"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily [Private Circles,] shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." 2 Pet. ii, 1.
"When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." 1 Thess. v, 3.
"Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit," &c. Chap. xviii, 2.
"Whose [Christ's] coming is after [immediately following] the working of satan with all power, and signs and lying wonders." 2 Thess. ii, 9.
"And shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch, that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Matt. xxiv, 24.
Facts for Dr. Dods and Professor Faraday.
The Society for the diffusion of Spiritual Knowledge are issuing a weekly in pursuance of their object, called the Christian Spiritualist. From it we take the following:—
"Again, we have had rapped out: 'lay fifty pieces of paper in a locked cupboard, and we will write upon them.' In less than half an hour there was a communication of at least ten lines on each piece, and each communication perfectly characteristic of the individual professing to communicate.
We have the remains of a table which was broken all to pieces by a Spirit professing to be Samson of old—broken all in small pieces and not one person was near it. The table being near the wall, commenced moving as we came into the room to form a circle, and moved until I came to about the middle, when the Spirit commenced breaking it, and the floor when he got through, was a perfect sight to behold, all covered with splinters. The whole company, (some ten or fifteen, all sceptics except myself,) were perfectly convinced."
Were these men all "psycologized," Doctor? Are the splinters, still kept, permanent phantoms engendered in the "back brain?"
Whoever this Spirit is that assumes so strong a name, his deeds, we hope will testify that he has some right to it, either natural or acquired; and that he will keep on until he carries away the "brazen gates" of the Gaza, in which materialistic superstition has entrenched itself.
A correspondent of the Christian Spiritualist writing from Washington, D. C., says:—It is gratifying to witness the steady and onward course of Spiritualism, and the intense anxiety of many persons to become acquainted with facts and witness the phenomena. In our city we have much greater interest awakened, than is generally known; many persons in high places are very much interested in the subject, but are afraid to have it understood that they should be guilty of such an enormity, which might be productive of a decree to hurry them to the Insane Asylum. After a while these fooleries will give way to the force of truth, and will be auxiliaries to the cause, which, at present, are like the viscus on the body politic. We thank God that the promise is even as it is. When we look back through the sins of years, since the introduction of this subject by Baron Swedenborg, and see its slow progress, we can hardly look without astonishment on the rapid and unprecedented advancement it has made in a short five years. Increasing in the same ratio, what may we expect in the next ten?
CARRIED BY AN INVISIBLE POWER.—P. B. Randolph stated, at the Conference of July 25th, that a gentleman of his acquaintance recently went into his parlor with a candle in his hand, intending to get for it a candlestick that was upon the parlor mantle-shelf. He distinctly saw the candlestick upon the shelf as he went toward it, but before he got to it some one in the other room spoke to him, and he went back to answer the person who had spoken. As he re-entered the parlor the candlestick which he had before distinctly seen was gone, and at that instant he heard it fall upon a trunk about thirty feet distant from the mantlepiece where it had before stood. There was no visible person any where near who could have moved it, and the only conclusion that seemed admissible was that it must have been moved by Spirit-agency.
A writer to the Telegraph, says:—During a recent sitting at a private circle in your city, consisting of four persons besides myself, the following demonstrations occurred. In about five minutes after the circle was formed, I began to feel distinct touches from some object resembling a human hand; these touches were first felt on the knee, then on the arm, and at last on the forehead. It was sufficiently light in the room to enable me to discern the movements of those who composed the circle, and I know as positively as I know that I am penning you this article, that I was touched by no mortal hand in the room.8
After I had felt a hand laid on my forehead five or six times, I suddenly reached forth to see if I could clutch it. I caught hold of an object resembling the wrist of a person. As soon as I had fairly clasped it, I was drawn from my chair across the room, for eight or ten feet. Meanwhile I was holding on with all my strength, and the object which I held on to was making much effort apparently, by wringing or twisting the arm and hand, to release itself from my persistent grasp. When it touched my forehead, I could distinctly feel the fingers, and even the very nails upon them. The hand felt to be smoother and far less moist than the human hand; in fact, no Parian marble could be polished to such perfect smoothness.
I also held a closed fan up as high as I could reach, and it was taken from me, though no person was within several feet of me at the time, and I was fanned for nearly a minute, and so were the others in the circle, each in turn. I requested the invisible intelligence to stop the ticking of a clock which stood on the mantle-shelf in the room. It was an iron clock, with enameled front, and it at once commenced ticking as rapidly again as it did ordinarily; it then commenced ticking slower and slower, till it almost entirely stopped. My shoe was taken off my right foot and thrown across the room, and the bottom of my foot was tickled excessively. My porte-monnaie was taken from my pocket, the bank-notes removed from it, and laid around on the heads of the members of the circle. They were soon replaced from whence they were taken, and the porte-monnaie returned to me. Indeed, it was slipped back into the pocket of my pants, opposite to the one out of which it was at first removed, it being the farthest off from those who were sitting with me in the circle. It was written out, without even the medium touching the pencil, "Wealth does not make the man:" "The mind is the true standard of the man"—which seemed as reflections strikingly apposite to the demonstrations just given.
I could fill many pages with similar facts which have occurred during my investigations, and some of them, far more remarkable than these, because perhaps, more personal in their bearing.