REFORMER'S CONVENTION

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 22, 1858

REFORMER'S CONVENTION.

The pen would become weary in recording, and the eye in reading, all the absurd and blasphemous notions put forth by Deists, Atheists, Free Lovers and Spiritualists, which are now flooding the land. A Reform, or perhaps more properly a Spiritualist, Convention commenced June 25th last, in Rutland, Vt. Some of the positions taken, and the resolutions discussed it may be proper to record as waymarks of the progression(?) people are making in some directions. The first resolution will show the position into which some would be glad to reform themselves on the subject of law:

"Resolved, That the authority of each individual soul is absolute and final in deciding all questions as to what is true or false in principle, or right or wrong in practice; therefore the individual, the church or the State that attempts to control the opinions or the practice of any man or woman, by authority or power outside of his or her own soul, is guilty of a flagrant wrong."

The object of the Convention seemed to be to destroy the confidence of the people in the Bible and its Author, as the following resolution will show:

"Resolved, That nothing is true or right, and nothing is false or wrong, because it is sanctioned or condemned by the Bible—therefore our Bible is powerless to prove any doctrine to be true or any practice to be right, and it should never be quoted for that purpose."

Read 1 Tim. iv, 3, and compare with it the following:

"Resolved, That the slavery and degradation of woman proceed from the institution of marriage; that by the marriage contract she loses control of her name, her person, her property, her labor, her affections, her children and her freedom."

Mr. T. Curtis, a free lover of Philadelphia, Pa., made the following statement of his experience and sentiments:

"I married myself to my wife, and she married herself to me, upon the express understanding not that God sanctified it—she did not want God in the matter—not that it was sanctioned by magistrate or priest, because we cast that idea aside as none of their business, &c. . . . When we were married, we expressed that sentiment, and when we agree to separate, we shall accomplish that separation without the help of God, or priest or magistrate—we don't want the consent of either of the three—we do not want to be united because God unites us, and we will not be separated because God separates us. We will act upon our own judgment and opinions; each respecting the impressions, not which I state, or which she states, but the impressions which are for both, and which are the common property of all, and as such to be used both by men and women."

Eld. Grant, of the "World's Crisis," was present to hold up the true Bible doctrine concerning the state of man in death, and the immortality of the soul. From his report we copy the following paragraph:

"In replying to Prof. Brittan, we quoted both what the Lord and the Devil said to Eve. The Lord said, 'Thou shalt surely die;' and the Devil said, 'Ye shall not surely die.' We inquired which told the truth. Several voices from the platform cried out, 'The Devil.' They answered consistently with their belief; and we do not see how any one who believes in the immortality of the soul can honestly give any other answer."

If we may credit the various reports of this Convention, it was rather a failure and will prove a detriment to the cause of Spiritualism in Rutland and vicinity; but in an age when the masses seem thirsting for error, and hankering for any delusion which will exalt themselves, flatter their presumption, and give the rein to their passions and lusts, such a trifling incident will prove no lasting impediment to this work of devils.