XXXI LABORS IN ENGLAND "Answer them, sons of the self-same race Let us speak with each other face to face, And loyally love and trust each other as Leaving the Italian cities, Mr. Peebles returned to London in January, 1870, and in obedience to his own promptings and the invitations of the English Spiritualists, in company with J. Burns, proceeded immediately to the organization of Sunday meetings at the Cavendish rooms in Regent Street. His first lecture was delivered on the third Sunday in January, to a comparatively small audience. He continued his labors over four months in London, and week evenings in the provincial cities, the interest finally augmenting into large assemblies composed of a substantial class of English minds. He preceded his lectures with a short and simple religious service, including congregational singing. The largest attendance was at the evening meetings. Occasionally absent in other cities, his desk was supplied by J. Burns, H. D. Jenken, E. Dawson Rogers, and others, with good success. We subjoin a few extracts from the British Spiritual press: "Mr. Peebles, according to a system he has long carried out in the United States, preceded his lecture with a short religious service; and he began by giving out a hymn, which was sung by the large number of Spiritualists and others present. He then offered up a short prayer to the Almighty, giving thanks to him for the blessings of direct communication. with departed friends, and for having planted within every human being the seeds of endless growth and eternal progression. "Mr. Peebles's discourse at the Sunday evening services in the Cavendish rooms, on the 27th ult., was one of the most powerful, in some respects, that we have ever listened to. The subject was 'Heaven and hell: what are they? where are they?' which was characterized by cogent reasoning and great moral power. A curious fact should not be overlooked in estimating the cause of the singular influence which this address had on the hearers. Several seeing mediums who were in the meeting gave corroborative descriptions of spirit-forms which were seen behind and above the speaker. A venerablelooking sage, with very long hair and beard, stood on a mound apart from the speaker, the space between whom and this spirit was filled with a white ethereal substance. A female spirit stood to the right, and a male spirit to the left of Mr. Peebles, while an Indian stood right behind him. Streams of light proceeded from the grave-visaged sage to the attendant spirits; and, when the ideas were bright and forcible, the color of these streams was golden; but when of an ordinary kind, they were silvery in appearance. The attendant spirits took hold of the streams of light proceeding from the sage, and placed them on the head of the speaker, sometimes in the region of ideality, and sometimes that of veneration and benevolence. The Indian spirit made very long passes with his hands all over Mr. Peebles's body, from the head downward, as if to give him vital force. These are very interesting facts, and require no comment." At this meeting he electrified his audience by relating some of his experiences with the Indians during his tour with the Peace Commission": 66 Some one thousand Indians met in council, drawn up in half-moons, near the confluence of the rivers North and South Platte: the discussion then began; old grievances were brought up. General Sherman, a kind-hearted man, but shrewd withal, put some questions about one point, in which the Indians had broken a former treaty; and these questions rather puzzled the chief speaker on the other side, who was known to the whites as Old Spotted Tail.' Being puzzled, he refused to give an immediate answer, and summoned to his side a young Indian, who directly afterward ran away; and, for nearly an hour and a half from that time, not a single word would the old Indian chief, or any subordinate chief, lisp: but, when the young man came back, Spotted Tail made a most eloquent speech. He (Mr. Peebles) afterwards ascertained, that, nine days before the council met, a celebrated medicine-man among the Indians had begun to prepare himself to hold converse with the Great Spirit, and to give advice to the tribes. By being calm, meditative, and taking little food, he became passive and negative enough to enter the clairvoyant state; and thus the advice was given. There was not a single Indian youth to be seen in all that council; and, on inquiry, he was told that, three days before it began, orders had been issued that all young Indians should absent themselves from the camp, because the chiefs did not wish them to become contaminated by the vices of the Christian whites." At a meeting of Mrs. C. Berry's circle, on Wednesday evening, January 19, Mrs. Perrin and Mrs. Child,— mediums, - together with other ladies and gentlemen, including Dr. Ashburner and N. F. Dow, Mr. Peebles had an interview with John King, by audible conversation. This spirit identified himself as the spirit who magnetically struck him those heavy blows at the séance in Cleveland, Ohio, of the Davenport boys, in 1856. The spirit also recalled the interesting incidents of that occasion; when Mr. Peebles remarked to the astonished circle, "To John King I owe my final conversion to Spiritualism." At Bradford, after an inspirational lecture, a lawyer popped up, and said, “The able gentleman has told us about spirits and spiritual things; now we would like a test. Show us the ghost, and we will believe;" and sat down amid exclamations. of "Hear! Hear!" Mr. Peebles, without the least embarrassment, arose, and replied, "The gentleman believes in God, preaches God, and asks us to believe; will he be kind enough to illustrate his own philosophy by showing us God? He believes in Jesus Christ; will he show us Christ?" The audience was enthusiastic over this happy hit. "I am a lecturer on Spiritual Philosophy," he added, "and my mission is to instruct by the gift of knowledge, not to show ghosts to gratify idle curiosity." Human Nature, a scholarly monthly journal, edited and published by J. Burns, says, among other important reports of spiritual movements: "The work is extending itself into the provinces. Mr. Peebles has visited Norwich, and addressed earnest, intelligent, and influential meetings. He is invited to Halifax; and other places are making arrangements. Where there are two or three Spiritualists in a place, they need be under no misapprehensions in making arrangements for Mr. Peebles. The first two meetings should be called by special invitation, and be held in some gentleman's drawing-room or parlor. Another Spiritualist might invite his circle of friends to his house on the following evening; after which, a modest public meeting might be ventured on, to be followed by a second, which might be considered enough for a beginning. From such safe and agreeable proceedings, useful organizations would certainly spring up, and great good be effected. Mr. Peebles, zealous and eloquent, is just the man for this important work,- a work which is sternly demanded in England, and which every carnest reformer sighs for." The Norfolk News reports his lecture in St. Andrews Hall, Norwich, on Thursday evening, February 15, as a news item. At the close, some one rose, and asked, "What is the use of Spiritualism?" Mr. Peebles replied: "That is a Yankee question. [Laughter.] We should not say, 'What is the use of it?' but, Is it true?' The use of it is to show that there is a future life, and to corroborate the Bible histories. The use of it is to roll up the curtain, and show to us those we love. It teaches us that there is no death. It demonstrates a future existence. The lecturer, in conclusion, made some telling observations in relation to the restraining influences that would be exercised over the viciously inclined by the thought that there are present with them, watching them. in all their doings, the pure spirits of those who love them." Noticing some portly gentlemen, who it might be inferred, were accustomed to wine, evidently desirous of having the spiritual gifts, he related an incident of California experience; when a person of animal habits interrogated him: "Can I become a medium?' I replied that it was needful, in the first place that he should cleanse his body; secondly, avoid liquors; thirdly, take no tobacco into his mouth; next, avoid swine's flesh, and all coarse and gross language; and then three evenings a week go into his closet, and sit down in prayer, passive and calm, for one hour: and, before six months. had rolled away, he would see the loved ones, or hear their voices, or have some other demonstration of their presence. The man went away sorrowful; for he could not endure to do all these things." Reporting the efforts at Halifax, Yorkshire, the editor of Human Nature says: 66 On Monday morning, March 14, we left Mr. Peebles at the Great Northern Railway, en route for Halifax, where he has had a most successful course of lectures. The friends of Spiritualism in that town are thoroughly active and in earnest, as all Yorkshire men are when they take up a good thing. They accordingly hired the finest public hall in the town-the Mechanics' Hall for Mr. Peebles's lectures, charged Is., 6d., and 3d. for admission, Sunday, 2d. The meetings were small to begin with, and it is an immensely large hall; but the interest increased: and much excitement was created by the free discussion and questions answered by the lecturer each night. It is reported that five clergymen were present on one evening, and three on another, one of whom had the good breeding and Christian' charity to call the lecturer an 'infidel' to his face. The lecturer's replies to these attacks were apt, keen, and scathingly sarcastic. The consequence of all this is, that the committee have cleared their expenses with something over; and everybody is extremely pleased except the 'devil and the Orthodox.' |