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Show SPIRITUALISM 10 EVDLUTIOiy TIME Beth Are Attacked by President Presi-dent Morris of the Salt Lake Stake. SOME GOOD ADMITTED Seances and Table Rappings Are Branded as Unsavory and Musty. Members of the Mormon church are "spiritists,' in that they have believed firmly in the existence of spirits since the foundation cf the church, but they are not .sptritualtsts in the common sense of the word, declared President Nep'ii L. Morris of the Salt Lake stake yesterday yes-terday afternoon at the tabernaci". He branded so-called spiritualism seances , and table rappings by mediums as unsavory un-savory and musty, and declared that M per cent of It is fraud and detention. But he added that if onlv 1 per rent of this theory is true enouph to pstabUh the truthfulness of the immortal! tv of the sou), then spiritualism has performed a good mission. The remarks of Mr. Morris came in connection with Ms ad-: ad-: dress on the theory of evolution and its effe"t upon the Christian belief in immortality im-mortality of tiie soul. ! The meeting was presided over bo , President Anthon H. Lund. The first : selection by the choir was ""ome. Com1 I Ye Saints." President Morris waa the i onlv speaker. The closing' hymn bv ! choir and congregation was "YVe Thank , Thee, O God, For a Prophet." Benediction Benedic-tion was pronounced by Charles H. Hyde. The foundation for President Morris's address was the recent press dispatches and magazine articles regarding the belief be-lief held by Sir Oliver Lodge and othr English scientists in the immortality ot the soul. Surprise Is Expressed. The speaker quoted the newspapers and magazines as saying that the quoted statements of the scientists that they j believed in the immortality of the soul ; had come after a seance in which these eminent men had conversed with spirits from the other world through a medium. He said that while he and other Latter-day Latter-day Sai nts were somewhat disgusted ! with the thought that men with the eminent caliber of Sir Oliver Lodge, ; Lord Kelton and others should be fooled , with such mummery as table rappings, 1 purported talks v.ith the spirits of Oirdl-I Oirdl-I nal iN'ewmau and others who told things j that, everybody knew, and the tncanta-: tncanta-: Hons . of spiritualist mediums, yet they ; were glad that these men of science have at. Inst come, to believe in Immortality, j President Morris said that the Mormon 1 belief in messages from the spirit world ; is founded on actual messages from God, Mild he contrasted the revelations to leaders of the Mormon church with the : supposed manifestations of the seance 1 tithles. He said that the revelations of God to man had always been full of dignity, dig-nity, but that things told at seances by spirits were not worthy of God and so could not possibly come from Him. He hinted that such spirit talks mav be the work of the- devil, for he told of how the prophet Joseph Smith received spurious revelations from the evil one after he had received his real revelations revela-tions from God. Theory of Evolution. President Morris took up the theory of evolution and said that while the ; theory is a wonderful one and lias done much for scicnt i f in rosea rch and ed uca - i tion. It Is largely refuted by truths learned by scientific men. He declared that Pctence and religion never will con-fllri. con-fllri. for truth is always in harmony with truth mid time will eventually correct all errors in science and religion. Ho said that evolution Is a truth, that there is no denying that, but that there are many errors In it. the most glaring of which Is that man in his present high state is the product of the lower forms of animals. He said thai while man's phvs-ieal phvs-ieal being may be the e.volutionized lnwer forms, his mentality mathematics, music, poptry. art. etc. is God-given and was not secured hy evolution. That, the theory of evolution has been much misunderstood was the speaker's declaration. He said facottoualv that Fomo persons thought that evolution might change a beautiful Friday afternoon after-noon into a pair of trousers. Mr. Morris's principal attnrk on evolution evo-lution is that it has not served to do gnnd in t lie unlvt-rse. He said that its Inline nee has done much to undermine the faith Imld hy our fathers, hut his principal arraignment was that It has It nocked the props of Christian morality from tinrlsr our young men and young women. Ho declared that today there' is a tint livable decline in mora lit v among the hoys and girls especially the bovs in the cnlh'gea and schools. He aald "that tins I principally caused by the teaching teach-ing of evolution. "Religion," he said, "h; the basis of morality, and when that basis is removed by a belief in evolution, then evolution results in great loss to the human race." |