“One gentle sigh their fetter breaks;We scarce can say, ‘They’re gone!’Before the willing spirit takesHer mansion near the throne.”
“One gentle sigh their fetter breaks;We scarce can say, ‘They’re gone!’Before the willing spirit takesHer mansion near the throne.”
“One gentle sigh their fetter breaks;We scarce can say, ‘They’re gone!’Before the willing spirit takesHer mansion near the throne.”
“One gentle sigh their fetter breaks;
We scarce can say, ‘They’re gone!’
Before the willing spirit takes
Her mansion near the throne.”
777. “The different theories by which the souls of saints are supposed to be detained from entering heaven immediately at death, have now been exhibited. They have led us a long and dreary chase. The groundlessness of these theories has been, in part, shown in connection with a statement of them. They will, however, be more completely overthrown by a statement of the true doctrine, and by the arguments that may be adduced in its support. Various arguments that, in passing along, were offered against these false views, will also substantiate the true doctrine; thus the same implements that have been used to tear down the old building may be employed to erect the new. If, therefore, any thing should be presented in this section, among other things, which may seem to have been presented before, it must be remembered that though they are the same tools, they are now used to do a different kind of execution.
778. “We consider the true doctrine of God’s word on this subject to be this: The saints do immediately, at death, enter that place which is called heaven, where the body of the Saviour now is, where the divine manifestations are most clearly and gloriously made, where angels have their proper home, and where all the heirs of Christ shall finally and forevermore be assembled.
779. “That the saints pass immediately at death into heaven, is taught in the symbols in some of the most pious and learned denominations inthe church. We grant that this does not prove it absolutely true; but it has much weight, as showing how the Scripture on this subject was understood by many pious and learned men who had the same interest in and motives for the truth as we have, and were, we may therefore suppose, just as sincerely anxious to be led into the truth as we can possibly be. The conclusions, therefore, to which they have come, and which have been adopted by their numerous successors for centuries, are valuable. Beside furnishing us with the testimony of so much learning and piety, it serves to show that this is no new idea, and that it is not the faith of a few, but is the testimony of the church.
780. “The first symbolical testimony we produce is the Heidelberg Catechism, published first in 1563. This symbol has been the embodiment of the reformed faith for more than three centuries. Its influence has been very extensively respected and felt. It has, since its publication, been translated and read in at least fourteen different languages; and it is said thathalf a million editionsof it have been published in Germany alone. In this country it is received as a symbolic book, both in the Dutch Reformed and in the German Reformed churches. In the fifty-seventh question it is asked, What comfort is afforded to us by the doctrine of the resurrection of the body; and the answer is: ‘That not only my soul after this lifeshall be immediately taken up to Christ its head; but also, that my body, being raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul, and be made like unto the glorious body of Christ.’ Here the doctrine is plainly taught, and has been responded to with a joyful amen by millions during three hundred years.
781. “The next is from the Shorter Catechism, received as a symbolic book in the different branches of the Presbyterian communion. It is in answer to the thirty-seventh question: ‘What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness,and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.’ In the eighty-sixth question of the Larger Catechism this same doctrine is taught in more words. The following quotation is from the Westminster Confession of Faith: ‘The bodies of men, after death, return to dust and see corruption; but their souls, (which neither die nor sleep,) having an immortal substance,immediatelyreturn to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous, beingthenmade perfect in holiness,are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies.’ The declaration that they are ‘thenmade perfect in holiness,’ is no doubt directly aimed against the idea of a process of purgatorial or medicinal preparation, mentioned in a previous section. The declaration that they are then ‘received into thehighest heavens,’ is intended to stand in opposition to the idea of a middle abode in all its forms.
782. “The book of ‘Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church’ is silent on this subject; but, so far as I have been able to learn, the proper Protestant doctrine on this subject is held in that large communion. Their views of the nature of justification and sanctification would admit of no other to be consistently believed among them. It is believed that this is also the prevailing sentiment among Baptists, and other Congregationalists.
783. “What is here presented from symbols as the united faith of so many learned and pious men living in different ages, and in different parts of the world, is also founded on holy Scripture. By no wresting and violence has the church, in the general stream of its theological views, been turned aside from this faith. It is vain that men hope to annul, by means of violent and unnatural interpretations, the plain declarations of Scripture, to serve a theory.
‘Truth, crush’d to earth, will rise again,The eternal years of God are hers.’
‘Truth, crush’d to earth, will rise again,The eternal years of God are hers.’
‘Truth, crush’d to earth, will rise again,The eternal years of God are hers.’
‘Truth, crush’d to earth, will rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers.’
784. “The Saviour said to the penitent thief on the cross—‘To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’ Now the question arises, Where and what is that paradise in which the Saviour promised the dying penitent that he should be with him that day? This can be seen by referring to other passages in the Scriptures where the word paradise is used, and where its sense cannot be mistaken. This can be seen by reference to 2 Cor. xii. There it is said that Paul was caught up into paradise; and in the same passage the place into which he was taken is called thethird heaven—the highest and holiest place in the universe. In Rev. ii. 7 we are told that the tree of life stands in the midst of the paradise of God; and in Rev. xxii. 2, we are told that that same tree of life stands by the side of the river which flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. From this it is evident that paradise is the heaven where God dwells and the Lamb. Is then the middle abode, Hades, the kingdom of shades, the peculiar abode of God and the Lamb?
785. “The objection that the Saviour himself did not go to heaven that day, but was for forty days afterward on the earth, and that therefore he could not be with the penitent thief in paradise, has no force. During the three days that intervened between his death and resurrection, he could as well be in heaven as in Hades. Indeed, it is evident that he was in heaven during those three days, from what he says to his disciples shortly before his death: ‘A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me,because I go to the Father.’ Moreover, his tarrying on the earth and appearing among his disciples does not conflict with the idea that he was also in paradise. When he was yet in the flesh on earth, he could say: ‘And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but that he came down from heaven, even the Son of man whichis in heaven.’ In the same way that he was in heaven at that time, he may have been in heaven with the penitent thief during the forty days between his death and ascension.
786. “The history of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke xvi.) plainly teaches that both the righteous and the wicked, at death, pass into afixedand eternal abode, where no change is possible. No comment on the passage is necessary. This portion of Scripture has a thousand times been tortured out of its meaning by errorists of various kinds, and as often has its testimony fallen back into the church’s healthful stream of sound views. As a sheep, carried away from the fold, returns when set free, so this passage always comes back again; for the voice of a stranger it heareth not, nor followeth!
787. “In the Revelation, John, in his vision, saw the souls of departed martyrs and saints ‘in heaven,’ ‘under the altar,’ ‘before the throne of God,’ &c., and in the company of each other, of God, of Christ, and of angels, in the central and highest heavens, and in that place where the saints go no more out forever. Let it be remembered, also, that all this isbefore the resurrection; and if the following passages are carefully considered, they will leave no doubt on any candid mind that the saints are, immediately after death, admitted into heaven. To quote them all would be too tedious; a reference to them is sufficient: Rev. v. 6-14; vi. 9-12; vii. 9-17; xiv. 1-6; xiv. 12, 13.
788. “For further proof still the reader is referred to Acts vii. 59; 2 Cor. v. 1-9; Phil. i. 21-24; 2 Tim. iv. 6-9; Eph. iii. 15. In this last passage, the whole family of Christ is represented to be at two places, in heaven and on earth; but according to the other theory, there ought also to be some in Hades, or the third place.
789. “It may also be remarked that the misery of the wicked commences, according to the Scripture, immediately after death, and before the resurrection, and that their condition is unchangeably fixed. This is evident from Luke xvi.; and also from that passage in Jude where he says that those who had died impenitent in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah were, at the time he wrote, ‘suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.’ In like manner it is said of the righteous at death, that they are blessed ‘from henceforth;’ and of those who were clothed in white robes, having come up through great tribulation, it is said, ‘thereforearethey before the throne of God.’
790. “These passages are plain, and it would, in all probability, never have been attempted to make them mean any thing different from their plain sense, were it not for some difficulties, which, it is thought, stood in the way of the doctrine that the souls of the saints pass immediately at death into heaven. Let us look at these, and see whether they are not fancied difficulties, which one glance at the truth ought to remove:
791. (1.) “It is said that the soul, in a state of separation from thebody, cannot be in the same state, nor properly in the same place, as it will be after the resurrection; and as heaven is to be the eternal abode of the saints after the resurrection, it cannot be a proper abode for them before. This objection has, however, no force. There is, for instance, in this world, a great difference between a person in childhood and old age, yea, before he is born and after, or between his sleeping and waking state; and yet he is in all these in the same world, in the same place, and is the same person. The state and condition of the Saviour differs widely from that of any saint or angel, and yet both are in heaven. So angels and human spirits differ, and yet both are in one company and in one place. So in heaven the condition of the saints before and after the resurrection may differ much, and yet they may be, in both cases, in the same place.
792. “(2.) The saints cannot enter heaven, it is said, before they are judged; and as the day of judgment is represented to be after the resurrection, the saints cannot enter heaven until after that, and consequently not immediately at death. We may, however, consider, as is generally done, that the day of judgment is only a public and final consummation of the decision of man’s destiny. Although God can, and no doubt, does, for himself, judge and decide for each one when he dies, yet it seems necessary for the glorious praise of his justice and righteousness that all other intelligences should see the propriety of his decision. This is necessary, that every mouth may be stopped; and in order to do this he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained.
793. “(3.) It is also said that the condition of many is represented in that day to be undecided. Thus many are said to be disappointed; coming to be judged, they find that their expectations of heaven are vain, and they say, ‘Have we not prophesied, cast out devils, and done many wonderful works in Thy name?’ Now it is said that if these persons had been in a fixed state before, they could not have been in doubt on this matter. The force of this objection is only apparent. The representations of the judgment are after the manner of men, and consequently our conceptions of it must be more or less according to what we are accustomed to see on earth. The Saviour is warning his hearers not to delay preparation for death; and, in order to impress his solemn exhortation, tells them that many will find themselves disappointed in their expectations in reference to the final decision of their judge, and that their hopes of heaven, being built on the sand, will fail at last. It does no more exclusively refer to that day than the many warnings to prepare to meet the Son of Man refer to the time of his second coming. He is always coming, and to prepare for death is to prepare to meet him. So to find ourselves deceived at the day of death is the same as to find ourselves deceived at the day of judgment.
794. “(4.) Again, it is said that in some cases the full effects andconsequences of persons’ actions are not fully worked out when persons die. Thus, for instance, it is known that the labours and writings of many infidels, who are long since dead, are still working for evil; and on the other hand, the labours and writings of many good men are still working out good. These consequences must, in a certain sense, come into the consideration of their punishment or reward. Hence it is thought their destiny cannot immediately be decided. But to this it may be replied that God, who judges, knows how these consequences will work themselves out, and is able, therefore, to give a just judgment as well at the day of death as at the end of the world. At the last day, when all consequences have run out their history, it will be proper that they should be exhibited in a solemn public judgment, that all may see for themselves that all his ways are just and right. Besides, there is nothing unreasonable or unscriptural in the belief that the happiness of the righteous in heaven, and the misery of the lost in hell, will increase in exact proportion as the consequences of their actions on the earth are developing themselves, until the day of judgment, when the cup will be full, and then the full draught of happiness or misery will be taken finally and forever! Oh, what a moment will that be!
795. “Some additional considerations will serve more completely still to answer these and other objections, and reconcile the serious and thoughtful mind to the idea that the souls of the saints are in heaven before the resurrection of the body.
796. “We shall only gain proper ideas in reference to this interesting subject when we have corrected our ideas of heaven, for many of them are evidently wrong. We are inclined to think of heaven as affording to the saints a fixed or stereotyped condition, without attaching to it the idea of degrees and progression. When we maintain that the saints pass immediately at death into heaven, we do not mean that they enter then upon their final condition, or into their highest state of perfection, but only that they enter into thatplacewhich is their final abode. When, for instance, a child is born into the world, it is in the world; but it is limited in its observations, actions, ideas, capacities, and enjoyments, and yet all these are in their state perfect; all its faculties occupy their place symmetrically, and we have in the child a uniform but not a perfect being. Analogous to this may be the primary stage of our future celestial history. The child is in the world before it is born and during its infantile years, but how different is it, and how different is the world to it, from what it will be when all its faculties are ripe! So in heaven. The child before self-consciousness appears to enjoy an indistinct and floating life, but happy too; so may it be with our future condition before the resurrection of the body. The condition of the disembodied spirit will, no doubt, be somewhat isolated and lonely, (in a pleasant sense,) its happiness being derived much, though not entirely, from the flow of its own harmonious existence,and not from its connection with things external. Its future connection with its body will arrest its floating condition, and connect it again more consciously with locality and materiality. Thus it will become more capable of social relations and joys; just as the child emerging from its floating state in infancy has its social powers developed by being furnished with self-consciousness and speech, by which it learns intelligently to separate and distinguish itself from the general mass of being, which makes its enjoyments higher in their nature and more acute and sensible in their quality.
797. “Perhaps the state of the saints previous to the resurrection of the body, and in the first stage of their future being, may be analogous to (but of course higher than) a state of ordinary sleep, with active, pleasant dreaming. In dreams, the spirit acts and enjoys, unconscious of the body; and may we not suppose that the spirit after death may, to a certain extent, act and enjoy without the body? Perhaps it may in this state pass profitably and pleasantly through the first stages of its future history. It may, so to say, become habituated to eternal things, and develop its spiritual capacities to such a degree as to be prepared, at the time of the resurrection, to enter upon a more tangible and positive state of existence. It may thus, also, become acquainted with purely spiritual beings, and with the modes of purely spiritual existence. This will be useful, because the saints after the resurrection will be required to hold communion with things material and immaterial. While the saint is in this world, in the body, he becomes conversant with material things, and habituated to them; now, in the other world, in a disembodied state, previous to the resurrection, he will become conversant with and habituated to purely spiritual existence, so that after the resurrection, when soul and body are again united, he will be able to hold converse and communion with either material or immaterial existences at pleasure.
798. “To this it may be objected that while those who lived in the early ages of the world would have a long time to remain in this state of celestial pupilage, those who live in later ages would have less, and those in the last days scarcely any.
799. “This objection, so far from militating against this idea, most beautifully illustrates and confirms it. Thus the souls of men are more developed in spiritual things now, and will be still more in future, than they were in the earlier ages of the world. Those who lived in the morning of the world had very limited and indistinct ideas of divine and eternal things. Their views of a future world, especially, were exceedingly misty and obscure. As the church advanced, life and immortality were more and more brought to light. Revelation passed from types, shadows, and ceremonies, into brighter and clearer realities; and spiritual conceptions gained a firmer and more distinct hold upon the consciousness of men. The new dispensation was an advance upon the old, as under theold the age of prophecy had been upon the law, and the law upon the simple twilight of the patriarchal age. In what a different light those who lived after the new dispensation dawned, stood from those under the Old Testament, is clear from what the Saviour says—‘Among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he that is least in the kingdom of God’ (in the new dispensation) ‘is greater than he.’
800. “At the present day, clearer views are enjoyed than were enjoyed in the early history of the Christian church. Let any one read the history of the patristic controversies, and he will see how the most learned stumbled among propositions in search of truth which are now clearly comprehended by intelligent Sabbath-school children. And so it will go on into the future. Spiritual ideas which are as giants to us, and the nature and relations of which we do not see, will be apprehended by our successors at once. Thus, under the tuition of the Spirit, revelation will show itself progressive, and new things, as well as old, in reference to the spiritual world, will be constantly and successively brought out of the treasure of God’s word, of which the divine Spirit is the commentator. How, you ask, does all this apply to the subject in hand? Thus the earlier a saint lived in this world, the longer time for this heavenly pupilage he will have in the next before the resurrection, and he needs more; the later he lived in this world, the less will he have in the other before the resurrection, and he needs less. Thus those who enjoy in this world superior advantages on account of living under the clearer dispensation of divine truth in the last ages of the church, shall not have any advantage over those who had less on account of living in the first ages, since those who had less will have longer time in the future world before the resurrection.
801. “With this idea in view, the passage in 1 Thess. iv. 15 becomes beautifully intelligible: ‘For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent’ (that is, shall not go before, anticipate, or have any advantage over) ‘those which are asleep; the dead in Christ shallRISEfirst:then’ (when they have risen) ‘we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we be ever with the Lord.’ Those who shall live in the last moment, having had their spirits fully enlightened and prepared for a future existence in the brightness of the latter-day glory before death, shall not ‘sleep’ at all, for there will be no necessity for it; but ‘shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.’ ‘The dead shall be raised incorruptible,’ having been prepared for their incorruptible body, but ‘we shall be changed.’ 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52.
802. “This theory may be seen in the same way to illustrate itself consistently when applied to those who are lost. Those who live last in the world, when superior light is around them, sin against greater lightthan those who lived earlier, and are therefore sooner prepared to have their doleful station fixed finally in hell, in the union of soul and body.
803. “The doctrine we present in reference to the condition of the spirits of the saints in heaven, differs from the idea of a middle state, in a third place, in several important particulars. It excludes the idea of a middle place entirely, and of course all idea of probation, which is generally attached to it in some form or other. The state of the spirit in heaven, though imperfect, being the celestial childhood of the spirit, is nevertheless final, and not probationary. Our enjoyments there will be in exact proportion to our capacity; and as fast as our spirits are unfolded, will our joys increase.
‘The more our spirits are enlarged on earth,The deeper draughts they shall receive of heaven.’
‘The more our spirits are enlarged on earth,The deeper draughts they shall receive of heaven.’
‘The more our spirits are enlarged on earth,The deeper draughts they shall receive of heaven.’
‘The more our spirits are enlarged on earth,
The deeper draughts they shall receive of heaven.’
804. “What an interesting moment to the spirit will be the moment after death! What scenes will open up before it! The friends will stand weeping over the now tenantless body, but the spirit is—oh!
‘My thoughts pursue it where it flies,And trace its wondrous way!’
‘My thoughts pursue it where it flies,And trace its wondrous way!’
‘My thoughts pursue it where it flies,And trace its wondrous way!’
‘My thoughts pursue it where it flies,
And trace its wondrous way!’
805. “The Christian need have no unpleasant anxiety about what scenes will open to him, for he knows that the glory which will then break upon his astonished spirit will exceed his keenest anticipations.”
806. The facts which I have noticed in relation to mediumship, are certainly among the most inexplicable in nature.
807. There are two modes in which spiritual manifestations are made through the influence or sub-agency of media. In the one mode, they employ the tongue to speak, the fingers to write, or hands to actuate tables or instruments for communication; in the other, they act upon ponderable matterdirectly, through a halo or aura appertaining to media; so that although the muscular power may be incapacitated for aiding them, they will cause a body to move, or produce raps intelligibly so as to select letters conveying their ideas, uninfluenced by those of the medium.
808. Even where they act through the muscular frame of the media, their vision may be intercepted by a screen, so that they cannot influence the selection of the letters requisite to a communication. (Plate I.)
809. Rappings or tappings are made at the distance of many feet from the medium, and ponderable bodies, such as bells, are moved or made to undergo the motion requisite to being rang.
810. It will be perceived that my spirit father, in reply to the queries put in relation to this mystery, asks, “How do you move your limbs—carry the body wheresoever it goeth? how does God cause the movements of astronomical orbs?” (457.)
811. Evidently some instrument must intervene between the divine will and the bodies actuated thereby, and in humble imitation between the human will and the limbs. Upon the viscera our will has no influence. The heart moves without the exercise of volition.
812. As there is an ethereal medium by means of which light moves through space from the remotest visible fixed star to the eye, at the rate of two hundred thousand miles per second; as through an affection of the same ether frictional electricity moves, according to Wheatstone’s estimate, with a velocity exceeding that of light,—so may we not infer that the instrument of Divine will acts with still greater velocity, and that in making man in this respect after his own image, so far as necessary to an available existence, gives him one degree of power over the same element while in the mortal state, and another higher degree of power in the spiritual state. But if there be an element through which a spirit within hismortalframe is capable of actuating that frame, may not this element of actuation be susceptible of becoming an instrument to the will of another spirit in theimmortal state?
813. The aura of a medium which thus enables an immortal spirit to do within its scope things which it cannot do otherwise, appears to vary with the human being resorted to; so that only a few are so endowed with this aura as to be competent as media. Moreover, in those who are so constituted as to be competent instruments of spiritual actuation, this competency is various. There is a gradation of competency, by which the nature of the instrumentality varies from that which empowers violent loud knocking and the moving of ponderable bodies without actual contact, to the grade which confers power to make intellectual communications of the higher order without that of audible knocking. Further, the power to employ these grades of mediumship varies as the sphere of the spirit varies.
814. It has been stated that mortals have each a halo perceptible to spirits, by which they are enabled to determine the sphere to which any individual will go on passing death’s portal. Spirits cannot approach effectively a medium of a sphere much above, or below that to which they belong.
815. As media, in proportion as they are more capable of serving for the higher intellectual communication, are less capable of serving for mechanical demonstration, and as they are more capable of the latter are less competent for the former, spirits likewise have a higher or lower capacity to employ media. It has been mentioned that having made a test apparatus, my spirit sister alleged that it could not be actuated by her without assistance of spirits from a lower sphere. I inquired whether she could not meet me again, accompanied by the requisite aid. The reply was inthe affirmative, and accordingly she met me at an appointed hour, and my apparatus was actuated effectually under test conditions. (Plate 4,dd,ii,kk.)
816. After I had read over an exposition of my information respecting the spirit world to the spirit of the illustrious Washington, I requested him to give me a confirmation while the medium should be under test conditions. (Plate 4,kk.) I placed the hand of the medium upon the board lever of the instrument, of which a representation has been given, (Plate I,Plate 4,) so as to be on the outer side of the fulcrum, and requested him to attest the reliability of the medium during the previous intercommunion. In reply it was alleged not to be within his power to give me that test; I urged that this test had been given in his presence. “We had an employee, then,” was his rejoinder. Fortunately I had contrived a test instrument requiring less of the mechanical power, so that by means of it he was enabled to perfect the evidence by bringing the index to the affirmative, under conditions which put it out of the power of the medium to produce that result. (SeePlate 4and description.)
817. These facts make the subject of mediumship a most complicated mystery; but the creation teems with mystery, so that inscrutability cannot be a ground for disbelief of any thing. The only cases wherein there is absolute incredibility, are those in which the definition of the premises contradicts those of the inferences or conclusions.
818. It is evident from the creative power which the spirits aver themselves to possess, that they exercise faculties which they do not understand. Their explanation of the mysteries of mediumship only substitutes one mystery for another.
819. If we undertake to generalize, it must come pretty near what I have said above, that spirits are endowed, as my spirit father alleges, with a “magic will,” capable of producing, as they allege, wonderful results within their own world, (452;) nevertheless that this will does not act by itself directly on mundane bodies. An intermedium is found in the halo or aura within or without certain human organizations. The halos thus existing are not all similarly endowed; some having one, some another capability. Some are better for one object, some for another object. Again, the will-power varies as the sphere of the spirits is higher or lower, so that the medium suited for one is not suited for another.
820. Thus the means by which they are capable of communicating is various, and moreover precarious, according to the health and equanimity of the mortal being under whose halo they may strive to act.
821. Evidently, the ponderable elements recognised by mundane chemists cannot contribute to any of the bodies of the spirit world, since their gravity must disqualify them for use in a world where every thing is, in comparison with them, weightless. Accordingly, one of the queries put by me to the convocation of spirits (574) was, whether any of our elements, being ponderable, could act as such in the imponderable spiritual creation.The reply was, Not without undergoing a transformation. This would be equivalent to annihilating them first, and recreating them afterward, when the process of creating alone would be sufficient. But manifestly it is of no importance, whether their adaptation to the spirit world be the result of creation or of transformation.
822. Concerned in the processes of mediumship, it is manifest that there is none of that kind of electricity or magnetism of which the laws and phenomena have been the subject of Faraday’s researches, and which are treated of in books, under the heads of frictional or mechanical electricity, galvanism, or electro-magnetism.
823. Frictional electricity, such as produced usually by the friction of glass in an electrical machine, or of aqueous globules generated by steam escaping from a boiler, is always to be detected by electrometers, or the spark given to a conducting body when in communication with the earth; the human knuckle, for instance. When not sufficiently accumulated to produce these evidences of its presence, it must be in a very feeble state of excitement. But even in the highest accumulation by human means, as in the discharge of a powerfully charged Leyden battery, it only acts for a time inconceivably brief, and does not move ponderable masses as they are moved in the instance of spiritual manifestation. It is onlyin transitu, that frictional electricity displays much power, and then its path is extremely narrow, and the duration of its influence inconceivably minute. According to Wheatstone’s experiments and calculations, it would go round the earth in the tenth part of a second.
824. How infinitely small, then, the period required to go from one side of a room to another! Besides, there are neither means of generating such electricity, nor of securing that insulation which must be an indispensable precursor of accumulation.
825. Galvanic or voltaic electricity does not act at a distance so as to produce any recognised effects, except in the case of magnetic metals, or in the state of transition produced by an electric discharge. In these phenomena the potent effects are attainable only by means of perfect insulated conductors, as we see in the telegraphic apparatus. No reaction with imperfect conducting bodies competent to toss them to and fro, or up and down, can be accomplished. The decomposing influence, called electrolytic, is only exhibited at insensible distances, within a filament of the matter affected.
826. It has appeared to me a great error on the part of spirits, as well as mortals, that they should make efforts to explain the phenomena of the spirit world by the ponderable or imponderable agents of the temporal world. The fact that the rays of our sun do not affect the spirit world, and that there is for that region an appropriate luminary whose rays we do not perceive, (415) must demonstrate that the imponderable element to which they owe their peculiar light differs from the ethereal fluid which,according to the undulatory theory, is the means of producing light in the terrestrial creation.
827. In one of the replies made by the convocation, (571,) the idea was sanctioned of the effulgence of the spirit being due to an appropriate ethereal fluid, analogous to that above alluded to. But it has, I think, been shown by me, that as light is due to theundulationsofourether, so electricity is due towavesofpolarization. But if undulations produce light in the ether of the spiritual universe as well as in ours, why may not polarization produce in the ether of the spirit world an electricity analagous to ours? Thus, although in spiritual manifestations our electricity takes no part, their electricity may be the means by which their will is transmitted effectually in the phenomena which it controls.
828. The wordsmagnetismandmagneticare used in this world in two different senses. In one, it signifies the magnetism of magnets or electromagnets; in the other, the animal magnetism of which the existence was suggested by Mesmer, and which is commonly called Mesmerism.
829. This mesmerical magnetism seems to be dependent rather on properties which we have as immortals, encased in a corporeal clothing, than as mortals owing our mental faculties to that frame. If it be the spiritual portion of our organization which is operative in clairvoyancy, spiritual electricity may be the intermedium both of that faculty and of mesmeric influence.
830. All spirits are clairvoyant more or less, and where this faculty is exercised, it seems to be due to an unusual ascendancy of the spiritual powers over the corporeal, so that clairvoyants possess some of the faculties which every spirit, aftershuffling off the mortal coil, must possess to a greater or less extent.
831. In striving to make a test apparatus by which the communication should be uninfluenced by the muscular power of the medium, through which alone her will could modify the ideas communicated, an interesting fact was ascertained. The nullifying of the power of muscular control, which it is the object of this contrivance to accomplish, is obtained unexceptionally by means of two balls and a plate, as already illustrated, (Plate 2,) or by placing the hands of the medium exterior to the fulcrum of the lever-board, as described in the instance of testing the communication received from the convocation. But these methods requiring that the conditions should be favourable, both, as respects the spirit communicating and the medium, are liable to fail. It struck me that the distance between the hands and the surface of the table or tray to be moved, by lessening the influence of the medium on the table or tray, lessened the power of actuation. My efforts were therefore directed to contrive to have the hand of the medium near the surface to be moved, without the possibility of contact.
832. With this view I placed a board for receiving the hands of themedium upon delicate rollers, so that no horizontal movement would affect the base board supporting the rollers and actuating the index. To give greater efficacy to the aura, a plate of glass was supported in a wooden frame or sash by means of four screw rods fixed upright on the base board, each furnished with two screw nuts. The screw rods passed through four suitable holes, so as to have one nut beneath, the other above, the sash. Thus situated, by adjusting the nuts, the sash could be regulated to any horizontal level, so as to be near the upper surfaces of the hands without any contact therewith.
833. On trying this arrangement, it was found as difficult for a spirit to actuate it as if the glazed sash had not been employed.
834. Under these circumstances, I had the glass plate or pane slit lengthwise into two equal strips. These being restored to the position previously occupied in the sash, I interposed between their edges a piece of sheet-tin, with teeth cut in one of its edges, (Plate 4,kk,) so as to make it look like a long narrow saw, such as are used by sawyers in frames. With the aid of a leaden joint, (such as is used by glaziers to join glass panes,) to which the saw was soldered, the teeth of this projected about the eighth of an inch below the glass, so as to be near the upper surface of any hand, resting on the sliding board.
835. It was with no small degree of satisfaction that I found the apparatus now sufficiently susceptible of actuation by my spirit friends.
836. From this result it would seem that the saw-shaped metallic conductor, operated precisely as it would have acted had it been necessary to impart to the pane those means of electric discharge of which, as at first used, it was deficient.
837. As soon as I had introduced the serrated conductor, my spirit father corroborated the impression that it promoted the influence of the medium.
838. This was the first instance in which I have discovered any analogy between the laws governing the communication of the medium of the spirit will-power, and those obeyed by electrical phenomena.
839. An account is given in my narrative of an experiment in which a board, suspended at one end from a spring-balance, was made to descend with a force of three pounds, through the instrumentality of a medium who had no connection with the board, excepting water which was interposed. Hence, as the hook screwed into the board, by which it was secured to the hook of the balance, was six times as far from the fulcrum as the hands of the medium, the force exerted by the officiating spirit was equal to 3 × 6 = 18 pounds. (SeePlate 3, and description.) Nevertheless, no upward reaction was perceptible to me, nor was any experienced by the medium, Henry Gordon, as he declared.
840. In the case of the boy (Plate 3,) a downward action of seven pounds was observed, which, multiplied by the difference of distance, amounted to7 × 6 = 42 pounds, and yet the boy was not perceptibly impelled in the opposite direction. Nor, when through the same juvenile mediumship, the whole of the apparatus was thrown upon the floor, did the boy appear to be impelled in the opposite direction. Nor was there any reaction when the apparatus was thrown down. Now, agreeably to the laws of nature, as established by human experience, in all cases of motion or momentum, there must be an equal force exercised in the opposite direction by thevis inertiæof some other matter endowed with that attribute. Hence Archimedes said, “Give me but where to stand, and I will move the world.” A point of support, a place of resistance, however, was held to be indispensable.
841. The only explanation of which I can conceive is, that spirits, by volition, can deprive bodies ofvis inertiæ, and move bodies, as they do themselves, by their will. But the necessity of the presence of a medium to the display of this power, granting its existence, is a mystery.
842. That the spirit should, by its “magic” will-power, take possession of the frame of a human being, so as to make use of its brain and nervous system, depriving its appropriate owner of control, is a wonderful fact sufficiently difficult to believe, yet, nevertheless, intelligible. The aura which surrounds a medium must be imponderable. No volition of the medium can, through its instrumentality, move ponderable bodies, nor cause raps or consequent vibrations in the wooden boards. Hence, the presence of a medium imparts power to spirits which the medium does not possess.
843. The aura on the one side, and the spirit on the other, are inert unless associated. Thus the volition of the spirit gives activity to an effluvium, by itself, so devoid of efficacy that it wholly escapes the perception of the possessor or the observation of his mundane companions. It has been already alleged, that the usual reference to mundane electricity must be wholly unsatisfactory to all acquainted with the phenomena and laws associated under that name; since no such movements have ever been produced by such electrical means, nor is it consistent with those mundane electrical laws, nor the facts which electricians have noticed, that such movements should be produced. Those movements which have been produced by electricity have never been effected without surfaces oppositely charged, nor, of course, without the means of charging them. Neither are there associated with the spiritual manifestations means at hand of creating nor of holding charges either much more minute than those which display perceptible force or cause audible sound.
844. Electro-magnetic phenomena require the use of powerful galvanic batteries or magnetic metals. Galvanic series, of the most powerful kind, do not act at the minutest distance without contact.
845. Even lightning could not move a table backward and forward, though it might shatter it into pieces, if duly interposed in a circuit.
846. Electrical sparks producesnappingsounds in the air, notknockingsorrappingsupon sonorous solids.
847. Allusion has been above made to the unfavourable influence upon manifestations of the demeanour and incredulity of the investigator, displayed in suspicious, cold, scrutinizing looks, such as would be merited only by a cheat or pickpocket. All this has a deteriorating influence upon mediumship, and likewise repels the spirits. While communicating through a medium, a near blood relative, much beloved by the communicating spirit while in this world, coming into the circle, an immediate departure of the spirit was the consequence. It was subsequently alleged in explanation that there existed a repulsiveness between him and the spirit, founded on the idea that his opinions were under the influence of worldly considerations, whence a predetermination to disbelieve, as far as possible, by an unfavourable view of the evidence.
848. An incredulity liable to be overcome by the reason by which it has been created does not form a bar; but where an impregnable bigotry has been introduced merely by education, so that the person under its influence would have been a Catholic, Calvinist, Unitarian, Jew, or Mohammedan by a change of parentage, cannot usually be changed by any evidence or argument. Spirits will not spend their time subjecting their manifestations to such impregnable bigotry, or to predetermined malevolence.
849. On this account such persons find it hard to obtain the manifestations which they seek with ill-will to Spiritualism, and a predisposition to ridicule and pervert it.
850. Besides this difficulty, there is no doubt a constitutional state, the inverse of that which creates a medium. The atmosphere of persons so constituted, neutralizes that of those who are endowed with that of mediumship.
851. It were impossible for any one to be more incredulous than I was when I commenced my investigations; but in the first place, my recorded religious impressions, founded on more than a half century of intense reflection, in no respect conflicted with the belief which Spiritualism required. As I said to a clergyman, I wish I knew as well what I ought to believe, as I can perceive what I ought not to believe. I was ardently desirous that the existence of a future state should be established in a way to conform to positive science, so that they might start together. This was perceived by my spirit friends, and that they had only to give me sufficient evidence of the existence of spirits and their world, to make me lay down in the cause my comparatively worthless mortal life, could I be more useful to truth in dying than in living.
852. My father and sister, brother and friend Blodget, were therefore not deterred by my sneers or denunciations. Moreover, I was never predisposed to suspect any medium of treachery, and therefore never disgusted them by the display of any such impressions. To the aid of these truly angelic spirits who were nearly allied with me, came another angel, (whom I will designate by his initials W. W.,) who, from philanthropic motives, seems to have selected me to serve in this invaluable dispensation. Hence, his first annunciation of my destined course, in language which so far, however it may imply an overestimate of my capacity to serve, shows the more the partiality with which it seems to have been estimated by him. (47.)
853. It occurred to me to try how far the interposition of my hand would interfere with the powers of the medium to whom I resorted. To my surprise, it seemed very little to impair the actuation of the index by the officiating spirit. It next occurred to me to ascertain how far a diminution of contact, between the hand of the medium and mine, would impair the power exercised under these conditions. In pursuance of my request, the contact was diminished by successively lifting the fingers of the medium and the rest of the hand from mine, until only one finger was left. Finally, this finger was removed, and yet the power of actuation still continued to exist, though enfeebled. The officiating spirit, my friend W. W., now was made a party to this investigation, being requested to estimate the effects as well as myself.
854. I requested the medium to pick up a pair of scissors which lay on the table, and, while holding the blades between the finger and thumb, to lay the rings upon the back of my hand. An increase of power was manifested to my observation and that of W. W.
855. At a subsequent sitting, having made due preparation, a strip of sheet tin about two inches wide, and about fifteen inches in length, being applied to the back of my hand while resting on the base board of the spiritoscope, (Plate 4, Fig. 2,) the medium held it successively at various distances. Under these circumstances, the facilitation was greater as the distance between her hand and mine was diminished.
856. A plate of glass of about four inches square, interposed between the palm of the hand of the medium and the back of mine, interrupted the power entirely; but neither cork nor a metallic plate of a similar size much reduced the power.
857. The frame (Fig. 3,Plate 4) beingin situ, as described, paragraphkkof the description, under these circumstances the removal of the serrated strips diminished the power more and more as removed.
858. Thus it appears that there is a mesmeric electricity, or spiritual electricity, which may be considered as appropriate to the spirit world as their vital air is; but which like that air, may influence our spiritual bodies while in their mundane tenement. It may, as well as the vital air of the spirit world, belong in common to the inhabitants of that world and to usas spirits, being a polarizing affection of the spiritual ethereal medium, of which the undulations constitute the peculiar rays of their spiritual sun.
859. That this spiritual or mesmeric electricity should be auxiliary to the efficacy of the magic will-power, of spirits, is of course one of those mysteries which, like that of gravitation, may be ascertained to prevail, and yet be to spirits as well as mortals inexplicable.
860. We live in a wonder-working universe, which becomes more and more wonderful as we learn more of it, instead of being brought more within our comprehension. When we compare what we know with the knowledge of savages, it may appear a mountain of learning and science; but this very learning and science only makes us see still more how great is our ignorance!
861. This, for the third time, brings under discussion the report of Dr. Bell, of Somerville, near Boston, on spiritual manifestations.
862. It is not in reference to this distinguished physician in his individual capacity that I name him thus often, but in reference to the hypothesis which his allegations must oblige him to sustain, and of which he may be considered a most respectable advocate. Dr. Bell not only admits, but confirms by his own testimony, the important fact of the movement of heavy bodies without contact. His experience, in this respect, is more striking than mine, since he has not only seen this phenomena take place repeatedly, but on one occasion, as before stated, saw tables movefiftyfeet, intelligently obedient to his directions. He also admits the reception of such communications from pretended spirits, as spiritualists would consider as coming from real spirits. Yet on the negative ground, thatagreeably to his experience, nothing was found to be communicablebut what pre-existed in the mind of some mortal present, he infers that the ideas received are not derived from spirits, but from the minds of those mortals who are parties to the process.
863. Of course our distinguished friend thus involves himself in the task of explaining not only the intellectual, but also the mechanical movements, by the mental agency of the media who participate in the conditions under which the manifestations occur.
864. I have already adduced manifestations irreconcilable with the assumption on which the whole of Dr. Bell’s inference is built, (111to 288.) But were his observations verified, in order to make them justify the abnegation of spirits, it should be shown that any spirit could tell himanything which must be known to him, whether known to the spirits or not.Remembering all the facts communicated to him by his spirit brother, it should be shown that any other spirit could narrate them as well as his spirit brother. Any inquiry made ofanyspirit,of which the answer is known to the inquirer, should be told on request as well as any other; but it will be found that answers are given only to those of which the spirit knows the answers independently, through his own memory. Under favourable circumstances mental questions are answered; but often, when mental questions cannot be answered, those put verbally are replied to. I have detected spirit impostors, by their inability to tell the name of my sister in the spheres.
865. I postponed the discussion on this question until I should have submitted to the reader the communications which I had received. I trust that these are of a nature to show that they could not have originated in my mind, nor in those of the media through whom they were obtained.
866. Whatever want of ability may be shown, by Dr. Bell, to exist in the communications alleged to come from Paine, Swedenborg, and Bacon, or from spirits personating those distinguished men, it cannot do away the valuable information which I have obtained from my spirit father and others, sanctioned by a convocation of spirits. It has been shown that in a few pages of that communication, there is vastly more knowledge of our happy prospects in the future world, than all that can be found in the Scriptures.
867. Dr. Bell will not, I am sure, suspect me of any want of truthfulness, and will hardly flatter the media and myself with an unconscious origination of ideas, which had never before occurred to either.
868. If he finds that in the case of Swedenborg and Bacon the spirits are below their medial instruments in capacity, he will find that in the instance of my spirit friends this estimate must be inverted.
869. My experience does not tend to establish that there is less folly or more wisdom in the inhabitants of the spirit world than in this. I concur with Dr. Bell in the opinion that the work to which he alludes, attributed to the spirit of Paine, merits all the denunciation which he bestows on it. I concur that it must be the work of a mind, whether celestial or mundane, ignorant of the rudiments of chemical philosophy. But if such a work coming from a mortal would not disprove the author’s claim to be a mortal human being, wherefore then should a foolish book coming from a foolish, ignorant spirit, personating Paine, disprove the author to be a spirit? It only shows that low, ignorant, foolish spirits personate the spirits of eminent authors; but does that disprove the existence of spirits? Does madness or idiocy annihilate the victim of these afflictions? But in all cases where communications are obtained through speaking or writing media, the minds of the media are liable, unconsciously, to pervert or repress the sentiments of the spirits, and therefore are not trusted by me, unless corroborated by communications through the alphabet.
870. By their existence in the spheres, it seems to me that spirits improve as to their talents, not as to their reasoning powers. They have a superior knowledge to that which we possess of their own world, but not of our sciences, as far as I have had means of judging. Having no great objects to effect, they have no great incentive to thought or contrivance. It is by learning, more than by invention, that they rise in the spheres.
871. These inferences are not, however, admitted by the spirits. They allege that as their medial instruments improve, they will give me reason to change my opinion. They assume to go deeper and farther into the nature of things than mortals.
872. To me it seems that their happiness is due in part to self-felicitation and seeing every thing under a rosy hue. They often advert to the superior height upon which they stand, without showing that they see more in consequence.
873. So far as I can judge, in some branches of knowledge, the spirits will improve by discussion with mortals. They will be cured of some of their “sky scraping!”
874. They seem to be mainly improved by their reciprocal intercourse. Thus honest bigots of all sects, find when they get together that in point of fact none of their records are true!
875. It is by getting rid of error, more than acquiring knowledge, that they rise in reciprocal estimation.
876. Very soon after my father began to communicate with me, nearly fourteen months ago, he said—“We know little more in religion than you.”
877. They all agree that good works are solely of importance, creeds only being good or bad as they induce good or bad deeds.
878. A good man cannot accept a creed which sanctions wickedness; that, for instance, which authorizes, under certain sophistical pretences, spoliation, massacre, rape, fraud, &c. Whenever any man brings himself to believe that his God ever authorized such crimes, or patronized those who were guilty of them, he becomes more or less immoral. Dr. Berg truly alleged that “a devotee is assimilated to the God whom he worships.”
879. To assist me, as it were, in exposing the errors of those who with Dr. Bell admit, for the most part, the facts of Spiritualism, yet ascribe the whole to the minds of mortals acting as media or inquirers, an advocate of that side of the question gives this explanation of the fact of my having sent a message to Mrs. Gourlay by my spirit sister:
880. He alleged it as a fact, that if two snails be placed in proximity, and afterward apart to a considerable distance, that the contact of one, will affect the other perceptibly.
881. That Mrs. Gourlay and myself being frequently in each other’s society, it followed that if at the distance of about a hundred miles I wished her to induce Dr. Gourlay to apply at the bank, Mrs. Gourlay, although at the time engaged in receiving a most interesting communication fromher mother for her brother, had so much more snail-like sympathy, with me at Cape Island, than with the ideas she believed to proceed from her mother, that she would interrupt the one forthwith, to attend to the other at that particularly inconvenient time! Meanwhile, the phenomenon of the index of my disk being moved independently of any effort of mine, so that I can make oath that no mortal moved it, is not taken into view. Surely if by such means a message respecting a pecuniary affair could awaken sympathy, there are many messages which it would be of immensely more importance to convey, than that which I sent in the instance in question.
882. But how comes it that neither I nor any other of her friends can send messages to Mrs. Gourlay while in the same city with her? Must her friends go to Cape Island for the purpose? Will this erudite and ingenious psychologist inform me by what means I may bring about this object, which, on business account, would be more convenient than sending notes by penny post?
883. Am I to go through the same process of sitting down at my spiritoscope? Will this learned assailant of Spiritualism inform me why I must do this, and must wait till the index moves? Wherefore should it move after a quarter of an hour’s invocation, when it will not move at first?
884. Again, I wish the circumstance I am about to mention to be explained by psychology: I was sitting in my solitary third-story room at Cape Island, invoking my sister as usual, when to my surprise I saw Cadwallader spelt out on my disk. “My old friend, General Cadwallader?” said I. “Yes.” A communication ensued of much interest. But before concluding, I requested him, as a test, to give me the name of a person whom I met in an affair of honour more than fifty years ago, when he (General Cadwallader) was my second. The name was forthwith given, by the pointing out on the disk the letters requisite to spell it.
885. Now as the spirit of General Cadwallader, during more than fifteen months that other friends had sought to communicate with me, had never made me a visit, why should his name have been spelt out when I had not the remotest hope of his coming, and was expecting another spirit, the only one who had been with me at the Cape?
886. Further, the breakfast bell having rung, I said, “General, will you come again after breakfast?” I understood him to consent to this invitation. Accordingly, when afterward I reseated myself instatu quo, I looked for the General, but, lo! Martha, my sister’s name, was spelt out!
887. I challenge this psychologist to put his hypothesis on paper, in order that I may psychologize him into a more consistent assumption of premises and conclusions.
888. Let him show his hand by reducing his sophistry, as I conscientiously consider it, to black and white. He may learn the difference between talent and judgment. I am aware that he shows a vast deal more of theappropriateability of his profession in defending the view he has espoused, than I could hope to exert. It is only in the strength of truth that I feel strong. “Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just.”
889. It is of no small importance that this learned and subtle psychologist, should explain how my spiritoscope, or any other instrumental means of alphabetic indication, becomes necessary to effect the psychologization of a medium at a great distance, so as to convey to her mind the ideas which it is an object to impart. Why is it necessary that the index over a disk at Cape May, should revolve to the letters requisite to spell a message, in order that the index of another disk in Philadelphia, should revolve at asubsequenttime? How does the mechanism in one place, acquire a power from the remote actuation of another? Will it be pretended that they are affected analogously to the sympathetic snails; whence, having kept each other’s company, this miracle ensued? But even this is not true, since they were not kept together, if ever they were in each other’s company.
890. Could any process be divined by which an instrument for supposed alphabetic communication with spirits, could be applied to transmit such messages as that for which I employed mine, according to this psychological hypothesis, it would be superior to the existing telegraphic process, since the ocean could be no barrier to messages which, although dependent on snail-like sympathy, would have nothing in it of the proverbial creeping attribute of the animal in question.
891. The following manifestations are of a nature, as it seems to me, to invalidate Dr. Bell’s notion that the communications received from the spirit are acquired from the minds of the bystanders:
892. Calling on Miss Ellis, it was found that her time was so pre-engaged, that she could not, as she said, sit for me till the day but one succeeding. My spirit sister manifested her desire to communicate, and conveyed the idea that Miss Ellis could give an hour named next day, if she would examine her list. This examination being made, the suggestion was verified.
893. Here was an idea not obtained from the mind of any person present. It could not exist in the minds of those who, like my friend and myself, had not seen the list, nor could it have been in Miss Ellis’s mind, as in that case she would not have had to consult the list, in order to determine the truth of the suggestion.
894. In this visit, Dr. W. F. Channing, who was my companion, said that possibly he had better not accompany me. It was left to my spirit sister to decide. No instrument being ready, as the quickest mode of communication, the medium was made to take up her pen, and began forthwith to make figures upon a sheet of paper. When the operation terminated, nothing but figures were seen to have been written. The medium said she did not know what to make of it. Butunderthe letters it was written, “Select, from the alphabet, the letters corresponding, and you havemy answer.” This being done, the following sentence was obtained: “My dear brother, come alone.”
895. It cannot be reasonably imagined that either Miss Ellis, my friend, or myself suggested this reply, as my friend and myself regretted the result, and it was not the interest of Miss Ellis to lessen the circle. But none of us had the ability to have perceived the numbers indicating the relative position of letters in the alphabetic row, so as to have selected them correctly. It would take some time to associate the letters with the numbers duly, and an unusual strength of memory to recollect them.