712. The sentence above quoted was communicated in this way.
713. I am about, by this contrivance, to test the manifestations farther.
Robert Hare.
714. Among the best precepts afforded by the gospel is that of laying up treasure in heaven, in preference to seeking to become rich in this world. To pursue the last-mentioned course has been alleged to disqualify us more or less for entering heaven. Certainly, however, honest exertion for the acquisition of wealth is the corner-stone of human prosperity, and money seems in most instances necessary to the effectual exercise of that fellow-feeling in the cultivation of which human virtue pre-eminently consists. (See Influence of Mundane wealth on Celestial Happiness.)
715. How can a man display charity, hospitality, or contribute hismeansandtimeto objects of philanthropy, unless he beforehand lay up wealth? How could the Samaritan have assisted the traveller who had been maltreated by thieves, had he not taken care to have something beforehand, not only for himself, but for the needy? But still the precept, Lay up treasure for thyself in heaven, is precisely the course which Spiritualism indicates. Precepts may lead, but examples will draw. Those who have gone before us to eternal life, furnish us not only precepts, but examples also. They furnish exemplifications of the consequences of their conduct, if followed. With few exceptions, my intercourse has been with those only, who did lay up treasure in heaven, by doing on earth as they would have others to do unto them. Of the spirits with whom I have communicated, only two alleged or indicated that they were unhappy. Of these, I was informed, one bore an ill character upon earth.
716. Another, after having suggested to his inquiring brother some measures relating to his surviving wife’s temporal concerns, spontaneously added the following words: “I am nothapey.” The inquiry being made for the cause of his misery, the resulting reply was, “I did not doritewhen I was in this world.”
717. Another admitted that he was drowned, in consequence of getting dead drunk. On being asked if he were happy, he answered, “Damned happy.” In reply to an inquiry whether he was sorry to have quitted this life, he replied in the affirmative.
718. Having evidently been a seaman, who had sailed under an officer who was present, he had preserved the usual fondness of sailors for tobacco and grog. This propensity he could not avoid displaying, notwithstanding his having passed death’s dread portal, and the obvious inutility of expressing to mortals his craving for those pernicious stimulants.
719. Thus it appears that in the spirit world one means of retribution for the indulgence of bad propensities in this life, is subjugation to their ungratified cravings.
720. Of course, the more of these a spirit carries with him, the greater is his misery; while the more he founds his happiness on the indulgence of good propensities, the greater his power and opportunities of enjoyment.
721. As an illustration of the manner in which happiness may arise from the indulgence of good propensities, one of the enjoyments of a spirit of the fifth sphere is, as I am informed, in looking after children of relatives and friends, who have not as yet followed them to the spirit world.
722. Believing in the existence of a spirit world, where there are thirty-six grades of existence, corresponding to degrees of purity and intellectual acquirement,—purity alone giving exaltation merely, while cultivation of mind secures breadth of consideration,—we have, in the first place, to adhere strictly to truth, honesty, justice, benevolence, and doing as we would be done by, to reach a sphere higher in proportion as we are more successful. Yet, among those on the same plane, superiority in mental attributes gives precedence.
723. Nothing is better known than “while precepts may lead, examples draw,” and that subjection to bad examples, even when checked by good precepts, is generally irresistible by the young. But when there are no precepts to check, but, on the contrary, ill counsel as well as bad example, few human beings, however well constituted organically, could resist the tendency of such educational evil. Let bad hereditary propensities be superadded, and what can ensue but a climax of wickedness? Manifestly, however, all this is independent of any choice on the part of the victim. A high degree of virtue may consistently be inferred to result if all these conditions be inverted, and good precepts, good examples, co-operative in improving a mind of the opposite kind, one which owes to its progenitors goodness of heart and high intellectual capacity.
724. Much stress is laid upon free-will, but is will ever free from the joint control of reason and passion? What is will, if it be not the resultant of the conflict or co-operation of these? It may be a question whether, without passions, a man would act at all; but certainly he would act like an idiot or baby, so far as his will should be entirely independent of his reason.
725. It must be conceded, then, that the prodigious diversity between virtue and vice is the consequence of contingencies, which are no more under the control of the individual affected than the colour of his hair or the number of cubits in his stature.
726. The great features of the spiritual religion are, as I understand them, as follows:—Its foundation is laid in the belief of an all-good Deity, whose power is manifested to us by the immensity, profundity, sublimity, ingenuity, and adaptation of the means to the ends in the creation ascribed to the co-operation, if not origination, of his mind. The Bible of the spiritualist is the book of nature—the only one which by inward and outward evidence can be ascribed to divine authorship.
727. In this book we read, as matters of fact, that there is an infinite series of gradation in the rank of animals, as well as variety in their dispositions and propensities. This may be seen, from the half-animal, half-vegetable known as the polypus, up to man, there being gradations not only of genera, but of species and varieties. Thus amid men there are various races, rising one above the other in development, from the Bushman, Hottentot, or lowest Negro, up to the most highly-developed race of white men. But when we have passed through the gradation of the races, we have to enter upon that of individuals, who in the same race are by diversity of organization or education, or of both, made extremely different as to intellectual, moral, and scientific pre-eminence.
728. It is difficult for human reason to reconcile with impartiality this immense diversity in the lot of the creatures of God; but that such is the law of nature is self-evident: it is an intuitive truth. To reconcile it with the all-goodness of God, we must suppose a limitation of power, and that it has been beyond his power to put created beings more nearly upon a level. But, as Seneca observes, all have received more than they had a claim for. Some may think that the parable of the hiring of labourers for a vineyard, conveys an idea like that of the Roman sage.
729. These considerations being premised, it would seem that punishment in the spirit world is only the carrying out of the same system, excepting that while the deficiencies or vices which have arisen in this world become a punishment in the next, they also operate as the means of improvement, or, to use the language of that world, of “progression.” It may be inferred that as in this world the power of the Deity, although commensurate with the all but infinite universe in which we exist, was so restricted by conditions as to induce that enormous diversity of position inthe scale of animation which has been presented to view. Yet in the world to come these defects and vices are liable to be remedied; and, though they react upon their victim, it is with a view to his own ultimate benefit. There is not a malevolent devil to seize the poor miscreant, and, like the savage Indian, torture him with a fiend-like pleasure. He is regarded with compassion, and as soon as contrition is induced, treated with sympathy by the higher spirits, and assisted by counsel and enlightened by instruction. Unable any longer to indulge his bad propensities, the desire of rising to a higher level becomes a passion. Intellectual and social pleasures begin to be enjoyed. So long as he remains under the influence of his mundane appetites, he has to consort with spirits who are similarly actuated; they read each other’s mind, and thus are made acquainted with the deformity of their own. They eventually thus become instrumental in reciprocal correction. So soon as an aspiration for a better state is awakened, they rise to the next plane or circle above that in which they may have been existing; the only difficulty is in taking the first step. Progression grows with its growth, and strengthens with its strength, so that all beings may sooner or later attain to the highest sphere in the spirit world. It should be understood that there is no pardon for existing sin. Pardon can only exist as a consequence of reform, and in proportion thereto. (92.)
730. An assailant of Spiritualism, who not long since lectured at Sansom Street Hall, founded one of his charges on the commiseration felt by good angels for sinners, agreeably to Spiritualism. But from the examination above given respecting the origin of the difference between the virtuous and vicious, does it not appear that the fate of the latter is quite as hard as can be reconciled with justice, even under the more benign institution of Spiritualism? According to this, there exist in the spirit world six spheres, each subdivided into six circles or planes, forming together a succession of grades in which the soul finds its place according to moral and intellectual merit. The first of the spheres is throughout comparatively hideous in its aspect and disgusting in its inhabitants, who are designated by a dark halo in lieu of the effulgence which distinguishes spirits of the rest of the spheres. Moreover, this distinguishing effulgence, as well as the beauty of the spirit world, augments with the grade of the being whom it envelops, thus making a series of ranks in society founded on real nobility of head and heart. When it is considered that this immense diversity ensues mainly from contingency in organization, education, and greater or less exposure to trial, it must be clear that the difference made between the good and the bad by Spiritualism does not fall short of the degree which human reason can reconcile with justice.
731. The assailant of Spiritualism to whom allusion was made, while admitting the truth of the evidence given of communication with spirits, explained it by reference to Satan. It is remarkably inconsistent withthis idea that this evidence is of a nature to abrogate the existence, and of course the sovereignty, of that imaginary arch-fiend. Again, it can hardly be conceived that the greater commiseration for sinners should come from a malevolent devil, and the urging for everlasting and cruel torture from a sincere disciple of the benevolent Jesus Christ. But how much, then, must it shock one who embraces these views, that in addition to the misfortune of being badly organized, badly educated, and badly tempted, the being subjected to these disadvantages is to be exposed eternally to misery, typified, if not realized, by broiling on burning brimstone! I am aware that doing away with the more horrible attributes of hell will be alleged to be subversive of one of the restraints upon criminality; but, in the first place, it is evident that a man who is restrained from crime solely by the fear of punishment is only a more prudent villain than one who is not restrained by that selfish apprehension. When a man is deterred from crime only by prudence, hope of reward, or fear of punishment, he ought not to have a higher grade in heaven than the perpetrator of the crime.
732. But, agreeably to experience, of all restraints upon crime, none are more efficacious than the fear of degradation. The lawyer who will do the bidding of a caucus (or of a powerful demagogue in the executive office) in order to get a judicial appointment, when securely seated therein, will not give a charge which will degrade him in the eyes of the legal profession, and consequently in that of society, as well as in his own estimation. The dishonest gambler, who neglects to pay his tradesman’s bill, will not fail to pay his gambling debts. The debtor who will take every advantage in getting a high price for his goods, and who will put off any other payment as long as possible, fails not to pay his note at a bank. Sovereign states, who pay no other claims, take every means to meet the interest on their funded obligations. “Failure” in the one case, in the mercantile adaptation, involves the loss of reputation for good financial faith, abroad as well as at home; but the just complaints of domestic claimants, not heard upon the exchange, are unheeded. The great object, in many cases, is not to leave the crime “undone, but to keep it unknown.” The corrupt, selfish politician, who would promote war in order to give himself an opportunity of emolument or official pre-eminence, when facing the enemy in the field of battle willnominallydie for that country whose interests he has sacrificed. But not from the alleged motive will he die, but either to avoid being degraded as a coward, or for the hope of popularity which may help him to office.
733. In the spirit world, all are seen through and justly estimated, so that degradation and vice, or elevation and virtue, are inevitably associated by spiritual intuition. Yet there is, in my opinion, far more satisfactory proof of the truth of Spiritualism than of any other creed involving immortality; while, so far as adopted, it must tend to do away with priestcraft, sectarian malevolence, and religious intolerance. Man will go to the spirits of his ancestors for his religion, not to a fanatical, bigoted, or interested priest. Should spirits actually exist, as supposed, and convey the same religious knowledge all over the world, all men will agree that virtue is to be the means of salvation, not bigotry, under the name of faith.
734. It is conceived that Spiritualism has all the desirable attributes of religion, as stated in the second page of the introduction of this work. It sanctions the idea of the existence of one Supreme Being, who is represented as all love to his creatures; while his powers are made known to us by the sublimity, profundity, magnificence, and inconceivable extent of the creation which he rules. It does not represent him as selfishly creating us for the purpose of worshipping him, as capable of jealousy or implacable wrath for the result of errors which his alleged omnipotence could by afiatcorrect. On the contrary, we have been created to be happy sooner or later; evil existing not through design, but in consequence of conditions which he cannot control or cure unless through the operation of general principles.
735. With a view to mutual happiness, reciprocal beneficence is enjoined. We are required to obey the precepts of acting toward others as we would have them act toward us.
736. This innate law is appealed to instinctively by any child who is oppressed by another larger than itself, and was consecrated by Confucius six hundred years before its judicious sanction by Christ.
737. Spiritualism has the merit pre-eminently not only of furnishing a knowledge of immortality beyond the grave, but a precise knowledge of the spirit world in lieu of the silence of the Pentateuch and the vagueness and inconsistency of the gospel. An effort to establish the truth of these allegations will be made under the next head.
738. On the first spiritual manifestations occurring, the great object of the mass of observers was to see the physical effects. In the next place, intellectual communications were sought, but these being obtained by a tedious process, it was deemed sufficiently interesting if a few sentences could be made out, or even one. It was, moreover, a great object with inquirers to ascertain by the interchange of language, whether the spirit of a relation or friend were really present, as alleged by the supposed spirit. Hence, the communications were very deficient as respects any information of the spirit world. It is not surprising, therefore, that prejudicial unbelievers should have taken up the idea that there is nothing inviting in theheaven of Spiritualism. I hope that, agreeably to the communications from the spirit world recorded in the preceding pages, there is enough to create an ardent desire to become a dweller therein.
739. But is it not unreasonable for a person to disdain a state of existence which is by the spirits themselves described as “ineffably” happy? Alluding to the progression, which is to carry spirits eventually among the ministering angels of God, I observed to my spirit friend, Dr. W. E. Channing, that I did not consider him in heaven yet. “Were you situated as I am,” said he, “you would not say that!” But let us see how far the ideas of heaven, as warranted in Scripture, are comparable with those which have been communicated by spirits.
740. In a work by the Rev. Mr. Harbaugh, of the German Reformed Church of Lancaster, Pa., a great effort is made to collect all the hints respecting heaven which have been given in the Old and New Testaments. This learned divine quotes the following paragraph from Dr. Chalmers: “The common imagination,” says Dr. Chalmers, “that we have a paradise on the other side of death, is that of a lofty aerial region, where the inmates float in ether, or are mysteriously suspended upon nothing—where all the warm and sensible accompaniments which give such an expression of strength, and life, and colouring to our present habitation, are attenuated into a sort of spiritual element; that is, meagre and imperceptible, and utterly uninviting to the eye of mortals here below; where every vestige of materialism is done away, and nothing left but unearthly scenes, that have no power of allurement, and certain unearthly ecstasies, with which it is felt impossible to sympathize.”
741. After reading and believing the representations of heaven given by the immortal inhabitants of the spirit world, who can avoid turning in disgust from the portrait thus cited by Dr. Chalmers?
742. The most favourable idea of heaven given in Scripture seems to be that which identifies it with Paradise; in other words, a most beautiful garden. But who would conceive aneternalresidence in one garden, however superlative its attractions, as desirable? The idea of the spheres assumes a succession of gardens, with every pleasure, every joy of which the human heart and intellect are capable; and beyond those gardens the whole universe is open to us, and an ultimate ministration as angels under our Heavenly Father.
743. The portraiture cited by Chalmers is not approved of by the Rev. Mr. Harbaugh, but in order to confute it he does not resort to any better picture given in the Bible, but to reasoning. This shows that, learned as he is, and idolatrous as he appears in worshipping the Bible as an adequate fountain of light, he cannot get from the object of this idolatry any passage tending to prove the inconsistency of the idea quoted from Chalmers with Scripture. Were there not the greatest poverty of instruction on this all-important subject, the ideas alleged to exist as above mentioned,upon the high authority of Dr. Chalmers, could never have had sufficient currency to merit notice. It may be assumed that no Christians can conceive themselves to be better entitled to the joys of heaven than the twelve apostles of Christ. In order to show how far any expectations of a bliss higher than that afforded by Spiritualism could have been entertained by those disciples consistently with Scripture, I deem it in point to refer the language held to them by their Divine Master. I subjoin a few lines from Dr. Harbaugh, wherein he quotes the query put to that Master, by thetwelve, and the consequent reply. Nothing can be farther from my idea of a happy state than the benefaction promised to them. The query and reply are subjoined, in order to enable the reader to judge of both:—Behold, we have left all and followed thee: what shall we have therefor?The Saviour answered the above query when made by Peter, as follows:—When the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.Here is a direct answer by Christ to an inquiry respecting the nature of the reward which his disciples were to have for their merits as his faithful devotees. They are to be made severally worldly dignitaries; each is to sit on a throne, judging a tribe of Israel. That is, they are to have worldly pre-eminence, accompanied, of course, by all the vexations attendant on such stations, as well as the uncertainty and limitation arising from liability to death and disease. How weak and worldly-minded must his disciples have been, could such a prospect be alluring to them! I ask for any sectarian to say in candour, whether a governorship over one of the wealthiest States, the presidency, or any sovereignty in Christendom, would be deemed a heaven in comparison with that eternity of ineffable happiness enjoyed by the immortal spirits of the higher spheres? Yet Mr. Harbaugh, with the simplicity of blind faith, quotes this without perceiving how meagre is the gospel evidence thus afforded of the joys awaiting the faithful as a reward for their good conduct in this life.
744. The following remarks, made by Mr. Harbaugh, demonstrate how partial sectarians are in reading Scripture: “What shall we have therefor? This is a question that frequently arises in the Christian’s mind, as he endeavours to cheer his ofttimes drooping spirits with a look toward the recompense of reward. What shall we have? We have left all for thee, and by following thee we have confessed that we are pilgrims and strangers upon earth. In this world we shall have tribulation; but thou didst overcome the world; what shall those have who overcame with thee?” Harbaugh remarks: “Here then is curiosity which the Saviour himself approves, because he satisfies it. The same pious curiosity still manifests itself in the minds of God’s people in their holiest hours, and shall there be nothing revealed to satisfy them? Yes, God will approve of such inquiries, and will grant the influence of that Spirit, who leads unto all truth to all those who search the Scripture for an answer.” Drawing aneloquent picture of the aspirations of the soul for some realization of the vague ideas of the rewards of the faithful in a future state of existence, he exults that thiscuriosity, as he calls it, should be sanctioned by Christ, “who approves this curiosity because he satisfies it.” How does he satisfy it? Is it by holding up the hope of a judgeship for each? It seems it was not then foreseen that instead of performing the part of the Jewish Messiah, with which he thus identified himself, that of gathering together thechosenpeople of God, he was to put forth opinions which were to scatter them through the world. “Wo unto you, Chorazin,” &c., for the heinous offence of not admitting him to be both the Messiah and the Son of God. The promise of the judgeships was quite consistent with the former character, and strengthens the idea that he never pretended to any higher mission. With this the promise in question is consistent, but is wholly irreconcilable with his divinity, which would make these judgeships worse than giving a stone for bread or a serpent for a fish. In order to have bestowed these judgeships, the Roman empire must have been subverted. It seems that if (as stated by the worthy Mr. Harbaugh)the curiosity of the disciples was truly and correctly satisfied, that this satisfaction was the sum total of the heaven with which they were remunerated; since not the slightest hint is given that they were, like the penitent thief, to be with their object of devotion in paradise. It would seem, on the whole, that the rewards of the thief and the beggar Lazarus were of a more heavenly nature than those promised to the apostles, even had the latter been susceptible of realization, instead of being irreconcilable with the doom which awaited the Hebrews, and consequently a merevox et præterea nihil. But while, in lieu of an eternal progressive happiness, Christ holds up the transient, precarious, and limited supremacy from which a truly pious and wise man would turn in disgust, when hell is to be represented, we have eternal torments typified by fire, and weeping and gnashing of teeth inutter darkness, in despite of this fire. The situation which Christ, the Son of God, was to have, was to bear manifestly a relation to that of his disciples. His situation would be somewhat analogous to that of Washington, when he was in the presidential chair, and the thirteen States were governed by as many of his faithful followers in the Revolutionary War. Yet Washington did not find his chair worth retaining longer than the good of the country made it important to remain. I am confident that neither would that great man leave his position in the seventh sphere for the presidency, nor any spirit among those who held the gubernatorial dignity, as suggested, find a governorship now a motive for leaving their bright abodes in the celestial world.
745. Dr. Harbaugh sanctions the idea that the revolutions of all the constellations with which telescopic examination has made us acquainted, may take place about a central sun, bearing the relation to other sunsanalogous to that which God has been represented to have to the other potentates; whence the title of “King of kings.” The existence, then, of asunofsunsis suggested, about which the constellations formed by inferior bodies of the same kind revolve. It would seem, then, that a more fitted allotment had been made if, enthroned by his Father’s side on that sun of suns, he had allotted to each of his disciples a constellation, than have assigned to them miserable transitory judgeships in Judea: a speck of territory, in this speck of a globe, which in a field of vision embracing the universe, would be imperceptible.
746. There being in Scripture so much more stress laid upon the torments of hell than the joys of heaven, is probably the reason why the horror of death is so great among Christians in general. Their practice in this respect is to speak of death as a great calamity. Here and there may be found a believer who is thoroughly convinced that the efficacy of his peculiar tenets, combined with the absence of criminality, and the redeeming influence of repentance, will insure him a passage to heaven; but the predominant language is to represent the death of any large number of human beings as a great calamity. Those who are exposed to danger pray most earnestly to be saved, and their death is always treated as a cause for deep regret by surviving friends. Hence the weeping, the grief, and the mourning called for by custom,—the relations and connections wearing black for months. Hence the dark hearse, the black pall, and bitter lamentation over the grave; which shows that it is not realized that death is only a glorious spiritual birth! I am confident that spiritualists will soon abandon a custom which must on their part be inconsistent; since they must look on death as no more a bereavement, than a residence in a foreign country, the means of communication being within reach, and a happy reunion foreseen.
747. When on board of a steamer under way at night, the possibility of her going down occurring to my mind, I felt cheered by the idea that I should not go down with her, but soar to the spirit world with my immortal friends, who would flock to meet my apotheosis. (Page 101.)
748. It has been urged that a most substantial idea of heaven, given in the old Bible, is that of a restoration to Paradise, of which the description gives the idea of an exquisite, beautiful garden; but Spiritualism gives the idea of garden above garden, improving in beauty with their elevation. Then there are thirty-six gradations in all, and in the five happy spheres thirty; so that there is excitement arising from well-rewarded emulation as a source of interest. Into the idea of heaven, as suggested in Scripture, intellectual ability and improvement form no part and give no superiority; whence the tendency of the more strict constructionists to turn a cold shoulder to every acquirement which is not coupled with scriptural knowledge. Neither the Athenæum, nor any library, is to be accessible on Sunday. If the time devoted at meetings and at churchwere given to the study of the real book of God, how much more learned would be those who thus employ their Sundays! It is held that the lowest and most ignorant person who is educated to believe implicitly the tenets of a sect, when he would by the same process as easily be made to believe any other tenets, is in heaven to be as high as the most enlightened as well as virtuous man, who has the only merit which can be attached to belief in a high degree—that of ardent desire for truth, and taking the pains to form an opinion for himself. Nay, the ignorant bigot is to be higher in heaven, if the free-thinker alluded to, should not agree with the ghostly adviser, of the devoted sectarian with whom he is compared.
749. The idea of living in the finest garden which imagination can conceive, without the enjoyments and progression which my father’s communication attributes to the spheres, would beget tedium rather than the ineffable happiness which my spirit friends profess to enjoy. But while one of the Jewish ideas of heaven in its best form, is thus deficient, the description given by the learned Josephus of hell is horrible in the extreme, that of heaven being disgusting. I give it as I find it quoted by the Rev. Mr. Harbaugh:
750. “Now as to Hades, wherein the souls of the righteous and unrighteous are detained, it is necessary to speak of it. Hades is a place in the world not regularly finished, a subterraneous region, wherein the light of this world does not shine; from which circumstance in this region there must be perpetual darkness. This region is allotted as a place of custody for souls, in which angels are appointed as guardians to them, who distribute to them temporary punishment, agreeably to every one’s behaviour and manners.
751. “In this region there is a certain place set apart as a lake of unquenchable fire, whereinto, we suppose, no one hath hitherto been cast, but it is prepared for a day aforedetermined by God, in which one righteous sentence shall deservedly be passed upon all men; when the unjust, and those that have been disobedient to God, and have given honour to such idols as have been the vain operations of the hands of men as to God himself, shall be adjudged to this everlasting punishment, as having been the causes of defilement; while the just shall obtain an incorruptible and never-fading kingdom. These are now indeed confined in Hades, but not in the same place wherein the just are confined. For there is one descent in this region, at whose gate, we believe, there stands an archangel, with a host; which gate, when those pass through that are conducted down by the angels appointed over souls, they do not go the same way, but the just are guided to the right hand, and are led with hymns, sung by the angels appointed over that place, unto a region of light, in which the just have dwelt from the beginning of the world, not constrained by necessity, but ever enjoying the prospect of the good things they see, and rejoicing in the expectation of those new enjoyments which will be peculiar to every one of them, and esteeming those things beyond what we have here; with whom there is no place of toil, no burning heat, no piercing cold, nor any briers there; but the countenances of the fathers and the just, which they see always, smile upon them while they wait for the rest, and eternal new life in heaven, which is to succeed this region. This place we call the bosom of Abraham. But as to the unjust, they are dragged by force to the left hand, by the angels allotted for punishment, no longer going with a good will, but as prisoners driven by violence; to whom are sent the angels appointed over them to reproach them, and threaten them with their terrible looks, and to thrust them still downward. Now these angels that are set over these souls drag them into the neighbourhood of hell itself; who, when they are hard by it, continually hear the noise of it, and do not stand clear of the hot vapour itself; but when they have a near view of this spectacle, as of a terrible and exceeding great prospect of fire, they are struck with a fearful expectation of a future judgment, and in effect punished thereby; not only so, but when they see the place (or choir) of the fathers and of the just, even thereby are they punished, for a chaos deep and large is fixed between them, insomuch that a just man that hath compassion upon them cannot be admitted, nor can any one that is unjust, if he were bold enough to attempt it, pass over it.”
752. So much for Josephus. Mr. Harbaugh subjoins as follows: “This extract is exceedingly interesting. It shows to what extent of distinctness the Jewish ideas of the future state had attained. The dreamlike underworld is here considerably illuminated. The righteous and the wicked are separated, and already share the first fruits of their eternal reward. The righteous are surrounded with intimations and shadowy promises of better things to come, in the expectation of which they are already happy; the wicked are surrounded with tokens and forebodings of more fearful ill, much of which they already suffer in awful expectation.
753. “Through this picture,” says our good parson, “we see in faint but terrible glimmerings, in the distance, the region of eternal fire, which awaits the wicked when the judgment-day shall remove them from Hades; on the other hand, we see also the dawning of an eternal day for the just, the rest and eternal new life which is to succeed this region. This kingdom of the dead, beyond which the thoughts of men in the early ages did not wander, is considered only as a place of detention for judgment, while the idea of a final state, both for the righteous and the wicked, is believed to exist beyond it.”
754. How can any person sincerely pretend that those who rely on a happy idea of our immortal life are indebted for it to the source from which this Hebrew Pharisee derived the impressions given in the preceding quotation? Yet the Pharisees were the only conspicuous Hebrew sect who believed in heaven. The Sadducees did not believe in immortality.
755. The history of Lazarus and the rich man, (says Harbaugh, page 168,) “plainly teaches that both the righteous and the wicked on death pass into a fixed and eternal abode, where no change is possible;” and he further states (pp. 169-70) that “the misery of the wicked commences immediately after death, and before the resurrection, and their condition is unchangeably fixed.” According to St. Luke, (chapter xvi.) in the page alluded to above by Harbaugh, we are informed that the wicked, while in the torture of hell-fire, are within the view of the righteous, (verse 23.) The righteous are near enough to converse with those in torment, and yet there is an impassable barrier between them. The rich man is not tortured for his sins, but simply because he had “enjoyed good things.” Yet Abraham, who turned his son and son’s mother out in the wilderness to starve, and twice exposed his wife to prostitution, is represented as enjoying the reward due to the righteous.
756. How little sincere, heartfelt belief there can be in the words of Christ, may be estimated from the fact that scarcely any Christian but seeks for the good things of this life, instead of qualifying themselves for heaven by undergoing the rewarded privations of a Lazarus.
757. It is utterly unintelligible to my mind why repentance and reformation should not avail after, as well as before death, as it is represented to be in the spirit world.
758. There is a coincidence between these representations of Josephus and those of the gospel, so far as that both represent the righteous as witnessing the torments of the wicked. Would not such a situation make heaven a hell to good-hearted angels?
759. According to Matthew, (chapter xxv. 24,) the blessed, after the day of judgment, are toinherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. Of the joys that kingdom would afford there is no description. But, as usual, hell is made sufficiently horrible, (chapter xxv. 41,)—“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
760. In this respect, if in no other, there is an immense superiority in the conceptions of futurity given by my immortal advisers, in comparison with those attributed as above to Christ.
761. It has been urged that human conduct is so much dependent on organization, education, temptation, and example, neither of which are within the option of any soul, that the orthodox doctrine respecting sin is manifestly wrong. But admitting the culpability which that doctrine imputes, it has been shown that the gradations of sinfulness between the extremes of vice and virtue are innumerable. Suppose for each gradation a strand in a ladder, like that of which Jacob dreamed, and human souls supported severally at elevations commensurate with their respective pretensions. This adjustment being made, suppose a plane at any level to divide the vertical row into two portions, all below the plane being considered as goats, all above the plane as sheep. Evidently, between the soul just above, and that just below the plane, there would be only a shade of difference; yet the one would have to go to hell, the other to heaven, eternally.
762. According to Spiritualism, on entering the spirit world each soul finds its just level by a sort of moral specific gravity, in which merit is inversely as weight. Every soul, moreover, has the privilege of reforming, and rising proportionally to the improvement thus obtained.
763. One of the most agreeable conceptions attending our future existence in the spheres, is that of being restored to the appearance of youth; the decrepitude and wrinkles of age, of disease, mutilation, deformity, ugliness, are all avoided in the spiritual body. The insane are restored to reason, the idiot gradually improved in mind.
764. There is no small degree of contradiction in Scripture respecting the locality of heaven. In addressing the thief, paradise is identified with heaven by Christ. “St. Paul is alleged to have been taken up into paradise,” says Harbaugh; yet, according to the map accompanying the work of Josephus, Paradise is represented as being upon the river Tigris, near the Persian Gulf. The idea given of the abode of Adam and Eve, in Genesis, conveys the impression that it was a terrestrial locality.
765. In the Decalogue the abbreviation of life is threatened as the punishment for not honouring parents, and God is alleged to have held out the promised land to Moses, instead of comforting him by a clairvoyant view of a place of blissful enjoyment in some celestial region.
766. Elijah was carried up to heaven in the sight of Elisha. The commandment makes heaven above, the earth beneath. Christ was seen ascending by his disciples, and according to the apostles’ creed, after descending into hell, he arose on the third day and ascended into heaven. Yet Josephus consigns both heaven and hell to a subterranean region, like the Elysian Fields and Erebus of the heathen, but places them on each side of a lake of everlasting fire. This representation is sanctioned in the allusion by Christ to Dives, Lazarus, and Abraham; the former, broiling to eternity, requests that Lazarus should get a little water to cool the tip of his tongue. This Abraham declares to beimpossible. Hence it appears the parties were so near as to converse with each other, and for those who were blest to witness the sufferings of the damned. Thus, according to Christ as well as Josephus, heaven and hell are in immediate proximity, and both must be in the infernal regions.
767. The actual effects of the old Bible were to produce eitherunbelieversinimmortality, like the Sadducees, orimmoral believers, like the Pharisees, whom Christ especially denounces asvipers, andinternally corrupt, like whited sepulchres holding dead men’s bones.
768. Christ never singles out the Sadducees for denunciation, but speaks of the Pharisees particularly as hypocritical and corrupt. But in what did their hypocrisy consist, if it was not in that insincerity of their professions as respects belief in futurity which was shown by their worldliness.
769. Thus the evidence of the existence of a future state was such as to produce avowed unbelievers, or professed believers whose morality was so deficient as to create an expression that they were corrupt hypocrites, as odious as vipers.
770. It is not the feebleness of the impressions respecting the existence of another world, where happiness is proportional to good conduct, that renders the existing system so inoperative in preventing those vices which it especially interdicts; as, for instance, combativeness, cupidity, and revengefulness; so that the course usually pursued by professed Christians, does not merely amount to a neglect of Christ’s precepts, but renders an adherence to them disreputable? Nothing is more degrading throughout Christendom than poverty or tame submission to blows. The last excuse Christians in general will make for any omission or deficiency is their poverty.
771. If they really believed that they would broil to eternity, like the rich man, merely for seeking the good things of this life, would the attainment of those good things be made the great object of their existence?
772. Notwithstanding the representations of Josephus, sanctioned, as above shown, by Christ, of the subterranean localization of Elysium, there seems, nevertheless, an instinctive propensity to assume that heaven is overhead. Clergymen all look upward when they address God, and the Thespian artists universally follow their example. Whenever heaven is referred to, it is customary, I believe, for all devout persons to turn their eyes in the same direction.
773. But if heaven be above, what does this termabovemean? It practically designates a vertical direction relatively to this globe at any point over which a speaker who uses the word may stand. Consequently, it indicates a space overhead, having everywhere the same relative position to the terrestrial surface; in other words, a region concentric with that surface, like that within which the clouds float. This floating takes place rarely at a less distance than two, or more than six, miles.
774. The spiritual spheres are estimated, as already mentioned, as being between sixty and one hundred and twenty miles from the earth’s surface. They are, therefore, analogous in position to the region of the clouds, though at a much greater distance and vastly more capacious.
775. According to Christianity, there is no immortality for animals below the grade of humanity; but according to Spiritualism, animals that are favourites of man in this world are his companions in the next. Much stress is laid on the singing of birds in the account given of the spheres. There is a line of demarcation below which the privilege of an existence after death is not enjoyed. Respecting that boundary my information is at present incomplete.
776. In order to do justice to the excellent and learned clergyman to whom I have so often referred, I will annex the whole of those pages in which he conceives himself to give the “true doctrine” respecting heaven. However unsatisfactory it may be to me, I hope it will be found interesting to those who, like the author, look only to the Bible for information respecting their existence beyond the grave.