Arguing from the fact that the character of food subsisted upon is
gradually changed from the purely physical to the more refined and rare,
in connection with that of exceptional cases having existed, in which
supplies were drawn from entirely different sources than digested food,
leads toward the conclusion, at least, that the time will come when men
will have grown out of the necessity of supplying the wasting energies
of the body and mind by the use of food, and into that refined spiritual
condition in which he can draw directly upon the elements which the
atmosphere does or will furnish to supply all his demands. All the
arguments nature furnishes point to this condition. All know how very
important it is to have a plentiful supply of pure air; but how far this
goes toward furnishing the elements of supply demanded by the body, the
deepest inquiries have not decided.
In a given case, the actual amount in weight that is furnished the body
can be determined; deducting the weight of the excretions and palpable
secretions, it is supposed the difference is consumed by some undefined
process within the body; but who can tell how much and what the system
takes directly from the atmosphere, or how much it gives up to it, that
we have no means of defining by weight or otherwise? We also know that
the atmosphere maintains an immense pressure upon the body, and that it
involuntarily resists this pressure; this could not happen were there
not some well defined and intimate relations between the two upon which
man, as the object, must be greatly dependent.
Another strong and pointed argument is to be found in the process
sometimes resorted to to sustain life: in cases of great prostration of
the physical system, under exhaustive disease, when the means cannot be
supplied through the medium of the stomach and digestion, they are
furnished by being absorbed into the system through the pores of the
skin.
The constant death and decay of all the materials upon which we feed,
besides all that vast amount not drawn upon directly, is continually
giving off to the atmosphere the same kind of elements which the body
retains and uses from supplies of food; as they exist in the atmosphere
in the form of elements, and there is a demand within the body for them,
it is only necessary to create and maintain the means of supply to solve
the problem. A glorious prophecy comes forth from the tendencies of
labor toward the mental, and the accompanying necessity for
modifications of diet, adapted to the many gradations man must pass
through to reach a purely spiritual condition.
The physical system has been the accredited medium through which the
spirit within it—the real man—has wrought, and still is, in all
individuals who are not beyond the point where _spirit_ becomes the
predominant and governing characteristic. In the present, however, there
are scattered here and there among the masses individuals who have
passed—are passing—or are approaching that point in which the spirit, at
times, acts independently of its material machine in which it has been
fostered and cultured, and gives positive proofs of an existence within
the body of an individualized life, which can and does act without the
agency of the body, and performs functions before impossible. There are
a thousand persons, at least, in this country who have a sight entirely
independent of the physical eye, which overleaps the boundaries of
physical vision; penetrates the barriers of external sense, tears off
the mask of hypocrisy and deceit, detects the motives and mainsprings of
action, and lays bare the heart of man. While comparatively but few have
attained this, all are approaching it. What does Paul mean but this when
he says, “Now we see, as through a glass, darkly; but then face to
face”? When the spirit-eye shall have fully pierced its barriers of
flesh, when the body shall have become subservient to the spirit,
instead of the spirit being dependent upon the body, when we “shall see
as we are seen, and know as we are known,” how radical the changes, and
how rapid the strides of advancement will then be!
Reason for a moment upon the effect that would be produced were every
tenth person suddenly endowed with spirit-sight, and compelled to
demonstrate it by exposing the hearts and the lives of all the rest.
Where could oppression hide itself? Where could the lusts of the flesh
plot their treason against the sovereignty of the spirit, beyond the
range of _spirit vigilance_—this new safeguard of human society, the
eternal law of progress, which is now unfolding? In such a condition of
things, courts of justice, with all their attendant judges, bailiffs and
attorneys-at-law, would find their occupation gone. Prisons would be
converted into asylums and workshops for the weak and unfortunate, and
their keepers into superintendents and teachers. Churches would be
converted into lecture-rooms; and preachers, now hurling their anathemas
against unrepentant sinners, would become professors of the great
principles through and by which the world, and all things, have been
brought from the primary condition thus far on their march toward the
_perfect_.
Many individuals know that they are under the surveillance of this
spirit-sight, and demonstrate in conduct its beneficent influence; but
the capacity has not yet become sufficiently general to compel the
recognition of its efficacy by the public mind. As the rising sun first
gilds the mountain’s loftiest peak, next the hill-top, then glides along
the inviting slope to the universal plain, where all creation rejoices
under the refulgence of its noonday glories—so comes this _rising
light_, to illumine the hearts and souls of all when it shall have
reached the zenith of its mid-day glory. As the beams reflected from the
mountain top are of the sun, and not the mountains, so are these
spiritual rays of the spiritual sun, and not of the individual
reflecting them, or through whom they may chance to shine. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, this people vaunteth and puffeth itself with
knowledge, but wisdom hath surely departed to the lowly ones of earth!
Religion, clad in its robes “of purple and fine linen,” faring
“sumptuously every day,” forgetting that Christ was cradled in a manger,
and that His disciples were fishermen, continually cries, as did the
“Pharisees and hypocrites” of old: “Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth?”
The time is not far distant when the possession of spirit-sight will be
accounted of the first importance, not to those only who possess it, but
to the public generally, and will be sought for and made practical to
the honor of its possessors and to the inestimable benefit of all. The
time will come in the not far distant future when those who now cry out,
“Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” will bow, with becoming
humility, before the later-day _fishermen_; for these will then occupy
the places of public trust, and spirit-telegraphy, having superseded
material wires, will convey the commands of God’s accredited ministers
from the central seat of Power throughout the world.
Where are all the great of the _past_; its orators, philosophers and
statesmen; Confucius, Zoroaster, Moses, David, Solomon, Lycurgus,
Demosthenes, Cicero, Bonaparte, Washington, and many others, of all
nations and climes, to whom history points as having stood hundreds of
years in advance of their times? Do they still live? and, living, are
they idle? Are their minds withdrawn from subjects to which they were
devoted in this primary school-house of the children of God? Are not
their minds expanded to the comprehension of the great principles of
governmental justice? Are they not better qualified to direct
legislation _now_ than the wisest among us? If they still live as
spirits, if they have had better opportunities of obtaining wisdom and
knowledge pertaining to earth-life than we—can this world avail itself
of their assistance to establish on earth the government of heaven? If
the angel in the bush were possible, why may not angels manifest the
wisdom, power, and justice of God in our legislative halls? Who will
dare to assert that they are not even now seeking another Moses to lead
“His people” up out of Egypt? Then will the prophecies of the present
have reached consummation; then will commence the earthly reign of the
King of kings and Lord of lords, as prophesied by all the holy prophets
of the world; then old things shall pass away and all things become new;
then _the Christ_ shall sit upon the throne, and from his inexhausted
fountain of love, justice shall continually flow over all the earth, “as
the waters cover the sea.”
As vanish the heavy mists of the morning before the radiance of the
rising sun, so will vanish the clouds that hang around the minds of man,
and shut out the rising spiritual sun, for whose “star in the East”
_wise men_ are continually watching; the sun that will rise higher and
higher, and extend its rays wider and wider, until it shall enlighten
the minds of all mankind, until the icebergs of ignorance, tradition and
superstition are dissolved which now float in the ocean of
progress—society, with its cankered, festering heart; commerce robbed of
its legitimate function; labor of its recompense, and religion of its
spirituality; education lacking wisdom, marriages forming “disunions,”
and women without rights.
All the false forms of the present must yield their sway to God’s
command—“Let there be light.” The laws of God are never changed—though
old as creation—they are ever new, ever sufficient for all the
vicissitudes of life; they are ever full of wisdom, justice and love;
they are written all over the face of creation, in the bosom of the
earth and in the heart of man; they are uttered by the raging tempest
that rocks the mighty ocean; in the terrible mutterings of the
earthquake; in the fury of destructive battle, when hosts are hurled on
hosts in fraternal strife; through all these the voice of God
proclaims—“Let there be light,” and there is light.
We also hear its whispers in the gentle zephyrs that stir the bursting
buds and in the blooming flowers that lift their heads to drink the
falling dew; in the hum of busy nature; in the gushing fountain; we see
it in the gambols of the bubbling brook; in the mother’s love for the
new-born life; in the father’s pride; in the unspoken joy of the
maiden’s soul, listening to the first sweet tones of love; in the
magnetic ties of human sympathy which bind all mankind in a common
brotherhood, and in the dawning light of heaven brought to earth by the
angelic hosts to usher in the reign of universal justice, peace and
love.
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