New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-05-09
MODERN SPIRITUALISM.
Or. Talmage Unmasks the Mediums.
tic Charlatans Who Prey Upon
Weak Humanity.

tic ChaTlatans Who Prey Upon
Weak Humanity.
Ehefr Victims Found Among the
Troubled, the Bankrupt, the
Sick, and the Berefc.
After the Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage. D. D.,
On the Doth ult., had, in his wel-known
manner, expounded the scriptures, the
annItitude of people who thronged the taber-
uacle and all its entrances, packing every
available space of standing and sitting room.
united in singing:
Salvation let the echo fly -i"-
The spacious earth around,
While all the armies of the sky
Conspire to raise the sound.
z DIR. Talmage announced his subject:
<eModern Spiritualism."l he took Efor his
text:
t.Behold there is woman that hath familiar
spirit at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and
put on other raiments. and he went and two men
with him, and they came to the woman by night
and he said. I pray thee divine unto me by the
familiar spirit and bring me him up whom / shall
game unto thee. IL Samuel xviii, rs
kFollowing is the sermon in full: +
4 ( have recently become spiritualist. AT
feast so some Of the journals of that belief
declare. This, together with the fact that
-etmediums" are now being tried in the Grim
{nal courts, setting millions of people to
make inquiry in regard to communication
between this world and the next, leads me
10 preach this sermon.
Trouble to the right of him, and trouble to
the left of him, Saul knew not what to do.
As a last resort he concluded to seek out
spiritual. medium, Or q 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 o spiritual medium down
at Che village of En-dor.' .sDo you?" said
Che king. Night falls. Saul, putting off his
gingly robes and putting on the dress of
plain citizen, with two servants, goes out to
hunt UP this spiritual medium. 1t was no
sasy thing for Saul to disguise himself, for
Che taIlest 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 proportion
ed. It must. have been frightful
Thing to see a man walking ,along in
Che night eight or nine feet high. suppose,
as che people saw HIM pass, they said:
1Who is that? 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 While
reach the village, and they say: ssI wonder
af this is the house?" Aud they look in and
see the haggard, weird, and shriveled up
spiritual medium sitting by the light, and
2an the table sculptured images, and divining
rods. and poisonous herbs, and bottles, and
vases They say: s.Yes, this must be the
place" One loud rap brings the woman to
t1e door, and as she stands there holding the
candle or lamp above her head and peering
cut into the darkness, she says: 'sWho is
foil yintr fy,For 1,a, hail l.
has come to have his fortune told. When
she hears that she trembles and almost drops
Che light, for she knows there is no chance
Tor q fortune-teller or spiritual medium in
all the land. But Saul, having sworn that
no harm shall come to her, she says: 'sWell,
who shall bring up from the dead?" Saul
Gays: "BrinG up Samuel" That was the
prophet who had died a little while before.
Il see her waving wand, or stirring up some
spoisonous herbs in cadron, Or hear her
sgHuttering over some incantations, or stamp
lug her foot as she cries out to the realms of
FGhe dead Samuel! Samuel?" 10 the
freezing horror! The floor of the tenement
opens and the gray hairs float up, and the
forehead, the eyes, the lips, the shoulders,
fhe arms, the feet, the entire body of dead
pearing to the astonished group, who stag
ger back, and hold fast, and catch their
breath and shiver with terror The dead
prophet, white and awful from the tomb, be-
gins to move lis 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 mean, King
sSaul?" Saul, trying to compose and control
himself, makes his stammering and alright
ed utterance, as he says to the dead prophet:
sffThe Lord is against NE and / have come to
you for help. What shall / do?" The dead
prophet stretched forth his finger to Klng
Saul and said : ssDie tomorrow! Come
with mo into the sepulcher. | am going
now. Come, come with meW And 10! the
door again opens and the feet of the uead
prophet disappear, and the arms, and the
shoulders, and the forehead The floor
closes. Nothing is left in the room but Saul
aud the two servants and the spiritual meui-
I'm, and the sculptured images, and the di-
,-qiniIfg rods, and the bottles, and the vases,
and the poisonous herbs. Oh, that was an
awful SeanceI
[ learn first from this subject that spiritu-
alism isa very old religion. 1t is natural
chat people should want to know the origin
and The history of doctrine which is so wide
spread 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.
in Rydesville, Wayne County, N. Y, when
one night there was IL loud rap heard against
the door of 2Ilchael Weekman Il rap a
second 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 a young wo-
snan who had cold hand passed over her face
and there being seemingly no arm attached
TO ii, ghostly suspicious weresexcited. After
. 1. while MIR. Fox and his family moved into
essisat house, and then every night there was
banging at the door, and one night Mr.. Fox
said ''Are you spirit?" Two raps, answer
ing in the affirmative. "Are you an injured
spirit?" Two raps, answering in the affirm
alive. And so they found out, as they say,
that it was the ghost or spirit of peddler,
who had been murdered in that house many
gears before for his $500 Whether the
ghost of the dead peddler had been there to
collect his $500 or his bones, cannot say,
not being spiritualist; but there was a
+ great racket at the door, SO Mr.. eekman de-
olared, and Mrt. Weekman, and Mr.. and Mrs.
Fox, and alithell title Foxes. The excitement
epread. There was universal rumpus.
Hon. Judge Edmonds declared, in book,
/. that he had actually seen bell start from
Che top shelf of closet. heard it ring over the
tpeople that were standing in the closet, then,
II nn,,I