NO. IV.

TENDENCIES AND PROPHECIES OF THE PRESENT AGE.

[Revised from the American Workman of Nov. 20, 1870.]

Arguing from the fact that the character of food subsisted upon is gradually changed from the purely physical to the more refined andrare, in connection with that of exceptional cases having existed, in which supplies were drawn from entirely different sources than digested food, leads toward the conclusion, at least, that the time will come when men will have grown out of the necessity of supplying the wasting energies of the body and mind by the use of food, and into that refined spiritual condition in which he can draw directly upon the elements which the atmosphere does or will furnish to supply all his demands. All the arguments nature furnishes point to this condition. All know how very important it is to have a plentiful supply of pure air; but how far this goes toward furnishing the elements of supply demanded by the body, the deepest inquiries have not decided.

In a given case, the actual amount in weight that is furnished the body can be determined; deducting the weight of the excretions and palpable secretions, it is supposed the difference is consumed by some undefined process within the body; but who can tell how much and what the system takes directly from the atmosphere, or how much it gives up to it, that we have no means of defining by weight or otherwise? We also know that the atmosphere maintains an immense pressure upon the body, and that it involuntarily resists this pressure; this could not happen were there not some well defined and intimate relations between the two upon which man, as the object, must be greatly dependent.

Another strong and pointed argument is to be found in the process sometimes resorted to to sustain life: in cases of great prostration of the physical system, under exhaustive disease, when the means cannot be supplied through the medium of the stomach and digestion, they are furnished by being absorbed into the system through the pores of the skin.

The constant death and decay of all the materials upon which we feed, besides all that vast amount not drawn upon directly, is continually giving off to the atmosphere the same kind of elements which the body retains and uses from supplies of food; as they exist in the atmosphere in the form of elements, and there is a demand within the body for them, it is only necessary to create and maintain the means of supply to solve the problem. A glorious prophecy comes forth from the tendencies of labor toward the mental, and the accompanying necessity for modifications of diet, adapted to the many gradations man must pass through to reach a purely spiritual condition.

The physical system has been the accredited medium through which the spirit within it—the real man—has wrought, and still is, inall individuals who are not beyond the point wherespiritbecomes the predominant and governing characteristic. In the present, however, there are scattered here and there among the masses individuals who have passed—are passing—or are approaching that point in which the spirit, at times, acts independently of its material machine in which it has been fostered and cultured, and gives positive proofs of an existence within the body of an individualized life, which can and does act without the agency of the body, and performs functions before impossible. There are a thousand persons, at least, in this country who have a sight entirely independent of the physical eye, which overleaps the boundaries of physical vision; penetrates the barriers of external sense, tears off the mask of hypocrisy and deceit, detects the motives and mainsprings of action, and lays bare the heart of man. While comparatively but few have attained this, all are approaching it. What does Paul mean but this when he says, “Now we see, as through a glass, darkly; but then face to face”? When the spirit-eye shall have fully pierced its barriers of flesh, when the body shall have become subservient to the spirit, instead of the spirit being dependent upon the body, when we “shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known,” how radical the changes, and how rapid the strides of advancement will then be!

Reason for a moment upon the effect that would be produced were every tenth person suddenly endowed with spirit-sight, and compelled to demonstrate it by exposing the hearts and the lives of all the rest. Where could oppression hide itself? Where could the lusts of the flesh plot their treason against the sovereignty of the spirit, beyond the range ofspirit vigilance—this new safeguard of human society, the eternal law of progress, which is now unfolding? In such a condition of things, courts of justice, with all their attendant judges, bailiffs and attorneys-at-law, would find their occupation gone. Prisons would be converted into asylums and workshops for the weak and unfortunate, and their keepers into superintendents and teachers. Churches would be converted into lecture-rooms; and preachers, now hurling their anathemas against unrepentant sinners, would become professors of the great principles through and by which the world, and all things, have been brought from the primary condition thus far on their march toward theperfect.

Many individuals know that they are under the surveillance of this spirit-sight, and demonstrate in conduct its beneficent influence; but the capacity has not yet become sufficiently general to compel the recognition of its efficacy by the public mind. As the rising sun firstgilds the mountain’s loftiest peak, next the hill-top, then glides along the inviting slope to the universal plain, where all creation rejoices under the refulgence of its noonday glories—so comes thisrising light, to illumine the hearts and souls of all when it shall have reached the zenith of its mid-day glory. As the beams reflected from the mountain top are of the sun, and not the mountains, so are these spiritual rays of the spiritual sun, and not of the individual reflecting them, or through whom they may chance to shine. Verily, verily, I say unto you, this people vaunteth and puffeth itself with knowledge, but wisdom hath surely departed to the lowly ones of earth! Religion, clad in its robes “of purple and fine linen,” faring “sumptuously every day,” forgetting that Christ was cradled in a manger, and that His disciples were fishermen, continually cries, as did the “Pharisees and hypocrites” of old: “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

The time is not far distant when the possession of spirit-sight will be accounted of the first importance, not to those only who possess it, but to the public generally, and will be sought for and made practical to the honor of its possessors and to the inestimable benefit of all. The time will come in the not far distant future when those who now cry out, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” will bow, with becoming humility, before the later-dayfishermen; for these will then occupy the places of public trust, and spirit-telegraphy, having superseded material wires, will convey the commands of God’s accredited ministers from the central seat of Power throughout the world.

Where are all the great of thepast; its orators, philosophers and statesmen; Confucius, Zoroaster, Moses, David, Solomon, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Cicero, Bonaparte, Washington, and many others, of all nations and climes, to whom history points as having stood hundreds of years in advance of their times? Do they still live? and, living, are they idle? Are their minds withdrawn from subjects to which they were devoted in this primary school-house of the children of God? Are not their minds expanded to the comprehension of the great principles of governmental justice? Are they not better qualified to direct legislationnowthan the wisest among us? If they still live as spirits, if they have had better opportunities of obtaining wisdom and knowledge pertaining to earth-life than we—can this world avail itself of their assistance to establish on earth the government of heaven? If the angel in the bush were possible, why may not angels manifest the wisdom, power, and justice of God in our legislative halls? Who will dare to assert that they are not even now seeking another Moses to lead “His people”up out of Egypt? Then will the prophecies of the present have reached consummation; then will commence the earthly reign of the King of kings and Lord of lords, as prophesied by all the holy prophets of the world; then old things shall pass away and all things become new; thenthe Christshall sit upon the throne, and from his inexhausted fountain of love, justice shall continually flow over all the earth, “as the waters cover the sea.”

As vanish the heavy mists of the morning before the radiance of the rising sun, so will vanish the clouds that hang around the minds of man, and shut out the rising spiritual sun, for whose “star in the East”wise menare continually watching; the sun that will rise higher and higher, and extend its rays wider and wider, until it shall enlighten the minds of all mankind, until the icebergs of ignorance, tradition and superstition are dissolved which now float in the ocean of progress—society, with its cankered, festering heart; commerce robbed of its legitimate function; labor of its recompense, and religion of its spirituality; education lacking wisdom, marriages forming “disunions,” and women without rights.

All the false forms of the present must yield their sway to God’s command—“Let there be light.” The laws of God are never changed—though old as creation—they are ever new, ever sufficient for all the vicissitudes of life; they are ever full of wisdom, justice and love; they are written all over the face of creation, in the bosom of the earth and in the heart of man; they are uttered by the raging tempest that rocks the mighty ocean; in the terrible mutterings of the earthquake; in the fury of destructive battle, when hosts are hurled on hosts in fraternal strife; through all these the voice of God proclaims—“Let there be light,” and there is light.

We also hear its whispers in the gentle zephyrs that stir the bursting buds and in the blooming flowers that lift their heads to drink the falling dew; in the hum of busy nature; in the gushing fountain; we see it in the gambols of the bubbling brook; in the mother’s love for the new-born life; in the father’s pride; in the unspoken joy of the maiden’s soul, listening to the first sweet tones of love; in the magnetic ties of human sympathy which bind all mankind in a common brotherhood, and in the dawning light of heaven brought to earth by the angelic hosts to usher in the reign of universal justice, peace and love.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESSilently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

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