p. 112 | Modern Magic by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 18, 1886

Modern Magic.

By Editor

SPIRITUALISTS and "free thinkers" are unsparing in their ridicule of the foolishness and credulity of professors of religion who accept the miracles recorded in the Bible as actual facts. The world is too much enlightened, they say, to believe such things. Those records would do very well for the childhood of the race, but in this nineteenth century we are too far advanced to have faith in them. It has long been known that the most blindly credulous people in the world are those who scoff at the faith of the Christian; and in proof of this, we quote the following flattering notice which appeared in one of the leading Spiritualist journals. The journal is ably conducted, and intellectually and mechanically is a good specimen of modern journalism, and that makes more marked the contrast with the notice, which reads like a relic from "the Dark Ages:"—

"Mrs. ———, of San Francisco, has recently come into possession of a highly polished stone, or, as some term it, a 'magic mirror,' in which she reads the past, present, and future of persons sitting with her. She reads messages from friends passed away, sees spirit forms and faces, and events that have transpired, with startling distinctness. This lady has seen much sorrow. Her husband, children, and property have all been taken from her, and she is alone in the world,—reduced to poverty. Now the spiritual forces have brought her the means of gaining her own living and assisting others, by this magic mirror which came to her in a very strange manner. Mrs. ——— is a quiet, retiring little woman, who desires to give only the truth, and who feels that mediumship is a holy gift. She comes into the field as a laborer for the good of the spirits, but with a very limited knowledge of the harmonial philosophy, willing to learn of the humblest, but with a power of clairvoyance very few possess in so great a degree. That she is honest and truthful no one who comes into her atmosphere can for a moment doubt, and we wish her the success she deserves."