Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-04-28


posture." Before the sermon he read from
the Scriptures some of the stories OF witch
craft. The opening hymn was:
"The morning light is breaking,
The darkness disappears
The sons of men are waking - r
TO penitential tears"
The text was from Deuteronomy XVIII.
10 and IL. "There shall not be found
among you a consulter with familiar spirits
or q wizard or necromancer, for all that
do these things are an abomination to the
Lord" Following is DR.. Talmages ser
mon in full:
We are surrounded on all sides by my
stery. Before us, behind US, TO the rlgnt
of us, to the left Of US, mystery. There Is
an unexplored world that science believe
will vet map out. Strange things that
have not been accounted for. Sounds and
appearances that confound all acoustics
and all investigation. Approximations to
the spectral. Efforts that seem to have no
sufficient cause. The wall between the
material world and the spiritual think is
very thin. That there IS communication
between this world and another world is
certain. Spirits depart from this to that
and the Bible says ministering spirits come
from that to this. II may be that complete
and constant and unmistakable lines OF
communication between these two worlds
NAV vet be opened. To unlatch the door
between
The Present and the Future State
all the fingers of superstition have been
buy. We have had books written entitled
"Footfalls on the Boundaries OF other
Worlds" "The Debatable Land between
this World and the Next" Researches in
The Phenomena of Spiritualism," and
whole Libraries Of hoeus p ocus enough to
deceive the very elect. have no time to
rehs arse the story OF Divination and Del
phic oracle and Planchettes and sibyls and
palmistry and whole centuries OF lmpos
ture. Modern spiritualism comes in pro-
posing to open the door between thus
world and the next and afford US commu-
nication with the dead. But it has not one
reasonable credential. There Is nothing
in the intelligence or moral character OF It's
founders to commend it. All the won.
delful things done by it have been shown
10 be slight of.hand and rank deception
Doctor Carpenter, Robert Houdln, Mr..
Waite and Others have exposed the fraud
by dramatizipg upon the stage in the pres.
cree of many auditors all the mysteries OF
spiritualism. by their fruits shall ye
know them" said Christ aud judging this
tree of spirituslism from its fruits, which
have been bad and only bad and bad con-
tinually, ] conclude that 1t is one Of the
worst trees in all the orchard OF NEGRO.
nancy. This Postofhce which they pro.
pose to set up between the living and the
never SsTe IS vet ssvered gad' one r" letter from the
other world to this.
| have five or six things to say about
spiritualism. First, it Is very old re!i:
gion. 1t IS natural that people should
want to know the origin and history OF
doctrine which is so widespread In all the
villages, towns and cities of the civilized
world, getting new converts every day-a
doctrine with which many Of you are already
tinged. Spiritualism in this country was
born in lS47 in Hydesville, Wayne county,
New York, when one night there was u
loud rap at the door OF one Michael week.
man; q rap a second time, rap third
time; and all three times when the door
was opened there was nothing found there;
the knocking had been made seemingly by
invisible knucEles. In that same house
there was young woman who had cold
hand passed over her face and there being
seemingly no arm attached to it, ghostly
suspicious were excited. After while
Mr.. Fox and his family moved into that
house, and then every night there was
a banging at the door; and one night Mr.
Fox said, Are you a spirit?' Two
rsps, answering in the Affirmative
Are you an injured spirit?' Two raps,
answering in the affirmative, and so they
found OUT, as they say, that it was the
Ghost or spirit OF a peddler who had been
4 -, kaf Y "a
.o-r, for his $500. Whether the ghost Of
,he usEd peddier had come there TO collect
his 800 or bis bones, l cam IT say, not be-
ipg spiritualist; but there was great
ra .ktt at the door so Mr.. Weekman de-
clareG, snd Mrs. Weekman, and Mr.. Fox
and Mrs. Fox and all the little Foxes: The
excitement spread. There was universal
rumpus. The Honorable Judge Edmunds
declared in book that he had actually seen
| a bell stsnt from the top shelf OF closet,
heard it ring over the people that were In
the closet; then swung Dy invisible hands
| il rang over the people in the back parlor
and hoated through the folding doors to
the front parlor; rang over the people
there and then dropped on the floor.
n. Z. Talmsge, Senator of the United
| States, afterward Governor OF Wisconsin,
| had his head completely turned With
spiritualistic demonstrations, A man, as
| he was passing along the road, said that he
was lifted up bodily and carried toward his
home through the air al such great speed
he could not count the posts on the fence
as he passed. and, rs he had hsndssw and
a square in his hand they beat as he passed
| through the air the most delightful music
And the tables tipped, and the stools tilted,
and the bedsteads raised, and the chairs
upset, and 1t seemed as if the spirits every.
where had gone into the furniture busi-
ness! Well, the people said: I'VE have
something new 10 this country; 1t is new
religion" Oh, no, my friends. Nothing
| in the spirituaiistic circles of our day has
been more strange. mysterious and wonder
| ful than things which bsve been seen in
the past centuries Of the world.
In all the ages
There Have Been Neer0mancers,
| Those who consul! with the spirits OF the
| departed; chsrmers, those who put their
| subjects in Il mesmeric state; sorcerers,
those, who by taking poisonous drugs, see
everything and hear Neyeryth thing and tell
everything; dreamers, people who in their
| sleeping moments can see the future world
\ and hold consultation with spirits as.
| lrologers, who could read new DISPENSE
! tion in the stars; experts IN palmistry who
| can tell by the lines in the palm OF your
hands your origin and your history. From
| a cave on Mount ParnassDs, We are told,
| there was an exhalatioD that intoxicated
sheep and goats that came anywhere near
il; and q shepherd approaching it was
thrown by that txhal&tion into an excite
ment in which he could foretell future
events snd hold consultation with the
spiritual world. Yea, before the time o
Christ the Brahmins went through all tbs
table moving. all the furniture excitement
which the spirits have exploited in our day
is precisely the same thing over and over
again under the manipulatious OF thu
| Brahmips. Now, do you say thAk spirit
ualism is different from these? l answer
all these delakions have mentioned be
long to the same family. They are ex
humations from the unseen world. Wha
does God think Of all these dssusionsP III
thinks so severely of them that he neye
speaks Of them but with livfd thunders Q
Indignation. he says: II viii be sSit
wi,pess nc ainst the sorcsser.' He says
Thou shalt not suffer witch to live,
And lest yeu might make soma importan
distinction between spirituslism an
wiscbcraft God szys in 50 many words
There shall not be among you oonsulte
of familiar spirits or wizard or necroo
f. III IL IL kboaa thtnpa ara n