The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-05-04

told, there was an exhalation that intoxicated
the sheep and goats that came anywhere
near il, and n shepherd approaching
it was thrown by that exhalation
into an excitement in which he could foretell
future events and 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 the spirits have exploited in our day;
precisely the same thing over and over
again, under the manipuiations of the Brah-
minis. Now do you say that Spiritualism is
different from these? / answer, all these
decisions / have mentioned belong to the
same family. They are examinations from
the unseen world What does God think of
all these decisions? He thinks so severely of
them that he never speaks of them but with
livid thunders of Indignation. He says:
:" will be swift witness against
the sorcerer." He says: "Thou shalt not
suffer a witch to live" And lest you might
make some important distinction between
Spiritualism and witchcraft, God says, i'm SO
many words: There shall not be among
you a consulter of familiar spirits, or
wizard, or necromancer; for they that do
these things arc an abomination to the Lord I"
And he says again: 1.-THE soul of those who
seek after such as have familiar spirits, and
who 60 whoring after them, will set myself
against them, and he shall be cut off from
among his people" The Lord Almighty, in
a score of passages, which / have not now
time to quote, utters his Indignation against
all this great family of decisions After that
be Spiritualist if you dare
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. He expected that somehow she
would afford him relief. 1t was his trouble
that drove him there. And l 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 60 to
the fortune teller to find where it is You
lose a friend, you want the spiritual world
opened SO that you may have communication
with him. In highly wrought, nervous
and diseased state of mind, you go and put
yourself in that communication. That is
why l hate Spiritualism. 1t takes advan-
tage of one in a moment of weakness,
which may come upon US at any time.
We lose friend. The trial is keen, sharp,
suffocating, almost maddening. II we could
marshal host, and storm the eternal world,
and recapture our loved one, the host would
soon be marshaled. The house is SO lonely.
The world is so dark. The separation is SO
insufferable.
But Spiritualism says: 1--WE will 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-
ton of the table. No response from the
future world. Twenty minutes. Thirty
minutes. Nervous excitement all the time
increasing. Forty minutes. The table shiv-
ers. Two raps from the future world The
letters of the alphabet are called over. The
departed friends name is John. At the pro-
nunciatiOn of the letter ~ )" two raps. At
the pronunciation of the letter "O," two
raps. At the pronunciation of the letter
"H, !" two raps. AT the pronunciation of the
letter IN" two raps. There you have the
whole name spelled out John, John
Now, the spirit being present, you say:
"JolIn, are you happy?' Two raps give an
affirmative answer. Pretty soon the hand of
the medium begins to twitch and toss, and
begins to write out, after paper and ink are
furnished, message from the eternal world.
What is remarkable, the departed
spirit, although it has been amid the
illuminations of heaven, cannot spell as well
as it used to. 1t has lost all grammatical
accuracy and cannot write as distinctly.
received letter through medium once.
sent it back. said: "Just please tell those
ghosts they had better go to school and get
improved in their photography" Now, just
think of spirits, that the Bible represents as
enthroned in glory, coming down to crawl
under the table, and break crockery, 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 astifled and mysterious half utterance,
which makes the hair stand ON end and the
cold chills creep the back, but in an unhin-
dered and illimitable delight
And none shall murmur or misdoubt,
When Gods great sunrise finds US out.
Yes. my friends, Spiritualism comes to
those who are i'm trouble and sweeps them
into its decisions. SAUL in the midst of his
disaster, went to the witch of En-dor. The
vast majority of those who have gone to
spiritual mediums have been sent there
through their misfortunes.
learn still farther from this subject that
Spiritualism and necromancy are affairs of
the darkness Why did not Saul go in the
day? He was ashamed to 60. Besides that,
he knew that this spiritual medium, like all
her SUCCESSORS, performed Ter exploits in the
night The Davenports, the Fowlers, the
fha c,,;ri Of oil
have chosen the night or a darkened room
Why! The majority of their wonders have
been swindles, and deception prospers best In
the night.
Some of the performances of spiritual me-
diums are not to be ascribed to fraud, but to
some occult law that after awhile may be
demonstrated. But l believe that now 900
out of every 1000 achievements on the part
of spiritual mediums are arrant and I'M
mitigated humbug. The mysterious red let
tiers that used to come out on 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
that 1t came up In great round letters The
witnesses of the seances have locked the
door, put the key In their pocket,
arrested the operator, and found
out, by searching the room, that hid
den levers moved the tables The sealed
letters that were mysteriously read without
opening have been found TO have been cut at
the side, and then afterwarIl slyly put to-
gether with gum arabic; and the medium
who with heavy blanket over his head,
could read book, has been found to have
had bottle of phosphoric oil, by the light of
which anybody can read a book; and ven
triloquism, and legerdemain, and sleight of
hand, and optical delusion, account for
everything. Deception being the main staple
of Spiritualism, no wonder it chooses the
darkness.
You have all seen strange and unaccount-
able things in the night. Almost every man
has at some time had n touch OF hallucina-
ton. Some time ago, after had been over
tempted to eat something indgcstible before
retiring at night, after retiring l saw the
president of one of the prominent colleges
astride the foot of the bed, while he de-
manded of me loan of five centsl When l
awakened had no idea it was anything
supernatural. And have to advise you, il
you hear and see strange things at night. to
stop eating hot mince pie and take dose of
bilious medicine. 1t is an outraged physical
organism, enough to deceive the very elect
after shutdown, and does nearly all its work
in the night. The witch of En-dor held her
seances at night; so do all the witches.
Away with this religion Of spooks!
Still further: learn from my text that
Spiritualism is doom and death to its disci-
Piles. King Saul thought that he would get
help from the ''medium;n but the first thing
that he sees makes him swoon away, and no
sooner was he resuscitated than he is told he
must die. Spiritualism is doom and death to
every one that yields to it, 1t ruins the body.
Look in upon an audience of. Spiritualists.
Cadaverous. Weak. Nervous. Exhausted
Hands clammy and cold. Nothing prospers
but long hair-soft marshes yielding rank
grass. Spiritualism destroys the physical
health. Its disciples are ever hearing start