CASE OF SPIRITUALISM by H. P. Heddon

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 11, 1878

CASE OF SPIRITUALISM.

By H. P. Heddon

A young woman who sometimes attends our meetings, was induced more than a year ago, by a medical friend, while she was yet in the Romish Church, to get herself magnetized, with a view to becoming a medium as a means of earning money. The magnetizing did not succeed, but she has since been subject to violent fits of convulsions. As long as she refrains from attending evangelical meetings she is left quiet, when she comes to them the fits return. I told her that prayer would be her only deliverance, and recommended her to seek Christ earnestly, which she did, but when she does so the fits return with greater violence than ever.

She is a native of Cesena, in the Romagna. Her father having died there some years ago, her mother came to Rome with her, where she married another husband and opened a tobacco shop. About two years ago this young woman was surprised to see a man enter the shop who seemed to be her father. He asked for a particular kind of cigars, and put down a five-franc note in payment, receiving money in change. I should have said that she had already seen him for the first time in the public gardens, where the band was playing. She was sitting upon one of the seats, in the midst of a crowd of people, when this person passed before her, and she was at once struck by his appearance. The next thing that struck her as remarkable was that he crossed before her several times, always going in the same direction, although she never saw him return. Shortly afterwards he came to the shop.

He began to come regularly to the shop, always buying the same cigars, and always changing a five-franc note. At length they determined to follow him out of the shop and ask him who he was. This they did several times, but he always avoided meeting them. He was always accompanied by another man, who used to wait for him outside the shop. At length they succeeded in stopping him one day, when he answered, “I am from Cesena,” their native place; then he uttered the words hastily, “I am not he whom you take me for,” and turned away.

After some time this young woman began to hear a voice calling her whenever she was left alone in the house. She used to hear the voice calling distinctly, “Celia, Celia,” but on going to the room from which it came she could see no one.

Every one has heard of the lottery in Italy. It is the great scourge of the country; it is an incentive to robbery, and swallows up even more of the earnings of the people than wine and tobacco. A person pays a small sum and buys a ticket, writing upon it three numbers between one and one hundred. Every Saturday a drawing is made; if two of the numbers he has chosen come out he gets a considerable sum; if all three, he may win a very large sum indeed. Within the past week a priest thus played one hundred francs. All three numbers came out, and he has won two millions of francs. This is a thing, however, that very rarely happens, and numbers of people are reduced to beggary by gambling at the lottery.

To give a zest to this gambling, a book is published, which gives a number, from one to ninety-nine, to every unusual circumstance that happens. Is there a pane of glass broken in the house, or a rat caught, or a cup of milk spilled, the numbers corresponding are sought out in the book and gambled. So, also, a robbery, a murder, a death, etc. The deaths of Victor Emanuel and of the pope caused many thousands of francs to flow through the lottery. Some months since a depraved young debauchee, of a high family, murdered his sister in a most cruel manner with a revolver, because she refused to give him any more money to carry on his dissipation. He was arrested. His unhappy wife (for he was married) brought him five francs to the jail, the last she had. He immediately sent it out to purchase a lottery ticket, gambling three numbers on the murder that he had committed! It is a common custom to make incantations to saints to guide one to three numbers for the lottery; and many have prayed to the devil, offering him their souls, and have received audible answers, in order to win a terno, as it is called, in the lottery.

This young woman had been told, the year before seeing the strange personage as above related, that if she performed the novena to St. Pantaleo he would give her a terno. It is done in this manner: A book is printed containing nine incantations to the above-named saint. Nine days before the day consecrated to him, July 27, at sunset, one of these is sung to him, and so on each evening until the saint’s day arrives. At midnight the saint is to give the three numbers, if it has been faithfully done. She did this, and then waited for the answer. Exactly at midnight she felt the house shake, heard a clap of thunder, and saw a flash of lightning. She searched for the three numbers corresponding to “earthquake,” “thunder,” and “lightning,” and told her mother of it next day. They had intended to play quite a sum of money on these numbers, but in the end they lost courage and did not do so. The next Saturday at the drawing these three numbers came out. Annoyed at having lost her chance, she resolved to repeat the experiment when the saint’s day came around again. Meantime the mysterious personage above-described had begun calling on her. After having repeated the incantations nine times, she went to the window at midnight, and in the street underneath she saw him looking up at her. He made three gestures that are described in the lottery book, in a very marked manner, and then departed. She took the numbers, and next day told the occurrence to a friend, who said that she would play them also. Next night at midnight it occurred to her to look out, and again she saw her mysterious friend. He made an expressive gesture (in this country it is customary to speak by gestures) implying that all was lost because she had told the numbers to another. She did not play them, her friend played, and lost.

After this she was persuaded to get herself magnetized with a view to becoming a medium, but it brought on convulsions, which have never since left her. Shortly afterwards they were led to the Baptist church in Rome, where her mother became, I have reason to believe, seriously impressed with evangelical doctrines; but the daughter has been tormented every time she has come to meeting. They have now opened some other business in Naples, where they have attended the Baptist church and occasionally come to our meetings. In our new hall we have reason to hope they will be regular attendants.

We have prayed much for this sister, but the devil has done still more by leading her some months since to engage herself in marriage with a young man who is a determined Catholic, or perhaps more probably an infidel. He is in very delicate health. She tries to persuade him to come to our meetings. God has blessed our work to more than one unbeliever.

Our new hall is in the house where this sister resides. On calling there a week ago, while thinking what we were to do to continue our meetings this month, her mother came of her own accord, and proposed to me to take one of her rooms as a meeting-room. We sought the Lord’s direction, and we hope that this change has been brought about for the sake of bringing this young woman out of bondage into the liberty of Christ. We ask our brethren to join with us in asking God to give a victory over Satan in her case. H. P. HEDDON.