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SPIRITUALISM, 
 
 SATANIC DELUSION 
 
 A SIGN OF THE TIME?. 
 
 BY WILLIAM BAMSET, D.D., 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CEDAR STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 EDITED WITH A PREFACE, 
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 'The God of peace shall "bruise Satan under your feet shortly." — Rom. xvi : 20. 
 
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EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 The subject of spiritual agencies, and the investigation of 
 their mysterious operations, is one of deep interest to mankind. 
 From the earliest ages it has afforded ground for superstition, 
 investigation, and speculation. Various as the theories of the 
 present are found to be, they all, or nearly all, have their 
 counterparts in the dim distance of ages past, and within the 
 period covered by historic records, both sacred and profane. 
 
 The belief in a race of invisible and superhuman agents, who 
 are, more or less intimately concerned in terrestrial affairs, is 
 found in all past ages, and is common alike to the Jews and 
 the Barbarians, to the wise and the unwise, to Christians and 
 to heathen. 
 
 The subject has always been interesting. It is now increas- 
 ing in interest, from the fact that attention has been called to 
 it, and investigations have been made to a much greater extent 
 than heretofore, especially since " Spiritualism " has become 
 the faith of millions, and the amazement of millions more. — 
 The writer had hoped ere this to have presented to the public 
 a statement of the results of his researches on the subject ; he 
 still hopes to do so in due time, if God permit. The subject 
 is ample ; the field wide. 
 
 The present treatise by a learned and able student and theo- 
 logian, who was for years a missionary to India, and was there 
 conversant with the various oriental forms of supernatural in- 
 fluences, will be found interesting ; and, brief as it is, the 
 writer has seen nothing that meets the requirements of the 
 case so fully as this little treatise. 
 
 The Bible is made the basis of the argument. Some Spirit- 
 ualists will object to this. To such, we will say that the foun- 
 dations upon which that rests are neither known nor assailed 
 as yet, by most who reject it with puny contempt. When they 
 have given years to such investigations as those of Lardener, 
 Keith, Paley, and others ; when they have answered and re- 
 futed the arguments of such men as Leslie and Lyttleton, and 
 countless writers who have studied the subject ; then they may 
 have some claim to speak with a degree of assurance. But 
 
iv editor's preface. 
 
 modesty is the truest wisdom of those who, in cavilling at 
 Christianity, " speak evil of things that they know not of," and 
 whose very cavils are proofs that they know neither the doc- 
 trines of the Bible, nor the facts upon which its authority rests. 
 
 Upon a basis — not of sacerdotal authority, but of sound rea- 
 son ; not of mere theor}^, but of stubborn facts — we rest the 
 foundations of our faith. We do not take the truths of the 
 Bible for granted, we take them as proved, and proved by a mass 
 of evidence which has accumulated for ages, and which infidels 
 and sceptics have never met, or tried to meet. With this basis, 
 we proceed to test the veracity and reliability of those spi- 
 rits who come to us from their various spheres, and who seek 
 to win our assent to the propositions which they promulgate. 
 
 In characterizing Spiritualism as ik A Satanic Delusion," we 
 would speak not in contempt, but in words of solemn and 
 earnest admonition. We would speak as those who must give 
 an account, and would most affectionate^ strive to teach those 
 who desire information, the perils that beset their course. In 
 hope that this treatise may commend itself to the candor of 
 an enlightened public, it is now committed to them. That it 
 contains much truth, we doubt not ; that it will subvert or de- 
 stroy the rapidly increasing influence of Spiritualism, w r e do 
 not expect. But if it shall prevent some from risking their 
 eternal well-being in a most perilous path ; if it shall strength- 
 en the faith of any who are perplexed with doubts and waver- 
 ings ; if it shall be a means of recovering any from the snare 
 of the fowler ere it be too late ; if it shall glorify God, exalt 
 and honor His truth, and lead any to prepare and wait for the 
 day of the Church's redemption, when God shall bruise Satan 
 under their feet, then the labor will not have been in vain in 
 the Lord. 
 
 That it may accomplish some good, and, in the workings of 
 Divine Providence, bring forth some fruit to the good of man 
 and the glory of God, is alike the prayer of the author and the 
 editor. h. l. h. 
 
 Peace Dale, R. I., June, 1856. 
 
SPIRITUALISM 
 
 A 
 
 SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Introfottctton . 
 
 The object of the present investigation is, to ascertain 
 the character of modern Spiritualism and its significance 
 as a sign of the Times. 
 
 This subject is one that presents to the mind of the 
 thoughtful reader of the Word of God, and the careful ob- 
 server of the workings of Satan in these last days, such a 
 wide field for remark, that we scarcely know where to be- 
 gin, what facts to select, or where to end, It is certain that 
 we are now living in strange and eventful times. There 
 are agencies at work in our world other than can be seen 
 by the eye of man. But this has always been the case. — 
 The facts in reference to the fall of man, and his redemption 
 by Christ, show us most clearly, that there are opposing 
 agencies at work in reference to his present and future state 
 that are outside of himself; and that man is that most im- 
 portant being who concentrates the thoughts of the whole in- 
 visible world upon him. 
 
 The educational training of some, and the manifest ig- 
 
10 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 norance of others of the truths of the Bible, the only true 
 revelation of the will of God to man, hinder multitudes from 
 admitting, in all their literality and distinctness, the state- 
 ments of the Word of God on the subject of Spirit-agency ^ 
 In consequence of this, reasonings on this subject, the most 
 false, puerile, and stupid, often pass at par for sound logic 
 and good scriptural argument, provided they be clothed in 
 the garb of scientific words and technical phraseology, the 
 true meaning of which the people cannot comprehend, and 
 one grand design of which is, in reality, to conceal the ig- 
 norance of the men themselves, who attempt to explain what 
 they do not understand, and who are, though unconscious to 
 themselves, another illustration of the wonderful power of 
 that influence, the very existence of which they so stoutly 
 deny. 
 
 There are many good men in our midst, highly gifted, and 
 deservedly esteemed for their scientific researches and their 
 patient investigation of the causes of things, who are bold 
 to say that the phenomena of Modern Spiritualism, are mere 
 optical illusions, or juggling tricks, and that all of them can 
 easily be explained upon scientific principles, and are well 
 understood by those who perform them. Yea, more ; boast- 
 ing of their fancied wisdom and knowledge of things beyond 
 their reach, they are not slow to say that to believe in the 
 facts as they exist is a sad proof of a defective education, if 
 not of imbecility of mind. But these persons, with more 
 correctness, might say that the solutions which they and 
 their philosophic expounders give of these latter day won- 
 ders, ascribing them all to mere natural agents, as electricity, 
 magnetism, odic force, and we know not what else, are still 
 more striking illustrations of the very deficiency which they 
 so feelingly lament in the case of others. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 1 
 
 At all events, one thing is certain : those who hold that 
 there is a spiritual agency in connection with these mani- 
 festations, have a cause which is adequate to the production 
 of these effects — yea, and, if need be, of others far more 
 wonderful than any that have as yet been exhibited. They 
 go to the Word of God for a clear and proper solution of 
 all these phenomena, and not to the mysterious workings of 
 some hidden law of nature, nor to the teachings of an Infi- 
 del or Atheistic Philosophy. 
 
 The writers of the Sacred Scriptures nowhere attempt to 
 prove the existence of God. Moses takes it for granted, 
 and proceeds to state, in the first chapters of Genesis, what 
 God has created. Nor do they attempt to prove the exis- 
 tence of a Spiritual Being, whom they call in the Hebrew, 
 Satan ; which means an opposer, a foe, an enemy. They 
 speak of it as a fact that needs no proof; for the world is 
 full of the evidences of his real, personal existence, and of 
 his mighty power, and unremitted hatred of God and of man. 
 We are fully aware of the fact that the personal existence 
 of Satan is admitted by nearly all those who bear the Chris- 
 tian name. It is at least among the articles of their faith. 
 But by the great majority of professing Christians of the 
 present day, it is so feebly realized, and so superficially re- 
 garded, that their faith is, in a great degree, inoperative, and 
 the fact of his existence, and influence upon the minds of 
 the people, is virtually disbelieved. One striking difference 
 between the experience of Christians, as recorded in the 
 New Testament, and the frequent exhortations of our Lord 
 and his apostles to resist the_ Devil, and to guard against 
 his wiles, and the experience of Christians of our day, and 
 the exhortations we hear on the subject now, warning us 
 not to be ignorant of his devices, must be manifest to every 
 
12 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION, 
 
 one who will give the subject a moment's reflection. They 
 felt and acted as if there was a great and mighty adversary 
 for them to oppose ; and they speak of their spiritual con- 
 flicts with him ; but the wisdom and philosophy of our day 
 have looked upon his existence as a myth, or at best, but 
 another name for the wayward disposition of man. 
 
 This, however, is not the scriptural representation of the 
 matter. The Bible speaks of him as a mighty spirit, once 
 holy, but now fallen through pride; as the deceiver of man ; 
 as the usurper of the dominion of this world, and as the 
 Prince of this world, and also of the power of the air, and 
 the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience. — 
 Through his influence and wiles, our first parents lost the 
 image and the likeness of God in which they were created, 
 and also the dominion over the earth which God had be- 
 stowed on man. Satan deposed man, and took his place. 
 Since then he has not ceased to exert his influence over 
 man ; to enslave his mind by gross superstitions ; to de- 
 base and defile his body by vile affections ; to shut him out 
 of heaven by leaguing -him in with himself in opposition to 
 God. Accordingly we find that although the agent, Satan, 
 is the same at all times, yet the mode of his operations dif- 
 fers in different ages and among different people, according 
 to the degree of their intellectual culture, or the amount 
 of Scriptural truth and knowledge they might possess. 
 
 The debasing and sensual rights of Paganism are well, 
 adapted to rivet the chains of a spiritual bondage upon a 
 people who have given up the knowledge of a true God, 
 and who worship demons in His stead. But in an age like 
 ours, where intellectualism and mammon are the gods to 
 which the masses of the people bow in humble adoration, 
 Satan must suit his wiles to the spirit of the age, and to the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 character of the people, if he would succeed in leading them 
 to bow down to their gods, in the temple of reason, and to 
 ignore their Creator and the revelation he has given them. 
 Hence it is that no special form of Satanic delusion con- 
 tinues long at one time, or in one place. The Arch-Decei- 
 ver continually varies his wiles. Old forms of spiritual 
 delusion pass away ; but from their seeds other forms spring 
 up, which are just as far from the truth as the former. — 
 Each successive age or generation boasts of its freedom from 
 the follies of the past, and laughs at the ignorance and su- 
 perstition of their fathers, while it is itself the victim of 
 those Satanic delusions which are more in accordance with 
 the circumstances, advanced knowledge, or philosophic 
 spirit of the age. And just as we change our garments and 
 adapt them to the season of the year upon which we may 
 enter, while our nature remains the same — so will it be 
 with these varied exhibitions of Satanic power ; their forms 
 differ, but their essential features are the same ; and these 
 varied manifestations will continue to come and to go, un- 
 til the kingdom of Satan, on earth, be overthrown, the reign 
 of sin be superseded by that of holiness, and the kingdoms 
 of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His 
 Christ, 
 
 As the sacred writers nowhere attempt to prove the per- 
 sonal existence of Satan, but always take it for granted, 
 (and base their exhortations to resist his power and influ- 
 ence, upon the known fact of his existence and evil charac- 
 ter,) we need not attempt it. Still, we might ask those 
 who deny the personal existence of Satan, and maintain that 
 we are to understand by the term only the evil principle, 
 or the tendency to evil that exists in human nature, how 
 they would explain, on their theory, the history of the fall 
 
14 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 of man, and the subsequent temptation of our Lord ? In 
 the case of Adam, or rather of the woman, (for she was 
 first in the transgression, she being deceived, while " Adam 
 was not deceived" — 1. Tim. ii : 14— but sinned under- 
 standing^,) there was evidently an influence outside of her- 
 self that was brought to bear upon her mind, so that she 
 yielded to it and fell — she was conscious of that fact—and 
 said so : nor is the truth of her statement called in question 
 by the Lord when she, in the honesty of her heart, confess- 
 ed the truth, saying, "the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." 
 The statement was admitted, in all its fullness, and upon 
 that statement the Lord proceeds, at once, to pronounce 
 His sentence upon the serpent, and which remains upon it, 
 to the present day, and will till time shall end. The Judge 
 of all the earth certainly does right. And if there were 
 no tempter outside of .woman, why should the Lord pro- 
 nounce His curse upon her, and an additional one on a be- 
 ing, distinct from her, if no such being did exist, and if he 
 had not deceived her as she declared he did ? 
 
 So also, in the case of our Lord. He had no sin. He 
 was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. 
 And yet He was tempted for forty days and forty nights 
 in the wilderness of Judea. Demands were made of Him 
 and proposals offered of such a character, as wholly to ex- 
 clude the idea, (if we admit the record in the case to be 
 true,) of these demands and proposals being the mere sug- 
 gestions of our Lord's own mind. The thing is an impos- 
 sibility. To suppose that the whole scene of the tempta- 
 tion as described by the inspired penman was a mere stretch 
 of the imagination of our Lord ; that He thought He was 
 tempted by some one ; that He thought the Tempter 
 brought forth arguments based upon a false application of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 the Scriptures to induce Him to yield to his suggestions ; 
 and, that He thought He answered the Tempter by correct 
 quotations from the Word of God, requires an amount of 
 faith (if faith it may be called,) far surpassing any thing of 
 the kind that is necessary to embrace the simple, truthful 
 narration of the facts as they are. But it happens to be 
 with such persons as it was with a Brahmin in India, who 
 said to me once, " Sahib, a little truth is hard, but a big 
 lie is easy to be believed.' 5 It is just so ; and we doubt 
 not, that the father of lies assists them in their monstrous 
 credulity as well as in their unreasonable unbelief. 
 
 We admit the fact, then, in all its fullness, that there is 
 such a being as Satan, and we fully believe all the state- 
 ments that the Sacred Scriptures give of him, and of his 
 workings in our world. Our Lord calls him " the Prince 
 of this world," and the " god of this world ;" and he is. 
 That he will, ere long, be deposed, and his usurped power 
 will be taken from him, and ha be cast out of this world, 
 are facts clearly made known to us in the Word of God. 
 He knows well that the kingdoms of this world will be 
 taken from him, and tbat it will be done by Him who is 
 " the seed of the woman." Hence it was that Satan offer- 
 ed to deliver up to our Lord the kingdoms of the world, 
 which he then held, and still holds by usurpation, if He, 
 the Messiah, would but fall down and do him honor, or 
 thank him for them, or even accept them from his hand. 
 We give Satan full credit for honesty in this case. Let 
 him have his due. We believe he would have done just as 
 he said he would do. He had the kingdoms of the world. 
 He has them yet.* And he, doubtless, would have deliv- 
 
 * For Satan to offer that which he could not bestow, and over 
 
16 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 ered them to our Lord, and would have laid down the 
 usurped sceptre of power over earth, if he could, by that 
 act, have acquired a greater glory, and a more exalted 
 sway. And who, in the matters of trade, and of seeking 
 after the wealth and the honors of this world, would not 
 part with the less for the sake of the greater ? So with 
 Satan. The honor received from man, or from a world of 
 men, would be as naught when compared with honor and 
 obeisance from " the Son of man." Most cheerfully would 
 he have parted with all this world for one act of obeisance 
 from our Lord. But, that he must not have. Satan was 
 foiled in his deep-laid scheme for the final and eternal ruin 
 of all the human race. No compromise in the case can be 
 made with the Son of man, the rightful heir to earth, and 
 all upon it. Satan will not resign his usurped authority 
 and power on earth of his own free will, nor can the Son 
 of man lay aside the glory and the dignity of His exalted 
 nature and office, to enter upon any efforts of negociation 
 with Satan for the redemption of the world from his power. 
 On the contrary, He will in due time, lay hold on the usurp- 
 er, bind him in chains, and cast him out of the govern- 
 ments of this world for ever. 
 
 Satan is fully aware of this fact. He knew when our 
 Lord was upon the earth, that that was not the time for 
 
 which he had no power, would be no temptation even to man, 
 much less to Christ, who of course knew the facts in the case. — 
 But Christ was really tempted — therefore Satan had something of 
 value to offer to him, namely, the kingdoms of the world and their 
 glory. Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, and do we 
 not see in the allurements of worldly ambition that seduce the ■ 
 heart from right and godliness, this same temptation of the adver- 
 sary 1 We are not ignorant of his devices. — Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 7 
 
 his dethronement. But the time is now at hand. This he 
 knows ; and hence it is that he is making special efforts ; in 
 various ways, throughout the whole world, to retain his pos- 
 session of the earth to the last moment, and to ruin for time 
 and eternity all he can, before he himself shall be cast out, 
 and be shut up in the bottomless pit for the thousand years. 
 
 Paganism and the gross forms of heathen idolatry, are 
 not adapted to our present enlightened and social state. — 
 The scenes of iniquity that have been witnessed in the pub- 
 lic assembly, or in the secret chambers of heathen temples, 
 in days past, would be too much at present for the eye of 
 the refined of our day. But similar scenes may be witness- 
 ed, doubtless, even now, by those who are privileged to en- 
 ter within the gates that shut them out from the vulgar 
 gaze. It only needs another name : the name of " Love," 
 or " Love" made " free," and the sanction of laws which 
 Satan himself has helped to frame, to give currency and 
 popularity to any forms of iniquity that have ever yet found 
 favor in the eyes of a world at enmity with God. Some 
 can be led as the willing slaves of their lusts. For these 
 there is a lure in the shape of Socialism, Free-love-ism, 
 and Mormonism, that last form of political iniquity that has 
 been enthroned in our land, and which if it receives not the 
 sanction of this mighty nation, is permitted to grow unmo- 
 lested, and to flourish in our midst, under the fostering care 
 of Satan himself. 
 
 But, there are others, whose instinctive horror of bodily 
 defilement would separate them forever from those, who 
 u corrupt themselves in those things which, as brute beasts, 
 they know naturally" (Jude 10). These Satan must secure 
 by other means. Reason is their god. To them, the rev- 
 elations of the Most High are, at least, but enigmatical 
 
18 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION, 
 
 tints of things they cannot comprehend. For the god of this 
 world hath blinded their minds, lest the light of the glorious 
 gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine in- 
 to their hearts, and give them the light of the knowledge of 
 the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. iv. 4-6. 
 They must hare certain knowledge, and such a knowledge 
 of secret and future things, as God, in His infinite wisdom, 
 withholds from man ; for he would have man " walk by 
 faith, not by sight," 2 Cor. v. 7. But, what God withholds, 
 Satan offers to impart. They would lift the veil that hides 
 the unseen world from them, and seek to know v from those 
 who inhabit it, the things which God has hidden from them, 
 and purposes they shall not know. The knowledge of Sa- 
 tan is not like ours. We can know nothing of the invisible 
 world from our own observation. Satan can and does. — 
 The invisible world is all untrodden ground to us. To him 
 it is all known and familiar. He, doubtless, does and can 
 know facts, and reveal them too, which it would gratify the 
 curiosity of our nature to know. Facts, long since trans- 
 pired, even before the birth of any now on earth, are sot 
 blotted out of the memory of Satan, who, we may suppose, 
 retains all the knowledge he has ever had of our world for 
 the past 6000 years. These facts he may communicate to 
 man, (and none can prove that he cannot) ; and these facts 
 being found to be true, the door is now opened wide for the 
 full belief of any number, or any kind of real or supposed 
 facts that Satan may see fit to communicate. The reality 
 of one truth will pave the way for many falsehoods, all of 
 winch may be believed with equal faith. In this way, Satan 
 will satisfy the minds of multitudes of the philosophically 
 wise. And as they judge they can find that knowledge 
 in and through his communications which they cannot 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 obtain from the Word of God, the result is easily foreseen. 
 They will reject the revelation which God has given them, 
 as a work behind the age, and not meeting the demands of 
 the times. If this be not so with those who now believe in 
 the revelations that God has made to them in His Word, 
 they will superadd to it these supposed revelations of facts 
 by Satan, and thus will they virtually set aside the Word 
 of God entirely as a rule of life. 
 
 As it is certainly revealed to us, that Satan will be cast 
 out from this world, and as his efforts will be made untir- 
 ingly to retain his hold upon the minds of the people, we 
 may reasonably look for some special manifestations of his 
 power and delusive workings before that event. These 
 manifestations and miraculous workings will be so apparent 
 to all those, who are savingly enlightened by the Spirit of 
 God, that they will not fail to perceive, in due time, that 
 they are of Satanic origin. " They that trust in the Lord 
 shall be," in these times of coming trial, " as Mount Zion 
 which cannot be removed, but abideth forever," Ps. cxxv. 1. 
 While those who may trust to their own fallible reasoning 
 and the desires of their hearts, will be as the chaff before 
 the wind, or as the stubble before the flame. 
 
 By multitudes of Christians in our day, and of Christian 
 ministers also, the study of the prophecies of God's Word 
 is either neglected, or condemned. What God declares to 
 be. " a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn 
 and the Day-Star arise" (2 Peter i. 19), they, in their pre- 
 sumption have declared to be impenetrable obscurity. — 
 Hence the utter misapprehension which so extensively pre- 
 vails in the Church at the present time, as to the character 
 and design and end of this dispensation. Peace, prosperity 
 and stability are confidently predicted and fondly anticipa- 
 
20 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 ted by the men of our progressive times ; whereas conflict 
 and destruction are distinctly foretold by the prophets of 
 the Lord. And so intense is this deception, that, by ma- 
 ny, the very workings of Satan are confounded with or 
 taken for the operations of God's Spirit. They look for a 
 coming glory and a brighter age for this world ; but it is 
 not such as God predicts. They raise their superstructure, 
 Babel-like, out of material which God purposes to destroy. 
 There is a future glory in reserve for this world. But, 
 it is not to be effected by the wisdom of man, the progressive 
 development of the age, nor by a careful observance and 
 study of the mere laws of nature. It will be the work of the 
 Spirit and power of the Lord. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 THE CASE STATED. 
 
 That we may the better understand the nature of these 
 spiritual manifestations, which now exist in our world, and 
 which will continue to increase, though they will, doubt- 
 less, be varied in their form, until Satan himself, the grand 
 originator of them all, shall be cast out of this world, it 
 may be well to take a brief survey of his operations, in our 
 world, from the fall of man to the present time. " To the 
 law and to the testimony," the revealed will of God, let 
 us then go for the true light that we need on this subject. 
 If we speak not according to this word, it is because there 
 is no light in us. — Is. viii : 20. The opinions of Pagan, of 
 Jewish, and of Christian writers on this subject, are not 
 without their value. But our object is to look at this 
 whole subject in the light which the inspired Word of God 
 throws upon it. 
 
 Taking then, in our hand, the inspired volume, the Word 
 of God, "as a lamp to our path, and a light to our feet," 
 let us enter the garden of Eden. There we find nature 
 smiling in her garments of glory, as she was first robed by 
 the hand of her all-wise and bountiful Creator. 
 
 Creatures, formed by the Divine Word, and exhibiting at 
 the same time, the wisdom, the goodness, and the power of 
 God, dwelt in peace and harmony with each other. There 
 was no ferocity in any nature. There was no enmity in 
 
22 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 any heart. Man, created in the image of God, and accord- 
 ing to His likeness, with his beloved and sinless companion 
 by his side, the progenitor of the race of man on the earth, 
 stood up in all the Godlike dignity of his nature, the install- 
 ed king over earth and all the creatures that dwelt upon 
 it. How long this primeval state of purity, of blessedness 
 and of peace remained, we know not. On this point the 
 Word of God sheds no light. We simply know the fact 
 that man was sinless, and that he fell. 
 
 Before the creation of man, a rebellion against the au- 
 thority of God, broke out among the angels in the heavenly 
 world. Satan led the way. Insolence, pride, ambition, a 
 being puffed up (as the Greek word tuphotheis, 1 Tim. ii. 16, 
 signifies), in consequence, probably, of some exalted honor 
 conferred upon him by his Creator, led to his sin. Multi- 
 tudes must have united with him in his schemes and plans 
 of rebellion against God, whatever they may have been. — 
 But* in their plans they failed. They lost the glory that 
 they formerly possessed, and henceforth they were deprived 
 of the favor of God, and were shut out from all communion 
 with God, and with the holy angels. On the particular 
 sin of Satan, and the precise time when he first transgress- 
 ed, the Bible reveals nothing positive, and hence we cannot 
 know with certainty, what it was, or when it took place. — 
 The only thing we do know, is that it was before the fall 
 of man, and that Satan was instrumental in that fall. This 
 must satisfy us now. 
 
 There is a great and important fact here, which it may 
 be well to consider a moment. It is one of those mysteries 
 which we cannot now fully comprehend, but we may here- 
 after. The fact is this : Although Satan and his angels 
 are shut out from all communion and fellowship with God 
 
THE CASE STATED. 23 
 
 and the holy angels, still, they are not wholly debarred 
 from all communication with heaven and holy beings. The 
 testimony of the Bible is clear on this point, though Chris- 
 tians may seldom think of it, or if they do, may reject it 
 without much thought. Twice in the book of Job, viz : 
 chap. i. 6, and ii. 1, we are told that there was a day when 
 the sons of God, the holy angels, came to present them- 
 selves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them 
 to present himself before the Lord. While there, the Lord 
 spoke to him and asked him, " From whence comest thou ?" 
 To which Satan replied, " From going to and fro in the 
 earth, and walking up and down in it." Or, as the Septua- 
 gint renders it — " Having gone round the earth, and hav- 
 ing walked over all that is under heaven, I am come hither." 
 
 In 1 Kings xxii. 19, Micah, the prophet, saw the Lord 
 sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing 
 before Him, on His right hand and on His left. " And the 
 Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and 
 fall at Ramoth-Grilead ? And one said on this manner, and 
 another said on that manner. And there came forth a spir- 
 it, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. 
 And the Lord said unto him, wherewith ? And he said, I 
 will go forth and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all 
 his prophets. And He said, thou shalt persuade him, and 
 prevail also ; go forth and do so." We would merely re- 
 mark here, that God in scriptural language, is often said to 
 do what he permits to be done. 
 
 Again, Zechariah, the prophet, chap. iii. I, " saw Joshua, 
 the High Priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and 
 Satan standing at His right hand to resist him. And the 
 Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, 0, Satan." 
 
 In Jude, verse 9, we read that " Michael, the Archangel, 
 
24 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body 
 of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, 
 (or, as the Greek might be read, did not pass judgment up- 
 on him for blasphemy, but referred the case to the Lord,) 
 saying, the Lord rebuke thee." 
 
 Again, in Rev. xii, the same thing is brought to our view. 
 There we are told that there is to be a war in heaven — Mi- 
 chael and his angels fighting against Satan and his angels. 
 And the Dragon and his angels were cast out of heaven. — 
 Their place was found no more in heaven. Satan, who de- 
 ceived the whole world, was cast out into the earth, and 
 his angels were cast out with him. Then it is, after Satan's 
 complete expulsion from all access to the heavenly beings, 
 and from his long held empire in the air, that we hear the 
 heavenly hosts, who never sinned against God, and the ran- 
 somed Church from earth, proclaiming with a loud voice in 
 heaven, " now is come salvation and strength, and the king- 
 dom of our God and the power of His Christ ; for the Ac- 
 cuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them be- 
 fore God day and night. Then there is rejoicing in heaven 
 by the angels, and the ransomed Church ; but there is 
 woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea, for the 
 Devil is come down to the earth, having great wrath, for 
 he hath but a short time then to remain upon it. 
 
 Now, without attempting to enter into any critical ex- 
 amination, or extended explanation of these passages 
 already quoted, we learn from them several important facts, 
 some of which we will here state. We learn, 
 
 1. That Satan, and it may be evil spirits, are not wholly 
 debarred from all communication with God, and the holy 
 angels. It does not appear that they have any intercourse 
 
THE CASE STATED, 25 
 
 with them further than their coming in conflict with them 
 and opposing them. 
 
 2. That God still uses these evil spirits, as the instru- 
 ments in His hands of punishing those who may reject his 
 counsels, and that when they are permitted to afflict the 
 good, it is never done unless G-od intends to bring out of 
 the affliction a greater good to the afflicted, and glory to 
 His own great name. 
 
 3. That these evil spirits may take possession of men in 
 the flesh, and control them as the lying spirit took posses- 
 sion of the Prophets of Ahab, and thus deceived him, if 
 God permit them to do so. 
 
 4. That the power of these evil spirits will be more won- 
 derfully displayed, and their rage against God and against 
 His people and the inhabitants of our world, will be more 
 malignant, immediately preceding the Millennial dispensa- 
 tion of the church, than they have ever yet shewn them- 
 selves to be. The reason of this seems to be that they 
 will, then, have only men in the flesh to operate upon, and 
 that, too, only for a short time before their final expulsion 
 from the earth. They will be no more permitted to accuse 
 the saints of the Lord before him. 
 
 These remarks may open up a new train of thought to 
 many readers of the Bible, and one which they may not 
 have hitherto been disposed to look at, or to examine. — 
 But it is time that God's people, yea, and the men of the 
 world, in these latter days, should think more seriously on 
 this subject. Satan has mighty power, and he will exert 
 that power more and more as the day of his binding draws 
 nigh. He will deceive all who dwell upon the earth to 
 their final undoing if they flee not to. Christ, as their only 
 refuge. The exhortation of our Lord comes, therefore, 
 
 2 
 
26 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION, 
 
 with great force to every one, " Watch ye, therefore, and 
 pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape 
 all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand be- 
 fore the Son of man." — Luke xxi : 36. 
 
 But, to return from this digression to our first parents 
 in the garden of Eden. 
 
 Satan, failing in the object of his rebellion in heaven, 
 came to earth and plotted the ruin of man. His plan was 
 laid with consummate skill, and sad, indeed, to the world 
 has been its success. Without entering now into any 
 critical examination of the history of the fall of man, by 
 the super-human wisdom of Satan, the facts themselves are 
 plain enough for any one's comprehension. In carrying 
 out his malicious design, Satan took possession of the body 
 of an animal called the Nachash ; in our version, the ser- 
 pent. This animal was more subtle than any beast of 
 the field which the Lord God had made. He selected the 
 very best instrument that was to be found, for the accom- 
 plishment of his Satanic purposes. The animal either had 
 the gift of speech originally from God, or when Satan took 
 possession of its body, he spoke with an audible voice to 
 the woman, and held a conversation with her through the 
 medium of the animal. Her innocence of heart and purity 
 of mind, or her ignorance, at that time, of the peculiar 
 character of the animal, in its natural state, does not ap- 
 pear to have excited in her the least degree of surprise in 
 hearing the animal speak to her, apparently, in a human 
 voice, and in a language that she could understand. Some 
 of the ancient Rabbins maintained that the Nachash, v 
 which was more wise or artful than every wild beast (micol 
 chayath) of the field, was a creature of reason and under- 
 standing, and that it was formed like a human being, and 
 
THE CASE STATED. 27 
 
 not as a reptile, or snake, which the waters produced. — 
 Moses arranges all the animals on earth in three classes, 
 viz. : the Chayath, the wild beasts ; the Behaimath, the 
 tame beasts ; and the Remesh, the creeping things. As 
 the Nachash was more wise, prudent or crafty (Heb. gna- 
 room) than all of the animals, they conclude that the ani- 
 mal used was one of the ape tribe, a species of baboon.— 
 The whole narrative accords better, they judge, with an 
 animal of that description than with a mere reptile. And 
 even now, in its degraded condition, it seems like a more 
 fitting instrument for Satan than a mere reptile. But, 
 leaving the particular nature and form of the animal out 
 of the question for the present, all agree that Satan, in 
 this plan of deception, concealed himself, and worked 
 through the instrumentality of the ISfachash, whatever the 
 animal may have been. 
 
 From this inspired narrative we learn the following 
 facts, viz : 
 
 1. That Satan did take possession of the body of an 
 animal and kept it as long as he chose. 
 
 2. That he did so control the animal thus possessed by 
 him as to make it, for the time being, lose the distinctive 
 character which belonged to it, and to assume, in appear- 
 ance, at least, that which belongs to another being. 
 
 3. That he did make an innocent and unfallen human 
 being imagine that she held converse with an animal, while 
 she actually was holding a conversation with Satan him- 
 self. 
 
 If he did so then, we are certainly justified in the con- 
 clusion that he can do so still, if God should permit him 
 to exert his power in that way. For we have no reason 
 
28 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 to believe that Satan has less power, or craffc, or malice 
 now than he had then. 
 
 In the history of Job we have another inspired account 
 of the power of Satan and of his hatred towards the good 
 of the human race, and of his intense desire to do evil be- 
 yond what we may suppose he is ordinarily engaged in do- 
 ing. From this account we learn the following additional 
 facts, viz : 
 
 1. That Satan prompts men to acts of robbery and mur- 
 der. He stirred up the evil passions of the Sabeans, and 
 caused them to attack the servants of Job as they were 
 peacefully ploughing in their field. They slew all the ser- 
 vants but one, and carried away the oxen and the asses. 
 
 2. He caused fire to fall from heaven, or rather he con- 
 trolled the electricity which is in the clouds, causing the 
 lightning to smite the servants who tended the sheep in 
 the field, and killed all the sheep and all the men except 
 one, who escaped to tell the sad news. Not only were the 
 men and animals killed, but they were actually burned up. 
 This is an effect which is never produced by the mere 
 stroke of lightning in our days; or, if it be, it is exceed- 
 ingly rare. 
 
 3. After exciting the Chaldeans to carry off the camels, 
 and to kill the servants who attended them, he raised a 
 storm in the wilderness that blew down the house in which 
 the ten children of Job were assembled, and slew them all, 
 and all the attendants on that occasion, except one, who 
 was left to communicate the fact. 
 
 4. He laid his hand upon the body of Job, and smote 
 him with a sore disease, so that, in the anguish of his soul, 
 he longed for death to be freed from the bodily sufferings 
 he then endured. His flesh became loathsome to himself. 
 
THE CASE STATED. 29 
 
 His soul was scared with dreams, and terrified by visions 
 and frightful appearance of horrid and unearthly things, 
 so that he preferred strangling and death to life. 
 
 From this history we learn that, if God permit, Satan 
 has power to control the winds and the electric fluid so as 
 to overthrow dwellings, destroy property to any conceivable 
 amount ; to take away the lives of men, and of animals ; 
 to afflict the bodies of men with horrible diseases ; to ter- 
 rify the mind by the presentation to the imagination and 
 to the eye of horrid and revolting sights ; and to disturb 
 the hours of sleep by harassing the mind with terrifying 
 dreams, thus making life a burden, and forcing the unhappy 
 sufferer to long for death, so as to be free from such tor- 
 ment. It also gives us an idea of the belief of Job as re- 
 gards the influence of these things upon man after death. 
 It is evident that he looked upon death as a guarantee 
 that he would be freed from the influence of Satan's power 
 forever. But if death gave him no release, why should he 
 long for it ? Satan is still the Prince of this world, and 
 the Prince of the power of the air, and he still works in 
 the hearts of the children of disobedience. 
 
 Not to occupy the attention of the reader any longer 
 with the instances of Satan's power, as recorded in the Old 
 Testament, we pass to those of the New Testament. Here 
 we have a true and faithful record also of some of the won- 
 derful workings of Satan. It is not our design to cite all 
 these cases as given us by the inspired writers, though 
 that might be profitable, but only a few as mere specimens 
 of the whole, to show that the same mind originates them 
 all, though the manifestations may be different. To any 
 one, who is willing to receive the plain and unvarnished 
 statements of the sacred writers, there can be no difficulty 
 
30 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 in accounting for all these wonders. Indeed, it requires 
 no small amount of false reasoning to adduce even a plausi- 
 ble argument to show that the direct agency of Satan was 
 not employed in their production. 
 
 Many suppose that the possessions in old times, were 
 confined entirely to the Jewish people, and in a great de- 
 gree to the times of our Lord. But this, certainly, is not 
 the fact. They were found among the Gentiles also. The 
 young woman, who had the spirit of Python (divination) as 
 stated by Luke, Acts xvi : 1 1-20, was a Gentile. She 
 was a Greek, and resided at Philippi, in Macedonia. We 
 are sadly mistaken if we think that Satan has nothing to 
 do with any body but the Jews. He has as warm friends, 
 and as faithful servants, and as devout followers among 
 the Gentiles as he ever had among the Jews. "We do not 
 think tbat the Gentiles need yield the palm to the Jews 
 for fidelity to the cause of Satan. They certainly have 
 nothing to lose in this respect, in comparison with their 
 brethren. 
 
 As to the demoniacs being more abundant in the days 
 of our Lord's incarnation, than at any other time before, 
 or after it, cannot be proved, though the learned Joseph 
 Mede, in his sermon on John x : 20, suggests that it was 
 so. (See his works, p. 28. Ed. 1772.) The frequent ac- 
 counts we have in the gospels of the doings of evil spirits, 
 during the time of our Lord's ministry in Judea, is not 
 owing to the fact, that they were any more busy in de- 
 ceiving the souls of men, and in injuring their bodies then 
 than in former times ; but, it is owing to the fact, that we 
 have there more recorded instances of the power of our 
 Lord so signally displayed, in casting them out of men, 
 women and children, than before, thus proving to the Jews, 
 
EXISTENCE OF SATAN. 31 
 
 as well as to the Gentiles, that He was the true Messiah, 
 the seed of the woman, and the promised King of Israel. 
 We have no reason to believe that Satan does not now 
 possess the souls and bodies of men in our world just as 
 much as ever he did. God certainly is no better pleased 
 with the corrupt workings of the human heart now than 
 ever he was. And it will be a difficult thing to prove that 
 the heart of the world, which is still at " enmity with God," 
 is any more in love with holiness and purity and the glory 
 of the Lord, than it was eighteen hundred years ago. Had 
 we inspired information on this subject, we would, doubt- 
 less, find that multitudes of persons are now under the 
 direct teachings and control of Satan and of evil spirits ; 
 and, that their conduct, which is in open violation of the 
 laws of God, and of all the decencies and proprieties of life, 
 and which is put down to the score of eccentricity of char- 
 acter, where ignorance, brutality, or native depravity of 
 heart, should be accredited to Satan, the master spirit that 
 rules and controls his wretched subjects at his will. 
 
 SATAN. 
 
 Satan is a personal existence and not a mere principle. 
 He is an angelic being whom God created good as He did 
 all things. But he sinned against God, and was cast down 
 from the high position he once occupied. It would seem 
 that pride was his sin. — 1 Tim. iii. 6. But, how sinful 
 feeling could first enter a holy heart we may never find 
 out. The fact we do know. Satan did sin. What his 
 name was before his sin we know not. This is his name 
 since. 
 
 The word Satan means an adversary, an opposer. It is 
 never found in the plural number, so that the sacred wri- 
 
32 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 ters acknowledge but one Being of that name. He is 
 styled by our Lord " The Prince of this world," (John 
 xii : 3) ; by the Apostle, " The Prince of the power of the 
 air," (Ep. ii : 2) ; and by the Jews, " The Prince of the 
 demons," (Matt, ix : 34). The Septuagint translate the 
 word Satan by the word Diabolos, which means an Ac- 
 cuser, a Slanderer. He is also called in the New Testa- 
 ment by a variety of names, indicative of his character 
 and conduct, as Accuser, Destroyer, Liar, Murderer, &c. 
 Nor is it any slander to say that he justly deserves them 
 all. 
 
 The sacred writers and our Lord say there is a Devil, 
 and but one. But, it is becoming the fashion now to deny 
 his personal existence, to think that our Lord and the 
 Apostles only spoke in accordance with the silly notions 
 of those of their day, who supposed there was a being call- 
 ed Satan or the Devil, and that they themselves did not 
 really believe in his existence. This is surely a progres- 
 sive age — in unbelief of the word of God, at least, what- 
 ever else may stand still. But the very fact that the per- 
 sonal existence of Satan is denied by so many in our day, 
 by many professing Christians, and a few who bear the 
 name of ministers of Christ, as well as by those who deny 
 the Word of God entirely, is to our mind one of the strong- 
 est proofs of the personal existence of such an Arch-De- 
 ceiver. This is one of what the Apostle calls " ta bathe 
 tou Satana, the depths of Satan," (Bev. ii: 24). We can 
 fully endorse the language of Dr. A. Clarke, who, speaking 
 on the denial of Satan's existence, says : " Satan knows 
 well that they who deny his being will not be afraid of his 
 power and influence ; will not watch against his wiles and 
 devices ; will not- pray to God for deliverance from the 
 
SATAN AND DEMONS. 33 
 
 Evil One ; will not expect him to be trampled down under 
 their feet if he has no existence ; and, consequently, they 
 will become an easy and unopposing prey to the enemy of 
 their souls. By leading men to disbelieve and deny his 
 existence, he throws them off their guard. He is then 
 their complete master, and they are led captive by him at 
 his will. It is well known that among all those who make 
 any profession of religion, those who deny the existence of 
 the Devil, are they who pray little or none at all ; and 
 are, apparently, as careless about the existence of God as 
 they are about the being of the Devil. Duty to God is 
 with them out of the question, for those who do not pray 
 especially in private, (and I never knew a devil-denier who 
 did), have no religion of any kind (except the form) what- 
 ever pretensions they may choose to make." 
 
 One of the most striking proofs of the personal exist- 
 ence of Satan, which our times afford us, is found in the 
 fact, that he has so influenced the minds of multitudes in 
 reference to his existence and doings, as to make them be- 
 lieve that he does not exist ; and that the hosts of Demons 
 or Evil Spirits, over whom Satan presides as Prince, are 
 only the phantacies of the brain, some halucination of mind. 
 Could we have a stronger proof of the existence of a mind 
 so mighty as to produce such results ? Surely we have 
 need to pray " Deliver us from the Evil One, apo tou pet- 
 tier ou." Matt, vi : 13. 
 
 The word JDaimon, in the New Testament, is usually 
 rendered by one word Devil. But this is evidently im- 
 proper, as it would lead us to believe that there are many 
 devils, whereas there is and can be but one. And surely 
 one is enough for any world ; yea, one too many. Daimon 
 in the New Testament always means an evil spirit, who is 
 
34 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 under Satan's control ; a Demon. Ere long Satan will be 
 cast out from this world, and with him all the host of de- 
 mons, or evil spirits, who fell with him and who are under 
 his control ; then we shall have neither devil nor demon 
 here. 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT POSSESSIONS. 
 In the gospels by Matt, viii : 28-33, Mark v : 1-16, and 
 Luke viii : 26-36, we have a detailed account of two men 
 who met our Lord when he came into the country of the 
 G-ergesenes, which lay on the east of the sea of Tiberias, in 
 the land of Palestine. They were possessed with demons, 
 daimonizomenoi. They had left the society of their friends 
 and their homes, and took up their abode in the tombs. — 
 These tombs (mnemaia) are very abundant in some parts 
 of the Eastern world to this day. They are houses built 
 over the graves of distinguished or wealthy persons by the 
 governments of which they were honored members, or by 
 their relatives. They are of different sizes and shapes. — 
 Some of them are built square, others round, and from ten 
 to thirty feet high. The most of those that are yet to be 
 found in India were built by the Mohammedans. They 
 are now used as dwellings or as stopping-places for travel- 
 ers, being fitted up for these purposes. But formerly, no 
 one dwelt in them — the friends of the deceased only visit- 
 ing them occasionally as places of prayer. I have often 
 lodged in these tombs while on missionary tours. We 
 found them comfortable lodgings ; and to those who are 
 fond of retirement, they afford an agreeable resting-place. 
 These men who met our Lord had been lodging in these 
 tombs. They were exceedingly fierce ; so much so that it 
 was dangerous for any person to pass by the place where 
 they were. The people of the country had often bound 
 
THE DEMONIACS A LEGION. 35 
 
 them with chains and fetters of ordinary strength, but 
 they broke their chains, tore off all their clothing, and 
 escaped, " being driven by the demon into the wilderness 
 or desert places." Not only would they injure others, but 
 they also injured themselves, cutting themselves with stones. 
 No human power could subdue them. When they saw our 
 Lord coming towards them they recognized him at once, 
 and cried out in a loud voice, " Jesus, thou Son of God 
 most High, what have we to do with thee ? Art thou 
 come hither to torment us before the time ? We adjure 
 thee by God that thou torment us not." And Jesus 
 asked him, saying, " What is thy name ?" And he said, 
 " Legion ;" for many demons had entered into him. They 
 then besought our Lord that he would not cast them out 
 into the bottomless pit or abyss — eis ton abysson. — Luke 
 viii : 31 ; Rev. xx : 3. (The same Greek work is used in 
 both these places) ; but that he would permit them to 
 enter into the swine, some two thousand in number, that 
 were feeding near the mountains a good way off. Our 
 Lord commanded them to come out of the men, and giving 
 them permission, they entered the swine, and so alarmed 
 them that they all ran violently down a steep place into 
 the sea, and were drowned. The men who kept the swine, 
 when they saw what had happened to them, were alarmed, 
 and fled into the city, telling everybody they met what had 
 happened. In consequence of this news, the people, excited 
 by curiosity, went out to see what had transpired. And 
 when the people of the city saw the poor demoniac sitting 
 at the feet of Jesus, clothed with proper garments that 
 had been furnished him, and in the possession of his right 
 mind, they felt afraid. But when the people of the country 
 round about came and learned from those who had wit- 
 
36 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 nessed the scene, they felt differently. They were also 
 taken with great fear, but their covetousness got the better 
 of their benevolence. They thought only of the swine; 
 and if Jesus would let all the demons enter them, the 
 hope of their gains would be gone. Hence, they besought 
 him most earnestly to depart, and leave them the demons 
 and their swine. I doubt if they ever prayed so fervently 
 before. Jesus heard their prayers, and left the country. — 
 But the people of the city felt differently, for the demoniacs, 
 at least one of them, was sent back to his own home by 
 our Lord, with the commission to show to the people what 
 great things God had done for him. He did so ; and the 
 people of the town who knew the poor possessed man, re- 
 joiced with him in his deliverance. And when they heard 
 that our Lord was about to return to the country, the people 
 went out to meet him, and received him gladly. Such dis- 
 plays of the power of God now in saving sinners, would in 
 many cases meet with similar treatment. There are multi- 
 tudes now who would greatly prefer that Jesus should de- 
 part from their midst, rather than have him cast the evil 
 spirits out of their neighbors, if by his doing so they should 
 lose any of their swine or any of their unlawful gains. It 
 is a blessed truth that all are not so. 
 
 In the gospel of Mark i : 23-26, we have an account of 
 a man who was in the synagogue of the Jews in Caper- 
 naum, and who had an unclean spirit in him. (So these evil 
 spirits do go to church sometimes.) When our Lord en- 
 tered and began to expound the Word of God to the peo- 
 ple, the man, or the spirit in him, cried out, saying, 
 " Let us alone. What have we to do with thee> thou Jesus 
 of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us ? I know 
 thee who thou art — the Holy One of God." " And Jesus 
 
A SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY. 37 
 
 rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him,, 
 And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with 
 a loud voice, he came out of him. The people were 
 amazed, and said, What thing is this ? What new doctrine 
 is this ? for with authority He commandeth even the un- 
 clean spirits, and they do obey him." 
 
 The Evangelist Luke, who was a physician also, records 
 the case of a woman, a Jewess, who had been bowed down 
 by what he calls a spirit of infirmity (pneuma astheneias.) 
 This was a different kind of spirit from those who were 
 called " unclean," or " dumb," or merely evil, though they 
 all were evil. The mode by which this spirit afflicted her 
 was, probably, by curving her spine. Such was the effect 
 of his power on her, that she could not lift herself up for 
 the space of eighteen years ! When our Lord saw her, 
 he called her to him and said to her, " Woman, thou art 
 loosed from thine infirmity I" And He laid hands on her, 
 and she was made straight immediately, and glorified God. 
 When the hypocritical ruler of the synagogue saw what 
 had been done, he answered with indignation because the 
 woman had been healed on the Sabbath day. Hypocrites 
 are always great sticklers for forms and ceremonies, but 
 pay very little regard to the soul and spirit of true reli- 
 gion. Our Lord reproved this hypocrite, telling him that 
 if he himself would, as an act of mercy, on the Sabbath 
 loose his ox or his ass, and lead the animal to a watering 
 place where it might slake its thirst and save its life, so 
 ought this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound 
 for eighteen years^ be loosed from her bond on the Sabbath 
 day. — Luke xiii : 1 1-17. 
 
 All that we say, at present, in reference to this case, is 
 that it argues little for Luke's medical knowledge if he 
 
38 SPIRITUALITY, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 mistook the case and the nature of the disease ; and as 
 little for the veracity of our Lord if that disease and in- 
 firmity had not been produced by an evil spirit. The 
 binder is one thing and the bond is another ; they cannot 
 be the same. 
 
 There is but one case more of those recorded in the New 
 Testament that I would refer to at present, and that is the 
 case of that good woman, Mary Magdalene. The Evange- 
 list Mark says that our Lord, after his resurrection, " ap- 
 peared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast 
 seven demons."''— Mark xvi : 9. They were demons, not 
 diseases. 
 
 It is clear from this declaration that she had been 
 greatly afflicted by evil spirits. Why this number took 
 possession of her, the Bible does not say, and hence we do 
 not know. There is, probably, no woman whose name is 
 recorded in the Sacred Scriptures, whose character has 
 been more slandered than that of Mary of Magdala. There 
 seems to have been a special effort made to make her char- 
 acter so surpassingly vile, that the contrast in her conver- 
 sion might be so much the greater, and that G-od thereby 
 might get the greater glory. But the opinion that she 
 was possessed by seven demons " on account of her wicked- 
 ness," as Ambrose and Jansenius afiirm, is without the 
 least foundation in truth. She was no more to be blamed 
 for being possessed by seven demons, than the man was out 
 of whom a legion (five thousand) were cast, or the child 
 who was possessed by but one. Jerome speaks favorably 
 of her character and standing before her conversion. The 
 probability is that she was a lady of great respectability 
 and wealth in Galilee before her conversion, and that after 
 it she was, next to the mother of Jesus, the most highly 
 
MODERN MANIFESTATIONS. 39 
 
 favored of women, for she was the first herald of a risen 
 Redeemer. Andricomius says that " Magdalum was the 
 eastle of Mary Magdalene, where she was born and where 
 she was healed." But it is the fashion for Protestants and 
 Romanists to defame. her character, and they will do it. — 
 But surely it is bad enough to have her afflicted by seven 
 real demons without being reproached for what she could 
 not help, and charged with being what she was not. It is 
 a pity that so many Christians allow themselves so easily 
 to fall into sentiments based upon the loose remark of some 
 old father in the church, who was probably no better than 
 he ought to be in the very things he charges upon the in- 
 nocent. When will the day come when the dogmas of men 
 will be wholly set aside, and the Word of the Lord alone 
 sball be the basis of thought and feeling, of word and of 
 act ? Lord, hasten the blissful day ! 
 
 MODERN MANIFESTATIONS. 
 
 We enter now upon a most interesting part of our sub- 
 ject, viz; the consideration of spirit manifestations, as 
 they are now witnessed in this land or in others. And here 
 we must rely, in a great degree, upon the eyes and ears of 
 others ; for we have ourselves seen but few, comparatively 
 speaking, of the many things that these spirits have done, 
 and are yet doing in the midst of us. We have no dispo- 
 sition to call in question any of the facts which have been 
 carefully and properly reported. Nor do we think that 
 those who affirm that they have witnessed the phenomena 
 which they describe, are mistaken, and that their senses of 
 seeing, hearing and feeling have all deceived them. We 
 cannot believe that they would affirm for truths, what they 
 know to be false. It cannot be ; for many of these witnes- 
 
40 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 ses are persons of undoubted veracity. They are men who 
 would scorn to tell a lie on any account ; and surely they 
 could have no motive arising from worldly gain or appro- 
 bation to do so. They are men of good sense, of sound and 
 sane minds. Men of good judgment; men who can dis- 
 criminate, as well as any others, between the true and the 
 false ; men who are in no way inferior to those around them, 
 and whose testimony in a court of justice, on all subjects 
 of which they have any personal knowledge, would be ta- 
 ken without the least hesitation. All this we say because 
 we believe it. Among those who have witnessed these phe- 
 nomena, are men in all the walks of life ; men of science and 
 of learning, physicians, judges, ministers, merchants, men 
 of business in all the avocations of life, sober and sedate, as 
 well as those who are of more excitable or enthusiastic tem- 
 perament of mind. Surely, it cannot be that all these per- 
 sons have been deceived as to all they have seen and heard. 
 If the whole has been a mere trick, and if all these persons 
 have been led to acknowledge phantasies for facts, then the 
 wonder is a greater one still than that concerning which 
 they testify. 
 
 There are, no doubt, many who, for the sake of gain, en- 
 deavor to impose upon the more credulous among the people, 
 by base imitations of these phenomena. But the cheat can 
 easily be detected by those who seek for the truth in the 
 case. And the very fact itself that some attempt to imitate 
 these wonders, proves that they are realities in the true 
 sense of the word. Among those who claim a no higher 
 character than that of mere mimics in these matters, we 
 apprehend that there are none whose name or standing in 
 society, would entitle them to any respect from others, while 
 they have none from themselves. They are soon among the 
 
MANIFESTATIONS IN INDIA. 41 
 
 things that were. They even fall beneath contempt. They 
 soon are out of mind. 
 
 But that persons of hitherto known respectability of char- 
 acter, of amiable dispositions, of moral worth, and of a 
 godly life, and the firm believers in the truths of revelation, 
 should suddenly rise up and proclaim to the world that 
 things were done through them by a power outside of them- 
 selves, and in opposition to their own choice or will in the 
 case, while at the same time, they attempted to practice 
 deception upon the community, whose ears and eyes and 
 senses were all awake to expose the cheat, if it be a cheat, 
 and then demand of us faith in the reality of the things 
 done, is asking of us a larger amount of faith than would 
 be necessary to believe all the ghost-stories that have ever 
 been published to the world since there was a pen to record 
 them till now.' Making all due allowance, then, for those 
 who will lie, yet there are so many persons, both old and 
 young, who cannot be deceived themselves, and who cannot 
 possibly be attempting to deceive others, and who testify in 
 the honesty of their hearts, to things they have heard and 
 seen, we hesitate not to admit fully and freely the reality 
 of all, each and every fact they state. The facts themselves 
 however are one thing ; the true explanation of them is an- 
 other, and a very different thing. We seek the truth, and 
 if we find it, we shall not fear to proclaim it; for " Truth 
 is mighty, and must prevail." 
 
 A SCENE IN INDIA. 
 
 There are a few things which have come under our own 
 observation, in connection with this subject, which we 
 would now state. As to the facts themselves, we know 
 
42 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 that we were not deceived. Our explanation of them we 
 shall give hereafter. 
 
 On the evening of Feb. 9th, 1834, about 6 o'clock, while 
 standing in the door of Mr. Ropers' house in Aurungabad, 
 India, I saw a crowd of people going towards a small 
 Hindoo temple, which was in sight, and near at hand. On 
 enquiry, I found that they were going to offer up two lambs 
 in sacrifice to the god Vetal, the king of the demons, or in 
 other words, to the Devil. In company with Mr. Roper 
 and another gentleman, we followed the crowd. There 
 were some forty persons in all, including the women and 
 children. It was a family sacrifice, and was to be offered 
 in fulfillment of a vow. A few persons playing on instru- 
 ments of music, such as are used on these occasions, led 
 the way. Then followed two men bringing the lambs for 
 sacrifice. The one was carried on the shoulders of one of 
 the men : the other was led. Both of them were decorated 
 with garlands of flowers. After these followed a person, 
 carrying the sacred fire, and next in order the families 
 concerned. When they arrived at the temple, which was 
 a small building, some twelve or fifteen feet square, the 
 people bowed down before the idol, which was within and 
 opposite the door, and then walked round the temple 
 twice. A lamp was then lit from the sacred fire and 
 placed in the temple immediately before the idol. The 
 person who officiated on this occasion was a priestess, with 
 a wild look, disheveled hair, and with garments that needed 
 washing. Her dress was the usual dress of the Hindoo 
 women in that part of the country, viz., the cholee, or body 
 dress, a kind of spencer, the sleeves reaching only to the 
 elbows ; and the loogurda, a garment wrapped round the 
 waist and extending below the knee. On the left sleeve 
 
MANIFESTATIONS IN INDIA. 43 
 
 of her dress, small patches of red flannel had been sewed 
 to represent the small-pox, which she professed to be able 
 to cure. She was assisted by a man, the counter-part of 
 herself in appearance. The priestess then marked the fore- 
 heads of all the people with red paint, such as was on the 
 idol. Having washed her hands in clean water, she took 
 a handful of the small branches of the kurdoonimb, the 
 bitter-lime-tree, and tied them together in the form of a 
 broom. This she held in her hand while her assistant 
 poured upon it a vessel full of water. While engaged in 
 washing these branches she continued to mutter something 
 in a low and rapid tone of voice, which no one could dis- 
 tinctly hear, and to which no one seemed to pay any at- 
 tention. This being over, she ordered her assistant to 
 wash the head and forelegs of one of the lambs with water, 
 into which she had thrown some salt and some of those 
 bitter leaves. The head of the lamb was next marked with 
 the red paint. Some of the bitter leaves and salt were 
 given it to eat, but it refused them. Its mouth was open- 
 ed and some of the salt and water and another fluid, (but 
 what I could not learn,) were forced down its throat. This 
 seemed to stupify the animal, so that being let loose, it 
 staggered about among the people. After a few minutes, 
 one of the company gave it a gentle tap on the side of the 
 head, which caused it to turn its face towards the door of 
 the temple. As soon as this was done, the sacrifieer seized 
 it, threw it forcibly on its left side, the head being towards 
 the door, and immediately cut off its head and the right 
 leg at the knee. These were moved up and down before 
 the idol, and then placed before the door of the temple. 
 When the lamb had ceased to move, it was dragged to one 
 side, where it was left. Ail this time the priestess stood 
 
44 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 by and was muttering something to herself. She now 
 stepped forward to the blood, holding the little bundle of 
 branches over it in her hand, and while the sacrificer pour- 
 ed water on it, she sopped it in the water and the blood, 
 and proceeded to sprinkle all the people in the blood of 
 the sacrifice, having first sprinkled the idol and the door- 
 posts of the temple. When she came to us, as we stood at 
 the end of the semi-circle of the crowd, she stopped and 
 frowned, as if considering whether to sprinkle us or not. 
 Then going to the door of the temple, she stood gazing in 
 upon the idol, and while she continued her muttering, the 
 brush dropped from her hand. She started back, and in 
 a frantic-like manner began to jump and scream and pull 
 her hair. On a sudden she was seized with trembling 
 through her whole body — her arms were extended — her 
 mouth was wide open, and her eyes rolled from side to side. 
 Again she jumped, and groaned, and raved, and screamed, 
 and finally was thrown back full length as if lifeless to the 
 ground. Her fall was broken by two of the women pre- 
 sent, who sprang forward and broke her fall, which, if they 
 had not done, it seems to me, it would have knocked her 
 own or some other spirit out of her, and brought her to 
 her senses ; or, at least, must have injured her much. 
 After lying on the ground stretched out for some time ap- 
 parently lifeless and stiff, she began to move, rose up slow- 
 ly and gradually, and resumed her former appearance. She 
 then addressed the people and told them that the god had 
 accepted their sacrifice. This being ended, one of the 
 company paid her a few pice (a small copper coin less than 
 the value of our cent,) for her services ; the musicians 
 struck up their music ; the company formed in a line and 
 returned back to their homes. 
 
MANIFESTATIONS IN INDIA. 45 
 
 Finding the old lady pretty calm in mind, and looking 
 intently at the money she had just received, I approached 
 her, and began to enquire about the sacrifice and the 
 meaning of what I had witnessed. But, whether she 
 thought that our design was to injure her, or in some way 
 to molest her, we know not ; she kept silent ; and when 
 urged to speak, she began to whine, and pretended to be 
 afraid of us, as perhaps she was. Gaining no informa- 
 tion from her, we left her. From the assistant we merely 
 learned the additional fact that, while the god was pleased 
 with the honor conferred on it, so were they with what 
 they had received, two lambs and some money. 
 
 I need hardly say that the whole scene interested me ex- 
 ceedingly at the time. The fact that the lambs were with- 
 out blemish ; that they were brought to the door of the 
 temple (their tabernacle) ; that salt and bitter herbs were 
 used ; that the head and foreleg were waved before the idol ; 
 that the idol, the doorposts of the temple, and the people, 
 were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice ; and that the 
 lambs were left for the use of the priestess, and the atten- 
 dants on the temple — ail tended to show that sacrifices, as 
 they now exist among the Hindoos, must have had their 
 origin in imitation of those appointed by the Lord and 
 practiced by Israel. 
 
 But in reference to this whole matter, and especially the 
 ravings and the contortions and convulsions of the possess- 
 ed, I would say, that the universal opinion of the people 
 is, that they are wholly involuntary on their part. Their 
 idea is that the god, which they say dwells in or near the 
 idol, and to which the sacrifice is offered, and which, as in the 
 present case, comes out of the idol and takes possession of 
 the woman, through her speaks to the people, giving them 
 
46 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 the information they may need. The Hindoos fully believe 
 that the god which is a demon or evil spirit, does take pos- 
 session of the bodies of individuals. Whatever the person 
 may do in that state of frenzy, is considered as the act of the 
 god, and not of the person possessed. That the Devil does 
 now, at times, possess people, is the firm faith of all the 
 Mohammedan population. The Hindoos believe that the 
 same effects are produced by their Rackshus, or evil spirits. 
 The priests have their fixed rules, by which they profess to 
 determine the question whether the possession be a real one 
 or not. If it be real, according to their rules, then the per- 
 son thus possessed, may be worshipped for the time being 
 as the god itself. They do oftentimes worship the Devil. 
 They pray to him, they ask him to take possession of them. 
 And is it unreasonable to suppose that their prayers in this 
 matter may be answered ? That there is any trick on the 
 part of these possessed ones, seems to be impossible. The 
 natives who look on give them credit for honesty, at least, 
 in the matter; and those who are Christians, who have wit- 
 nessed them, so far as I have known their views, agree in 
 the fact that they are veritable possessions. Probably every 
 missionary in India has witnessed something of the same 
 kind. The reader will find a short and interesting article 
 on the subject in Rev. Dr. Allen's work on "India, Ancient 
 and Modern," p. 384. 
 
 In conversing recently with a missionary from India, he 
 mentioned two instances of demoniacal possessions which 
 came under his own observation. One was that of a boy 
 in one of the schools at Bombay. While the missionary 
 was in the school, and giving instruction to the youth as- 
 sembled, one of the lads was seized and thrown down upon 
 the floor : he began to groan, and foam at the mouth, and 
 
HINDOO CHILDREN AND CONVERTS. 47 
 
 was thrown about in a most singular manner. The mis- 
 sionary went towards him to raise him up. The boys cried 
 out, " Bhootagrust, Sahib;" that is, " He is possessed." 
 After some time, they carried him home. 
 
 One of the Hindoo converts, before her conversion, had 
 been grievously tormented by the demons. After she had 
 become a Christian, and had united herself to the church, 
 one of her acquaintance asked her if the " Bhoots," the de- 
 mons, troubled her now. She replied, " I believe now in Je- 
 sus, and they don't come near me any more." 
 
 Now, whatever others may think on the subject, one thing 
 is certain, she really believed that she had been, and that, 
 too, for years tormented by demons ; and it is presumed 
 that she should know; but after she had embraced the 
 truth, as it is in Christ, and placed her hopes and trust in 
 Him, the evil spirits left her. We have her views of her 
 own case. Was she mistaken ? Are we sure she was not 
 right as to what had been the matter with her ? 
 
 As to the boys in the school, they had no doubt of the 
 fact that their young companion was possessed by a demon. 
 We state these cases merely to show what the opinion of the 
 people is on this subject. Others may attribute it all to 
 the effect of imagination, or to simple disease. But can 
 they prove that that disordered imagination, or that disease 
 by which the person may be afflicted, is not itself the pro- 
 duction of an evil spirit ? But of this we will speak again. 
 
 It is evident from the statements of travelers from the 
 various parts of the heathen world, that the belief in 
 spirits, distinct from man in the flesh, is, generally speak- 
 ing, prevalent among the people. Not only do the people 
 believe that they do exist, but these spirits can also take 
 possession of the bodies of men. There may be, and doubt- 
 
48 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 less is, much superstition connected with the faith of the 
 people on these subjects; but still, their faith has its 
 foundation in truth. The Old and New Testament writers 
 speak of the existence of such evil spirits and influences, 
 and we have no reason to think that they have yet been 
 wholly expelled from the abodes of men. 
 
 The Rev. Joseph Wolff, the missionary to the Jews, and 
 of world-wide fame, in his published account of his travels 
 through Bokhara, Affghanistan, and India, gives us the 
 views of the people of Cashmere and others on the subject, 
 and also his own. He was charged by Lieut. Burnes with 
 having cast a demon out of some godless Mohammedan 
 somewhere near Cabool, and this was considered proof 
 positive that the honored missionary was insane. When 
 Mr. Wolff was with me in Philadelphia, I asked him par- 
 ticularly about the matter. The account he gave me was 
 substantially this : He said that one evening while sitting 
 in a tent with some Mohammedans and others, and dis- 
 cussing subjects in reference to the character of Jesus of 
 Nazareth, and the plan of salvation by him, a Mohamme- 
 dan cried out and interrupted their conversation by such 
 unearthly groanings, and language, and actions, that being 
 fully convinced that he was possessed by an evil spirit, Mr. 
 W. turned to him, and fixing his eyes upon him, said, " In 
 the name of the Lord Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, I 
 command thee to be silent !" and immediately the man 
 was silent. He became calm, and continued so during the 
 remainder of the interview. Others may form their own 
 opinion of the matter, but the united opinion of Mr. W. 
 and the company with him was, that the man was a demo- 
 niac, and just such as we read of in the New Testament. — 
 We may be mistaken, but we think it will be found that 
 
WITCHCRAFT. 49 
 
 the most of our Christian missionaries who have labored 
 for any length of time in any part of the heathen world, 
 have witnessed such scenes as correspond very well with 
 the scriptural account of demoniacal possessions. And if 
 they are not in reality demoniacal possessions, which the 
 people themselves believe they are, it will be difficult to 
 account for them on any other theory. 
 
 WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 Since the entrance of the Evil One into our world, the 
 evidences of his power and evil workings are abundant. — 
 In every land you find them. They are in every age, and 
 among all nations. None are exempt. Our own country 
 has not escaped. Satan does not need the assistance of 
 steam power to transport himself or his angels from one 
 land to another. He visited America long before the in- 
 troduction of machinery, by which our sluggish bodies may 
 be carried from place to place. He is the Prince of the 
 power of the air — and although not omnipresent nor om- 
 niscient, yet he has agencies constantly at work, so that 
 his influence is felt, and constantly too, throughout the 
 world. 
 
 There are but few in our country now who have not read 
 or heard something of the cruel hunt after witches and 
 wizards (or, in the improved language of the present day, 
 mediums) in England, Scotland, Sweden, and America, 
 from the year 1640 down to 1692, or later, and of the sad 
 results of that movement, both here and there. After two 
 hundred years have rolled away, we of this day may sup- 
 pose that we understand these matters better than the 
 learned of that day. Perhaps we do. But after all, can 
 we give a satisfactory solution of those sad operations 
 
50 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 without referring them, at least in some degree, to something 
 more than mere wild imaginings or unrestrained fanati- 
 cism? We are astonished now to see the names of the 
 great men of that age, in all those countries and here also, 
 judges, governors, jurors, ministers, and people, learned 
 and influential, all uniting in condemning to death, hang- 
 ing, drowning, and torturing men, but especially helpless 
 women and children, because the people believed that they 
 were under the influence of Satan ; and some of them, to 
 save their lives, by confession, declared they were. It is 
 truly sad to think of the cold-blooded and deliberate mur- 
 ders that were then committed under the sanction of law, 
 and for the honor, as they thought, of the religion of Jesus, 
 that proclaims peace and good will to men. We fully be- 
 lieve the testimony of Scripture in reference to the wicked- 
 ness of the heart of man by nature. But bad as the human 
 heart is, we do not believe that it is so bad as to act, as we 
 know it did during that reign of witch-terror, without aid and 
 assistance from without — even from Satan himself. We 
 doubt not that many of those unhappy victims were under 
 Satanic influence, and that too, like the poor demoniacs 
 of old, without any will or wish of their own. But we 
 also believe, and have fully as much evidence, if not more 
 in the case, that the judges and jurors, the ministers and 
 the people, who engaged in that unrighteous work of con- 
 demning and executing so many of their fellow-beings, 
 were themselves under the direct influence of the Devil. — 
 They had the power in their own hands ; and hence, 
 they saved their own lives. Satan raised the storm, and 
 kept it up and controlled it so as to accomplish the 
 object he had in view, namely, the ruin of many, and the 
 bringing a reproach upon the religion of Christ, through 
 
WITCHCRAFT. 5 1 
 
 its professed adherents, whom he himself had possessed. 
 If there be guiltiness in the matter, and no doubt there is, 
 we judge it is not to be chargeable so much to those who 
 were involuntarily the subjects of those delusions as to 
 those who lent themselves, as the willing servants of Satan, 
 for the time being, in persecuting and killing those who 
 needed rather their prayers and their sympathies, and es- 
 pecially deliverance from the power of the Devil by the 
 grace of God. 
 
 At the present time, we have in this country the mani- 
 festations of Satanic influence, which are neither " few nor 
 far between." They may be arranged under two general 
 classes, viz. : 
 
 1. Those which are more immediately connected with 
 the moving of material objects ; and — 
 
 2. Those which exhibit a mind in connection with them, 
 and controlling them. 
 
 As to the first of these — viz., the movements of material 
 objects— we have published accounts of them, which, if 
 particular cases be necessary, are sufficient to satisfy any 
 reasonable mind of their reality ; for we have them in any 
 reasonable quantity and variety. 
 
 Having already stated that we have no reason to call in 
 question the truth of many of these published accounts, as 
 to the facts themselves, we hesitate not to refer to them as 
 facts. As to the explanation of those facts, we express no 
 opinion here : we reserve that for another place. 
 
 Taking then the statements which are given us by mul- 
 titudes of individuals over their own signitures, and whose 
 testimony we do not venture to question, we have the move- 
 ment of tables by persons laying their hands upon them, 
 and rappings, and noises in any conceivable quantity. So 
 
52 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 far as we learn, the mode of operation is this. A few sit 
 at a table, one of whom must be a medium ; that is, if we 
 understand the term, a connecting link between the visible 
 and invisible ; and one, through whom the invisible agent 
 may work. They lay their hands upon it ;' they sit in 
 silence, and in due time the table begins to move. At 
 first the table was spoken to as an intelligent being, and 
 asked sundry questions, according to the fancy of the ques- 
 tioner. These would be answered by tilting up and down. 
 One tilt is no ; two are doubtful, and three are yes. The 
 table was then asked to stand on one foot, and it would do 
 so ; to walk about, and to answer all sorts of questions. 
 All of which, whether the answers were right or wrong, 
 seemed to please the operators, and the spectators much 
 Afterwards the questions were put, and are now put, when 
 these things are done, to the invisible agent who, it is said, 
 moves the table. The form now is — " Will the spirit tell 
 us ;" or, if a name be given, " Will M. or N. answer our 
 question P" So that now the intercourse is held* between 
 the living, and the invisible, through a mere table. It was 
 said at first, by nearly all, and by many yet, that all this 
 is the effect of electricity, or of the operation of one' of the 
 minds present. 
 
 But here is a table on which no hands are laid. It is 
 requested to rise, or the spirits are requested to raise it up 
 for the gratification of those present. It does rise, and 
 does remain suspended in the air. No hand touches it ; 
 no trick has done it. But it is done. Here, so far as 
 human eyes can see, the laws of gravitation are suspended, 
 or in some way overcome, so that the table does remain 
 suspended in the air. Does electricity or magnetism also 
 do that ? What law of nature is there, so far as we know 
 
TABLE TIPPING. 53 
 
 them, by the observance of which any one, or any number 
 of men can, by the mere force of their will, order a table 
 to rise and remain suspended in the air, and it will obey 
 them? 
 
 But, this is not all. Not only are tables moved, and 
 other portions of matter lifted up, and moved about and 
 are broken to pieces ; persons are lifted up without any 
 visible agency, and are carried bodily from one room to 
 another, and from place to place : persons unskilled in 
 music, even little children, have played well anol skillfully 
 on instruments of music without having learned a note, 
 and the instruments themselves have played while no hand 
 touched them ; hands have appeared writing on walls ; 
 they have been felt ; some of them apparently warm and 
 others cold to the touch ; persons have been seized and 
 shaken, and their garments torn ; they have been tossed 
 about ; the form of bodies known to be long dead have 
 been made to appear ; secrets have been revealed and facts 
 have been made known, which were beyond the reach of 
 man to find out : friends have been represented as coming 
 back from the invisible world, and holding converse with 
 the living, some times speaking words of comfort, and at 
 others words of warning, in many cases words of truth, and 
 in others words of falsehood. 
 
 A friend of mine in whose eye-sight and statements I 
 have every confidence, states the following facts among 
 others. 
 
 One day happening to pass by the door of a friend, he 
 called him to him; after the usual salutations of the day, 
 the following conversation in substance passed between 
 them — 
 
 " Have you witnessed any of these table-tippings which 
 
54 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 are talked about so much ?" (they had just begun to be 
 known in Philadelphia then.) 
 
 " We know but little about them," he replied. 
 
 " We can turn the tables in our house — our little daugh- 
 ter can do it easily ; but we can't do it without her : come 
 in and see." 
 
 They went in, and in due time were seated in an upper 
 room. The father, mother, and little daughter, some fourteen 
 years of age, sat by the little table. Their hands were laid 
 upon it. All looked on. j^ter a few minutes, sure enough 
 the table tipped up. The father then asked, how many 
 persons are there in the room ; how many windows are 
 there to the room : a coin was held out in the closed hand 
 — the kind and date were asked, also the several ages of the 
 persons present ; to all these the answers were correct. It 
 was then suggested, perhaps the little girl can write also. 
 A pencil was placed in her hand, and soon it began to 
 move. Several questions were asked her, and answers 
 were given which seemed to gratify the father and interest 
 him very much. Finally the question was put, " who 
 moves her hand ?" Immediately, in large distinct letters, 
 she wrote the word " Devil." When she lifted up her 
 pencil and saw the word she had written, she dropped the 
 pencil, and a shudder passed over her that shook her whole 
 frame. She evidently felt afraid, and her parents were 
 silent. They looked amazed. At length the father said, 
 "I guess we had better stop now." That ended the in- 
 terview. But, the conclusion that our friend drew from 
 what he saw was, that there must have been a mind dif- 
 ferent from any one then present, controlling her hand, for 
 no one had suggested that name, and surely the little girl 
 
A MANIFESTATION. 55 
 
 herself had not intended to write the word. What led her 
 to do it ? That is the question. 
 
 On another occasion, the same friend was walking down 
 one of our streets, and seeing a small second hand book- 
 store, he stepped in to look at the odd volumes that were 
 there. He saw among them a work on Spiritualism, which 
 led him to make a remark on the subject of the book. 
 This led to a conversation with the bookseller on the sub- 
 ject. In the course of conversation, he said there was a 
 lady then in his house, who did some strange things. He 
 immediately left the store and called her. She came into 
 the store and sat down on a chair near the counter. He 
 gave her an alphabetical card. She laid it down before 
 her, and placed her hands upon it. Her eyes soon closed. 
 She then bandaged her eyes, and reversed the card. He 
 asked her sundry questions. Her hand immediately was 
 shaken violently, and she rapidly spelled out an answer 
 to each question, by placing the fore finger upon each let- 
 ter in regular order. After the experiments were over, 
 the lady was asked what she thought about the whole 
 matter. She replied, that she did not know what to think 
 about it. The influence came upon her suddenty, about a 
 year ago — her hand is moved against her will, and she 
 has no knowledge of what she has spelled out, or the 
 meaning of any thing done unless it be told her by those 
 who may witness it. 
 
 Our friend was perfectly satisfied that the lady, (who is 
 married and a mother), was honest in all that she said. 
 She makes no gain by it. The whole thing is strange to 
 her, she cannot account for it, and only when among her 
 friends, does she now submit to have her hand moved for 
 the gratification of others. He is of the opinion that there 
 
56 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 is a mind different from hers, that controls her hand on 
 these occasions. 
 
 We would mention but one more case which our friend 
 witnessed. It was this : In company with another friend, 
 he went to see a person who it is said becomes entranced 
 (we think that is the term used.) Having entered the 
 house, they were conducted to an upper room where the 
 lady and her mother were. A small table was brought out 
 and placed in the middle of the room, and she and they sat 
 near it. She laid her hands upon it, and then asked if 
 there were any spirits present. The answer was, Yes. — 
 Are they good ? Yes. To what sphere do you belong r 
 The sixth. Will you take possession of the medium ? Yes. 
 How soon ? In three minutes. 
 
 All now was quiet. In a minute's time her eyes closed , 
 her arms began to twitch ; her whole body began to be 
 agitated ; her face was contorted ; she moaned, and a pe- 
 culiar sensation was produced about the neck and throat, 
 as if swallowing something ; her hands became perfectly 
 rigid, and her arms were stretched out. In three minutes' 
 time her muscles relaxed ; she was again calm and com- 
 posed, and spake out, saying, " I am happy." It was 
 asked, " Who are you ?" " I am Sarah J. I lived in 
 Ohio, and died six years ago. I was a member of the 
 church ; I lived a Christian life ; I am progressing rapid- 
 ly." To various questions proposed to her, she said she 
 believed in Jesus as she did while on earth, but in many 
 things her views were changed. There was punishment 
 there for the bad, but all might make an atonement for their 
 sins by suffering ; and all would finally enter higher and 
 happier spheres. Some were a long time in getting out 
 of the lower ones, which were places of torment. She said 
 
A POSSESSION. 57 
 
 she saw the wicked a great way off ; they were quarreling 
 with each other, and some evil one was taunting them. 
 She felt happy in being able to come back and tell to others 
 her joy and her peace. She had but a short time to stay ; she 
 must go. A pause ensued, the twitching again returned, 
 and a slight moan or two was heard, and she opened her eyes. 
 
 On inquiring if she knew what she had been speaking 
 about, she said, No ; she had no knowledge of it whatever. 
 She felt no pain from the spasms or the process of the pos- 
 session. 
 
 Shortly after the influence came upon her again, and she 
 passed through a similar process. Finally, while sitting 
 calmly with her hands on the table, she asked if there were 
 any spirits present who would take possession of her. The 
 table gave three violent raps. Her mother, who sat by, 
 said, u That's a bad spirit ;" and seemed unwilling that 
 her daughter should be made the subject of its control. — 
 But she wished it. Immediately she was most violently 
 shaken, and gave several deep groans, and her features 
 were much contorted ; her whole countenance was changed. 
 In a moment more she spoke out : " Oh, cursed passion I 
 He provoked me to do it !" " Who are you ?" " I am the 
 murderer of Parkman. Oh, oh ! I did it ;" and she 
 shuddered all over. " What did you do it for ?" " He kept 
 asking me for the money." " Did you hate him ?" " No; 
 I had no intention of doing it until he came and asked me 
 again for it. Oh, oh ! I killed him." " Where did you 
 strike him ?" " Oh, here," laying her hand on the back 
 part of her head. " Oh, oh !" and she gave a deep groan. 
 " What did you do with him ?" " I dissected him — oh ! 
 I did." " Are you sorry for it now ?" " Oh, oh ! I can't 
 repent — I can't." " Is there then no hope for you ?" — 
 
58 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 " I have just heard that there is ; but the time is so far 
 off before I shall begin to progress. Oh, I can't repent. — 
 Oh, oh !" and then she became violent. She pounded the 
 table with her fists and knuckles, so that, fearing she might 
 break some of her bones, our friend interposed his arm, 
 so that she might spend her strength on it. But that 
 not being very pleasant, he drew his arm back, and pulled 
 away the table from her. She rose and caught hold of it, 
 pulling it back, and pounded it more furiously, and as 
 rapidly as her hands could well move. All the time her 
 features were distorted, and the very picture of rage and 
 despair. There seemed to be no stopping or calming her. 
 All became somewhat alarmed. Her mother also seemed 
 so. She arose and caught hold of her daughter, and spoke 
 out aloud — u In the name of the Lord, I beseech you to 
 leave her 1" In a moment she sat down. She groaned 
 once or twice, and then opened her eyes, and looked round 
 and asked what was the matter. She seemed to be bewil- 
 dered. When told what had happened, she said she thought 
 that some bad spirit had had possession of her, but she 
 had no knowledge of what had transpired. " But did you 
 not hurt your hands by pounding so hard ?" " No," she 
 replied. " But did I not hurt you ?" " Yes, but not 
 much. We wished,' 5 he said, " to save you from being 
 injured." 
 
 Having seen enough at that time, she was requested not 
 to permit any more of the spirits to take possession of her 
 if she could prevent it. Astonished at what he saw, after 
 a few minutes' conversation with the family he came away. 
 He learned, however, from the young woman, that accord- 
 ing to her account her father died many years ago, a wicked 
 man ; that after some years in the invisible world, and 
 
THE PHENOMENA AT DAVENPORT^. 59 
 
 after suffering a great deal, he obtained permission (from 
 whom she did not say) to come back to this world and 
 make a medium of his daughter. By doing so he had 
 done a good act, and that helped him to make some pro- 
 gress towards being better and happier. 
 
 This is the account she gave of the matter ; but she does 
 not attempt to explain or account for the influence that 
 came upon her some two years ago. She professes to feel 
 as yet no injury from the agitations and shakings she has 
 to pass through. When asked if she really thought that 
 the spirits that took possession of her were what they pro- 
 fessed to be — viz., the spirits of departed human beings, 
 her father's spirit among them — she said she thought so, 
 but was not certain ; still, that seemed to be her belief of 
 the matter. 
 
 As to the above account, we can have no doubt of the 
 reality of the events themselves, for our friend saw them, 
 and could not be mistaken. Indeed, there are so many eye 
 and ear witnesses to so many of these phenomena, that it is 
 vain to deny the things themselves. 
 
 But here is another account, and with this we shall con- 
 clude this part of the subject. We cut it, a few weeks 
 ago, out of one of the papers of the day. The statement 
 is as follows : 
 
 THE PHENOMENA AT DAVENPORT^. 
 
 "We have on various occasions alluded to the mysterious 
 and inexplicable manifestations at the above locality on 
 Maine street, which are being daily and nightly developed, 
 and of a character to startle the most intelligent minds in 
 this or any other community. That these demonstrations 
 partake of more than mere human agency, we are inclined 
 
60 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 to think any reasoning mind, after fairly looking into the 
 matter, and bringing all ordinary and extraordinary talent 
 to bear upon it, and failing to elucidate, will be obliged to 
 acknowledge, we cannot for a moment doubt ; but of the 
 character of the cause which does produce phenomena so pe- 
 culiar, it is not our province to speculate upon, 
 
 It would appear that mind, the concentrated mental 
 force present at certain times, will either in the one case 
 help to produce certain effects, or in other cases serve to 
 destroy them. Also, that the atmosphere at times is favor- 
 able or unfavorable, and other influences operating for or 
 against the demonstration of a new and most mysterious 
 principle, the germ of which is now beginning to manifest 
 itself. Night after night, and daily, also, can be heard a 
 voice, which speaks with, to say the least, human strength, 
 and conveying ideas often of more than ordinary human 
 sagacity. This intelligence can be communicated with when 
 one is alone with the single medium, a boy of some twelve 
 years old, whose hands are held, at which time the air is 
 filled with noises, and sounds partaking of voices, whis- 
 tlings, fingering of the strings of violins, guitars, &c. 
 
 Last evening, with a number of respectable and perfect- 
 ly sensible observers, we witnessed all of the above demon- 
 strations, and a few more of even greater mystery. Lights 
 of a character resembling shooting stars, or the rapid pas- 
 sage of lightning, filled the room for several minutes. This 
 phenomena is, we are told, often observed when human and 
 atmospheric influence permit ; but a still more unaccount- 
 able demonstration was given of this superhuman power. 
 There were two mediums at the table, the eldest a lad of 
 sixteen, we should judge. This boy was lifted, chair and 
 all, to the ceiling, a distance of some twelve feet, at least, 
 
WONDERS AT BUFFALO. 61 
 
 and struck heavily there, indenting the plastering, and 
 marking the chair with the whitewash. A request was 
 made to the invisible agent who controls and converses with 
 them, to do it again, and permit the boy to mark the ceiling 
 with red chalk. After the company satisfied themselves 
 that, by placing a chair on the table, and standing up in it, 
 the boy could not reach the ceiling within several feet, the 
 lights are put out, and immediately a heavy body, like 
 dropping a hundred weight upon the floor, was felt to have 
 come down ; the light was produced, and a red chalk line 
 on the ceiling showed where the boy had been. 
 
 Perhaps some rational explanation can be given of hu- 
 man agency in all this ; if so, we should like to get hold 
 of it. We feel that ordinary principles known to man, 
 will not admit of it ; but what is it ? There we will leave 
 the subject." — Buffalo Republican. 
 
 The question now arises, in view of all these and of 
 other facts that might be stated, and which the reader may 
 find in the published books of the spiritualists, and which 
 receive their full approbation; what is the proper explana- 
 tion of them ? Are they all mere tricks, or are they natu- 
 ral phenomena, or are they supernatural ? And if so, 
 what kind of agency produces them ? 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE THEORIES. 
 
 Admitting then all the facts that have hitherto been re- 
 ported in connection with these various forms of spiritual 
 manifestations, to be veritable facts, the question arises, 
 how are they to be explained ? Every effect must have 
 an adequate cause. This is common sense and sound phi- 
 losophy. There is a cause for all these effects. What is 
 that cause ? 
 
 TRICKERY. 
 
 To this question it is answered by some, the whole thing 
 is a trick; a mere matter of deception, and of lies on the 
 part of those who are the actors, or mediums, in the case. 
 It is a plan to gain money or notoriety. 
 
 To such remarks, so unguarded, and so devoid of truth, 
 we reply, those who make them know not what manner of 
 spirit they are of: they know not what they say, nor 
 whereof they affirm. In all probability they are made by 
 those who have never carefully examined the subject, and 
 who think the shortest way and. the best to treat any and 
 every delusion by which souls may be ruined, for time and 
 for eternity, is by a sneer and by assumed contempt. We 
 have heard such arguments from the pulpit, against spiri- 
 tualism, and can only say, that, if we had the least bearing 
 toward the delusion, or had doubts as to its true character 
 
THE THEORIES VENTRILOQUISM. 63 
 
 such preaching would rather make a convert of us to it, 
 than give us a more perfect abhorrence of it than we have. 
 It is an utter impossibility that the multitudes of men, 
 women, and little children, who are now the subjects of 
 these manifestations, and many of them without any wish 
 or will on their part, can be practicing trickery and false- 
 hood. That some few may do so can easily be supposed. 
 That this is the case with any great number cannot be ; 
 and aDy one, who is acquainted with the facts in the case, 
 and the persons who are engaged in it, must know that it 
 cannot be that they are deliberately trying to deceive the 
 people, We give them full credit for honesty at least. 
 
 It has been said, that all the noises and rappings that 
 have been heard, could be produced by a person, whose 
 knee-joints could, at will, be made to crack ! ! Others 
 have thought that wires or springs, or something of the 
 kind, had been previously arranged by the operators, and 
 that the noises were produced in that way. These were 
 among some of the first guesses at explanation ; but no 
 one now, we believe, thinks that these come any way near to 
 the truth. These explanations are wholly discarded. 
 
 VENTRILOQUISM 
 
 Was next supposed to be the true explanation of the sounds 
 and noises. From what we heard about the matter, at 
 first, we supposed that it might be so : for these abdomi- 
 nal talkers can do many very strange things, and all too, 
 they tell us, quite scientifically. But this will not account for 
 the noises heard, when there is no one within speaking dis- 
 tance to produce them. They have been heard at such 
 times, and places, and under such circumstances as wholly 
 
64 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 to forbid the idea of their proceeding from any ventrilo- 
 quist, however great his power may be. 
 
 We have witnessed the jugglers in India perform some 
 astonishing things, and have heard of others still more un- 
 accountable having been performed by them, and which 
 they said were all a mere series of tricks, and could be done 
 by any one else, if they had the tact and the knowledge. 
 We doubt it. We are by no means certain that there is 
 not assistance lent these persons by a power outside of 
 themselves. They may think it is all from themselves ; 
 but we believe they are mistaken. 
 
 But, from the curious tricks that some may perform in 
 the presence of others, and the mode of doing these things 
 at the time, so that they cannot possibly be detected, the 
 conclusion is drawn, that all these rappings, voices, noises, 
 music, &c, are of a like character. The whole is scientifi- 
 cally done, and there is really nothing wrong, but only 
 amusement in the whole matter ! Ventriloquism cannot 
 possibly explain the phenomena. 
 
 ELECTRICITY, 
 
 Galvanism, odic-force, and the power of the human will, 
 have all been brought forward to account for the wonders 
 of spiritualism. The French philosophers, who, of course, 
 are presumed to know everything that appertains to the 
 mysterious, have written learnedly upon the subject. So 
 have learned and scientific men in this country done the 
 same thing. They had it all right. Yes, they know all about 
 it. But soon some new manifestation was made, and then 
 the books which they had written on the subject, and their 
 finely argued- out theories too were all cast overboard into 
 
THE THEORIES ELECTRICITY GALVANISM. 65 
 
 the wide sea of uncertainty, where many a favorite theory 
 on many a subject lies quietly asleep. 
 
 Electricity and galvanism could do, as agencies, when 
 directed by some mind, many wonderful things. But these 
 wise men soon found that electricity would not cause a 
 lamp to be lifted up off the mantle, and be dashed into a 
 looking-glass worth some $50 or more ; or the door of a 
 room to be locked on the inside, while no one was in the 
 room ; or garments to be torn off persons while they have 
 been quietly sitting in their room ; or when persons had 
 knelt down to pray, to pull them off their knees ; or when 
 papers were placed in private drawers in writing desks, 
 and locked up, that they should be torn to pieces, or fire 
 be kindled in them, so that they were actually burnt up, 
 and the wood of the desk charred ; or that persons should 
 be pushed about and injured, and when no body was in or 
 near the house,, that the doors should still remain locked, 
 and the drawers too, and yet all the clothes be taken from 
 the drawers, and strewed about over the floor, or dressed 
 up in all kinds of fantastic shapes ; or that persons should 
 be lifted up, and carried forward for squares without their 
 feet touching the ground ; or that the persons could rise 
 up in public assemblies, and speak intelligibly, and scien- 
 tifically, and philosophically, for an hour at a time on sub- 
 jects they knew but little of, and when the discourse was 
 over did not know what had been said, and could by no 
 means use language so fine, so chaste, and so appropriate ; 
 or could dictate and write letters, and drop them down in 
 a room as if they had fallen from the ceiling, while the ink 
 was still wet on the paper ; and all these things and thou- 
 sands of others that have been done, they found were ac- 
 tually done, and that their electricity, though it could rive 
 
66 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 the oak and plough the earth in deep furrows, and fire the 
 ship on the sea, or the house on the land, when permitted 
 by God to do its work, yet it could not do, by man's con- 
 trol, these small things. Electricity now has got permis- 
 sion to retire from the field of spiritualistic wonders. The 
 leave of absence, we think, is just, and demanded by the 
 nature of the case. 
 
 THE HUMAN WILL. 
 
 This has been brought, in the next place, to bear upon 
 the subject, and to explain it. Much has been said about 
 the voluntary and involuntary powers and instincts of the 
 human mind. But, in all our life, we have never yet 
 read, or heard of a case where a man, by taking thought, 
 by his intense anxiety of mind, or fixedness of thought, or 
 purpose of will could, or ever did add one cubit to his 
 stature, or prolong his life an hour ; or even change the 
 color of a hair, making it either white or black. (Mat. 
 v: 36; vi: 27.) If so small a thing as that cannot be 
 done by the force of the human will ; on what ground can 
 we expect that these greater things can be done ? We 
 know that the will of some men may be called an iron will, 
 and may, by its firmness, produce many mighty effects, by 
 swaying the minds of others ; but, all the force of all the 
 minds of men from Adam down to the present time, if they 
 could be brought to bear unitedly upon any piece of dead 
 matter, could never move it an inch, much less lift up 
 heavy masses of matter, and hurl them about as chaff be- 
 fore the wind. It is not the province of the hman mind 
 to do such things. Its field of operation, and its work is 
 different. It also has a free permit to withdraw from this 
 spirit-work, and work when and where the Lord appoints. 
 
THE THEORIES THE DEPARTED SPIRITS. 67 
 
 By universal consent, all who are known as Spiritualists 
 have given up the idea that these phenomena are produced 
 by any thing else than by 
 
 THE SPIRITS OF DEPARTED HUMAN 
 
 BEINGS. 
 
 They may not have always thought so. But, it is evident, 
 that this is now the theory. They profess to, believe that 
 the spirits of all persons, immediately after death, enter 
 into the invisible world, (which is all around us,) with the 
 same moral character which they had while in the body. 
 If they are wicked, they enter the second sphere, the space 
 which is immediately around the earth. Here are none 
 but what are called undeveloped spirits. They retain all 
 their ignorance, and rudeness, and all their characteristic 
 traits of character while on the earth and dwelling among 
 the living in the flesh. In this, and in all the spheres, there 
 are many circles, probably seven. So that a spirit that is 
 bad must enter one of these seven circles of this second 
 sphere. Development and progression are the established 
 order of the invisible world. Many of the spirits are so 
 bad that it is a long time before they begin their progres- 
 sive course upwards. But sooner or later this is the case. 
 In this place they make an atonement for the sins they 
 had committed in life, and of which they had not repented. 
 When they once begin to rise, their progress may be very 
 rapid. And, as they will henceforward continue to make 
 progress, they will all ultimately be perfectly and eternally 
 holy and happy. 
 
 Those who are good persons on earth will, at their death, 
 enter into a higher sphere. Here they enjoy the society 
 
68 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 of the good. The spirits in the higher spheres can hold 
 intercourse with the good even in the spheres above them. 
 All of these spirits, both the good and the bad, are anx- 
 ious to re-enter the bodies of persons still in the flesh. 
 The good spirits aim to do good, and their desire is to in- 
 struct mortals in the right way, and to correct the many 
 erroneous views which persons, in the flesh, fall into by 
 their implicit belief in the statements of the Bible. The 
 Bible, these spirits say, is wrong in many of its statements. 
 It is their object to correct these errors, if possible. Hence 
 their great desire to enter the bodies of living human be- 
 ings, so as to communicate these things to the world. It 
 is not every one that they can control, or fit for their ser- 
 vice, so as to communicate by them. But, they can pre- 
 pare them for these communications by a process of train- 
 ing, that may continue for a longer or shorter period of 
 time. These persons are called 
 
 MEDIUMS. 
 
 There is a great variety of mediums. Some are called 
 writing mediums : others are speaking, or seeing, or healing 
 mediums. The modes of communication with mortals in 
 the flesh, through these different mediums, by the spirits 
 of the departed are various, but the agents are the same — 
 they are always the spirits of the departed. 
 
 The bad spirits are equally desirous to communicate 
 with men in the flesh, or rather to enter into the body of 
 some one living, so as to get some respite from their suf- 
 fering in the lower spheres. They also retain the same 
 tempers in the spirit world that they had while here. As 
 they were fond of quarreling and strife while here, so the 
 desire to get where they can indulge again their old 
 
SPIRITS TH5IR TEACHINGS. 69 
 
 practice of disputation, and wrangling, urges them to take 
 possession of any body that they can possibly enter. They 
 are not choice of the persons they may enter, nor are they 
 in any way particular as to the propriety of their conduct 
 while they have possession of the body. They often make 
 the person possessed by them, use filthy language and ges- 
 tures to correspond to their words. — These are what may 
 be called unclean spirits — or dirty spirits. Truth is, by 
 no means, sacred with them. They will utter falsehoods, 
 and tell you to your face that it is their business to lie — 
 these are lying spirits. All of these spirits, both the good 
 and the bad, are, according to Spiritualism, the souls of 
 departed human beings ; for they maintain that there is no 
 devil, and of course there are no evil angels, as Christians 
 generally believe. 
 
 TEACHINGS OF THE SPIRITS. 
 
 There is an old proverb that says, " As he (man) think- 
 eth in his heart so is he," Prov. xxiii : 7. This statement 
 is founded in truth ; for a man's thoughts are a good index 
 to the state of his heart. There is another statement equal- 
 ly true, of this nature : " Out of the abundance of the heart 
 the mouth speaketh," Matt, xii : 34 : and yet another which 
 says, " Ye shall know them by their fruits, " Matt, vii : 16. 
 As all these statements are admitted truths, it seems to be 
 perfectly right to test the character of these teachers by 
 the doctrines they may teach. And especially so, since we 
 are earnestly exhorted by one of beloved memory to do so, 
 and who, in the affection of his heart, says, " Beloved, be- 
 lieve not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are 
 of God," 1 John iv : 1. An ancient writer says, " To the 
 law and the testimony ; if they speak not according to this 
 
70 SPIRITUALITY, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 word, it is because there is no light in them." Is. viii : 20. 
 Taking, then, these principles for our guide, let us inquire 
 what are the teachings of these spirits, who come commis- 
 sioned from some quarter, to add, during the continuance 
 of this dispensation, to the things which God hath author- 
 ized His servants to write in the book of His truth reveal- 
 ed to man. Eev. xxii : 18. 
 
 1. IN REFERENCE TO GOD. 
 
 Spiritualism teaches that there is a God who is Supreme 
 and over all. Some individuals among them say, " There 
 is no Supreme Spirit — each spirit is a God." " Thou be- 
 lievest that there is one God. Thou doest well : the de- 
 mons also (ta daimonia) believe and tremble. But wilt 
 thou know, vain man, that faith without works is dead ?" 
 
 The mere belief in the existence of a God is no proof of 
 the goodness of the believer. All nations believe in some 
 one Supreme Being, except the Parsees, the ancient Zoro- 
 asterites, who held to two first principles, one good, the 
 other bad, which they look upon as two gods of equal 
 power and from whom all things have sprung. The myth- 
 ological system of India teaches that there is but one 
 Being, from whom all the gods, and all things have sprung. 
 In the worship of the many gods, they entirely overlook 
 the worship of the One. Polytheism and Pantheism can 
 be taught and believed, only where the light of Divine 
 revelation does not shine. 
 
 But a question arises here — " What is God ? accord- 
 ing to spirit teaching." Let them answer the question. 
 
 " You have said that the sun was pure fire, what do you 
 think of it now ?" was the question which was proposed 
 by one to the spirit that purported -to be the soul of one 
 
SPIRIT-THEOLOGY. 7 1 
 
 who had left the body, and had gone into the spirit-world, 
 and was then speaking through the lips of a medium, a 
 lady, the answer is — 
 
 "The sun which you behold is the God of heaven and earth." 
 
 " What do you mean by that ?" 
 
 " Spirits know no other; and God has never been seen 
 in any other form." 
 
 Some teach that " God is a spirit, and that the world is 
 his body." 
 
 All this is, of course, blank, bald atheism. 
 
 What the particular views of God may be, which others 
 of these spirits hold, or which spiritualists hold, we know 
 not ; but we have never yet read of one of these spirits 
 teaching the Bible view of the character of God, nor do we 
 know of a spiritualist that holds it. There is a uniform, 
 invariable denial of the Scriptural representation of the 
 Divine Being. The god they believe in is not the God 
 that is revealed in the Bible. 
 
 2. WHAT THEY TEACH CONCERNING CHRIST. 
 
 The uniform teaching of all the spirits is, that Jesus is 
 not Divine. Some call him the Son of God ; but by that 
 term they do not mean to express the idea of equality with 
 the Father. He is the highest and the most exalted of 
 creatures — he himself being a mere creature. According 
 to the spirits, He did not die for the salvation of sinners ; 
 He did not make an atonement for sin ; He did not come 
 to destroy the works of the Devil ; for they affirm there is 
 no personal Devil. But as if to make certaint} 7 more sure, 
 we have a published account of the conception, birth, and 
 life of Jesus, which professes to be from Himself, and com- 
 municated through a medium a short time ago, in which 
 
72 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 He flatly denies the account given of Him by the Evangel- 
 ist Luke ; He states he is nothing but a man, and never 
 was anything more. 
 
 According to all this, the whole plan of salvation is a 
 solemn farce. The preaching of faith and repentance, and 
 the necessity of regeneration by the power of the Holy 
 Spirit, (whose personal existence they deny,) and the sanc- 
 tification of the soul as a prerequisite for the kingdom of 
 God, are but a gilded lie. The wicked here of all grades, 
 and those guilty of the basest of crimes, are not condemned, 
 and never will be; but they pass immediately into a state 
 of comparative happiness, where, by suffering, they make 
 an atonement for their sins, and then begin to make pro- 
 gress in happiness and peace, and continue to increase in 
 blessedness, and joy, and knowledge until they have at- 
 tained the highest degree of glory, (in the ninth sphere ac- 
 cording to some,) where they will forever be. 
 
 Expressions like the following, which purport to be com- 
 munications from the spirits to their dearly beloved friends 
 and former acquaintances in this city, are scattered in pro- 
 fuse abundance throughout the works that are published 
 by Spiritualists : 
 
 " All are much happier in the spirit-world than they 
 were on earth." " All are in a state of progression in the 
 spirit-world : none remain where they enter ; all will pro- 
 gress and enjoy as much happiness constantly as they are 
 capable of receiving." " When the people begin to believe 
 this great truth, the errors of the popular religion will 
 then be abandoned." " Man can never be thoroughly re- 
 formed till God is divested of his artificial attributes. "«j§£5f 
 " So long as He is held up to man clothed in these false 
 characters, man can never see Him in his true light ; con- 
 
SPIRIT-THEOLOGY. 73 
 
 sequently, cannot appreciate Him in scarcely- the smallest 
 degree." The attribute of justice is particularly referred 
 to here. " It [spiritualism] will bring about more good to 
 mankind than any sectarian religion can possibly do." — 
 " If you want to progress, you must let your mind dwell 
 upon the beauties of nature and of the spirit home." (Not 
 Christ and his salvation.) " This glorious destiny (future 
 happiness) is prepared for all men without exception — none 
 are to be excluded ; all shall be happy." " None of the 
 race of mankind is destined to be miserable. Unbounded 
 happiness is prepared for all." 
 
 To a Baptist preacher from his sister in the spirit- 
 world : " My Dear Brother :— You have been a believer in 
 a dark and gloomy creed. There is no misery in any de- 
 partment of the spirit home, but progression is onward and 
 upward ! Our joy is unutterable. Man alone possesses 
 the power of progression. He has progressed from the 
 creation of the world, and is now much above his original 
 condition on the earth. Now think of what we have said. 
 We do not want you to harmonize it with the dark and 
 gloomy popular religion. This cannot be done. Commu- 
 nications from us can never agree with their principal teach- 
 ings. [True.] We believe in no God of anger and wrath. 
 There is no such being. All is guided by infinite wisdom, 
 love, and goodness." 
 
 These extracts give the spirit and marrow of this com- 
 munication. 
 
 A son purports to write to his mother, and says : " My 
 dear mother : — Pin not your faith on creeds and doctrines 
 of faith. God is love. He loves all his intelligent creation, 
 and this is sufficient to lead all who yield to its holy influ- 
 ence into the presence of the Great Creator." 
 
 4 
 
74 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 Another : " My Dear Grandchild : — The more we are 
 talked to the better we can respond. It gives us more 
 power to have you familiar with us." [No doubt it does.] 
 
 From a Son to his Mother. " My Dear Mother : — 
 You have mourned for me ; do so no more. Your loss has 
 been my great gain. My happiness is much greater than 
 you can conceive of. Spirits are all happy, and when you 
 believe' in spiritual manifestations, you will feel far hap- 
 pier than you now do. Then you will not fear the threats 
 of hell and damnation that are preached to you. Such 
 doctrine is wrong, and bad in its tendencies on the human 
 mind, and has been the cause of much unbelief in the im- 
 mortality of the soul, and infidelity to truth and right- 
 eousness." 
 
 From a Father to his Son. " My Dear Son : — You have 
 much to learn. Your nature is progressive. We come to 
 teach you this, and to aid you to develop your spiritual 
 powers. We come to teach you that God is lore ; that the 
 spirit of man is an emanation from Him, (Hindooism) and 
 that man is a unit ! that his present social arrangements 
 are wrong, and opposed to his best interests in life, and in 
 the one to come." (Would Socialism and Free-loveism be 
 better ?) 
 
 In a colloquy held with the spirits, the following ques- 
 tions were asked, to which the appended answers were given : 
 
 " Is the physical condition of man inferior to what it 
 was formerly ? 
 
 " No ; it is more perfected. 
 
 " Does physical suffering retard spiritual development ? 
 
 "No. 
 
SPIRIT THEOLOGY. 75 
 
 " Then man was not made originally as perfect, physically 
 and spiritually, as he is now ? 
 
 " No ; many changes have taken place. He has progress- 
 ed in his physical being with his spiritual development." 
 
 (See Spiritual manifestations in the city of Philadel- 
 phia, by a member of the First Circle. Pages 62-90. 
 1851.) 
 
 Thus the fall of man, his original righteousness and sub- 
 sequent sinning, and all God's plans and purposes to re- 
 deem a fallen race, and save them through Jesus Christ, 
 the only Kedeemer, are perfectly ignored and set aside by 
 these demoniacal revelations. True it is that their teach- 
 ings can never harmonize with the Word of God, as re- 
 vealed to us in the Bible. 
 
 3. THE TEACHINGS OF SPIRITS AS TO THE BIBLE. 
 
 On this subject there is a slight discrepancy among 
 them, bul the general idea is about the same. The extracts 
 given already concerning the teachings of the spirits, show 
 what are their general views as to the value of the Bible. 
 But one of these spirits, professing to be the Apostle Paul, 
 gives us his connected views on the whole Bible, which 
 show certainly great progress in some direction. The spirit 
 that took possession of the medium declared himself to be 
 the Apostle. The question was asked this spirit, 
 
 "What think you of the Bible now, since your entrance 
 into the spirit world ?" 
 
 The answer was given in the following language : 
 
 Genesis — " About as true as any fictitious work now in 
 print," p. 10. 
 
 Exodus — " As good a book as could have been expected 
 at that day," p. 10 o 
 
76 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 Leviticus — " Not directly from God, as man supposes," 
 p. 12. 
 
 Numbers — "Such an absurdity as that, [the facts stated 
 in chap. 1st] ought to be cast into the lowest depth of the 
 infernal regions," p. 13. 
 
 Joshua — " Almost the whole book is false," lb. 
 
 Judges — " About the same as the others; and it needs 
 no argument to show that it is void of inspiration," p. 14. 
 
 Ruth — " Without inspiration, the same as the others," 
 p. 15. 
 
 Samuel — " A part of it is correct," p. 15. 
 
 Kings — a Multitudes of mistakes — not correct — no in- 
 spiration," pp. 1G, 17. 
 
 Ezra — " By a person bearing its name, without inspi- 
 ration," p. 17. 
 
 Job — " Written through mediums — would have been 
 correct, had it not been that men destroyed its purity," 
 pp. 18, 19. 
 
 Psalms — " Written in the same way and some of them 
 correct," p 19. 
 
 The rest of the books of the Old Testament are said to 
 be " somewhat correct in the main," p. 20. 
 
 " Let me say unto you, man ! at this day, in regard 
 to the Old Testament, 'Mene, Mene, Tekel. Upharsin,'" 
 p. 21. 
 
 In passing through the Gospels, Epistles, and the Apo- 
 calipse, this vile spirit exclaims, " Not correct," " mistake," 
 " fictitious," " contrary to the will of God." And to cap 
 the whole, " Such, man, are the principles the books'you 
 call the Bible, are conveying to the inhabitants of the earth. 
 horrible ! " p. 92, 
 
THE SPIRITS WHO ARE THEY ? 77 
 
 " The Old Testament, which Christ declared wrong and 
 wicked, you are still calling the Word of God. . . . Al- 
 though your angelic fathers, by the wisdom of God, are 
 allowed to come unto you, and do away with the wicked 
 precepts of your Bible," pp. 93, 94. 
 
 Thus we have spirit testimony as to the value of the 
 Sacred Scriptures. They make a clean sweep of it all. — 
 And why should they not ; for certainly the Scriptures 
 condemn them most clearly. And with this rejection of the 
 Bible, they reject also, all the doctrines which are the pe- 
 culiarity and the glory of Christianity. " It is readily 
 granted," says Mr. Brittan, "that spiritualism rejects the 
 common notions respecting the fall of angels, total depra- 
 vity, and the atonement." " We do also reject the resur- 
 rection as taught by accredited authorities in Mythologi- 
 cal theology," and by this he means Christianity. 
 
 A mere glance at a few numbers of the " Spiritual Tele- 
 graph," or at any of the accredited works on spiritualism, 
 is sufficient to convince any one that the teachings of spir- 
 itualism are the " teachings of Demons," or in our render- 
 ing of the passage, " doctrines of Devils," 1 Tim. iv : 1, 
 and opposed to Christ and his salvation. 
 
 THE SPIRITS -WHO ARE THEY? 
 
 We have admitted the facts in the case, viz : that com- 
 munications are really made by invisible, and by intelli- 
 gent agents to the living at the present time. Who are 
 they ? Spiritualists, with one voice, say they are the spirits 
 of good or bad men, who formerly lived on earth. They 
 deny that there are any intelligent beings in the invisible 
 world called 'angels,' who are a distinct class from the 
 
78 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 spirits of men. Is this so ? We readily grant that 
 we have no light on this subject except what we derive di- 
 rectly from the Bible. Does, then, the Bible teach that 
 there is a distinct class of beings from the souls of men ? 
 If there be not, then the faith of the people of God, from 
 the days of Adam down to the present time, has been mis- 
 placed, yea, more, all the world of men have been believing 
 a falsity. That there are 
 
 ANGELS, 
 
 who are a distinct class of intelligent beings from men; 
 whether in the body or out of it, is to our minds, most 
 evident from the Scriptures. The word Angellos is Greek, 
 and the word Malak is Hebrew, and both signify a ones- 
 senger, an angel. These words are used both in the Old, 
 and in the New Testament to mean (a) human messengers, 
 or agents for others ; 2 Sam. ii : 5. Mark i : 2. Jas. ii : 
 25; (b) officers of the churches, Hag. i; 13. B,ev. i : 20 ; 
 (c) Jesus Christ, Mai. iii : 1.; (d) created intelligences, 
 both good and bad; Iieb. i: 14. Jude 6. Now, because the 
 word angel does, sometimes, mean a mere human being, it 
 certainly is not good reasoning to say it can mean nothing 
 else. The passage in Jude most clearly proves that there 
 is a class of intelligent beings different from man. The 
 apostle speaks of " the angels who kept not their first 
 estate" (ten archen, their principality, as the marginal 
 reading is.) This, most evidently conveys the idea that 
 some of them did keep their first estate. Only those who 
 kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation 
 hath God reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, 
 unto the judgment of the great day. 
 
ANGELS — NOT MEN. 79 
 
 It is evident, then, from this passage that there must be 
 a distinct class of beings, called angels, for these two ob- 
 vious reasons, viz. : 
 
 (1.) All men have sinned, and have come short of the 
 glory of God. Rom. iii : 23. There is no exception : they 
 have all lost their first estate. Hence, men are a different 
 class from those beings, only some of whom have lost their 
 first estate, while others have kept theirs. 
 
 (2.) These angels are said to have left their own habita- 
 tion. God cast those of them that sinned down to hell 
 and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved 
 unto judgment. 2 Pet. ii : 4. They were cast down, and 
 cast out of the place they formerly occupied. But, man 
 was made on this earth. This earth was given to him at 
 first — and although he has sinned, still he is here, and 
 dwells upon it. He has not been cast out of it. This 
 proves clearly that men and angels are different, and be- 
 long each to an order of beings peculiar to itself. 
 
 The Greek word tartarosas in 2 Pet. ii : 4, and rendered 
 by "cast down to hell," or to cast into Tartarus, needs a word 
 of explanation. The word Tartarus means, according to 
 Greek writers, " in a physical sense, the bounds, or verge 
 of this material system." So that God cast the rebel an- 
 gels out of his presence, into that blackness of darkness 
 where they will be forever deprived of the light of His 
 countenance, and that place is, probably, at present, within 
 the atmosphere of our earth. For we read that Satan is 
 the Prince of the power of the air, as well as the Prince 
 of this world. 
 
 In the book of Job, (chap, xxxviii : 4-7,) we read that 
 when God laid the foundations of the earth, and the corner 
 stone thereof, then the morning stars (cocabai boker) sang 
 
80 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIG DELUSION. 
 
 together: and all the sons of God (Benai Elohim) shouted 
 for joy. By these terms intelligent beings most certainly 
 are meant, and as they sang together, when the foundations 
 of the earth were first laid, and as man was not made till 
 the sixth day of the work of creation, after the world had 
 been formed, it is manifest that there must be an order of 
 beings, wholly distinct from Adam and Eve, for they were 
 in existence, and sang this song of praise before our first 
 parents were created. 
 
 There is but one more passage that we would adduce 
 to prove that there are angels, a class of beings distinct 
 from man, and that is in Heb. xii : 22-23. The apostle 
 says, " Ye are come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of 
 the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innu- 
 merable company of angels, to the general assembly and 
 church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and 
 to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men 
 made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new coven- 
 ant." Here we see that the apostle makes a distinction 
 between angels, and the spirits of just men. He certainly 
 does not consider them to be one and the same order of 
 beings. If he did, why use such language ? 
 
 Not to occupy more time on this part of the subject, 
 it is evident that there is an order of beings wholly dis- 
 tinct from man, who are intelligent, and who have the 
 power to communicate with each other and with other in- 
 telligent beings like man, if they are permitted to do so. 
 
 Taking this, then, as a fixed fact, we learn from the 
 Bible that there are both good and bad angels ; that they 
 are numerous ; that they are intelligent ; that they are 
 strong ; and as wickedness does not, necessarily, diminish 
 the strength of men or angels, wicked angels may have as 
 
ANGELIC POWER. 81 
 
 much physical strength, after their fall, as they had before 
 it. If good angels can communicate with men, and if 
 they can move heavy stones (Matt, xxviii : 2,) and open 
 prison doors, locking them up again (Acts xii : 7-19,) may 
 not evil angels do the same things ? We see no reason 
 why they may not. We believe they do. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE TRUTH. 
 
 Having, in all candor and truthfulness , so far as we 
 know the truth in the case, given the view which the spirit- 
 ualists hold on the subject of these manifestations, we now 
 proceed to show that the whole thing, in its incipiencj, 
 progress, and aim, is the work of Satan. 
 
 If we can demonstrate the fact that these things cannot 
 proceed from mere disease / nor from good angels ; nor 
 from the spirits of good or bad men y in or out of the body ; 
 then the conclusion is irresistible that the whole work is 
 of the Devil and his angels. And this, by God's help, 
 we will do. 
 
 These manifestations are not diseases , nor the mere ef- 
 fect of a peculiar state of body or mind. 
 
 The demoniacs, in the days of our Lord, were, in many 
 cases, diseased ; but these diseases were the effect of some 
 derangement in the body, produced by some evil spirits, 
 who attached themselves to them, or in some way unknown 
 to us, dwelt in them. Our Lord spoke to the demon in 
 the possessed, and not to the disease. The demon answer- 
 ed Him, and asked if He had come to torment him before 
 the time. He asked permission, if cast out of the man, to 
 go into the swine that " were a good way off feeding." 
 The demon was cast out, and did go into the swine. This 
 could not be a disease that could leave a man and seize 
 
WHAT ARE THE SPIRITS ? 83 
 
 upon swine a good way off. Nor was it the man himself 
 who ran off and scared the swine ; for, when the people 
 came they saw the man sitting quietly and clad in proper 
 garments, and in his right mind. To say that this was a 
 mere disease, is absurdity itself run mad. And equally 
 absurd is it to say that the manifestations now are mere 
 diseases. The mediums of our day may be diseased ; but 
 their disease is the effect of spirit-power. We need not 
 dwell on this point. See the history as recorded by Matt. 
 viii: 28-34, and Mark v: 1-19. See also " Twells on 
 Demoniacs. " 
 
 THEY ARE NOT THE WORK OF GOOD 
 ANGELS. 
 
 So far as we have any knowledge about the ministry of 
 angels, we learn that they are all sent forth to minister for 
 those or on account of those, who shall be (tous i?iellontas y 
 about to become) the heirs of salvation. Heb. I : 14. 
 If this be the work of all of them, then it is evident that 
 these spirits, which possess our modern demoniacs, or in- 
 fluence the mediums, are not good angels, for all of these 
 angels are engaged in the good and blessed work of aiding 
 and encouraging, and strengthening, and defending those 
 who are, or are about to become the heirs of salvation ; 
 whereas these spirits, in our day, are engaged in a very 
 different kind of work. They are engaged in afflicting 
 God's people ; in turning away the people from hearing 
 the truth ; in leading them to deny the Bible, and all the 
 great doctrines which flow out from that grand central 
 truth, God manifest in the flesh. Good angels cannot en- 
 gage in a bad work. It is evident from this single view 
 
84 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 of the subject that these varied manifestations cannot pro- 
 ceed from good angels. 
 
 There are now left us but two sources, for which these 
 manifestations can possibly come, viz., either from the 
 spirits of departed human beings, or from Satan and his 
 hosts of evil spirits. The first of these is the one held by 
 .spiritualists to be the true one. 
 
 THEY ARE NOT SPIRITS OF THE DEAD. 
 
 Are these spirit manifestations produced by the spirits 
 of departed human beings ; and do the communications 
 which are made, come from human beings in the invisible 
 world, as they purport to be ? 
 
 This is what spiritualists aflirm, and in this faith we 
 doubt not, many, probably nearly all, fully confide. Some 
 there are, who say they know not what to think of them. 
 We do not call in question the sincerity of any one of the 
 multitudes who really think that they do at times converse 
 with their departed friends. There is something very 
 comforting to the sorrowing heart to be assured that the 
 departed one is happy. We wish all our departed friends 
 to be so. We hope they are ; but to know that fact, if it 
 could be known, would relieve the mourning friends 
 of half their grief, wipe away their tears, and turn their 
 mourning into gladness. This, spiritualism professes to 
 do. And it is this, which renders the deception so fasci- 
 nating, and so comforting too, in this aspect of the subject, 
 that it is difficult, and in many cases will be impossible to 
 break the enchantment. God alone can do that. 
 
 We might demand of the spiritualists the proof that the 
 spirit of some departed one does come and communicate 
 with them through the medium. Why cannot these de- 
 
WHAT ARE THE SPIRITS ? 85 
 
 parted ones communicate with their former friends in the 
 flesh directly, without the intervention of a table or a third 
 person ? There is some difficulty in the case ; and it is 
 answered, the conditions are not favorable ; but, hereafter, 
 when the world of human beings, in the flesh, shall have 
 developed their moral and physical nature, under the teach- 
 ings of spirits, then the intercourse between the visible and 
 the invisible worlds will again be renewed and established 
 on a firm and unchanging basis forever. This will be the 
 millennial age of the world. But such positive proof, con- 
 vincing and assuring they cannot give, that can satisfy the 
 enquiring soul. Even on their own minds there is a doubt 
 left — for granting, as they do, that there are evil spirits, 
 and lying spirits, they may be deceived by them, and they 
 cannot be certain that they are not. "We apprehend that 
 none of the firmest believers in these spiritual communi- 
 cations would be willing to surrender up their personal 
 property to some of their neighbors, who could bring for- 
 ward no better, no stronger proof that the property in 
 question belonged to them, than these spiritualists do that 
 these communications are veritable communications from 
 their departed friends. Why then should they trust their 
 salvation on so slight a foundation? 
 
 But while we might demand the proof that these spirits 
 are the spirits of the departed from earth, we affirm that 
 they cannot be such. 
 
 For (1) if the spirits of the good are in heaven with 
 God and Christ, then certainly they are not roaming all 
 over the earth, disquieted by every Witch of Endor, and 
 forced to appear at the summons of any spiritualist who 
 may attempt to evoke them from their rest. 
 
 But (2) if the dead are in an intermediate place of par- 
 
86 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 tial blessedness or misery, then certainly they cannot be 
 traversing this earth and communicating with mankind. — 
 Neither the rich man nor Lazarus could communicate with 
 surviving friends. 
 
 Or (3) if, as some teach, the dead are in a state of pro- 
 found slumber till the resurrection, then their intercourse 
 with mankind is a manifest impossibility. 
 
 Without stopping to discuss these respective theories, 
 we simply remark that upon either of them the theory of 
 spiritual manifestations is untrue. 
 
 That a few of the saints have appeared on earth after 
 their departure from it, is what the Scriptures teach. — 
 Elijah was taken up to heaven, b. c. 896. Moses died 
 b. c. 1451 — that is, some 555 years before the translation 
 of Elijah. Both of these persons appeared on the mount 
 of transfiguration with our Lord. — Matt, xvii : 1-4. Some 
 suppose that this was a mere vision (Matt, xvi : 9) of the 
 bodies of Moses and Elijah, and that they were not in re- 
 ality present. But we think, with Calvin and others, that 
 they were really present. 
 
 Quite a number of the bodies of the saints which slept 
 came out of their graves, after the resurrection of our 
 Lord, and went into the Holy City, and appeared unto 
 many. — Matt, xxvii : 52, 53. We have no account of any- 
 thing that they did beyond their mere appearance ; and 
 we have no authority to say that they did do or say any- 
 thing to any of the living. 
 
 In Rev. xxii : 9. — The angel (angelos, messenger) who 
 had been sent to John to communicate to him the book of 
 Revelation, states distinctly that he was his " fellow ser- 
 vant, and of his brethren, the prophets, and of those who 
 keep the sayings of this Book." He forbade John to pay 
 
OPINIONS OF THE HEATHEN. 87 
 
 him religious reverence, but bade him worship God. In 
 this case there was no possession ; the messenger appeared 
 in his own person. And so it was with all the others of 
 whom we read in the Scriptures. None of them ever ap- 
 peared except in his own person and in his own body. 
 
 But since the day that revelation was closed for this 
 dispensation , we have no account of any of the saints of the 
 Lord that have ever returned to earth. Nor does God de- 
 sign that they should. Revelation is filled up until the 
 Lord shall come again. Under that new state of the church 
 and of the world, there will be, doubtless, new communi- 
 cations of God's will to man adapted to that peculiar state. 
 But at present the Gentile church has, in the New Testa- 
 ment, all the knowledge that God means to impart to her. 
 Communications from any one from the spirit-world in- 
 forming us of our duty, would be, in fact, to set aside the 
 teachings of the Bible which God has already given us. — 
 If men will not hear Moses and the prophets, and also the 
 words of Christ and of his apostles, neither would they 
 hear, though one could come from the dead. The time is 
 coming, however, and it may be very nigh at hand, when 
 the prediction of our Lord in John 1 : 51 — u Hereafter 
 ye shall see the angels of God ascending and descending to 
 (epij Matt, xxiv : 16) the Son of man" — shall be literally 
 fulfilled. And then will be fulfilled that part of the 72d 
 Psalm, which is so often sung in our churches and so little 
 believed, 
 
 " Angels descend with songs again, 
 And Earth repeat the loved Amen." 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE HEATHEN. 
 
 It is doubtless true that some of the ancient Greek and 
 Roman philosophers and wise men of antiquity did hold 
 
88 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 that the demons were the souls of departed human beings, 
 and that they did really take at times possession of the 
 bodies of the living, and were the guardians of the people. 
 Some of them were good, and some became bad. 
 
 Hesiod, the celebrated Greek poet who lived b. c. 900, 
 tells us, in his " Works and Days," that " In the golden- 
 age, when Saturn reigned in heaven, men lived like gods, 
 free from evils, and died just as if they had fallen asleep ; 
 they became demons by the will of Jupiter, the great, 
 powerful, dwelling upon the earth — guards of mortal men. 
 They observe the good and evil done here; they are 
 clothed with air, (invisible,) and roam over the earth 
 everywhere ; they are innumerable, the immortal guards 
 of mortal men." — Op. Hesiod, Lib. 1. 
 
 According to this idea, the souls of men, after their de- 
 parture from this world, become the inspectors of human 
 affairs, and as they dispensed good to mankind, they were 
 called demons. But others make them also " the dis- 
 pensers of evil things as well as good to mankind, the 
 plagues and the terrors of man, and the authors of much 
 evil to them." — Proclus in Hesiod. See also Euseb. 
 Prcep. Ev., Lib. 3. c. 3. 
 
 Homer, the co temporary of Hesiod, makes Minerva 
 " retire to heaven to the palace of Jupiter and the other 
 demons, met a daimonas allous." These demons were 
 " such as are removed from this life." — See Iliad i : v. 
 222. Proclus in loco. 
 
 But this is not the opinion held by others of the heathen 
 philosophers. 
 
 Thales, the famous Greek philosopher, who died b. c. 
 548, held that the demons are spiritual beings, who never 
 had been embodied as men. He divides the deities into 
 
OPINIONS OF THE HEATHEN. 89 
 
 three calsses, viz. : Theos — God, the mind of the world 7 
 Psuchikai — Demons, spiritual beings ; and the Heroes, 
 Hercos. The Heroes are the souls of departed men — of 
 these the good are divine (agathas) ; the bad are vile 
 (phaulas.) 
 
 Plato, who died b. c. 348, says (in Sympsio) : " Pan 
 to Daimonion nietaxu esti Theou te kai thnetou. — The 
 demons hold a middle place between God and men." 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus, in speaking of Plato, says : 
 a HO Platon de kai tois theois" &c. Plato attributes 
 a peculiar dialect to the gods, inferring this from dreams 
 and oracles, and from the demoniacs, who do not speak 
 their own language or dialect, but that of the demons who 
 were entered into them. — Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 
 
 Apulius, a. d, 40, (de Dcemonio Socratis) says of these 
 demons, " They are immortal, without beginning or end, 
 always existing from eternity. — Immortales, sine ullo vel 
 fine vel exordio ) sed prorsus a retro cevitemi." — Vid. 
 Mede, p. 627. They certainly then could not be human 
 spirits. 
 
 Plutarch, who died about a. d. 140, makes two classes 
 of demons, viz. : (1) Souls separate from bodies, and (2) 
 such as never dwelt in bodies at all. Both are called de- 
 mons. — See Plut. de defect. Orac. 
 
 Lucian, who died about a. d. 181, speaks of some in his 
 day who u delivered the demoniacs from their terrors." — 
 He then alludes to our Lord, as that Syrian of Palestine 
 who cured the sick man, saying, " The man is silent, but 
 the demon (ho daimon) answers either in the language of the 
 Greeks or Barbarians, or whatsoever country he be. But 
 he exorcising the demon, and also threatening him. if he 
 did not obey, drives out the demon, exelaunei ton dai- 
 
90 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 mortal Lucian was no Christian, and hence his testi- 
 mony is not without value.^— Lucian in Philopsend, p. 833. 
 It is said by some that the Jews held, in common with 
 some of the heathen, that the demons were the spirits of 
 men, and that Josephus is of this number. True ; he says 
 in his work, (De Bello Jud. Lib. 7. c. 23,) li Daimonia 
 tauta poneron estin anthropon pneumata" — which may be 
 rendered, " These demons are the spirits of evil men." — 
 This seems to be the correct translation of the words ; but 
 whether he held that they were the spirits of bad men having 
 entered into the bodies of others, or that these demons 
 are spirits possessing evil men, we shall not decide. The 
 former idea would be contrary to his faith as a Pharisee, 
 and to the teachings of the Old Testament; and yet he 
 might have believed it. (See Twills on Demoniacs.) 
 
 FAITH OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 It is a matter of very little consequence what the heathen 
 of antiquity believed on the subject of demoniacs. We see 
 they were divided in their opinion. But we think the hea- 
 then world at the present time would give a united testi- 
 mony in favor of the demoniacs being evil angels, as dis- 
 tinct from the spirits of departed men. 
 
 That the Christians of the first and second centuries be- 
 lieved in the reality of demoniacal possessions, cannot be 
 doubted by any one who has read the early history of the 
 church. They had power also to cast these evil spirits 
 'out of the possessed. The number of those who were 
 afflicted by these evil spirits, and who had been relieved, 
 was great. Many of them were converted and were re- 
 ceived into the church. They formed a distinct class of 
 Christians, and were under the special care and direction 
 
OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS. 91 
 
 of the exorcists in the Primitive Church, and for a while 
 were kept separate from the others. When they became 
 perfectly restored from the diseases produced by the pos- 
 session, they were permitted to unite with the congregation 
 in public worship, and to partake of the Lord's Supper. — 
 Some of these believers were at times afflicted by these 
 evil spirits, as well as those who were not Christians ; and 
 in all cases these demons were subject to the authority and 
 name of Jesus Christ. (See Dr. Coleman's Primitive 
 Christianity. 
 
 We hesitate not to express our firm belief that the de- 
 mons spoken of in the New Testament were fallen angels, 
 under the control and guidance of Satan ; and that the 
 spiritual manifestations which are witnessed in this coun- 
 try, and in various portions of the Christian world, are in 
 like manner the work of the same evil angels. This was 
 the belief of the church in the first and second centuries, 
 as to the demoniacal possessions then. Of this fact there 
 is an abundance of proof. 
 
 Justin Martyr, a Christian Father, who died a. d. 
 165, in his dialogue w T ith Trypho the Jew, says that " the 
 gods of the heathen are demons, Dai??iones eisi oi Theoi 
 ton ethnon." This is the Greek translation of Ps. xcvi. 5, 
 which in our translation reads " all the gods of the nations 
 are idols (elilim vanities.") In speaking of Satan's de- 
 ceiving our first parents, he calls him the " man-hating 
 demon. — Ho misanthropos Daimon." It would seem 
 from this use of the word, that he held these demons to 
 be evil spirits, a distinct class of beings from the souls of 
 departed men. 
 
 In his apology to the enemies of Christianity, Justin 
 says, " many Christians throughout the world, and even in 
 
92 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 your own city, simply by calling upon the name of Jesus 
 Christ, have healed many that were possessed of evil spir- 
 its, and still continue to heal such." 
 
 Iren^us, a little later in the second century, says, " that 
 many through grace, received, from the Son of God who 
 was crucified under Pontius Pilate, power to heal the sick, 
 to cast out demons, and raise the dead ; that multitudes 
 throughout the world daily exercised these gifts, without 
 any magic, charm, or secret art, but merely by calling on the 
 name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Adv. Hozr. ii, 57. 
 
 Tatian, a Christian writer of the same age, a. d. 170, 
 says expressly, that " the demons who govern man are not 
 the souls of men, ouk Eisin oi ton anthropon psuchai." — 
 Orat. cont. Graecos, p. 154. On a previous page he says 
 (p. 148,) of demons, that " they were ejected from the 
 heavenly life, ekbletoi tes en ourano diaites gegenemenoi" 
 that is, they were fallen angels. 
 
 Theophilus Antiochenus, who was cotemporary with 
 Tatian, says, (Lib.2, ad autocl.,p. 1, 4,) that he who tempt- 
 ed Eve in Paradise, was " that mischievous demon called 
 Satan, ho kakopoios Daimon, ho kai Satan kaloumenos?' 1 
 He could not possibly hold that this demon was the spirit 
 of a dead man of the human race, when as yet there were 
 none who had died. 
 
 Tertullian, of Carthage, who lived at the close of the 
 second century, appeals to Scapula, the Roman Governor 
 of that province, and tells him that he had officers under 
 him who were indebted to Christians for acts of kindness, 
 though they might now oppose them, and then adds, " for 
 the Secretary himself is one who has been delivered from 
 an evil spirit." " One may thank a Christian for the heal- 
 
OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS. 93 
 
 ing of a relative, another for that of a son." Ter. ad Sea- 
 pulam. 
 
 Tertullian held that these " demons were invisible beings, 
 endowed with spiritual power, living in the air, attending 
 constantly on particular persons. They inflict on men's 
 bodies diseases, and various grievous afflictions. They are 
 the occasion of men going suddenly and extraordinarily 
 mad. The subtlety and fineness of their nature enables 
 them to enter into the bodies and the souls of men. Be- 
 ing spirits, they have great power. They can act though 
 they are invisible, and incapable of being felt ; and you 
 must judge by the effect upon men, rather than by their 
 act, which is invisible." 
 
 Tertullian does not maintain that these demons are the 
 spirits of departed men ; for he says, " esse substantias 
 quasdam spiritales } fyc" " that they are certain spiritual 
 substances," while he defines the human soul to be " coipo- 
 rails" material. He also makes the demons to be authors 
 of the fall of man. Apol. adv. Gent. c. xxii. Be Anima c. 
 
 Juh . JOJCvL. 
 
 Cyprian, a. d. 250, held that the demons were fallen 
 angels, the evil spirits who inspired the breasts of the 
 heathen prophets, who are the authors of oracles, who 
 creep into men's bodies, destroy their health, and cause 
 diseases." Cyj). de Idolat. 
 
 Arnobius, a. d. 300, says that " the name of Jesus once 
 heard, puts the evil spirits to flight, silences the prophets, 
 and makes the diviners foolish." Arnob. adv. Gent. Lib. 1, 
 \ 46, p. 74. 
 
 Lactantius, a. d. 310, following his preceptor, Arno- 
 bius, says, " Let there be set before us one who, it is cer- 
 tain, is possessed by a demon, and the Delphic priest or 
 
94 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 prophet ; we shall see them both in the same manner terri- 
 fied at the name of God, and Apollo will with the same 
 haste depart out of his prophet, as the spirit will out of 
 the demoniac." Lib. iv. c. xxvii, 13, 14. "These de- 
 mons being adjured by the name of the true God, imme- 
 diately depart," p. 321, ed. 1698. 
 
 Eusebius says that " the Heathen Prophecies and Ora- 
 cles proceed from evil spirits" and by this he means fallen 
 angels. — Lib. v. c. 4. 
 
 DEMONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHRIST'S 
 NAME. 
 
 In the u Martyrdom of Ignatius," sec. 4, Ignatius ad- 
 dresses the Emperor Trajan, saying, " But, if because I 
 am a trouble to those evil spirits, you call me wicked, I 
 confess the charge ; for having within me Christ, the Hea- 
 venly King, I dissolve all the snares of those demons." 
 Wake's Epis. Apos. Fathers, p. 131. 
 
 Theophilus of Antioch, says, " Demoniacs are some- 
 times, even to this day, exorcised in the name of the living 
 God, and these deceitful spirits confess themselves to be 
 demons, kai omologei auta ta plana pneumata einai Dai- 
 mones." — Ad. Autocl. Ed. Ox. I. 2, p. 77. 
 
 Irenjeus, speaking of the miraculous powers given to the 
 true disciples of Christ, says, that they dispossessed evil 
 spirits, exorcising them in the name of Christ. u Some," 
 he says, " certainly and truly eject demons, oi men gar 
 daimones elaunousi bebaios kai alethos." He speaks of 
 " others who heal the sick by the imposition of hands, and 
 restore them whole, alloi de tons" SfC. — Adv. Hcer. I. 2, c. 
 57. 
 
 Origen says, so great was the power of the name of Je- 
 
OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 95 
 
 sus against demons that it has success, even when named 
 by wicked persons, as Jesus himself taught in Matt, vii : 
 22, " Many will say, in that day, have we not cast out de- 
 vils, (Demons) in thy name — then will I profess unto them, 
 I never knew you." " It is plain that Christians use none 
 of the arts of enchanters, but the name of Jesus Christ." — 
 Orig. Cont. Cels., I. 1. 
 
 The case of the seven sons of Sceva, the Jew, (Acts xix : 
 13-20,) is a proof of the fact that wicked men have tried 
 to cast out demons, by using the name of Jesus. And 
 when our Lord was charged by the Jews, for casting out 
 demons, as being in league with the devil, He asks them 
 by what authority their children cast out evil spirits. He 
 does not deny the fact that they did do so. Matt, xii : 
 22-30. 
 
 Cyprian, in writing to Demetrianus, the Proconsul of 
 Africa, a bitter enemy of Christians, says, " ! that you 
 would see and hear the gods of the Gentiles, when they 
 are adjured by us and tormented by our spiritual scourges ; 
 and cast out of the bodies they possessed, by the force of 
 our words, when crying out, and lamenting with a human 
 voice, and feeling the strokes of a Divine power, they con- 
 fess the judgment to come : O si andire eos, Deos Gen- 
 tium , velles et videre" SfC. — Cypr. Op. Ed. Ox., p. 191. 
 
 Lactantius says that " the spirits adjured by the name 
 of God depart out of bodies." As Christ himself cast out 
 all demons by his word, so do his followers now cast the 
 same impure spirits out of men, both in the name of their 
 Master, and by the sign of His passion." Lactan. de Sa- 
 pient., I. 4, c. 27. 
 
 These quotations are quite sufficient to show us what 
 the general opinion of the Christian Church, in the first 
 
96 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 centuries of the Christian era was, in reference to these 
 demons. They doubtless maintained that they were really 
 and truly some of the fallen angels, who are under the con- 
 trol of Satan, the Prince of the power of the air. The 
 idea that they are the souls of departed human beings is 
 without sufficient foundation, though the theory has now 
 many advocates. 
 
 But if we take into consideration the simple facts in the 
 case, we must be convinced that the possessions in the days 
 of our Lord, were by evil angels or spirits, wholly distinct 
 from disease or from the souls of men. The facts are such 
 as these, viz : 
 
 1. They knew our Lord. Mark i : 24. 
 
 2. They spoke to him, and made requests of him. Mark 
 v: 7. 
 
 3. The possessed were not always diseased, but some- 
 times merely dumb or blind. Matt, ix : 32. 
 
 4. Our Lord makes a distinction between healing dis- 
 eases and casting out demons. Mark i : 34. 
 
 5. The demoniacs themselves say that they were pos- 
 sessed by evil spirits. The Jews said the same thing, and 
 so did the apostles. And our Lord says he cast them out. 
 Matt, iv: 25; Luke xi : 19. 
 
 6. When the seventy disciples returned from one of their 
 tours in preaching, one part of their joy was that the de- 
 mons were subject to their authority when they used the 
 name of Christ Jesus. Our Lord told them he saw Satan 
 as lightning fall from heaven ; and bade them not rejoice 
 so much, that the spirits were subject to them as that 
 their names were written in heaven. Luke x : 18, 
 
 7. These demons had a degree of knowledge and of 
 power, which no human being ever had on earth. They 
 
SCRIPTURAL FACTS. 97 
 
 knew that it was not the time fixed for their punishment 
 when our Lord was on the earth. Such a knowledge was 
 never revealed to man while on the earth, and no one can 
 prove that the spirit of a man, after his departure from 
 this world, receives such knowledge of the future. The 
 strength of the demoniac was supernatural for man, and if 
 we do not allow he was assisted by an evil spirit, it will 
 be impossible to account for his wonderful strength. 
 
 8. The Bible speaks of the Devil and his angels. Matt. 
 xxv : 41 ; and if these which possess men are not his an- 
 gels, it will be impossible to find them. Our Lord, we are 
 told, went about doing good, and healing all who were op- 
 pressed by the Devil. Now it is not likely that Satan 
 should not employ his angels to oppress men in the flesh, 
 but should employ the spirits of departed men to do that 
 work for him, while his own angels are unemployed and 
 idle. 
 
 9. Unless we suppose the demons to be of the number 
 of those who were cast out of heaven, it will be difficult to 
 understand our Lord's remark, in Luke x: 18, where 
 He says he saw Satan like lightning fall from heaven, when 
 taken in connection with the saying of the seventy, that 
 the demons were subject to them through His name. Our 
 Lord and they referred to the same beings. 
 
 It appears to us impossible to give any other explana- 
 tion of these demons of the New Testament, that will solve 
 all the difficulties in the case, unless we allow that they 
 are really and truly evil angels, under the control of Sa- 
 tan, their prince and ruler. With this view, everything 
 concerning them is plain ; without it the whole history is 
 obscured and involved. 
 
98 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 SPIRITS NOW SUBJECT TO CHRIST. 
 
 If now we look at the present manifestations, and com- 
 pare them with the demonical possessions of the Scriptures, 
 no one can fail to perceive their striking similarity ; and 
 we think must see that they are works more in accordance 
 with the workings of Satan and evil angels, than with the 
 works of good spirits or of the holy saints or angels. 
 
 It is evident that the effects produced upon the bodies 
 of men, women and children in this country and in hea- 
 then lands, at the present time, are similar to those 
 that were produced in the times of our Lord. And what 
 is equally striking in the case, is that all of them are sub- 
 ject to the name of Jesus. Command any wicked sinner 
 here, or in India, for example, in the name of Christ to be 
 silent, and what will the effect be ? Probably he will curse 
 you to your face, and will repeat that holy name with 
 scorn. But, speak to a person possessed in any circle of 
 spiritualists now, and command the spirit in the medium, 
 the possessed one, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth to be 
 silent, to depart from the person, or to leave the house alto- 
 gether, and the effect upon the spirit is the same now 
 that it was then. Evil spirits are compelled to submit to 
 the authority of Jesus. They do it. But men in the flesh 
 do not. 
 
 There are instances in abundance on record, where these 
 evil spirits have given responses to the inquiries, and when 
 they have been adjured in the name of Christ to tell the 
 truth, they have confessed themselves to be liars, and that 
 their sole object was to deceive mankind. ' We might sup- 
 pose that, after such a manifest proof of their satanic mis- 
 sion, the spiritualists would see the impropriety, and the 
 
ANGELIC AND DEMONIAC POWER. 99 
 
 folly of seeking information from such a lying source. But 
 no ; the delusion is strong : and the very fact that the 
 questioner has compelled the spirit to answer correctly, 
 gratifies him, and still leads him on to ask from this lying 
 spirit other questions to which he will give again lying an- 
 swers, or such as might gratify the pride or vanity of the 
 enquirer. Thus step by step the person is led along, until, 
 having become accustomed to hear the truth of God's word 
 called in question, or perverted, he insensibly begins to 
 think that the Bible may be false in some things, or if not, 
 that it should receive another interpretation which just as 
 effectually destroys its power over him as if it were false. 
 The man that begins to doubt the truth of God's word is 
 already ensnared by the Devil. He may escape ; but he 
 should cry to God for help. 
 
 We have already said that men do not lose their physi- 
 cal powers now by their increase in wickedness : nor did 
 the angels lose their power by becoming wicked. The 
 devil contended with Michael the arch-angel about the 
 body of Moses, (Jude 9) which shows us that he retains 
 his strength still. He carried the body of our Lord up 
 through the air, and placed it on the pinnacle of the temple* 
 (See Matt, iv: and Luke iv.) The spirits broke the fet- 
 ters, and chains of the demoniac, and no power of man 
 could forge bands and chains too strong for the evil spirits 
 to break. Good angels opened barred doors, and rolled 
 away the huge stone that was at the door of the sepulchre of 
 our Lord ; and Philip was carried through the air by the 
 spirit of the Lord and was set down at Azotus. We have 
 no right to suppose that the evil angels are not as strong 
 now as they were before their fall, and that they do not equal 
 the good angels in strength. From all we can learn from 
 
100 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 the Bible and from all we see of their operations now, we 
 judge it is the case. 
 
 THESE SPIRITS ARE THE EMISSARIES 
 OF SATAN. 
 
 This is their true character. We are forced into this be- 
 lief from considerations such as the following : 
 
 1. They do at times recall facts that are past ages ago, 
 which no living man could know, but which are found af- 
 terwards to be true, or at least so probable that they can- 
 not well be doubted. 
 
 2. They do unsettle the minds of many, and do lead 
 many into madness, insanity and ruin. 
 
 3. They have never yet been known to reveal any truth 
 important for man to know, that is not already revealed to 
 us in the Word of God, or that has not been discovered 
 by the scientific aid of good men. 
 
 4. They have never yet been known to lead one sinner 
 to Jesus Christ for the pardon of his sins, and for the 
 sanctification of his soul, nor is there one of the two mil- 
 lions of spiritualists now in the land that has been savingly 
 converted to God by spiritualism. They may have rapped 
 the Universalism of one man, and the Atheism of another, 
 out of them, and have made them believe that there is a God, 
 and a future state ; but this is no more, after all, than the 
 faith of the devil himself; and how much better are such 
 believers in reference to future bliss, than they were before, 
 or than Satan himself? Not a particle. Now, with all 
 this ado about progress, and the New Philosophy, what, 
 we ask, is the benefit of these maDifestations that never yet 
 did, and never can result in the pardon of one sin, or in the 
 sanctification of one soul ? 
 
CHARACTER OF THE SPIRITS. 101 
 
 5. These spirits most carefully, studiously, invariably 
 at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances, 
 give their testimony against the Word of God, and the 
 plan of salvation that therein is made known to sinful 
 man. Their invariable feeling towards Jesus is the same 
 that it ever has been. " Jesus of Nazareth, let us alone ; 
 what have we to do with thee ?" (Mark v : 24.) And what 
 fellowship hath light with darkness, or Jesus with evil 
 spirits ? 
 
 They deny the fall of man ; they deny the fact of 
 Christ's atonement, and its necessity for the salvation of 
 man, and by one fell stroke, sweep away the whole plan 
 and purpose of God as revealed through the Mediator be- 
 tween God and man, the man Christ Jesus. This is the 
 invariable teaching of the spirits. And if there be a spir- 
 itualist who yet holds a different view of the subject, it is 
 because he had been previously taught so, for spiritualism 
 does not teach the necessity of salvation through the ato-' 
 ning blood of Christ. And if Christ and his salvation 
 be taken away the remainder will be of no saving benefit 
 to the soul. 
 
 AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 
 
 It is said that spiritualism must be good, and from God, 
 because many sick have been healed by or through the 
 agency of mediums ; and it is triumphantly asked, would 
 Satan do a good thing ? 
 
 We reply, that for ourselves, we have no doubt that Sa- 
 tan has a more thorough knowledge of the nature of the 
 soul and body of man, than the most profound metaphysi- 
 cian, and the most learned anatomist in the world ; yea, 
 that he knows more than all of them together. He has 
 
102 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 been a stupid scholar if he does not. A course of study 
 for six thousand years, by a mind that forgets nothing, and 
 by one who can look into the mysteries of nature, must 
 bring in results which must infinitely (we might almost 
 say,) surpass all that a fallen man of threescore years and 
 ten can possibly attain. But wisdom is not goodness ; and 
 doing a good act from a bad motive, is not good in itself, 
 though it may be a good to some individual. The fisher- 
 man will bait his hook well ; but it is to deceive and catch 
 the silly fish. And why should not Satan, who must cer- 
 tainly know, in many cases, what will heal diseases, pre- 
 scribe the remedy, when he knows that by so doing he will 
 gain the confidence of the restored one in the skill of the 
 medium, and thus get honor to himself, who prescribes in 
 the case. Surely Satan would have no objections to heal 
 all the infirmities that " flesh is heir to," if he could, by so 
 doing, lead men to forsake the law of the Lord, and not to 
 place their faith and hope in Christ. The few good things 
 that may be done through the instrumentality of mediums, 
 who may be sincere in all they do, can never compensate 
 for the evils that must follow in the wake of these opera- 
 tions. 
 
 It is also said that many men, since they have embraced 
 spiritualism, have become better men, so far as temper and 
 disposition, and treatment of their families are concerned. 
 We are always glad to hear that men have become moral, 
 even if they do not become godly. But still, we say that 
 while this change has taken place, it has been produced by 
 such an agency, as to make them, if possible, more opposed 
 to the plan of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 than they were before. Where, then, is the ultimate gain 
 to them ? We ask the questions, and let the two millions 
 
TENDENCIES — SATANIC WISDOM. 103 
 
 of spiritualists in this country answer them. Does spirit- 
 ualism teach its followers to love and reverence the Word 
 of God, the Bible, more ? Does it lead them to love the 
 Church of Christ more ? Does it lead them to send out 
 missionaries to the heathen, and to tell them of a Redeem- 
 er for lost man ? Does it lead them to believe on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ alone for salvation from sip here, and for glo- 
 ry hereafter ? The answer, we hesitate not to say, will be 
 to each and all of these questions, a decided no. Can such 
 a faith be from God ? or can the agencies which lead to 
 such results, be from God ? Surely they cannot be. 
 
 THERE IS WISDOM HERE. 
 
 We are well aware that many good people, and many 
 worthy ministers of Christ, are disposed to treat this whole 
 subject with what might be called sovereign contempt. — 
 They think, or at least they say, that such things as table- 
 turning, table-tipping, and rappings, noises, writing music, 
 &c, are so supremely ridiculous, so far beneath the dig- 
 nity of any mind, that even Satan himself would not con- 
 descend to trouble himself with them. They have a higher 
 opinion of Satan than that. It is too great a stoop for 
 his angelic mind. Hence they affirm that the whole thing 
 is a trick / and because some do make money by it, they 
 affirm that all are alike, all are cheats or deceivers, and 
 are palming off upon the people for realities, what they 
 know to be falsities and lies. Such words of emptiness 
 prove nothing. They rather confirm the unhappy subject 
 of these operations in their defence of them, than show 
 them how they may escape out of the fowler's snare. 
 
 But so far from these things being supremely ridiculous 
 and the manifestations of folly, there is in them a depth 
 
104 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 of cunning, and a profoundness of wisdom, and a far-reach- 
 ing plan, which it falls not to the wisdom of man to de- 
 vise. If it be the object of the Evil One to deceive and 
 mislead man, and if it be his interest to conceal his own 
 agency, and to urge on his victim to acts and thoughts in- 
 creasingly hostile to God, by means seemingly consistent 
 with, and apparently proceeding from man's natural powers, 
 we can easily understand why phenomena — trivial in them- 
 selves, but admirably adapted to excite curiosity and open 
 up fresh grounds for research — should be selected, and how 
 facts of a more prominent and imposing description would 
 have been utterly unsuitable for such a purpose. 
 
 Every one knows that slight interferences with the ordi- 
 nary course of events are far more thrilling and exciting 
 than larger manifestations of power. Go into your bed- 
 chamber, for example, and lie down upon your bed, in the 
 stillness and the quiet of the night, and a slight rustling 
 of the bed-curtains ; a gentle pulling at the bed-cover ; 
 the real or imaginary foot-fall of some one on the floor; a 
 slight tapping noise ; or a mistaken moaning of the wind, 
 will produce more mental disturbance and more anxiety of 
 mind, and will rob you of more hours of sleep, than the 
 vivid lightning-flash or the heavy crash of God's voice of 
 thunder in the heavens. 
 
 It is precisely so with these spirit-manifestations of which 
 we are speaking. People may laugh at them, and ministers 
 of Christ may speak contemptuously of them ; but Satan 
 knows what he is doing. He has not devised this plan for 
 naught ; and never did he broach a more cunning and 
 plausible scheme to ruin souls in an enlightened land than 
 this. It would not do for a heathen world, but here it 
 will ; for it tends in an especial manner to foster the pride 
 
SATANIC WISDOM. 105 
 
 of the unsanctified heart, by extolling reason and placing 
 it above the inspiration of the Word of God. This plan 
 falls in with the godless intellectualism of the age. Science, 
 in the hands of these men, arrays herself against revelation. 
 They vainly suppose that the chapters which God has 
 written on the stars in the heavens, on the hidden and vis- 
 ible rocks of the earth, and on earth's rugged and scarred 
 face, must of necessity contradict what He hath written 
 by the pen of Moses in the book of the creation. Surely 
 God cannot contradict, in the work of his hands, what He 
 has written in the book of Revelation. What astronomer 
 or geologist, who is not deceived through the pride of his 
 heart, can suppose that God, who is the Author of nature 
 and of Revelation, can in the least degree contradict his 
 own testimony, wherever and however it may be given ? — 
 And yet Satan would make men believe that, by reason 
 and by science, they have made the discovery that God's 
 Word, as revealed in the Bible, does not mean what it 
 says. 
 
 We would put down naught in malice on this subject, but 
 would seek to speak the truth in love, and seek to show 
 just what this last device of Satan does set forth to man in 
 place of God's own unchanging truth. 
 
 " The grand aim and tendency of Spiritualism," says a 
 medium of high authority, " is to unite mankind in bar- 
 mon} 7 ." Hence spirit intercourse operates — 
 
 " 1. Negatively, by removing obstacles to practical re- 
 form arising from undue concentration of mind on future 
 interests, to neglect of present duties. People are so intent 
 on saving themselves from a supposed external and distant 
 danger, that they ruin themselves internally by neglecting 
 the culture of their higher and inner nature. Expecting 
 
1 06 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 to be saved by something external, they become selfish and 
 degraded, so as to be incapable of realizing anything but a 
 low phase of being, here or elsewhere. A belief in spirit- 
 ual intercourse stimulates to self-culture and social re- 
 form." 
 
 " 2. Positively, by spreading a knowledge of the laws 
 of life and health, physical and spiritual ; by energizing 
 principles of love and wisdom, causing a desire for a true 
 physical and a higher form of social life, measurably free 
 from the selfish element, gratifying the social faculties by 
 association with congenial minds ; by developing our own 
 spiritual nature, so that we can more readily perceive 
 affinities, matrimonial and otherwise. Those in commu- 
 nion with a class of spirits above them, run no risk of 
 forming uncongenial matrimonial relations, as a spirit out 
 of the form can perceive affinities more readily than a per- 
 son in the natural body ; consequently, marriages formed 
 by them will be happy ones, and the offspring of such, 
 gentle and loving, harmonizing the future." — Epitome of 
 Spirit Intercourse, p. 95. . 
 
 In plain English, we are here taught (1) that a fixedness 
 of mind upon the great interests of the soul and of our fu- 
 ture eternal interests, is an obstacle to practical social re- 
 form in society; or, in other words, the best reformers of 
 society are those who think least about the interests of the 
 soul, and who are not like one who said, "My heart is 
 fixed, trusting in the Lord." 
 
 (2.) That our salvation and future life depend upon the 
 culture and development of our inner nature, and a knowl- 
 edge of the laws of life, and not upon Christ, who is our 
 life. 
 
 (3.) That the higher form of social life is that freedom 
 
SPIRIT-THEOLOGY. 107 
 
 from the " selfish element" which says, " let every man 
 have his oivn wife, and let every woman have her own hus- 
 band. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevo- 
 lence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband." — 1 
 Cor. vii : 2, 3. The Free Love system is the beau ideal 
 of social bliss. 
 
 (4.) That Christianity which teaches that the soul of 
 man is saved by something external, or out of himself, 
 viz. : by the blood and atonement of Christ, degrades hu- 
 man nature, and makes it selfish. 
 
 Here, then, we have the sum and substance of this 
 boasted life, this new philosophy, this great scheme of 
 social reform and of human regeneration, to which all 
 these spirit manifestations would lead us. Such a system 
 of doctrines as this, that excludes Christ and his salva- 
 tion ; that denies -his Divine nature, and debases him to 
 the level of a mere creature ; that denies the redemption 
 of the soul by the meritorious death of Christ ; that re- 
 jects the Bible, the Word of God, as being a true revela- 
 'tion from God, and the only infallible rule of faith and 
 practice, and with it all the doctrines it contains, is one of 
 the devices of the Devil, by which he will receive for him- 
 self a temporary power, such as he has not yet had, over 
 the souls of men, before his final ejection from this world 
 by the brightness of the coming of the Son of man. 
 
 The few acts of relief to suffering humanity that may be 
 performed by the so-called healing mediums, through spi- 
 rit agency, supposing them all to be veritable realities, 
 are but a part of the grand system of Satanic deception, by 
 which the multitudes are led to place more confidence in 
 them and less in God. It is the lure in the great game 
 of life by which mortals, having gained a temporary respite 
 
108 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION, 
 
 from bodily pain, are emboldened to trust their soul's sal- 
 vation in the hands of this skillful player, and lose their 
 all, soul and body, at a throw. Oh ! it is a sad sight to 
 see rational beings calmly and deliberately stepping from 
 off the Rock of Ages, and venturing their eternal hopes 
 upon the quicksands of Satanic fraud ! Probation ended 
 here, they are eternally undone unless they be found in 
 Christ. But this Arch-deceiver would cheat poor, deceived 
 humanity, by assuring them that man's destiny is one of 
 final, endless bliss ; that progress, and progress in and 
 toward perfect fellowship with God, is the law of our na- 
 ture, and which must so develop itself, without a Saviour 
 and without an atonement for the sins of man. 
 
 Let us not be ignorant of Satan's devices. No earthly 
 reform of human device can save this world from the 
 righteous judgments of an insulted and offended God. 
 This earth is destined for a baptism of fire, God has so 
 declared it. And although Satan, who is neither omnis- 
 cient nor omnipresent, holds now a permitted yet restricted 
 usurpation of this world, and exercises his implacable op-' 
 position to God and man, yet he cannot surpass the limits 
 which Jehovah, our God, has prescribed for him. God's 
 pre-determined plans and purposes are moving onward, 
 steadily and rapidly, and will infallibly result in the re- 
 establishment of his authority and his will throughout the 
 length and breadth of this wide creation. Satan, power- 
 less to arrest the purposes of God, is ever watching his 
 opportunity to oppose and disturb them, and is adapting 
 his operations to veil and to resist the new developments 
 of God's purposes as they successively appear. His vast 
 intellectual resources ; his practical knowledge of the hu- 
 man heart ; his uninterrupted acquaintance with the entire 
 
WHY THESE MANIFESTATIONS NOW ? • 109 
 
 history of this world for the past 6000 years combined with 
 his unquestionable knowledge of the probable future, so far 
 as he is able to obtain it by the exercise of a profound intel- 
 ligence in the examination of the records of revealed truth, 
 not omitting his access to heavenly places, and the incal- 
 culable number of his subordinate agents, all combine to 
 impress us with the immensity of his sway, and with the 
 greatness of that warfare which is going on between him 
 and the Son of God. 
 
 The deep and unfathomable mystery of those events pre- 
 dicted in the Word of God ; of Satan's opposition to holi- 
 ness and to God ; of his binding for a thousand years in 
 the abyss, and of his subsequent release for a season ; and 
 of his final and eternal banishment from God — his being 
 cast into the lake of fire, with all those who may have been 
 deceived by him, should be no barrier to their reception 
 and belief. They are clearly written for our instruction. 
 And whether men believe what God has revealed to us or 
 not, He will none the less certainly do His work, His strange 
 work, and bring to pass His act, His strange act upon the 
 earth. Is. xxvii : 21. 
 
 WHY THESE MANIFESTATIONS NOW? 
 
 Satan always has a reason for what he does, and we may 
 be assured that there can be no fecial manifestation of 
 Satanic power or device, unless it b to oppose some special 
 plan or purpose of God with which he may have been made 
 acquainted, or which on the eve of being developed, he 
 would, if possible, resist. The plans of God have all been 
 laid back in the ages of eternity. They are all gradually 
 being developed, and fulfilled. To us these plans cannot 
 be known, except as they may be revealed to us in the 
 
110 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 Word of God, or in their actual accomplishment. And 
 even those that are revealed to us, most clearly in the 
 Word of God, are' concealed from us, in many cases, by the 
 devices of Satan. He often forces men to put a wrong 
 interpretation upon the promises and the predictions of the 
 Word of God, so that we may be kept in ignorance of their 
 true import. By so doing we lose the encouragement the 
 promise is designed to give us : and we neglect to prepare 
 for the events which the prediction assures are coming, and 
 may be nigh at hand. 
 
 We would not attribute to Satan what belongs alone to 
 man ; but we are clear in our own convictions that no 
 man ever did calmly and deliberately introduce a false 
 mode of interpreting the Word of God, by which its blessed 
 truths were obscured, its meaning mystified, and its encour- 
 agements and warnings hidden from men, without being 
 assisted by Satanic wisdom, and Satanic craft. God, by 
 His sovereign grace, has kept the fountain of His own Word 
 pure, and the Bible stands forth to-day, a miracle of God's 
 wonderful power and goodness in its preservation. The 
 Masorites may make a commentary on the Hebrew text in 
 the shape of points and accents, but the text itself remains 
 pure. It is so also in the Greek original. God has pre- 
 served it. Let us rejoice in this. Let any man, then, 
 take the Word of the Lord, and with the best translation he 
 can get of the original text, and with the teachings of 
 God's spirit let him seek to know the will of God, and he 
 will not be disappointed. He will know the truth. 
 
 The Bible most clearly reveals to us the fact that the 
 kingdoms of this world will, ere long, become the kingdom 
 of our Lord and of his Christ, Rev. xi : 15; that Satan 
 will be bound for a thousand years, Rev. xx : 1-4; that 
 
SATANIC POWER SIGNS OF THE TIMES. Ill 
 
 angels will again visit our earth in forms visible to men, 
 John i : 51 ; that this whole world will come into the pos- 
 session of God's people, and will be ruled by them under 
 the special control of our Lord himself, Dan. vii : 27; 
 Eev. v : 10; and that the whole government of earth, as 
 now managed by the men of this world, will pass away, 
 and that Satan's usurped dominion on earth will forever 
 cease. Everything in the signs of the times, and in the 
 unfolding of the prophecies, shows us that the millennial 
 glory of the Church, and of the world is not far distant. 
 God will not introduce that glorious dispensation without 
 some signal displays of His power and grace. Satan, from 
 his knowledge of the Scriptures, and from what he sees of 
 God's plans now maturing, plainly perceives that the day 
 of his overthrow is nigh at hand. He has now but a short - 
 time ; and hence his special effort to keep the world of sin- 
 ners still under his power. He is deceiving them by his 
 false miracles, and by his pretended revelations from God, 
 through the professed spirits of the departed, so that when 
 our Lord shall manifest His miraculous power and won- 
 derful workings again on the earth, the people will be dis- 
 posed to attribute His divine workings and revelations to 
 the same source whence these present manifestations spring. 
 Thus will Satan continue to deceive the people. They 
 will not take the warning that God may give them, and 
 hence will not be prepared for the glories that are to be 
 revealed in that day. 
 
 Among the signs of the times of our Lord's near ap- 
 proach, these Satanic delusions are not the least important. 
 And while they exhibit to us another of Satan's plans to 
 ruin the souls of men, they show us also how great is this 
 power over man. Who would have thought that, from the 
 
112 
 
 small beginnings, in this country, of these manifestations 
 in New York, in 1847, they would have spread all over 
 our land, and in less than ten years would have led two 
 millions of the people to reject Christ and his atonement, 
 and to believe that they can, through these mediums, hold 
 communion with the spirits of the departed, and get from 
 them that satisfactory information concerning the future 
 which the Bible withholds from us. But this is not all. 
 The Spirit of God expressly declares " that in the latter 
 times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to se- 
 ducing spirits and teachings of demons." 1 Tim. iv : 2. 
 They will speak lies in hypocrisy. They will forbid to 
 marry, and encourage vices of the most revolting nature, 
 though spoken of by winning names. And such will be the 
 power of these Satanic delusions, that all, save the elect of 
 God, shall be deceived by them. It really seems as if 
 these things are all being rapidly fulfilled in our day. 
 The people would not have Jesus to reign over them, and 
 now he is permitting them to believe a lie, the grand lie 
 of Satan, that Jesus is not the Saviour of sinners, and that 
 he has made no atonement for the sins of men. 
 
 Years ago, we said, while speaking on prophetic subjects, 
 that Satan would not surrender his hold on this world 
 without a struggle, and that his efforts to deceive the world, 
 and to hinder the work of the Church of Christ, would be 
 increased more and more in proportion as we approached 
 the millennial dispensation of the Church, when Satan shall 
 be bound and cast out of this world. And every day's ex- 
 perience convinces us more and more of the truth of this 
 statement. Indeed, the Scriptures assure us that, " as it 
 was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of 
 the Son of man ; or so shall the coming of the Son of man 
 
SPIRITUALISM NOT NEW. 113 
 
 be." Luke xvii : 26 ; Matt, xxiv: 37. The idea seems to 
 be that there will be great wickedness in the world, and a 
 great falling away from the faith in the Church. We do 
 not suppose that any of those who are savingly united to 
 Christ will perish — but the Church, in its organized capa- 
 city, will greatly depart from the faith and the zeal of the 
 apostles, so that half of the virgins will be wise, and half 
 foolish; but all will be asleep. Matt, xxv : 1-13. 
 
 All this seems to be hastening to its accomplishment. 
 And while the Gospel is in the act of being preached, in 
 all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and while it 
 is gathering out of this world a people for God's name, 
 (Acts xv : 13-17), Satan will, of cour.se, make corres- 
 ponding efforts to oppose it. His plans of opposing the 
 progress of the Church of Christ, in this world, may all be 
 reduced to two, viz : 1. Corrupting the Word of God ; or, 
 in some way neutralizing its power upon the hearts of the 
 people; and 2. Dividing and distracting the Church, so 
 that, instead of making a united and vigorous and per- 
 severing effort to spread the Gospel, the news of salvation 
 to the ends of the earth, her efforts are spent more than is 
 needful, in the affairs of this life, or in contending against 
 each other. 
 
 SPIRITUALISM NOT NEW. 
 
 I. Spiritualism then, as a system, as now understood, is 
 nothing new. It is only old error in a new form, and 
 adapted to the refinement and the intellectualism of the 
 age. Let any man read the history of the Church in the 
 first and second centuries of the Christian Era in connec- 
 tion with the New Testament statements, and he will find 
 there all the errors, or the germs of them, that have been 
 
114 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 used by Satan to harass the Church of God. The devil 
 has no new plans in opposing the cause of Christ. He has 
 used them all before. To us they may be new. We have 
 to fight over again the battles the apostles and the Church, 
 in past ages, have fought. Qur weapons are the same that 
 they had : and our foe is the same, and his plans and de- 
 vices are the same. 
 
 With the politician, in this land, Satan sounds the alarm 
 of " Union of Church and State V ] And hence, to save the 
 State from being injured by the little religion that the 
 Church can get incorporated into her laws, the effort is 
 made to heathenize the people, by excluding from the popu- 
 lar education the Word of God altogether. No man, no set 
 of men can vote, to legislate the Word of the Living God 
 out from the system of instruction that is adopted for the 
 education of our youth, without his being under the direct 
 influence of the devil. The man may not be conscious of the 
 fact, any more than the mediums of the present day are, but 
 that does not alter the case. The vote is cast to shut out 
 God and his law from the youthful mind, that, in due time, 
 is to control the affairs of the State, when the present voters 
 shall be dead. " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting 
 the soul ; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the 
 simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the 
 heart ; the commandment of the Lord is pure, (clear) en- 
 lightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean (pure), 
 enduring for ever ; the judgments of the Lord are true 
 and righteous altogether." Ps. xix : 7-10. If this be so, 
 then any one can readily perceive why Satan should so 
 perseveringly oppose the introduction of God's word into 
 the soul. Educate the mind without the truth of God, 
 
THE WORKING OF SATAN. 1 1 5 
 
 and you educate it for evil here and for woe hereafter. If 
 the Word of the Lord by God's Spirit converts the soul, 
 then it makes inroads upon the kingdom of Satan in this 
 world, and hence this fierce and continued opposition. See 
 the sad effects of this exclusion of the Word of God from 
 the minds of the youth, as they are exhibited this day, in 
 the faith, the lives and the hopes of eight hundred millions 
 of the human race. Oh ! see the deep, deep moral night 
 that hangs yet over them. Science and civilization, and 
 the arts combined, can never dispel that darkness. No- 
 thing can do it but the Word of God, blessed by His Spirit 
 to the enlightenment and salvation of the soul. And this 
 Word Satan would still keep from man. 
 
 But, when he cannot keep the Word of the Lord from a 
 free circulation, as it is in this and in all Protestant lands, 
 then his plan is to corrupt, or pervert its meaning, so that 
 being mixed up with error, its power upon the soul is lost, 
 and it becomes an useless weapon in the hands of him who 
 would do battle against Satan. In the first century, and 
 before the apostles were dead, the Gnostics arose, who de- 
 nied that the books of the Old Testament were of Divine 
 authority. They held that marriage ought to be discour- 
 aged, and that Christ was not a Divine person. 
 
 The Nicholaitans were united to the Gnostics in their 
 heresies, and were remarkable for their unbridled licen- 
 tiousness. Their deeds were such as God hated. Rev. ii : 6. 
 
 The Cerinthians, too, denied the Divinity of Christ, 
 among other things. 
 
 And in the second century, the doctrine of Christ's Di- 
 vine nature was denied, in addition to the other errors 
 already mentioned ; and Jesus was looked upon only as a 
 man. 
 
116 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 So that we have there the same errors that are now em- 
 bodied under the name of Spiritualism. That there are 
 some who seem favorably inclined to this form of Satanic 
 delusion, and who think that in reality it is, in some de- 
 gree, a new revelation from God, and that they really do 
 hold intercourse with the spirits of their departed friends, 
 we doubt not. They are good people whom Satan is en- 
 deavoring to lead astray. And if he cannot draw them 
 away from their faith in the Word of the Lord, he will 
 lead them to sin, as did Saul, in consulting with familiar 
 spirits, instead of seeking light alone from God, and from 
 His Word. 
 
 THE WITCH OF ENDOR. 
 
 Satan made Saul believe that he did in reality talk with 
 Samuel. But he was deceived in this thing. Being forsaken 
 of God, and knowing not what to do, he went, in open viola- 
 tion of God's command, to consult with evil spirits, and to 
 get if possible, from them, the information that God with- 
 held from him. This history is full of instruction to aJ 
 of our day ; and especially does it give a lesson of warning 
 to those who are led away by the delusions of Satan now. 
 
 The history is found at length in 1 Samuel xxviii. — 
 Bishop Patrick, Dr. Clarke, and others, hold that the spirit 
 of Samuel did really appear, and that this was done, not 
 through the power or magical arts of the woman, but con- 
 trary to her expectation, by the permission of God. But 
 there is no necessity for supposing that the spirit of Sam- 
 uel did actually appear. If Satan can transform himself 
 into the appearance of an angel of light, so can he assume 
 the appearance of any of the saints of the Lord. That 
 Satan does, at will, assume different forms for the purpose 
 
THE WITCH OF ENDOR. 117 
 
 of deception, is apparent from the Bible. These appari- 
 tions are not confined to one age or place. They occur 
 whenever it suits Satan's purposes to take a shape or form 
 that will aid him in his plans of deceit. It seems impro- 
 bable, for the following reasons, that the spirit of Samuel 
 did really appear. Because, 
 
 1. God refused to answer Saul by prophets, or by Urim, 
 or by dreams, when he personally enquired of him. 1 Sam. 
 xxviii : 6. Why then should he send Samuel from the 
 spirit world, at the wish or conjurations of a witch, to do 
 what he had just before refused to do ? 
 
 2. Saul paid the spectre religious worship. He bowed 
 his face to the ground and worshiped him. (Heb. vayish- 
 tahoo. Vulg. adoravit.) This adoration Samuel neither 
 could nor would receive, Rev. xxii : 8, 9 ; but Satan him- 
 self could and did. 
 
 3. He pretends to have been disquieted by Saul and the 
 witch's power. This is putting the saints of the Lord, 
 after their departure from this world, in the power of mor- 
 tals on the earth. 
 
 4. She represents the spirit of Samuel as coming up out 
 of the ground. This accords exactly with Is. xxix : 4 f 
 which informs us that familiar spirits thus appear, and 
 their voices issue from the ground. " And thou shalt be 
 brought down and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy 
 speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be 
 as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and 
 thy speech shall whisper out of the dust." 
 
 5. The spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and an evil spi- 
 rit had taken hold of him, and doubtless was still with him, 
 and now appeared to him, dressed up like Samuel when on 
 the earth. — 1 Sam. xvi : 14. 
 
1 1 8 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 6. The prediction of Saul's death was true as to the 
 fact, but not as to the time ; for it was not the next day 
 that Saul died. But if the Hebrew word machar, rendered 
 " to-morrow," means merely future time, then this is only 
 what Satan might judge would be the case. 
 
 7. Saul was cut off from life for two things. The first 
 was for disobeying God in the matter of Amelek, v. 18. — 
 The second was for asking counsel from one who had a fa- 
 miliar spirit, (1. Chron. x: 13.) It appears impossible, 
 then, that Samuel should be sent by the Lord, at the re- 
 quest of a witch, and thus sanction a wickedness for which 
 Saul was killed. 
 
 8. The prediction that Saul and his sons should die on 
 to-morrow, or soon, was true only in part. Three of 
 Saul's sons were slain, (xxxi : 2,) but his two other sons, 
 Armoni and Mephibosheth, lived, and were long after 
 hanged by the Gibeonites, 2 Sam. xxi : 9, if we get the 
 correct idea from this history. 
 
 Not to multiply reasons which might be offered, we con- 
 clude that Satan himself appeared in this case, and not 
 one of his angels, as on ordinary occasions. And this 
 would be sufficient to terrify the woman herself, and to ac- 
 count for all that had happened. 
 
 II. Satan's other plan is to distract the Church, or to 
 divide her into fragments, and, if possible, array each sepa- 
 rate family of the household of faith against the others. — 
 The different denominations of Christians now on the face 
 of the earth, are a proof of Satan's power. While we hold 
 the great doctrines of the Gospel, yet his influence is such 
 as to make God's people contend more earnestly for a form 
 of faith than for the faith itself, and to spend more time 
 and effort in defending a rite in the Church than would be 
 
TENDENCIES SATANIC WISDOM. 119 
 
 needful to save many from the power of Satan. And even 
 in the matter of Spiritualism as now developed, we doubt 
 not but he will lead many in the Church to hand over 
 their brethren bodily into the hands of Satan, rather than 
 to make prayerful and faithful efforts to save them from 
 the fowler's snare. That Spiritualism, as it is now de- 
 veloped in our midst, is a device of Satan to oppose, in 
 anticipation, the coming and kingdom of our Lord, we 
 cannot doubt. Our efforts should be, in love, to save, not 
 destroy ; to compassionate, not condemn those who may 
 be possessed by Satan. And if the Church of Christ, at 
 first, had the power to cast out demons, why may she not 
 do so yet ? Some kinds of demons can be dispossessed 
 only by prayer and fasting. If God's people would seek 
 from Him the faith they need, they may not only keep 
 themselves out of the power of these evil spirits, but may 
 cast them out of those who are now possessed. So saith our 
 Lord; and so we believe. — Mark xvi : 17, 18. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Not to extend these remarks any farther, we would say 
 to any who have not thought it labor lost to read these 
 pages, to put no confidence in the revelations that may be 
 made by Satan and his angels through those whom he has 
 employed as mediums. If they should at any time accord 
 with the truth, that is only designed by him to win the 
 confidence of the deceived, so that Satan may the more 
 easily deceive them to their final undoing. The awful 
 language of the apostle Paul, in 2 Thess. ii : 11, 12, is 
 not without its solemn significancy at the present time, — 
 " For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that 
 they should believe a lie ; that they all might be damned 
 
120 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unright- 
 eousness/' 
 
 " Resist the Devil and he will flee from you," is both 
 the command and the promise of the Lord. " Have no fel- 
 lowship with these unfruitful works of darkness, but rather 
 reprove them. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye 
 may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil ; for 
 we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against princi- 
 palities and powers ; against the rulers of the darkness of 
 this world ; against wicked spirits in the heavenly places, 
 en tois ejpouranioisP — Eph. vi : 11, 12. 
 
 We quote, as very appropriate, at the close of these re- 
 marks, the language of one who had been a warm advocate 
 of Spiritualism, and who wrote and published much in its 
 favor, but who, having seen the delusion in its right light, 
 sends forth his warning voice to those who are yet led cap- 
 tive by Satan unto his will. He says : 
 
 " Now, after a long and constant watchfulness, seeing 
 for month's and years its progress and its practical work- 
 ings upon its devotees, its believers, and its mediums, we 
 are compelled to speak our honest conviction, which is, 
 that the manifestations coming through the acknowledged 
 mediums, who are designated as rapping, tipping, writing, 
 and entranced mediums, have a baneful influence upon 
 believers, and create discord and confusion ; that the gene- 
 rality of these teachings inculcate false ideas, approve of 
 selfish, individual acts, and endorse theories and principles 
 which, when carried out, debase and make men little better 
 than the brute. These are among the fruits of modern 
 Spiritualism, and we do not hesitate to say that we believe 
 if these manifestations are continued to be received, and 
 to be as little understood as they are, and have been since 
 
A WARNING VOICE. 121 
 
 they made their appearance at Rochester, and mortals are 
 to be deceived by their false, fascinating, and snake-like 
 charming powers which go with them, the day will come 
 when the world will require the appearance of another Sa- 
 viour [not another, but the Saviour himself] to redeem the 
 world from its departing from Christ's warnings. " 
 
 Again he adds — " Seeing, as we have, the gradual pro- 
 gress it makes with its believers, particularly its mediums, 
 from lives of morality to those of sensuality and immora- 
 lity) gradually, and cautiously undermining the founda- 
 tion of good principles, we look back with amazement to 
 the radical change which a few months will bring about in 
 individuals, for its tendency is to approve and endorse each 
 individual act and character, however good or bad these 
 acts may be." 
 
 He concludes by saying — " We desire to send forth our 
 warning voice, and if our humble position, as the head of a 
 public journal, our known advocacy of Spiritualism, our 
 experience, and the conspicuous part we have played among 
 its believers, the honesty and the fearlessness with which 
 we have defended the subject, will weigh anything in 
 our favor, we desire that our opinions may be received, 
 and those who are moving passively down the rushing 
 rapids to destruction, should pause, ere it be too late, and 
 save themselves from the blasting influence which those 
 manifestations are causing." — J. F. Whitney, Ed. iV. Y, 
 Pathfinder. 
 
 Here is a warning voice from a gentleman of whom we 
 have no knowledge further than what we obtain from these 
 brief extracts from his paper. But it is a warning most 
 seasonable, kind, and true. May it be fully heeded. And 
 may God give grace to those who are now deceived by the 
 
122 SPIRITUALISM, A SATANIC DELUSION. 
 
 adversary, so that they may acknowledge the truth as it is 
 in Christ Jesus, and that they may recover themselves out 
 of the snare of the devil. 2 Tim. ii : 26. 
 
 To all we would say — identify yourselves with the cause 
 of Christ — love him and his cause sincerely. — Serve him 
 faithfully. Rely for salvation on his atonement alone. — 
 Walk by faith, and lead a holy life, and in the end you 
 will triumph over Satan and all your spiritual foes. Then 
 will you be able to sing the victor's song of " Glory to 
 God and to the Lamb :" and to shout aloud with a grate- 
 ful heart, " thanks be to God who giveth us the victory 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ." And in the language of 
 the apostle we would say — " Yet I would have you wise 
 unto that which is good, and simple {akeraious, blameless) 
 in that which is evil. And the God of peace shall bruise 
 Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ be with you. Amen." Rom. xvi : 19-20.