Effects of Spiritualism.
By MRS. M. C. TRUESDAIL
READING Dr. Gridley’s description, in a late REVIEW, of how spirits treated an old man of sixty years, in Massachusetts, reminded me of an old lady about the same age, that I met recently. Noticing a peculiar expression of her eyes, I hastened to call her attention to my book which I was selling, when she replied, “No, I thank you,” then closing her eyes very tightly, after first removing her pipe, “you call again some time. I am tormented to death just now with evil spirits, I can’t live much longer either, in this way; I can’t sleep nights with their dreadful howlings. They are the spirits of Indians, and you know what unearthly noises they make; they are howling all about the house nights, and have been for several weeks.” Opening her eyes again, she inquired, “You understand what I mean, don’t you? You’ve heard of spiritualism?” I replied I had heard it spoken about, and that I was afraid of such evil spirits. She answered, “This is its worst feature. I knew this was coming; good spirits revealed it to me before it happened, and they promised me I should not be tormented again after I get through with this spell.” I inquired, Can you trust them? “Of course I can,” she said with considerable spirit, and tightening her eyes again, she continued her remarks in such a loud, screechy tone, that I tremblingly wished myself out of the house. “You come again,” she repeated, “and I’ll tell you your whole history; I ain’t permitted to do it while these evil spirits are around.” I felt very glad of this and was preparing to leave, when she urged me to listen to the bright side of spiritualism, and the beautiful music she had listened to from her dead husband, playing upon a harp at the same time, and the great discoveries that had been revealed to her in the science of astronomy, &c., &c. When she opened her tightly shut eyes, she discovered, too, that I had hold of the knob of the door ready to leave, as soon as politeness would permit. How thankful I felt, when darkness enshrouded the earth, that I could lie down and sleep, and not be tormented like this poor woman with the spirits of devils. In the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus, God promised Israel that if they walked in his statutes, and kept his commandments, they should lie down and none should make them afraid; but if they despised his statutes, and broke his covenant, he would appoint terror over them and send faintness into their hearts, so that the sound of a shaken leaf should chase them. I am told, by a near neighbor to this lady, that her husband died about two years ago, willing all his property to a young girl in this place, and the property cannot be disposed of to aid his poor wife in her nearly destitute condition, and her neighbors are becoming tired of helping her, and have reported her case to the town. Her husband died a spiritualist. Another circumstance horrible to relate, came under my observation while visiting in Warren, Ill., about two months since, resulting in the death of the individual, with whom I was acquainted. He had been an infidel for years, until the death of his second wife occurred. A spiritualist near him having communications professing to come through her spirit, he was led on, step after step, through the same course, till he was persuaded to marry a young girl, a communication purporting to come from his wife’s spirit, saying that she was the one chosen by her to fill her place. He sold his valuable farm after their marriage and moved to the far West, where, in less than one year, she received still another revelation, from the same spirit, that she must unite herself to another man, who was Christ, and she was christess; and after repeating over a ceremony of her own, they claimed themselves married. Turning her husband out of doors, he was told to go back to Illinois and form a colony of free lovers, &c. He came back with less than one dollar to pay his expenses, a generous public aiding him till he reached his mother’s house. His efforts proving futile in forming the above colony, he was directed by the spirits to abstain entirely from food; that he needed all these trials through which he had passed, to fit him for greater usefulness; that he was chosen to occupy a brilliant position, to teach great and important truths to mankind. After a fast of fifteen days he was directed to be baptized. Not a minister in the place could be persuaded to do this, and he was taken into the country, where a Methodist deacon, out of sympathy, consented, thinking he would afterward take nourishment. After the twentieth day he was unable to leave his bed, when my brother-in-law notified the town authorities; a nurse was provided, and when he was forced to take nourishment, he became very angry with his relatives, not permitting them to enter his room. And thus he died the twenty-fifth day of his fast, a mere skeleton. Previous to his death he stated that he would go into a trance, and wished to be kept six days. Four days proving that the trance was a permanent one, an appropriate sermon was preached by a Baptist elder selected for the occasion, when he was borne to the silent grave, a victim of modern spiritualism. The brother that went to recover his property, found that the wife and her lover had left for parts unknown, taking with them all disposable property. This circumstance occasioned great excitement; hundreds came to view the trance corpse. “Not a spiritualist,” I was told by his mother, “showed his head.” They were waiting, I presume, to commune with his departed spirit. Oh! what a delusion; and has not the foundation of this belief been held forth by the Orthodox churches for centuries? Quite recently four young children were deprived of their dear mother. When twilight approached, and they missed her gentle caresses, one younger girl inquired, “why they laid mamma in the cold ground,” when the reply came from the next older, “Mamma is not in the ground, she has gone to yon beautiful Heaven;” when a still younger repeated, pointing with his little finger, “Mamma way up in e sky.” Innocent childhood is thus taught to repeat errors of heathen origin, thus fostering spiritualism. And these errors are re-echoed from the spirits of demons, purporting to be the spirits of loved ones. And ere long popular theology will seek a quiet repose beneath its green branches, the tree of its own planting. As Bro. Cornell remarked; “we should not be presumptuous, lest we be left to sink under the power that is to ‘deceive if possible the very elect.’” Nothing can save us from its snares, unless we are clothed with the whole armor of truth. The humble may find shelter here, and thus be hid in the secret of his pavilion. I want to be found among the humble followers of Jesus.