p. 43 | SPIRITUALISM by John Norton Loughborough

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 2, 1861

SPIRITUALISM.

By John Norton Loughborough

DEAR BRO. WHITE: I have a few quotations which I use in lecturing on Spiritualism, taken from the Banner of Light, which some of the brethren request me to send to the Review for publication, so that they can get them. The first is a report of a Spiritual conference held at No. 14, Broomfield St., Boston, Wednesday evening, Jan. 9, 1861. The question up for discussion was:

"What are the means by which we may determine genuine spirit manifestations from those originating in the earth life?"

Dr. Gardner said: "The means of determining the genuineness of spiritual manifestations, is probably vague with all of us, and every one must do it on his or her own plan. The better a person is acquainted with mental phenomena—the power of one mind over another—the better he can answer the question.

"There cannot be so thorough proof, however, as on other and more tangible matters. False communications have at times been proof of the power and control of spirits, for facts have been given, interblended with falsehood, beyond their knowledge. Communications have been given through mediums from persons who have been in the flesh at the time, the mediums all the time being innocent of any deception; but it seems to me the spirits of the absent ones become so tangibly present by the use of their own thoughts, as to influence the power of the medium. The best test we can apply to communications, after all is our own reason."

Mr. Wetherbee said: "We cannot tell ourselves what we are; and we are just as near spirits now as we ever shall be."

Mr. Davis said: "The question, as I understand it, is, How are we to distinguish between true and false manifestations? It seems to me the truth of the communications may be a safe guide; but mediums may give false communications, and yet be innocent; for they are unconscious of any attempt at deception practiced by the spirits through them."

Dr. Gardner said: "I will state a fact under my own observation. Mrs. Hatch was speaking in the Melodeon, a few years ago, and delivering a discourse of a very high order. During the time, her spirit visited Buffalo, and held converse with the medium in a circle which was being held there, and so impressed herself upon her identity that she told those present that 'Cora Hatch is here.' On coming out of the trance, Mrs. H. told her husband and myself that she had been to Buffalo, and visited awhile there. She narrated a conversation there, and requested a memorandum to be made of it, and sent to Buffalo, and said the same thing would be done there, and the letters would pass each other on the route, and thus prove a test to all parties. This was done according to direction; and a few days after, a letter was received from Buffalo, giving the same particulars. This fact proves that living spirits can communicate with each other."

Mr. Burke said that he "thought the Doctor was honest in what he said, but was the victim of deception on the part of the mediums."

Mr. Edson said: "There is no need of accusing everything of falsehood because there are some counterfeits."

I have some testimonies from the Banner of Light, of Jan. 19, 1861, professing to be communications from spirits, which I will give for the curiosity of the reader. The first is professedly from Kneeland Chase, and I used it with considerable force the other day against a Spiritualist who raised a query about the Bible account of the death of Moses, and wanted to know if we ever knew of an individual giving an account of their own death and burial! It is as follows: "Oh,

my God I am in trouble. I am dead—there is no doubt about that; but I did not know it till some time afterwards. I know this place; I know what I have come for; I know about your paper; I have read it; but I have never seen any body come in this way—never heard anybody talk in this way."

"I have got a strange story to tell I was murdered; and I know who murdered me. It wasn't Billey by any means. It wasn't anybody who was charged with my murder; But I know who did it. My God! I wish I didn't."

"I have two or three favors to ask here. One is, I should like to have all my body buried together. I don't want one part of it in New Hampshire and another in Massachusetts. I want Dr. Jackson to send my stomach home. It is a queer question to ask, perhaps, but it is a favor, and I ask it. That body served me well, and I wish to take care of it now. No matter if it has been buried for months, I want it all together. I could have analyzed it right. There was not poison enough to detect. I was murdered."

"It is no use to say my horse killed me—that is a foolish story. No one will ever believe it who knew about the horse. I wasn't so stupefied or drunk that I didn't know I wasn't alone, and that I was murdered as some one thought who was determined to murder me. And I confess I did not know who it was until after death; but I do know now, and I have a right to use the knowledge as I choose to. There can be but little done in the dark now-a-days. It was dark in the barn, but when I came to my senses, after death, there were plenty to tell me who did the deed, but not until I was discreet enough to use it properly."

The spirit of Charles Hovey is represented as saying, "I find as great a variety of religions here as on earth. Each has his or her own peculiar views; and, as far as I can see, spirit-life is a perfect type of natural life. I have not changed, except from one body to another; and I believe that is the case with all I meet here. They still cling to that which was their faith on earth, and will, until they find something that suits them better. At all events, I shall."

Harry Henshum is represented as saying, "I died most four years ago. I have been in a kind of a place between here and nowhere. I can't tell what I have been doing. I have lost track of most everything, not excepting myself."

I have a list of nineteen predictions in the shape of prophecies that were made by the spirits at Chagrin Falls, Ohio, September 20, 1860. Five of these predictions were to be fulfilled before this time, but four of them have failed, and the fifth which has proved true, was what all the political papers said was coming. The other fourteen apply to the future, and refer to what is to be the result of the present crisis of our nation. We will wait and see if they will be fulfilled. Those which refer to the past I will give in this article.

1. "Next winter congress will get in a broil. They will fight. Blood will flow."

2. "My consciousness is that this nation will be dead as a nation before the fourth of March."

3. "Almost simultaneous with the close of the November election, will be another crash among the banks similar to the one in 1857." Just what all the political papers were warning the people of.

4. "We will have no more presidents. The present one (Buchanan) will not serve his time out."

5. "The Republican candidate will get the popular vote, but will not be elected."

We have just had quite a time with a Spiritualist at Clinton who came into the tent and preached a discourse against the inspiration of the Bible, and tried to set up reason as a substitute, and told us after that he did not submit to evidence or authority. The Lord helped us to give him a perfect rout, and successfully meet all the fog which he tried to throw against the Bible. He undertook to claim that every man had an inspiration from God which was infallible, referring to Spiritualism. But it was not a very hard matter to show that if his arguments against the Bible were just (although he could not sustain them), there were ten contradictions in Spiritualism to one in the Bible, according to their own admission. He left town with appointments unfulfilled, and the people en masse satisfied that Spiritualism could not stand.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

Crane's Grove, Ills., June 26, 1861.