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Review and Herald, Vol. 13, No. 13.

HOLINESS TO THE LORD

Review and Herald

Feb 17, 1859

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 17, 1859

"HOLINESS TO THE LORD."

By D. F. Newton

Dear Editor: Why is it that very many who believe in the doctrine of holiness, or entire sanctification in this life, manifest an anxious desire to embrace it, and still linger in unbelief week after week, month after month? Why this halting? Is it not mainly owing to the incompleteness of the consecrating act? An unwillingness to give up all, submit entirely to Christ's requisition? Or the keeping back some part of the price?
The condition on which the promises are based, must be complied with. "Come out from among them, be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you and will be a father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
Readers, beloved, how is it with you? Are you hungering and thirsting after the inner life, "holiness to the Lord," the baptismal fire pentecostal? Have you any difficulty in believing, in coming to Christ by faith, in claiming the promises for this full salvation?
Have you complied with the condition? Cut off every right hand? Plucked out every right eye? Searched out the Achans, slain the Agags? Exterminated the Canaanites? Is all on the altar Christ Jesus, unreservedly?
Christ is the Christian's altar. Is all on this altar? Time, talent, property, health, pride, unbelief, reputation? Are homes, houses, lands, husbands, wives, parents, children, brethren, sisters, fathers, mothers, all on this altar Christ Jesus? Are they, enquiring readers, your will also? Your will and your willing? Are you ready and willing to go any where and every where when God speaks, says go? Are you willing to do any thing and every thing for Christ? Can you say with Paul, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do," and go forward cheerfully and do it? At home or abroad in domestic duties, social duties, public duties, even to the cutting off a right hand or the plucking out a right eye? Are you willing to renounce all things for God and his cause? Present your body a living sacrifice to him, even to the dying on the cross, if so be God wills it? Are you willing to follow Christ at all times, under all circumstances, through evil report as well as good report, come life or death?
Are you not only willing to deny yourself thus and take up your cross daily, but are you now doing it according to the light of grace bestowed? Have you made up your mind fully and heartily to endure unto the end? Well, this is consecration entire, presenting the body a living sacrifice holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Any thing short of this, here specified, is not entire consecration.
When all is thus unreservedly on the altar Christ Jesus, the Christian's altar, when your will is God's will, and God's will is your will, when you have forsaken all for Christ,—friends, relatives, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, houses, lands, homes; laid all at the feet of Jesus,—your joys and your sorrows, your life and your health, you are now precisely where Paul was when he said, "I am crucified with Christ." "I count not my life dear." "I bear about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus." "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." When the consecration is thus made, when you have come out from the world, its pride, its lusts, its follies, its fashions, its love of gain, its pleasures, honors, and applauses, and are seeking that honor which cometh from God only, you will find it easy, very easy to exercise faith. The sky is now clear, bright, shining; now you approach God with humble confidence, come boldly to a throne of grace with a true heart in full assurance of hope. "Beloved," says the apostle John, "if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight."
Yes, reader, when all is thus consecrated, it is easy to believe, easy to exercise faith on the Son of God. Indeed, faith is already exercised. When all is consecrated upon God's altar, the altar sanctifieth the gift. The moment the conditions are complied with, the consecration is complete, the will, all unbelief yielded, given up, faith follows necessarily. The witness also, and in due time joy, may be joy unspeakable and full of glory.
But whether joy or sorrow, trouble or perplexity, in the fire or in the water, the word is there, sure and steadfast, the word of promise on which the soul rests. Hold on. "Cast not away your confidence."
Through unbelief I stagger not, For God hath spoke the word, 'Tis done, thou dost this moment save, With full salvation bless; Redemption through thy blood I have, And spotless love and peace.
Beloved, is not this gospel? Holiness to the Lord, entire sanctification; full assurance of faith, the inward life. Now this pearl of pearls is yours, and will be yours if so be you "follow on to know the Lord," witness for him, open your lips wide, make confession unto salvation, testify meekly and publicly to the efficacy of the precious blood of Jesus in cleansing from all sins: live the life of faith moment by moment. "Ye are my witnesses saith the Lord." "The just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." Heb. x, 38.
D. F. Newton. Ed. Golden Rule, New York.
REMARKS. We avail ourselves of this opportunity of making a few remarks which we meditated appending to Bro. Newton's former communication. We heartily bid all efforts Godspeed, which have for their object, to lead men to holiness of heart, and full and entire consecration to God. The Scriptures are plain enough on this point. Seek first, says the Saviour, the kingdom of God and his righteousness. But in order to make this work effectual and permanent, we must keep in view the standard of righteousness (or right-doing) which God has given us, which is none other than the ten commandments. The claims of this law we must realize, and to its precepts, not only in letter but in spirit too, conform our lives. "No reform," says the Gen. Evangelist, "can be successful and complete which is not founded on the great fundamental principles contained in the Ten Commandments." Especially do we regard this to be true in reference to conversion. Many have doubtless been led, during the recent religious movement, to amend, for the time being, their lives. But we fear that no conversion will be permanent, where the law does not perform its office in the conviction of the sinner. This was the instrument that slew Paul. Rom. vii. The Holy Spirit is ever ready to enlighten our minds on the exceeding breadth of these commandments, and convict us of sin against God. The gospel furnishes the remedy for our past transgression, and through the assistance of divine grace we start on a life of holiness, consecration, obedience, for the future. We commend this standard, by which we can form a true estimate of holiness of heart and life, to the attention of Bro. Newton, and the revivalists of the present time, with an earnest inquiry whether they can reconcile their course in all things with the letter and spirit of the fourth commandment—Ed. Review.

NO NIGHT THERE.

No night shall be in heaven—no gathering gloom Shall o'er that glorious landscape ever come; No tears shall fall in sadness o'er those flowers, That breathe their fragrance through celestial bowers.
No night shall be in heaven—no dreadful hour Of mental darkness, or the tempter's power. Across those skies no envious cloud shall roll, To dim the sunlight of the enraptured soul.
No night shall be in heaven. Forbid to sleep, These eyes no more their mournful vigils keep. Their fountains dried—their tears all wiped away; They gaze undazzled on eternal day.
No night shall be in heaven—no sorrow's reign— No secret anguish—no corporeal pain— No shivering pains—no burning fever there— No soul's eclipse—no winter of despair.
No night shall be in heaven—but endless noon; No fast declining sun nor waning moon; But there the LAMB shall yield perpetual light, 'Mid pastures green, and waters ever bright.
No night shall be in heaven—no darkened room, No bed of death, nor silence of the tomb; But breezes ever fresh, with love and truth, Shall brace the frame of an immortal youth.
No night shall be in heaven! But night is here— The night of sorrow—and the night of fear. I mourn the ills that now my steps attend, And shrink from others that may yet impend.
No night shall be in heaven! O had I faith To rest in what the faithful Witness saith— That faith should make these hideous phantoms flee, And leave no night, henceforth, on earth to me.—Sel.

Procrastination

PROCRASTINATION.—Near the close of his life Patrick Henry laid his hand on the Bible, and said to a friend, "Here is a book worth more than all others; yet it is my misfortune never to have read it with proper attention until lately." William Pitt, when he came to die, said, "I fear that I have, like many others, neglected my religious duties too much to have any ground to hope that they can be efficacious on my deathbed."

God Is to Be Trusted

God is to be trusted, but not to be tempted.

A Question for all Bible Christians.

I am going to propose a very plain and serious question, to which I would entreat all who profess to follow "the Bible, and the Bible only," to give their most earnest attention. It is this: Why do you not keep holy the Sabbath-day?
The command of Almighty God stands clearly written in the Bible in these words: "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." Ex. xx, 8, 9. Such being God's command then, I ask again, Why do you not obey it? Why do you not keep holy the Sabbath-day?
You will answer me, perhaps, that you do keep holy the Sabbath-day; for that you abstain from all worldly business, and diligently go to church, and say your prayers, and read your Bible at home, every Sunday of your lives.
But Sunday is not the Sabbath-day. Sunday is the first day of the week; the Sabbath-day was the seventh day of the week. Almighty God did not give a commandment that men should keep holy one day in seven; but he named his own day, and said distinctly, "Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day;" and he assigned a reason for choosing this day rather than any other—a reason which belongs only to the seventh day of the week, and cannot be applied to the rest. He says, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it.
Almighty God ordered that all men should rest from their labor on the seventh day, because he too had rested on that day: he did not rest on Sunday, but on Saturday. On Sunday, which is the first day of the week, he began the work of creation, he did not finish it; it was on Saturday that he "ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made; and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Gen. ii, 2, 3. Nothing can be more plain and easy to be understood than all this; and there is nobody who attempts to deny it; it is acknowledged by everybody that the day which Almighty God appointed to be kept holy was Saturday, not Sunday. Why do you then keep holy the Sunday, and not Saturday?
You tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed! but by whom? Who has authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall dare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead? This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer.
You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of that day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the ten commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding; who gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered, or at least from which you may confidently infer that it was the will of God that Christians should make that change in its observance which you have made.**
The present generation of Protestants keep Sunday holy instead of Saturday, because they received it as a part of the Christian religion from the last generation, and that generation received it from the generation before, and so on backward from one generation to another, by a continual succession, until we come to the time of the (so-called) Reformation, when it so happened that those who conducted the change of religion in this country, left this particular portion of Catholic faith and practice untouched.
But, had it happened otherwise—had some one or other of the "Reformers" taken it into his head to denounce the observance of Sunday as a Popish corruption and superstition, and to insist upon it that Saturday was the day which God had appointed to be kept holy, and that he had never authorized the observance of any other—all Protestants would have been obliged, in obedience to their professed principle of following the Bible and the Bible only, either to acknowledge this teaching as true, and to return to the observance of the ancient Sabbath, or else to deny that there is any Sabbath at all. And so, in like manner, any one at the present day who should set about, honestly and without prejudice, to draw up for himself a form of religious belief and practice out of the written Word of God, must needs come to the same conclusion: he must either believe that the Sabbath is still binding upon men's consciences, because of the Divine command, "Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day;" or he must believe that no Sabbath at all is binding upon them, because of the apostolic injunction, "Let no man judge you in respect of a festival day, or of the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ's." Either one or the other of these conclusions he might honestly come to; but he would know nothing whatever of a Christian Sabbath distinct from the ancient, celebrated on a different day, and observed in a different manner, simply because holy Scripture itself nowhere speaks of such a thing.
Now, mind, in all this you would greatly misunderstand me if you supposed I was quarreling with you for acting in this matter on a true and right principle, in other words, a Catholic principle; viz., the acceptance, without hesitation, of that which has been handed down to you by an unbroken tradition. I would not tear from you a single one of those shreds and fragments of Divine truth which you have retained. God forbid! They are the most precious things you possess, and by God's blessing may serve as clues to bring you out of that labyrinth of error in which you find yourselves involved, far more by the fault of your forefathers three centuries ago than by your own. What I do quarrel with you for is, not your inconsistency in occasionally acting on a true principle, but your adoption, as a general rule, of a false one. You keep the Sunday, and not the Saturday; and you do so rightly, for this was the practice of all Christians when Protestantism began; but you have abandoned other Catholic observances, which were equally universal at that day, preferring the novelties introduced by the men who invented Protestantism, to the unvarying tradition of above 1500 years. We blame you not for making Sunday your weekly holyday instead of Saturday, but for rejecting tradition, which is the only safe and clear rule by which this observance can be justified.
In outward act we do the same as yourselves in this matter; we too no longer observe the ancient Sabbath, but Sunday in its stead; but then there is this important difference between us, that we do not pretend, as you do, to derive our authority for so doing from a book, but we derive it from a living teacher, and that teacher is the Church. Moreover, we believe that not everything which God would have us to know and to do is written in the Bible, but that there is an unwritten word of God, which we are bound to believe and obey, just as we believe and obey the Bible itself, according to that saying of the Apostle, "Stand fast and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle." 2 Thess. ii, 14. We Catholics, then, have precisely the same authority for keeping Sunday holy instead of Saturday as we have for every other article of our creed; namely, the authority of "the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth;" [2 Tim. iii, 15;] whereas you who are Protestants have really no authority for it whatever; for there is no authority for it in the Bible, and you will not allow that there may be authority for it anywhere else. Both you and we do, in fact follow tradition in this matter; but we follow it, believing it to be a part of God's word and the Church to be its divinely-appointed guardian and interpreter; you follow it, denouncing it all the time as a fallible and treacherous guide, which often "makes the commandment of God of none effect."—Cath. Tract.

SPIRITUALISM.

By James White

"AND when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. viii, 19, 20.
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some should depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. iv, 1.
"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty." Rev. xvi, 13, 14.
"And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Rev. xviii, 1, 2.
"And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do," &c. Rev. xiii, 13, 14. See also 2 Thess. ii, 9–11; Matt. xxiv, 23, 24.
We give the above texts as a portion of those scriptures which distinctly foretell the strong delusion of the last days, called Spiritualism. For the benefit of those who have not had an opportunity to become acquainted with the rise and progress of this ism, a brief history is here given. The following is from a candidly written pamphlet, published by D. M. Dewey, Rochester, 1850, entitled, History of the Mysterious Voices, &c.
"The sounds were first heard in a small village named Hydesville, in the town of Arcadia, Wayne county, New York. The house where they were heard was occupied during a part of the years 1846 and 1847, by Mr. Michael Weekman. During this time Mr. W. states that one evening about nine o'clock as he was preparing to retire for the night he heard a rapping on the outside door. He opened it, but saw no one. In a few moments the rapping on the door was repeated, and was louder than at first. He immediately stepped to the door and opened it; no person was to be seen. He went into the street and looked about the house, and returned without seeing any one. Soon the noise was repeated, and, failing to see any person, he placed his hand on the latch of the door, in order to open it immediately, should the annoyance be continued. Again the rapping was heard—he felt the door jar, and sprang into the street. No person was to be seen anywhere in the vicinity. Excepting a manifestation to the daughter of Mr. W., then some eight years old, nothing unusual is reported to have been seen or heard by him, while he occupied the premises.
"The family of Mr. John D. Fox moved into the house on the 11th of December, 1847. Their former residence was Rochester. They heard the rapping first, the latter part of March, 1848, one evening after they had retired for the night. It seemed to be in one of the bed rooms, and sounded as though some one was knocking on the floor, moving chairs, &c. Four or five members of the family were at home, and they all got up to ascertain the cause of the noise. Every part of the house was searched, yet nothing could be discovered. A perceptible jar was felt by putting their hands on the bedsteads and chairs; a jar was also experienced while standing on the floor. The noise was continued that night as long as any one was awake in the house. The following evening they were heard as before, and on the evening of the 31st of March, the neighbors were called in for the first time.
"The following is an extract from Mrs. Fox's statement, made soon after the occurrences narrated took place:—'Friday night we concluded to go to bed early, and not let it disturb us; if it came, we thought we would not mind it, but try and get a good night's rest; My husband was here on all these occasions, heard the noise and helped search. It was very early when we went to bed on this night; hardly dark. We went to bed so early, because we had been broken so much of our rest that I was almost sick.
"My husband had not gone to bed when we first heard the noise on this evening. I had just laid down. It commenced as usual. I knew it from all other noises I had ever heard in the house. The girls, who slept in the other bed in the room, heard the noise, and tried to make a similar noise by snapping their fingers. The youngest girl is about twelve years old; she is the one who made her hand go. As fast as she made the noise with her hands or fingers, the sound was followed up in the room. It did not sound any different at that time, only it made the same number of noises that the girl did. When she stopped, the sound itself stopped for a short time.
"The other girl, who is in her 15th year, then spoke in sport and said, 'Now do just as I do. Count one, two, three, four, &c., striking one hand in the other at the same time. The blows which she made were repeated as before. It appeared to answer her by repeating every blow that she made. She only did so once. She then began to be startled; and then I spoke and said to the noise, 'Count ten,' and it made ten strokes or noises. Then I asked the ages of my different children successively, and it gave a number of raps, corresponding to the ages of my children.
"I then asked if it was a human being that was making the noise, and if it was, to manifest it by the same noise. There was no noise. I then asked if it was a spirit, and if it was, to manifest it by two sounds. I heard the two sounds as soon as the words were spoken.'
"Mrs. Fox asked if the noises would continue if she called in the neighbors that they might hear it. There was rapping the same as when it was supposed affirmative answers were given. Mrs. Redfield, the nearest neighbor, was first called. The children had informed her previously that strange noises were heard in the house, and she went, thinking to have some sport with the family. She found the girls very much agitated. Mrs. Fox said, 'Mrs. Redfield, what shall we do? We have heard the noise for some time, and now it answers all our questions, and we cannot account for it.'
"Mrs. R. heard the sounds, and commenced asking questions, which were answered correctly, greatly to her astonishment. She says the girls continued to be much frightened, and she told them not to be afraid; if it was a revelation from the spirit world, it was not to injure them. One of the girls said with much feeling—'We are innocent—how good it is to have a clear conscience.'
"Messrs. Redfield, Duesler, Hyde, Jewell, and their wives were subsequently called, during the same evening. They asked many questions and received answers. Questions relating to the age, number of children, &c., of the persons present, are said to have been answered correctly. Mr. Fox and Mr. Redfield remained in the house through the night. Mrs. Fox and her daughters spent the night at the house of one of the neighbors.
"A report of the strange noises heard in the house of Mr. Fox, spread throughout that part of the town the next (Saturday) morning, and a large number of persons assembled and remained at the house during the day. No noises were heard until evening, when the sounds commenced as before. A committee was appointed to investigate the matter and a great variety of questions were asked and answered.
"On Sunday morning, Apr. 2d, the sounds were heard, and they continued to be made throughout the day. This is the first instance in which they are reported to have been heard in the day time. Sunday evening and throughout that night no noises were heard.
"In a pamphlet published at Canandaigua in 1848, by E. E. Lewis, certificates corroborating the foregoing statements are given, and signed by the following persons: 'John D. Fox, Walter Scotten, Elizabeth Jewell, Loren Tenney, James Bridger, Chauncey P. Loser, Benjamin F. Clarke, Elizabeth Fox, Vernelia Culver, William D. Storer, Marvin P. Loser, David S. Fox, and Mary Redfield.'
"At one time, when those investigating wished to ascertain a certain name, the spirit was asked if it would rap for the initial letters when they were named. The reply was in the affirmative: and when the alphabet was called over there was rapping at particular letters. Soon the experiment was carried still further, and by request entire names and sentences of considerable length were spelled out. A signal for the alphabet is made when the spirit desires to communicate in this way. This signal is five raps in quick succession."
It is stated by Mr. Dewey that soon after the occurrence of these events, a part of the Fox family moved to Rochester, and that the rappings were then heard in both places. The next place where they were heard was in Auburn.
"After nearly a year had been spent by a few individuals in Rochester and vicinity, in investigating the mystery, the following communication was spelled out in the presence of several persons who had assembled for the purpose of prosecuting their investigations: 'You all have a duty to perform. We want you to make this matter more public.' Every individual to whom the message was addressed objected to having any agency in bringing the subject before the public. They knew the odium that would attach to any person who should attempt to prove, in the presence of a public assembly, that the sounds they heard were made by spirits. While speaking of the opposition they would incur, and the difficulties in the way, the alphabet was called for and the following communication spelled out: 'That will be so much the better—your triumph will be the greater.' This occurrence took place in November, 1849.
"Several of the persons designated to assist in bringing the matter before the community, continued strongly to object, until the most positive assurances were given that the rapping should be heard in the hall, by the audience, in response to the lecturer, and that the result would tend essentially to the better understanding of the whole subject. The lectures were finally delivered by Mr. E. W. Capron, of Auburn. The following account of the investigations had at that time, appeared in the New York Weekly Tribune, of Dec. 8th, 1849.
"Some two weeks since, we were in company with some persons who were getting communications from this invisible communicator, when a message was spelled out to us to the import that the matter should be made more public—that the time had arrived for the people to investigate the whole affair—that it was a thing which would ultimately become known to all men, and that we should immediately take measures to have it investigated. The directions were then minutely given by these spirits, as they purport to be, and which we are willing to believe are, until we have as much proof to the contrary as it required to bring us to that conclusion. These directions will appear in the following history as they were fully and strictly followed. The great object was to start investigation and clear those who had been hearing of it for the last two years from the imputation of fraud and deception.
"Accordingly on the evening of November 14th, a lecture was delivered in Corinthian hall, in the city of Rochester, and a full history of the rise and progress of these manifestations given. During the relation of these facts the sounds were distinctly heard by the persons in the hall.
"After the lecture, a committee was chosen by the audience, composed of the following persons:—A. J. COMBS, DANIEL MARSH, NATHANIEL CLARK ESQ., A. JUDSON, and EDWIN JONES.
"On the following evening the committee reported in substance as follows: That without the knowledge of the persons in whose presence the manifestations are made, the committee selected the hall of the Sons of Temperance for investigation—that the sound on the floor near where the two ladies stood was heard as distinctly as at other places, and that part of the committee heard the rapping on the wall behind them. . . . The ladies seemed to give every opportunity to the committee to investigate the cause fully, and would submit to a thorough investigation by a committee of ladies, if desired. They all agreed that the sounds were heard, but they entirely failed to discover any means by which it could be done.
"After this report, and some discussion on the subject, the audience selected another committee, composed of the following persons: Dr. H. H. Langworthy, Hon. Frederick Whittlesey, D. C. McCallum, Wm. Fisher, of Rochester, and Hon. A. P. Hascall, of LeRoy. At the next lecture this committee reported that they went into the investigation at the office of Chancellor Whittlesey, and they heard the sound on the floor, on the wall, and door—that the ladies were placed in different positions, and, like the other committee, they were wholly unable to tell from what the sound proceeded, or how it was made; that Dr. Langworthy made observations with a stethoscope to ascertain whether there was any movement with the lungs, and found not the least difference when the sounds were made; and there was no kind of probability or possibility of their being made by ventriloquism, as some had supposed—and they could not have been made by machinery.
"This committee was composed of Dr. E. P. Langworthy, Dr. J. Gates, Wm. Fitzhugh, W. L. Burtis and L. Kenyon. This committee met at the rooms of Dr. Gates, at the Rochester house, and appointed a committee of ladies, who took the young women into a room and examined their persons and clothing, to be sure that there were no fixtures about them that could produce the sounds. When satisfied on this point, the committee of ladies tried some other experiments, and gave the young ladies the following certificate: 'When they were standing on pillows, with a handkerchief tied around the bottom of their dresses, tight to the ankles, we all heard the rapping on the wall and on the floor distinctly.' Signed—Mrs. STONE, Mrs. J. GATES, Miss M. P. LAWRENCE.
"In the evening the committee, through their chairman, Dr. Langworthy, made a full report of their examinations during the day. They reported they excluded all friends of the two ladies from the committee room, and had the examination only in presence of the committee of gentlemen, and ladies chosen by them. Notwithstanding all this precaution, these sounds were heard when the ladies stood on large feather pillows, without shoes, and in other various positions, both on the floor and on the wall—that a number of questions were asked, which, when answered, were generally correct. Each member of the committee reported separately, agreeing with and corroborating the first statements.
"Thus by three days of the strictest scrutiny, by means of intelligence, candor and science, were the persons in whose presence these sounds were heard, acquitted of all fraud.
"On Friday evening, after the lecture, three of the committee, viz., Hon. A. P. Hascall, D. C. McCallum, and William Fisher, repaired to the house of a citizen, and pursued their investigations still further. There were nearly a score of persons present. The members of the committee wrote many questions on paper, which no person present knew the purport of, and they were answered correctly. At times they would ask mentally, and receive the answers with equal correctness, and they were fully satisfied that there was something present manifesting intelligence beyond the persons visible."
We will not weary the reader with further testimonies relative to the rise of what is called Spiritualism, though they might be given to almost any length. What we have presented is sufficient to show the small beginning of what is now agitating the civilized world. J. W.
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