The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-05-17
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
The Weekly Discourses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: "Modern spirituui-
ISM"

- .rAr beho'0, tdtTe IS q tC0nlGn thai
nath familiar spirit at En-dor. And Sam
disguised himself and nut on other raiment
ana he ,cent, and tco men ,eith him, and
taey came to the ,coman BY night, and h,
sotd, prdD thee diuine unto mo bu IN,
ydmtttdr spirit, and bring me him Wp iuhon
7,a '-'''
have rscently become Spiritualist. A,
least so sene Of the journals of that belief
declare. This, together with the fact that
mediums are now being tried in the criminal
courts, setting millions of people to make
inquiry in regard to communication between
TINS world and the next, leads me to preach
this sermon.
Trouble to the right of him and trouble t,
the left of him, Saul knew not what to do
AS last resort, he concluded to seek out a
spiritual medium, or q WITCH or ANYTHING
that you please to call her-at any rate, q
woman who had communication with the
spirits Of the eternal world. 1t was a very
difficult thing to do, for Saul had either slain
all the witches or compelled them to sioI
business. A servant one day said to King
SAUL 81 know of q spiritual medium down
at the village OF En- dor.n 'Do youW said the
King. Night falls. Saul, putting off his
kingly robes, and putting on the dress of a
plain citizen, with two servants, goes out TO
hunt up this spiritual medium 1t was nc
easy thing for Saul to disguise himself, for
the tallest PEOPLE in the country only came
up to his shoulder, and / think from the
strength Of the man and the way he
bore himself. he must have been well pro-
portioned, 1t must have been a frightful
thing to see man walking along in the
night eight or nine feet high. ] suppose,
as the people saw him pass, they said
"Who is that? He is as tall as the kiny
having no idea that in such a plain
lIyy
Sau, and his servants after awhile reach the
village, and they say. 81 wonder if this is
the housei" and they look in and see the
haggard, weird and shriveled up spiritual
medium sitting by the light, and on the table
sculptured images, and divining rods,
and poisonous herbs, and bottles, and vases.
They say: eyes, this must he the place.
and as she stands there, holding the candle
or lamp above her head and peering out into
the darkness, she saws;
"Who is here?" The tall king informs her
that he has come to have his fortune told.
When she hears that, she trembles and
almost drops the light, for she knows there
is no chance for fortune teller or spiritual
medium in all the land. But Saul, having
sworn'that no harm shall come to her she
says: "Well, who shall bring up from the
dead" Saul says: Bring up Samuel" That
was the prophet who had died little while
before. l see her waving wand, or stirring
up some poisonous herbs in a caldron or hear
her mutt ering over some incantations, or
stamping with her foot, as she cries out to
the realm of the dead: "Samuell Samuel!n
Lo, the freezing horror! The floor of the
and the forehead, the eyes, the lips, the
shoulders, the arms, the feet, the entire body
OF dead Samuel, wrapped in sepulchral robe
appearing to the astonished group, who
stagger back and hold fast, and catch their
breath, and shiver with terror T1 to,,,t, ,,sI
Begins to move his ashen lips. and he glares
upon King Saul, and cries out:
What did you bring me up for? Why
did you break my long sleep? What do you
and control himself, makes this stammering
and affrighted utterance, as he says to the
dead prophet: "The Lord is against rae, and
l have come to you for help. What shall
do!" The dead prophet stretched forth his
finger to King Saul and said: ''Die to-mor-
rowl Come with me into the sepulcher. I
am going now Come, come with mel" And
lol the floor again opens, and the feet of the
dead prophet disappear, and the arms and
the shoulders. and the forehead The floor
closes. Nothing is left in the room but Saul
and the two servants, and the spiritual me-
dunn. and the sculptured images, and the
divining rods. and the bottles, and the vases,
and the poisonous herbs Oh, that was an
awful seance!
l learn first from this subject that spir.
itualism is a very old religion. 1t is natural
that people should want to inow the origin
and the 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 America was born in 1S47,
L.. nxvI~n l.. " L..
one night there was loud rap heard against
the door of Michael Weekman; rap a sec
ond time, rap third time; and all three
times, when the door was opened, there was
nothing found there. the knocking having
been made seemingly by invisible knuckles.
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: "You are a spirit9 Two raps, an
swering in the affirmative. 'Are you an
injured spirit" Two raps. answering in the
affirmative. And SO they found out, as thew
say, that 1t was the ghost or spirit nf a ped
Ter who had been murdered in that house
many years before for his $500 Whether
the ghost of the dead pedler had come
there to collect his $500, or his bones. can
not say, not being SplrituaIist; but there
was great racket ut the door, so Mr.
Weekman declared, and Mrs. Weekmar
and Mr.. Fox and Mrs. Fox and all the
little Foxes. The excitement spread. There
was a universal rumpus. The Hon. Judge
Edmonds declared. in a book, that he had
actually seen bell start from tho top shell
of closet, heard it ring over the people that
were standing in the closet, then. swung by
invisible hands, it rang over the peoplt
in the back parlor. and foated through
the folding doors to the front parlor
snng over on ths se Rssgls SSr there Faass
Senator of the United States, afterwar(
Governor of Wisconsin, had his heat
completely turned with spiritualisti'
demonstrations. A man, as he wa
passing along the road, said that he wa.
lifted up bodily. and carried toward hi
home through the air, at such great speed h
could not count the posts on the fence as HI
passed; and as he had hand saw and {
square in his hand, they beat, as he passet
through the air. most delightful music. Ant
the tables tipped, and the stools tilted, ant
the bedsteads raised, and the chairs upset
and it seemed as if the spirits everywher,
| had gone into the furniture business. "Well,
| the people said, 1--WE have got somethin;
new in this country: it is new religion
| oh no, my friends. Thousands of years ag
| we find in our text sprtualistic seance.
| Nothing in the spiritualistic circles of ou
| day has been more strange, mysterious an
wonderful than things which have been see
In the past centuries of the world. In all tb
| ages there have been necromancers, thos
who consult with the spirits of the departed
1 eharmers, those who put their subjects In
mesmeric state; sorcerers, those who by tal
ing poisonous drugs see everything ana nes
| everything and tell everything; dreamer
people who in their sleeping moments can s.
the future world and hold consultation vii
spirits; astrologers, who could read ne
dispensation in the stars; experts In paim
| try, who can tell by the lines in the palm
| your hand your origin and your histor,
| From a cave on Mount Parnassus, we a
told there was an exhalation that intoxicat'
the sheep and goats that came anywhe
near it, and a shepherd approachlr
| it was thrown by that exhaiatit
into an excitement in which he could foret.
future events and hold consultation with q
spiritual world. Yes, before the time
Christ the Brahnins went through all u
table moving. all the furniture excitemar
which the spirits have exnloited in our da
precisely the same thing over and ov
again, under the manipulations of the Bra
minis. Now do you say that Spir !tualism
different from thesea l answer. all tho
delusions I have mentioned belong to {
came family. They are exhumations fro
the unseen world What does God think
all these delusionsl He thinks so severely
them that he never speaks of them but wi