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Mr. J. Tyerman on the Platform.

(From the Medium and Daybreak, February 21, 1879.)

The audience which greeted Mr. Tyerman on Sunday evening at Doughty Hall was largely composed of experienced sitters in the spirit-circle, mediums in various degrees of development, some of them valuable and respected workers, and altogether of that self-sacrificing section of the spiritual army which is found in the front when duty calls or love impels. Some had come great distances, notwithstanding the rainy and cold state of the weather. It was a meeting representing spiritual gifts, earnestness, and purity of spiritual motive. Worldly show, personal pride and ambition, could not be observed; and yet wealth and position were not absent. The heavy downfall of rain just as it was time to start out for the meeting deterred many from attending, and as well-known friends entered the hall, dripping with wet, the effect was not exhilarating, except to those who could see beneath the surface. The meeting, was, nevertheless, a good one, both as regards numbers and quality.

As the platform party entered and took their places there was no vulgar curiosity manifested, no irreverent applause, nor irritating hand-clapping. A spectator, knowing no better, would have voted it a dull meeting—no enthusiasm; a cold reception. But these people did not attend to be amused or take part in a pageant: they had met for spiritual exercises and instruction, and with decorous behaviour they awaited the proceedings of the evening.

Mr. Tyerman's portrait will be given in this journal, so we need not remark upon his personal appearance. His manner on the platform is earnest, natural, and unaffected, conveying to the audience the idea of strength—irresistible fortitude: My position is grounded on truth and reason, and I am prepared to defend it. The discourse was full of matter, but so well arranged and clearly stated that there was no confusion or weariness in the mind of the hearer. Mr. Tyerman's voice is a remarkable feature in his personal merits. The first experience of it is sympathetic and adaptive. Each mind realises that he speaks to it personally. As he warms with his theme it becomes exceedingly powerful, but never harsh or distressing. Mr. Tyerman could have been well heard in a hall ten times as large, page iv and yet those within three yards of him experienced no inconvenience from the loudness of his tones, which are ringing and musical, as if a chord were sounded, and not a single note.

The subject was strictly intellectual and argumentative, one of those lectures which are said to "read well," but tedious to listen to. In the hands of most speakers it would have been wearisome and less interesting, for it is not the subject that enthrals an audience so much as the manner in which it is presented. Mr. Tyerman has a powerful mesmeric influence, and would carry along with him an audience with any subject, however abstruse. He succeeded effectually on Sunday evening. He had scarcely uttered a few sentences till a subdued murmur of satisfaction, and rumble as of muffled thunder, arose from the audience, and this appreciative accompaniment followed the lecture throughout, at times with great force, but reverently expressed, like devout responses to the voice of truth. Some-times audible words of approval came from an enthusiastic listener here and there, but nothing was done calculated to detract from the sacred function of spiritual teacher, but on the contrary, the well-bred and mannerly conduct of the listeners deepened the effect of the speaker's work.

Nine o'clock had arrived before it was felt that the service had well begun: watches were pulled out, and astonishment was expressed by many that they had listened to a discourse of nearly a hundred minutes in length. But the friends were in no hurry to leave the hall: they gathered around their visitor eagerly, and it was evident that these were not cold, indifferent people. Their ardour, modestly—shall we call it spiritually?—expressed, had been demonstrated all the evening; but now that the spiritual work was over, they began the social duties with avidity. There we observed friends that Mr. Tyerman had known in Australia, and they had travelled many miles to be present. Friends, old and new, occupied the time for the great part of another hour, and showed that Mr. Tyerman's first discourse in London was a genuine victory.

As Mr. Burns stated at the close, it is to be regretted that Mr. Tyerman cannot remain with us for a season. He is just the kind of teacher wanted. He knows how to teach. He has command of himself, command of his subject, command of the audience. He is the kind of man to go forth into the wilderness of ignorance and superstition, and "prepare the way of the Lord," as they had it in the olden time. He is fearless, halting at no obstacle, yet not rudely assaulting fellow-travellers to the Temple of Truth. His manner and influence give a feeling of security and confidence in what he teaches. That this is truth, and that is error, is made clear and comprehensible, and the mind is aided in deciding as to what is true and what is false in the subject being discussed.

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Mr. Tyerman places Spiritualism on an independent footing, sustained by facts and enforced by reason. He does not bolster up his position by the citation of pious sentences which have no connection with the merits of the case. He throws his hearers upon themselves, and if they are destitute of mental resources to sustain them, he gives them a supply, sets them on their feet, and shows them how to go forth in the discovery of Truth. His work is remarkably educational and developing; for he sends forth his intellectual disquisitions clothed in a mediumistic aura which unfolds the spiritual sphere of the hearer, while at the same time it enlightens his mind.

We see in Mr. Tyerman spiritual soil, the depths of which have not yet been probed. Beneath the rationalistic stratum there is a valuable intuitional layer, only traces of which have as yet been seen on the service. He will yet become much more inspirational and did active; if by this we express the statement that, regarding the work of to-day as more particularly exoteric, his path in the future will lead him to esoteric truths, and the hidden chamber of spiritual mysteries. His present tour is one of development, and it will not be his last. For some time, however, it appears to us that he will continue to fight with the crude obstacles that exist in the public mind to the acceptance of spiritual truth, and when he has the way cleared and becomes more fully developed, then will come to him in full measure that truth itself which will be sown by him in soil prepared by his own hand, under the superintendence of the husbandmen in the spiritual realm.