steps. And I could not but reflect upon the singular trait exhibited by
Jesus of frequenting a high mountain to pray. Surely, altitude elevates
one into the spiritual state, and no doubt Christ felt nearer to the
spirit world when elevated far above Jerusalem, on the mountain-top,
amid the clouds. Thus, looking down from the sublime height, I realized
for the first time that I too was a spirit and an inhabitant of the
world in which Jesus dwelt!
LYMAN BEECHER.
_THE SABBATH_.
In the days of my ministrations on earth, it was pretty generally
believed that the Sabbath day was one of peculiar sanctity; and
that the Creator, having completed the creation of the earth in six
days, had rested upon the _seventh_ from the labor attendant on that
work. But science, which is ever at war with the Jewish record, has
established the fact that the world was not created in that short space
of time.
The multiplicity of worlds created also disprove the idea that the
Creator could have rested during any set period of time.
Some zealous skeptics, to counteract the belief in the sanctity of the
Sabbath, have asserted that mind can never rest, and that as _God_ is a
spirit, rest to him is impossible.
Even granting this hypothesis, history and research have proven the
wisdom and utility of the Jewish Sabbath, as established by the great
lawgiver, Moses.
The Jews at that time were an active, restless, laboring people. Their
industry had enriched Egypt, and having escaped from her oppressive
bondage, they were liable, in their efforts to found a nation of their
own, to carry their habits of industry to excess.
Probably they overworked their slaves, their cattle, themselves, and
the “stranger within their gates.” Their wise lawgiver, under the
direct influence of spiritual guides, promulgated this law: “Six days
shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of
the Lord; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy man-servant,
thy maid-servant, thy cattle, nor the stranger within thy gates.”
And this commandment has been handed down from the Jewish to the
Christian nations. With the early Jews it was a day of recreation, of
dancing, and of song. The early Christians employed the day at first
in social intercourse, afterwards it became a day of sacred ordinance;
and, as copies of the Scriptures were rare, they met on that day to
hear them read, and in their simple faith would select passages and
apply them to their own necessities.
When the Christian religion invaded Pagan countries and became
established, the days which had formerly been appropriated to feasting
and sacrificing to the gods and goddesses became the fast-days of the
Romish Church.
When Protestantism arose, she swept off from her calendar these
fast-days, and returned to the simplicity of the Jewish Sabbath.
Puritanism followed and gave a literal meaning to the text, “Thou
shalt do no work.” Under her reign, all labor was suspended on the
seventh day. A strict watch was set upon the actions of the individual:
household duties were neglected: fires were not lighted or food cooked.
The great world of activity stood still.
Rest so severe embittered men’s judgment, and the Sabbath became a day
for prying into the derelictions of each other. A rigid observance was
placed upon men’s actions, and stringent laws were made to punish the
offender against this enforced rest.
So tyrannous and exacting did the Puritan observers of the Sabbath
become, that their rigid formulas created a rebellion in the minds of
the succeeding generation, and so great has been the reaction, that in
our day it has become a common assertion that “all days are alike,”
and the steam-car and the horse-car, the coach, and the hack, ply
their busy wheels through the streets of our large cities, and the
church-goers travel thereon to their different sanctuaries.
“All days are alike to God,” says the reformer; “why should we
observe the Sabbath more than any other day?” I will tell you why: a
concentration of the spiritual nature of men throughout Christendom
necessarily creates a magnetic atmosphere through which spiritual
beings can approach. The sincere and devout worshippers in every land
congregating in churches upon one day, send forth waves of magnetic
light which extend into the world of spirits. The music and the prayers
are borne upward on this current, and great batteries are thereby
formed that cannot but affect the souls in Paradise. They respond to
the music and the prayers, and worshippers in the churches feel their
magnetic influences. Those who are sincere in their religious faith
say that they feel “heaven opened to them.” Even those who attend
church from fashion, or for the purpose of meeting their friends and
neighbors, are there brought in contact with spiritual influences which
could reach them in no other way.
The experience I have gained since my entrance into my spiritual home
has given me more liberal ideas of the uses of the Sabbath, and taught
me that to the working man it is a necessary day of recreation. But I
lift my voice against its becoming one of beer-drinking and boisterous
sports. The workman who is confined to the bench or the workshop, in
the midst of a crowded city, for six days of the week, will certainly
be benefited by seeking the green fields and healthful influences of
the country; but on reaching that desirable Eden, let means be provided
for his instruction; so, while sitting under the leafy trees, his mind
may be benefited, and his bodily organism rested, rather than injured
by feasting and rioting in the public gardens and parks.
Field preaching should become a regular institution of the Sabbath; and
discourses instructing the mind in morals and sciences should be given
in the tent, or under trees, in parks and woods set apart for that
purpose. Then would, the object of the Sabbath be attained. As I have
said, the spiritual nature is more open to the reception of truth on
that day.
The state of sleepiness, which is a well-known attendant on the
Sabbath, is indicative of the magnetic influence; and those who discard
the day, and secretly pursue their active employments, would do well to
heed the remarks I have made.
Before I close, I wish to make some observations upon the present
style of preaching as compared with the sermonizing of my day. When I
occupied the pulpit, the doctrines of election and predestination were
the principal themes that engaged the attention of ministers.
Free will and coerced will were questions which puzzled the theologian.
Looking upon the Bible as an inspired book, the most careless sentence
therein expressed became a word of weighty import. We engaged the minds
of our hearers with abstract questionings and reasonings. But we never
could make the doctrine of predestination accord with that of free
will. Nor could we clearly account for the presence of evil, while we
believed the Creator to be all wise, all powerful, and cognizant of the
end from the beginning. Yet these were the topics which the minister
of my day discussed and endeavored to make clear to the comprehension
of his hearers. We did not treat of every-day life; the pulpit we
considered too sacred for such topics. Religion with the masses became
an abstract state of holiness. Men assumed long faces and sober
bearings upon the seventh day; but their every-day life was something
different, which the minister and his ministering did not reach.
But the pulpits of to-day are platforms of another kind. They have
altered, even as their shape has altered. Their outward construction
corresponds to their teachings. In my day the pulpit was narrow and
straight, and was lifted high above the people. But at the present
day a step only separates it from the congregation. It is broad, low,
and open. The teachings received from it correspond with its change
of form. The ministers of to-day are one with their flock. Their
discourses are practical, relating to every-day affairs. They no more
discuss the questions of Satan, of angels, and archangels, nor arouse
an undefined fear by descanting on the mysterious prophecies of Daniel:
they talk to you like _human beings._
I remember being somewhat shocked while listening to sermons preached
by my son, H.W. Beecher. I recall sitting near his pulpit, and longing
to get up and tell the congregation my views of texts and matters of
which he was discoursing. I thought then it was because the race was
going backward--becoming less intellectual--that men should be content
to listen to sermons that contained so little theology. But experience
in spirit life has caused me to change my opinion.
I now see that Beecher, Spurgeon, and a vast host of others, are
teaching human souls the great truths which will fit them for life
hereafter. I have done now with endeavoring to solve improbable
problems, and with simple faith in man’s efforts for his own
progression, I give my testimony as to the uses of the Sabbath, and the
advantages of religion in advancing their progress, and in preparing
the spirit for its future home.
PROFESSOR GEORGE BUSH.
_LIFE AND MARRIAGE IN THE SPIRIT WORLD_.
The two worlds--the spiritual and the material--are like twin sisters
whom I have seen, so similar that their acquaintances could not
distinguish between them, and yet so dissimilar that an intimate friend
would wonder why one should ever be mistaken for the other.
I propose to give a short account of the society and conditions of life
in the spiritual spheres.
The Swedenborgian Society of which I was a member while on earth,
continues to exist as a body in the spirit world, though Swedenborg,
the great seer and founder of that sect, is not a leader among them.
He has his country seat in Swedenborgia, a beautiful and intellectual
settlement named after him, where he retires within himself, and
directs his great mind in developing his science of correspondences,
which he proposes to arrange so systematically that it will become a
part of the teachings of earth’s children.
It was never his design to become the leader of a sect, but his desire
was simply to reveal like a telescope that which was unknown. He is
deeply interested in the political condition of Sweden, Norway, and
Germany, and exerts his vast intellect towards emancipating the minds
of those nations from the bondage of church and state.
It is curious to witness with what fidelity Swedenborg described in
many instances the condition of the soul after death; and also to
perceive in other instances how utterly he misinterpreted the visions
presented.
Such discrepancies are incidental to all clairvoyant states; and this
is not surprising, for it is incidental to humanity.
Man sees clearly when the prejudices of education and the influence of
his loves do not pervert his vision.
What political economist, strongly biased in favor of one mode of
government, can contemplate dispassionately an opposing form?
The theological belief which Swedenborg imbibed in his early youth,
tinctured his description of the heavens and hells of the spirit
world, causing him to represent the soul as reaching a period in its
love of evil when it cannot retrace its steps. The hells of the spirit
are similar to the hells of earth, being like them the result of the
ignorance and perverted loves of animal man.
What hell more fearful than the hell of licentiousness? Yet it is
merely the animal side of the heaven of love.
Swedenborg discovered hells in spiritual existence, where the inmates
lived lives of prostitution. His statement concerning such hells is
true. Individuals who have lived such lives upon earth cannot suddenly
be transformed. Their habits become _spiritual diseases_ with them.
Now, as to marriage, the mere form does not make the wife different
from the courtezan, but her love exalts her above that condition. If
she be united to a man who is repulsive to her nature, and yet submits
to his embraces for the considerations of family, or home, or public
opinion, she is on the same plane with the courtezan.
It is a proposition generally believed, that there is a soul-mate
for every human being, and it is usually supposed that in the spirit
world those mates are found, and that those united there live together
inseparably. But as there exists in the spirit world the same states,
the same variety of progressive development among men and women as
in this world, so unions are formed there in which one soul develops
beyond the capacity of the other, and in such cases changes must ensue.
I will now speak of marriages more in detail.
In the summer land the union of the man with the woman occurs from
very similar causes to those which bring about like unions upon
earth--the man is drawn to the woman and the woman to the man through
the operation of a natural law. If instinct were not so impaired by the
cultivation of the external faculties, there would arise but little
difficulty--on earth in selecting partners adapted to each other.
Considerations of wealth and position are permitted to influence your
selections rather than the idea of congeniality and adaptability.
In spirit life this method is reversed, and the marriages formed there
are productive of greater happiness than those among men in the first
condition of life.
But as I have stated, marriage in the spirit world is not an
indissoluble bond. Some minds associate together in harmony and expand
in the same direction, and with these the union is permanent. I have
seen such in the spirit world,--beautiful and noble souls intertwined
and aspiring together.
There be others whose states and conditions after a time become
changed. Such seek new companions, and this is permitted without
discredit to the individuals.
Many forms of marriage ceremonies are extant in the different societies
and countries. Garlands of flowers and symphonies of divine music are
bestowed upon the bride and groom. Bright bands of spirits from the
celestial heavens attend them, for they represent in their love and in
their wedded joy the harmonies of nature!
While they love, sin, sorrow, darkness, and all evils shrink from sight.
From these spiritual marriages are born soul attributes. Human beings
are never generated in the second condition; they need what is known as
the material world for their nurture and growth; and yet I understand
that in some of the more refined spiritual existences births have
occurred. The beings born there are indigenous--not generated by earth
parents, but offspring of those refined conditions.
I know not of this as a fact; yet if we take the old Jewish Bible as
a history, we find an analogous statement there in the assertion that
Christ was born of God in a spiritual state of existence previous to
entering this earth plane.
Spirit soils and atmosphere interblend and produce trees, shrubs,
flowers, and the cereals, but the human being, after the second birth,
ceases to reproduce his species. His children are thoughts born of the
spirit. After birth succeeds death. The soul passes through many stages
of existence in the process of refinement. The next state of existence
to the material, I term the spiritual, and the one beyond that the
celestial, and beyond that the seraphic.
In the next state, to which I in common with all men who have not
passed some hundreds of years in the spirit world belong, individuals
pass through a condition analogous to death upon the earth.
Spiritual bodies are subject to a process of refinement and decay; and
the soul, as the winged butterfly to which it is likened, throws off
its cerement and assumes a new form.
But with us the transmigration is not veiled in darkness and mystery as
with you. We can watch the transformation; we can see the spirit emerge
from its old casement more ethereal than ourselves, but still visible;
and we can hold communion with it.
So slight is this change with us that your mediums seldom touch upon
the fact.
Spirit is inseparable from matter, and can give neither form nor
expression without it.
The Great Invisible Creator of the Universe must have thought of trees,
flowers, beasts, birds, fish, and the wonderful exhibitions of form
through the vast realm of matter, previous to their existence.
But he had to give them shape in matter--perishable but re-creative
matter; and if the Master-mind of all cannot express his thought
otherwise than with this ever changing, yet ever reconstructing
thing called matter, how can the human soul manifest but through a
spiritualized condition of matter, ever changing yet ever re-creating
and refining, mounting higher and higher, from the earthly to the
spiritual, from the spiritual-to the celestial, on--on--till finally
reaches Deity--himself!
JUNIUS BRUTUS BOOTH
_ACTING_.
All great actors are media for spirit influx. It would be a marvellous
sight if the curtain which hangs between the spirit world and the stage
were uplifted, and the invisible drama which is being enacted exposed
to view. Then would you behold “the airy spirits” to whom Shakspeare
so truthfully alludes, moving like comets in gorgeous light around the
inspired actor!
Inspiration is _motion, acceleration, intensity_; it has no part or
parcel with lethargy.
I recall my past experience, portions of which I review with regret. In
endeavoring to obtain this energy, this motion, this acceleration, I
was obliged in my ignorance to resort to artificial means. A knowledge
of the laws of spirit life would have enabled me to have avoided this
mistake; but that knowledge I did not possess.
The actor of the present day is blessed with the knowledge that he
has merely to throw himself into the magnetic state, and become _en
rapport_ with spiritual conditions, to find himself inspired--inflated
with the divine magnetic current which flows from the spirit world to
the inhabitants of earth. If a player desires to represent a certain
character,--let it be the subtle, fiend-like Richard III. or the
crafty Richelieu,--the customary mode of studying such characters is
to endeavor to imagine one’s self to be the person. That is the first
step towards mediumship; for it is one degree from the natural, towards
the superior state. Usually, through ignorance, the student proceeds no
further than this point; and the spirit assistants can only partially
aid him. But an actor possessing the knowledge of placing himself
_en rapport_ with these characters, whether traditional or real, is
immediately cut loose from his surroundings and becomes the Richard or
Richelieu whom he would personate.
From the brain of every spirit medium ascends a blazing sun, which
burns the brighter when the magnetic relations between it and the
spirit world are most perfect. This blazing light, this radiant
effulgence, is perceived instinctively, though not knowingly, by every
individual who listens to a discourse from a “trance medium.” So
from the brain of the actor this glorious light throws out its rays
into the assembly, and when he becomes fully inspired, its magnetic
influence is felt with overpowering vividness; and the result is, the
audience themselves are set in motion, and from pit to gallery you hear
vociferous applause.
There are actors who are good, and who acquire fame, who have never
felt this divine afilatus. The intellect of the audience appreciates
them for their declamation, for the art and artifice which they
manifest; but the humblest and most illiterate of that assembly know
well that this studied eloquence does not fire the brain.
But it will not do to trust blindly to spirit control; a knowledge and
constant study of human nature is necessary.
It is a well-known fact that a person steadily looking at one point
will influence twenty others to look at that point also, and to imagine
they see some object before them. Understanding this principle, you may
work upon each attribute in the minds of your audience. If fear is to
be aroused, do as your neighbor does as he hastily enters your house
after meeting with a fearful calamity. You become excited before even
hearing the evil which has befallen him. Every faculty can be acted
upon in the same manner--grief and joy alike.
Of the ventriloquial powers of the human voice, many speakers are
ignorant. The tyro on the stage wishing to make the remotest individual
in his audience hear, bawls at the top of his lungs. He is unaware
that the organs of the human voice are a kind of electrical machine,
governed by the will-power, and that the actor has merely to throw his
will and direct his mind to a given point, for his voice to reach that
point and produce a far more startling effect than the loudest blast
that any pair of lungs could bring forth. Thus the lowest whisper can
be made to tell at the farthest corner of the theatre.
But perhaps I have said enough of the methods best adapted to produce
representations of character on the stage. The question may arise in
the mind of the reader, whether there is any opportunity of exercising
the talent of acting in the spirit world, supposing that talent to have
been cultivated in this.
In the remotest ages, and among the most uncultivated nations, as well
as among the most highly civilized, the power of representing human
passions and events has been exercised instinctively, showing this
power to be as much a portion of the soul’s attributes as the gift of
thought or of fancy. If one belongs to the immortal condition, the
other does also.
One of the chief enjoyments which the all-wise Creator has made
attainable to the inhabitants of the starry heavens is that of dramatic
representations of life, character, and events, transpiring in the
countless worlds that wheel through space.
The field of the actor for depicting the truths of human nature in the
world of spirits is vast and unconfined!
Eloquence is appreciated on earth, but that appreciation is weak and
tasteless compared with the estimation of that “gift of the gods” by
the inhabitants of the summer land.
Some blind, short-sighted investigators tell you there is no speech
among us; they would lead you to imagine that we inhabit a world blank
and void of sound; that stillness more unbroken than the grave pervades
our mysterious realm.
Conjure up the picture in your fancy, reader--the soul shrinks back
from such a state! The spirit world is _all_ voice. Never have I heard
notes clearer, louder, deeper, than resound through the electric air
that surrounds my home.
The gift of speaking, and of representing individualities separate from
your own identity, is a spiritual gift decidedly; and with us theatres
and amphitheatres are as numerous as churches are with you. I will
leave the description of these structures for the ready pen and speech
of our friend Burton.
JOHN WESLEY.
“_THE DIVISION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, INTO SEVERAL BODIES, AND ITS
RE-ORGANIZATION INTO ONE GENERAL BODY.”_
I will take for my text this sentiment from the New Testament: “I will
draw all men unto me, and there shall be one church and one people.”
The church which was organized by our Lord[A] Jesus Christ was designed
to establish a feeling of brotherhood between separate and distinct
classes of people, and to abolish the system of castes, which was the
prevailing sin of the eastern nations.
[Footnote A: The word “Lord” is used in the sense of an earthly lord
who cares for his people.]
Christ made no distinction between the Sadducee and the Pharisee, the
publican and the saint, the high priest of the temple and the lowliest
of his followers. He placed the affections above the intellect, truth
and sincerity above wealth and worldly position.
The church which he originated for many years followed in his
footsteps. But as it increased in numbers it accumulated wealth,
and with wealth came power, and from that power issued discord and
separation.
Thus, the church divided and subdivided, and split into a thousand
pieces, formed new interests, created new beliefs, and sowed dissension
and envy with a free hand.
Such has been the condition of the church for the past ten or twelve
centuries. Meanwhile, in the Heaven of Heavens, has arisen a powerful
movement directed towards restoring it to its original state of purity
and simplicity. This great movement, like a mighty river seeking its
outlet, has rushed on, diverging at several points, and at length found
the reservoir it sought in what is termed _Spiritualism_.
The spiritualistic movement opened the gates for the expression of
skepticism, which the formalism, the tyranny, bigotry, and externalism
of the Church awakened in the minds of the people of every enlightened
Christian nation; and the result has been a criticism so pungent, and
an examination so thorough and direct, into the deformities of the
Church, that she has been obliged to contemplate her own condition and
the rottenness of her position, until she fairly trembles at the view
of her disjointed parts.
On every hand now, at the present moment, efforts are being made to
consolidate--to rejoin. On one side you behold the Protestant Episcopal
Church offering to unite with the Methodists, from whom, since my day,
they have stood aloof, as an illegal and fanatical people whom they
could not fellowship.
On the other side, you see them stretching to the Roman Church, forming
a brotherly compact of forms and ceremonies with Papacy.
One branch of the Presbyterian Church wears the robes of the Roman
Church, and thus that is linked to Catholicism.
All these denominations which have stood apart so long, whose theology
has been so antagonistic, are now merging into one Church.
In the face of the great danger which Spiritualism or Liberalism has
brought to their sight, they endeavor to return to their first estate,
but in returning they lose their identity.
This result is sure, though unperceived by them.
One by one, they will give up this point of difference and that point
of difference, this creed and that creed, for the sake of harmony.
This vestment they lay aside, and that form, until they will all
be swallowed up, and neither Methodists nor Calvinists, Baptists
nor Lutherans, Armenians, Jews, nor Gentiles, will remain. Then the
primitive Church of Christ will be revived again upon earth, simple and
unostentatious; its creed will be the creed of Jesus Christ:
“The brotherhood of man, and the love of God for his children.”
This creed, you perceive, embraces the whole of the spiritualistic
faith, which is causing these great changes throughout the Church of
Christ on earth.
* * * * *
At this point it will not be inappropriate to make some allusion to the
mysterious sounds which occurred in my house in Lincolnshire, England,
at intervals within the space of three or more years during my earthly
ministrations.
These mysterious sounds, even in that day, were supposed to have been
caused by spirit agency. I have ascertained that that supposition
was correct; and my attention has since been directed to the fact in
Church history, that every separation from the Church body which has
originated in a desire to return to the simplicity and purity of the
primitive followers of Jesus, has been attended by similar mysterious
demonstrations.
Luther and Mclancthon, Knox and Calvin, and the earnest dissenters
and reformers of every age, have been haunted in like manner. I say
haunted, for they generally have misunderstood the aim of these
spiritual visitants.[A] It has devolved upon the scientific researches
and the skeptical but investigating mind of the nineteenth century to
form a process by which the spirit of the departed can communicate with
the dwellers in Time.
[Footnote A: The spirit of Rev. Dr. John M. Krebbs, of New York, states
through this clairvoyant that the cause of his mental aberration while
on earth was a misinterpretation by him of a spiritual vision which
he was permitted to receive. Thus misunderstanding the aim of his
spiritual visitants, he became haunted with a fallacy which ultimated
in his death. ED.]
To me this science was unknown. Had I been acquainted with the facts
with which I am now familiar, I might have established a more liberal
Church, but as it was, this daily association with an unseen spiritual
presence enlarged my views of the condition attending the soul after
death, and caused me to give utterance to thoughts which happily have
aided in preparing the world for the Universal Church which ere long
will lift its towering dome toward Heaven.
N.P. WILLIS.
_A SPIRIT REVISITING EARTH_.
(A FRAGMENT.)
How wondrous I
Through illimitable space, where myriad suns
And systems roll their mighty orbs,
The spirit moves like some strange wingless bird,
Darting through space with rapid flight
Until he nears his native home,
The earth.
His home no longer;
He has become the denizen of a world
More rare and beautiful than earth.
With quickening pulse and grand emotion
He gazes down upon the globe,
Whose habitations he has left forever!
Cities with their palaces and towers,
Surging seas, leafy forests, and fields of grain,
The towering mountain and the massy
Icebergs of the Polar sea sweep past
His sight like fading visions.
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.
_ALONE_.
Far away from earthly care,
Free as a bird, I soar through air,
And think of thee in thy sad, lonely home,
Watching and waiting for thy love to come.
Dost thou hear me call thee, Sweet! Sweet!
Many the years till we shall meet.
My spirit home is bright and fair
With flowers and birds and wonders rare.
Seraphic the faces that on me smile,
But the one I love is on earth the while,
Will she hear me calling, Sweet! Sweet!
Many the years till we shall meet.
Many the years I’ll watch and wait
Till I see thee at the golden gate,
Then in my arms will I bear thee away
To my jewelled home where sunbeams play.
Then together we’ll sing, Sweet! Sweet!
Well worth the waiting thus to meet.
BARON VON HUMBOLDT.
_THE EARTHQUAKE_.
This mysterious and awful visitant, which convulses the earth
apparently without warning, is, however, like all the manifestations
of nature, preceded by signs which the observing and understanding eye
can perceive and calculate upon as unerringly as the astronomer can
determine the approach of a comet.
The inhabitable earth is merely a shell or crust over the great mass
of uninhabitable matter. The world beneath the earth’s surface is as
diversified as the world above. It has its mountains, its streams, its
plains, its caverns, and its internal volcanoes.
As fearful storms, accompanied by lightning and rumbling thunder, sweep
over the earth’s surface, so beneath the crust occur electric storms,
accompanied with terrific combustions of gases, which in their efforts
to escape convulse the outer earth, and in many cases rend the shell
asunder.
The earthquake which has recently (August 13, 14, 15, and 16, 1868)
shaken the Pacific coast was occasioned by the discharge of the pent-up
gases beneath, and also in part by the heated condition of the outer
surface.
The “tidal phenomenon,” as it is called, is the effect of the
electrical condition of the earth beneath. The chemical components of
the sea form a sensitive magnetic body, which is subject to attraction
and repulsion, and as the magnetic current extended for several
thousands of miles, and was caused by a collision of negative and
positive forces, the sea was attracted and repulsed along the whole
line of the internal commotion by the action of these forces.
The northern portion of this globe has in times past suffered from
convulsions similar to those which now visit the tropical climates.
The fearful privations and heart-rending calamities which visited the
earlier inhabitants of the earth are only known to the student of the
cosmos of nature after he has attained the second birth.
The forces within and around the earth are now in comparative
subjugation, but in the earlier periods of its existence, while still
it was in the process of changing from a state adapted to a lower
condition of animal life to one fitted to a higher state of animal
and intellectual existence, the elements were in a frequent state of
rupture and disorder.
No mortal pen can depict the scene which I recently witnessed on the
occurrence of the earthquake on the Pacific coast. Forty thousand souls
arising amid smoke and blackened clouds of flying stones and upheaving
earth, with outstretched arms, and faces strained with horror, emerging
suddenly from their old bodies into their spirit-forms--looking
awestruck into each other’s faces; a vast swarm clinging together
almost as helplessly as young bees to their hive--suddenly cut off from
their occupations and their pleasures, their homes, and their familiar
affairs of earth!
But what they experienced, proud and noble cities of the past have
experienced likewise. Grace and ornament, art and grandeur, beauty,
love, and manly strength have been swept away time and again by the
bursting of the treacherous doors that lead into the heart of the earth!
Change marks the footsteps of the Creator. The solid mountain, the
firm, unyielding earth, which to the unthinking mind seem durable and
eternal in their strength, like mankind carry within themselves the
seeds of their own dissolution.
Yet the day will come when man, by the aid of science, will, through
these premonitory symptoms, foresee the coming events, even as the wise
physician can discern the time when his patient’s soul will leave its
body.
Nature misunderstood is a fearful mystery; but understood, she is a
simple and beautiful piece of mechanism; and the earthquake may not
be more disastrous than the flood or the avalanche when science and
experience have taught men to avoid the localities of danger, and to
watch the hour of its approach, that they may flee before it.
Nature is never abrupt in her actions. She heralds her intentions
long before she enacts them, but as it requires the quick ear of the
savage--the child of nature--to detect the far-off prey, so it requires
the student of nature to discover the distant tread of the earthquake.
SIR DAVID BREWSTER
_NATURALNESS OF SPIRIT LIFE_.
The human mind is subject to false and specious reasoning, and time
after time opinions which have been held and argued upon with seeming
logical acumen, have, by further developments and discoveries, been
proven fallacious. And yet of so elastic a nature is the mind of man
that he is not crushed nor discouraged by his mistakes, but immediately
commences to build new theories; but as he establishes them by
specialties instead of generalities, he is again defeated.
The European mind has adopted a certain line of thought respecting the
future state of existence, which it substantiates by narrow reasonings
and isolated facts.
Of the future we can only judge by analogy of the past with the present.
Nature ever shadows forth her new developments upon the old.
The many periods or stages through which the earth has passed in
reaching her present state of refinement, have been stamped one upon
the other so that the Geologist can determine definitely what would
be the result of a certain period from the characteristics of the
foregoing.
Now it is educible: if the Creator of the race of men who inhabit the
terrestrial globe had intended for them a future state or destination
differing in every respect from their present one, he would have
prepared their minds for different pursuits, and ordained them for
other occupations than those they follow to the very grave.
Take man in his most natural condition--examine those nations that are
most ancient, and unmixed with other races--and you will perceive that
their ideas of a future state were in accordance with the life they
were living on earth.
The Asiatic race in burying its dead prepares the favorite food of the
deceased, the fragrant tea, and the money so useful on earth. Also
slips of paper on which messages are written to departed friends are
lighted at these burial ceremonies, and reduced to ashes, that the
spirit of the text may be transmitted to their friends in the world of
souls.
In these “Pagan rites,” as they are termed, we discern the workings
of an intuitive belief that the spirit of man still retains the
sensations, attributes, and desires which have accompanied it through
life.
The ancient Greeks and Romans held similar opinions, likewise the
Africans, Hindoos, and the Indians of North and South America.
By far the largest portion of mankind believe in a _natural state_
hereafter, corresponding to their earth existence, but the European
nations which are supposed to be advanced in science, art, and
philosophical attainments beyond all the nations of the earth, have,
in their speculations and in their efforts to penetrate the mysteries
of the world of spirits, lost sight, of the natural and entered
the supernatural, where they are surrounded by fogs, clouds, and
_ignes-fatui._
Now if these people are told that the spirit world is divided into
states and continents, cities and towns, as is their own world (though
under spirit appellations), they would scoff at the statement.
But as mankind has a natural love of locality, and as congenial minds
will select similar locations, adapted to their ideas of beauty and
comfort, the result is that spirit inhabitants unite and form cities
and towns as on earth. Thus combining, they must have some points of
interest to occupy their minds, and as they still possess their power
of construction and ingenuity, their love of beautiful forms and of
architecture, they prefer not to live in the open air and on the bare
ground (as they can certainly do), but choose rather to employ their
various faculties in building cities and habitations in accordance with
their tastes and ideas of convenience.
Once grant that man is provided with a spiritual body after he emerges
from his original one--accept the hypothesis that this body must
possess form and sensation, and with sensation, eyes, ears, mouth,
taste, and motion--then you must provide means for that body to exist.
In providing these means you must place him upon a soil capable of
producing vegetation, where his intelligence may compound the various
articles adapted to his use.
Some individuals enter the spirit world deformed, some feeble in
intellect, some incapable of constructing or arranging. All these must
have provision made for them; their wants must be supplied. The effort
to supply want or demand produces a system of exchange or barter.
Many of the inhabitants of the spirit world are both good and kind.
They are spiritualized in their natures, and are influenced by a desire
to assist those who are needy.
Nature, or God, has ordained that existence should depend upon effort;
that a state of inactivity should produce dissolution; and much the
same means are taken there to enforce activity as in the material world.
True, some men possess natural gifts, by which knowledge is acquired
without labor. The power of seeing before the demonstration belongs
to all humanity. It is the negative form of knowledge; but combined
with that power is the positive, which compels man to desire a visible
representation or demonstration of the knowledge he has received by
intuition.
The astronomer thus, before he constructs his telescope, perceives
intuitively the very stars which his telescope proves as existing,
where none are visible to the eye.
It was this active-positive principle, that made him construct the
instrument; and in the spirit world, as on earth, that active-positive
principle acts in conjunction with the negative-intuitive one, in
impelling him to exertion, and forcing him to acquire knowledge in
every department of science, art, philosophy and religion. As well
expect this earth to rest in her revolution and still retain her place
in the solar system, as to suppose that the spirit of man can lose its
activity and sink to rest eternal.
Man is not only active in constructing and exploring in the spirit
world, but he is also engaged in inventions. Most of the discoveries
that have lessened manual labor and made gross matter subservient to
man’s use originated in the land of spirits. The inventor finds full
field for his talents in the superior state.
Man naturally delights in knowledge, and the individual who knows
how to construct a steam locomotive finds a thrill of satisfaction
in the possession of that ability. So does he who can arrange and
construct any piece of mechanism, any domestic tool. That feeling of
gratification at the accomplishment of his plans accompanies man to the
spirit life.
All persons do not follow the same pursuits in which they were engaged
on earth, yet they adopt a kindred and congenial employment. The
clergyman thinks his work done when he leaves the earth; but in the
next state, also, he will find beings who need to have their spiritual
and moral natures instructed--men who desire to be led--who cannot
think for themselves, but lean upon the thoughts and inferences of
others.
So with almost every pursuit--there is opportunity to exercise it in
the world of spirits. The painter finds nobler themes for his pencil,
more angelic faces for his canvas; and the desire to reproduce them
as they appear is as intense there as it is here. Although a spirit
can impress his form in color and raiment upon the sensitive plate in
the spirit world, and the image remains fixed and permanent (for the
photographic art is essentially spiritual in its origin), that result
though definite, is as unsatisfactory to some minds in the spirit
world as it is in the natural. And thus, while persons differ in
their desires and perceptions, there will be the same varied modes of
expressing thought in the superior life as in this.
The question is often asked, “Why should immortals walk, when they can
move with greater velocity than light?”
In return I would inquire, “Why, when men can travel by the
steam-engine, do they prefer the slow movements of the horse?”
Again, it is asked, “Why, if spirits can converse by
thought-language--if they can express with their eyes, or impress
magnetically their wishes, or the words they desire to utter--why
should they employ their vocal organs?”
But I rejoin that the deaf and dumb on earth converse by signs with
great celerity, yet would gladly express their thoughts with voice also.
Many trancendentalists and idealists fancy that the inhabitants of the
spirit world do not converse audibly; yet they would be greatly shocked
if told that in that world there reigned one vast silence; that sound
was unknown; and yet such a condition would exist, if their mode of
reasoning were correct.
No unbiased person would suppose for a moment, that song was unheard
in this land of the immortals; that the voices of the spirit maidens
never burst forth into melody; and that they could not give utterance
to their feelings and sentiments, in the warbling notes of music!
Spirits can read each other’s thoughts, although possessing a universal
spoken language, and also retaining in many sections the native dialect
they used on earth.
Though the spirit world is a world of marvels and miracles, and things
unutterable, which the tongue cannot express, yet it is a world similar
to the natural one; a glorified body of the old earth.
The soul visiting that new country will not feel itself an utter
stranger on its shore, but will find that it can assimilate with the
thoughts and feelings of the residents of that land, and the knowledge
and experience which it developed on earth will be useful to it there.
If the teachers on your planet, and those who instruct concerning the
condition of the soul after death, would employ the same reason and
intelligence that they exercise in investigating any other obscure
subjects--either chemistry, astronomy, or natural philosophy,--they
would arrive at more truthful data respecting the spirit globe which
ultimately they are all destined to inhabit.
H.T. BUCKLE.
_THE MORMONS_.
Looking upon the world, the voyager through space discerns vast tracts
of land, uninhabited barren wastes, and immense forests echoing only
the tread of the wild beast and the cries of birds of prey.
It becomes the duty of the political economist to reclaim these lands
and place them in the hands of civilization.
How is this to be done? Shall it be by following in the beaten track of
custom? No: it can only be accomplished by the zeal of the enthusiast.
Joe Smith was an inspired man; even as Columbus was he inspired.
Through his agency a colony was started near the dismal Salt Lake.
Through his agency, and by the aid of his apostles or followers,
the hardy men and women from the overcrowded population of Europe,
cramped by man, and priest-ridden, have been brought across the ocean
into republican America. They have been placed in this seemingly
unpropitious Salt Lake country. There they have founded a city; they
have erected factories and mills. The steam engine, the plow, and the
sewing machine have aided them; and now, in place of a company of
barbarous peasants, ignorant and benighted, and steeped in poverty, you
find them transformed into energetic, intelligent citizens, surrounded
with comforts and luxuries.
And all this has been brought about by a religious enthusiast; by an
enthusiast whose religion is believed to be inferior to the religion of
Protestants.
Imagine for a moment what result would ensue from a movement of this
kind set on foot by the followers of the Protestant religion as it is
taught by the churches of the present day. No theatres or places of
amusement would add gayety to the sombre city. The dance and the sound
of mirth would be hushed. The inhabitants would walk ever in solemn
fear of the awful future that might await them; they would despise
their physical frames, crucify their passions, and trample under foot
the most divine attributes of their nature.
But the religion of the Mormons is a natural religion; it is primitive.
They people the world even as God peopled it in the time of Abraham and
Isaac.
They enrich the state by their tithes. They bring in their corn, their
wine, and their fruits, as offerings, and the state pays them back by
improving their roads and building houses for instruction and pleasure
for them.
Their domestic system, which has been so much despised and ridiculed,
does not greatly differ from the custom of the civilized world. Such as
are wives with them become with you the neglected women of the town.
What with you is considered dishonorable, with them becomes honorable.
The man of wealth in Utah does not concentrate his riches on a few
relatives; he distributes it among his many wives and numerous
children. In all times, nations which have grown rapidly and have been
developed in arts and sciences have been peopled in the same manner.
The female element introduces into a community taste, ornament, and
grace. Look at California previous to the emigration of women to that
land! Misrule and misery reigned. It is a law of nature that men
and women should be united. In the present form of civilization, a
large proportion of women are compelled to remain single, and their
usefulness to community and humanity is dissipated. The Mormon system
eradicates this evil.
The progress of civilization points to a time when a magnetic relation
shall be established between all the inhabitants of earth; when the
globe shall form one vast circle of mind as it does now of matter. At
present the chain is broken; the intermediate spaces are not filled
up by population. The spirit world is using all its skill to bring
about this magnetic connection, but till this is complete the magnetic
relation between the spirit world and earth cannot be perfect.
Wise intelligences in the world of spirits have originated and
guided the Mormon movement, and these intelligences will develop new
communities under similar auspices. The legislators of the land, the
Napoleons of the day, would do well to investigate the policy of the
leaders of Utah.
The crimes common in your large cities are not known among the Mormons.
They live on friendly terms with the red men of the plains, and are
just in their dealings.
Each citizen is taught that the public welfare is his own welfare. In
your own large towns the citizens shirk public duties; but in Utah
there is a oneness of feeling, which it would be well for those who
consider themselves superior in the scale of civilization to imitate.
W. E. BURTON.
_DRAMA IN SPIRIT LIFE_.
“Honor pricks me on. Yea; but how if honor pricks me off when I come
on? How then? Can honor set-to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away
the grief of a wound? No. Honor hath no skill in surgery, then? No.
What is honor? A word. What is that word, honor? Air. A trim reckoning!
Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he
hear it? No. Is it insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not
live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it.”
What is honor? A mere word. What is Heaven? A word--a phantasy. A
vaporish place, too delicate and subtle for such fun-loving, corpulent
specimens of the Creator’s wisdom as old Jack Falstaff.
O rare Jack Falstaff! He was a child of nature, and to my thinking, his
homely phrases displayed more intuitive knowledge of the laws of nature
than the finest transcendental imaginings ever discovered.
We shock the feelings of a thousand playwrights and play-goers by
asserting that in this impalpable land of souls we are guilty of
encouraging the playhouse! But so it is; we cannot live on “honors;”
the fame and glory which has been awarded to us by our fellow-men on
earth is like chaff to us.
It was with hardly an emotion of surprise that I beheld theatres in
the spirit land, though I have seen many who, having been fed on the
false system of religion, and pampered on glittering imaginings, start
back with alarm on beholding the magnificent buildings we have erected
to the drama, thinking, that by some strange turning, they had entered
through the wrong gate.
The drama with us is a source of both enjoyment and instruction. The
history of past ages in the spirit world is enacted with thrilling
interest, and each new spirit from earth has an opportunity thus to
become acquainted with the transactions of the past in the land of
spirits.
The gay and brilliant theatre of which I have been induced to take the
management, is original in its structure, and of a light and beautiful
style of architecture. The balconies are suspended and movable. Outside
the building, and overlooking a placid sheet of water, are galleries
connected with and corresponding to those within, where persons who
desire may pass out during intermission, and regale themselves with the
fresh fruit and the fine prospect.
The partitions are constructed of light frames with ornamented pillars,
covered with a fabric resembling parchment. As the climate is warm, the
partitions on the outside of the gallery are merely trellis-screens,
and the whole building is open in structure and perfectly ventilated.
The plays which are enacted are generally composed by persons in the
spiritual condition. We have many good farces; and an unending source
of material for amusing plays is found in the relationship between
the spirit world and earth, and the eccentric conditions growing out
of that relationship. For instance, there is a laughable comedy being
enacted at my theatre, depicting the adventures of a pious merchant,
who, after the toils and cares of life, becomes a resident of the
spirit world.
The graces and beauties of the angelic women whom he meets on every
side enamour him; he forgets his past life, forgets the wife who has
ruled him on earth, and in a moment of ecstasy chooses another mate.
While in the enjoyment of his bliss, and surrounded by bands of
immortals, the news runs through the electric wire that his earth-wife
is deceased, and has come in search of him. The consternation and fear
of the poor man furnishes ample occasion for amusement, hilarity, and
fellow-sympathy.
Our tragedies are cast in a higher mould; many of them are more sublime
than those of earth, representing the catastrophes of worlds. We also
have dramas which awaken the affections, representing the condition of
those from earth who are neglected, or who, in consequence of a long
career of vice and misery, cannot be approached by friends.
These brief hints will give a slight idea of the source and character
of our dramatic representations.
Some men are born actors, as others are born painters, poets or
preachers; and in the spirit world they can no more lay aside those
powers which have become a part of them, than they can lay aside the
gifts of observation or reflection. Understanding this fact, it will
not surprise you to learn that those most famous in the histrionic art
exercise their talents to listening thousands in the spirit world.
Garrick, Kemble, Kean, Booth, Cooke, also Rachel, Mrs. Siddons, and a
host of illustrious actors of different nations, are now “treading the
boards” of spiritual theatres.
Their time, however, is not exclusively devoted to the exercise of
these gifts, as on earth. A considerable portion is spent in the study
of the arts and sciences; and many a noted actor becomes an able
painter or musician, and many a low comedian a philosopher. Our life is
one round of pleasant progression.
What I have said about our attractive theatre and my enjoyable
condition, I hope will not induce any of you, my fellow-players, to
emigrate to these shores before you are sent for; but, like good Jack
Falstaff, I trust you will live in your own world as long as you can,
and when Dame Nature is done with you, we will give you a hearty
welcome and _a free pass to the dress circle_.
CHARLES L. ELLIOTT.
_PAINTING IN SPIRIT LIFE_.
My friends know that I was not much given to writing or speaking, and I
reluctantly answer the call that has been made for me to give my views
on art in the spirit existence.
The old masters whom we have worshipped from boyhood, Raphael,
Titian, Michael Angelo, Da Vinci, and all the illustrious names of
the Bolognese and Venetian schools of art, have passed away from
this sphere of spirit life, and no longer walk the streets of these
wonderful cities which they have adorned with their works.
Reynolds, however, is with us still, and most of the army of painters
who have been born on earth since his day, here live in bodily shape;
and I have had the pleasure of meeting many admirable geniuses of
the French, German, and English schools, and have seen some of their
extraordinary works, which, for diversity of subject and majesty of
conception, seem to rival omnipotence itself!
The great majority of American artists are secretly spiritualistic
in their faith, and believe that they can be inspired by departed
painters. Innes, Page, Church, and Powers, have each felt and
acknowledged the inspiration of the spirit of some great master in art.
I must confess that these masters are not existing in the sphere
occupied by spirits who visit earth, and will explain the manner in
which they impress persons congenial and partaking of like sympathies
with themselves.
I am informed that it is not material to what sublimated sphere they
may have ascended; it is merely a mesmeric influence which they exert
over their disciples, and this influence can penetrate through all
degrees of matter.
The reason why all artists are not alike inspired by the great masters
is that they are not all subject to mesmeric influence, or on the same
plane of thought.
Every disciple of high art, I have no doubt, has observed the magnetic
quality which seems to pour forth from the canvas of any great master.
This arises from the brain effluvia which they have left upon the
canvas, which is more powerful in its quality than a grain of musk,
which will impart its odor for a hundred years.
The colors which the artists here use are formed upon the same model
as those they have been in the habit of using on earth. They are more
brilliant pigments, but color has always the same origin. Some paint
with the brush and some paint with their fingers.
I had heard it remarked that the spirit had only to breathe on the
canvas, and his thought would be represented, painted, and shaded in a
second of time.
The substance of this statement is correct, but there is a slight
misapplication of the facts.
’Tis true we have the power which we had on earth to a modified degree,
of projecting the desired form upon the canvas. I remember always,
after looking at my sitter, I could trace in imagination on the canvas
the outline and expression of his countenance. This is what we do: the
power of execution is so rapid that the time required for painting a
picture might with you pass for a moment; but it is only a trained
artist whose thoughts and comprehension are skilful enough to produce
an effect so rapidly.
Those who have not learned to give form and shape to their ideas while
on earth have to pursue a more painful and laborious process.
The modern school of color differs widely from the Venetian, being
crude, cold, and sharp in comparison; and, in accounting for this
difference, I can simply state that one can only represent what one
sees.
The poetic, dreamy age, when men saw nature as through a veil, is past;
the matter-of-fact, investigating mind has lifted that veil, and now
sees objects as if in mid-day; but, as no condition is stationary, I
am told that the mind is gradually moving on in the world of art to a
point where it will again see nature in a more subdued and generalized
light, as under the declining sun.
The past represented the morning, the present exhibits the noonday, and
the future will indicate the evening.
Such is the constant revolution of mind, and its revolution though slow
is certain.
In our works of art, sentiment is the prevailing characteristic.
Portraits are in great demand.
Spirits send portrait-painters to earth to obtain likenesses of their
friends; and those spirit-artists who have the power of seeing the
lineaments of these friends and portraying them are constantly engaged.
Leutze has been employed by Lincoln and others to represent scenes in
the American rebellion; and Colonel Trumbull, also, has executed some
magnificent pictures of the battles of Seven Pines, Fair Oaks, and a
skirmish at Hampton Roads.
Stuart has completed a splendid portrait of General Grant, and is now
engaged by John Jacob Astor on a likeness of a beautiful lady dwelling
on earth. I have received a commission from Mr. James Harper to paint
a portrait of his daughter, who occupied the carriage with him when he
lost his life. I am at present engaged on a likeness of a lady residing
at Albany.
COMEDIAN’S POETRY.
_ROLLICKING SONG_.
Hurrah! hurrah I my boys so bright,
For merry ghosts meet here to-night.
We’ll sing and dance till dawn of day,
Then up we’ll mount, away! away!
Then up, up, and away!
We live in spirit land so gay,
And with grim Satan’s fires we play.
You need not fear the future state,
For we will meet you at the gate.
Then up, up, and away!
Come, friends of earth, and read our bill,
’Tis called the “sugar-coated pill;”
’Twill sweeten all life’s bitter care,
And lead you up, the saints know where,
Then up, up, and away!
Come laugh with us each man and wife;
A player’s stage is earthly life;
The sting of death is only a prick,
And _hell_ the parson’s “_trap-door trick_,”
Then up, up, and away!
Here’s Garrick, Booth, and Kean so bright,
They shine like stars to give you light.
So haste and join the merry throng,
And loudly swell our happy song.
Then up, up, and away!
LADY HESTER STANHOPE.
_PROPHECY_.
The star of prophecy shines in the east. To those nations who
were first in the order of creation belongs by right the power of
investigating the mysteries of life.
The people of the East have been known in all past history for their
gift of prophecy.
As water gravitates to its level, so I gravitated to the East.
I left my native land, and for many years sojourned among the wandering
Arabs. This course of action was not understood by my countrymen. They
could not see the mystic star that drew me away from their busy haunts.
The Magi of the East had stood at my cradle and endowed me with the
noble gift of the Seeress.
The power of reading the future does not belong to the Northern people.
It is the darkest and deepest well that reflects the star above it; the
dark and swarthy East is thus endowed. The pale North cannot give out
impressions. I was an exception to this rule.
There are those who at birth are possessed of Eastern
spirits--Asiatics. Andrew Jackson Davis is not a Northern man--he is an
Asiatic. Look at his olive complexion, his keen eye, his beard and hair
of jetty black, his visage,--all betray the race which inspired him.
The faculty of discerning the future belongs only to certain races, and
it cannot be universal. Many spirits profess to read the future, but
few can do so correctly.
Yet the life of man is mapped out in every particular, even before
his birth. Men are like planets. The future of the planet Earth could
have been foretold before it was thrown off from the sun and while it
was yet in a molten state; so each step in an individual life could be
foretold: yet it requires ability to enter into the peculiar magnetic
condition in order to obtain the power of foretelling. It may be said
if the future of man is thus mapped out, even as was the creation and
progression of the earth, it becomes merely a scientific affair to
prophesy the future of any given individual. This is true, but the
inquirer will observe how many hundreds and hundreds of years science
has been engaged in discovering facts concerning this world’s history.
The eye of prophecy could foresee those facts and foretell them, though
it could not lay down any scientific basis in regard to them.
The events which will take place to-morrow may be said to have already
transpired.
The water that is rising from yon creek will increase in volume.
Conditions which have been for days and weeks in preparation will
suddenly conspire, causing the stream to rise to such a height that the
city will be overflowed, bridges swept away, and certain individuals
submerged by the current and their lives lost.
This disastrous occurrence is governed by a law which the keen observer
of nature could have foretold years previous to the event.
As in the natural world the traveller in the desert beholds the mirage
of some city which is hundreds of miles distant, suddenly arising
upon the sandy waste, so, in the spirit world, the spectrum form is
projected, and events which are to take place are made visible before
their actual occurrence. But, as in the natural world spectrum forms
occur only under certain atmospheric conditions, so in the spirit world
it is the conjunction of circumstances and the blending of magnetic
currents that make it possible for coming events to be revealed upon
the level plane which is set apart for this purpose in the summer land.
Man at the present day is so constituted that a revealment to him of
coming events in detail would be injurious; and experience proves
that such disclosures, when made to him in dreams or otherwise,
are profitless, as he always fails to foil the evil of which he is
forewarned.
History and biography show that individuals have time and again, been
admonished by their assiduous friends of evils or calamities that were
to befall them, yet the admonition, though timely given, seldom enabled
them to avoid their fate. Men have been warned of murderous assaults,
but they have not evaded them; premonitions have been given of falling
buildings, and these have fallen, involving in their destruction the
loss of the individual’s life at the precise date which his dream
foreshadowed.
The time will come in the far future when man will understand prophecy
as a science. There are few persons living at the present day, who,
looking back upon their past history, would conscientiously wish it had
been all revealed to them at the outset of their career.
The withered, faded beauty, at the dawn of her life of youthful triumph
could not have endured a vision of the haggard unfortunate wretch which
she would represent in the course of a few years.
These remarks apply more especially to the so-called civilized state of
society at the present day.
The semi-barbarous nations, so termed, are in closer sympathy with
nature. Life and death, prosperity and adversity, are to them as
natural effects as the sunshine and rain of the terrestrial globe.
Their equanimity, their perfect repose upon the bosom of nature, causes
them to see more clearly into the future than do civilized nations.
There is a spirit of prophecy which does not comprehend the detail, and
only takes cognizance of the grand events of life.
This prophetic condition is attainable by every being in a certain
state of exaltation.
The poet, the painter, the statesman, the preacher, can alike in
moments of ecstasy ascend this mount of inspiration, and foretell the
advancement of the world in relation to art, science, and spiritual
development. But the oracle, the sybil of the East can penetrate a
height beyond and above this mount, and can perceive the detail of an
individual life in its minutest events.
The Bible prophecy which foretold that “knowledge should cover the
earth, even as the waters cover the sea,” and that “the wilderness
should blossom as the rose,” was given in an ecstatic vision, and was
simply a spiritual comprehension of the power of soul over matter.
As a knowledge of distance is relative, a keen perception on the part
of the prophet revealed to him, as he beheld the birds soaring in air,
that the journey to lands beyond the sea was no greater distance to
those winged creatures than a few miles would be to him. The prophecy
Isaiah made more than eighteen hundred years ago, is fulfilled to-day.
Science has annihilated space; knowledge becomes universal, and the
wilderness disappears.
The sages of centuries agone are animating the bodies of to-day. The
doctrine of pre-existence is not a fable, yet to have lived two lives
belongs only to a chosen few, or those whom a fortuitous circumstance
has blest.
Napoleon was one of these. The spirit of a great warrior took
possession of him at birth.
But the condition of a pre-existing soul taking possession of a body
can occur only under peculiar circumstances. The soul principle is male
and female, and its perfection depends upon the two sexes as much as
the formation of the body depends upon the coalition of the two. In
states superinduced by opium or intoxicating liquor upon one party, the
spirit principle becomes deadened so that an active immortal spirit may
take its place.
This male and female spirit principle, after forming a magnetic
relation by the joined bodies, lies inactive in the soul atmosphere of
the mother until material birth. If, as is sometimes caused through
accident, there is but one spirit principle active, the child when
born will be idiotic. If the male or female spirit of the pre-existing
intelligence is of superior order, then the child, as its intellectual
faculties develop, will display extraordinary abilities, which will be
in accordance with the peculiar development of the pre-existent spirit.
The history of individuals thus circumstanced can be more clearly
discerned than others. Prophecy in bold and clear characters foretells
the events which will transpire in their earth life.
In like manner Jesus, the celebrated child of Bethlehem, had lived
a pre-existent life on earth. He had reigned over a people in his
previous life, a wise and loving king. Vague remembrances continuously
fluttered across his vision and colored the thoughts to which he gave
utterance.
When his mother conceived him, she was not conscious; delirium of
religious ecstasy, superinduced by priestly influence, rendered her
oblivious to events, and enabled this wise, tender, loving king to take
the place of the native spirit. Christ never married in this life,
because the spirits which possessed him were not male and female.[A]
[Footnote A: The well-known eccentric character of this writer while on
earth may partly explain the singular views here set forth. ED.]
The power of foretelling the future is yet in its infancy. Coming
events are said to cast their shadows before; and as the barometer
indicates to a skilful eye the approach of a storm when no sign is
visible in the calm sky above, so the events which will befall an
individual are marked upon the delicate spiritual barometer which forms
a part of his being, and can be read with unerring precision by the
clear and practiced eye of the optimist.
PROFESSOR MITCHELL.
_THE PLANETS_.
The worlds of light that nightly illume the firmament of earth are not
mere spheres of uninhabitable matter, nor are they simply appendages
to earth,--glittering ornaments to attract the eye of man,--but vast
systems of suns and tributary planets, with worlds whose products and
inhabitants far exceed in organized development those of this little
planet Earth, whose astronomers are just beginning to realize the
capacities of the worlds revealed through their telescopes.
Many of these worlds have existed centuries prior to the formation of
the planet you inhabit, and their inhabitants have attained a degree of
civilization which only time can give to you.
The intellectual development of many of the dwellers of these planets
is as far superior to your highest state of culture as your condition
is in advance of the first stages of barbarism.
Men of earth erect temples to their God--their Deity--which to them are
imposing and grand; but compared to the magnificent structures that
rear their towers high into space from those glittering points that
attract your eye, they are poor and insignificant.
Yet, as being the highest expression of your intellectual unfolding, we
look upon them with admiration, even as you regard the rude attempts of
the Egyptians and the earlier races in their grotesquely formed images
and temples.
The inhabitants of some of the planets attain a life many times the
duration of man’s. One of the causes of this prolonged existence is
the great age and refinement of the planet. While it is undergoing
change, and preparing the vegetable for the animal, and the animal for
the mental creation, the conditions that ensue are insalubrious, and
conducive to disease and death. But when the perfection of the natural
world is attained--when it becomes, so to say, spiritualized, and its
grosser elements are absorbed--then the human being can live on its
surface arid develop his faculties from century to century.
The thoughtful reader will perceive from this statement that the
spirits who have inhabited these superior planets must have attained a
far greater perfection than those who have inhabited your earth, and
the spiritual existence, or heaven, to which such beings migrate, is in
advance of the heavens in which the dwellers of earth are born.
The spiritual heavens correspond to the firmament of the natural world,
and thus there are myriads of systems of spiritual worlds.
The residents of these planets visit earth as elder brothers who take
by the hand the little faltering infants. But intercourse with the
earth is more difficult for them than for your own native spirits, from
the fact that the magnetic atmosphere does not assimilate with them.
From the earth’s spirit world, scientific minds of rare development
only have been able to visit the spirit homes of those planetary
inhabitants.
What I have said can give but a faint idea of the population of the
unseen worlds. As a drop of water which is clear and unoccupied to the
eye, when viewed through the microscope is found to be peopled with
living creations, so the worlds that overspread the heavens are peopled
in every part that the eye can cover.
Man is indeed nothing; and yet he is the whole--a mere speck, a point,
and yet God himself in the aggregate.
DR. JOHN W. FRANCIS.
_THE INFLUENCE OF MIND UPON MATTER, AND THE CAUSES OF INSANITY AND THE
VARIOUS DISEASES WHICH AFFLICT HUMANITY AT THE PRESENT DAY_.
The rude nations of the earth believed that disease was the result of
evil spiritual agencies, and the untutored savage, without the aid of
books or any of the advantages which the learned physician possesses of
studying the human system, arrived at the conclusion that disease was
inflicted by living, unseen individualities.
Science has discarded that idea. It has dissected the human body,
and, finding the result of the diseases, has assumed to have found
the cause; assumed that it is mere bodily disarrangement. Yet any
intelligent physician will tell you that in his own experience he has
witnessed the effect of mind upon the body; that he can give a bread
pill to a patient, informing him that it is a purgative, and it will
act in that manner; that a certain powder will create nausea or a
burning sensation, and it will produce those results when the powder
itself is harmless.
As the body, if permitted to decay, comes to be infested with vermin,
so the spirit, if allowed to remain idle and inactive, will become
infested by spiritual vermin which will taint and destroy it; and the
savage idea that disease is caused by spiritual agency is correct.
If an individual permit any one idea to obtain predominance, and he
dwell upon that idea to the exclusion of other thoughts, he will
attract spirits who fill the air--not organized spiritual beings who
inhabit the spirit world, but half-organized beings (polypus) who live
in this atmosphere and were originated from the brains and the physical
organisms of the inhabitants of the earth; these beings, finding his
mind concentrated or magnetized to a point, will effect an entrance.
Suppose, for instance the person centres his mind upon the loss of a
friend or of money: this concentration becomes a magnet, which, like
the rays of sunlight acting upon a portion of vegetation, produces
decomposition upon which spirit vermin may feed. So by dwelling too
continuously upon one thought, certain faculties of the mind become
excited by constant action, while others become paralyzed and the
result is insanity.
Now spiritualists, or believers in spirit intercourse, should be
the most healthy persons in the community, for they understand, or
should understand, the laws of psychology which teach that constant
dwelling upon one thought will bring spirits of like character who
will intensify that thought, and they also know that they have but to
use their will and the whole magnetic relations will change and a new
influence will be brought to bear.
Tell a man he has heart disease, make him believe it, and his heart
will beat like a sledge-hammer. Tell him his liver is diseased, make
him believe it, and he will feel bilious and look bilious.
Tell a man he looks well, compliment him upon his appearance, and he
will feel well, look spruce, and his spirits will become elastic.
It has been a matter of surprise to some why the spirits have taken
such an interest in the science of medicine, and why they have
developed so many as healers. It is that they may teach man that
disease is generally a magnetic condition; and they hope to teach the
community, through those physicians whom they develop, to discard drugs
and rely upon magnetic influences and the power of the will to keep the
body in its normal condition of health.
Too much stress cannot be laid upon the power of the will in dispelling
disease, and in expelling it.
A diseased patient may be likened to a medium who is possessed by a
spiritual being of low order. The very low condition of the spirit
causes him to adhere and cling to the medium, and unless the will is
directed to exorcise him, he will keep his subject continually under
his influence and the proper individuality of the person will be
annihilated.
Thus, disease, like an evil spirit, takes its hold upon an individual,
and can only be overthrown from its position by a strong will, which
sends it shrinking away like a criminal from the body it has infested.
If the will of the patient is not sufficiently strong, then the will of
some good friend must be used. These good friends are known as healing
mediums. Also a change of air and scene should be obtained, which
brings the will into a new action, and thus dislodges the tenant.
The will is like a sharp two-edged sword, which cuts right and left,
and leaves no chance for skulking to anything to which it has directed
its power.
I will close my remarks by repeating that the savage is right in his
belief, and that disease is indeed the result of--I might call them
spiritual harpies, who, though they may not in these civilized times
be driven out by the beating of drums, the tom-tom, and the howling of
frenzied savages, yet can be dislodged by kindred manipulations, such
as mesmeric passes, deep breathing, and a positive though almost quiet
exercise of the will.
Some of my brethren of the profession will be surprised to find these
views advanced by one whom they believe held more rational opinions on
earth; but there are others whose keen intellects have pierced through
the wisdom of the schools, and have discovered that the physics they
have concocted, when applied to the complex mechanism of the human
system, in palliating the disorders of one function disarrange some
half a dozen others, and that the soul and the body are so interblended
that we must heal a disease of the body through and in conjunction with
the spirit, its counterpart.
ADELAIDE PROCTER.
_THE SPIRIT BRIDE_.
You told me you loved me, and vowed of old,
When you reached that land of jasper and gold,
To me you’d return in the hush of night,
And show me a glimpse of your land of light.
I sit in the shadows, and wearily wait
To see you throw open the starry gate:
Through my golden ringlets the chill winds blow,
While I watch your coming through falling snow.
How long must I wait? Are you ling’ring where
The blue-eyed angels your sweet kisses share?
Is your home so radiant that never more
Your steps will be heard at my lowly door?
Ah! what do I see through my blinding tears?--What
misty form through the tempest appears?
A cold hand now touches my burning brow,
A low voice whispers, “I am near thee now.”
Bend low--let me kiss thee, thou viewless thing;
No rising passion thy cold lips bring;
But hushed is the throb of my burning heart
As upward he bears me--no more to part.
THE END.