997. “There is a nobler strife than clashing spears,A nobler peril than the battle-field;‘Tis when, with trust in God, worn as a shield,‘Midst universal hisses, scoffs, and sneers,The man of truth with brow serene appearsAnd stands forth singly, for the right appealedTo the Eternal Umpire; nor will yieldOne backward step, from policy or fears.The savage, bandit, nay, the brute, is steeled‘Gainst bristling danger—e’en the worm uprearsBeneath the foot his tiny sting, to craveA venomed vengeance; but immortal yearsAre full of glory for the Christ-like brave,Who dare to suffer wrong, that they from wrong may save.”Very truly yours,Margaret B. Gourlay.
997. “There is a nobler strife than clashing spears,A nobler peril than the battle-field;‘Tis when, with trust in God, worn as a shield,‘Midst universal hisses, scoffs, and sneers,The man of truth with brow serene appearsAnd stands forth singly, for the right appealedTo the Eternal Umpire; nor will yieldOne backward step, from policy or fears.The savage, bandit, nay, the brute, is steeled‘Gainst bristling danger—e’en the worm uprearsBeneath the foot his tiny sting, to craveA venomed vengeance; but immortal yearsAre full of glory for the Christ-like brave,Who dare to suffer wrong, that they from wrong may save.”Very truly yours,Margaret B. Gourlay.
997. “There is a nobler strife than clashing spears,A nobler peril than the battle-field;‘Tis when, with trust in God, worn as a shield,‘Midst universal hisses, scoffs, and sneers,The man of truth with brow serene appearsAnd stands forth singly, for the right appealedTo the Eternal Umpire; nor will yieldOne backward step, from policy or fears.The savage, bandit, nay, the brute, is steeled‘Gainst bristling danger—e’en the worm uprearsBeneath the foot his tiny sting, to craveA venomed vengeance; but immortal yearsAre full of glory for the Christ-like brave,Who dare to suffer wrong, that they from wrong may save.”Very truly yours,Margaret B. Gourlay.
997. “There is a nobler strife than clashing spears,
A nobler peril than the battle-field;
‘Tis when, with trust in God, worn as a shield,
‘Midst universal hisses, scoffs, and sneers,
The man of truth with brow serene appears
And stands forth singly, for the right appealed
To the Eternal Umpire; nor will yield
One backward step, from policy or fears.
The savage, bandit, nay, the brute, is steeled
‘Gainst bristling danger—e’en the worm uprears
Beneath the foot his tiny sting, to crave
A venomed vengeance; but immortal years
Are full of glory for the Christ-like brave,
Who dare to suffer wrong, that they from wrong may save.”
Very truly yours,
Margaret B. Gourlay.
998. Certainly, in one conclusion all zealous religious sectarians will coincide. I allude to that which makes belief in a future state of existence of the highest importance to the happiness of reasoning mortals.
999. Those who, for faith in immortality, have been satisfied to rely on the creed which they may have chanced to derive from their ancestors through education, and have consequently felt the comfort of a belief in immortality thence arising, may readily conceive of the benefit which must ensue to those of their fellow-creatures upon whom such a creed has not been impressed, but who are quite sensible of the immense value of any facts tending to create such a belief in life to come. It is to be lamented, however, that persons who have this impression contingently from a peculiar education, are irritated at having analogous impressions created in a different way.
1000. But in obedience to any dissatisfaction thus arising, to assail those who may acquire a knowledge of futurity by a new route, is manifestly inconsistent with the golden rule. As an exemplification of the benefit which the new evidences of another and a better world may produce in the minds of those who are not satisfied with that of revelation, I will subjoin the account of his conversion indited by one of my esteemed friends, Doctor W. Geib, who preceded me in spiritual investigation, and has longer enjoyed the influence which Spiritualism exercises over its votaries.
1001. The author was a member of the circle under whose auspices my experimental tests were for the most part applied, and was present on the very occasion whenmy own apparatus, which had been contrived to disprove spiritual agency, demonstrated its existence.
1002. “The verdure and warblings of fifty springs had elevated the souls of the writer of the present sketch in wonder, admiration, and gratitude, to the great Omnipotent Father of the Universe, without opening to his longing view a world beyond the grave.
1003. “There was pain in the thought, that scenes so enchanting, feelings so susceptible to their charms, a mind constituted to appreciate their miraculous wonders and pervading fascinations, and to do homage to the great Intelligence which gave them existence, should in a few short years be destined, like the foliage of the forest, to death and decay.
1004. “Still, to his mind there was arrogance in the thought that man could ever be the recipient of joys beyond those provided for him in common with all animal creation; and he chased from his mind the sombre thought of death, as a dreaded incubus upon life and the enemy of his few remaining joys.
1005. “But how changed the scene! Death, once so disturbing to his peace, so discordant with the moral attributes of his nature, which ‘puzzles the will,’ and leads the mind to seek in wonder and discouragement the motive for human life, is now but a ‘consummation devoutly to be wished,’ when this race of earthly life shall have been duly run; when we may have filled the measure of our destined usefulness, and secured by our moral affinities a joyful reception in the spheres above.
1006. “And why this change in thought and feeling? How are the horrors of the grave, the dread of dissolution into the primordial elements of creation, exchanged for the blissful assurance of immortal life for the soul of man, in all its associate identity, after it shall have departed from its earthly tenement of flesh?
1007. “The answer to this all-absorbing question, which sheds light into the gloomy recesses of the skeptic’s mind, and gives joy to his despairing heart—which supplied evidence where none had been sought, conviction where it had been sought in vain, and imparts to the accepted hope and faith of the professional believer, the confirmation of a demonstrated fact—is to be found in the irrefutable evidence ofSpiritual Philosophy.
1008. “How invaluable is this dispensation of an Almighty Providence, which has made his despairing creature, a believer in the immortality of the soul of man; has cleared from his mental vision the clouds of doubtand disbelief, and has opened to his rejoicing mind the irrefragable evidence of a future life beyond the grave!
1009 ‘Hail now on earth the glorious day,When infidels have learnt to pray;When heaven’s laws by reason blessed,Are all with fondest love confessed!When man in bliss can look above,And see a God in all his love;Can own with joy the mighty King,And loud his hallelujahs sing.Throw back the gates, ye heavenly band,To loved ones show the spirit land;Hang out the beacon lights to seeA homefor all, the bond and free.And now the dreams of former daysBehold in those celestial ways;Where sorrow’s eye is never seen,Where love and hope are ever green.’—W. G.
1009 ‘Hail now on earth the glorious day,When infidels have learnt to pray;When heaven’s laws by reason blessed,Are all with fondest love confessed!When man in bliss can look above,And see a God in all his love;Can own with joy the mighty King,And loud his hallelujahs sing.Throw back the gates, ye heavenly band,To loved ones show the spirit land;Hang out the beacon lights to seeA homefor all, the bond and free.And now the dreams of former daysBehold in those celestial ways;Where sorrow’s eye is never seen,Where love and hope are ever green.’—W. G.
1009 ‘Hail now on earth the glorious day,When infidels have learnt to pray;When heaven’s laws by reason blessed,Are all with fondest love confessed!
1009 ‘Hail now on earth the glorious day,
When infidels have learnt to pray;
When heaven’s laws by reason blessed,
Are all with fondest love confessed!
When man in bliss can look above,And see a God in all his love;Can own with joy the mighty King,And loud his hallelujahs sing.
When man in bliss can look above,
And see a God in all his love;
Can own with joy the mighty King,
And loud his hallelujahs sing.
Throw back the gates, ye heavenly band,To loved ones show the spirit land;Hang out the beacon lights to seeA homefor all, the bond and free.
Throw back the gates, ye heavenly band,
To loved ones show the spirit land;
Hang out the beacon lights to see
A homefor all, the bond and free.
And now the dreams of former daysBehold in those celestial ways;Where sorrow’s eye is never seen,Where love and hope are ever green.’—W. G.
And now the dreams of former days
Behold in those celestial ways;
Where sorrow’s eye is never seen,
Where love and hope are ever green.’—W. G.
1010. “The exhibition of so-called spiritual agency in New York City by the Misses Fox and their mother, was the first incident that claimed my notice, and excited my laughter and ridicule, in this apparent new phase in the science of legerdemain.
1011. Blitz and his wonders crossed my mental vision, and seemed outdone by the results of this feminine exhibition, in which the spirits of another world were invoked, and aided in the performance.
1012. This happened when psychology had been developed to a wondering world, as the climax of magnetic phenomena in the wonderful attributes of man, and was regarded by myself among many as the culmination of human research in the science of animal life.
1013. Meeting an intelligent friend who had bestowed much pains in the investigation of this department of science, and inquiring of him as to the progress of magnetism, I was answered, that something much more wonderful than magnetism engaged his attention and occupied his mind at that time.
1014. Asking what the subject might be, and being asked in return, if I had not heard of the wonders of Spiritualism, a painful impression was made on my mind and feelings that, where all had been regarded as sound and straight, there must be some latent obliquity of thought; that my friend, as the Spaniards say, was a littletonto, or that he was likely soon to become so, was quite apparent.
1015. However, my strictest scrutiny could detect no decline of his intelligent and ingenuous mind, and his well-digested remarks addressed to my incredulous ears, gave proof enough that this might be another demand for the investigation of science, and a step forward in the progressive development of nature’s laws.
1016. Being the leading member of a circle that held its meetings at his house, and kindly acquiescing in my request to be present and witness the phenomena, I found myself shortly afterward seated at a table, on a Sabbath evening, with about twenty ladies and gentlemen, whose every appearance was fatal to my preconceived prejudices against the understanding of those with whom I expected to be associated.
1017. It was evidently a meeting for religious devotion. Sacred songs took the lead, and my own voice, as if impelled by a foreign influence, was raised for the first time by the impulse of feeling to participation in this vocal prayer of gratitude and praise, sung to the great, almighty Founder of the universe.
1018. Indeed it would be well for the cause of spiritual philosophy if all exhibitions of its wonderful and sacred phenomena were made under circumstances calculated to impress the mind with the greatness and dignity of its source. To feel protected from the nefarious cupidity of the world is an important first step for the successful investigation of a subject so sacred in its character, and so absorbing, in contemplating the prospective existence of man.
1019. Seeing my associates place their hands flat on the table, I followed their example, and was soon made sensible of the reason, by feeling what was recognised as electric concussion, made by spirits to denote their presence.
1020. And ever will my mind recur with delight and gratitude to the influence on my moral nature of this mission of love and salvation to an invulnerable heart! It flashed like electricity across the mind; the clouds of skepticism were ruptured, and shed a grateful and refreshing shower of hopeful joy on the feverish doubts of an unbelieving soul. This beginning led to progressive investigation, and that, as is uniformly the case, to a confirmed conviction ofthe communion of spirits with their friends on earth.
1021. Hearing much of physical demonstrations, but having witnessed only the concussions, vulgarly called the raps, the question was put to my friend, the gentleman already referred to, if a demonstration could be had to gratify my curiosity, and strengthen my assurance, when the following dialogue occurred:
1022. ‘Will the spirits be so obliging as to make a physical demonstration?’ Answered by three raps on the table, which were responded to by an affirmative expression from the whole circle. My seat was at the side of the medium, a married lady of considerably more than ordinary weight.Question.Will the spirits move Mrs. D. in her chair?Ans.Yes.
1023. As this demonstration was intended for my special benefit, and our invisible friends were fully committed for its performance, my attention was riveted on the lady who was to be the subject of it. ‘Madam, will you please put your feet on the spar of the chair?’ This being fullyaccomplished—‘and your hands in your lap,’ was added. As her hands dropped,the lady left my side, passed about two feet backward, and immediately returned to her former position at the table.
1024. My astonishment was naturally raised to the highest pitch, demanding of Dr. P., who sat on her opposite side, if I could believe my own eyes, and that Mrs. D. had really been moved from my side. ‘Oh, certainly,’ he replied; ‘that is nothing. I have seen far more wonderful manifestations than that.’
1025. The idea of collusion was too ridiculous to be entertained for a moment; every consideration condemned it. The carpet on which the chair stood on its slender legs, with at least one hundred and fifty pounds added to its gravity, must have been extensively injured had the chair remained in contact with it. But not even a sound was audible, and my mind was left to contemplatean invisible power that had effected the movement of a ponderous body in mid air.
1026. Showing the interest of my own dear invisible guardian friends, it was spelt out by the card, the primitive mode of communication at that time, that I should change my seat to the side of the medium; and it was only after this change had been made that my mind was impressed to ask for a demonstration.
1027. By this demonstration of supernal agency I was delighted, humbled, and convinced. As the octogenarian Robert Owen, of London, proclaimed to the world in a published letter, in relating his own case, I became a convert tospiritual lifeandintercourseby the force of this evidence, because I should have considered any man a fool, who, with a mind free from the curse of a bigoted education, and whose thoughts and feelings were not mortgaged to the world, could reject such palpable and convincing proof, and entertain a different conclusion.
1028. Being subsequently in the city of New York, I visited the public circles of Mrs. C., a medium for automatic writing and the sounds. Being requested, as the rest had been, but without response, to ask if any of my spirit friends were present, my interrogation was answered by three distinct raps on the table. ‘Now ask who it is; a father, mother, and so on;’ and I was informed it was a son. ‘Is your sister with you?’ ‘Yes.‘ ‘Will you spell her name?’ ‘Yes;’ and it was correctly given. ‘Is her little son with her?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Will you spell his name?’ ‘Yes;’ and a name of seventeen letters was correctly spelt out by the card, the letters being indicated, when pointed to, by three raps.
1029. My spirit son also informed me when he had died and of what disease. I asked if they were happy. It will be observed that my son’s name had not been mentioned, reserving it for a test. Three raps had replied in the affirmative to my question, when the medium spasmodically seized a pencil, extended a sheet of paper toward me, and wrote upside down, so that I might read it as written: ‘We are looking forwardfor you to join us, when we shall be more so;’ and to my perfect delight and astonishment, signed my son’s name to the communication, asking whether the name was correct.
1030. On a subsequent occasion, when a large and respectable company was present, I remarked to Mrs. C. that she had reported the fact that foreign languages had been written by her hand. ‘All kinds of language; but I don’t know any thing about them,’ was the reply. ‘If you have no objection, I should like to get a communication from my son, in a foreign language.’ ‘Oh, not the least; if he knew it in this world, he will know it in the next.’ ‘My son, will you give me a communication in a foreign language?’ Answer, three raps. The company were all intent on this striking and convincing test of spiritual intercourse. In French? no; one rap. In Spanish? three raps. The medium’s hand, as before, seized the pencil, and wrote upside down a communication to mein correct Spanish, though we all accepted her declaration, that she was not acquainted with one word of the Spanish language.
1031. As it is said of our beneficent almighty Father, that when two or three are gathered together in his name, he is with them, so it is with the spirits of our dear departed relatives and friends. When a few congenial, harmonious spirits of earth are associated in virtuous love, and their affinity for their supermundane spirit friends is strong enough to draw them here, they come on missions of friendship, and pour happiness into our hearts, provided the presence of a medium, possessing the required conditions, affords them an opportunity.
1032. It has been my good fortune to be a member of such an association, called a spirit circle; and the communications which have come to me from my dear departed children, and others who are dear to me, filled with love and interest for my welfare in the world, have given a value to life which it never had before, supplying a stimulus to the heart and mind which has guarded them from the influence of surrounding excitements, and strewed that path with many sweets which was too apt, with less humility and resignation, to be regarded with doubt and pursued with remorse.
1033. Let it not be said that spiritual philosophy imparts no benefit to man. It need not be asked if opening heaven to the mind of the skeptic is not a boon: it is too manifest an axiom to be made a question. Is it no advantage to mankind to know that this life is a prelude to one in the skies? no incentive to virtue to be taught that the beginning of our spirit life will correspond with the termination of our mundane existence, and that our position there will be governed by our affinities here? Operating on spiritual, as gravity does on physical, matter, and giving to crime a weight which holds the criminal back in the career of immortal happiness; and that this must be first disposed of by the redeeming laws of nature before the soul can begin its progressive flight to spheres of celestial bliss.
1034. At one of those family harmonious associations at which spirits are wont to come, I received a first communication from a much-loved daughter, whose devoted affection in this world caused her untimely death to leave a large blank in my happiness, till spiritual philosophy gave to my mind the assurance of her exalted bliss and unaltered love.
1035. To hear, as it were, the voice of one who had been resolved, agreeably to my belief, into the primitive elements of her physical nature, proclaiming her existence and transcendent happiness in scenes of surpassing beauty and fascination, was well calculated to soften the heart, however hard before, and make it for the future a more ready recipient of happy impressions; to open the floodgates of feeling, waken up the latent sympathies of our nature, and make us participants of those fountains of joy, which flow from the blessings of pure religion.
1036. “‘Father Dear: I will give you some idea of my beautiful home. Think of all the flowers ever seen on earth blended in one, all the heavenly strains of music blended in one strain, all beauty combined, and you will have a slight conception of the heavenly kingdom.
1037. Poets have sung of heavenly joys, but fancy cannot paint, nor artist sketch, the wondrous beauties of the spirit home. Darling father, how glad I am to see you have begun to live for heaven! I shall be one to welcome you when life’s journey is over. Oh, mother dear, will you, for the love you bear to us, listen to the voice of your children? We will give you all the proof you ask.
Maria.”
1038. This was all got by pointing to the letters on a card, and taken down by a third person. All in such a manner as to preclude the possibility of the least participation of any one in its production.
1039. A beautiful and much-loved son, who left this world at three years of age, came to me, at the end of twenty-seven years, from the seventh supernal sphere, with words of love, consolation, and advice. Such events, to a believer in the spiritual doctrine, are well calculated to arouse the strongest energies of the soul and inspire the best feelings of the heart!
1040. The regular progress of maturity of the spirit, uninterrupted by the grave, is made evident to our astonished minds by an event like this. We are also admonished by the same source that decline is not an attribute of spirit life; that old age recedes, and infancy advances, to the same point of maturity, with entire immunity from all physical infirmity.
1041. On last Christmas-day, being convalescent from a rather doubtful illness, and musing alone on the wonders and blessings of spiritual intercourse, I was induced to write the following letter to my much-loved spirit daughter, from whom had come the preceding and many other communications:
1042. ‘Dear angel Child: The untiring affinity of your cherishedlove, which, unobstructed by time and space, makes you so often the companion of my mind and heart, and the dear partner of my thoughts and feelings, would seem to render the present object of addressing a letter to you and your dear brothers in heaven a superfluous task.
1043. But, my dear Maria, my ever dear and cherished child, with my growing faith in the blessed reality of spiritual existence, I am becoming daily more anxious to preserve the history of my happy experience, and also my correspondence with my beloved relations of this world, who have preceded me in the progressive destiny of the human race. Beside which, my beloved daughter, it will assimilate, revive, and perpetuate that mundane correspondence, the dear mementoes of which had their beginning seventeen summers since in your sick chamber on the banks of the Hudson, while an ambitious and youthful votary of Minerva, and ended on the Alabama, ever sacred to my memory, with the termination of your worldly career, a wife and a mother.
1044. The considerations which engage my mind and elicit my solicitude, in this contemplated correspondence with my spirit relatives and friends, are the mode of conducting it, that may make them acquainted with its contents, the fear of transcending the limits of propriety in the subject-matter of my letters, and my solicitude to make all my thoughts, feelings, and acts as conformable to the high behests of spirit life as may be within the reach of my weak and earthly nature.
1045. The communications I have received from you and your dear brothers, and from your Uncle John and Aunt Rebecca, are a perpetual source of happiness to my mind, and nothing, while I am in this world, can reflect so much joy on my heart as the continued correspondence of all the loved ones who have gone before me.
1046. Your angel visits, and those of my dear William, during my recent bodily affliction, have exercised that joyful influence on my heart and mind so essential in diseases of a dangerous nature and of doubtful termination.
1047. The assurance which you and your dear brother have given me, that my sickness has had the happy effect to spiritualize my mental and physical nature, has been already made manifest to my grateful mind by strengthened resolution for the future, and a more exalted sense of the demands of that true spiritual philosophy which felicitates our life in this, and secures for us a desirable position in the spheres above.
1048. Flowing from my warm aspirations for the increased happiness of my fellow-creatures in this mundane sphere, by the dissemination and growth of the spiritual doctrine, I cherish a wish that this letter may be made to subserve that divine object, by exhibiting to the world an irrefutable test of spiritual intercourse.
1049. For this purpose, my dear angel child, in your next interview through our much-respected medium, allow me to request the favour ofyou to make my letter so far the subject of your communication, as may exhibit the reality of your spiritual existence, intelligence, and clairvoyance, and your continued correspondence of heart and mind with your happy father.
“Christmas, 1854.
1050. Shortly after writing this letter, at the circle of which I am a member, the following communication was spelled out on the spiritoscope or disc.
1051. ‘Darling Father: I wish to say something to you about William’s communication. He has impressed you since you were sick more than myself. You are rapidly developing as an impressional medium.
1052. ‘We have been constantly with you. Having wished to give a communication the evening our friend (a lady who is a very superior medium) was with you and mother, but the mode was too tedious. It was an era in mother’s life. Her opposition tends in some measure to repulse us; not that we love her less, but our loving natures must meet reciprocal tenderness.
1053. ‘Love begets love in the heavenly spheres, as well as on earth. I cannot say more at present, but I think William will speak more at length about the letter.
Maria.’
1054. ‘What letter?’ ‘Father knows,’ was the reply. The next communication for me on the same evening was the following:
1055. ‘Father, I wish you to read the letter which you have in your pocket-book before you go home; it will dispel all doubts in your mind relative to its spiritual origin.
W. G.’
1056. On the next evening, finding myself incidentally one of a happy meeting of spiritual friends, the following came for me through the spiritoscope from my brother, referring to my letter:
1057. ‘Brother William: We are still with and around you. During your sickness it was the province of Maria to watch you daily. Other friends were near; among these were father and mother, with your sons Jacob, William, and Henry, Rebecca, and many others bound to you by the ties of consanguinity. On Christmas-day we held a levee in your room. If you could have seen us, I think it might have disturbed your placidity, but you sat as composed as if you were entirely alone. I think if you will recall the circumstances, you will confess that a power foreign to your own was exerting an influence to give forth spiritual monitions.
1058. ‘I am anxious that Maria should make a communicationin regard to the letter, and she will do so when an opportunity offers.’
1059. On the next meeting of our circle, the following beautiful letter was put in my hand by our intelligent and highly-developed medium, Mrs. Gourlay, written by her under spiritual impression:
1060. ‘Dear Father: I mentioned to you briefly at the circle that brother William impressed you to write the letter which you addressed tome on Christmas-day. I perceive with pleasure that my friend Mrs. G. is now sufficiently under my control to answer your affectionate epistle. The proposed correspondence between us affords me much pleasure, and causes me to feel as if I were really to live over again the days of my earthly existence, when I was blessed with the oft-repeated manifestations of your parental love and affection. I flatter myself, my dear father, that this revival of loving association will tend much to your happiness as well as mine. I will be a friendly star to guide you in your course over the troubled sea of life, that you may not become submerged in its surging billows, but arrive safely at the haven of eternal joy and felicity. I will lift your soul by degrees to the source of love and wisdom, and cause you to feel sensations of pleasure such as you have never before experienced. You have a mind which delights in the beauties of nature and art. Let me tell you, then, that no scene of earthly grandeur which you have ever witnessed, nor the sublimest flight of fancy of the wildest enthusiast in the cause of Spiritualism, can compare with the beauties and joys of the spirit home.
1061. ‘I regret that the members of my loved family are so much blinded by prejudice, as to debar themselves the holy privilege of spiritual intercourse—a communion which would serve to connect them indissolubly with us, and teach them of a world beyond death and the grave. Oh! father, how my heart rejoices that I can come to you with cheering words, and pour into your willing ear the tidings of the gospel of peace, which will prove a balm of consolation to your drooping spirit! The ordinary trials of life are but as dew on the eagle’s wing, when the proud bird soars aloft to court the rays of the rising sun. Father, I have already presented you with a view of the beautiful realities of my spirit home. The picture I have drawn is no ideal one, but a real and substantial scene of enduring pleasures. Now let me ask, How will your joys compare with ours? Oh! that the minds of my darling children might become imbued with an understanding of this most holy religion, for I am conscious that it would add largely to their present and future bliss!
1062. Dear father, I perceive the emotions of your inmost heart, and if the love of a devoted child can in any wise conduce to your happiness, it is most freely thine. Oh! that dear mother could feel as you do, how happy her declining years on earth might become! When she is disposed to listen to the voices of her spirit children, it will be our pleasure to come to her “with glad tidings of great joy.” Wishing you both, my dear parents, all the happiness which earth can afford, I subscribe myself your ever loving daughter.
Maria.’”
1063. The following letter was placed in a sealed envelope, addressed and handed to Mrs. Gourlay for an impressional reply. A few days afterward the answer to it, here annexed, was handed to me by my esteemed friend, the lady named, with the original letter still in the sealed envelopeas it had been handed to her. This has to be regarded as a beautiful specimen of psychometric mediumship.
Philadelphia, March 23, 1855.
1064.My dear Brother John: Your communication last evening at our circle of “progress” afforded me much gratification, as you are doubtless aware from your pervading perception. I regret that circumstances do not allow of a more frequent intercourse with my beloved friends of the spirit land. It is also my ardent desire to hold communion with all my spirit relatives, and would wish with you, my dear brother, to bring about this delightful consummation.
1065. Your injunction of cheerfulness, as an efficient means of securing a healthful equilibrium of the vital organism, I can fully appreciate, and shall endeavour to profit by your welcome brotherly and excellent advice, as far as circumstances will permit. It is true, my dear John, that a longer sojourn here harmonizes with my desire to effect some objects, the accomplishment of which would probably add to my happiness here, and my claim for congenial association. The object to which I allude is the amelioration of the condition of the poor and wretched of my fellow-creatures, making them through my agency the recipients of some active benevolence.
1066. I have imbibed the opinion that the only acceptable offering at the throne of the great God, is the actual performance of those duties which are incumbent on us as individuals and social beings; beginning with the establishment of our own personal physical and moral character, and those of our own household and immediate social circle of relatives and friends; and then, to the accomplishment of this, to cultivate the sentiment of benevolence in aiding to promote the individual welfare of mankind in the use of what talent and other means may have fallen to our lot. I am prone, in my relations with the great Omnipotent Ruler of the universe, to apply the time-honoured maxim, “Actions speak louder than words.”
1067. Your invitation, my dear brother, to increase my intercourse with my spirit friends, finds in my heart and mind a very ready compliance. You propose a daily appropriation of time to this object. If you will do me the favour to appoint the time most agreeable to them and most desirable for myself, it shall be, to the fullest extent of my power, sacredly devoted to a duty and pleasure that are nearest to my heart.
1068. I feel the assurance that the good earth-character and intelligence of my spirit family, and the extent of our mutual love and affinity, afford me a more than ordinary opportunity for receiving information of that bright world which has become a delightful prospective inheritance to me and to thousands of doubting, fearful, and despairing minds.
1069. Your inspiring cheerfulness, my dear John, has already verified your sensible prognostic of the great influence on disease of a cheerful mind. I have learnt to entertain a high opinion of the bright intelligenceand clairvoyance of the more elevated denizens of the spirit world; and shall always, therefore, regard any advice that may be offered me for the better government of my body and soul as a welcome and precious offering from those I love. I will close for the present with the assurance of my unaltered affection.
William.
1070.My dear Brother: With heartfelt love and affection I respond to your letter in reply to a message which I delivered through the instrumentality of our devoted friend, Mrs. Gourlay. During our happy interchange of thought, it will be my endeavour to suggest such ideas to your mind as may serve to elevate it and develope its capabilities. To the mind that is ignorant and prejudiced, this mode of communion with the invisible world may seem to be a direct violation and infringement of nature’s laws; but it is, on the contrary, not only natural, but perfectly legitimate to the age in which you now live. It is not a new revelation, but simply the discovery of hidden truths peculiarly adapted to the present advanced state of the race. It is old material in a new form. The material and spiritual elements are contributing, asnever before, to the elevation and happiness of mankind, and already is established a spiritual telegraph on which I am at this moment successfully operating—sending a message of love to you, my brother.
1071. You say my words of cheer have wrought a change for the better in your system. This is a result which naturally follows a strict adherence to my prescription—cheerfulness.
1072. You desire to know what time would be most advisable for you to sit for spiritual communion. I would say, early in the morning, before the mind becomes taxed with the cares of the day, make a record of your impressions.
1073. You observe that it gives you great pleasure to receive messages from those in the spirit world who are bound to you by the ties of relationship. Let me assure you, my dear brother, that the feeling is mutual; and while time lasts with you, it will be our endeavour to gladden your heart with tokens of our increasing and untiring love. Your cup of happiness shall be filled to the brim, if it depends on us.
1074. Brother, may you meet with friends true and kind; may the labours of the cheerful morn render each day a happier one to you; and when night steals upon a slumbering world, may you close your outward eyes in peace with all mankind! Keep the mind’s sunshine bright! You have a soul to feel for others’ woes, and this is the true stamp of divinity.
John.
1075. Some peculiar views respecting marriage, which are not consistent with the ideas of female delicacy and chastity heretofore entertained, have been designated by the name of “Free Love,” and have been commented on as proceeding from the spirit world. I am happy to say that, agreeably to the impressions which I have derived from my spirit friends, any doctrine, having a tendency of the kind thus described, would be at least as much censured in the spirit world as in this. As the best mode of removing this groundless imputation on Spiritualism, I will state the impressions which I entertain on the subject of marriage.
1076. Among the sources of happiness in the spirit world much insisted on is that resulting from a combined union of those really created for each other. The marriage contracted in this world, loses its binding power in the spirit world, yet may endure if mutually desired. If a husband has had several wives, or a wife several husbands, the tie endures only between the most congenial pair.[20]
1077. Sexual association is the means throughout nature by which the perpetuation of species is effected. But that this association may exist among human beings without degradation, it is manifestly necessary that it should not be indiscriminate. Not only delicacy, modesty, and the cultivation of congenial affection, but likewise the interests of offspring, require that the parents and children should form one family. The welfare of children, their equal duty to both parents, and natural affections between the parents and their children, must make a separation painful to all parties, however affection may have declined between the husband and wife, on the part of either or both.
1078. Hence, in the mundane sphere, the perpetuation of the human race consistently with decorum, and the welfare of offspring, and the happiness of the parties, especially the mother and wife, seems to be the great object of matrimony. In the spheres it is difficult to perceive how any motives of equally high importance can exist. It must be that connubial union in the spirit world rather grows out of marriage in this world, in order to fill up the void in the heart which might otherwisearise from our mundane habits. It would seem as if it were a benevolent indemnification for celibacy, or for the miseries so often resulting from the connubial state in this world, consequent, like the sufferings of child-bearing, to the perpetuation of mankind.
1079. It seems to me an error to suppose that the terrestrial marriage can be a secondary object with God, when the important part which it performs is taken into view.
1080. Incapacity to maintain a family often renders it impossible for those who would marry to come together, and worldly motives induce marriages, even when disgust or indifference may exist on the part of one, if not on that of both the parties.
1081. It seems, moreover, even where marriage actually results from the passion of love, that it is more or less the consequence of a species of hallucination, through which lovers deck an object with all that they would wish to exist in the way of merit, and feel toward them an affection proportionate to their own capacity to love, rather than of the degree of power in the object, reasonably to excite such intense partiality. It is thus that the love of the mother to the child she believes to be her own, will be powerful in proportion to her own capacity for maternal love, rather than of the child to excite love; since though it be a monster, and notreally her own child, butfraudulently substitutedtherefor, it will cause no diminution of her maternal devotion.
1082. It is the impression on the mind that determines the object to which the passion is directed; the character of the being actuated by the passion, which determines its strength.
1083. But where to all those qualifications which would create friendship between persons of the same sex, the peculiar emotions which take place between those of different sexes are superadded, those who come together in this world under the hymeneal tie, may find it something more than a mere civil contract, and not terminated by death. Moreover, independently of the original passion, there arises an affection which is justly distinguished as conjugal, and which differs from the other in this highly important particular, that it is founded on a thorough reciprocal knowledge, instead of that ignorance which too often accompanies attachments produced by the arrows of the blind god, as Cupid is sometimes designated with figurative consistency.
1084. Having always supposed that independently of the emotions peculiar to the sexes, there could only be friendship between a man and woman like that which would exist between a brother and sister, I am at a loss to understand what it can be which, in the spiritual state of existence, can induce indissoluble marriage.
1085. On submitting the suggestions comprised in the preceding statement to the spirit to whom I owe much information, herein quoted, andto the spirit of a most intimate male friend, by both it was alleged that peculiar emotions were attendant on sexual affection in the spheres, as well as on earth, so far as consistent with the absence of that which exists in common with brutes.
1086. Is it not a mistake to suppose that any doctrine gains any validity by claiming inspiration as its source, when there is nothing but human testimony to advance in support of that claim? For if in the instance of Spiritualism, human testimony is deemed to be unavailable, how comes it to avail when adduced in support of this arrogant claim of inspiration? As well might a man expect to cure the defect of a marshy foundation by substituting columns of iron for wooden posts, or that, while resting on wood, the support could be made firmer by introducing iron into the superstructure.
1087. As the introduction of the iron would diminish the competency of the foundation in proportion to the augmentation of weight, so the claim to inspiration lessens the competency of the testimony upon which it is advanced, proportionally as the incredibility is increased.
1088. But as respects the ancient witnesses, their own statements make them out unworthy of confidence. Facts or circumstances are stated which are manifestly blasphemous, inconsistent, and absurd, if not impossible. Thus a want of veracity or of discretion being demonstrated in some points, is sufficient to destroy validity in all.
1089. Revelation assumes God to be omnipotent, omniscient, prescient, and all good, yet represents him as under the necessity of subjecting his creatures to probation, to find out what, by the premises, he must foresee. It represents him while wishing his creatures to know him and his attributes, asnot teachingthem that which he wishes them to learn, yet punishing them and their posterity for ignorance arising from his own omission.
1090. It does not suffice to allege that the Old Testament taught God’s will to the Jews; since it is to me incredible that our Heavenly Father would give instruction of vital importance to a few of his children, leaving all the rest uninstructed, and yet afflict them for this result. But, admitting this possible, it appears that the instruction given the Jews inthe book of Moses failed in those particulars, which are of paramount importance.
1091. In the Bible, God is represented as susceptible ofjealousy, ofwrath, of authorizing the butchery of three thousand Israelites for worshipping a golden calf; sanctioning the massacre of the whole nation of the Midianites, with the reservation of the virgins for violation by the bloody murderers of their kindred; the outrageous deception and fraud on the part of Jacob; swindling the Egyptians by borrowing their ornaments with intention of purloining them; hardening the heart of Pharaoh, yet afflicting his subjects for the obduracy thus produced; instructing Saul to surprise and massacre the Amalekites, even to each “suckling babe”, for a wrong done by their ancestors some hundred years before, as authorizing the hewing down with a sword the regal prisoner Agag in cold blood,[21]and sanctioning the destruction of whole pagan communities by David.[22]
1092. The following is the account given of this favourite of Jehovah: “And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel; so shall I escape out of his hand. And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath. And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him. And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? Then Achish gave him Ziglag that day: wherefore Ziglag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day. And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt. And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish. And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to-day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites. And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines. And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant forever.”
1093. Here is massacre, spoliation, base lying to Achish, his truly noble-hearted friend, whom he deceives into a belief that he had made the people of Israel abhor him, when it was his intention to become king of Judea, and of course the enemy of his too-confiding protector, whenever an opportunity offered.
1094. Praise be to God that he has sent us a new way to religious light, not associated with thisdetestableimmorality!
1095. Jehovah is made to arrest the sun, in order that Joshua may slaughter his flying foes. He is described as authorizing the Jews to extirpate their neighbours and seize their territory. I do most conscientiously declare that the portrait of Jehovah by the Bible appears to me moresuitable for Satan than for our heavenly Father, who is represented by the spirits as perfectly impartial and equally loving to all his creatures.
1096. The example set in the Bible of slandering and persecuting those who did not believe in its doctrines, has ever been followed out by scriptural devotees, who would presumptuously represent that it is only from the Scriptures, whichtheyrecognise as the word of God, that a correct knowledge of the divine attributes can be obtained. But this is the converse of the truth. As described by Seneca, the Roman Sage, the God of the ancient theist was to the Jehovah of the Bible as Hyperion to Satyr. (See Seneca’s opinions of God, 1224)
1097. It appears to me a striking proof how far men can be demented by educational bigotry, that it should be supposed that their omnipotent God can require human missionaries’ aid to promulgate or carry out his will.