REXFORD VERSUS REXFORD.

Rev. Mr. Rexford, of the Universalist Church, has attracted some attention since his arrival here, by various bold utterances, of which the following concerning Hammond's talks to children is a specimen :

"What monstrous hallucination has come over the minds and hearts of these men that such barbarous fictions should be doled out to children of this or any other city? Is this is our Christianity? If it be so, then out with it; and knowing it to be such let us all become atheists, infidels anything rather than Christians-for I am sure no greater calamity could befall any mortal than to believe in such a religion or such a God.

So radical have been some of Mr. Rexford's sermons that the Freethinkers had good reason to believe that, if invited to speak before them, he would be at least as liberal in their hall as in his own. He came, and for some reason best known to himself, he took ground exactly contrary to that he had been preaching, referring to Hammond and his crew as engaged in a good work, and characterizing the Freethinkers as destroyers, as breakers-up of homes, as Freelovers, and as grossly immoral. A greater libel on Liberalists was never uttered. It was not only a vile abuse of privilege, but it was grossly dishonest, the man knowing

his utterances to be false. Had Mr. Hammond been invited, the audience would have expected such a tirade, and would have given Hammond the credit of honesty, knowing his ignorance, but there is no excuse for Mr. Rexford. He had the opportunity presented to him of telling the truth, and making many friends among the active thinking portion of our people; but he deliberately chose to repel this class, and look elsewhere for his moral and pecuniary support. Some may be charitable enough to hope that he had no selfish motive; but the facts of the case do not make it possible to put any other construction upon his course.

Some of his criticisms were just, and would have done good, had he not repelled all kindly feeling by attributing to his hearers sentiments they do not entertain and actions they abhor. That they sat quietly under such unjust strictures is evidence sufficient that they are not the lawless, hotheaded set of irresponsible persons he was pleased to characterize them.

Mr. Rexford's assertion that the Church is the conservator of morality, the preserver of social order and the active power in the work of civilization, although not true, was expected by his hearers, and was listened to quietly, with but a single word of dissent; though a few who had heard him in his own hall, thought he might even here have made a distinction between true Christianity and the fraud which claims its name. It was only on the preceding Sabbath that the editor of this paper heard Mr. Rexford prove that there is no similarity whatever between the teachings of Christ and the plan of salvation taught by Evangelical Christians. All of Christ's exhortations were in favor of good works, kindness, brotherly love, charity, in short, service to humanity. Mr. Rexford continued:

After speaking of the character of God, as held by Evangelists of the Hammond school, Mr. Rexford said:

"I know no such God. God does not need our service, Christ does not need it; but man does; and serving man is serving God in the most acceptable manner.

He characterized the evangelical conception of Christianity as a most monstrous misapprehension," and said that such a religion is worse than no religion at all. Yet he comes before the radicals, and tells them that if compelled to choose between the evangelical christians on the one hand, or the rabble, as he called Freethinkers, on the other, he would not hesitate to join the evangelists.

Freethinkers, although the man who tells you this is unworthy of our respect, yet you may learn a lesson from his words, for they prove to you that when the lines are

drawn, as they soon will be between bastard christianity will be found in the ranks of the enemy. and Freethought, many whom we believed to be with us

A WORD ABOUT WOMAN

Mrs. L. E. Drake, on Sunday evening last, lectured to a full house in the hall of the Spiritualists' Union, 911 Market street, her subject being "The Status of Woman in Society." She assumed that man is not wholly to blame for woman's deplorable condition. They are the most unjust and uncharitable to their own sex. They are the most willing slaves to the behests of fashion, and the most fearful cowards of Mother Grundy; but, worse than all, they are the most subject to the dominance of the clergy. In her opinion-one held also by Mrs. Kendrick--a large majority of the women, if granted the right of suffrage, would vote to put God in the Constitution, and to favor other demands the priests might make to establish religious tests in this country. She deems it unsafe to grant the right of suffrage to woman, until she has risen in the scale of intellectual being; yet she confidently looks forward to the time when there will be no distinction of sex in civil affairs.

Judge A. M. Crane briefly explained the laws of California with regard to women, showing that they are much more liberal than in other States of the Union.

J. L. Hatch, of Santa Clara, also presented a petition to the Supervisors against the taking of any backward action in the matter of allowing religious instruction in the public schools. The petition was signed by a large number. Mrs. Drake will speak at the same place every Sunday evening during this month. The friends of Free thought should give her a hearing. Her subject on Sunday afternoon is, "Idols, past and present." In the evening she will review Rev. Mr. Rexford's lecture before the Freethinkers.

MATERIALIZATION.

Rev. Mr. Simonds, in the September number of The Living Way, gives an article on "Christianity and Spiritism," in which he says of the Katie King manifestations, reported by Mr. Crooke:

Materializations of the spiritual world are as old as creation, andtare repeated every day, but in quite a different way from the manner here affirmed. There are laws by which they may occur in endless variety. But where they do occur the spiritual entirely disappears in the natural, which remains and is subject to natural laws. If Katie King appeared in real natural body, of which the outward senses were certain, then her body should remain natural and abide under natural law ever after, as permanently as the sun, the earth, a tree, or any object of sense whatever. The same law must govern all true materializatio.n Where was the body of Katie King after she went back to the spiritual world? It is as impossible to take materiality up to that world as it is to make spirit truly manifest Did Mr Crooke keep her body and show it, as he should, every time she materialized and then went away, he should have forty bodies, more or less, of Katie by this time.

to the outer sense in this.

If a body be a material body, reason and philosophy demand it should be shown, and no artifice about it. "Gather up the fragments, said Jesus, when he had materialized loaves and fishes in the wilderness to feed the seven thousand, besides the women and children," that none be lost." Material it was created, and material it remained, subject to natural.law; no illusion of the senses-no more than the sun, or the earth, or our flesh is an illusion. The sun, earth, stars of heaven, and every plant and animal on the earth, are but materializations of God's thoughts. They abide because God's wisdom and love are permanent. At least, this is in accordance with what I know of this and the spiritual world. I am willing that spiritists should be right, and that I should be wrong. I should be entirely satisfied, if I knew it, to confess it. But I must abide by what I know; and when spiritists appeal to their senses to to prove points, and tell me they must abide by what they know, too, I simply have to say, it is not enough that the points are clear to their senses-they should be clear to my senses, and to the senses of all men. Spiritists may form their conditions in the dark; but, when they have materialized, just please let them remember that then all darkness is to be cast aside, the scales and chemist brought in, and the matter analyzed in broad day light.

Our friend Simonds evidently has not closely studied the philosophy of materialization, and is not competent to express such an oracular judgment. It is not claimed that these bodies are made out of nothing. The materials are temporarily borrowed from the medium and other organizations, and are returned again after use. This seems impossible, but we know very little of spiritual chemistry, and are no more prepared to say it cannot be than the Fiji islander is to say a telegraphic message cannot be sent.

The testimony furnished by Prof. Crooke is but a small portion of the evidence now known to substantiate the fact of materialization. The well authenticated phenomena at the home of the Eddy family, the exhibitions at Mr. Mott's house in Memphis, and at Mrs. Andrews' in Moravia, the wonderful materializations in presence of Maud Lord, of Boston, Mrs. Anna Stewart, of Terre Haute, Ind., and Mrs. Compton, of Havana, N. Y., all prove beyond a

doubt the fact of materialization. Even the Holmes, of Philadelphia, although they used fraud, when their power failed, are genuine mediums, and some of the materializations in their presence are beyond dispute.

Spirits have repeatedly appeared in the light, have been weighed and reweighed, the weight varying at the pleasure

of the spirit; the mediums have been weighed, before, during and after a seance, and the temporary loss of material accurately ascertained. The spirit and medium have repeatedly been seen at the same moment, in some cases the two walking out hand-in-hand before the audience in the light.

The trouble with Brother Simonds is that he wishes to make truth agree with him, instead of lifting himself up to the truth.

J. J. MORSE, trance speaker, is to remain in America during the summer, and will probably spend a part of next winter in California. He has engaged to speak in Bangor, Me., in September next, and in Boston in October and November. He may conclude to come to California in January, if encouragement is offered. He has given satisfaction in every place in this country where he has spoken. In Boston, Bangor, and other cities he drew larger audiences than any other speaker on the Spiritual platform. Bro. Morse, with great modesty, attributes all his success to his controling spirits. Whatever arrangements our Societies in California can make with him should

be made at once, otherwise he will accept offers that will prevent his visiting this coast. His address is care of A. J. Davis & Co. 24 East 4th street, New York City.

FREETHOUGHT COMMITTEE.

To Henry L. Knight, Wm. N. Slocum, Mrs. Mary Hanks, Mrs. Augusta Perkins, Mrs. A. W. M. Bartlett, Mrs. Anna F. Smith, A. C. Stowe, Almarin B. Paul, Albert Kendrick, Pat. J. Healy, W. H. Chaney, Capt. C. B. Smith, Mrs. O. M. Dawson, Joseph Swain, Mrs. E. H. McKinley, Lena Clarke, Mrs. A. M. Lewis, Dr. Dean Clarke, and Dr Wm. R. Joscelyn, of San Francisco; J, W. Mackie and Marshall Curtis of Alameda, Col. C. P. Hatch and Eleanor Lindsay of Sonoma; J. L York and J. J. Owen, of Santa Clara; Josiah Johnson and Ferdinand Woodward of Sacramento; J. W. Freeman and H. A. Manchester of San Joaquin; Josephine Walcott and G. W. Stanley of Santa Barbara; D. W. C. Franklin and Thomas A. Garey, of Los Angeles; P. R. Wright of San Bernardino; J. W. Sweasey of Humboldt; A. F. Blood of Butte; Mrs. G. B. Kirby of Santa Cruz; Mrs. Helen W. Baker, of Lake; H. S. Pope of Ventura; Mrs. L. Hutchison of Inyo; and P. H. Trask of San Diego; composing the Committee appointed by the late Convention to devise a plan for a State organization of the Freethinkers of California:

You are hereby notified that a meeting of said Committee will be held in Charter Oak Hall, San Francisco, on Saturday, the 1st day of May, 1875, at 2 o'clock P. M., for the purpose of adopting a plan of organization, and electing temporary officers JAMES BATTERSBY, Chairman. of such Society.

In the official report of the Free Thought Convention last

week, one line was accidently omitted by the printer. Dr. Joscelyn offered an amendment to insert the words Spiritualists and Liberalists after the word Freethinkers. The words in italic were dropped in setting the type.

[Published by Request. LIFE AND DEATH—A LAW OF NATURE.

Death is neither a law of hatred nor a law of vengeance; it is the condition of that which is. God has opposed it to life in order to maintain life.

The flowers of spring must fade, in order that autumn may produce its fruits, generations must pass away, that love may produce its fruits. Life and death act like a single power; the one is charged to clear the place, the other to refill it; their visible end is not to create, not to destroy, but to perpetuate the great spectacle of nature.

Thus, there is nothing more remarkable than the harmony of these two powers, and, if we may so express it, than the equality of their labour. They advance at an equal pace, without overtaking or passing each other; life sows, death reaps, and the reproductions and losses counterpoise each other. The destiny of the world depends upon the preservation of this equilibrium. You could not give death an advantage over life, or life over death, without annihilating creation, for creation is the work of death as well as of life. And, this is so true, that in order to cause life to cease upon the earth, it would be sufficient to establish a single exception to the law of death, we do not say in the human race, but in the most ephemeral being—a plant, a gnat, a fly, a fish. The seeds of a single poppy would cover the earth in six years, and no more than three years would be required for a whiting to encumber the seas with its progeny. Fortunately, death is always on the watch. Foreseeing and preserving, it prevents these frightful multiplications, without ever annihilating the species; it saves the world from the excess of life. In this respect, we will dare to say, that death is but the instrument of life. All its power is reduced to changing the forms of matter which it cannot destroy, and which life again takes from it. Thus, death has only power over the form. The essence of all things escapes it. A similar fact presents to our souls something more than hope! It is, then, from not knowing death that we surround it with apprehension. It is a crime for a man to kill a man, because he takes away that which he cannot restore; but in the hands of God, it opens out a passage to the human race; it calls generations upon the earth. Were the work of death to be suspended, this immense stream would cease to flow. When the perceptible object of death is to multiply existences, can its imperceptible object be to annihilate? And yet, moralists do not cease to tell us of the terrors of death; some regard it as a scourge, others as a punishment. But if death be a law of vengeance, life is a law of wrath, Wherefore, then, do so many joys and hopes exist in our hearts, so many sublime inspirations in our souls? Wherefore this sun, these harvests, this verdure; the air, perfumes, colours, and the delightful harmonies which indicate more goodness than power? Wherefore is life, in fact, this creation of a double self, one of which, being altogether material, takes possession of heaven; for our life on earth is double, and promises us two worlds. It is true that we arrive in this world without defence and without intelligence, but we also arrive in it beneath the safeguard of maternal tenderness. Then come the sports of early infancy, then the illusions of youth and love, which would suffice to our happiness, since they raise us up to God. We want for nothing in the voyage, and Providence, which foresees all its necessities, has not forgotten its end. It bestows upon us the sentiment of infinity, which it refused to us at our entry into life. We must dare to say, however singular it may appear, that we apprehend death because we shut our eyes to the benefits of life. If we knew better what God has done for us, we should also know better what he reserves for us. Our double life is a heavenly gift of love and goodness-a magnificent, a gratuitous gift. We were not, and here is a power which was from all eternity, that calls us not only to live and to feel, as all else lives and feels, but also to love him. This power which was, this divinity which created, gave us at first innocence and ignorance,

and subsequently opened to us all the paths of imagination and of knowledge. By innocence we attain to the happiness of knowing. These two first conditions of life, which seem to attest our weakness, thus become the source of our sweetest pleasures. Ignorance is the attribute of childhood, it comprise in an unlimited futurity all the joys of love, and a world to contemplate. What a multitude of reasons for loving life! But in proportion as the soul developes itself, as it feels itself free; eternal, infinite, more powerful than all the powers of nature,

in proportion as the sentiment of the sublime raises it above worlds and suns, and in proportion as it frees itself from all the pains and pleasures of the flesh, does it imagine a something beyond all that it feels and all that it sees. Oh! then, what numerous reasons are there not for loving death; what numerous reasons for comprehending and hoping in the divine Creator of all things, the Power which was, is and ever shall be; of whom, notwithstanding our weakness, we are permitted to have a glimpse; and to whom, notwithstanding our nothingness, we are allowed to pray.

The life of this world is a happiness, since it is the way which leads us to God. Thus in proportion as life speaks, death loses its terrors, and appears to our souls but as a passage from darkness to light, a gate opening into heaven, at the threshold of which we only leave a corpse; a thing which, says Bossuet, has no longer a name, a handful of ashes. Hence, to die is to be transformed; it is to pass from one life to another, from a world where we seek for truth, to a world where we possess it. Death leads us to God; this is a fact which destroys all its pains. It is, then, for want of faith that we apprehend death, for want of enlightenment that we crush it; it is the greatest benefit of this life, since it is the end of life. But, do you say, I would not die. Well, be it so. Suppose God to give thee an eternity upon the earth. What a terrible present! Thou wouldst be condemned always to desire, without ever possessing; always to seek, without ever finding; to have constantly a glimpse of, without contemplating; always to love, without ever knowing the God whom thou lovest. Alas! what would life be, if it were restricted to this world, with desires which constantly extend beyond? All that which man seeks, loves, adores, has a glimpse of-where is it? Nowhere here-below. Death then must give us that which life shows us. Death is therefore a good, the greatest good which the soul can conceive; the entrance to an eternity, which would be a punishment upon earth, the accomplishment of the promises which life makes to us.

Man of little faith! thou blasphemest death, and it is by its means that thou mayst possess all the treasures which God permits thee in this life only to have a glimpse of and to desire, To understand death, is to study to live well; to understand life is to be happy in death.

Let us, then, repose fearlessly upon this bed whereon the human race reposes. If wrath do not weigh heavily upon our life, wherefore should it suddenly show itself at our death? The laws of nature are laws of benevolence, which protect us unto the end; and it is perhaps in their last expression that God has placed the great secret of futurity. Observe the dying looks of all creatures directed towards the place where their posterity must be renewed. The butterfly falls near the flower in which it has deposited its eggs; the bird at the foot of the tree which sheltered its nest; the goat dies among its rocks; the bull in the meadows, stretched out upon the rich pasture; but man dies with his head and eyes turned towards heaven, as a symbol of his immortality.

Six hundred millions of people on this globe constantly toil all their lives long, while about 19,000,000 sit quietly and complacently by, gathering the result to themselves. The laboring classes constitute 7-10 of mankind, and in any revolution they have nothing to lose but their chains; as the lowest stratum in society cannot rise without causing the complete disruption of all superincumbent classes we cannot measure the magnitude of the revolution that liberty, justice and equality to these millions involve. To-day they are waking from the lethargy of ages, moving with that healthy discontent that marks every step in progress and for the first time in the history of nations, combining the world over.-Mrs. E. C. Stanton in Earlville Transcript.

A FIVE MINUTES SPEECH.

Of the twenty-five little speeches made in the "Inquiry Meeting" at Dashaway Hall, on Sunday, the following, by Mrs. Dr. Julia Aldrich Joscelyn," is the only one that was not extempore, It was in writing, and is published by request:

MARRIAGE CONTRACT.

Whereas we, the undersigned, mutually hold the opinion that able right to direct, or interfere with, or just claim to be conneither Church, State or public opinion has any moral or equitsulted as to the manner in which the people shall pursue their social happiness; and especially not as to how the relations between men and women-such as the spontaneous sympathies, affections and wants of their nature suggest and demand-shall be formed or dissolved; and having exchanged ideas and sentiments as to the respect, sympathy and love that we each entertain for the other, and conscientiously disregarding the arbitrary regulations and practices of what we understand to be an unhappy and unnatural state of society we hereby adopt this as the best and most satisfactory form b,y which to declareour martial union, as, in our judgments, it presents the clearest exhaving obtained the requisite license, we do hereby declare and publish ourselves husband and wife, in the presence of these subscribing witnesses. Dated at Santa Clara this 4th day of April, 1875. ALEXANEER J. SPENCER, EVA WALSH,

The heart sickens to enumerate the horrors that have been practiced upon humanity under priestly rule; and now they are playing their last game over the civilized world to-day, to bring about a reaction for tyranny and oppression of every kind. They would take away your liberties and overturn this Republic, and make it a priestly despotism with their God in the Constitution. Shall it be? Can it be? Will you, men and women of Free Thought, once more submit to the despotism of priestly rule? Down with the glittering absurdities that have been presented to you, and up with the Banner of Science and Nature, and the great cause of humanity.

We were told by the speaker of the "innumerable last legs," and considerable amount of lung breathing power yet existing in this Christianity. Yes, we are aware that this many-headed monster is upon us, and we know if we do not unite and work with a will for its speedy overthrow, our liberties are gone.

PUBLIC SEANCES.

We publish the following in accordance with our rule to give both sides of all questions a fair show, yet we must be allowed to say that the notice referred to was not intended as a 66 report" of the seance, but merely as comment on it, and every word of it was true, as nine-tenths of those present can testify :

EDITOR COMMON SENSE.-The report of the failure and inharmony of the Seance held at Dashaway Hall on Anniversary Evening is incorrect. The facts are as follows-Mrs. Cummings gave a convincing Test-described a Spiritgave the name and went into the audience and selected the friend to whom the spirit belonged. Mr. Jackson gave a good test to Mrs. Ada Hoyt Foye-giving the peculiar phraseology of the spirit and name. Mrs. Kerns and Mrs. Aitken gave tests that were recognized. Dr. Joscelyn described four spirits that were recognized, giving their leading traits of character and the diseases with which they passed away,-moreover, two of the gentlemen friends of the spirit came to the Dr. the next evening and expressed great satisfaction with the accuracy of his descriptions. I know of no inharmonies connected with that seance. Such a report is poor encouragement to the mediums who were specially invited by the General Committee of Management, that it might add to the pecuniary success of the Anniversary. Yours for Truth and Justice.

MRS. DR. JULIA ALDRICH JOSCELYN.

Witness:

GEO. A. ELLIOTT, H. W. ELLIOTT.

I am frank to confess that immortality has not been proven. That many stubborn objections at times obstruct my search for a foundation for this hope I also admit; but I am not willing to say that my subjective state is the highest possible condition for investigating the subject, and that my knowledge is the final limit of a man" comprehension of his being. If there is a spiritual existence outside of this life I believe it is a natural existence, subject to and controlled by fixed laws as this life is; and hence its truths accessible through a natural process of investigation. But I do not know what conditions may be necessary to bring this world of "untried being" under the scrutinizing eye of science. Can any student of physical science affirm that he has all of the conditions necessary for the fullest discovery in any experiment he may make in the investigation of his subject? Have great discoveries in other fields of research been the fruits of the first efforts of those who explored the "unknown" for new truths? Why should we be so impatient, then toward the tardiness of spiritual discoveries?-H. Clay Nerville.

THE COMMON LOT.-We are prone to imagine that our temptations are peculiar; that other hearts are free from secret burdens that oppress our energies, and cast a cloud upon our joy; that life has for others a freer movement and a less embarassed way. But the more we know of what passes in the minds of others, the more our friends disclose to us their secret consciousness, the more do we learn that no man is peculiar in his moral experience that beneath the smoothest surface of outward life lie deep cares fall beneath the temptations that are common to man, the of the heart,-and that, if we fall under our burdens, we existence of which others as little suspect in us as we do in

them.-J. H. Thom.

Two girls attending a seminary in Illinois set two chickens fighting in their room last Sunday. Bets on the result ran high, and at the conclusion of the contest the winning maiden was "better" by a gold watch, a pair of silk stockings, a French corset, two rolls of false hair, a patent bustle, and a beautiful book mark with "Christ our Guide" worked on it in colored silk.-Boston Investigator.