Glances at Passing Events.
By Editor
We give the following items as we find them compiled in the Prophetic Times for June 1864. THE political and moral aspect of Europe, and indeed of the whole world, is becoming "worse and worse," with no signs of a change for the better. It seems to us that every careful student of prophecy, and observer of the signs of the times, must see that we are very near the end of the age. "A few more rising and setting suns," and the pilgrim's lonely journey ends. Praise the Lord for the bright light now shining on the prophetic page. An English correspondent of Zion's Herald writes: "The clouds are lowering everywhere in Europe. Rapid reference need only be made to mangled Poland, Russian dissensions, Danish complications, and incomplete Italy. The worst, however, is to be apprehended from France, and the agitation which stirs the empire of that wonderful man who holds in hand a well-disciplined army of 800,000 men. The sound of discontent in France forebodes foreign wars, and the summons of a Congress was but the artifice of a far-sighted, but not very scrupulous ruler to arouse his subjects to gain time. "This diversion will not long endure, and whilst a heavily taxed people chafe beneath financial embarrassments and difficulties connected with Mexico, it is not at all improbable that Napoleon will avail himself of any opportunity that may seem to require him to throw his sword in the scale, hoping thereby to extend his own Mediterranean frontier from Mentone to Genoa. "The most alarming sign of the times, so far as Britain is concerned, has a religious aspect. We refer to the new and attractive forms in which ancient and exploded infidelity is now exhibited in high places. The Essays and Reviews ran their brief career of popularity, and are well-nigh forgotten. Even the hardihood of Bishop Colenso's more ill-mannered and audacious attacks on Moses and the Prophets have ceased to interest, and his more recent productions have 'dropped stillborn from the press.' But they have left behind them the trail of the serpent, and helped to make more dangerous the insidious and sentimental skepticism of Dr. Stanley and his abettors. "It is impossible not to feel that we live in 'perilous times' when unbelief scarcely masked stalks forth in our seats of religion and of learning, and boasts that it insinuates its poison into royal palaces. It is also feared that the Colleges of the Independent denomination have been tainted, and that some of their most eminent teachers are promulgating dangerous errors. Professors Davidson and Godwin have already been ejected from their Colleges, but in each case a considerable minority of the committee gave proof of unmistakable sympathy with the deposed men." No fact is more apparent than that infidelity is rapidly advancing in all civilized countries. Several years since, the New York Independent stated that four-fifths of our earnest-minded young men were decidedly skeptical; and since that time, infidelity has advanced more rapidly than ever, till we now find but few, comparatively, who fully believe the Bible. The Spiritualists have recently held a large convention in Mercantile Hall, Boston, on Feb. 24th, 25th, 26th. They are gaining ground rapidly. They are very jubilant over their great success. Their ranks are fast filling up with those who hold the first positions in the social and political world,—men and women of intelligence. They have become disgusted with the fashionable, popular religion of the day, and have been driven to a semi-infidelity, thence into Spiritualism; from which but few, we fear, will ever be delivered. One important feature of the convention was talk about "ORGANIZATION." They think the time is at hand for active measures for their object. It was advocated that the present existing laws of the country should be abrogated, instead of making more. Mr. Loveland said, "Our first work will be to abrogate laws." They are laying plans to unitize the world into one great body, and say the "first thing is to remove obstructions." It was remarked that the object of the convention was to provide a "platform" for future operations. It was stated in the convention that "many prominent men at the Capitol (Washington) are becoming interested in Spiritualism." It appeared to be the general sentiment of the conference, that there is no standard of right and wrong. Each should do what is right in his own eyes, without regard to God or the Bible. Read in this connection, the first three verses of the fourth chapter of Paul's first epistle to Timothy, and learn what Spiritualism is, and what it is to do in the world. This is a prophecy upon which the Holy Ghost, in Paul's day, laid very special stress, and blessed is he who gives proper heed to what "the Spirit speaketh expressly." At the great Spiritualist mass meeting at Oshtemo, Michigan, June 26th and 27th, 1863, it was said in one of their prominent speeches: "Spiritualism, with its thousands of mediums and its millions of believers, stands forth to-day as the religion of the world." We believe the saying to be true in a much broader sense than most people are ready to admit, who have not yet indorsed this new religion. But few are aware of the rapid spread of the principles embodied in the system of theology taught by the spirits and spiritualists. Like weeds, they are springing up all over the world, and having a most luxuriant growth, with very little hindrance; so that it is becoming "the religion of the world" in its extent. It is emphatically "the religion of the world" in its character; that is, it is in keeping with the feelings of the natural man. It requires no reformation, no sorrow for sin, nor consecration to the Lord. All men and women, no matter how they live, are members of the "New Catholic Church," so called by the spiritualists. It is perfectly adapted to the taste of wicked men; therefore it meets with no opposition from the world. Men do not embrace this whole system at once, but first adopt some of these principles, and advance step by step till they are wholly engulfed in the depths of infidelity. Let all beware of this "religion of the world." MORAL ASPECTS OF OUR TIMES.
The present times bid fair to be distinguished preeminently as a period of crime. The progress and the prevalence of even the grossest forms of wickedness, in different places and among diverse classes, are facts frightful to observe, and more frightful to ponder. Every newspaper is laden with the records of such. Dishonesty, licentiousness, violence, murder,—they do not meet us as exceptional instances: they make the staple of the news of the day; they load and darken the columns of all journals; till one trembles almost to take up the morning paper, is afraid to have it read in the family, and lays it down with a sense of heart-sickness, a saddening impression of the ineffectiveness of our means of public moral and religious instruction, a keen apprehension of what is to be expected in the future. It is not the rich and luxurious alone among whom such evidences of viciousness abound. It is not those who are avowedly worldly and godless in their lives. Mechanics, merchants, farmers, teachers, physicians, lawyers, ministers of the Gospel, men high in social rank and in political influence, women as well as men, the young not only but the aged, in well-nigh equal measure, the refined and cultivated as well as the coarse,—all seem to be smitten with the foul contagion, and suddenly to break out with the vile and hateful leprosy of sin. Not crimes of dishonesty alone are common; but the murder of wives, of husbands, of children, of the most confiding and affectionate friends, a horrible lustful43ness, the most flagrant and fiendish violations of faith,—all seem as common as the blossoming of trees, and are coming to be spoken of as familiarly and frequently, and with nearly as little apparent concern, as are the most ordinary and trivial facts.—Independent. The financial article of the Evening Telegraph, has the following observations: “The abundance of money afloat now is really doing harm. The millions amassed by army speculators invade every avenue of trade as a power unheard of before, and prices are forced up by the gamblers in all sorts of the necessaries of life, while many of the speculators who have become enriched are leading most disreputable lives. The wildest extravagance is seizing upon the imaginations of men; and in New York, some of the wealthy stock speculators are building marble stables for their horses, spending their evenings in gaming-houses and worse places, and absolutely throwing money around them with a profusion that sets at defiance all the laws of taste, sobriety, and morality. The war must be fought out quickly, or our National integrity and character will be dissipated in the wild orgies and Saturnalia of the hour. We can scarcely speak with patience of some things which we both see and hear in our midst, as to the atrocious use of wealth suddenly acquired; and sober citizens little dream of the transactions which now disfigure social life in large cities during the evenings and nights.”