Show MGR CAPELS LECTURE A Scathing Review of Spiritualism by the Great Catholic I An Argument Against Attempting to Divine Gods Secrets Our Relationship to God and Our Communication Com-munication with Him The auditorium of the Opera House was filled last evening by an intelligent audience to listen to the second lecture of Mgr Capel the subject being Our Relations Re-lations with the Other World II By way of preface the lecturer stated I that he would meet one or two little I difficulties that had been raised concerning i j concern-ing his last lecture It is characteristic of those who think deeply to keep closely I to the subject His question on the last occasion was limited to the relationship I between science and religion Different kinds of questions have been asked It I had been urged by some that he had not answered the question Why are Catholic countries not supporters of science sci-ence as much as nonCatholic He had no idea that this question could possibly pos-sibly have any bearing on the subject It is like asking why cheese is i not like the mQon Many inventions and improvements im-provements which he named were PRODUCED BY CATHOLIC ITALY It is not the least strange feature of this matter that this question was put by an American who could surely not have forgotten that Columbh was educated in Catholic Italy and that to that cquntry America is indebted for Amerigo Vespucci Ves-pucci and Sebastian Cabot Who were the early discoverers and explorers of the interior and western portions of this great country They were Catholic priests The difficulty in this question is they take it for granted that as no good could come out of Nazareth so nothing of good can come from Catholic countrie The next question is Where are the Catholic scientists of today I should be ashamed to ask such a question if I pretended to know what was going on in the scientific world Barff AYeigarts and Peddie were three Catholic gentlemen who are prominent in the scientific world of today FREEDOM FROM PREJUDICE Should be the great characteristic of Americans aboveall other people and it should be preeminently a feature of this new western country Prof Barff a Catholic had made a discovery which would make him famous The discovery of n i > t < I od to coat iron to prevent corrosioi would revolutionize that busim 3s Another discovery equally as important had been made by him in the manner of putting up fish to keep it sweet and fresh If they would allow him an Irishmans bull he himself had eaten fish preserved by this new method and he actually thought they tasted fresher than they would on the day they were caught When BIG PROTESTANT ENGLAND Required an astronomer to investigate the transit of Venus did she select a Protestant priest No Did she select a Protestant layman No Who did she select A cunning JesuitProf Terry Huxley Darwin and other scientists all did honor to the intelligence and strength of mind of these menThe men-The lecturer then entered upon the subject of the evening He would take the position that his audience was a Christian one that they believed in a God and that they had faith in the existence exist-ence of another world If the audience were agnostics he would be compelled to take another position Assuming a belief in God what are our relations with Him They are twofold Every man woman and child possesses communication with God Call it what you will it is a universal uni-versal manifestationthe halfcivilized man of Africa possesses it as well as the cultured gentleman of Europe Conscience Con-science tells us whether an action is right or wrongby following its dictates we insure a feeling of peace by opposing we bring ourselves shame and confusion It is isA A DIRECT COMMUNICATION OF GOD To all of us Some would argue that though they had it once they do not have it now That was no reason why they should not have it Revelation was the other communication with God The church was constituted to carry into effect and interpret the laws of God so that men could understand their duties to God and to each other Revelation is the drawing back of the curtain and making visible that which is beyond That great body of truth is applicable to and obligatory obliga-tory upon all men and is Gods law for the government of men but if God so regards re-gards it He must have appointed some medium that cannot deceive or be deceived de-ceived to interpet and tell us what that truth means in case of any dispute He illustrated this position by the course of civil law PERSONAL ANGELS AND DEVILS Were believed in by the speaker When a man died if he had lived a good life he was immediately taken into the presence pres-ence and friendship of God If he had committed sins he would atone for them i in Purgatory but if he died in blasphemy blas-phemy woe unto him There was no salvation beyond the grave for such Our relation with angels was a beauti ful one it comforted the mothers heart who had lost her darling it softened the pangs of sorrow and affliction The babe who had been taken knowing no guile was a guardian angel to those who had given it life and around us all hovered THE GUARDIAN SPIRITS OF THOSE WE LOVED No matter how strong the love how fervent fer-vent the attachment when our dearest pnes are dead we can no longer endure their presepce they must be placed in the grave and in a very short time the body returns to the elements from whence it sprung Mgr Capel dilated upon the beautiful spiritual aspects of the Catholic belief which caused a feeling of nearness though there was separation and of the assurance that only the portal of Time was between us and the departed Transported into the presence of God we will no longer need faith or reason for there we shall see and know all The angels arrived at conclusions by intuition even as a man of genius would jump at a conclusion without going through the slow process of reasoning To illustrate this he told of a schoolboy friend of his who could multiply bYsix figures just as easilv as he could by one He had met him since an officer in the British armybut he could never explain it Reasoning was going along on crutches while genius tr intuition attained its object by bound I In the close presence and friendship of GodTHE THE ANGELS LEARNED BY INTUITION The communion of saints was dwelt upon at length from Catholic standpoint stand-point The lecturer then proceeded to Spiritualism Spirit-ualism He would give many Spiritualists Spiritual-ists the credit of being honest but the dross in the crucible was large and heavy It was also true that many bright and > I intelligent minds had belief in it He from but from would not speak prejudice an impartial investigation of many years Curiosity was a good thing in itself but he deprecated it in a mattyr of religion he had investigated it from a scientific to standpoint At a seance in London which ho was invited by a wellknown lady medium when he entered the room The lady there was a sound of thunder asked him if he was not convinced He replied that he heard an abundance of sound but was not convinced that there were spirits present He was ungallant enough to ask the lady to take off her boots and stand on two cushions and when she asked DARLING SPIRIT ARE YOU THERE No answer could be obtained Another time he took a medium from London to Paris to test slatewriting The spirits could not write French although they were in France Many of the laws of nature were yet imperfectly understood mesmerism so called magnetism mind reading and other seemingly supernatural phenomena belong to the science of biology and would yet be explained by the laws of science What would have been thought three hundred years ago of a man who should have declared the possibilities of the telegraph and telephone He would have been called a madman Scientists and medical men were WATCHING AND INVESTIGATING BIOLOGY Closely and the explanation would come But granting that all that Spiritualism claims is true what good is it What happiness is there in the knowledge of a few raps a little slatewriting and an intimation in-timation that soandso is happy in the spirit land It wrecked the physical organization He could almost tell a spiritualist from his knowledge of physiognomy physi-ognomy By the wandering eye the gloomy disposition etc he could point them out He had good authority for stating that the end of many spiritualists was in the lunatic asylum In comparison with the authorized spiritual belief THIS BELIEF IN DIVINATION IS BLASPHEMY And he cautioned his hearers against indulging in-dulging in it It was as if a man should ask to patent a small tub to cross the Atlantic At-lantic when there are already magnificent magnifi-cent ocean steamers which make the voyage voy-age in safety Curiosity was pleaded by many as an excuse for attending seances and lectures of opponents of Christianity People would pay a dollar to hear a notorious man blaspheme because he could say funny things and make them laugh Would they pay a dollar to hear a man stand up and defame their mother Spiritualism attempted to dethrone God the laws with regard to communication with the invisible were fixed and it is blasphemy for any ism to pry further into the secrets of the Almighty Al-mighty Spiritualism had its existence exist-ence since the Witch of Endor called up the spirit of Samuel and evidently the witch made a much better job of it than do the mediums nowadays At the conclusion of the lecture Mgr Capel thanked the audience for their attention at-tention and hoped at a future time to make a longer stay in our city |