These things were practised to some extent in Judah, but were all put away
by Josiah. “Moreover, the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards,
and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in
the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might
perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah
the priest found in the house of the Lord,” 2 Kings 23:24.
The acts and influences of demoniacal agencies are apparent from the
foregoing; and the symbolization under the sixth seal, seems to indicate a
revival of those teachings and manifestations at the present time. Within
a few years, the curiosity of the community has been excited, and large
numbers of persons greatly interested, in various phenomena, known as
Mesmerism, Animal-Magnetism, Clairvoyance, Pathetism, Neurology,
Psychology, Biology, Electro-Biology, &c. &c. Similar manifestations have
been before exhibited, but not in modern times to the extent now
witnessed. These were regarded as harmless phenomena and independent of
any supernatural agency, till audible sounds were heard communicating
intelligible responses. Then the claim was set up that these are caused by
departed spirits.
These sounds were first heard near Rochester, New York, in 1847; and, at
the present time (1852), they are affirmed to exist in hundreds of places
in this country, and other sections of the globe. They are audible raps,
the cause of which, aside from the hypothesis of spiritual agency, has
never been satisfactorily accounted for. By these raps, unimpeached and
credible witnesses testify that correct answers have been given to
questions, the facts respecting which were known to no one at the time of
answering. Since then, furniture has been seen to move about the room, and
other _wonders_, or miracles, been performed, by invisible agency, at the
command of mediums to attending spirits,—_i.e._ to _demons_. Mediums have
written on paper, as they profess, involuntarily, lengthy communications,
in poetry and prose, the subjects of which they claim to have been
ignorant of, while the pen they held was moved independent of their own
will. These exhibitions have been attested by hundreds of credible
witnesses.
By such manifestations large numbers of persons have given their adherence
to these real or pretended agencies as truthful and reliable
intelligences; whose responses they receive with the same credence that we
do the revelations of scripture. “Circles” are extensively formed, who
have sittings, at stated times, to receive communications from the spirits
of the departed; and these are enforced by miracles, audible sounds, the
exercise of physical power, &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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