The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-03-09

~ liz AZ oSA@ AANo
the furniture business! Well, the peo-
pie said: I'VE have got something new
in this country. 1t is a new religioni"
Oh, no, my friend, thousands Of years
ago, we find in our text, a spiritualistic
seancei
STRANGE, MYSTERIOUS THINGS.
..othing in the s~piritualtistic circles
of our day has been more strange, mys-
ferrous and wonderful than things
which have been seen in past centuries
of the world. In all age there have
been necromancers, those who consult
with the spirits Of the departed;
charmers, those who put their sub
jects in a mesmeric state; sorcerers,
those who by taking poisonous drugs
see everything and hear. everything
and tell everything; dreamers, people
who in their sleeping moments a 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 s~piritualism is differ
ent from these? 1 { answer, all these de-
lusions l have mentioned belong TO
the same family. They are exhuma-
lions 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,
Il will be a swift witness against the
sorcerer." He avs 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, or
moor for ThaV that do these
things are an abomination unto the
Lord" The Lord God Almighty in a
score of passages which l have not
now time to quote uters his indignation
against all this great family of delu-
sions. After hat be a spiritualist if
you dare!
Still further, We learn from this text
how it is that people come to fall into
s~piritualism. 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 1 hav TO
tell you now that s~piritualism finds it's
victims in the troubled, the bankrupt,
the sick, the bereft. You lose your
watch, and o go to the fortune teller
to find where it is.
You lose a friend; you want the Spir-
itual world opened, so that you may
have communication with him. In a
highly wrought, nervous and diseased
state of mind you go and put yourself
in hat communication. That is why l
hate s~piritualism. It takes advantage
of one in a moment Of weakness,
which may come upon us at any time.
We lose a friend. The trial is keen,
sharp, suffocating, almost m~addening.
If we could marshal a force and storm
the eternal world and recapture our
loved one, the host would soon be mar
Shaled. The house is so lonely. The
world is so dark. The separation is so
insufferable. But spiritualism says,
w will open the future world, and
to you" Though we may not hear his
voice, we may e the raj OF his
hand. So, clear the table. Sit down.
Put your hands on the table. Be very
quiet. Five minute gone. Ten
No motion of the table. No response
from the future world. Twenty min
utes. Thirty minutes. Nervous excite
ment all the time increasing. Forty
minutes. 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 h letter ] two raps.
At the pronunciation of the letter o
two raps. At the pronunciation of the
Letter II two raps. At the pronunciation
of the letter n two raps. There you
have the whole name spelled out
John, job Now, the spirit being
happy?" Two raps give an affirmative
answer.
SPIRITS OF DARKNESS.
Pretty soon the hand of the medium
begins to twitch and toss and begins
to write out, after paper and ink are
furnished, a message from the eternal
world. What is remarkable, the de-
49, - - @@~
amid the Examinations of the heaven,
cannot spell as we'll as it used to. 1t
has lost all grammatical accuracy and
cannot write as distinctly. I received a
letter through a medium once. l sent
it back. I said. Just please to tell
those ghosts they had better go to
chool and get improved in their or
thography."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 a gusty
night! What consolation in such mis-
cradle stuff as compared with the con-
ISOLATION Of our departed friends free
from toll and sin and pain and forever
happy and thai We will join them, not
in mysterious and half utterance
and makes cold chills creep the back.
but in a reunion most blessed and
happy and glorious!
And none shall murmer or misdoubt
When Gods great sunrise finds us out.
I learn still further from this subject
that ~spiditualtsm and necromancy are
affairs Of darkness. Why did not Saul
go in the day? He was ashamed to go.
Besides that, he knew that this spir-
itual medium, like all her successors,
performed her exploits in the night.
The Davenports, h Fowlers, the
Foxes. the spiritual mediums of all
ages, have chosen the night or a dark
ened room. Why? The majority of their
wonders have been ~swindles. and the
deception prospers best in the night.
Some of the performances CT spir-
itual mediums are not to be ascribed
to fraud, but to some occult law that
after awhile may be demonstrated.
But / believe that now nine hundred
and ninety-nine out of every thousand
achievements on the part of spiritual
mediums are arrant and unmitigated
humbug. The mysterious red letters
that used to come out on the mediums
\ arm waro forOd fo houo hoon moda nv