“Welcome, ye pilgrims, with gladness we raiseThe song of the pure, in anthems of praise;For wisdom, whose might sustains us in love,Calls you, with nature, to join us above.”
“Welcome, ye pilgrims, with gladness we raiseThe song of the pure, in anthems of praise;For wisdom, whose might sustains us in love,Calls you, with nature, to join us above.”
“Welcome, ye pilgrims, with gladness we raise
The song of the pure, in anthems of praise;
For wisdom, whose might sustains us in love,
Calls you, with nature, to join us above.”
The minstrels were near a white cloud, and their countenances were expressive of great delight, in the melody of their welcome song. When they had concluded, a great multitude, which no mind could number, were introduced. The first mind that addressed us, said: “The pillars, on which this mansion rests, are not disproportioned, but harmonious and beautiful. There are four and twenty. They are Justice, Honor, Integrity, Fortitude, Generosity, Mercy, Forbearance, Humility, Gratitude, Love, Peace, Order, Harmony, Wisdom, Progress, Truth, Power, Industry, Forgiveness, Holiness, Sobriety, Sincerity, Candor, and Veneration. In these virtues you have no need that I instruct you. They have elevated you, and will sustain you, while I unloose the seventh seal of wisdom, and unfold the beauty contained in this mansion.
“The white throne is not stained with blood. No monarch sits thereon, to rule with steel, the residents of this mansion. No tyrant sways the scepter of rule over us; for Justice will not suffer, though thrones be vacant, and rulers become equals. The white throne has not been soiled by the usurper, nor tarnished by cruelty. It is athrone—a throne of power. It is power in purity, because love in perfection blesses every mind in need. It is white as snow, and the wrong of injustice makes no advance toward it. It is a throne unseen by ignorance, disdained by weakness, and cherished and respected only by the pure in heart. It is a throne of good, and an emblem of the righteous decisions of wise minds.
“Your own minds are white thrones. As you are now pure, you can judge. But no mind will judge you. All judgment is with you. Each mind will judge itself, and not another. The judgment will be pure, because purity resides in you. The judgment will be right, because it is the judgment of self. You will decide upon your own works. No other mind will assume to judge for you. This is your work, and what is your work does not belong to another. Judge no mind but self. The throne is within you. On that white throne determine your works. It is your inalienable prerogative. It belongs to no one else.
“Before the white throne, are Purity, Perfection, and Bliss. They are before your minds. In search of these things, consider that nature is pure, and the perfection and bliss, after which you are seeking, may be found in the adaptation of things to other things. This is the law of mind. It will not attain perfection and bliss, without observing this law. All things must harmonize to insure peace. The ignorant are unhappy, because they do not adapt their conditions and themselves to each other. The surrounding circumstances control them against their happiness. They allow others, and even elect others, to judge them, and ignorantly acquiesce in their decision, however unwise and unnatural may be their judgment.Those whom they elect to decide the right and wrong for them, are often wholly ignorant of the conditions upon which nature suspends the harmony of cause and effect. They are incompetent to render a righteous judgment, because they do not understand what is right. Erring, in regard to what is right, they enter a judgment in error. The error falls upon those whom they judge. The whole is wrong. No mind can surrender the judgment of itself into the hands of another, without jeopardizing its own happiness. It is this mistaken policy which has robbed humanity of its birth-right. It has assented to a common error, that no mind is capable of determining its own good, without injustice to others: or, if capable, it would be dangerous to the welfare of the majority to allow mind a decision in that which personally concerned itself without the concurrence of others.
“The perfection of this circle will harmonize with bliss. The bliss of one is the bliss of all. The purity of one is the purity of all. The agreement of this circle is the wisdom of all. Each mind will be its own judge, and perform its own work. Each mind will aid each. That which is natural do; and that which is unnatural you will not do. You can not do wrong, because you perceive that all wrong is a contradiction of nature, and injurious to the doer. You can not do wrong, because you are incapacitated to wrong yourselves. You can not do wrong, because wrong is contrary to your judgment. You will do right, because right injures no one. It is the judgment of ignorance which injures another. It is the judgment of weakness which inflicts wrong for wrong, and renders evil for evil. None but oppressors will be cruel, vindictive, or unjust. Oppression is the power of folly. It is the work oftyrants. It is the wrong of ignorance. Governments are impure. They compel the ignorant to do wrong. They violate the laws of nature. They impose burdens on the poor, and grant favors to the rich. They levy contributions on property to give honor to the indolent. They make laws for the people to restrain the enjoyment of mind; and they punish crimes, which their laws have made, without mercy. They refuse instruction from heaven, because heaven is not a monopoly adapted to their selfish wisdom.
“They bow before a throne—a throne black as midnight. They bow in darkness, and receive the lash of oppression. They bow in smiles, and rise in tears. There is a tyrant on the throne. He judges evil good, and good evil. He is judge; and he judges after his own heart. Alas! the throne is impure. The pool of wisdom has not been polluted with his infirmities. Nature will wash away the wrongs of ignorance. Experience will remove the cruelty of darkness. Progress will unveil the miseries of deception. Favoritism will not rob pauperism. Folly will not eclipse wisdom. Fear will not paralyze industry, and wrong will not rule over right. Then, purity will not center in profession without goodness, nor perfection be a dead language in the throne of judgment.
“Pilgrims: all bliss is the exercise of goodness. Love is the divinity of the universe. Hate is the hell of fools. Affection is the element of heaven. Sympathy is the law of nature. Ignorance is the mother of crime. Crime is the father of misery. Misery is hell—bliss is heaven. Show yourselves pure, and heaven is within you. Show yourselves good, and bliss will not forsake you. Show yourselves wise, and purity will develop itself; and, when purity develops itself, no evil can befall you. The righteousshall fear no evil. The pure shall see good. The bliss of wisdom shall grow brighter and brighter, forever.
“Pilgrims: you will be required to develop great mysteries to the rudimental world. Nature must be unfolded to the ignorant. The undeveloped mind must be expanded. The angry waters of contention must be stilled. The wild sea of disturbance must be calmed. The midnight of deception must pass away. The clear sunlight of nature must open the treasures of your path. You will transmit the realities of this sphere to earth’s inhabitants. The mighty must overcome the weakness of infancy. The strong must raise up the sorrowing, the despondent, and the wretched. The wise must instruct the unwise; and upon you will devolve the work of correcting the wrongs and errors of humanity. The former days will return, when, through your instrumentality, the wilderness of uncultivated mind shall arise in the strength of wisdom, and nature smile with the song of redemption. You must go to the boasted land of the free, and publish the tidings of immortality. You will not sound an alarm of danger, but you will write the law of love in the hearts of the children of men. You will inspire minds with hope, and expel the darkness of the grave. You will turn many from paths of folly, and put the wisdom of nature in their souls. You will reform many, and the many will reform more, until the nations of the earth shall seek peace, and bliss find a residence in the temple of God. You will meet no opposition you will not overcome, nor will you tire in your labor, until the poor shall be made rich, and the wants of humanity shall become satisfied with the luxury of true blessedness.
“There is a light which you will emit in your pathway,that will cause pure minds to rejoice, and the impure to tremble with fear. Preparatory to the dawning of that day upon the world below, it will be your work to get your means in readiness, so as to effectually accomplish the pleasure of God, in the removal of wrong. You will need wisdom, adapted to the conditions of those whom you will instruct, and adequate to the great ends of human development. You will have means. The means which nature affords are equal to every want. There never can be a famine, when every want is supplied. The white throne of judgment will admit no error. It is the throne of God, of nature, and of your own hearts. It is within, around, above, and below you. From this throne you will dispense justice to the needy, liberty to the captive, and peace to the world. You will go where need calls you, and where you can do good. You will not waste your strength in vain. You will operate with great power, when circumstances make it expedient. You will show signs of your presence, and the wisdom of the world will be humbled. Philosophers will be confounded, and ignorance will mock, but can not resist. You will teach the little child how to control the lion that growls at the disclosure. You will lead the strong man by an influence which he will not acknowledge. He will not yield until the child commands. The world of mind will not yield to the voice of nature, until nature reveals her philosophy. That world of mind is in its boasted strength a lion, but the little child, the weak things, as they will call your manifestations, will control the lion. Nature will arm the weak with wisdom, to control a great multitude. They will be strong, and the lion will feel his weakness. He will roar no more when the child touches his heart. He will notharm, nor be harmed, when no want induces him to seek for blood. The day will come, when the wants of the lion will be satisfied without wrong. The day will come, when the wants of mind will be satisfied with good things. The day will come, when you will converse with the rudimental world, as you do with each other. The day will come, when the wisdom of the two spheres will meet. In that day you will rejoice, because great good will be done. In that day, the invisible things of God will be clearly seen, being manifest by the things which are made. They will be manifest through you, and minds will be inspired to write the things which they have seen. The works of nature will not retrograde; the progress of truth will onward move, till one family, and no more, shall inhabit the earth. That family shall be one, and all nations shall unite in it. The common ties of sympathy and justice shall be felt, and neglect shall be no more known, for all mind will be inspired with your love and peace.
“The representation of a serpent fastened in the rock, will show you, that the subtlety and low sensuality of mind will be powerless against your efforts. The serpent will not injure you, nor retard by his energy the work committed to your hands. Indeed, you know that none but such as hug the earth, as this serpent represents, can oppose the wisdom you will disclose. They only who covet, like creeping things, the earth, and who drag their bodies in a serpentine course along the road of human life, will not look up to heaven for support and wisdom; but you will not be overcome by their will; for their ignorance is not unconquerable. You will receive, in due time, all the instructions which will be necessary, and enter upon your mission with alacrity. But you may ask, what maywe do to get things in readiness? You will now be instructed by another mind.”
When he had concluded, another mind said:
“Pilgrims: the means requisite to success, in your mission to the rudimental sphere, are few and simple. You will need wisdom and prudence. You will require patience and perseverance. With these qualities, you will prosper in the work allotted you. In the first place, you will be wise to select such mediums as will do good, and not conceal the facts which shall be made manifest. You will select such as will be faithful in the work of revealing the truth. You will select such as you can find who will not turn aside from the manifestations you will make, because popular scorn shall be hissed at the philosophy you may teach. You will select such as will not crawl serpent-like to gratify the low aspirations of a defunct religion, or a brutal, deceptive, sensuality, which will envy what it has not the industry or ambition to investigate, and reduce to practice. Take such as you can find, who will not bow to the dust, because weakness is not able to stand erect, and face the evils of misguided mind. Take such as will not disown heaven to gratify lust and earth. Take such as will not wrong your message by concealing it under a bushel. Take such as will do the work of revealment.
“The mission will be commenced in about twenty-five years. It will be opposed with great violence by religionists. The superstitious will charge your work to evil spirits, and the skeptical will not. The condition of mind in the rudimental world, will require a great many manifestations to improve it. There will arise minds who will not believe the evidence of their own senses. They will be moved, and see things moved; and, when they see andknow the facts, they will seek to find some cause other than spirits, which they will imagine have produced it. They will be moved, and say that they moved themselves. They will be instructed, and say that instruction is of themselves. They will contrive every possible means to gainsay the facts. They will attribute the manifestations to a cause, which is not, and never can be, the real one. They will say, mind is conscious and unconscious. They will contradict themselves. No mind can be conscious and unconscious. No mind can be moved, and move itself. No mind can do what you will do, and not be conscious that it did it. You will write what will be known and unknown to others. They will say, they thought it, because you impressed the thought. They will say, they moved themselves, because you moved them. They will write what you impress, and as you move them; but they will say, it was their impressions and not yours. They will write what is not impressed or known to them, and they will impute the writing to others in the body. They will write without impressions, and they will say, it is electricity. They will turn all evidence into imagination, and then demand greater evidence from you.
“Such will be the condition of mind. Others will receive the evidence and progress in wisdom. You will give to every mind all within your power; but you will bear this message to mind: That what may gratify idle curiosity, is the work of idlers; but what is necessary to develop mind, is a candid investigation of the laws by which it is governed. The wise will reform, but the unwise will cavil, because they can not control you. You will write what will do good, and when your message shall be discarded, or your mission disputed, you will go to such as will hear you, and be benefited by your efforts to do good.
“I shall now instruct you in regard to the serpent. I shall give you, spike and a sledge. You will drive the spike through the head of the serpent, and clinch it in a rock. The serpent is the adversary of reform. It is the deceiver of mind. Its path is secluded and vile. It loathes progress. It wishes the old den for its habitation. It lurks among rocks, and secludes itself in crevices. It wants nothing new, and bites to destroy. The spike is truth. Take it; use it; for that which is evil, it is good to control. The evil is in mind. The serpent lives only where evil reigns. Where evil reigns fix your weapon. The evil is opposition to holiness; it is opposition to good; and when you fix your weapon of truth in the head of error and wrong, let the mighty power of wisdom drive the spike through the head of the serpent, that it may die a death without mourning.
“The serpent is an emblem of earthly folly. It is deceptive and vile. It shuns the path of the wise and good. It crawls noiselessly into the mind. It bites the good of the soul. It induces despair and shame. It wins minds from rectitude and confidence. It is not mind, but the deceiver of mind. Its deceptions are practiced, where its influence prevails. Its influence prevails where evils exist. It is evil. It is nothing but evil. You will wrong no one by destroying it. To destroy evil, you will use the wisdom of this circle. You will overcome the evils of ignorance. But ignorance will war against the truth. All the machinery of war will be brought against it. The work will commence in a day of darkness, and the morning light will dissipate the gloom of doubt. The sadness of despair will vanish before the joy of eternal wisdom.
“The rudimental world is afflicted with great evils.These evils are in all the conditions of human society. They enter into the composition of all human governments, the religious institutions, all classes of mind; and science and philosophy, as understood, have not the power to correct them. Science and philosophy are corrupted with the errors and wrongs of ignorance. The wisdom of this circle must displace those wrongs. It must eradicate the woes, and harmonize the antagonisms of mind. The old forms of government must give place to new. The new must give order and beauty, purity and justice to universal mind. It must correct the unhealthy current of wrong. It must vitalize the soul of humanity with good. It must remove the poison of the serpent from the hearts of men. It must satisfy the wants of nature with nature’s blessings. It must overcome the wrongs of society with the rights of mankind. These lights must be asserted and proclaimed, until they shall be understood and appreciated, obeyed and adopted, as the rule of happiness.
“Then, the dishonesty of mind will not hypocritically reverence what it practically denies. Then, the votaries of creeds will not blush to be the friends of truth, nor covet the wrongs of oppression to correct the natural convictions of free inquiry. You will work a reform of long-standing abuses. The stipendiaries of religious munificence will not oppose the voice which gives freedom, and the old theories of exclusive prerogatives, which subvert the equitable rights of universal humanity, will be venerated no more. There must be a great change in the social condition to remove the social evils of mind. You will remove the barriers of progress, by removing the fears which repel investigation. The wrong of fear must be overcome. The slave of tyrannical rule must be set free from his chains. The mindmust be taught to respect its own rights, and disown the usurper’s pretensions. It must be taught that wisdom is not tyranny, and that nature will not justify submission. It must be taught the nature of its own powers, and be inspired to respect its own competency to rule itself, without the interposition of arbitrary force.”
Such is a brief synopsis of the instruction, appertaining to our ingress into the seventh circle. I shall, hereafter, allude to some other things, which I do not, at present see fit to disclose. When the lectures were concluded, I was impressed with the importance of commencing the work of reform among the circles of earth. It was not my project exclusively, but the whole circle. We sought to make manifestations in various places. I accompanied a great number of minds to different localities, but saw the force of opposition, and the predisposition of the minds in the rudimental sphere, to be so tenaciously inclined to superstition and veneration of ancient theologies, that we determined, in the first place, to overcome the impediments in our path, by removing the superstition and relaxing the confidence of mind in the multiplicity of opinions and dogmas, which were being promulgated. Accordingly, we sought to prepare minds for the influx of communications by special impressions of facts upon them. The impressions have been verified, and the verification has induced wonder on the part of the impressed. In many instances, future events have been so impressed by spirits on the minds of susceptible persons, as to leave no doubt of the reality. These impressions obtained the name of presentiments. They were presentiments, and the presentiments of those who dwelt in the second sphere. Impressions of facts have been regarded also, as fore-warnings;and, in some instances, they were, but not always. The mind has conjectured many things as the cause, without suspecting the true one. It has felt afraid of acknowledging, that some guardian spirit has produced these impressions, as though it would be a dishonor to them, or that the thought would be impious and ridiculous. Under these circumstances, we gradually affected mind, until it was clearly seen, that public opinion would not justify martyrdom; when the work of reforming minds from the abuses to which they had long been exposed, was, commenced with a view to relieve it. That work is now in progress. It is begun.