Show = UlSTUniJIiC PltEDICTIONS FBBQUIJCTLY of lato the coast papers havecontained references t pp le cntuo rreDcs a man named Erickson and a woman named Mrs Woodworth who have been reIterating with the utmost u rnc lr lon I he ee that San Francisco and Oakland Oak-land were to be destroyed during the present month l > y a tidal wave and that Chicago and llllwaukeo were to 0 obliterated by an earthquake earth-quake S maiked was the effect which these prophecies had upon the minds of a certain class in California Cali-fornia that tlio San Francisco Ctrvntclc fill called upon t exert nn influence to counteract It I Jlldicnle was mingled xrlthanar gument which aImed to convince thu render that an human eJc could not penetrate to the Interior of the cacti no man could possibly I foretell when such a disturbance of i its surface would occur u would i produce either I tidal wave or an I earthquake I i reported that ninny people of Oakland sold out for what they could get and fled t the interior of the SLate that numb of persons were driven Insane bJ tbe fear caused by the dire predictions of the Individuals Individ-uals referred to and that many hav < Euijectod tbcmsdvts to destitution desti-tution in their terror at the prospect pros-pect held up before them That Kiious concqucnccs attended the prophesying of ricksou and M Wood worth seems to be abundantly sustained but the good that has thereby been accomplished I an invisible quantity ThelSew York World takes up the eul Ject remarking I Is one of tbo Inconvenience of liberty that under un-der a ty tel of freo fpcech the knave and the fool may exploit themselves a freely as the philosopher philos-opher I Fpcaka of the grao mischief which has been done by these predictions and continues contin-ues And all this occurs simply bus Erickson and Mrs Woo J worth desired de-sired io attract attention to themselves and make a sensation by confidently pretendIng to foreknowledge which no human being cn possess ntlt dIetIng calamities whIch they know no more than brute beasts What a reflection this kind of thing I upon tbe imperfection of on r system of popular education t Them W never a time when the knowledge which should render superstition pow crcs to make dupes was so universal as now and yet there was never a time when vulgar cheats pretending to supemalual powers orhypernatur aj knowledge secmod 5 easily to make victims amoug people educated Into In-to schools Faith bealerv spiritualist spiritual-ist prophets o di < aser charlatans quacks cheats of every kind ply their trado in tho very centres of Intelligence Intelli-gence and find multitudes to follow them in spite of the leaching of the schools that results how only from efficient causes The skepticism of our time seems to begin believing where credulity is Inclined to leave oft Tbe World probably correct In assigning the main motive which actuateil the prognoslicator and certainly expresses truth In respect t the readiness with which the present generation allows itself to b deceived So marked is this disposition position that one may well believe that error I preferred to truth In past ages II I has generally been a noteworthy fact that fake prophets most abounded when true ones were abroad among the people proclaiming proclaim-ing a message of warning and r peutauct and that deceivers of the varieties named by the IPorU were most numerous when true and divinely di-vinely inspired teachers were engaged en-gaged in preaching righteousness In other word J counterfeit coins are contemporaneous with tho genuine One feature connected with the prophecies of ErlckKm and l Wood worth is sufficient t condemn them a from an evil source The person who belIeved them was not thereby led t repentance from sin brought nearer to God or made lisp pier or better in any way On the contrary their converts were lurjred into mIsers and desnair far greater than they bad ever known before listening t these prophets pro-phets Whet those who receive the message of atruo prophet have anexjierieuco exactly the opposite of this They become better purer happier moro godly and more de actions |