The Spiritualist newspaper > No.413, July 23rd 1880

47
July 23, 1880
THE SPIRITUALIST.
tions at issue. Assuming the accuracy of The
Times report, the attention of Mr. Gladstone
and the Home Secretary ought to be called to
the matter.
A TRANCE LECTURE.
Last Saturday an inspirational address on the sub¬
ject of Body and Spirit, was delivered by Mrs. Tappan-
Richmond, at St. James’s Hall, Regent Street, London.
In the course of the lecture, Mrs. Richmond said that
men were now slaves to the senses ; materialism and
material worship abounded everywhere, worship itself
also had become a plea for sensation. But a reaction
must follow. Something therefore was rising within
man, claiming a loftier allegiance than worshipping at
the throne of dust. Life could not be predicated upon
matter, and was not evolved from it, yet the belief in
spiritual life and spiritual powers, was often said to be
the outcome of ignorance. Did ignorance cause
Wesley to talk of angelic-presences ? Did ignorance
cause the Augustine monk to light the fires of the
Reformation ? Did ignorance give rise to the Christian
religion, when in the midst of the splendours of
material power, it announced a spiritual instead of a
material Divinity ? Did ignorance inspire the divine
Socrates with the news of immortality, fir induce the
dreams of Pythagoras about eternal life ? Did ignor¬
ance inspire Dante and Milton to speak of angelic
beings ? If so, then every age had been an age of
ignorance, and every inspired word but tradition.
Was it tradition which now produced the voices from
the spirit world by the firesides of her hearers, pro¬
claiming the immortality of man ? The speaker then
proceeded to argue that it was of no use to seek for
spirit through matter, and she devoted a portion of her
address to the subject of personal selfishness.
At the close of the lecture, various questions were
put by listeners to the entranced speaker.
Q. Bo spirits go to other planets as well as to spirit
spheres f
A. That depends upon the degree of their exaltation.
Swendenborg and others have visited other planets,
but earth-bound spirits keep near the earth.
Q. Boes earth contain the worst people to he found on any
earth ?
A. We hope not, although it is undoubtedly one of
the youngest of the undeveloped planets.
Q. Does not the rapidity of progress in the next life
depend upon the condition of the spirit on leaving the body ?
A. The spiritual state of every human being on
leaving earth, determines its position in the next life,
and the rapidity of its subsequent growth. The culti¬
vated and aspiring spirit will rise fastest.
Q. Is there any truth in the doctrime of the reincarnation
of the spirit on the earth ?
A. It is a sublime law of the Universe that the soul
must conquer the earth: in what way, depends upon
its own condition. It is our opinion that some will
have to return many, times, before they can get free
from the earth.
Q. Was the earthly body of Christ capable of endless life,
if it had not met with a violent death ?
A. His organic body was subject to the laws of such
organisms, but it was also subject to spiritual laws,
which might have perpetuated it had it been necessary.
Q. What was the condition of man ivhen he was created ?
A. Look at a baby and you will find a type of man
in every age. We do not believe in the physical
theory of evolution, but think that man was created a
little lower than the angels.
Q. Can you give any evidence of the existence of angels
at all?
A. If the questioner can find no evidence of their
existence by looking within, we cannot give it.
An inspirational poem on u The Birth of the Soul,”
a subject chosen by the audience, was then delivered,
after which the Rev. Sir William Dunbar, Bart.,
proposed a vote of thanks to the speaker, and the pro¬
ceedings closed.
During the evening Mr. Ward presided at the
harmonium. There was a fair audience, and among
the listeners was Professor Barrett, who brought up
the discussion on Spiritualism at the Bristol Association
meeting at Glasgow.
A MON ESPRIT.
I kiss these lips of yours so pure, go cold,
Dear spirit, bending o’er my pillow low,
They thrill me with a love ne’er sung, ne’er told
Nor felt in mortal commune here below.
My darling! your sweet presence through the hours—•
The calm and solemn hours of blissfull night,
Pills all my lone life, as the fragrant flowers
Sweeten through summer days the amber light.
Look with the dreamful rapture of your eyes
Full into mine :—as in the years good by:
Their hue is like the blue of evening skies
When tender purple shadows o’er them lie.
Cast o’er my face the glory of your smile,—
I lived for it alone in days of yore—•
It’s sweetness now seems half divine, the while
As human and as loving as before.
Speak with the old loved music of your voice,
In murmured melodies as long ago :
Sweet sounding as when limpid streams rejoice,
Flowing where tangled beds of lilies grow.
Raise my soul upward—keep me ever pure
That walking in the shadow of your grace,
From evils rendered by your care secure;
So I may gaze unblushing in your face.
While you are ever with me night and day,
As palpable as mortal form to me,
I fear no ill, for you will guide alway
Through all the dangers of life’s seething sea.
Mon ange, we know no separation here,
Nor shall we ever in our final goal:
In this my double life upon this sphere
We have begun our union of the soul.
E. Wilding.
Mr. Eglinton in Munich :—So far as we can make
out, Mr. Eglinton has been very badly treated in
Munich. Ho went as a foreigner who did not know
the language, and asked that at his stances he should
be, as usual, held hand and foot. What more could
he offer ? Under these conditions he gave satisfaction
except in one instance, and if he then disjoined hands
in the way stated, those in charge of him were false to
their trust in not saying so at the time. It was not
honourably open to them to give the alleged details
subsequently, and in his absence, when they were
necessary to bolster up what appears to be a theory.
The same old-fashioned theory has often been mooted
in England against one or two mediums, but on close
observation proved to be false.