L«k. ^<3c ^T or ex. u«^<: - r *c .<:cs: <5 L < . «£7«aC <,, '''-'-' xr* 1 s^%^s4,/t./M' Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1S61, By John Mayer, In tha Clerk's Office of the U. S. District Conrt for the Southern District of New York. I S I CONTENTS. PAGB. ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS, AND THE PROGRESSED STATE OF THE * PRESENT AGE. By Joshua, the Son of Nun, 5 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CERE- MONY, AND REFORMS IN THE SOCIAL STATE. By Maey Magdalene 34 ON GOD, IN HIS WORKS. By Solomon 64 ON TYRANNY. By Luther 94 ON THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS ; HOW, AND WHEN, AND WHERE DID THEY ORIGINATE ? By George Fox 107 ON THE SPIRIT-WORLD, AND THE LAW THAT GOVERNS THERE, AND ON YOUR SPHERE. By John the Apostle 124 ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. By John the Apostle 158 PREFACE. We would say a few words to the public, or, rather, to the readers of the following Essays. They have been given with a view to benefit mankind, in the best sense of the term. Not with the idea of increasing their worldly wealth — their mundane possessions, but with the earnest desire to assist them in their upward path of progress, which all must tread, however long they may put it off. None can be truly happy without first exerting themselves to become so in the right way ; and it is this way we come to point out to them. Many mistaken theories are now abroad among men, and all find some devoted followers ; but the true and only way for man really to improve his own condition and that of others in connection with him, is to reform his own life — to live out, in his own person, the teach- ings of our great Lord and living head, Christ Jesus. He will need nothing higher, nothing purer, nothing better, than the beautiful sermon of our Lord for his guide and counselor ; and though he may develop to the highest and holiest spheres in heaven, no better teachings can be given him there. It is not that men IV PREFACE. have been without a knowledge of what they should aim to become, but that, with the exception of a very few, thoy have never attempted to practice the doctrines set forth so simply (and yet so comprehensively) in the Ser- mon on the Mount. We have touched on many other subjects in our Es- says which will, we trust, tend to the enlightenment of the human family. Some things we have told you that may surprise, as well as interest, the Bible Christian ; but he need not doubt our teachings because they may, in some things, conflict with his old opinions. We have said nothing but what is true, and nothing that can, in the smallest degree, injure or put back a good man on his road to progression. It is natural that many errors should be mixed with your old records ; but that does not say that they are all false — far from it. We have shown you plainly, in our Essay on Old Traditions, and some others, that the Eden story could not have been a true one ; neither the Mosaic account of the Creation. But we have also shown you that many of the events recorded by Moses are facts. The character and office of Abraham was truly depicted. He was a descendant of the old Hindoos, the father of the Jewish race, and it was promised to him that a Saviour should come through his descendants to redeem man- kind from the sins that Abraham, at that time, mourned over. The account of the Flood was not altogether false, though it differed considerably from the wholesale catastrophe Moses described. But, making allowances for these discrepancies, and many others, which a clear PREFACE. V seer can soon discover, there is much truth and a great deal to be learned from the Old Testament. It has hitherto "been placed on too high a pinnacle. Every- thing it contained men were taught to receive as coming direct from God ; and its study, even by young, pure- minded children, was constantly enforced. Now your own good judgments, my friends, if you use them, must show you that this could not be right. Much in the Old Testament is entirely unfit for publication in your age and would sully the purity of any one, much more an in- nocent child. Such writings were allowable, during the barbarous ages, when men were more on the animal plane that they now are, and were the reflex of their own minds, not from the Holy Spirit of God. But now, my friends, that true light from the Holy Spirit can penetrate more nearly to your souls — now that it can enter into some hearts and dwell there, these old histories and obsolete laws will die out of your remembrance — they will be no longer needed. Men have higher standards of holiness, better teachings of right and wrong, purer light from the Gospel of Christ ; and their communion with the Spirit-world will help them on in their endeavors to fol- low out the teachings of our Great Master, which have so long been a dead letter to them. We do not require to say anything further in regard to our book. We give it to you for your attentive con- sideration, and we think many will be benefited by its perusal. Certain we are, it can harm no one ; and we hope that each one who feels the good it has done for Tl PREFACE. him, will spread its light and teachings to the best of his ability. My friends, we now take our leave for the present, to return with newer truths, and more devel- oped teachings when we find you ready to receive them. Till then, farewell. For the Circle who control "John the Apostle." N. B. In dictating the former little -work, entitled " Communications from the Spirit World, by Lorenzo Dow and others, through a Lady," we were minded not to append the names of the spirits, immediately communicating ; but, we find men require the sanction of a name to make gook teachings palatable. We do not object to gratifying their innocent desires, and therefore, we say to our medium, that she may affix ours to these Essays ; and, when her first work is republished, she may, also, insert the names of the authors of those little Essays, if men desire it. We know there is nothing, really, in a name, but that is a step in advance, the world has yet to take. We hope, how- ever, that the readers of our little books will find in them truths of far more sterling worth than the names of the writers, though they may receive them with perfect confidedce ; for they were, really, the earthly cognomens of the spirits who inspired the medium. Geo. Fox. ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS AND THE PRO- GRESSED STATE OF THE PRESENT AGE. GIVEN BY A SPIRIT OF THE OLDEN TIME. My friends, the world has long wanted some more positive knowledge in regard to the Old Testament records. Their origin is obscure, their teachings, in many instances, barbarous and cruel. The lives of the chief men mentioned therein, often, nay, generally, very immoral and very sanguinary ; and, altogether the book is one that you would never think of putting into the hands of children, were it not for the sanction of custom and the high authority claimed for the authors of it. It is, indeed, looked upon as divine, in its origin, by most Christian believers ; and they even go so far, in their blind faith, as to suppose that God himself in- spired and excited the Israelitish people to all the acts of treachery, murder, and robbery mentioned therein ! — so far will prejudice blind the understanding — so far will it crush out the light of reason and common sense, implanted in every human soul, to enable it to judge and discern things for itself — " calling no man Master " in this important sense. 6 ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. My friends, I will show you the way I would have all of you examine these records. Whatever in them ap- proves itself to your souls, as good and true teaching, calculated to benefit mankind, if they follow it out, making them wiser, better, humbler, more truthful, more loving, more self-denying ; that, there can be no mistake about ; that, they need not hesitate to fol- low. This seems very easy and simple to do ; and yet, my friends, it is very difficult to make any one see the necessity of attending to this plain rule. This living out the teachings of prophet or apostle, is the great stumbling block. It is so much easier to talk them over, to argue on contested points, to find out contra- dictions and fallacies, and all the seeming incongruities in the old history, that men waste time, temper, and even life in the work when they might be spending happy, useful days, if they had only chosen the better part and commenced the reformation in themselves. But all this is merely preliminary. We are going to take the matter more in detail, and endeavor to show you ivhy those ancient records cannot be guides to you at this present time, and yet were all useful in their generation. As man progresses, so must his teachings progress. What suited the Israelites, a semi-barbarous people, re- cently delivered from slavery, and, consequently, more brutalized than they would have been had they always lived in freedom, would not in any way suit the people of this century. They had to be restrained with bands of iron, and held in check by laws appealing to their outward, rather than their inward, sense. Fear of bodily suffering, bodily privations, were the weapons to be used with them. But all that has now ceased to be necessary. Man has a higher knowledge, a higher standard of right, and he knows, or ought to know, that ON THE VALUE OP OLD TRADITIONS. 7 if he violates that, if he departs from the course his in- telligence assures him is the right one, punishment must certainly follow ; though no man, save himself, is con- scious of his derelictions. I am not going to enter minutely into the historical matter of the Bible. Moses wrote from his highest knowledge, derived from ancient Egyptian and Sanscrit records, and put together in the simple narrative form, to suit the comprehension of an ignorant people. He was, himself, learned in all the knowledge of both na- tions ; but it would never have done to give the Israel- ites the same teachings he had received. He wrote for them as simple an account of the formation of their Earth as he could conceive of; making God a personal God, to be feared and worshiped with awe and rever- ence, and inventing the fable of Adam and Eve to show them the danger of offending against this mighty power. What a child now would not for an instant credit, if placed before him in its true light, has been solemnly and reverently preached upon and believed, by your Jewish and Christian population, all these centuries. The belief that God, a God of love, and wisdom, and justice, has solemnly cursed, not only the earth and its fruits, but every individual born upon it, because a poor, ignorant female gathered and eat a fruit that had been forbidden — a fruit, too, specially spoken of, as tempting to the eye and palate — is too horrible to think of. What, but the grossest blindness, could so have sealed men's eyes that they could not see the fallacy of this thing ? — that they could not discover long ere this, that teachings, suitable for the half savage Jews, were en- tirely unfitted for more progressed minds ? They were very little more developed than the savages of North America. They required a personal Deity — one to be worshiped with outward symbols and sacrifices — and to 8 ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS suit their capacities, Moses adapted his higher knowl- edge in the story he gave them. It answered its pur- pose. They learned about God, as much as was neces- sary to make them amenable to control • and gradually, as they progressed, other teachings were given to them — the ten commandments were written. This was a great step, far in advance of the Eden Fable. Here there was good moral teaching, mixed with many errors, it is true, but still they contained what was re- quired. We cannot now imagine a jealous God — a God taking vengeance on the innocent children for the crimes of their fathers, but they, being still under the law of fear, required such teachings. The same may be said of the stringent regulations in regard to the seventh day. My friends, a day of rest is an absolute necessity of our being. Man could not, without this blessed institution, continue in the enjoy- ment of health. He would gradually fail, his energies decay, die out, in fact, and the human family become ex- tinct much more speedily than any one has an idea of. This is one great reason of the decline of the savage tribes, who have no such observance ; though they can exist without it much longer than civilized man, as their pursuits are more healthy. The universal prevalence of this institution among all civilized people, shows the im- portance of it, and also, that some wise, overruling power has inspired men to insure its observance, whe- ther in a Christian, Mohammedan or Pagan manner." * We have said, in a former essay, that the institution of the Sabbath had its rise in fear — and so it had, as far as man was concerned in pro- moting its origin — but the All-wise God controlled this movement to bring about the good result that followed. He saw the necessity- there was that man should have a day set apart for rest and innocent enjoyment. ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. 9 The Israelites were very difficult and stubborn to teach. Anything they had not been accustomed to, they rebelled against, and it was only by the law of force, that Moses could control them. Therefore, even in an ordinance like this, calculated entirely to benefit and make them happy, threats were necessary to insure its observance. Man is now beginning, almost for the first time, to feel his need of more liberty, in regard to this day. He is now realizing that he has the right to employ it as he likes ; that the day was made to conduce to his happi- ness, and not that he should be obliged to observe it with set forms and prayers. This feeling, so proper now, when man has developed up to it and can regulate his own conduct by the light of his reason, would not have done at all a few years back. Men, only a cen- tury ago, were not prepared to judge for themselves on these important matters. They required rules and reg- ulations, and were the better and happier for them. But the minds of the people are making rapid strides now. The schoolmaster may, indeed, be said to be abroad. The teacher, however, is not man, in his fallible sense, but the great power of the Spirit in the souls of all who can receive it. And greater and mightier changes shall yet take place in the ruling and regulating of your earth-world, not only in respect to the Sabbath, but to everything that is not conducted with equity and jus- tice. Men begin to see with more clearness, that all ought to have equal rights. The next question to be debated is, " Why do they not have them?" This will be answered very soon, and then means will be taken by many noble and far-seeing minds, to commence a move, ment that shall lead to this result, which will spread with unheard-of rapidity, and never cease till the end is obtained, the victory over oppression and tyranny won, 10 ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. and all be equal, not only in the sight of God and his angels, (that they have ever been,) but in the sight of each other. We seem to wander from our subject, but it is not so ; these inferences and remarks are all necessary. By comparing the present with the past, man learns to rea- son and draw his own deductions. He sees more clearly the gradual nature of the development he has gone through, and he also sees how much there is yet to be done, before he attains to his highest stand-point. The Hebrews, as a people, were slow to learn, slow to develop ; they clung to their old idols, their old superstitious usages. Moses, though a learned and gifted leader, eminently fitted for his office, both by knowledge beyond his countrymen, and great medium- istic powers, could not always control them or prevent them from relapsing into gross sins. I would not have you to understand, however, that the events record- ed relating to his government are all true. Do not suppose that he, who is called the meekest of men, could sanction such butcheries as are there spoken of. All those old stories must be read with caution. There is no more truth in the wholesale murdering of the Amalekites, and other nations, in the manner re- corded, than there is in the earlier accounts in the book of Genesis, of the long lives of the patriarchs— the de- struction of the entire world by the flood, etc. In regard to the latter, long before the dates spoken of there, had mankind flourished ; many convulsions and up-heavings had the earth undergone ; but nothing so universal as Noah's Flood ever occurred as the result of God's anger against His people. Common sense, if you would only use it, would show you this. In the first place, what a God, to worship, that must be that could feel anger against all the human race excepting ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. 11 one family, and determine to destroy, not only them, tut all the other living things, and the beautiful face of na- ture itself, to gratify this debasing passion ! And for what good result ? Do you see any ? I do not. Noah was certainly not perfect ; he was a drunkard, if no worse ; and we do not see any great, or indeed any little good resulting from this dreadful catastrophe. Certainly some benefit should have been perceptible ; but I think you will find the people were just as wicked, just as rebellious as they were represented to have been before. Does not this show you, my friends, that there nust be misrepresentation somewhere? The fact is, that there had been, in different parts of the earth, and at different times, terrible convulsions — up-heavings of lands here, and waters rising there, where people dwelt in unsuspecting peace. These traditions were known to Moses, and used by him in forming his history ; he made them subserve his purpose in controlling his self-willed sturdy followers. It was another engine of fear that he held as a terror over them ; but, instead of threatening them with a recurrence of this catastrophe, fire was to be the agent used for the next and final destruction of their world. That the Israelites, as a people, were remarkably cruel to the nations they conquered, is not to be denied, and Moses could not avoid, in some degree, sanctioning them in this. He wished to establish the worship of one true God, not only in the outward ceremonial, but in their hearts. The task was a very difficult one ; they pined after the idols of Egypt, and took every opportu- nity to fall back into the worship of them. Their gross minds could not conceive so readily of a Spiritual God. The Canaanitish people were idolators of a more de- based kind than the Egyptians, and to avoid the liability of Ms people falling into their errors, Moses was willing 12 ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. to permit their extermination. He considered he was doing God service ; but, wise as he was, and so far superior to the people he led, he had not learned all things ; he did not follow in this the laws of wisdom or justice. Now he sees things very differently. His love for his countrymen, and his ambition as a leader, then blinded his eyes to the claims of the unfortunate posses- sors of the soil he coveted for his own followers, and he saw only a lawful and just proceeding where he was, really, a robber and a murderer, trespassing on the un- doubted rights of an unoffending people. You will observe that all through his writings he brings forward Jehovah as the author and inspirer of all he does. This increased his authority with his people, and made them willing to do his bidding to any extent. But, my friends, you must not be misled in the same way. You must know and feel that such commands never emanated from a God of love. That Moses was under spirits' control, very often, is quite true, and sometimes very high and holy influences — for instance, when he descended from the mount Sinai, and his face appeared to shine upon the beholders, after he had received the commandments. But when such cruel orders came from him to slay and destroy young and old, women and children, not to leave one alive — these were the unde- veloped man's own actions, and God must not be made responsible for them. No one is perfect, even now, when so much advance is being made. Do not, therefore condemn too freely, a man so much beyond his times as was our great Law-giver and Leader. If he erred and did some wrong things, he did many noble and great ones. He redeemed his nation from bondage, he gave them higher laws, higher teachings, higher aspirations, than they had ever known ; he led them through'dan- gers and perils by sea and land, undaunted and undis- ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. Id mayed. When they rebelled against him, he feared them not ; when they hungered, he found the means to supply their wants ; and during the forty years they sojourned in the wilderness, he was preparing and edu- cating them to enter once more into the arena as a civilized nation. No one now can estimate Moses's character justly. He, brought up in luxury, educated in the most pro- found learning of the wise Egyptians, following out his studies and preparing himself for his future career, during the forty years of his banishment from Egypt, returned there, at the expiration of that time, prepared to carry his designs into execution. How faithfully he worked, his success is the best testimony. The faults he committed were the faults of his time, not of his in- dividual character ; that was, even under the most try- ing circumstances, gentle and unassuming. Only one instance is recorded in which he arrogated power to himself, and for that he is said to have been severely punished. Jehovah was in all his thoughts, supreme and undivided God. To his orders he attributed every action of his career, as leader, and every law he wrote for their internal government. These latter were dif- fuse and stringent, cruel and arbitrary beyond any- thing that we can conceive necessary now ; but there were reasons for them at that time, that do not at pre- sent exist ; and the people learned through them to re- spect the rights of others, and more particularly the pa- rental tie, previously entirely disregarded. Always bear in mind, my friends, in considering these enactments, that the people they were intended for were in a state of lawless barbarism ; that they had no ideas of right and wrong, no moral law, no internal law — they had to be treated as children — and coerced by fear, if they would not obey from love. 14 ON THE VALUE OF OLD TEADITIONS. It is true these laws remained in force after this state of things had ceased to be, but the severity of the pun- ishment became somewhat modified as time crept on ; and it was the mission of Christ to set aside altogether these troublesome enactments, then no longer necessary, and substitute the law of love in lieu of the law of fear. The perverse and headstrong Jews, retaining their old characteristics, refused to follow in Christ's foot- steps, as their forefathers had refused to obey Moses ; but the true teachings did find entrance into some few hearts, and gradually are leavening the whole mass of mankind. We, who now come to you, can preach no higher or better teachings than those Christ gave, but we can aid and assist you to work them out in a more perfect and truthful manner than has yet been done, and that is our true mission to you. We are not to pull down, but to build up the religion of Jesus. We do not come to upset churches, nor to attack creeds, but we come to say to every man and woman, " your own body is the true temple of the Spirit," let it abide there and bring forth its fruits. Individualize yourselves. Let not this man's teachings or that man's opinions rule you, only so far as they approve themselves good to your own souls. If each man followed the internal light that is im- planted in him at his birth, and which it is the duty of his parents and teachers to develop to its most beau- tiful proportions, he would want no clergyman to teach him how to act ; no creeds to guide him ; no ceremonials to bind him. He would have within him the true Spirit of God to enlighten and direct him. It would be a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path, and justice, love and wisdom, would mark his progress onward. This, my friends, is what God in his wisdom has al- ways designed for man. This is what he intends him to ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. 15 arrive at, and he is gradually bringing the result about. Slowly and silently he works, but none the less surely. Man, developed from the animal he originally was, has now matured into a thinking, reasoning, highly intelligent being. He has passed through many gra- dations, many new developments, and is now so wise that he thinks he knows all things. But, my friends, if he understood himself aright, he would say he knew nothing yet as he ought to know. Self knoiuledge, the most important of all, he entirely neglects. Only, in rare instances, do we find one who gives a thought to this momentous subject. And what is all other know- ledge compared to it? Have you not ascertained, to your entire satisfaction, that men live again ? That this life is only a prelude to an eternal one ? That, accord- ing as you pass through this state of existence, you will be prepared or unprepared, for another? Another that will endure forever ! And, knowing all this, do you ever, seriously, reflect how far you, individually, are fitted for that change that must sooner or later come upon you? My friends, this is a subject you should all be per- fectly versed in. Your own souls should be to you an open book that you can read with pleasure. There, you should find the records of duties fulfilled, desires and passions conquered, tempers subdued, aspirations after good and holy things constantly going forth. Charity, love, and patient forbearance for the wants and short- comings of others, always active; and a constant in- dwelling peace and joy that the world, and the things of the world, can neither affect nor take from you. If all of you, my friends, were in this blessed state, if all of you carried out your self-knowledge into this self- acting: do you not see how much happier, how much wiser mankind would become? No need then for sala- 16 ON THE VALUE OP OLD TRADITIONS. ried ministers to teach you your duties to yourselves or to each other. No need then of temples of worship, so large and costly, and so destitute of true spirit-influence, as they generally are, to bring you near to God and his angels. The temple of God would he in your own souls. " Ye are the temple of God." Every one who can, by his life and actions, draw down this holy influence has the Spirit of God in him, and his body is its temple. In this way, and no other, my friends, would we attack the churches. We do not come to create con. tention, but to do away with it. As men become more sensible of the truth of these teachings they will natur- ally cease to look to men, like themselves, for instruction. When they can get all they want within their own souls, why should they go elsewhere? This will, in time, empty the places of worship, or change the character of the teachings there given. As men progress their teachers must progress in the same ratio, if they expect to be listened to ; and Spiritualism will have the effect of opening men's minds very considerably and changing their creeds in many very important particulars, even while the parties may be professed and violent enemies to it. Imperceptibly its enlightened teachings will steal in among the most bigoted, and their fabric of faith may be all undermined even while they are congratulating themselves that nothing can shake it. We have now finished what we had to say of the career of Moses. We are not intending to make a voluminous book, and shall, therefore, only slightly glance at succeeding events. As you know, the Israelites gradually succeeded in exterminating the rightful possessors of the soil and establishing themselves as an independent nation in the land of Canaan, but they still retained much of their barbarism ; they were still cruel, treacherous, deceitful. ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. 17 Moses's laws compelled them to observe some kind of order and obedience to rules, but they were never satis- fied unless fighting and quarreling with the neighboring nations, or among themselves. Therefore, their favorite leaders and chiefs were chosen for eminence in the sci- ence of war, for personal strength, or personal bravery. You will not find, if you examine into it, that moral worth or holiness of life were the distinguishing traits of any of them. The various fables that are mixed up with the true history it is only necessary slightly to glance at, and pass on. Under their leader, Joshua, who succeeded Moses, two wonderful events are recorded as having happened. I allude to the arrest of the sun, in his course, that the people might have longer daylight to continue their butchery of the unoffending Canaanites ; and to the fall- ing of the walls of a fortified city, in consequence of the blowing of some rams' horns. "Wonderful events, indeed, my friends, if they had really occurred ; but they did not. No such thing ever did or ever could happen as the sun, or rather the earth, standing still. Do you not know that chaos would be the result of such an unheard-of procedure ? Is not the universe bal- anced and controlled by a power that cannot alter an iota of His own great work, without producing confusion and discord in the whole ? And is it probable, even if no such direful result were to follow, that God, the All- seeing and All-wise, would have favorites ? That He, the mighty ruler of the universe, would direct the event of a battle, to benefit a peculiar people of his own ? No, my friends ; such things could not be, and were not. Like your own old legends and fables, invented origin- ally to please and amuse, or perhaps to gratify the vanity of some illustrious chief, these stories were written — for, I need not say, the legend of the walls of 18 ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. Jericho, falling down, is as unfounded as that of the sun standing still. You should not wonder that stories of this nature could have crept in. Is there any history free from similar ones ? Even your modern ones of Greece and Rome, and those of a still later date, are made up at their commencement, with fables quite as monstrous. Why, then, should you be astonished if there are some things in the Hebrew record not authentic ? Their history is very old. Their vicissitudes, as a nation, after this first part was written, were many. They were carried away captives, their records said to have been lost ; then some parts found again, and no doubt, the new compilation was very different to the original. It is not at all likely it could have been exactly the same, and I knoio it was very dissimilar where I was myself an actor. No sun ever stood still for me, and no walls fell down at my bidding. Like any other man, I fought and conquered. The Hebrews returned from captivity a humbled and crushed people, and they tried to elevate their unfortu- nate condition, in the eyes of surrounding nations, by recounting their former glorious deeds ; and to make them more remarkable, they called their inventions to aid, and described themselves as a nation set apart — a chosen people (as indeed they were in one respect, for they worshiped the one true God, while all the nations round were sunk in idolatry) ; and, to make these asser- tions more plausible, they told of the wonderful miracles that had been performed in their behalf — that is, they invented those wonders to give their statements a greater semblance of truth. There are many other wonderful events recorded, besides those I have alluded to, that will bear examination no better, but it is not necessary to take all in detail ; when the fallacy of one or two ON THE VALUE OP OLD TRADITIONS. 19 stated is made apparent, it is easy to see how the others may have crept in and become incorporated with the other parts of the book, and obtained equal credence. It does not follow, however, that because we discredit the miraculous parts of the Bible, we must discard the whole. No, my friends, far from doing so, we admire and respect its teachings through its Prophets and Seers, and we see much of instruction in its historical record, if we study it with attention. The Jews claim for it all a Divine origin, good and bad alike ; all came from God ; all was the work of His Almighty hand. Had they claimed less for Him, they would have paid Him more respect, and there would have been fewer to quib- ble and dispute over what does indeed contain, mixed with errors, the germs of mighty truths. The Hebrews always asserted that they were a dis- tinct and peculiar people, set apart to maintain the worship of one God. Moses instilled this idea into their minds when he was educating them in the Wilder- ness ; for, during their long sojourn in Egypt, they had almost lost all traces of the purer faith of their ances- tors, and worshipped the gods of the country. But one of the first duties of their great Law-giver was, to cor- rect this error, to impress their minds with a higher idea of their peculiar privileges as the chosen people of the one true God. He did this with the hope of coun- teracting the mischievous teachings they had received in Egypt, not for any other purpose. Moses wished to give them higher truths, and truer faith, and he did not foresee the pride and arrogance he was fostering in them. In these more enlightened days, men can readily per- ceive how widely these vices would spread. An idea so flattering to their vanity, as a people, was not likely to die out, and you can trace its effects all through their 20 ON THE VALUE OP OLD TRADITIONS. history. No nation could be right but their own. No people were fit to associate with them. To exterminate every surrounding tribe, was their aim, their highest ambition ; and all for the ostensible reason of honoring Jehovah ! True, as we before said, they were the only people who at that time confined their worship to one God, and Moses had done a great work in developing this truth among them ; but there was yet much more to be learned before they could be fitted to regulate the faith of the world, and the ignorance and presumption of the Israelites was strikingly manifested in the bold way in which they attempted to coerce submission from all who differed from them. How much teaching, how much punishment, they brought on themselves, is plainly related in their history. Prophets and Seers, or Medi- ums and Clairvoyants, as you would now say, were inspired to talk to them ; nation after nation con- quered and led them into captivity ; but still their pride remained unsubdued — their desires still ran after false gods — they loved and clung to idolatry, and at the same time with strange inconsistency, fought with all the sur- rounding nations because they did the same thing ! One great reason of these back-slidings, was the strin- gency and severity of the laws of Moses. Their duties were made too irksome to them ; their religion was a task : and the penalties attached to any neglect or dere- liction was so fearful, that they gladly accepted the more sensual faiths of the idolators surrounding them. Could another Moses have been given to the Israelites, a few centuries after the advent of the first one, he would soon have regulated these things ; he would have revised his statutes on quite a modified plan ; he would then have endeavored to develop the higher and nobler instincts of their natures — appealed to their sense of right instead of their sense of fear. Laws that were good and proper ON THE VALUE OP OLD TRADITIONS. 21 for them at the time they were written, he would have shown them might now be repealed as worse than use- less — vicious ; and in their place substituted the higher law of love. But a Moses was not given them, and the laws, as they became more and more obnoxious to com- mon sense, were more and more enforced by ignorant rulers and demagogues ; no appeal could be made against them — none was allowed. It is easy to con- ceive how proud and self-righteous a strict observer 01 them would become ; how he would despise and look with scorn upon his fellow-man who might be more lax in his self-discipline. Nothing of the mild and loving mixed with their faith ; arrogance and scorn was what it fostered, and certainly nothing could be more needed than the entirely opposite teachings that Christ came to bring them. They had been wanted long, but men had not felt the need ; as soon as they did see the ne- cessity for something better, and cried out in spirit to be freed from the bondage in which they were held, a deliverer was sent to them — a teacher of love and har- mony was developed, who quietly and unpretendingly commenced the work of reform. Old laws and old creeds had too firm a footing in the land to be attacked openly. The only way to suc- ceed with the new teachings and make them take hold of the hearts of the people was by showing them the value of them. If they could once make an impression on the minds of the multitude, others would be gradually brought in ; and on this principle Jesus worked. He taught the poor oppressed ones to forgive injuries, to love their enemies, and to pray for those who used them cruelly. Such teachings were in direct opposition to the laws of Moses. He, in his undeveloped age, had said, " an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." But now milder feelings must obtain sway in the human 22 ON THE VALUE OP OLD TRADITIONS. family. Man had not lived all those centuries without some progression. At the time of Christ he was much farther removed from the animal than he was when Moses lived. Therefore, higher and more ennobling laws and teachings were necessary for him, and with the necessity came the supply. Nothing could be more pure, more simple and more lovely, than the teachings of Christ. They supplied all that was wanting. They gave all that was necessary to make men good here, and happy hereafter. Few, however, could receive them at the time, fewer still act up to them ; and even at this distant date, from the period when they were given, how few there are who do more than pro- fess an outward faith in them ; how very, very few, live them out. Spiritualism is a revival, as you may term it, of those teachings Christ labored so hard to introduce among men. At present it is not clearly understood, and has been misapprehended by the majority of its professed followers. The higher teachings, and more ennobling and harmonizing doctrines it would implant in the hearts of the human family, have been little regarded ; and amusement, or the gratification of curi- osity and affectionate remembrances, or the assistance of spirits in the pursuit of worldly gain or pleasure have been the highest aims of most of the Spiritualists, so called. But it is time that all this should be changed ; it is time that mankind should know that something far more important than these attractive, but not very improving manifestations, was intended ; and that they must be superseded by those higher ones, of which they were only the forerunners. To improve mankind, in a permanent manner, is the object of this new movement in the spi- ritual kingdom. They have been long enough groapmg ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. 23 under the weight of laws and burdens too heavy for them to bear. Tyranny in Church and tyranny in State have held down and crushed the finer parts of man's nature. The Divine principle implanted in him, at his birth, has never had a chance to show itself. Many are so brutalized that a soul does not seem to be a part of their formation, and yet this God-principle is there — cruelly smothered, it is true, but they have it ; and if it gets no chance to develop here, it must hereafter, with greater pain and difficulty. Our knowledge of this, and also our sympathy for those poor debased ones, brings us to earth at this time. The angel world have long felt the necessity there was for some reform on earth more thorough and searching than any that has yet been. They have seen the neces- sity of ameliorating the condition of the lower classes, in a worldly sense, before much can be done for them spiritually ; but the times were not ready for them to work effectually until now. Before spirits could do any permanent good it was necessary that some of the human family should feel the need of reform, and cry out for it. "When the magnetism of their prayers and aspirations ascended on high, our magnetism could meet it, our sympathies could be brought into rapport with theirs, and our aid could be given to work this great work. My friends, there is much to be done. Partial ame- lioration, partial reform, is not our aim. To thoroughly and entirely redeem mankind from all the sins, vices and miseries that now afflict them, is the work the spirits have determined to perform. It may seem an impossi- ble thing to your finite minds, but we know our powers, and the mighty Power that is above us, and from whom we receive all strength. We know that we shall suc- ceed. This is, in fact, the second coming promised by Christ Jesus — as different to what men have been taught 24 ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. to anticipate, as was his first one to the unbelieving Jews. Mediums and Seers had prophesied of Him to the Israel- ites, but their priests and teachers had converted and perverted their prophecies of His mission of love into a mission of earthly triumph and glory ; and they could not and would not see the nature of the spiritual king- dom He came to establish in the hearts of the children of men. Considering the violence of the opposition Christ met with, is it not wonderful that He produced any effect at all ? Nothing but the power of Holy Spirit, so abun- dantly poured out upon Him, and afterwards on His followers, could have caused His success. Men's hearts were touched by its softening influences, and they felt in their inmost depths, the power and force, the beauty and holiness of His words ; their moral superiority over the teachings of their schools, and how much more they were calculated to produce happiness and peace, and prepare them to live again. The teachings of Christ, had they been followed out in the same simple manner in which they were given, would by this time have converted and redeemed the whole world ; but men had not then de- veloped high enough for this result to follow, and it was not anticipated. ' I merely say what might have been had they been prepared to receive them properly. All was done that was expected. Newer and higher stand- ards of morality were given, and took hold of many hearts ; and in spite of opposition the most violent, and persecutions the most cruel, they continued to spread quietly through many lands, softening and humanizing the people. Before bigotry and superstition crept in with their at- tendant discords and contentions, the religion of Christ was a religion of love ; but pride and prejudices began to assert themselves — forms and ceremonies took the OX THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. 25 place of true love and vital religion — and the Holy- spirit of God could no longer come in its fullness into the hearts of the worshipers of creeds and formulas. When men begin to assert that one teaches this, and another that, you may feel sure that all is not quite as it should be. Either the teachers are arrogating too much to themselves, or the hearers, forgetful from whence the truths really come, are making idols of their teachers. There are no discordant elements in the true teachings of Christ and his disciples. Passages which you may think contradict each other, have been wrongly given or translated. Disputatious and ambitious men, in the early ages of the Church, did much injury to the cause they professed to serve, by transforming, mutilating, or adding to the true records preserved, to suit their oivn views and purposes. But enough remains pure and una- dulterated, and which the veriest child can understand, to make men wise unto salvation, if they will only live out the teachings. The neglect of this duty has always been the great stumbling-block. This is what retards progress so much. It is so much easier to talk than work, so much easier to dispute about trifles than to do deeds of kindness and loving-mercy to your poorer neighbor. So much, alas ! more easy to slander and blame others, than to reform yourselves — to pluck the mote out of your brother's eye, and neglect the beam in your own. We shall continue to urge these old and simple teach- ings on your consideration, my friends, with unremitting pertinacity, till we see men more ready and anxious to follow them out in their daily lives ; making the exam- ple of Jesus a reality to their own souls, not only beau- tiful in itself, but capable of being imitated by all who are willing to make the effort. When this state of things partially obtains in the world, when only two or 26 ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. three can be brought together who have really devel- oped up to this standard, then higher and greater truths may come to you ; more mysteries of the spirit- world may be unveiled to your sight, more of the might and power of the great God of the universe may be made plain to you. Secrets may be revealed and expla- nations given of many things that now perplex, and in pondering over which, in your own unassisted, undevel- oped minds, you often go astray. If, therefore, you have really any wish for this higher knowledge, this wisdom of the angel-world ; you must so live that you may obtain it. The purity and beauty of Christ's lessons must be identified in your life and con- versation ; your daily walk must be after his example. Then these angel visitors, from spheres of wisdom and knowledge, will be able and ready to come into com- munion with you, and your hearts will be overflowing with love and happiness •, while your minds will be the receptors of the great and ennobling truths brought to you direct from Heaven, and which will make you, while yet dwellers on this earth-sphere, companions and friends of the highest intelligences that come to it. We shall now give a rapid summary or glance at the gradual way in which man has progressed to his present advanced state. Many errors and vices he has brought up with him in his onward path, but still he has gone steadily forward, imperceptibly at times, and sometimes apparently retrogacling ; but when such has been the ap- pearance, a more decided advance was sure to follow. When things are at their worst, they are sure to mend. So it is in the development of the human family. When the darkest ignorance seemed to overshadow them, then a deliverer would appear, and overthrow the obstacles that were in the way of progression. Moses was one of these inspired men. Abraham was ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. 27 another. He lived earlier, and in a more barbarous age than Moses, but still he did his work, and a very necessary one it was. He recognized only one God at a time when the worship of idols was universal. What a grand idea was this for a man to entertain, and that so fully and firmly, that he obliged all his followers to embrace the same faith. We do not mean to say that Abraham was the first who ever realized this idea. It had been given to others centuries before, but had gradually lost its hold on men's minds. They wanted something more tangible than a Spirit God, and their grosser senses were more attracted by the glitter and mystery of idolatry. Moses found the Israelites very much in the same state that the people were in Abra- ham's time, but still there was some progress made. They were not quite so ignorant of the one true God, nor quite so ignorant of the arts and comforts necessary to civilized life. There was decided progress observa- ble, and it continued to be made for many ages. They might have many backslidings, but some inspired leader or prophet, or some severe temporal punishment, brought them to a knowledge of their sins, and they were often humbled and penitent and sought out the Lord with fastings and prayers. At the time Christ was sent to them other nations had become more mixed up with the Hebrews, and were ready to receive higher teachings than had yet been igiven to them. He was not sent to redeem the Israel- ites only. He was to give light and knowledge to all- who would receive it. The world at that time, though apparently prosperous, was sunk in the darkest errors. Vice and immorality reigned supreme among the Ro- mans and other civilized nations. Some few there were, more enlightened and elevated minds, who mourned the decay of all virtuous feelings in their countrymen — who 28 ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. saw with terror and dismay the progress of the demor- alizing influences at work among them ; luxury and wealth enervating and enfeebling their minds, and sen- susal pleasures destroying their bodies; and all this sanctioned by their false deities. The desires and aspi- rations of such minds could not go forth without some result. When men earnestly and faithfully seek, they will not seek in vain. The help may come in a form they do not expect, and perhaps may not desire ; but it will come, and they will some time or other realize it and feel its appropriateness. Christ, then, was the most needed of the inspired teachers. The effects of his mission were to be felt in all lands and to the most distant times. It was not merely while he remained among men that the benefit of his coming should continue to be felt. As years rolled on, and he had passed away from the scene of his labors, the influence of his teachings would remain and increase in weight as men lived up to them. But many dark clouds would intervene to obscure their light, many errors, some almost fatal — could anything be fatal to a cause that is bound to succeed? And teachers, inspired teachers too, though many errors mixed with their teachings, have been from time to time developed to counteract these errors. Luther came when he was most needed. Calvin, too, was necessary for man's advancement. You may think the doctrines he advo- cated were worse than those he came to reform, but you are wrong. Purity of life had almost fled the earth, and to check the gross licentiousness of the times the most entirely opposite teachings were necessary. Half- way measures would not have taken hold of the minds of the people, as it was important they should do ; and, therefore Calvin was a necessary teacher and reformer. His doctrines may appear to you to have been followed long enough. So they have, and they are dying out. ON THE VALUE OP OLD TRADITIONS. 29 We could enumerate many other inspired men who have, in their day, done good service to the cause of progress. Wesley, Knox, Huss, Fox, and Swedenborg are of them'. This latter has made the most decided step in progression of any named. He did not correct old abuses ; he gave new ideas. Others labored to en- force and carry out the teachings of Christ according to their highest idea of them. Mistaken they often were, but still they were truthful ; they preached them as they understood them. But Swedenborg gave en- tirely new teachings. He taught men that spirits were around, and could communicate with them ; that the un- seen world was in their midst, and that all was not finished, on this side the tomb; but that in another state man has a work to do for which he must prepare himself while here. Swedenborg was a necessary fore- runner of the present spirit manifestations j he may be called the Pioneer of the Spirits, for he was free to de- clare what many had known, but none had the courage to assert in the same open manner. But it takes so long to get any new truth into men's minds, that the teachings of Swedenborg have been almost disregarded until a few years back. Some minds were capable of receiving them, and trea- sured them up as worthy of a greater consideration • but generally he was looked upon as lunatic on these sub- jects, though acknowledged to be highly intelligent and unusually well-informed on many others. So men put away truths from them, preferring old errors and preju- dices to the newer and better light they might receive if they sought knowledge aright. It is true that Swe- denborg did not get all truth. Error was mixed in with his best teachings ; but there were many bright scintilla- tions of good that it would have benefited men to have followed. 30 ON THE VALUE OP OLD TRADITIONS. Spiritualism is the full-blown flower of what Sweden- borgianisni was only the undeveloped bud. In Spiritu- alism you have the highest and most perfect realization of the teachings Christ promulgated to men. When He, and other enlightened sages of antiquity, first taught that we must " do good for goodness' sake," " love our enemies," and " treat our neighbors as ourselves," men listened, but did not act ; they thought the theory was beautiful, but quite above the powers of man to perform. The developing process that the world has gone through during the last eighteen hundred years, has not, how- ever, been in vain. Men of pure minds and willing hearts, can now see that such a state of things is not im- possible, and that it is the duty of every individual, man or woman, to endeavor to bring it about in themselves. By this means they will reform the world, and by no other. In their own persons the change must commence, and their bright and beautiful examples will work more efficiently than sermon or psalm, in modifying and subdu- ing the discordant tempers and passions of the unde- veloped ones with whom they may be thrown in contact. When this true life commences in the hearts of men, how different will be their pursuits and desires ! To seek out the oppressed and suffering, and pour consola- tion and relief into their wounds, will be the work they most delight in ; to make others partakers of the same hopes and joys they possess, will be their constant aim. They will not shut themselves up in gloomy abstractions, meditating on the follies and vices of their fellow-men, and pharisaically congratulating themselves that they are so much wiser and better. No, my friends, they will go forth into the world ; they will enjoy all its innocent pleasures and relaxations, which are as necessary to the health of mind and bod} T , as the food they eat and the air they breathe. ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. SI While succoring and encouraging all who are in need of their brotherly assistance, they will cultivate the gentle harmonies of their own natures, all the talents and gifts they are endowed with, so that they may add their quota to the general fund of cheerful and healthy recreations. It was never intended that this should be a world of suffering. The sins and vices of men have made it what it is. Happiness was in their own hands, but they have taken the wrong way to retain it. They have cultivated tempers and passions that have brought misery and de- gradation in their train ; whereas, if they had developed their hearts, and their moral natures had been educated and warmed into growth by kindly encouragement, the whole condition of the human family would be different. Some few people, at different periods, have been found living in this simple, harmonious manner. The Sand- wich Islands, when discovered, were in a state of primi- tive innocence and purity. Unfortunately, the civilized discoverers of this happy people have not allowed this state of things to continue. With their superior know- ledge they have taught, also, the more developed vices of their nations, and now we may look in vain for the purity and happiness of the poor islanders. The Waldenses were also a very harmonious and happy people j they were more enlightened than the Sandwich Islanders, and they were as pure and upright • they had also far higher standards of right and wrong, and they faithfully tried to live out what they believed to be their duty. The teachings of Christ were their rule of action, and the errors mingled with their creed did not interfere with their moral culture. If they were not so assured in their belief as they might have been, had they had the light you now have, still their intuitions were so good, so true, they seldom felt misgiv- ings of the future, on account of the original sin they 32 ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. supposed they inherited, or the innate depravity of their hearts. Many good and inspired men were among them, and Holy Spirit could come and take up its abode in the hearts of these simple and devoted followers of the religion, of Christ. Their mountain fastnesses were more enlivened and blessed with its benign influence than any other part of the world has been since the days of Christ and his apostles. The Christians of Asia have also retained a conside- rable portion of this simple and pure spirit. They have held to their faith, though isolated from all communion with other Christian nations, and may be cited as hav- ing chosen the better way to happiness and peace. But I did not want to give you a history of all those who had followed a better path in the pursuit of happi- ness, which every one is aiming to possess. I quote these instances to show you how opposite is the plan men generally pursue, for its attainment ; and how much nearer and easier to be obtained it is, if they would look in the right direction. My friends, happiness may be the portion of every one of you, if you will follow out the teachings we have endeavored to make plain to you, and cultivate, in yourselves, the virtues and af- fectional qualities of your being. While bringing them forward and encouraging their growth, you will find the evil and vicious will gradually die out. You may not see any sudden change, any miracle worked for you, but you will perceive your duties will grow light and easy to perform ; your tempers will not rise on every trifling occasion ; your kind feelings will predominate more and more, and a joyous, grateful, buoyant spirit of love and harmony with man and nature, will be the inmates of your bosom. The beauty and goodness of God mani- fested in his works, will be ever present to your minds ? and fill you with gratitude and rejoicing. Heaven, ON THE VALUE OF OLD TRADITIONS. 33 while on earth, will be your portion, when you can once develop up to this high, but not unattainable standard of happiness. The poor Islanders, the Waldenses, and the Christians of Asia, were all happy ; but what was their happiness compared to the state man is now, with his increased light and knowledge, capable of realizing. The Islanders were not so happy, in an elevated sense, as the Christians, for their standard was lower. The Christians were not so happy as the true Spiritualist may become, for they had not the same knowledge. They held as true, many errors that Spiritualists have developed out of, which errors were the cause of much anxiety to them. Of course, I allude to the doctrines of depravity, original sin. etc. Uutil they felt them- selves purified and cleansed by the blood of Christ from these taints, they had no assurance that they were pre- pared and redeemed for a future life, and often the struggle was long before they could feel this assurance. You, my friends, live in a happier day. A flood of light has burst upon you. Take care that you do not let the liberty you have found in the spiritualistic teach- ings degenerate into licentiousness. Show forth in your lives the truth and beauty of them. Be patterns and exemplars to the world. Let not the fear of men lead you astray. Deny not the blessed gift you have re- ceived, but let it shine forth in your daily lives and con- versation. " If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men ; owe no man anything, but to love one another. And may the God of all peace bo with you now and forever. Amen." (Signed,) Joshua, the Son of Nun. October 28th, 1860. ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY AND RE- FORMS IN THE SOCIAL STATE. We have often endeavored, my friends, to get our ideas on these important subjects more clearly explained to you, through the various mediums, than we have yet been able to accomplish. Something or other inter- feres to prevent our speaking our minds as we would wish, or even using the mediums at all, if our intention is perceived. What is the cause of this ? Is it that men prefer going on in error, and spirits are willing to connive at it? Or is it, rather, the medium's own ideas that are so biased in one direction that even Spirit influence cannot overcome them ? The latter, I am inclined to think, is most generally the cause of the false and erroneous teachings so often given, in refer- ence to these subjects. We come to enlighten mankind on all things pertain- ing to their happiness both here and in the future ; and, certainly, the use and necessity of the marriage tie is one of the most important subjects, in reference to that end, we can well treat upon. Every other has been fully handled, and diverse teachings have been given in reference to them ; this alone has been slighted and overlooked. Free love has been advocated, in many instances, by parties who little knew the dangerous doctrines they were propagating. The poor abandoned ON THE USE OP A MARRIAGE CEROMONY. 35 ones in your streets have been brought before your no- tice, made out by these far-seeing spirits, as choice re- ceptors of spiritual truths, and the source from whence your best media shall be derived ; while the ennobling and dignified position of the heads of families, living out their daily lives in the quiet routine of duties ful- filled, calls forth no panegyric from them, no words of encouragement, no exhortation to other members of the human family to " go and do likewise." And yet, my friends, this is the situation it was designed by an All- wise Providence you should all occupy ; this was the aim and end for which you were created. Man and woman are necessary to each other. Nei- ther is complete apart. Neither can enjoy life in the same high and elevating sense, when alone, as they can with a companion to sympathize and share with them their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows. From the earliest times men have felt the necessity of this marriage tie. As soon as they could be said to have been endowed with reason, and while still closely approximating to the brutes, jealousy of their com- panion or mate was a distinguishing characteristic. They could not endure that another should share what they had so entirely and exclusively appropriated to themselves. It is true that the male usurped an un- just and tyrannical power over his weaker companion, and often converted what should have been his equal into a drudge and slave ; but, as civilization and en- lightenment spread over the earth, these abuses natu- rally corrected themselves, and, though not yet alto- gether extinct, they are gradually dying out ; and woman, by her virtues, her talents, and her higher and more harmonious development, is, by slow degrees, as- suming the position in the world it was always intended she should fill, viz., the equal and co-ivorlcer ivith man. 36 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. It lias taken many ages, my friends, to develop men and women to their present standard. Many rough and revolting trials has the weaker vessel had to pass through ; but she has now nearly attained her proper footing in the most civilized countries, and proportion- ate elevation will be observed in the more barbarous ones. We do not mean to say that women were not enti- tled to this higher and more just consideration before, for we think they were ; but man, in his undeveloped state, could not realize it, or if one did in some rare instance, he was too much the slave of surroundings to follow out his higher intuitions and give her her due. Now she will not ask it of him. She will claim as her right equality in all things. The minds of the age are too far advanced , at this present time, to see inferiority in the intellect of the female, because her muscular power may be less potent than that of the man. Thinking and analyzing minds are ready to acknowledge that, if educated with the same care, having the same advantages for study, the female would prove a competitor, both in arts and sci- ences, that the man might find it hard to surpass, if equal. As a general thing, however, woman's mission and woman's highest enjoyments are more in the domestic line. There is her most genial sphere of action ; there she shines unrivaled ; for man cannot compete with her in these daily duties, though she can rival him in what he has hitherto considered his own more peculiar depart- ment ; and it is this fitness, this adaptedness of the wo- men for these home requirements that makes the mar- riage relation perfect. The man and the woman, truly harmonizing and living out their highest conceptions of this sacred tie, are a picture of felicity to be imitated, if ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 37 possible, by the whole human family ; and so far from depreciating or running down, by jibes and sneers, this Holy and God-designed institution, each one should en- deavor to strengthen its bands and give it a firmer footing. We, the missionaries of progress, from a higher sphere, tell you, my friends, that till the man and wo- man act together on terms of perfect equality, true hap- piness and harmonious feeling cannot reign in either bosom, to their full extent. The man is as much to be pitied as the woman. He tyrannizes over, or he spoils ; he treats with contempt, or he makes an idol, just as his disposition leads him, of the being God designed for his helper and counselor, his comforter and refiner. To watch over him in sickness, to wait upon him and attend to his orders when in health, are employments he is willing she should, and thinks her quite compe- tent, to fulfill. To go still farther and allow her to manage his affairs for him, when himself incapacitated, in some unforeseen manner ; all this he will allow she can perform to his satisfaction ; but when restored to his normal condition, and able to resume his duties, he would resent any interference, or word of counsel, from her as quite out of her sphere, and beyond her cabability of understanding. This unnatural, and improper state of things is fostered and encouraged by all your institutional sur- roundings, and your laws. The woman is made second to the man, inferior in position, incapable of asserting her own rights, and often of holding her own property. She is considered only as a chattel, a toy for his amuse- ment, and a mother for his children ; to whom, if he choose to will it otherwise, she cannot even be the guardian in the event of his decease. This unjust and improper exaltation of the man fosters in him pride, 38 ON THE USE OP A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. arrogance, and a thoughtless and inconsiderate way of acting to his partner, though of course in different dis- positions different manifestations are exhibited. If a man is violent, and irritable in his temper, impa- tient of contradiction, and always fancying himself in the right, the wife's chance of happiness is small indeed. She may have a high temper also ; then, what conten- tions, what fearful scenes will ensue — pray God that there be no innocent children to be the witnesses and sufferers from them. Again, she may be timid and nervous, in which case, she will probably fall into ill health, and soon be relieved from her cares ; or, if not, change into a lying, prevaricating woman, afraid to tell what ought to be known, because she shrinks from raising the tempest of ungoverned passion she so much dreads. But to take another example. Suppose he is a man of unsociable, stern and sullen disposition, to whom no one in his family dares speak, to whom no one has courage to declare their wishes, however natural or innocent; all may feel the heavy and oppressive weight of such an atmosphere to live in ; but on whom does the burden principally bear ? Who is it for whom there is no escape ? Who must not only soothe and conciliate the tyrant, but must, for the bene- fit of others, often have to beard him in his den to ask the favors for her children, or dependants, they have not the courage to prefer for themselves ? The wife. She is, you may well say, the greatest sufferer, and we agree with you in part. She has her griefs, her burn- ing, and often indignant, feelings ; but she has learned that it will only make matters worse to show them, and she at least smothers, if she cannot entirely subdue them ; and this is, to her, a benefit and development ; it will lead her to think of a time when all cruelty will be done away with — when she shall find rest and peace. ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 39 Every time she restrains her temper, when unjustly taunted, or unkindly treated, she is adding to the crown of glory she is weaving for herself ; therefore, though she may suffer here for a short season, her re- ward is sure. But the man's condition is far more to be deplored ; for he does not feel, he does not perceive, the need he has to do differently. He has been so nurtured by parents and nurses, teachers and friends, and indeed society at large, in the idea of his superiority in mental as well as physical development, that it never enters his head to question the matter ; and he would go on, as his fathers had done before him, hugging himself up in this fancied superiority to the end of creation, if such a thing could be, did we not come to give him light on the subject. We pity the poor misguided ones the more deeply, because we can see into futurity enough to know that all these unjust assumptions and indulged tempers will have to be atoned for in a future state. The very circumstances that have, through suffering, purified the wife, have been the great drawbacks in the man's career. He, priding himself on his position, swaying all within his control, by his will alone, without consulting or studying others' feelings and inclinations, making their pleasures and enjoyments to depend upon, and be sub- servient to him — he has, indeed, much to contend against, much to outgrow, and, as we said before, the man in this unjust state of things, is quite as much, if not more, to be pitied than the woman. With perfect equality and equal rights such a state of injustice would cease. When both parties feel they have the same amount of interest at stake they will be more inclined to study the best methods of protecting them. When the husband learns that it is sometimes necessary for him to make conces- sions, he will be more capable of appreciating the same 40 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. thing in his wife. Mutual love and mutual confidence will be much more likely to go hand in hand when this unity of duties and feelings rule. You may think, my friends, we have been rather hard upon the manly character in what we have said. We do not, of course, mean to assert that all men are such as we have described ; neither that all women fulfill their duties in so perfect a manner as to prepare them- selves for an eternal reward while struggling here. Far from it. Many men are conscientiously and truly developing themselves now, and throwing off, by de- grees, the erroneous teachings of their childhood in these matters ; and many more are far from being as bad as those I have depicted. But then, again, I might have specified other and more lamentable causes of unhappi- ness in the married state than those I have touched upon, and from which few, in comparison, are entirely free. I shall leave this however for the present, and return to our more immediate theme. Women, as well as men, arc to blame for the general inharmony of the married state. Though I have previously stated that they are developed by the sufferings their trials cause them, when living with inharmoniously-tempered men, this is always supposing they act so as to profit by their situation. But too often it is quite the reverse, and the woman sinks, as well as her husband, into a contentious and discordant state of being. There are many other ways, also, in which a woman might do more to make matrimony less inharmonious than it too frequently is. She is often vain, frivolous and trifling in her pursuits ; indulging in all the show and parade of finery in her appointments and dress; placing, as it might seem, her highest hopes and ambi- tions on the amount of display she can make, and the envyings and heart-burnings she can excite. Men are OX THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 41 almost as much to blame as their wives in these cases ; they have often quite as low ambitions and take pride to themselves when they hear and see the excitement their wives cause by their profuse and wasteful expendi- ture. A woman, with a properly constituted and de- veloped mind, could not find her happiness in these toys and displays ; she must have something higher and nobler to live for ; she would see that though dress and fascinating manners may draw crowds around her and make her the idol of her husband for a few months. they are not the attractions that will retain him by her side, during the long years they may have to pass in company. She must have some more sterling qualities than these to build her future happiness upon, or, I fear, when youth and beauty have departed, that, also, will follow in their train. Women have a great responsibility laid upon them, and it is time that they understood it aright ; it is quite time their eyes were opened to see the important field they should labor in. We have censured the existing state of things for not allowing women their rightful privileges and for not placing them in the position they were designed by God to occupy. But, my female friends, are you prepared, yourselves, to fill that elevated position in a proper manner? Are you so developed beyond dress, luxury and trifles, that you are fitted to take your rightful places in the councils of your nation, or assist in the formation of its laws ? I fear not at present. Other thoughts than these occupy your minds ; other desires and cravings are more prominent than ad- ministering justice or ameliorating the condition of your fellow-men and fellow-women, and yet these latter have a peculiar claim upon your sympathies, and by their groans and tears for relief, continually ascending on high, seem to make an earnest and irresistible appeal to their more fortunate sisters for help and assistance. 42 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. You may say that the council is not your sphere, that men are more fitted for such public business, and have more time to devote to it. Granted that it were so, my friends, which however I do not altogether allow, for many women are fitted by talents and leisure to meet their co-workers there, and the wrongs of their fellow- women will never be thoroughly righted, till they do so. But allow that it is, as you say, not your vocation. Have you no interest in these things? Have you no other means of showing that interest, if you object to public demonstration ? Can you not inform your minds thoroughly, on these and every other momentous subject that arises, respecting the well-being and development of the human family ? And cannot you, by your fire- side in your home circle, give to your husband and friends your more softening and humanizing coun- sels ? The woman's voice should always be raised on the side of mercy. Man's passions are stronger, more unsubdued ; he is apt to call severity, justice ; but the woman, when properly developed, would then step in, and her plea for pardon may be listened to, when the of- fender might have supplicated in vain. Her softening and humanizing counsels will gradually effect a change in the whole moral standard of the man, and by imper- ceptible degrees, she may bring him to her more harmo- nious stand-point. Of course, I am now speaking only of a progressed woman, for it is only such an one that can exert this beneficial influence. It is time, however, that all women should progress ; it is time they should exert themselves* throw off the shackles of luxury, idleness, and indiffer" ence, and see things as they really are. While you are sleeping thus supinely indifferent, vice and depravity are spreading around you. Your own husbands or your sons may be among the most guilty. Will you make no effort to reclaim them ? Your daughters may be the OX THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 43 victims ; will you not try to save them ? Vice, my friends, has no place, no particular station ; it spreads as the pestilence, through all ranks, and none are safe from its influence, because they are elevated, or secure, because they are lowly. In the moral culture of your children, and in the charm you can throw around your family, by your enlightened conversation and harmonious dispositions, will be found the first steps to improvement in these things. A husband who always feels his home, congenial and happy, his wife cheerful and intelligent, will rarely want to stray. A son, accustomed to the elevating and refined pleasures of his father's house, and seeing the modest and retiring character of its inmates, will shrink disgusted from meretricious charms. The daughters brought up under such a mother and father, would have a seven-fold aegis to protect them from dan- ger, and would be well fitted to enter into that holy es- tate they were destined to fill, when they in their turn will elevate and harmonize their chosen companion. Or, should they be so fortunate as to meet with one entirely congenial, what unalloyed happiness and felicity will be theirs. Thus you see, my friends, woman's mission is one of the highest importance. Upon her, more than upon the man, the well-being of the human family is dependent. She has more to do with the internal workings of the soul, the finer feelings of your natures ; these, which have so long lain almost dormant, it is her mission to call into action. It is not in man or in woman, alone, that the awakening must take place. All want rousing up : none are alive to the value of the beautiful gifts they possess, to their full extent, and some are not aware of owning any at all. But, my friends; though lost and hidden so long, they are there, ready to be brought to the light, and opportunity is all that is wanting, in most 44 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. cases, to develop them. This opportunity is now at hand. Teachers and preachers are going forth, uttering new doctrines, and higher truths than have ever yet been given, and toe have told you many things ourselves, both in this and former essays, which, if you will endeavor to follow out in your daily lives, will soon cause these beau- tiful flowers of the soul to blossom in you. We want to see all happy, all living out their lives here in harmoni- ous contentment, and progressing steadily onward to fit themselves for an endless hereafter. Much may be done by each one in this great work, both for himself and others. None are so pure, so good, they may not re- ceive help and benefit on their journey ; and few are so low and debased they cannot do some kind deed, some good, however trifling, to their fellow-creatures. Mutual dependence, and mutual reciprocity in kind actions, ex- tending through all branches and degrees of society, will tend more to harmonize and equalize the condition of the whole, and there would be a more brotherly and sisterly feeling developed in this way than in any other. But we are now speaking more particularly on the marriage tie — the relations and duties existing between two parties brought into immediate contact, and in which, more than in any other state, mutual forbearance, kindness and considerateness, is necessary. In the world at large men may quarrel, dispute, contend, exhibit all their vile tempers and malicious dispositions ; but society can put a check upon them — they are not tolerated — friends are not bound to submit to their humors, and the people will not. In the domestic circle it is quite different. As the marriage relation is now understood, the poor wife must bear the brunt of all the tyrant man may choose to inflict ; she has no redress, no escape. However uncongenial, dissipated or brutal he may be, the wife must submit to all without murmuring. It ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 45 is not the thing for a woman to make known her indig- nant or wounded feelings on such subjects ; decorum says she must keep quiet — bury her wrongs in her own bosom — wear a smiling face in public, and let her heart break quietly in secret. If she is made of sterner stuff — if she can endure and live — she may, perhaps, rear a family under such unfavorable circumstances. But what kinds of dispositions and physical formations do you sup- pose children could be expected to have, born under such conditions ? A mother, unhappy and discontented, would not be likely to endow her unborn offspring with harmonious and joyous tempers ; a father, dissipated and reckless, could only contaminate them with disease and an excess, probably, of his own ungoverned passions. Such are the fruits you may expect to gather from such ill-assorted unions, and unless a change is soon made in your laws, enabling a woman to free herself without disgrace from such legal prostitution, your de- scendants, a few generations hence, will be idiots and lepers. We use strong terms, for we know the impor- tance of what we urge. We can see, and you may, in part, if you will cast your eyes back and then regard the present, that the spread of vice and luxurious effemi- nacy have already made their baleful effects visible in the persons and characters of your young men and maidens, especially in your large cities. Have the former the energy, the decided character, the muscular development, the moral worth, the freedom and inde- pendence of thought, of the men of the revolution? Have the women the modesty, the sobriety, the intelli- gent and elevated character of their grand-parents? No, my friends, your young men of leisure are idle cum- berers of the ground ; prematurely old, developed in vice and infamous pleasures, while yet boys, and sated and blase with their excesses before their beards are ma- 46 ON THE USE OF MARRIAGE CEREMONY. tured on their faces. What kinds of husbands and fathers can you expect from such characters ? — and, in a lower grade, are they any better ? I think not. If you will read your newspapers, you will see, almost daily, accounts of young men robbing, forging, cheating — and all for what? Why, to vie with their richer companions in their dress, gambling, and other debasing amusements ! The same unhealthy, immoral tone of feeling pervades all alike — only, that some are able to indulge their vicious tastes with more ease, from the possession of more money. The feminine portion of your society are also far from living out the lives of usefulness they were intended to fulfill. Though less, apparently and openly, vicious than the men, they are still far from the purity and simplicity of life that characterized their ancestors, and which they would do well to imitate. Flirting, dress and admira- tion, engross time that is far too valuable to be so mis- used ; and often, I grieve to say, far more sinful and de- grading pleasures are indulged in by young and appar- ently virtuous women, that will bring upon them severe retribution, and would, if known to their parents and friends, wring their hearts with agony. No young female can go on indulging in the trifling and inordinate love of dress and admiration, to the extent it is carried on in this country, without rapidly deteriorating in character. The time it takes to attend to it, prevents her having any leisure to devote to her own or others' benefit ; and by so wastefully and unnecessarily squandering on her own person the money she has had committed to her charge, and for the mis-use of which she will be respon- sible, she deprives herself of the means of relieving her suffering fellow-creatures. But the evil does not stop here ; dress and admiration will not long content her ; she must have more exciting pleasures — more stimulating ON THE USE OF MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 47 draughts from the Circean fountain. Intrigue is indulg- ed in — assignations are made — and the modest and vir- tuous maiden, that should be, is changed into an aban- doned prostitute — no better in reality, if so good, as the poor despised ones that walk your streets. This is a horrid picture, but it is a true one. I wish we had not more to add to it ; but, sad to tell, the wives and mothers in your cities are equally, nay, more guilty. They go and do likewise, and in many instances allow their poor deceived husbands to continue in ignorance of their sin for years, or for ever ! What good can you ex- pect among you when such a state of things prevails ? — when men and women alike are sunk in debauchery and vicious indulgences ? Are these the people from whom you must look for intelligent and wise legislators ? Are these the people from whom you must look for harmo- nious marriages, healthy and promising children ? No, my friends ; if this unwholesome and vicious state of things is allowed to continue much longer, your people and your institutions must alike fall into decay — nay, they are already doing so. But my business at this time is, more particularly, with the institution of marriage ; and to that subject I must again lead you. It will not require a Solomon to tell you that unions consummated between persons so brought up, as those we have been describing , are not likely to be very happy ones. One party, probably, looking for wealth to gratify her extravagant tastes ; the other, smitten bj the evanescent beauty of the lady; neither giving a thought to the many higher require- ments, necessary to make the journey of life a happy one, after youth and beauty and, perhaps, money fails them. Many other equally unlikely cases might be cited, but I need not multiply examples to convince you. Daily you see youth and beauty married to age 48 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. and wealth to gratify, sometimes, the parents 7 ambi- tion, but quite as frequently the daughters' misdirected and perverted tastes. Again, you hear of young, and you would suppose, refined females disgracing them- selves by unions with persons far beneath them in culture, and habits of life, so that your very thought shrinks from the idea of the contact. In such cases the man is quite as much to be pitied as the woman. He is equally out of his own sphere, and as sure to be a sufferer by the ill-considered step he has taken. These things, my friends, constantly occurring in your midst, joined to the low state of morality your cities exhibit, outside of, as well as in, married life, should lead you earnestly to examine into the causes of them, and try if you cannot find some remedy, some means of checking these growing and deadly evils. Are there no far-sighted, and virtuous men among you who can suggest some cure ? — some way of eradicating this plague spot that is destroying your fairest flowers, and changing the whole face of your society ? Spirits can, and will show you where the origin of this vast evil is. They are not afraid to go to the root of the disease. They see no other way, indeed, of performing a cure. Smoothing over the surface is not what is required. It must be a thorough purgation alone that will be effectual. Your institution of marriage must be re-modelled on a different basis. The foundation is now entirely wrong. Man's superiority and woman's dependence are the recognized conditions of the present agreement ; equal rights, equal privileges, and equal love, are the only just agreements that ought to obtain among you. This is the first great error that must be corrected. But how many have sprung from it ? The woman, de- pendent and submissive in ages past, bore the yoke that ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 49 was laid upon her without murmuring, but the injustice was not the less great. Gradually she has learned what ought to be her position, but not knowing how to attain it in a proper manner, she has resorted to wiles and snares to establish her power. Her moral nature has deteriorated. Her natural modesty and delicate sense of refinement have been too often swept away by other feelings and passions ; and instead of being more elevated and spiritualized, as she has progressed in in- tellectual development, she has retrograded. Love of dress, admiration, excitement, pleasure in all its varied forms, have occupied the mind, and formed the happi- ness of beings who, differently situated, would have been ornaments to their country, and blessings in their families. If women are to be respected and virtuous, they must have higher and better aims and aspirations allowed to them ; they must be free to act, and free to think ; free to speak, and free to refrain from speaking. Free as the man has always been — free to choose for themselves husbands congenial to them ; and free, should their choice prove an unfortunate one, and they find themselves uncongenially united, to dissolve the tie without stigma or reproach attaching to them. What but the grossest injustice could ever have made the laws so one-sided ? Is not this an evidence to you that both the male and female element should be repre- sented in your councils ? If women had had any part in framing your laws, think you that there would not have been more equality of justice administered? I am sure there would. And this leads me to one of the other causes of the present demoralized condition of your people. Women require, and must have, as high pursuits to occupy their minds as the men. Why should they be debarred from studies that could make them happy and 50 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. respectable ? Why, if poor, should they be limited to the use of the needle or menial employments ? Is there more to offend their modest sense of propriety in the daily avocations of business and commerce with men upon the mart than in their meetings at crowded thea- ter or ball-room ? Are they not as fitted to attend to the diseases of the human frame ? Is not their sense as keen, their touch more light and tender ? Why have women for so many years been debarred from this their natural calling ? Every man acknowledges they make the best and tender est nurses. Why then might they not, without so much odium attaching to them, be allowed to prescribe as well as practice the healing art ? And so I might go on and ask the same questions of every branch of employment the world calls honora- ble. All are closed against the woman ! She may in- deed go upon the stage, and with all the talent of a Siddons portray, in living colors, the various passions that actuate her sex, but it is rare indeed when she can do this unscathed. The very best women who have followed this calling have been exposed to suspicion ; and but few have been able to retain their position in respectable society. From the nature of their profession, people shrink from them, and yet, with strange inconsistency, they shut them off from other employments for which, perhaps, they are eminently fitted. Is this just ? Is this doing to your neighbor as you would be done by ? Man has too long engrossed for himself the lion's share. It is time that his eyes should be opened to see the injustice that has, so far, kept back the woman from her rightful sphere. She is not a greater sufferer than he is by the mistake that has been made. If they had had employ- ments and occupations suited to them, their active and brilliant minds would not have gone astray after frivo- OX THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 51 lous and vain toys. They would have been companions and supports to their husbands, instructors and guides to their children, ornaments to society, and blessings to all around them ; while the man, instead of becoming, as is too often the case, a domestic tyrant, would have been harmonized and softened by the gentler influences of the female character, and comforted and assisted in all his ordinary business duties. This subject is one that requires deep consideration from you. my friends ; you all ought to know that when minds fitted for active thought and employment are left without food, they are ready to receive any outside influences that may present themselves. Many of your female population, having abundant means of living, and no call for exertion in their families, are ready for any mischief that may pre- sent itself, and in these idle unoccupied minds vice often finds ready entrance. Whereas, had they learned to employ themselves in some useful, active manner, they might have been honorable and respected, not only to the outward seeming, but in their own internal con- sciousness. Do you not see then, how much your own happiness and comfort is bound up in the elevation of the female character ? Do you not see that much of the vice of your sons may be traced to the low standard of the fe- male's position ? If she had been justly and fairly treated as an eqnal, how much more elevated and refined she would be ? How different as a mother, how superior as sister or wife ? What a change there would be in the style of intimacy and conversation between your young and unmarried population. Young fops would not try to charm by their dress and adornments ; they would learn that something higher than outside glitter was required to captivate intelligent, self-contained, modest women ? feeling their own individuality and independence of the 52 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. marriage-tie, unless it was thoroughly congenial in heart and feelings. And young maidens, too, would have to acquire much better manners than they now possess, if they would win the love of wise and enlightened men. They must lay aside the alluring looks, the bold and for- ward style of display, so unseemly, in which they now delight, the loud laugh, the stare, the giggle, the whole catalogue, indeed, of their present captivations (if I may so misname them), and substitute in their stead, modesty, sobriety and temperance in all things. Purity of heart and modesty of demeanor, sobriety in dress and adorn- ment, and temperance in the pursuit of pleasure and amusement ; cultivating, instead of those meretricious charms they have so long delighted to display, the higher and more ennobling gifts they are endowed with, but which, hitherto, they have suffered to lie dormant ; bringing up instead, all the weeds and noxious plants that spring in the uncultivated soil of the human heart. Men and women both, you have a long task before you ; for you must undo, by slow degrees, what you have taken so much trouble to do. The paths of vice and folly seem easy and pleasant to follow, but they have a sad ending ; and if you, my friends, do not at once re- trace your own steps, and endeavor to convince others of the necessity of doing the same, I see nothing in prospect for you and your fair land, but ruin — moral and political ruin. It is not yet too late for the effort to be made ; but it soon will be. Vice is making such rapid strides, corruption in your public offices is so rife, men's minds are so stirred up, and yet they know not where to turn for council and comfort, that a change of some kind must take place ; and it were better for all that it should be a bloodless and internal one ; that in your own souls the reform should commence ; then each ON THE USE OP A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 53 one can work for himself, each man can be his own Re- deemer. All of you know your own shortcomings, your own delinquencies, and can see the way to correct them, if you have the courage to follow it out. No one can help you as we can, and as we will, if you will only call upon us in sincerity. We can do all that you require ; make you strong to resist temptation, patient of injuries, kind, gentle and merciful. We can, if you trust in us fully, make you to hate and abhor the vices you have so long indulged in. We can bring to your hearts an in- fluence of Holy Spirit, that will cause you to loathe and despise every evil way. But we must be sought aright ; we must have truthful and earnest inquirers, if good re- sults are to be obtained ; willing and convinced minds^ men who see and feel in their inmost depths that the pre- sent state of things is wrong, and that thorough reform is necessary for the well-being of the whole community. When men come to us in this spirit, we shall be pow- erful to save. It will seem long perhaps to you, before the effects of our work and teachings are visible, but if you will only go with us heart and hand, much may be effected in a short period of time. You must remember that many besides yourselves are inquiring into things, and dissatisfied with the present state of the human family, many that you would little suspect, and who would come boldly forward and join the cause of re- form, if it were conducted in a proper manner. But, as is always the case in new movements, the scum or worst part of its advocates come into notice first, and make the most noise. People listen to their often senseless clamor, and are disgusted ; but attention is attracted, and when this scum is cleared off and the ring of the pure metal is heard, men will gladly come forward and investigate for themselves, what promises so much for the benefit of the race, collectively and individually. 54 OX THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. We are carrying on our remarks further than we at first intended on this subject, but it is such a momentous one, and so deeply affects the whole constitution of so- ciety, that at the risk of tiring you with it we must say some few things more. And, first, in regard to the amount of licentiousness in your cities. I touched only on this in alluding to the causes of unhappiness in the marriage state. It was not, however, because I thought lightly of it, but that I deemed it better to give it a separate notice. It is so pregnant of misery to numbers in your midst who, out- wardly, appear smiling and happy while gnawing grief and jealousy are in their hearts, that it must be consid- ered as taking the lead in the ranks of vice. Many 01 you are not aware to what an enormous extent infidelity to the wife is carried on in your fashionable circles ; the numbers of men there are among you, wearing smooth face and serious deportment, regular in their attendance at their places of worship, and, apparently, fulfilling all the duties of husbands and fathers, who have their regu- lar places of assignation, or their kept mistresses. The young men pattern by the old and middle-aged, and rival them in profligacy; and, sorry am I to have to add, to this shameful catalogue, many fair seeming and apparently virtuous women who sell themselves to these moneyed tempters for the wealth and dress they heap upon them. Young men are even known to consent to the sacrifice of their own and wives' honor to obtain money for their extravagant and wicked pleasures — so low is morality fallen among you, so given up are the bulk of your people to the intoxication of vicious enjoy- ments. Is it not time some reforming hand commenced the work of purification ? Is it not time that those, yet uncontaminated, should join the spiritual forces arranged ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 55 for the battle against sin and consequent suffering ? The world has gone on in this wicked manner, unchecked, long enough. The time of retribution is at hand, and the hosts of God are come to cleanse your dark and fetid atmosphere and bring in the light of Holy Spirit to enlighten and sanctify all mankind. They cannot allow this unhallowed state of things to go on. A stop must be put to it by kindly teachings, if possible, and, if they fail, justice will overtake the guilty and sinful who neglect and despise them. The importance of the marriage ceremony was a part of the title we prefixed to our essay, and you may say we have left the consideration of it entirely out of sight in the - manner we have been treating upon it, but we have not intended to do so. All we have said has had a bearing and reference to that important point. If you will use your own reasoning powers you will see that from the present condition of marriage, most of the evils we have enumerated take their rise ; therefore in the reorganization of this institution must one of the prin- ciple remedies be found. Before men and women can act in harmony together in the wedded state they must know by their intuitions that they are suited to each other — that they are one in feeling and purpose. There must be no doubt, no ques- tioning of this; they must have positive assurance of their mutual love and of the congeniality, repose, and peace they find in each other's society, if they would, with propriety, enter into the more intimate relation of husband and wife. Then very little ceremony and no oath will be necessary to bind them to each other. The tie of love, in its highest and purest meaning, will be firmer than adamant to hold them together ; no force could dissolve, no temptation could break such a mar- riage ; for no other could be put in comparison with the 56 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. one to whom they are already united. Such unions as these, where true congeniality is found, where wealth, station, and beauty have been only secondary considera- tions, and the true affinity has been sought, will bear very different fruits than you now see from your many ill-considered marriages that daily take place. Harmo- nious in themselves, their offsprings will be harmonious also. Shunning vicious pleasures, their children will be healthy and well developed. The harmonious spirit will have a mortal tenement worthy of it, and the suc- ceeding generations, instead of deteriorating, as they now do, in physical as well as moral beauty, will grow more and more lovely as they progress. The evil pas- sions of your natures, when indulged in, never fail to leave their impress on the countenance — shall not the good and ennobling virtues of your hearts and souls leave their traces also? Assuredly they will ; and when to these moral virtues are added temperance and sobriety, in food and drink, and a regular attendance to the laws of health, you will see man approximating to the angels. But it will take more than one generation to produce these desirable results. As I said before, much has to be undone, much to be corrected, and much to be purified. The taint of disease cannot be eradi- cated in one lifetime. Children must suffer for their parents' sins. But if those parents will bring up their children with higher and better aims than they had given to them — ii they will endeavor to avoid all contention or disputing in their presence, and teach them, from the higher light they are now receiving, the importance of living har- monious, virtuous lives, and, still more, the immense responsibility they assume when they enter the marriage state— the necessity they now see that they should not do so unless certain that they have found their true part. ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 57 ners, they will be paying the way for the next genera- tion in the best and most effectual manner ; and if their advice and teachings are followed out by their sons and daughters, they may live to see some of the beautiful results that will ensue from them. Marriage, to be perfectly harmonious, must be a mu- tual agreement between two parties on an equal footing. Man is not complete in himself, neither is woman. United, they form a perfect whole. But because they are not complete apart, does it follow that one is greater or less than the other ? Certainly not. They are, and always were, the two halves of 'a whole ; neither is per- fect separately. If man is the type of wisdom, and woman of love, wisdom is incomplete without love, and love is not perfect, unless joined to wisdom. Both are equally good, equally necessary ; but, to be enabled to shine forth in their brightest lustre, they must be united. Let me entreat you, my friends, to take this subject into your earnest consideration. You have much to do to reform existing abuses, and you may, and will, meet with strong opposition ; but you have so much at stake that you must not allow any sneers, or war of words to daunt you. Come forward boldly, like men, and assert the rights of your partners and fellow-workers on this earth-sphere. It comes from you with a better grace than it does from them, and as you have so long usurped their rights, it is but fitting that, now you see your errors, you should acknowledge and endeavor to correct them. It will be quite as much for the happiness of the man as the woman when justice is done in this important matter. His nature will be softened and subdued into harmony, and all the gentler, happier and more wholesome feel- ings of his soul will be brought into action — while the woman, feeling the dignity of her true position, will give up the pursuit of pleasure in the trifling, enerva- 58 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. ting, and often degrading, way in which she has hitherto followed it, and try to elevate her mind and cultivate her faculties, to bring herself more on the wisdom-plane which man should, but does not, occupy at present. Each one will strive after that which will bring him or her more into rapport with their true affinity, and so produce perfect harmony in the married state. No fear then that vice will pollute such a household — no fear that the one or the other should find tempters outside to lead them astray from their duties. It could not be ; their best and truest enjoyment would consist in per- forming them, and making all around them happy. You may ask, my friends, for some more definite di- rections as to the ceremony of marriage, or whether we think it should be done away with altogether ! My friends, I should like to answer you this clearly and ex- plicitly, and I think I shall be able to do so ; at any rate, I will try to make myself understood, as I would wish to be. In all ages of the civilized world, the mar- riage or union of a man and woman has been observed as a time of joy and rejoicing, and worship and praise to the great Father of all has been one of the accom- panying ceremonies. The reason is obvious and beauti- fully appropriate. God, the first cause of all, the Fa- ther and Mother, as we may say, of every living thing, is, in this union, more truly typified than in any other event on your mundane sphere. And the marriage is more sanctified and hallowed when His presence and His goodness are recognized and invoked, to bless these earthly types of Him, that they, like Him in their sphere, may fructify and replenish the earth with new recipients of His bounty and untiring love. No one who thinks rightly on this subject can wish the mar- riage ceremony omitted. No right-feeling man or wo- man would be contented in such an unblessed, unsancti- OX THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 59 fied state. They may object to the present form and ceremony, but that is not to say they would do away with it altogether. To me. my friends, it appears the most solemn, the most important, both to yourselves and your unborn children, and also, if rightly entered upon, the most joyful ceremony that can be performed upon your sphere. And while we would have no oaths, no bonds of man's devising to cement it, we would have it observed with all dignified solemnity. The prayers and good wishes of the assembled friends should bless the day, and the Holy Spirit of God be called down to sanctify and purify the newly-married ones for the jour- ney of life that is before them. I cannot here set down what forms should be ob- served, but there should be some simple, and at the same time, solemn ones. The day should be one to be remem- bered by the parties in a reverent manner : and they must feel that they have undertaken responsibilities, which they cannot and would not lay aside. There being no oath or law to bind them, must make no differ- ence to them in this matter ; they have a moral law in their own souls, and by that they must stand. In the early stages of this reform movement, parties may find that they have been mistaken in the choice they have made, and when this is the case, let them ex- amine themselves carefully before they make known their difficulties, and when they are convinced that they are unconquerable, quietly and decently separate before chil- dren, who may be tainted with their parents' discordant feelings, are born to them. It can only be for a short time that such ruptures of the marriage-tie will occur, for as men and women develop and assume their true position, they will be more particular and more clear- sighted in this, as in everything else, and will know by intuitive perceptions who is their true affinity. We would not be understood to sanction the hasty 60 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. and ill-advised unions and separations that are now so rife among Spiritualists in the most distant manner. No, my friends ; while we wish to make all free and happy, we hold out no encouragement to licentiousness. Many of you have been sadly misled in this matter, and we would give you better and higher teachings. We would show you that there is no union so blessed and hallowed by God, as the married one ; and of what im- portance it is for each one who thinks of entering into it, to examine thoroughly and ascertain to his, or her, satisfaction, that the party selected is the one intended for them ; that they are truly congenial, and that they love them with an undying and well-founded affection that can never know change. Then there will be no cause of fear for the results ; they are sure to prove happy ones. Worldly trials and cares may sometimes darken over their peaceful lives, but sustained by a love such as I have been picturing to you, they cannot injure their permanent and well-grounded felicity. This state of social reform so necessary, so important, on which the well-being and development of your pos- sterity, yet unborn, wholly depends, we call upon you, enlightened Spiritualists, to advocate and endeavor to propagate by your lives and teachings. You know, if the world at large do not, how important and how much needed is reformation. You know that the evils we complain of are spreading, and will continue to in- crease, unless more effectual measures are adopted to put a stop to them. You also know that the reform we advocate, and so urgently impress upon you to carry out, may be commenced individually as well as socially. For, when the hearts are made pure within, outside allurements will cease to charm, and when no encou- ragement is given to your numerous dens of vice and iniquity, they must of necessity, cease to be. These hot-beds of sin are among the first things we ON THE USE OP A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 61 would attack. Not with man's weapons, but by that in- creased purity and morality that will render them useless. But it is possible to go on with more than one thing at a time, and while purifying your social life, carry out also your more enlightened and just measures for the equali- zation of the female portion of your population. Let their rights and privileges be at length assured to them on a firm basis, and let them assume the position that is theirs, by Divine authority, and which has been so long withheld from them. We have now said all that we think, at present, necessary on the important subjects on which we have been treating. If you will carefully read and digest what has been here written you will find much to cause you sorrow and regret, and much to teach you how to avoid, or prevent the continuance of the evils which produce your sorrows. There is no doubt that all we have asserted, as to the extent of moral delinquency, is true, too true alas! but if you know the evil it is the more easy to apply a remedy. If it continued veiled from public gaze much longer it would be incurable. Now, fathers and mothers of families, will you not put your shoulders to the wheel ? Will not you assist and help us to save your innocent, and as yet pure, chil- dren from ruin ? Young men and young women — you who may already have tasted of the Circean cup and found its concealed bitterness — will not you help us? Your past experience has not been too pleasant, your joyous hours have been clouded by remorseful thoughts, and the stings of conscience have often checked you in your gayest moments. Will not you then, before all good feeling is dead within you, come out and help us, by your advice and example to your younger and less- experienced imitators ? You will receive ample recom- pense for all you forego in the improved health of your 62 ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. moral as well as physical being, and from the harmoni- zing and elevating thoughts that will dwell in your bosoms, springing up and developing there in place of the frivolous and wicked ones that have so long made it their abode, but which you and your spirit friends will soon drive out, when good desires and higher aims seek to come in. We need the aid of all classes, of all grades of society, to carry out these wholesome reforms. All are equally interested — all will be equally benefited. Would, my friends, that we could show you these important truths as we see them. Would that we could magnetize you with our magnetism, imbue you with our spirit, then, how differently would you act, how differently would you judge of things ; how would you all rush forward to carry out this great work of progression — this moral reform that we are now urging, and waiting on you to effect. Until these things are corrected, in a great degree, do not think or expect that the true harmonial marriage union we have portrayed to you can obtain much stand- ing, or be carried out in its purity and beauty among you. A far higher state of morals and of feeling is necessary before the conditions will be right for such an entire change in your society as this will involve. Men and women must be placed in their right position with regard to each other. Freedom of election on both sides is requisite — and for this to obtain, the woman must be on a perfect equality in all things. We insist so much on it, because we know the strong opposition it will excite in many bosoms, and so retard the progress of what we have so much at heart ; but our friends must have more faith, and believe that what we tell them is only for their good. We are so anxious to make the human family happy, that we may say things, in our en- ON THE USE OF A MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 63 deavors to do so, more in advance of many of your minds than you can receive, but you will develop up to them in time, and be able to recognize their necessity and beauty — and ice will work and pray for you that you may be privileged to see the workings of this great movement we project, and feel some of the benefits re- sulting from it. All, you can not do, for it will not be in your day that its full effects will be perceived or ap- preciated. Mary Magdalene. November 6th, 1860. [The Medium doubted the propriety of giving to the public the name which was signed to the above communication, and hesitated to do so, when the spirit of George Fox wrote : " Mary Magdalene did exercise the chief control in writing the essay to which her name is attached ; but ail are more or less directed by the circle, at the head of which sits Jesus our Lord."] GOD IN HIS WORKS. The Almighty Framer and Governor of the universe has been hitherto little understood by men. They have delighted in portraying Him as a being with like parts and passions with themselves, as a something to be feared and reverenced, appeased and mollified when angry, by sacrifices and prayers ; and, when supposed to be in a more placable mood, to be gratified with songs, dances, or music. Nothing more unlike the real character of the Deity can be imagined than the one that has been generally received by civilized nations, both Christian and heathen. It is time now that something more real and more true should be known of this great power that formed and sustained all things, (not in your sphere alone, but in ours also), and who is still framing new worlds, new universes. This great unknown, unseen Being, so constantly at work, yet never tired, is in your midst as He is in ours. He pervades all space. He is everywhere, and yet He is nowhere. He is in the highest heavens, and he is in the lowest hell. None are so high as to approach Him, none so low and debased but that He can reach them. How shall we make your finite minds comprehend us ? How explain our meaning to you? God everywhere, yet nowhere. Seeming contradiction, and yet perfectly true. In His works you will find Him. In the mani- fold gifts He bestows upon you. There He is. In the GOD IN HIS WORKS. 65 air you breathe, in the food you eat, God is manifested. This great power that pervades everything is the Essence, or God-principle, of life or motion. It is not motion, but it is the cause of motion. Motion, you know, produced life. But what caused motion ? This subtile Essence is the light of life, a portion of Deity, and Deity, through it caused motion. The great centre, the fountain from whence this Divine Essence flows, is God. Not a personal being, but yet containing and originating in Himself all the qualities, the passions, the feeling, that go to form a perfect man ; and all the wisdom and love that has designed so many worlds, and filled them with such beautiful creations, both animate and inanimate. The way in which these stupendous works are carried out, I almost despair of making clear to you ; and yet the simplicity, beauty, and order of the whole arrangement is perfect and complete in every part. God, the great first cause of all, sitting on his throne of light, sent forth that light, or Essence of Himself, and bid it work. How must it operate ? How commence ? By animating the chaotic masses of darkness that were, where light was not. As this penetrated them they condensed — they hardened. Still further did the light go on in its work, and, after hardening, it penetrated what it had condensed, broke it up, and made other kinds of formations. This light, this essence, working in and through its great Creator, continued on, steadily effecting the wondrous changes that led to the present results. The thought that originated so many and such vari- ous beauties, retained its central situation, as the soul does in your bodies, and the light evolved from thought did the work. Then you will say : Is God thought ? He is. But can you tell us what thought is ? Thought 66 GOD IN HIS WORKS. is inspiration in you. It is the essence or light of God in your souls. In Him, it is as much more, as much grander, nobler and diviner, as God's actions, God's works, are superior to man's. You can now see, my friends, how my seemingly con- tradictory assertions can be verified ; for surely thoughts may be everywhere, and yet who can seize them in tan- gible form ? If you try you will find they are nowhere, God is the impersonation of all wisdom, love, and knowledge — so your teachers say — but He may rather be considered as the source or fount from whence these things flow ; for He is certainly not a personal Deity, as we told you before. He can give from his fount all that is needful to all parts of his many universes, and still there will be no lack of supply. His light pervades all things. Not any are too low for it to reach. It can penetrate into the darkest and deepest abysses of creation, as well as into the lowest and most degraded human mind. Christianity has always taught that God is a being to be referred to in troubles and difficulties, and that help can be obtained from Him to sustain and support in such cases. This was good as far as it went. But how far short of the real, tangible benefits men might obtain from Him if they understood more clearly the true nature and power of the great unknown, misun- derstood principle (or Deity if you will) that rules your planet in connection with all other worlds or spheres. Man is a miniature microcosm of the Deity. He is possessed of the same powers, the same feelings, the same elements for thought, the same undying life-prin- ciple, the same capabilities of action ; and when he has developed higher and higher in the scale of progression, he likewise may create and multiply creations from his thought-plane. But not yet, my hearers, are these GOD IN HIS WORKS. 67 startling effects to be looked for. Ages and ages of progressive improvement will have to be gone through. Spirit must be etherealized into still more ethereal spirit ; and still again must it be refined ; over and over will the purification be renewed, till the God- spirit is attained ; and when this takes place, man may be said to merge into Deity and become part and parcel of that Divine and mystical Essence • and united to it, share and assist, devise and execute works as won- drous, as noble, as grand, as beneficent as those he now, from his low and untaught sphere, admires with awe and veneration. (Note 1 .) Nothing is impossible to man. The God who formed him, as he is, foresaw and prepared for a time when His creation would rise to this height, and become like Him. The ignorance of men, hitherto, has kept their development back. They never understood the nature of the Being who formed them into life. Besides, all progression is necessarily slow at first. It took ages to develop man from the ranks of the animal, to bring to him a comprehension of articulate sounds, or lan- guage, which would enable him to rise. As soon as this was partially accomplished, creative powers were developed in him. He began to labor for more com- forts, more pleasures, than he had hitherto felt the necessity for. So he has gone on, slowly still, but less slowly than at the first. And he will continue to accele- rate the speed of his progress the higher he advances, because more light* can now reach him from the great fountain of all progress. Men originally were created little more developed than apes. Still, they were higher brutes, as the ape is higher than the baboon and lower monkey tribes. All animals have gradually developed, in improved forms, from the next lower species. Man is no excep- 68 GOD IN HIS WORKS. tion to the rule ; he was originally, as we have said, a well-developed ape ; but into this Ape God's light has been gradually, more abundantly, instilled than it was or ever will be into the lower animal kingdom. He was designed for higher life, nobler purposes ; he had more work to do, more good to perform, more to re- ceive, and more to lose and suffer for the loss of, than the animals. He was the crowning creation of God — the ultimatum — the finishing stroke to his great work on this earth of yours, as he is on every other. Man is the perfection of all — the animal, the vege- table, and the mineral combined, and superior to the whole in possessing the soul or God-principle in him that is to develop up to the God who gave it. (Note 2.) Animals have not anything of this ; they have life and they have instinct, but this essence of divinity that shall bring man ultimately to a level with God, they have not. This is what makes man superior to the brutes ; this is what no sins, no crimes can deprive him of. Though darkened and degraded he may be, will keep it ; and long and weary may be his necessary de- velopment out of darkness ; but a time must come when it will shine forth ; a time must come when this emanation, this beautiful essence of Deity, must find its way to Him again ; and it will not do so without bringing the spirit with it. (Note 3.) This is a great thought ; man may well not conceive of it, for it is hard for many who have passed away to understand it ; indeed, multitudes do not, and will not, till they are more progressed. Many different grades of men are on your earth, as there are many different classes of spirits here. You have often wondered why some races of men are so much more intelligent and progressed than others ; but this should not excite surprise in your minds, if you GOD IN HIS WORKS. 69 looked at the subject from a right point of view. You are so accustomed to consider that all mankind sprang from one source — one original pair, that you rarely reason fairly on this point. We can, however, en- lighten you, somewhat ; and some of our former teach- ings have shown you what reliance there is to be placed on that, and many other old fables. We also told you that, since its formation, this earth had undergone many convulsions and upheavings. At such times animal and vegetable life were destroyed, and new creations and developments had to be origi- nated. Of course, in such cases, the human family were proportionately late in their appearance, and are, where you find them inferiorly endowed, only waiting the lapse of years and proportionate progress to become as you are now. The inequality must always remain as ob- servable, for you will be advancing in the same, or even greater ratio. This is a very simple explanation of what has caused, on your earth, much confusion and strife. And we would urge on all, who shall read this, to use their earnest endeavors to mollify the feelings at this time engendered in your midst, originating from the mistaken knowlege possessed on this subject. We do not intend to enter into party strifes in this essay ; we write for the world at large ; and we would benefit the African, the Hottentot, or the Slaveholder equally ; all are the same to us. But we must tell you that war and contention are the enemies of progress, far more deadly than the apparent injustice of the Afri- can's bondage. He is not nearly on the same plane that you are. He is happier under his southern mas- ters than in his native freedom ; and he will develop much more rapidly. The cruelties you complain of in separations of families and so forth, he rarely feels with the keenness your more elevated and refined natures 70 GOD IN HIS WORKS. would do ; and if you complain of the liberties taken with the women by their owners, I grieve to tell you that, in your own northern cities there is more profli- gacy and licentiousness indulged in than in the entire Southern States. This is a digression, but a necessary one ; for war and contention are at hand, brought about by misguided men, led on by false teachers of an erroneous creed, and they little know the suffering and woe they are bringing, not only on the slave population, but more especially on their Northern brethren. It was necessary that a severe retribution should overtake your land; your sins have grown to such a monstrous head, purification was absolutely required, and it is just that you should, yourselves, light the torch that is to consume you ; but, at the same time? we mourn for the prospects of your ill-clad, suffering poor, your unemployed artisans, your women and chil- dren. This coming winter will tell a sad tale of woe in your towns and villages, and, as is always the case in these unjust proceedings, the innocent must suffer with the guilty. Fortunately for man, there is a Providence ruling over all, and bringing out of the most discordant ele- ments beauty and improvement. What men think are the greatest calamities often prove, in their results, the most valuable blessings. They turn and twist their mundane affairs in the most heterogeneous and con- fused manner, and think they are regulating and order- ing a world, when they are in reality plunging it into almost inextricable confusion. At this time such a condition of affairs is impending, not in one part but in all. Revolutions and wars, con- fusion and bloodshed will prevail generally, and an entire change in the governments of the various con- GOD IN HIS WORKS. 71 tending powers will supervene. Men cannot foresee this ; they cannot tell what may be the termination ot the bloody fights they wage, the ambitious schemes they indulge in ; but there are wiser and far more intelligent beings watching the conflict, and ready, when the time comes, to step in and take every advantage of circum- stances to benefit and raise the human family. These overseeing spirits all receive their light and knowledge from higher sources, and these higher intelligences re- ceive it in still more direct proximity to and from God himself, the fountain or principle of it. I repeat this, that it may impress itself on your minds, that God is in all His works. He sends down His di- vine afflatus through us to you, and it pervades all the extended regions of space, and benefits and beautifies wherever it penetrates. I am not now going to show you what results will accrue from the present state of affairs ; but I would encourage you with the assurance that high and developed spirits are waiting and working for you at this crisis, and will bring much good to the human family generally, out of the seeming evils that now threaten you. Never despair of their help ; they are mighty and powerful to aid you, and they come not alone, as I saidj the spirit and power of God is with them, and they cannot fail in what they have to accomplish. God, the supreme Creator and Governor of the uni- verses, has now sent down light from his own high sphere, to drive the darkness before it. The clouds that have so long obscured men's minds shall be dissipated by this penetrating power ; and wisdom, and knowledge shall flow in upon them. Men shall be able to see the beauty, order, and love, that designed and perfected their earth and its inhabitants. They shall read the book of nature with profit and facilitv, and man him- 72 GOD IN HIS WORKS. self shall be taught to rightly appreciate his own high eminence in the structure ; the crowning and finishing touch of the vast edifice. And when they begin to understand these things aright, then higher knowledge will be given to them, and they will be taught to see clearly, how mistaken they have been in their rule of conduct, (how unjust, how illiberal) how they have trampled on all the finer and nobler feelings of their natures,, and cultivated those that pertained to their animal and earthly origin. Fighting, contentions, the desire to rule, the love of place, position or money, all spring from this low source, and must and will die out in your midst, when the true light we come to bring can once penetrate and permeate among you. It is time now that you should realize that you were designed for something nobler — better than all this. It is time that you should recognize and respect the God- principle implanted in you, and try to make it work. Only let it have fair play, listen to and follow its dic- tates, and you will soon perceive a change in your feel- ings and tempers, your tastes and avocations. Suppose that all recognized it and tried to follow out its dictates, can you not see for yourselves what a changed world you would have ? No wars, no strife, no contention for this thing or that thing, no ambition to rule, no desires for inordinate wealth, for selfish or licentious pleasures, no murders, no robberies, in fact, no sin. Such will be the condition of the inhabitants of your earth, if we can once bring the light to bear upon them fully and generally. Such is the desirable result we hope to at- tain. And before very long, we shall have some of the first fruits of our labors, visible to the eyes of men as well as spirits. When men are softened and subdued by adversity or GOD IN HIS WORKS. 73 trouble of any kind, then is the best time for spirits to step in and labor for them. At such seasons they are less wrapped up in selfishness, less absorbed by worldly gains or pleasures, and we can generally find a crevice through which to enter into their hearts, and work for them. Thus it is, only on a larger field We hope to find the greatest facility in touching the hearts of men, in this coming time of trouble and distress ; and thus from the general nature of the sufferings impending over, not this country only, but many others, we calculate to pro- duce golden fruits in the hearts of many, and general amelioration, not only in the social system, but in the national governments also. Things must be more equalized ; the rich must share with the poor. Their superfluous wealth, which is only a burden and toil to them to manage, must be distrib- uted among their more needy brothers, and both be made happier by the division. The intellectual must give of their talents to benefit and improve their loss advanced brothers, and the skillful, in any way, must use their gifts for the good of their neighbors, as well as for themselves. I might go on and enumerate the variety of ways in which this feeling of universal brotherhood would work ; but it is useless at the present time, when men are not prepared to carry out our ideas, so we will now return to our more immediate theme, " God in his works/' the multitude and infinity of which should fill your minds with awe and wondering admiration. To think on this great subject, exalts and benefits your souls. To dwell on his greatness, brings you more nearly into communion with Him, and fills you with a portion of His own spirit. You are benefited by the smallest ap- proach you can make to this mind of God ; and there is no better method for you to pursue in your endeavors 74 GOD IN HIS WORKS. to progress, than studying Him in His works. You may say you cannot understand much that you see, much that you hear, in relation to them. True, you cannot. But none are so ignorant that they cannot see beauty in a flower, a leaf, a human eye, or a human hand ; and they can do more, for all can see, not the beauty only, but the appropriateness, the fitness, the adaptedness of them for their various uses. Can anything be more wonderfully and judiciously contrived than the eye of a man ? So delicately organ- ized to receive impressions from surrounding objects, at the same time, so carefully protected from injury by its judicious position in the head, and its covering lid and eyelashes. Did not the thought that originated it, show the highest wisdom ? And can you not find profit and pleasure combined in thinking on these things ? Or are you so accustomed to the offices and appearance of this organ, that it has ceased to be regarded by you ? J hope it is not so ; but if it is, refresh your ideas on this point by visiting some institution for the blind, and you will then see more plainly the blessing you enjoy, without appreciating its possession. Then your hand — have you ever thought on its varied uses, its beautiful adaptedness to the numerous offices it is required to perform ? Or have you allowed that also to pass by unheeded, playing out its part in regular and methodic manner, as you might require its services — your willing docile slave to do your bidding, while you, entirely unconscious of the wondrous beauty of the or- ganism that thus works for you, accept its services, and never pause for a moment to dwell on the wisdom and love that designed it, or to consider what that Being must be who so multiplies His benefits to all, that men take them as a right, and entirely overlook and neglect the Giver. GOD IN HIS WORKS, 75 These simple examples will show you how easy it is for the most ignorant to study the Almighty in His works. They are so surrounded by them that they need not seek from abroad subjects of contemplation ; and they will find God's Spirit quite as near to them when contemplating His presence in the lowliest grub, as in more exalted and beautiful objects. The same care in the formation, the same adaptedness for its peculiar vocation, every organ necessary for it to enjoy life in its own sphere, is given to it, and the food suitable to its habits and tastes are provided. Such thoughts ought to be elevating for any mind. They fill us, in the spheres, with rejoicing and wonder- ing admiration when we try to bring them home to you. It is true we can see more clearly into these mighty works, we can go deeper into their mysterious beauty, but there is plenty for man to know and feel, if he will take the pains to search it out. Some of you may be attracted by the wonders of the heavens, and look there for evidences of God's power and thoughtful love, and you may fancy it is more mightily displayed there ; or again, others may examine into the beauties of the deep, and see its workings there. Any and everywhere you will find them, and all display, in an equal degree, the power of thought, the wisdom and beneficence of the Being who planned them. In the smallest blade of grass, in the tiniest flower, apparently so useless, but yet which has its office, the same careful thought is traced, and in the same perfection. Can you then wonder, man, that we wish you to know these mighty truths for yourselves ? Can you wonder that we, your superiors in knowledge and wis- dom, wish to make you realize the true nature of the God who formed you ? — and who, previous to placing you on your beautiful earth, had filled it with such a 76 GOD IN HIS WORKS. profusion of blessings. Are you not daily, hourly, mo- mently receiving from him unnumbered benefits — so common in their occurrence, that you cease to regard them as such ? And yet should you be deprived of any one, what a calamity you would consider it. Are you not possessed of everything conceivable to make your lives happy, did you only realize what you have in your possession ? Most of the wants men feel so deeply, and suffer so much if they cannot supply, are artificial ones ; they have cultivated the necessity for them, and the sooner they can learn to do without a great many of them the happier they will become. Food, dress, fire, air, amusemeut, exercise, music, drawing, singing, every- thing that conduces to the well-being and happiness of man we advocate. They are designed for that purpose, and every one should enjoy his share of them. But the factitious wants of a few, to supply which the many must toil, are not of God's designing ; neither do we approve of them. Excess of all kinds is injurious. Dress is a necessity, but when carried beyond the bounds of simplicity and comfort it is an evil. Food also may be put under the same limits. It is a necessity of your natures, but when the necessity is satisfied, let not the animal step in and usurp the place of the man. So I might continue my remarks on some of the other things enumerated, but you can see for yourselves that excess in the indulgence of any of them may convert great blessings into great curses. And is not this a just retribution ? If one takes so large a share of the good things of life that he infringes on the portion of others, and they get little or none, should he .not be made to feel his selfish greedi- ness ? He should, and he does, not only here on earth, but hereafter still more. It will be a hard task to teach the human family GOD IN HIS WORKS. 77 that God, the great thought of the universe, sees no difference in men, and that He, in creating all His boun- tiful provisions for the happiness of mankind, intended them for all equally. He did not say to one, " thou shalt have more than thou needest," and to another, " I have formed thee to starve." No, this dreadful result has been engendered by the indulgence of the animal passions in men, blotting out, as much as they could do, the principles of justice and love implanted in them. It is time now that they should begin to cultivate what they have so long discarded and disowned. They think they are growing very wise in all knowledge, and understand many high things. Let them take this simple act of justice into their consideration, and see if their worldly wisdom will enable them to overcome the selfishness that has so long kept them in bondage to its debasing teachings. Shall the strong always op- press the weak ? The rich the poor ? Or shall a more equitable state of things supervene, and equal rights, equal privileges and equal blessings, be enjoyed by all? In this land of plenty much might soon be done to ameliorate the condition of the lower classes. They are not so down-trodden as in other portions of the world, and they could more easily, and with better grace, assume the position destined for them. They have an adaptiveness of character that is very favora- ble to work upon, and they see and feel more clearly than in other countries the injustice of the inequalities they suffer from. They have developed up to this in consequence of the greater freedom of your national institutions aud government. Therefore, here the work must commence, here the reformation begin. Some few men are already laying out plans and devis- ing methods to effect it, but they have scarcely the right idea, and we would be glad to see others take it up 78 GOD IN HIS WORKS. and co-operate with them, so as to bring more intelli- gence into their meetings, and more worldly know- ledge, that they may work with better success. The great reformer, however, who will lay his axe at the root of these evils, is punishment — -just punishment, brought on your own heads by social and national errors. You cannot now escape it. The evils you have engendered must be swept awa}^, and with them will disappear much of the pride and pomp of station, the luxury and effeminacy that are corroding your vitals. When thoroughly humbled and subdued by the se- vere chastisement you must receive, then we can come in to you, and take up our abode with you. We can then instill into you the more humanizing and just prin- ciples we have failed hitherto in making you appreciate. We shall then be listened to with delighted attention. Our company will be sought for, onr presence invoked, and from mediums of a very different class to those you now consult, will words of wisdom and consolation flow. Never again will the social fabric be erected on the same basis that it has been. Men will fight against it, and spirits will aid them. When once the convulsion is commenced, it will go on, spreading ruin and desola- tion over your land, and uprooting most of your old institutions. For a time it will be sad to see the con- fusion and distress that must prevail, but good will result from it. The turbid waters must be agitated, or they cannot be purified and cleansed ; and it is neces- sary that this disturbance, in your social and political condition, should take place, that a better order of things may be established. Had men been wise enough to correct the abuses that are so rife, by wise and stringent laws, and by humane and Christ-like efforts to ameliorate the con- GOD IN HIS WORKS. 79 dition of the poorer classes — had they felt that they could not, in justice, enjoy their superfluous luxuries while the starving poor were so destitute around them — then, these calamities might have been avoided, a more prolonged, but at the -same time, bloodless revolu- tion might have taken place, and men, by degrees, have found their true position and equality. We would like, my friends, to give you some few words of advice on this impending crisis. We would like to warn, and we would like to encourage you. Can we do so, think you ? Some, we think, may be glad to receive our teachings, and for them we will write. We never weary in our labors for you ; we work on, untiringly, amidst the most apparently discouraging circumstances, for we know that, ultimately, we must prevail. The great God who gives us the power, and the will to come, is now making manifest through us the love-principle He has implanted in us, and in you, from His own great fountain. We, in our more ele- vated and progressed condition, feel and act upon it more strongly, and more readily than you can do in your present darkness and ignorance ; but this prin- ciple is what we come, more particularly, to develop in your hearts. We must have you softened and subdued by it, so that you will feel all the sorrows of your neighbors as keenly as if they were your own. In times of trouble and calamity, how needful is it that men should possess this God-like attribute ; how many they may comfort and relieve ; how many they may encourage and improve. Filled with this Divine Principle, they may act the parts of ministering angels to their suffering brothers ; and such should be your mission, ye Spiritualists, in these coming trials. You know not the good you may do, the 80 GOD IN HIS WOEKS. numbers you may convince of the truth of your belief, while administering to their bodily necessities. You have much work to do, much that as yet you cannot see, but when famine and pestilence stalk in your midst, then do not ye be found lacking, but, armed with the panoply of a true and undoubting faith, go forth to your work. Relieve, assist, comfort and support the sufferer to the utmost of your power. Help, strength and confidence shall be given you. Ye shall carry a balm of healing for soul as well as body, and while ye minister to the bodily wants of the poor stricken ones, ye shall be en- dowed with words of power mighty to convince. It will not be the poor alone that will need aid in these troublous times. Many with wealth and its at- tendant luxuries will then be glad to find you out and solicit your services, " for great fear will be upon all men," and they will seek for every means to get conso- lation. But stand ye fast in your faith, unmoved by dread of earthly troubles, for they shall not come nigh you if you only follow our bidding. We can protect, so long as ye are true to your own selves, but beware that ye contaminate not your souls with the dross of earth. Let not the vile lust of gain pervert you, for then your souls will become more darkened over than those of the poor afflicted ones ye came to save, and We can no longer work through you. " Ye are the salt of the earth, beware that ye lose not your savor." Keep yourselves pure and unspotted, and ye shall be filled with the light and love of God's own sphere, and work greater works and perform greater deeds than man can at present conceive of. I speak now to those media who are willing and de- voted servants of our cause. None others need look for these glorious privileges ; and even to our most faithful and tried mediums these warnings are necessary. GOD IN HIS WORKS. 81 In such time? of confusion as are impending, it is not easy for any to keep themselves quite free from all temptations, but wherever we see the willing heart we are always near to assist and keep it from falling. It is not our province to alarm you unnecessarily, we would rather bring you words of consolation and good cheer ; but we should be unfaithful missionaries to you did we not warn, before-hand, of these impending dan- gers. They are fast closing around you, and it be- hoves every man to be prepared for them. You may wish to know, what means you must take for protection. Spiritualists who know in what they believe need not make these inquiries ; if they are living out the true teaching of their faith, they must be certain that they have no cause of fear. Are they not protected and guarded in a way that others can not be ? And have they not the undoubted assurance that if they should pass away from your sphere, it will be for their advan- tage, and to enter far higher and more developed condi- tions ? Therefore, to them we only say, " Keep quiet, be prepared for every good word or work we may call upon you to perform, and we will order all tilings for you to your best advantage." But to those who receive us and our mission as a means of worldly profit, disregarding all our warnings, and pandering to the vices already so prevalent among you, what shall we say ? Our mission is of mercy and love, and we would still strive with them, but the con- ditions will not permit these unholy, impure, and untrue teachings to go on much longer. Sudden destruction will fall upon the heads of those who give them ; their gains will be taken from them ; their mediumship will cease to be ; and they, and the low and ignorant spirits who have assisted them, will be confounded together in deeper darkness and distress than they can form the 82 GOD IN HIS WORKS. least idea of. It is to them, more particularly, that we now address our warning, for there is yet time for them to repent, and we would have all do so. Take advan- tage of the short period yet left to you, and cast from you all low and debasing influences, both in your own natures and from the unseen world. Be determined to be pure, and to give pure and elevating teachings. You know that you are endowed with gifts that many might crave and could not obtain. Do not go on abusing them for such low purposes as you now do. When first you felt the influence of the spirits, it was not so with you. You were then more guileless ; you did not think of trafficking with the Holy Spirit, but were wil- ling to receive it with grateful and rejoicing hearts. Why could you not go back to this more child-like, truthful way,? Why do you not pray your guardian angel to help you to rid yourselves of these evil ones that you have, by your different vices, drawn to you ? And while you seek their help, why do you not assist your- selves, and, by resisting evil in every shape, drive it from you ? You may say, " How then am I to live ? — do spirits think I am going to throw away my means of support, and starve ?" You know well, poor deluded ones, that spirits never counsel that ; but if your living as a medium depends on your giving such teachings, as too many of you do, it is better to turn your attention to some other way of obtaining support, and let your mediumship rest till you see opportunities of using it for the benefit of your fellow-creatures, and not, as you now too often do, employ it for their ruin. In the times that are coming good mediums will be the lights and guides of many, and through them we shall give our teachings with vigor and effect. Men will want something more tangible, more staple, than the worn-out creeds of their clergy. They must be fed GOD IN HIS WORKS. 83 with something more spiritual, more enduring, than old formulas can supply ; and they will find what they re- quire in no other way. We can, through these pure sources, give such instruction and such consolation as the world has lacked for so long a time. They will not be of the same nature as your old Bible stories, but they will be what you all want, and what will tend to establish the harmony and equality on the earth that prevails with us. For instance, instead of setting chil- dren to learn long creeds and catechisms of faith, we shall have them go forth into the world of nature and find God there. We shall have them note well the for- mation and design apparent in every portion of His works, and the beneficent kindness and overflowing love that planned the whole. Easy will it be to elevate and enlarge the minds of your youth by such teachings. No debasing thoughts will have place where God is known to be present, where His principle of love is felt in everything they touch, taste, or see — an ever-present living principle pervading every benefit He bestows upon them. Can children not be made to understand these things, think you ? Can they not be made to feel the beauty and the glory of them ? Oh ! yes, far more than man in his more advanced age. Youth is the time for all these things to be instilled, and when you see the results that will follow, I think, nay, I am sure, you must agree with me. The minds of children are easily moulded to good or the reverse. But we will take the first, and imagine a child educated in the way I speak of— for it is educa- tion, though so simple — and commenced in his earliest years. But supposing that he or she is thoroughly im- bued with this idea of God, in all the beautiful crea- tions he sees around him, and still more, in his own soul he feels and knows His presence, he will have this 84 GOD IN HIS WORKS. consciously present to him on all occasions ; lie can never run away from the thought, and it will be to him a delight and joy unspeakable. This feeling of hap- piness induced, will harmonize his being, and make him a receptive pupil for any further teachings he may re- quire, and spirits can carry on the work so well begun, and give him all he needs. They can make of him an artist or a musician, a mathematician or an astrono- mer, whatever his fancy may turn to. Or should he be very emulous of knowledge, they can endow him with the whole. None of these things are impossible where harmony exists to bring the spirits and mortals into complete rapport. And when all the confusion that now prevails among you is done away with, and men have time and inclination to look into these things more thoroughly, they will see for themselves the supe- rior wisdom of this kind of training for their children, even should they doubt the power of spirits to carry on the work as I have described. If the whole world has got to be reformed, as we spirits are continually affirming, there must be some means of doing it, for it would be folly to preach up anything impossible to be attained ; but we know that this is not so. Great suffering and punishment will have to be endured, and after that is gone through there will need much wisdom to order affairs on a bet- ter basis. And in conjunction with all the other means to be adopted, and as one from which most benefit may be looked for, we consider this change in the method of educating your children, is most essentially important. They, like yourselves, require harmonizing before we can do much for them. Their little minds can resist the spirit when contentious and quarrelsome, and it is only by taking them in their earliest bud that you can overcome what is engendered in them before birth by GOD IN HIS WORKS. 85 the inharmonies of the parent stock. By commencing at this early period you prevent the additional mischief derived from bad surroundings, acting on already inhar- monious natures. Children require to be more carefully guarded from bad influences the first five years of their lives than at any other period. The effect may not be so perceptible to you, because you cannot see what the difference would have been if an opposite course had been pursued. But at this early period the seed is sown, the buds are de- veloped of the, afterwards, ruling passions and disposi- tions ; and if they have inherited from their progenitors inharmonious and bad characteristics, then, and then only, can they be eradicated by judicious and careful training — a training of the physical and moral com- bined. Be as watchful over the one as over the other, for much depends on the health of the body when you are developing the higher, more spiritual, part of the future man or woman. This important subject has been hitherto too little re- garded. The first few years of a child's life were looked upon as merely for the development of the physical, and most frequently wrong methods were taken to do that. Improper dress, improper food, and too often, improper nurses were provided ; sometimes old and infirm, but often young, inexperienced, and unrestrained in their own tempers and dispositions, and quite unfitted for the office they assumed. Every unjust thwarting of the little one raises antago- nistic feelings • every sly shake and jerk wounds their little spirits, and every time you accede to their tyran- nical demands, when your reason tells you that they are wrong, you assist in bringing some unholy temper into existence. Who that has ever looked into this subject with atten- 86 GOD IN HIS WORKS. tion but must have noticed how early in its life a child begins to understand ; how plainly he can evince par- tiality or the reverse, and how easily he can be made to know that some things are forbidden him. If they can distinguish in one way they can in another, and be easily and pleasantly controlled by the laws of love and wisdom combined. In fact, their education should begin with their birth, or before it rather, for much may be done by the parents for their future offspring. This, however, is a part of the subject we do not wish to enter into at the present moment. We have been led farther on, in the matter of education already, than may seem relevant to our subject-matter ; but so much of human happiness and progression hinges on this im- portant point that we have rather stepped out of our path to present some features of this subject to your consideration. We will now return to our original theme — the omni- presence of Deity, not only to control and guide our actions, as the Bible teachers tell us, but the vital, liv- ing, acting principle in all nature and in man. God everywhere — wonderful thought ! — incapable of com- prehension by your minds ; and yet, when looked upon by the simple intuitions of man, in a natural state, easy to be understood. The wild and untutored savage of your western wilds, rude and uncultivated as he may appear to you, in your higher state of refined civilization, has truer and more elevated notions of the Deity than you have. He sees and feels the presence of the Great Spirit in every effort of nature, not only in the rushing wind, the storm, or the pestilence, but in all the beautiful outpourings of His goodness ; in the flowers, the leaves, the gently flowing stream and the shady forest. In all, and every bountiful gift he recognizes the presence of the great GOD IN HIS WORKS. 87 Power who created them for his pleasure, and he thanks Him for them by appreciating and using them to make himself and his family happy. He does not seek to add house to house, field to field, and call them his, but he takes the gifts as they are offered to him, uses them as far as his needs may require, and leaves the rest free to all God's other creatures. You may say, these Indians are inconsequent and careless for the future, and so they may be. We do not say they are perfect, neither do we say we would have you take them for your guides in your more ad- vanced state of civilization. But, we do say, that they are possessed of higher, nobler, truer conceptions of Deity than you are, and so far, you may learn from them. They are now fast disappearing from their land. The onward strides of commerce and man's greed of gain is compressing them into smaller and smaller possessions ; but they will not pass away unavenged ; justice must be done, and if it does not overtake their persecutors here, it will surely do so hereafter. The earth is large enough for all to partake of its bounties, and they were and are entitled to a share of its gifts. Oh, man, man ! short-sighted for your own eternal interests, and so far- reaching after worldly honors and worldly distinctions, is there no way of touching your hearts ? Is there no way of showing you how fatally wrong is the path you are pursuing ? It cannot bring you to happiness, either here or in the future. The temporary and fading dis- tinctions of this short life on earth cannot, for a mo- ment, be put in comparison with the joys of eternity. Why is it that ye continue so blind to these important truths ? Why is it that lust, avarice, pride, and all the lowest and most animal parts of your natures are left to riot unchecked, and the spiritual graces are entirely un- developed ? We could weep for you, would that 88 GOD IN HIS WOKKS. avail. We would bathe you in our magnetism, and re- fine and purify you, but we cannot approach you. Your iniquities raise up a wall of partition that we cannot cross, and it is only through the imperfect means we now employ, that we can at all reach you. Angels and spirits mourn over your guilt and degradation ; they see so plainly what it is you are laying up for your- selves. They know that every sin must be atoned for, every vice and every evil temper lived out, and that the more they are indulged in here, the longer time of suf- fering you are preparing for yourselves. Therefore, they wish to help you now. It is a far easier thing to reform while on earth, than in a future state. There, it seems almost impossible to progress when sunk so low as many of you are. And for the sake of your children and posterity at large, they would urge this most im- portant subject on your attention, for truly the Bible says, " The sins of the fathers are visited on the chil- dren." Will not you then, one and all, help in this great work we are advocating ? Will not you, each one, com- mence this much to be desired reformation ? As we have so often told you, in your own lives the change must begin. Examine them thoroughly and see in what they are deficient or in what they are culpable, and re- form both. Every man is sufficiently enlightened to do this in regard to the most glaring sins, and as he cor- rects them, his moral perceptions will become more clear, and he will be prepared to discover his less con- spicuous failings. We will now take our leave of this important subject, committing it to your consideration and earnest atten- tion. We may have failed in giving you our ideas as clearly or as connectedly as we could wish, but we have succeeded in bringing you some very important thoughts GOD IN HIS WORKS. 89 to meditate upon, and we trust they will not be thrown away. Surely some among you will be able to gain wisdom from them, and a more correct, though still not very clear idea of the Deity who is so truly "God with us ;" for you must see that he pervades all nature and all space. His thought and his care are everywhere ; none too high, none too lowly to be the recipients of it. Everything good and great comes from Him. The effort, we are now so earnestly prosecuting, to en- lighten your earth, had its origin in this great mind of the universe, and it is by His power and aid alone, that we can work for you. He gives the thought, the mag- netism, the Spirit to do it, and we, His willing agents, carry out the idea. Solomon. Noyembek 16th, 1860 NOTES TO GOD IN HIS WORKS. Note 1. — We have made use of, seemingly, contradictory assertions at the commencement of our Essay, but they would not be so coul d you see things as we do — for even so it is ; man cannot see God, nei- ther can spirits ; for He is not a being to be seen, but a principle per- vading all space. At the same time developed spirits will attain to that perfection of holiness and love, when they will be entirely per- vaded by this God-principle, and merged, as it were, in Deity. Their identity will not be taken away ; their personal freedom of thought and action always remains ; and having so far progressed as we have supposed, they will be endowed with gifts from Deity proportionately great with those we have endeavored to describe in our Essay. Do not, my friends, try to understand, or find out, more than is written. We told you we would do all we could to make ourselves clear to you. But after you have learned what God is not, and what you must do to develop yourselves, you need not go so far into these mysteries ; they are not needed for your progression or happiness. Note 2.— Our friend has again asked us for explanation of the for- mer part of our essay 5 we are sorry that we cannot oblige him in this particular. But we said, at the commencement, that the subject would be difficult to make clear to men's minds, and it seems we were right in our conjecture. Be satisfied, my friend, with the light we have been able to impart ; we may give you more at another time, but not now. God's mind is not as the mind of one man ; it is as the mind of all. You cannot comprehend this idea, and yet you expect to un- derstand clearly and fully how the worlds were formed by Him. When we attempted to give you some light on the subject, we knew the difficulties we should have to encounter in saying anything that would prove satisfactory, but we hoped what we did bring to you would be true as far as it went, and we know that it is so . We are not responsible for the teachings of other, and perhaps lower, spirits We give, what we do give, from the highest source of knowledge and wisdom that comes to man. We do not say that these high and holy intelligences come into direct rapport with the medium, and influence her hand or control her mind ; but they send it down as directly as it is ever sent to earth — only two, or sometimes three, circles intervening when the medium is out of condition. I, Lorenzo Dow, am at this moment standing by her side, and dictating this from that higher GOD IN HIS WORKS. 91 sphere direct. AdcI we would say, before we leave, that it is better to be a little obscure on such high matters than over-plain and methodi- cal, as it is not possible for any to understand God as He really is. Therefore why should the finite minds of men endeavor to do that, when the angels fear to look into it. They have never seen Him^ They never will ; but they will progress higher and higher in His light, and become more and more imbued with it, and more and more like Him, but he will be still an unknown God to them ; for He, as I said before, is everywhere, yet nowhere. My friend, I fear if I go on I shall get you into greater fog than you were in before. Do not strive to be wise above that which is writ- ten. You have light, abundantly, given to you in various ways. Who is more favored with communications from the Spirit-land ? Do not be too anxious to get everything so very undisputable. A little cavil- ing on some subjects does no harm.. Supposing we do say some things contrary to what others have said, or even supposing we contradicted our- selves, is it to be wondered at, when you consider the difficulties we la- bor under in getting these things to you ? With respect to the development of man from the monkey tribe, you seem troubled at our way of expressing ourselves, and I would like to make it clearer if I could. Monkeys have, you are aware, much more natural acuteness than any other animals, though many showed considerable sagacity before the monkeys and apes were introduced. Man is a combination of all these different instincts shown, some in on-3 brute, some in another, but all collected together in the man. He was not formed out of the earth, as the old record says. He did not start into existence a perfect being, but he was the offspring of some other being — he was, in fact, an offshoot of the monkey tribe. Have you not precocious and wonderful children in your day ? Wiry could not the power who developed them develop as comparatively wonderful an ape or apes ? Have not all animals progressed in the ascending ratio from the first simple mollusca and infusoria? Has not vegetation progressed with them to sup- ply their wants, from the mosses and ferns, to your present Fauna and Flora. If God so ordained and arranged, in his wisdom, for ani- mals and vegetables, why should he not finish his work with man, his master-piece? Is it any degradation to humanity that it has de- veloped up to its present high standard from so low a one ? - 1 think you will agree with me that it is not. God, the all-wise, when He had brought His creative work to this closing point, and formed the man, developed in him the gifts He intended him to be the recipient of. By his beautiful formation, so like, and yet so unlike the animals, he was fitted, admirably fitted, for what he was designed. Every organ was brought to its highest perfection in him, and in addition to 92 GOD IN HIS WORKS. the instincts of the animal, reason and a soul were added. Why should this be impossible to a power who had already done so much ? It was the work of ages upon ages to develop the other forms of life so that man might spring from them, perfected in body, to receive his mental gifts ; and it was not all at once that the full height and know- ledge of what he was dawned upon him. After he had received his endowments, it took ages yet to develop the embryos in him, and show him his own superiority over the ani- mal kingdom. Gradually the light entered into his soul. Like a new born babe, he was unconscious of the gifts he possessed, and ignorant, as a child would now be of their value, unless taught by its parents and tutors — for, my friends, you must know that every individual child receives this God-spirit now, just as much as the first developed ape or man did. ■ Reason is quite another thing. That, man has cultivated for himself. Instinct first supplied its place, but as the soul shone forth in the man, higher thoughts, higher aspirations arose, and he cultivated the intellect into its present state of progress. You wish me to say something in respect to the color of the differ- ent races of men. My friends, I will try to do so at some future time, perhaps to-morrow — at present the Medium is tired. Note 3. — Men, my friends, having developed from the lower animals on an ascending plane, have not necessarily sprung from one pair, as you have so long been taught, but from many ; and they did not all originate in one country, or at one period of time, or from the same spe- cies of apes. Different latitudes have their different Fauna and Flora, and races of men, as distinct in the one case as the other. Is it not simple and plainly to be seen that the various processes of develop- ment would be influenced, very naturally, by climate and soil ? Nay, are you not shown this clearly at the present day, when you undertake to change the localities of animals and men ? Do they not lose some characteristics, and assume others? Very slowly, sometimes,- the change of situation works, but in some instances it is more rapid, and, as I said, plainly perceptible to the curious observer. Let this theory obtain in your examination of the causes of the varieties in the human species, and I think you will find an easy solution of the question. The higher and more temperate regions necessarily produced a more active and intelligent race of animals and men ; their pro- visions were. not so easy of attainment, more forethought was re- quired ; even the insects and animals intuitively laid up food for their winters. Man derived the benefit of all this activity in the lower classes ; it all conduced to his higher status when he made his appear- ance. Climate, working first upon the animal kingdom, and then upon man, tended to produce the fair skin, the delicate and refined features, GOD IX HIS WORKS. 93 and the superior intellectual endowments of what you call the Cau- casian race. In the warmer and more enervating climate of the Torrid Zone, where fruits and roots abundantly supplied the herbivorous animals all through the year, supineness and inertia were the consequences ; having no call to put forth any energy and mother wit, as we may say, to satisfy their wants, Necessity, the great teacher, never devel- oped it in them, and though the progressive development of the differ- ent animals went on, it was all on a lower and very inferior plane. But if the climate of those regions was not suited to the rapid growth of intellect, it was well adapted to the habits of the ferocious beasts of prey that flourished there, and contributed their quota to forming the man — uniting in him the ferocity of their natures, combined with the laziness of the herbivorous denizens of those parts, to wit. : the rhino- ceros and hippopotamus. Climate, that could so alter the animal kingdom, would naturally produce a new variety in the man, when he appeared on the stage of existence — all the particles of which he was composed were developed through a similar yet different process, and produced a different race to the Caucasian. His skin dark as the race of apes he sprung from, his hair crisped and woolly, his pro- truding sensual mouth, and low receding forehead, all testify to the truth of what we assert, and show plainly the inferiority of mental endowments to the white race. I might go on and prove to you, still further, the effects of climate in the stunted growth of the Laplanders and Esquimaux, caused by the excess of cold in their native regions— but the Medium feels so unwell that I must curtail my communication. You can, for your- self, now, having this account of the origin of men, and why they natu- rally differ, so clearly pointed out to you, trace the effects still further in other countries, where differences from the same cause are still plain to be seen. . The Chinese and Japanese have the same origin ; the Hindoos are of a slightly different species, a later development, though they preceded many other races ; the Africans are more recent than any, excepting the Australian ; the Indians of North America preceded both the latter, and also preceded those of the Southern Continent ; the Islands of the Pacific are indebted for their population to stray waifs from other countries, principally China and Japan. I have given you this rapid summary, as I thought it might interest you, but I must now leave — first, however, stating that the Caucasian race was developed previous to the others, excepting the Chinese and Hindoos. Farewell, my friends, I will talk to you again at some future time ; at present we must continue our more immedi- ate work, for times are pressing upon us, and it is much wanted by many on your suffering earth. Lorenzo Dow. ON TYRAMT. "We are commencing a subject this morning that may be extended over many branches, though generally the terms tyranny and tyrant are applied to rulers and kings over the people. But there are domestic tyrants as well as public ones, and these latter have power to wound and mortify, nay, even slay their victims, with as much real ferocity of disposition as the one who, by his more exalted station, has a larger and more extended field to work in. It is with this latter class, more es- pecially, that we now have to deal, though both will come under our cognizance ; for, though the tyrant king puts his victims to death or to torture in a more wholesale manner, he does not really inflict so much pain and suffering as the domestic tyrant does on his defenceless wife and children. "We do not wish to harrow up your feelings by de- scriptions of sufferings and privations that are the birthright, as it might seem, of so large a proportion of the human family. We come to redress grievances, to amend errors, and to harmonize and make all happy. But, to do this effectually, it is absolutely necessary that you should be made to see in what way you err, or you cannot correct your wrong doings. A man may be a complete slave to some besetting vice or passion, and yet be entirely ignorant of his failing — such is the self- delusion and blindness of the human heart that we ON TYRANNY. 95 strive to enlighten. We tell you plainly what evils are among you, we point out their workings and their effects, and then we say to you, "examine yourselves and see if this wicked thing be in you," and if it is, cast it from you. Let it not continue any longer to poison the moral atmosphere of your being, and destroy the happiness of others. For, my friends, there are no sins so exclusive that their ill effects can be confined to yourselves alone. Some one or more, and perhaps many, may be injured or contaminated by them. There- fore it is that we expose vice in all its hideous deprav- ity. We want to see it appear in as loathsome colors to you as it does to us higher intelligences ; and we shall take every root and branch of sin that prevails among you, and analyze and dissect it for your benefit. When all are laid bare before you, surely some good will result, some minds will be too tender, too spiritual, to go on in the paths they have been shown are so in- jurious to their moral and spiritual progress. Oh, my friends, the peace and contentment that can flow into a heart divested of these gross elements, will richly com- pensate for any loss of friends or sneers of the worldly that your changed conduct may excite. I will not go on and imitate your church ministers who make up so much in exhortation for what they too often lack in practice, else I might give you a very good dis- course on the folly of depending so much on appearan- ces, and following the multitude to do evil ; but you have often had these subjects urged upon your attention by your spiritual guides, and hitherto with sadly too little effect. I am willing to believe, however, that they would have been more successful in their efforts to benefit their congregations had they, as I said, lived out their own advice, which is the true secret of success in the mis- sion of a clergyman, or of any other person who wishes 96 ON TYRANNY. to do good to his fellow-men. We cannot show you the beauty of our teachings in this manner, excepting as we can inspire you and others to carry them out, and we anticipate the time — not very far distant — with joy, when not one, but many little bands of spiritual bro- thers shall be, indeed, practicing what we are laboring so earnestly to instill into mankind. Among the many causes of unhappiness that prevail among men, tyranny is not one of the least. It may be exerted in a variety of ways, and often the persons ty- rannizing, may be entirely unconscious of their failing. Habit has become second nature. This, we might almost say, is the worst form of the disease, for it is far the most difficult to eradicate ; but we will not despair. While mortals and spirits are willing to work, much good may be done • for have they not the light of God's Holy Spirit to shine into their hearts, and help them on in their way ? Tyranny is often found existing in the relations be- tween man and man, brother and sister, child and nurse, master and servant, friend and friend ; every- where this feeling can enter, and destroy the hap- piness and harmony that should exist. The strong rule the weak ; freedom of thought and freedom of action are often curtailed, and men and women are fre- quently as truly slaves to their positive and self-consti- tuted task-masters, as the most oppressed Negro on a plantation. Nay, they are in a worse condition of slavery, for theirs is the bondage of the mind, in the ma- jority of cases. This is a lamentable state of things. How are you to progress while it continues ? Neither the slave nor the despot can receive the true spirit influx while it is the case. Every man must be free in thought, in action, in purpose ; he must choose for himself the way in which OX TYRANNY. 97 he would walk, and no other should attempt to control his path. Each one is an individual entity, with his own peculiar feelings, tastes, dispositions, and inclina- tions, and no other can put himself in his place and judge for him. Neither was it ever designed that he should. To individualize himself, is the duty of every one ; all are alike included in this requirement, both male and female. When we speak of each one choosing his own path in life and progress, of course we do not intend to include children ; they must be guided, guarded, and carefully trained up from infancy, in all right principles and feel- ings, that they may, when they arrive at manhood or womanhood, be prepared to make their selection wisely ; and much responsibility and care falls upon parents who rightly understand and fulfill their duties in a proper manner, so that the children of their love may become wise and virtuous individuals. Much of the tyrannical disposition evinced .by boys over their sisters or more juvenile playmates, may be counteracted or removed, by a parent's watchful care ; and future good insured to their offspring, by such means. Many a boy who be- comes in time a domineering, selfish husband, might have been a blessing and comfort to his family, had his over- bearing temper been properly corrected and subdued in childhood. All evils, my friends, are of much easier eradication in the spring-time of their growth. Then their roots have not taken such firm hold ; their shoots are young and tender, and may easily be nipped off ; and thus, it is far more desirable and more successful in any great reform- atory movement, to work more particularly upon the young and tender hearts of your children, than to labor to convince and improve the aged. The latter are so rooted and grounded in their old 98 ON TYRANNY. prejudices, and educational bias is so firmly established, that it is next to impossible to eradicate it, and give them more liberal and just ideas. Therefore, let your cares be particularly bestowed upon the younger members of your community, and succeeding generations will feel the bles- sed result of your labors. Tyranny in every form is to be condemned. The birds of the air and the beasts of the field, except in some few instances, are free. Man, alone, is the will- ing slave of his appetites, passions and tempers, and being ruled so hardly by them, he, in his turn, rules his fellow-man or fellow-woman with an equally harsh, though different control. There are so many kinds of tyranny exercised among men, that it is difficult to know where to commence our dissection of them ; but I think the tyrannies of the passions are among those most to be dreaded. When a man allows any particu- lar temper or inclination to attain such power over him that he feels unable to resist it, and weakly yields to its indulgence, for the temporary gratification it affords, he is the slave of that temper or passion ; be it anger, lust, avarice — whatever its nature — if he gives up to it, and indulges himself in it, knowing it, as he can scarcely avoid doing, to be wrong, he is the bond slave of that sin — and long I fear will it take to de- velop him out of it, if he passes to a future state still in its thraldom. Men are too often slaves to appearances. This is one of the weakest and most childish of errors. Because one man does this thing, and another does that, are you to do likewise ? How many different causes may there be that renders an act quite proper in your neighbor that will be just the reverse in you. How much misery and guilt this weak and slavish imitation of your richer, more influential, or more talented brother can ON TYRANNY. 99 produce, thousands could testify to, if tliey would. Expenses incurred that were quite beyond the resources of the parties to discharge ; showy and expensive dress, furniture, houses, just as it may be, most proba- bly all are indulged in, and as they have no means of paying for more than a third of what they have weakly bought, in order to keep up appearances with their richer associates, the guilt of dishonesty is ad- ded to their other failings, and industrious and deserv- ing tradesmen are ruined by their misconduct. How wide spread are such evils as these ! Who can tell where the effects of guilt are going to stop. The weak devotee of fashion and dress, who gratifies his, pas- sion at the expense of his honesty, rarely pauses to consider how far the consequences of his sin may extend ; how many families of hard-working men may be deprived of necessary comforts from his selfish indulgence in luxuries for which he had not the means of paying them the money, and of which money he would spurn the idea of depriving them by an at- tack on their purses ; and yet, my friends, he might do the one with as much justice as the other. The sufferings he inflicts are really more severe ; because the industrious men he wrongs are buoyed up with the idea that they are earning a comfortable subsistance ; and the^ , on the strength of the money owing them, also incur debts which they cannot meet ; and so other individuals suffer. We might trace the evil farther yet, but I think you must now see for yourselves how it works, and I hope may be led to avoid it in your own lives. Tyranny of the intellect is often the cause of much unhappiness. A man or woman fancying themselves wiser than their fellows, set themselves up to censure and control the rest of the world, or at least that part 100 ON TYRANNY. with which they come in more immediate contact, and allow no one's opinions to have weight but their own. Now, this seems a very singular charge to make against any one, for self-knowledge would naturally be supposed to be a part of their education, as it is so im- portant, and that ought to have taught them that no one man's mind can direct another's altogether, much less that of a community. The greatest knowledge any one can acquire is self-knowledge ; and if a man possesses this he will plainly see that he is not yet perfect, and quite unfit to teach in this dogmatical way. Very few, indeed, have the true faculty of imparting knowledge aright. And even when it is possessed, people are not so well inclined to listen as they might be. They are so used to be domineered over, and have the law laid down to them in a dictatorial manner, that when a mild and persuasive voice would make itself heard among them, they think there is no power in what is said, because it is so mildly and gently spoken ! But, my friends, such was Christ's method ; he came healing the broken-hearted, cheering the down-trodden. He did not bluster and storm ; he allowed others to speak and to think as well as Himself. He only told them the better way to act, and so it should be with you my friends. Let Christ-like kindness and meekness rule your actions. Be not proud and overbearing — puffed up by the little advance in knowledge you may have made beyond your fellow-men. For far, far be- yond any learning you may have attained is the knowl- edge and wisdom that awaits you in a higher sphere, where all this earth wisdom will sink into insignificance, and you will wonder that you have ever contended or striven about it. To tyrannize over the thoughts of another might be ON TYRANNY. 101 supposed to be impossible, but it is not so. Strong minds very often tyrannize over the weak, and cause them much oppression and distress. They feel bur- dened, and they know not how. An incubus seems to be upon them ; they cannot breathe freely in the pre- sence of their tyrants, and they know not why it is they have such difficulty in expressing their sentiments. It is only when the cause is removed that they fully real- ize the amount of the burden they have been laboring under. The lightness and elasticity of feelings, so differ- ent to what they have experienced in the society of their strong-minded or positive friend, is so delightfully oppo- sed to it, that they dread a recurrence of the same feel- ings now they have become alive to the change. Some- times, however, they do not find this out for a long period of time — the potent magnetism of the one may keep the other enthralled, a willing but not happy slave. Sometimes, also, family ties prevent a release from the bondage, and the captive must be a captive still, unless the captor can be brought to see his or her error and rectify it. Jt is good to be firm and decided in a right cause, but different minds see things in oppo- site lights ; the weak tremble and doubt, the strong go a-head ; but let not the one coerce the other. Freedom to act and freedom to think should be allowed to all, but let not the stronger and more powerful mind tyran- nize and oppress the feeble one. All have equal rights 7 equal responsibilities, and no one can be judged or con- demned for wanting what he never possessed. Tyranny over the soul, in matters of faith, has long been one of the great stumbling-blocks of the world. All creeds are thought right by their peculiar devotees, and, as a general rule, all fancy it their province to bring opponents and outsiders to their way of thinking. Va- rious measures have been, and are resorted to, to effect this. Sometimes cruelties of the most revolting kinds, 102 ON TYEANNY. sometimes kindness and persuasive arguments, but most frequently the tyranny of old usages and customs plays the most distinguished part, in forcing men's minds to keep in the faith they often loathe and contemn, while at the same time they weakly adhere, outwardly at least, to its forms and ceremonies, though they know they are a dead-letter to them, and from which they would gladly escape, were they not so hedged in by custom and the fear of man. Religion has been felt necessary by all nations ; but such various and wrong ideas have been adopted by the different sects ; and so much of the positive ele- ment of men's natures have been brought into play, while contending for their different faiths, that it is almost an impossibility to impress them with any truer and more liberal belief. Each sect think they have got possession of true light, and that all others are mis- taken. Their priests and teachers instill this into the young minds of their flock from the earliest moment, and they become so rooted in their opinions that it takes more effort to overcome their opposition to new teach- ings, even though so much better than their old ones, than it would to remove mountains. Therefore it is that I say it requires firmness, courage, and strong self-reli- ance to break through the difficulties with which men are hedged around, and dare to be free in thought, and act on this important point. For the clergy, individually, it is an almost hopeless attempt to move them from their present position. Human nature is weak and fallible, and they are too firmly and comfortably ensconced in their pre- sent surroundings to desire to make an alteration, even though they may perceive it is for a positive good to man. Do not blame them too hardly, my friends, for this. The tyranny of custom, of luxurious ease, and of worldly deference and respect, are so plea- ON TYRANNY. 103 sant and agreeable to them that they cannot shake off their fetters ; and you must work for yourselves, in these matters, and leave your beneficed pastors, in their con- tented supineness, till they find their charges have grad- ually deserted their folds, and that they are left shep- herds minus sheep. We pity while we blame them. Some few are of the salt of the earth, and could they be persuaded to look fairly into these things, might be- come great lights in the spiritual horizon. But they cannot be moved without great effort, and. who is to make it ? who is to attack the church in its might and power, and pull down its defences ? Are you prepared, my friends ? Are you so superior in your lives and teachings since you became Spiritualists, that you can go boldly forward to these good men and say : " See the superiority of our faith over yours. We act out all Christ's teachings ; we call all men brothers, and act to them as such ; we hold all our goods in charge from God, for the benefit of all who are in need ; we do not lay house to house, and field to field, making treasures for ourselves here ; but we give of our surplus funds willingly, and look for our treasures in a higher and holier sphere. We have learned that this earth is not to be the boundary for man's progression ; we know that we shall continue to go on unto perfection in far higher light ; and that death has lost its terror and its nameless dread, and will be hailed by us as a passage to a brighter land, where we shall continue to work for others, as well as for ourselves through all eternity. We knoiu that spirits are constantly working now for the people of earth, and trying in every way to bring to them the baptism of Holy Spirit, promised by Christ and so long forgotten to be sought for in your churches. We knoiv that they can come into direct communion with us, sympathize with us in our joys and sorrows. 104 ON TYRANNY. and magnetize us with their heavenly influence till we cease to feel our troubles, as we once did. And, when no troubles oppress us, we are so buoyed up and ele- vated by it, that the petty cares of this world become as nothing, and we are filled with light and joy." When you can go forward and say all this truly, from your own experience, then, my friends, you will be in a proper condition to talk to these good men, and to attack their long-cherished institutions. But, till such is the case, it is better to let them follow on in their own paths, for you have nothing better to offer them ; and they may be doing as much or more good in their generation than you are. Adopting the name of Spiritualist does not make a man spiritual minded. The spirituality must be in the soul, and many persons who never heard the term Spir- itualist may be better followers of that faith than you are. Our writings being generally of a practical charac- ter, and intended for the use and application of the great body of the people, irrespective of rank and station, it is to them, individually, we address our re- marks. We wish to give teachings that each soul may find, in some measure, applicable to itself. We do not wish when perusing these Essays, that their searching effects may be overlooked by any ; we want them ap- plied, as they are read, to yourselves. It is not our object to lead you off on a useless and unkind examination into the failings of your neighbors and friends ; but to look carefully into your own hearts and examine into your own short-comings and delinquencies. None are so perfect, my friends, but they may find something in what we have written to benefit and improve them, if they will be faithful in their examination of their inner life. They may dis- ON TYRANNY. 105 guise much from the world, and sometimes blind them- selves ; but it is this blindness we would remove. Their spiritual eyes we would open, so that the higher teachings we come to inculcate may be perceived in all their beauty, and applied to the healing of each one's own spirit, wounded and disheartened by the sins and short-coming of its earth-tenement. It is on this account, and to further this object, in every possible way, that we leave political and public tyrannies unnoticed, and confine our remarks to the evil in your social life. You are all clear-sighted enough in regard to outside and irrelevant affairs ; you can talk over and discuss them freely, and examine, with critical accuracy, all delinquents in public life ; you do not need any help to assist you in discovering where they are to be blamed. Pity, my friends, that you do not /exert equal acumen and depth of thought in making the sur- vey of yourselves. What a flood of light and knowledge would dawn in upon you, and how much would you be astonished by this true picture of your inner lives! Upon this very subject of tyranny, on which we are now writing, how ignorant are the bulk of mankind ? Looking upon it as referring to public characters gene- rally, they rarely apply the term in any other way ; and yet, my friends, one-half of mankind are the tyrants of the other moiety — tyrants in the true meaning of the term, wounding, mortifying, crushing the hearts and bodies of their victims. To remedy this evil much self- examination, self-knowledge, and self-correction is neces- sary. One must succeed the other. After examination knowledge will be attained, and if you desire, as I trust you will, to reform what is amiss — correction of the tempers, passions, etc., that you have detected in your- selves, will be the result. Do not, my friends, let our words of instruction pass idly by you. leaving no im- 106 ON TYRANNY. press on your souls. Work for yourselves now, that you may not have to do it hereafter. We have so often told you how much easier it is to reform yourselves in this life than in the future, that I fear we may weary you with the repetition ; but it is so important a truth, and so much of your future enjoyment depends on your following out our teachings, in this respect, that we run the risk of being tedious in the hope of impressing it more firmly upon you. We have, I think, said enough on this point now, to show you how deep an interest we feel in seeing this abuse corrected. We leave it in your hands, trusting you may be led to see its importance ; and how impossible it is for mankind to be happy or harmonious, while such unjust sway is exercised, by a portion of them, over their fellow-men and women. Luther. Decembek 8th, 1860. THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS ; HOW, AND WHEN, AND WHERE DID THEY ORIGINATE! Men have many things yet to learn respecting them- selves and the world they inhabit. They pride them- selves very much on the slight knowledge they have acquired in regard to the Sidereal Heavens, the Solar System, and all the various ramifications into which they have pushed their inquiries on these subjects ; but yet they are really very ignorant and uninformed on these high subjects. What do they really know of the laws governing the universes, of the wisdom that plan- ned, of the thought that originated them? Men say, " God created all things, and for His plea- sure they are and were created." Others again say, " G-od could not create ; He might change the forma- tions into other and higher ones, but to create out of nothing — that is impossible." Again, others say, " No- thing is impossible with God." So you see, my friends, how little is really understood of Him or of His works. Here are three assertions, all firmly believed in by many thousands, nay millions, of people, and yet as dia- metrically opposite to each other as it is possible to be. We do not mean to assert that each individual believes them all, but that one or other is his stand-point of faith, and a stumbling-block to his opponent, How can 10S THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. man reconcile these incongruous teachings? He can- not do it with his present light and human wisdom; but, perhaps, we may be enabled to assist him in his researches, if he will follow us in our attempt to eluci- date this, and many other obscure teachings he has received and promulgated. "We spirits love to teach where we can find receptive and inquiring minds ready to receive us, and give our teachings faithfully to men ; and we think that we have now found one through whom we can convey some of our higher truths to the human family. We gladly avail ourselves of every opportunity that offers to instruct and benefit mankind, and we shall not neglect this one, but, by purifying and developing pro- cesses, prepare the medium to be more and more recep- tive to our teachings, and capable of giving them to the world at large, in an unadulterated form. So much for preface, before we enter upon the more immediate subject we have broached this morning. " The Sidereal Heavens ; how, and when, and where, did they originate ?" This is a noble theme, and I hope we may do justice to it. We may bring forward, perhaps, some startling as- sertions, not quite in accordance with old faiths or new philosophy, but you must not be astonished at that. As the world progresses, knowledge increases, and men prove many things to be erroneous, that have been received as the most sacred truths by their an- cestors. In the commencement was a blind faith taking everything for Gospel that was asserted by teachers or leaders. Then a questioning and doubting faith that took nothing for granted, believing nothing without proof. Now, a new era has dawned upon men, and they may receive all they require of explanation, and proof of what is taught, if they will seek it in the right way- THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. 109 Such is progression, the great law of the universe, act- ing on great and small alike j all are subject to its influ- ence, every development in nature, every faculty of the human mind. We will now take a look at the opinions we quoted at the commencement, and see what they are worth ; and first, that " God created all things, and for His pleasure they are and were created." This is a start- ling assertion — " for God's pleasure alone are they cre- ated!" Surely not. Some other motive than this must have influenced the great mind of the Almighty, in forming His beautiful creations. Some more extended idea than this selfish one, must have had place in that Great Being who is all wisdom, love, and knowledge, and in whom no debasing passion can exist. This, my friends, is a libel on our great Originator. He never formed anything in vain ; neither did He form anything without some wise motive, some object in the great plan of creation. But man, as I said before, can not understand God aright ; he cannot realize a Being so wise and good that to do good is His only object, and in order to accomplish this He forms and creates worlds and peoples them with sensient beings to enjoy them, endowed with capacities so constituted that they can still go on progressing in happiness, and feeling, by de- grees, some of the same good and wise and loving im- pulses that characterize their Creator. Man can not conceive of such a Being, much less can he conceive of Him as the mighty God of the Universes, who could, and did, bring them into existence by the breath of His word or thought — who required no previous worlds of matter to make them from — who wanted no chaotic mass to be disturbed into existence ; but could, from His own thought, His own Almighty will and order, origi- nate matter as easilv as He can annihilate it. Tell 110 THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. me not such things are impossible. Nothing is impos- sible to Him. Is He not the great First Cause, the mind of the Universe? How can man measure Deity? How can man pretend to understand a Being so inconceiva- bly above him, or say such and such things He might do — such and such He could not — they are impossible, and we must use our reason in all things ? Use your reason as much as you will, and if you use it aright you will humbly acknowledge that it is only just and natural that the doings of the great God should be past your understanding. Would you put yourself on a level with Deity, and measure it with a rule and compass ? Oh man ! man ! blind and egotistical, bow down thine head in humility and adore the great unknown, unseen Being, who rules and orders all things, both in heaven and earth, so wisely and with such inconceivable skill. We have made a startling assertion in the above sen- tence, but it is true, and men must learn to receive it. The God who had power enough to form the worlds un- numbered that surround your little sphere, might be supposed to have power equal to any emergency — and so He has. More worlds are continually springing into existence, under His controlling will, and still will He continue to create, to originate them — it is His pleasure to form them as the abodes of future, happy races, and for the development of more and more of the God-prin- ciple. He must disseminate His powerful mind, it is so overflowing in goodness and greatness of conception, and in this way He finds the best means of making it felt by other beings He developes into existence. The idea that God required a seething caldron of molten matter to form His new worlds from, is errone- ous in the extreme. Where did this lava come from ? That must have been created before He used it. The idea has been wrongly brought to you. That heat is THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. Ill one of the essential requisites in developing a world is quite true ; but it is not the original of the world. That was the mind of God. Id Him alone did it ori- ginate, from Him alone was it produced. Such is the theory we advocate — such is the intelligence we come to give you. We do not write unadvisedly ; we are not of that low and undeveloped class of spirits, too many of whom have deluged your earth with false and injurious teach- ings. We are here from motives of pure humanity and love to men, and we leave you to judge from our for- mer writings, whether we should be likely to bring you anything that is detrimental and injurious to man, in his spiritual development, or that .would be likely to prove false. No, my friends, spirits who have taught you, as we have always done — trying in every way, and by every inducement, to lead you on in spiritual as well as moral elevation, would not be the ones to come to you with a lie in their right hands ; and we do not. We are true and faithful to your best interests, and it is in order that we may be able to conduce to them that we try to give you correct information on this and other important subjects. Man has always had mistaken views of the power of the Deity, and of His nature. He could not elevate his thoughts high enough for such a subject, neither was he spiritually prepared to comprehend His attributes. Judging of Him from his own low plane, he imagined God as a being like unto himself, with arms and feet, a body and a substance — a personal God, somewhat larger and brighter than he was himself, but very little real difference, excepting that He had more power to punish or revenge Himself on the wicked, and love and reward those who kept His commandments. A being more ut- terly unlike and unworthy to be worshipped as a God, 112 THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. can scarcely be conceived ; and yet, till very recently, this was the highest conception of Him that the Chris- tian world realized, and the followers of other creeds were no nearer the truth. The light of reason leads men to question on this subject. They, dissatisfied with the unsatisfying faith of the multitude, first stirred up the slumbering ele- ments, and out of darkness evoked light. These pio- neers of truth, though wrong in their premises, still did the required work ; they taught people to think for themselves, and though generally contemned for the freedom and irreverence with which they criticised the Bible, and the boldness of their assertion, that " what would not approve itself to their reason could not be true," they made many men think on these things — men who reverenced God, and had received the old faith from their forefathers in simple confiding trust, but who, when these startling doubters appeared on the arena, were able to separate the wheat from the tares, in their teachings, and lay hold upon the former and apply it to better purposes than its propagators often did. Such is generally the way of progress. It is a rough and briary road. On the first promulgation of new opinions, much opposition is made to them, and most generally their opponents have considerable jus- tice on their side, for error is necessarily mixed with the truth ; but, as time passes on, and men sift them down and detect the sterling ore, they seize on the pre- cious metal, and incorporate it into their system ; and it becomes the inalienable property of the human mind ; for truth, once received, can never die out. It is only error that becomes extinct as time progresses. This reasoning era of the human mind has been for some time in the fullness of its glory. One startling theory after another has been adduced, controverted, THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. 113 and died out, and man still goes on arguing, disputing, proving this fact, and that error — -just as individual minds may be led or influenced. All this is good for the world at large, though in respect to the promulga- gators of the new theories the benefit to them is more doubtful ; but it all helps men forward, and lifts them up out of the miry depths of error they were so deeply sunk in. Now, however, people are growing tired of so much reasoning and arguing, so much philosophy and so little real happiness, and they begin to inquire for something better, more consoling, more tangible — something more adapted to every-day wear and tear — something that can help to rule and govern their own spirits, and prepare them for a future that all can see in prospective, but which they have hitherto driven from their thoughts in every possible way. The constant and almost universal fear of death that has obtained among men, is one of the miserable results of false teachings, and it is one of those errors that we spirits try to eradicate by every means in our power. If men could only look upon this change in its true light, they would derive encouragement and consolation from the thought ; they would see how very much they have in their own hands the control of their future state, and how completely they can do away with all fear and dread of the short transit to it that death involves. No man need fear to die, if he live rightly. " The fear of death worketh a snare," the Bible says, and it is a true saying ; but while we would do away with the fear and horror that has so long environed this depar- ture of the soul from its earthly tenement, we would ad- vise every one to make fitting preparation for the mo- mentous change, and so live that when they arrive at 114 THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. the last trying hour, they may be able to meet it with calmness and peace, if not rejoicing. We commenced to say that men at this epoch have found out, in very many instances, that the faith they hold is not what they require, and this is the state of mind we would like to bring all the world into. The aspirations of the few after something better, are not, however, disregarded, and much has been, and is being given to them to make them happier ; and more will be added continually, as we get the chance to bring it to them. The more fervently they send up their prayers for light, the more bountifully will it be showered upon them. "We have now examined the three assertions we brought forward at the commencement, without, how- ever, particularizing more than the first ; but I think, my friends, you can judge from what we have said in what light we regard them. We certainly do not agree with the first or second ; but for the last, we affirm that it is incontrovertible — most undoubtedly a truth, and will always be so, though men and angels may find them- selves unequal to the comprehension of it. We will now continue our remarks upon our more immediate subject — " the Sidereal Heavens ; how, and when, and where did they originate ?" The glorious starry vault of heaven, so often sung by your poets, so often studied by your astrologers and astronomers, and so little really understood, is a grand and noble theme to employ the pen of the highest and wisest-created beings, and we would bring to it the overflowing light and knowledge emanating from Deity itself— for only from that high source can we get the truth on these hidden mysteries. To Deity we apply for aid, and it never fails in supplying it according to THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. 115 our wants. He, the great Creator of all, says that He will satisfy all our needs from His great fount of wisdom and love, and we come boldly to Him and demand what we require. The great Father of the Universes has existed always. No time was, when God was not. He has been ever the same unchangeable Being, great in His isolation, and invisible in His position — great in His mighty works, His unseen, though not unfelt, power. Let us establish this fact in your minds — "No time was, when God was not;" no time when this great Being was not just as He is now — the life and essence of all things. If you can realize to your satisfaction what constitutes the aroma of a flower, or the life-principle you destroy when you crush an insect, then you may, with equal sat- isfaction, find out what constitutes Deity. He is all- pervading, all-penetrating, and yet all-unknown to each one of us. But though we know Him not, we know His works, and we know to a certain extent, how they originated. The same life-principle that pervades the insect and the flower, brought worlds into existence. The God who could make the one, could just as easily make the other. The thought of Deity is the only mat- ter used in the creation of the multitudinous spheres that crowd in space. Has He not said through one of your old inspired writers, " God's thoughts are not as man's thoughts ; neither His ways as your ways." You may realize the truth of this saying in what we are now trying to convey to you, "God's thoughts are not as your thoughts." [See Note.] No, my friends, and yet man Note. That is, they produce the result they aim to accomplish with- out any outside help ; they are creative in themselves. When God wills to do anything, the subtle essence generated in himself, and which you call magnetism, but which is higher — more refined than that, is thrown off in great abundance. Equal to the want is the supply, and this develops all the other constituents. As worlds and grosser mat- 116 THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. does, in a very, very slight degree, partake of the nature of God's thoughts in his own thoughts, for through them He originates whatever you have, of new and novel conceptions, on your plane. True, man must have ma- terials to work out his conceptions, but still there is a sprinkling of the Essence of Deity which manifested it- self in the development of the original idea. We may seem to wander from the subject of our Es- say, but we have an object in all we are saying. We wish to lead your minds into the right channel by im- ter were first brought into existence by this power, so will it pervade, and gradually purify, all it first developed, till, every impurity being removed in time, spirits and worlds shall become again cleansed and rarified, till they are returned to the original essence from which they were formed. Understand me, men will not, as spirits, lose their identity, but they will be so etherealized, so ; refined from all gross- ness, that they will be dwelling, as it were, or pervaded entirely by this essence — this creative, loving, purifying, and indwelling Spirit of Deity. I would like to make it more clear to your minds than we have done in our essay, but I fear it is impossible. We have given you the account of creation as near as we can get it. Your husband said truly that the Mosaic account is not so far out of the way as re- gards the origin of the world. The only and very important differ- ence is in the time occupied in its formation. From the account by Moses, you would suppose that God spoke, and it was done ! We do not say so ; we claim that many, many cycles of years were necessary to perfect its development sufficiently for the first living forms to ex- ist, and still more and more cycles before it was fitted for the abode of man. We would like to say a few words more in regard to the creation of the different Universes before we leave, as our medium does not feel quite satisfied with our explanations, fearing — for we read her mind — that they may not be quite pure from her own thoughts. We wish to have it understood by you that, by the laws governing the Universes and all the different spheres, and which laws originated in the Almighty mind ; one central sun being developed by the thought, and from the essence of Deity, other globes, ■ planets, or satellites, whatever you may choose to call them, were, after the lapse of untold time, pro- jected from it, and developed, by slow process, into worlds, and con- tinued to revolve, in regular order, round their central luminary. You know there are unnumbered Universes, as there are, to your THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. 117 perceptible degrees. Gradually we would draw you on into our sphere of thought, that you may, while real- izing the truths we teach, see no startling anomaly in them. First, endeavor to bring your minds to the ele- vation of thought necessary for this great subject, and then it will come home to your hearts, with more weight and power. We have already told you that there never was a time when God did not exist in all the fullness of His glory as at present. There never was a time when He confined vision, unnumbered stars 5 and you know that the fixed stars you look upon from your little earth are, in reality, centres of other solar systems. All had their origin in the same way from the same great fount of light — God. And far more than you can, in imagina- tion, picture to yourselves, are pursuing their equal course in regions too remote for you to obtain the slightest glimpse of. When you think on these things, and try to realize what we tell you how can you be surprised that it is out of your power to understand 6uch wonders ? We, who are so far removed from the grossness of earth, and can see so much for ourselves, can hardly take in the idea of this great Deity as He is. Our more expanded minds find it hard to understand how He works ; but be not afraid, my friends, that we will bring error to you ; what we cannot make clear we will leave in obscurity. It is better for you to remain unsatisfied on some subjects than to imbibe a lie. That, from us, you shall never do if we can rule, and we think we can do so fully. I had intended to say to you in an earlier part of this note, that the magnetism spirits are bring- ing to your earth in such abundance is working a change in every- thing and everybody, and men will be astonished by the results, be- fore they know the cause, in many instances. It is this magnetism of Deity, so unseen, so unfelt, that, in a similar manner, brought about the changes that developed worlds out of darkness. This light, shin- ing in darkness, brought beautiful creations gradually into existence, and our magnetism, working on your earth, will also bring new and beautiful order, harmony and love to light in your planet. Signed, Jesus, the Christ. January 27th, 1861. [In answer to the question if it was proper to give to the public the name signed to the above note, it was answered : " The note bearing the name of ' Jesus, the Christ,' was dictated by Him, and thou mayest append that name to it in all confidence. — G. F." 118 THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. commenced or ceased to be the life-principle of all things, both in worlds and space. We cannot attempt to describe, for you to comprehend, the boundless sphere of His power. When we say boundless, you must try to bring the meaning of the word into your conceptions, if possible, for then you will understand how he might always have been a Creator, and still be creating. Boundless space, like eternity, has no end ; so that cre- ations, like eternity, may go on forever. You may like to know when your little sphere was developed • into being — how it came to exist. We have already shown you that it was from the mind of Deity. But we would not wish to convey to you the idea that the earth was a solitary creation. No, my friends, wise laws rule the development of these im- mense bodies. When one is projected into space, it is generally the developer of many others. It has first to be impregnated itself, with the magnetism of the Al- mighty mind, and then it throws off its superabundance of this life-principle into the space around, and forms other spheres which revolve around it in regular order, and it becomes thus the centre of a Universe. The more distant planets being projected from it first, of course they are older creations than those nearer to the central sun of their sphere, which sun was first evolved from Deity Himself, by the all-powerful action of the Divine mind. Thus you see how it is. When a thought of God has formed or originated this great central sphere, others are developed from it. The thought that sent forth its light to develop these spheres, from the surrounding darkness, endowed them also with heat and motion, and these three, light, heat, and motion, continued on the work, and developed other formations. We cannot ex- plain this fully to your satisfaction, but you must be pa- THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. 119 tient and trusting, believing that we bring you as much as we can. This is a short account of creation, but it leaves } t ou plenty of food for thought, and I think it may be ap- plied profitably by all of you, if you will take this mighty theme into your consideration. " When, and where the Heavens originated," is answered in replying to the first query. They have existed from a period of time beyond man's computation, and were all developed in the same manner, and from the same source. As I said before, if you can conceive of the essence of a flower where it originates, you may conceive of these so much more stupendous subjects in appearance, but yet, which do not involve greater impossibilities, as far as God is concerned, than the other. " Nothing is impos- sible with God." When you allow this truth, you may cencecle to our propositions, startling as they may at first appear. We would enter more into detail on this important subject, but we leave it for some future considera- tion when men's minds have had time to digest the ideas we have now brought to them. The food we are giving you, through this medium, is rather stronger than any you have yet received, and you must get accustomed to it gradually. It is not well to overload the mind, or overtax the system in any way, and we would never agree to doing it. So, my friends, we will take our leave of the subject, for the present, to return to it at a future day, when we will enter into fuller details of many things that are now obscure to you, and about which you naturally desire better information. We have given you much in this Essay that may be serviceable, if you use it aright. We have shown you how widely different is the God men ignorantly wor- 120 THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. ship, from the great First Cause — the originator of all things. Think for a moment on the utter want of similarity between the two. One, so earthly, so low, so undeveloped in His passions, and attributes ; the other, so wise, so great, so good, and so full of love for all things — a Being so high, and yet so lowly, not too great to regard and cherish every tiny plant and flower, and yet so great that worlds and universes of worlds are evoked from His thought ! Is He not a mighty magician, an incomprehensible being, only to be found in His works, yet never absent from them. Though myriads and myriads (and yet more myriads multiplied, till mind fails to follow out the idea) of worlds are de- pendent on Him. yet He sustains and pervades them with his spirit. Here, there, and everywhere, God is. And let Him create, and go on creating, as He is doing, to all eternity ; still, His spirit will extend to these new worlds, and His watchful and loving care be over them. From the fullness of His own love He en- dows and blesses His creatures. He has no higher happiness than this. His wisdom creates spheres and peoples them with organic life, and gradually de- velops in each one higher and higher forms, till the man appears. When this climax is reached, creation stops, but progression goes on, and the love-principle comes into more immediate action. When the man is made he must be educated ; this is not perfected in one, two, or many generations, but, though unperceived, unfelt, it goes steadily forward. One after another, some good or some bad quality is brought to light. If the former, it is encouraged and nurtured by the love-principle, as much as possible ; if the latter, the wisdom principle is active to eradicate it. This is a very slow process, as you are aware, and means are used to effect it that would not be recog- THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. 121 nized on your plane, but of which you will see the wisdom when you pass to ours. By slow but sure pro- gression, however, man has now developed up to that state of refinement and knowledge that enables him to come in rapport with still higher intelligences ; and such being the case, more light, and in greater abund- ance, can now be given to him, and his advance will be proportionately rapid. Till very recently, excepting in rare instances, men were too gross for spirits to approach ; they could not work for them as they would like to have done. Now, the doors to the spirit-world are opened, and spirits can pass through to you ; and, in some few instances, man can ascend to the spirits. All this is carrying on the system of progression, designed by the All-wise, at the commencement. This is the way He takes to spread the blessings of His love on the countless myriads He creates. None will be finally miserable. God could not, would not, have it so. All, however sinful, must ultimately emerge from their dark prison houses, and realize the beauty and holiness of the " God-principle" hidden, but not dead, within them. To your finite minds, and small perceptions, the misery and sin on your little earth may seem to im- peach the justice and love of God. But look around you and see from what they proceed. Is not man a free agent ? Has he not always had the power of act- ing for himself? Has God ever interfered to control him ? Never. Men have followed out their own de- sires, smothered the voice of conscience, the God-prin- ciple in their souls, and oppressed and tyrannized over each other as inclinations, or brutal passions, led them. They are now beginning to see this for themselves, and, also, that in their own hands is the remedy. They have "sown the wind, they must reap the 11 122 THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. whirlwind." But all this was unavoidable, it was man's development. He may have gone through some severe trials, but all had their uses ; and when time shall be no more with him, he will see them. You could not expect that he should rise to the high stand- ard he will finally attain without some hardships — that he could become a bright angel of light without some purification. Eecollect his origin, from the brutes, the roots, the granite rock, the mud and slime of the first formations ; and then wonder not that he partakes of some of the lower natures he originated from, and shows them sometimes too plainly. To avoid, or rather to prevent this ; purity in life and thought, purity in food and drink, are essential. Confine yourselves to the more developed plants, roots, and ani- mal life (if you cannot lay it aside altogether). Let your drink be the one God has provided for you, and you will find purity of thought and purpose will be in- duced by the change of juices you generate in your sys- tems. I am happy, this morning, in getting such good control of our medium, as it has enabled me to say many things to you that may benefit your bodies and improve your ideas on various points. We must now take our leave of you, with earnest good wishes for your progression in spiritual truth and development, in all the kindly graces and loving attributes that shall fit you for your onward march when you enter on the new and untried spheres that lie before you. Do as much work for yourselves, as you possibly can, while on your earth-plane ; it is the place appointed for it to be performed on ; and you have all the requisites around you to do it properly. If you defer the labor till you come here, you will bitterly repent it. The means are not at hand — sometimes unat- tainable for a long period of time ; and hard, and al- THE SIDEREAL HEAVENS. 123 most impossible, it is for those who put off all their spiritual development till they come here, to find a way to rise. Many, many of you, my friends, are deceiving yourselves with the thought that it is easier to do it in a future state — " that however dark and miserable you may be at first, you can bear it, it won't befor long — at any rate, none are damned ; there is no lake of fire for you to burn in, and you don't care — finally you will come out all right, and you are no coward, yon can en- dure some pain without flinching." These are miserable sophistries, my friends, and the sooner you develop out of them the better for you. Punishment must follow every transgression. On your earth you may rise above your vices and escape with very moderate correction — ruined health, temper, or for- tune. But if you pass over the dark valley, with the sins of your life still rampant in your souls ; the atone- ment for them will be entirely different. They will, themselves, rise up in judgment against you ; showing forth in their naked deformity, made ten thousand times more hideous to you, from your spiritual eyes, being now open, to see them as they are ; for, my friends, in pro- portion as God is pure and lovely, so is sin -hideous and impure in His sight ; and His spirit, in you, will make this inferiority as palpable to the guilty sinner, as God can make His love and wisdom felt by the purified and angelic minds of the higher intelligences. Think of these things, my dear friends of earth, and delay not to put the axe at the root of every evil and debasing thought and temper. Try to attain, while you are yet spared to do it, to the purity and holiness of life that Christ first came to bring to men's notice, and which we now come to urge on your serious attention and practical carrying out. George Fox. December 18, 18G0. ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, AND THE LAW THAT GOV- ERNS THERE, AND ON YOUR SPHERE. The subject on which we are going to treat, is one that has too little occupied the consideration and atten- tion of men. They have gone on their way planning, projecting, executing projects that they considered ema- nated from their own brains, their own individuality, when, probably, hundreds of spirits, unseen, unfelt, or, if felt, disregarded, had labored to impress those ideas, those projects, on their brains for weeks before. Yet man considers himself a free agent, and acts as one. He never, or very rarely, takes the future of his being into consideration ; he seldom asks himself what is to be the next state of his existence — where he will go to when all is ended to him here — for none now can, really, hold the doctrine that their souls remain with their bodies in the tomb. But, though men know, and can realize, the fal- lacy of this teaching, it is only very recently indeed that any have concerned themselves about the question so vitally important to you all, viz., if the soul does not re- main there, where does it go to ? This important query they have evaded, and put away from them, to the last moments of their earthly existence, when they could do so, and left the discovery of the real state of things till their separation from the body was accomplished. ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 125 Is not this strange indifference in men ? Would )-ou not say that their eyes must have been blinded to the truth purposely ? — that some unseen intelligence must have sealed up their understandings, so that they should not look into these things ? My friends, it is so. The lower spirits of the unseen world, who surround you in mp-iads, forming a dark wall of separation between you and the higher intelligences, have filled your minds with fallacious teachings or contented indifference. They have either made you supinely inactive, or blindly trusting in the false teaching? they had previously given to men, by some one or other more susceptible to their impressions than the generality of people. This dark body of spirits who environ you, and con- trol so many of you, in every worldly action, are the departed from your sphere, who, having lived upon it in the same thoughtless, indifferent manner that you are now doing, can progress no higher, but still hover around the place where they formerly played their part in life's drama so badly. They remain because they can not rise, and they must continue to hang around and influence you, till you, by your own efforts, drive them away. You are now under their control, but you may bring them under your's — for we do not say that this state of things is necessary, if men will work for them- selves to remove it. But I would return a little from what I am now say- ing, and continue on my first observation, viz., that men are not aware of the influences they are under, and the control these unseen beings exercise over every action of their lives. Men and spirits are possessed of a magnetism that attracts or repels, as the influences brought in juxtaposi- tion to it are congenial or otherwise ; and the magnet- ism of the earth keeps these low spirits round it on the 126 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. same principle. The earth draws this magnetism from the people ; they impregnate everything with which they come in contact, and the earth, being a large sur- face, and negative to them, retains this magnetism of the people, and acts as a positive pole to the less dense magnetism of the dark spirits around it. Now, my friends, it is only by purifying the atmo- sphere, in your own souls, that you can reform this state of things. It is only by your earnest aspirations after a higher and better life than you have ever yet desired, sincerely, to follow out, that this cloud that hangs over your fair earth, and helps to destroy all harmony and happiness upon it, can be dissipated. By this method, you may draw down, nay, you cannot help drawing down to you, the higher magnetism of the heavens, to baptize you with its influence, and scatter the darkness around you. The whole spirit-world is regarding, with interest, this great effort that is now being made, to penetrate to you and bring you light, by the higher and more intelli- gent spirits who have left your sphere, but, who can do little, effectually, till men co-operate with them. The time is now come for them to work with success. Some light has penetrated, some few are enlightened, and can see and feel the importance of the work ; and this being accomplished, and the darkness dissipated, in some few places, the openings will rapidly be made wider ; and the suffering earth, as well as its still more miserable inhabitants, shall have light and life brought to them. The poor spirits, too, who have so long hung around it in hopeless misery, unable to make any change for the better, in their condition, shall be sharers in the benefits — their bonds shall be loosed, their fetters un- bound. Freed, by the action of our magnetism upon the earth, from the attraction that holds them to it, they ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 127 will be enabled to shake off their fetters, and rise to a higher, better sphere. My friends, you little know the sufferings of these poor spirits. They arc in darkness, isolation, and slavery, to the sins that they, formerly, indulged in. They would rise if they could, but this attraction I speak of, prevents them ; and, being obliged to remain near, they, reading your minds, and attracted also by the similarity of tastes and passions, strengthen and assist you in the gratification of them. As spheres of light -and holy spirits are drawn by the pure and truth- ful mortal, so are spheres of dark and unprogressed spirits attracted by men of the same stamp as them- selves. The spheres you understand, are the different kinds of magnetism which spirits draw around them, and which is determined by their state of progression, or the reverse. They are drawn, also, by this power to men's sides, and they influence, and work in, and for them. If a man strive against the evil spirits, they must leave him ; for the very prayerful endeavors he makes destroys their connection, brings him into a different sphere, and they cannot remain. Should he, however, return to his former courses, they will come also, for then, again, he has gone back to his former, or more probably, a worse sphere. So you see, my friends, that these outside influences unite themselves to those bad passions and dispositions, in your souls, with which they are congenial. They do no not force themselves upon you, but they are attracted by you. When they do come, however, they are sure to make bad, worse ; for they have the same unsated, un- gratified passions, and they, being no more developed than you are, and with no means of indulging their de- sires in spirit life, will eagerly join and assist you in evil doings. They feel enjoyment for the time, and they 128 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. try to promote the desires in you, they wish to gratify. Do not blame the spirits, my friends, for this ; they are no more in fault than you are, nor so much. You have the opportunity to do better ; you might rise if you would. They are not so fortunate ; bound by ties, as of adamant, to your sphere, they cannot progress, they cannot develop, unless in some rare instances they are brought in contact with higher intelligences through some good medium. But you know, my friends, how difficult this is — how hard it is to bring them even into the medium's sphere, they are so drawn by this power of magnetism to their dark abodes. We do not enter on this part of our subject so fully now as we might do, but we would say that where me- diums, good and true, will consent to take this great mission in hand, they will benefit, not only the poor suf- ferers, not only their own souls, but millions of people yet unborn, who may be by this means freed from the bad influences that, unseen, unfelt, have wrought so much evil on the earth in times past, and who, at this present moment, continue their destructive work. We do not know what our friends will think of the doctrines we advocate, the teachings we bring ; they are so entirely opposed to the pride of man, glorying in his reason, and in his intellectual attainments, fancying himself next to a God, and daring to question the wis- dom of the power that brought him, and every other thing, into existence. But, humiliating as you may feel it, my friends, you are, in truth, the bond-slaves of your passions, and the servants of the unseen beings who work through them. Apparently free, you are, in reality, tied fast in the fetters of all the sins and vices that ob- tain dominion over you, and you can only shake off this bondage by strong and earnest endeavors after a higher state of perfection, a more developed principle of good ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 129 within you, extending itself into every fibre of your being. When you do this, either singly or collectively, good results will soon be observable ; change of heart will produce change of life, and the sensual, the debased, the miser, or the sluggard, will cast off his vices as the serpent his skin, and appear clothed anew ; the same, to outward seeming, but in reality entirely different. We now enter upon a new branch of our subject, namely ; the reason why these influences are permitted to work with man ; sometimes for his benefit, but, far more frequently, for his detriment. The laws that gov- ern the different universes, all emanate from the same fount of wisdom and knowledge. One rule works in and through them. This may be called " the lata of Compensation" Each one derives from another its ex- istence, each one is dependent on another for its sup- port, after it enters into a state of being. The same rule holds good through every department of creation, till we reach up to the Great unseen cause of all, who designed and carried out His conceptions. As every- thing, in nature, may be traced to another being for its origin, and its support is also drawn from some source foreign to itself, so, every living, sentient being is in- debted to some others for like benefits, and a claim may be said to be established upon them. Men and spirits are under this law in a more strikingly obvious manner, than inanimate objects ; they can, from their superiority of conception and the larger proportion of the God- principle implanted in them, see and feel their indebted- ness to their antecedents. But men do not often see that this rule works two ways, and that they may owe to them the many evils and diseases that afflict them ; the vices and debasing passions, the lust for money, station, power ; as much as the more noble parts of their natures. The vices and crimes that now so debase men in thoir 130 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. developed state, were not vices and crimes in the animal kingdom from which he originated.* These are the laws that govern you ; man must pro- gress if he wishes to rise, if he stands still he retro- grades. This law of compensation is what draws the dark spheres of spirits around your earth. They sinned while in the body ; they offended the higher light im- planted in them, by their misdeeds. They did not follow on in the law of progression as they might have done, as they had abundant means of doing ; and the law of Com- pensation forbids them to leave this sphere and its sur- roundings till they accomplished what they should have done on earth. It is true that they, by remaining round your planet, increase your difficulties, and make it a far more arduous task for you to develop out of your vices, but this is a part of the same law, and must be sub- mitted to. From the world, on which they played their parts so badly, must they get the means of escaping from their prison. In various ways they do this, and new ways of escape are now being revealed to them. Hitherto, these dark spirits have been attracted, by you, for the sake of gratifying their passions, or stimulating in you the tempers they delighted to indulge in while here, but, now they most frequently come for light and deliverance. *But man, when developing from that state, was endowed with higher and finer sensibilities, with nobler, more God-like attributes. He was not left unassisted to attain his present position and future eminence 5 power was given him equal to his necessities, faculties were implanted, principles were instilled, and he was the recipi- ent of enough of the God-principle, or soul, to enable him to do all that was required of him by the law of Compensation — that is, he had enough of light given to enable him to do all that was required of him. It was not so bright and defined in him) at first, that he could, at once, cast off the animal and become the man as man should be, but it was there, ready for him to develop its beauties by slow or fast pro- cesses, as he might be led. ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 131 The spiritual excitement, at present creating such a u shaking of the dry bones" among you, has extended to them, and they begin to see a way of escape from their drear abodes. Progression, development, is being sung among these poor lost ones as well as among you, and with far more earnest anxiety on their part to be made recipients of the blessings. We, of the higher spheres, are laboring for them as well as for you of earth ; but, we cannot so easily reach them, because their darkness is a far greater obstacle, it being pro- duced by the condition of the spirits themselves who flee from our presence, unable to endure our light. We have, however, other means of reaching them, and these are principally through some of their own society whom Ave have been enabled to benefit through mediums, and whose delight it is, after they have received some light, to return to the dark spheres and preach deliverance to their fellow-captives. These missionaries, in the cause, can penetrate much near to them than higher in- telligences are able, because they are not themselves too light to drive them away. The reason why the magnetism of a high spirit causes the poor dark ones to flee from them, when they ap- proach, is that its light makes them not only miserable but ill. Now, my friends, this law of retributive jus- tice works for all alike. Precisely as a man sows, so shall he reap. If you should say, why, he cannot help himself, he must sow just as the spirits make him. I should answer, yes ; he must, indeed, follow their leadings. If he yields himself a slave to his passions, he will be led on from bad to worse, in the way he has chosen, and spirits will help him to his ruin. But if, on the contrary, he aspires to higher and better things, if he keeps the rein over his desires, and never permits his passions to guide him. If he seeketh after wisdom, 132 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. and cultivateth the higher part of his being— the God- principle, instead of the animal — spirits will still guide him, still influence — rule him, if you will : but what kind of spirits will they be, think you ? Surely not the de- based loathsome kind that would be attracted to the former character ? No, my friends, high and pure in- telligences will come to him and dwell with him ; they will lead him on in the path he has chosen, unseen and silently, may be, but not the less beneficial and ele- vating to him. They will never leave him, never for- sake him, so long as he continues true and faithful ' to himself; and they will be the first to welcome him to the mansion he will have prepared for himself, eternal in the heavens. So does this law of compensation work through all things. It extends its ramifications through all parts of creation. Good produces good, evil is followed by evil. Shall a fount, at the same time, send forth sweet water and bitter ? Neither can one do good who willeth to do evil. We, my friends, have now enlightened you, somewhat, on these hitherto hidden mysteries of your being. We have shown you plainly, I think, how the laws in re- gard to spirits work among you. We have made you clearly understand, that though man is apparently a free agent, he is, at the same time, a willing slave. We have shown you that, though he is subservient, now, to his vices and passions, and the uDseen stimulants of them, which he draws around him by his want of self- control and self-knowledge, he might free himself en- tirely from these influences, and, in their stead, draw to him the higher and holier spirits of the unseen world, who are waiting, only, the opportunity to come in unto him and dwell with him. These high powers cannot approach men without something to draw them. They ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 133 require the earnest aspirations of your souls to go forth for. light and purification. And, when the prayers of men ascend for these blessings, they will never fail to be answered. But they must work as well as pray ; they must resolutely strive with themselves ; wrestle with their inmost and most unsuspected failings, as also with those more palpably evident. To draw these holy spirits to them, they must, themselves, be pure. Men cannot accomplish this change in one month or two, but gradually they will find themselves progress- ing, and as they rise, in their inner life, to higher stand- ards, nearer and nearer will they draw the Holy Spirit of God, given through us, His instruments, to them. The light in their souls, so long dormant, will find its congenial surroundings, and the man will become har- monized and sanctified, while yet on your earth-sphere. Thus you see, my friends, that, although you are not, in reality free agents, there is no reason why you should not make yourself agents for the good, instead of the bad influences that surround you. You are free to choose who shall be your masters, and we would en- treat you to use your privilege aright. By doing so, the benefit is not confined to yourselves, it will extend far and wide ; as will the evil, if the reverse is the case. Men may think that they have some injustice to complain of as respects the' bad influences by which they are surrounded. But I think, my friends, if you will look into the subject with attention, you will not find it is so. From the first, man has been in posses- sion of the soul or God-principle within him, just the same as now. Every child is endowed with it, indi- vidually, before he enters on your earth-life, and in the same ratio will it continue to be given to men. When man first received the boon, he could not ap- preciate it as he now does, or should do ; and, being 134 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC, less enlightened, less was expected from him. He had less to be responsible for, consequently, when he passed from your sphere, the sins he committed, though per- haps more cruel and brutal than yours, did not reflect themselves back to him in the dreadful deformity they would assume in your more progressed state of being. Less was expected from him. The laws of compensa- tion require only in proportion as they give. These ancient races have a long stage of advancement to go through after leaving your sphere, but they are not, for their crimes, compelled to remain around it and in- fluence men now. No, they have long passed on into another state, and are going through their higher de- velopment separate, and distinct, from your earth. But, gradually, my friends, after these first denizens passed away, changes in the nature of men, climate, and animals took place. There was more refinement in everything, and men could feel, and know, that they were better, nobler, than the brutes. Then more was expected from them. They had received more light and development, and they felt, and knew, there was a difference, a right and a wrong in men's actions. Then it was that conscience came into more direct sway ; this internal monitor could make itself heard, and, through its teachings and promptings, men might have learned much, but, as in your own day, my friends, they put away the light from them ; they preferred gratifying the animal instincts of their natures, though this light, that had dawned into their souls, told them they were wrong. But, though they might stifle conscience, they could not prevent the compensation that followed them after they left this sphere. In proportion as they had received light, so they must receive punishment for dis- regarding that light. Still, my friends, these early races were not so hardly dealt with, by themselves, as you now ON THE- SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 135 are. They were more enlightened than the first inhabi- tants, but they were far behind you in development, and their punishments, though severe, are ended, and they have passed on to another sphere to complete their education, if I may so say. After the light of conscience had been given to men, they began, gradually, toreason and inquire into subjects, more with reference to their origin, than any which had yet occupied their attention. From these questionings, in their rude style, they gradually deduced the fact that some superior power, or powers, had made their world and them. They could not get a correct idea, but, in some instances, their notions on this subject were far from despicable. They made a god, in their imagina- tions, like themselves — fierce in his wrath, terrible in his displeasure. They feared and bowed down to the being of their fancy; their consciences told them they were often guilty of sins ; their idea of a God told them they must be punished for those sins. So they created altars, they offered sacrifices to this terrible being, and tried to appease his wrath in a manner they thought most conge- nial to him. Mistaken they were, in their conception of his character, and their mistake has more or less tinged all the ideas men have formed of Deity down to this late day. When men had found out, by their intuitions, that there must be a power outside of themselves and of their earth, it was easy for them to multiply it into many — to worship it under as many different names as they counted its attributes. So, many deities arose, and almost every division of the earth had its separate, and distinct, God or Gods. We have, here, given a rapid summary of the state of the earth, in general, previous to the time of your early records, but with some of the nations who had pro 136 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. gressed much farther than the others, we shall enter into further details. Man's advancement has been slow, al- most imperceptible to himself, but, by looking back into the abyss of time we can mark its steady onward march. You can see for yourselves, however, by examining the commencement of the eras from which you date, how much improvement there has been, even in that short period of time ; and, by that, you can form some judg- ment of the antecedent epochs. He has slowly, but surely, ascended the hill of progress, both mentally and morally ; physically, also, he has not retrograded. He may not, now, possess the strength and gigantic propor- tions of his ancestors of the tertian era, but he is far more refined and nicely proportioned in his organiza- tion than he was then. Size is not a criterion of devel- opment. The harmonious arrangement of all the con- stituent parts is much more to be desired, and in this way man is becoming more and more perfect. He has, now, in some races, attained to a high standard of refinement bodily, but his moral standard has not kept pace with his physical. He is yet very low on the plane of wisdom and love. The God-principle has sunk almost into desuetude, while he has been pampering and indulging the more perishable parts of his forma- tion, and it is time for him to awake from his lethargic state and seek to elevate his soul also. The people who immediately preceded the Chinese, etc., were tolerably developed from the animal. They were capable of inventing, and forming many useful and interesting means of diversifying their existence. They had not, at the first, learned the importance at- tached to a separation of the sexes, that is, for a union of two together ; but they had found clothing a neces- sity ; they had, by their increased refinement of living, and habits, generated a finer and more delicate cover- OK THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 137 ing ; their skins were fast losing their hard consistency, and their hair was now confined, more directly, to the parts it at present occupies ; they began to feel the effect of summer and winter, and the comfort a coat of skins could impart during the latter seasons. When once accustomed to clothing, from necessity, they con- tinued it from choice. The garments they had worn in winter, to protect them from the cold, naturally in- creased the delicacy of their own bodies, and substi- tutes of a lighter kind replaced the skins, as the seasons changed. This comparative refinement led to other luxuries. Shelters from the tempests and storms, the wind and the sun, were discovered to be wanting — something pleasanter than caves and hollow trees might be adopted. So, those more ingenious than the rest de- vised little huts. Some made them of clay, some from the branches of the trees, just as they were led. In this way, the idea of living in pairs originated. When they had made these little homes, they were not large enough to accommodate more than two or three in- mates. Naturally a male and a female went together ; naturally they attached themselves to each other, and resented any interference in their domiciliary arrange- ments : and, in this simple manner, originated the pre- sent developed state of the matrimonial institution, and the less important, but more absorbing practice, called dress. From the description I have given you, my friends, of the state men had progressed to after so many, many ages, you will see how slowly the work goes on, and you will also see that the ignorant races of that period could not be held responsible, as you are, for the sins they might commit. They had not the light and know- ledge you have, and they were judged accordingly. The law of compensation requires only in proportion 138 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. as you receive. These, comparatively uninformed and yet intelligent beings, had souls as you have, and after passing from this sphere they were placed on another planet, and with more refined natures and attributes they continued on in their development. There were differences in the distribution of gifts bestowed upon them. As they had acted, on your earth, up to their highest light, or the reverse, so were they happy, or the contrary, in their new state. Their advance in refine- ment and development was justly proportionate to their conduct here. But, as they were gross and sensual, more animal, I mean, than the present inhabitants of earth, they, when they left the body, assumed a denser and more substantial form, in their next abode, than men now do ; and their future was not of the same kind as regards rewards and punishments, that are awarded to men now, in their more enlightened state. Having, ray friends, brought man down to the period when civilization may be said to have commenced, L e., when the human animal dressed himself and took a wife, we will now proceed to show you something fur- ther of the workings of our law. You can understand, that, so many ages elapsing while these changes were slowly passing over mankind, and the earth also, which shared in the improvement; many new ideas slid quietly into being — or rather were silently evolved out of the more progressed minds of the few, and were adopted by the many. The East was the most rapidly developed into the knowledge of those things that constitute the basis of civilized life. The races of men there had more intelligence, as the climate, soil, and vegetable life were all favorable for their de- velopment. The animals were gentle, endowed with instincts and resources in themselves, and they had been undisturbed by the many upheavings and convulsions ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 139 the world had undergone in various parts. For these reasons man came into existence there, under the most favorable auspices, and his advance was in proportion rapid. The Chinese and the Japanese have been long laughed at, by the wise savans of the west, for their boasted antiquity as a people, and pretensions to su- preme knowlege. But, my friends, men too often laugh at things they know nothing about. The antiquity they claim is theirs ; the knowledge of many things was theirs ages and tens of ages before the people of Europe had emerged from brutal barbarism. They could manufacture; they knew the use of the silk-worm, the tea plant, the compass, the rotation of the spheres around them ; they made their delicate china, their rich silken fabrics, their beautiful carv- ings and inlayings in ivory and wood, long, long be- fore the Christian world came into notice. They and the Japanese may claim the earliest civi- lized antiquity of any nations on the face of your earth. Together, yet asunder, they progressed. Their isolation has been the result of fear ; their timid natures were first startled by the hordes of uncivilized savage tribes, who, after the lapse of many ages, invaded their terri- tories. War was a new thing to these poor people, and they knew not how to resist the strength and fierceness of their invaders ; but their indomitable in- dustry conceived, and executed a project which is almost incredible. They, finding that they could not repel the attacks of their foes by force, built the immense wall that still remains a striking monument of their perse- vering energy. The Chinese and the Japanese have now reached a period in their history when, other parts of the world having overtaken them in the march of progress, isola- tion is no longer possible or profitable for them. For 140 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. their further advancement, in higher light and better knowledge, it is necessary that many changes should be made, many lives be sacrificed ; but, when the present turmoil that distracts that country is appeased, new teachings, new doctrines will be heard among them — a new era of progression will commence, and the Chinese- and Japanese (for both will be included), shall have a higher and holier light to guide them than they have yet had. Their moral and spiritual standards shall be exalted, they shall go on with the rest of the nations up the hill of progression, and share with them the better and more ennobling teachings we bring to men. When they shall receive this higher light, this wisdom from the heavenly fount, then, a new standard of punishments and rewards will come into action for them. Hitherto, their moral plane has been very low, they have de- prived themselves of the benefits that have accrued to the world from the teachings of Christ and other re- formers. [See Note.] Since the time of Confucius they have received no new teachings, consequently they have been, by their condition, under a different law to what go verns the more enlightened nations. Their heaven is not the Christian's heaven, neither are their punish- ments as severe ; for, many things that you have been taught from your infancy, and for centuries back, they are quite unacquainted with. Note. From their scornful, and at the same time suspicious and timid, feelings with regard to other nations, they have excluded them- selves, as long as possible, from contact with them. We told you, in the former part of our Essay, that the Hindoos of antiquity were as different from the present inhabitants of that coun- try as the African from the white man. There was no reason why the races should not intermingle and improve by the admixture. Be- cause men have chosen to set up different names foi different races, it does not follow that they are correct. The Caucasian race, so called by you, is really the mixed progeny of the Hindoos, and another de- OX THE SPIRIT WOULD, ETC. 141 We will now leave the Chinese and the Japanese, and proceed to the Hindoos, the next race that made itself a name on your earth. This interesting people did not make their appearance till many ages after the former ones. Their country had many violent convulsions be- fore it finally settled down in its present quiescent state. These convulsions were all good for it ; they purified and rarified the strata that was thrown uppermost, and the mountain ranges that bordered it on the North, and cropped out in bold relief in some of the southern parts, generated a climate good for the development of the higher and more intelligent parts of the man ; his physi- cal and his nx>ral system soon assumed a more human velopment of the monkey, very similar to the class from which the Hindoos had originated at an earlier date. The special type of mon- key is cot now in existence in those parts, as it naturally merged into man. Take into consideration, my friend, how very slow the process of development from one specie3 to another is, and you will see that the progressed ape would not be so far removed from the unprogressed ones as to cause a separation. One would naturally learn from ano- ther, and so, by slow and imperceptible degrees, the change would come. When the necessary advance had been attained, and reason could take the place of instinct, then, the Divine principle, or soul, could enter, and the ape become a sentient being. I do not know that we can say anything more on this subject to satisfy our inquiring friend. Why two races of men, originally from the same type of monkey, could not intermingle, and improve by the admixture, I do not under- stand. Cannot the Chinese and the Americans amalgamate, and would not they bear fruit differing from both stocks ; perhaps no better, in such case, as regards the American, but certainly an improvement on the Chinese. And yet they were from entirely different species of ape, and developed from them at widely separate periods. If the rule works with them, why should it not with the ancient Indians and the more recently developed race with which they intermingled ? It worked well, my friends, for it produced, as I before said, people more intelligent, beautiful, and skillful in all the arts and refinements of life, than had previously existed. The Hindoos, left to themselves, have gradually degenerated to what you now see them ; idle, inoffen- sive » beings if let alone, and cruel, revengeful and treacherous, if 142 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. type, if I may so say ; his ideas were more elevated than his Chinese neighbors ; the magnificent mountains, the luxurient products of the soil, the gorgeous plumage of the birds, even the ferocious qualities of the animals, tended to excite in him feelings of elevation and grand conceptions of the Deity, from whom all these emanated. Is it not wonderful, my friends, how nearly this old race approached the truth in its conceptions of the God- principle ? Is it not also wonderful how men, having got hold of so much light, could let it go again ? But we must proceed more methodically, and try to trace cause and effect to their source. At the period at which we have now arrived, man aroused. Some few, among their higher classes, retain a little know- ledge of the teachings and faith of their remote ancestors, mingled with much alloy ; but progression has ceased among them, and, both bodily and mentally, they are in a state of decay. Those of them who mi- grated to Egypt rallied their energies, and, for a time, made great progress. Sciences and arts flourished among them, though they never attained to the refinement and elegance of the Greeks ; still they were a mighty and industrious people, and the ruins of their enormous tem- ples and tombs are their lasting witnesses. These nations, together with the Babylonian, have been almost swept from time's records, while the hardy descendants of these mixed races, we spoke of, having long since overtaken these older ones in their onward march, have steadily ascendod the hill of progress to this time. They have had to mix their blood, in more than one instance, with uncivilized hordes of later development ; but it has not in- jured—rather assisted in their progress, after a time. The barbarians of northern Europe were from a high type of the monkey species ; they were, from the colder and more arid localities in which they dwelt, necessitated to endure hardships, and exert their intuitional faculties. The temperance of their habits, and the cold- ness of the region, brought into existence a fairer and more robustly developed man than the more tropical regions, and the benefit to the race was great when they intermingled with the southern tribes. But, my friend, I can say no more on these subjects ; let it be a matter of thought for yourself. You have now got hold of the thread ; do not let it slip, but work out these ideas in your own mind. Signed, John. ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 143 had made his appearance in different portions of the globe. The Occident, as well as the Orient, had its re- presentatives. True, they were not so advanced on the plane of progression, but they were approaching to that state which soon merges into civilization. Tho old in- habitants of your Western Continent were no whit be- hind their Eastern brothers in their physical endow- ments. They were a hardy and intelligent race, and soon formed for themselves surroundings that would not have disgraced your more civilized time. These denizens of your Western world lived for many ages in unalloyed peace and prosperity. They cultivated the arts of civilized life to considerable ex- tent. Many inventions were known to them. They worshiped a God of Love, and they inculcated peaceful and humane teachings. The old sculptures, that now remain to you, are of later origin and by a different race ; one that sprung up in the more Northerly parts of the country, and, having discovered their more peace- ful neighbors, carried war and destruction among them ; finally, extirpating them as a nation, and almost annihi- lating them as a people. These events occurred during the same period of time that the Hindoo sages had car- ried their people far up the hill of progress, and had erected for themselves a stupendous theory in regard to God, which still remains to testify to their wisdom and advance in knowledge. After the Hindoos had made considerable advance in knowledge, a change came over the people ; they sent out colonists to various other parts. Egypt was one of these selected locations, Greece was another, Persia and Assyria, also, were colonized by them. They were themselves a numerous race, highly intelligent and en- terprising, and they extended their inquiries and re- searches far and wide. 144 ON THE SPIKIT WOKLD, ETC. To you, my friends, who look upon the down-trodden degraded inhabitants of India now, these things may seem incredible. But you must remember we are speaking of a race as different from them as is your white man from the African negro. They had not so long developed from the animal, and had sufficient energy for every project. They were highly endowed with reasoning faculties, and they had sublime and poetical ideas of their God and his surroundings. This intelligent people, removed to Egypt, soon adapted themselves to the peculiarities of the country and climate of the land of their adoption. It did not take them long to form correct observations as to the extraordinary overflowing of the Nile, and the succeed- ing fertility. When they had become accustomed to this phenomenon, they took the best means to make it subservient to their purposes. They watched the Heavens, and arranged the stars in clusters to suit their ideas ; they noticed, with care, what particular phase the Heavens bore when the rising of the waters occurred ; and after careful and diligent comparison, one year after another, for a long period of time, they classed their clusters of stars under different figures or devices, appropriate to the different seasons when they appeared in the firmanent. The twelve signs of the zodiac were thus called into existence, typical of the twelve portions of the year when they appeared in the zenith ; and the rest of the starry heavens were also classified and arranged under different names by these wise men. Having found out the exact period of time it took for the different constellations to perform their annual round and return to them again, they easily determined the duration of a year. One important thing they failed to discover. They OX THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 145 imagined that all these bright luminaries revolved around their own little sphere. They were mistaken in this, but how much have all succeeding races been indebted to them for what they did find out and be- queath to them ? My friends, these Hindoos, so intelligent, so devel- oped, were the great pioneers of knowledge and civil- ization to the world of the East, setting aside the Chi- nese and Japanese. The whole European and Asiatic continents owe their present state of development to them. And, looking from whence the Anglo-Americans of the northern continent, and some parts of the south, sprang, may we not say they are equally indebted to them ? It is indeed so . From India, the cradle of civilization, enlightenment first emanated. The Hindoo sages had comunion with higher sources of intelligence than other men. They were so elevated, so spiritualized, that they could draw down wisdom from higher spheres. Their purity and simplicity of life, separate from the noise and confusion, the dis- cord and wrangling of lower natures, their isolated dwellings, generally in elevated and mountainous re- gions, gave them every opportunity to develop into those mediums, for higher truths and more ennobling teachings than had previously been given to men. Do not suppose that in those early ages, of which so few records remain, their wise men practiced the aus- terities and mutilations that are now so often used as a pretence of sanctity. No, my friends, they were as the fathers and guardians of their people ; they lived among them a simple pastoral life, inculcating pure and lofty teachings among the many, and trying to bring all into the same peaceful, elevated condition they had attained to themselves. Under the sway, or 146 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. rather under the paternal care of these wise fathers of the nation, the people were happy and contented, pro- gressing in knowledge as well as in love. But a time came when a stop was put to all this, when men began to wax proud, arrogant and assuming — lording it over their weaker brethren. They got tired of the wise and paternal rule of their elders, and determined to make a name and station for themselves. So, to prevent further troubles, their sages proposed that they should emigrate and colonize some other more remote region. The proposition was well received, and Egypt was the land selected by the first body of adventurers. Disturbances still continuing, other par- ties left their homes and settled, first in Greece, after- wards they directed their steps back again, but reached no nearer than the country you now call Persia, where they located. Assyria was colonized in the same man- ner, for the spirit of discontent had gone forth among the poor Hindoos, and a change was to take place. It was for a good purpose eventually ; but in the march of progress individuals and nations must always suffer. The disturbances that had affected such changes among these, hitherto, quiet inoffensive people, did not end here. The remaining inhabitants became discon- tented with the simple rule under which they had lived so happily. They wanted something grander, more imposing ; they would have temples — palaces. Their God, whom they had so long reverenced in sublime simplicity, must have a home to dwell in, great as their ideas of Deity. They had also learned that He was to be feared as well as loved ; so they must appease Him with offerings and sacrifices, more or less bloody, as they were more or less guilty. Then were excavated the famous temples of India, so long a mystery to the ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 147 learned. They were grand as the conceptions of a people could make them, who had in their souls the remnants of a far purer creed. Men have often speculated as to the comparative an- tiquity of the Egyptian and Hindoo ruins. The ques- tion may now be answered. Both nations were of the same origin, both originally of the same pure faith. But both, after the lapse of ages, degenerated in their belief. They lost their first love, and went after idols. Conscious of their many derelictions from the spirit- ual faith they had so long known, they invented other and easier, at the same time, more magnificent and gor- geous, modes of worship. They also built colossal tem- ples, and imaginary deities were installed in them with solemn pomp ; but the pure faith of their fathers was still retained by some few who loved those higher teach- ings, and it was from one of these faithful followers of the old Brahmin creed, that the Israelites were de- scended. Abraham, the friend of God, so much misrepresented in many of his acts in your old records, was this person. Full of faith and good works, he had seen the decay of the pure and holy religion, he professed, with heartfelt sorrow. Himself a Hindoo, originally, but by birth a native of Mesopotamia, he had followed out the teach- ings of his people in all their purity. Himself a me- dium, he could hold communion with the Angel-world, and from it he got comfort and strength. Promises were made to him for the future, as well as the present time. The seal of Circumcision was ordered to be put upon his descendants, that they might be known as a distinct and selected race, to keep up the worship of the one God, and be the cradle in which to nurse the seed, that should in time bear fruit in Jesus Christ. Abraham, an enlightened and far-seeing man, under- 148 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. stood and appreciated the blessings bestowed on him- self and his posterity. He followed the direction of his spirit-guides. His child was circumcised, his future wife was selected for him from some of his old Hindoo relatives, settled not far away, and as yet free from idolatry. Isaac, also, endeavored to carry out his fa- ther's teachings. He, too, tried to find wives for his sons, guiltless of this crime. In Esau's case, he failed entirely ; but Jacob still respected his ancestors' faith, and married descendants of his own nation, though, as afterwards shown, one of them had fallen from the pure faith of her fathers, and preferred the idolatrous one of the surrounding Nations. We have now, my friends, finished our account of the Hindoos for the present, and we will only add that this wise and developed people have long passed away from your sphere and its surroundings. They do not inter- fere with the law of Compensation that obtains now. Theirs, at one time, might have been designated as the Golden Age upon your earth, for they were a happy, enlightened, peaceful, and intelligent race ; and they have long since progressed to higher conditions. You may say, " all could not have been equally good, or else, why any discord, any necessity to emigrate ?" True, my friends, some discordant spirits were, after a time, permitted among them, and they stirred up elements of strife and contention. But good, you see, came out of evil. Population, knowledge and civilization, were more widely extended than they could have been, had the Hindoos of antiquity always retained their old boundaries, as the Chinese and Japanese have done. While the former have been the civilizers of a good portion of the world, the latter have gone on, for cen- tury after century, neither advancing themselves, nor benefiting others. ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 149 We shall now proceed to another branch of our sub- ject, viz., the introduction of the so-called Caucasian race into existence, as a people. They had, long before the time at which we have now arrived, developed from the animal ; but as they had made little further progress than the most barbarous nations of your present epoch, they could scarcely be considered as entitled to be classed among the civilized. Their origin was not quite as remote as the Hindoos ; they were, indeed, according to your computation of time, far later in making their appearance. Their physical development from the ape was favorable and rapid in its progress : but, for a long period of time, they remained in ignorance of most of the arts of civilized life. They were warriors and idol- aters, before they were anything further. Their rude conceptions of Deity were far below the standard of the wise Hindoos, or even of the Chinese and Japanese. Stones, rocks, etc., images of clay, hideous to behold, were fashioned by them, and servilely adored with bloody and obscene rites. They appeased the wrath of their monster God, with sacrifices, the most revolting and the most outrageous to the feelings of a human being. These savages became, in time, pests to the sur- rounding people — they multiplied and waxed strong in iniquity. Their sons and their daughters were offered up to their idols, and barbarities, the most atrocious, Were practiced upon them. Then came a time when the law of Compensation came into more perceptible action, so that even the bru- talized natures of these untaught monsters, learned that there was an unseen power that could not be always outraged with impunity. As their development was low, and they more like children than the men of your day, in intellectual attainments, so their punishments had to be apportioned to suit their capacities ; and the 150 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. instinctive fear of death, by drowning, or some other frightful calamity, was called into exercise. They were surrounded, by floods of waters, terrified by the internal convulsions of the earth, and rendered frantic in their despair of escape. This dreadful calamity destroyed many of them ; but the remainder, grown wiser by the teachings, endeavored to profit by it. They reformed, in some degree, their vicious practices. They tried to civilize and amend their condition. The convulsions which had scattered them, had also brought them into nearer proximity to some of the more developed races. The great centre of the inundations was in Arabia, and the parts of Asia Minor bordering on, what you now call, the Black Sea. For some distance East of those waters, did the floods and earthquakes extend, and con- sequently drove the savage inhabitants of those parts into the regions peopled by the Hindoo colonists. From them they gradually acquired the knowledge of many arts, tending to civilize and reform them ; and, being a hardy and industrious race, they soon made themselves masters, not only of their arts and knowledge, but in many parts, of their country and persons, almost extir- minating them from the earth, in some localities. This mixed race, or Caucasians, as men call them, were more immediately the progenitors of the present population of southern Europe. They migrated there as they increased in numbers and knowledge, and founded the different dynasties of old. The Grecian, the Mace- donian, the Persian countries were all inundated by these enterprising people, and the peaceful Hindoo set- tlers had to succumb to the superior strength and power of their half brothers. In some parts it was not so much a war of extermination — rather a gradual amalgamation, and where this happened the highest types of beauty and manly development were the result. The graceful and ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 151 lithe Hindoo mingled his blood with the hardy for- eigner, and both were improved by the admixture. The refined intellect of the one was able to work with more vigor, when sustained by the vitality and energetic force of the other. And so originated the race who may be said to have called forth, in its highest earthly type, the God-principle, latent in all human beings. From the time of the flood, which scattered and amal- gamated these races of men, we now proceed to show you that the law of compensation has been at work. Before that time the most intelligent men were judged by a different standard ; as they had not yet attained to a sufficient development for these laws to come into effect. They were, as are the American Indians and the savages of the Isles, and of Africa, tried and judged by a- law adapted to them. Some were taken to finish their development in a different sphere, some to the hea- ven of their conceptions — the happy hunting-grounds — where added light has been given them ; and they are blessed in their degree. The Chinese and the Japanese are not to be held accountable by the same law that obtains with you ; neither are the poor fallen Hindoos. They will be held responsible to a law adapted to their state. They have all had their own Christs, their own teachers, and according to their light will they be judged. But, as I said before, the law of Compensa- tion came into force, in respect to civilized men, when this latter race, having united to the Hindoo colonists in different parts, began an era of progression that has been going on steadily from that period. But, my friends, you must disabuse your minds of the idea that there is the same standard for all. It is well for you to realize, that, just in proportion to the light you receive, will you be judged. The savages of Africa will not be responsible by the Christian's standard ; 152 but, if you bring them to your country, and educate and civilize them, of course more will be demanded of them. So it has always been. Justice, and love, and wisdom rule in all the earth ; call it what you please, there is a law of Compensation working throughout the universes, and that law regulates all things and all people ; but the law is applied to different parties in different ways, and it has its particular bearings, in separate and distinct forms, for the Christians, the Mahometans, the Pagans, the Savages — one cannot interfere with the other. With regard to the Christian world, with which we have now more immediate concern, we would wish you to understand us clearly. When God impressed Abra- ham to separate himself from his idolatrous surround- ings, and endeavor to preserve the worship of the Eternal in its sublime simplicity, a higher order or standard of right and wrong was commenced with him. As he and his people lived differently, believed differently to their neighbors, so were they to be judged differently. As they had more knowledge of the true God-principle, their rewards were to be greater, if they lived up to the standard given to them, or they were to be proportion- ately punished if they failed to do so. From Abraham's time has the same law of Compensa- tion obtained among his descendants, gradually increas- ing in its requirements as they developed more and more into light. When Christ came he raised the standard far higher than it had ever been before, and extended the light of his teachings to other, and far distant, lands. Men of other races had sprung up and made so much advance in knowledge that they could realize the superior beauty and holiness of his concep- tions of life. They received them gladly, and by so doing came under the same law that governed the Israelitish people. So it has gone on, my friends, to ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 153 the present time ; every new nation or people you bring into this faith comes under this law, and will be judged by it. And now, my friends, further advancement must be made. A higher and holier standard must be erected among you. Hitherto, your religion has consisted more in forms than realities — in looking after the stray sheep of other folds, rather than in cleansing your own. Your desires and aspirations have gone abroad among the heathen, who have a law of their own by which they shall be judged. And you have almost entirely neglected yourselves, and the poor down-trodden and more de- graded brothers and sisters of your own enlightened creed. These, my friends, require your first care, and then you can extend your sympathies with more freedom and justice to other benighted ones. But, till reforma- tion has done its work at home, in your own lives, and in the condition of your humbler classes, do not go abroad to heal. The purification must be within yourselves, in the first place, for as you have more light, more knowledge, consequently you have more penalty for sinning. My friends, another very important part of this sub- ject remains yet for your consideration, that is, the state of your departed. From the time of Abraham the spi- rits of the departed Israelites were judged by a different law to other nations. They were acquainted with the right, in a degree, and if they did not live up to their knowledge they were, as spirits still are, in darkness and misery — proportioned to their sins. They had to develop out of them the same as spirits have now. The only difference was, their knowledge being less, their standard was lower. Previous to the time of the flood spirits had gone to other spheres and developed there. A new era was 154 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. inaugurated, as we may say, with it, and they were compelled to remain around their former abode, and progress out of their sins, as best they could, if they had neglected to do so while here. This law has continued, and will continue to work, as it now does. If men " leave undone what they ought to have done, and do that which they ought not to have done," they must bear the penalty. They all have to develop, and if they will not do it in this sphere they must in the next they enter, and then it will be far more difficult. The spirits who surround you could bear sad testimony on this point, were they in a condition to make themselves heard as they could wish ; but, unfortunately for them and you, those who suffer most can say the least. They are not in a state to return to you and teach you by their sad experience. But you may learn from what we have now tried to explain to you, the importance we attach to the reforms we are endeavoring to inculcate. The unfortunate departed, as well as yourselves and your unborn children, are equally interested in the result. As you cast off the vices and pursuits that have so long bound you captives, you will install a new era upon your earth. Sin will flee away with your hidden tempters; high spirits, with purer light and holier teachings, will take their place; and not only bring health and comfort to the sick and suffering on your earth, but the poor world itself, truly cursed by man's guilt, shall be redeemed from the bondage it has so long lain under, and burst forth in renewed and added beauty. The prophecies of Isaiah shall be literally fulfilled. " Instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir-tree ; and in- stead of the briar, shall come up the myrtle ; and the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and all flesh shall rejoice. 7 ' We may not have given our quotation quite ON THE SPIRIT. WORLD, ETC. 155 correctly, but you can understand its drift. Our mean- ing and his meaning, though he was not, when he wrote, conscious of it, is this : That as the earth is now suffer- ing and diseased by the constant bad magnetism she is receiving from the human family, she cannot bring forth her products in the perfection, nor with the facility she would do, were she under better, healthier influences ; and this law extends to the animal and vegetable king- doms ; they, receiving nourishment and support from the great mother earth, are tainted and injured from the same cause. The law extends even to your atmosphere. You have so darkened it over by your sins and vices, emitting, as they do, such unwholesome taint, that men, of purely spiritualized minds, can scarcely exist in it, and only low and undeveloped spirits can endure it. But with man is the remedy. He can, by cleansing him- self and his surroundings, benefit and improve all that is wrong. He can change the condition of earth, air, and spirits, if he will only set himself faithfully to the work. Many a poor, unprogressed spirit is thrown into deeper darkness by coming in contact with the impure of earth ; whereas, had he been kindly and wisely treated when he had, with pain and difficulty, made his way to you, he might have found light and peace, and have be- come a blessing to his benefactor, who developed him, or to spirits, suffering as he had been. These things are not well understood among you, my friends, at present ; but pray for more light, and more shall be given. The bright spirits of the higher spheres are watching and working for you, when a chance is open to them. But do you not see how hard it is for them to reach you ? If they do approach, some unholy desire, some bad passion that rules in you, attracts to it spirits of its own class, and the higher influences are shut off. Men must work for themselves, if they expect 156 ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. high spirits to help them. They must crucify the flesh with its lusts, cultivate the affections, and seek to rise to a level that will bring them into rapport with the powers above, who can aid them so efficiently. If men do not choose to make this effort, spirits will have to take the work into their own hands. The earth must be relieved, and the light of the higher spheres must penetrate to do this ; for, though great may be the power of low spirits, the power of the higher ones is in- finitely greater, and they can do what they purpose. No power of man, or spirits of the lower sphere, can stop them in their work. . But they would that man should aid and assist them, as by so doing, much of the misery and ruin that must fall on individuals, would be averted. The times are rife for change. Excitement marches at this epoch ; all feel that something is im- pending. An unsettled, unstable feeling is abroad, and no man seems to know what a day may bring forth. This, my friends, is the work of the spirits ; they have stirred up these elements of change. The world is now in a very similar, though more developed condition, to what it was at the time of the fearful punishment we have alluded to. Vice reigns supreme. Injustice and oppression bear sway, and the people have forgotten the teachings of their beautiful creed — the religion of Christ — and are worshiping Mammon, luxury and de- grading vices in all forms. When things have pro- gressed to this pitch of iniquity, a change must come. The atmosphere must be cleansed of such pollution, and a scourge will be found to punish the guilty. We write not this to affright, but to warn ; let each one, while there is yet time, examine into his own case, and then try to amend what is wrong in himself. Much good may be done in this way, even now, though the evil is ON THE SPIRIT WORLD, ETC. 157 too wide-spread, for the punishment to be evaded alto- gether. We have now, my friends, brought our Essay to a close. Loose and disjointed you may, at first sight, con- sider it ; but when you have read and pondered on it with care and attention, you will see that all parts have a bearing upon our subject. The last mentioned, but not least important point introduced, is the punishment now impending over your people, and which will, I fear, prove to vou the workings of the law of Compensation in its most disastrous form. John the Apostle. January 8th, 1861. THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. The subject of this Essay,, namely, the mission ot Christ in this His second coming to man, will be a theme which will, we think, interest and excite atten- tion in the minds of all who study this important sub- ject. So many contrary opinions are held in regard to the personal attributes and station of this divinely in- spired character, and also in respect to His re-appear- ance on your earth, that we think it may be well to give you some clearer insight into these things than you now possess. Men have gone on for so many ages disputing and contending as to the claims of Christ to superior, or, ra- ther, to Divine origin, that they have quite lost sight of the object of his coming among men on the first occasion. And they are now grown so skeptical and wise in their own conceits, that He has been reduced to the plane of the commonest mortal, in their estimation, and the promise of his second appearance considered as a myth. But, my friends, mankind have been greatly mistaken on these points, they have overlooked many important facts, when they have reasoned on these subjects. Because some errors and discrepancies had crept into the Old Records, through the mutations and changes of all earthly things, it did not necessarily follow that some parts were not genuine, and that a truly spiritual ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.' 159 seeker could not discover those parts. The first mission of Christ to your earth was, really, foretold by the Seers and the Prophets of old. The promise was given to Abraham when he was lamenting the backslidings of his people ; it was renewed to Isaac and Jacob in a special manner ; and all through the Old Records glimpses and promises of a some one, who should redeem them from their sins, were scattered. Think you, my friends, that all this was without purpose ? That there was no good end in view 1 That the Hebrews were deceived by the promises and fallacious hopes excited ? No, my friends, these assurances were all to be fulfilled, but in a far different manner to that which the Jews expected ; for, notwithstanding all the teachings and punishments they had received, they were a worldly and ambitious race ; and they looked for a Saviour to raise them, in the eyes of the human family, to power and grandeur. They could not receive the spiritual teachings, the exalting, purifying doctrines of Jesus. But, because they could not do so, did it make his lessons of less value and im portance to the world at large ? By no means. The Jews, though they knew it not, were working for the spread of truth when they persecuted and drove its teachers from among them. As the Hindoos in ages back had spread civilization and refinement by their discords and contentions, so did the Jews by their hard-hearted unbelief cause the Gospel of truth to be more widely disseminated. Men act, and think they are free agents, but even their evil deeds are made subservient to good purposes by the All-wise Disposer of events. The same may be seen now among you, my friends ; the evil passions of men are stirred up ; war and bloodshed must follow ; ruin and desolation must fall upon many ; but good will be evoked from the evil, and wide-spread benefits to 160 ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. mankind, in the aggregate, will be the result. Were there not a wise, superintending Power to order all these things, you might indeed fear when such times occur. But convulsions of this nature are necessary to cleanse the moral atmosphere, occasionally, and man rises purified and benefited, from his punishment. The mission of Christ to your earth, so long foretold, so anxiously anticipated by the Jews, was not an ordi- nary one, neither was it ushered in without many signs and manifestations. The accounts in your Bible, though garbled, are mainly true. A star was seen in the heavens to guide the wise men of the East — descendants of the old Hindoos. Spirits did appear to the shep- herds, and many other phenomena indicated that some unusual event was in progress. Many spirits have tried to explain the nature of Christ's coming to you, but they have failed to give you the right idea ; it remains to be seen if we can convey it more perfectly. That he was not born into the world by the same process that man usually is, we do not mean to affirm. That he was the child of Joseph and Mary, to all outward aprearance, is also true ; but laws ruled in the conception of Jesus that obtained in no other case. Joseph, the reputed father, while in the trance state, had his place entirely supplied by the Holy Spirit, or heavenly magnetism ; so that only the God-principle, unadulterated by his animal nature, had any part in the conception, so far as Joseph was con- cerned. (See Note.) Mary was herself unconscious of Note. We would wish to make ourselves clearly understood in what we have said regarding the birth into the world of Christ, our Head. Men have much to learn and much to unlearn ; the pride of human reason must be abused, and they must understand that there may be some things that are past their comprehension while in this finite state. One of these things is the real character and present po- sition of Christ. He was truly " God with us," as he was conceived ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 161 the act until afterwards, when it was revealed to her by the spirits. She could then realize the nature of the charge she bore, the sacred burden she carried. Christ was indeed truly born of this virgin. Though unconscious to themselves, Joseph had been made the instrument for conveying the God-principle to her. The power of the Holy Spirit was made manifest to these two people, and they understood what had occurred, and rejoiced with exceeding joy that this great blessing had been brought to man through their instrumentality. The persecutions and troubles of Joseph and Mary, in the fullness of the God-principle. He was " the light that was to lighten the world." How was He all this ? Only, as He was more en- tirely pervaded with that essence of Deity that rendered Him almost a part of God Himself ; and which fullness of Deity was conveyed to Him at His conception, when the animal passions of both parents be- ing at rest, during their entranced state, the necessary process of gen- eration was accomplished free from lust, and with nothing to con- taminate or interfere with the God-principle, and the life-principle then and there deposited, to form the nncleus of a being that was in- tended and designed to be superior, in all the higher attributes, to the people of Israel, or any other nation. He was pre-ordained, by Almighty wisdom, to be the Saviour of men. His first work was accomplished when He expired on the Cross. His second mission is in progress ; and its fulfilment may now be looked for. Christ is not God. Neither is he equal with God ; for that is an impossibility. But, at the same time, he is the highest created being that has ever been developed on your sphere: and to Him we all look as our King and Head, our Leader and Director, our Teacher and Guide, in all we undertake for. m2n's benefit. Why do we do this, you will say ? Why not look to Deity himself? Simply because Deity has put all these things into His hands. He is the appointed Messiah of the world, and fitted for His high office by His superior development in all wisdom, love, and knowledge — the peculiar attributes of the Deity. It may be startling, and perhaps mortifying, to the pride of some of you, but it is a fact, nevertheless, that He is the only God you will ever see. He is the nearest approach to Deity you will ever come into rapport with. But if you have understood our teachings aright, yon will have already learned that the God-principle will always remain, as it now is, an unseen, though ever present power, from which Christ 162 ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. during the childhood of the infant Jesus, were caused by the knowledge, all the Jews possessed, that the time had arrived when they were led to expect a Messiah. Some part of the people were displeased that He should come in so humble a guise ; others dreaded that He might deprive them of temporal power. These contending, selfish influences, caused the necessity there was, for Joseph to remove, for a time, with his precious charge from the country. My friends, we have gone into this explanation of the first Advent of Christ on earth, that you may the better understand His true character and mission. Men have Jesus our Lord, as well as we His followers, derive our wisdom and happiness. When I speak of Christ, as the Ruler and Director in heaven, I wish you to understand that we refer to things relating to your earth, and the means necessary to take, in order to redeem it from its present bondage to sin and suffering. We do not refer to the gift of Holy Spirit, for that must come from the Divine Originator of it ; neither do we refer to punishments and rewards in a future state. They, you have now learned, will be ad- ministered through yourselves, by the law of Compensation. But Christ is, and has always been, the guiding and directing power in the war He has so long waged against sin ; and He draws wisdom and strength for His work from the Deity, who so liberally supplies the wants of all who apply to Him. Therefore, my friends, confound not your minds by trying to make all harmonize with your old teachings, either of one kind or another ; but tiy to realize to your own benefits what we now bring you. Though Christ is so high and so good, so powerful, and yet so full of love for the whole human family ; though He was specially created to reform and improve the condition of men ; still, He is not God. He is not to be worshipped as Deity, but He must be ever loved and reverenced by His faithful followers who have received so much good through Him, and who see his constant and untiring efforts to benefit and redeem the people of earth — a work which He will never cease to carry forward till all are brought into the true light of God's Holy Spirit. East and West, North and South, from all quarters shall the darkness ©f error and superstition be done away with, and true light, and love, and peace, shall be the inmates of every bosom. John the Apostle. ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 163 grown to undervalue, too much, the records they possess of Him. His divine nature is scouted, and His holy teach- ings disregarded ■ but this should not be. Think you, my friends, that so much preparation would have been necessary to herald a mere man into your sphere? Truly, no. The need was great for something higher and nobler to visit and redeem the poor human race from their degraded condition. The promise had been made to Abraham and others, and in this way it was worked out. You may think the benefits were not in proportion, but you must bear in mind the gross dark- ness that had to be dispelled, and also how short a time it is since these things happened. Changes, like those Christ advocated, do not take place in a lifetime or in many ages. Reform is a slow process, especially when it attacks the cherished desires and feelings of individuals and nations. To you, my friends, who now know something of the power of the unseen world, and the many ways in which it can influ- ence and guide men, the birth of Jesus into the world, in the way we have described, should be no subject of cavil or doubt. You see many things daily occurring among you, equally incomprehensible to the unenlightened man, which to you are perfectly simple. If mediums can, now, be developed to heal — to speak words of wisdom beyond their own capacity of conception — if they can use divers kinds of tongues, and give all kinds of tests and manifestations from another world, simply because they are possessed of a peculiar kind of organism that renders them adapted to these purposes, and even able, sometimes, to receive the God-principle largely within their own souls. Think you there was any impossibility in conveying through two such good and holy people as Joseph and Mary, mediums as they were, the full influx 164 ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. of this Divine Essence to the infant Jesus, who was to be the Messiah of his people ? Means must always be used to produce an effect. Jf the human family required a teacher of higher righteous- ness and purer truths, than they had yet realized — if they had progressed to that stage of development, when the aspirations of many souls went up for light — was it not to be given to them ? Do men ever really seek for help in vain? No, my friends, the world had then arrived at that state foreseen, by Divine wisdom, as the effect of man's gradual progression. The time was come that prophets and seers had fore- told, and a new era of development was to be inaugu- rated on the earth. Simply, and unostentatiously, was it commenced. The mother, listening to the wisdom of her child, and treasuring it in her heart, is the first result of Christ's teachings. Beautiful and suggestive idea! She, who had borne contumely and scorn for Him, was the first receptor of the benefits He came to bestow. You know little, my friends, of the early life of our Master and Teacher. It was not spent, as many suppose, in working at any trade, but in holy meditation and prayer for that further light that should fit Him for His mission. You, many of you, now say He was only a medium. This is not correct. He was, truly, a Medium, but such an one as you can little conceive of. From His birth He had been filled with the Divine Spirit of God. He was, while yet on earth, in constant communion with the angels. When He retired to meditate and prepare Himself for His work, of which He was fully conscious, wisdom was poured down upon Him in all its fullness. The Spirit of God lived in Him, and His earthly nature was entirely subdued by its power over Him. I would here say, my friends, that you, also, may con- ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 165 trol your earthly natures, in like manner. It is possible for you to have this Spirit of God living and acting in you, in the same way it did in Jesus. You have the development of nearly nineteen centuries to aid you, in addition to all the wise and beautiful teachings Christ left for your use. And you must not say in your hearts, " He could not sympathize with me, for He was never tried as I have been." How know you what trials He went through, what developments He passed over? He was human, at the same time that He was so imbued with the Spirit of God ; and it was to subdue His hu- man passions aud tempers, and develop the spiritual, that He spent so long a time in solitude, before He ven- tured to give His high teachings to the world. When He did come forth in His purified and exalted state, no trials or troubles could move Him. He had learned His lesson fully ; He perfectly understood what was in men, and what was required of Him to teach them. He made no extraordinary parade, no effort to attract attention ; but a word in due season, dropped here and there, were the first seeds sown, of the Gospel that was destined to bear such abundant fruits. Men lis- tened, with wrapt attention, to teachings so different to what they were accustomed to receive from their Scribes and Pharisees. The simplicity and practical utility of His moral lessons, so easy to follow, and so capable of producing the best results, struck them with admiration • and multitudes soon waited on him, to listen to his words. The wonderful power of healing he possessed (but which, my friends, will be the gift of every medium, truly spiritualized ; that is, of every one through whom the Spiritual Essence from God can flow,) attracted all the poor sufferers and cripples to His side, " and He healed them." These last, simple words speak volumes, 166 ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. did you but realize, my friends, the great power of the Spirit that must haye been in Him. You cannot see as we do, at present ; and when you think of your own healing mediums, you may be led to imagine Christ act- ing as they do. But it was far otherwise. His power was from a far higher source ; He had the Holy Spirit direct from God, and His very presence carried a balm and consolation with it. The heavenly magnetism He threw off, bore relief on its breath, and men felt, not only purified in spirit, but better in body, from contact with Him. It is not necessary for me to go into the details of Christ's first mission to men ; your Testament, though incorrect in some unimportant details, gives you a faith- ful picture of His life, as far as it is recorded ; and enough of His teachings to make man wise unto salva- tion, if he only followed them out in the true spirit. The last scenes of His earthly career, there related, are, also, tolerably well described. He suffered the utmost indignity and cruelty the hard-hearted and unbelieving Jews could heap upon Him. He was spit upon and buf- feted, and the pains of His crucifixion enhanced by every indignity they could devise. But how little could they really affect, with all their malignity, the purified and spiritualized soul of the blessed Jesus. His suffer- ings and death were necessary to convince the world of the truth of the teachings he had brought to it, and for which He willing laid down His life ; but the immor- tal soul, the spirit, could not be affected by them. It rose superior to every trial, and buoyed up by its own conscious integrity, soared above all the malice and cruelty of men, rejoicing, rather, that its work being now accomplished here, it could enter into those more congenial spheres with which it had so long held sweet communion. ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 167 Jesus, the high and pure teacher of the Jewish nation, and of many others, through them, entered into the place prepared for Him. Where, my friends, think you did he go ? Far away from the sphere he had so faith- fully performed His appointed work upon ? No. He was too good, too earnest far man's redemption, to lose His interest in Him when He had left the scene of His own labors. As He came here, more fully and divinely filled with light and wisdom, than any other man, so when He passed from your plane, He took His allotted place high among the heavenly hosts, the acknowledged Leader, Governor, and Director, of the spiritual affairs relating to this earth. Other spheres have also their great controlling power, that guides and sways their movements ; but we do not wish now to enter into this subject, but merely to say that from the great God-principle, the fountain of light, all wisdom, as you know, emanates, and is given to each and all as they desire it. Christ, from this fountain, derives all the wisdom, love, and know- ledge He possesses ; but He has drawn from thence so much more largely than any other human being ; He has made so much more of it His own — first, by His sympathy and devotion to the cause of humanity while on earth, and, since His ascension to the higher spheres, by His continued exertions on their behalf ; that He, by right of His superior wisdom, love, and knowledge, takes the lead in heaven in this reformatory movement that is now coming to redeem the earth, in a more tho- rough manner than men have the least idea of. He is the acknowledged Head, to whom the lower intelligences look up with love and respect for guidance. He con- trols all the forces that are brought to battle against sin and suffering ; and as His power and majesty are great, and greatly to be feared by the wicked and im- 168 ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. penitent sinner, so is His love and kindness to the hum- ble and truthful seeker after good, ready to be poured out in all its fullness and abundance. My friends, we are now entering upon the main ob- ject of our Essay, namely, to show you what is the second coming of Christ — so long foretold and looked forward to by His followers. This important event was evidently expected, in all sincerity, by the immedi- ate disciples of Jesus to be very near at hand in their day. They, like you, sometimes mistook the spirits' teachings. They could not understand time, as the spirits did, who have no reckoning of it ; and who, when they said He would come again quickly, thought not of the interpretation that would be put on their words by the human family. But, though periods of time may appear, almost endless, when men look for- ward to them ; slowly, but surely, they pass away, and the time has now, indeed, arrived when they may see the coming of Christ is nigh at hand. But think you, my friends, He will come with loud and noisy demonstrations, terrifying the people with thunder, and lightning, and earthquakes, as emblems and symbols of his presence? No, my friends, be not alarmed by prognostics of such events ; the coming of Christ will be very different to this, but far more tan- gible to human reason. It is to the hearts of the people of earth that his appeal will be made. Consciences that have slum- bered long will be awakened. Justice will be aroused in bosoms that have too often slighted and neglected its calls. Pity will be excited. Sympathies will be stirred up, and love, the supreme and universal love for mankind, shall find an entrance into every bosom. These are the manifestations that will attend Christ's second coming to earth. These are the effects that ON THE SECOND COMING OP CHRIST. 169 will mark his progress. Deeds of violence and blood- shed may be enacted before that time. Men may be humbled and prepared by suffering to receive him, but all the calamities that threaten to overwhelm this na- tion and others, will work out an end commensurate with the good that is to follow. Men are now, as a general thing, so well satisfied with their condition, that they do not desire or wish for a change ; but, when they have been tried by calamity, and find all their fancied supports failing them, and that even their boasted faith does not bear them up under their trials; then will they be glad to receive into their hearts the spirits' teachings. Then can the power of Jesus work, and Holy Influence find an entrance into their previ- ously darkened souls. Jesus the Christ will send His messengers to prepare the way before him ; nay, He has already done so, and they have found entrance into some hearts open to re- ceive them. He is sending more and more daily, as men can accept their teachings. Soon He will himself take the field in person, armed for the conflict with the light of love, wisdom, and knowledge, from the great God himself. Men cannot yet bear the light of His sphere, neither could they receive his exalted teachings in their full extent. But, gradually, as the darkness is cleared away, and the minds of the people get magnet- ized with the love and wisdom we bring, higher and purer light will be pressed forward, and the darkness of error and sin must flee before it. We cannot, my friends, make you see these things exactly as we could wish, because your minds are not yet sufficiently developed in spiritual knowledge to un- derstand the workings of spirit power ; but you can un- derstand quite enough to show you that Christ's second mission is also a mission of love to men ; and, that though 170 ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. much suffering is necessary to awaken the inhabitants of earth from their lethargy, the suffering and sorrow does not proceed from any source but themselves. Man has himself evoked into being the state of affairs that now exists, and from which he will not be relieved till he has experienced much necessary punishment. But, when a change does take place, when the more perfect rule of harmony, love, and justice, obtains among you, then you will look back upon these times of trial and suffering with joy and rejoicing ; realizing, as you will do, the blessings you have received through them. My friends, when men think at all of the second coming of Christ to earth, they imagine a dreadful day of reckoning and a sorting out among the people, of the good from the bad, the redeemed from the unregenerate, and that Christ, as a stern and uncompromising Judge, shall sit on his throne, and sentence the wicked to ever- lasting condemnation. This erroneous idea has been fostered somewhat by a few passages in the New Testa- ment, erroneously given, and probably inserted, after the record was written, to assimilate the teachings of the Christians, more nearly, to the pagans who believed in the eternal duration of punishment. Be this as it may, we cannot look into that subject now, neither is it requi- site for our purpose to enter into these old disquisitions. The true teachings of Christ are there, in all their beau- tiful simplicity, high enough for the wisest sages to dwell on with rapt attention, simple enough for a child to un- derstand and practice, if it is rightly trained. But this is a digression, I would say that the misapprehensions, regarding Christ's second coming, have had their origin, in part, from passages in the New Testament, wrongly given, or inserted after it was written ; and in part, also, from the bias of mind of the old Fathers who compiled the records, and tinged them with the superstitions ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 171 ironi which many of them had just emerged. Christ himself never gave utterance to such an idea ; he was too enlightened, too full of the Essence of Divinity to be- lieve, for a moment, that eternal punishment would be the doom of any, however guilty ; and, my friends, while I would have you reverence and carry out His teachings in your lives, I would advise you to read the Old Books with judgment and discrimination ; taking what is good and worthy to be followed to your own souls, and trying to live up to the teachings ; but wisely drawing the line between the good and the evil contained in both Testa- ments. Much of error got mixed in, in regard to this second coming of Christ, as I said, and men have specu- lated in a very self-righteous way on the subject in con- sequence. How many thousands have left your earth, wearing. as they thought, the bridal garments, and prepared to meet the Lamb, through sanctification by his blood, who have found out their grievous error when too late to rectify it ! No, my friends, they only are prepared to meet the Lamb, or Christ, who have, like him, purified and sanctified their own spirits. No imputed righteous- ness of Christ or saint can save or assist a man ; he must be his own redeemer. But then, my friends, he may get help and. strength from saints and Christ, and from the Deity also, to assist him in his work, if he seek for it in the right way. Christ Jesus is not coming, and never will come to Earth, in a personal form, to judge and condemn any ; but he will, by the power given unto him from on high, come into the hearts of the people and judge and con- demn there. He will open each individual's eyes to see his own naked deformity of spirit, and He will give him the means of curing his diseases, by showing him how he may reform and improve himself. 172 ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. Development has been a slow process, hitherto, be- cause of the difficulty there was in reaching the human family through the darkness that surrounded them. But it will be less and less difficult every day, and more and more light will be brought down to aid men in this necessary work. Many will rise from their low sur- roundings, their impure thoughts, their unholy callings, without any apparent cause ; a change will come over them, and they will wonder why they are so different. Others will be brought to see the light by trials of vari- ous kinds ; loss of friends, of wealth, of station, of all that they most valued. A gradual softening of the hearts of the people will evince the presence of some power foreign to themselves, silently working among them. After its effects are become more perceptible, and men begin to entertain a different feeling for each other — when the rich man can regard his poor neighbor as a brother, and treat him as such, not coldly passing him by, regardless of his condition — when, by the help of your mediums, the sick and suffering shall be relieved, and peace and plenty shall again bless your land — then, my friends, shall the power of the Spirit of Christ, and the workings of His sacred mission to earth be more fully revealed to you ; its effects will then be manifested, and daily shall men realize them more and more. Earth, air, and sky, shall rejoice together, freed and purified from the load of sin, and misery, and oppression, that had so long kept them in slavery. Birds, beasts, and fishes shall share in the jubilant song of joy. Vegeta- tion of all kinds shall improve, shall flourish in luxuri- ant abundance, relieved from the bad magnetism that the sins of men had so long oppressed it with, and now watered with the choice dews of a purified sphere. To you, my friends, who can realize only the ills that op- ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 173 press you, this may appear only poetical rhapsody, but it is simple truth. You have never known, till now, how wide- spread is the curse that sin brings upon every- thing connected with it, and you cannot, with your finite minds, comprehend the amoimt of evil, men's vicious and indulged passions have generated. But you may form some little idea of it, when you consider how long and how devotedly Christ and his followers have worked, trying to bring their light to you, through the dense blackness of darkness you have formed around the earth by your misdoings. Now, however, it is pen- etrated, and a breach having been made, the hosts of Heaven rush in armed for the conflict. Doubt not, my friends, but that they will be victorious. With such a Leader, and in such a cause, they cannot fail. Their suc- cess is certain, their triumph is sure. Pray ye, my friends, that they may come quickly ; assist them in this way. Let your aspirations go upwards, and let your deeds be in accordance with your knowledge of what Christ comes to enforce. Many will be cut down in this coming conflict of your people with each other. Many will suffer worldly loss. But if your hopes are fixed on high, if your desires are for the better and purer light of truth that Christ comes to reveal to man, you need not fear the approaching struggle for earthly power or human rights. You have a hope higher than the earth ; more sure and steadfast than anything on this transitory plane ; and which no changes, no disasters can deprive you of. We have now concluded what we wished to say to you on this important subject, and with the nature of Christ's second mission, we shall close our work for the present. Read and digest, my friends, the words of wisdom we have conveyed to you. Let them sink into your souls, and nourish and sustain your spirits in the \ approaching time of trouble. There is, in what we 174 ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. have given you, food suitable to all ; none need go away empty or unrefreshed, if they will come and drink at the fountain of knowledge and wisdom we have poured out for them. My friends, despise not the say- ings of this book ; they have come to you from the sphere of spirits who are now working with Christ Jesus, for your benefit, and they have made use of this instrument, truthful and unbiased, by the opinions and ways of the world, to convey to you teachings it is now necessary you should receive, that you may understand, more clearly, the workings of the unseen hosts that sur- round you, and assist their efforts in every possible way. You may have received, heretofore, many wrong and erroneous teachings from the unseen denizens of the lower spheres, for they were, and are, permitted to work for a time. They have their use. When that is accom- plished, they will cease to trouble you with their con- flicting opinions. But, my dear friends of earth, you must now look for something higher and better. You must press forward in your high calling, and let nothing short of the truest wisdom, love, and knowledge satisfy you in what you receive, and in what you aim to arrive at, in your own souls. Then, my friends, how blessed will be the commuuion that the saints of earth will hold with the spirits above. Purified and elevated to their standard, while yet in the bodj T , they will walk and talk with the angels, and draw down, from their spheres of wisdom, new food for delightful contemplation. But it is almost too soon to enter into this high theme, so few men are prepared to receive it. We must now take our leave for a time, of the medium, and the pleasant task we have been mutually engaged in — trusting, soon, to commence another labor through her, which, we doubt not, will be as faithfully performed, John the Apostle. January 13, 1861. Aftt.t5.H6-l. ex FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE WORLD OF SPIRITS, ON SUBJECTS HIGHLY IMPORTANT TO tteie xa:xjivi^_isr JOSHUA, SOLOMON, AND OTHERS IHimi llwiil ji §jiB: N c* (9 #eiv *fovk; PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR A. J. BRADY. PRINTER. 5 TRYON ROW. 1861. 3_^ v> ^«es > y> ^v> 1 >3 >3 ^>3 >3 3>>i » a?> > tig* 33 3 3.-5" 3> ■>> 3 3 >3 >^ '3* 3 3> 0^ >?» j0) 3^ l^> r>^i ^ ]^ . B* > > ^ ^» Y> ^ 1^ Y> "* ^k 3 1^^ ^s ^> 3 3 s .. jjjik >^ QK> .33*, >-]> 3? 3£ ^ > 335 > 3J ■ JtHl >|> 3>33 *3Jf§T Y " ^^ -:3>3 ^ :3>3 "3 i>3T^ A 1 ^ i-=ssSS _>*-• "-3 -•" 3 3^^r- :: * & 3> ;? >33 >^> Y3 ^^? >3 ^ ^3^k^ 7^^' 33; ^ >-:^^. 1 ^ < * 3S -^-^ 3E5? > 3S ^ ^ 3>V3^> ^-' dified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 1 6066 (724)779-2111 > ) - > *X2 ... > »> ^^ -> 3 > > > > ; >>> . > - 3> ^r>Z3T>£> ? -»3J> > -> ^ 3^ >> i :"> > > ^Z> ^ >