The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-03-03


doors to the front parlor, rang ovei
the people there and then dropped OF
the floor. A senator of the United
! States. afterward governor OF Wiscon
sin, had his head quite turned with
spiritualistic demonstrations. The Ia
bles tipped, and the stools tilted, ant
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;
1--WE have got something new in this
country. 1t is new religion!" On
no. my friend, thousands of years ago
we find in our text, a spiritualistlt
seance!
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 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 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-
citement, 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? l answer, all these
decisions l have mentioned belong to
the same family. They are exhuma-
tons 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 swift witness against the
sorcerer." He says: "Thou shalt not
suffer q 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 con
suffer of familiar spirits, or wizard, or
necromancer, for they that do these
things are an abomination unto the
Lord" The Lord God Almighty in a
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 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 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 l have
to tell you now that spiritualism finds
it's 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 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 that communication. That is why
1 hate spiritualism. 1t takes advan-
tage of one in moment of weakness,
which may come upon us at any time.
We lose 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
shaled. The house is SO lonely. The
world is so dark. The separation is SO
But spiritualism says:
we will open the future world, and
'Our 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
he future world. Twenty minutes.
Thirty minutes. Nervous excitement
I'll the time increasing. Forty min
ltes. The table shivers. Two raps
rom the future world. The letters of
he alphabet are called over. The de-
parted friends name is John. At the |
pronunciation of the letter j, two raps. |
1t the pronunciation of the letter o, |
:wo raps. At the pronunciation of the |
etter II, two raps. AT the pronuncia-
ion of the letter N, two raps. There
vou have the whole name spelled out
|-o-h-n, John. Now, the spirit being
present, you say: John, are you hap
w" Two raps give an affirmative an
wer.
Pretty soon the hand of the medium
'egins to twitCh and toss and begins
o write out, after paper and ink are
message from the eternal
world. What is remarkable, the de-
'arted spirit, although it has been
mid the Examinations of the Heaven,
annot spell as well as it used to. 1t
as lost all grammatical accuracy, and
annot write as distinctly. l received
letter through medium once.
ent it back. l said: "Just please to
ell those ghosts they had better go to
chool and get improved in their or
biography" Now, just think of spirits,
hat the Bible represents as enthroned
glory, coming down to crawl under
he table and break crockery and ring
ca bells before supper is ready and rap
ne window shutter on a gusty night!
What consolation in such miserable
tuff as compared with the consolation
hatour departed friends free from toll
nd sin and pain are forever happy, and
hat we will join them, not in myste-
GUS and half utterance which makes