ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 24, 1881

ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION.

THE case of Mrs. Upham, widow of Professor Upham, of Bowdoin College, once well known as the author of a text-book on mental philosophy, and later as an advocate of the "higher life" doctrine, is suggestive, if not instructive. This lady, with her husband, fell, some years ago, under the influence of the teachers of this notion, and later she connected with this faith in Spiritualism. We believe she enjoyed daily communication with the spirit of her departed husband, and received messages for her guidance. She came especially under the influence of two maiden sisters in Waverly, N. Y., who have for a long time been prominent in the teaching of the higher life, and who, with their father, have held annual meetings at Ocean Grove. These two women have had as an associate in their meetings one John A. Lansing, who passed for a Methodist minister of Brookline, Mass., though he has no real right to the title. This Mr. Lansing has proved to be a man of great personal influence over a class of able and pietistically inclined women, one of whom he married, and nearly half a dozen of whom have lived together in a sort of sisterhood in his house in Brookline, Mass.

Among those most completely under his influence are those two sisters from Waverly. He appears by his arts to have got control of the property of a number of persons, especially using, it would seem, these sisters as his infatuated dupes to entrap others. One of them, Miss Carrie Ward, introduced him to Mrs. Upham, and, it is said, under a divine guidance, persuaded her to put her property, some $14,000, in this Lansing's hands for investment, he promising to pay her ten per cent. She did so, and the receipt was signed by Miss Ward, who gave as security a bundle of papers, said to be deeds of houses, notes, etc., belonging to herself. Of course, Lansing paid the interest but a few months, and then stopped. Mrs. Upham was then persuaded to take Miss Carrie's note for the amount, with interest at seven per cent. That was never paid. After long delay, she put the matter in a lawyer's hands, and the two confederates were arrested last week for fraud. This is not the first illustration of the fact that ordinary honesty has certain advantages over supernatural holiness. Antinomianism is closely allied to perfectionism.—Independent.