Inside View of Spiritualism.
By Editor
In offering the testimony of Judge Edmonds, we refer to the evidence of the reality contained in the first extract. He describes a tall, vicious-looking woman, very dirty, hair gray, teeth gone, eyebrows heavy, and a snaky pair of eyes. She was beating a child of four or five years. He then says:— “I next observed a well-dressed female sitting by the wayside, apparently in great distress. She had been driven out of his dwelling by the man for whom she had sinned on earth—for whom she had retained, even in death, an insane attachment, and whose company she had sought as her only solace in the spheres.”—Vol. ii, page 186. He directed her to a mountain where she might see a better country; and taking the child, she started. In a note, page 189, he says:— “Now, in August, 1854, the spirits of the female and of that child have approached and spoken to me through a medium. She gave her name, and said she was a French woman, and lived in Paris during the reign of Louis Philippe. She spoke of her parents, her husband, and of her brothers and sisters. She gave me some little account of the progress she had made, and said she had not yet attained the base of the mountain toward which she was traveling.” In the same connection he gives the following ludicrous account of the freaks of a mischievous boy and of his punishment:— “On the opposite side of the way, I observed what seemed to be a full-grown boy, had caught a dog, had split open his tail and put a stick in it, merely to enjoy the sport of seeing his sufferings. He then turned the dog loose, and stood enjoying the scene. The attention of the owner of the dog was drawn to his cries, and, discovering the cause, he beat the boy, who, being as cowardly as he was cruel, fled, but was pursued, and beaten, and kicked far up the road.”—Edmonds, Vol. ii, page 182. If any man had tried to get up a burlesque on Spiritualism he could not have exceeded the above. Only to think of a spirit boy splitting a spirit dog’s tail, and putting a stick in it for spiritual enjoyment! Surely, he needed the “gravity of a judge” to be able to record this. However, with all its ludicrousness, it is good proof on the point in question. The following is as disgusting as the last is ridiculous:— “At the door of one of the hovels, that stood a little back from the road, I saw a female who seemed to be about twenty-six years old. She was round and full in appearance—was a dark brunette, with painted cheeks. Her whole appearance, garb, and manner, were meretricious, and she had taken up her position there to entice some one to enter her dwelling. At length a man in passing turned aside, under the influence of passions which had marked his earthly career, and with her entered the house. I saw they were both influenced by the same passions, but were incapable of gratifying them. The woman became furious. She raved wildly, and in her insatiate rage she dashed the things around her to pieces. The man enjoyed her anger, and she raged at him for laughing at her. She seized a chair, and aimed a blow at him. He evaded it, and with his fist knocked her down. He struck her in the neck just below her chin, and when she fell he gnashed his teeth in his rage, and stamped with his feet on her breast. He kicked her in the side several times, and rushed from the house.”—Edmonds, Vol. ii, page 182. The above are but samples, and not the most horrible, of the scenes in the spirit land, described by Judge Edmonds. Dr. Randolph records the following experience of a spirit:— “As I gaze out upon the surrounding glories of my new world, I could not forbear or repress a desire, if possible, to take one glance at those who yet dwelt in infamy, although disembodied. . . . Suffice it that I beheld scenes of lust, insanity, debauchery, and all vileness, sufficiently dreadful to appall the stoutest heart of any sane one who dwells in the same awful phantasies and evils.”—Dealings with the Dead, pages 143–4. Dr. Hare and Judge Edmonds said the vicious spirits had no means of gratifying their passions; but these statements have large limitations, for the Judge gives numerous instances wherein the desires of mischief, revenge, etc., were gratified even in the spheres. And all spiritual authorities agree that spirit intercourse is a recent discovery, and is progressive in its manifestations. On this point, the following is copied from Mr. Matteson’s work:— “After the writing of the spirit Hebrew in Mr. Fowler’s room, B. Franklin is made to say:—‘My dear friends, I am happy to announce to you that the project which has engaged our attention for some years has been in part accomplished.’—Telegraph, No. 22. In Mr. Boynton’s ‘Unfoldings,’ John Wesley is made to say, ‘Never was more joy in the spirit world when it was made known that a mode of communication was opened to mankind. Such a gathering to hear the joyful news—such rejoicing was never known in the spheres.’ Page 10. So in one of Judge Edmonds’ ‘visions,’ ‘Shekinah,’ Vol. i, page 268, the Judge describes the inhabitants of the spheres as rejoicing that a communication had at length been opened between the inhabitants of earth and the spirit land. . . . They set up one glad shout which rang through all space, and pointed to Dr. Franklin as him to whose practical and enlarged philosophy they were indebted for perfecting the discovery.”—Spirit Rapping Unveiled, pages 143–4. Hudson Tuttle, a very popular spiritualistic writer, says:— “A few years since the discovery of the method by which these pages are written, have elapsed. During the first years of its growth but few demonstrations were made, and those of a disconnected character.”—Life in the Spheres, page 62. Again, after describing a circle, and a spirit acting on a medium, etc., he says:— “The members of that circle went to their homes wiser and better than they came. Their spirit friends departed wiser, too, rejoicing that the long-sought method of communication had been discovered, and that the earth received by its means a new impetus by the influx of higher life.”—Id., page 66. This is sufficient to show the fact as claimed by Spiritualists; our main object is to show what use is made of this discovery. Remember, the spirits are represented as being as low and as vile as any on earth, and that they act on the mediums with a power irresistible. The result can be calculated by any one capable of reckoning in simple addition. Let us hear their own testimony. Dr. Randolph says:— “I saw that one great cause of the moral looseness of thousands of sensitive-nerved people on earth resulted from the infernal possessions and obsessions of their persons by delegations from those realms of darkness and to all but themselves—unmitigated horror. A sensitive man or woman—no matter how virtuously inclined—may, unless by constant prayer and watchfulness they prevent it, and keep the will active and the sphere entire, be led into the most abominable practices and habits.”—Dealings with the Dead, page 150. There are several reasons why mediums are very much subject to these “abominable practices.” They are instructed not to “keep the will active,” but to be perfectly passive to the influence of the spirits in order to be well-developed mediums. And they do not watch and pray; on the contrary, the spirits teach that19“whatever is, is right;” that “God does not condemn;” that there is no judgment but “the judgment of self;” and that men and women are not responsible for their actions. And of those who profess to pray, some of them pray to the devil; others to no particular object. The “controlling spirit,” through Mrs. Conant of Boston, said:— “It is good to pray. It matters not whether you address a principle or a personality; indeed it is not necessary that you address any one.” “But let no person mistake me and suppose I claim that each medium is a Spiritualist. By no means; many of our best test mediums know little or nothing of Spiritualism, and some are members of churches, and read or say prayers in their places.”—Gist of Spiritualism, page 71. As much as to say, and rightly too, that they who are yet in churches and say prayers cannot be full-grown Spiritualists. Again, recounting his trials and sufferings, he says:— “Reader, do you think he had reason to thank God for life, and ask his blessing on every meal, and to believe him a God of love, with especial care of his children? Or, was he one of the adversary’s children? If so, he should pray to the devil, for he certainly ought to serve and obey his parent, if any being, until his powers are equal to the parent; then he should be free. But not free to serve his devil-father’s worst enemy.”—Life-Line of the Lone One, page 83. Surely, there is not much to either guard or restrain from evil in such teachings.