The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-05-04
TABERNACLE SERVICES.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE DISCOURSES ON
MODERN SPIRITUALISM.

An UncIean, Adulterous, DamnabIe Re
ligion-Not n Madhouse but Has Its
victims-The bible Is Enough for Us to
Know Of the Future.
BROOKLYN, April 29.-Aftcr the Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage, ID. d., had in his well
known manner cxpounded the Scriptures, the
multitude of people who throng the Taber-
nacle and all the entrances, packing every
available space of standing and sitting room,
united in singing:
Salvation! let the echo fly
The spacious earth around,
While all the armies of the sky
Conspire TO raise the sound.
DIR. Talmage announced his subject, ''Mod-
ern Spiritualism." He took for his text,
Behold, there is woman that l.ath famil-
lar spirit ut En-dor. And Saul disguised him
self and put on other raiment, and he went,
and two men with him, and they came to the
woman by night, and he said, pray thee
divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and
bring me him up whom shall name unto
thee"-I Samuel xviii, ~ Following is
the sermon in full:
have recently become Spiritualist. At
least so some 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
this world and the next, leads me to preach
this sermon.
Trouble to the right of him and trouble to
the left of him, Saul knew not what to do.
As last resort, he concluded to seek out a
spiritual medium, or a witch, or anything
that you please to call her-at any rate, a
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 stop
business. A servant one day said to King
Saul: 81 know of spiritual medium down
at the village of En-dor." 'Do your said the
king. Night falls. Saul, putting off his
kingly robes, and putting on the dress of q
plain citizen, with two servants, goes out to
hunt up this spiritual medium. 1t was no
easy thing for Saul to disguise himself, for
tho 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 proportional. 1t must have been a
frightful thing to see a man walking
along in the night eight or nine feet high.
/ suppose, as the people saw him pass, they
said "Who is thats He is as tall as the
king"-having no idea that in such a plain
dress there really was passing the king.
Saul and his servants after awhile reach the
village, and they say: 81 wonder if this is
the house," and they look in and see the
haggard, weird and shriveled up spiritual
medium sitting by the light, and on the ia
BILE sculptured images, and divining rods,
and poisonous herbs, and bottles, and vases.
They say: Eyes, this must be the place. "
One loud rap brings the woman to the door;
and as she stands there, holding the candle
or lamp above her head and peering out into
the darkness, she says:
"Who is herep 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 tn 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 be-
fore. l see her waving a wand, or stirring
up some poisonous herbs in a caldron, or
hear muttering over some lamentations, or
stamping with her foot, as she cries out to
the realm of the dead. Samuel! Samuelr'
Lo, the freezing horrorl The floor of the
tenement opens, and the gray hairs float up,
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 The dead
prophet, white and awful from the tomb,
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 sleepl What do you
mean, King SaulY' Saul, trying to compose
and control himself, makes this stammering
and aftrighted utterance, as he says to the
dead prophet: "The Lord is against me, and
have come to you for help. What shall I
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
loi 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!
learn first from this subject that spir-
itualism is a very old religion. 1t is natural
that people should want to know the origin
and the history of a 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 i'm America was born in 1S47,
in Hydesville, Wayne county, N. Y, when
one night there was a loud rap heard against
the door of Michael Weekman; a rap a Sec
ond time, a rap a 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 a young woman
who had a cold hand passed over her face and
there being seemingly no arm attached to it,
ghostly suspicious were excited. After
awhile Mr.. Fox and his tsmily moved into
that house. and then every night there was a
banging at the door; and one night Mr.. Fox
said: "Are you n spiritf' Two raps, ans
swering in the affirmative. Are you an
injured spiritp Two raps, answering in the
affirmative. And SO they found out, as they
say, that it was the ghost or spirit of ped
dler who had been murdered in that house
many years before for his $780, Whether
the ghost of the dead peddler had come
there to collect his $500, or his bones, cam
not say, not being a Spiritualist; but there
was a great racket at the door, SO Mr..
Weekman declared, and Mrs. Weekman
and MIR. 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 II bell start from the top shelf
of 81 Dset, heard it ring over the people that
were standing in the closet, then, swung by
invisible hands, it rang over tho people in
tho back parlor, and fioated through
tho folding doors to the front parior,
rung over tho people there, and then
dropped on the floor. n. z. Talmage,
senator of the United States, afterwards
governor of Wisconsin. had his head
completely turned wish spiritualistic
demonstrations. A man as he was
passing along tho road, said that he was
lifted up bodily, and carried toward his
home through the air, at such great speed he
could not count the posts ON the fence as he
passed; and as he had a hand saw and a
square in his hand, they beat, as he passed
through the air, most delightful music And
the tables tipped, and the stools Tilted, and
the bedsteads raised, and the chairs upset,
and it seemed as if the spirits everywhere
had gone into the furniture business. 'Well, y
the people said, 1--WE have got something
new in this country; it is a new religion.
Oh no, my friends. Thousands of years ago
we find in our text spiritualistic seance.
Nothing in the spiritualistic circles Of our
day has been more strange, mysterious and
wonderful than things which have been seen
in the past centuries of the world In all the
ages there have been necromancers, those
who consult with the spirits of the departed;
charmers, those who put their subjects in a
mesmeric state; sorcerers those who by TAX
ing poisonous drugs see everything and hear