Review of Revieirs, lIllfOG. 



Leading Articles. 



497 



DEMONIACAL POSSESSION TRUE. 



Modern Parallels to the Gospel Narrative. 



Mr. R. B. Span, in the Occult Review for Septem- 

 ber, in his latest Glimpses of the Unseen, says, what 

 is well known to all students, that in the Annals of 

 Spiritualism and Psychical Research there are well 

 authenticated cases of Demoniacal Possession, or, 

 as he calls it, of obsession of evil spirits. 



ONE POSSESSED IN NEW ZEALAND. 



In the New Testament the evil spirit had an ugly 



habit of throwing its victim into the fire. Mr. R. 



B. Span found a parallel to this : — 



When I was in New Zealand there was a case of obses&ion 

 at Aucklauil. a young man being possessed by a spirit 

 which r.iused him more bodily harm by throwing him into 

 the fire, when he waa badly bnrnt, and on another occa- 

 sion into tlie sea. when he was nearly drowned. Wlien 

 under this influence his language was fearful, and he had 

 no control over himself at all, whilst a strange voice used 

 his vocal organs, stating that it intended to ruin tlie 

 young man body and soul. Fortunately for the victim, 

 there were some friends who recognised his condition as 

 one of oljeession, and instead of having him certified as 

 insane and sent to a lunatic asylum, they called in the 

 services ot a clergyman, a good and saintl.v man, who 

 became also convinced that it was a case of diabolical 

 possession ; and after constant and earnest prayer, the evil 

 spirit was eventually exorcised by the name of Ciirist and 

 the symbol of the Cross, and the young man was never 

 troubled by it again, 



A CAIitPOENIAN CASE. 



Mr. R. B. Span, when in San Diego, in California, 

 awoke from a deep sleep to find his room faintly 

 illuminated by a lurid radiance. He saw — 



several da;k forme moving from the other end of the room 

 slowly towards me. Instinctively I tried to jump up and 

 cry cut, 1 nt f und myself inoipable of moving or speaking. 

 Ihe-.e were four or five of these figures, all arrayed in long 

 dark cloaks with hoods drawn over their heads, which, 

 however, did not conceal their faces, which were indescrib- 

 ably horrible and malignant. I was seized with an agony 

 of fear, and prayed with an intensitj- of feeling I have 

 , never before or since experienced, " O Christ save me! 

 Christ save me!" As I did so a brilliant flash of white 

 light shot through the room, and the figures ciuickly re- 

 treated and vanished, while the awful feeling of oppression 

 and paralysis left me also, and I came to my full con- 

 sciousness, trembling violently and feeling weak and ill, as 

 if I had passed through some great mental and physical 

 strain and spiritual crisis. 



He thought that it was only a nightmare. Next 



morning he told his friend, a trance medium, Mr. 



T , of his "dream": — 



Mr. T , who had been staring int-ently at something 



bej'ond me, and had become very white suddenly gave a 

 cry of alarm and rose quickly to his feet, at the same time 

 throwing out his arms in front of his head as if to ward 

 off a blow. 



The next instant he fell to the floor in what appeared to 

 be a fit of some kind, as he was writhing convulsively and 

 moaning and gibbering "like one possessed." We picked 

 him up and placed him on t,he armchair, and then shrank 



back in horror, as Mr. T 's face was quite transfigured. 



altered beyond recognition, into the most repulsive, awful 

 face imaginable. It was the, countenance of a devil. 



1 knew it was a case of obsession, but did not know how 

 to act beyond praying that he might be delivered from it. 

 Fortunately, the spirit had not gained full possession, and 



after a short, violent struggle, in which Mr. T was 



thrown foaming on the floor, the spirit came out of him. 



Mr. T felt very weak and unwell for a time, and could 



hardly speak at first. Wlien he was better he told us tb.at 

 as I was rehitinir my dream lie suddenly saw clairvoyantly 

 several figures emerge apparently from the wall behind me, 

 and recngn'sed (from mj' description) that they^ were the 

 same beings who had appeared to me in my vision of the 

 night before. 



They oame s'raight towards him, and he was filled with a 

 great horror, and flensing danger of some kind, he jumped 

 to his feet, ins'inctively throwing out his hands to ward 



them off, and then in an instant one of them had gained 

 possession of nim. He was particularly liable to anything 

 of that kind, being a good trance medium. It was two 

 weeks before lie quite recovered from the shock and strain 

 he tlien underwent. 



Readers of Borderland mav recall one case of 

 obsession by an evil spirit which occurred in my 

 presence. It was an ugly experience, but no one 

 who has gone through it can doubt the literal truth 

 of the Evangelist's story of the casting out of devils. 



HOPPERS AND HOP-PICKING. 



In the Young Woman the Rev, G. B. Charles 



writes on his experiences among the Kentish hop- 

 pickers. The hop-picking season, he says, is for 

 tens of thousands of London poor the one chance 

 in -the year when better, sweetening influences can 

 make themseh-es felt : — 



There are. roughly speaking, four classes of "hoppers"— 

 the home picker, who is always certain of good work, and 

 who in many parishes is able to do all tlie iiicking, much 

 to the comfort of the grower. Then there is the coster, the 

 match-maker, the factory girl or lad of the East End, form- 

 ing a special class, with characteristic habits and tastes, 

 which the mission worker needs to study if he is to be 

 successful. The gipsy comes next— and it is perhaps only 

 in Kent during .September that an outside observer can in 

 any sense realise how numerous a class the folk so graphi- 

 cally pictured by George Borrow form in England. Lastly, 

 there is the professional tramp, a gentleman of whom the 

 grower always fights shy, who is not taken on when anyone 

 else is available, for ead experience has taught all con- 

 cerned to exi>ect the very minimum of possible work from 

 him with the maximum of grumbling and discontent. 



The outsider even now often pities the hoppers 

 for the poorness of the accommodation provided for 

 them, but it is far better than it was a few years 

 ago. When the hoppers arrive they are now met, 

 and refreshments can be obtained by them at the 

 chief stations. The same work is done when they 

 leave, and has greatlv lessened " the terrible scenes 

 of rowdyism and drunkenness which used to dis- 

 grace the exodus of the hopper,'' though the writer 

 admits that it has not yet ended them. Since the 

 people mostly live in camps away from the villages, 

 and thus have to get their food from a distance, 

 they are tempted to go too much to the public- 

 houses. Hence, whenever possible, a store is estab- 

 lished near at hand. Provision is made for the 

 hoppers to read the papers and write letters ; very 

 often there is a dispensary, with a lady nurse in 

 charge, and sometimes even a regular hospital for 

 in-patients, both institutions having proved a great 

 boon. Public-houses are also combated by means 

 of lantern addresses, which are very popular, and 

 bv Sunday and week-day services. Ladies and other 

 workers, we are told, are well recei\ed by the hop- 

 pers, and their books and papers gladly accepted. 



Various agencies carry on work among the hop- 

 pickers. In a ho]>ping district the local clergy 

 generally give up their Septembers to it ; and their 

 activities are supplemented by the Church of Eng- 

 land Missionar\ Association for Hop-pickers, the 

 C.E.T.S., and the Hop-picking Mission Com- 

 mittee, 



