COMMUNICATION FROM MY SON EMIL ABOUT EX-PRESIDENT GARFIELD--GREETINGS FROM
MADAM EHRENBORG--LETTER FROM REV. GODDARD, AND SWEDENBORG'S ANSWER.
On the 26th of September, 1881, at the hour of 9 o'clock, forenoon, it
being the same memorable day on which the body of the late lamented
Garfield was buried, I went to Mrs. Green, 309 Longworth street, for an
independent slate-writing seance. I had previously prepared the following
paper, which I laid on the table, writing downwards, and which Mrs. Green
had no means of reading, viz:
"Will our dear exalted spirit friends be so kind as to give us some
information of James A. Garfield, our late beloved President."
On the slate soon came the following, signed EMIL, the name of my spirit
son.
"Good morning, dear papa. Many spirits are here to greet you. Our beloved
and martyr President's work has just begun. He awoke immediately to
consciousness and to the reality of a future life, of which he had slight
knowledge. He was met by Washington, the father of his country, and the
martyr Lincoln, with a crown prepared for him, and with many other loving
kindred spirits, who had gone before to prepare for his reception, and it
was the grandest one he ever had. He has been introduced to our spiritual
congress, where he will finish his work, and where he will be more useful
to his country. You will soon see a communication from the President in
the papers."
Then immediately came:
"Dear papa, weep not for those who pass from this to higher spheres. Think
of them free from sorrow and pain, and wipe away your tears.
"EMIL."
Oct. 10. Through Mrs. Green. "My highly esteemed friend, good morning.
Baron Swedenborg is prevented from meeting you to-day by reason of a
called special session of the scientific institute or harmonial order of
savants, of which he is a prominent member. Matters of transcendent import
and pressing moment now engross the attention of that honorable body of
advanced spiritual minds. He requested me to thus announce his enforced
absence to-day, and to say that it will afford him pleasure to be with you
at your next sitting. I avail myself of this opportunity, by the kind
permission of the mediums' guides, to give my blessings, and to again urge
you to go on with your investigations, and to push forward the noble work
set before you by the spirit world. The elements for your spiritual
unfoldment are constantly at work, and will continue to work out for you a
rich reward far exceeding your most confident anticipations. Only fully
co-operate with these elements and continue to act conjointly with your
spirit friends and all will be well.
"Bright spirits of light around you stand,
Whom you have attracted from the summerland;
They come to bless you with their spirit light,
And make your life all beauteous and bright.
"Press forward, then, with fearless tread,
And learn from those the world call dead;
The veil is rent, their presence ever near,
Your soul to bless and heart to cheer.
"FREDRIKA EHRENBORG."
The communications from Swedenborg of the 8th of September, 1881, through
Mrs. Jennie McKee (the first one from him), and those through Mrs. Green
of the 26th of September and 3d of October, 1881, I had printed in a small
pamphlet, and sent them to divers parties, and one to the Rev. John
Goddard, a minister of the New Church in Cincinnati, with the hope that he
would afford the members of his congregation the opportunity to read them.
In answer, I received the following reply from Mr. Goddard, viz:
"PRICE'S HILL, _August 19, 1881_.
"_Dear Mr. Helleberg_: Your communication with your pamphlet came to
me to-day. I hardly know what to say in reply, for I fear that nothing
I can say will be of any use. I have no doubt in the world that there
is such a thing as communication with spirits, nor has any intelligent
and well informed New Churchman. Nor have I any doubt whatever that
they are a very low order of spirits, and scarcely ever those whom
they personate. It is clear that Swedenborg never sent any such
communications as these. To believe otherwise would be to believe that
intelligent men in the other world lose their wits instead of
increasing in wisdom. Doubtless this is permitted as a forcible and
compelling offset to the tremendous and increasing materialism of the
day. I can not conceive of any use in it to those who desire to be led
by the Lord in freedom and reason. Not only Swedenborg declares the
thing disorderly, but all experience coincides with his repeated
warnings and emphasises the need of our keeping close to the Lord in
his divine word. I say to you frankly that I do not feel warranted in
putting this pamphlet before the society, for knowing as I do the
seductive and tremendously persuasive power of this influence and
realizing the evil in it, I should be doing violence to my sense of
duty in bringing the matter to their notice. To those capable of
better things it is a delusion and a snare. With kind personal
feelings to you and all your family, and deploring your connection
with this dreadful sphere, I remain sincerely yours in truth,
"JOHN GODDARD."
On November the 7th I repaired to Mrs. Green's, taking with me Mr.
Goddard's letter, which I did not allow Mrs. Green to see, nor did I speak
to her any thing in regard to its contents. I had also prepared a
communication to Mr. Swedenborg, which I took along with me, in words as
follows:
"To my exalted spirit friend, Emanuel Swedenborg: For conferring on me the
honor of receiving your communications for the people who you seek to
bless with the truth, I appreciate in the highest degree, and my only hope
and wish is that I may be able to do this work in a proper and efficient
way. The letter before you from the Rev. John Goddard, minister of the
Church of the New Jerusalem here, in answer to my pamphlet containing your
three first letters to me, is a sample of what may be expected from that
class. I have had the opinion that the preachers of every denomination
will be the very last to accept this most beautiful truth, and, therefore,
I have concluded to send the pamphlet only to free, advanced minds, and to
the individual members of the different churches of the New Jerusalem, if
it receives your approval. With love and sincere affection, I am your
willing and obedient servant,
"C. G. HELLEBERG."
Placing Goddard's letter with mine on the stand, the following
communication came on the slate:
"In the adorable name of the Lord I salute you good morning. The course
you have pursued in regard to my communications to you meets my hearty
approval. In the future be governed by the directions of your immediate
guides, in whom I have the utmost confidence, for they are constantly with
you, and are more intimately related to your sphere, and know best how and
what to direct. I am advised of the purport of the letter to you from our
good brother, Mr. Goddard, and have lately visited him for the purpose of
observing his surroundings and perceiving his mental operations. As the
result, I believe him honest and nearer your platform than he is willing
to make known. He certainly concedes enough in his letter to fortify your
faith, and to satisfy those under his influence that modern spiritualism,
so called, sprang from the great store house of the father's love, and is
in his keeping. May the good brother become so illuminated as to reach the
grander conclusion fully in consonance with the truth, that his religion
emanated not from the Lord direct, but from the writer hereof under the
spiritual instruction suited to that age, and that in lifting the veil
between the two worlds of embodied and disembodied man, and permitting,
yea compelling, the intercommunion between their denizens, the heavenly
father has not made an assortment of evil only for you, for this would be
malevolence under whatever pretext, but that all may, if they desire, hold
intercourse with the terrestrial sphere. I have neither lost my wits nor
retrograded in wisdom, but since I left the body I have lost much of my
arrogance and pride, and am now more interested in imparting plain, simple
truth, than in the construction of embellished sentences and high sounding
and beautifully rounded periods. The humility taught by Jesus and others
anterior to his day and since embodies a sublime law of the spiritual
spheres, underlying all true progression, to which I cheerfully bow in
reverential adoration. If my dear brother will only humble himself as a
little child, forgetting for awhile his books, and casting aside the
imperious demands of his system of belle-lettres, he will then from that
truly spiritually elevated altitude begin to perceive and to drink in the
beauties of spiritual truth and the glories of the Lord.
"EMANUEL SWEDENBORG."