Milford chronicle., 1888-05-04

people who in their sleeping moments can see
the future world and hold consultation with
spirits; astrologers, who could read new
dispensation in the stars; experts in PALMS.
try, who can tell by the lines in the palm Of
your hand your origin and your history.
From a cave on Mount Parnassus, we are
told, there was an exhalation that intoxicated
the sheep and goats that came anywhere
near it, and a shepherd approaching
it was thrown by that exhalation
into an excitement in which he could foretell
future events aad hold consultation with the
spiritual world Yea, before the time of
Christ the Brahmins went through all the
table moving, all the furniture excitement,
which hespirits have exploited in our day;
precisely the same thing over and over
again, under the manipulations Of the Brah-
Minis. Now do you say that Spiritualism is
different from these3 | answer, all these
delusions l have mentioned belong to the
same family. They are exhumations from
the unseen world. What does God think Of
all these delusionsl He thinks so severely Of
them that he never speaks of them but with
livid thunders of Indignation. He says;
Il win be q swift witness against
the sorcerer.n He says: "Thou shalt not
u.fer witch to live.n And lest you might
make some important distinction between
Spiritualis;n and witchcraft, God says, in so
many words: There shall not be among
you a consulter of familiar spirits or
wizard, or nccromancer; for they that do
these things are an abominatiOn TO the Lord.
And he says again; "The soul Of those who
seek after such as have familiar spirits, and
who 80 whoring after them, will set myself
against them, and he shall be cut Off from
4 H.. u.
"A score of passages, which l have not now
time to quote, utters his Indignation against
all this great family Of delusions. After that
be Spiritualist if you darel
Still further we learn from this text how
it is that people come to fall into Spiritualism.
Saul had enough trouble to kill ten men, He
did not know where to go for relief. After
awhile he resolved to go and see the witch Of
En-dor. lie expected that somehow she
would afford him relief. 1t was his trouble
that drove him there. And have to tell
you now that Spiritualism finds its victims in
the troubled, the bankrupt, the sick, the
bereft You lose your watch, and you go to
the fortune teller to find where it is. You
lose friend, you want the spiritual world
opened so that you may have communication
with him. In a highly wrought, nervous
and diseased state of mind, you so and put
yourself in that communication. That is
why 1 hate Spiritualism 1t takes advan-
tage of one in n moment of weakness,
which may come upon us at any time.
We lose a friend. The trial is keen, sharp,
suffocating almost maddening. If we could
marshal host, and storm the eternal world,
and recapture our loved one, the host would
soon be marshalel. The house is so lonely.
The world is SO dark. The separation is so
insuTerahle.
But Spiritualism says; ''We win open the
future world, and your loved one can come
back and talk to YOU" Though We may not
hear his voice, we may hear the rap of his
hand So, clear the table. Sit down. Put
your hands on the table Be very quiet
Five minutes gone. Ten minutes No mo-
tion of the table. 20 response from the
future world. Twenty minutes Thirty
minutes. Nervous excitement all the time
increasing. Forty mi"utes. The table shiv-
eIs. Two raps from the future world. Tho
letters Of the alphabet are called over. Tho
departed friends name is john At the pro-
nunciatiou Of the let = ~ - two raps. At
the pronunciation of the letter "O," two
raps. At the pronunciation of the letter
''H. - two raIS. At the pronunciation of the
letter N" two raps. There you have the
whole name spelled out. John, John
Now, the spirit being present. you say:
"John, are you happy! Two raps give an
affirmative answer Pretty soon the hand Of
the medium begins 70 twitch and toss, and
begius to write out, after paper and ink are
furnished, a message from the eternal world
What is remarkable, tho departed
spirit, although it has been amid the
illuminations of heaven, cannot spell Is we'll
US it used to, It has lost all grammatical
accuracy and cannot write as distinctly.
received a letter through medium once.
sent il back. said: Just please tell those
ghosts they had better so 10 school and get
improved in their oIthOgraphyn Now, just
thinl; of spirits, that the Bible represents as
cnthroned in glory, coming down 10 crawl
under the table, and break crcckery, and
ring tea bells before supper is ready, and rap
the window shutter on gusty night. Is
there any consolation in such poor, miserable
work compared with the thought that our
departed Christian friends, got rid Of pain
and languishIng, are in the radiant society
of heaven and that we shall Join them there,
not in astilled and mysterious half utterance,
which makes the hair stand on end and the
cold chils creep the back but in an unhin-
dered and illiinitable delight
And none shall murmur or misdouht,
When Gods great sunrise finds us out
Yes. my friends, Spiritualsm comes to
those who arc in trouble and sweeps them
into its delusions Saul, in the midst of his
disaster. went to the witch of En-dor Tho
vast majority Of those who have Cono to
spiritual mediums have been sent there
through their misfortunes.
l learn still farther from this subject that
Spiritualism and necromancy arc affairs OF
the darkness. Why did not Saul so in the
day. He was ashamed to 60. Besides that,
be knew that this spiritual medium, like all
her successors, performed her exploits in the
night. The Davenports, the Fowlers, the
Foxes, the spiritual mediums OF all ages,
have chosen the night or a darlSened room.
Why. The majority Of their wonders have
been swindles, and deception prospers best il
the night
Some Of the performances of spiritual me-
diums are not TO be nscribed 90 fraud, but to
some occult law that after awhile may be
demonstrated. But believe that now 999
out of every ! 900 achievements on the part
IF spiritual mediums are arrant and un-
ilitigated humbug. The mysterious red let
ters that used to coEne out oI the mediums
arm were found TO have been made by an
iron pencil that went heavily over the flesh,
not tearing it, but so disturbing the blood
thar it came up In great round .etters. Tha
witnesses of tho seances have locked the
door, put the key in their pocket,
arrested the operator, and found
0Gt, by searching the room, that hid.
den levers moved the tables The sealed
letters that we're nlysteriously read withoGt
opening have been,sund TO have been cut ct
the side and then afterwari slyly put to-
gether with gum arabic; and the medium
who, with heavy blanket over h:s head,
could read book, has been found to have
had bottle Of phosphoric oil, by the light Of
which anybody can read book; and ven
triloquism, and legerdemain, and sleight Of
hand, and optical delusion, account for
ev rything Deception being the main staple
Of Spiritualism, no wonder it chooses the
dsrkness
You have all seen strange and unaccount-
allie things in the night. Almost every man
has at some time had a touch Of hallueina-
ton Some time ago, after had been over
tempted to eat something indigestible before