Inside View of Spiritualism.
IN Dr. Randolph's work the danger and deception of mediumship are stated in the following terms:— "Those ill-meaning ones who live just beyond the threshold, often obtain their ends by subtly infusing a semi-sense of volitional power into the minds of their intended victims; so that at last they come to believe themselves to be self-acting, when in fact they are the merest shuttlecocks, banded about between the battledoors of knavish devils on one side, and devilish knaves upon the other; and, between the two, the poor wretches are nearly heart-reft and destroyed."—Dealings with the Dead, pages 108-9. If the mediums do not feel flattered by the description of their position they must bear in mind that we are only giving the testimony of the very highest spiritualistic authorities. A note by the publisher of the above work, on the same point, page 108, says:— "Good spirits do not break the sphere. They approach the crown of the head and infuse thoughts, else blend themselves with the subject, but never by destroying either consciousness or will. Evil spirits attack the lower brain, the amative organs, the lower passions, and force the spheres of their victims." So, then, Prof. Brittan's plea for Davis and the mediums is only a plea for malignant obsessions! Look at the following from a work by Hudson Tuttle, a very popular author:— "Reader, have you ever entered the respectable saloon? Have you ever watched the stupid stare of the inebriate when the eye grew less and less lustrous, slowly closing, the muscles relaxing, and the victim of appetite sinking over on the floor in beastly drunkenness? Oh, how dense the fumes of mingled tobacco and alcohol! Oh, what misery confined in those walls! If you have witnessed such scenes, then we need describe no further. If you have not, then you had better not hear the tale of woe. Imagine to yourselves a bar room with all its sots, and their number multiplied indefinitely, while conscience-seared and bloated fiends stand behind the bar, from whence they deal out death and damnation; and the picture is complete! One has just arrived from earth. He is yet uninitiated in the mysteries and miseries of those which, like hungry lions, await him. He died while intoxicated—was frozen while lying in the gutter, and consequently is attracted toward this society. He possessed a good intellect, but it was shattered beyond repair by his debauches." " 'Ye ar' a fresh one, ain't ye?' coarsely queried a sot, just then particularly communicative." " 'Why, yes, I have just died, as they call it, and 'tain't so bad a change after all; only I suppose there'll be dry times here for want of something stimulant.'" " 'Not so dry; lots of that all the time, and jolly times too.'" " 'Drink! can you drink, then?'" " 'Yes, we just can, and feel as nice as we please. But all can't, not unless they find one on earth just like 'em. You go to earth, and mix with your chums, and when you find one whose thoughts you can read, he's your man. Form a connection with him, and when he gets to feeling good, you'll feel so too. There, do you understand me? I always tell all fresh ones the glorious news, for how they would suffer if it wasn't for this blessed thing.'" " 'I'll try it, no mistake.'" " 'Here's a covey,' spoke an ulcerous-looking being; 'he's of our stripe. Tim, did you hear what an infernal scrape I got into last night? No, you didn't. Well, I went to our friend Fred; he didn't want to drink when I found him, his dimes looked so extremely large. Well, I destroyed that feeling, and made him think he was dry. He drank, and drank, more than I wanted him to, until I was so drunk that I could not break my connection with him, or control his mind. He undertook to go home; fell into the snow, and came near freezing to death. I suffered awfully, ten times as much as when I died.' Reader, we draw the curtain over scenes like these, such as are daily occurring in this society."—Life in the Spheres, pages 35-37. Thus daily are poor deluded mediums made to believe they want to drink, etc., and their aversion (if they have any) to crime and lewdness is destroyed by fiends whose presence and influence are courted by thousands. This is Spiritualism! But we have further testimony. Dr. Randolph says again:— "The bodies and souls of mediums may be and are attacked, the remnant of will destroyed or lulled, the moral sense stupified, and the entire being subjugated by spectral harpies and human ghouls, who wander on either bank of existence."—Dealings with the Dead, pages 107-8. Dr. Gridley received from his special spirit friend, Bryant, the following revelation. Joshua is represented as the spirit of a strong, but brutish man whom he had known in life:— "On one occasion, while Joshua was possessing the medium, it appeared evident that the love of rum in the former was by no means impaired by his transfer to the world of spirits. To test this I asked him if he would have a glass of brandy. The inviting, even bewitching, manner with which he reached forth and waved his hand invitingly toward me, with the sweet-loving motion of his lips, surprised me beyond measure; and I replied, perhaps rudely, that if he came here for brandy, he would get nothing but water. His countenance instantly exhibited the most fierce and terrible anger. He grated his teeth furiously, doubled his fist, and made a most desperate blow at the pit of my stomach, and exclaimed, 'Damn you!' I now inquired, 'Friend Bryant, is it possible that a man who loves rum in this world carries that love with him into the next?' 'Yes, it is certainly true.' 'But there can be nothing there by which to gratify it,' I said, inquiringly. 'No, not in ours; but you must not forget that our world, especially with low, wicked spirits, is not far from yours.' 'But you do not mean to say that such an appetite in a disembodied spirit can be gratified?' 'Spirits who have left the rudimental body can gratify a drunken appetite ten times as easy as those in that body.' 'But how can that be?' I asked in wonder. 'Joshua can enter the body of any drunken brute in human form, and partake of the exhilarating influence of his cups with the greatest ease imaginable.' He stated too that spirits were guilty of licentious acts, and that quarreling and licentiousness were as inseparable in their world as in ours."—Astounding Facts, pages 26, 27. In our work we quoted largely from Spiritualist authors, and brought out undisputed facts in the lives of mediums and lecturers to prove the licentious tendencies of Spiritualism, and the licentious practices obtaining among Spiritualists. The Banner of Light affected to disclaim affiliation with free-loveism. But it is but a feint, for it has helped on the tendency in that direction. A work by Dr. Child was published at that office, entitled, "Christ and the People." The following extracts will show the nature of its teachings:— "The present laws of marriage, that now give birth to regrets and sorrows unnumbered, to prostitution, with its long train of curses and agonies, will be abandoned for a holier, purer, diviner revelation that will erolong be given to the people." Page 27. "A religion more spiritual will be discovered and acknowledged— . . . a religion without written laws, without commandments, without creeds—a religion too sacred to be spoken, too pure to be defiled, too generous to be judged, resting upon no uncertain outside standard of rectitude, upon no dogma of another, no purity of earthly life, no glory of earthly perfection—a religion that every soul possesses by natural endowment, not one more than another."
"This religion is simply desire. . . . "
"With every one, desire is spontaneous and sincere, pure and holy; no matter what the desire is, whether it be called good or bad, it is the natural, God-given religion of the soul." Pages 28, 29. He occupies a chapter in deriding justice; he scoffs at holiness, and exalts sin, as the following brief extracts show:— "Ere long, man will come to see that all sin is for his spiritual good. . . . To see that holiness lays up treasures on earth. . . . Sin destroys earthly treasures, and causes them to be laid up in Heaven." Pages 32, 33. "There is no criminal act that is not an experience of usefulness. The tracks of vice and crime are only the tracks of human progress. . . . There has been no deed in the catalogue of crime that has not been a valuable experience to the inner being of the man who committed it." Page 137. "Man has yet to learn and yet to admit that all sins which are committed are innocent, for all are in the inevitable rulings of God." Page 175. "He who wars with sin leaves nothing lovely in his tracks." Page 191. Such are the doctrines of the book. What could be worse, or more demoralizing in its tendency? It was not only published by the Banner of Light office, but that paper gave it the following strong indorsement:— "This book should find its way to every family. . . . Its liberality reaches the very shores of infinity. It is born of Spiritualism, and reaches for the manhood of Christ. It is the most fearless presentation of the folly of the present moral and religious systems of the land of any book yet written. It is free from fault-finding; but its truthful descriptions of self-conceived goodness everywhere, in morals and religion, are withering. Through sacrifice and sin it shows the open gate of Heaven for every human being." Thus we have furnished a sufficient justification of our charge that Spiritualism holds an open door to immorality and licentiousness. If the reader wishes further testimony, he will find a hundred-fold more in our book, to which we have referred, and all in the language of their own authors. One says that "the moral looseness of thousands" is owing to spirit control. Most of the evidences speak of tobacco-chewing and dram-drinking, but will apply just as well to adultery. Read the following from Dr. Randolph:— "Generals who attack a fort do so at the most pregnable points. So with a certain class of spirits. They enjoy forbidden things through mortal proxies, as by sympathy. A, a spirit, was on earth a drunkard; if he can get control of B, a medium, and can induce B to imbibe, he can partake sympathetically of the exhilaration. As it is with stimulants, so it is with amativeness, only that ten persons can be made to err in the last direction where not over two could be in the former."—The Unveiling, page 47.
(To be concluded.) EDITOR.