A Spiritualist Meeting Witnessed
By Daniel T. Bourdeau
Bro. Smith: A few days after my return from Jay, I attended a Spiritual meeting in this place, with the intention of being an eye-witness of the mysterious performances which are so much noised abroad in the land at the present time: and as my expectations were met, it may not be amiss for me to briefly relate what I saw and heard. The principal speaker and performer in this meeting, was Mrs. Parker, from Morristown, Vt. A short time before the meeting commenced, she came into the room where the people were assembled, and sat down at a small distance from the congregation, while certain of my acquaintances were interrogating me in regard to the hell spoken of in the Bible. Hardly had Mrs. P. been seated five minutes before she fell into a trance. The eyes of the whole assembly were at once fastened upon her, and she commenced to perform. She rubbed her hands and face, twisted, and made such gestures as were calculated to captivate the attention of the congregation; and when she was perfectly under the control of the spirit of Doctor Franklin(?) she arose, with her eyes closed, drew near to me, and delivered me a lecture on the subject of universal salvation through Christ. And O, how she did extol Jesus; and how her remarks were calculated to charm and deceive the uninformed! Here I could not help noticing how her views of the merits of Christ clashed with the sentiments of other Spiritualists, who trample under foot the Son of God, and say that his blood has no more virtue than the blood of any other man, and that the doctrine of atonement has the same tendency as the doctrine of indulgences. I was also led to contrast what I saw and heard, with what I have been permitted to witness since I joined the humble company who are keeping the commandments of God, and believe in the restoration of the gifts; and how plain it was to my mind that the spiritual manifestations of these last days are the spurious work. On one hand I saw an individual, pale as death, and associated with such as make no difference between the holy and the vile, between light and darkness, with hellish looks, performing in such a manner as to gratify the desires of those who were imbued with the spirit she possessed,111and overwhelm the timid and fearful, and create laughter in those of a trifling spirit. On the other hand was presented before me an unassuming and humble person, ardently striving to follow the meek and lowly Jesus, and willing to submit to the judgment of her brethren, (who prefer light to darkness, and righteousness to unrighteousness,) calmly and quietly raising her eyes toward heaven, while pouring her heart in supplication to the God of heaven; and while the power and Spirit of God rested upon those who were with her, she was breathless. Her countenance was bright and heavenly, and none of her actions were indecent and calculated to create laughter or fear. She was wrapped up in a heavenly vision, and had no knowledge of what transpired around her, occasionally moving her hands and uttering a few significant words, to indicate the scenes that passed before her and the things that she heard. On one hand was a Spiritualist, purporting to be under the direct influence of the spirit of a dead man, (while the Bible says, "The dead know not anything,") striking at the very foundation of the christian religion, and stating that men cannot and should not believe alike, and that a man's heaven or hell is in his own bosom, and that there is no Devil, thus fostering all kinds of sin—helping to swell the cry of peace and safety, and binding the wicked in bundles against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. On the other hand was a devoted christian, just out of vision, relating what the Lord had revealed unto her, reproving sin and sinners, strengthening and consoling the weak, teaching christians to love the Bible and live up to the doctrines therein contained, and to come up to the unity of the faith, that they might be strong in the Lord, fight the good fight, escape the wrath of God, and have a home in the kingdom soon to be ushered in. Blessed be God, we have a sure detector, by which we may try the spirits, and see the wide difference there is between the hateful and soul-withering work of the enemy, and the glorious and soul-reviving work of Jehovah! But I must continue my narration. When Mrs. P. had given her lecture, she remarked that those who had questions to ask might ask them; and as she had addressed her whole discourse to me, I thought it proper to propose her a few questions. I first asked her what she thought of the Bible. "The Bible!" said she, "it is the best of books." I then asked her if any parts of the Bible were spurious. "O yes," she replied. A prominent Spiritualist who stood by her, added, "There are many of the books of the Bible that are spurious. When the Bible was translated and compiled, many books were rejected, because it was said they were fictitious, and it is very evident that the spurious books were not all detected." Another still more prominent and influential Spiritualist added, "The books of Moses are spurious; they are the most imperfect production now extant. Moses was the greatest scoundrel that ever lived; any school boy of ten years old can write better than he did. He wrote under the influence of some of the meanest and dirtiest imps [spirits, gods] that occupy the lowest circle. His God was a wicked tyrant." All those who love God and his word can see at once that these individuals spoke as they were moved by their father the Devil, whom they worship; and that, generally speaking, such testimonies as the above should not be meddled with. But on account of some of my acquaintances who were present, I endeavored, with the help of God, to expose the fallacies of those testimonies, and summed up my remarks somewhat as follows: We see that the reason why the Apocrypha was not compiled with the Bible, was because they were not in accordance with the Bible and profane history, [I referred especially to the frivolous gospels and epistles that have been forged since the days of the apostles,] and could not be traced back to the age in which they purport to have been written; and the fact that the prophecies of Moses have had their fulfillment, proves that he was a man of God, and that he spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. How can the Bible be "the best of books," and "a spurious book," leading the mind astray, at the same time? After this I requested the speaker to tell me her views in regard to the nature of man; and she spun me out just such a thread as any other Spiritualist would have spun in like circumstances. I endeavored to rein her up to the Bible view of that subject; but when she was met with such declarations as "the dead know not anything," "no man hath yet ascended to heaven," "if the dead rise not, then they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished," "God only hath immortality" etc., she tried to evade the point, and shrewdly accosted me with, "Where are the signs that follow you?" I remarked that she was digressing from the subject, and again endeavored to call her attention to the Bible; but all my efforts were vain. Benjamin Franklin [I should have said the Devil through Mrs. P.] wheeled about, thanked the congregation for their attention, and closed his remarks by saying, "She [the speaker] is very weak and much fatigued. She must have rest. Good night." And thus ended the dramatic and devilish scene. My spirit truly was stirred within me while I saw the Devil work with so much power and deceivableness, and while I saw so many of my acquaintances being deceived by this awful delusion. Some of my friends who had often invited me to deliver a course of lectures on present truth, requested me to give a discourse or more on the subjects that had occupied our minds; and I immediately gave an appointment for a meeting to be held in our school-house the next evening. The subject announced was the authenticity of the Bible. The house was pretty well filled with attentive hearers, and I was requested to give some more lectures. With the assistance of God I was enabled to deliver seven more; and suffice it to say that I was blessed and strengthened in striving, in my weakness, to present the glorious present truth to my neighbors, and the friends of my youth. When I look back on what I have just passed through, I feel it very important for me to be girt about with the truth, to have the truth treasured in my heart, and to have on the whole armor, in these last days of peril. When I also consider the work of the adversary as brought to view in spirit manifestations, and compare it with his work, which I was permitted to witness six or seven years ago, when Spiritualism was in its infancy, I see that the dragon has come down with great wrath, knowing that his time is short. And I am led to conclude that the Lord is about to work graciously, that the enemies of Jehovah may know that there is a God in Israel. Already I seem to see the Israel of God clothed with power from on high, having on the whole armor of God, watching carefully the signals of their Captain, and strictly following his directions—a terror to their enemies. A battle is just before us. Signs of war are thickening on every hand. Who will prepare for the conflict, and go through the war? How can God's people fight successfully? In being discordant? In despising some of their members? Reason says No; for where union is there is strength. God's word, which commends itself to every man's reason and conscience, answers, No. "Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, . . . and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him." Phil. ii, 2; Rom. xii, 5; 1 Cor. xii, 13, 18. "And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than those shall he do; because I go to my Father." Mark xvi, 15, 18; Matt. ix, 8; Jno. xiv, 12. O God help thy people to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and no more grieve thy Holy Spirit by despising prophesyings and the gifts of the Spirit, that they may have the blessings of the Spirit, and thereby be enabled to face wicked men and devils, is my prayer. West Enosburgh, Vt., Feb., 1859.