Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1888-05-17

universe is a jangle. Better in our ignorance
experiment with chemist retort that may
smite us dead, or with an engineers steam
boiler that may blow us to atoms, than ex-
pertinent with the nervous system. A man
can live with only one lung or with no eyes
and be happy, as men have been under such
aifiictions; but woe to the man whose nerves
are shattered! Spiritualism smites first OF
all, and nightly, against the nervous sys-
tenn, and SO makes life miserable
indict spiritualism also, because it is a
social and marital curse. The worst deeds of
RIGHTEOUSNESS and the worst orgies of obscen-
lty have been enacted under its patronage.
The story is too vile for me to tell will
not pollute my tongue nor your ears with the
recital: Sometimes the civil law has been
evoked to stop the outrage. Families innu-
meIable have been broken up by it. 1t has
pushed Off hundreds Of young women into a
life of profigacy 1t talks about elective
affinities," and "affinital relations and
spiritual matches" and adopts the whole
vocabulary of free loveism. In one of it's
public Journals it declares marriage is the
monster curse OF civilization Tt is a
source OF debauchery and intemperance If
Spiritualism could have its full swing, it
would turn this world into a pandemonium
OF carnality. 1t is an unclean, adulterous,
damnable religion, and the sooner it drops
into the hell from which it rose, the better
both for earth and heaven. For the sake of
mans honor and woman's purity, say let
the last vestige Of it perish forever. l wish
could gather up all the raps it has ever
heard from spirits blest or damned, and
gather them all on its own head in one
numbering rap of annihilationl
l further indict Spiritualism for the fact
that it is the cause Of much insanity. There is
not an asylum between Bangor and San
francisco which has not the torn and bleed
ing victims of this delusion. Go into any
asylum, care not where it is, and the pre-
siding doctor, after you have asked him:
what is the matter with that mans' will
say: "Spiritualism demented him. or.
"3vhat is the matter with that womans' he
will say: "Spnitualism demented her." 1t
has taken down some of the brightest intel
lects. 1t swept off into mental midnight
judges, senators, governors, ministers of the
gospel, and one time came near capturing
one of the presidents of the United States.
At Flatbush, near this city, a man became
absorbed with it, forsook his family, took his
only $4,000, surrendered them to q spiritual
medium in New York, attempted three times
to put an end to his own life. and then was
incarcerated in the State Lunatic asylum,
where he is to day a raving maniac. Put
your hand in the hand of this
witch of En-dor and she will lead
you to bottomless perdition, where she
holds her everlasting seance. Many years
ago the steamer Atlantic started from Europe
for the United States. In midocean the
machinery broke and she foundered around
day after day and week after week, and for
a whole month after she was due people won
dered and finally gave her up. There was
great anguish in the cities for there were
many who had friends aboard that vessel.
Some of the women, in their distress, went
to the spiritual mediums and inquired as to
the fate of that vessel The mediums called
up the spirits, and the rappings on the table
indicated the steamship lost, with all on
board Women went raving mad, and were
carried to the nlnatic asylum. After awhile
one day a gun was heard off quarantine
The flags went up on the shipping. and the
bells Of the churches were rung The boys
ran through the streets. crying: .sExtrai
The Atlantic is safe!n There was the en-
bracing as from the dead, when friends came
again to friends; but some of those passen-
gers went up to find their wives in
the lunatic asylum where this cheat of in
fernal Spiritualism had put them. A man in
Bellevue hospital, dying from wounds made
by ms own hand, was asked why he tried to
commit suicide, and he said: "The spirits
told me to-" Parents have strangled their
children, and when asked why they did it.
replied: "Spiritualism demanded it, 1t is
the patronizer and forager for the madhouse,
Judge Edmonds, in Broadway Tabernacle,
New York, delivering a lecture in behalf of
Spiritualism, admitted, in so many words:
There is fascination about consultation
with the spirits of the dead that has q ten
dency to lead people off from their right
Judgment, and to instil into them fanati.
cism that is revolving to the natural mind u
1t not only ruins its disciples, but it ruins
the mediums also. only give it time. The
Gadarenean swine on the banks of the lake
OF Galllee, no sooner became spiritual me-
diums than down they went, in an avalanche
OF pork, to the CONSERVATION of all the herds
men. The office of medium is bad for a
man, bad for woman, bad for a beast
| bring against this delusion more fearful
Indictment: 1t ruins the soul immortal.
First, 1T makes man a quarter of an infidel;
then it makes him half an infidel; then it
makes him whole iniidel. The whole system,
as conceive tits founded on the insufficiency
of the word of God as a revelation God
says the Bible is enough for you to know
about the future world. You say it is not
enough, and there is where you and the Lord
differ. You clear the table, you shove aside
the Bible you put your hand on the table,
and say: snow let the spirits Of the future
world come and tell me something tho Bible
has not told me- And although the
Scriptures say: add thou not unto his
words lest he reprove thee, and thou be
found liar, you risk it, and say: 'sCome
back, spirit of my departed father; come
back, spirit of my departed mother, Of my
companions, of my little child and tell me
about the unseen world" If God is ever
slapped square in the face, it is when spir-
itual medium puts down her hand on the
table, invoking spirits departed to make a
revelation. God has told you all you ought
to know, and how dare you be prying ints
that which is none Of your business. You
cannot keep the Bible in one hand and Spirit
ualism in the other One OF the other will
slip out of your grasp, depend upon il.
Spiritualism is adverse to the Bible in the
fact that it has in these last days called from
the future world Christian men to testify