The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-03-02

| affirmative. Are you an injured
spirit?" Two raps-answer in the af-
firmative. Then they knew right away
that it was the spirit of IA peddler who
had been murdered in that house years
before and who had been robbed of his
$500 Whether the spirit of the pedder
came back to collect his $500 or his
bones l do not know
The excitement spread. There was
q universal rumpus Hon. Judge Ed
monds declared in book that he had
actually seen a bell start from the
top shelf of closet heard it ring over
the people that were standing in the
closet; then, swung by invisible hands,
it rang over the people in the back par
Tor and floated through the folding
doors to the front parlor, rang over
the people there and then dropped on
the floor A senator of the United
States. afterward governor of Wiscon-
sin, had his head quite turned with
spiritualistic demonstrations. The ta-
bles 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 furni-
! ture business! Well, the people said:
eve have got something new in this
country. 1t is new religion!" Oh,
no, my friend, thousands of years ago,
we find in our text, a spritualistic
seancel
Nothing in the spiritualistic circles
of our day has been more strange,
mysterious and wonderful than things
which have been seen in past centuries
of the world. In all ages there have
| been necromancers, those who consult
with the spirits of the departed;
charmers, those who put their subjects
in mesmeric state; sorcerers, those
who by taking poisonous drugs see
everything and hear everything and
| tell everything; dreamers, people who
| in their sleeping moments can see the
| future world and hold consultation
with spirits. Yes, before the time of
| Christ, the Brahmans went through all
the table moving, all the furniture eX-
element, which the spirits have ex-
plotted in our day, precisely the same
thing over and over again, under the
manipulation of the Brahmans. Now,
| do you say that spiritualism is differ
ent from these? | answer, all these
delusions l have mentioned belong TO
the same family. They are eXhuma-
tions from the unseen world
What does God think of all these de-
| lusions? He thinks so severely of them
that He never speaks of them but with
livid thunders of indignation. He says:
| 81 will be a swift witness against the
sorcerer." He says: Thou shalt not
suffer a witch TO live" And, lest you
might make some important distinc-
ton between spiritualism and witch
craft, God says, in so many words:
"There shall not be among you a CON
suffer of familiar spirits, or wizard. OF
necromancer, for they that do these
things are an nbomination unto the
Lord The Lord God Almighty in
score of passages which have not now
time to quote utters His indignation
against all this great family of delu-
sions. After that be a spiritualst if
| you dare!
Still further, we learn from this text
how it is that people come to fall into
| spirtualism. Saul had enough trouble
TO kill ten men. He did not know where
to go for relief After awhile he re-
solved to go and see the witch of En-
dor. He expected that somehow she
would afford him relief. 1t was his
trouble drove him there. And | have
TO tell you now that spiritualism finds
its victims in the troubled, the bank
rupt, the sick, the bereft. You lose
your watch, and you go to the fortune
teller to find where it is.
You lose a friend; you want the spr-
itual 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
/ hate spiritualism. 1t takes idyan-
tage of one in "A moment of weakness,
which may come upon MS at any time.
We lose a friend. The trial is keen,
sharp, suffocating, almost maddening.
If we could marshal host and storm
the eternal world and recapture our
loved one, the host would soon be mar
shaded. The house is so lonely. The
WI W 10 ~ htli ~ ilt separation Is 50
insuifcrable. But spiritualism says:
"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
motion of the table. No response from
the future world. Twenty minutes.
Thirty minutes. Nervous excitement
all the time increasing. Forty min
utes. The table shivers. Two raps
from the future world. The letters of
the alphabet are called over. The de-
parted friends name is John. At the
pronunciation of the letter j, two raps.
At the pronunciation of the letter 0,
two raps. At the pronunciation of the