The Spiritualist newspaper > No.322, October 25th 1878

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THE SPIRITUALIST.
Oct. 25, 1878.
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF SPIRITUALISM.
A few evenings ago the Rev. W. Stainton-Moses, M.A.,
introduced Major Forster, who has long been noted as one of
the best Spiritualistic lecturers in the United States, to a
Doughty Hall audience, in the following words, as reported
in the Medium:—
I am here to-night, not, indeed, to introduce Major
Forster—he needs no introduction to any body of English
Spiritualists, for his name is connected for all time with that
pioneer band who laboured for the cause of Spiritualism in
days which have already become historic. It was no light
thing to bear the burden and heat of those days, and they who
bore their share are honourably known among us. Among
them few are more entitled to distinction than our friend;
and I am the more pleased to be standing here to-night,
because it is the occasion of his return to the platform after
a period of sickness and necessary seclusion from labour.
You will join me, I am sure, in congratulating ourselves
and him on what we hope is a permanent recovery, and the
commencement of a new period of usefulness.
For these are times in which we cannot afford to dispense
with any assistance in the great work that lies before us.
“The harvest, indeed, is plenteous, but the labourers are
few. Pray we, therefore, the Lord of the harvest that He
will send forth labourers into His harvest.” There is,
indeed, great need of discriminating and zealous work in
the field of Spiritualism. I use that word in its widest
signification. I have the fullest sympathy with the work in
every part of its domain. There is room for all, whatever
phase of work may commend itself to them.
Spiritualism is a science; and I hail with thankfulness
any attempt to place even the smallest of its phenomena on
a basis of scientific demonstration.
Spiritualism is a philosophy; and I rejoice at any philo¬
sophical explanation of its many bewildering and startling
marvels.
But it is because I view Spiritualism as a religion, that I
am especially glad to be by the side of the lecturer to-night.
The last time that I occupied this position, when our good
friend Dr. Peebles was with us, I recalled some words that
I had written when yet very young as a Spiritualist. a Spirit¬
ualism,” I said, “is the gospel of God to an age that needs
it.” Imbued with that feeling—and I have seen no reason
whatever to change it—I welcome every help in placing
before the world, and especially before those who profess
and call themselves Spiritualists, the religious aspects of
their faith.
It is a side of the question that is too much neglected.
It is well that we should all “ be able to give a reason for
the faith that is in us,” and the more logical and clear, the
more coldly scientific our demonstration, the better. It is
well that we should record and tabulate our facts, and
speculate, as we will, on the philosophy that underlies them.
Some of us may be thankful to sun ourselves in the glow of
affection which bursts upon us when some friend whom we
had thought dead returns from the Silent Land, and we
recognise the well-known traits of character, and see the
familiar form of our loved and mourned as lost to earth.
Not to all is this blessing given. When it is, the recipient
may almost be pardoned for thinking that for him Spirit¬
ualism has no other boon to give. That, however, would be
but a selfish view and a shallow conception of the blessings
that Spiritualism, properly appreciated, can convey. It can
tell a man not only that his dead live, but also how he must
live in order to prepare for himself a place where he may be
happily reunited with them. None of those who have passed
from this world into spheres of rest neglect to teach a system
of religious faith and practice which is eminently fitted to be
the religion of daily life.
Details vary, as must needs be, but in the broad prin¬
ciples there is a remarkable agreement between the teachings
of advanced spirits. And even those who seem to hover
near the border, who have had little means of advancement,
show, now and again, amid the folly, and sometimes the
sinfulness, that a return to the old conditions seems to
engender that they have learned this great truth, that Man
is what he makes himself ; that the acts and habits of the
bodily life prepare the place in which the spirit-life must
begin ; and that selfishness, in all its many forms, is the root-
vice that eats into the spirit, and sends it scarred and dis-
| figured, stunted and feeble, into the world of which this is
only the ante-chamber.
All spirits, I believe, if we could only get at them, know
this. We are too apt to charge buffoonery and folly on
I spirits, which are in reality the product of the conditions
which we provide for them. And some spirits do seem,
according to a law which is deeply philosophical, and in a
measure intelligible to my mind—some spirits, I say, seem,
when they enter the old sphere of the body, to take on again
the old sins of the body. The drunkard is the drunkard
still, and the filthy is filthy still, so far as intent goes; and
many a poor wretch has cause to know how they can tempt
and lure to sinful indulgence, and live over again, in the
persons of their victims, the old, bad, sensual life that they
lived in the body.
But even they—when one can get at them and reason with
them—even they will lament the permanence of that cha¬
racter which their own acts built up. And this is intensified
in those who have risen above the sphere of self; in whom,
even on earth, “ the flesh was subdued to the spirit,” and
who now return voluntarily to teach and encourage those
who aspire to fit themselves by a life of self-denial and self-
sacrifice, by constant seeking after truth, for a spiritual life
of peaceful and progressive development.
These are some of the aspects of Spiritualism which are
| too little heeded. I have no time, nor is it my province, to
develop the theme. It is because I know that they, and
kindred topics, will be presented to you by the lecturer, that
I have pleasure in standing beside him on this platform.
WARNED BY A DREAM.
'om the “ Religio-Philosophical Journal.")
In this city, about six weeks ago, two young men who
had been intimate from school-days up were in the habit
each year of spending a two weeks’ vacation with a farmer
j named Humphreys in Montgomery county, in this State.
I Six weeks ago young Robert and Edwin, vigorous and joy- .
| ful, left their Philadelphia homes to roam for two weeks in
| field and forest, and to drink in the sweet inspiration of
rural nature. They had been gone a few days when the
| aged father of young Edwin had occasion to rise at three
| o’clock a.m. to attend to his business, when he heard a
| terrible shriek emanating from the room of a younger son; he
hastened to him to inquire as to the cause of the alarm, and
was informed by him that he had just had a most frightful
| dream. He said that in his dream he had seen his brother
| Edwin and young Robert struck down by something
i tremendous—he knew not what; that young Robert was
| dead, and that his brother Edwin was senseless, lying in the
| water.
At the breakfast table the dream was talked over, and the
| lad said that he tried afterwards to sleep, but could not, seeing
| the coffin containing young Robert constantly before him.
As the family are not at all superstitious, the matter was
i looked upon as only a disturbing dream, and there it ended ;
| but a few hours later a despatch came from Montgomery
county announcing the appalling fact so vividly portrayed
in the dream.
It appears that early in the afternoon the two young men
resorted to the Schuylkill river to bathe, and not arriving
home at the usual time, and darkness coming on, farmer
| Humphreys became alarmed, and taking several others with
him, they went in search of the two young men. Coming
to the river they found poor Robert lying under a tree, quite
| dead, showing unmistakable signs that he had been struck
j by lightning. Every part of the river bank was searched
j for Edwin until nearly ten o’clock in the evening, when an
object was seen floating on the water, which was at first
i supposed to be a number of ducks, but closer examination
| revealed the sad fact that it was the insensible body of
young Edwin. His body was found to be completely para¬
lysed, and he could not hear. That he escaped death by
| drowning was indeed wonderful—for he must have been in
| the water about five hours. Dr. Pennypacker, who resides
‘ near, did all he could for him, and he is how nearly well.