Mr. Peebles's Journey in Europe.

Among the supporters of the American spiritualist school, with whom we congratulate ourselves on multiplying our relations, we are pleased to cite Mr. Peebles, well known to the American spiritist world as editor of the “Banner of Light,” a “spiritualist” newspaper of Boston.

Mr. Peebles has also distinguished himself as a lecturer, and, by the reading of some speeches he delivered to popularize our convictions, we were able to appreciate the nobility of his conceptions and the depth and impartiality of his mind.

We take from Human Nature, a spiritualist newspaper published in London, some interesting details about the life of Mr. Peebles. In his youth he studied to be a minister of the Calvinist Baptist worship, one of the most rigorous orthodox communions in America. His aptitudes and his liberal education led him to go beyond the narrow limits of the knowledge required to be a pastor. He struggled, observed, and thought for himself, courageously combating what his first education condemned and conscientiously defending what he believed to be the truth. From the Calvinist school, he entered the vaster perspectives professed by the universities, whose beliefs he taught for several years. While his mind oscillated between the narrow circle of classical theories and the powerlessness of doubt and denial, the spiritualist movement was spreading throughout all of America. Manifestations occurred in the home of some of his friends and before his own eyes. He examined the phenomena and communications with prudence and, after many doubts and misgivings, his objections succumbed in the face of the truth, and he entered the ranks of the spiritualists. Afterward, he devoted himself to the propagation of our convictions; he traveled from New England to California, from North to South, in the civilized cities of the East, among the mountaineers and the inhabitants of the plains, spreading the new doctrine and acquiring experience in these visits to all degrees of civilization. Mr. Peebles published several notable spiritist works [Immortality and Our Employments Hereafter; Who Are These Spiritualists?; Immortality: its naturalness, its possibilities and proofs; etc.], among which a volume entitled: “The Seers of the Ages,” n with which he honored us, and which has as its special object to demonstrate the existence of the Spirits and the possibility of entering into communication with them.

Mr. Peebles is not visiting Europe merely in the capacity of a spiritualist; he is going to Trebizond in the capacity of consul of the United States. We are happy to be able to count him among the number of men without prejudice, who are the most disposed to admit reincarnation, that essential principle so long contested by the American school, and which today tends to become popular in that country. There is no doubt that a cordial understanding among all intelligent men, who in every center have seriously studied this interesting question, will soon result for all in the acceptance of the truth. The following communication was obtained in an intimate circle, in the presence of Mr. Peebles. We deem it a duty to bring it to the knowledge of our readers, because it seems to us to explain logically and rationally the true causes of the divergence in the teachings of the Spirits in the French centers and in the American centers.

[1] [Seers of the ages: embracing spiritualism, past and present doctrines stated … by James Martin Peebles - Google books.]

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