p. 355 | Modern Spiritualism by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 27, 1879

Modern Spiritualism.

By Editor

(Continued.)

PROGRESS OF SPIRITUALISM.

We do not say that all Spiritualists have ignored the institution of marriage, but Spiritualism has. No matter how strongly some may deny having any sympathy with such teachings, it cannot be denied that such is the tendency of Spiritualism. On this, as on other points which have been noticed, the tendency is to immorality—to unrestrained license to every evil work.

And while the obligation of marriage, and the institution itself, are derided, it is honored only in mockery. For we can only call that mockery of marriage which was transacted not long since in Kansas. Mr. Isaac E. Eaton, of Leavenworth, Kansas, is a member of the National Democratic Committee. His daughter died in 1845, aged but six weeks. In 1853, by a railroad accident, Benny, son of President Pierce, was killed, near Andover, Mass. His age was twelve years. Sarah Catharine Eaton and Benjamin Pearce were said to be married "in the spheres," June 20, 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Eaton made it the occasion of great rejoicing. Mr. Eaton first asked the question to what purported to be his spirit daughter, if she had not some chosen associate whom they could call son. On this hint grew up the whole affair.

A medium was "obsessed" to see and describe the scene. The ceremony was performed by Swedenborg, and, of course, a great number of celebrated personages were present. Among them we find the well-known names of Presidents Martin Van Buren, Polk, and Taylor, and S. A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, Winfield Scott, Levi Woodbury, Rufus Choate, John Wesley, etc. Mr. Eaton wrote a lengthy report of the affair to the Leavenworth Times, which affords clear evidence of his sincerity and his credulity. The correspondence between the father and daughter (professedly), is "medium to silly." From the comments of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat we take the following:—

"It is impossible for the unprejudiced reader to avoid seeing upon what a slender base the whole structure stands. Both father and mother accepted without question the assurance that the young woman who appeared to them in the cabinet was their daughter, and from this simple acceptance flowed the whole after occurrences. After Mott saw the effect his materialization had produced on Mr. Eaton's mind, he turned him over to medium Mansfield, of New York, who is gifted, it seems, with the possession of extraordinary facilities for inducing the spirits to put down their thoughts in black and white. There is not a single occurrence related that does not bear the taint of the original fraud which made Mr. Eaton believe that he saw his daughter in the cabinet figure. . . . The whole affair is only another proof of the ease with which many intelligent men and women may be duped to believe what they ardently want to believe. The mediums took advantage of this condition of their victims' minds, and led them on at pleasure."

But the point of principal interest to us in this case is found in the following expression in the correspondence. Thus the spirit through the medium writes to Mr. Eaton:—

"It was said that they are not given in marriage here. That was simply a saying of the priests in early days to induce not only the early but frequent marriages for the money they derived from such ceremony. But that marriage takes place here—that is, that conjugal souls are united more frequently than is the custom in earth life, I tell you such is the fact."

The readiness with which our Saviour's motives are misrepresented, and his words denied and ascribed to "the priests," shows the origin of the whole transaction. Though the mediums always thus reproach the gospel and its author and its ministers, it is a well-known truth that they themselves are greedy of gain, and decieve others for their own profit.

This affair has attracted but little attention, and why? It is because the facts and marvels of Spiritualism have become so very common. The most eminent men now accept its teachings without attracting much notice. On this account many suppose that it is dying away. To the contrary, it never was growing more rapidly. Its successes are now carried on with a class who will soon give it a popularity which it has never yet had.

The following is from the San Francisco Chronicle:—

"Until quite recently, science has coldly ignored the alleged phenomena of Spiritualism, and treated Andrew Jackson Davis, Home, and the Davenport brothers, as if they belonged to the common fraternity of showmen and mountebanks. But now there has come a most noteworthy change. We learn from such high authority as the Fortnightly Review that Alfred R. Wallace, F. R. S., William Crooks, F. R. S., and editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science, W. H. Harrison, F. R. S., and president of the British Ethnological Society, with others occupying a high position in the scientific and literary world, have been seriously investigating the phenomena of Spiritism. The report which those learned gentlemen make is simply astounding. There is no fairy tale, no story of myth or miracle, that is more incredible than their narrative. They tell us, in grave and sober speech, that the spirit of a girl who died a hundred years ago, appeared to them in visible form. She talked with them, gave them locks of her hair, pieces of her dress, and her autograph. They saw her in bodily presence, felt her person, heard her voice; she entered the room in which they were, and disappeared without the opening of a door. The savants declare that they have had numerous interviews with her under conditions forbidding the idea of trickery or imposture."

"Now that men eminent in the scientific world have taken up the investigation, spiritism has entered upon a new phase. It can no longer be treated with silent contempt. Mr. Wallace's articles in the Fortnightly have attracted general attention, and many of the leading English reviews and newspapers are discussing the matter. The New York World devotes three columns of its space to a summary of the last article in the Fortnightly, and declares editorially that the 'phenomena thus attested' deserve the rigid scientific examination which Mr. Wallace invites for them.' This is treating the matter in the right way. Let all the well attested facts be collected, and then let us see what conclusions they justify. If spirit communication is a fact, it is certainly a most interesting one. In the language which the World attributes to John Bright, 'If it is a fact, it is the one beside which every other fact of human existence sinks into insignificance.'"

Our late minister to England, Hon. Edward Pierrepont, addressed a letter through a medium to an ancestral lady of England making inquiries about the family genealogy. A writer under date of London, Aug. 12, 1876, says:—

"The currents which show the tendency and growth of Spiritualism in public ways and places are great enough, but the extent to which it prevails in private circles, unknown to the public, is surprisingly great. This is known to a portion of the evangelical fraternity, and meetings have lately been held, presided over by bishops, archbishops, and laymen, to discuss what means shall be taken to check the growing 'irreligion of the age.'"

The well-known newspaper writer, Don Piatt, speaking of society in Washington City, said:—

"I was surprised to find, after my attention was called to the subject, what a number of cultured persons I encountered here, confirmed believers in Spiritualism. I am told that the same fact exists in Europe. For example, when Foster was here, some three months since, his visitors were mainly composed of leading members of the senate, house, and secretaries of the cabinet, who openly consulted this man as to matters existing beyond the grave. Were I to give you their names my letter would be rather interesting, but spiteful, for there are few of these believers who do not shrink from being publicly known as such."

The Christian at Work of Aug. 17, 1876, under the head of "Witches and Fools," says:—

"But we do not know how many judges, bankers, merchants, prominent men in nearly every occupation in life, there are who make it a constant practice to visit clairvoyants, sight-seers, and so-called spirit mediums; yet it can scarcely be doubted that their name is legion; that not only the unreligious man, but professing Christians, men and women, are in the habit of consulting spirits from the vasty deep for information concerning both the dead and living. Many who pass for intelligent people, who would be shocked to have their Christianity called in question, are constantly engaged in this disreputable business. They go to these dens—though as that matter these mediums occupy some of the best houses in the most fashionable localities in the city—pay from two to five dollars, propound their inquiries, and get their answers. . . . We know that these clairvoyants are sought as preliminary to business ventures, that they are appealed to in behalf of sick friends," etc. "And yet the duty of the Christian is clear and unmistakable. He has no right whatever to consult these familiar spirits. Saul consulted the witch of Endor and he received a revelation; but it was Saul's perverted, wicked heart that drove him for refuge to a witch instead of to his God, and God did not approve his method; nor does he ever approve it."

The great reason why church members and ministers are so easily deceived by these spirits, is their ignorance of the Bible. The members have left the reading of the Scriptures to their ministers, while they have turned their whole attention to making money. The ministers have been trained in theological schools to read the "classics," instead of the writings of the prophets and apostles. All unite in their efforts to please the world, and hold forth a religion without a cross, which fosters pride and gratifies ambition. What little they read of the Bible is not with a desire to learn their duty there, so much as to find arguments to sustain their pre-adopted creeds and to build up their several denominations. A visit from a "test medium" to a village often fills the churches with the deepest surprise and both ministers and members will sit for hours to listen to their seducing words, and to behold the manifestations, utterly disregarding the precept of the Lord, to seek not unto them that have familiar spirits, without once thinking that it is a subject of prophecy; and they are unwilling to believe the Bible statements concerning the dead, which prove it to be a deception of the enemy. Where they have been found reasoning together concerning these things, an individual has quoted the words of the Scriptures that "the dead know not anything," and that their love, hatred, envy, and all their thoughts, are perished, and they would avoid him as they would a contagion. Errors that are popular, though their origin can be traced to the superstitions of the heathen, are preferred to the plainest truths of the Bible, if a belief in them brings reproach. And by this love of popularity, so manifest among professors, we are reminded of the words of N. P. Tallmadge in regard to the ultimate spread of Spiritualism, in the introduction to the "Healing of the Nations," page 29:—

"The time is near at hand when no one will hesitate to avow his or her opinion on this subject. Spiritualism is making rapid advances in the highest classes of society, and its onward progress will soon render it fashionable, and then no human power can resist it."

With the evidence of the Scriptures before us that they are the spirits of devils, we cannot hesitate to decide that wherever they are admitted, whether in political or ecclesiastical bodies, such bodies thereby become "the habitation of devils." How fearful the condition of such bodies, and how marked the fulfillment of prophecy in the present and prospective attitude of the political and religious world!

(To be continued.)