SPIRITUALISM
IDENITIOAL WITH
ANCIENT SORCERY, NEW TESTAMENT DEMONOLOGY,
AND.MODERN WITCHCRAFT:
WITH THE TESTIMONY OF GOD AND MAN
AGAINST IT.
By W. M1DONALD.
PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER,
200 MULB ERRY-B~TL.ET.
1866.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866,
BY CARLTON & PORTER,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for
the Southern District of New-York.




PREFACE.
THE author of this volume was appointed, by
the "Providence District Ministers' Association," to prepare an essay on the "History of
Spiritualism."  Two years subsequent to the
appointment the essay was read before the Association, when the following resolution was
passed with regard to its publication:
"Resolved, That Rev. W. M'Donald be respectfully requested to enlarge and publish, in
book form, his essay on the History of Spiritualism, read before this Association, and that
we hereby pledge ourselves to use our efforts to
give circulation to said book."
The essay was subsequently read, by request,
before an association of clergymen at Bridgewater, Mass., when the following resolution was
passed:




4               PREFACE.
"Resolved, That the thanks of this Association be tendered to Rev. W. M'Donald for his
very able essay on the History of Spiritualism,
and we concur with the Providence District
Association in requesting its publication."
The essay has been enlarged to about four
times its original size, thereby adding very much
to the value of the book.
Our object has been, mainly, to prove that
modern Spiritualism, claiming to be a "New
Dispensation," is older than Christianity. It
has generally appeared in connection with some
remarkable religious movement, and always in
conflict with it.
If Spiritualism be the work of spirits, they
are such spirits or demons as the Greek and Roman sorcerers evoked; such as possessed the man
among the tombs in the country of the Gadarenes; such as possessed the damsel who troubled
Paul and Silas at Philippi; such as were present
in the witchcraft of Europe and America.
If Spiritualism be the action of odylic force,
as claimed by Rogers, Mahan, and others; or if




PREFACE.                5
it be an intermediate agent between spirit and
matter, nearly answering to odylic force, as
claimed by Dr. Samson; or if it be mere sleight
of hand, deception, humbuggery, as claimed by
Professor Mattison and those who think with
him, then this odylic force, intermediate agent,
sleight of hand, or humbuggery has produced in
the past all the phenomena of modern Spiritualism.
We are frank to confess that we believe Spiritualism to be, in part at least, the work of denons8; and that Paul accurately describes them
in 1 Tim. iv, 1: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from  the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits and doctrines of devils." This conclusion
cannot be avoided if we have succeeded in proving that New Testament demonology and Greek
and Roman sorcery are identical. Of Lhis the
reader must judge. But this is not the point
which we have labored to establish in these
pages. Whether it be the one or the other does.lot affect o r argument,




6                  PREFACE.
Many of the facts here presented will be new
to a large class of readers; and as a book of
reference on the " History of Spiritualism," ancient and modern, it will be found valuable.
The chapter on the "_Fruits of Spiituali8r "
is a very dark picture. We have simply permitted spiritualists, and those who have abandoned it, to speak for themselves.
It has cost us no small amount of labor to
collect and arrange the materials for this volume. We could have written a much larger
book with less labor.
Among the works which we have consulted,
and from which we have received valuable aid,
are the following:
The Bible.
Works of Josephus.
Clarke's, Scott's, Barnes's, Bush's, and Olshausen's Notes
and Commentaries.
Brown7s, Calmet's, Buck's, Watson's, and Kitto's Biblical and Theological Dictionaries.
Roll's Ancient Iistory.
u;sebius's Ecclesiastical History,




PREFACE.
Du Pin's Ecclesiastical History.
Works of Dr. Dick.
Works of Dr. Stackhouse.
Works of Dr. Lardner.
Works of Dr. Lee.
Anthon's Classical Dictionary..rminian Magazine.
Encyclopedia Americana.
Wesley Family, by Dr. Adam Clarke.
Southey's Life of Wesley.'Witchcraft and Demonology, bySir Walter Scott.
Magnalia Christi-Americana, by Cotton Mather, London, 1702.
Wonders of the Invisible World, by Cotton Mather,
London, 1693.
More Wonders of the Invisible World, by Robert Calef,
London, 1700.
History of Witchcraft, by Francis Hutchinson, D.D.,
London, 1718.
Massachusetts Historical Collections.
History of Magic, by Ennemoser, London.
Salem Witchcraft, by J. Thatcher.
Salem Witchcraft, by C. Upham.
London Retrospective Review.
Westminster Review.
Domestic Annals of Scotland by Chambers.




8                   PREFACE.
Footfalls on the Boundaries of Another World, by
Robert Dale Owen.
Spiritualism Tested, by George W. Samson, D.D.
Spirit Manifestations, by Rev. Charles Beecher.
Spirit Rappings, by Rev. J. Porter, D.D.
Ancient Sorcery Revived in Modem Spiritualism, by
Rev. C. Munger.
Modem Mysteries Explained and Exposed, by President Mahan.
Modern Spiritualism, its Truths and its Errors, by Rev.
T. L. Harris.
Spiritualism, Vols. I, II, by Judge Edmonds and Dr.
Dexter.
Spiritualism Scientifically Demonstrated, by Robert
Hare, M.D.
Rise and Progress of the Mysterious Noises in Western
New York, by E. W. Capron and H. D. Barron.
The New Testament, as Corrected by the Spirits.
Ministry of Angels Realized, by Mr. and Mrs. Newton.
Spirit Works, Real but not Miraculous, by Allen Putnam.
Discussion of Modem Spiritualism, by Professor J. S.
Grimes and Leo Miller, Esq.
History of the Supernatural, by W. Howitt.
Spiritual Telegraph.
Banner of Light.




PREFACE.              9
We have had an opportunity of witnessing the
phenomena of Spiritualism.
That this little volume may lead some soul,
blinded by the God of this world, to Him who
was revealed to destroy the works of the devil,
and save many from falling who are halting
between two opinions, is the earnest prayer of
the author.
W. M'DONALD.








CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I
SPIRITUALI SM.
Hydesville Rappings - Dr. Hare — Mediums — Rapping, Tip.
ping, etc.- Tables- Chairs - Piano-fortes - Guitars — Housebells - Clothing - Persons held and thrown down - Dr. Hare
at Cape May - Writing - Speaking -New Dispensation -
Its Theology.............................       Page 15
CHAPTER IL
ANCIENT SORCERY.
Terms employed and defined - Oracle of Trophonius —
Oracle of Claros - Oracle of Apollo - Mediums - Poetical Mediums — Prophetic Mediums- Sealed Letters - Crcesus — Trajan -Jamblicus- Sibylline Oracles- Du Pin -Justin Martyr-Speaking Mediums - Healing  Mediums - Temple of
AEsculapius-Temple to Hygeia-Writing Mediums — Circles - Cicero - Aneas - Pliny -  Apion - Achilles - Basic
Fact of Spiritualism..........3...................... 31




12                   CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
NEW TESTAMENT DEMONOLOGY.
Diabolos- Satanas- Daimon - Diamonion- Personified
Principles of Evil - Personal Enemies - Diseases - Campbell - Lee - Damsel at Philippi — Kitto - Josephus - Lardner - Apollo -  Simon Magus -  Justin Martyr -  Olshausen.....................................  Page 54
CHAPTER IV.
MODERN WITCIICRAFT.
Witchcraft on the Continent - Germany - University of
Paris -Norbonne - Pope John XXI. - Synod of Langress -
Bull of Pope Innocent VIII. - Florimond - Number of Witches executed on the Continent —Joan of Are -Sorcery in England and Scotland - Bishop Jewell - Laws of England -
Numbers executed in England - Edmond Hartley - Laws of
Scotland - Dr. Dick - Females - Bullingbrook - Maid of
Kent — Miss Throgmorton - Meikle John Gibb - Mediums -
Pordage and his Society of Angelic Brethren - Jane Lead —
Revelations - Daughter of a Protestant Clergyman - Peter
Apon - Blind Conjurer of Paris - Surrey Demoniac - Musical
Mediums - Nuns of Loudou - Agnes Sympson - Bessie Dunlop and Thomas Reid —Alison Pearson and William Sympson — Compared with Spiritualism..................... 75
CHAPTER V.
SALEM  WITOHORAFT.
When commenced - Dr. Bently - Judge Story - Boston -
Springfield, etc. - Rev. Mr. Parris's Children - Witches -




CONTENTS.                       13
Fast - The Court - Numbers accused - Numbers executed -
The Reaction - Confession of Judges —Rev. Mr. Parris compelled to retire - Robert Calif's Book - Cotton and Increase
Mather - Phenomena of Witchcraft - Ann Cole - William
Morse - George Watson - Philip Smith - Children of John
Goodwin- Thomas Brattle's Letter to the Salem Gentlemen
Mediums - Thatcher - Hutchinson - Dr. Sampson - Cotton
Mather - Witchcraft compared with Spiritualism.... Page 95
CHAPTER VI
THE SPIRIT OF MASCON AND EPWORTH RAPPINGS.
Rev. Mr. Perreaud - Synod at Bussy.- Noises commence -
Curtain drawn - Pewter and Brass thrown about the Kitchen
Mr. Perreaud returns -  Noises - Elders and others called
in - Voice heard - Language used - Relates secret Matters -
Mocks God -Tumbles the Bed - Music — Throwing Stones -
Bishop of Mascon - Rev. J. Wesley - Robert Boyle - Rev.
Peter du Molin - Epworth Rappings - Rev. S. Wesley -
Knockings - Prayer for the King- Wesley thrice pushed -
Rev. Mr. Hoole called in - Children disturbed while asleep —
Dog affected - Footsteps heard - Groans - Trencher dances -
Dr. Priestley — Mr. Southey - Coleridge —Dr. Adam Clarke -
Spiritualism and Revivals of Religion................. 113
CHAPTER VII.
GOD'S TESTIMONY AGAINST SPIRITUALISM.
Rev. C. Munger - Divine Law - Sin of Babylon - Sin
of Manasseh - Sin of Saul - Witch - Samuel - Rebellion
-New  Testament Law -  Dr. Hare -  Who  consulted
Spirits?......................................... 141




14                   CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI
FRUITS OF MODERN SPIRITUALrM.
Spiritualistic View of Revelation — Rev. T. L. Harris on Spir.
itualism - Sin — Dr. Hare - Lizzy Doten - Banner of Light -
Christ- Banner of Light — Emma Harding - No Redeemer in
the Spiritualist's Heaven - St. Stephen - St. John - Hell -
Emma Harding - Lizzy Doten - Rich Man — Invocation to the
Prince of Darkness - Invocation to Lucifer — Pagan Devil-worship — Marriage - Banner of Light.............. Page 158
CHAPTER IX.
TESTIMONY AGAINST SPIRITUALISM.
W. Fishbough - W. B. Coan - B. F. Hatch, M.D. - J. F.
Whiting - Cora L. V. Hatch -Wise Man's Counsel..... 191




SPIRITUALISM.
CHAPTER I.
S P I RI T U AL I SM.
A BRIEF description of modern spiritualism
in its history, mediums, phenomena, and theology,
will aid us in our investigation of its general
history. We shall be able the more readily to
identify its present with its former phenomena.
In 1848 there lived in Hydesville, near
Rochester, New York, a farmer by the name
of John D. Fox. Mr. and Mrs. Fox were
the parents of six children, the two youngest
only-Margaret and Kate-living at home;
the former fifteen, and the latter twelve years
of age.
The house into which the family had recently
removed was soon disturbed by noises, supposed




16           SPIRITUALISM.
to proceed from rats and mice. These noises,
at first somewhat confused, were soon observed
to be slight, but distinct knockings, in and
about the bed-room, which gradually became
louder and more general. The children were
disturbed in bed by something resembling a
dog lying on their feet, and a cold hand felt
on Kate's face. Bedclothes were frequently
pulled from the bed, chairs and tables removed
from their places, and, in short, there was a
general disarrangement of household matters.
Every effort was made by Mr. and Mrs.
Fox to discover the cause of these strange disturbances, but without any satisfactory results.
On the night of March 31st, 1848, the
parents and children lodged in the same
room. At an early hour the rappings commenced with unusual violence. Thinking the
noise might proceed from the rattling of the sashes, it being a windy night, Mr. Fox tried them,
but found them  all secure.  Kate observed
that when he shook the sashes, the noises responded; and turning in the direction from




SPIRITUALISM.            17
which the sounds proceeded, snapped her
finger, and exclaimed, "Here, old Splitfoot,
do as I do." The knockings instantly responded.
These manifestations of apparent intelligence
so alarmed the girls that they desisted for a
time from trying any more experiments.
Mrs. Fox seemed anxious to go farther, and
did so.  She soon learned the ages of her
children, and something of the history of the
spirit which communicated with her.  His
name was Charles B. Rosma, a married man,
the father of five children, and thirty-one years
old. He had been murdered there some years
before by one John C. Bell, a blacksmith, and
his remains buried in the cellar of the house,
at a depth of ten feet. This intelligence produced unheard-of excitement in the town, and
the people flocked from all parts to hear and
see. Excavations were made in the cellar at
different times, as the water would allow. At
the depth of five feet they found plank: further
on, pieces of crockery, charcoal, and quick lime;
2




18            SPIRITUALISM.
then human hair, and bones said by anatomists
to have been portions of a human skeleton.
These are among the alleged facts connected
with this case.  There were many contradictory statements made, but it does not come
within our province to examine them in this
brief treatise.
The rappings were not confined to the Fox
residence, but were soon heard in other houses
in the neighborhood; and not long after they
appeared in Rochester, and the adjoining towns
and cities; and now we find them everywhere.
In this simple manner commenced what are
known as the "Rochester Knockings."
Dr. Hare says he inquired of his "p iritfather" why these manifestations were first
made at Hydesville, through the spirit of a
murdered man? and his father informed him
that Hydesville was chosen because of the
ignorance of the people, and the spirit of a
murdered man was employed because that would
excite more interest. (Spiritualism Scientifically Demonstrated, p. 85.)




SPIRITUALISM.            19
Here is the origin of modern mediumship;
and it is wonderful with what rapidity mediums
have multiplied since Kate Fox first introduced herself to "old Splitfoot" at Hydesville, in 1848.
The mediums of modern spiritualism may
be classified as follows:
1. Rapping Mfediumgs, who produce distinct
sounds by the aid of unseen agents.
2. Tipping Mllediums, who move tables, and
household furniture generally, with all kinds
of material substances.
3. Speaking  fedieums, who pronounce discourses, under the inspiration, professedly, of
departed spirits, equal in all respects, if not
superior, as they claim, to any ever pronounced
by mortals.
4. Seeing llediaums, who claim  to be able
to clearly see and accurately describe invisible
spirits.
5. Drawing Xediums,who furnish drawings of
leaves, vines, fruit and flowers of the spirit-land,
which cannot be classified by human botanists.




20            SPIRITUALISM.
6. Painting 2ediumw, who in thirty minutes,
it is said, can furnish full-length portraits of
persons long since dead; which, in point of
artistic skill, equals Michael Angelo, Correggio,
Raphael, or Titian.
7. Mzusical 3iediums, who discourse exquisite
music on piano-fortes, guitars, and, in fact, all
kinds of instruments, without the aid of fleshly
fingers.
8. Singing A2ediums, whose vocal performances are quite up to Jenny Lind.
9. Dancing iediums, whose performances in
this department throw Ellen Tree, Fanny Ellsler, or the most accomplished French dancingmaster entirely into the shade.
10. Writing Xllediums, who are filling the
land with volumes dictated by departed spirits.
11. Healing MJediwms, who claim to cure the
most obstinate diseases by prescriptions furnished by the departed. These prescriptions
are said to produce wonders, of which the " waters of Israel" and "balm of Gilead" could
never boast.




SPIRITUALISM.            21
12. Developing ilfediums, whose operations
are a little obscure, and hence not so easily described.
These are the more prominent mediumn  of
Spiritualism, from which the extent of mediumship among them may be learned.
The general facts of Spiritualism are so well
attested, that few persons are found, whatever
their opinion of the phenomena, who are willing
to risk their reputation for candor on an unqualified denial of them. There may be a difference
of opinion as to the force or agent by which
these phenomena are produced; but that they are
produced, and that, too, in many cases, without
deception, cannot be successfully questioned.
Among these facts may be mentioned the following:
Tables have been raised from the floor, and
carried into different parts of a room without
visible human aid, while herculean efforts were
being made to arrest them. President Mahan
mentions several well-attested cases of tables
moved in every possible direction, and with great




22             SPIRITUALISM.
force; of a table seen to rise from the floor, and
to float in the atmosphere for several seconds;
of a table, on which was seated a Mr. Wells,
rocking to and fro with great violence, and at
length poising itself on two legs, and remaining
in that position for some thirty seconds, with no
other person in contact with it. (Modern Mysteries Explained, etc., pp. 112, 113.)
Chairs and other articles of furniture have
been seen to deliberately move about a house,
unimpelled by visible human agency, and in
many instances have been known to be broken
into fragments.
Piano-fortes have discoursed the sweetest music, with their key-boards pressed closely to the
wall, and no human hand upon the keys. I
have received such statements from the lips of
credible witnesses, persons who at present have
no connection with Spiritualism.
Guitars have repeatedly discoursed music
quite as sweet, while moving around a room
without human aid. In Auburn, N. Y., in the
presence of many witnesses, a guitar is said to




SPIRITUALISM.            23
have been " taken from the hands of those who
held it and put in turne, and to have commenced
playing while it passed around the room above
their heads." —History of Xfysteriows  oises,
p. 72.
"A  very intelligent Christian lady," says
President Mahan, "an utter disbeliever in
Spiritualism, told us, that in her presence a
guitar was once placed in the middle of the
room; that when no one was within several
feet of it, musical sounds proceeded from it,"
etc. —Modern iysteries, etc., p. 117.
House-bells have been lifted from their places
and rung over the heads of numerous spectators.
This is quite common. Judge Edmonds speaks
of such matters frequently. On one occasion he
says, " The bell was taken out of M.'s hand and
rung, and then put back again. This occurred
several times in the course of the evening."
Again, he says, "The bell was rung over
our heads," etc. —Spiritalism, vol. i, pp. 22,
23, 26.
Articles of clothing have been snatched from




24            SPIRITUALISM.
the persons of many by an unseen hand, and in
the presence of many witnesses.
The author last mentioned speaks of a shawl
being "snatched from a lady's shoulders, and
thrown on the floor."-P. 24.
Many similar cases might be named.
Some have been nearly thrown upon the
floor, and others have been arrested and firmly
held by an invisible agent. Says Judge Edmonds, " Some were pulled down upon the sofa;
one was pulled nearly on to the floor; one had
her feet shoved from under her, so that she
nearly fell." "One of the party was forcibly
torn by an invisible power from my grasp, in
spite alike of his strength and mine."  "I felt
on one of my arms what seemed to be the grip
of an iron hand. I felt distinctly the thumb
and fingers, the palm of the hand, and the ball
of the thumb; and it held me fast by a power
which I struggled to escape from in vain. No
earthly hand could thus have held me, for I was
as powerless in that grip as a fly would be in
the grasp of my hand. And it continued with




SPIRITUALISM.           25
me until I had tried every means I could devise
to get rid of it; and not until I thoroughly felt
how powerless I was, did it leave me."-Spiritualism, vol. i, pp. 24, 26, 27.
Riesponses by rapping and writing have been
received to mental questions, known only to
the inquirer. Facts unknown to the parties
at the time, and many facts regarded false at
the time, have subsequently proved to be as
stated by the medium.
Dr. Hare states that he sent a message by
a spirit, from Cape May to Philadelphia, with
regard to bank business of which he was uncertain. The spirit communicated with Mrs.
Gourlay, of Philadelphia, through whose husband the proper inquiries were made at the
bank, and the answer returned to Dr. Hare,
by the same spirit, all in two hours and a
half. Such facts are quite numerous.
The facsimile of a handwriting the medium
had never seen has been produced; while
paper has been written upon with pen and
ink, when it is known that no human being




26            SPIRITUALISM.
was in the room at the time; neither was
there pen nor ink present. Not only do we
find many such statements in the productions
of spiritualists, but we have received them
from the lips of those who, having formerly been
connected with spiritualism, had abandoned it.
Mediums have pronounced such discourses,
as it is known they never did nor could pronounce in a normal state.
Persons are said to have been restored to
health by prescriptions purporting to come from
the spirits of departed physicians.
These are a few of the facts of Spiritualism.
The list might be greatly extended, including
many more marvelous than we have mentioned.
~Spiritualism claims to be a religious system.
It has its altars, its priests, its Church services,
and revelations. It goes further, and lays claim
to being a New Dispensation.
Judge Edmonds says: "As under the Mosaic Dispertsation mankind were taught the
existence of God, rather than the thousand




SPIRITUALISM.            27
gods with mortal attributes then worshiped;
and under the Christian dispensation they were
taught the immortality of the soul and its existence forever; so now, under thi8 new dispensation it is being revealed to them, for the first
time, what that state of existence is, and how,
in this life, they may well and wisely prepare
to enter upon" it.-Vol. i, 1). 65.
He further says: "As came the dispensation through Christ, so came this, in a state
of almost universal peace, " etc.-P. 66.
Dr. Hare shouts over it: "Praise be to God
that he has sent us a new way of religious
light."-ASpiritualism, etc., p. 208.
To the "New  Testament, as Corrected by
the Spirits," a new book is added, entitled,
"New Dispensation," which begins thus:
"I, Jesus, appeared in spirit in 1861, and
do say and declare unto the world that the
new era or dispensation has commenced,
called the coming of Christ. It commenced
about the year 1847, and as represented and
spoken of by the prophet Daniel and others,




28            SPIRITUALISM.
by my coming as a cloud in the heavens, with
tens of thousands of angels, to overshadow the
earth with my glory."
"We are called to witness," says the Banner of Light, " the beginning of a New Era
in the history of Man."
"I expected of it (Spiritualism) as I would
of the advent of a Jesus Christ."-Banner of
Light, January 18, 1862.
Speaking of pe:fection, a spirit says: "But
the new dispensation gives a new definition
to all things, and therefore to perfection."Banner of Light, March 8, 1862.
It denies the divine authority of the Bible,
claiming superiority for its own revelations.
It denies the divinity of Christ, regarding
him as a medium only, still progressing in
the spheres.
It denies the atonement, claiming that man
Dnly needs development.
It has no redemption through Christ, no
salvation by faith, no gracious regeneration by
the Spirit.




SPIRITUALISM.             29
It has no resurrection from the dead, no
2ternal judgment.
With Spiritualism, the God of the Bible
was a ferocious spirit, more nearly representing
our ideas of a devil than a God.
It claims that all human actions are in
such a sense the result of necessity, as that
no man could have acted differently from what
he has done.
It claims that sin is an impossibility, and
that vice is virtue under another name.
It is claimed that hell is the ante-chamber
to heaven, and all must pass through hell to
reach heaven. Such, in brief, are some of the
facts and teachings of Spiritualism.
We shall have occasion to speak in another place of the character and fruits of this
system, when its theology and morals will be
more fully considered.
We are now prepared to show that this
strange system, instead of being a New Dispenesation, as claimed by its chief supporters,
is older than Christianity, and has had its




30            SPIRITUALISM.
periodical developments in the past, and has
been always found fighting against God, and
Jesus Christ whom he'has sent. To this
examination we call special attention in the
following pages.




SPIRITUALISM.            31
CHAPTER II.
ANCIENT SORCERY.
IT will be admitted that the distinguishing
characteristic of modern Spiritualism is its
professed intercourse with the spirits of the
dead. Indeed, its advocates claim that in the
process of human development this intercourse
with the spirit-world is an advance on any
former dispensation. But so far from Spiritualism being a new dispensation, we are prepared
to show that the Greeks and Romans, before
the establishment of Christianity, could boast
of intercourse with the spirit-world, through
their oracles, equal to anything yet seen in
modern Spiritualism.
The terms employed to describe this commerce  are, necromancy, 8orcery, witchcraft,
magic,  enchantment,  divinution, familiar
spirits, etc.




32            SPIRITUALISM.
A definition of these terms will throw some
light upon this subject.
1. "N2ecromancy," says Dr. Stackhouse, "is
the art of raising up the dead in order to pry
into future events, or to be informed of the fate
of the living."  Calmet says "it consisted in
raising up the ghosts of individuals deceased."
Buck says it is " the art of revealing future
events by conversing with the dead."
" Necromancers," says Campbell, " are those
who consult the dead."  Dr. Lowth says they
" are those who consult with evil spirits."
Brown says they " were those who pretended
to raise and consult with such persons as were
dead." Dr. Jahn says, 1" necromancers pretended that they were able by their incantations to summon back departed spirits from
their abodes. They uttered the communications which they pretended to receive from
the dead."
If Stackhouse, and Calmet, and Buck, and
Campbell, and Lowth, and Brown, and Jahn,
have correctly defined necromancy, what is it




SPIRITUALISM.            33
but modern Spiritualism? or, what is modern
Spiritualism but ancient necromancy?
2. "Sorcerers," says Gesenius, "are those
who profess to call up the dead."  "Sorcery,"
says Dr. Webster, is "the power of commanding evil spirits."
3.:" -Magic," says Calmet, is " the invocation
of the devil."  Dr. Webster says it "is the
science of producing wonderful effects by the
aid of superhuman beings, or of departed
spirits."
4. " Witchcraft comprehends," says Brown,
"all kinds of influence produced by collusion
with Satan." Burkett says it is a "devilish
art."  Dr. Webster says, "it is intercourse
with the dead."
5. "Enchantment," says Dr. Webster, "is
the art of producing certain wonderful effects
by the invocation or aid of demons, or the
agency of certain  supposed spirits."   " An
enchanter is one who has spirits or demons
at his command; one who practices enchantment, or pretends to perform surprising things
3




34             SPIRITUALISM.
by the agency of demons." Brown says they
are such as "pretended to work things wonderfiul by superhuman influence."
6. "Divination," says Dr. Stackhouse, "is
being in league and covenant with the devil,
and doing many astonishing things by his
help."  "To divine, ordinarily signifies," says
Brown, " to find out and foretell secret or
future things by some sinful and diabolical
means."  "A diviner," says' Dr. Webster, " is
one who pretends to predict events, or to
reveal occult things, by the aid of superior
beings, or of supernatural means."'7. Familiar spirit, or the word familiar
applied to spirit, says Mr. Barnes, is the word
the Hebrews "'used particularly to denote one
who was supposed to have power to call up
the dead, to learn of them respecting future
events." Isa. viii, 19. BRrown says, "familiar
spirits are such devils as converse with wizards, and the like." Dr. Webster says, "a
familiar spirit is a demon, or evil spirit,
supposed to attend at a call."




SPIRITUALISM.             35
Mr. Benson says, "the spirits of dead men
were supposed to speak in the images or
idols worshiped by the heathen."
Mr. Barnes says: "Among heathen nations,
nothing was more common than for persons to
profess to have intercourse with spirits, and to
be under the influence of their inspiration."
"It was the opinion of many," says Dr.
Lardner, "that evil angels and spirits wero
allowed to visit the region of our air and
this earth, and to inflict diseases and other
calamities upon men."
It is very clear that the ancient sorcerers,
necromancers, enchanters, etc., professed to do
all that modern spiritualists profess to do.
They profess to perform their wonders by the
aid of superhuman or spiritual beings. They
claimed that the spirits which aided them were
the spirits of their demigods, heroes, and departed friends. We shall see, in the course of
this examination, that their claim is as well
founded as that of spiritualists.
Identical in character with the necromancers,




36            SPIRITUALISM.
sorcerers, etc., mentioned in the Scriptures, were
the priests of the oracles of Greece and Rome.
These oracles were the pagan deities who
gave, or were supposed to give, answers to
inquiries made respecting affairs of importance,
usually respecting future events, and the success of important enterprises. They were quite
numnerous.
The oracle of Trophonius was held in high
repute. The mediums, when in the trance
state, had revealed to them, it is said, much
of futurity. Some are' said to have been seeing mediums, and could describe by sight;
while others were hearing mediums, and described what they heard. They became stupefied, and out of their senses. They were then
placed in the chair of the goddess of memory,
and by her aid were enabled to relate what
they had seen and heard. Theae efforts, it is
said, produced great physical prostration.
The oracle of Claros was remarkable for its
poetical genius. It could, among other remarkable things, deliver answers in verse upon




SPIRITUALISM.           37
what persons had in their thoughts, though
often very ignorant, and knowing nothing of
composing in rhyme. This oracle is said to
have foretold the sudden death of Germanicus,
the accomplished Roman general.
Passing over a large number of inferior
oracles, we come to consider the most famous
one of all antiquity, the oracle of Apollo at
Delphos, worshiped under the name of Pythian;
so called from the serpent Python, or from the
Greek word puthesthai, which signifies to inquire, because the people came there to consult
him. From thence the Delphic priestess was
called Pythia, and the games were celebrated
and known as the Pythian games.
Diodorus says that there was a cavity upon
Parnassus from which exhalations arose producing wonderful effects. On approaching it
the brain became intoxicated, and even beasts
were seriously affected by it. A shepherd approaching it was seized with violent agitations
of body, and pronounced words which he did
not understand, but words said to have foretold




38                SPIRITUALISM.
futurity. The influence was regarded as something  divine, and  a  priestess-a  woman  of
course-was appointed to receive and transmit
the divine communications. These priestesses
were nothing more orless than trance-mediums,
with which Spiritualism  abounds.  They multiplied with great rapidity, and the people flocked
from all quarters to inquire of them, either by
word of mouth or in writing, with regard to the
secret things of the present and future.
Under the influence of the miraculous vapor,
"the hair of the priestess," says Rollin, " stood
upright upon her head; her look grew wild and
furious; she foamed at the mouth, while a sudden and violent trembling seized her whole body,
with all the symptoms of distraction and frenzy."
Virgil, referring to the same thing, says,
" The virgin cries, The god I behold the god!
And straight her visage and her color change;
Her hair disheveled, and her heaving breast
And laboring heart are swollen with sacred rage;
Larger she seems; her voice, no mortal sound,
As the inspiring god, near and more near,
Seizes her soul."




SPIRITUALISM.             39
Virgil says again,
"She fetched up souls out of their tomb."
And again,
"She raiseth souls out of their graves."
This description by Virgil of the priestess of
Apollo so accurately portrays the spiritualistic
mediums of the present day that comment is
unnecessary.
We have said there were poetical mediums,
who delivered the communications of the oracles
in verse.
These verses are said to have been very bad,
at least in many instances; so much so that
many were much surprised that Apollo, who
presided in the choir of the Muses, by whom
these verses were supposed to have been inspired, should have been so bad a rhymer. But
Plutarch defends Apollo, and claims that he did
not compose the verses of the medium, but simrply inflamed her imagination, and kindled in
her soul that living light which unvailed all of
futurity to her. The substance of the communi



40             SPIRITUALISM.
cations was inspired, while the manner of expressing it was left to the genius and natural
talent of the medium. He says,'" The first inspiration alone comes from him,
(Apollo,) which is, however, adapted to the nature of every prophetess. Therefore, voice and
sound, expression and meter, do not belong to
Apollo, but to the woman; he only inspires her
with the images and conceptions, and inflames
her soul so that it can see the future." —History
of Maygie, vol. i, p. 416.
It is very remarkable that spiritualists employ
Plutarch's reasoning to meet the objections urged
against the genuineness of many modern communications purporting to come from persons
remarkable for their good sense while in thebody.
Take the following samples of poetic genius,
communicated, professedly, by Washington and
Franklin. The first is Washington, drawing
his own portrait in verse. (Love and Wisdom,
from the Spirit World.)
" When the likeness of this portrait you see,
Remember that it is to represent the likeness of me;




SPIRITUALISM.                 41
But the spirit in its brightness you cannot see,
For that is far above the likeness of thee."
Here follows some lines composed by the
great mind of Franklin, after some seventy
years' residence in his "angels' home:"
" The likeness of thiA portrait is to represent
The likeness of man when he dwelt here below;
But the likeness of the spirit you would like to know,
As this would be no more than I would like to show;
But the mind is not prepared the likeness for to see
Of the spirit in his angel's home as bright as we."
If Apollo's mediums succeeded in grinding
out meaner poetry tthan this, they needed a
Plutarch to defend them.
Judge Edmonds offers the same explanation
for modern mediums that Plutarch does for the
ancient.  He says, "The visions which I have
are impressed on my mind as vividly and distinctly as any material object can be; yet in
giving them to others, I must rely upon and use
my own powers of observation, my own memory,
my own command of language. At other times
the thought is given me sentence by sentence,
and I know not what idea or sentence is to fol



42            SPIRITUALISM.
low; but the language used is my own, and is
selected by myself from my own memory's storehouse. At other times the whole current of
thought or process of reasonings given me in
advance, and I choose for myself the language
and the illustrations used to convey it, and sometimes the order of giving it. But in all these
modes there is more or less of myself in them,
more orless of my individuality underlying it all."
" I have noticed the same thing in the doctor."
(G. T. Dexter.)  "The main idea might be
transmitted correctly enough, but it would be
liable to various shadings, from the different
capacity of the messengers to comprehend it,
and from  the variety of their power of language to utter it."-Spiritualism, vol. ii, pp.
39, 40, 43.
How perfectly does Judge Edmond's defense
of the mediums of modern Spiritualism agree
with Plutarch's defense of the oracles of
Greece.
There were many who questioned the ability
of the oracles to foretell future events, or ac



SPIRITUALISM.           43
curately describe what was transpiring at a distance. To detect what they regarded as imposition, resort was had to stratagem; and " it
must be confessed," says Rollin, "that sometimes the answer of the oracles was clear and
circumstantial."
The wealthy Crcesus, King of Lydia, sent
his embassador and demanded of the oracle
to inform him what he was doing at a given
time. The oracle of Delphos replied that he
was causing a tortoise and a lamb to be dressed in a vessel of brass, which was really so.
The Emperor Trajan made a like demand
of the oracle at Heliopolis, by sending a sealed
letter, to which he demanded an answer. The
oracle replied by sending to the emperor a
bit of blank paper nicely folded and sealed.
Trajan was amazed to find the answer in
perfect harmony with the letter sent, which
contained nothing but blank paper.
"It was customary," says Rollin, "to consult the oracles by sealed letters, which were
laid upon the altar of the god unopened."




44             SPIRITUALISM.
It was claimed that demons moved the
fluids, both of the interior and exterior senses,
and thus presented to the organs certain forms,
just as they would outwardly meet us, not
only in sleep, but when awake. "Thus demons do really affect us," they say, "and communicate knowledge."-Spziritualisr Tested.
Jamblicus, a Platonic philosopher and disciple of Porphyry, in the third century, wrote
a treatise on the subject of spiritual mysteries
among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians, in which he gives a brief description of
a spiritualistic medium of these times, which
will be recognized as a correct representation
of a modern medium:
" "Some are agitated throughout the whole
body; others, in some of their members; others,
again, are entirely quiet.  Sometimes there
are pleasing harmonies, dances, and accordingvoices, and sometimes the reverse.. Again, the
body either appears taller, or larger, or is
borne aloft through the air, or is affected by
the opposite of these.'")




SPIRITUALISM.           45
Again, "Inspiration is the work neither of
soul nor body, nor of their entire compound.
The true cause is no other than illumination
emanating from the very gods themselves, and'
spirits coming forth from them, and an obsession by which they hold us fully and absolutely, absorbing all our faculties even, and
exterminating all human motions and operations, even to consciousness itself; bringing
discourses which they who utter them do not
understand, but pronounce with furious lip, so
that our whole being becomes secondary, and
subservient to the sole power of the occupying god."-Beecher, pp. 381 39.
The Sibylline oracles, or verses, are of the
same character.
The ancients represent the Sibyl as a woman
endowed with a prophetic spirit, and roving
from country to country, vending her predictions, which were nothing more than the
productions of writing mediums. They were
somewhat numerous in various parts of Greece
and other places.  Their predictions were




46            SPIRITUALISM.
usually delivered in verse, and contained, it is
said, accounts of heaven, hell, and the condition of the dead. They were highly esteemed.
The Sibyl of Cumo wrote her predictions
on the leaves of a tree. They were sold to
the king of the Romans, who caused them to
be carefully laid up in an urn, or stone pot,
in the capital, and officers placed over them.
In this manner superhuman knowledge is said
to have been sought among the Romans.
Speaking of these mediums, the historian
Du Pin says, "They were transported with
enthusiasm and extravagant fury, caused by
the possession of demons."  Inspiration was
claimed for them; but he remarks, "we need
only read the description that is made of all
the ancient oracles. It was so evident among
the heathen that they were possessed, that they
applied the word to them which signified, " to
play the madman."
" Now this fury that deprived them of their
senses cannot be esteemed as an inspiration
of the Holy Ghost, but as an effect of their




SPIRITUALISM.            47
being possessed with demons."-Eccles. EHist.,
p. 18.
Justin Martyr says, "The Sibyl was born
at Babylon, and came thence to Cumowhere
she revealed future things. She speaks great
and wonderful things, knowing not herself
what she says. When she begins to lose the
inspiring spirit, she loses at the same time
the memory of all that she has foretold."
Healing ilediunzs were very numerous, and
are said to have performed wonders in that line.
Under the reign of Claudius, the temple of
iEsculapius, son of the famous Apollo, and
god of the healing art, was so celebrated on
account of the cures there performed, that it
became a place of general resort for the sick.
Masters sent their slaves thither to be healed:
and by a decree of the emperor, all so healed
became free.
In Nero's time these consultations in the
temple were very common. Pliny gives some
of the curative means recommended.
A temple was erected by Junius Bubulcus




48             SPIRITUALISM.
to IHygeia, daughter of ~csculapius, and goddess of health. (History of Magic, vol. i, p.
435.) Marvelous were the cures she is said
to have wrought. From this originated the
term  Hygiene: meaning, "That department
of medicine which treats of the preservation
of health." — Webster.
" The stoic hints that wonders of healing, and
strange powers of reading and writing, accompanied  the influence."-Spiritua;lisn  Tested,
p. 86.
"Its relation to medicine," says President
Samson, "gave it its first grasp on human life."
"Circles" were as common then as they are
now.
In speaking of mercenary soothsaying, Cicero
says, "I have no confidence in fortune-tellers,
mercenary soothsayers, nor circles." It is very
remarkable that the word here rendered "circle" [psychomantium] means precisely what is
meant by a modern spiritualistic circle —" a
place where one iiquires anything of the spirits
of the dead." For what prrpose are spiritual




SPIRITUALISM.            49
circles established, but to inquire of the spirits
of the dead?"
In speaking of real soothsaying, Cicero
says:
" They believe that in the spirit of man dwells
an oracle, by which the future may be perceived,
either when the soul is excited by divine inspiration, or when through sleep the soul expands
herself unfettered."-History of i2agic, p. 137.
The Trojan KEneas goes in confident devosion to the cave of the Cumean sybil, where
spirits communicate with mortals. The sibyl
displays wonderful knowledge of his family.
Through this medium he receives communica.
tions from the shade or spirit of his father Anchises. These communications are said to have
been received by the sibyl when in sleepingvision or magnetic trance; for "from the ivory
gate of sleep Anchises at last releases them."
Of the various methods by which knowledgb
of spiritual things was gained, Pliny mentions
" conversation with disembodied spirits and inferior deities." He speaks of Apion, who doe4




50             SPIRITUALISM.
clared that he himself had called up departed
spirits, in order to inquire of Homer of what
country and what ancestors he was born; while,
nevertheless, he did not dare to publish what he
had replied. (Spiritualism Tested, p. 81.)
Achilles is said to have been first thoroughly
convinced of the reality of the future life and
the spirit-world when the shade of Patroclus,
his slaughtered friend, appeared to him. He
felt the hand and saw the glistening eye of the
goddess Minerva checking him. (Spiritualism
Tested, p. 90.)
Let no one imagine that we are writing of
the faith and practice of modern Spiritualism
trom the facts witnessed around us daily; we
are describing scenes which were witnessed two
thousand years ago. But who does not see in
this description of ancient sorcery a full-length
portrait of modem Spiritualism? What is the
boast of modern Spiritualism over the sorcery
and magic of the ancients  Does Spiritualism
lay as its foundation stone intercourse with the
spirit-world?




SPIRITUALISM.              51
The "Banner of Light " for Dec. 28, 1861,
says, "The basic fact of Spiritualism  is the
belief that certain phenomena, occurring in a
way that renders them impossible to be the result of human action, are produced by an intelligent though invisible agency. That the intelligence communicated is identical with certain
deceased persons; hence, that the agency is human, spiritual, and actually proceeds from the
disembodied souls of mortals."
But is not this the "basic fact" of ancient
necromancy? The whole system was built upon
this "fact;" hence Spiritualism, in its "basic
fact," is but a reproduction of the old magic.
This is progress with a vengeance! This is your
boasted new light! Does Spiritualism claim to
foretell what is yet to be?  A prophetic spirit
is their boast. But does not this also find its
counterpart in ancient sorcery? They have recorded as many wonders in this regard as Spiritualism can boast of.
Does Spiritualism boast of a multiplicity of
mediums-speaking, writing, seeing, healing,




52            SPIRITUALISM.
and developing? Ancient sorcery could boast
of as great a variety. They had their oracle at
Delphos, whose prince was Beelzebub; their
vessels of fury, whose prince was Belial; their
revenging devils, whose prince was Asmodeus;
their cozens, who belonged to magicians and
witches, whose prince was Satan; their aerial
demons, who caused plagues, thunder, and fire,
whose prince was Merison; their captain of the
furies, causing wars, tumults, and uproars, whose
prince was Abaddon; their calumniating demons, driving men into despair, whose prince
was Daiabolas; their several kinds of tempting
demons, whose prince was Mammon. They
could speak, and write, and heal the sick, and
see the future, as much to the satisfaction of the
people then living as Spiritualists do in these
days. The old magic has simply arisen from
the dead, and therefore mighty works do show
forth themselves in it. They had their circles,
their lectures, and their physical manifestations
then, as these have them now. Spiritualism has
simply left the light of Christianity and the Book




SPIRITUALISM.           53
of God's counsels, and gone hack two or three
thousand years into pagan darkness; proving
that word true, " If our light become darkness,
how great is that darkness."
Men who wish to advance backward into Paganism can do so by embracing modern Spiritualism.




64             SPIRITUALISM.
CHAPTER III.
NEW TESTAMENT DEMONOLOGY.
THE subject of New Testament Demonology
has long been a fruitful topic of discussion, producing no little confusion in the common mind.
We shall enter into this discussion just far
enough to present the subjeot in a clear light,
and present such facts as shall go to identify it
with the Spiritualism of these times.
There are four words employed in the New
Testament, rendered in our English version
Satan and devil. We call the reader's attention
to the import of these words, in order to a proper
understanding of the subject.
1. )Diabolos. This word signifies, according
to Robinson, " traducer, accuser, slanderer,
devil." It occurs thirty-eight times in the New
Testament, and in every case save four is beyond all doubt applied to the prince of fallen




SPIRITUALISM.             55
angels. The exceptions are John vi, 70, where
Judas is called a devil; 1 Tim. iii, 11, where the
word is rendered slanderers; 2 Tim. iii, 3, and
Titus ii, 3, where it is rendered false accusers.
" But nothing is easier," says Campbell, "than
to distinguish this application from the more
frequent application to the arch-apostate. One
mark of distinction is that, in this last use of the
term, it is never found in the plural. When
the plural is used, the context always shows that
it is human beings, and not fallen angels, that
are spoken of." "Another criterion, whereby
the application of this word to the prince of
darkness may be discovered, is its being attended
with the article." —Dissertation VI, vol. i, p. 241.
As examples of the use of D)iabolos, we men
tion the following:
1" Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil." Matt.
iv, 1. "The enemy that sowed them is the
devil," Matt. xiii, 39. "Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
gevil and his angels." Matt. xxv, 41. "Resist




56            SPIRITUALISM.
the devil and he will flee from you." James
iv, 7. " He that committeth sin is of the devil."
1 John iii, 8.
Let it be remembered that Diabolos is never
applied to those New Testament demons cast
out by Christ and the apostles. Another term
is used, as we shall see, when they are spoken of.
2. Satanas, or Satan. This is a Hebrew word,
introduced into New Testament Greek compositions. In Hebrew, according to Gesenius,
it means, "an adversary, an enemy, Satan;"
and according to Robinson, it is the Hebrew
proper name for the devil. It never occurs in
the plural. Though we frequently read of devils,
we never read of Satans, from which we infer
that it denotes the chief of evil spirits or devils.
It is used about thirty times in the New Testainent. As examples of its use, take the following:
" Satan cometh and taketh away the word
that was sown in their hearts." Mark iv, 15.
"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from
heaven." Luke x, 18.




SPIRITUALISM.            57
" And after the sop, Satan entered into him."
John xiii, 27
" Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to
the Holy Ghost." Acts v, 3.
"And the God of peace shall bruise Satan
under your feet shortly." Rom. xvi, 20.
" Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light." 2 Cor. xi, 14.
"And he laid hold on the dragon, that old
serpent, which is the devil and Satan." Rev.
xx, 2.
These are sufficient to show the use made of
this term by the inspired writers. It will he
seen that this, too, is not the word employed by
them when speaking of the spirits or devils cast
out by Christ and the apostles.
3. Daimwon. According to Robinson, this
word, in its New Testament meaning, signifies
" a demon, an evil spirit, devil." It occurs only
five times in the New Testament; once in each
of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
and twice in the Apocalypse. In the three Gospels it refers to the same possession-the man in




58            SPIRITUALISM.
the country of the Gadarenes, who haunted the
sepulchers. It occurs also in Rev. xvi, 14: " For
they are the spirits of devils." Rev. xviii, 2,
Babylon " is become the habitation of devils."
4. 1Daimonion. This word is derived from
the one last mentioned, and has the same meaning. In fact they are used interchangeably in
the New Testament.
When a devil or devils are said to have been
cast out by Christ, these [daimon and daimonion] are the terms employed to denote the being
who was cast out. They are called demons, or
devils, according to our translation. This word
occurs about sixty times in the New Testament,
and is not once confounded with diabolos, which
occurs thirty-eight times, showing that the
beings denoted by these two terms are not the
same. "But what sets the difference of signifioation in the clearest light," says Campbell, " is
that, though both words, diabolos and daimonion, occur often in the Septuagint, they are invariably used for translating different Hebrew
words. Diabolos is always in Hebrew either




SPIRITUALISM.           59
Mar, enemy, or Sata/n, adversary; words never
translated daimonion. This latter word, on the
contrary, is made to express some Hebrew term
signifying idol, pagan deity, apparition, or what
some render satyr."
There is but one passage in the New Testament in which this word is not rendered devil.
The exception is Acts xvii, 18, "HIHe seemeth to
be a setter forth of strange gods." Here the
term is rendered gods, and is so used in harmony
with the faith of the heathen Greeks, who regarded the demon as a deity, a god, good or
bad.
As examples of the New Testament use of
daimonion, we submit the following:
" And he healed many that were sick of divers
diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered
not the devils to speak, because they knew him."
Mark i, 34.
"But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils
through the prince of the devils." Matt. ix, 34.
"And devils also came out of many." Lulke
iv, 41.




60             SPIRITUALISM.
" Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?"
John x, 20.
" The devils also believe and tremble." John
ii, 19.
Every one must see at a glance that daimonion does not apply to the prince of devils, or
Satan proper, but to an inferior or subordinate
class of devils.
it has been claimed that these demons were
not spiritual beings; but that in some texts
nothing more is meant than a personified principle of evil; in others, the evil propensity in
human nature; in others, personal enemies; in
others, diseases, such as madness, or violent insanity. There seems to be no uniform method
of scriptural interpretation among those who
deny the existence of devils. But it requires
more faith than we are in possession of to believe that the inspired writers could have used
language so vaguely. It must be admitted that
if the existence of demons is denied, no common
sense explanation can be given of demoniac possessions; and no one can successfully vindicate




SPIRITUALISM.            61
the writers of the Nlew Testament against the
charge of being either ignorant of their subject,
or of lacking a knowledge of the proper terms
to set it forth.
"When I find mention made of the number of demons in particular possessions, their
actions expressly distinguished from those of
the man possessed; conversations held by the
former about the disposal of them after their
expulsion, and accounts given how they were
actually disposed of; when I find desires and
passions ascribed peculiarly to them, and similitudes taken from the conduct which they
usually observe, it is impossible for me to
deny their existence, without admitting that
the sacred historians were either deceived
themselves in regard to them, or intended to
deceive their readers."-Camhbell, vol. i, p. 252.
If you call these demons a personified principle of evil, you encounter the facts of a
legion of these evil principles entering into
one man, and that these personified principles
of evil were transferred from men to hogs;




62            SPIRITUALISM.
proving, as Dr. Lee very justly remarks, that
"hogs for once actually possessed human depravity."
If you call them diseases, which most persons who deny real possessions are inclined to
do, you  encounter the difficulty that when
these diseases are about to be cast out, they
express an earnest desire not to be sent out of
the country, preferring to go into the swine,
which request is granted. That must have
been a complicated disease of which a legion
are cast out of one man, and seven go out of
one woman.
If you say that by devils is meant insanity,
you will encounter the difficulty of a legion
of insanities entering into one man, and then
transferred from the man to swine, at their
own request.
The New Testament writers clearly distinguish between diseases of all kinds, and devils,
or, as they are sometimes termed, "unclean
spirits." Two texts must suffice.
Matt. iv, xxix, ".And they brought unto




SPIRITUALISM.            63
him all sick people that were taken with
divers diseases and torments, and those which
were possessed with devils, and those which
were lunatic, and those that had the palsy,
and he healed them." From this scripture
we learn that being possessed of devils was
not being sick with divers diseases and torments, nor was it being a lunatic, a madman. What could it have been to answer
the description of the writer?
Mark i, xxxiv, " And he healed many that
were sick of divers diseases, and cast out
many devils; and suffered not the devils to
speak, because they knew him."
The additional facts in this case are the
knowledge displayed by the demons, and the
disposition which they manifested to speak.
They knew Jesus, and on that account he
suffered them not to speak. If these possessions were diseases, then diseases have intelligence, volition, and the power'of speech.
All this was done in the presence of a
people who firmly believed in the reality of




64            SPIRITUALISM.
demoniacal possessions. Now, if Christ did
not cast out real devils, he deceived the
people by practicing a solemn farce before
them.
"An appeal may be made," says Rev.
L. Lee, "to common sense, that the insanity, if there be any insanity in the case,
must be with the writer, he who gave such
an account of the cure of an insane person, or with the reader, who understands the
history of the case to be an account of the
cure of an insane man."-fTh/eology, p. 236.
Take the account given of the damsel
possessed of a spirit of divination, who troubled Paul and his companions at Philippi;
also, the account given of the sons of Sceva
attempting to cast out a demon, after the
manner of Paul's casting them out at Ephesus. That was a strange disease which exclaimed, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know,
but who are ye?"
But it may be asked, Where is the evidence that these possessions were the same




SPIRITUALISM.            65
as the sorcery of the Greeks, Romans, etc.a
In order to answer this inquiry, let us
inquire into the belief of the Jews on the
subject, and the treatment of that belief by
Christ and the Apostles.
Dr. Kitto says, "It was the general belief
of the Jewish nation, except the Sadducees,
and of most other nations, that the spirits of
dead men," especially the wicked, were permitted to enter the bodies of men.
Josephus, who may be regarded as a safe
expositor of Jewish opinion on this subject,
says, "Demons are the spirits of wicked men,
who enter into living men, and destroy them,
unless they are so happy as to meet with
speedy relief:"
Drs. Lardner and Jahn, though disposed to
question the real existence of demons, admit
that the Jews believed this dogma.
Dr. Whedon says, "That evil spirits are
permitted in some ages of gross wickedness
to possess men has been the doctrine of the
Church in all ages, until the cavils of some
5




36            SPIRITUALISM.
modern thinkers, more skeptical than wise,
brought it in question." —Notes, Matt. iv, 24.
It is admitted that the term demon, applied by the Greeks to their gods, is the
same term as that applied by the Jews to
the spirits that possessed men in the days
of the Saviour, and that they reckoned the
Gentile gods among those demons. Christ treats
them as though they were real possessions.
HIe talks to them, and bids them leave the
persons possessed by them. He was talking
in the presence of a people who believed in
these things, and every look, and word, and
act of the Saviour was calculated to confirm
them in that belief, whether it was true or
false; so that we must infer either the general
correctness of this belief, or the intention of
Christ to deceive the people.
But the New Testament writers claim that
persons possessed of devils were possessed of
the spirit of Apollo, the heathen oracle; and
that the expulsion of the spirit of Apollo
was the casting out of demons.




SPIRITUALISM.            67
(Acts xvi, 16, " And it came to pass as we
went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed
with a; spirit of divination met us, which
brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us,
and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show
unto us the way of salvation. And this did
she many days. But Paul being grieved,
turned and said to the spirit, I command
thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come
out of her. And he came out the same
hour."
This is an important text in the discussion
of this subject, as it forms a sort of connecting link between the demoniacal possessions
described in the New Testament and the
heathen oracles of profane history.
There can be no reasonable doubt that
this woman was possessed. Mr. Barnes says,
"It is plain that Paul regarded this as a
case of demoniacal possession and treated it
accordingly."  Dr. Clark says, "Had not St.




68            SPIRITUALISM.
Luke considered this as a real case of diabolic
possession, he has made use of the most
improper language he could choose; language
and forms of speech calculated to deceive all
his readers, and cause them to believe a
lie."
This woman was "possessed with a spirit
of divination," (pneuma Puthonas.) Dr. Clarke
translates it, "Having a spirit of Python, or
of Apollo."  This name is not a scriptural
name, but like other names found in the
Acts of the Apostles, such as Mercury and
Jupiter, belongs to the heathen mythology of
Greece and Rome, and hence we must turn
to the classic writers of those countries for
an explanation. Python, or Pythias, was one
of the names of Apollo, the Grecian god of
the fine arts, of music, poetry, medicine, and
eloquence. The temple of this god was at
Delphi, as we have seen.
The place where this event occurred (Greece)
goes far to identify this instance of inspiration
with the other heathen oracles of Greece,




SPIRITUALISM.            69
particularly the Delphic oracle and its Pythonesses.
"With this historical explanation, we have
no difficulty in understanding the circumstances of Paul's miracle in exorcising the
woman. As the event did not take place
in Delphi, and as the spirit was called, notwithstanding, a spirit of Python, which, according to the Greek idiom, may be as well
translated a Pythian spirit, we must conclude
that this woman was possessed in exactly the
same manner as the Pythoness at Delphi,
although she was not connected with that
institution."
St. Paul meeting a case of this kind at
Ephesus, we are interested to know how he
treated it. He commanded the spirit of Apollo
to come out of her, the damsel: " And he came
out the same hour." If this was not a real
possession, we repeat, Paul was the greater
juggler of the two.  There is not the most
distant intimation that there was any difference of opinion between Paul the Jewish




70             SPIRITUALISM.
Christian, and the Philippian Greeks interested in  this case.  Paul, addressing  the
spirit, said, "Come out of her, and he came
out."  When he speaks of the damsel, he
uses the feminine her; but when he speaks
of the spirit, he employs the masculine he,
clearly showing that they were entirely distinct from each other.
Here we fid Paul coming directly in contact with one who was possessed, according
to the belief of the Greeks, of the spirit of
Apollo; and, according to the belief of the
Jews, of the devil, or of a demon.  Paul
disposes of the case so as to convince the
Greeks, or Gentiles, that they were not mistaken as to its being a real possession; and
to convince the Jews that they were not
mistaken as to the real character of the
demon.
Here is the proof that the demons of the
New Testament, and the demons that possessed the mediums of Apollo, were one and
the same. This text is the connecting link,




SPIRITUALISM.            71
uniting the sorcery of the ancients with the
demonology of the Saviour's day9
Take the case of Simon Magus, (Acts viii
9, 10.) He is said to have bewitched the
people of Samaria by the use of sorcery.
Sorcerers, we have before seen, are "those
who profess to call up the dead;" "those who
consult evil spirits." It is, says Webster, " divination by the assistance, or supposed assistance,
of evil spirits, or the power of commanding evil
spirits."  Here is a case similar to the one last
named, only there is no evidence that Simon
was dispossessed of the demon.
Justin Martyr, speaking of Simon, says:
" After the ascension of our Lord into heaven,
certain men were suborned by demons as their
agents, who said that they were gods. Simon,
a certain Samaritan of the village called Githon, one of the number who, in the reign of
Claudius Cesar, performed many magic rites
by the operation of demons, was considered a
god in the imperial city of Rome, and was honored with a statue as a god.... A certain




72            SPIRITUALISM.
Helen, also, is of this class, who had before been
a public prostitute in Tyre of Phenicia, at
that time attached herself to Simon, and was
called the first idea that proceeded from him."Eusebius, p. 63.
In this case, as in the one last named, the
apostles recognize the existence of demons in
those claiming to be inspired by Apollo. This
being established, we need not identify the phenomena, as we have clearly shown that ancient
sorcery and modern Spiritualism are identical.
We will, however, present a description of a
New Testament demon, from the pen of Dr.
Olshausen, the German commentator. In his
notes on the "Demoniac of Gadara," we find
the following description of persons thus possessed:
" In the first place, the condition of the demoniacs appears always to suppose a certain degree of moral delinquency; yet so that their sin
manifests itself, not so much in wickedness,
properly speaking, as predominant sensuality,
(probably lasciviousness in particular,) which




SPIRITUALISM.             73
was indulged in opposition to their better self.... Next, there appears, as a characteristic of
demoniacs, a weakening of the bodily organization, particularly the nervous system.... But,
again, our view is in accordance with the circumstance that, in the descriptions of the demoniacs, we often find a subjection of the nervous system, and with this, of the voluntary
bodily functions, especially language, to the will
of the demons. They speak their character, or
rather the demon speaks through them, but always so that there appears at moments the consciousness of their individuality. This state is
quite parallel with the trance, or being in the
spirit, and speaking with tongues. And, lastly,
we discover also in the demoniacs an enhanced
faculty of foreseeing, a kind of somnambulic
clairvoyance.... At one time they manifest a
deep insight into truth; at another, crude popular notions are mixed up in their words, so
that their conversation has the fearfully vivid
character of the erring and confused talk of
madmen, who not unfrequently give utterance




74            SPIRITUALISM.
to striking thoughts, but so connected with the
other elements that the splendor of the thought
is only a more melancholy testimony of the
greatness of the derangement in the seat of life,
whence it issues."
No one can fail to see a correct portrait of
Spiritualism here. The reader will do well to
consult Olshausen's Notes on Matt. viii, 28-34,
covering some fifteen pages of volume one, beginning with page 359.
We think we have now shown that modem
Spiritualism is not only Greek and Roman sorcery, but New Testament demonology. There
cannot be found one important point in which
they differ. This being the case, what is to be
thought of this boasted new dispensation of
Spiritualism? What is to be thought of intelligent men going back to Greek and Roman idolatry, and uniting with New Testament demons
in "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou
Son of God?" Is it not true, that men "love
darkness rather than light?"




SPIRITUALISM.           75
CHAPTER IV.
MODER N WITCHCRAFT.
THE witchcraft which prevailed to an alarming
extent in Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was nothing more than the
cropping out of Spiritualism, as we shall be able
to show.
If the reader has not taken special paros to
investigate the subject, he may be startled by
the facts presented, especially the extent to
which it prevailed, and its marked likeness to
Spiritualism.
WITCHCRAFT ON THE CONTINENT.
During the latter part of the fourteenth century special warrants were from time to time
issued in behalf of appointed inquisitors, authorizing them to visit those provinces of Germany,
France, and Italy, where any report concerning




76             SPIRITUALISM.
sorcery had alarmed the public mind; and said
commissioners, proud of the trust reposed in
them, used their utmost exertion, that the severity of the tortures inflicted might wring the
truth from all suspected persons, until they rendered the provinces in which they exercised
their jurisdiction a desert from which the inhabitants fled. It would be impossible to credit
the extent of the slaughter, had not some of the
inquisitors themselves been reporters of their
own judicial exploits. The same hand which
signe&d the sentence recorded the execution.
(Sir W. Scott.)
As early as 1398, the University of Paris, in
laying down rules for the judicial prosecution
of witches, expressed regret that the crime was
growing more frequent than in any former age.
It is said that the first appearance of sorcery
was in Narbonne, in the South of France. It
soon reached Paris, Italy, Germany, and finally
spread over all the continent.
Pope John XXII. complains bitterly, in 1317,
that a number of his courtiers, and even his own




SPIRITUALISM.            77
physician, had given themselves over to the
devil, and had conjured evil spirits into rings,
circles, etc., in order to influence men both at a
distance and also near at hand.  Ten years
later, the same pope complained of the unholy
tendency of men toward the magic arts. He
says that many have made a compact with hell,
and demand of the demons speech and answer.
(History of Magic, vol. ii, pp. 153, 154.)
In 1404, a synod was held at Langres, for the
purpose of devising means for checking the
progress of sorcery.
In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII. issued a bull
against the Germans, in which he accuses them
of sorcery. He says, "It has come to our ears
that numbers of both sexes do not avoid to have
intercourse with infernal fiends, and that by
their sorceries they afflict both man and beast."
The pope expresses his grief that in " Germany,
particularly in Upper Germany, Salzburg, and
Mainz, Cologne, Trier, and Bremen, many had
fallen away from the Catholic faith, and mingled
with demons and paramour-devils."




78            SPIRITUALISM.
The inquisitors were ordered to " convict, imprison, and punish."
This bull was enforced by the successive bulls
of Alexander VI., (1494,) Leo X., (1521,) and
Adrian VI., (1522.)
In 1491, Florimond, a Frenchman, wrote a
work on antichrist, in which he says, " All those
who have offered us some signs of the approach
of antichrist agree that the increase of sorcery
and witchcraft is to distinguish the melancholy
period of his advent; and was ever age afflicted
with them as ours? The seats destined for
criminals, before our judicatories, are blackened
with persons accused of this guilt. There are
not judges enough to try them. Our dungeons
are gorged with them. No day passes that we
do not render our tribunals bloody by the dooms
which we pronounce, or in which we do not return to our homes discontented and terrified at
the horrible contents of the confessions which it
has been our duty to hear. And the devil is
accounted so good a master that we cannot commit so great a number of his slaves to the flames




SPIRITUALISM.            79
but what there shall arise from their ashes a
number sufficient to supply their places."-Sir
IW. Scott.
The extent of the executions for sorcery is
quite incredible. In Germany alone, not less
than one hundred thousand suffered death at the
hands of the executioner. Whole provinces are
said to have been depopulated, that no sorcerer
or witch might escape.
In 1485, large but unknown numbers suffered in Berlin. The same year, one hundred are named who were executed at Piedmont.
In 1488, one thousand were executed at
Constance.
In 1515, five hundred were burned at Geneva
in three months. During the same year, fortyeight were burned at Ravensburg.
In 1524, one thousand were executed at
Como; and one hundred a year for several
years afterward.
No less than nine hundred females suffered
death at the hands of the executioner at Lorraine.




80            SPIRITUALISM.
In 1580, large numbers were executed in
Spain.
In 1682, several were executed in Portugal,
and eighteen are named who suffered at
Avignon.
Sweden was visited about the same time
with the dreaded scourge.  The king confessed that his "judges and commissioners
had caused divers men, women, and children
to be burned and executed, on such pregnant
evidence as was brought before him."
In France, sorcery had become so common
in 1594, that it is said, " The jails were not
sufficient to contain the prisoners, nor had they
judges enough to try them." Triscala told the
king (Charles IX.) that in 1520 there were
many thousands in his kingdom.
In 1431, that world-renowned heroine, Joan
of Arc, after her wonderful military exploit
at the siege of Orleans, was burned for witchcraft, by order of the Earl of Bedford.
Many innocent persons were, without doubt,
accused, convicted, and executed. We can



SPIRITUALISM.            81
not doubt but the person last named was of
this class. Our object is not so much to prove
the guilt or innocence of the vast numbers
executed for the crime of sorcery or witchcraft,
as it is to show the extent to which it prevailed. These facts will give the reader some
idea of the extent to which spirit-commerce
prevailed on the continent during the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. The picture is a sad
one, but nevertheless true.
SORCERY IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.
The English were sorely afflicted with sorcery. It affected all classes, the ignorant and
the learned, the rich and the poor, the high
and the low.
Bishop Jewell, in a sermon preached before
Queen Elizabeth, in 1558, addresses her thus:
" It may please your grace to understand that
witches and sorceries, within these last four
years, are marvelously increased within your
grace's realm. Your subjects pine away even
6




82            SPIRITUALISM.
unto death; their color fadeth, their speech is
benumbed, their senses are bereft."
The laws of England, down to the fifteenth
century, against witches, were as severe as they
were on the continent.  Afterward  simple
witchcraft was not punished, except in cases
where other crimes were committed in connection with it; in such cases it suffered the
full penalty of the law.  For instance, the
obtaining and circulating pretended prophecies
from those possessing fmilictr s8pirits, if they
had a tendency to unsettle the state, or endanger the king's title, were crimes severely
punished.
The charge against Edmond Hartley was,
" that he had made the magic circle for conjuration." He claimed to be a healing medium.
Not less than thirty thousand persons were
executed in England for the crime of sorcery
and witchcraft; among the number were the
Duke of Buckingham, the Dutchess of Gloucester, the Maid of Kent, Lord Hungerford, and
others of like character.




SPIRITUALISM.            83
The Scotch were as much afflicted with sor3ery as the English were. We are informed,
on good authority, that many persons were
burned, many transported, and many imprisoned. During a very brief time, it is said, more
than four thousand were executed.
In 1563, the following statute, under which
all witch trials were subsequently conducted
in Scotland, was enacted. The estates enacted
that "no person taken upon hand to use any
manner of witchcraft, sorcery, or necromancy,
nor give themselves forth to have any such
craft or knowledge thereof, therethrough abusing the people; that no person seek any help,
response, or consultation, or any such uses or
abuses of witchcraft, under pain of death."Chambers's Domestic Annals of Scotland.
With regard to the extent of witchcraft in
Europe during the time of which we write
Dr. Dick says: " Europe was little better than
a large suburb or outwork of Pandemonium,
one half of the people either bewitching or
bewitched."




84                  SPIRITUALISM.
Dr. IHutchinson says, that " during one century, from 1484, there were more witches
executed than had been from the beginning
of the world unto then."
The business-like manner in which they
executed witches in Scotland may be inferred
from the following items, the burning of two
witches:
For ten loads of coals to burn them............... ~3  6 8
For a tar barrel................................ 0 14 0
For harden to be jumpers for them............... 3 10 0
For making of them............................ 0 8 0
For one to go to Finmouth for the laird to sit upon
their assize as judge........................... 0 6 0
For the executioner for his pains.................. 8 16 0
For his expenses here............................ 0 16 4
We have considered the extent of Spiritualism briefly; let us proceed to examine its
phenomena. We believe that the sorcery and
witchcraft of the times of which we write
were the Spiritualism of our day, and that
their identity can be clearly shown.
Whoever reads up the history of those times
will be struck with the fact, that females were
the most remarkable mediums then, as every




SPIRITUALISM.            85
one knows them to be now. Historians all
agree in this.
Roger Bullingbrook was executed in 1441
for informing the Duchess of Gloucester how
long the king would live.
The Maid of Kent, it is said, fell into strange
trances, and uttered unusual discourses. The
persons who heard her thought her possessed
of supernatural power.
The account given by Hutchinson of the
conversation between Miss Throgmorton, and
Pluck, Hardname, Catch, Blue, and the three
Smacks, strikingly reminds us of a modern
medium conversing with the spirits of the dead.
She falls into a doze, and declares that such
a sleep has something of paradise in it. She
falls into fits, and strange, unusual postures, etc.
The account given of Meikle John Gibb
and his followers, looks to the same relationship. They burn their Bibles in the morelands, as an act of solemn adherence to their
new faith. Gibb is transported to America,
where he is long venerated by the natives for




86             SPIRITUALISM.
his familiar converse with the devil. Tho
whole account is but a picture of Spiritualism.
The mediums when in the trance state became insensible to external objects. There
were dancing mediums among them, as we find
them now. They professed to work miracles.
They claimed to foretell future events and cure
diseases.
Pordage, an English preacher and physician
of Cromwell's time, was a remarkable leader
in Spiritualism.  He set the inner vision above
everything.  He established a society, which
he named the " Philadelphian Society." There
was a large society gathered, finally known as
the " Angelic Brethren." Pordage claimed to
have intercourse with spirits. They went in
and out of his chamber, seen, not only by himself, but by his wife.
In their meetings the members fell into
ecstasies, in which they saw visions of heaven
and hell, of angels and devils. Such scenes
were of daily occurrence in their meetings.
They said spirits pass before them, througl



SPIRITUALISM.            87
the outward sight with the inward eye. Evil
and good spirits everywhere mixed together.
Jane Lead, a member of Pordage's society,
and a very remarkable medium, published
a number of volumes, containing revelations
from  the spirit-land.  The titles of some of
her works may give the reader some idea of
their contents: "Clouds," "The Revelation of
Revelations," "The Laws of Paradise," "An
Embassy to the Philadelphian Society," etc.
A daughter of a Protestant clergyman is
said to have had visions, transports, and communion with spirits, with her eyes open and
closed, by night and by day. Such were the
wonderful visions seen, and prophecies uttered,
that Bohemia and Germany were kept in a
state of excitement for a long time.
Peter Apon, of Padua, claimed to have been
taught the seven learned arts by spirits from
the spirit-world.
The blind conjuror of Paris pretended to
deal only with good angels.
The Surrey demoniac was simply a dancing




88            SPIRITUALISM.
medium. He said he had given his soul to
the devil, that he might be the best dancer
in Lancashire. He could talk Latin, though
ignorant of the language. He was able to
relate matters at a distance of which he had
no knowledge. He was accustomed to go to
a certain place to converse with a spirit.
The devils are said to have played all kinds
of beautiful pieces of music on the harp.
(History of Magic, vol. ii, p. 180.)
The nuns of Loudun, who are reported as
doing so many wonders, such as speaking languages, revealing secrets, writing miraculously,
etc., were simply spiritualistic mediums.
Agnes Sympson, in 1599, confessed to King
James that she was a healing medium.
Nostrodamus, a French physician, was the
author of a large book of prophecies, the productions professedly of spirits.
In 1576, Bessie Dunlop, of Dalry, was accused
of sorcery, witchcraft, and abuse of the people.
She professed to tell of coming illness, and
where lost goods could be found,




SPIRITUALISM.            89
Her judges inquired of her by what art she
could make such disclosures. Now mark her
reply. She said, of herself, she had no knowledge or science of such matters, but that
when questioned concerning such matters she
was in the habit of applying to one Thomas
Reid, who had been killed at the battle of
Pinkie, November 10, 1547, as he himself
affirmed, and that he resolved her any questions
which she asked him.
She seems to have been a seeing medium, as
she described his general appearance and dress
with great minuteness.
Her first interview with Reid was at a season
of deep affliction.  He informed her where
stolen goods could be found. He also infbrmed
her what remedies to administer to the sick.
Many remarkable cases of cure are reported,
under Reid's directions, all going to prove
that she was a seeing and healing medium,
equal to those of our day, who claim to be
in communication with the spirits of the dead.
Alison Pearson, of Byrehill, was executed in




90            SPIRITUALISM.
1588 for invoking the spirit of the devil in
the person of one William Sympson, her cousin,
who she affirmed was a great doctor of medicine. He taught her what remedies to use, and
how to apply them.
So much confidence had the people in her
skill to heal, that the Archbishop of St. Andrews, created by James VI., actually took
her prescriptions and was cured.
This medium is said to have had continual
visions, both sleeping and waking. In these
visions she claimed to be associated with the
queen of the elves, or spirits.
Need we say more to convince the candid
reader that here is' a full length portrait of
modern spiritualism? It is the same in its
mediums and phenomena.  Hence the oftrepeated declaration of spiritualists, that its
present development is something new under
the sun, and Judge Edmonds's " New Dispen.
sation," etc., is proved baseless. It is the old
dispensation of hell not yet abrogated.
Our authorities agree in fixing the time of




SPIRITUALISM.            91
its chief prevalence, namely, during the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries.
The reader will remember the testimony of
the University of Paris, that in 1398 the crime
was growing more frequent than in any former
age; also the statement of Florimond, that in
1491 no age was so much afflicted as that.
Then, in 1691, Rev. Robert Kirk, a Scottish
minister of the Highlands, wrote a book, in
which he describes the acts of demons, who
possessed persons in his day, he says, to some
extent, but more in the past. By these facts
we see that it prevailed generally, in connection
with the Reformation under Luther, and most
extensively in Germany, where Luther labored.
This I regard as a significant fact in the history
of this strange movement.
What is there in modern Spiritualism not
found in the sorcery and witchcraft of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries?
Does Spiritualism boast of a multiplicity of
mediums? They could boast of the cursing
medium, and the blessing medium; of the




92            SPIRITUALISM.
medium of art, and the medium of compact;
the active medium, and the passive medium;
the developed medium, and the undeveloped
medium.
Does Spiritualism boast of seeing mediums?
So could they.
Does Spiritualism boast of healing mediums?
They could point you to the cures effected.
Does Spiritualism boast of speaking mediums?
They could speak as fluently.
Does Spiritualism boast of writing mediums?
They could also point you to numerous volumes
dictated, professedly, by the spirits of the unseen
world.
Does Spiritualism boast of musical mediums?
They could sing and play s sweetly.
Does Spiritualism boast of dancing mediums?
So could thev.
Does Spiritualism arrogate to itself prophetic
power? They claimed the same.
Does Spiritualism claim to be able to accurate
ly describe events transpiring at a distance
They did the same.




SPIRITUALISM.            93
Finally, Does Spiritualism claim to be in
constant communication with the spirit-world?
This was also their constant boast.
Tell me, then, is not the Spiritualism of the
nineteenth, the sorcery and witchcraft of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries? Are they
not members of the same family? tave they
not all one father?
Spiritualists would have us believe that the
marshaled hosts of the unseen world are invading our earth for the first time.
" Spiritualism," says the " Banner of Light,"
January 18, 1862, " is the dawn of a new era,
to be marked by a complete and radical change
in all things; to introduce a new condition of
society upon the earth, with a new religion, a
new state, and a new order of men and women.
As such, we'should announce and disseminate it."
But we have shown that Spiritualism was
more rampant and widespread during the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries than in our
day. It is only the resurrection of the old




94            SPIRITUALISM.
witchcraft of the past, upon which the verdict
of the ages has been pronounced.
For the sake of morality, intelligence, and
the honor of humanity, let not that corrupt
and ignoble form be exhumed from its sleep
of ages; for in the plain old Saxon of the
Bible, "by this time it stinketh."




SPIRITUALISM.           96
CHAPTER V.
SALEM WITCHCRAFT.
THAT diabolical influence which swept over
Europe, producing terrible havoc among all
classes, resulting in the death of hundreds of
thousands of human beings, made its appearance in New England about the latter part of
the seventeenth century, under the well known
name of " Salem Witchcraft."
We have been inclined to laugh at the
ghostly credulity of the authorities of Salem.
But after giving the history of that period a
careful perusal, I confess I have no disposition
to make myself merry at their expense. Few
persons who have not taken special pains to
investigate that chapter in the history of New
England, have a just conception of its real
character.
Dr. Bently, in his " History of Salem," says,




96            SPIRITUALISM.
" From March to August, 1692, was the most distressing time Salem ever knew; business was interrupted, the town was deserted, terror was in
every countenance, and distress in every heart.
Fear haunted every street, melancholy dwelt in
silence in every place after the sun retired."
Judge Story, in a discourse delivered at
Salem, September 18th, 1828, says: " But surely
our ancestors had no special reasons for shame
in a belief which had the universal sanction of
our own and former ages, which counted in
its train philosophers as well as enthusiasts,
which was graced by the learning of prelates as well as by the countenance of kings;
which the law supported by its mandates,
and the purest judges felt no compunctions in
enforcing."
But it must be remembered that Salem was
not the first place in which it made its appearance in New England. Some time before 1692
men and women were condemned and executed
for the crime of witchcraft in various towns in
New England. Margaret Jones was executed




SPIRITUALISM.           97
for this crime in Charlestown, Mass., in 1648.
A woman in Dorchester, another in Cambridge,
and another in Boston, were executed for the
same crime. Some time after this, two or three
were executed in Springfield, and one in Hartford. These were all executed before 1665.
Between this last period and 1689, Mr. and Mrs.
Greenwood, Mary Johnson, and Miss Gover, of
Boston, were executed.
These cases of condemnation and execution
had prepared the public mind for the wonderful
outbreak at Salem, which occurred in 1692, and
which filled many a New England home with
sorrow. It manifested itself in Salem, in February, 1692, in the family of Rev. Mr. Parris,
the settled minister of the town. His daughter
Elizabeth, about nine, and his niece, Abigail
Williams, about twelve years old, and Ann
Putnam, a young female in the town, were the
first to be afflicted. Such was their conduct as
to induce physicians to pronounce them bewitched.
Sarah Good, Sarah Osborn, and Tituba, an
7




98            SPIRITUALISM.
Indian woman residing in Mr. Parris's family,
were supposed to be the witches. These persons were supposed to have made an actual,
deliberate and formal compact with the devil,
to become his faithful subjects and do what they
could to promote his cause. They were supposed to be capable of doing anything that the
devil could do. An almost indefinite amount
of supernatural ability was supposed to result
from this diabolical compact. From this simple
beginning it spread with fearful rapidity over
all New England. On the 11th of March, Mr.
Parris invited several ministers in the neighborhood to unite with him in holding a solemn fast
at his house, that by prayer to God the evil
might be removed from his family. Tituba,
Mr. Parris's Indian woman, was complained of
first, as being a witch.
A court, consisting of seven judges, was
formed for trying the accused. Their names
were: Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton, Major
Saltonstall, Major Richards, Major Gidny, Mr.
Wait Winthrop, Capt. Sewall, and Mr. Sar



SPIRITUALISM.            99
geant. Their first meeting was at the courthouse in Salem, June 2, 1692.
There were presented before this honorable
court about two hundred persons accused of
the crime of witchcraft. Fifty-five escaped
death by confessing the crime; one hundred
and fifty were imprisoned, twenty were executed, and eight others were condemned to
death, but subsequently released.
The names and residence of the accused, and
the date and manner of their death, (all occurring in the year 1692,) are as follows:
Bridget Bishop, of Salem, hanged, June
10th; Sarah Good and Rebecca Nurse, of
Salem, Susanna Martin, of Amesbury, Elizabeth
How, of Ipswich, and Sarah Wilder, of Topsfield, were hanged July 10th; Rev. George
Burroughs, of Wells, Maine, and former minister of Salem, John Proctor, John Willard, and
George Jacobs, Sen., of Salem, and Martha
Carrier, of Andover, were hanged August 19th;
Giles Cory, of Salem, refusing to be put upon
his trial, and pleading "not guilty" to the




100            SPIRITUALISM.
indictment, was pressed to death, September
16th; Martha Cory, Alice Parker, and Ann
Pudeater, of Salem, Mary Easty, of Topsfield,
Margaret Scott, of Rowley, William Reed, of
Mlarblehead, Samuel Wardwell and Mary
Parker, of Andover, were hanged September
22d. Here ended the execution of witches in
Salem and New England.
That a very marked reaction should have
taken place, after such an intense excitement
and unjustifiable sacrifice of life, for causes
which they did not seem to understand, was
very natural. The judges made a long and
humble confession of injustice done the accused.
They implored pardon of the surviving sufferers, and of God, through Jesus Christ, that they
might be accepted and the land saved from the
curse which their sins merited.  One stands
up in a Boston meeting-house while his confession is being read. He earnestly solicits the
prayers of the people of God for himself, his
family, and a land in mourning. The minister
of Salem, Rev. Mr. Parris, confesses his error.




SPIRITUALISM.           101
But the good people will no longer consent to
listen to his ministrations, and he is obliged to
retire.
Men who had little faith in spiritual things,
began to write and publish refutations of the
witch mania. They took, generally, the opposite extreme. Robert Calef, a merchant in
Boston, published a work on the subject, entitled, "More Wonders of the Invisible World,"
which Cotton Mather calls a "vile volume,"
and Dr. Increase MIather, then president of
Harvard College, ordered to be burnt in the
college-yard, as a "wicked book." It must be
confessed that Mr. Calef's book is a little onesided on the subject, and was evidently intended
to deal a heavier blow against the Mathers than
against witchcraft. It is claimed that Hutchinson, in his "History of Witchcraft," speaks
with favor of Mr. Calef's work. But it must
be remembered that Mr. Hutchinson took the
same view of witchcraft that Mr. Calef did,
and it is not strange that he should have been
prejudiced in his favor.




102           SPIRITUALISM.
We cannot dwell longer on the mere history
of this matter. We come, more especially, to
consider its phenomena. We shall find, on a
close examination of these, all or nearly all the
phenomena of modern Spiritualism.
The persons who are said to have been
afflicted were horribly distorted and convulsed.
Marks of violence were found upon their persons. Their hands were tied close together
with cords and they lifted from the earth in the
presence of a crowd of people. An iron spindle was wrested from a demon and secured by
lock and key, and subsequently removed by the
demon. Good, credible people, gave oath that
they saw the corner of a sheet torn from a
specter or demon, by a person assaulted, and
that a man had his hand nearly wrung off by
a demon, in an attempt to get possession of it.
Money was taken by demons and then dropped
from the air into the hands of the afflicted.
Of Ann Cole, of Hartford, it is reported that
when under the influence of demons, "her
tongue was improved to express things unknown




SPIRITUALISM.           103
to herself. Several eminent ministers wrote
the speeches of the spirits, thus heard in the
mouth of this Ann Cole."-Afagnalia, vol. ii,
p. 390.  Elizabeth Knap was so under the
influence of demons that she knew not what she
said, and she spoke against godly persons, even
against her will. Her speech was very remarkable.
The house of William Morse, of Newberry,
seems as remarkable for spirit manifestations as
the Fox house at Hydeville. Bricks, sticks, and
stones were frequently thrown at the house.
Pieces of wood moved by an unseen hand. A
long staff danced up and down the chimney,
and it was as much as two persons could do to
hold it. An iron crook was violently hurled
about by an invisible hand. A chair flew about
the room and lit upon the table. A chest was
carried from one place in the house to another.
Keys flew about the house. What resembled a
large stone would be thrown upon the bed at
night, A box, a board, and abag of hops were
thrOWyy upon the bed. The man of the house




104           SPIRITUALISM.
was knocked'down by an unseen hand. An
ink-horn was violently snatched away, and
afterwards dropped from the air. A cap was
pulled from the head of one. A lady going
down cellar, the trap-door was immediately
closed after her, and for some time secured
against her egress. Bed-clothes were pulled
from the bed and the bed shaken; chairs
danced about the room, and what seemed to be
a human hand was felt upon members of the
family. A distinct rapping was heard on the
bedstead, on boards, etc.
These are only a few of the things which
happened to this family.
The house of Mr. G. Walton, of Portsmouth,
was visited with similar phenomena. It is said
that stones were thrown at and around the hlouse.
Many articles were hurled about the rooms.
Stones would even fly upon the table. A spit
was carried up the chimney and returned, and
on being touched flew out of the window. Mr.
Philip Smith, of Hadley, was most wonderfully
affected. Knoc]ipgs were heard about his bed




SPIRITUALISM.          105
at night. He spoke with great fluency, and
in several languages of which he had no
knowledge.
The children of John Goodwin, who were
thought to have been bewitched by Miss Gover,
of Boston, performed feats of a remarkable
character. They would pass for some distance
through the air, as though they were flying.
They told of some silver plate in a well, of which
they had no natural means of knowing. They
could understand conversation in Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew, of which languages they had no
knowledge. One of these girls paraphrased the
31st Psalm in strains that perfectly amazed
those who listened to her. She also foretold the
horrible Indian tragedies that would be enacted in the land, etc. (Magnalia, vol. ii, p. 398.)
The witches, as they were called, would cry
out much against godly men and women. Those
who were the most fluent are said to have been
the most wicked. "They said they knew not
what, but were in a preternatural dream.'
(Magnalia.)




106            SPIRITUALISM.
Persons afflicted could tell of the approach of
their tormentors, when their eyes were closed
They were stiff and rigid. Calef reports one
person who was drawn up to the ceiling. (Letter I, ~ 8.) How perfectly does this harmonize
with the facts of Spiritualism!
President Mahan says, "Rev. H. Snow, in
his work entitled'Spirit Intercourse,' gives an
apparently well-authenticated case, in which a
medium was himself'raised entirely from the
floor, and held in a suspended position by the
same kind of invisible power.' For ourselves,
we have no disposition to question such a statement, knowing as we do, that cases perfectly
similar and analogous are attested by evidence
which we are compelled to regard as valid."ifod. Mys., p. 117.
(In a letter written Oct. 8, 1692, by Thomas
Brattle, F.R.S., on the subject of the "Salem
Witchcrafts," and published in the " Collection
of the Mass. Hist. Society," (1st Series, vol. 5,)
the author administers a severe rebuke to the
"Salem  gentlemen," as lie calls them, for the




SPIRITUALISM.           107
manner in which they condemned and executed
persons for alleged witchcraft; giving it as his
opinion, which I think a correct one, that the
persons who professed to be bewitched were the
persons who were in league with the devil, and
not the persons accused by them. He says, " I
think the matter might be better solved another
way; but I shall not make any attempt that
way, further than to say that these afflicted children, as they are called, do hold correspondence
with the devil even in the esteem and account
of the S. G., [Salem gentlemen,] for when the
black man, the devil, does appear to them, they
ask him many questions, and accordingly give
information to the inquirer; and if this is not
holding correspondence with the devil, I know
not what is." P. 64.
This writer further states, that many persons
brought their sick friends and relatives to these
afflicted children, to learn the nature of the disease with which they were afflicted, not because
of any ordinary knowledge they might possess,
but because of "a supernatural knowledge; a




108           SPIRITUALISM.
knowledge which they obtain by their holding
correspondence with specters, or evil spirits, as
they themselves grant. This consulting of these
afflicted children, as above said, seems to me to
be a very gross evil, a real abomination, not fit
to be known in New England, and yet is a thing
practiced, not only by Tom and John-I mean
the ruder and more ignorant sort —but by many
who profess high, and pass among us for some
of the better sort." P. 70. He further declares
that some of the "civil leaders and spiritual
teachers allow of, encourage, yea, and practice
this very abomination." A person went from
Boston to Salem to consult these persons with
regard to his sick child, and did so; for which
he was severely reproved by Rev. Increase
Mather. The doctor wished to know " whether
there was not a God in Boston, that he should
go to the devil in Salem for advic)
Mr. Brattle says, " This consulting of these
afflicted children about their sick, was the unhappy beginning of the unhappy troubles at
poor Andover." P. 71.




SPIRITUALISM.          109
" The afflicted do own and assert," says Mr.
Brattle, "and the justices do grant, that the
devil does inform and tell the afflicted the names
of those persons that are thus unknown unto
them." He further says, "It is most certain
that it is neither Almighty God, nor yet any
good spirit that gives this information; and my
reason is good-because God is a God of truth,
and the good spirits will not lie; whereas these
informations have several times proved false,
when the accused were brought before the afflicted." P. 73.
Here are some of the facts of the New Eng
land witchcraft. They are very remarkable,
and certainly very well authenticated. Cotton
Mather says, and he was no mean man, and has
never been accused of dishonesty, " Flashy people may burlesque these things; but when hundreds of the most sober people, in a country
where they have as much mother-wit certainly
as the rest of mankind, know them to be true,
nothing but the absurd and froward spirit of
Sadduceism can question them. I have not yet




110           SPIRITUALISM.
mentioned so much as one thing that will not be
justified, if it be required, by the oaths of more
considerate persons than any that can ridicule
these odd phenomena."-ilfagnalia, vol. i, p. 187.
Mr. Thatcher makes a lame effort to disprove
these facts. His work, on the whole, is a lame
affair. It opens with a chapter on "Ghosts,"
and concludes with one on "Quackery;" and
his book should have been entitled "Ghostly
Quackery."
Dr. Hutchinson, in reviewing this history,
gives a false coloring to the whole matter, and
suppresses some of the most prominent facts.
Dr. Samson, in his recent work, " Spiritualism
Tested," gives most of the facts, but attempts to
account for them on natural principles. In
order to make good his theory, he represents
Rev. George Burroughs as a burly, muscular,
portly, gigantic Englishman; and Cotton Mather a slender, delicate, nervous, thoughtful, reflective, impulsive student. But if Dr. Samson's
theory rests on the portly, gigantic Burroughs,
it must have a frail foundation, for he is said by




SPIRITUALISM.          1il
Mather to have been a "puny mall," and by
Calef, a "small, black-haired man." How Dr.
Samson could have magnified this puny, small,
black-haired Burroughs into a burly, portly,
gigantic Englishman, is a little difficult for us
to understand. But anything to make good the
theory.
We have thus presented a very brief history
of Salem or New England witchcraft; and in
glancing at its phenomena, we have met with
all the peculiar characteristics of our modern
Spiritualism.
Do spiritualists claim to have intercourse with
spirits? So did they.
Do spiritualists claim to reveal future events?
So did they.
Do spiritualists claim to move tables, and turn
up things generally? So did they.
Do spiritualists claim to pronounce wonderful
discourses by the aid of invisible spirits? So
did they.
Do spiritualists claim to produce rappings by
the aid of unseen agents? So did they.




112           SPIRITUALISM.
Do spiritualists profess to speak in an unknown tongue? So did they.
Do spiritualists profess to heal the sick by
prescriptions from the spirit world? So did
they.
Do spiritualists claim to be the opponents of
the Christian religion?  So did they.
Do spiritualists proclaim against the Bible?
So did they.
Stripped of all the foolish notions peculiar to
that age, New England witchcraft stands before
us the younger brother of ancient demonology,
and the elder brother of modern Spiritualism.




SPIRITUALISM.          113
CHAPTER VI.
THE SPIRIT OF MASCON AND THE EPWORTH
RAPPINGS.
I PROPOSE giving in this chapter two very
marked and well-attested developments of
Spiritualism; one occurring in Mascon, Burgundy, and the other in Epworth, England.
The latter of these accounts is familiar to many;
the former, though equally well attested, is not
so generally known. It is entitled, "A True
Relation of the Chief Things which an Evil
Spirit did and said at Mascon in Burgundy."
The wonderful things here narrated occurred in
the house of Rev. Mr. Perreaud, minister of the
Reformed Church in Mascon. He seems tc
have been a very pious and intelligent man.
"The pastors and elders of the Reformed
Churches of the province of Burgundy, assembled in a synod at Bussy, in the balliage of
8




114           SPIRITUALISM.
Chalons-upon-Stone, certify to all, that Mr. Per
reaud, minister of the Gospel, exercised the
charge of the holy ministry in this province for
the space of fifty years; first in his own town of
Bussy, where he was born, being descended of
the most ancient family of the town, and since
in the Church of Mascon, and afterward in the
Churches of the balliage of Gez: in all that time,
and in all these Churches doing the office of a
good pastor and a faithful servant of God, both
in doctrine and life; of which he had an especial testimonial given him by the Church of
Mascon in the year 1649, the said Church expressing much satisfaction of his godliness and
singular charity."  They further add, that, "it
hath pleased God to bring him into many, and
some very extraordinary trials, especially while
he served the Church of Mascon, yet the same
God hath strengthened him with constant health
of body and godly tranquillity of mind, and hath
endued him with virtue to bear and overcome
all his afflictions," etc.
The account will be given in an abridged




SPIRITUALISM.          115
form from a translation made by Peter du
Molin, at the request of Sir Robert Boyle,
and chiefly in the language of Mr. Perreaud.
Mr. Perreaud informs us that on the 14th
of September, 1612, he- went to Couches, with
one of the elders of the Church of Mlascon,
to attend a meeting, and was absent five days.
On his return he found his wife and maid in a
very great consternation, apparent in their
countenance. He asked the cause of it. His
wife informed him that the night after he went
from town, being in bed and asleep, she was
aroused by something which drew her curtain
with great noise and violence. The maid,
sleeping in the same room, being aroused by
the noise, hastily ran to her mistress to inquire
the cause. All being quiet, she retired. The
next night the maid occupied the same bed
with her mistress. No sooner were they comfortably in bed than they felt something draw
off the blankets. The maid, attempting to go
out of the room, found the door bolted both
within and without. She called a young man in




116           SPIRITUALISM.
another room, who arose and opened the door.
Lighting a candle, she found the pewter and
brass thrown about the kitchen.  The next
night the spirit made a great noise among the
pewter and brass; also, a noise resembling the
hiving of bees.
Mr. Perreaud hearing these relations was not
a little amazed; yet he resolved that he would
not be too credulous, nor yet too incredulous.
" Wherefore," he says, " before I went to bed I
carefully searched all the corners of the house,
and set bolts and barricadoes to all the doors
and windows, stopping even the very cat-holes,
leaving nothing that might occasion suspicion
of imposture; and after I had prayed with my
family I went to bed, while my wife and maid
sat spinning by the fire, with a lamp burning on
the table.
"I had scarcely got in bed before I heard a
great noise in the kitchen, as the rolling of a
billet thrown with great strength. I heard also
a knocking against a partition of wainscot (that
is, walls made in panels) in the same kitchen;




SPIRITUALISM.           117
sometimes as with the point of the fingers;
sometimes as with the nails; sometimes as with
the fist, and then the blows did redouble. Many
things were thrown against the wainscot, such
as plates, trenchers, and ladles; music was made
with a brass colander," etc. Mr. Perreaud, after
listening to these noises for some time, arose and
went into the room from which they proceeded,
the maid holding the light, and searched narrowly that he might find some one hidden in
the room. This he did twice, but finding no
one, returned to his bed. "Then did I know,"
he says, "that all this could not proceed but
from a wicked spirit."
The next day Mr. Perreaud informed the elders
of his Church, and some other worthy men of the
town, of the strange occurrences at his house.
They subsequently visited his house every evening during the continuance of the noises.
On the 20th of September, in the presence of
many witnesses, the spirit appeared, and three
or four times whistled with a very loud and
shrill tone. It soon framed an articulate voice,




118           SPIRITUALISM.
and in a hoarse tone pronounced these words,
" Two and twenty pence," in a little tune of
five notes, which whistling birds were taught to
sing. It then pronounced the word " minister"
many times. Mr. Perreaud replied, " Get thee
from me, Satan; the Lord rebuke thee." The
spirit would repeat the Lord's prayer, the creed,
the ten commandments, and even sing the
eighty-first Psalm. It informed Mr. Perreaud
that his father had been poisoned, and gave the
place, time, and manner in which it was done.
Mr. Perreaud says:
" That very night he said he came from Pais de
Vaux; that he had passed through the village of
Allagmone, at the door of my eldest brother's
house, where he had seen him, with M. du Pan,
Minister of Thoiry; that they were ready to go
to supper together at my brother's house. He
had saluted them, and asked whether they had
anything to command him to deliver to me, because he was going to Mascon."
Mr. Perreaud states that he had been informed by Mr. Du Pan, that at the very time he re



SPIRITUALISM.          119
membered that a man on horseback had spoken
with them, and such discourse had passed between them. The demon also informed them
of a company that came near being drowned,
and that Mr. Perreaud's brother was of the
number. Many other things of like character
are reported in the account given, and acknowledged by the parties. The demon spoke of the
intention of Mr. Perreaud's brother to visit
him on a given occasion, and the cause of the
change in his mind. Also, of a quarrel between
James Berard and Samuel du Mont, which
nearly resulted in Berard's death. Particulars
of the quarrel were given, which had not been
known, but which proved to be true.
"Another night," says Mr. Perreaud, "the
demon speaking to one of our company, told
him such secret things that the man who
affirmed never to have told them to any person, came to believe that the devil knew his
thoughts."
"Then he began to mock God and all religion." The dog of the house, which used to bark




120           SPIRITUALISM.
at all noises, was never known to bark during
these disturbances.
The demon proposed to make his will, and
wished them to send for a royal notary. He
then denied that he was the same person or
demon who had spoken to them before. He
sung many profane songs, and counterfeited the
voice of mountebanks, and especially the huntsmen's cry, "Ho levrier."
Speaking of those who professed the Reformed religion within the kingdom of France, he
made this exclamation,'0, poor Huguenots I
you shall have much to suffer within a few
years! 0, what mischief is intended against
you!"'
Mr. Perreaud says, " As his words were
strange, so were his actions; for besides those
things already related, he did many more of the
same kind. He frequently tossed about a great
roll of cloth of fifty ells, which a friend had left
at my house. Once he snatched a brass candlestick out of the maid's hand, leaving the candle
lighted in her hand. He would often take the




SPIRITUALISM.          121
maid's coats and hang them over the bedposts.
Sometimes he would hang at those posts a great
starching plate, with cords tied with such a number of knots, that it was impossible to unloose
them, and yet himself would untie them in a
moment," etc.
" One afternoon a friend of mine visited me.
We went together into the chamber where the
demon was most resident. There we found the
featherbed, blankets, sheets, and bolster, laid on
the floor. I called the maid to make the bed,
which she did in our presence. But frequently,
while we were walking in the same room, we
saw the bed tumbled down on the floor as it
was before.
" In my study, I found several times part of
my books laid on the floor."
"We heard," says Mr. Perreaud, "for a long
time, a harmony not unpleasant, of two bells
tied together. These were heard in other houses
in the town.
His last acts were, throwing stones about the
house. A stone was one day thrown at Mr.




122           SPIRITUALISM.
Tornus, who took it up and marked it with a
coal, and threw it back again. The stone was
soon thrown back again, known by the coal
mark on it. Mr. Tornus taking it up found
it to be hot, and remarked that he believed it
had been in hell since he handled it last.
These are the facts, or a few of the facts connected with this strange affair. The Bishop of
Mascon hearing the reports, sent for Mr. Tornus
to know the truth. He sent also his own secretary, Mr. Chamber, to Mr. Perreaud, to learn
the particulars from his own lips. " These two
gentlemen, Tornus and Chamber, have told me
since," says Mr. Perrault, "that the bishop had
heard that story with great admiration, and had
some records of the same."
Mr. Wesley published this account in the
" Arminian Magazine," in 1782, prefaced with
this remark:
"I do not think any unprejudiced men can
doubt the truth of this narrative. The truth of
it was in the last century acknowledged by all
Europe; against which the unaccountableness




SPIRITUALISM.          123
of it is no objection to those who are convinced
of the littleness of their own knowledge."
The famous Robert Boyle, while residing at
Geneva, became acquainted with Mr. Perreaud,
and received from him the book from which this
account is taken, written in French.
In the following note to Rev. Peter du Molin,
chaplain to Charles II., and prebendary of Canterbury, requesting its translation into English,
he says:
" To THE REV. AND LEARNED FRIEND, DR.
PETER DU MOLIN:
"DEAR SIR:-Though I suppose you will
look upon my sending you Monsieur Perreaud's
French book as a minding you of the promise
you were the other day pleased to make me of
putting it into an English dress, yet I hope you
will do me the right to believe that if the subject were not extraordinary, I should think it
injurious to the public and to you, to be accessory to your turning translator of another's
books, that hath already manifested, in several




124           SPIRITUALISM.
languages, how able you are to write excellent
ones of your own.
" I must freely confess to you, that the powerful inclinations which my course of life and
studies hath given me to backwardness of assent, and the many fictions which are wont to
blemish the relation where spirits and witches
are concerned, would make me very backward
to contribute anything to your publishing, or
any man's believing, a story less strange than
this of Monsieur Perreaud.
" But the conversation I had with that pious
author during my stay at Geneva, and the present he was pleased to make me of this treatise
before it was printed, in a place where I had
opportunities to inquire both after the writer
and some passages of the book, did at length
overcome in me (as to this narrative) all my
settled indisposedness to believe strange things.
And since I find that you have received an
account both of Monsieur Perreaud himself,
and several things relating to this book,from
that excellent person, your father, I have no




SPIRITUALISM.          125
reason to doubt but that your skill in the tongues
will bring it the greatest advantages that it can
receive from a translator's pen. So the reputation which your and your learned father's name
will give it, will prove as effectual as anything of
that nature can be, to make wary readers believe
even the amazing passages of it.
" I am, sir, your affectionate friend and humble
servant,               ROBERT BOYLE."
The reply to the foregoing, accompanying the
translation, is somewhat lengthy. I shall insert
a part of it only.
"TO THE HONORABLE AND MOST EMINENT IN
GOODNESS AND  LEARNING, MR. ROBERT
BOYLE:
" SIR,-In obedience to the charge which you
have been pleased to lay upon me, I have translated this admirable story, worthy to be known
of all men...... Many relations are extant of
manifestations of demons; the most certain are
the history of the Gospel, how the devils spake




126           SPIRITUALISM.
aloud out of possessed bodies in the presence of
great multitudes.... But no history relates
such a public, continued, and undeniable manifestation of the wicked spirit as this does....
For this conversation of the devil was not in a
corner, or in a desert, but in the midst of a
great city, in a house where there was daily a
great consort to hear him speak, and where
men of contrary religions met together; whose
proneness to cast a disgrace upon the dissenting
parties did occasion the examining and the full
confirming of the truth thereof, both by the
magistrates and by the diocesan of the place.
All these particulars and many more have been
related to my father, when he was president of
a national synod in those parts, by the man that
was most concerned in them, the author of
this book, a religious, well poised, and venerable divine, who, (if he be still alive,) is above
eighty years of age. He wrote this relation
when it was fresh in his memory; yet did not
publish it till forty-one years after, in the year
1653, being compelled to it by the various and




SPIRITUALISM.           127
false relations of that story which were scattered
abroad.... But yourself, sir, had from  the
author a more immediate information, which
being prefixed before this narrative, gives it
a free and uncontrollable pass to be admitted
into the belief of the most severe and judicious
readers. Neither will they have a less opinion
of the utility than truth of this relation, when
they see that a person so high in learning, so
deep in judgment, so real in godliness, so exemplary in good works, hath judged it to be of
principal use for the convincing of unbelievers,
and the confirming of those that are in the faith.
Thereby also I shall reap this benefit to myself,
that the world shall know I am honored with
your commands, and that I delight to approve
myself, sir, your most humble and obedient
servant and true honorer,
PETER DU MOLIN.)"
In this account we find many of the developments of modern Spiritualism-speaking, rap.
ping, music, disarranging furniture, throwing




128           SPIRITUALISM.
articles about the house, accurately describing
events at a distance unknown to the parties
present at the time, etc.
The next exhibition of Spiritualism, to which
we call the reader's attention, is known as the
EPWORTH RAPPINGS.
These rappings, as they are called, occurred
in 1716, in the house of Rev. Samuel Wesley,
Rector of Epworth parish, England, and father
of John and Charles Wesley, founders of the
Methodist denomination. They have occasioned
no little discussion and speculation for the last
hundred and forty-five years. They were on
this wise.
On the night of Dec. 2, 1716, Mr. Wesley's
servant, Robert Brown, and one of the maids
of the family, were alone in the dining-room.
About ten o'clock they heard a strong knocking
on the outside of the door which opened into
the garden. They at once responded to the call
by opening the door, but found no one there.
A second knock was heard, accompanied by a




SPIRITUALISM.          129
groan. The door was again and again opened,
as the knocks were repeated, but seeing nothing,
and being a little startled, they quietly retired
for the night. On Robert reaching the top of
the stairs, a hand-mill at a little distance was
seen to whirl about with great rapidity. On
beholding the strange sight, he seemed only to
regret that it had not been full of malt. Strange
noises were heard in and about his room during
the night. These were related to another maid
in the morning only to receive a hearty laugh,
and, "What a couple of fools are you! "
This was the simple beginning of the "Epworth Rappings." We shall not attempt to
give them in detail, but merely present some of
the more important phenomena bearing upon
our subject.
Some of the things said to have occurred are
the following: Knockings were heard on the
doors, on the bedsteads, and at various times in
every part of the house by night and by day.
Mr. Wesley says that his daughters, Susanna
and Ann. were one evening below stairs, in the
9




130           SPIRITUALISM.
dining-room, and while there heard a knocking,
first at the door, then over their heads. The
night after they heard similar knockings under
their feet, though no person was in the chamber
in the one case, nor below them in the other.
He adds, " The like they and my servants heard
in both the kitchens, at the door against the
partition and over them." Again, "knocking
at the foot of the bed and behind it." " We
heard several loud knocks in our own chamber,
on my side of the bed" The 21st. "That
night I was waked a little before one by nine
distinct very loud knocks, which seemed to be
in the next room to ours, with a sort of a pause
at every third stroke." "The next night I
heard six knocks." Emily heard the knocks on
the bedstead, and under the bed. " She knocked
and it answered her." Dec. 26th, when in the
nursery, "it began with knocking in the kitchen
underneath, then it seemed to be at the bed's
feet, then under the bed; at last at the head of
it. I went down stairs," says Mr. Wesley, "and
knocked with my stick against the joists of the




SPIRITUALISM.          131
kitchen. It answered me as often and as loud
as I knocked." Knockings were heard under
the table, etc.
Latches of doors would move up and down as
the members of the family approached them.
The doors were violently thrust against those
who attempted to open and shut them. A
cradle was heard to violently rock, where no
cradle had been for years. At evening prayer,
when the rector 1" began the prayer for the king,
a knocking began all round the room, and a
thundering knock attended the amen." This
was repeated morning and evening while prayer
for the king was being offered. Mr. Wesley
says, " I have been thrice pushed by an invisible power, once against the corner of my desk
in the study, a second time against the door of
the matted chamber, a third time against the
right side of the frame of my study door, as I
was going in."
Mr. Hoole, vicar of Haxey, an eminently
pious and sensible man, was sent for to spend a
few evenings with the family. The knockings




1.32          SPIRITUALISM.
commenced about ten o'clock in the evening.
Mr. Wesley and his friend went into the nursery,
where the knockings were heard, and found
them to proceed from the head of the bed in
which the children were sleeping. Mr. Wesley
observed that the children, though asleep, were
very much affected; they trembled exceedingly
and sweat profusely; and becoming very angry,
he pulled out a pistol, and was about to fire at
the place from whence the sound came. Mr.
Hoole caught him by the arm, and said, "Sir,
you are convinced this is something preternatural. If so vou cannot hurt it; but you give it
power to hurt you." Then going close to the
place, Mr. Wesley said sternly, " Thou deaf and
dumb devil, why dost thou fright these children,
that cannot answer for themselves? Come to
me in my study, that am a man." Instantly it
knocked the rector's knock, (a particular knock
which he always used at the gate,) as if it would
shiver the board in pieces." Nothing more was
heard that night. Up to this time there had
been no noises heard in the study. "But the




SPIRITUALISM.          133
next evening, as he attempted to go into his
study, (of which none had any key but himself,)
when he opened the door it was thrust back with
such violence as had like to have thrown him
down. Presently there was knocking, first on
one side, then on the other."
A sound was heard as if a large iron bell were
thrown among bottles under the stairs. As
Mr. and Mrs. Wesley were going down the broad
stairs, they heard a sound as if a vessel of silver
were poured upon Mrs. Wesley's breast, and ran
jingling down to her feet; at another time, as
if all the pewter was thrown about the kitchen,
though on examination all was found undisturbed.
The dog, a large mastiff, seemed as much disturbed by these noises as the family. On their
approach he would run to Mr. and Mrs. Wesley,
seeking shelter between them. "While the
disturbances continued he used to bark and
leap, and snap on one side and thm other, and
that frequently before any person in the room
heard any noise at all. But after two or three




134           SPIRITUALISM.
days he used to tremble, and creep away before
the noise began. And by this the family knew
it was at hand; nor did the observation ever
fail." Footsteps were heard in every part of
the house, which shook it from cellar to garret.
Groans were repeatedly heard, as from a person
dying; and at other times it would "'sweep
through the halls and along the stairs with a
sound of a person trailing a loose gown on the
floor, and the chamber walls meanwhile shook
with vibrations." It frequently responded to
Mrs. Wesley if she stamped on the floor and
bade it answer. Whenever it was attributed to
rats the noises became more loud and fierce.
Susannah Wesley says: "To my father's no
small amazement, his trencher [a wooden plate]
danced upon the table a pretty while, without
any body stirring the table."
These disturbances continued for some months
and then subsided, except that some members
of the family were annoyed by them, more or
less, for some years.
Mr. Wesley was repeatedly urged to quit the




SPIRITUALISM.          135
house, but his reply was characteristic: "No,
let the devil flee from me; I will never flee from
the devil."
Every effort was made to discover the cause
of these strange phenomena, but without any
satisfactory result, save that all believed them
to be preternatural, and the work of the devil.
The whole Wesley family were unanimous in
this belief.
Dr. Priestley confessed it to have been " the
best authenticated and best told story of the
kind that is anywhere extant; and yet such
were his materialistic views and feelings that he
could not find for it what might seem to be a
common-sense explanation. He thinks it quite
probable that it " was a trick of the servants,
assisted by some of the neighbors, and that
nothing was meant by it besides puzzling the
family and amusing themselves."  But Mrs.
Wesley and other members of the family state
that the noises were heard above and beneath
them, when all the family were in the same
2rPQ~~~~~~il




136            SPIRITUALISM.
Mr. Southey, though he does not express an
opinion in his Life of Wesley with regard to
these noises, does say, "The testimony upon
lwhich it rests is far too strong to be set aside
because of the strangeness of the relation." He
subsequently, in a letter to Mr. Wilberforce,
avows his belief in their preternatural character.
Dr. Priestley observes, in favor of the story,
" that all the parties seem to have been sufficiently void of fear, and also free from credulity,
except the general belief that such things were
supernatural."  But he claims that where no
good end is to be answered, we may safely conclude that no miracle was wrought.
To this Mr. Southey replies: "The former
argument would be valid if the term miracle
were applicable to the case; but by miracle Dr.
Priestley evidently intends a manifestation of
divine power, and in the present instance no
such manifestation is supposed, any more than
in the appearance of a departed spirit. Such
things may be preternatural and yet not miraclopus; they may be not in the ordinary course




SPIRITUALISM.           137
of nature, and yet imply no alteration of its
laws. And with regard to the good end which
they may be supposed to answer, it would be
end sufficient if sometimes one of those unhappy
persons, who, looking through the dim glass of
infidelity, see nothing beyond this life, and the
narrow sphere of mortal existence, should, from
the well-established truth of one such story,
(trifling and objectless as it might otherwise
appear,) be led to a conclusion that there are
more things in heaven and earth than are
dreamt of in their philosophy."-South/ey's Life
of Wesley, pp. 24, 25.
Coleridge found a satisfactory solution of this
knotty question in attributing the whole thing
to a contagious nervous disease, with which he
supposed the whole family to be afflicted, "the
acme or intensest form of which is catalepsy."
The poor dog, it seems, was as badly afflicted as
the rest! This opinion does not need refutation.
Dr. Adam  Clarke, who collected these accounts and published them in his Wesley Family,
claims that the accounts given of these disturb



138            SPIRITUALISM.
ances are so circumstantial and authentic as to
entitle them to the most implicit credit. The
eye and ear witnesses were persons of strong
understandings and well-cultivated minds, untinctured by superstition, and in some instances rather skeptically inclined.
Dr. Clarke states that he and others of his
particular acquaintances had been eye and ear
witnesses of transactions of a similar kind, which
could never be traced to any source of trick or
imposture.
We have thus traced this spirit-commerce
from the earliest times until the present. We
have found little difficulty in identifying it
in every period of its development. We have
seen rappings, and trance-speaking, and doctors of medicine, and a great variety of physical phenomena, all in perfect accordance
with what purports to be a new dispensation,
just introduced under the name of Modern
Spiritualism.
Dr. Hare asks, "'Wherefore were not these
efforts to communicate with mankind at an




SPIRITUALISM.           139
earlier period of the world's duration? " and
then proceeds to argue that the world was not
prepared for it. He says, " Two hundred years
ago, Spiritualism would have been as much persecuted as witchcraft." But we have shown
that the same efforts have been made to communicate with mankind, and that the witchcraft
of " two hundred years ago is identical with the
Spiritualism of to-day. There is no important
point in which they differ."
We have found the developments of Spiritualism to be periodical. If the reader will mark
well this fact, he may find less difficulty in determining its true character. There have been
isolated cases in all ages, but the general outbreaks have been in connection with some great
religious movement, coming immediately before
and accompanying the same.
It seems to have made its appearance in an
unusual manner just about the time the Son of
God was revealed to destroy the works of the
devil. After the ascension, we find it gradually
waning until we lose sight of it almost entirely.




140           SPIRITUALISM.
About the time of the Reformation, it burst
upon Europe with unusual power; and wherever
the Reformation spread, this unholy influence
preceded and accompanied it, professing to be
hostile to it.
Just before the "Great Awakening" in New
England, we witness the terrible outbreak in
Salem, and elsewhere in New England.
In England it makes a bold attack on the
Wesley family, the prominent members of which
were preparing to be leaders in the most wonderful and wide-spread religious movement of
modern times.
The recent developments of Spiritualism preceded and accompanied one of the most remarkable revivals of religion ever known in Europe
or America.
Spiritualism evidently belongs to that system
of Satanic influences which have for the end
the destruction of Christ's kingdom on earth.
By its fruits it must be known, and to these
we shall call the reader's attention in another
chapter.




SPIRITUALISM.           141
CHAPTER VII.
GOD'S TESTIMONY AGAINST SPIRITUALISM.
" THERE is, perhaps, no fact within the range
of biblical science," says Rev. C. Munger, "in
which critics are more agreed than in this,
namely, that the word demon denotes a spiritual
being, or that demons among the Greeks, Jews,
and Christians, according to common belief and
use, were spirits..... There is an entire unanimity among critics, so far as we have examined,
in the fact named..... Whether the spirit is
human or superhuman, is not so well agreed;
neither is it at all material to our argument."
Without such an admission, so far as the
Jews are concerned, the practice of Christ and
his apostles can never be satisfactorily explained. If they did not regard the spirits, or demons, by them cast out, real existences, they intentionally misled the people.




142            SPIRITUALISM.
We have shown that demons among the
heathen were worshiped as the ghosts of departed heroes, conquerors, and potentates, and
that popular superstition had deified them.
Many of these demons were supposed to be evil
spirits, while many of them were held in high
esteem for their moral virtues. This was the
heathen view. But the New Testament writ.
ers invariably use the term to denote evil
spirits.
God has regarded the practice of consulting
the dead with so much displeasure, that he has
enacted stringent statutes against it. The
thunderbolts of the divine displeasure are suspended over our heads at every step we take
in this direction.
To seek unto mediums is to forsake God. We
are to turn from them as from the path to hell.
The law declares, " There shall not be found
among you a necromancer." Deut. xviii, 11. The
people understood this to mean, " one who consulted disembodied spirits."
" A man also, or a woman, that hath a familiar




SPIRITUALISM.            143
spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to
death." Lev. xx, 27. Those who go after them
to consult them are exposed to the divine displeasure: "And the soul that turneth after such
as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go
a whoring after them, I will even set my face
against that soul, and will cut him off from
among his people." Lev. xx, 6. Here the mediums, and those who consult them, are recognized as guilty of the same crime, and are exposed to the same punishment.
The sin of Babylon, and that which caused
her ruin, was " the multitude of her sorceries,
and the abundance of her enchantments." Isa.
xlvii, 9. Her sorcerers, and astrologers, and stargazers, and monthly prognosticators, had no
power to save her in the day of her visitation.
" None shall save thee," (Isa. lxvii, 15,) was the
final verdict.
One of the greatest sins of the wicked Manasseh, and that for which God cursed him and
Israel, was, " He used enchantments, and dealt
with familiar spirits and wizards," (2 Kings




144           SPIRITUALISM.
xxi, 6,) and thus seduced Israel to do more evil
than the nations God had destroyed.
We have one mournful example in the scriptures for our warning, of a man turning from
God to spirit-mediums. I refer to Saul.
The history says, "Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord,
even against the word of the Lord, which he
kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that
had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; and inquired not of the Lord." 1 Chron. x, 13, 14.
Saul, like some who have gone out from us,
when he was less corrupt, condemned spiritcommerce, and banished such as practiced it
from his realm. (See 1 Sam. xxviii, 3.) But
when he is fallen, and forsaken of God, he says,
" Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit,
that I may go to her, and inquire of her."
1 Sam. xxviii, 7. Disguised, and under cover
of night, he goes to the medium and says, " Divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring
me him up whomjI shall name unto thee."
1 Sam. xxviii, 8. How forcibly is one remind



SPIRITUALISM.          145
ed here of the Spiritualism of these times. The
medium inquired, "Whom  shall I bring up
unto thee 2  And he said, Bring me up
Samuel." 1 Sam. xxviii, 11. Now the spirits
begin to hover around the spot. The medium
said, " I saw gods," that is, demons or spirits,
" ascending out of the earth." " Describe him,"
said Saul. "He is an old man, and is covered
with a mantle." 1 Sam. xxviii, 12,14.
The reason given by Saul for consulting
Samuel, through the "woman that had a
familiar spirit at En-dor," was, "I am sore distressed, for the Philistines make war against
me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, therefore I have called thee
that thou mayest make known unto me what
I shall do." 1 Sam. xxviii, 15. Samuel informed him that it was useless to consult him if God
had forsaken him. If God was his enemy, he
was not his friend.
Saul was guilty of rebellion against the
government of God in taking the spoil of the
Amalekites contrary to the express command ot
10




146            SPIRITUALISM.
God. This sin, called rebellion, the magnitude
of which we can appreciate in these times, is
said to be " as the sin of witchcraft." 1 Sam.
xv, 23. For this sin "the Lord slew him."
To reason from analogy, we are forced to the
conclusion, that modern Spiritualism is to the
government of God, what southern rebellion is
to the government of the United States. It is
a direct blow at its heart to secure its destruction. It should be so regarded by every lover
of truth and righteousness.
The New Testament, like the Old, is full of
warning on this subject.
Paul declares that those who practice witchcraft, which all understood to be spirit-commerce, "shall not inherit the kingdom of
God." Gal. v, 20, 21. Witchcraft is reckoned
among the " works of the flesh," and opposed
to the " fruit of the Spirit."
"Sorcerers shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brimstone; which
is the second death." Rev. xxi, 8.
" I would not that ye should have fellowship




SPIRITUALISM.           147
with devils," says Paul. " Ye cannot drink the
cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; ye
cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and
of the table of devils. Do ye provoke the
Lord to jealousy?  Are we stronger than
he?" 1 Cor. x, 80, 21.
Rev. Mr. Munger has the following appropriate remarks on this passage: "We have
before proved that the word here translated
devils, is equivalent to our word'spirits.'
Also, that the spirits called up and consulted,
and worshiped in the heathen feasts, were sometimes evil angels, but more commonly disembodied human spirits,'such as are consulted in
our modern circles at their'tables.'  The
meaning of the apostle, then, seems to be this:'I would not that ye should have fellowship
with the spirits. Ye cannot be partakers of the
Lord's table, and of the tables or circles where
souls of the dead are evoked and consulted.'
" In short, he who accepts modern Spiritualism
renounces Christianity, and God will renounce
him. In the visions of John, we discover the




148           SPIRITUALISM.
sorcerers who made the lie and those who loved
the lie, shut up in the same hell together."Ancient Sorcery, etc., p. 66.
It is enough for us to know that these
pretended revelations claim to contradict the
oracles of God. Even Dr. Hare accuses those
who disbelieve the mummeries of Spiritualism
of " straining at the gnat of Spiritualism, yet
swallowing the camels of Scripture."-P. 24.
It is in this way that these professed religious
reformers pour contempt upon that book which
exposes and denounces their diabolical practices.
Directly against such bold and blasphemous
pretensions, the apostle hurls the anathemas of
Jehovah: " Though we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other Gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed." Gal. i, 8. So emphatic is the apostle
on this subject that he repeats it in another form
in the next verse, (verse 9:) " If any man preach
any other Gospel unto you than that ye have
received, let him be accursed." Still again,
" If any man think himself to be a prophet, or




SPIRITUALISM.          149
spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I
write unto you are the commandments of the
Lord." 1 Cor. xiv, 37.
We do not slander Spiritualism when we say
it professes to preach a Gospel contrary to the
word which Paul declares to be " the commandments of the Lord." There is no evading the
conclusion; either the Bible is false, or the
wrath of God is denounced against this whole
system, with all its abettors and agents, and
nothing but repentance and renunciation of
their infernal commerce can save them from the
execution of the fearful denunciation.
In the days of Jeremiah the spiritualists set
themselves against God, and urged the people
not to serve the king of Babylon. Jeremiah
urged the people not to hearken unto their enchanters and sorcerers who say, "Ye shall not
serve the king of Babylon, for they prophesy a
lie unto you, to remove you far from your land."
Jer. xxvii, 9, 10.
Isaiah warns the people against those who
turn from the word of God, and seek counsel of




150           SPIRITUALISM.
the dead by means of spirit manifestations:
" When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them
that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that
peep and that mutter: - should not a people seek
unto their God? for the living to the dead? To
the law and to the testimony: if they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no
light in them." Isa. viii, 19, 20.
Dr. Clarke very properly renders the nineteenth verse, "Should not a nation seek unto
its God? Why should you seek unto the dead
concerning the living? "
Dr. Scott remarks, " But when the Jews were
persuaded to seek unto such persons the prophet
instructed them to inquire whether a people
should not seek to their God, and whether it
were right or reasonable to leave the living to
consult the dead; the living God, to consult
dead idols, or the spirits of dead men, whom
these witches and wizards pretended to bring
up to them. A strong expression of indignant
abhorrence."-In loco.
How could Spiritualism be more clearly de



SPIRITUALISM.           151
scribed?  The operator, a witch, possessed of a
familiar spirit, seeking through the agency of
the spirits of dead men knowledge concerning
the living or the dead; the seeker, a wicked
dupe, induced to turn away from "the sure
word of prophecy" to the uncertain and Godforbidden communications of demons.
Finally, observe among whom the practice of
consulting the spirits of the dead prevailed.
We find neither Abraham nor Moses, nor the
true prophets, nor the apostles, nor any of the
accepted people of God, seeking after spirits.
But pagans, who never had revelation; the
Canaanites, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Romans, and
Greeks, apostates from God and his word;
Saul, forsaken of God; Manasseh, the wicked
king, and many others; these are the persons
who were found seeking unto spirits.
In this particular the parallel holds good.
To an almost incredible extent the spiritualists
of the present day are composed of-infidels,
apostates from the Christian Church, and the
most corrupt of mankind. (Rev. C. Munger.)




152           SPIRITUALISM.
Spiritualism always appears as an enemy of
God, and invariably in alliance with his enemies. Such was the fact in the days of Isaiah
and Jeremiah, as well as in the days of Christ
and the apostles. Such has been the fact with
regard to each development of it to the present
time. Its chief object seems to be to throw discredit upon the word of God, and scout the doctrines of the cross. It assaults heaven with the
boldest blasphemies, stalks on with the most
unblushing arrogance and presumption, and
smokes and drips with corruption which would
shock the morality of a heathen. These are the
" gnats" of which Dr. Hare speaks, which are
as nothing compared with the " camels of Scripture." So true it is that "wicked men and
seducers wax worse and worse; deceiving and
being deceived."
Mr. Howitt admits that the law of God was
against consulting the spirits of the dead; but
claims that Christ abrogated that law in seeking
the spirit of Moses and Elias on the Mount of
Transfiguration.  Speaking of that event, he




SPIRITUALISM.           143
says, "It is the most remarkable case in the
sacred history, because it demonstrates, and no
doubt was planned by our Saviour to demonstrate that express abrogation of the Mosaic law
regardingthe spirits of the dead. Christ abrogated this law by himself seeking the spirit of
Moses, the very promulgator of that law, and
leading his disciples to do the same.... Christ
went to seek this spirit, as if the case was studied
literally. He might have commanded Moses to
appear before him in his room; but no, as the
law against seeking to the dead was to be abolished, he went to the spirit of the great dead,
to Moses, the very man who prohibited such an
act by the law in question, and there on the
mount broke the law before his face, and by his
example taught his disciples to do the same."Vol. i, p. 218.
This is a very remarkable interpretation of a
very plain account of the transfiguration. There
is not the most distant intimation that Christ
went up into the mountain to seek the spirits of
Moses and Elias. The object for which he went




154            SPIRITUALISM.
upon the mountain is explicitly stated-to pray,
and to be transfigured before them. While engaged in prayer, the fashion of his countenance
was altered, so that his face shone as the sun,
and his raiment was white as the light. In this
state, it is said, Moses and Elias appeared unto
him, and talked with him, not on the subject of
the abrogation of the laws of Moses forbidding
men to " seek unto spirits," but "of his decease
which he should accomplish at Jerusalem."
After the departure of Moses and Elias, there
came a voice from the clouds, saying, not that
the spirits are henceforth to instruct you, but,
" This is my beloved Son: hear him! "
There are serious objections to Mr. Howitt's
interpretation.
1. Nothing is said in the account about
Christ's seeking the spirits of Moses and Elias.
This was no more an abrogation of the law forbidding spirit commerce than the coming of angels to minister unto Christ after his temptation
in the wilderness (Matt. iv, 11) was an abrogation of the law.




SPIRITUALISM.           155
2. Nearly two years after the transfiguration,
in the account given of the " rich man and Lazarus," Christ clearly vindicates the sufficiency
of the holy Scriptures as a source of knowledge
respecting the future world, and settles forever
the question whether communications from the
dead are of any practical utility in producing a
pure life: " They have Moses and the prophets,
let them hear them. And he said, Nay, but if
one went to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
How Christ could have abolished the law forbidding "seeking unto spirits," and then represent this spirit-commerce as utterly fruitless of
good, we are unable to see.
3. This "seeking unto spirits," which Mr.
Howitt admits is condemned by the law, but
abrogated by Christ, is the same spirit-commerce which is condemned by the apostles.
The Old Testament calls it witchcraft, and pronounces judgment against it. The apostle calls




156            SPIRITUALISM.
It by the same name, and condemns it in the
same manner. The Old Testament calls it sorcery, and writes condemnation against it. The
apostle employs the same term, condemning it
in like manner. They both mean by these
terms one and the same thing-spirit-commerce.
If the law against "seeking unto spirits " had
been abolished by Christ, does any one suppose
that the apostles would have pronounced the
judgments of God upon those who continued in
the practice?
4. Did it ever occur to the reader that the
appearance of angels and spirits, sanctioned by
the Scriptures, is in no way identical with the
spirit manifestations of modern Spiritualism;
while the "seeking unto spirits" by witches,
etc., condemned by the Old and New Testaments, is in perfect keeping with modern Spiritualism? If God wishes to make important communications to Abraham he sends three angels,
who appear unto him as he sits in the door of
his tent as three men, and they talk with him.
If God wishes to urge upon Lot the necessity of




SPIRITUALISM.           157
his leaving Sodom he sends two angels, who
appear to Lot as he sits in the gate of Sodom.
If Moses and Elias are to be sent they come in
human form, known even to the disciples.
Many other cases might be mentioned. But
the spirits evoked by spiritualists never appear
in this manner. They come rapping or tipping,
or using somebody's organs of speech besides
their own.
The spirits whom God sends are never sought.
Where in the Bible is a good man found "seeking unto spirits?" But witches and sorcerers
invariably seek unto and call up spirits, who
make their communications  through these
witches and sorcerers. Saul and the witch of
En-dor is a case in point. This is the kind ot
spirit-commerce answering to modern Spiritualism, which the Bible everywhere condemned.
Mr. HIowitt will not be able to make the candid
reader believe that Christ has anywhere abro
gated the law against spirit-commerce.




158           SPIRITUALISM
CHAPTER VIII.
FRUITS OF MODERN SPIRITUALISM.
EVERY religious system must be judged by
its fruits. If it produce, legitimately, social
disorder, and encourage personal corruption; if
it seeks to remove all the barriers to vice, and
openly sanctions contempt of divine authority,
it is so far an unmixed evil that it should be discarded by every lover of God and humanity.
Mr. William lHowitt (History of the Supernatural, p. 247) inquires how we are to distinguish "the true from the demoniac Spiritualism." His reply is, "By the divine rule; by
the fruits they produce. That is the heavenly
criterion which will guide every one who will
attend to it as unerringly as the needle will guide
the ship through the tempestuous and nocturnal
seas, as the traveler through the pathless desert.
So long as modern Spiritualism produces new




SPIRITUALISM.           159
and purer life, a firmer faith, a more fervent
love of God and man, we may rest assured of
its divine paternity; when it produces evil, it is
as certainly from the devil."
We are prepared to accept or reject Spiritualism on this ground. We do not denounce
Spiritualism as a corrupt system, because a few
corrupt persons adhere to it; for in every religious order such persons are found. The system may be good, but these may be its misrepresentatives. But we are prepared to show that
moral corruption is the legitimate fruit of Spiritualism, as a system. If it should produce good
fruit, it would be "grapes of thorns and figs of
thistles."  Spiritualism has not one redeeming
quality. We are yet to see the first person
made better by it either in morals or religion;
while the country is swarming with the victims
of this spirit-commerce, ruined in reputation
and morals, shunned as a moral pestilence by
good men, and apparently forsaken of God, as
those who have turned unto idols.
The views of the character of Christ and the




160           SPIRITUALISM.
teachings of Revelation, entertained and promulgated by Spiritualists, cannot but be ruinous to the morals of any community embracing
them. The most bitter and unscrupulous infidels
of the past never spoke more disrespectfully of
Christ and the Bible than do these new dispensation men, who live with one foot in this and
the other in the spirit-world.
We propose to lay before our readers a brief
view of the theology of Spiritualism, that they
may judge of the correctness of the foregoing
remarks.
We will introduce the testimony of Rev. T.
L. Harris, for a long time a popular spiritualist,
and hence a competent judge in the matters of
which he speaks. Mr. Harris seeing the demoralizing tendency of the system abandoned it,
and exposed its errors in a sermon preached in
London, January 15th, 1860. He presents a
clear, comprehensive, and truthful description of
the doctrines held by spiritualists, and taught
professedly by spirits from the unseen world.
He says,




SPIRITUALISM.            161
"First, that nature is God. Second, that
God is an undeveloped principle in progress of
3volution. Third, that the Jehovah of the Bible
was an unprogressed, ferocious human spirit,
who deceived ancient media. Fourth, that the
Lord Christ was but a natural man, possessed
of the ordinary mediumistic faculty of spiritual
clairvoyance. Fifth, that our Lord's theological
and psychical teachings were but the reproduction of false mythologies. Sixth, that he held
his power, great or little, because under the
influence of spirits of departed men.
" Shall we go further in this catalogue? We
open, then, another series of spiritual teachings.
"First, that all things originate in nature.
Second, that man is a development of the animal. Third, that the first parents of the human
race, born of brutes, were themselves but savages of the most degraded type. Fourth, that
all things and beings are governed by natural
necessity; that man possesses no freedom in the
moral will. Fifth, that there is no retrogression, through moral disorders, either of the indi11




162            SPIRITUALISM.
vidual or of the species. Sixth, that vice is
virtue in its unprogressed or germinal condition; that sin is an impossible chimera. Seventh,
that self-love is the very center and fountainhlead of all human affections, the chief inspirer
of all human or spiritual actions. Eighth, that
the spiritual world is but a theater for the continued evolution of human spirits, under the perpetual force of nature working through self-love.
" Or again, turn to another series: First, that
the Scriptures are not the word of God, and that
the divine Spirit never vouchsafed utterance to
man. Second, that the Messiah, our Redeemer,
is not in any sense a Saviour of the soul from
sin, death, and hell. Third, that he never met
in combat our spiritual foe; that he never overcame or cast out destroying spirits from their
human slaves; that he never made an atoneinent or expiation for sin; that he never rose
in his reassumed humanity from the grave; that
he never ascended, glorified, to heaven; that
he never communicated the Holy Ghost.
" Or again, to another: That there is no judg



SPIRITUALISM.            163
ment to come beyond the grave, wherein the
Lord shall adjudge the departed according to
their deeds, the good to eternal life, the evil to
everlasting punishment and the second death.
That all men, irrespective of formed character for
evil here, become the delighted and immortal
inhabitants of a perpetual elysium. That broad
is tpe way and wide is the gate that leadeth unto
life eternal, and that none can help to find it.
" Or again: and now as touching a moral
point of social interest. Spirits declare that
there is no marriage as a natural law, but that
polygamy or bigamy are as orderly as the monogamic tie. But if this be not frequently inculcated, what shall we say to the broadly put
forth declaration of spirits, that the marital tie
is the result of natural affinity, and that where
two are legally conjoined, and the wandering
inclinations of either rove to another object, the
new attraction becomes the lawful husband or
wife? " —iHarris's Sermon, pp. 5-7.
Mr. Harris concludes in the following language:




164           SPIRITUALISM.
" I pledge myself, and stand committed to the
assertion, that through mediumistic channels,
all these things are taught as emanating from
the spirits; and worse is taught, if possible, to
those who penetrate the inner circles of the
gloomy mysteries, where the old magic is born
again."
An association of individuals holding and gdvocating such views cannot but be a curse to
any community in which they may exist. Such
principles are absolutely demoralizing.
We will permit spiritualists to speak for
themselves, then we shall not be accused of
misrepresenting their views.
SPIRITUALISTIC VIEW OF SIN.
Dr. Hare, an oracle among the Spiritualists,
says, " The prodigious diversity between virtile
and vice is the consequence of contingencies,
which are no more under the control of the individual affected, than the color of his hair or
the number of cubits in his stature."
Again, " There is no evil that can be avoid



SPIRITUALISM.           165
ed." The meaning of all this is, a man may
steal your purse, rob your house, murder your
wife, or ruin your daughter; he may be found
a drunkard in a rum-shop, a bacchanalian in a
brothel, a convict in a prison, or a bloody criminal on a gallows, and his crimes are no more
his own acts than the color of his hair, or the
height of his growth.
These views of Dr. Hare are in perfect keeping with revelations made professedly by spirits.
He says, "Such an inference Coincides with
the communications recently received from the
spirits of departed friends." In view of such
necessity to wrong action, Dr. Hare claims that
Christ has imposed upon us " excessive and impracticable restraints."
I do not wonder that such a moral teacher
should declare, "The Bible of the spiritualists
is the book of nature, the only one which by
inward and outward evidence can be ascribed
to divine authorship."
Miss Lizzie Doten, a popular spiritualist,
says, "Whatever man does, he but works out




166            SPIRITUALISM.
through the mediumship of Deity."-Bannei
of Light, February 8, 1862.
In view of such a faith the following prayer
is appropriate, (Banner of Light, December 3,
1862,) " We thank thee for all conditions of men,
for the drunkard, for the prostitute, for the dissolute of every description."
Spiritualists claim that wickedness and morality alike help on their cause, and hence they
have no word of condemnation for the former,
or approval for the latter. A writer in the
"Banner of Light," January 18, 1862, says,
"I have no reply for those who tell me such
a one does wickedly, or such a one holds
erroneous sentiments; that one is in free love,
another in atheism; for there is not an act
done, not a sentiment entertained, not a freak
of free love, nor a frozen blast of atheism...
that does not help on the grand and glorious
superstructure."
A writer in the same paper, February 8, 1862
says,
" In all, too, that I have written upon the all.




SPIRITUALISM.           167
right subject, I hope there is not to be found
anything that deals condemnation and blame to
any of the deeds done by humanity. Humanity
acts by the force of its own inherent, invisible
power, the same as the earth revolves by its
own inherent, invisible power of revolutionor as the vegetable world sends forth its tints
of beauty in a thousand kinds and forms, all
from the inherent nature of the germs that
make these kinds and forms."
The writer continues: "I cannot think that
libertinism injures the immortal soul of man."
One would suppose that these were the sentiments of abandoned libertines, who were seeking under cover of religion to practice deeds
of darkness. But spirits professedly teach the
same. "We declare," says a spirit, (Banner
of Light, March 8, 1862,) " there never was
an individual spirit that trespassed upon the
smallest portion of God's law."
In the "Banner of Light," October 29, 1859,
we have the report of a discussion by a Convention of Spiritualists:




168.          SPIRITUALISM.
" Questio-n. Are the manifestations of human
life that we call evil, or sinful, a necessity of
the conditions of the soul's progress?
" Dr. Child. From the deepest and most sincere convictions of my soul, I answer to the
question: That what we call sin and evil in
human actions is a necessity, and, being a necessity, it is lawful and right. This view of the
question is in harmony with all evil; it sees
all that is wrong and repulsive to the soul's
higher longings, as being the effects of a means
in the ordering of Divine Wisdom, for the
production of the greatest possible good for
humanity.  It sees darkness as necessary as
light in the spiritual as well as in the physical
world.... It recognizes the hand of God in
the serpent's venom as much as in the fragrance
of the pure water-lily; in the crude granite, as
full and perfect as in the existence of angellife. It sees all the manifestations of life, both
good and bad, as being the immediate effect
of nature's laws, which laws are the laws of
God-laws that were never broken, and never




SPIRITUALISM.          169
can be; laws, every jot and tittle of which, as
Christ has said, must be fulfilled..... It sees
the manifestation of every human soul, whether
good or bad, as being the necessary result of
a certain condition, in which condition is to
be found a natural cause that produced the
good or bad action. Judas, the traitor, was
as faithful to the condition of his being as was
St. John, the divine-each performed the mission assigned to each, lawfully and truly. Behind the holy deeds of Fenelon there existed
natural causes that produced them; he could
not help the manifestations of good. Behind
the dark deeds of King Herod, the enemy of
Christ, there existed natural causes that produced the wicked deeds of his life; he could
not help them. In Fenelon there is no merit;
in Herod there is no demerit. There are no
laudations for Fenelon, and no condemnation
for Herod. There is no comparison to be made
between the two; no judgment to be instituted. Fenelon is a child of God': Herod is
the same-each heirs of eternal life and the




170           SPIRITUALISM.
blessings of God that await them in the coming future. Fenelon is no nearer to God than
Herod is..... The affirmative accepts every
opinion and every creed, and not only opinions
and creeds, but every deed of goodness and
every deed of evil, as being necessary and
right, that ever existed in the great family of
humanity.
"tAr. Newton said: I shall not deny that
evils and sins of the descriptions mentioned
are for the most part necessary, in the constitution of things, to growth or progress. Plainly
there can be no PROGRESS unless there is a
lower as well as a higher. There is no attaining to perfection, unless there is an imperfection to begin with. All such evils are merely
lesser goods. Nor, again, do I deny, that the
road through hell —even the'lowest hell'-may
lead eventually to heaven; nor that those who
travel that way and reach the celestial city at
last, through crimes and miseries and agonies
untold, will not have a larger capacity for
happiness and for usefulness in saving others




SPIRITUALISM.           171
than the merely innocent, the passively good,
whose robes were never stained even by contact with the vile. None of these positions
shall I deny, for I honestly believe them
true.
"H. F. Gardner. Dr. Child has got more
philosophy in his ideas of good and evil than
most people ever thought of. The world ought
to know and feel the necessity, the blessing of
sin. Jesus and Judas both had the experience
they needed, and neither were made better or
worse by the simple acts they were compelled
to do by their innate condition.
" %r. Wilson, of New York: I am with my
friend, Dr. Child, for his views come nearest
to the standard of true Christianity of any
I ever heard; they are but a reiteration of the
philosophy taught eighteen hundred years ago.
Moral distinctions I cannot recognize as an
essential quality of the soul.
"XKiss Lizzie Doten, (entranced.) Evil is evil
only by comparison.... Why does he (pointing to Dr. Child) present such views? It is




172           SPIRITUALISM.
because the philanthropy of his large heart
wants to take all humanity to heaven, the
wicked and the suffering, as well as the good
and the happy. He would take even the devil
himself to heaven, and it may be that the
devil will have a seat in heaven; that God
will say,'Take, Lucifer, thy place. This day
art thou redeemed to archangelic state.'
"The views of Dr. Child are broad and
comprehensive; he goes for generals. His
views are right, his position is true. In this
general view the wisdom of Providence is
seen in its perfection; there is no evil, no sin;
but when you come to minutise, with limited
perception, you see evil. God produced everything good at first, and God has never changed
his mind; everything is good still."
Here we find Fenelon and Herod, Judas
and Christ, equal unto the angels; sin a blessing, moral distinctions annihilated, and Lucifer
on his way to heaven.
These are samples of the spiritualistic view
of sin. Views, it seems to us, more in conflict




SPIRITUALISM.          173
with common sense, more revolting to morality,
more at war with the potent barriers to vice,
and more directly calculated to overturn all
well-regulated society, never fell from the lips
of infidel or demon. If these be the doctrines
of spirits, as claimed by spiritualists, they must
be what Saint Paul calls " doctrines of devils,"
from which all should turn away.
SPIRITUALISTIC VIEW OF CHRIST.
The manner in which spiritualists speak of the
Saviour amounts to little less than blasphemy.
The "Banner of Light, December 8, 1861,
says, "Once mankind clung to the cross, and
adored the form of HIim who was crucified on
Calvary, as a God. But reason has asserted its
supremacy, and the world has declared it would
not have this man to reign over it any longer."
One is strikingly reminded of the language of
the Saviour in speaking of himself: Luke xix.
" A certain nobleman went into a far country, to
receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
And he called his ten servants, and delivered




174           SPIRITUALISM.
them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy
till I come. But his citizens hated him, saying,
We will not have this man to reign over us."
When he returned, of these last he said, " But
those mine enemies, which would not that I
should reign over them, bring hither, and slay
them before me."
Julian the Apostate reproached Christ while
living, but when dying he exclaimed, " 0 Gali-.ean, thou hast conquered."
The same mouth-piece of Spiritualism continues: " Thus Jesus has become only a man,
stripped of all false pretensions, and we have
even aspired to stand by his side on the Mount
of Calvary." The Jews once stood by his side
on the Mount of Calvary, but it was only to
give utterance to the malice of the human heart
in " Crucify him, crucify him! "
Emma HaPding, a popular medium of Spiritualism, inquires, "What evidence have we that
Christ is the Lord of Spirits? has any sort of
influence upon our hereafter, or even has an objective existence at all... Science, sense, and




SPIRITUALISM.          175
reason prove to me, that my dead father lives...Why should I doubt him when he tells me
he sees no Jesus in his hereafter, knows none?... When the testimony of thousands of spirits
is confirmatory of my father's experience, and I
never yet met with one of the redeemed by the
merits of Jesus, and never yet saw a fact in
Spiritualism which proved any such redemption, nor met with any medium who could prove
any such spirit, I still maintain my position."Banner of Light, December 28, 1861.
A spirit, calling herself Martha Hutchins,
makes the following statement, (Banner of
Light, March 1, 1852:)'"My father was a Christian, but I was not. There are no Christians
here; they don't believe in anything like they
used to when they came here."
It may be easily shown why the spirits who
communicate with spiritualistic mediums have
never seen Christ, or known him as a Redeemer, in
the world from which they come, as neither he
nor the redeemed reside in that world. "Without are sorcerers and idolaters, and whosoever




176           SPIRITUALISM.
loveth and maketh a lie."  "Where I am," says
Jesus, "there shall my servants be." But to
the wicked, "Whither I go, ye cannot come."
This is the evidence that these communications,
if from spirits, are from demons damned. They
find neither Jesus the Redeemer, nor Christians
the redeemed, in the world to which their sins
have consigned them.
Stephen and John had a very different view
of Jesus and the redeemed. While dying, Stephen looked upward and saw heaven opened,
and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God, and
he prayed, " Lord Jesus receive my spirit," and
passed away.
John had a view of Jesus and the souls he had
redeemed in the heaven which opened upon his
vision. Their songs were full of Jesus and redemption: "Worthy is the Lamb to receive
riches, and honor, and power; for thou wast
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy
blood, out of every kindred, people, and nation."
Stephen and John claim to have seen heaven.
They claim to have seen Jesus in that world.




SPIRITUALISM.             177
Spiritualists say, " There is not a fact in Spiritualism going to show the existence of any such
person" in the world from which their communications come.
St. John claims to have seen a great multitude who had been redeemed by the blood of
Jesus. Spiritualists say they never met with a
redeemed spirit, and there is not a fact in Spiritualism going to prove the existence of any such
spirit. The simple inference from all this is,
that Stephen and John had a view of one world
and spiritualists of another; one of heaven, the
other of hell; one of spirits redeemed, the other
of spirits damned; showing most conclusively
that spiritualists have departed " from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of
devils."
SPIRITUALISTIC VIEW OF HELL.
Spiritualists descant upon the doctrine of
future punishment and the existence of hell
with feelings amounting to holy horror. A
distinguished spiritualist says, "I need not re12




178           SPIRITUALISM.
mind the thinker what sort of a father grows
out of the idea of hell." And yet, strange to
say, they propose to go through hell to reach
heaven: making it a half-way house in their
journey.
Miss Doten says, "Heaven, hell, and earth
are but three indissoluble degrees contiguous to
each other. We must go through hell to reach
heaven. We cannot leave earth without going
to hell first, for that is the ante-chamber to
heaven."-Banner of Ligqht, Dec., 1861.
The rich man of the Scriptures left earth in
the same direction which spiritualists propose to
take. He met in his way an impassable gulf.
Seeing his folly, he proposed to send back a
messenger, and warn his friends not to come
that way. But he was informed that if his
friends would not heed the warnings of the
sacred Word they would not be persuaded to
change their course by what a spirit from the
dead might say to them. As spiritualists propose to take the same road which their ancient
friend took, even now that the spirits have re



SPIRITUALISM.           179
turned, the evidence is conclusive that Abraham was correct in his judgment of the matter.
In view of such sentiments, it is not difficult
to explain the friendly relations which exist,
professedly, between spiritualists and the devil.
It is prudent to secure the friendship of those
through whose country we propose to journey.
It may appear strange, but it is nevertheless
true, that spiritualists offer prayer to the devil.
As an evidence of this, read the following from
the " Banner of Light," March 1, 1862:'"INVOCATION.
"0 thou prince of darkness and king of
light, god and devil, greater and lesser good,
perfect and imperfect being  we ask and demand of thee that we may know thee, for to
know thee is to know more of ourselves. And
if to do this it be necessary to wander in hell,
yea and amen, we will wander there with the
spirits of darkness. The Church and the world
tell us that the devil goeth about like a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour, but we




180           SPIRITUALISM.
know thee only as God's vicegerent, to stand at
his left hand, the regenerator of mankind, the
means of bringing up all things, intellectually
and morally, to perfection."
Lizzie Doten offered the following prayer at
Lyceum Hall, Boston, Dec. 8, 1861. Reported
for the "Banner of Light," and published in
that paper, Dec. 21, 1861:
INVOCATION.
"0 Lucifer, thou sun of the morning, who
fell from thy high estate, and whom mortals are
prone to call the embodiment of evil, we lift our
voices unto thee. We know that thou canst
not harm us unless by the will of the Almighty,
of whom thou art a part and portion, and in
whose economy thou playest thy part; and we
cannot presume to sit in judgment over Deity.
From the depths of thine infamy streams forth
divine truth. Why should we turn from thee?
Does not the same inspiration rule us all? Is
one in God's sight better than another? We




SPIRITUALISM.          181
know thou art yet to come up in his expanded
creation, purified by the influence of God's love,
for his love is not perfected while one of his
children writhes in misery. So, O Lucifer, do
we come up and stand before the throne of the
Ancient of Days, hand in hand with thee. As
thou hast been the star of the morning, thou
wilt again become an angel of light. 0, Satan, we will subdue thee with our love, and
thou wilt yet kneel humbly with us at the
throne of God."
A person unacquainted with the theory and
practice of spiritualists might regard this as a
burlesque upon Spiritualism;.but we must remember that this is a sober address to Satan, in
the presence of a Boston audience, in the year
1861, by one of the most popular mediums in
New England.
Spiritualism can lay claim to nothing new,
however, in its special friendship for and worship of the devil. Pagans have the start of
them. Dgeyil-worship has been systematized in




182           SPIRITUALISM.
Ceylon, Burmah, and many parts of the East
Indies; and an order of devil-priests has existed
even in modern times. Mr. Ives, in his travels
through Persia, gives an account of the devilworship among the Sanjacks, a nation inhab
iting the country about Mosul, the ancient
Nineveh. This strange people once professed
Christianity, then Mohammedanism, and finally
Devilism. There is a remarkable identity, in
faith atid practice, between these strange people
and spiritualists. Mr. Ives says, "They say it
is true that the devil has at present a quarrel
with God; but the time will come when, the
pride of his heart being subdued, he will make
his submission to the Almighty; and as the
Deity cannot be implacable, the devil will receive a full pardon for all his transgressions,
and both he and all those who paid him attention during his disgrace will be admitted into
the blessed mansions. This is the foundation of
their hope, and this chance for heaven they esteem to be a better one than that of trusting in
their own merits, or the merits of the leader of




SPIRITUALISM.           183
any religion whatsoever. The person of the
devil they look on as sacred. Whenever they
speak of him, it is with the utmost respect."
Who can question for a moment but that
Spiritualism is from beneath, and that all who
adhere to it are guilty of devil-worship?  Are
not these the unclean spirits which came out of
the mouth of the dragon and false prophets?
(Rev. xvi, 13, 14.) They were " the spirits of
devils working miracles."
SPIRITUALISTIC VIEW  OF THE MARRIAGE
RELATION.
Spiritualists seek professedly to pull down
and destroy all existing institutions. It seeks
to lay its fiendish hand upon all the safeguards
of social life, and remove every barrier to the
gratification of their prejudices or passions.
Governments are to become a Babel of ruins;
Church and State are to become true yoke-fellows; religious organizations are to crumble at
i1ts o9gulg;  and a beautiful structure, "full of




184            SPIRITUALISM.
corruption and dead men's bones," is to take
their place.
With regard to the marriage relation, so far
as they think it prudent to divulge their real
views, they are outspoken. Their view of this
relation may be inferred from a sentiment'put
forth at a wedding in Charlestown, Mass., Nov.
20, 1861: "Legal marriage, practically, is selfish,
carnal, worldly-minded, and belongs to mamnmon."
Referring to the marital relation, under the
head of "social questions," a writer in the
" Banner of Light " says, " If spiritualists ever
accomplish the work assigned them, they must
no longer ask to wink out of sight those great
social questions underlying the foundations of
true life. If our social or affectional relations
are wrong we must seek to right them, and
render them pure, true, and harmonic, or all
our efforts in other directions will prove abortive. It is worse than nonsense for us to falter
for the sake of reputation, popularity, or false
public opinion. [Reputation, it seems, is of no




SPIRITUALISM.            185
account with spiritualists.] These are shams.
M. Millions of hearts are now breaking, bursting, or rising in rebellion. All false unions are
being fearfully shaken and sundered. No wonder at the alarm of timid, selfish, conservative,
sordid souls.  Many dangers are threatened,
but these are inevitable to all great revolutions.... But hells must have an airing, and the
sunlight of the spheres be let in. Many sad,
unfortunate, social disruptions may ensue, but
all these things are essential, as experiences to
impart lessons of wisdom and prudence.
" Spiritualism will become the living gospel
of the age only so far as its believers begin to
practice its principles, regardless of policy or
reputation,... let the cost, the sacrifice, be
what it may. Come, brothers and sisters, who
dare begin?"
I understand this writer to mean that all
marital relations which are not perfectly harmonious should at once be dissolved. No matter how much ruin may result to wife and children, and whole households; no matter how




186           SPIRITUALISM
much sadness and misfortune may result from
such social disruptions; these are essential to
the accomplishment of the end sought by Spiritualism. Instead of hell's having an airing by
the advancement of such views, hell holds jubilee at the removal of all the safeguards to domestic happiness.
John M. Spear, at a lecture in Utica, N. Y.,
delivered himself of the following anathema:
"Cursed be the marriage institution; cursed
be the relation of husband and wife; cursed
be all who would sustain legal marriage!
What if there are a few tears shed, or a few
hearts broken? They only go to build up a
great principle, and all great truths have their
martyrs."
A correspondent of the " Spiritual Telegraph," in referring to an unmarried woman
who had recently become a mother, commends
her for the course, regarding it as a signal
triumph of a spiritualistic principle. He says:
"It is reserved for this our day, under the
inspiration of the spirit-world, for a quiet;




SPIRITUALISM.           187
equable, retiring woman to rise up in the
dignity of her womanhood, and declare in the
face of her oppressors and a scowling world,
I will be free! God helping me, though I
stand alone, penniless, friendless, homeless, forsaken of all. I will exercise that dearest of
all rights, the holiest and most sacred of all
heaven's gifts-the right of maternity —in the
way which to me seemeth right; and no man,
nor set of men; no Church, no State, shall
withhold from me the realization of that purest
of all aspirations inherent in every true woman,
the right to re-beget myself when, and by
whom, and under such circumstances, as to me
seem fit and best."
We might multiply quotations from spiritualists on this subject, but there can be no doubt
but Spiritualism seeks to remove all the old
landmarks which have been set up for the defense of morality, religion, and good order
among men. It seeks to let loose a horde of
lecherous, religious mountebanks upon the community, such as "creep into houses and lead




188           SPIRITUALISM.
captive silly women, laden with sins, led away
with divers lusts;" "men of corrupt minds,
reprobate concerning the truth." 2 Tim. iii, 6, 8.
Already hundreds of homes, once happy, have
been turned into earthly hells, filled with untold
horrors; fathers and husbands wandering in the
mazes of Spiritualism in search of some Jezebel who "calleth herself a prophetess," while
wife and children are left to poverty, shame,
and disgrace. Spiritualism glories in this work,
claims to be called of God to it, and is resorting
to every means that can be invented by the most
subtle ingenuity of depraved minds to accomplish its object.
Their practice is fully up to their theory. A
writer having been for some time identified with
Spiritualism, but renouncing it, made the following statement some three years ago: "We
have more than four hundred public mediums
and spiritual lecturers in the northern states.
At least three hundred of them have been married. Nearly one half of these have absolved
their conjugal relations; a large proportion of




SPIRITUALISM.           189
the remainder are living in the most discordant
relations, having abandoned the bed of their
partners, and by mutual consent of many, living in promiscuous concubinage."
We could register the names of many who,
before they became spiritualists, were happy in
the enjoyment of domestic life; but now their
families are broken up, and desolation reigns
where happiness once smiled. I charge spiritualists with being guilty of the outrage. It is
what they advocate, and what their doctrine of
spiritual affinities implies. It is an outrage on
society, and every man who sustains it says, in
so doing, that whenever his inclinations or lusts
lead him from the wife he has sworn to love, to
unite himself to a paramour, he is authorized
by his creed, yea, by the teaching of the spirits,
to do so.
It may be objected by some that we have
only spoken of evil spirits. This is true. But
we have spoken of all the spirits which Spiritualism has evoked, good and bad. "A good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Wherefore,




190           SPIRITUALISM.
by their fruit ye shall know them." A system
which produces such fruits as we have described
and shall further describe is an unmixed evil,
and cannot have the support of God or good
angels. The devil can change himself into an
angel of light, and by "signs, and lying wonders, and deceivableness of unrighteousness,"
quite stagger the faith of the elect.
We have witnessed its phenomena, seen tables
tip, seen writing executed in a mysterious manner, heard trance speakers, etc., and from the
first observations made, we have been convinced
of its Satanic character.




SPIRITUALISM.           191
CHAPTER IX.
TESTIMONY AGAINST SPIRITUALISM.
THE following testimonies against Spiritualism are from persons who have been identified
with the system, and among its prominent supporters.  They have witnessed its workings behind the curtain, and seen its influence upon its
mediums and chief advocates. They have been
driven, by witnessing its terrible fruits, to abandon the system, and to warn others of the
danger of spirit-commerce.
The first is from Mr. William Fishbough, several years editor of the " Spiritual Telegraph,"
scribe of Andrew Jackson Davis's ":Nature's
Divine Revelation," and popularly known as a
prominent spiritualist of the highest order. The
authors of " Mysterious Noises" say he is "one
of the most philosophical observers of the various phenomena of the human mind, and a well



192           SPIRITUALISM.
known psychological writer," and " editor of the
Univerccelum," etc.  His testimony as to the
influence of Spiritualism may be found in the
following paragraph, written June 25th, 1860:
" While I firmly believe that God has overruled it from the first for the accomplishment of
wise and beneficent purposes, and that its phenomena, when religiously studied in the light of
the divine word, will settle some very important
points of psychological and pneumatic science,
I am compelled to say that its great leading
doctrines and philosophizing, when viewed in the
abstract, are an attack, either open or covert,
upon all that is vital in religion, and upon all
the more potent barriers to vice and social disorder that are provided by the law; and that if
its tendencies could remain unchecked, the result would be a dissolution of all the chief bonds
of society. I am, moreover, constrained to warn
all men, on peril of the most fatal consequences,
against seeking the aid of' Beelzebub, the god
of Ekron,' or of any other demon, so long as
there is a' God in Israel.' 2 Kings i, 2-6."




SPIRITUALISM.           193
THE TESTIMONY OF WM. B. COAN.
Mr. Coan is, or was, the husband of A. L.
Coan, the celebrated rapping and test medium.
Mrs. Coan is said to have left her husband, and
to have taken up a life of promiscuous prostitution, for which he obtained a divorce. He formerly traveled from Maine to Minnesota, in
company with his wife, giving " tests of spiritual
identity," and was engaged in the business for
about six years. He says, in a letter to a
friend:
"DEAR SIR,-In reply to your request for
my opinion of modem Spiritualism, I will say,
I consider it a great and dangerous delusion;
the greatest curse that ever visited this or any
other people; a destroyer of religion, domestic
peace, and the moral sense of its victims, and
leading finally to licentiousness and prostitution. It has already broken up more families
in this country than all other causes combined.
It leads its victims on step by step until they
commit enormities, under the belief that they
13




194            SPIRITUALISM.
are doing God's service, the very thought of
which would have been revolting to them before
they were caught in its intoxicating snare.
"Fraternally yours,      Wm. B. CoAN.
"NEW YORE, June 27, 1861."
THE TESTIMONY OF B. F. HATCH, M.D.
Dr. Hatch is the husband of Cora L. V. Hatch,
the popular trance-medium. He was for a long
time a prominent spiritualist, and is well qualified to testify with regard to its doctrines and
moral influence. He has been shamefully
abused by spiritualists since he has attempted
to expose their wickedness; but the facts stated
are known and read of all men who have any
knowledge of Spiritualism.
Having had several private conversations
with Dr. Hatch on the subject of Spiritualism,
I requested him to give me, in writing, a brief
statement of his views on the subject. The following letter was received in reply. It must
be confessed that the picture is a dark one, but
it is no darker than the facts will justify.




SPIRITUALISM.            195
"REV. W. M'DONALD:
"DEAR SIR,-You ask for a brief statement
of my observation and experience of modern
Spiritualism, which for the benefit of the public
I am most happy to give. In its early history,
having for several years been a public advocate
of the doctrine of universal salvation, I was prepared to accept the claims of Spiritualism as
being angelic, and it is well known that for
several years I did much to establish it on this
basis. For a while its real'character and nature
were hid amid extravagant pretensions of the
blessings to result from' these heavenly messengers visiting earth's inhabitants;' and in its early
development we saw but little, comparatively,
of the mischievous effects that are now everywhere so conspicuous.
"Suffice it to say that the horde of damned
spirits which still linger amid the scenes of their
former wickedness, Proteus-like, assuming any
and every form to accomplish their hellish purpose, soon demonstrated, not only the falsity of
my previous faith, but also the terrible danger




196           SPIRITUALISM.
Of carrying on a forbidden commerce with the
unseen world. As it commanded attention
through the powerful demonstrations of the
physical phenomena, and public confidence by
false pretensions, it became more and more unmasked as to its real tendency, until now the
drama of the basest iniquity is freely and, in
many instances, openly enacted before the bewildered gaze of the public. To-day its mischievous and corrupting effects are limited only
by the capability of human depravity. There
is now a class of necromancers or earthly
devils, denominated mediums, (and they are
the most favorably known in the spiritualistic ranks,) whose secret crimes excel in real
wickedness those of Messalina and the Borgias.
This statement, extravagant as it may appear, I stand pledged as a man of honor to
fully demonstrate whenever called upon to
do so.
" I will rehearse some of the leading doctrines
of Spiritualism, as I gather them in private
conversation, and from their oral speeches and




SPIRITUALISM.          197
publications. In holy reverence commit your
soul to God while you read.
" God is irreverently called the' old man who
seduced Mary and begat Christ the bastard.'
Christ, a very well-meaning but ignorant Jewish gentleman, who manifested his goodness of
heart in forgiving the adulteress woman, but
exposed his ignorance of human needs when he
requested her to sin no more. The apostles
were very good mediums, but too much biased
by the ignorance and superstitions of their cotemporaries. The Bible, which means'excellent soft bark,' will do for an imbecile and
unenlightened people, but is superseded by the
spiritual philosophy. Self-love is the throne of
God within, and should be obeyed.
" Marriage is universal, and knows no limit but
desire, has no moral binding force, and should
be adhered to only by such as are willing to be
slaves, as the law of affinity transcends all institutions. The right to choose a different
father for each and every successive offspring'is inherent in every true woman,' and the




198            SPIRITUALISM.
intimate relation of husband and wife should
precede marriage as a preliminary means of
judging of their fitness to each other. All lustful desires should be ultimated, as this becomes
the means of their purification. Cursings are
but the dross of human nature, and are blessings to him who uses them. Blaspheming God
is a purifying process of the soul.'Every
curse (Banner of Light, April 28, 1860) escaping the lips of the profane one is a blessing to
him; it is casting off evil in the spirit-sparks
from the fire, which will purify the spirit.'
" Murder but hurries the victim to heaven and
blesses the murderer. Vice in every form is
equally meritorious with virtue, as there is no
moral responsibility. Sin is an impossible chimera. Chastity is a name with no other meaning than bondage to barbarous institutions.
And life with all its varied scenes is but a
prelude of that drama to be played beyond the
valley of the shadow of death.
" Need I say that their practices are fully in
keeping with this creed? This is painfully de



SPIRITUALISM.            199
monstrated wherever they have gained any foothold. Some of the most prominent spiritualists have confessed that the strongest bond of
union among them is the facility their association affords for sexual debauchery.
"Every woman, so far as I know, (and I
know of many,) who yields herself to spirit-influence leads a meretricious life; and I seriously question there being any exception to this
rule, for the latter is the legitimate result of the
former.
" In our municipal courts we have no protection against this pernicious people.
" On more occasions than one I have known
one after another, under the sanctity of an oath,
deliberately fabricate the basest falsehood without any perceptible compunctions of conscience.
I most solemnly affirm that during several years'
acquaintance with the leading spiritualists of
this country, I have never been able to discover
among them any other standard of morality than
a fidelity to their wickedness. Notwithstanding that most of their public advocates are men




20G           SPIRITUALISM.
and women stripped of every virtue, and many
of them openly living in adulterous relations,
and murdering the embryo offsprings of their
own guilt, not one of them, to my knowledge,
has ever received a rebuke from their journals
or confederates in principles.
"But those who have left them, and rebuked
their abominations, because they could not brook
them, have been made to feel their invectives
and slander as if vomited forth from all pandemonium. In no single instance have I known
of any improvement (neither do I expect it) in
the moral or religious life of its votaries, but
uniformly its tendency has been to bewilder the
judgment and corrupt the life, until all moral distinctions are ignored. And what is still worse
to relate, they conjoin their wickedness with
their religion, and by this means destroy the
action of conscience, and thus become wholly
deprived of all perceptions of right, given over
to hardness of heart, and abandoned of God. In
this state, with the power of reason destroyed,
the passions lashed into wild and untamable fury,




SPIRITUALISM.           201
without restraint, they sow to the wind, while
hurrying on to their places among the damned,
to reap the whirlwind.' Fraternally yours,     B. F. HATCH.
"'PRovnENCE, R. I., NoXember, 1861."
THE TESTIMONY OF MR. J.'F. WHITING.
Mr. Whiting was for some time a very prominent spiritualist in the city of New York, and
was one of the getters up and chief supporters
of what are known as the " Broadway Rooms,"
for the propagation of Spiritualism. After witnessing its immoral tendencies for some time he
abandoned it.
The letter is addressed to Dr. Hatch, and, to
some extent, confirms his statements.
"' DEAR SIR,-Your letter, dated Providence,
R. I., May 28th, 1860, is before me, requesting
me to give you some facts relative to the evil
effects of modern Spiritualism. My time is so
much occupied with business matters that I
have very little opportunity to interest myself




202            SPIRITUALISM.
upon the subject, or to draw legitimate conclusions as to its terrible and damning results
upon its believers, especially its mediums. It is
hardly necessary for me to give you any facts
relating to such a topic. Your lengthened and
extensive experience among the better classes
and more enlightened circles of spiritualists
has given you great opportunities to see the
rascality and sin which the majority of its believers have been addicted to. We have the
fact daily spread before us in the public journals
throughout the country of the fruits of Spiritualism; and there is hardly a town or village in
the land but can produce plenty of facts demonstrating the damning tendency and ruinous consequences which arise from this forbidden intercourse with spirits.
"I look upon modern Spiritualism  as the
work of Satan, and which has created more sin
and iniquity since its introduction through the
Fox family than all other crimes and vices during the last fifty years. In short, from what
experience I have with Spiritualism and its




SPIRITUALISrM.           203
believers, I am firmly convinced that the result
of Spiritualism is, as I have said before, wholly
immoral and debasing; destroying all the moral
character of its believers, inculcating as it does
false principles, and raising false hopes, thereb)
rendering man little better than the brute creation.  Adultery, fornication, deception, and
hypocrisy are its leading tendencies.   The
spirits assume the garb of angels, while in
fact they are but devils doomed by sin on
earth, and seek through Spiritualism to increase their power in hell by converts from
the earth.
" I have known many spiritual mediums, and
I am free to confess that I hardly ever found
one who on a thorough examination could stand
the test of truth, virtue, or honesty. They fail
either in one or the other of these traits of character. I am deeply impressed with the fact
that modern Spiritualism is the work of spirits;
but they are evil ones, and I can see no good
resulting from holding communion with them.
"Yours very truly,     J. F. WHITING."




204           SPIRITUALISM.
We conclude these testimonials against Spiritualism with one from the very heart of the
spiritualistic ranks. This, I trust, will be acceptable to spiritualists, although dealing a
heavier blow against it for its practical corruptions than any we have introduced.
THE TESTIMONY OF MRS. CORA L. V. HATCH.
Mrs. Hatch is one of the most popular mediums to be found among spiritualists. Seeing
the corrupting influence of the system upon the
polluted infidel hordes who embrace it, she
makes a bold attempt at reforming them. A
hopeless task!
In a lecture delivered in New York city,
January 19, 1862, entitled "Spiritualism, its
Theory and Practice," she says:
"There is no doubt that the shaft which
Spiritualism has sunk has struck the vein ot
that floating population in the United States
and other countries, of which we have spoken
in terms which are no less applicable to their




SPIRITUALISM.           205
mental and spiritual than to their political
status. They form a class who have never
believed in anything, but are ready to adopt
any form of belief, as occasion may require,
from orthodox Christianity down to the latest
ism. They are the aids and reliance of the
radical reformers, the destructives, who tear
down old edifices indiscriminately, and put up
nothing in their stead. They considered themselves commissioned to reform the world.
They decry Christianity, and all other supports
of law and order recognized by society. They
have been ready to seize upon any new doctrine, and it is not at all surprising that Spiritualism, which presents such an admirable cover
for their designs, should have attracted many of
these characters, and that in their hands it has
become one of the most preposterous systems,
both as to theory and practice, ever brought
before the community...
" Thus it happens that we have as advocates
of Spiritualism all the offscourings of society in
a new shape. We have the ci-devant apostles




206           SPIRITUALISM.
of Mormonism, Fourierism, and every other'reform' movement which nobody has cared to
adopt; and when the world recognizes these as
leaders in our ranks it stands aghast and says,'Why, these are the old nuisances revived.
This Spiritualism is but another name for'that
which leads to immorality, and the tearing
down of all that is dear and sacred in our institutions. It opposes Christianity, and even seeks
to violate the sanctity of the fireside;' and we
are sorry to state that the conduct of those in
general who profess to be spiritualists confirms
this judgment, and society has too good ground
for complaint and apprehension. It must be so
from what we have stated.... The general
tendencies of Spiritualism have been not to
elevate but degrade its disciples in the moral
and social scale, to break down all barriers
which have been considered essential to a wellordered community, and destroy every altar
and shrine to which their rites and sacrifices
could not be admitted. Each member of the
class to which we refer seizes hold of Spiritual



SPIRITUALISM.          207
ism with the same idea-that he or she is to be
made'the savior of humanity by its means.
Every broken-down politician or expelled churchmember seeks to engraft upon it his ownaudacious speculations, and to make spirits responsible for what he dare not openly advocate in
his own person.... If you have any doubt
of this you have but to look abroad over the
land."
Spiritualists have stoutly denied that the
firuits of the system are as described by Mrs.
Hatch, but that they were paragons of moral
purity. Let it be remembered that many of
the persons described by Mr. H. are among
the chief supporters of the system. A "new
dispensation" which produces such fruits in
the short space of ten or fifteen years must be
regarded as satanic.  But Mrs. Hatch continues:
"In the first place, spiritualists have generally the reputation of being impure, atheistical;




208          SPIRITUALISM.
everything, in short, that is improper and unsafe.
There is usually some ground for opinions so
wide-spread...
" with these facts before us, it is not surprising that many, after becoming acquainted with
it, should have withdrawn from all recognition
of it, and refused to countenance a system which
is ignominy to those who have advocated it...
With sorrow we say it, many are the families
which have been desolated by it.... Many
thousands are the hearts and minds which have
been broken and overthrown through this fatal
delusion.... Further than this, we might
dwell on the practices of professed spiritualists, but we have said enough."
These denunciations do not come from the
opponents of Spiritualism, but from one of its
warmest advocates. Mrs. Hatch has been behind the curtain, where she has seen a part of
what has been hid from public gaze.
Not content with one lecture on the subject,
she renews the attack, in the same place,




SPIRITUALISM.          209
January 26th, 1862. On this occasion she
says:
"' The Church and Society are turned against
Spiritualism.... because of the unholy, debasing effects to which it has been led. Cut
where it may, the truth is that it is the character of too many of its prominent advocates
which rendered Spiritualism unpopular. It has
become a cloak for all debasing acts; a vehicle
for all the dangerous theories that the brain
of man, prompted by an evil spirit, has ever invented; we have become responsible for them
all; and at last we ares made to incite or justify
every crime of the decalogue, and have become
the confederates in every scheme of imposture
which can lead to notoriety or gain. Thousands
have been led to do what they knew to be
wrong, because they have been assured that
spirits desired it.... Broken-down physicians,
briefless lawyers, placeless politicians, who have
always been dependent upon their wives' relations or their own friends, go about the country
14




210            SPIRITUALISM.
as mediums, spiritual doctors, lecturers, etc.,
literally sponging their substance out of honest,.
hard-working people. Go to the smallest country town, and if you take interest enough to
stay there a few days some person of this sort
comes around, who seeks in some form to cause
the people to believe that he is not the veriest
impostor and scoundrel out of jail."
Here is a portrait of Spiritualism by one who
is not supposed to represent it worse than it is.
These " sweeping denunciations " of Mrs. Hatch
do not seem to please Miss Emma Harding.
Writing from New York to the " Banner of
Light," March 1, 1862, she says:
" I believe we can none of us afford to condemn each other too loudly, lest we should be
inviting a criticism we cannot endure." And yet
she confesses that there are sufficient grounds for
some. of the charges. Perhaps the remark of
Miss Harding, with regard to "' inviting a criticism," etc., was intended as a thrust at Mrs.




SPIRITUALISM.           211
Hatch, whom Spiritualism had led to violate her
own marriage vow, and separate from the one
to whom she promised before God to " keep
herself" so long as they both should live.
But Mrs. Hatch can no more reform the advocates of Spiritualism than she can convince a
Christian community that the system is of God.
It is simply the work of devils, and a stream
does not rise above its fountain.; "Wicked men
and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived."
In conclusion, Spiritualism is attempting to
popularize those social conditions of society,
which are to be deeply deplored by every good
citizen. "'Iniquities which have justly received
the condemnation of centuries are openly upheld; vices which would destroy every wholesome regulation of society are crowned as virtues;" and prostitution, the bane of domestic
peace, is upheld and encouraged.
How timely is the wise man's counsel, " Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither




212           SPIRITUALISM.
seek after wizards." " Let not thine heart in.
dine to their ways; go not astray in their paths.
Their house is the way to hell, going down to
the chambers of death."  " The dead are there
and their guests are in the depths of hell."
Prov. vii, 25-27; ix, 18.
THE END.




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Rev. D. WISE, 12mo.
The Path of Life;
Or, Sketches of the Way to Glory and Immortality. A
Help to Young Christians. By Rev. DANIEL WISE. 16mo.
The object of this book, to "help young Christians," is truly great at
noble. The author, we think, has carried out his design with signal
ability. Mr. Wise writes with great clearness, and is always both attractive and instructive.
Bridal Greetings,
With Marriage Certificate. By Rev. D. WISE. 24mo.
This work is intended for a gift book to the newly married. It is emi
nently practical in its hints, and being cheap, is just the thing for ministers
to present to parties whose marriage they are employed to solemnize.
Guide to the Saviour;
Or, the Lambs of the Flock of Jesus. By Rev. D. WIsB
Jnst the thing for little children.
The Swiss Reformer;
Or, the Life of Ulric Zwingle. By Rev. DArIEr  WIsL
Wanderer, Come Home;  [Inpreparation.]
Or, the Good Shepherd seeking his Lost Sheep: being an
affectionate Call to Backsliders. By Rev. D. WVIsE




1OOKS PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTEPR
200 Mulberry-street, New York.
Moral and Religious Quotations
From the Poets. Topically Arranged. Comprisinb
choice Selectiono from six hundred Authors. Com
piled by Rev. WILLIA    RIOE, A.M.   8vo.
We have seen many dictionaries of quotations, but this surpasses them all
In extent and system. The subjects arethose that come before the preacher's
mind, and he will open this book as he is preparing a sermon, and find happy
lines to adorn and enrich his discourse, and astonish his hearers by his familiarity with the poets! It will also lead him to the study of poetry, and
Introduce him to authors whose acquaintance he would never have cultivated. but for these brief and sententious extracts from their works. Mo as
than four thousand quotations are here made.-News  York Observer.
Pronouncing Bible.
Large 8vo.
We have lately issued the best Bible in print, a PaONOrUNINGO BIBLE,
having these advantages: 1. The proper names are divided and accented, so
that a child can pronounce the[n correctly. 2. Each book has a short introduction, showing just what every reader ought to know about it. 8. It
has a much improved class of references. 4. It contains a map of Old Canaan and its surroundings, and one of Palestitfe, according to the latest discoveries.
The nWthod is more simple and easy than any other we have seen. The
pronunciation marks are very judiciously confined to the proper names,
leaving the remainder of the text unencumbered. The multitudes of Bible
readers who stumble at the hard names of people and places may find a
very satisfactory relief by using this edition. For family worship, or private
Jevotional reading, this edition has strong recommendations.-Presbyteria.
In this Bible the proper names are divided into syllables and accented, so
that it is hardly possible to mispronounce them. The "' Introductions" are
brief, but contain a large amount of useful and necessary information. The
"references," as far as we have had time to test them, are decidedly the
most accurate we have met with. It is one of the most beautiful and com.
plete Bibles in the world, and it will be an acquisition to the study, tad,n.ily, the Bib!e cljss and the pulpit —F anWelivcal Wtns.




PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER
200 Mulberry-street, New York.
Missionary among Cannibals.
Illustrated. Wide 16mo
Missionary in many Lands.
By ERWIN HousE. Eleven Illustrations. Wide l6mo.
Pearls for the Little Ones.
Four Illustrations. 18mo.
Nothing can exceed the interest of this new work. Thousands
have been sold, and thousands more will be. It is a perfect
take with all classes.
The True Woman.
By J. T. PEcrx, D.D. 12mo.
Six Steps to Honor.
Six Steps to Honor;' or, Great Truths Illustrated. Six
Illustrations. Square 12mo.
A Mother's Gift.
A Mother's Gift to her Little Ones at Home. With
numerous Illustrations. 12mo.
Mother's Mission.
Five 1T[!stratiogs, FWide!6imo.




BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER
200 Mulberry-street, New York.
Rudiments of Public Speaking
And Debate; Or, Hints on the Application of Logic.
By  J. G. HOLYOAXKE, author of "Mathematics no
Mystery," "Logic of Facts," etc.  With an Essay on
Sacred Eloquence by HENRY ROGEIR.  Revised, with
Notes, by Rev. L. D. BARROWS. 12mo.
" Speech is the body, thought the soul, and suitable action the lips of eloquence."
He has oratory who ravishes his hearers, while he forgets himself.-Laioter.
Eloquence is vehement simplicity.-Cecil.
The object of this book is to assist public speakers in perfecting themselves in the art of speaking effectively. Too many exhaust themselves
on the matter f their discourse, and utterly fail in the manner of it. The
tendency of this oook is to correct this error, and secure a better and more
impressive style. Please read the following notices of it:
We cordially commend Dr. Barrows's volume to all ministers, young
and old, and in fact to public speakers of all classes. It is full of marrow
and fatness.- Western Advocate.
A close study of it will save the young public speaker from  many
blunders which, if uncorrected, will impair his usefulness and hinder his succes&-Northern Ad/vocate.
Our preachers will do well to send for it. A clergyman of great intellectual power, though being favored with little success, when asked how
much of a sermon was due to the manner in which it was delivered, answered' Three fourths." —Ch istioan Advocate and Jowronal.
There is nothing dry )r dull in the entire book. It is full of most valuable suggestions, so presented as to be remembered.-Congregatioeul
Herald.
The Christian Maiden.
Memorials  of Eliza  Hessel.   By JosnuA  PRIESTLEY.
Slightly abridged from the second London edition.
With a Portrait and Vignette. 12mo.
Much of the religious biography of the day is both commonplace and
Insipid. There are, however, many choice exceptions, and among such we
class the interesting memoir before us. Miss Hessel was a young lady who
cultivated her mind to the utmost, and diffused a cheering influence in the
circle in which she moved. Her biography is replete with illustrations of
the deep Christian experience, and varied and extensive reading. We cord.
lally commend this little book to Christian young women, as well calculated
to impr, ve the understanding and purify the heart.-(Cho istian Gualtdiae




PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER,
200 Mulberry-street, New York.
Quotations from the Poets.
Moral and Religious Quotations from the Poets. Com
piled by Rev. WILLIAM RICE, A. M. Large octavo,
with frontispiece.
faVlf calf, marbled edges, with two plates
Royal octavo edition, nine steel plates.
Morocco, gilt.......
----, extra gilt
New Pronouncing Bible.
Royal octavo. The proper names are accented and
divided, so that the most common reader can pronounce them,
MAorocco, with maps, plates, and gilt edges
-  extra
In 4 vols., imitation morocco, marbled edges
TLe same, gilt edges
Hidden Treasure.
Four Illustrations. Wide 16mo.
Story of a Pocket Bible.
Ten Illustrations. Wide 16mo.
Ministering. Children.
A Story showing how even a Child may be as a Ministering Angel of Love to the Poor and Sorrowful.
Fifteen Illustrations. Wide 16mo.
gilt edges
Jforocco an# full calf




coOKS PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER,
200 Mulberry-street, New York.
Whedon's Commentary.
A Commentary of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.
Intended for Popular Use.  By D. D. WHDON, D.D
12mo.
The first volume of this work has been on sale for the past year and a large
uumber of volumes have been sold. It is a 12mo. of 422 closely printed
pages, embracing a fine map of Palestine, and other valuable illustrations.
It is the cheapest book for the price that we have issued in many years.
The two volumes which are to follow will be announced in due time. All
the notices we have seen, as well as the remarks we have heard, go to the
effect that this book is a timely, able, and valuable addition to our literature.
Dr. Whedon has furnished the people with the results of critical study,
modern travels and Christian reflection, in brief and pithy comments on the
difficult or obscure words and phrases in the first two evangelists, enlarging
on occasional passages of importance.-Congregational Herald.
It gives the results of patient study and the careful examination of the
works of those who have preceded him in the same field, in few words well
chosen. —hrist. Observer, Phila.
Dr. Whedon is one of the clearest, strongest, and boldest writers In
America He addresses the intellect, not the passions; reason, not the feelIngs. The principal value of this commentary is found in exposition, while
its real spiritual utility will depend much on the piety of the reader, and
hence a boundless field is before him. Religious truths are presented in
vivid distinctness; the popular mind is instructed.-Richmond Christ. Adv.
The Pioneer Bishop;
Or, the Life and Times of FRANcIs AsBURY. By W. P.
STRICKLAND, D.D. 12mo.
One of the most fascinating volumes of biography ever issued from oa
press.-Quarterly Review.
This is at once a charming volume and a marvelous record.-NVew York
omsmercial Advertiser.
This book will be read, and will exert a beneficial influence wherever
read.-Ziosn's Herald.
The author has performed his duty well, and with a catholicity of spirit
worthy of honor.-New York Intelligencer.
No one can have a just view of the rise and settlement of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in the Unltpe4 States with/out carefully perusing this book
-Pr. hurhsm




PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER,
200 Mulberrystreet, New York.
Little Songs for Little Readers.
With numerous Illustrations. Wide 16mo.
This book of songs is just what the little folks in our Sunday
schools and families have long wanted.
Ministry of Life.
Five Illustrations. Wide l1mo.
gilt
Morocco and full caf, gilt'rhe Christian Maiden.
Memorials of Miss Eliza Hessel. Wide 16L 1o.
Muslin, gilt edges
Morocco, gilt edges
A perfect gem.
My Sister Margaret.
Four Illustrations. Wide 16mo.
gilt
Morocco and full calf
The best temperance book in print.
Pilgrim's Progress.
With numerous Illustrations. 12mo.
imitation morocco, gilt
The Object of Life.
A Narrative Illustrating the Insufficiency of the World
anrd the Sufficiency of Christ. With four Illustratioims,
Widle 16rno..fill calf, gilt




PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORIER,
200 Mulberry-street, New York.
Aunt Gracie's Library.
Ten Volumes. 48mo.
CLARA AND HER COUSINS.
LITTLE BOARDING-SCHOOL GIRLS.
OUR BIRTH-DAY TRIP.
LITTLE ANNA.
MARY, ANNA, AND NINA.
JENNETTE;'oR, THE GREAT MISTAKE.
OLD MERRITT.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS.
CITY OF PALMS.
STORIES ABOUT THE BIBLE.
The Willie Books.
Five Volumes. 18mo.
WILLIE'S LESSONS.
WILLIE TRYING TO BE MANLY.
WILLIE TRYING TO BE THOROUGH.
WILLIE WISHING TO BE USEFUL.
WILLIE SEEKING TO BE A CHRISTIAN.
Charming books, with plenty of pretty pictures. They are
entirely new, and will have a long and a strong run.
The Olio Library.
Six Volumes. 18mo.
LITTLE TIGER LILY.
HOME PICTURES.
HANNAH LEE.
FACTS ABOUT BOYS.
THE YOUNG PIIGRIM.
MINNIE WINGFIELD.




PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER,
200 Mulberry-street, New York.
A Pretty Little Library.
Ten Volumes. 48mo.
WILBUR'S TRIP TO THE SEA-SHORE.
THE BLACKBERRY GIRL.
MY LITTLE SCHOOLMATES.
BESSIE'S THREE TEACHERS.
BESSIE'S NEW HEART.
LITTLE STORIES FOR LITTLE PEOPLE.
MY GRANDMOTHER.
MY BEST FRIEND.
THE LITTLE PARTNERS, Tao.
ENGLISH MARY.
The Jessie Books.
Five Volumes. 18mo.
JESSIE ROSS.
JESSIE SAYS SO.
JESSIE'S GOLDEN RULE.
JESSIE'S PLACE.
JESSIE A PILGRIM.
The JESSIE BOOKS are full of interest. No better Christnms or
New-years present for boys or girls under thirteen —girlm
especially-will issue from the press this season than this box
of Jessie Books.
Child's Own Library, No. 1.
Twenty Volumes.
Child's Own Library, No. 2.
Twenty Volumes.




BOOKS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
200 Mulberry-street New York.
THE YOUNG MINER:
A Memoir of John Lean, Jun., of Camborne, in the County of
Cornwall. By JOHN BUSTARD. 18mo.
THANET SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.
Mildred, the Thanet S. School Teacher. By JOHx BUSTARIN
18mo.
OLD HUMPHREY'S OBSERVATIONS.
Selections from Old Humphrey's Observations and Addresses.
Six Illustrations. 18mo.
INTERESTING STORIES
For the Entertainment and Instruction of Young Readers. Illustrated. Two volumes, 18mo.
ELLEN AND SOPHIA;
Or, The Broken Hyacinth.  By MRS. SHIRWOOD, Author of
"Little Henry and his Bearer." Three Illustrations. 18mo.
FARMER GOODALL AND HIS FRIEND.
By the Author of " The Last Day of the Week."  With Illustrations. 18mo.
JANE AND HER TEACHER.
A Simple Story. 18mo.
THE MOUNTAIN AND VALLEY.
Two Illustrations. 18mo.
PROCRASTINATION I
Or, Maria Louisa Winslow. By MRS. H. M. PICKARD. 18mo.
OHRISTIAN PEACE;
Or, The Third Fruit of the Spirit. Illustrated by Scenes from
Real Life. 18mo.
THE CAVES' OF THE EARTH:
Their Natural History, Features, and Incidents. 18mo.
TIHE BLIND MAN'S SON;
Or, The Poor Student successfully struggling to overcome Adversity and Misfortune. Two Illustrations. 18mo.
8




B()OKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.
200 Mulberry-street, New York.
THE POET PREACHER:
A Brief Memorial of Charles Wesley, the eminent Preache!
and Poet. By CHARLES ADAMS. Five Illustrations. Wide
16mo.
WORDS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD;
Or, Martin Lutherl his own Biographer. Being Pictures of tl.e
Great Reformer, sketched mainly from his own Sayings. By
CHARLES A) A.Mis.  Twenity-two  Illustrations.  Wide 16mo
MINISTERING CHILDREN:
A Story3 shllwilng how% even a Child maybe as a Ministeriug
Angel of L,,e to, the Poor and Sorrowful. Wide 16mo
l5 111n.trated
This is one of the most moving narrations in the whole list of our publications. Its sale in Flgla(nd has reached 40,000 copies. The illustrated
edition contains m.e tlhan a dozen superb cuts on plate paper.
TIIE MINISTRY OP LIFE..
By MARIA 1lOIuISA CHARLESWORTH, Author of " Ministering
C hildrenl," etc., etc. live Illustrations.  Wide 16mo.
ITINERANT SIDE;
Or, Pictures of Life in the Itinerancy. Illustrated. Wide
16mo.
THE OBJECT OF LIFE:
A Narrative illustrating the Insufficiency of the World, and the
Sufficiency of Christ. Four Illustration. Wide 16mo.
LADY HUNTINGDON PORTRAYED;
Includina Brief Sketches of some of her Friends and Co-laborera
By the Author of "The Missionary Teacher," "Sketches of
Mission Life," etc. Five Illustrations.
THE MOTHER'S MISSION.
Sketches from Real Life. By the Author of "The Object ot
Life." Five Illustrations. Wide 16mo.
MY SISTER MARGARET.
A Temperance Story. By Mrs. C. M. EDWARDS. Four Ilastra
t'ons. Wide lNmno
14