited medium, and lis
audience composed of epiritualiAtc believers,
his mdter,alized spirit performances would have
passed as genuine appearance OF some de-
parted Katy King, or some one else. But the
Prof has thrown wet blanket over these mys-
tcal sleiglt of hand seances and the fraternity,
like drowning men graspng at straws, are rea-
dy to assail the Prof. as a humbug. To prove
him such, proves spiritualism the most gigantic
humbug OF the nineteenth century.
II Christian ministers would cease talking
about discmbodied spirits, in u conscious state,
deeply interested in the living, and would re-
turn to the Bible doctrine of the resurrection OF
the righteous to future life and immortality at
| the return of Gods Son from heaven, they
| would possess themselves of the only. weapon
known in scripture with which they can
successfully meet and vanquish the
| boasted claims of this terrible delusion.
And as Prof. Bates has clearly shown that theii
manifestations are only slight of hand sperioIni-
| ances so let Christians show from the Bible
| alone that no such agency. exists anywhere az
conscious disen,bodted spuis. Thus driven out
| into darkness, their legitimate sphere of opera
tions, they may amuse themselves to then
hearts content, by summonirg imaginary spirits
| from the vastly deep to tickle their itching ears
and please their credalous fancy.
s. CARLISLE,