JS9S. MIRACLES PAST AND PRESENT WILLIAM MOUNTFOED BOSTON" FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO. 1870 Entered according to Act of CongreBS, in the year 1870, by WILLIAM MOUNTFORD, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. ri f, University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. PKEFACE. THE subject of the Supernatural has engaged my attention, as a student, during many years. It grew upon me as to importance, and deepened as to interest, while I was at Eome, where, like St. Paul, I dwelt two years in my own hired house. This book, which I offer to the public, was written simply because the times seemed to be asking for some such work And, as nobody else was answering to the call of the times, it occurred to me suddenly, one morning, some sixteen months ago, that perhaps I might myself be not quite clear of the summons. Doubtless a bet ter man than I am was called upon, and a better book was asked for than what I have to offer. I confess that I feel so. And let this acknowledgment be accepted as an apology for such a venture as this is upon such a theme. Some persons have wondered that I should have attempted to strengthen my argument by availing myself of the phenomena of Spiritualism as evi dence of there being about us a sphere of life alto gether different from this of nature, and for which science has no methods nor instruments, and for which, therefore, it should not have even one word of denial, or even of doubt. Those phenomena may be called ridiculous, or they may be called demoniac ; IV * PREFACE. but at least and certainly they are cosmical. And, indeed, if I had ignored the subject of Spiritualism because of its being unpopular, how could I ever have borne afterwards to think of Henry More, or of Bich- ard Baxter, or of John Wesley, or his dear brother Charles ? Or how could I ever again have consulted Ealph Cudworth, as to the Intellectual System of the Universe ? Or how could I have remembered, thence forth, without shame, the Christian writers from Her mas to Augustine ? Or how could I have endured a life among books, when all those, with the greater names, would have seemed to be saying, with one voice, " Thou shalt not bear false witness." Perhaps I ought to say that I sympathize with the early Christians and their faith as to the Spirit, rather than with anything which I may have seen or heard in Borne, at Whitsuntide. St. Chrysostom says, in one of his homilies, delivered at Constantinople, prob ably towards the end of the fourth century, that there had been used to be a pause, during the service in the church, wherein for persons to rise, who were moved by the Spirit, and that that space had been closed, almost within his own time. Also after saying that many of the miraculous gifts of the early Church had been withdrawn, he says : " And among the rest, the gift of prayer, which was then distinguished by the name of the Spirit. And he that had this gift prayed for the whole congregation. Upon which account the apostle gh.es the name of the Spirit, both to this gift and to the soul that was endowed with it, who made intercession with groanings unto God, asking of God such things as were of general use and ad- PREFACE. V vantage to the whole congregation ; the image and symbol of which now is the deacon, who offers up prayer for the people." Into that customary ancient place in the service, that deacon ought never perhaps to have been intruded. For even when there was in it nothing but silence, it was a place wherein for peo ple to wonder, and to feel conscious of there having been something lost or suspended, as between the Chureh and its invisible Head. However, that solemn significant pause, which anciently there was in the public services of the Church, would not have been endured in this present century. Of a certain period in the history of the Israelites, it is written that, in those days, " There was no open vision." But than the frankness of such a statement as that, spiritually, there is nothing which is more foreign to the world as it now is ; for the world to-day thinks that, on account of its high civil ization, the universe must surely be pledged to its sup port, in every way which is possible. And it thinks, also, that never could any age previously have been as open to light from every quarter as this present time is. However, the way, according to Chrysostom, in which the Church was closed against the Spirit, during the services on the Lord's day, should hint for us that there may have been also many other ways, by which Christians may have been discouraged from waiting on God, for the Spirit. Earlier in the Church than -Chrysostom, by some four or five generations, was Origen, and he wrote that " all who can say truly that they have risen with Christ, and been seated with him in the kingdom of VI PREFACE. heaven, live always in Pentecostal days." And as to public worship, very noteworthy is his opinion ; for he says that the special advantage of public worship is, that individuals are thereby in communion with those who worship in the Spirit, and in the presence of the Lord and the holy angels ; and he adds, " and as I think also of the spirits of the departed." That is a thought akin to the age, wherein originated the phrase of " the communion of saints." The Church of the Future will be, of course, in some degree, a continuation of the Past ; but it will specially be, earlier or later, a revival of the early Church, at its best. And this book has been written and is pub lished under the persuasion that the voice of the early Church is as distinctly audible to-day as it ever was ; and that, as far merely as the miraculous is concerned, the Scriptures, when fairly considered, at this present time, are as credible as ever they were. W. M. Boston, February 22, 1870. CONTENTS. Page The Anti-Sttpernaturalism of the Present Age . . 1 Science and the Supernatural 38 Miracles and Doctrine 71 Miracles and the Believing Spirit .... 90 The Scriptures and Pneumatology .... 110 Miracles and Science 120 The Spirit and the Prophets thereof . . . .131 Anti-Supernatural Misunderstandings . . . 144 The Last Ecstatic 152 Matter and Spirit 166 The Outburst of Spiritualism 184 Thoughts on Spiritualism 205 A Miracle defined 224 Miracles as Signs 249 Miracles and the Creative Spirit 262 Miracles and Human Nature 285 Miracles and Pneumatology 309 viii CONTENTS. The Spirit and the Old Testament .... 340 The Old Testament and the New 382 The Spirit 399 Jesus and the Spirit 430 Jesus and the Eesurrection 452 The Church and the Spirit 478 Index to Texts quoted 505 Index of Subjects 509 MIKACLES PAST AND PRESENT. THE ANTI-SUPEEFATUEALISM OF THE PEESENT AGE. IT is proposed to consider the subject of miracles as connected with Christianity. And perhaps than this there is no religious topic which has been more variously and strangely treated, during the last century. And this is saying a great deal. For how has it fared with Christianity, and even at the hands of those, some times, by whom it has been accounted as the Tree of ' Life ? Often, among other anomalous doings, it has been treated as though a gardener should take up a tree and turn it about, to humor every change of wind upon it ; and as though, to prove it to be a living thing, he should lay bare its roots for every questioner, and even paint them, to make them more seemly. Miracles are the possibilities of a miracle-bearing tree ; but commonly they are regarded as though they were some arbitrary manufacture. In the New Testa ment they are simply called " signs and wonders " ; but in this age, among both believers and unbelievers, it is agreed that they are suspensions of the laws of na ture, or else are nothing. Miracles presuppose the ex istence of a spiritual world containing spiritual agents and spiritual forces ; with laws peculiar to it, and with 1 A 2 THE ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM some laws also capable of intertwining and inosculat ing with some of the laws of man's nature and of the material world. And yet often, by even the advocates of their reality, miracles are argued wholly and simply as material occurrences, and quite apart from the phi losophy of their nature, and, indeed, as though there were really no such philosophy known. And this is because of the spirit of the age, which is so strong in us all. For it is no matter what a man may be, whether philosopher, theologian, or anything else, al most inevitably in some way or other, the spirit of the age will have its say through him, and pervert, if not quench, his meaning. No doubt, things have often been credited as mirac ulous which were no miracles at all. But the precise opposite of credulity is not wisdom, always. And if it be said that it is only at Naples that the blood of St. Januarius will liquefy, it may be answered that there has also been such a place as that in it, nei ther would " they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." And to-day there are eminent places, where men hold that neither their own eyes, nor the eyes of all other persons, are to be trusted for a mira cle, or, as they would say, for anything different from the laws of nature. But, with all their scepticism, these sceptics do not remember that a law of nature may be one thing, and their notion of that law be something else, or something a little different. But, indeed, when incredulity becomes as intense as that, it is self-confounded, self-confuted, even though it should be in regard to such a miracle as that which happened, when the axe-head fell into the water, and Elisha " cut OF THE PRESENT AGE. 3 down a stick and cast it in thither, and the iron did swim." For, if a man cannot trust his eyes and ears, how can he rely on his doubts ? And how does he know but doubting his senses may be an unworthy, untrustworthy act, and even may, perhaps, be a mere nervous boggling ? And how should even a materialist trust the wisdom which has been filtered for him, as he thinks, from outside, through his eyes and ears, if he cannot trust his eyes and ears themselves ? But, in the spirit of his times or neighborhood, a man will think and hold what, under other influences, would have been for him only a speculative, tentative posi tion. And because of its being in us and of us, the spirit of the age is the last thing to be suspected, as vitiating sound judgment. It is in this spirit of the time to judge of everything by uniformity, whether as regards the world or man kind. And so, from what he understands to be the uniformity of the laws of nature, a man of the time thinks himself competent to check the report of the past, and decide that there never could have been wa ter changed into wine, or a demon exorcised, because at this present time water is never seen changing into wine, nor a demon known to be dispossessed of his cor poral lodgings. And because of what he fancies must be the uniformity of human nature, this man of the time thinks, too, that from himself he knows of every body else, as to what they can have seen or cannot have seen ; can have heard or cannot have heard ; can have felt or cannot have felt ; and in the same way, as differing from himself, he is certain that in the past they must all have been loose thinkers ; and not the 4 THE ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM Jews only, but the Greeks and Eomans too, and even Socrates and Plato, because of their having reasoned about things which he himself has never met with, and which, if he did meet, he would never believe his own eyes about. It is by availing himself of this temper of the times that largely Ernest Eenan gets his strength as a con troversialist ; for what he has to say on the subject of miracles would have been but feeble talk anywhere, one or two hundred years ago, and would sound but inanely even to-day, in such regions as are clear away from the influence of Paris and London. " A miracle is not to be regarded, because it never could have hap pened ; and because even if, perchance, it had hap pened, there never could have been any people who could have been believed about it." This, in form, is the argument of Eenan. Bui, of course, it is good only for people of that way of thinking, only for persons sensitive to the spirit of the age, and who are ready to add, without another word, " And so I think, because so I am sure." The following quotation is from the introductory chapter to " The Apostles," by Ernest Eenan : " The first twelve chapters of the Acts are a tissue of mira cles. It is an absolute rule in criticism to deny a place in history to narratives of miraculous circum stances ; nor is this owing to a metaphysical system, for it is simply the dictation of observation. Such facts have never been really proved. All the pretended miracles near enough to be examined are referable to illusion or imposture. If a single miracle had ever been proved, we could not reject in a mass all those of OF THE PRESENT AGE. 5 ancient history ; for, admitting that very many of these last were false, we might still believe that some of them were true. But it is not so. Discussion and examination are fatal to miracles. Are we not, then, authorized in believing that those miracles which date many centuries back, and regarding which there are no means of forming a contradictory debate, are also without reality ? In other words, miracles only exist when people believe in them. The supernatural is but another word for faith. Catholicism, in maintaining that it yet possesses miraculous power, subjects itself to the influence of this law. The miracles of which it boasts never occur where they would be most effective. "Why should not such a convincing proof be brought more prominently forward ? A miracle at Paris, for instance, before experienced savans, would put an end to all doubt. But, alas ! such a thing never happens." But, now, oracular though this might be, judged by the manner in which it has been bowed to, what is there in it all more than the mere sceptical spirit of the age ? What does it do more than simply tickle the humor of the time ? Psychologically, it is a curious passage, because the sweep of its intention is so wide ; while the wording of it is so like the unconscious, in nocent expression of a child. It is as though a boy, as the easier way of settling with a problem in mathe matics, should say : " There is nothing in it. There never was anything learned from that direction. 0 my master, all the best boys have looked at it, and say that there is nothing in it, — nothing at all. And so, now, how can there be ? And, please, even if it be true, it cannot really be unless we let it be." But 6 THE ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM here it may be asked, whether it is likely that Ernest Eenan, as a boy, ever talked in that manner ; and to this it may be answered, that it is very unlikely, con sidering that he was born in Brittany. And it is just as unlikely, too, that he could ever have written the preceding quotation from one of his works, but for his education, direct and indirect. For he was born in Brittany, a country of simple, fervent, unquestioning faith as to the Church. Thence he was carried to Par is, and placed in a primary theological school, whence he was passed on to a similar school elsewhere. Hav ing finished with the latter school, he became a resident in the Seminary of St. Sulpice, which, indeed, inside, is wholly ordered by members of the Society of Jesus, but on the outside is pressed upon by the light, sceptical, and anti- Christian air of Paris. Ernest Eenan had been brought up like a child of the Middle Ages, and then found himself, as a young man, where, with a few steps out of doors, he was in the atmosphere of Paris and under the influence of the Sorbonne. And now, with all this, was it not natural that Eenan should have become a Eationalistic author instead of a Catholic priest ? And because of his being a simple, earnest, intellectual man, was it not all the more natural still, that, by contrast with the air of St. Sulpice, he should mistake for the spirit of truth itself what was but the spirit of the age manifesting itself through a highly educated class, in a city singularly self-centred and self-sufficient ? But, says the critic here criticised, " A miracle at Paris before experienced savans !" Elsewhere, too, he explains more exactly what would suit him as to a OF THE PRESENT AGE. 7 miracle ; that it should be wrought under conditions as to time and place, in a hall, and before a commission of physiologists, chemists, physicians, and critics ; and that when it had been done once, it should, on request, be repeated. And no doubt, to the writer, this ap peared to be a very fair way of dealing with miraculous pretensions ; and no doubt, too, of his most emphatic opponents, there are many to whom, in their secret thought, it would be a puzzle, if such a proposition had been made to Jesus at Jerusalem, why it should not have been accepted at once for the market-place, or the court of the temple. For Eenan is simply strong in that way of looking at things, which is characteris tic of this present age, and which commonly is called sceptical, but which, also, sometimes is called practical and even business-like. Not jocosely, but in all seri ousness, every now and then are put forth and read in vitations to the miraculous such as that which Ernest Eenan makes. One man writes in abstract, scientific terms, and another in plain English ; but both one and the other mean the same thing. " Let miracles come to me in my study, and show themselves inside of my crucible, while my friends are all standing round, and at the moment exactly when it shall be said that we are all ready, and then I will believe ; though of course, even- then, I should not be absolutely forced to, but still I should, I think. And now what do you say to that ? " And there really is nothing to say to it. Martin Luther, indeed, said once what probably he ¦would have remarked again, if he hadheard this scien tific, common-sense proposal, that for certain, some times, over some of his creatures God Almighty must laugh. 8 THE ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM But now, as to miracles, it is not pretended that they are absolutely at the ordering of any man as to time and place. But, indeed, is it so that science treats a subject, even less foreign to its own domain than miracles ? Axe earthquakes, as reports, accounted incredible, as not occurring at a time and a place known beforehand, and submissive to the directions of men with clocks and spirit-levels, and with magnetic and other ma chines all ready for use ? And, indeed, a miracle com ing to order would scarcely be a miracle. For, coming to order patiently, punctually, and as a scientific cer tainty, it would by that very fact have parted probably with something essential to its nature as commonly understood. But really a Kamtschatkan, unmitigated and sim ple, arguing with Ernest Eenan on Sanscrit, could not show himself more insensible as to the laws of philol ogy than Eenan shows himself on the subject of mir acles ; for he is utterly unconscious, apparently, of there being any philosophy connected with them, and of there being laws as to miracles, known more or less by some men in all ages, and as certain as gravitation. But it may be asked how this can be, Eenan being a very sensible writer. And so a man may write well on geometry, and yet show himself to be very stolid as to poetry, and even also as to those thoughts akin to the spiritual universe, which are suggested by the strange properties of numbers, or which come in upon the mind, like corollaries on the demonstration of cer tain problems. Thus, even by his constitution, Eenan may have a strong, keen, serviceable, excellent sense OF THE PRESENT AGE. 9 of the life which Jesus lived as other men live, and yet be utterly insensible to the life of Jesus the Christ, as fed by the Spirit, and going forth in miracles, and incapable of seeing corruption. But, indeed, for his manner of writing the spirit of his age abundantly ac counts, just as it accounts for some of the more fervent of his admirers, who like in his writings what is weak est, as much as they do what is best. Of what use, it is asked, can miracles ever have been among people not fit to be believed about them, such as were the people of old time and the people of the Middle Ages, and such as are all the people of the provinces of France, and men of the people and men of the world everywhere ? For, as Eenan says, neither men of the world nor men of the people are " capable of establishing the miraculous character of an act." An act is what he says, any act, any miraculous act, and not merely some very recondite thing hard to no tice. This is one of those general statements which often pass unchallenged, because nobody thinks that they can mean him ; but it is not, therefore, the less mischievous. Perhaps there is not a man of the world who allows this opinion, as he reads it, but thinks, though he is no physician and has never been publicly recognized as critic, chemist, or physiologist, that some how, certainly, he himself must have science and art enough, for being one of Eenan's judges of the miracu lous, and must have been intended, indeed, to be includ ed amongst them. Physicians, physiologists, men of criticism and chemistry, men of science, the only com petent judges as to miracles ! For some conceivable miracles they might be ; but for some others detective 10 THE ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM policemen would be far better witnesses. And, for ;still .some other miracles, that men of the world, as judges, are inferior to chemists, — this is a sentiment which can come only from scientific folly, or from much learn ing gone mad. As to whether the true magnetic pole could be made to swerve for a moment in the heavens, professional men would be the better and perhaps the only proper judges. But men of the people and men of the world are as good judges as men of science on a miracle like this, which occurred in the wilderness : " His disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness as to fill so great a multitude ? And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye ? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks and break them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat and were filled ; and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. And they that did eat were five thousand men, beside wo men and children." But now what a want of taste and feeling it seems not to pause here for a little while, after such a glimpse into Galilee at that wonderful time. But it is not permitted, as the world now is, to those who know it theologically. For in comes, on the mind, the recol lection of David F. Strauss, the famous writer on the Gospels, who says that he himself cannot believe in a miracle until he has had a solution of the philosophi cal views which he entertains against the possibility of such a thing. So that with him, even seeing would OF THE PRESENT AGE. 11 not be believing, unless, by good luck, there were some sophist standing by, more cunning than himself, who could unloose for him, in his mind, the knots of his own tying. Any man, down in the depths of learning, or up on the heights of science, in a difficulty of that kind, is to be pitied, because of the pains which he must have taken before he could have got there in his senses. But now for David F. Strauss himself pity is not the word, but sympathy. And the sympathy to be felt for him is profound, and as though for a pioneer in the grand advance of civilization, who had got bewildered in a thicket, and at whose position only they can laugh who cannot even faintly conjecture what it is to try a step forwards in theology under religious responsi bility. Still, however, it is a certainty that such an avowal as that which Strauss makes of himself, is the self-exposure of " philosophy falsely so called." And now let us consider the arguments against the supernatural from the uniformity of human nature. At present almost everybody feels the force of it more or less, and not the less unduly often because uncon sciously. But, as a dogmatic position, it is commonly assumed by persons belonging to two very different classes, — by studious, scholarly men, and by people who call themselves self-made men, and who boast themselves of having been sharpened by collisions with their fellows. Human nature, it is supposed, is everywhere and always the same, and as uniform as a law of nature ; so as that everybody knows of him self whether a spirit has ever been seen anywhere, or a vision ever been had, or a miraculous cure ever been experienced. Now certainly human nature is every- 12 THE ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM where human. But then what is this humanity ? For, before beginning to .deny from it as a ground, it should be absolutely certain how far the ground reach es. Plainly, we are not all the equals of Plato, or Sol omon, or Newton. And if, now and then, individuals have proclaimed themselves sensitive to a world of spirit, it would hardly seem to be a greater variation in human nature than what is common in every city, where one man wallows in the mire of sensuality, while another feeds on fruits ripened on the topmost boughs of the tree of knowledge. And certainly a seer does not vary from a Troglodyte more than Plato does ; and so why should he not be believed in, on good evi dence as to his character ? But, indeed, for those who hold that man is body and spirit, why should it be incredible that there should be varieties of spiritual experience among men, considering that some men do nothing but live to the body, while others live earnestly to the spirit ? If there be a spirit in man, and a spirit with the powers of a spirit, why should it be reckoned a thing impossible, that it should make itself more distinctly felt in one man than another ? And why should it be beyond belief or expectation even that, now and then, there might be a person with whom some faculty of the spirit should be more than dormantly alive ? — the eye for spirits even, if any should be near ; the ear for more than mortal sounds ; and the spiritual under standing for a prompting other than that of flesh and blood ? But the fact is that the anti-supernaturalism of our times is the result of thought akin to materi alism ; and from this effect of materialism very few OF THE PRESENT AGE. 13 persons are wholly exempt. For even the partisans of a spiritual theology argue it commonly like material ists, — argue it as though it were some field of nature, reaching out of sight, indeed, but to be pronounced upon, from familiar analogies. Even those who rank themselves farthest from the professors of materialism, show themselves to be inwardly affected by it, by their unwillingness to have spirit defined in any other way than negatively. They say that spirit is not sub stance because matter is substantial ; that spirit can not be known of by men because, though they may be spirits themselves, they can learn only through the five senses ; and that spirit cannot act upon matter be cause it cannot touch it, from the want of some prop erty in common with it. So that, for some fervent disci ples of a spiritual philosophy, spirit is not much more than the indefinable. The universality of the materi alism of the age is illustrated by the manner in which even immaterialists agree with their opposites on some most important points of denial and disbelief. Some of them talk reverentially of George Fox and his doc trine and experience of the Spirit ; but they resolutely ignore all the signs and wonders in his history, which by Fox himself are ascribed to the Spirit. Others of them hold the writings of Jacob Boehme like oracles of spirituality, while they treat like an idle, unmeaning preface, the assertion prefixed to one of them, that it was not written out of his mind, but from thoughts which forced an utterance through him from the Spir it. .And still others of them affect Plotinus as a great spiritual teacher ; but they shut their eyes on the in tercourse with spirits which he held, and on his expe riences of the ecstatic state. 14 THE ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM A man may hold the creed of his sect or party ever so firmly, but yet largely his thought will be governed by what he can never quite escape from, — the spirit of his age. And narratives or doctrines of the super natural, in a time hke this, can be, at the best, only just not rejected. At present, in meditative stillness, spiritual perception may be attained ; but out in the world, almost it quite fails at once, from being stifled by the atmosphere of the world's common thought. True, thousands and tens of thousands of clergymen preach the supernatural, and millions of persons, week by week, sit and hear them. But this is not evidence of faith any more than the discords, deceits, and dis content, the treacheries, sensualities, and blasphemies of Monday are proofs of what was preached and ac quiesced in on Sunday. Perhaps nearly every learned and thoughtful clergyman might express himself in something like this manner : " I am one of His witness es for these things. I see that they were so and are so. And yet, strange to say, I cannot preach as I feel ; or rather I cannot make my hearers feel what I wish to preach. And the sermon which I thought was full of the arrows of the Lord hits no one where I aim, and is indeed no more than the ' lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instru ment.' "• And, more than that, the sermon does not sound like the same thing, even to himself. And the words which, while they were meditated in secret, were fraught with the Spirit, being uttered in public, do not reach the spiritual man, but only the ear of the natural man, and are powerless except as they may chance to be approved by the intellect testing them by OF THE PRESENT AGE. 15 logic, rhetoric, history, and some of the natural sensibil ities. And the reason is very simple, for the atmos phere of the world and of a worldly church is not that of a Christian study, with its windows opening towards Jerusalem. And even a preacher may be really " in the Spirit on the Lord's day " ; but he must be very happily constituted if he does not find that, with cross ing the street, on his way to the pulpit, the Spirit has been more or less quenched in him. And, from ex changing looks with his hearers, he is conscious that he is not quite what he was while in the presence of the fathers, and in sympathy with Jeremy Taylor, and in fellowship with Baxter and Doddridge, and in the com munion of the saints. Partly his rationalistic dogmas and forms of speech do not admit fully of either the doctrines or the utterance of the Spirit ; and partly, what utterance of the Spirit his words suffice 'for, often his hearers are not capable of receiving, because in them the sense of the supernatural is very commonly almost quite suspended ; and so " they seeing, see not ; and hearing, they hear not ; neitner do they under stand." And with the people as well as the preacher this is not so much their fault as their misfortune, — the tendency of the time which they belong to, and which it is not possible to quite escape. And this tendency, this spirit of the age, is not of yesterday merely, but of previous ages. It is an effect of the manner, in which the souls of men have been stupefied by the astounding disclosures of science. It results, also, from the fact that the ordinary modes of religious administration are what have been persisted in, with out the slightest modification, since the days when 16 THE ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM they were the agony of George Fox's soul, and the scorn of Eobert Barclay's logic ; and in part, also, it is a consequence of altered ways of life, the growth of luxury, the increasing subordination of the individual to the body politic, and the predominance of the pecu liar influences of the city over those of the country. . Perhaps never before has there been as much unbe lief, innocent in its origin, as there is at present. In former ages widely prevalent unbelief was caused by moral corruption. But the peculiar scepticism of the present age is not as desperate as that. It is not mainly of the heart, and thus the issues of life are not thereby corrupted, as they otherwise might be. And so at present, in their inmost hearts, men have really more faith than they themselves know of. And often it is observed that, apparently, while sickness thins away the body, there . is also a mental incrustation which gives way too, and through which the soul seems to look out with a sweet surprise, and a glad sense of the God who is nearer than was thought. If it may be so expre'ssed, it is for the comfort of the strong more than even of the dying that faith at the present day needs to be strengthened. What general uneasiness there is theologically ! Every church is opposed to every other church, and yet also is divided against itself. And the same want of faith, or satisfy ing conviction, is largely evident in individuals. Vast numbers simply acquiesce in their creeds, and tim idly recoil from even learning about them. And how often it is to be seen, that if an individual tries to think for himself, he is at one time zealous for cere monies, and at another time resolute against them, as OF THE PRESENT AGE. 17 embarrassing crutches ; and is a believer in mainly one article of his creed one year, and in another article an other year. And from those hearts which best know themselves, what an unceasing prayer must be rising from closet to closet, from church to church, from town to town, all round the world, " Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief " ! The unbelief which is specially of this age is so far from being atheistic that it even prays ; for such atheism as is possible now, is what really may be confuted within the range of the mind of a child. Indeed, the unbelief of our time is mainly anti-supernaturalism, or more precisely, perhaps, anti- spiritualism. It is not, however, a denial of the angels any more than of God. But exactly it denies that man, as a class of creatures occupying that particular place in the universe which is the kingdom of nature, is liable to be visited by any other creatures, whether higher or lower, not also denizens of nature. It denies, too, that there are any other avenues to the human mind than what the anatomist can indicate with his scalpel ; and, therefore, it denies that the human spirit is open to be acted upon by the Holy Ghost as in the early days of Christianity ; and denies, also, that men are ever approachable in any way, or for any purpose whatever, or ever so slightly by angel, spirit, or devil. The denial runs thus : " As to spirit, I have never seen it, and I will believe it when I have. And, what is more, I never have heard of any one worthy of belief who ever did see a spirit. When I am told about my head or my hand I know what is talked about ; but about spirit I know nothing, nor anybody else either ; and my common sense tells me the same thing. And B 18 THE ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM that God has given me common sense I "do know. I do not mean to say that we shall not live again ; but I mean to say that at present spirit is what my com mon sense knows nothing about ; and I am for com mon sense." True ; but uncommon things may re- , quire an uncommon sense, or rather a sense which is too commonly fast asleep. For the purposes, of the natural man which are common sense, the faculties of the natural man suffice ; but things which are of God, or which look towards him, are not so discerned. Says St. Paul, " Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God." Often, in the very arguments which they employ, persons writing in defence of the Christian miracles, evince their own latent anti-supernaturalism. Contin ually, in theological works, miracles are defended as realities by those who have no perception whatever of spiritual laws, and no sense whatever of the miracu lous. How much infected by materialism persons may be who fancy themselves to be very spiritual in their views, is shown in the attempt which frequently is made, to render miracles credible by analogy with Babbage's Calculating Machine. This wonderful ma chine is said to work accurately through a long series of figures, till suddenly it throws up a number which is out of order, and which cannot be accounted for, but which, it is supposed, may possibly result from some- undiscovered law of mathematics. And it is gravely suggested that, in obedience to some occult property, the great machine of nature has here and there, and es pecially about Palestine, stopped its regularity for an OF THE PRESENT AGE. 19 instant, and thrown out a miracle, at a time foreor dained in the making of the clockwork. Anything, rather than suppose the intervention of God, or angel, or spirit ! Anything rather than a miracle, as being out of the order of nature, even though really it should be in the order of Heaven ! A thousand miracles of the strangest origin may be brought in at the back- gate, if only they can be used for barring the front door of the intellect, against admitting the possibility of signs and wonders having ever been fresh from Heaven, ever having beejM^miahn.al ; willed, that is to say, in the spiritual world, outside of nature, and at the very seasons respectively of their being shown. By certain professors of theology there has been lately published an explanation of the day of Pente cost, as haviiig.been a day of misunderstanding among the frightened apostles, inconsequence of there having been an earthquake,- which they thought was a mighty rushing wind, in the house where they were sitting. And the speaking with other tongues, at which the foreigners were amazed, is argued to have been alto gether a mistake, and in keeping with the impenetra ble darkness plainly discernible in the ingenious but excusable manner in which the Acts of the Apostles are narrated, up to the day of Pentecost, from the resuscitation of Christianity, whenever and whatever that may have been. *ries and prophets " they are the solemn, testimony to the worH, and before Heaven. — " But avo have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." ANTI-SUPEENATUBAL MISUNDEESTAND- INGS. NOB is it the Bible only which is wronged by the anti-supernaturalism of the reader, but other ancient writings also suffer from the same cause. And from the same cause also there is sometimes a great misapprehension of certain eras of history. There are some words, frequently quoted from a work by Cicero, which simply are a sentiment which he puts into ' the mouth of a man in an imaginary conversation. But it is quoted as though it were his own debberate opinion ; and it touches heathenism only on one point, which by its nature was always accounted as being variable ; and yet it is often adduced to show that Cicero was estranged from heathenism with his whole mind, and that also every educated person was ready to abandon heathenism, before the birth of Christ. But a Eoman might say aE that Cicero said on the nature of the gods, and yet continue to be especially heathenish, and might have a soul liable, any day, to flash up and fiH out aE the old creed with credence. And actuaEy, on the death of his daughter, Cicero buEt a temple, which he dedicated to her ghost. It is quite true, that the worship of Jupiter Capito- Enus declined very largely during the first century of the present era. Was it, however, because Bome had become less earnestly idolatrous ? No ; not in the ANTI-SUPERNATURAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS. 145 least. It was because Bome had become more idola trous than when it was founded, and because the idolatries of aE nations had been brought and assem bled there. And this is certain by legislation on the subject; for age after age, the Senate issued uijunc- tions and complaints as to the manner in which the old gods of the country were being neglected, for the more fashionable deities and services of foreign origin. It is not true, that Christianity had its way in the world largely facibtated by the decHne of heathenism. It is an anti-Christian position which is never chal lenged, but yet it is not tenable. Heathenism did not die of pubEc indifference, nor of indifference at all. It never was more thoroughly beHeved than it was by its last professors. And as to favors granted him by his gods, there never was a man more thoroughly per suaded about anything than the Emperor JuHan was about that. But that he could have been so persuaded is what is almost impossible for a scholar to think, be cause of that general anti-supernaturalism, which every body suffers from, Hke an influenza. Even a writer Eke the German Tholuck can instance Pausanias as being sceptical about his religion. But now that Writer was of a certain school in Pagan theology ; but he was not, therefore, the less thoroughly hearty in his Paganism, E that may be caEed so, which got the name somewhat later than his time. To suppose that he doubted about HeEenism, for any reason contained in his book, is much about the same thing as though, by way of an incongruous comparison, yet apt enough for the point, one should doubt the Christianity of Izaak Walton, because of his friendship with Bishop Ken. 146 ANTI-SUPERNATURAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS. Pausanias, who writes of the various occasions on which he was warned by visions or dreams sent from the gods, and of his sacred obedience accordingly ; who tried, too, some of the marvels connected with Pagan ism, and who testifies about them as being real ; and who, besides, had a most affectionate and tender inter est in aE the antiquities of Paganism in Greece,— Pausanias, a doubter, and, in the second century of the Christian era, an example of failing faith in his re Hgion ! It might as well be said that the Maccabees were doubtful about Moses, or that Alban Butler, in the '' Lives of the Saints," was not quite sure about the Church. And there have been persons who have so written about Plato, as though it might have seemed evident that, to their apprehension, there was no de- monology of any kind involved in his writings. How has it happened that of what Plato wrote there are things which some of his most fervent disciples would seem never to have noticed ? This case may be passed over to Pausanias. And how has it been that Pausa nias could ever have been accounted an instance of declining faith in Hellenism ? For the whole tone of his book is that of a fervent, unquestioning beHever. And there are perhaps ten narratives of what he be Eeved were his own experiences of it, preternaturally. How, then, is it that he should ever have been ac counted a doubter, or even a man with misgivings as to his Pagan religion ? It could only have been from prejudice, and from thinking him, perhaps, a man too wise to mean exactly what he wrote. Or rather, the writer who first published that impression about him must have been a man whose eye, by anti-supernatural ANTI-SUPERNATURAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS. 147 habit in reading, slurred over what reaEy Pausanias had to say about himseE. Paganism growing effete as a power, and thereby yielding the more readily to the preaching of Chris tianity ! It is what never happened. That anti-Chris tian position has been acqjiiesced in by some Christian divines, from a mistaken notion as to the law of pro gress, by which it has been fancied that, as one religion was dying out, it was of the mercy of God that there should be, under Providence, another and better re Hgion to succeed it. The notion of those divines was true ; but it was not the whole truth, even on their plane of thought. Heathenism as a social power, yielding easEy to the soft coming of Christianity, — is that, or anything like it, corroborated by the history of the Colosseum ? No : and there is not a brick there, nor a stone, nor scarcely a gram of dust, but, like blood crying from the ground, protests in every intelligent ear against Gibbon, the historian, for what he has said. And how is it about the other monuments of ancient Bome, as connected with that idolatry which was the soul of it ? They nearly aE of them witness, in one way or another, to the strength of that heathenism which had to yield to the " fooEshness of preaching." The cucus of Maxentius was dedicated, and the temple of Bomulus, the son of Maxentius, was built only Hi the very last year of heathenism, the very year before Constantine entered Bome as a Christian emperor. And the grandest monument surviving of ancient Bome, the Pantheon, was but a fresh building at the birth of Christ, having been finished and inscribed less than thirty years before. Of nearly aE the tern- 148 ANTI-SUPERNATURAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS. pies which remain in Bome, the very dates attest the strength of idolatry there, ages after Paul had looked on, as a prisoner, — the temple of Bemus, that of Ceres and Proserpine, that of Vesta, that of Antoninus Pius, that of Venus and Bome, built by Hadrian, and that of Minerva Medica, of the age of Diocletian. And aE round the Forum, by the dates at which they were built, all the temples attest that heathenism was never stronger sociaEy than whilst Christianity was preaching against it, — the temple of Concord and that of Vespasian, — the temple of Saturn, between the Forum and the Capitol, and the temple, of Antoninus and Faustina, with its startEng inscription, alongside of the Via Sacra. And if more testimony were needed, it might be reasoned out from the arch of Constantine, erected in the fourth century of our era, and from that arch of Titus, in the first century, which bears in wrought into it, what is almost a cry from the dead, in the marble form of Simon the son of Gorias, as he was dragged triumphantly into Eome, after the capture of Jerusalem, along with the spoils of the temple, sculp tured also on the arch in colored marbles, — the silver trumpets, and the table for the shew-bread, and also the seven-branched candlestick. The history of Chris tianity in struggle with Paganism has not been written yet ; nor can it be written, but under another philos ophy of rebgion than what has prevailed since the archives of the past have begun to be generaEy acces sible. And the persons through whom, by one trial after another, it shaE ultimately have been accom plished, wiE have testified to a very different struggle from what Gibbon ever thought that he was writing ANTI-SUPERNATURAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS. 149 about, and wiE have attested the words of St. Paul, as having been true : " For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but agamst principaEties, against pow ers, agaiast the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." How wonderful is that text in Isaiah, new once, but now agaui almost as fresh for meaning as it ever was : " The vision of aE is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deEver to one that is learned, saymg, Bead this, I pray thee ; and he saith, I cannot ; for it is sealed : and the book is deHvered to him that is not learned, saymg, Eead this, I pray thee : and he saith, I am not learned." A general blindness this, and perhaps without the fault specially of any individuals. And what came from Isaiah m proph ecy as to his time and nation is what in modern times people have been undergoing, and especially in Prot estant countries. Has this been for any special fault of theus ; or is it to be counted for a disgrace ? By no means. It has even become a proverb : " I would rather be wrong with Plato than right with any one else." And the writer hereof would rather be wrong with some anti-supernaturaEsts than be right with some good people whom he has known at Bome. On a choice between poets and merchants of the same honesty, it would be beyond $31 comparison better that this world should be managed by men of business than by men of " vision and faculty divine." And if there is to be advance in the world, as the world is, it can only be by steps, for every one of which really there must be some drawback. But the recognition of that drawback is a large part of philosophy at any time. 150 ANTI-SUPERNATURAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS. And in it indeed is involved that philosophy of human nature, never distinctly recognized but under Christ, by which it is plain that human creatures are meant to be mutuaEy helpful, and "members of one another." In a good spirit, the man who contradicts me is one side of my mind. And surely and reasonably, there must always be a private account to be balanced, if only it could be done by any happy mediation, be tween the man of introspection and old books, and the man of outlook by the telescope and the chemical retort. For neither of them, by his speciality, is likely, as it would seem, to be right on aE points absolutely. And even, perhaps, the best appEcation of a spiritual phi losophy to human wants may be expected from men who have known to the uttermost, by experience, what Bationabsm can do. At this point, especially, does the writer hereof re member a very dear Efe-long friend, a native of New York, though a British subject, who has never been long absent from his thought while these papers have been in preparation. At one time it was a sore trouble to him, that he was unable wholly to beEeve in the miracles of the Scriptures; and aE the while his doubts about them were more beEeving than the certainties of some other persons. But he lived to publish, a little before hfe sudden death, a work on " Unconscious Prophecies, and their Fulfilment." The miraculousness of human nature, as connected with a world of spuits, and the prophetic susceptibiHty of hu man nature, — of these things he had become persuaded by wide observation and wise induction. And by the force simply of wide notice and patient thought, ANTI-SUPERNATURAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS. 151 he had attained to a better sense of prophecy than he could ever have got from any theological treatise, of the last hundred years. The pubHc was indebted to him without ever having known of him. Somewhat of a sufferer, but cheerful, hopeful, and almost joyous as to his tone of Hfe, and with an easy, infinite confidence hi God, winch was a veritable gift of faith, he was a blessing simply to know of: He was always among advanced thinkers on aE subjects. And that Arthur Lupton beHeved in prophecy may be accounted a sign of the times, on account of the scientific manner in which his conviction about it had been wrought out. For his friends, it is stiE as though he were within and above theu horizon, because of the trail of light which survives in the sky, and which he left behind when he vanished like a shooting-star. And, as Jeremy Taylor might have said, there is one who could wish, at the end of the great harvest, that his soul may be found in the same bundle of Hfe with the soul of his friend. THE LAST ECSTATIC. AND now let the line of remark be resumed, as to blindness to things immediately under the eye, but of which, every now and then, somebody unexpect edly becomes conscious. Less than a month ago there appeared in the Times newspaper, of London, what has aEeady been repubEshed in this country, an account of an ecstatic in Belgium : — " A New Ecstatic — The Impartial de Soignies devotes five columns to a description of a new ecstatic named Louise Lateau. It appears from the statement of the Bel gian journal that for some months past this young girl presents every Friday the phenomena which are called the stigmata of the Passion. She has on her hands, feet, and over the heart sanguineous blisters, which exude abundant ly. The ordinary functions of life are suspended. The eyes open, and, turned obliquely towards heaven, appear to be attentively fixed on some object. The pupils are di lated, the face is pale, the mouth partially opened, and the features express a sentiment of admiration mingled with a sweet sorrow. At times the object she seems to contem plate produces a painful starting. When not in ecstasy, she is in catalepsy. At three o'clock she starts up all at once and suddenly flings herself on the flags, without the least attempt to protect her face with her hands ; yet she receives no injury. She remains for an hour in this hori zontal position, her arms and feet crossed. About half past four o'clock she raises herself quickly, without any assist- THE LAST ECSTATIC. 153 ance, her arms still in the form of a cross, as if some invis ible power had placed her in this vertical position. She then falls on her knees, next sits down, and in about ten minutes the body is subjected to a kind of torsion, and the Ecstatic of Bois d'Haine — for so she is called — throws herself supine on the ground. Then it is that she is waked up ; but to accomplish this, the persons about her must be long to the Order of the Passion." And now what is to be thought of this account ? It is an easy thing for blind leaders of the bEnd to jeer at it, and to get honor of such a kind as their foEowers have to give. But aE that cannot avaH long in an era Hke the present, in which news and opuiions are ex changed so fast. Some twenty-five years ago, tales went through the newspapers in England as to a young Tyrolese girl, who was an ecstatic. At these tales many Protestants thanked God that they were not superstitious Catholics. But at that time, also, the Puseyite movement was gathering strength. A letter was pubEshed Hi The Morning Chronicle by the Earl of Shrewsbury, who had visited the saintly sufferer, or the suffering saint. The letter might have been published in a 'Catholic newspaper, and never have reached a Protestant. For what is pubEshed in a religious newspaper is read by its subscribers only; and if anything extraordinary of any kind happens to appear in such a paper, it is scarcely regarded as credible, even though written, printed, published, and vouched for by some of the best men in the world, unless they should happen also to go to the same church as the reader. The letter, however, of the Earl of Shrewsbury, descriptive of the 154 THE LAST ECSTATIC. Ecstatica of Caldaro, was pubEshed in the chief Eb- eral, secular newspaper of the time in London. By that letter there were a few persons, who were made to pause with wonder, like the writer hereof. But there were stiE more people, through Puseyite preparation, who read the account excited, aghast, and wondering what they should do to be saved. And it was not without assistance from that letter that many Pusey- ites became Catholics. For the old way of settbng such a point, as was involved in that letter, was no longer quite sufficient, although it was veiy nearly so. But there were Puseyites, who could not feel that a letter like the earl's, was answered by two or three good jokes from Oxford FeEows, or by a running fire of laughter aE over the country from comfortable rectors, strong in then legal position as members of the Estab- Eshment. And now, how did that letter of the earl's act ? Let us see how it was pointed. This, however, can be done now only from the book into which the letter grew, by additional accounts of other ecstatics. Let it be re membered that the letter was dated from circumstances much the same, and in kind exactly the same, as the phenomena attendant on the Belgian ecstatic, which have just been described. "Are we not safer in be Heving with Maria Mori and the two Domenicas, and the great body of the Christian Church, both ancient and modern, than in pinning our faith — if such were possible — upon the dissenting tenets of one soEtary fanciful individual,— tenets aE of them easily proved to be erroneous ? " But becoming still warmer and stiE more personal with his argument, the earl says : " Put- THE LAST ECSTATIC. 155 ting aE other evidences out of the question, can Dr. Pusey give me any one sign and wonder in defence of his doctrines, equal to the assurance I have received in favor of mine, from these simple, humble, but gifted souls ? " But now, instead of succumbing helplessly to any meaning, which anybody may please to put upon a prodigy, it would seem to be right to ask, what actual ly the meaning of the prodigy may be. Maria Mori may have mstanced effects residting from intense devo tion of a certain kind, without necessarily having been thereby marked out as a favorite of heaven, or even as an example to be patterned. And unless for persons predisposed to think so, reaEy the state of these Ital ian ecstatics,- entranced at times, but bedridden, and at times cataleptic, clairvoyant often, but very weak, and made stiE more singular as to their condition by those strange marks on .the body, — aE this would not necessarily and obviously seem to mean the special favor of Heaven, for a particular mode of worship. No doubt, there was something very extraordinary in their cases. But that the meaning of those extraordinary manifestations bore against Dr. Pusey it is not neces sary to suppose, notwithstanding that some of his fol lowers did think so, to the great discomfort of the Church of England. In view of his book, to doubt either the earl or the witnesses whom he cites as to what was seen, is what the present writer would not think of, for a moment. Also, he would think it to be a great good if certain other people, within a certain sphere, could feel as he does. For, truly it is not for everybody, in every sphere, 156 THE LAST ECSTATIC. to get good from everytlung. And for all persons, out side of what they are ready for, it is better that they should flatly deny than weakly affect to beHeve. Though yet there are some few better people who, though finite by nature, do yet know and feel them selves to be children of the Infinite, and who therefore do not feel bound to deny and denounce everything, which they may not be ready to understand, at any moment. Dr. Pusey must have felt himself sorely pushed by the earl at that time, while he was struggling hard to be thought a Catholic, when he found himself con trasted for the worse with Domenica BarbagE, the ecstatic of Monte San Savino, "this pre-sanctified spirit, this chosen soul, undoubtedly favored by seraphic communings with her God." But what he felt has never appeared, nor yet the way by which he avoided the conclusion on to which the. earl would have forced him. But on his foUowers the appeal had great effect. And, at least, the remembrance of it wiE be revived by the report of the ecstatic m Belgium, so near to Eng land. Towards the end of his book the earl, a very candid writer, says that his attention had been drawn to mes merism, as accounting for many of the phenomena which he had witnessed in the ecstatics. He acknowl edges the pertinency of the suggestion ; but he demurs to it as an explanation, for several reasons, of which the first is the best, although it is worthless. And that reason which the earl alleges, is simply that mesmerism is not known in the Tyrol. But he might as well have said that electricity and thunder-storms are unknown THE LAST ECSTATIC. 157 in the Tyrol, because the names of Benjamin FrankEn and Joseph Priestley had never been heard there, and because, perhaps, an electrifying machine had never been introduced into Caldaro or Capriana. And reaEy aE which the earl witnessed in those ecstatics, about whom he wrote, except as to the stigmata, are things fauly within the circle of mesmerism. Though very curious, and what astound milEons of inteEigent per sons, yet they are some such effects as could be in duced and manEested by processes which are called mesmeric. For mesmerism, as it is caEed, is by thou sands of years older than Mesmer, good man. The vital forces of which he avaEed himself are, of course, as old as Adam : nor was he the first person, by hundreds, perhaps, to systematize as to observation and use in con nection with them. And when mesmerism, was sug gested as accounting for the clairvoyance, catalepsy, and trance of the ecstatics, it was not probably meant that there were persons who mesmerized them know- uigly, on purpose, and by art ; but that accidentally, so to say, and naturally too, through intense suffering and almost continual fasting, they were in an -abnormal condition, through which they were readily suscepti ble of catalepsy, clairvoyance, and trance, and through which, too, they were liable to be mesmerized by chance. And even in Hlustration of the stigmata, the records of mesmerism might be found to furnish some curious though distant analogies. And the marks on the body, even though they be like those of a crucifix, would not seem of necessity and exclusively to argue the especial favor of God Most High. Perhaps even they might more properly be regarded as manifesting 158 THE LAST ECSTATIC. human nature, and the manner in which the body can be acted upon from the state of the soul ; the soul of the ecstatic being fuE of longings and expectations, and full of sympathy with the sufferings emblemed by a crucifix, and also in affinity, perhaps, at the same time, preternaturally with attendant spirits of the same household of faith as her own. The utmost, logicaHy, which would seem to foEow from the earl's premises would perhaps be, that among sensitive, ascetic, and exhausted persons there may be a rare case, now and then, which may show that a strange marveEous Ekeness to a crucifix may be in duced by a profoundly reverential contemplation there of. For the mere marvellousness of the thing is not of itself necessarily encouraging. It may have been supernatural and yet not divine. And mnacles have sometimes touched where they certainly Ed not mean to sanction. Perhaps it ought to be noticed here that ecstatics have been .long known, and that the word " ecstasy " was not probably of Christian origin. The experience described by the word was common among the Neo- Platonists in the fourth and fifth centuries. Thus, by his biographer, Plotinus is said "in ecstasy to have seen the supreme god," and also in ecstasy to have been elevated from the ground. The manifestation of the stigmata, was that by which Francis of Assisi be came famous in the thirteenth century. Since the days of St. Francis, there have been about sixty simi lar cases recorded, of which perhaps ten have been within the last thirty years. When the stigmata ap peared on the person of Maria Mori, they had ' even THE LAST ECSTATIC. 159 been anticipated by her confessor for five months. And one of the ecstatics whom the earl saw, he ex pected would have been favored with the marks, but she was not. But it is curious, that as to the clairvoyant and cata leptic states, and as to the levitation of the body in the cases of these ecstatics, there was nothmg detailed by the earl as heavenly sanction, but something Eke it, long ago, had been aEeged as condemnatory fact, on trials for witchcraft. Of transference of marks, there have been some cu rious cases by electricity. Once the exact likeness of a tree was printed on an object near, by a flash of Hght- nrng. These words of the earl are noticeable : " Yes ! it is under the very shadow of the large crucifix, which is suspended over her head, that the spirit of ecstasy is in fused into her." .And now for an incident that stops the earl's argument short, and which would seem- to argue the favor of Heaven for Protestants, more distinctly than aE those sixty ecstatics argue it for Catholics. In the " Adversaria " of Isaac Casaubon, there is an ac count of a storm at WeEs, in England. The informa tion was given to Casaubon by the Bishop of Ely, who received it from the Bishop of WeEs, and other per sonal witnesses. On a Sunday morning in the year 1596, while the people were in the cathedral, there was such a tremendous burst of thunder, that in their terror the whole congregation knelt together. Though a thunderbolt feE, there was no one hurt. "But a . wonderful thing was afterwards discovered by many persons. For images of the cross were found marked 160 THE LAST ECSTATIC. on the bodies of those, who had been atwthe time in the cathedral. And the Bishop of WeEs told the Bishop of Ely that his wife (and she was a most honorable woman) came to him and told him, as a great miracle, that there were marks of the cross on her body. But when the Bishop laughed at this, his wife uncovered her person, and proved that what she had said was true. And then he noticed that the same very plain mark of the cross was impressed on himseE, and as I think on his arm. While with others it was on the shoulder, the breast, the back, and other parts of the body. And that most Elustrious man, the Lord of Ely, narrated this to me, in such a manner, as forbade any doubt about the truth of the history." In this brief account there is involved probably a grand chapter on psychology, if only one knew how to evolve it. But the philosophy of the matter is akin to the marks of crucifixion on the ecstatics, much more clesely than would at first thought seem at aE likely. Also, there have been persons, as the writer hereof can testify, as it happens, on his personal knowledge, although they are perhaps more rare than ecstatics, with whom have appeared spontaneously on the skin, and as though very slightly embossed, letters, figures, and flowers. One of these instances was a rose of the breadth of two inches, which appeared in an swer to a sudden suggestion, and which was as accu rately marked as in a fine etching. The explanation, not of course of the shapes, but of the marks, was that they had been made by the blood having been forced into capillary veins, so as to press them against the cuticle, and thus to redden and sHghtly raise it. These THE LAST ECSTATIC. 161 marks, which had been watched while coming out, vanished without leaving a trace in less than ten min utes. As to how this happened, even though it were, as it might well seem to be, through an inflation of capiEary veins, passes conjecture : because a certain beEef that it was by the agency of an intervening spuit, E adopted, is not explanation, but only some semblance of information, and is indeed marvel added to mystery. It is a matter of not unreasonable conjecture, whether Dr. Newman would have entered the CathoEc Church in his state of mind, E he had known of the experi ence of the Bishop of Wells ; for, not improbably it would have seemed to counterbalance the argument from the ecstatics, by the Earl of Shrewsbury. But however that may be, with the preceding com ments, the latest account of an ecstatic may be read by some persons with more patience, than it might otherwise have been, and by some others with less be wilderment. For the excitement made by that famous letter of the earl's was not so much because of what it was in itself, as it was through the temper of the peo ple addressed. They were acted upon by that letter as though by an apparition ; whereas they would not have been affected by it so strongly, if they had not been men of their time, even whEe trying hard to be long to the Middle Ages, and E they had not been, so to say, anti-supernaturalists in reading and observation, Hke almost everybody else. The account of the Belgian ecstatic has been seen by multitudes of Protestants, but it will have been no ticed by very few persons, because generally the eyes 162 THE LAST ECSTATIC. of Protestants are proof against reporting such things to their brains. MarveEous occurrences are as com mon now, perhaps, as ever they were in the Middle Ages ; and they are pubHshed in the newspapers, to a far greater extent than most readers would easily be Heve. But even what are read and accepted as facts are seldom or never retained in the mind, but fade from the memory like dreams, as having no hold and no proper place. For indeed by education, and in accordance with the intellectual temper of the age, and as an ef fect of modern Hterature, there is an effort, unconscious, but not therefore the less real, in almost every mind to throw off every preternatural recollection as being useless, foreign, uncongenial, and inwardly indigestible. And thus always many good intelligent persons are at the mercy of the first prodigy, which may actually strike them. And if they should show themselves in sane with it, it is because reaEy they were already in sane, as having been unreasonably sceptical, as hav ing hardened themselves habitually against the facts of the universe, and as having despised the hints which are allowed to transpire from time to time as to a world of spirit, invisible indeed, but interfused among things seen and temporal, and pervading them, though commonly it may be without touching. And now if any one would ask the writer, as to what then he thinks of the stigmata on the persons of the ecstatics, he would say that they may be preternatural without therefore being divine ; and though they may be the effects of a certain kind of intense devotion, that they may still not be distinguishing favors. The case of Louise Lateau, of Belgium, could it be under- THE LAST ECSTATIC. 163 stood as the angels see it, would no doubt be of great use for . clearly understanding spiritual laws, which every person is Eving under, though blindly. Nor does this remark presuppose, that her state must there fore be akin to the angebc ; because it is even from the study of disease, that much has been learned as to the laws of health. And it is reverently suggested that Louise Lateau is an ecstatic with the stigmata, not probably because she is more favored of heaven than every other girl in Belgium, nor primarily because even of her being a CathoEc, but because of some pecu- Harity Hi her constitution, by which anciently perhaps she might have been a prophetess, E the Lord had needed her ; and by which, too, if she had been a fer vent Friend or an earnest Methodist, she would have been receptive of gifts and graces corresponding per haps to her faith, and to such hopes and expectations as might have been strong Hi her, by her reHgious con nections. By pecuEarity of constitution, however, is not meant anything in kind different from human nature, but only something remarkable in degree, — a sensibility in receptiveness common to everybody, though only very feeble perhaps in most persons ; and which being great in itseE and from birth, may now and then operate wonderfuEy, from accidental causes such as fasting, or through iEness, from some negative and restraining powers Hi the system having been enfeebled. A case Hke this of Louise Lateau ought to be of in finite interest Hi theology. That there may be no know ing what to make of it is no reason for ignoring it, but is a reason rather for keeping it, in mind, against the 164 THE LAST ECSTATIC. coming of Hght on it from heaven : and which no doubt wiE arrive as soon as men are wEEng to receive it. .And it wiE come probably by channels aEeady exist ent and waiting, psychological, medical, and scientific. Of course, aE facts are not of equal use to every body, any more than hay is good for chickens as weE as horses, although oats may be. And there are large classes of creatures for whom diamonds must ever be valueless, such as bumble-bees, pigs, and the dirt-eat ing men of South Africa. And it is not everybody, for whom the case of Louise Lateau can be expected to be interesting ; and neither is it likely to be so for aE theologians, though it really ought to be. And there may be some who will wish that it had never happened, or had never been pub Eshed. And what wEl that wish of theus be but in- fideHty to the truth ; and what wiH the state of mind of such persons be, but blasphemy against the manner in which, under God, the world manEests its hidden powers ? As to the story of Louise Lateau, and other such things, there are words of Plato which are worthy of notice by all persons, and especiaEy by some good Christians, although they are older than Christianity by some four hundred years. They are contained in his Second Epistle : " For almost as it seems to me, than such as these, there are no histories, which are more ridiculous to the herd of men, and none either, which to better minds are more wonderful, or more capable of inspiring them with a sense of God." And now since this last paragraph was written, there has been pubHshed a volume entitled " Planchette ; or, THE LAST ECSTATIC. 165 The Despair of Science." And E indeed science should despair of the planchette to-day, it ought not to do so long, any more than the left hand should despair of its abiHty, whEe there is a good right hand to help it. And through science, when it is informed by psychol ogy, the strangeness of the planchette may develop Hke the Greek mystery about amber. Amber, with the Greeks, was " electron " ; and with rubbing it, was got what was caEed electricity. It was an unaccount able, useless manifestation. But since the time of Aristotle, and through science, it has developed into speech Eke Eghtning, between man and man, and across distances perhaps twenty or thirty times greater than any flash of Hghtning ever Elumined. In the volume referred to there is quoted a letter written at Bochester, nineteen years ago, and which was pubEshed Hi many newspapers at the time. That letter was by the present writer. It told fairly what was witnessed at a spiritual sitting, and which, as it happened, was nothing satisfactory whatever. And if the writer did not conclude correctly as to the motives of the mediums, it may be some excuse for him that at that time the Eochester knockings were to him an unheard-of novelty, and that the mediums themselves at that time knew nothing of the laws and limitations of the phenomena which were manEested through them. MATTEE AND SPIBIT. GENERALLY at present the minds of men are very impatient of anything supernatural. It is a result partly of the materialistic phdosophy which lately dominated in all things, and partly also of the hard, practical tone of the times, by which everything is judged according as it wHl work somehow or other, and promptly in a factory or a creed. Now and then perhaps on a Sunday, or in the evening twEight, a man thinks gently on some strange occur rence, bordering perhaps on the supernatural, which he has heard of, and which perhaps may have been a fam ily tradition. And thus he has his mind fiEed with thoughts and feelings from his inner spirit. The air about him feels as though almost it were aglow with latent Hght. In his ears there is an expectant sense, as though of something just ready to speak. And al most it is as though he felt himself, through aE his senses, porous and open to a surrounding world of spu it. But with a rap on the door, or a sudden start, the man is himself again, as he thinks : though indeed it is only his inferior self which he thus suddenly be comes. And he is a man of the world again, because some divine affinities of his nature have suddenly shrunk into unconsciousness. And so, in a moment, things have become incredible for him, with which, MATTER AND SPIRIT. 167 however, his soul had been deHghting herself, as con nected with the communion of saints, the significance of miracles, and the nearness of the spiritual world. There is an inner spirit in us, or rather there is an ulterior state of the spuit, which sometimes we know of ; and when silently and softly we seem to breathe the air of another Avorld than this ; and when there comes over us a peace, not as the world gives ; and when our thoughts come in upon our minds steadily and grandly, and as though from afar off; and when the heart feels, as it were, the magnitude of some crisis closing round it; and when indeed we are a wonder to ourselves. And under the fresh effect of such an experience the miracles of history seem to be but in fair keep ing with human nature, and even with our individual selves, because of " the signs and wonders " which our own souls are-capable of giving out. But more quick ly than the sensitive plant, at the touch of flesh and blood, does this inner self shrink and contract, and, immortal as it is, yet seem to fade and disappear. The Book of Bevelation is not for reading in any and every mood. And it is not at aE possible that a Mate- riaEst can understand St. John, as he writes, " I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet." And a man must be a Spiritualist by philosophy, and at least as inteEigently so as George Fox, the Quaker, before he can know what was to be listened to and how, when he reads, " He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." And it is because the Book of Bevelation, manifest ly, is not for every state of mind that we may infer or 168 MATTER AND SPIRIT. at least suspect that the Scriptures, generally, may not always be read aright by human eyes, simply as being very sharp. The Bible cannot possibly be a revelation of the Spirit, to the angry minds of textual controver sialists. And therein Ees indeed the true objection to the use of creeds. For supposing that Christianity, as a whole, were capable of being put into words, an at tempt at a creed might be reasonably and fairly made, on every fresh kaleidoscopic combination of texts or doctrines, which a congregation or an individual might believe. But for really Christian effect, it would seem as though every individual spirit ought for itself to find and feel the Spirit in the Scriptures, notwithstand ing any intellectual aids, by which reverentiaEy it might be thought desirable that a person should be prepared for that solemn communion of the finite with the infinite. By the temper of the times it is the last thing to be wished for, or hoped for, and so, of course, it would be the very last thing to be minded, — anything fresh of a spiritual origin. It is a disease of this age, though now rapidly abating, that was just breaking out when the word for it was invented by Balph Cudworth, which was pneumatophobia, — a shrinking from spuit, as cause, or explanation, or hope, and thereby and there fore, of course, from beHef even, as very strongly felt. There have been ages not barbarous, nor yet besot ted, when a variation from the order of nature, or what seemed to be such, was what kingdoms would have consulted about, through eminent men. But to-day, by thousands of the most inteEigent persons, varia tions from the laws of nature might be heard of and MATTER AND SPIRIT. 169 even credited, and yet awaken no interest. And now why should this be, or even be possible ? Simply it is because it is not in the people to be interested. And that is because they have not such a beHef in the spir itual world, as that they can possibly imagine even the possibEity of a sign of it near them. The spiritual world about them, and they themselves now in it, and connected with it, and as certainly so as they ever wiE be, after they have lost or slipped their bodies, and according to phEosophy and revelation both ! It is a thing to them inconceivable, provoking, and ridic ulous, and what they can neither think nor feel. But reaEy, whether it pleases them or not, it is sO that they are made ; and also the thing which they do not Hke to thuik has been the glory of the greatest thinkers, since the world began, and has been the inspiring and informing thought, by which, as by a thermometer, the spuitual height of any age is to be measured, — not its height indeed, as to the externaEty and fashion of Hfe, nor as to science which is conversant with the ex ternality of the universe, but as to faith and poetry, and those vutues and graces, which in greater or less numbers are their inseparable concomitants. Often a good Christian will say, " I hope, and for worlds I would not but think, that after I am dead somehow I shaE be resuscitated and Eve in God for ever." And then it is a terrible shock to him, should he be reminded that now already in God " we live and move and have our being." And then such a man wiE look about him in despair, and wish that he were not bound quite to beEeve it. For he is thinking to himself the while, " What ! Eving in God now, and I 170 MATTER AND SPIRIT. what I am?" And the worst of it is what the man himseE does not know, that so probably it will have to be with him to aE eternity, so long as he himself is what he is, — so long as, somehow or other, the primi tive instincts of his spirit are stifled : because an actual spirit, as he is even now, though embodied for a while, the man has no feeling of the spiritual universe sur rounding him, no sense of it as power, nor any imme diate expectations from it, by the way either of fear or hope. We are spiritual creatures now, though embodied, and really Eving in a spiritual world, however much it may be *clouded to our perceptions, or it would never have been written for Christians, " Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." And that which is written is written, although we are what we are, and notwithstanding however divinely we may walk, that we are not to expect ever to be met by the glories which were witnessed by " the seven angels before the throne of God." But still, just as really as there were unearthly splendors for those heavenly eyes to see, when they looked, so there are experiences of unworldly ori gin which, with expectation, our spirits are in the way to find, and which serve as assurances of faith and an swers to prayer. Speaking like an immortal, but with a sense of our infantile state for fleshliness, says St. John, " Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shaE be : but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be Eke him ; for we shall see him as he is." Already in us prisoners of nature there are powers, susceptibilities, and right ful expectations which reach beyond the region of MATTER AND SPIRIT. 171 nature for their objects. " Our Father which art in heaven" may begin a prayer, which may be heard beyond the sun, and quite apart from the laws of acoustics and gravitation ; and perhaps also it may be offered as incense before the throne by angels in whose view, amid wide-spread splendors, aE earths and suns are but like thin vapors. The child unborn has its senses for the world upon which it is to emerge : eyes for the light by which it is to see ; ears for those waves of sound through the atmosphere by which it is to hear, and infantile in stincts, serving for Hfe and prophetic of it, and which it delights a mother's heart to recognize. And indeed a child in the womb has not only an eye for seeing about the world into which it is to be born, but an eye also which wiE fit a telescope upwards and a mi croscope downwards for exploration ; and has also con genital faculties, through which it will grow into the ways of the world, and fiE a place in society. And just so, in this womb of nature, wherein " the crea ture waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God," human beings have all the spiritual faculties which are to fit them for the spiritual world, — eyes of the spirit, a spuitual understanding, ears with which to hear what the Spirit saith, and — 0 strange, unearthly, but sure experience! — a susceptibHity by which "the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities ; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought : but the Spirit itseE maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." All that is here attempted to be said, about persons in the flesh being open to effects from the world of 172 MATTER AND SPIRIT. spirit, is strong conviction, is inmost knowledge to the man who has ever felt the Spirit praying inside of his spirit, and informmg his prayers, with an earnestness, and faith, and wisdom which were a wonder to him seE, and an awful mystery, when at the end he said "Amen." And the inference from this is what St. Paul shaE declare. And the words are from his grand argument on the struggle of the creature in its earth ly environment, and against it, and they are that we mortals are " waiting for the adoption, to wit, the re demption of our body." " There is a natural body, and there is " — the apos tle does not say that there is to be, or shaE be, but that there is — " and there is a spiritual body." And the Greek word for renewed Hfe after death recognizes that statement of St. Paul's in a manner which the Latin-English word " resurrection" does not, common ly. By dissolution in the earth, " bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain," shows what a body had been latent in it, though invisible, yet alive and wonderful, " first the blade, then the ear, and af ter that the full corn in the ear." And there is not a man living but has in him latent a spiritual body, endowed already with all those faculties, by which hereafter he may be free of the heavens, and feel himself at home in the house of many mansions, and as St. Paul would say, no stranger or foreigner, but a feEow-citizen with the saints, and of the household of God. The saint on earth has in him already aE that he is to be in the great hereafter. And thus for a human being with a twofold consti tution, by which, mentaEy, he is adapted to this earth, MATTER AND SPIRIT. 173 and spirituaEy also to a new earth, under new heavens, it might seem that not impossibly or incredibly a person might now and then, and through some one or other of the thousand sensibiEties by which he is an immortal soid, have experiences outside of the sphere of the nat ural man. And unless barred from such a supposition by a divine revelation, it might seem reasonable to antici pate that sometimes, with the weakening of " the body of this death," the latent faculties of the immortal spirit might even begin to manEest themselves. And indeed than the preternatural experiences of the dying, there are no phenomena perhaps in mental history which are more common. Said Schiller, for his last words in dying, " So many things are becoming to me so much plainer than they were." And no doubt the Hght in which he had wished to live was brightening on his soul. But more express even than this is the multitudinous testimony, which might easily be gath ered, as to the death-bed experiences of persons within the last few years, and by which it would seem as though the. departing spirit were sometimes met, before parting from the body, by some sign of the new world near it, by unearthly music perhaps, or by some spirit who was once an old friend, or by some vision of glory unutterable. But also, in the same manner, and for analogous reasons, strange preternatural experiences, originating with spiritual causes, may reasonably be credited, for persons of pecuEar conditions, whether congenital as to the body, or accidentaEy incurred by disease, or occasioned perhaps by an unusual sensitiveness, as to some of the forces which are necessary to vitaEty,, 174 MATTER AND SPIRIT. electric, magnetic, odic, and others perhaps more occult than they. ' Thus somnambulism supposes the natural eye to be asleep, while the eye of the spirit sees through it. In clairvoyance there is sight independently of matter, as to the substance of the eye, and whether bandaged or not, and as to waEs or long distances ; and yet, as an effect of looking through a material eye- baE, the spirit sees material objects. But indeed won ders would seem to be likely enough, as the experi ences of spirits in the flesh, and of mortals on then way to immortality. And how, then, might it be prop er that such things should be judged of ? Just as such things ought to be, by such creatures as men and espe ciaEy by the enlightened disciples of Christ, — by rules of probability and analogy and good sense, and by the grand ruling test as to what " the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits." And indeed St. Paul could imagine the possibility of an angel from heaven preach ing what Christian common sense might boldly and at once count accursed. Always in an emergency of thought, it is weE that a man should bethink himself as to where he is, and what he is. Because all things are not uniformly of the same significance everywhere. That may seem to be erro neous which is absolutely correct. And scientiiicaUy between navigators and the polar star there are causes of variation, as to guidance, which have to be aEowed for, if that guidance is to prove exact. The polar star is polar truly for only the wisest people. And it is not to everybody, idle and studious alike, and not to the prejudiced at all, that even the Scriptures can yield their true meaning. What a man does not want MATTER AND SPIRIT. 175 to see, he wiE be very Ekely not to recognize. And this may happen about a fact, perhaps of no great im portance in itseE, but which yet, because of his state of mind, might for him individuaUy be newness of thought, or a clew to some baffling and bewildering mystery. That method of picking and choosing evidences, that fashion of thinking only alongside of well-trod den roads, that determination which idolizes agreeable facts, and winks hard against what are irreconcilable, which has been so common in theology, and for the sake of it, — of aE that, what possible outcome can there be but foEy, such as earHer or later must become plain ? " Unclean spirits " are not a very pleasant subject of thouglit to any one, and to theologians in some en- Hghtened regions almost they are inconceivable and incredible. And yet because of the New Testament, it might seem as though a person could not quite weE understand what Christ was in the world, without some philosophy or understanding as to those " unclean spir its " whom he commanded, and against whom he gave his apostles power. And in the Old Testament, " fa- muiar spirits" and their kindred are as essential to the action as Moses and Elijah. And for lack of this perception, there are many ingenious and elaborate works on the Old Testament, which could only be equalled by some such work as a history of the battle of Waterloo, wherein the French should be regarded, for some phdosophical reasons, as having been only figures of speech. And yet the historical reality of a " familiar spirit " made certain by modern analogies, would probably be but an unwelcome fact, in many 176 MATTER AND SPIRIT. theological schools. Yet facts — facts are the words in which the universe reads to man its unending lesson. They may be odious by themselves, sometimes, while yet through their connections, they may be very val uable. But because of human weakness, it is often the alternative about a new fact, that either it is an idol, or else anathema. And truly also a fact is often treated in this manner, when reaEy, except as being novel for a few people, it is nothing more than a pebble, a mere make-weight in the universe, which pebble, however just in its place and office, is of uni versal concern. But with anything extraordinary to think of, or phe nomenal, a man should remember himseE. And then instead of finding himself on a judgment-seat, or right fully glowing with the consciousness of a seraph, he will feel himself to be but a mortal creature, walking and working about a Ettle spot in a little planet, at tendant upon a sun, which sun itseE is reasonably sus pected of being also only a planet. But " he that hum- bleth himseE shaE be exalted." And when a man in that manner has felt his nothingness, he is ready then to appreciate the compEment which science pays him, by her assurance that the weight of his body, his mere fleshly clothing, is what the universe could not spare, without planets and suns and fixed stars running to gether, and there being an end of aE things. And in this way, even were there no other way, might a man reasonably suspect that perhaps also there are conditions concerning him as a spirit, of which he may not necessarily be aware. But tben it is said that between mortal and immortal, and between MATTER AND SPIRIT. 177 matter and spirit, that the difference is such that there can be no reasoning with a man from any cir cumstances of to-day as to his connections with the spiritual and eternal. . *-*sn And by some, who hold that this earth is isolated from the spiritual universe surrounding it, on the sub ject of miracles, often axioms are used as authorities, which reaEy have long been anEe and effete. That spirit can never impinge upon matter is assumed as an axiom by Thomas Aquinas ; and it is pleaded to day like a text from the gospel. But even supposing that it were true, it would not therefore foHow that means might not be found or contrived, by which devils or angels might make themselves sensibly felt, and might act upon matter. It is true that spirit is spirit, and matter is matter. But then what is spuit, and what is matter ? Of the difference between the two there are notions of mediaeval origin, which are obstinately pleaded to-day, for ends which Thomas Aquinas and the schoolmen would never have sanc tioned. Also, what did Thomas Aquinas know of electricity, galvanism, or magnetism ? What did he know of the odic force ? He knew no more of them than he did of optics, or chemical affinities, or the law of gravitation. Definitions as to spirit and matter, originating ages before Bacon, adduced to-day on the subject of miracles are gross anachronisms. Matter ! what is that as a basis whence to argue psychologicaEy, while even by science it is speculated that all the matter of this earth may perhaps be com pressible into a nut-sheE ? BeaEy science is the young sister of spuitualism, and is of no kin whatever 8* L 178 MATTER AND SPIRIT. with materialism, to the positive knowledge of those who know them all three. The old mediaeval under standing as to spirit and matter is obsolete ; for through science matter itself seems semi-spiritualized. And, so to say, rightly understood, matter and spirit, in the common use of the words, are not opposites, except in some such way as that by which the roots of a tree in the ground are opposite to the blossoms high up in the air. Spirit cannot impinge upon matter, because spirit is spirit ; and spirit is impalpable, and therefore it cannot affect what is soEd and hard ! But when con fronted these are but old-world positions, which prop erly were obsolete long ago. For perhaps the fluids caEed electric, galvanic, and magnetic are material, or perhaps they are spiritual, or perhaps they traverse fields intermediate between matter and spirit. But on any one of these suppositions, there are one or two old philosophical axioms as to spirit and matter, which are falsified at once, just as owls show themselves to be out of time and place when they attempt to fly in the broad sunshine. The body of a man is not such matter as might sometimes seem to be supposed by some philosophers, but is really " dust of the earth," porous throughout every particle, to electricity and magnetism, which at least are semblances of spiritual forces. And if Thomas Aquinas had lived in these last days, instead of writing what he did on some points, and getting quoted by people of another dialect in philosophy than his, as having meant what he certainly did not intend, he would probably have held that matter was such a MATTER AND SPIRIT. 179 mere nothing, such a mere meeting-place of immate rial forces, as scarcely itself to need notice. Instead of something Eke untanned leather, a man has a skin, by which he is open to influences and ef fects from the ends of the world, from the sun, and from the circumambient atmosphere. And aE the more he learns from science, the more wonderfuEy does he feel this. And spirituaEy, when he is wiEing to attend, he finds himseE connected in an equaEy wondrous manner. And many a man who thinks himself to be an Anti-Supernaturalist, with an honest confession of himself, as tp some of his private expe riences, which, for fear of being nonsensical,' he is hardly wiEing to acknowledge even to himself, and also with fair respect for testimony from friends whom he personaEy esteems, — many a man, in this way, would find that a field of wonder widened round him, away in the far east of which he would feel that very probably there may indeed have been gates of revela tion, and the place of rising of the sun of righteous ness. In Boston an Englishman was staying, who " many lands and many men had seen," and also many years, since the time of his leaving school. He certainly in his Efe had never dreamed of the school, and for many years had scarcely even had a thought of it. But one night he had a dream of it. Accompanied by his aunt, he walked up the road which led to the school, wondering aE the while at the perfectness with which he remembered every little object. He passed in through the gate into the yard, when he noticed heaps of rubbish under the waEs ; on which, he turned to his 180 MATTER AND SPIRIT. aunt and said, " This stuff ought to be cleared away. It never ought to be allowed here." Then, with the old familiar feeling, he went up the steps, and opened the door of the school, and was surprised at seeing, not boys at their desks, but six or eight workmen busy on the demolition of the building. And at this point he awoke. But in the morning, whEe he was at the breakfast-table, he received a foreign letter, which proved to be from a trustee of the old gram mar school, soHciting a subscription from him towards the rebuilding of the edifice. It was an undertaking in which his aunt was much interested ; and she had herself given the address for the letter. The following narrative is vouched for by the best possible evidence. When the emigration for CalEor- nia had begun, a youth belonging to the town of Lynn embarked for San Francisco. After some months had elapsed, his mother dreamed that she saw him, that he looked wofuEy wasted, and that he stretched out his arms to her, and cried, " 0 mother, mother, take me. I am dying of thirst." Early the next day, she went to a very inteEigent gentleman, with her heart fuE of agony : and at her request, he put the history and date of her experience into writing. After many months, eleven perhaps, a letter reached her from the captain of the ship in which her son had sailed. The vessel had suffered much in storms off Cape Horn. Because of the long passage, the supply of water had not lasted. And for want of water, sev eral persons on board of the vessel had died before reaching port; and among them was her son. And the time of his death, as given by the captain, corre sponded with that night of the mother's dream. MATTER AND SPIRIT. 181 These two incidents have never been published be fore ; and it is because they are new that they are given ; for it would be very easy to cite hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of recorded dreams, which are at least as impressive as the preceding, and some of which are even more striking. Some six or seven years ago a vessel arrived in Bos ton with a great number of shipwrecked people on board. The ship in which they had been sailing had foundered at sea, and left them on the water, clinging, most of them, to floating objects. A vessel, bound to Boston, arrived in their midst and picked them up. But how did that ship get amongst them ? The cap tain of it said that he was on deck at night, and a bud flew in his face, and at the same time he was filled with a strong, strange feeling for putting the ship about, and saiEng back on the course by which he had been coming. A second time, and a third time, a bird flew in his face. And the feeEng with him for putting the ship about became irresistible. And after saiEng for three hours in the dark, he found himself to be a savior at a great shipwreck. In such incidents as the preceding history abounds, whether ancient or modern, classical or profane. And why is it that they are read contemptuously, or heard with impatient pity ? Simply it is because of what is ignorantly fancied about the laws of nature, as being exclusive of marvels of unknown origin. And just as though also the laws of nature, to common notion, would not have been against the possibiHty of submarine whis pering, if it had ever been thought of, before electri city had yielded itseE to human management ! And 182 MATTER AND SPIRIT. just as though a thousand and ten thousand similar facts do not imply something in common, some com mon cause, and it may be probably some common law ! And what if that should seem to be a spiritual law ? Is that a supposition so improbable as that even Chris tians cannot think it ? Such Christians certainly as many people say they are, cannot think it : and worse than that, they would rather not beHeve it, as they say ; and what is worse stiE than that, they avow that they would rather hot beEeve what might seem to diminish the peculiarity of the nuracles of the Scriptures. " 0 ye of Ettle faith ! " As though God would be less God for any man's knowing something about him of his own knowledge ! As though the Bible would be less credible for being confirmed in any way, even the least ! As though it had not been a Scriptural promise, as to some spirit-stirring times, both in the Old Testament and in the New : " Your young men shaE see visions, and your old men shaE dream dreams " ! And as though it were not one grand purpose of the Bible to develop the mysteriousness of human nature, and to make men feel, with many other strange things, that wheth er there be hosts below them or not, or hosts above, that by Jesus Christ they have been made "kings and priests unto God and his Father " ! There is a containing sky about us, in which the aurora flames. There is an air about us, in which it thunders and Eghtens. And surrounding us there is an atmosphere, through which we are affected for Efe and for death, in ways which, year by year, are enu merated by science more and more wonderfuEy. A spiritual atmosphere about us, or an atmosphere MATTER AND SPIRIT. , 183 sHghtly spuitual, or something wdiich we mortals should call such, — why should it be accounted strange or incredible ? Surely not because the knowledge of it was not given by Moses, or through the New Testament. And if such a beEef be fairly deducible by observed facts, what is it but a thing for which to thank God, as enabbng beEevers in the Scriptures to conform the better to the rules of what is caEed modern science, even on its own plane ? Bevelation ! People who beEeve in it ought to be afraid of nothing, as against it. And no man, with a soul to beEeve, does beEeve in it, with earthly misgivings of any kind. It has been supposed, what is even the besetting difficulty of many earnest persons, that there never can have been a call upon mortals from the world im mortal, for want of a way, a channel. Does therefore the significance of that call diminish because there might seem to be a greater possibility for it ? Says some one, " Eh, eh ! I never believed it. But now I see a quarter, a law, a spiritual connection, whence that old caE may have come." But that would not seem to be all that is to be said, unless a man should think more of the importance of his own sense than of what the universe itself may have to say to him. And when such a man finds his own earthiness to be more spiritual than he had thought, it is surely no reason for his beginning afresh to doubt about his spuitual connections. THE OUTBUBST OF SPIBITUALISM. THIS is a great subject, which can be noticed m this place only just as it Hlustrates the Hne of thought in these essays. The phenomena of SpirituaEsm, even the simpler, are very curious in themselves, but they are important mainly for the method which is Hi them, and for the phEosophy which they involve. Witchcraft was no good in its day, certainly; "but," said John Wesley, " to give up witchcraft is to give up the Bible." And, similarly, to gainsay the possibility of Spiritualism is to repudiate the spiritual philosophy of the Scriptures. The writer hereof has what is for him an opinion about Spiritualism, but it would need the space of a volume in which to justify as weE as unfold it. And therefore any mention of it here should be taken, just as it is made, merely by way of aEusion, and for the special points indicated. How vast and various is the universe, even to hu man apprehension ! The infinity surrounding them, men are ready enough to remember for glory, but not for humility. And so, under the lamp-light of histo ry, merely, some great philosophers show very strange ly, as critical occupants of the universe. So, often, on one subject or another, have even great men shown themselves to be as bEnd as ants in a hiEock. 'What THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. 185 would ants be the wiser, if alongside of their hill there were a highway of commerce reaching to the ends of the world, or an observatory by which, as to view, the heavens are brought down ? It is true that emmets are bom with the knowledge which they need, and that human beings are born to the knowledge into which they are to grow. Yet stiE many men are as bEnd as ants to " the balancings of the clouds " ; and many immortal souls have their faculties for un derstanding and beEef fast closed against evidences of the spuitual universe about them. And as to the things of the spirit, and the philosophy of the spirit ual world, and the ongoings of the spiritual universe, there are stiE those even who can " see and not per ceive," and who are altogether amenable to the remon strance, " Having eyes, see ye not ? and having ears, hear ye not ? " Is it indeed true philosophy, which thinks that every fresh suggestion from the universe must necessarily be just what might have been looked for ? And as to signs and effects from the spiritual world, is mere probabiHty any kind of a rule by which for souls to judge, who themselves are but of yesterday's creation ? Yet there are people who are confident as to the possi bilities of the universe, merely through their own feel of it. But even though his five senses be sharpened to the utmost, and be helped by every kind of instru ment and contrivance, yet what is any man for a judge as to the likelihoods of a universe, which appeals, not to five senses only, but perhaps to five hundred facul ties ! And the claim of Christianity is that the soul has senses or sensibEities for channels and quarters, 186 THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. outside of the range of what technicaEy is caEed sci ence. In the " Becognitions of Clement," that oldest of Christian novels, says Simon Magus, " While all sensa tions possible belong to one of the five senses, that Power which is superior to all things, cannot add any new one." But to this it is repbed by Peter, " That is false ; for there is a sixth sense, that of prescience ; for the other five senses are capable only of knowl edge, but the sixth of foreknowledge; which sense the prophets had." As being a spirit imprisoned in. a body, a man has extra-mural relations, and as a livuig soul he has supersensual susceptibilities. And so it might seem to be, in itself, anything but incredible, if, now and then, some soul should have something to re port as to some foregleam of immortaEty ; or as to some glimpse faintly caught of the scenery or the company, to which it is itseE predestined ; or as to occurrences as fitful as the aurora of the north, and as wayward as the lightning, and which, for earthly effect, start per haps from the meeting-point between spirit and mat ter ; and which point, it may be, is more mysterious than even spirit itself is. To what can the outbreak of what is caEed " Spir itualism " be likened for effect ? On the world at large, it has been as though a ghost had appeared at a sitting of the Boyal Society, in London. But a thing may seem to be out of place, because reaEy the ob server himseE is out of his own proper place. And many Christians have been startled, provoked, and confounded by " Spiritualism " because of the extent to which they themselves were out of place, inteEectuaEy and reEg- THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. 187 iously. Not improbably, if Christians had been such believers as they ought to have been, the thing which technically is caEed Spiritualism, might never- have been manifested amongst them. Near Jerusalem once, if the multitude of the disciples had not praised God, the stones might immediately have cried out. The testimony of the stones would not, perhaps, have been very edifying, except by being very startling. Even though the various conditions necessary to the phenomena of SpirituaEsm are not well known, yet it is conceivable and it is highly probable that, if the atmosphere of the Christian Church had been what it ought to have been, instead of there being mediums and their attendant marvels in the world, there would to-day have been in the Church the manifestation of the Spirit, and one good man would have been fuE of the Holy Ghost, and another man, perhaps, would have seen visions, and stiE another would have abounded in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost ; while for the pubEc benefit one man would have shown the gift of heaEng, and another have been endowed with the word of wisdom, as a gift. As it is, however, some of the more material of the SpirituaEstic phenomena, such as noises, are as though the stones cried out, to assure men that really they are not as much at home in the universe as they fancy, — that there may be qualities, and ways, and a soul in the universe, such as they have never thought of, — and that themselves instead of being altogether self- sufficient, actually that they are but Hke bubbles made of the will of God and spared of his mercy. There is a philosophy, and that, too, of fervent 188 THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. Christians, which would have taken up at its very commencement, this portentous subject of Spiritual ism as a very little thing, — the philosophy of Henry More and Balph Cudworth, and a long ascending Hne of scholars, reaching up to the Fathers, and in amongst the foundations of the Church. From this philosophy, which implies the coexistence of two worlds for man, — one for the body and another for the spirit, — think ers have been greatly estranged during the last century, because of the inordinate and disproportionate atten tion which has been drawn to the material world, by the novelty and multitude of its disclosures scientifi- caEy. But the more that the range of the five senses is explored, and the more definitely it is ascertained what the properties are of which matter is susceptible, the more certain it becomes that in the universe there is a causative power transcending what the sun and moon have ever felt, and of which man is an object. SpirituaHsm ought to be nothing novel or strange to a theologian, and would not be but for the anomalous state of theology itseE. Men have been so intent, so long, on splitting hairs metaphysically, for theologi cal use, that almost the breadth itseE of theology has been forgotten. By the modes which are called Spirit ualistic people are to-day communicating with spirits from a plane which is common to them, with the Chi nese, the Esquimaux, and the aborigines of Australia, and probably with the prophets of ancient Greece, and the priests of ancient Eome, and with the last phdo- sophic survivors of Hellenism. And if any Christians think that thereby there is over them the supremacy of heavenly illumination, by that much, at least, they THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. 189 may believe themselves, as before heaven, to be stand ing apart from where the early Christians stood. All the preceding remarks will hold true by those laws of evidence by which still higher things than SpirituaEsm wEl be judged a hundred years hence. For, what is under our eyes proverbiaEy is the last thing to be noticed. But when, with the recession of time, it has got to be viewed on the plane of history, along with other distant even though more important objects, then it becomes what cannot so easily be over looked. And it wdl certainly be well for some persons, if by fairness or spuitual receptiveness they should be enabled to anticipate the use of that information, which is certain to pass on to the next generation, and if possibly in no other way, then certainly as an unopened letter, wonderful in itseE, but more wonderful stiE, perhaps, as having never been minded when it was written. Bightly considered, though more fully than is possi ble here, the manner in which the announcement of the phenomena commonly called Spiritualistic, was received is almost as instructive as the manifestations themselves. For it is only by an invincible, inward anti-supernaturaHsm, which has grown with them from childhood, that commonly men of ordinary sense have been able to withstand the multitudinous testimony, which exists as to some of the simpler phenomena which are caEed Spiritualistic. Nor is it out of his own strength, nor yet out of his own weakness, that a man is able to contradict, as he sometimes does ; but it is from the spirit of his age, from the breath which he draws of public opinion, and from his being one of a 190 THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. banded host. And this remark is made quite inde pendently of what the thing called Spiritualism may be in itself, whether sense or nonsense, and whether good, bad, or indifferent. " SpirituaEsm is the work of evil spirits," says one who had never in his life before had a word to say about devE or evil spirits, and into whose theological mind never a thought of one could have entered, but as a ready way of answering what he was not prepared to argue. Says another, " It is either the Devil, or else it is imposture, or else it is aU a misunderstanding by the people concerned." This might be the judgment of some personage standing aback and above the origin of aE philosophy and all action on this earth, but for the comments which are adjoined, and which show that the utterance was sim ply a superficial view of possible chances on the sub ject, and made by a man who knew that he did reaEy know nothing at aE about it. So again there was once a warning against SpirituaEsm given from the text : " And when they shaE say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter : should not a people seek unto their God ? " The warning was weE meant, and much of it was good. But in the ear of reason it was aE spoiled, when there was added to it, from conscientiousness, that really there never had been any " familiar spirits," and that their mention in the Scriptures was only by way of accommodation to the prejudices of ignorant times. And so it was that a theologian thought he was denouncing from the Scriptures, what aE the while was actuaEy corroborating the Scriptures against him. THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. 191 Often, when overwhelmed by evidence, and unable to deny the reaEty of the phenomena of SpirituaEsm, people say, "Well, what of it ! what does it aE show ?" To which the answer is simple enough, though it can not always be made for fear of discourtesy, that the SpuituaHstic phenomena are fairly and properly for inteEigent persons, and fully as much so as algebra, or trigonometry, or logarithms. Says one, "I have no doubt that, Hi the presence of some persons, called me diums, tables dance and are rapped upon, and in fact I know it ; and I have no doubt that persons have been raised into the air without any human agency, because of what I have been told. And I will acknowledge that the secret thoughts of my mind have been recognized and published in a way which I could not have be Heved, and could hardly have wished. And it is all very funny ; but what of it ? " And this is sometimes said as confidently as though the intellectual system of the uni verse would echo the words and say, " What of it ? " And what of the theology which talks in that manner, what of that ? What else can it be than a mere sem blance of something, the mere ghost of a faith, a sheE empty alike of learning, sense, and earnestness ? The phenomena of SpirituaHsm acknowledged to be real, and yet scorned as being unimportant, unsuggestive, mean ingless, and unworthy of theological notice ! What flippancy ! What mere bEnd leadership of the blind such theology must be ! What a fantastic trick before high heaven ! " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." As to the significance of those phenomena, it is enough to say, that by them Bishop Douglass, with 192 THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. his great name in theology, would have been amazed, as though by a latter-day revelation ; and that Hugh Farmer, formerly the great authority as to miracles, would have found himseE thereby flatly contradicted on important points, though not much to his grief, because of the good, honest man he was. St. Bonaventura, while writing the Efe of St. Francis of Assisi, and entranced in thought, was, according to history, seen to rise in the air. And Thomas Aquinas, who happened accidentaEy to be a witness of the mar vel, said, " Let us leave a saint to write for a saint." This anecdote has been much ridiculed, and yet it has a wide kindred in history. Thus it is said that Ignatius Loyola was seen in prayer to be raised more than a foot from the ground, saying, " 0 my God ! 0 my Lord ! 0 that men knew thee ! " But for persons who would wish to belong to the communion of saints, whether with or without a pope, it would seem to be important and interesting, if anything might enable them to be lieve, instead of harshly denying what impHcates such names as Bonaventura and Thomas Aquinas. According to Farmer, in his Essay on Miracles, a human body raised into the air, without any human agency whatever, would be a real and evident miracle, because contrary to the known course of nature. , A man may affirm a thing to be true, and say, " What of it ? " But if he affirms that to be true which Hugh Farmer could not imagine as possible, except by the direct intervention of God, the man may be certain that he has done a great thing, whether he knows it or not, or whether he knows or does not know how to make use of his own knowledge. The levitation of THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. 193 the body is affirmed in history, in regard to persons canonized as saints, and also as to people accused of witchcraft, and it has been again and again published as to Pope Pius the Seventh. At present, for almost aE Protestant eyes, even when acknowledged as being probably true, it is an incongruous fact, but surely it ought not therefore to be despised as useless ; but rath er it should be reverentiaEy remembered, as being Ekely, some day, to flash Eght on the mystery of the connection between the soul and the body. And in deed it is really anything but ridiculous to think of, by a person of reading, and of good common sense and earnestness. And if it does not immediately teach any thing, it may yet draw one up into the mount of con templation, whence things have a different look to what they have in the common world below, and whence, too, the laws of nature seem but Eke the surface, and not the soul of things, — a surface, perhaps, of a lake, on which for ripple, and figure, and glancing sheen, it is because " the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." And it may be added that also the remaining clause of the text is true, not only as to the conversion of a man morally, which properly it means, but also as to the change which a man may, and often does, experience as to his estimate of nature and science, under a vivid sense of what is omnipotent and omniscient, — "So is every one that is born of the Spirit." "And what of it?" many good people have said, while acknowledging that, in connection with what is caEed SpirituaEsm, then secret thoughts had been rec- 9 M 194 THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. ognized and answered through many secret windings; as though such a fact were nothing more than the capricious barking of a dog as to significance. In a recent theological work, Dr. Walter Scott says about some printed account of a boy, who was supposed to be a demoniac, and to have been sensible of an adju ration, even when only addressed to him in the secrecy of the mind, " I would ask, Are we warranted by either Scripture or reason to believe that any evil spirit, even if it had been Satan himseE, can know the thoughts, the most secret workings and prayers of the heart Hi the way in which this is supposed to have been done ? I must think that we are not." The theology of Dr. Scott, in the history of opinion, is what dates mainly from St. Augustine. And the writings of Augustine should have instructed him differently from that state ment of his, and by the saint's personal experience. The previous quotation is contained in a work, highly important at least as to the auspices under which it was published, and the man who knows anything dif ferently, and thinks nothing of it, stands opposed sim ply by information to people whose looks would aston ish him, if they were assembled about him in then multitude and respectability. And if such a man should further wish to try out of the present age, and in the last, the importance of what, though real, he accounts as worthless, then let him listen to a remark of Jortin on Ecclesiastical History. " It seems to be beyond the abilities of any created being to know the thoughts of a man, particularly of a man who is agitated by no passion, and gives no indications of his mind by any outward sign." Such a different thing it is, for a man THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. 195 to talk just out of himself, and for a momentary pur pose, from being ready to hold his position in fuE view of history and men of earnest thought ! It may be, that two persons might be found of the same school in philosophy, according at least to the words in which one would claim feEow-belief with the other ; and of these two, one would say that the phe nomena of SpnituaEsm are impossible, while the other would say that they are as meaningless as the miracles of the Scriptures, which may or not be true. But now thence it might seem, as though the occurrence of an EnpossibEity might be nothing wonderful. One man, with the first report of the simpler phe nomena of SpirituaEsm, exclaims, " That is the DevE." And another, with the first certain communication of something which could not be other than preternat- uraHy given, exclaims, " The heavens are open again." And besides these, there are the large classes who say, some in one way and some in another, but aE of them conjointly what is tantamoimt to this, — "Ah, well, very likely, no doubt, but perhaps there is possibly, no knowing truly, so to say, anything about anything." In such an atmosphere of thought, spiritually, as aEnost aE people would seem to be living in, so thin and hazy and uninspiring, so dead and bewildering, it might seem as though for a theologian, anything spir itual, even though it might really be devilish, ought to be useful, as enabhng him perhaps to find his where abouts, or, as the French say, "to face the East"; though certainly it could not aid him to do so, unless by nature or grace he might happen to be ready for the guidance. 196 THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. It is sometimes pronounced as though judiciaEy, for a verdict, " By acclamation of the pubHc, SpirituaEsm is a thing which cannot be entertained for a moment." But now how is this pretended verdict ever supposed to be made up ? It is agreed upon by people who do not agree among themselves, even as to the facts con cerned. One party says, " By the laws of nature what is called Spiritualism is impossible, and therefore it is not a subject to be entertained for a moment." Another party says, " Spiritualism is true, horribly and fearfully ; and, therefore, as a subject of thought can not be entertained for a moment." And a thud party says, " The intuitions of the individual mind are for the individual. And therefore also for the pubbc, as far as the pubHc may be compHcated with his individ uality, the intuitions of the individual are supreme. And from outside whatever would conflict with the supremacy of intuition, may be accounted extraneous, intrusive, and, like Spiritualism, a thing not to be en tertained for a moment." And a fourth party says, " The Bible is enough for us, and as we have not time for everything, SpirituaEsm cannot by us be enter tained for a moment." Strange parties these to a common verdict, — parties who disagree about the facts concerned, and who yet are summed up together for apparently a unanimous opinion. But whatever SpirituaEsm may be, it has had a sin gular, instructive effect, by the remarks which it has ebcited from philosophers taken by surprise; from " children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine " ; from seE-opinionated men, exas perated by the rebeEiousness of facts against them; THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. 197 and by theologians who, with denying the possibility of Spiritualism, have suddenly found themselves flatly opposed to the Bible. For both theology and philos ophy have been wofuEy at fault about SpirituaEsm ; which, however, they never would have been, only that first they had themselves become egregiously faulty by having become too set in doctrine, and by having thereby largely foregone the perception and the love of facts, as evolved by daily experience, or as recorded in history. While he was a Jew, Neander was turned towards Christianity by the Pedagogue of Plutarch. This inci dent was a sign of the times, reaEy. For by an old Pa gan was done unintentionally, what aE the Christian apologists of the day might have attempted in vain. For, by timidity and by the taint of anti-supernatural- ism Hi many places, Christianity has been so weakened and attenuated, as that it cannot be spirituaEy or in teEectuaEy attractive, for persons of intelligence. And indeed by a man of spiritual insight and critical fac ulty, there is more Christianity to be distilled out of Paganism itself, than some theologians seem able to find in aE the New Testament. BeEef in a spiritual world, as the early Christians felt it, has become so much weakened by sickly intel- lectuaEsms of materialistic kinship, that really what the earEest disciples eschewed might serve to-day as a first lesson in pneumatology, for many Christian divines. Many bebevers in Spiritualism are as igno rant as other people, and some of them as ignorant perhaps as even Abyssinian Christians. But the Spir ituaEsm of the most ignorant Spiritualist persuades 198 THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM,. him, of his personal knowledge, that the demonology of the New Testament was true. As has been stated before, Spiritualism is not of any particular church or creed, any more than a telescope is, or an electric telegraph, or a badly kept post-office, or a misceEaneous library."' But just as Paganism itself might help to make some Christian believers to be better believers than they are, so even SpuituaHsm might avail theologically for some distinguished di vines. And truly such is the spiritual ignorance of this highly scientific age, that " an unclean spuit," fit only for exorcism in ancient times, would to-day, for importance, in almost any theological school, be like a new revelation ; because a real, earnest belief in the demoniacs of the New Testament would necessi tate the formation of a pneumatology of the Scrip tures, for want of which, to nearly aE readers, the sen tences of the Bible sometimes hold together but Eke ropes of sand. " And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a cer tain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us." If anything to-day might make her seem, by analogy or otherwise, to have been exactly what the writer says, then there would be many an honest doctor of divinity, on that knowledge, who would confess that what little pneumatology he might have was wrong, and also his philosophy of religion, and also that inspiration was a more real thing than he had ever thought. But now the account of that girl, with the spirit of Pytho, is to be believed in, according to Spiritualism, exactly as it is written, and not stupidly, but with a Evely, inteEigent apprehen- THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. 199 sion. Can it be that anything m the Scriptures should be the plainer for Spiritualism ? Certainly, and no great wonder either ! How many various understand ings there are of the New Testament, — CathoEc, Trinitarian, Arian, Unitarian, Calvinistic, Arminian, and five, ten, twenty otherf^^here can only one of them be right absolutely, aim probably there is not even one. Such various understandings of the same book argue the obfuscated state of theology, and ar gue too the probabiHty, that* theologians differ from one another s^ variously, for ^something else than the letter of the Scriptures ; and indeed because of a some thing which, more or less, they all lack, and which in fuE strength with them would - be " the unity of the Spuit " ; and because largely of the general infec tiousness of the anti-supernaturalism of the times. But, as has been aEeady remarked, it is such a state of things at present, that even " the unclean spirits " men tioned in the New Testament, if made certain by anal ogy or any other way, and even though of the same class as the " dumb and deaf spirit," would yet, simply as being known of, be of great use to wanderers in the field of theology, bewildered as it now is. Spiritual rappings have been derided as mere mate rialism, but only, however, by persons who must have been intensely materiaHstic without knowing it ; be cause an inteEigent rapping or word by a spirit, suggests to a spirituaBy-minded man, that there must be chan nels and conditions through which a spirit can partiaEy return into nature, and also that possibly there may be some human beings, who may be spnitually acted upon, as weE as tables. Then, too, it is said that Spirit- 200 THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. uaHsm is worthless as a subject of thought, because the spirits never tell what was not known before. But no matter how stupidly it may be done, if a spirit can show himself at aE, he does the greatest thing of the age, on this earth ; for he returns by a door where theology has said there was no opening. And now again let it be said that aE this, which may seem novel and startbng on the first reading, is yet nothing strange, if read in the spuit of the Scriptures, and by the light of history. Spiritualism, dated even as of Bochester origin, is of infinite importance to the state of mind which denies its possibility. But to the mind which believes it, it may be very mischievous, or at best may minister to a poor, low kind of spirituality, apart from the phuosophy con nected with it, and which involves in its completeness both modern science and ancient history, and the ex periences of almost every primitive tribe ; and also which appeals to the New Testament as to the discerning of spirits, and which strengthens itseE as to its positions, by the history of the Christian Church, whEe it was in conflict with heathenism. In manner there is a great Hkeness between the mistakes respectively of some men of science and some adepts of SpirituaEsm, — between phEosophers with telescope and microscope, who think that they know aE about God, because of their having searched out some of his ways, and SpirituaHsts who think that they know aE about the spuitual universe, from having a few spirits to talk with. And in neither of these classes, do the professors remember the Emitations, under which they learn. For through a telescope God is not seen, but THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. 201 only the divine way of handling dirt. And through spiritual mediums there is communication with the spuitual universe, but only as to the first step perhaps on an endless flight, and on which step, also, it is, as Henry More said two hundred years ago, that often, spirits " are very great fools ; that there are as great fools in the other world as there are in this." By the necessity of things, the best effect from the spuitual world cannot ordinarily result from such com munications as departed spirits can ever word, though even they may themselves rank with seraphs in wis dom ; but it must come from such thought as may be quickened Hi good minds, well prepared by education, and by faith in the Holy Spirit, with a wdlingness to wait for it and to trust it. And in the same manner, however mysterious may be the way of it, the first true thought of God in any soul is by revelation ; for it is a flash of Eght in the mind, or it is a sudden terror of the conscience, or it may be that it is an infinite yearning of love. But whatever it may really be, it is a something with very duTerent qualities from any thing, which can enter the mind through the tube of a telescope, or be started in the understanding purely by science. There have been many outbursts on the world, which have been in a general sense like what is now called SpirituaEsm. Such was the movement which began with George Fox. Such also was the commencement of what is called Shakerism, and such, though in a manner less strongly marked, were the beginnings of the people caEed Irvingites, of some thirty years ago, and also of the Franciscans, who are an order of friars 9* 202 THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. in the Catholic Church. These, however, are only in stances out of a multitude of such things, which might be cited at will, from history, ancient and modern, and from the experiences of the last thirty years. Through George Fox, " the Spirit " was a rebeEion against that formalism of thought, into which English men began to faE soon after the Beformation. And whatever else it may be, the SpirituaHsm which is com monly supposed to have begun at Bochester is a witness against the materiabsm to which men were inclining to succumb, under the undue influence of science. And indeed as to these things there actuaEy is a philosophy, and which is none the less sure for being only dis tantly akin to mineralogy and ichthyology. There are two sides to a thunder-storm, — what is below and what is above, as to state. And simEarly, there are effects to be experienced, and even perhaps to be incurred, by laws which act through human wants, and which may be not unlike perhaps to the demands of a decaying region below, on an atmosphere above, and which get answered by thunder and light ning and sanitary good. Electricity is generated in more ways than one, as by the spontaneity of nature, by artificial contrivances, arid by what may be caEed accidental causes. And so spiritual fire may flash on a man from above ; or it may be caught from another like a flame ; or it may burst from some heart, like spontaneous combustion, and like the experience of the Psalmist : " My heart was hot within me ; whde I was musing, the fire burned : then spake I with my tongue." The recent revival in the north of Ireland, Hke THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. 203 twenty other revivals, was an outburst of spiritual power, by which many hundreds, and even perhaps thousands of souls were acted upon in a way, by which they manifested many things, in curious analogy with the phenomena of Spiritualism. Why was this ? And if that revival were a reality, and SpirituaEsm be not an imposture, why were not the two things exactly aHke as to their effect ? Simply because the people concerned were not the same people in the two matters, and were not looking in one and the same direction. Pressure on a man bodily may vary in many ways, and so may pressure on a man spiritually. And per haps the connections and susceptibilities of a man through his spirit may be innumerably more than through his body. The Spirit, as it came on Samson, was one thing, for result; and as it came upon Paul, it was another; though to both it was from the same God that the visitations were made. In an age characterized by an infestation of "un clean spirits" exorcism was an appropriate manifes tation of power superhuman or extra-natural. And if to-day tables are tipped, or danced about, or made to seem intelligent, contrary to the laws of nature, it may be because of what has seemed right to spirits, perhaps at no great height above this earth, and far below that step on which the seraphs stand Hi ranks about the throne of God. Or it may be that table-tippings and similar things are even directly concurrent with the designs of Providence, and are to be accounted as means, whereby the minds of men may be exorcised from fascination by the laws of nature, which, though 204 THE OUTBURST OF SPIRITUALISM. true enough for men as mere mortals, are not the haE of the truth for them as immortal souls. And if through some mediums SpirituaEsm should seem to stand apart from Christianity, and therefore to be strange and portentous, then let an incident Hi the Gospels be considered ; and let it be noticed how easily the confidence of a Christian ought to transcend even the heroism of mere honesty. " And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devus in thy name ; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not ; for he that is not against us is for us." THOUGHTS ON SPIEITUALISM. SPIRITUALISM is properly the antithesis of ma teriaHsm, and holds that man is not only an animated, highly organized body, but also a Eving soul, and from his bnth connected with a world spuitual and eternal. And Spiritualism technicaEy , so caEed is simply an affirmation of the foregoing statement, under the interest and conviction produced by certain phenomena of the last few years, and which are very curious, and apparently preternatural. A medium may be lowly and ignorant, and also laden with every infirmity of the flesh, and yet can be the sudden, utter confutation of materiaHsm, even while it is affecting to lean upon science, and to deck itself with the beauties of poetry. But some persons may think it strange, that mstruction is to be got from a lowly, ignorant medium. But surely the loftiest phi losophy should be able to condescend to new facts, anywhere, and at any time. Yet often the phenomena of SpirituaEsm have been despised by persons who yet gloried, under science, in having been instructed, by mere stones and petrified bones, as to the order of creation, and as to the look and habits of creatures, animals, and vegetables, as they appeared and fulfiEed their times and uses. To the writer hereof, the phenomena of SpirituaEsm 206 THOUGHTS ON .SPIRITUALISM. are useful, not so much because of what they are in themselves as incidents, as because they are evidences and illustrations as to pneumatology. Through the persons called mediums is there reaEy communication with the world of spirit ? That there is intercourse to be had with that world is certain ; but as to the spirit to be talked with, there can be no absolute cer tainty. Because of some men at least, the minds lie open to the inspection of spirits, Hke the most com pendious and convenient of day-books, so as that, through a medium, a spirit can read to a man out of his own memory things which he had himself for gotten. And for this and other reasons an impostor- spirit can have a mortal at such a disadvantage, as that actually for the present writer, conviction as to the identity of a spirit communicating through a medium, would not be wrought by even fifty times of the amount of evidence, which would suffice for identify ing a person in a court of law. How is this then ? And what, then, does this mean ? It means that mor tals must remember at least what they are ; and that as clay-clad creatures they are but duE and blind as to the spiritual world and its ways and occupants. Nor should this be any marvel ; " for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." And now the way is open by which the writer can express himself still more freely. From his own ex perience, then, he is satisfied that some spirits have power to come into the realm of nature some Ettle way, and so as to be able to make some signs, such as the moving of objects, the ringing of beUs, playing on a harp, and touching a person, and such also as taking THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. 207 possession of the body of some Eving person, more or less completely, and using the hand for writing, and the voice for speaking, and the eyes for seeing with, after the manner of a mesmeric clairvoyant, only much more successfully. Also he knows that the death of a person can be announced, and that even also minute pecuEar cncumstances attending it can be detailed, some days before there could be even a possibility of such information being to be given by natural means. Also the writer would teE, in obedience to a sense of duty, of his having seen and examined and seen vanish ghost-hands, — hands of spuit, which had been material ized as to surface, at least, and which had thereby been made capable of looking and doing, for a Ettle while and to some Ettle purpose, Eke hands of flesh and blood. There may be, and perhaps, aE things considered, there reaEy is, through a medium, sometimes at least, communication between friends in this world and friends departed ; though perhaps it may be as rare as the loving appearance of a mother to a distant child, whom she could not but long for as she died. For reliable intercourse between a person in this world and a particular spirit in the world of spirits, there must be a right adjustment of conditions, of which some perhaps are known, but of which many more are not even to be conjectured. But now reaEy, of my vanished friend, I am sure as to the love, aEeady and out of my heart, beyond aE assurance which he could ever possibly give me, by getting his hand inside of the sphere of nature, and making signs to me; just as when he was a mortal 208 THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. I credited him for affection, beyond what. he ever uttered, or what I should have wished to hear him breathe. What, then, do these phenomena testify ? They wit ness as to human nature what it is in itseE, and what it is open to, through exposure or by grace. And they are proofs as to what a world of mystery it is, in which men Hve. And also they are chaEenges to inquumg minds. Beople are amazed at the phenomena of Spiritualism, and astounded by them, and are sometimes even scep tical as to their possibility ; and aE the while, reaEy, they are but the accidents of our transcendent con nections, of our being immortal though mortal, and spiritual whde yet of the earth, earthy. Are they therefore supernal? No. And the proneness which there is to worship prodigies, though they should be only such things as haunted houses or wonderful dreams, begins really in the same state of mind as that in a theologian, which defines a miracle as being a suspension of the laws of nature. By making too much of the supernatural, it may actuaEy be nuEified as to usefulness. And indeed to such a pass had things come, on the subject of miracles, among honest controversialists, that it might seem as though it had been in the order of Providence that the phenomena of SpirituaEsm should be developed, merely as materials for pneumatology, and for the use of competent observers. And by this, it is not necessary to suppose that Spiritualism is divine, any more than is the cholera which enforces useful lessons. There are diseases of the spirit, which THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. 209 begm with God's mercy, and which end more merci fully stiE. And it would not be without historical analogies, as strong almost as demonstration, E it should be said that the SpirituaHsm of to-day, so abundant, famiHar, extensive, is a reaction, not of the wiE of man of course, but of the constitution of the universe, against the materiaHsm, which was beginning to affect Christianity itseE as an easy conquest. Spuitualism is of great interest, as restoring the background of the Scriptures, as a picture, and as there by also malting the foreground more vivid, if not more inteEigible. By Spuitualism certainty is restored as to the familiar spuit of the Old Testament, and as to the nature of the unclean spirits mentioned in the New Testament, as to the history of the woman of Endor, as to the seductive nature of the worship of Baal, and as to the actual possession of a certain damsel by a spuit of Pytho. And there is no honest divine, among Protestants, but would say, E those things were made certain, that then the field of theology would widen about him, and have indistinct traces grow into plain paths, and have also certain dark quarters in it Elu- mined with unexpected Hght. And if SpuituaHsm can iEustrate the manner in which Said prophesied from an evE spirit, it aids thereby, some Ettle at least, in making inteEigible the manner in which " the Spirit of God came upon him ; and he prophe sied." By SpirituaEsm, too, for Christian use, is affirmed emphaticaEy and amended as to translation, that text which latterly has been understood distinctly by very few divines. " Now the Spirit speaketh ex pressly, that in the latter times some shaE depart from 210 THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. the faith, giving heed to wandering spirits, and the in structions of demons." And if Nature for a theologian be suggestive of many contrarieties, so also is that region in the spiritual world which is nearest to the natural, and whence mostly spiritual approaches are made to men. And just as the Christian has a faith, — which through aE her regions Nature can only iEustrate humbly, and never fully cor roborate, — so also the faith of a Christian is what can be curiously indeed, but yet only partially, supported by evidences from the spiritual world, such as can be given through tables, or even by the hands and tongues of men, as mediums. The reach upwards of the human soul, the yearning affinity of its faith, surmounts the region of nature, and goes up beyond the level of the world of spirits, and aspires after what alone is its proper object, — the Spirit of God Most High. There are men of intellect at this day, who would readily beEeve in Moses, E merely they could be satis fied as to the magicians of Egypt, who yielded to him. There have been persons, darkened in their minds by materiaEsm, who, with seeing merely what they thought was an apparition, have had their eyes so thoroughly and effectuaEy opened, as that the spiritual world, and all their relations to it, were credible at once and in- teEigible. And there have been traveEers who have returned from the East, stronger in their faith as Chris tians, for knowing of the preternatural things, which Hi some places, the natives sometimes assemble for, at their temples. And -there have been persons who have been benefited by the counterpart of what was THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. 211 anciently accounted as dangerous and unworthy, — " the famEiar spirit." These and many other such things may, under Heaven, be good, not so much because of what they are in themselves, as because of the lowliness of the persons for whom they can be lessons. Many a man has thought that the heavens were opening above him, because of the spiritual phenomena which he had experienced. Whereas mainly the things were wonder ful only to his spiritual ignorance, only to his never having known of matters with which, in one age or another, and in one place or another, the human race have always been famEiar. Height above height ! There are many steps from an emmet to " a famEiar spuit " ; but more than they countlessly are the steps between the level of "famiEar spirits" and the first even of those spiritual heights, down from which comes "every good gfft and every perfect gift." What are caEed the SpuituaEstic phenomena are never aE of them manEested through one medium. Sometimes a person is a channel for one marvel, and sometimes for two, three, four, and five varieties of the marveHous. But of aE these marvels, there is scarce ly one but reaches out into history in aE directions. And there has scarcely ever been an age, but, in one place or another, was familiar with two, three, or more of the prodigies of the present day. Of marvels united to-day in the same medium, some have been evidences on which persons have been canonized as saints in the Church ; and others have been proofs on which poor wretches have been executed as witches ; and one at least, in the same age, has served as con clusive testimony in Italy as to hobness, and in Eng- 212 THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. land as to devEtry. It is so as a fact, and perhaps also, under Providence, it is vouchsafed as a privilege, that by the commonness of these spiritual phenomena, it is as though the past returned upon the present, and offered itself again for study, and the chance of a bet ter understanding. Sometimes the phenomena of SpirituaEsm remind one of agencies active in the Scriptures, and some times of narratives in the ancient classics ; sometimes of Plotinus, the scholarly heathen of fifteen hundred years ago, and sometimes of St. Augustine, the great father and doctor of the Church, and continuaEy also of the lives of saints, and the charges against wizards, and of the records of the CathoEc Church. And in deed there is no general reader, with his eyes more than haE open, who is acquainted with SpirituaEsm, but recognizes the existence of the common phenom ena of SpirituaEsm, from north to south, the world round, among aE primitive nations and tribes, even though described as ignorantly as things commonly are by mere traveEers. The angekok of the Esquimaux is exactly some good American medium. And at the other end of the world, in New Zealand, are phenom ena which correspond spiritually with those among the Esquimaux. And Madagascar offers for examina tion the same state of things spirituaEy, which obtains among the Maoris, and among their Northern oppo- sites. Through spiritual mediums to-day there are concentrated, within an area of two hundred miles round Boston, phenomena which are akin to the an cient oracles, and to the marvels of Mohammedanism, as attested by Oriental writers and by European trav- THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. 213 eEers, and to the miracles of the Catholic Church, during the last — during indeed aE the years since the CathoEc Church has been speciaEy Eoman Catho- Hc. The SpuituaHsm of to-day is nothing new, and might even by the Scriptures, aHnost, be caEed as old as Adam. What there is new in it is simply the easiness with which preternatural phenomena are to be got at. But may not this be in accordance with that grand overruEng law, by which one change, and another, and another are Hke successive mile-marks along the earth, whHe yet also under the arch of the heavens ? Under God, the material universe is al lowed to disclose its laws astronomically, electrically, chemicaEy, opticaEy, magnetically, dynamically. And so might it not then seem to be by analogy, if con currently, also the spiritual world should appear to be opening before mortals ? As a mortal within a hundred years, how much man has been enlightened as to the earth, which he lives in, and also as to the wide kindred of worlds which sparkle in the sky at night! And proportionately, under Providence, it might seem as though openings and disclosures might be expected as to the position of man as an immortal soul, among the influences, forces, and inhabitants of the spuitual universe. As has been said aEeady, the Spiritualistic phe nomena of to-day are simply easier of approach, and more common perhaps than they have ever been be fore. And that they are not new, whole volumes -of evidence might be adduced to show. In the "Life of a Chinese TraveEer in India," the autobiographer 214 THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. exalts China, although Brahma had not been born Hi it, because there "they know how to make demons and spirits appear." Just about two thousand years ago there is said to have been in the upper classes in China a great panic about death, and for which the writings of Confucius were no comfort. And upon this ensued a great resort to the schools of Tao-tse : the Tao-ists, at this time, having become great theur- gists, and even professing to give prescriptions for dis ease from the prince of demons, in his own handwrit ing. At this present time a spiritual medium is called in China, " a celestial doctor." And now let us read evidence from as different a quarter from China as can weE be found. In his " Treatise on the Soul," Tertullian gives what probably was one of his Montanist experiences. Nobody could define better than he the difference between body and soul, so that when he speaks of the soul as being cor poreal, he is to be understood as meaning that the soid is " a spiritual body." " To the soul also we attribute corporeal outHnes, not only from our judgment being persuaded of its corporeal character, but also as decided for us, by grace, through revelation. For because we recognize the gifts of the Spirit, we have been favored with obtaining a prophecy, after the manner of St. John., At this very day there is with us a sister endowed with the gift of revelations, which she receives in spiritual ecstasy, during the services of Sunday. She converses with angels, and sometimes even with the Lord, and both sees and hears holy things. She discerns the heart of some persons, and she prescribes medicines to those who wish. But now according as the Scriptures THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. 215 are read, or Psalms are sung, or addresses are deHvered, or prayers are offered, are supplied the subjects of her visions. On one occasion we discussed something or other about the Soul, when as it happened this sister was in the Spirit. The people being dismissed at the conclusion of the services, in accordance with her custom of telEng me whatever she sees, — for indeed these things are aE most carefuEy, reported, so as that they may be, tested, — says she, " There is shown to me a human soul. And truly the spuit was seen, but not empty, not des titute of aE quaEties, but in such a manner as that it would even aEow itself to be held. And it was tender, lucid, and of an aerial color. And in aE respects it was of the human form." TertuHian then adds that if this corporeabty of the soul be not credible from its reason ableness, yet that it ought to be so from this vision, which was not without God as a witness, and not without some concurrence from that apostle, who is the appropriate surety as to future gifts in the Church. Bound Tao-tse and TertuEian, in regard to the super natural, in their respective eras, might easily be as sembled a crowd of witnesses, Socrates and Plato, Plutarch and perhaps more than half the people of whom he was the biographer, PHny, and it may be abnost aE the classical authors, nearly every father of the Church, and nearly every historian of the Catholic Church, during the Middle Ages. And if these mag nates of HiteEect could be assembled together, they would be found agreed in a state of mind, to which at once would be credible such works as Baxter's " Cer tainty of the World of Spirits," and Aubrey's Miscel lanies, and Turner's Providences, compHed though these 216 THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. volumes largely are from incidents, such as transpire at present merely to be despised, or at best to be whis pered among friends only in moments of confidence. And now of the state of mind of aE these great think ers, and as to the preternatural occurrences which they wrote about, and as to the modern marvels, which they would have been ready to credit, Spiritualism furnishes the explanation, being, as it is, the key which fits an intricate lock, and yielding as it does to inteEigent in quirers knowledge as to the laws urvolved in portents and prodigies. And now possibly somebody will exclaim, " Then the writer thinks Spiritualism is divine." But now he does not think so, any more than he would think that the dry old bone would be divine, from out of which, as belonging to any creature whatever, it is said that an eminent naturabst could evolve the outHne and habits of the animal, when it was alive, and therefore also the general character of the cEmate and country in which it Eved. Learning, to-day, reaches over a wider field than some people would suppose ; and even the meth ods of science are applicable in ways which, some persons have never thought of. Earthquakes, the plague, the black death ! What is there to be named, as mischief, Hke what foEy, Eke what even fool-hardi ness has been in theology ? In manners, there is no body so insolent as a person of weak pretensions ; and in theology there is nobody so bigoted as the clergy man who is too weak inwardly to digest the creed, which outwardly he has had to mark and learn. Many Christians are provoked by the phenomena of SpirituaEsm, in just the same way as they have been THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. 217 annoyed sometimes by the marvels which have been reported as attendant on reEgious revivals. A spiritual novelty troubles them, unsettles them Hi their minds, and makes them feel as though nothmg were certain. And this is because they do not haE know themselves. For, man as a spiritual being, whether looking towards heaven or towards heE, or towards some opening be tween the two, with earnest longing, is thereby in af finity with the powers of a spuitual world, and capable of being quickened by them, as to faculties in him which ordinarily are latent. But truly, if the universe be infinite, it must have myriads of qualities ; and if God be the head thereof, and we " hens of God, and joint heus with Christ," we must have senses, suscep- tibEities Hi us, many more than five. And it would seem as though such a multifarious nature might, now and then, by accident or the favor of Heaven, express itseE or be receptive in ways, which are outside of the utiEties of ordinary Hfe : just as some common flower with five petals might show ten with cultivation. If tables, by the presence of a medium, should simply beat time to sacred music, milbons of people would be Eeve that the heavens did thereby vouchsafe to show theE sympathy with men. But as that tipping of the table is not for sacred music only, but for anything else almost, just as man talks with man, it would seem as though something through it might be inferred, more important stiE, as information, than even the sympathy of the heavens. For of heavenly sympathy with him, there is no poor wretch but ought to be sure, who has ever been inside of a church. But if, through a table or anything else, there be signified from outside of this 10 218 THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. visible world, a common understanding with man, and as though of aE kinds of persons, good and bad, wise and sEly, then is man informed, not so much as to the heavens, about the favor of which he ought already to have been sure, but as to there being spirits and regions, intermediate between earth and heaven. And with knowledge Eke this, and with even a suspicion of it, there are texts of Scripture, which deepen in meaning, as the eye regards them. The susceptibdity of man as to the spiritual world, — this is what SpirituaEsm would teach. At a re ligious revival, the strange things, which sometimes ac company conversion, are akin to the manner in which the prophets were affected ; and that this is so is a truth, made sure and evident to a Christian, by the psychical laws, which are involved in the phenomena of Spiritualism. It is an easy thing for a man to say that, as a Christian, he cares only about the temper of the New Testament, and to keep himseE in it. But surely the Scripture's do not justify an expositor in that position. Signs and wonders, or rather the possibiEty and the way of them, are essential to the philosophy of revelation. Miracles may be no more, but at least they are a proclamation of the channel, and proofs as to an openness, by which revelation may be 'made. They may sometimes in the past have been false cries ; and just as a boy might alarm a neighborhood, so miracles, may have startled people in the past, and may again in the future, though starting, as the Scriptures have fore warned, from where there is nothing good to foEow, and sounding like " 0 earth, earth, earth, hear," when ready there is no word of the Lord to ensue. There is a chan- THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. 219 nel, by which human beings are open to the spiritual world, and to 'effects from it. To deny the worth of what comes through it may be sometimes right, and be sometimes, according to the Scriptures, even an im perative duty ; but to doubt. the reaEty of the channel itself may be a grievous mistake and be mdeed what may vitiate a whole system of theology. But why should these spuituaHstic phenomena be so much more abundant and familiar in this age than apparently at any former period ? Why are there so many more mediums to-day than were ever known be fore ? It may be because of an occult something in the air ; or it may be because of something, by which the bodies or the souls of this generation are affected unconsciously, and perhaps only for a time, and in a manner which may be disease, or even perhaps im provement. After having agonized in spirit, for some years, George Fox suddenly found himself living in Eght, and also pretematuraEy acquainted with the names and properties of aE vegetables and minerals. Also he found that he had become a mouthpiece for the Spirit, and a man with attendance on whom people were con vulsed in their bodies and quickened in their souls, and often also made into such channels of the Spirit as he himseE was. And in the early days of the Shakers and the Irvingites there were many things which were curiously Eke the marvels which attended on George Fox. And indeed in history are many instances of movements which began from the spiritual world, and which yet were also characterized by the wisdom or ignorance or other peculiarities of the mortals through whom first the impulses were given. 220 THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. If certain psychical channels werev a Ettle enlarged with men generally, and yet not more- than they have often been, men to-day would find themselves, as it were, staggering to and fro, under the bewddering intensity of influences, against the coming of which mere schooling in the order of nature would prove to have been no preparation whatever. And judging by the signs of the times, the guides of public opinion for keeping it both sober and enEghtened wiE need to understand weE the pneumatology of the Old Testa ment, and the nature and reasons of the Jewish the ocracy, and also the psychology involved in the New Testament, and the nature of the Eberty, and there by also of the responsibiEty, " wherewith Christ hath made us free." It is but walking in a vain show, when a man is thoughtless as to the spiritual world, to which aEeady he belongs, and careless as to the channels by which he is himseE approachable from it, and heedless as to its atmosphere, which yet he may sometimes be inhal- ing as breath, without knowing of it. According to the phenomena of SpnituaEsm, the constitution of human nature is manifestly still the same, as what the lawgiving of Moses presupposed, and as what the revelation of Jesus Christ was given to meet; and stiE the same as it was at Athens, Bome, and Antioch, when the gospel began its strug gle with idolatry. And it is only with ascertaining the. place where the first hearers of the gospel stood mentally, that one can catch with fuE force the words which were addressed to them. And anything to-day which might, more or less, enable a student to read the THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. 221 Epistles of Paul, Hi that state of mind about the uni verse, which Paul addressed, would be or should be a great blessing. And the Christian expositor, who is regardless of the philosophy which attaches to the case of that '• certain damsel who had a spirit of Pytho," and who was exorcised by St. Paul, would seem to be a Httle out of the Hght m which the Epis tles of Paul ought to be read. But now a man may Hve a healthy life and a good Hfe, whde ignorant of geography, and of his relative position among a thousand miEion fellow-creatures on this earth, and while utterly ignorant even of the chemistry of his own bodily economy. And whatever may be our locality in the spuitual universe, and whether we suspect it or not ; and whatever may be the channels by which spirituaEy our lives are sus- tained; and whatever the mysteries of our spiritual constitution; and whatever also may be the gifts of the Spirit of which we may fail, from causes con nected with our individual personalities, or with the era which we belong to, yet there is certain for us, under Christ, a more excellent way than any, which can be accidentally or blindly missed. "For now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to face : now I know in part ; but then shaE I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three ; but the greatest of these is charity." But that charity — what is it? It is not simply giving goods to feed the poor, nor is it even a man's wiBingness to let himself be burned alive. For it is what is more than that, being, as it is, what is of a man's mmost nature. Because it is that sympathy 222 THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. which rejoices with them that do rejoice, and which weeps with them that weep, which believes all things and hopes all things ; and which therefore is that at tractiveness in a man's spirit, which sdently and im perceptibly procures for him more of the spiritual use of the universe than possibly his mteEect could ever search out. BeaEy to a true Christian, and stiE more to a Chris tian as well instructed for his day as Moses was, when he " was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," the phenomena of Spiritualism may be interesting, but they ought not to be amazing. And it is just as far as a man denies their possibiHty, that he may measure his distance from the pneumatology of the Scriptures ; or, more precisely speaking, from that point where the apostles would have had him sit down as a heathen learner, and sit long as a Christian hearer, before they would have had him stand up as a teacher. There are many persons who by birth and happy education are such, that the actualities of Spiritualism have nothing to show them except what they may weE beHeve, on a mere hint almost. But then of these born priests of the church there is never one — blessed man — that " sitteth in the seat of the scornfuL" Alas ! in unset tled, discordant times, like the present, how large a part of our best learning is simply getting to unlearn ! And in regard to bad habits to be broken, when life becomes earnest, how much caution there has got to be about that seat of the scorner ! So often the foun tain-head of wisdom in a man is choked by notions originating with people wise in their own conceit, or perhaps with blameless men helplessly bewildered Hi THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUALISM. 223 intricacies of thought ! But when wisdom is not to be got from the outside world, there is stdl a way through which it is to be gained by simplicity and faith. "I said, Days should speak," — but then so often they do not ! " I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spuit in man, and the inspiration of the AHnighty giveth them understanding." A MIBACLE DEFINED. WHAT is a miracle ? It is a fearful question to start in a theological Ebrary. For at once that library becomes a Babel of angry disputants, scarcely one of whom can understand another or would even wish to. A miracle has been defined in one way, and another way, and in so many ways, that almost, as a word, it has become meaningless. It is plain, that commonly Protestants in defining a miracle, have been actuated by anti-CathoEc prejudice, and not simply by that spirit of truth, which would guide into aE truth. And this remark is true even of some Protestants, who, for purity of character, might very properly, as Catholics even, have been sainted. And indeed,, al ways, more or less of allowance will have to be made for a writer, as long as he is connected with books, and breathes vital air, and is capable of being provoked by his fellow-creatures. As to their reality, miracles may be tested by their usefulness as to the gospel : mnacles are credible, as good evidence, if accompanied by inspiration : miracles not dnectly connected with doctrine are not worth thinking of : miracles are of use in . founding a faith, but not in preserving it, and therefore can never have happened since the earliest days of Christianity: miracles were acts, by which the laws of nature were A MIRACLE DEFINED. 225 suspended, and which acts are made certain through history, because of considerations which are acquiesced in by learned and honorable men. But now aE these definitions of the miraculous were made with a view to the claims, controversiaEy, of the Catholic Church. CathoEcism, throughout the wide regions which it covers, appropriates every marvel to itself, and knows how to use itself skiEuEy. An ecstatic, the report of an apparition, a wonderful dream, heaEng in the manner which is now caEed mesmeric, — aE such marvels as, these the Catholic Church can argue from, in 'one way or another. " See the marvels which are among us every day, some where or other. See how these things are a continua tion of the miraculous powers, which witness our special descent from the .apostles. Or else, see how they happen in attestation pf our doctrines as to the spiritual world." To aE this, practicaEy, Protestants have said : " We cannot look, and we wiE not look. We should be sEly to look at what is impossible. But we wiE de fine against you." And so a late English- Dean, while attempting to define a miracle, was evidently conscious , of his scarlet hood, and of the front which it was de sirable to show against the Papists, — mdd, firm, and justly dogmatic. And in his definition of the miracu lous, the Protestant minister of Paris evidently had in view things among CathoEcs, the reaHty of which as facts he was not wdling to chaEenge, but the co gency of which as marvels it was his object to fore- staE. Miracles are to be tested by their necessity to the gospel, — but this leaves it uncertain what the 10* o 226 A^MIRACLE DEFINED. gospel may be, and what necessity may be; and as coming from Bishop Warburton, it leaves it uncertain also whether those divines of his age might not by him have been accounted right, who argued that mira cles ceased in the Church, with the political establish ment of Christianity by Constantine ; and in whose minds, therefore, Christianity was a gospel, which could spare " the manifestation of the Spirit " as soon as it beeame strong in armies, old temples, and money. And there is the Scotch bishop, Douglass, who in his time and place defined a miracle as being credible, if accompanied by inspiration. That definition may have seemed good to some people at a particular time : but to-day it appears as though it would say that a miracle by itself is impossible, but that a miracle con joined with a mystery is fairly credible. At one time a miracle was defined as against the doctrinal claims of the Catholics, and at another tune as against the Catholics and Gibbon, and with an eye also to Hume. And to-day the acute Protestant theologian, who fancies that the Church is a fortress of which he is a defender, would wish to define a miracle so as to stop off CathoEcs, SpirituaHsts, and anti-supernaturalists. And now for inteEigent, discriminating, earnest per sons, what is the outcome of aE the controversies of the last hundred years, as to miracles ? It is simply, at the best, the hope that none of the parties con cerned may have known what they were talking about ; as so few out of the number of mutuaEy con tradictory opponents can possibly have been right, even if any were. And thus in these latter times, on A MIRACLE DEFINED. 227 the subject of miracles, it would seem as though something had been happening Hke what Paul was thinking of, when he wrote of how "the world by wisdom knew not God," or like the nullifying effect of that inappropriate learning with which Jesus re proached the Jews, — " Thus have ye made the com mandment of God of none effect by your tradition." Thoroughly persuaded as to the supernatural, and speaking to people who no more doubted about it than he himseE did, Luther, in his fearless, unguarded way, once spoke of miracles as playthings, which the Father Almighty in heaven let faE among his chil dren on earth ; and Jerome Huss also expressed him seE as to miracles in the same way. And they both of them did weE enough, thinking, no doubt, while they were speaking,, of the priesthood of their time ; whiph commonly was eager to magnify every little marvel of the day or neighborhood, for purposes more exactly ecclesiastical than reEgious. In the common version of the Scriptures, the word "miracle" occurs in all the Old Testament but five times ; and in the Gospel of Matthew, not once ; in that of Luke, but once only; and in the Gospel of Mark, but twice. And of those instances in Mark, one use of the word " miracle " is in a passage, where nothing Hke the word was written by St. Mark, in Greek ; and the other is in a text, where more prop erly it might be translated as meaning " power " or " en abling faculty." But in the Gospel of John, the word " miracle " occurs eleven times. How then is this ? It is because the word which is commonly translated " miracle " means really " a sign." In the three first 228 A MIRACLE DEFINED. Gospels, it is always so translated, except on three oc casions; in two of which the original Greek is not concerned, and in the third of which, it is the same word which otherwise is always translated as meaning " a sign." But now, why is there this difference in the rendering of a common and important word from the Greek into English ? It is, no doubt, because the Commissioners for translating the Scriptures, under the authority of King James the First, of England, at tlieir separate pieces of work, translated the same Greek term, some of them by one word, and others of them by another. What a relief it seems to be to learn this ! For, about that word " miracle," there has gathered such a darkening of " counsel by words without knowledge " ! To theological students the word is like a footbaE, kicked and indented on the field of controversy, amidst the shouts and passions of opposing parties, age after age, till for any exact use it has been kicked out of all shape. Sometimes in the New Testament " signs and won ders " are mentioned, but this phrase means simply " wonderful signs." Sometimes things of a miraculous character are called in the Greek, and are translated into English, as merely " works." But the original Greek word, whether any dictionary knows it or not, means a pecubar kind of' works, with a mighty spirit m them ; as is evident by the use of the word among the Neo-Platonists. About things caEed miracles, then, the general mean ing of the phraseology employed is that of signifi cance. Miracles are signs ; or rather " signs " really A MIRACLE DEFINED. 229 and exactly are those things, which are commonly called miracles. Indeed, the word " miracle " has been so miserably abused by controversiabsts, that it would be weE E it could be disused for fifty years, and some synonyme be employed in its stead. But as that thing cannot be, then always let it be remembered that in the Scriptures by " miracles " are meant " signs," or manEestations of power originating outside of the sphere of nature. Of aE the passages Hi the Bible, which impEcate the subject of nuracles, it is of course impossible, here, to enter uito an examination. But there are cer tain distinct, grand, overruEng enunciations as to mira cles, to which aE other texts must be regarded as sub servient, for reasons as to uicidental utterance or local connection. And perhaps there is no honest theolo gian but would acknowledge in a moment, that there are no texts in the Scriptures but actuaEy are congru ent with these great dnect statements. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus said : " Bebeve me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else beEeve me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that bebeveth on me, the works that I do shaE he do also; and greater works than these shaE he do : because I go unto my Father." In this passage are foretold the powers with which the disciples might find themselves invested. And in the following passage from the Gospel of Matthew, it is foretold that miracles may not only be signs of the coming of the kingdom of heaven, but may also herald a movement from the side of the Prince of Darkness. " For there shaU arise false Christs, and false prophets, 230 A MIRACLE DEFINED. and shall show great signs and wonders ; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold I have told you before." Also St. Paul foreshowed to the Thessalonians the working of a mys tery of iniquity, through which he would be revealed, " whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders." Through the Apocalypse, St. John foresaw the struggle between the gospel and hell, typified in various ways. " And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said Amen. And the four and twenty elders feE down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever." But John saw also something else, as he stood upon the sand of the sea, and beheld a beast come up out of the earth. "And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth, in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do, in the sight of the beast." The early Christians then expected miracles from more quarters than one, and from elsewhere than heaven ; and they were prepared for the coming of false proph ets as well as true. In the Gospel of Mark it is promised, " These signs shaE foEow them that beEeve ; in my name shaE they cast out devils ; they shaE speak with new tongues ; they shaE take up serpents ; and if they drink any deadly tiring, it shaE not hurt them: they shaE lay A MIRACLE DEFINED. 231 hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Signs were to follow them that believed ; and also were to be looked for from persons who were worse than unbe- Eevers. For stiE as written in the Gospel of Mark, and stiE also as the words of Jesus himseE, it was foretold that " false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shaE show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." That through nuracles there is a manifestation of the Spirit St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians. And to the Thessalonians he wrote, that power and signs would some time be, from the working of Satan. A miracle is a seal beyond a counterfeit, which God sets to his word when he speaks. This is a statement which has been agreed to by theologians of aE degrees, by bishops and priests and ministers and laymen, but never by either fact or the Scriptures. The voice of the Scriptures, indeed, on the subject enunciates dis tinctly its meaning through the texts just cited, which are direct, emphatic, and overrubng. The field of the miraculous is wider and more mys terious, than might seem to be supposed by some people, and even by many divines. According to the Scriptures, miracles, and of more kinds than one, ap parently, a man might work, and yet be no Christian. And, as it would seem, a man might even work mira cles in the name of Christ, and possibly by even the vutue of that name, and yet truly himself not be a Christian. " Many wiE say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name ? and Hi thy name have cast out devEs ? and in thy name done many wonderful works ? And then wdl I profess unto 232 A MIRACLE DEFINED. them, I never knew you : depart from me, ye that work iniquity." That is a warnmg for persons about themselves, as channels for the miraculous. And now let a caution be considered, as to the origin and laws of marvellous manifestations. Because there were go ing about many false prophets, that is, many persons who were liable to be inspired by bad spirits, St. John, in his first Epistle, gives what would be a test, for at least the people individually to whom he wrote. " Beloved, beEeve not every spuit, but try the spirits whether they are of God ; because many false prophets are gone out mto the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God : every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God ; and" every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." And now let it be understood that, no doubt, these false prophets appeared among the Christians as they assembled themselves together, and, so to say, in Church. And as to the opening which was possible for them, let the fourteenth chapter be considered in the first Epistle to the Corinthians. In that chapter is indicated remarkably the attitude which Christianity would have its disciples assume towards spirits who might wish to inspire any of them, and, therefore, also towards the prophets themselves, as to what they might have to say on the prompting or in spiration of those spirits. " The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." The prophets are to ex ercise their own discretion, as to time at least, towards the spirits, who would wish to make them ( speak. And with this monition of St. Paul agrees curiously A MIRACLE DEFINED. 233 and wonderfuEy that advice by St. John : " Beloved, beEeve not every spirit, but try tbe spirits whether they are of God." By the foregoing texts, lines are marked on a field of thought, in which possibly some persons may feel as though they could only move blindly. And yet some time, perhaps, it may be to them Hke a famEiar re gion; after they have been, as St. Paul would say, renewed in the spirit of their minds by, it may be, a new phEosophy which they may have taken to, or by internal processes in the spirit which they may have experienced ; and as to which, perhaps, there is noth mg to be suggested more distinctly than what is to be read Ha the book of Job : " For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep faEeth upon men, Hi slumberings upon the bed; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction." And truly the world intedectual and spiritual must be aEve with laws, powers, and agencies, in a thousand ways, as to which we mortals can know nothing what ever, but of which for importance and nearness we may conjecture something, from the manner in which the outer material world has revealed itself to eyes, fitted with telescope and microscope. In the fourteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Corinthians there is a glimpse of what the souls of men are capable of mani festing as to prophecy, and as to the discovery of the secrets of the heart, and as to speech in unknown tongues of men and, it may be, of angels. But it was the doctrine of Paul, that than aE such marvels as these, charity is far better evidence as to the opera- 234 A MIRACLE DEFINED. tion of the Spirit. By these remarks there is implied another spiritual world, than what some theologians suppose; but it is not, therefore, the less certain or Scriptural. And now again, what is a miracle ? Of all the words then in the Scriptures, so translated, and guided also by the connections in which the words are used, the general sense of " miracle " would seem to be " a sign." And a sign would seem to be of various de grees and even varieties of significance, and even per haps to be more or less contingent on human or earthly conditions. That wonderful scene of the Transfigura tion was not for all Jerusalem, nor even for aE the twelve apostles. But it is written : " Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them ; and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light, and behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him." But in his own country, where people asked in reference to his miraculous power, as to how it was, and why it could be, and whether he was not the carpenter ? " Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief." Of there having been a varying estimate as to miracles, among the multitude at least, this text would seem to show, " And many of the people be lieved on him and said, When Christ cometh, wiE he A MIRACLE DEFINED. 235 do more miracles than these which this man hath done ? " And that ultimately miracles, as to signifi cance, have to be understood by doctrine, that is, through the human reason quickened and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, is evident even from the position which Jesus Christ assumed in argument. " Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb ; and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David ? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This feEow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew then thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itseE is brought to desolation ; and every city or house divided against itself shaE not stand : and if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himseE: how shall then his kingdom stand ? " And so, there is recorded another argument by Jesus, made apparently with reference to what he was him seE, and as to what the world about him was, with his being in it, and its being thereby alive with miraculous possibditiesj " Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth ; but how is it that ye do not discern this time ? Yea, and why even of your selves judge ye not what is right ? " And for the estimate of miracles as connected with the apostles, it would seem as though these words might be fully ap plicable, as implying that the miracles of the apostles were like those of Jesus as to significance : " The disci ple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his 236 A MIRACLE DEFINED. master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household ? " As to the significance by authority, which miracles claim in the New Testament, perhaps the preceding texts are sufficient. And as to the authority of mna- cles in the Old Testament, perhaps Maimonides, the Babbi, may be a good teacher; and what he says agrees altogether with the Gospels, and with the doc trine of St. Paul. " We do not beHeve every one who works a sign or a wonder to be a prophet; but only the man whom we have known from the beginning to be fit for prophecy, — to have raised himself, by his wisdom and his works, above aU the men of his age, and to have walked in hobness and separation. Afterwards, if he come and do a sign or a wonder, and say that God hath sent him, the command is to hear him, as it is said, ' Unto him shall ye hearken.' " The general sense, then, of the word " miracle " in the Bible is " a sign " ; as in Exodus, where it is said to Moses by the Lord, " And it shaE come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they wiE believe the voice of the latter sign " ; and as in the account of the expul sion of the traders from the court of the temple, when " answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing thou doest these things ? " and as on other occasion, when " certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saymg, Master, we would see a sign from thee." The word " sign " is a general word, though more precise than the word " miracle." For a sign of mi- A MIRACLE DEFINED. 237 raculous origin means at least something of an un earthly origin, intended for the notice of earthly peo ple. There is, however, no word in the Bible which distinguishes as to the marvellous, between what might herald an angel, or such a startle as might be given by Satan, or by any one of those spirits or agencies, for which in the aggregate, perhaps, the word " Satan " is a synonyme in the Scriptures. In the Apocalypse were foreseen "the spirits of demons working miracles."' But the word which is here translated as " miracle " is the same word " sign " which was used by Jesus when he said, " The powers of the heavens shaE be shaken ; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven." And according to the prediction of Jesus, " signs " were to attend upon those who beHeved in him, and also " signs " were to be shown by false Christs and false prophets. And now let us notice the tone, simply, in which miracles or signs are spoken of, and we shall feel perhaps that miracles, or signs and wonders, are signs simply, and not absolute proofs. In the Gospel of Matthew it is written, " Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered, and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shaE no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas." And so by implication, at least, and actually by the philosophy of the Scrip tures as to miracles, the argument of Jesus is, that miracles were not for them — Scribes and Pharisees — because of then souls having been averse to his preaching. " The men of Nineveh shaU rise in judg- 238 A MIRACLE DEFINED. ment with this generation, and shaE condemn it : be cause they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold a greater than Jonas is here." ,. In the minds of the Pharisees, the cure of the man born blind scarcely counterbalanced by its -miraculous- ness the prejudice which was created by its having been wrought on the Sabbath. " They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was bbnd. And it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Then again also the Pharisees asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes; and I washed and do see. Therefore said some of the' Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles ? And there was a division among them." According to some theologians, every miracle is the direct act of the Most High God. And thus a miracle to-day should be like the sound of a trumpet, in advance of legions of angels and of heav enly hosts, and of power almighty. But it was not so that miracles were regarded at Jerusalem, by the chief people. After Lazarus had been raised from the dead, "Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. But some of them went their way to the Phari sees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we ? for this man doeth many mir acles. If we let him thus alone, all men will bebeve on him ; and the Eomans shall come and take away both our place and nation." A MIRACLE DEFINED. 239 To the apostles Jesus said, " BeEeve me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ; or else believe me for the very works' sake." This was as though his own sweet words should have been more persuasive than miracles. In his own country, "When the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue : and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things ? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands ? " The mighty works, however, even though thorougldy credited, were not supposed to be for significance, what should have stopped the rudeness of the further questioning, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and John, and of Juda, and of Simon ? and are not his sisters here with us ? And they were offended at him." By contrast with the preceding occurs to the mind the account of the poor woman, who said, " If I may touch but his clothes I shaE be whole." From her case there is a bttle more to be learned as to miracles. " She felt in her body that she was healed of that plague '' ; and she was cured as to her body through her soul, or rather through that state of her soul which was like a sensation of Christ, as " she touched his gar ment." , After this, " the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down be fore him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." At Capernaum, when the heathen centurion told his tale ; and " when Jesus heard it, he marveEed, and said to them that foi- 240 A MIRACLE DEFINED. lowed, Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." And then, as showing that the spiritual state of the " man under authority " was con senting to the miracle or concerned with it, "Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way ; and as thou hast beEeved, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour." Of the soul there is a state or an attitude, by which it is " right before God." It does not foEow, however, even under Christ, that every spuit right before God should be a channel of miracles, whether few or many. For, aE the conditions concerned with miracles are not known. As a right state of the body is favorable to right thinking, so there may be some nervous condition or magnetic peculiarity, which may favor the soul's expression of itself by miracles. And with the free manifestation of miracles, it would seem as though not only the spiritual state of individuals might be concerned, but also the state of the community of which they may be members. Also, religiously all times are not the same. One age is a time of fervor and trust, wherein man can wane with God gladly and joyously, though clouds and dark ness be about him. Another age is a season of intel lectual curiosity, when men fancy that they can " by searching find out God " and that indeed they ought to learn about him before trusting to him. But reaEy that picture of the Transfiguration by Baphael, at Bome, has never been seen through a microscope, and never will be, even though every bit of the canvas should be passed across the field of the best possible instrument. A beEever can walk with God in spirit, but not the A MIRACLE DEFINED. 241 man who thinks that before starting he ought to find out God by analysis and logic, even though not unto perfec tion. And ua many other ways, too, may men disqual- Ey themselves spirituaEy for thuigs which they would attempt. Often in the chambers of his soul a man wiE deEberately close tbe skybghts and the higher windows, and try to see only by such Hght as is nearest to the basement ; and he thinks, in so doing, that he is keep ing close to nature. But he makes the same blunder as that which would search out the beauty and mean ing of Baphael's great picture with a microscope. Dogs are exceEent within the range of their faculties, — the mastiff, the setter, the Newfoundland ; but as something to be judged upon, " Give not that which is holy unto tbe dogs." And not only can a man not judge who is no judge ; but under no outpouring, whether Bentecostal or any other, can a man receive who has no receptiveness. The Pharisees and Sadducees were not often the peo ple, through whom there was any manEestation of the Spuit. In the time of Jesus it does not appear that ever a Pharisee was healed ; or that there was a Phari see among the seventy sent out by Christ, who found themselves endowed with miraculous power. And commonly the Pharisees would seem to have been spiteful about the miracles, even when they could not but acknowledge them, as being real. The seventy had returned with joy at the effect of their new pow ers in the places where they had been, saying, " Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." At this, and thereby also at the state of mind which had been thus found existing abroad, " Jesus rejoiced 11 p 242 A MIRACLE DEFINED. m spirit, and said, I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes : even so, Father ; for so it seemed good in thy sight." It has been quoted already, but it is of that signifi cance that it may well be cited again, that when Jesus was in his own country, " he could there do no mighty work," but only heal a few people, by laying his hands on them. There was then possible a state of feeEng in a place, at a certain time, which could hinder the working of miracles even by Jesus Christ. And as what may result from spiritual recognition between persons, and from trust and faith, the miracle at Lystra is an instance ; at which city there was a poor sufferer, who happened to be within the reach of Paul's voice as he preached. "The same heard Paul speak : who steadfastly beholding him, and per ceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked." By this it would seem to be impEed that for miracles in curing there was necessary, not only a power ready to heal, but also a state of expectancy, receptiveness, and faith on the side of the sufferers. " Draw nigh to God, and he wiE draw nigh to you," says St. James in his Epistle ; and if there be an age, by the spirit of which men generally are withdrawn from God, then necessarily the manifestations of the Spirit must become very few, and be what can be credited very faintly by most persons. And this must be, notwithstanding what concurrently may be the ex periences of mdividual Christians, who perhaps may be A MIRACLE DEFINED. 243 pecuEar as to constitution, or happy in some way, as to education, associates, or neighborhood. From Jesus, after he had risen, and before he had ascended, the apostles received as an answer to a ques tion, " It is not for you to know the times or the sea sons, which the Father hath put in his own power." And that there is a varying distance, in some sense, between mortals and their God, is implied in the words of Peter, in his address at the temple, in Solo mon's porch, when he said to the people who had come running together on account of a miracle, " Bepent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out," against what is in the future, " when the tunes of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." And as showing the manner in which the human , spirit may be in connection with powers outside of itseE indeed, and which yet are not foreign to its na ture, let the words of Jesus, spoken to his immediate disciples, be noticed ; for though they were not ful- fiEed in the age when they were uttered, and are not likely to be at this present time, yet they hold good for aE who are, or who ever shall be in him, " that is true, even in his son Jesus Christ." It is the philoso phy of faith, which is stated in this merely* occasional remark, " Verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this moun tain, Eemove hence to yonder place ; and it shaE re move ; and nothing shaE be impossible unto you." And now what is faith ? • It is the confidence of moral persuasion, — it is the sense of what must be, because of what ought to be : it is the state of a soul 244 A MIRACLE DEFINED. which is open towards God, and therefore receptive of the Holy Ghost ; and which thereby also is capable of becoming prophetic, and of blossoming with Christian graces, Hke gifts, and of developing latent powers, in a superhuman way, for teaching and heaHng, and for spiritual perception, and communion. Faith is the instinct of a soul, as to its affinities ; and about which, as to rebability, the blind Hfe of a bee in the hive ought to be hint enough. There is an instinct of faith Hi us, or a something, which for want of words, cannot perhaps be better de fined, but which men are free to trust or not, because of the manner in which they are created to live, or are let Eve, or at least are free to feel. " Faith as a grain of mustard-seed' ! " There is a whole volume of spiritual philosophy in these words, though only dimly discernible by the writer hereof, and perhaps by most other persons, at present. In a para ble Jesus spoke of " a grain of mustard-seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than aE the seeds that be Hi the earth ; but when it is sown, it groweth up and becometh greater than aE herbs, and shooteth out great branches ; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it." And just as in a mus tard-seed there is the possibdity of a tree, so in every man of faith there is what might remove mountains, not perhaps any day in any century, but in Pentecostal times. That our souls begm from God, and Eve by him, is Christian doctrine ; and it was the beHef of the best of the heathen, as St. Paul showed to the men of Athens, when he reminded them of the words of one of their poets, " For we are also his offspring." And A MIRACLE DEFINED. 245 if only by faith our souls were as nattual as mustard- seeds, or as pbant to super-agency, they would have then various faculties suppEed and fiEed from a foun tain-head eternal of wisdom, power, and goodness, and have aE such desires, as faithful souls can have, easily and abundantly satisfied. And now again what is a mnacle for us human be ings, according to the Scriptures ? But as preliminary to the answer, let it be remembered that our souls and aE souls are Eving in God, as uideed, in some way, aE things must be ; and not merely such intebigences as Moses and Socrates were, but also bees busy in the hive, and devils even whde they beEeve and tremble. According to the Scriptures, then, miracles are " signs " of activity in a moulding and pervading world of spuit ; and which were appealed to, by the Jews, as proofs sometimes of greater and sometimes of less sig nificance, Hi connection with the persons through whom they were wrought. Also, concurrently with the fore going statement, and as enlarging it, it is to be remem bered, accordmg to the Scriptures, through the world of spirit which is round us, that demons, like any other spirits, may possibly make " signs," and may try even to be taken for angels of Hght. And thus, according to a Pindaric phrase, by many windings of thought, or as Swedenborg might say, by a spual progress, we have arrived at a point, perhaps a Ettle higher on the scale of mformation, but stiE with the same view, whence Balph Cudworth looked out, as a student of the InteEectual System of the Universe, when he wrote, after citing Pagan as weE as Christian miracles and prophecies, " AE these phenomena of 246 A MIRACLE DEFINED. apparitions, witchcraft, possessions, and prophecies, do evince that spirits, angels, or demons, though invisible to us, are no fancies, but real and substantial inhabi tants of the world ; which favors not the atheistic hy pothesis : but some of them, as the higher kinds of miracles and predictions, do also immediately enforce the acknowledgment of a Deity, a Being superior to nature, which therefore can check and control it, and which, comprehending the whole, foreknows the most remote, distant, and contingent event." Also, though it be the same thing in other words, it is yet worthy of being read again, " Though all miracles, promiscuously, do not immediately prove the existence of God, nor confirm a prophet, or whatsoever doctrine ; yet do aU of them evince that there is a rank of invisible, under standing beings, superior to men, which atheists com monly deny." Those last words as to an atheist remind one of a fact, which by a late writer was stated very vividly, that in modern times there has nothing been debated or proposed in the realms of thought or imagination, as to theology, or metaphysics, or social organization, but was agitated in England during the times of the Commonwealth. And from that furnace-Eke condi tion, in which mind once was Ha England, no doubt there has resulted in its inhabitants that something, which is a part, at least, of what by foreigners is sometimes caEed sobriety, and sometimes slowness of thought. Balph Cudworth, Bichard Baxter, John Owen, Hen ry More, John Smith and their compeers, may be sup posed by some critics to be out of date for citation as A MIRACLE DEFINED. 247 authorities on philosophical or rebgious subjects, as having been persons innocent of a thought of Panthe ism, and too simple and professional, ever to have known what hostile scepticism might have had to say for itself, in their time. But than this there is not a greater mistake to be made in Eterature by anybody. For the foregoing are aE men of great names ; and the age in which they lived was not a time for cheap repu tations. And, indeed, for spiritual insight and learn ing, and for experience from a wide knowledge of men and coEision with them, there ate no twelve men, to day, to be found in aE England, or throughout the United States, who could be fairly compared as a jury on a theological question, with such men as were known to Henry More^nd Bichard Baxter. And truly, at this time, the^direqfc. affinities of the best thinkers are with the scholars" of two hundred years ago, rather than with those who wrote Engbsh under Queen Anne, or who loved to be Addisonian whHe George the Third was king. By searching upwards and around with the telescope, and downwards with the microscope, into the magnitudes and affinities which are latent in every atom, science confirms the doctrine of the Unity of God. But that doctrine had been a primary truth of revelation for thousands of years before those optical helps were invented. And, indeed, beyond its assent as to the doctrine of the Unity of the Godhead, and those Elustrations which it furnishes of truths which are at least as old as the Old Testament, science has yielded nothing new what ever for the uses or the consideration of theology. With the discovery of the law of gravitation Newton did not find himseE changed theologically ; and to the 248 A MIRACLE DEFINED. end of his life he believed profoundly in a world ex tra-human and spiritual, and in prophecy, as an effect from it. And now, after having striven to view this subject of miracles, as it exists in the Scriptures, by bght from every quarter which is open towards him, the present writer would suggest the foEowing proposi tions. I. A miracle is a " sign " that men are vitally con nected with a sphere, which is wider than what is commonly caEed " nature," and which transcends it. II. A miracle is a "sign" as to individuals and sometimes as to communities, of an increase in sensi bility as to influence from the spiritual world. III. A miracle is a "sign" that Hi the persons through whom it is wrought, there is a state of open ness towards the spiritual world, through which, more or less effectuaHy, they may be receptive of spiritual suggestions, prophetic and doctrinal: which sugges tions, however, like the miracle itseE, may possibly be not from above. IV. A miracle of magnitude and beneficence would seem to create a high presumption, and to be a " sign " as to the goodness, and therefore as to the reEabEity of the person through whom it is wrought. V. A miracle or sign is a possibdity of the present day, and from quarters both good and bad. VI. As to the significance of miracles, or as to signs given or coming from the spiritual world, men ordina rily may judge of themselves, and always they may leam from the Holy Spirit ; the monitions of which wiE never fail, while there are two or three disciples to gather together truly, in the name of Jesus Christ. MIEACLES AS SIGNS. BY anti-supernaturaEsts it is an argument against the probabdity of miracles ever having happened, that the force of them as to authority, and therefore also as to credibEity, must depend on the mental state of the person witnessing" them, or hearing of them. But this is no new discovery; for it is impbed in the Scriptures continuaEy. And St. Paul, Hi his First Epistle to the Corinthians, discriminates thus as to miracles which might even happen together in the church, " Tongues are for a sign, not to them that beHeve, but to them that beHeve not : but prophesying serveth not for them that beHeve not, but for them which beHeve." And Ha the first chapter of the same epistle, St. Paul would say that there are conditions as to preaching Christ, under which " signs " are not thought of, and wisdom of the Greek kind is not minded, " For after that . in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom kneAV not God, it pleased God by the foobshness of preaching to save them that beHeve. For the Jews, require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom : but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbbng-block, and unto the Greeks foobshness ; but unto them which are caEed, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." MEacles dependent for then meaning on the persons 11* 250 MIRACLES AS SIGNS. attending to them, — of course they must be, and always have been. For, outside of what is mathemati cal, hardly anything can be uttered but varies as to force, with the various minds which receive it, and es pecially on such subjects as are moral and religious. It has been said, as though by the complaisance of lofty intellects, and as though by concession to the ways of Providence, that a beEef in miracles may have had its use in times of darkness, and so may have served a^ood end, though itself being utterly baseless. But a sentiment like that, instead of being welcomed, is eschewed by anytliing like "the truth as it is ha Jesus," and by every honest atom in the universe. It is true that a miracle may be more striking one day than another, and in one age than another, just as it might be with one person more than with another. But what of that ? From even the same occurrence do aE the spectators -receive uniformly the same im pression ? What sermon ever was exactly the same thing, to even only two persons in a congregation ? A miracle might be seen and acknowledged by twenty witnesses ; and some of them would thank God for " a sign and wonder " ; and some others would say that it was very curious, and worth thinking about : while stiE more, by their utriitarian remarks, would show them selves to be of the same mind with the people, whom Jesus once answered, when he said, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, not because ye saw the mir acles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled." Never were miracles understood in the CathoEc Church, as being of the same significance as in the MIRACLES AS SIGNS. 251 Evidences of Beligion, by Joseph Priestley. And before Moses addressed Pharoah, it was anticipated that among the Egyptians one sign might be more co gent than another, and two signs be more persuasive than one. " And it shaE come to pass, if they wiE not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they wiE believe the voice of the latter sign." Is a miracle, then, really the less probable as an occurrence, or is its significance the less certain be cause the minds of men, as to the " sign and wonder " may not be uniform, age after age ? It has been said that the day for miracles is past, and that whatever use there may have been in them is worn out. This, however, is the word of a writer who ac tuaEy never knew what a miracle was, and who there fore could never have known properly about its signifi cance and use. For really and truly, there never was a tune when a miracle was as much itself, as it is to day. There never has been a period when a miracle could have been as suggestive and as instructive as it might be at present. There never has been an age when a miracle could have meant as much as it does at this moment. And never, in all time past, could a miracle have been as much of " a sign and wonder " as it might be, and should be, at this present time. For, as is commonly and scientificaEy supposed, the Order of Nature is clearly and distinctly against anything Hke a miracle ; and those powers of omnipotence and omniscience, by which the realm of nature is pervaded, are rightly regarded as guaranties against the possibH- ity of a miracle by accident. And so, in these en lightened days, the humblest muacle, or work, or sign, 252 MIRACLES AS SIGNS. on which formerly only a minor stress would have been laid, is arrayed in a portentousness of meaning, with which anciently it was never accredited, even by those who most heartily beEeved it. And thus, like a remark which has been aEeady made, for such spiritual discernment, as most persons have at present, or are bkely to have before they die, " the unclean spirit," so often mentioned in the Bible, would, as to the consti tution of the spiritual universe, be as great a sign as they are capable of receiving. And yet7 from the Spirit of God an abundance of other " signs " are wait ing on us aE. But as to these invisible signs we ex perience nothmg, and can scarcely even think or feel anything, because of our Eving, for some reason, in a state as to the miraculous, somewhat like that Of those Jews to whom Jesus said, " Perceive ye not yet, neither understand ? have ye your heart yet hardened ? Hav ing eyes, see ye not ? and having ears, hear ye not ? " Certainly a miracle is not of the same meaning m • every age : but it is not always because of its seeming to diminish in significance. King Saul beHeved that Ahimelech the priest had "inquired of God," at the request of David. At this day it seems, that what ever the answer might be, which even an enemy might get as an oracle from God, as though certainly, we aE of us could only say, " The Lord's wiE be done ! " But Saul did not feel so : but said, " Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou and aE of thy father's house." This seems to be like insanity ; but things have been en acted and done in Europe within the last century, from a state of mind not as mtense indeed as that of Saul, but like it. And indeed, history may weE make the MIRACLES AS SIGNS. 253 most mtelligent man fear for himself, as to what non sense or wickedness he may some time find himself committed to, for what may have seemed to him to be good reasons drawn from theology. But in connection with Saul, let us read further. " And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou and faE upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he feE upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a bnen ephod." KE1 a man who could " inquire of the Lord," — kdl a man who was like the mouth piece of God ! This would seem to be Eke anything but a belief in nuracles. Yet actuaEy, it was because he was bebeved to be a man of miracle, that Ahimelech the priest was kdled. " A man of God " had wrought great miracles at the altar Hi Bethel, and an old prophet wished to detain him, notwithstanding that he pleaded " the word of the Lord " to the contrary. " He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art ; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he bed unto him." Certainly the force of a muacle varies with different persons, and from one age perhaps to another. But the anti-supernaturaEsts of this age would probably think much more of a miracle than would seem to have been felt by an ancient Israebte, who not only beHeved in the possi- bdity of miracles, but who also was himseE known as " an old prophet," and who indeed was himself agaua, just about to be made prophetic. In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, it is to be read, "And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' 254 MIRACLES AS SIGNS. hands, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whom soever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money." But here some one may say, " By the manner in which miracles seem to have been regarded anciently, and sometimes perhaps by those even, who knew best about them, they may not really have been what I have thought they were." For which the answer is, " Perhaps not : but they are not therefore the less true, nor the less Scriptural, nor the less significant, nor yet the less reliable as being the spiritual mortar with which are cemented together those human experiences which constitute the Bible, and which make it be like the visible gateway and gate, which open into glory, and into the " house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Miracles not as wonderful to-day as they were be fore the days of science began, — this is what has been sometimes said, and what has been stiE oftener felt. It is true, that we are not as the Egyptians were, nor yet as the Jews were, scientifically. But neither yet are we as they were, geographicaEy, or historicaEy ; and yet vitally we are very Eke them. Be it so, that there is knowledge now about what are called the laws of nature ; and that even some of the laws can be in dicated, through the use of which some miracles may perhaps have been wrought. What then ; does that abolish the meaning of a miracle, as a sign ? Or does that properly end our human wonder, as to what a miracle may mean, or as to who may be the primary MIRACLES AS SIGNS. 255 cause of it ? It might as weE be supposed that with learning the Greek language, as Plato wrote it, that his wisdom would be found to evaporate. The radicals and inflections of a language are not thought, but only a channel for the expression of thought. And for such a " muacle " as is a " sign," the laws of nature, when they are concerned, are but the channels of wiE, power, and inteEigence, combined in an agency which is in visible, and not fleshly, mortal, nor human. When a message reaches a person by telegraph, electricity is not the whole explanation of it ; for the significance of the message began actuaEy with the person who from a distance caused the sign, and sent the commu nication. Science does but make a muacle to be more distinctly " a sign." It is pleaded as an axiom by some theologians, " If we can prove the miracles, we have proved Christian ity." What a sense of pertinency these theologians must have ; and what a sense, too, of moral fitness ! For almost they might as weE say, "Learn well the multipEcation-table, and you wiE certainly feel the genius of Baphael." Before any one can prove the truth of Christianity by tbe miracles of the Scriptures, he must be able to show the spiritual philosophy of muacles, and thereby be able to make people discern, for themselves, the possibEity and probabibty of mira cles having reaEy happened. But this is a thing which is never thought of by the man, who thinks that he can create a beEef in Christianity, by an historical argument as to miracles. "The Bible is the word of God, and the muacles Hi it are the seals of the Almighty ; and I can show that always those miracles 256 MIRACLES AS SIGNS. have been beEeved ; and if we believe them, then we are Christians." A very simple argument this is, certainly ; but somehow, the end of it, even when it is best managed, is acquiescence, simply, and not convic tion, and of course, not fervent conviction. As indeed how should it be ? For actuaEy the argument, as it is usuaEy conducted, presupposes a state of mind, un fortunately not unEke that of the Israelites under Moses. Says Lightfoot in his Horae Hebraicae et Tal- mudicae, " They went under four or five muacles : as the appearing of the cloud of glory, the raining of manna, the flowing of the rock, or the waters at Horeb, the continual newness of their clothes, and the untired- ness of their feet. Yet did they forget and were con tinually repining agautst hun, that did aE these won ders for them." There is a curious narrative connected with the Jews while in the desert, which shows that miracles may be profoundly believed by some persons, and yet to no good purpose ; because of their state of mind, being itseE akin to idolatry, as being bEnd and sensual. For the sins of the people, there was amongst them a plague of fiery serpents. But afterwards, " The Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole : and it shaE come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shaE hve." This was a miracle, which was of a kind, by which there was likely to be a deep and permanent impres sion made. And so in the Second Book of Kings, at a date which would seem to be seven hundred years later than that miracle in the desert, it is to be read that King Hezekiah "removed the high places, and MIRACLES AS SIGNS. 257 brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made ; for unto those days the chHdren of Israel did burn incense to it. And he caEed it Nehushtan," that is, a piece of brass. And at the present day, there are persons, high and low in inteEigence, and some of whom would look grandly, E arrayed in their worldly circumstances, who inwardly are of that old Jewish company in the des ert, and who, but for the spuit of the time, could almost more easily worship a " sign " rather than God, who reveals himseE through it. It has been said, rather arrogantly, that with the growth of inteEect muacles wiE cease to interest men. What, then, with the growth of intellect, wiE men be curious about ? Because oysters, inteEectuaEy, wiE not serve forever, nor monads, nor yet goriEas. And it would seem, indeed, as though miracles might serve men as subjects for inquiry, and as suggestions for speculation, even after the earth shall have yielded up every one of its hidden secrets. With the growth of inteEect, some men have fancied that the basis of morals, and also the sanction, is sim ply utility. And it has happened even that "the world by wisdom knew not God." At present, of that world, to which men are related by bodily organiza tion, the curiosities and laws draw an interest dispro portionately gTeat in comparison with what is felt as to those laws and wonders, which are connected with man as " a Eving soul." This, however, is only by an accident of the moment, and because of the weak ness of the human inteEect; which, though it be only of yesterday, is yet confronted simultaneously 258 MIRACLES AS SIGNS. with the necessities of the passing hour, and with problems akin to the infinite and eternal. There may have been times when miracles were senselessly mag nified ; and it would seem as though there might also be a time when they may be as absurdly neglected. But yet miracles, and even of the far distant past, wiE mterest man as long as he is a creature of aspira tion and hope, because of then being evidences of a spiritual world, and proofs also, that man spirituaEy is enriched with receptiveness against " when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord," whether in this world or the next. For indeed there is not a miracle but is an argument as to our hu man nature, for what it is in its faculties, and what its connections must be with a world invisible, of angels and agencies, which it is a glory to think of. Miracles effete as to meaning, — what a strange no tion ! Because that they never can be, while men can wonder and reverence, and believe Hi the certainty of what must transcend their own pettiness, and dust, and ignorance. Miracles effete as to meaning ! That they never can become while men are human, mortals who have not yet become immortal, and clear of the fleshly ved, which separates between us newly created spirits, and that world eternal, immortal, invisible, for which we are predestined, but which yet " flesh and blood cannot inherit." Miracles effete as to meaning !* That they can never be ; while men can have their thoughts started afresh, from time to time, as to who they themselves may be, or what, relatively, their place in the universe may be, MIRACLES AS SIGNS. 259 under that Supremacy of Power which is called God, and as among " aE things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible, and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principabties, or powers." Muacles effete as to meaning ! That can never be, whde the human soul is in its inmost seE, prophetic, and capable at times of being " taught of God," and of showing graces, which have been quickened from above. Miracles effete as to meaning ! That can never be, whHe a man can be a wonder to himself ; for, by the mysteriousness of his own nature, when he feels it, a man knows that the surrounding universe must cer tainly be abve with laws and marvels, against the as tounding effects of which his soul is saved, only by the creative arrangements of God, -who lets his uni verse " not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." Miracles may cease to interest men, as prodigious tales of distant ages, and remote places ; or as occur rences, of which there can nothing be made. But "miracles," as "signs," wiE be significant as long as human nature lasts ; which means, so long as men are mortal, and have their daily walk bordered by a world immortal, whence effects are possible, or can even pos sibly be imagined, as to influence or intervention. Because, according to the Scriptures, aE human be ings are more or less susceptible of the miraculous, or of bebag acted upon, otherwise than through their bodily senses; or, more exactly stiE, of beuig influ enced from the spiritual world. 260 MIRACLES AS SIGNS. It is true, that we Eve by laws, some of which prob ably are unknown, and others of which are named re spectively as being chemical, dynamic, electric, odic, and vital : but, at the best, this aE is but a scientific and incomplete statement of what St. Paul credited even the heathen for knowing as to God, when he said, that, " In him we live, and move, and have our being." Living and moving in God, and as his offspring! Then the realm of nature does not bound the cncum- ference of our susceptibdities, even at this present time, probably. And then certainly, also, there must be la tent in us the germs of new beguanings, which may start with us, as to effects, in one world after another, on our eternal progress ; and as to which, for opening and debght, he may weE be trusted, to whom we be long, and who is " from everlasting to everlasting." And now, finaEy, a " miracle " being a " sign," what is a sign ? It may have at the time of its giving, an individual and momentary pertinency ; but it has also for everybody, who knows of it, a personal and eternal meaning. In the sense of "miracle," a "sign" is a sign made for mortals, from the world immortal ; and it is also a proof that the soul of man is in some kind of affinity with wonder-working powers, which are active outside of that realm of nature, with which we are famEiar by our boddy senses or common experi ence. When read of in a thoughtless way, miracles in the distance may be but mere marvels ; but reaEy when they are " signs " they are signs which have been made for men, from the spiritual world ; and they are Elus- trations of the laws of that world, which we mortals MIRACLES AS SIGNS. 261 belong to spnituaEy ; and they are evidences of the interest, which is felt there, about us spirits in the flesh. Miracles considered as signs, are flashes of Eght by which we aE of us may discern the grandeur and also the peril of our earthly walk. It was argued by St. Peter, that prophecy in the Scriptures had never been merely for individuals, be cause of its having been a movement by the Holy Ghost. And Eke his argument, is what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, as to even the distant miracles of the age of Moses : " Now aE these things happened unto them for ensamples ; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." MIBACLES AND THE CEEATIVE SPIEIT. ACCOBDING to the book of Genesis, the creation of man was thus, — " The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nos trils the breath of Efe ; and man became a Eving soul." There may perhaps, at the Creation have been more ways than one, by which man might have grown in knowledge; but that which obtained with him, was what is referred to, in Ecclesiastes, where it is said that " much study is a weariness of the flesh " ; and which indeed often ends in seE-confusion ; and which also, at the best, commonly incurs some loss, as a counterbal ance against every gain. And because for us human beings, science, or philosophy, or learning, or aE of them combined, are only a lamp of knowledge, it happens that things are out of sight or in it, and seem great or seem smaE, not because of what they are in them selves, as because of the Eght, by which they are looked at. And hence partly has resulted the strange variety of opinions, which have been pubbshed on the subject of miracles. Man indeed may weE be the subject of marveUous experiences : " For we are but of yesterday and know nothing." And yet there is not one Of us but might say, "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Images of God as we are, and Eving souls, MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 263 we have all of us, been created in the spirit of the universe, and are therefore susceptible of its disclos ures. And if we have no great or common experi ence of them, in these days of dulness and flesh and mortaHty, we are yet none the less certain of having them hereafter, when seraphs shaE be on the wing about us, and we be walking alongside of "a pure river of water of Efe, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." In the Scriptures, it is to be read that, more than once, leprosy was caused by a miracle, and that several tunes, by a miracle, it was cured. And perhaps by the way in which the first man incurred disease, there was something nriraculous involved, just as certainly as at Lystra and other places, through Paul by a bodily touch, or by some point in them spirituaEy being af fected, sufferers were strengthened and cured. Finite creatures, surrounded by the infinite, and more or less vitaBy connected with it, we are wrapped about, and we are pervaded, by possibibties of a miraculous char acter. " For I am fearfuEy and wonderfuEy made : marveEous are thy works ; and that my soul knoweth right weE." As to outward appurtenances, and as to those powers of his, which teE instantly on the surrounding world, generally a man is quick enough, but as to his make, it is almost the last thing ever to be thought of. So wonderfully am I made, that I do not know myseE, nor understand myseE. And the constitution of my body is known to me through discoveries, which are only very recent, notwithstanding that the nature of the human body was a matter of great and vital con- 264 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. cern, to milbons of men, in many past ages. And the more there is known about it, manifestly the more there is to leam ; not perhaps as regards its composi tion, but as to its relationship by electricity and mag netism to the atmosphere, and it may be to the sun and moon and planets. For indeed we are not simply denizens of this earth, but we are creatures of the uni verse, borne about by a planet, which is one of many sisters ; the whole famdy of which are related in every direction infinitely. A man can hear only what his ears wiE let him hear. Over our heads may be made the music of the spheress though inaudibly to us ; and yet it might be distinctly perceptible perhaps, were our hearing a bttle quickened, or were the reporting power of the air or the ether a little intensified. This is readdy credible. And really, by analogy, which is largely what we all of us think by, the ongoings of the universe hint to aE persons, who are not mere arithmeticians or logi cians, that we are concerned with laws, which science has never yet detected, and which perhaps, by their nature, transcend its methods. And therefore any thing, which might be caEed a miracle, instead of being treated defiantly, should as perhaps being spirit uaEy " a sign," be as welcome, at least, as the news of another asteroid, or of some affinity among salts, just freshly detected. " Oh," says some one, " but the Bible is enough for me." And so truly it might well be, E only die could read it aright. But apparently it was not meant, that the Scriptures should be a very easy book for everybody, and for aE persons alike, the seE- conceited and the humble, the worldly-wise and the MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 265 man "taught of God." Else, how does it happen, among Christians, that there are so many sects, Eoman Cathobc, Greek Catholic, EpiscopaEan, Methodist Epis- copaEan, Presbyterian, Orthodox, Unitarian ? The Bible, as a history of the manEestation of the Spirit of God, the writer hereof trusts to, as his highest guidance ; but he bebeves that it was meant to be read as it was given, concurrently with Providence, and by the help of such Eght therefrom, duectly and indi rectly, as may faE, from time to time, on such eyes as may be open to receive it. All criticism, historical, dogmatic, chronological, being fairly aEowed for, the Bible is nianEestly to-day, the greatest treasure which is held Ha any earthen vessel ; and such it wiU be to the end of time, no doubt, or at least tdl time shaE begin agaEa in some new aeon, miEennial or other. But though the Bible is always the same, as to what is written, the eyes with which it is read vary at least from one generation to another. By Providence, it is ordamed that men shaE pass through this life of ours, one generation after another ; and through Providence also it is foreordained, that for the people who read it in succession, the Bible shaE widen in meaning. For, anything from the Spuit of God, addressed to mere spirits m the flesh, must be found to mean more and more, the longer it is looked at. No one, with an eye for history, can glance across it, without being struck by the manner in which often bebefs grow and faE, and apparently without sufficient reasons, from among men themselves. A striking re mark was made by an awe-struckwriter as to the French Eevolution, and by De TocqueviHe, perhaps; and it 12 266 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. was this, that the spirit of tbat revolution went abroad, touching and transforming persons Hi a way, which was not to be accounted for humanly, either as to be nevolence, reHgion, or taste ; but spreading as though by infection. And no doubt with that strange mani festation, there was more concerned than simply the diffusion of words. Men were men, and tongues were tongues ; but there was that in the air, which the men breathed, which perhaps was new. It may have been something of the_ nature of magnetism, which may possibly have originated altogether with men them selves ; or it may have been something of that kind, intensified through spiritual affinities, active in more duections than one. It was a something, so to say, Ha the air : and as some bodEy diseases are infectious, so also, it would seem, are some diseases of the spuit. And in both cases the condition of disease is sugges tive of the channels of "health, and may dlustrate them. And the reverse of panic or of fanaticism by infection is courage or is faith, by the Holy Ghost. And we are Christians fully and joyously, only as far as it has been our personal experience, that " By one Spirit are we aE baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentdes, whether we be bond or free ; and have been aE made to drink into one Spirit." Com monly, logic is but an oar, almost without a blade, by which a thinker fancies that he is making an inde pendent course ; whde reaEy his soul is afloat upon a stream which is infinitely stronger than his arm : and while he thinks that he is rowing himseE indepen dently of all the forces of the universe, he is carried in deed to a port of his willing, but which he would never MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 267 have aimed at, but for the air upon the water, and which indeed he had to breathe for his bfe. And at the best, and in order to be at its best, logic is only movement, step after step. It does but work slowly, and as it were on the deck of a ship, which itseE may aE the while be driven of the winds of heaven, and tossed upon the waves of the deep. Live bebevingly by logic alone ! That is what a man may do, with only the one half of his nature alive ; and that, of course, the half— g£shim, which is only a bttle more than what doesYEvk/'by bread alone." But to find the way to the Father in heaven by logic would be such a hard thing- -for even the greatest inteEect that God condescends to nis. And at this day, by a miracle, which has never been inter mitted since the days of^Bsntecost^-fpr those of us who are wiEing, " God hath\ent "T orj-n" the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." To Eve by logic, working merely on earthly infor mation, is what may be done by individuals, and almost even by individual generations ; but it is what cannot last, because of its not being human. For we human beings, though native to " the heavens and the earth, which are now," are yet now already living with- inside the outskirts of " a city, which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." And so, certainly, until the last man shall have been gathered into the bosom of eternity, miracles, marvels, wonders wiE be dear to the human race as proofs, presumptively, that men are of more than fleshly make, and as " signs," per haps even vouchsafed to them, of there being another world than this, in which we bve, and have to die. 268 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. Hard as glass is, yet it is pervious to the impalpable rays of light ; and electricity wBl run along a wire hundreds of miles in length. Well then may the " wonderfuEy made " body of man be credited for sus ceptibilities, which though they may commonly be occult, may yet also sometimes be the channels of great wonders. "As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh aE." Human beings are spirits held in clay ; and though that clay indeed be vitabzed by the lungs and the heart, it- is yet porous and pervious to forces which sweep round the world, or which stream from pole to pole, such as electricity and magnetism. And there is also the odic force. And concurrently with these forces, only so lately known of, though now so positively ascertained, it would seem as though there might be other powers, higher and stiE more occult than they. And therefore it might seem as though some doctrines and statements in the Scriptures should reasonably ap pear to be more credible to such persons as have doubted spiritually, because of theE having been infected by materiaHsm. In man there is an eye for seeing, and an ear for hearing ; and it is through the air that ear and eye both perceive. And through the au also there is the possibility by which a great thunder-storm at the Cape of Good Hope might be known of almost in a moment, as affecting the atmosphere electrically, at Cape Hom, and on the Himalaya Mountains. Think of the electric telegraph, as to what it is in itself and as to the way in which it works ; and under MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 269 the best information, consider what man is as to body and spirit ; and then many strange marvels will seem indeed to be transcendent, but not therefore unnatural nor incredible, — such as prophetic dreams, sudden persuasions as to far distant occurrences, the expe riences of second sight, an occasional apparition even, and deep, true impressions received unaccountably, and as though from some whispering spuit. Electricity seems to be, in common language, more than the half of the distance from matter to spirit. And it is con ceivable, and it would seem even to be highly proba ble, that as electricity coexists with gravitation, so there may also be forces in the universe, transcending electricity, and nearly akin even to spuit itself. And with these powers, probably, we mortals are concerned more or less, as we are with magnetism or with the oxygen of the atmosphere. But it may be asked, " If there be a spiritual atmos phere, or anything Hke it, which concerns man, and through which spiritual causes may affect him, why has he never been informed of it, by revelation, just as by revelation he learns that he is spirit as weE as body ? " To this question the answer is very simple. Man bves by breath ; and yet he was not born with an instinctive philosophy as to the properties, uses, and dangers of the common air. And after aE these thou sands of years, since the first man died, men are but now just beguiling to understand the nature of the at mosphere. Even if the science of spirit had b'een im parted to the first man, it could not have lasted long with men, if it had been widely out of keeping with their science as to nature. And this indeed would 270 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. seem to be implied by the words of Jesus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen ; and ye receive not our wit ness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye be lieve not, how shall ye believe, if I teE you of heavenly things ? " And thus, indeed, ultimately, instead of there being a domination of Christianity by science, it wiE result that science will but have predisposed Christians themselves for a better understanding of the Bible. For there are some important verities in the Scriptures, which are almost, latent at present. And indeed truths uttered from the Spirit, in human words, ' or in metaphors derived from nature, must always have to wait long, before they can commonly be well understood, because they are only to be " spirit ually discerned." A thousand years ago, and even almost within the last two hundred years, in the most enlightened spot of Eu- 'rope, a farmer toiled upon his land, and felt the while as though outside of his township there was nothmg but danger and darkness. To-day, however, there is not an American agriculturist but feels that to do weE, he must know of the circumference of the world, and also of the natural forces which sweep through the land, and which keep the earth alive ; and that indeed for skdl, he has got to be one of " the laborers together with God." There has been this great change with " the natural man." And is it not, then, reasonable to expect an extension of that knowledge, which is the field of " the spuitual man " ? Doubt about a miracle, merely as a great surprise ! And yet by optics, there have been as great surprises MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 271 given to men, as any spirit ever gave. And surely, if a man did not study science, and think by it, as a sol dier moves, who has been sworn to service, and whose business it is to know no more than what he is put upon, optics alone might weE predispose him to beEeve in marvels, without end. Look at a tadpole through a microscope, and what a marvel is manifested out of nothing ! Yet the micro scope is as true, in its way, as the telescope ; and prob ably there are spirits Eving, in the universe, who be long to a region far below the steps of the throne of God, whose eyes have of themselves the power of both telescope and microscope combined. Also we, human beings, by bnth, probably have visual faculties as strong as telescope and microscope, but for the flesh in which we walk about. With a bttle bodily disorgani zation, the spirit of a man becomes " clanvoyant," and he can read well, and can even walk and climb more securely with his eyes shut than when wide awake. So, even scientifically, a man should be inclined to be Heve Ha miracles, as wonders, or as signs made from steps above him, Ha HatelEgence. By the electric telegraph, we begin to reabze certain characteristics of the spiritual world, and, as Sweden borg would say, the comparative unimportance of time and space. At any hour, almost, it is possible for a person to communicate with any city in Europe, though at a distance, perhaps, of three or four thousand mdes. But, in comparison with this actuality, it would have seemed, a hundred years ago, that intercourse was just as likely with " Jerusalem, which is from above." And surely, if man be " a Eving soul," and be, by birth, a 272 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. native of " the world which now is," and heu to " the world which is to come," it would seem as though the marvels which science discovers might be but the earthly counterpart of miracles or " signs " unearthly, which denote solemnly the opening of the heavens, and that something may be happening, like what was meant when it was said, propheticaEy, that " times of refreshing shaE come from the presence of the Lord." If the ancients could possibly be confronted with the philosophers of the present time, it might weE be proposed for them to compromise as to incredulity, and that the moderns should bebeve in the spiritual world because of science, and that the ancients should be beve in science because of their beHef in spirit ; for, reaEy, miracles are what signs are possible from an ex tra-sensual world, while science is largely the report of semi-sensual forces, outside of that solid world in which anciently men thought that they lived. But, if we are accessible from the spiritual world by influences or visitants, why have we never been told of it ? And now, ready, what more express telling could there possibly be, on any subject, anywhere, than there is on this, Ha the Scriptures ? And again, if there be an opening between this world and another, it may be asked, why the way of it is not to be read of in the Scriptures. But now, there is a philosophy of this present world, which has only very lately been known of, but yet to the advice of which chemicaby, as to health, we trust ourselves impEcitly. And if it should be objected, " Oh, but the soul ! How can a man think to know more about it than his ancestors did ? " And to this, answer may be made by another question, and MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 273 it is this : " What kind of a creature would man have been, E, by his science, he had been a Troglodyte or a dirt-eater, and been also bright the while, with the wisdom of a seraph, and warm with the love of a cherub ? " Certainly, it cannot have been otherwise than that at the creation of man, it must have been ordained, that he should have the Intellectual Universe disclose itseE to him spiritually, as fast at least, as he of himseE should be able to find it out scientificaEy. " Tbe heavens declare the glory of God, and the fir mament showeth his handiwork." That was David's bebef. But then David bebeved in enlightenment from above ; and indeed, among his last words he said, " The Spuit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." The Psalmist said, " The heavens declare the glory of God." But there are persons as suming the attitude of philosophers at this present time, who would say, " There cannot, perhaps, be glory for what has not seE-consciousness ; but truly and grandly tbe heavens, on being found out, do declare the glory of astronomers and the human inteEect." And there are people who think that this sentiment is something new ! And yet their forefathers in inteEi- gence, thought in the same way, perhaps, twenty-five hundred years ago ; for, in the book of Habbakuk the prophet, there is to be read of fishermen who worshipped their nets, because of a good catch. " Therefore they 'sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag ; because by them theu portion is fat, and their meat plenteous." To grow in inteEect, or even in the humblest skill, is to grow godless, except as those sus ceptibdities in a man are kept open which are God- 12* R 274 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. wards. " But," as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, " but as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man, which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." And in the proper sense of the word " miracle," the Spirit of God, as it is experienced by individual Chris tians, from one generation to another, is itself a con tinuous, unceasing miracle in the world. In a right temper, when a man remembers that his Hfe began with his birth, only a very few birthdays back, then no wonder seems to him so great, as even his own ability to ask about a miracle. And no mira cle, perhaps, ever was greater than what is implied by the manner, in which a person can be accused by his con science all through his Efe. For, what actuady would conscience seem to be ? It is a faculty of human na ture, certainly, and yet, certainly, not in quite the same way as logic is ; for, it is a faculty which would seem to be open to re-enforcement, and to have in it the spirit of a higher world, for meaning and strength. Conscience, by its manner of acting, would predispose to a belief in " signs and wonders " and miracles. It is a common conceit, that between matter and spirit there is such a gulf of separation, as that the possibibty of anything spiritual in this world, may rightly be denied at once, whether it be as regards angels or devils or apparitions, or the Holy Spirit, the MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 275 Comforter. And this notion is common even with some mere Scripturists. And yet, surely, there is nothing Eke it in the Scriptures. The laws of the material world act together, like those of the human body : and they connect together in such a way, the lower with the higher, as to suggest spirit itseE as the end, E that may be caEed an end which is a begin ning, connected with immortaHty. In the human body, what diverse laws do by some means communicate with one another ; as the chemi cal with the dynamic, and these again with other laws, such as those of gravitation and electricity' Spirit unable to touch or affect matter under any conditions — what nonsense ! For, in the body of a man, laws, hard to distinguish from spirit, are assembled together, and blend, as it were, into one spirit-Eke force, which is caEed vitaEty. That a spirit cannot do anything for men to know of, and cannot give " a sign," seems to some persons to be absolutely certain, because, as they think, spirit cannot possibly touch, nor handle, nor know of matter ; and yet they bebeve that they, individuaEy, are body and spuit united. They cannot teE how anger clenches for a man his fist, nor how their own thoughts become words ; and yet they are certain that spirit can never affect matter in any way ; and they are certain of this, notwithstanding that they do not even know what a spirit may be. And yet, actuaEy, by its immortal na ture, a spirit may have endless aptitudes, and appli ances, and powers of self-adjustment. At one time, anciently, it was held in psychology that some demons or wandering spirits were spiritual 276 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. bodies possessed of absorbent powers, by which they could assimilate some of the finer particles of matter from the air, and so become thinly embodied, and faintly visible. And it would seem as though it prob ably might have been so ; and if so, reaEy it is a very curious fact. But other things like it have been re corded; and of which one or two, by pneumatology, would seem to have analogies in the Scriptures. And on the supposition that they are true, they are more important than they might seem to be at the first sight ; because they dlustrate the possibibties of the universe, and the manner Ha which the supernatural may begin from the natural; and even also they may elucidate perhaps Christian doctrine. For, if we are the work manship of God, and are created in the image of God, it would seem to imply that there must be latent in us many affinities, by which hereafter we shaE be con nected with the works of God, in many and perhaps infinite directions. For if men be "heirs of God," they would seem to be quabfied by theu spirituabty, and under the Divine permission, to reach and enter upon one world after another, notwithstanding what the constituent arrangements of those worlds, individ uaEy, may be. It is to be read in the Book of Bevela tion, " Write, Blessed are they which are caEed unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." And blessed are they in the highest ; for, by the wedding-garment they are free of every mansion in the Father's house. And, as chEdren of God Most High, it would seem as though there must be the possibBity by birth, for aE souls to be free of all worlds, not in a moment, of course, but only very slowly. Because human souls are but crea- MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 277 tions, as it were, of yesterday; and though they are predestined to be eternal, yet, whEe Eving by the laws of nature, they might weE appear in tbe eyes of an archangel to be but like phosphorescent particles upon the sea of time, which are bright for a moment, and then vanished forever. " But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Some persons are utterly disconcerted, when it is urged seriously as to God, that " In him we Hve and move, and have our being," and that, thence as a fact, there are inferences to be drawn, as to what human beings are, or may hope to be. And yet that text, " Draw nigh to God, and he wiE draw nigh to you," and that beginning of prayer, " Our Father which art in heaven," — these would seem to teach that, whde yet in the flesh, we may be living by the Spirit, and that really " signs " are possible for us, even though there may never be more than one " sign " to be real ized by us, whde we are earthly. But that one sign, however, should perhaps be the greatest of miracles for those who can apprehend it ; and it is this, — that we and God are bving together — he " from everlast ing to everlasting," and we by " the breath of the Al mighty." Oh that infesting, nonsensical notion of there being a sharp bne of demarcation between matter and spirit, in consequence of which, in the universe, somewhere or other, there is non-intercourse ! And if reaEy there were such a Ene, man would not be concerned with it ; for, E man be clay, he is also spirit with aE its prop erties, some of which certainly are active with him, though others may be dormant. 278 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. Under God, this universe is a living whole, dust and stars abke included, and from coral insects up to " the seven Spirits which are before his throne." For most persons, the omnipresence of God, notwith standing its infinite significance, is almost a benumb ing phrase, because of the inane manner in which it has been taught as a doctrine. , " Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kid the soul : but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in heE. Are not two sparrows sold for a far- tbing ? and one of them shaE not faE on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are aE numbered." The full meaning of these sayings of Jesus perhaps the most pious man Eving has never felt, even while agreeing to it thoroughly as being the truth. And as to miracles, there is more than one way of believing. For, to acquiesce in certain ancient state ments, merely because we cannot deny James, and John, and Peter, is not a very quickening faith. And even to trust our own senses, as to marvels, may weE be, without our being spiritually minded. Mere assent as to miracles is a very different thing from knowing of them bebevingly, in the spirit of wonder, and from a sense of our" being widely connected with an un known universe. Unknown by us, and yet not utterly unknown is this universe, wherein we are dweEers. Our souls, at present, live cased in clay, and according to the laws of this planet, which is caEed earth ; but when our souls, by the death of the body, shall be free of such laws as enchain us through matter, we shaE find our selves as to God, stiE saying as we do now, that " In MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 279 him we Eve and move and have our being." And so shaE we have to say to all eternity : because by our living and movuag in God, we are now already, HvHag in that Spirit, infinite and eternal, which knows noth ing of height or depth, as being itself all which there is of either, — that spirit, without which the lightning cannot flash, nor the glow-worm shine, which lets loose "the sweet influences of the Pleiades," and which strengthens " the bands of Orion," and from the sense of which, once, about this earth, " the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy," — that spuit, which is nature in those " who, having not the law, are a law unto themselves," and which again as being above the law, can quicken where " the flesh profiteth nothing," — that spirit by which the prophets prophesied, and David as a psalmist was in spired to sing, and which yet is freer than daily bread, for such persons as can reaEy ask for it, — that spirit, which is the consummation of aE miracles in one, for the man who has full experience of it, because " Now the Lord is that Spirit," and " He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." That a muacle should be defined or be objected to, as an act suspending the laws of nature, may seem, at this stage in our argument, to be absurd, as perhaps it reaEy is. For a miracle says about itself, only that it is " miraculum," a bttle wonder, or a " sign and won der." An angel might give me a sign, at the recollec tion of which hereafter, I should smEe, should I ever become an archangel. But because I can anticipate the possibibties of eternity in this bold manner, it does not foEow that a miracle is anything less than miracu- 280 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. lous to-day, or less than a precious hint given to me from outside of this world, as to there being more spiritual activities than I know of, and with some of which my own nature may be more or less involved, by affinity. Miracles are Eke signs, made from steps above me, on Jacob's ladder. The dream of Jacob, on leaving his father's house, is curiously Blustrated by the theory of Plato, as to the spiritual universe and the manner in which men are influenced and taught ; and it is won derfuEy corroborated by the spirit of the Book of Bevelation, and incidentaEy indeed and often by texts, throughout the New Testament. St. James writes in his Epistle, " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of bghts." Most wonderful indeed is that dream, or probably that vision in a dream, which happened to the patriarch Jacob in Syria, some thirteen hundred years before the age of Plato the philosopher of Greece. " And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top_ of it reached to heaven : and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac." And to-day that ladder stands over every one of us, the emblem of revelation, and of the divine government of the world; even though on to the lower steps of it, spirits, who are not angels, may get to stand for a moment, and thence give signs occasion aEy. It is true, that when my spirit shaE be caEed up the height of that ladder, I shaE transcend the greatest of all such miracles as I have ever yet known of; but MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 281 then, too, I shaE have the stars beneath my feet, and science itself also, and I shaE have learned perhaps what the song was, which was sung over our newly created earth, when " aE the sons of God shouted for joy-" Men are the chEdren of the Father Ha heaven, and not simply occupants of a planet, and natives of dirty cities or the sweet country. And there is Ha every one of us, now aEeady, what wiE correspond with every step on that ladder, which Jacob saw reach up to heaven. And what becomes us, as mortals, is to trust in the certainty of that ladder, and Hi the reaEty of those affinities, by which we are connected with spuits and angels, and through which miracles are possible, and signs can be vouchsafed for us. Said Jesus to his disciples, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that beheveth on me, the works that I do shaE he do also : and greater works than these shaE he do, because I go unto my Father." In comparison with greater works nriraculously, there must be some which are less. And it would not be altogether apart from the prophecy of Jesus himself, should it be found that Ha some places, at certain times, miracles of heal ing, because of theu frequency, had been less thought of, than they were among the Jews, in the age of Jesus. And E this were true, what then ? For, what is a miracle, but a sign ? And what is a sign, in the sense of a muacle, but signification of there being power which concerns us, though outside of our ordinary world. It would seem, then, as though conceivably the miracle of one age, might become so common in another, as to begin even to grow less wonderful. But 282 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. the more, what had been a miracle, should lose in won der, the more significant stiE would it grow in another way, as making more and more certain what at first it had only hinted as to the vital, spiritual; eternal con nections between spirits in the flesh and the spiritual universe. Because, indeed, we mortals belong to the world immortal, invisible, through our spiritual nature, by perhaps a thousand powers or susceptibdities, which probably are nearly aE of them merely latent in us at present. And of these latent powers, it may be, that the miracles of aE ages have been intended to suggest for us the actuaEty of some five or six. For the " heirs of the kingdom," doubtless it wiE prove that all the miracles of the Scriptures wiE have been but Eke prophecies of the powers, and the joys, and the company to which they were destined to attain. And this supposition is perhaps by the same line of thought as that along which St. Paul looked, when he foresaw as to Jesus Christ that " when aE things shaE be subdued unto Him, then shaE the Son also himseE be subject unto him, that put aE things under him that God may be all in aE." There cannot possibly be any power in nature at large, which man can discover, but must have some meaning for him, as to his own nature, and be indeed in some sense, an extension of it. Nor is there anything spuitually, of which man can be persuaded, as having spiritually discerned it, but must prove for him, an in troduction to some glory beyond, and which may reach up the heights of heaven to aE eternity. The telescope and the microscope are merely human inventions, but even they report that there are worlds MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. 283 within worlds, and worlds beyond worlds, which con cern us. But when these instruments discover won ders, in their way, in the material universe for the ma terial man ; they do also, to the man who is spirituaEy minded, suggest propheticaEy as to the spiritual world, of there being wonders there, which are only the be ginnings of wonders, and of there being one heaven above another heaven. As binding worlds together, and as holding them in intercourse for some purposes, gravitation and magnet ism and electricity may be instanced as powers. And also they may be regarded as gross simiHtudes as to the ways, by which our spuits wiE find themselves living hereafter, when possessed by aspirations after the heaven of heavens. The universe is aE aEve, and it is ahve all through out it. And muacles are signs made for us mortals by spirits, in different conditions from ours, higher it may be, and perhaps even lower, and perhaps even as high as that of the Seven Spuits. But when miracles are signs from heaven, there comes with them that Spirit, which is its own evidence for those who can feel it, because of the irresistible manner m which the spiritual man is thereby per suaded. When God Most High touches a man with the finger of miracle, the man feels that touch in his inmost nature, as to holiness and newness of life. But muacles of a lower origin than the highest, may for some persons, excite only the extemabty of their na ture, and make them perhaps merely wonder, and per haps also grow in self-conceit. But whatever the constitution of the universe may 284 MIRACLES AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT. be, of worlds within worlds, or of heavens one above another, we mortals are the offspring of the Eving God, the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible. And there is that in every one of us, which quickened by his Spuit, would be affinity with aE worlds, and with everything which has ever happened under the throne of God. " The Spirit itseE beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God ; and E chE- dren, then heus, heus of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." MIBAOLES AND HUMAN NATUEE. AGAINST the probabibty of miracles, or of " signs and wonders," ever having been vouchsafed, it has been objected that they are such things as could not always and everywhere, and to aE men be equally credible and important. And so it is supposed, that the muacles of the Scriptures are inconsistent with the Providence of a just God, unless the impression made by them should have been uniform as to meaning and authority, from the time of the eyewitnesses to the last pubbc professions by Christian converts in Mad agascar and China. But otherwise are aE men im pressible aHke, and exactly by the same thing ? Is the same sensation received from the sun, by both Lapps and Bengalese ? Is there any drug, which is uniform as to strength and effect on persons of every age, tribe, and region ? From even a table of loga rithms, would a uniform impression be received by everybody, withinside of even the four waEs of a mar ket-place ? And from any chapter of the Bible, even though read by the best reader, are there two hearers in any church or any street, who would receive a uni form impression ? Also, is justice the less certainly 'just, because of the Dyaks of Borneo ? Or is purity the less pure, because the negroes of Bonny are not impressible as to that virtue, equaEy with the best 286 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. nuns of Bome, or with Christian matrons radiant with " the beauty of hobness " ? The miracles of the Scrip tures are for aE men, but only just as everything spirit ual and intellectual, is for everybody. , And indeed the fuE meaning of miracles can be developed, only as they are dEferently apprehended by different minds, by Ori gen and Augustine, by Bossuet, Fenelon and Pascal, by Jeremy Taylor, Eobert Barclay, Swedenborg and Neander. It is even possible, that the resurrection of Jesus, may be more significant to-day, than it was on that " first day of the week," and that it may be better be lieved at this time, after eighteen hundred years, than it was even by those who " departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his disciples word." And indeed there seems, at this present time, to be forming such a philosophy of the InteEectual Universe, as that in the hght of it, the fragmentary account of the resurrection of Jesus wiE glow with that newness of meaning, which wiE be its own sufficient evidence as to truth. And already on some minds there dawns a light, in which it seems as though reaffirmed from above, when it is read, " And, behold, there was a great earthquake : for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and robed back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow, and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, " Fear not ye : for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here ; for be is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the' MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 287 Lord lay and go quickly, and teE his disciples that he is risen from the dead ; and, behold, he goeth before you into GaHlee : there shall -ye see him : lo, I have told you." In its relation to human nature, what is a miracle ? Simply it is an incident which happens to a mortal through his immortal connections. At the mountain, by the Sea of Gablee, when Jesus with handling five barley loaves, fed five thousand men, " those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world." But the next day, in consequence of their behavior, " Jesus answered them and said, Verdy, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." But indeed of the apostles themselves, the night after the miracle, it is written, that having seen Jesus walk- Hag on the sea, in a storm, and having taken him for a spirit, and having had that storm subside with his mounting their ship, " they were sore amazed in them selves beyond measure, and wondered. For they con sidered not the miracle of the loaves ; for their heart was hardened." The loaves and fishes of the miracle had been wonderful food, but yet what could be swal lowed and forgotten ; but if the miracle had been understood, and been taken for " a sign and wonder," then Jesus would at once have been known as " the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die." According to the Scrip tures, then, a miracle might be food for the body, or it might be a cure for it ; but when " spiritually discerned," it was also " a sign " as to realms and connections out side of the range of " the natural man." 288 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. It is the Scriptural philosophy as to human nature, that man is both body and soul ; and that though born into this world, he belongs to a world which is to come ; and that he is capable, even on this earth, of being born again. This is man as he is known to " the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls " ; and also as he is created by the Father Almighty, who numbers, every moment, everywhere, the hairs of every head, whdst yet, also, he is the circumference of the universe as to power, and is also Providence to "the young ravens when they cry." Miracles have occurred to men, not unnaturaEy, but conformably to their nature. A spirit Eving and mov ing in a marveUous clothing of flesh, — that is what man is. A man in a diving-suit, weighed down to the floor of the ocean, and exploring it, but endowed with faculties by which he would be more completely at home in the upper air, hints to us the condition of the human being, as he ploughs the earth, and journeys about it, endowed the whde with faculties, by which he may be perhaps free of the heavens, and rich in instincts which never here leave him quiet as to his hereafter. " For we know that if our earthly house of this taber nacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven : if so be that being clothed, we shaE not be found naked." Instead of aspning to what is above, and Eving by aspiration, we may try to accommodate ourselves to our immediate circumstances, and propose to " Eve by bread alone," and with only such thoughts and feebngs-, MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 289 as are akin to dady bread of our own procuring. But in so doing, we can Eve only, as creatures of the earth, earthy. For, by our better nature, there is always in us a hunger " for that meat which endureth unto ever lasting bfe, which the Son of man shall give unto you." And as to this spiritual meat being within our reach, and as to the " weE of water springing up into everlast ing Hfe," perhaps miracles, rightly understood, always are suggestions or proofs. This, even the woman of Samaria wotdd seem to have felt, as, humble and igno rant, she talked with Jesus by the well. And mdeed always, the more a man has " tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come," the more confident must he be of that world, as being his natural and predestined home. " For the Spirit itself," — and therefore, also, aE its gEts, whether prophecy, or the gEts of heaHng, or faith, or the working of miracles, — " the Spirit itsdE beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the chEdren of God." In the book of Deuteronomy there is to be read, what was affirmed anew by Jesus, when he " was led up of the Spirit into the wdderness, to be tempted of the devil " ; and when " he answered and said, It is written, man shaE not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." And by this text, it would seem to be implied that man Eves, at his best, contingently on a dispensing wiE, which is higher than nature, and not merely by such laws of nature as fulfil upon him the prediction, " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, tiE thou re turn unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken. That there is spiritually any higher source of thought 13 s 290 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. for us than nature, and any other inspiration for us than from surrounding nature and feEow-creatures, is denied by implication, when the possibibty of muacles is denied. And the possibdity of miracles is denied, because of what is fancied must be the inviolable uni formity of the laws of nature. And this is said and done, as though aE the forces and properties and con tingencies and affinities of nature, and the whole broad field of it also, were as familiarly known as what a player relies upon for his game at a briliard-table. For the universe there are laws, some palpable, and others which are more or less occult, and there are some laws, which, as blood in the veins, are like laws within laws ; and of these laws there are some which have affinities for one another, and some which are mutuaUy repeEant. And from aE the agency and in tercommunication of these laws, it results that the material universe is sustained and quickened by laws innumerable, for which as a whole, spirit is the name, and no other word. Spirit, indeed, in the fuE sense of the word, is aE laws in one : and God is spuit. But God manifests himseE through what is beneath him, and yet mostly perhaps through ranges and spheres, far above what men know of. But Hi our planetary system, and in this earth, his creative power operates through five, ten, fifty, and perhaps hundreds of separable, distinguishable manifestations, which may be caEed laws. And yet because of their four or five senses, aided one of them by glasses telescopic and microscopic, there are men, who think that from theu personal knowledge of the ways of the universe, they can positively deny the possibibty of a miracle, or of MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 291 any opening, by which an angel, or a spuit or a demon might be able to make " a sign." A man denying the possibibty of a miracle, is a creature of yesterday with a bttle knowledge, and at the best, only a very Ettle, who yet dogmatizes about the possibiEties of the infinite, the invisible, and the eternal. Telescope and microscope being aEowed for as to theu powers, and anatomy, chemistry, and geology also; and botany and icthyology and palaeontology being ftdly credited for theu reports, yet the words of Zophar are no less pertinent to-day than they were of old, though they may sound somewhat more scornfully now than as they were first spoken to Job. " Canst thou by search ing find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? It is as high as heaven ; what canst thou do ? deeper than heE ; what canst thou know ,? " High as heaven, deep as hell, — how possibly could it be found out ? And miracles are hints, suggestions vouchsafed to mortals, as to the inscrutable. But how, then, is a man to know a miracle when it occurs ? He may know it by bis astonishment. For a miracle calls itseE simply a wonder. If a miracle caEed itself, or E the Bible described it, as being a suspension of the laws of nature, it would, of course, be necessary to know altogether about all the laws of nature, before there coidd be any certainty as to whether one of them were suspended or not. • GeneraEy, in the Scriptures, a miracle is a wonder. But " a sign and wonder " would seem to mean something more express than the vaguely wonderful, and to be indeed a significant wonder, " a sign from heaven," or possibly elsewhere, made and given for a particular purpose. I 292 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. And it is at this point that the subject of miracles becomes serious. For, as to the miracles of the Scrip tures, there are persons who say, as they would say also about the marvels of aE ages, " It is very likely that they did happen ; for aE laws have exceptions which are wonderful. Also, strange things certainly do hap pen, but always, of course, according to the laws of nature. Though we can only seldom know what the strange things were exactly, and stiE less can we ex actly know what the laws of nature were, which may have been concerned." These persons do not object to miracles, as curious, exceptional facts, and especiaEy when ancient. They demur only to the essence of a miracle, its soul, its main reason, to its connection with another order than this of things visible, and especiaEy to its being " a sign " made or given. They would be wEHng to allow that perhaps " Stephen, fuE of faith and power, did great Avonders and miracles among the people." And miracles in connection with Jesus Christ, they would think, might be credited. But miracles with an earnest meaning, and connected with God, are what they cannot agree to, as being bkely. They can get back to the day of Pentecost. They are even ready to believe that miracles may have happened ; and they can get within hearing of the appeal of St. Peter, " Ye men of Israel, hear these words ; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by muacles, wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye also know." But this argument they cannot as sent to. They can bebeve Hi a miracle as a marvel, but not as " a sign," and especially as vouchsafed by God : because for that belief, as St. Paul would say, MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 293 they have been spoiled " through phEosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world." They can assent as they read, " and fear came upon every sotri, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles." They can beEeve that miracles and wonderful works may have happened ; but that they were started as signs from the spirit ual world is what they do not bke to have to think. Yet of Paul and Barnabas at Iconium it is written that "Long time abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands." So, also, they can acquiesce, as they read about Phibp in the city of Samaria, " And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Phdip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did." But the foHowbag verse they can assent to, only on the supposition of its being ancient and obsolete phraseology. "For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them." Because that ever the other world was so near to this, as to let out upon it " an unclean spirit," which could enter into a man or haunt among tombs, is what they can think no more than they can heartEy believe that God " maketh his angels spirits." Commonly at this present time, religionists think more of the machinery of the universe than of the uni verse itself, and more of even the lowest of his laws than they do of even God Most High. Whether of demon, ghost, spirit, angel, Son of man in glory, Father in heaven, or any other spiritual being whatever, that the will can possibly make itself felt by mortal beings, 294 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. is a supposition which is repugnant to the philosophy of the day, or rather to the prejudices which were created by science when it was young and insolent, and very ignorant of even its own domain, some seventy or eighty years ago,. ..That the universe, and that even our little surrounding world may have many properties of which there is nothmg known, is a speculation with which science easdy coincides, notwithstanding what some of its professors may think. The ear, the eye, and the tip of the finger are the chief channels of commu nication with the universe for men, by their state of nature. But there may be other beings, to whom this earth may be another thing than what mortals see ; and to whom it may report itself Hi ways, of which man may never get a glimpse. And, conceivably, these creatures may be as invisible as electricity is when it is latent ; and yet for movement may be as swift as thunderbolts, and, as regards God, be even famibar with what mortals would call "the hiding of his power." Verily, who we are, and what we are, being considered, there is a way of arguing from even our human igno rance, which is truer, more just, and more profitable, than even the logic of science, as it is narrowed by some men. As to miracles by the will of God, being incredible as acts of divine condescension- — that would hardly seem to be a just sentiment, while a sparrow cannot fad to the ground without the knowledge of the Father in heaven ; whde the lily is arrayed in glory greater than that of Solomon ; and whde year after year, an in heritance of instinct is perpetuated from worm to worm in the ground. While the glow-worm shines, and while MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 295 the young ravens are fed for crying, while the turtle, the crane and the swaEow are shown the times of then coming, it may weE seem credible as to man, that " the inspuation of the Almighty " should be his under standing ; and even that, as. he draw^ nigh to God, he should have God draw nearer to him.^and lend him perhaps his finger for miracles, and have him pour out of his Spirit for Pentecostal purposes. No doubt, as true philosophy widens, some words also wiE widen and deepen in meaning. But while." father " means father, and essentiaEy is the same thing in Christian households, and among^ aboriginal savages, the word " God " wiE never part wathits essential meaning, and wiE continue to be, for condescension and love and as sistance, what Paul felt, when he wrote of what he had been as an apostle " through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God." But it is questioned, why one man is not a subject for muacles, or an agent, as weE as another. But it might as weE be asked why every man is not a poet, and why poets are' not aE equal. One man is doomed by his constitution to die at his thirtieth year ; whde another man by bnth is heir to threescore years and thuty. But why is that ? As to ancient Greece, why were not the periods of history uniform ; why did not every age flower with names as great and rich as those of Plato and iEschylus ? And after the death of Eu ripides or the last speech- of Demosthenes, why did the inspuation of genius fail ; and why was Pausanias a mere antiquarian instead of being inspired like Pindar ? Why a thing wonderful is not repeated, — this, instead of being the first objection to be made to a muacle, 296 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. would seem as though it ought to be even the last, in accordance with human experience generaEy. As to the probabiEty of miracles having ever oc curred or been vouchsafed, it has been objected that a miracle, with advancing inteEigence, cannot continue to be of the same importance, as at the time of its manifestation. But reaEy what inconsideration that is ! Shakespeare is a greater man to-day than he was in his own age : and so is Milton. And with the growth of inteEect, and the widening of human experience, a miracle instead of meaning less, may actuaEy grow to be more significant with the lapse of time. But as one miracle may gain in expression with the widening of science, so another may lose. For the word " miracle," according to the Scriptures, is a general word, covering wonders of more classes than one. The casting-out of unclean spirits was one of the miraculous works of Jesus Christ, though not one of his " greater works." But to-day, an " unclean spirit," if it could be proved to be existing within human cognizance, would, for the Boyal Society of London, be as great " a sign and won der " as even " though one rose from the dead." " But," says the modern philosopher, " Oh, but un clean spirits are absolutely incredible, being so utterly foreign to our experience. And E reaEy any ever did exist, why are there none known of now ? " But perhaps they are known of, though not very widely reported. Also, if there be any virtue in Christianity, ought it to be expected that unclean spirits should be as common a nuisance to-day as when Jesus Christ and the early disciples first began to cast them out ? Also, if our human world changes, may we not also suppose that MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 297 there may be changes on the spiritual borders of it, and along that bne, which " unclean spirits " anciently were supposed to haunt ? These questions may appear to be strange ; but that they should seem so, is itself, per haps, a still stranger thing. But indeed as to strange ness, what is there which can be greater than the fact that three, four, and five Christian sects should be in controversy with one another as to what really Chris tianity itseE may be ? For Dr. Biichner and some others, accordmg to their own words, clauvoyance or somnambubsm, or a per ception of a road or a book, independently of the humors of the eye, would be a miracle. And this would be because of what they think they know by anatomy. For a materiabst a clairvoyant is as great a miracle as he can ever be shown. But for a Spirit- uaHst a clauvoyant is no great wonder, even though he manEests the certainty that " there is a spirit in man " by showing that, with bandaged eyes, there may be perfect sight, and what even can see through a waE. Such cures as were wrought through the Prince Ho- henlohe, in Germany, about forty years ago, were be Heved by Cathobcs to be miraculous. But at present, cures of the same nature with those of the German Prince are common, at the hands of persons who are not Catholics. Be it aEowed that they are done through mesmerism : but that would mean only that they are wrought through a faculty which was partic ularly strong seventy years since, in a man by the name of Mesmer. But that faculty would better have been named after Greatrex of the seventeenth century, only that even before him the faculty had been manifested 13* 298 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. by multitudes of persons, not of one country only, nor of one century merely, nor even of simply several regions and ages. At this moment, the writer hereof has on his table an engraving, in which St. PhiHp Neri, by his handling, cures Pope Clement the Eighth of the gout. According to the CathoEc Church, and the text which accompanies the picture, the success of Philip Neri was a miracle : and so it was, in a higher or lower degree. And that miracles are of various grades as to significance, is according to the canons of the Catholic Church, and the estimate of the Middle Ages, and the doctrine of the Scriptures. Miracles of heabng are more frequent to-day than they were in the age of St. Phdip Neri. But the less wonderful muacles of any kind become by frequency, the more significant also they become in another way. Mesmerism is the rec ognition of the nervous system of a man, as being through his fingers, more or less, an outlet of power, just as his tongue is. And to-day, mesmerism, with the philosophy thereof, means, that after thousands of years, men have attained to the knowledge of there being one or more psychical laws, through which some persons, under some circumstances can help others medicady. Among the Jews, miracles of healing were accounted as being greater or less in themselves, and also by com parison, as when it was written of Jesus, that " he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them." That miracles should ever lose in force by becoming common, is an inconsiderate, unspiritual fear. For that was never the feeEng of those who knew best about MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 299 miracles. At Taberah, the spirit which was- in Moses had been imparted by the Lord, to seventy elders of the people, stationed about the tabernacle. But si multaneously also two men in the camp prophesied. " And there ran a young man, and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My Lord Moses, forbid them. And Moses said unto him, "Enviest thou for my sake ? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them ! " For indeed a miracle in itseE is nothing in comparison with the spiritual universe, as to the constitution of which, it is " a sign." As argu ing the reality of a spiritual world and of spiritual agencies as affecting men, muacles never possibly can lose their meaning, by becoming common, any more than logarithms by use would dwindle into common arithmetic. The more common of the phenomena of spiritualism may reasonably be accounted as indisputable facts. But they are not equally impressive for aE persons. For by them, one man is converted instantly from materiaHsm to a beHef in spiritual power of some kind. Whde another man can be astounded by them, one day, and then, the next day, forget utterly what an as tonished man he had been, and a third person wiE ac knowledge the reaEty of the marvels, but wiE hold that they are not so useful or suggestive as the tat tooed skull of a Maori, or a potsherd from the mud of the NEe. The four rules of arithmetic have the same meaning for aE inteEigent beings, but a poetic 300 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. phrase has not. And in connection with Jesus himseE, men were affected by miracles, some in one way and some in another. Nicodemus could say, " Babbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God ; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." But the Pharisees could argue and say, " This fellow doth not cast out devds, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devds." This was a strange diversity of opinion as to the same facts ; and it was not probably of intedectual origin, but moral ; and also perhaps not moral merely. "At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." And when Simon Peter recognized Jesus as being the Christ, Jesus said, " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." FearfuEy and wonder fully we are made ; and there are conditions in us, both of body and spirit, which may have accrued, since our buth, quite unaccountably; and through which one man is strong in an atmosphere, by which another man is weakened ; and through which, also, one per son can bebeve only a very bttle beyond what he sees ; while another, being receptive of " the spirit of wisdom and revelation," sees things, the eyes of his understanding being enlightened. It Elustrates the manner in which the ways of thought have become materiabzed, that some such a sentiment as this can be pubHshed, and can even get the acquiescence of persons, whose business it is to know batter. "As to the being of a God and his MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 301 character, the sons of science must ultimately be the judges. And theu verdict wiE have to depend on con troversies and inquiries which are already initiated." What a notion ! " Who' is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge ? " Almost it is the spirit of the age, and what might reply for itseE in the words with which Jesus Christ was answered by a demoniac, when " he asked him, What is thy name ? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion : for we are many." Wait for geologists to teE whether there is a God or not ! Does not the human soul know about that, as weE as ever it can be known ? It might as weE be said, before loving their babies, that women should wait for science to justify them, as to the reason ableness .of the maternal instinct. A man who does not feel God can never find him. And it is only as a chdd of God that ever a man can possibly know of the Father in heaven, however great his science may be. God is not at the end of a telescope, nor to be dis covered by search among the primitive rocks. God is an instinct for us, or else he is nowhere. Wait for what science may say, whde the human soul itseE is higher evidence as to God than aE surrounding nature ! Words of prophecy, and of the highest, and as true as nature itseE, and as simple, are these : " Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? Yea, they may forget, yet wiE I not forget thee." " ' A scientific examination, completely successful, wiE report God as he is to the stars, and as he was at the composition of the rocks of the primitive and the last 302 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. formations, and as he stiE is for what power he endows the whirlwind with. What God is to the worm may be learned from the worm perhaps ; and what also he is to the cricket in the grass may be learned by the study of its habits. " But ask now the beasts, and they shaE teach thee ; and the fowls of the air, and they shaE teE thee : or speak to the earth, and it shaE teach thee ; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee." But rocks and barnacles, birds, beasts, and fowls, the sea, and the sands upon the sea-shore, lilies of the field, and cedars Hke those of Lebanon, — these things all, individuaEy and conjointly, can report no more as to God than what they can, than what they have experienced. And what are they aE, altogether, with aE their properties and quaHties combined, in comparison with a human soul? What God is to the human soul must be something more than he is to aE external nature, and be therefore, probably, something even more hopeful. That which God is to the human body may be in ferred from those laws of nature, by which man is akin to nature. But what God is to the soul there is nothing Ha nature to suggest, and therefore also nothing to limit. Of God in the realm of spirit a mere scientist can know nothing from the study of rocks, beetles, and astronomy, though the prophet indeed can speak of him from inspiration, and the true poet, in his highest, happiest mood, from intuition. God is more to a butterfly than he is to Mount Ararat ; and he is more to an eagle than to a butterfly, and he is more to " the natural man " than he is to any MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 303 eagle. And to man through his spirit God is more than he is through his body. And so there may be methods of God with man, and expectations from him and transcendent hopes, which may be worthy of aE trust, notwithstanding that nothing like them has ever been experienced by dogs or oxen, or been even hinted by geology. But it may be asked, perhaps, whether it is not written that even a sparrow cannot faE to the ground without the knowledge of God. And certainly and happdy it is to be read so, and in a connection, also, from which it might be inferred that even its feathers may be all numbered. And, no doubt, the sparrow was one of the fowls of the air which Jesus pointed to, as neither sowing nor reaping, but as being fed by the Heavenly Father. Also in one of the Psalms it is to be read of how the sparrows had budt about the temple. " Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swaEow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, 0 Lord of hosts, my King and my God." But, Ha the Scriptures, are men and sparrows referred to in the same tone ? In the Bible is not man recog nized as having faculties, susceptibdities, and for God Almighty an Haterest, such as the sparrow, the stork in the heaven, the crane, and the swaEow have not ? "0 Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising : thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways : for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, 0 Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me. 304 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me ; it is high ; I cannot attain unto it. Whither shaE I go from thy Spirit ? or whither shaE I flee from thy presence ? " David was more to God than the sparrow of which he sang in his psalm. And the sparrow, chirping and feeEng, and the same from age to age, for what divine care it may exemplEy, is surely no argument as to human experience of God, as regards either uniformity or miracles. Nor rightly can it be, by its monotony of life, any presumption against the possihdity of there having been " signs and wonders " in connection with " Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, caEed to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God," or with the early Christians, as they watched the faE of the Boman Empire, or with George Fox, as he waited for the Spirit, or with John Wesley, in his newness of Hfe, after he had been " born, not of blood, nor of the wril of the flesh, but of God." After a sensible, good man has learned everything which is to be learned from ornithology and palaeon tology, then let him correspond with the mind of Christ, and he will leam that he is of more value than many sparrows, and that he therefore is probably treated in more ways than sparrows are, and for more wants than they have, by the Maker of both men and sparrows, and of all things visible and invisible. The laws by which the sphere of nature was rounded, and was fdled with things animate and inanimate, are no evidence as to the susceptibdities and connections of man as a Eving soul, within reach of the Spirit, and liable to temptation. As to the operation of the Spirit on human souls, MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 305 there is nothing to be argued from the chemistry of the body, any more than the law of gravitation can hint as to the manner in which the lightning flashes, or the electric current darts and strikes. As to whether Moses and Ebjah could ever have been visited by angels, there can rightly be no hint expected from rocks and fossEs, unless it can first be shown that those rocks and fossds, at some time in theu history, were what angels could have talked with by the DivHae permission. The providence of God, as sparrows can experience it, through the laws of nature, cannot be the measure of that providence, as it adapts itself to Eving souls, and wraps man about with a care, which death is not to end, but only to manifest. And whatever the con nections of man may be through his body with nature and seed-time and harvest, it is yet not inconsistent with them aE, that at one time " man did eat angels' food." There are Christian divines — blind leaders of the bEnd, surely — who hope to have the miracles of the Bible made more credible, by the result of a scientific controversy, as to whether creation occurred by de velopment or by stages. But reaEy, whether God made the world with his right hand or with his left, though a very curious inquiry, cannot possibly be any new light as to the way in which he may have treated primeval man when " he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." By his free wiE, or what feels bke it, a man can turn and twist himself inteEectuaEy, to strange effect, and can get himseE bewddered by curious fantasies, and 306 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. can even become Hke the absurdity of clay upon the wheel criticising the mind of the potter. At this present time there are hundreds of persons who think that, for acuteness, they are mtelEgences of mysterious growth, because they can ask themselves the question, " Has God self-consciousness ; or is the Godhead a blind force ? " But actuaEy, abdity for asking that question was attained long ago, and twenty-five hun dred years since was derided by a prophet in a text, which combines the subtlest phdosophy with the rarest wit : " Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker ! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou ? or thy work, he hath no hands ? " And what is there so like that fancy of ancient prophecy as the modern objection ? "A miracle ! God adow a miracle ! Does not God live and act by laws ? " And to this question the answer is, " Yes, by laws, and even also by his Spirit, which is like a combination of aE laws in one." By his senses, which are only four or five, man is limited as to bis outlook on the universe scientifically, as though he perceived it, for its grandeur and circum ference, merely through a loop-hole. And yet, every now and then, somebody, who has learned aE that he knows within seventy years, turns round on the pubEc as an observer, to dogmatize in a manner which an archangel would never attempt, even among mortals. " An angel ! This world is everywhere impervious to his entrance, and always must have been. A miracle ! It is con trary to experience. A spirit appear ! That is im possible, because of the laws of matter, and because of MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. 307 surrounding matter, earthy and atmospheric. Science is the true hght ; and apostles and prophets were not scientific persons." As to effect, this is a speech which is often made in pubHc, and yet for confidence in self- assertion it is what would not become even a seraph, and " how much less man, that is a worm, and the son Of man, which is a worm." Goethe was a singular combination of worldly shrewdness, scientific perception, and poetic faculty. And, considering the manner of man he was, he was stiE more remarkable for what spiritual insight he had. Probably there is not a theological speculation of the present day, and of scientific origin, with which his thoughts were not famdiar. And he said, once, what may be considered as clenching aE the vague, wander ing argument of the present time as to the being of a God. And never did he say anything more character istic of himseE. It is a verdict on the evidences of reHgion, when estimated at theu lowest. Argued out from history, and from the make of the world, and from human nature, there are certain Hnes of thought which converge at what cannot be anything else than a throne, whether thunderbolts be launched from it or not, and even though at present there be round about it the sdence of that state wherein one day is "as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." And very bkely it was in rebuke of some scoffers that Goethe said what has been referred to, and which was this, " If there be not a God now, there wiE be one day." Is daring speculation, then, at its best, preclusive of tbe subject of nuracles ? It is anything but that. And 308 MIRACLES AND HUMAN NATURE. really from the direction and the depth whence we, human beings begin our aspuing path, which is from glory to glory, it cannot be otherwise than that our ascension should be distinguished and solemnized by " signs and wonders." MIEACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. THEBE is, of course, a science of spuit, as certainly as there is of nature. And even E it should be thought to be utterly inscrutable by men, it yet must exist somewhere ; and no doubt it is weE known to " Michael the archangel," and to Baphael and the rest of " the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One." However men may think or despair about it, pneu matology must exist somewhere, as certainly as geology does, or astronomy. And why should it be inconceiv able that men should learn it, to that humble extent, which immediately concerns mortals ? Science as to the soul would not seem to be any more improbable of attainment, than formerly science was as to the body, and as to those laws by which the body for its wonder ful make is only less wonderful than a spuit itseE. It is a subject, however, which has been so confused and embroHed as scarcely even to be mentionable ; though it may yet ready, perhaps, be very simple. But often simpHcity is more bewildering than art. And continually, as to spiritual things, it is as it was at Chorazin and Capernaum, in the time of Christ, when they were revealed unto babes, whde kept hid from the wise and prudent. 310 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. Pneumatology, as the method by which the universe is informed with spirit and divinely governed, is cer tainly an impossible attainment for us " living crea tures " ; nor perhaps wiE any mere mortal ever fuEy understand that occurrence in the spiritual world of which Daniel was told in a vision, by a man with a face Hke lightning, and with a voice Eke the voice of a multitude. " Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel ; for from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the Prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days : but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shaE befaE thy people in the latter days : for yet the vision is for many days." At the time of this vision, and with a view to it, Daniel bad been abstaining from flesh and wine for three weeks. When the vision occurred, the men who were present saw nothing, but they felt what made them quake and run away. Daniel himseE lost all his strength, and lay on the ground in what is caEed a deep sleep. But the sleep was a state in which he could hear and speak and remember. His body was asleep in aE its senses, probably ; while his spirit was awake, and therefore conscious. For a few minutes, perhaps, and by an experience bke the beginning of death, Daniel was in a state in which he could talk with angels, like one of themselves, and see them with the eye of his immortal spirit, and hear them with his inward spiritual ear. MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 311 Pneumatology may not be able at present, to ex plain every word which an angel may have spoken on earth, nor to disclose the higher mysteries of the spirit ual world, nor to make us understand what exactly was meant as to angebc superintendence, where it was said to Daniel in the vision, " I will show thee that which is noted in tbe scripture of truth. And there is none that boldeth with me in these things, but Michael, your prince." But pneumatology can suggest the man ner by which Daniel was able to talk with " one Hke the appearance of a man " ; and it can adduce classical narratives and monastic annals, and medical experience, and the facts of animal magnetism, to Blustrate from the mortal side what that deep sleep was, by which there were spirits about him, as he " was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel." The New Testament presupposes the pneumatology of the Old Testament ; and there can never be a right understanding of the New Testament, until for faculties, susceptibdities, and hopes, the human soul is thought of, agreeably to that opinion of it, which was held in common by Jesus and his first disciples, and along with them, by St. Paul, as he wrote his epistles. There are Christians who phdosophicaEy are materialists, and who hold that man is only organized matter, and that indeed the word soul, as it is used in the Scriptures, is a synonyme for a human body. And there are spirit- uaEsts who are strongly opposed to these materialistic Christians ; yet for whom the soul is in the body, but Hke a pip Ha the core of an apple. Joseph Priestley was a materiaHst ; yet his dogma as to the constitution of human nature would include in its sphere ad the 312 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. spiritualism worthy of being mentioned, of more than half of his opponents. It is a common experience, and a common confession, with laymen of clear, discriminat ing minds, and especially E they have been legady trained, that they can read the Scriptures readily and wed, for ad the ends of piety and morals ; but that con tinually at words and points of great interest, percep tion seems to fad them. And that fadure is for want of pneumatology. There is to be read, " The word of the Lord, that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri." An intebigent reader, with such earnestness as has avaded him in commerce, or with such courage as has sustained him in deep in vestigations, feels rightly, that it might be a haB of the worth of the message to know how it came, and was apprehended as being divine. A rationabst may ted him that the word of the Lord is a figure of speech, and a bishop may advise him to trust the words blindly. But as a sensible layman, even though unable to see any better than his advisers, he wiE know them both, for blind leaders of the blind, certain of fading into a ditch. Whereas a man, who knows when it is dark about him, and who also beEeves in light and in its coming, wiE some time, with patience, find himseE in the porch of that temple of truth, where the Lord is the nearer for being called upon ; and wherein are ways which are not as the ways of men ; and from the steps of which once, " holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost " ; and withinside of which, in some coming age, according to the prophets, men even yet " shall be all taught of God." There is a pneumatology impbed in the Scriptures, MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 313 however latent it may be in this materiabstic age ; and it is of the utmost importance. What would the epistles of Paul be, without the Old Testament being to be known of ? And the Old Testament again cannot be firily understood apart from the knowledge which it presupposes as to its earHest readers ; and which, in deed, was a pneumatology according to which false gods might be actual beings, and as an effect of which men were predisposed to beHeve in the supernatural or the spirituaEy wonderful, rather than to feel, as many men boast of themselves, at present, " I would not be beve it, even E I saw it ; no, not I ! " Of this science of the soul, the Catholic Church has. always had something, whde Protestants have never held anything definitely and unanimously. And there fore as fronting the Pope, always Protestants have been a discordant host. And among them all, in these latter days, the most dissonant have been people eminent for science, or divines with a preddection for it, and who have been persons acted upon Hi a way, which Paul knew of, when " the world by wisdom knew not God." Science, or information about the ways of God in matter, or with bees and elephants, is at the most but a mere hint as to the power, and inteEigence, and wiE, and intentions of Him who, from outside of nature, and from above it aE, proclaims as to souls held in it, at school, " Behold, aE souls are mine : as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine." And un sophisticated souls, as they look upwards, know and feel themselves to be endowed and to be distinguished by faculties, which worms and fishes, and buds and 14 314 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. beasts have not. Men Hve inside of nature, as it is called, as moles and butterflies, and eagles and Eons do. But there is not a very fool of civiHzation, nor an ab original savage anywhere, but by the ongoings of his thought is evidence as to a Providence higher in order, and farther reaching as to its purposes, than what even the elephant can be subject to. And yet as to what God may be meaning with the soul of man, the soul itself is often almost the last witness to be examined. From science, as it anato mizes the human body, theology learns that God is wonderful at the adaptation of means to ends : but the ology just at present very seldom asks of pneumatol ogy what the human soul may have been disclosing of its nature, adaptation or correspondences. The the ology of the day knows disproportionately much about the Dead Sea, and ancient sites, and as to mint, anise, and cummin, and tithes in the Holy Land ; but it is at fault as to " the first principles of the oracles of God." A man may be of a name, idustrated Hi many ways, and through many generations, and at the battles of Bannockburn, and Evesham, and on the field near Hastings. But even though also the man could derive his descent from an age anterior to the Tower of Babel, and even directly from Tubal-cain, what would it aE be for glory, in comparison with what probably*he would be disabled from feebng by ancestral pride, and that is, the actual height of his descent ! For fleshly parentage is but the channel, through which the universe itseE gives buth to human beings endowed with feebngs, by which every man is akin to every spirit, in the image of God, everywhere, irrespectively of time and solar MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 315 systems ; and by which also he is blest with faculties, which wiE manifest themselves afresh to aE eternity, as he passes from world to world, or ascends the heavens, one above another. The preceding sentiment is worth more than a duke dom to the man who can make it .his own. But nearly everybody fads of it more or less, and just as the Gos pel is faded of, and merely because of " the lust of the eye and the pride of life." And the theology of the present day is characterized by a simdar extemabty of view. And thus it is that pneumatology or the experience of men, as to the soul, through thousands of years, is what is utterly unknown in many schools of divinity, though actually it may be caEed the grammar of revelation. Also, commonly persons read the Bible, being ignorant as to the differ ence between soul and body, and as to what anciently was understood and believed, as to spirit. And even persons of mental training will talk about the spirit as though it were a religious word for the body, and some thing very simple and famiHar. And yet some of these same persons would be very careful as to thinking about an oyster, or how they gave an opinion about the habits and connections of a beetle. The degradation of sentiment aEuded to above is a thing of the last hundred years, and mainly of even the last fifty. For, before that time, the word spirit meant more, rebgiously, than it now does ; and it was more nearly akin to revelation and muacles than it is now thought to be. It has already been remarked that the best thinkers oi the Christian Church have recognized persons of 316 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. different ages and places as being prophets who were neither of the seed of Abraham nor of the Christian name. Capacity for prophecy is of human nature ; while the inspiration itseE may be of extra-natural origin. Christianity and heathenism were in direct, dady controversy, when it was held in the Church, that the phdosophy of Plato was the long dawn that preceded the rise of the sun of righteousness. But how Efferent is this opinion from the jealousy of everything spirit ual, outside of the Bible, which is so common with Christians to-day! It has often been a great shock to people, when they have beard, for the first time, that one or two of the moral precepts of Christ had been anticipated by clas sical writers. As though eighteen hundred years ago it had been possible for Jesus Christ or for an angel from heaven, to have said anything absolutely new as to mere morabty. And so there have been persons who have felt as though Christianity were scandalized be cause Matthew the publican is found not to have written as good Greek as Thucydides, the historian of the Peloponnesian war, and because the style of St. Paul in his epistles is not faultlessly classical. But what says Paul himseE as to his language ? " Now we have received not the spuit of the world, but the Spuit which is of God ; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth ; comparing spirit ual things with spiritual." Why did not Paul pick and choose his words for himseE ? Because he was not MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 317 always merely himseE, when he wrote, and did not wish to be ; and because to an argument, of his own apparently, or possibly, he could add, " And I think that I have the Spuit of God." Some persons suppose that the preceding words are merely Paul's Jewish way of hoping that he was a good man, and therefore entitled to give advice. Than which a more violent misunderstanding of words could not wed be, E Paul may be mterpreted by himseE, and by the tone and purpose of his epistles, or even by his words to Timothy about the world's " sinners, of whom I am chief." For these words of Paul, as to his having the Spuit, are expressive of a pneumatology, presupposed by the Gospel, and in ignorance of which the best bnes of Paul's writing faE and "fade before the eye of the reader. For it is as being from over and above him that the Spirit is authority for tbe promises, which are made through him, and as to the communion of samts, to the sense of which Paul would quicken us, and as to the bberty which may be claimed and trusted " where the Spirit of the Lord is." That the Spuit of God, for inspiration, may operate through human receptiveness, irrespectively of nation- aHty, was an opinion which might weE have been held by the readers of Paul's epistles, and even by the ancient Jews generally. In the book of Joshua, Ba laam is described as having been a soothsayer. And yet through him was given the grandest prophecy in the Old Testament. And the circumstantial detad connected with that prophecy is what makes it to be its own ad-sufficient evidence, for reaEty, as an histori cal occurrence, with aE such persons as have any right 318 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. to judge about it. Balaam was famous as a soothsayer, before the Israebtes on theu journeying came within his sight. Probably he was Haspired by the Lord only on that one occasion, when he was confronted with the Lord's people, with a hostde view. Balak, the king of the Moabites, summoned Balaam and said to him, " Behold there is a people come out from Egypt : be hold they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now, therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me." It was Baal against Jehovah. " And it came to pass on the morrow, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal, that thence he might see the utmost part of the people." And prob- • ably it was because he was* conscious of another kind of inspiration than what had ever come upon him from Baal, that "he went not as at other times to seek for enchantments," or artificial means, by which to fit him seE for being spirituaEy possessed. Balaam was an Ammonite perhaps, or an Edomite, and he was even on one of the high places of Baal, when his spiritual sus- ceptibiHty was used by the Lord for prophecy. And if, " when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? for we have seen his star in the east, and have come to wor ship him," it could only have been because of their nature as Magi, having been wrought upon spirituaEy by the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, David, Isaiah, and Daniel. The star by which they were guided would seem to have been visible only MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 319 to them, and therefore to them only " Hi the spirit." On finding " the young chdd with Mary his mother," at the end of theu long journey, "they presented unto him gEts, gold and frankHicense and myrrh." And so through that act of theus was manifested that from the best of the Gentries, as weE as with the Jews, " the testimony of Jesus is the-spirit of prophecy." Plato was for the Greeks what Moses was for the Jews, and was a schoolmaster to prepare men for Christ. This was a Christian opinion in the early days of the Church, and while stiE Greek meant Gentde. In this -sentiment, a beEef is implied in spiritual sus- ceptibdity, as being an endowment of the soul. And the name of Plato is but the greatest, on a long shining bst of natural saints. For, always and everywhere, whether in vrie neighborhoods or amidst the splendid temples and monuments of paganism, the simple, long ing, unperverted soul does, by its spiritual susceptibri- ity, become of itself a temple of the Holy Ghost, and an oracle for consultation ; and has in it an odor of sweet thoughts bke grateful frankincense, and strains of sweet music, as though from angebc chous, high up in heaven. That the Holy Spirit does not inform men as to natural history, nor correct them as to had logic, is not inconsistent with the certainty of its effects as to en lightenment and faith. Gregory Thaumaturgus said as to Origen, his master, that he had received from God a large share of the greatest of aE gEts, that of inter preting the words of God to men, and of understanding the things of God, as E God hHnseE were speaking. Whatever the special application to Origen may be of 320 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. these words, they yet dlustrate the phEosophy of early Christian bebef. Before a man can take, he must have a hand to open and to stretch forth. And for being quickened by the Spuit, a man must be, not a statue in marble, but a Eving, suffering, craving soul. And it is only as he craves and covets earnestly, that the best gifts can either be attracted to him or be received. The gifts of the Spirit presuppose spuitual receptiveness. And the variety of the gifts of the Spirit, as they are enumerated by St. Paul, is presupposed the variety of the ways, in which men may be quickened? taught, and endowed from above. It is probable that of aE the myriads of milHons of human beings, that there are no two souls abke, any more than two faces are. And therefore probably with the Spuit, no two souls quicken in exactly the same manner, or are endowed to precisely the same purpose. The young man through it may see visions, and the old man by it may dream dreams. One man is helped by it, as to infirmities, and another as to prayer. One man abounds in hope through the Holy Ghost ; and another man, through the Spirit, is encouraged to wait for the hope of righteous ness by faith. By the Spuit of God in his words, one man may cast out devds, without knowing of it, whde another man sheds abroad the love of God. " To one is given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit ; to another faith, by the same Spuit ; to another the gEt of healmg, by the same Spirit ; to another the working of muacles ; to another prophecy ; to another discerning of spirits ; to another divers kinds of tongues ; to another the Ha- MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 321 terpretation of tongues ; but all these worketh that one and the seBsame Spirit, dividing to every man several ly as he wEl." And not only as to manifestation may the Spirit differ in different men ; but more broadly and more distinctly stiE, must it differ from one age to another, in the Church. And even it may hap pen, that a man may have been so instructed about the Spirit, as to think of it mainly for some of its more noticeable manifestations, and as being sharpness in the sword of the Lord, or inspiration m psalms and high thought, or as being a baptism of fire ; and so may fear that he may be a stranger to it, while yet himself he is: actuaEy wadring in it. And indeed it is as men " walk in the Spirit " that chiefly it is blessedness. For the more marvedous manifestations of the Spirit, which are the exceptional experiences of individuals, are reaEy for the good of ad; just as Peter argues that " no prophecy of the Scrip ture is of any private interpretation." One man in a generation may be so rapt in spirit, as almost to have his soul thrril to the joy, which there is in heaven, when some fresh word of the Lord is evolved; or he may be so sensitive through the Spirit, as to have some dun sense of angels on the wing, and so appear to have a prophetic instinct as to critical events foreordained of God. Or with bebag Hfted up, in spirit, and breathing, for an instant, what is more than mortal air, a man may have a thought grander than the tone of ordinary thinking, and what" may make him famous among his fedow-mortals. But it is scarcely possible for a person to have transcendent experiences, without incurring some earthly disruption. 14* u 322 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. Just as Paul found, after the visions, in which he was caded and quaHfied to be an apostle, that there was lodged with him a life-long trouble, lest he " should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations." And a man has found himseE become Eke a stranger among his kindred and his acquaint ance simply from having been sublimed by a prayer, of agony and faith combined. The soul of man is susceptible of the Holy Ghost. It is not born with the Spirit, but only with a nature fitted for its coming. The apostle Paul asks, " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth Hi you ? " And it may be, that it is through the same susceptibibty of spirit, that one man receives the Holy Ghost, and another man " drinketh iniquity like water." As a young man with his face in the right, direction, Saul had the Spirit of God come upon him. Thirty years afterwards, with his face set wilfully wrong, "the Spuit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evd spirit from the Lord troubled him." And probably the same spiritual sus- ceptibdity, by which he had been receptive of the Spuit of the Lord was the channel by which "the evd spirit," sent on its errand, got at him. That spirit ual susceptibibty, for which perhaps Judas was chosen as one of the twelve, and through which perhaps he received " power and authority over ad devils and to cure diseases," was, in ad probabdity, the same sus- ceptivity, through which diabobcaEy it was " put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him." Demoniacal possession as the Jews knew of it, and as it is known of to-day, in many parts of the world, MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 323 dlustrates human nature, as to its susceptibilities spir itually, and as to its exposure to dangerous, disembodied agencies, and invisible forces. But from the Scriptures, it might seem, as though in the age of Jesus Christ that that spiritual susceptivity, by which the " spirit of an unclean devil " could get entrance into the temple of a human soul, was actuady what, with a better man, would have been receptiveness of the Holy Ghost. This spuitual susceptibility is by nature ; though one- man may perhaps have more of it, than another ; just as one man is more tender in heart, or poetic in thought, than another. But perhaps by prayer and other means, it is what a man can get quickened and purified for himself, more surely than he can hope as to the enlargement of any other faculty of his nature. Let this susceptibility of spiritual influence be caEed magnetic, E it may thereby seem to be more credible. For man is organized magnetism, as certainly as also or ganically, he is flesh and blood. A skeleton is human, but senseless. A skeleton properly clothed with flesh and blood is a Eving creature, with adaptations, by which it is fitted to a world of earth, au, and water, light, heat, and fruits. But as a magnetic man in a magnetic world, I am a creature of affinities and possibilities in numerable. Of many and of most of them, I may have only a faint and scarcely noticeable experience. But whatever anybody has ever felt or seen or known, is testimony as to my nature. Also I am aEve with odyle, and by the odic force I am connected with things unknown on the earth and under it. For indeed man is not born of flesh and blood 324 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. merely, nor of two parents simply, but of the universe, both material and immaterial, and with an aptitude, which high angels wdl respond to hereafter, and with a susceptibibty as to spiritual influences of various kinds, which is none the less real because often it is very weak, and because, whether it is seated " in the body or out of the body," not every one can ted. By means of electricity, it is possible for a person in Boston, simultaneously almost, to be connected, as to intedigence, with persons, in every city in North America, and perhaps in Europe. And that it is pos sible for one mind to act upon another, without any intervening agency, and from a long distance, is an estabbshed fact of pneumatology; and it has been demonstrated artificiaEy, by mesmerism, many hun dreds of times. How often and continuaEy mothers are impressed as to critical events concerning their ab sent chddren ! And how frequently instances occur, in which the dying believe that they see spirits, and hear unearthly music ! Also how numerous, even within the last few years, have been the cases, which have been pubHshed of strange and irresistible im pulses, which proved afterwards to have been prophetic and guardian ! When aE the varieties of information which exist as to the human body are coEected, science would seem to hint, that possibly in the eyes of an angel, man as a mortal may seem bke a spirit aglow with aE the colors of the rainbow, though with just enough materiaEty about him, to keep him at school inside of the waEs of nature. Doubt about miracles as not perhaps being natural MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 325 to man ! But ready even bread is not more so ! Mira cles — those of the Scriptures, and, as being nearer to our own times, those of the New Testament especiaEy — muacles are true to human nature. But human nature is not bke the make of a cast-iron machine working by rule. And indeed we human beings as children of the uni verse, and heirs of God, have in us, by birth, a capacity for being born again, and germs also of marvels, which wdl be opening to ad eternity. And thus, too, we find ourselves endowed with some powers and affinities, which appertain especiady to a world which is to come; but which yet may manEest themselves faintly and fitfully through individuals, in this present world, and so hint for us aE, as by flashes of lightning, that, be cause of the flesh, life at its brightest, is what " now, we see as through a glass darkly." Such facts as have been supposed to be supernatural, of the nature of dreams, apparitions, and strange im pressions and impulses, and which have happened and been pubbshed, within the last twenty years ; and such narratives of a mesmeric character as are to be found in the Zoist, — were these things to be gathered, ex amined, and coEated, with as much care as has been given to the Eves and classification of butterflies, and with as much acuteness as what caught the lightning in its ways, there would result a pneumatology, by which the Scriptures would be illuminated for dark- Eng readers ; and by which men would believe in the immortality of the soul, as they never can, until they have some understanding about the soul itself, and dis cerningly " have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come." 326 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. But some persons perhaps wiE exclaim, "Mesmer ism ! What has that to do with the Scriptures ? A thing of the last century ! " ,It is, however, an old thing. And of its connection with the Old Testament, there is this to be read. Naaman from Syria had been directed, for a cure, as to leprosy, by EHsha the prophet, to wash himself in the Jordan, seven times. But he would seem to have felt himseE aggrieved by the simplicity of the remedy. " Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me, and stand and caE on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper." "That the prophet would move his hand up and down, over the diseased part of his body, was what was expected by Naaman accord ing to a correct translation of his words. And appar ently it was a mode of heabng, which the Syrian knew of, before his resort to Ebsha. And it is certain, that mesmeric practice is to be seen sculptured on ancient monuments in Egypt. Mesmerism is not the Gospel, and God be thanked that it is not, and that there is come to us " the glori ous gospel of the blessed God." But mesmerism is more of a gospel than the doctrine of those who believe in spirits and angels, only as pious words in the Bible, and who know of Christianity, in the letter merely, and as though apart from " the everlasting spirit," and who fancy that there can be faith in Jesus as the Christ, with those who cannot conceive of the possibibty of a prophet, in the way in which he was thought of, by the Jews of the Old Testament. It was one of the parables of Jesus, that " The king- MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 327 dom of heaven is Eke unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, tril the whole was leavened." But very unlike the spirit of this para ble, is the mental state of some believers to-day, who confess their jealousy of studies, through which any word or incident of the Scriptures, might have its apparent pecuharity diminished. 0 they of little faith ! Would Jesus Christ himseE be less important, by having his words fulfilled, " Verdy, verily, I say unto you, be that bebeveth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto the Father " ? Do the heavens declare the glory of God the less, because now more is known of them, than what David sung of by inspiration ? Is man's make any the less fearfuEy and wonderfuEy felt, be cause of the discovery of the circulation of the blood ? That some sentences in the Lord's prayer are older than Jesus himseE has been urged as a fact derogatory to Christianity. But it might as weE be said in dero gation of Jesus, that he made use of common words as weE as the common sentiments of his day; and that he was furnished with parables by such common ob jects as a mustard-plant, a sower going forth to sow, a net that was cast into the sea, and a woman with ten pieces of silver. There are persons who feel as though ghost-stories infringed on the Scriptures, as to the revelation of an other world. And there have been persons who have held that there never was any knowledge of a future Efe, till the preaching and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet it is plain, from the four Gospels, that Jesus did not address men as apes and goridas, but as 328 ' MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. beEevers in a world to come. Jesus did not invent the words " spirit " and " soul," " heaven " and " heE." And when he first used them, they were very old words, and meant conceptions that were ancient. Ac tuaEy there are theological writers at this present time who have less knowledge as to the soul than what was taken for granted by Paul with the heathen, and by Jesus with the Jews. In the Middle Ages, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, theology vindi cated for the service of the Church, facts such as are common in the records of animal magnetism. But to day, animal magnetism is commonly the terror of theo logians. Yet men wiE never be reEgiously what they ought to be, in the light of these latter days, nor be Christians with Paul's courage, tiE it shaE be under stood that pneumatology is a handmaid in the house hold of faith, and not a suspicious vagabond about the temple, who wEl not be driven away. " The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ," is anything but what ought to be isolated from science, and from the facts of human experience, as they accrue. For, as to the earth, it is as true to-day, for eyes that can see, as it was in the year when King Uzziah died, and when Isaiah saw the seraphims ; and when " one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts ; the whole earth is fuE of his glory ! " Fearfulness for the Gospel, as to geology, or animal magnetism, or the publication of the Talmud, or as to the gates of hell, is utterly uncongenial with " the eter nal Spirit," and inconsistent with any experience of it. Who and what, then, is Jesus Christ ? He is " Jesus MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 329 Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh ; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." But for us in this age, individually, what is he ? He " is the Lord from heaven '' ; he is " a quickening spirit." And the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which comes of him, is what my nature has a sense for ; and it is also what my nature has groaned for, and travailed in pain, to have come. And this spuitual susceptibibty which I have, by crea tion, not only argues my want, but as under God, fore- teEs also, as to itseE, that it wdl certainly be met from above. " Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness : for they shall be faded." And to day, as in the first days of the gospel, by God cer tainly " the Holy Ghost is given to them that obey " Christ. And therefore through that susceptibibty to spiritual influence, which is natural to me, by sympa thizing with Christ Jesus as a man, in his heavenward aspirations, I may trustfuEy expect the Holy Ghost, and be certain of it, even though through me, it may make no " manifestation " of those special " gifts," which though vouchsafed to individuals, yet are for " every man to profit withal." The Spirit of God may be intimately mine, and so as even possibly to be cunning in the hand for work manship, as it was with Bezaleel. It may be like a part of myself, and as intimately so, at least, as the strength which results from food. But yet it is what is separate from me ; and it is what may be quenched in me. David prays to God, " Cast me not away from thy presence ; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me." 330 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. Arid Paul writes to the Ephesians, " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." And to the Thessalonians he writes, " Quench not the Spirit." The Holy Spirit is part of me ; it is what I can think by : it is what wdl inform my prayers for me ; it is joy Hi me, and it is as though I myseE were it, as long as I myself am right. But with vanity or wrong-doing, it fails me, just as his strength fails a fainting man. The Holy Spirit was in me, bke the inspiration of my understanding ; it was the bfe of my higher hfe ; it was the soul of my better soul ; and it was the hobness of my spirit. And sud denly with sin, it is gone ; and my most famdiar con nection with heaven is stopped, And though I may not have been certain, as to whether I ever did have the Spirit, yet with the loss of it by sin, I know wed what I have been parted from. A man may never have it but once ; and indeed he cannot have it more than once, with the same effect — that strange experience of grieving the Holy Spuit, with a sense of revelation afterwards. For when the Spirit is withdrawn, or fails from a person who has been walking in it, his joy stops, and his prayers grow dry and unbelieving. And it is like a revelation by darkness, what he feels, at finding himseE to be left to himseE, and cut off from heaven, and from that Holy Spirit, which, among mortals, is like its outer sphere. In aE this experience as to the Holy Spirit there is, what essentiaby is meant by the word, miracle, for there is the experience of extraordinary, extra-natural, and and therefore occasional forces. " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth," said the child Samuel by the advice MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 331 of EH, the prophet, in the dark, in the temple, and be fore he yet knew the word of the Lord. And whatever it may be in high heaven, stdl among us mortals, every word and influence not from the Lord only, but from withinside of the spuitual world, from any one, is of the nature of a miracle. Every man is a creature of miraculous possibilities. And by comparison with the uniformity of nature, there are thousands of human beings, at this day, whose lives are of a miraculous character, because of preter natural influences. Miracle ! All human intercourse with the world invisible, whether with spuit, or angels, or with God Most High, must necessardy flash with " signs and wonders," as being itself miraculous. In the Hiad of Homer there is the saying, "The dream is from Jove." And Cicero has the sentiment that " Dreams are the natural oracle." Let these two quotations represent almost two thousand passages, which might easily be cited from ancient authors, as to the phEosophy and authority of dreams, and as to the supernatural communications, of which they have been bebeved to be the channel. But by dreams, of course, are not meant mental movements started by an uneasy stomach or any other accidental cause, nor even such wanderings of the mbad in sleep, as idleness can have, when much at its ease, and wide awake. The Greeks and Eomans knew very weE, that dreams have not aE the same origin. And men like ' Pausanias, and the students of Plato, were little Ekely to attribute the ab surdities of a crude stomach to a heavenly origin. That "dreams are the natural oracle" is a sentiment which involves the philosophy of revelation. For, it 332 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. asserts the existence in man, of a susceptibriity to the influences of the spiritual world. And that sentiment did not originate in any such nonsense about dreams, as a modern materiaEst would suppose, but in experi ences and traditions, as respectable as the names of Socrates and Plato, as wise as ancient Greece, and broader even than the Eoman empire. But here some one Avill ask, in the special way of the modern unbeEever, " If it be true that dreams are the natural oracle, why do not I have good dreams ? For I am as good as another, certainly." But now it is simply for the same reason, as that for which every man is not a born archangel, nor even a saint of the earth. To justify the sentiment from Cicero, it is enough that one man in a milbon should have what is caded " a remarkable dream." Just as one true poet in an age is enough for enabling men to feel them selves aright, and to know of a glory in the world, sur passing that of Mammon, and an interest, compared with which battles and revolutions are but bubbles. In the Scriptures, and especiaEy the more ancient, and as though more particularly connected with the primitive, unsophisticated nature of man, dreams or vis ions in dreams were not uncommon experiences, whence men might infer themselves to be within spiritual reach. The sentiment in Cicero as to oracular dreams, pagan though it be, coincides with what is said in the book of Job by Ebhu, " For God speaketh once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep faHeth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction, that he may with- MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 333 draw man from his purpose and hide pride from man." Spiritual susceptibibty during sleep, or capacity for visions bke dreams whEe asleep, would seem to have constituted a prophet. From the prilar of cloud at the door of the tabernacle the Lord said, " Hear now my words : If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord wid make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream." But the susceptibibty to spiritual influence through which a man in his sleep may have had his soul ad dressed by angels or, spuits, though it may have been a peculiarity with him for its greatness, was yet cer tainly not so for its nature. It is the action of the Spirit and that susceptihriity which aE men have, in a greater or less degree, which is referred to in the prophecies of Joel. " And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else ; and my people shaE never be ashamed. And it shad come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon aE flesh : and your sons and your daughters shad prophesy ; your old men shaE dream dreams, your young men shaE see visions : and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days wdl I pour out my Spirit." Let there be some change which shad refine the flesh of my body ; or let me experience all that is meant by being bom again ; or let my faculties open heavenwards by the intensity of my faith ; or let me be within reach of some Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit ; and I should then know of myself, how it was that " God came to Abimelech in a dream by night"; and how true were the words of Jacob about himself, " The an- 334 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. gel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob : and I said, Here am I " ; and how it was as natural as man talking with man, when Jesus Christ in heaven talked with the spuit of Paul, whde his body was asleep in a house hard by the synagogue in Corinth. " Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace ; for I am with thee, and no man shad set on thee to hurt thee ; for I have much people in this city." The manner in which Paul was waked up in spirit, while his body was asleep, is a way which is possible with all men, however improbable it may be, that there should ever be common experience of it. And it is of our nature, that in deep sleep possibly our ears might be opened, as Ebhu said, and instruction be in fused into us. And when Pharaoh and Nebuchadnez zar were inspired with dreams, which were concurrent with Divine Providence, it was through their natural susceptibibty to spiritual influence, and not through such an operation of Almightiness, as would be neces sary for making a statue of Hercules dream and re member. The dream was described by Cicero as being a nat ural oracle, in contradistinction to other oracles, which were got from gods and demons by various artificial means. At Delphi, they were obtained through a woman, who was supposed to be entranced by ApoEo ; at Lebadea, after certain ceremonies of purification, the oracle was got in the dark cave of Trophonius, sometimes from a voice there, and sometimes by other means. In Greece, there was a cave, which Pausanias saw by the wayside, in which was a statue with a MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 335 table before it, and at which oracles were to be ob tained by the throwing of dice. And there was a temple in Egypt, at which oracles were got by asking questions before a wooden image, which was thought to answer by shaking its arms when possessed by a demon. To aE the preceding ways of obtaining oracles the Jew would have been opposed. He would have ac knowledged them as being real, probably; but he would have repeated to himseE the commandment, " I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me." But the Jew would have joined with Cicero, as to his sentiment about the dream-faculty, and would have acknowl edged it, for a part of the primitive religion, which was before Abraham was. As to dreams, which have been vision-like for veracity, there is an aEowance to be made, according to the doc trine of chances, for cases of mere coincidence. But after everything has been said and aEowed for, it would seem as though in every country there may always have been occurring dreams of an extraordinary na ture, enough, fairly considered, to make everybody feel himseE to be a creature of spiritual faculty, and spirit uaEy connected. But at this point there are persons who would ex claim together, as one man, " Dreams ! and meant seri ously too ! Dreams ! as though there ever could be anything in a dream! It is too ridiculous ! " But is Plato then ridiculous ; or is Socrates ? Is Plutarch ridiculous ; or are the philosophers and heroes of whom 336 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. he is the biographer, mostly ridiculous ? Bidicule ! was Cicero a subject for it ; or of the two Plinys, was either the elder or the younger ; or was Galen ? And can a subject be ridiculous, whereon as to belief, along with the foregoing great names, nearly and probably, ad the Fathers of the Church coincide, from Polycarp to St. Augustine ? And whether intended or not, it cannot but be a laugh of pitiable inanity, which happens to be turned simultaneously against Cardan and Petrarch ; against the Emperor Theodosius and the Emperor Charles the Fifth of Spain ; against Francis Bacon and Halley the astronomer ; against Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Boger L'Estrange ; against Defoe and — But enough of this ! For there is no man but must feel abashed, when actuaEy he finds himself to be lightly laughing in the grand awful face of antiquity, and with the fathers, martyrs, and doctors of the Church against him. But indeed the man, who is the grandchild of the last century, and the child of this, is almost necessardy a person of contradictory notions. And so it often happens that a person wdl say phdosophically what, if it were true, would be ruinous of the religious beHef, which he holds even fervently. And that is, just as there have heen many divines, who with pleading for the Church, have made void the Gospel. Nor, should this argument seem to be novel, is it therefore necessardy the less trustworthy. For, even as to his bodriy constitution, man in these latter days is continually discovering something new, and by which he finds his health, or temporal salvation, to be largely dependent on laws, of which Abraham knew nothing, MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 337 nor Juhus Caesar, nor yet Martin Luther. The primary facts of Hfe, as connected with his skin and. lungs, man is but just now learning ; and so it may well be sup posed, that, as connected with his spuitual nature, there may be common things, of which the fuE significance has not yet been taken. A dream of much particularity which comes true, — an oracular dream argues not only that man can have dreams which come true, but that he can dream under influence, and from spiritual connection of some kind. And E one man can dream in that way, so perhaps in that way may another be capable of inspiration, even whEe wide awake. That kind of dream, which Cicero calls the natural oracle, is presumptive proof as to the actuality of revelation, and as to the reaEty of those spuitual faculties Hi man which Christianity presup poses. There have been some eight or ten dreams, which have been had and pubbshed in this neighborhood, during the last twenty years, which, for an earnest thinker, would be more valuable than the whole of some metaphysical bbraries. Because one fact accruing from nature is better than all the argument which is inconsistent with it, however ingenious and laborious it may be. What is properly the dream-faculty may be regarded as the primitive germ of revelation. It is also a simple and good proof that man is spuituaEy connected ; and that therefore also he himseE may probably be a spirit. ActuaEy and with fuE consciousness t'o feel himseE to be a living soul, by any trial, test,- or experience, within the range of his own understanding, is the 15 v 338 MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. hunger and thirst of myriads; though also it is a craving, which is as duE as despair itseE. And ad that merely primitive want might for many a man be satisfied by a dream, which has been had by some poor chastened widow, in his neighborhood, anxious about her absent son ; only that theology has got so far away from common hfe, that it would wish to scout the smallest possible miracle of the present day, for fear of being challenged by science, in the names of uniformity and law. But actuaEy, though those words are good enough for a lecture-room, they are altogether inade quate for what Christians ought to be ready to main tain in the Church. How many persons there are who sit in church, only to feel as though the darkness about them were grow ing more visible i How many men of abibty there are, who have the gospel sound to them bke an un known tongue ! Said the voice which was heard by St. John when he was in the Spirit, " He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." But how can he well hear to-day, who cannot well conceive how the Spirit could ever have spoken ? Persons whose ways of thinking have been almost altogether materialized, — how should they un derstand the- things of the Spuit? "The God of the spirits of aE flesh," — how possibly can they pray to him in the fulness of belief, who think that they themselves, perhaps, are flesh only ? Yet if men were wiEing to be taught by it, a dream which is a dream in Cicero's sense of the word, or in that of the Bible, would be enough for any ordinary degree of doubt as to the spiritual world. But the MIRACLES AND PNEUMATOLOGY. 339 dread of acknowledging in any way what science might perhaps chaEenge for a muacle and a violation of law, is the nightmare of theology at this time. However, it is what is nothing more than a nightmare ; and it wiE probably soon be over. THE SPIEIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. THE Scriptures are the history of a particular peo ple, or bne and succession of persons, as they were acted upon by the Spirit of God. When everything was nothmg, and whde as yet darkness was on the face of the deep, it was the begin ning when " the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Also, " by his Spuit he hath garnished the heavens." And said the Psalmist, as he sang in view of both Lebanon and the sea, " Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created," — the stork to house herseB in the fir-tree, the fowls of heaven to sing in the branches, the young bons to roar after their prey, the wEd asses with their instinct for the springs among the hills, grass as it grows for the cattle, and herbs for the service of man. And not these only, even though along with the sea and leviathan ! For also " the Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me hfe." But there is another and higher sense of the phrase "Spuit of God" than that use of it. The Spuit of God created man, as it made the elephant, and it might have maintained man as man, at a certain uni formity of intedigence and character, just as, for thou sands of years, it has perpetuated nature in elephants. As the Holy Ghost, the Spuit of God finds in man a THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 341 susceptihdity which the elephant has not. And it is this spiritual susceptibdity which is the great, grand distinction of man. Men are the creatures of God, as the elephant and the bon are, and as the dove and the provident, skdful beaver. But the elephant bves from God more largely than the dove ; and man, as a biped with his head erect, Eves from God more fudy than the elephant. But the truth as to man is more than that ; for he does not merely live and move like a superior elephant, but also he has and derives his being like a child of God. In the great sphere of Hfe of which God is the fulness, man lives in God, and yet in some way as though detached from him. And it is through that way, and because of it, that man is specially dear to God, and of more value than many sparrows ; as being not only a creature of instinct, but also a chdd capable of instruction, and a soul susceptible of inspiration ; and as being possibly a son, for companionship with him, to aE eternity, through the Holy Ghost. And the Scriptures Elustrate this relation, as it exists and al ways has existed between God and man. By the gospel, human beings are invited to become sons and daughters of the Most High. But often per sons avert their faces from God, and turn and look along with the people, as to whom, once Jesus said, " Ye are of your father, the devil." And it is only just as we bebeve in its being possible for us to become the chfldren of God, that the Bible belongs to us, as a thing of any meaning. In the Scriptures, the special action of the Spirit of God on the soul is caEed " the word of God." Some- 342 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. times it is so caded, when' it is simply a Divine mes sage to an individual ; and sometimes it is so caEed when it is addressed to a nation ; and it is also used for that expressiveness of the Divine wdl, which was the act of Creation ; as when Peter writes " that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water." "The word of the Lord" is a special completed act of " the Spirit of the Lord " ; and always it is inspira tion, as unto the formless, void world for creation ; or into the consciousness of a prophet, for a communica tion ; or into the mind of a man, bke David, for the beauty of a psalm. And Hi the personaHty of Jesus, the word was so completely incarnated, as that himself Jesus became "the word" itseE. "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), fud of grace and truth." Sometimes the word of the Lord was a voice in the ear of a prophet ; and sometimes it was a picture before the eye of his mind ; and sometimes it was the appear ance of an angel. And there are two or three other ways, by which the word of the Lord was given, which are mentioned in the Old Testament, though obscurely, and which perhaps were never commonly used. What books have been written and what nonsense has been talked about the Jewish theocracy ! It has been supposed to have been the government of a priest hood, which is exactly what it was not. And it has been supposed to have been mainly and characteristi cally the sacerdotal ministration of a written law, which also it was not. Prophets were the theocracy, — men THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 343 who could even denounce the priesthood, and who were not necessarily even Levites. They were men of God, and not merely men of the temple of God. As was said to the Jews in the wilderness of Sinai, " Hear now my words : If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord wid make myseE known unto him in a vision, and wid speak unto him in a dream." But then it is added as to Moses, "jEJtii bim wid I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and . not in dark speeches." And of how that was, this~i^ an instance. In the wdderness, two men' appealed to Moses about a ceremonial difficulty. "And. Moses said unto them, Stand stdl, and I wdl hear^what the. Lord wiE com mand concerning you." ^And standing stdl with the people about him, under the eastern &.y, Moses listened for a voice, which nobody else, gd^id hear. And that voice he heard spirituaEy. " And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the Lord." Also that precept, as being got and given in that manner, is an instance of theocracy. And now, how were prophets commissioned, or how did a man know himself' to be a prophet ? David be came a prophet, with being anointed for king ; though perhaps his spiritual susceptibdity may have been a reason for his being chosen as king. He was fetched into the house from keeping the sheep. " Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him : for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of 344 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. od, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward." Very different from that is the account Jeremiah gives of himseE. " The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the beEy I knew thee ; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee : and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God ! behold, I cannot speak ; for I am a chdd. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a chdd : for thou shalt go to aE that I shaE send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces : for I am with thee to debver thee, saith the Lord." And very different again from the caE of young Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, was the experience of the prophet Amos. " Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son : but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit : and the Lord took me as I fodowed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my peo ple Israel." And when Barak received the command ment of the Lord, in connection with a striking episode Hi Jewish history, it was through Deborah. And what is to be read about her is Hke a wonderful Ettle pic ture. " And Deborah a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm-tree of Deborah, between Bamah and Beth-el Ha Mount Ephraim ; and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment." And it would seem also that " the word of the Lord " found its recipients or prophets, quite irrespectively of worldly cucumstances. Kings and peasants were alike THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 345 to it. Solomon was a youthful king when " in Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night : and God said, Ask what I shaE give thee." And it was whde he was " in aE his glory " that " God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore." And when the Queen of Sheba, having heard of what Solomon had become through " the name of the Lord," journeyed to Jerusalem to try his wis dom, she found him surrounded by pomp and grandeur. But his magnificence was no bar to the attendant power which fed his inteEect with wisdom. And as he heard questions she asked, answers bke miracles rose in his mind. " And Solomon told her aE her questions : there was not anything hid from the king which he told her not." At one time EHjah Hved by a brook and was fed by ravens ; and at another time he was lodged by a widow whose mind had been miraculously prepared for receiving him. " And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gath ering of sticks." A priest was always probably far above want, because he was always weE provided for, by his birthright. But for the prophet, there was no provision in Efe, which might be caEed special ; unless indeed that quality might be so caEed by which na ture answers to nature, and persons who are spirit- uaHy-minded are drawn towards those who are in any way like themselves, such as prophets, men of genius, and sufferers living by faith. Owing to the kind im pulse of a Jewish lady, there is to be read, what is like a sudden distinct glimpse of a prophet moving about. " And it feE on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem, 15* 346 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. where was a great woman ; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that, as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold, now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, which passeth by us continuaEy. Let us make a Ettle chamber, I pray thee, on the wall ; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be when he cometh to us, that he shall turn Ha thither. And it fed on a day that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there." The prophet was very unbke a priest in his mind, and so he was Hi his ex perience, usually, in one way or another. Says St. James, "Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience." And now what was the position of the prophet so- ciaEy ? He had a right to utter himseE, but on certain conditions, which might involve even his life. Ahab the king wanted the word of the Lord from the prophet Micaiah ; and was enraged by what he got ; notwith standing that the prophet had said, "As the Lord bveth, what the Lord saith unto me that will I speak." Whereupon a false prophet, a prophet of Baal, proba bly, who had been flattering the king along with four hundred others, Zedekiah, "went near and smote Mi caiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee ? And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry bim back unto Amon the governor of the city, and THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 347 to Joash the king's son, and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction, and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. And Micaiah said, If thou return at ad in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, 0 people, every one of you." Then the king went up to Bamoth-GEead to battle, and never came back ; and the prophet with having his prophecy ful- fflled, saved his life, according to the law. And of what the prophet was among the people, for his work, as compared with the priest, there is an Hlus- tration in one of the prophecies of Hosea. The priest was the man of ritual, and the prophet was the man of the Spirit. " 0 Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee ? 0 Judah, what shaE I do unto thee ? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophet ; I have slain them by the words of my mouth : and thy judgments were as the hght that goeth forth. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice ; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings." And as Christian ity becomes, as certainly more and more it will become, a ministration of the Spirit, it wdl be wed to remem ber and know thoroughly, that the Holy Ghost- may probably get itself uttered, not so much through func tionaries of the Church, as through those whom the Spirit, for any reason, may find to be approachable ; and who perhaps may often seem to be but mere earthen vessels, when compared with honored and honorable personages, arrayed, it may be, in official robes, and in vested with the privdeges of high places. But now how was the prophet received ? Exactly 348 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. as conscience is received to-day ; and those who did not want to know of him could ignore him. And those persons, who were actuaEy reached by bis words, could do with God Hi his words, just as they were in the habit of doing with God in the suggestions of their own consciences ; they could exclude him, Ha some way, or else elude him. There had been the grossest wickedness ; and with an impulse from the Lord, " Na than said to David, Thou art the man." And being charged thus and threatened, " David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not die." But David was a man of conscience, as well as pas sion. Two or three hundred years after him there was a prophet, who did not get even from a priest that ac knowledgment of his character which David would have left his throne to yield. Amos, the prophet, had terrible truths to utter. But it was not precisely so ; for Amos himself actuaEy had nothing whatever to say, as being simply a man of the country, and spe cially of sheepfolds and sycamore-trees. But it hap pened to him that he became at a particular time the mouth-piece of the Lord, because, as he said, the Spuit of the Lord took him. And, at Bethel, he had visions, which he told of, as of the Lord, in awful action among men. But Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, was thereby greatly scandabzed, as indeed weE he might have been, as a chaplain to royalty. "Also Amaziah said unto Amos, 0 thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there : but prophesy not at Beth-el, for it is the king's chapel, THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 349 and it is the king's court." The way of this priest of the court held good for eight hundred years, so as that when there was a great excitement about John the Baptist, in speaking to the people, Jesus said, " Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and Hve deHcately, are in king's courts. But what went ye out for to see ? A prophet ? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet." But even though the Baptist was worthy of this testimonial, and was "more than a prophet," yet not only was his hfe apart from the court, but even it was passed outside of the region of respectabibty. And also said Stephen to the bigots about him, just before he was stoned to death, " Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted ? " But about the prophets, complaint was not always of persecution, but sometimes of something else, as bad or worse perhaps than that. Ezekiel, man of wonder and fire and vision, — prophet and man of God ! How was Ezekiel treated ? He was treated in his own land, just probably as he would be to-day in Boston or Washington. For proportionately there are no more people with a true ear for prophecy, to-day, than there were anciently in the worst of times. And in what fodows, let it be noticed that the audience were people of what may be caEed bterary taste. "Also, thou son of man, the chEdren of thy people stdl are talking against thee by the waEs, and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh from the Lord. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they 350 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, hut they wid not do them : for with theu mouth they show much love, but theu heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument." The Spirit of the Lord might speak, and actuaEy the style only of the words be noticed ! And furthermore the prophet was the prophet of the Lord, and not of Baal or any other heathen god. The prophetic was a natural susceptibdity, through which a man might be a channel either for the word of the Lord or for the influence of Baal. And indeed Balaam was up at the high place of Baal with his mind and wid against the Israelites, when words not of his own thinking passed from his mouth : and it was because " the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth." On finding himself overmastered, Balaam yielded, and " the Spirit of God came upon him " : and the grandeur of his prophecy was because of his be ing a man " which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, faEing into a trance, but having his eyes open." It was through the prophet that the Spirit had its utterance against those who succumbed to the vile seductions of heathenism. The Lord said to Moses that sacrifices should be Of fered only at the door of the tabernacle of the congre gation : " and they shaE no more offer their sacrifices unto devils." For indeed it had been only a little whEe before that " they sacrificed unto devils, not to God : to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up,. whom your fathers feared not." And THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 351 the Scriptures of the Old Testament are largely the historj'" of the Spirit of God, as to its conflict with the devils, and altars, and prophets, and vrilanies of heath enism. As soon almost as the Israelites of the desert had aE of them been buried in the land of promise, "the chddren of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baabm. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and foEowed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed them selves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ash- taroth." It was eight hundred years later than that, that through the prophet Jeremiah the Spirit com plained of the persistent rebelliousness of the Jews. And Ha this passage, let it be noticed, that a prophet was a man of prophetic susceptibdity, who could let himseE even prophesy from Baal. " The priests said not, Where is the Lord ? and they that handle the law knew me not : the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets also prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit." And it was not tdl after the Babylonish captivity that the Jews became safe from idolatry, and able to bebeve and glo ry in the proclamation, " Hear, 0 Israel : the Lord our God is one Lord." Five hundred years had the Jews been in Palestine, and the adventures of Samson had become an ancient history, and Eli and Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon had been successively gathered to their fathers, when Jeroboam " ordained him priests for the high places, 352 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. and for the devils." And what fodows was stdl eighty years later than the age of Jeroboam. " And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber, that was in Samaria, and was sick : and he sent messengers and said unto them, Go, inquue of Baal-zebub, the god of- Ekron, whether I shaE recover of this disease. But the angel of the Lord said to Elisha, the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Sa maria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to inquue of Baal- zebub, the god of Ekron ? Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And EHjah departed." The messengers thereupon returned to the king. " Amd he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words ? And they answered him, He was a hauy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Ebjah the Tishbite." It was just about the time of the preceding incident that there happened what marks the heathen notion of the Jewish theocracy. " And the prophet came to the King of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strengthen thyself, and mark and see what thou doest : for at the return of the year the King of Syria wiE come up against thee. And the servants of the King of Syria said unto him, Their gods are gods of the hiEs, therefore they were stronger than we : but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shaE be stronger than they." Three hundred years later even than the period just mentioned, and just before the captivity, the Spuit spoke through Jeremiah and said, " Seest thou THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 353 not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem ? The chddren gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger." But what was threatened through Moses was close upon them, and though it was predicted as being imminent, it was not beHeved. " I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices : but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I wid be your God and ye shad be my people : and walk ye in aE the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be weE unto you." Also says the voice, which they had not obeyed, " Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you aE my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them : yet they hearkened not' unto me, nor incbned their ear, but hardened their neck : they did worse than their fathers." During the eight or nine centuries, of which the. last Enes were a retrospect, there were many more prophets than are known of now. And of some prophets, the experiences were once extant as books, of which now only the titles survive. In connection with Solomon alone there were three books of prophets, which are lost ; as is evident from a passage in the Second Book of the Chronicles. " Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy 354 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. of Abijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat ? " Prophets may have been numerous or few in dif ferent ages. At one time there may have been " no open vision," and at another time, for some cause, the prophets may have "become wind." And it might also often have been perhaps that individuals may have failed of getting their inquiries of the Lord answered ; as Saul failed, just before he applied to the woman at Endor. " When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by vision nor by prophets." But it would seem as though always " the Spirit of God — the word of the Lord " ¦ — • the voice had been more or less near and ready for communication, through angel or prophet, vision or dream, or some other authorized oracle, from Abraham to the captivity. According to the Book of Judges, during a space of a hundred years, apparently there was no experience of a vision, by any one ; but there was a wonderful experience as to angels at two or three critical seasons. Gideon saw an angel of the Lord, face to face, and talked with him, and had from him one sign and another. And his experience illustrates the Divine action, and the manner in which one man can be reached in one way, and another man in another way, and even the same man by means, both direct and circuitous. Gideon had been addressed and commis sioned by an angel, and had had the Spirit of the Lord come upon him : and yet it was by a dream, which one man had in the camp, and another man interpreted, that he learned that the hour had come for him and THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 355 the Spirit, and for " the sword of the Lord and of Gideon." There may be various ways, through which the souls of men may be affected, as to their spiritual susceptibibty. An age of fierce excitement from bat tle, and an age of long-continued, contented quiet must necessarily differ as to what manifestations they may be ready for, from the Spirit. The age of Samson or that of Jephthah was not likely to have had the visions of Ezekiel disclosed to it. And whenever people were secretly longing for the licentiousness of Baal, they could hardly have been approachable by the Spirit of the Lord, in any other way than through an indignant prophet. It was a behef with the Jews that fasting or a simple diet might end in fitting a man for spiritual ex periences. And even a prophet would sometimes try to prepare himseE for the Spirit by the soothing effect of music. And so experiences from the Spirit of God may wed be supposed to have been affected by the varying spirit of the centuries. Also, prophets open to the Spirit of the Lord, evidently had that Spirit affect them, according even to their state by education. The prophecies of Amos have an odor of the country, which is sensible to everybody : and the prophecies of Jeremiah are uttered in imagery, with which he was furnished by his personal experience. And simdarly, the epistles of Paul are the penmanship of a man whose learning had been gained at the feet of Gamaliel, but whose enlightenment had been on a journey to Damascus, from a vision of Christ in glory. And thus it may have been, as between mortals and the world immortal, that at one time, influence from 356 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. above may chiefly have been by dreams and visions, and at another time, through angels, and at stdl another time, through prophets, more or less entranced. But besides the preceding, there were ways of ob taining oracles from the Lord, of which but bttle is known, and which may have answered, only perhaps at intervals, such as Teraphim, and Urim, and Thum mim, and casting of lots. And now through these various agencies, with what results were men affected by the Spuit of God ? There would seem then to have been scarcely anything hu man, on which " the word of the Lord " might not have been had. And it would seem to have been obtained much more commonly than might, at first, be thought. Bebekah, the wife of Isaac, when she was about to be come a mother, "went to inquire of the Lord" as to her condition, and was answered by a strange and won derful prophecy. It is the only occasion recorded, but it cannot probably have been the only time in her life of her inquiring of the Lord. It is only incidentally that it appears what a place of resort the house of a prophet may have been sometimes, and on what merely personal matters he may have been approached. " And when they were come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant that was with him, Come and let us re turn, lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us. And he said unto him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honor able man; aE that he saith cometh surely to pass; now, let us go thither ; peradventure he can show us our way that we should go." And it was only by an accident, that the fame of Elisha as a healer is known THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 357 to-day. The Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a Ettle maid ; and she waited on Naaman's wife. " And she said unto her mistress, Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria ! for he would re cover him of his leprosy." And only in the same inci dental manner is the wide reach of his spiritual hear ing or information told of. During a war with the Israebtes, the King of Syria was troubled at the discov ery of his plans and secrets, and thought that among his servants there must certainly be some traitor. " And one of his servants said, None, my Lord, 0 King ; but Ebsha the prophet that is in Israel, teHeth the King of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy chamber." In art, in architecture, and in poetry also, the Spirit was inspuation. For work in the tabernacle "the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See I have caEed by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah ; and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, Ha wisdom, and Hi understanding and in knowl edge, and in aE manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass." David wished to budd a house for the Lord ; but he was forbidden by the Lord, because of his hav ing been a man of bloodshed and war. But he was al lowed to make preparations for it, for his son Solomon to make use of. Gold and silver, and iron and timber, David made ready. And along with ad this material, he delivered to Solomon building-plans, of which the account is very noticeable. " Then David gave to Solo mon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper 358 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. chambers thereof, and of the inner parlors thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat, and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of aE the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things." And still more explicitly as to the plans and patterns, and the way in which he had obtained them, " Ad this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even ad the works of this pattern." And as to that poetry, in which men have gloried and worshipped so long, " Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." For war also, the aid of the Spirit was promised to the peculiar people. And on going to battle, the priest was to exhort the people and to tell them " The Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you." On one occasion, we read that the Lord said to Moses, " Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight, for I am not among you : lest ye be smitten before your enemies." And on another occasion it is to be read, " And, behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab; King of Israel, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou seen all this great multitude ? be hold I wiE deliver it into thy hand, this day: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord." And then the prophet directed him as to his battle array. Samaria was besieged and at the worst extremity from famine. Elisha sat in the house and the elders with him. The THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 359 king had just lost his faith, and was abjuring the Lord : and a messenger was on his way for the head of the prophet. " Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord : Thus saith the Lord, to-morrow, about this time, shaE a measure of fine flour be "sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." And so it happened, because the Syrians deserted their camp. "For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host : and they said to one another, Lo, the King of Israel hath lured against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twHight, and left their tents, and their horses, and theu asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life." In a psalm, which is like his autobiography set to music, David says of the Lord, " He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms." And by these words, doubtless, he meant something of what Jephthah felt, when " the Spirit of the Lord came upon him," and Eke what Samson experienced, when " the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan." Also, the Spirit, for the Jews, was as a judge. One day, Moses sat jn judgment among the people, from the morning to the evening. "And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the people come imto me to in quire of God: when they have a matter, they come unto me ; and I judge between one and another : and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws." Moses needed as a judge to have a successor. Joshua 360 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. was appointed as being a man m whom was the Spirit. And now how was he to judge, how was he to be guided and directed as to his judgments ? " He shad stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him, after the judgment of Urim before the Lord." And indeed this judgment from God became an institu tion, to which appeal was made in difficult cases of the highest importance. " Then shalt thou arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shad choose ; and thou shalt come unto the priests, the Le vites, and unto the judge that shad be in those days, and inquue ; and they shad shew thee the sentence of judgment." And refusal to submit to the sentence thus rendered was a capital offence ; on which judg ment was to be executed. " And ad the people shad hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously." Also over the Israelites, the Spirit of the Lord was king ; though commonly the subjects were in rebedion against it, in much the same way, and with much the same results, as at the present time, when men rebel against God, and equivocate with him, and hide them selves from him, as he looks in upon them, and talks with them through their consciences. The Spirit was King of kings, after the IsraeHtes, by asking for a king to be set over them, had Saul and his successors ; and after it had been said at the inauguration of Saul, " Ye have this day rejected your God, who himseE saved you out of aE your adversities and your tribulations, and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us." Saul was chosen by the Spirit of the Lord, and so was David. And even than in those instances, a stdl more striking intervention of the Spuit was in connec- THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 361 tion with Jehu. It began with EHjah at the end of his wonderful experience at tbe cave of Horeb. " And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wdderness of Damascus ; and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria : and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel : and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room." Years passed on. " And EHsha the prophet caEed one of the chil dren of the prophets, and said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thy hand, and go to Bamoth-gdead : and when thou comest thither, look out Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make hiin arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber: then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not." After this was done, the first thing said to Jehu was, " Is all wed ; wherefore came this mad fellow to thee ? " But the end of it was that Jehu became king, and the instrument and object of the fulfilment of other prophecies. The Spuit of the Lord intervened as to the election and dethronement of kings, and with advice and com mands, as to foreign powers ; and also, apparently it was accessible to the petitions of the humblest inquirer. Sometimes " the word of the Lord came " to a prophet, wherever he might happen to be, and started him off, with a sudden message, beginning, "Thus saith the Lord," to be debvered in a market-place perhaps, or at a palace. And sometimes it would be as thus : King 16 362 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. Jehosliaphat and Jehoram, the idolatrous King of Israel, were Hi trouble together. " But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may in quire of the Lord by him ? And one of the King of Israel's servants answered and said, There is Ebsha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him. So the King of Israel, and Jehosh aphat, and the King of Edom went down to him. And Elisha said unto the King of Israel, What have I to do with thee ? Get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother." And now, how was it with Ebsha at that moment ? He was very likely affected in some such manner as Stephen was. He certainly had not needed to take thought beforehand what he should say. Nor could there have been any resisting of the wisdom and spirit which he spoke with. And not improbably because of the Spirit, his face may have shone Hke the face of an angel. Sometimes the Spirit of the Lord expressed itself through a visible angel ; as Zechariah writes was his experience. "And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said imto me, What seest thou ? " And sometimes the Spirit was " the word of the Lord " in human words, which could, at first for the sound of them, even be taken for the voice of a man. Of this the experience of Samuel was an instance, before he yet knew the word of the Lord. In the night, hearing himseE caEed by name, once and again, he answered EH, and went to him. And at the third time of his THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 363 answering so, " Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child." The Spirit of the Lord spoke through Jere miah, when he was but a child ; and through Elijah, a hairy man girt with a girdle, it confronted Amaziah the king ; of whom it is written, " So he died, accord ing to the word of the Lord, which Elijah had spoken." Not only was Jehovah the Lord God of their wor ship, for the Jews, anciently, but also he was theu king, the commander-in-chief of their armies, their su preme Judge, and was also amongst them inspiration from the highest, as to art and poetry. But indeed against him as king, and perhaps against his influence in all other ways, they were almost continually in re- beEion. At the first thought of it, it seems incredible that a nation, or even an individual, could possibly rebel against Jehovah as a king. And for this seeming improbabdity men have doubted the Old Testament, as a history; while actuady they themselves, more or less, every day, were rebeding against God, and pre varicating with him, in the chamber of conscience, just as the Jews did with God as connected with their temple. The Old Testament is the history of the Spirit of the Lord, as a fountain-head of influence for men, and su premacy over human rebelbon and helplessness. That Spirit, Saul might have, and might have it withdrawn, and Solomon might have and lose it with his becoming foobsh. The Israebtes, as its subjects, might be faith ful, or be apostates to Baal ; or in their fear of Syria, they might look to Egypt for help. But whether they were dutiful or rebedious ; whether they were judged by Deborah the prophetess, or Eved prosperously under 364 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. King Solomon, or were captives by the -river of Baby lon, there was over them always the supremacy of the Spirit, as it vindicated itseE by judgments, and fulfided upon them the prophecies of its own inspiring, and got itself as to its ends, praised by even the wrath of man. Jehoram might reign in Samaria, and Jehoshaphat be King of Judah, and Mesha might be King of Moab and be also a great sheep-master ; and the King of Syria might war against Israel, and compass Dothan with his army ; but it was the Spuit, as it spoke from Elisha, which was the ruler of events. From the prophecies of Balaam to those of Malachi are a thousand years, but aE through, it was from the selfsame Spirit, that the judges judged divinely, and the seers had visions, and the prophets prophesied, and the psalmist sang sweetly. " But the word of the Lord was unto them, precept upon precept, precept upon precept ; line upon Hne, Hne upon Hne ; here a little and there a little." And by inheritance in Christ, that word in its devel opment is ours. And here there are persons, who wiE be ready to exclaim with one voice, " The Old Testament ! The miracles of the Old Testament ! Does the man know what he is writing about ? Does not he know even about the Book of Genesis ? Does he not know of what Ezra the scribe has been suspected of having done ? Does he not know what is as good as certain about the Book of Daniel ? Baur and De Wette, — has he never even heard of their names ; Does he not know about the earHer Isaiah and the later ? Does he not know what has been done with the Old Testament so ad mirably and so thoroughly, by criticism, that is to say, by theology ? THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 365 Truly, the writer is humbly aware of all that. But he thinks also that as to the study of the Scriptures, an instinct for the Spirit is quite as important as mere lexicology. " Oh, oh ! " they exclaim again, " but do you bebeve in the tower of Babel, and in the whale that swaEowed Jonah ? Do you believe that ever the sun stood stiE upon Gibeon ? And if you do not believe in those things, what right have you to bebeve in other things of the same kind ? " Perhaps my believing fac ulty may not be very large ; but would that be a good reason for my wishing to have none at aE. Because my eyes wiE not reach the Pyramids, ought I there fore to shut them, as I walk about the streets of Bos ton ? A real beEever is a man who bebeves intelH- gently and not indiscriminately. And now as to the sun standing stdl, — have my opponents never heard of figures of speech : and though they often say that it does, yet is there even one of them, who bebeves that ever the sun does actually rise ? And as to Jonah, — is there one of all my opponents who can inform a good Hebraist as to the origin and undoubted meaning of the word which is translated whale ? And as to the tower of Babel, has it never occurred to them, as it does occur to me, that perhaps some time that tower wdl be regarded as having been singularly monumental Ha hu man history ; and that the confusion of tongues may perhaps come, on good reasons, to be accounted as evi dence of some great psychical change in human nature, analogous perhaps, in the infancy of the race, to the change which takes place with a child, when instinct begins to yield to the growth of reason. As derived by creation from the Godhead in its 366 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. unity, it might be expected that rebgiously and spirit ually there would be analogies which might corre spond with the world geologicaEy. And in the early part of the Book of Genesis there are what seem like hints of such things. Whether regarded as Hteral or as symboEcal, the narrative as to Adam and Eve and Paradise means something. There is a curious mention of the time concurrently with the birth of Enos, when " men began to caE upon the name of the Lord," which would seem to mark some change with man, rather than simply his having begun to ejaculate devotional words. " And the Lord said, My Spirit shad not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh ; yet his days shad be a hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days ; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them ; the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown." What this may mean there is no knowing, at present. But it wid probably some time dawn on some mind, and be come apparent, and be bke the deciphering of some primeval inscription. Is it not in analogy ; is it not in recognition of that great law of progress, attendant on the earth's creation, to suppose that its human inhabitants have been under a simdar dispensation of advancement by convulsion, and thereby also under a corresponding law as to spirit ual assistance ? Jesus was a communication of God, after another manner than Moses was : and so was Moses after another manner than what Abraham knew of. And the terrible miracles from which the Egyp tians suffered, and of the like of which there was some THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 367 manifestation in the time of Ebjah, when the Israebtes were succumbing to the devil-worship of their neigh bors, — these would seem to have been in some kind of keeping with the convulsive forces by which the earth was rounded and enriched, and made ready for men. The phdosophy of the phrase, "the word of the Lord," is spuitually as much in advance of mere ra- tionaEsm as a rationaEst himself is in advance of an elephant. What calls itseE rationalism, walks and talks by a lamp, which it does not know, has a hundred sEdes, of two or three of which there is some experi ence with a few persons, even in this life. One man discerns acutely as to things within his vision, whde yet he is bEnd to things which to another man of in ferior acuteness are very plain, because of his seeing by a lamp with another sbde. What ! shall we go on to ad eternity, seeing just as we now see ? But truly we are aEeady in germ what we shaE be to aE eter nity. And the germinating principle is aEeady active in us ; and in some persons it is more developed than it is in others, as may very credibly be supposed for many reasons. Most men have eyes only for material objects, but some men have had eyes for angels, and for seeing in vision. And at this present time there are persons who see spirits occasionally, as always there have been such. Spiritual sight is an attribute of ad persons, though commonly it exists only as against the world to come. There is the understanding of the natural man ; and there is also a spiritual understanding : and a man may have the one actively, while of the other 368 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. he may never have had the least opening. To the merely natural man, miracles, and angels, and spirits are necessarily incredible. The different look, which the Scriptures may have, to two persons of the same inteEigence is to be ac counted for, very often, by a difference between them as to spiritual condition, not moral nor religious, but simply psychical. There are persons who cannot pos sibly believe the Scriptures, nor love them, and who never will, until they shall have been baptized Hi the sea of affliction, and so have had their souls waked up. " Oh, oh ! but what would that have, to do with criti cism ? " Much and justly. Because, for lexicology the Spirit has no meaning but only words : and science is no more a judge as to miracles than it is as to the chronology of the Amorites. The appeal of the Scrip tures as to credibility, is not to the science of either words or matter, but to the soul of man, learned with all possible learning, and abve through all its faculties. The Old Testament is its own evidence as to author^ ity, to ad persons competent to judge about it, and who also beHeve Hi the unity of God, and are weE in formed as to ancient nations, and as to the reHgions of primitive tribes and peoples, outside of Christian civri- ization. For the Old Testament is the history of the manner in which that happened which is the greatest miracle, of which it has to ted, and by which a whole nation, man, woman, and chdd, priest, rabbi, and fish erman, became intedigent, persistent, enthusiastic, de voted believers in that doctrine as to the unity of God, of which it has been the distinction of Plato, that he caught a glimpse of it, as of some distant starry truth. THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 369 It has been a common confident objection to the credibility of the Old Testament, that it recognizes necromancy as a real thing. And the account of the woman of Endor has been reckoned sufficient to vi tiate the whole history of the Old Testament. But that strange narrative, by every word with which it is worded, authenticates itself to-day, for those who are wiEing to learn. From Spiritualistic experiences, at the present time, any one can learn, that the Scriptures were written about realities, when they mention Baal and Baalim, and the God of Ekron, and divination by unclean spuits. Nor am I to be deterred from this position, by being asked whether I will support the Bible by reasons drawn from hed. For do not most men believe that even their respective churches are so supported ? Baal and his crew, however, are not the only spiritual agencies in the Old Testament, which are made certain by Spiritualism ; but even if they were, they would be enough for our present purpose, with a Ettle thinking. HeE and its ways are exactly the opposite of heaven and those ways which lead up to it. Always there is good reasoning from the ob verse. And E I am made certain as to the devils, who got themselves worshipped anciently, then also as a thinking creature, I am assisted as to my belief about the prophets of the Lord, and about ministering angels, and the angels that encamp about the righteous. And so it is, to-day, that a man can affirm of his own knowledge, that the scriptures of the Old Testament are true to the facts and powers of the spiritual uni verse. There are persons, who profess to be theologians, 16* x 370 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. who are hght and derisive as to the Old Testament, and who obstinately and contemptuously harden them selves in their blind leadership of jieople, by ignoring what might be learned from Eastern travellers, and from the long-continued experiences of the Cathobc Church. But the theology which cannot eagerly ap propriate facts, instead of eschewing them, is no the ology at all. The Old Testament authenticates itself for all those persons, who have a sense for the perspective of his tory, good for the length of fourteen hundred years, and who have also along with that sense, some instinct as to spirit, and its laws and ways. On the subject of anthropomorphism, both among those who have assailed and those who have defended the phraseology of the Old Testament, the ignorance often has been indescribably great. And on neither side do the partisans ever seem to have "suspected that perhaps the writers of the Scriptures may have written from an understanding into which they themselves may not have entered. That the law " was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator" is a controlling fact, which it is always necessary to remember as to the Old Testament, and which yet has never been thought of by some of its censors. And so they have been bke persons, undertaking with a foot-rule and compass to measure and criticise the perspective of Eaphael's great picture of the Transfiguration. The writers of the Books of Samuel and of the Kings were certainly readers of the Book of Genesis ; and therefore whatever words or figures of speech they may have employed as to what God may have done or THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 371 said or felt, are manifestly to be understood in some manner which may be consistent with the subbmity and spirituabty of the account, Hi which creation is said to have begun, when " the Spuit of God moved upon the face of the waters." But it wdl be objected perhaps, " Do you then really bebeve that the Canaanites were slaughtered at the instance of the Lord ? And you do bebeve that the disobedient prophet was kiEed by a Hon in fulfilment of a Divine prediction ! And you believe that the Lord sent a pestilence among the people when he was displeased with them ! " WeE, yes ; I do believe all those things. But then I think about them with a better behef than some persons can conceive of. It is certain that the earth is the Lord's, and yet somehow the Canaanites were slaughtered in it. And it would seem probable, that, bke many another man, a disobe dient prophet was kdled by a Hon. And that a plague wasted the people of Israel two or three times is cer tain, just as hundreds of pestilences have wasted other nations, whether they were sent or incurred or encoun tered. And how can a pestilence possibly ever waste men, without the Divine concurrence being in some way impHcated ? " ShaE there be evE in a city, and the Lord hath not done it ? " Was there necessarily a greater amount of suffering in the world than usual, in those years when a part of it was speciaEy directed ? And if a man died a death, which was foretold as weE as foreknown by the Lord, should it be hard to be credited as a fact, or be counted for an incredible thing as to the Lord, by us human beings, who, at this moment, have, every one of us, 372 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. " the sentence of death in ourselves," either by a Eon, or a railway car, or through violence Hi some other form, or else by disease ? We shrink from thinking as to a few individuals, that certain things were divinely done, which yet, a mrilion times over, we say, are the divine will as to the human race. It is the old reluc tance, which can believe in God easdy and grandly as the Lord of hosts, but not so readily as being " him with whom we have to do." It was asked of the Jews, through Moses, "For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in aE things that we caE upon him for ? " And reaEy it is simply for nighness, and not for quaEty of action, that exactly objection is made to the credibility of Jewish history, as to the Lord. And on the foregoing understanding, nighness is simply and fairly a matter of historical inquiry • and' it is not of that utter improbabdity, which is sometimes lightly supposed. As to some actions, which purport to have been directed by the Spirit of the Lord, objection has been made, as not having been as merciful as Christianity, or as vigorous as Almightiness might have made them, or as being even of the nature of repentance. But the action of the Spirit among men is not to be judged of as human actions are: because the everlasting Spirit is not as the spirits of men are. The spuit of a man, to be its best, must strive to the uttermost : but the Spirit of the Lord, to be at its best with men, must temper itself for them as being weak and ignorant, and must adjust itself to those human circumstances which cannot be changed, without changing man himself, to THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 373 an extent which would be almost Eke annihdation. Nor is the Spirit to be judged of as to its manifesta tion in time and space, by what men may think it ought to show itself: since the Spirit is unchangea ble, because of its behag actuaEy of the essence of all possible changes, and of aE creations which ever have been, or can be. The Spuit of the Universe in action, is necessarily manEested for men withinside of their human condi tions : and for the Jews, that it might be the better humanized for human apprehension, it even gave " the law by the disposition of angels." In the Old Testament, instead of the Lord, or the Lord God, or the angel of the Lord doing things, let it be supposed that it was written that the Spirit of Nature favored one race and extirpated another, and that for violation of her laws she suddenly visited men, with what truly were simple effects, but which apparently were bke magical punishments. And let it be supposed, besides, that it were found to have been written, that the Spirit of Nature was recognized by the Jews as blasting the fields at one time and blessing them at another, at her will Would that sound in credibly to-day ; and is it not indeed what is actuady going on about us, always ? Now the Lord God is the soul of nature. He may be more than that and infinitely more. And he may be the soul of various other natures, than this one, inside the circumference of which we live. But nevertheless, in a sense, God is nature. And now plainly does not nature favor individuals, one above another ; and one family more than another ; and one 374 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. nation above other nations, as to strength, or beauty, or inteEect, or wealth, or even sometimes as to all of them combined ? The word " luck " is derived from the name of a heathen deity ; and is it not stid felt, as though by nature some persons were more lucky than others ? For a special purpose, the Lord, as regards a particu lar people, acted avowedly through the forces of na ture, but yet not more certainly than he is always act ing. Spirit is the God of nature ; and also it is animal life with man. Also the Spirit is God Most High, and in the souls of good bebeving men it is the Holy Ghost. And as to whatever spiritual plane men may choose to hve upon, or may be raised to, the words of Christ are true, " With the same measure that ye mete withal, it shaE be measured to you again." It was from the Spirit, with which his soul was quick, and from his being like the mouthpiece of Divine Necessity, that Hosea at one time said of the Jews, " For they have sown the wind, and they shaE reap the whirlwind." God as he is known to the seraphs, and is expe rienced on the seraphic plane, is not God as possibly he could be felt on the human plane, inteEigibly and according to human wants, any more than a pious book by Wilbam Law could answer religiously such wants as a Kaffir may have. And God, as he is thought of, on steps far lower down, before his throne, than where seraphs and cherubs have their regions, is not God as he would be intelbgible to persons living on this earth, and limited as to their capacities of thought, by the narrowness of theu experiences, and THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 375 by prejudices and feebngs connected with their cra dles, and which they can never get clear of, but along with their bodies. God can possibly have to do with us, only as being ignorant. For if he should approach us, as seraphs, we should never know of him, because of our senses and susceptibdity being inferior to the seraphic. " Every good gEt and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of bghts." Yet it reaches this earth through agencies, and perhaps even through angebc intermediations. And certainly as it enters into this world, it is through some particidar channel ; it is through the mind of a poet, or the apprehension of a philosopher, or dur ing the meditative mood of some religious genius ; and it is, therefore, through a certain few persons, who, whether they know it or not, are in their time and place, more or less successfully, and more or less faith fully, Hke ministering Levites, standing before the Lord. And it was through a simdar ministration of the Spirit, that the Old Testament was made the long preparatory introduction to the New. Also, of the Gospel, the first believers and preachers as being He brews, were men of hereditary fitness, as being mem bers of a family, whose minds had been shaped as to apprehension, expectation, and behef, by the manner in which their forefathers had been divinely dealt with, during more than a thousand years. And it was from this point of view, that St. Paul wrote to the Galatians, " Wherefore the law was our school master to bring us unto Christ." And now let another point be considered, connected with the miraculous. The natural eye, it may be, with 376 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. infinitely various splendors before it, can see only what, by its nature, it is ready to perceive : and so it is with the spiritual eye. The natural eye is fixed as to its constituents, and therefore as to its capability of being strengthened, and its ability of perceiving. But the spiritual eye is not so fixed, because of its being an organ not only for ever- widening fields, but also for' states, which may become more and more interior, to ad eternity. The eye of the spirit, therefore, when it is open, is probably the eye of that state, in which the spirit is, for a tirfB, by information and faith. It is one of the primary and deepest truths, as to human nature, " Draw nigh to God, and he wid draw nigh to you." But a man can see only what he is ready to see. And a Divine communication pressing into the mind of a prophet, has shape and coloring, from the imagery and rebgious expectations, with which the receiving mind may be furnished. And so it was, that the Father Everlasting, without beginning or end of days, seemed to Daniel, in his vision, as though " the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head bke the pure wool." Also, in the first vision of the prophet Ezekiel, there was a manifestation of the Spirit, through which " when the Eving creatures went, the wheels went with them : and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were bfted up. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went." And of this imagery, it may be, that the original, as Ezekiel saw it, or what is some copy of it, is to be seen to-day, among the sculptures, Assyrian perhaps, •which are preserved in the British Museum. THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 377 World beyond world, and state within state, — this is the condition by which we live. Are there varieties of report amongst us resulting thence spirituaEy ? Certain ly there are, and there must be ; just as in England, a coal-heaver, a mason, a brass-founder, a glass-polisher and an astronomer-royal, would vary infinitely about what the heavens may be, or may have to show, though even they may ad of them-stetuaEy have worked to gether, for the construction of the saihe observatory. And if a star can , shine differently into different minds, because ofopheh* being informe|plome more than others and some||ess ; so may. som^rimal truth of the spiritual world, sbming " on tne^attmds of men, be ap prehended by one ^rson.in one way, and by another person in another way. And thus it is that for saints in the same spuitual sphere with St. John, " God is love " ; while yet for men, in a lower sphere, wanton against grace, brutish, and rebellious, " Our God is a consuming fire." And that indeed he must be, or else be nothing. And perhaps revelation and the probabili ties of human expectation, as to the next world, will ad be fulfided Hi spirits having the scene about them change with theu love of God. Much difficulty has been felt about the Old Testa ment, as though it were inconsistent with the impar- tiaHty of God ; and as though it were a thing incredi ble, that God should have had "a chosen people." But now in what manner, and for what end were they chosen ? Was it favoritism ? But reaEy that could not be argued from their history, from the pestdences and the famine which they endured, and from the manner in which their sins were visited upon them, 378 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. and from their captivity in Babylon, and their disper sion by the Eomans. And certainly with the proph ets, age after age, " the word of the Lord," as it came, was commonly reproach, indignation, and warning. A chosen people they were ; but they were chosen for the good of others, just as much as for their own. The promise, as it was made to Abraham, at his cad, was " And in thee shad ad famibes of the earth be blessed." But why through the Jews was this blessing to accrue, rather than through any other people ? • Simply per haps because, as it had got to be given through some nation, they were as good for the purpose as any other. Or, it may be, that without being morally either better or worse than other nations, there' was in them some constitutional pecuharity, through which they were eligible for a particular purpose. But the use to which God puts a man is no pleasure for him, unless first his heart be right with God. And if a man be a born poet, it is only with his singing aloud and wed and re joicing others, that he can truly know and feel himseE. In what way, then, have all the families of the earth been blessed through Abraham ? They have not ad yet been blessed, but are many of them only about to be. But Christ was the blessing predestined. And the Jewish mind, as it was schooled by experience, and solemnized by the Lord, and taught of God, was in the fulness of time, Eke flesh for " the Word," when it was to dweE among us. The experiences of the Jewish people, as they are written in the Old Testament, regarded as mental, do mestic, political, and spiritual preparation, are what is meant in the epistle to the Hebrews, where Jesus is de- THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 379 scribed as contemplating an entrance into this world, in concurrence with prophecy, to do the will of heaven ; and when he says, as before God, and looking down upon the earth, " A body hast thou prepared for me." And thus it was actually towards us Christians of to day that God condescended, when he called Abraham. And it was for us that the prophets prophesied. And when the psalmists sang, they really sang for us of this age, and more effectively perhaps than even for their own immediate friends. In the Babylonish cap tivity, it was what might have been our faithlessness, individually, which was chastened ; and it may be, that through the punishment of the Jews, and their " stripes we are healed." The marvellousness of Jewish history is the glorifi cation of my nature. And whatever the graciousness of God may have been towards Saul, it may yet avail me to-day in the flesh, as a mere history, more than it ever did him. And that wisdom, of which Solomon was the channel, but which he failed to appropriate for his own good, has been of some profit for me, through perhaps ten thousand unknown channels. As to every true poet that ever sung, as to every person of spiritual insight that ever spoke, as to every man that ever God raised up, for an emergency in hu.- man affairs, and also as to those nations, who may have been receptive of it in any way, whether in Greece, Italy, or Palestine, the Spirit has been manifested "for every man to profit withal." And it is .the explanation and the justification of Jewish history, as to the pecu liar people, and the covenants and the fathers and the promises, arid the glory, that out of it all " as concern ing the flesh, Christ came, who is over aE." 380 THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. It would seem as though there were descent by spirit as weE as by blood ; and it would appear also as though there were a descent by spirit, Hi connection with blood. And it would seem too, with Eving together earnestly, that people strengthen and perpetuate ways of think ing, and even generate a spirit which, for intensity arid thoroughness, is like infection for those who come with in its reach. And by the manner in which the Jews were secluded from other nations, and through their sympathy with one another as feEow- worshippers, man- Eestly there was induced an intensity of beHef as to the unity of God, which has been Hke leaven for leav ening the whole world. And, but for the Old Testa ment, there never could have been the New, nor ever could the Son of God have been manEested, nor possi bly could the Holy Spirit have had its right action on believers. And now, not unreasonably, it may seem, as though a man of the highest science, and of the truest intui tions, and of the widest information as to history, might say, " When I pray, I pray out of my heart, trusting that the Spirit of God's sending wiE inform my prayer and quicken me. And at times, also, I am glad to think, as I kneel before my Father in heaven, that I am looking in the duection of the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Glory to the Lord my God, who knows me better than I know myself, and who, whatever else he may be, is surely better than my goodness ! Glory to God, who " created the heavens and the earth," and because of whose outflowing Spirit things seen and temporal are but Hke the dark shadows of things unseen and eternal! THE SPIRIT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. 381 Glory to God, whose word as it goes forth bghts high heaven with splendor, and kindles every seraph, and enlightens every angel, and is an impulse among men, which utters itseE more or less effectively in the languages of many lands ! Glory to God in the highest, as that archetypal mind, whence the elements derive tbeir properties, and whence also are evolved the ages as they come and pass ; wherein, too, the first man existed as a thought, before he walked this earth in form ; and without which, no kingdom can rise to its destiny, nor even a sparrow faE to the ground ! Glory be to God, for he makes spirits be his angels, and flaming fire do him service ! Glory to God ! " who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets." THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. THE New Testament is no detached piece of his tory ; and the documents of which it is com posed have other connections than simply with one another. Its title as the New presupposes the Old Testament : and throughout, it is abve with the spirit and phraseology of Isaiah and Jeremiah and David and Elijah and Moses. And just as a government may for continuity and spirit be the same government, throughout many generations of ministers and subjects connected with it, so was the era of the New Testa ment a continuation of the hne of ages, which dates from Abraham. At the birth of Jesus there was present a con tinuity of custom, thought, and hope, which began, as all the Jews of the age gloried in believing, " with the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all." At that time, for everybody, everywhere, with the excep tion of a Eoman garrison, for everything it was the law of Moses. The smoke of the morning and of the evening sacrifice went up from Mount Moriah, over Jerusalem, just as it had been commanded in the desert. The foundations of the temple were what Solomon had laid. And as the priests chanted their psalms, often it was in the words of David and of a thousand years before. The prophets indeed were THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 383 dead, but in every synagogue, on every Sabbath, stiE they were to be heard, speaking from their books. And outside of Judea, in Bome probably, and in Cor inth, and in many other places, there was a state of things, bke what was pleaded as a fact, in a conference of the earbest Christians about the Gentiles, and which is thus written of in the Book of Acts : " Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day." And throughout Palestine, all the localities, loudly as they speak to-day, yet spoke stiE more impressively, eighteen hundred years ago, of Samson, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, Elijah, and Ebsha. And at that time, no doubt, there were places, which seemed, as though stdl glowHig with the presence of Isaiah, or mourning along with the spirit of Jeremiah, and as though stiE fresh from the footsteps of Hosea and Amos, or as though made holy by the life of Malachi, the last of the prophets. Nor, as it would seem, had the voice of prophecy then been quite suspended, because with his annual entry into the holy of holies, in the temple, it was-bebeved that the high priest for the year became prophetic for some particular purpose. And indeed, at that period, ad the land of Judea was alive with traditions of what the angel of the Lord had been ; and of what judgments had been incurred, and what hopes had been imparted from the Lord ; and of what miracles had been wrought, at one place and another, and what visions, also, and dreams had been vouch safed to one man and another. By its nature, time past in Judea, for effect had become prophetic of a future wonderful and miraculous. 384 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. The Old Testament was like the soul of the Jewish people. It was what they thought from, what they prayed by, and what they trusted to. The God of Abra ham and of Isaac and of Jacob was the God they looked to, and towards whom their souls were open. Histori cally, they were the Lord's people, but not therefore spiritually, all of them, and altogether ; for it was then, as it is to-day, when Christians pray for that coming, which would destroy many of them with its bright ness. And so it was that, at the commencement of our era, every mountain and valley and city from Beersheba to Lebanon, every fisherman on the lake of Galilee, and at Jerusalem every member of the Sanhedrim, and every man in the market-place, Scribes and Pharisees all, and every worshipper also, that went up into the temple to pray, was alive with the spirit of the past, and with hopes accruing from it. - From the termination of the Old Testament to the commencement of the New, there was a space of four hundred years, which, however, was not without its documents, which are to be found in the Apocrypha. During this interval, the Jews had become more and more a peculiar people, so as indeed to have hold of a right behef, many of them, in a most unrighteous spirit. And indeed they had become, and they were what they were, a mere earthen vessel, wherein was held aloft and before the whole world, the golden, heavenly, eternal truth of the unity of God. The day, which Jesus Christ said that Abraham had rejoiced at foreseeing, was coming. And for many and perhaps a thousand converging reasons before the THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 385 throne of God, " now the fulness of the time was come." These are the first verses of the Gospel ac cording to St. Mark. "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God : as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shad prepare my way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wdderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jeru salem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wdd honey; and preached, saying — " And here now on the instant starts up our modern scepticism and exclaims, " Written in the prophets, the old prophets ! That is a very good beginning certain ly ! But preaching in the wdderness ! A popular preacher keeping to the wilderness, — that is too ridic ulous. And who was John ? who was his father ? 0, Zacharias, indeed ! But who then was the Scribe that registered his buth? For, it is pretended, that the Jews had registers of births among them. Preaching the baptism of repentance ! What an audacious under taking ! AVhy was be to preach in that way, rather than anybody else ? And then for his food, locusts and wild honey! Did anybody ever hear of such a diet ? But, no doubt, he was secretly suppbed from the city with something better than that; was not he ?" And to this, answer is proper thus : "No, he was 17 t 386 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. not, probably. Go away, poor chdd of self-conceit and misfortune, go away. What have you to do with the time and scene and spirit, which we are trying to realize ? Get away into the fields, and find, if you can, the prodigal son ; and, far away from the flippan cies and fashions of the day, think with yourself tdl you come to yourself, and feel yourself to be a Eving soul with the feelings, responsibilities, and connections of a soul immortal." Beason in its majesty ought to be welcome everywhere ; and it has a place, indeed, immediately under the throne of the Most High. But what has mere pertness to do at the gate of the holy of hobes ? It can ready do nothing there, except incur penal blindness ; as the Syrians did at Dothan, when they reached out their hands for the bfe of the prophet Elisha. At the birth of Jesus Christ, it was, as St. Paul wrote to the Galatians, because " the fulness of the time was come." And not improbably, it was, for the whole world, a more complete fulness of time than what Paul of himseE could ever have thought. Because, as to the providential agencies concerned with a great crisis in human affairs, the chief actors in it may per- sonady know no more than many other people of the time. For, persons may meet together for a settlement of their differences, by argument, fight, or otherwise, and yet be merely the representatives of forces, external to themselves, and of the potency of which they may be quite unaware. A great crisis bke " the fulness of the time " is to be known of by men thoroughly, only from some watch-tower commanding the stream of time. And so it is possible, that Paul as to the fulness of THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 387 time, wrote by the Spuit, more truly than he himseE knew of. Four hundred years previously, Plato had written, that in his view, there was no hope of debverance for man, from the vile slough into which they had faEen, but through the intervention of that Power, by which they had been created. And as appears also, from classical authors, there was, about the commence ment of our era, in the Boman Empire, a strange, wan dering, prophetic sense abroad, that there was a crisis rising as to human affans. In describing the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, it is said by Tacitus in his heathen way, " Omens had happened, for averting which, there is no rite practised by a people, who are opposed to aE reHgion, though actually very superstitious. Troops were seen to meet in the sky, and arms to glisten, and the temple was suddenly Bluminated by Hght from the clouds. The doors of the inner temple were sud denly thrown open, and a voice more than human was heard saymg that the gods were going. These things frightened some people. But most persons were there by more fuEy persuaded, that what was contained in the ancient writings of the priests was coming true, that the East was about to be magnified, and people from Judea about to rise to power." And Suetonius writes to the same effect and says, " A certain ancient and persistent notion had overspread the East, that by Fate, people from Judea would become supreme." And in the same way, Josephus wrote, after the fad of Je rusalem, that what had emboldened the Jews, to resist the Eomans, was an uncertain oracle contained in their sacred books, that some of them, about that time, would 388 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. rule the world. Very singular indeed was that expect ant state of the public mind, which there "was, among both the Jews and the heathen, during that century, in which Jesus Christ was born. No doubt, the world had grown ripe for a great change, and was also con scious of that ripeness, through the best intedects of the age. Greece had yielded its best as to intedectual prepa ration, for the world. And Bome had subordinated all nations to itseE, from Britain to the borders of Persia, and by permeation, had made them like one people, and had tied them together with roads, opening in every direction, from the Forum. The Gentiles had been working for an end beyond their thought, and had unconsciously been fuddling ancient prophecy, and preparing the world for the new doctrine that should proclaim the brotherhood of man. Bome had uncon sciously been making ready with its work, and Judea, without knowing it, had been producing the man, against ."the fulness of the time," and the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah : " The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Brepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shad be exalted, and every mountain and hid shad be made low : and the crooked shad be made straight, and the rough places plain ; and the glory of the Lord shad be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Probably it was as the earth answers to heaven, elec- tricady ; but any way, so it was, that the world, at its best, was as though expectant, about the time when Christ was manifested. This state of expectation may THE ULD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 389 perhaps have been from what Plato had said, or it may have merely been occasioned by some Sibylline proph ecy, such as every now and then got wandering about the world and exciting men's minds ; or it may have been caused simply by the shadow of a great event, forthcoming from the gates of destiny. There is an eclogue of VirgH, which has always had a fascination for some minds, as seeming Eke what might have been written from inspiration at Jerusalem. And certainly it is a strange, singular poem ; for it is in the spirit of Isaiah, rather than like the Muse of Theocritus. And it is as though in some high mood, while Virgil was thinking to express his best wishes for the newly born chdd of a friend, he had actually been caught by the spirit of prophecy, and been lifted up bke Ezekiel, and been made to shape his words, as though for a Messiah just born. And E any one should think that so this may have been, he might maintain his behef by many analogies and instances. For, through being possessed and overmastered by a mighty spirit, often a man has said grandly what he never thought, and been even bke Balaam, who blessed subbmely, while wishing only to curse. But, however that may have been, there was, at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, a pro phetic sense abroad of something great about to hap pen, and not Ha Judea only. And so it was, "now when Jesus was bom in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king" that the words of Haggai came true, which had been uttered five hundred years before, not out of his own mind, but by the spirit of prophecy, " And I will shake aE nations, and the de- sue of aE nations shaE come : and I will fdl this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." 390 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. And here abruptly our modern captiousness calls out, " Somewhat indefinite that, is it not ? If there was to be a prophecy, why was it not accompanied by the names of persons and places, and by exact dates, and by the names of the kings, or emperors, that were to be ? " To which the answer is, But now the end of that course of thought is, that you can have nothing to do with God Almighty, unless he will show himseE in a court constituted after human methods, and be examined and cross-examined as to his right to own human creatures and to deal with them. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker ! Potsherd of earth, is that the temper, in which you can even treat with your fellow-potsherds ? Or is that the spirit, in which men of the least success have ever contemplated the earth, geologicaEy ? Also, what, necessarily has Spirit, foreteEing its course, to do with names ; for, what has the mere name of a man to do with the spirit of an age ? This matter of prophecy is not for a man, whose mind has been narrowed to the mere methods of sci ence, nor yet for a bigot of the Talmud, nor yet for a bigot of any Christian kind, because really it is the affair of- human nature at its highest and truest. And indeed it is a subject for men, not of mathematics merely, but of poetry and intuition, and of wide learn ing as well as modem sharpness ; and who also have had personal experience of the Spirit, as deabng with them, for sin, and redemption and hope. And for such men, the Old Testament is one long grand prophecy as to the " desire of aE nations," and the manner of his coming. The people of Israel were a chosen people ; were THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 391 they ? They were ; but yet not to the exclusion or detriment of other nations ; because, through the choice of them, divinely, ad other nations were to be blessed, and to know the Lord, and have a Messiah, and receive the Spirit. The beginning of Christianity was not at Bethlehem, nor yet at Nazareth ; and it was indeed, very long be fore Caesar Augustus became emperor : for it was when there was " preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shaE all nations be blessed." And E it were as Paul writes, that it pleased God " to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen," it was because, first, as he says, God " sep arated me from my mother's womb, and caded me by his grace." And before the words, God, Father, faith, and Spirit could have their right meanings, as spoken by the apostles, it was necessary that they should have been used in joy and sorrow, and hope and fear, by One generation after another, and by Moses as a lawgiver, and by David as a Psalmist, and by the prophets, one after another, in theu various messages of love, or an ger, or direction, or encouragement. There is not an age of the ancient Church, but bves to-day, by its influence, in every member of the Church of God. If faith avails me to-day, for righteousness or a hereafter, it is because I am " blessed with faithful Abraham." The heathen are the majority in the world, as yet, and according to them, "there be gods many, and lords many." And " the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." And that everything is God, is what a student is liable to think, E he forgets himseE, as a finite limited creature, with whom sometimes inquiry 392 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. must grow microscopic as it grows intense, and there fore must report less and less of the infinite and eternal. And E my soul has in it provision against its times of trial and agony, it is because of something in me, which is like an instinct ; it is because of spirit by descent ; it is because of an inherited feeling, from ages long be fore the commencement of our era, as to the God of heaven and earth being the God of persons, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob ; and it is be cause of great souls, that were before Christ ; because of the manner in which David agonized, and had his spuit drawn, that myself I can exclaim and plead, " 0 God, thou art my God." Jesus said to the Jews, in the temple, on an occa sion when he was charged, somewhat indiscriminately, with being a Samaritan, and also with having a devil, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad." This prophetic view of the future had been a grace vouchsafed to Abraham by the Spirit ; and apparently also it was through the Spirit, that Jesus was enabled to speak of it. The Spirit of the Lord, as it legislated for the Jews, anciently, was making ready for that wonderful Eberty, wherewith Christ was to make the whole world free. The Spirit, through the prophets and through the agency of nature, taught and guided the people of Is rael, and warned and punished them, and cheered and blessed them, not for the sake of them, as mdividuals, merely or mainly, but because they were to be a peo ple, " of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ " was to come. The Spirit, as it ruled the Jews, foretold in its action, the future of the Gentdes. These words were THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 393 from the Spirit, through Isaiah, nearly eight hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ. " And it shad come to pass in the last day, that the mountain of the Lord's house shad be established in the top of the mountains, and shad be exalted above the hills ; and ad nations shad flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he wid teach us of his ways, and we wid walk in his paths : for out of Zion shad go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people ; and they shad beat their swords into ploughshares, and theu spears into pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shad they learn war any more." The vision is not yet as to accomplish ment, on the subject of war : but it is not therefore the less wonderful for any man, who has an eye for his tory, and the workings of the human spirit, and for those many other signs of the times, which are to be discerned to-day, besides what gutter -from the points of bayo nets. Ten or twelve generations had lived and died in the knowledge of the preceding prophecy, when, through Malachi, the Spirit predicted as to its own course, " Be hold, I wdl send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me ; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shad suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of bis coming ? and who shad stand when he appeareth ? " This anticipation of the Spirit was what, four hundred years later, was to be continued as a 17* 394 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. lamentation of the Spirit, by the utterance of Jesus Christ, " 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! Behold your house is left unto you desolate." As to the preceding prophecies, the Spirit justified itself. For, to Jerusalem, it happened, just as was said by Jesus Christ, as he looked at it, from the Mount of Olives. And we Christians aE, do we not worship in a temple, which though not made with hands, has yet for its porch and entrance, that house of God upon the mountain, which Isaiah knew of ? And are we not Christians, because of what the Jews were anciently ? They were almost the last words of the last of the prophets, " Behold I wdl send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." They had been pondered by the Jews for four hundred years. And so, on his appearance, John was asked if he were the Christ, and if not the Christ, then E he were Elias. Both which things he denied. That the Christ was near him, he felt, but apparently without being certain as to who it was. " And John bare rec ord, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven bke a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not ; but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God." But it is asked, "Why was that particular person THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 395 chosen rather than anybody else ; and why was Christ manifested at that particular time, rather than a hun dred years earHer or later ? But it might as weE be questioned, as to why Milton should have been more of a poet than ad other men of his generation ; and as to why some plant should flower certainly, and yet only once in a hundred years. " When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." The Jewish people were ripe for his production ; and ad nations were awaiting him, as theu desire. And for the fulness of the time, it was as though the whole world were folded about by eternity, with forces and tendencies converging for a crisis. The air felt as though it had grown prophetic ; and men were " wait ing for the consolation of Israel," as Simeon was, before it was revealed to him about the Lord's Christ. And indeed nature now was about to let in " a multitude of the heavenly host," for praising God, within the hear ing of mortals : and about to be ready also for admit ting inside of its walls more than twelve legions of angels, should Jesus pray for them to the Father. For "the fulness of the time," other conditions may have contributed, besides those which are dedu cible from prophecy and history. The phdosophy of what is caded a Bevival of Eebgion might perhaps be made to yield some information on this subject. In deed, historically, it is evident that there are times of what the Scriptures cad refreshing from the Lord. And to phdosophers, who even have been irrebgious, it has seemed as though at certain emergencies, there 396 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. certainly must have been a force, extraneous to men, individually, which quickened and whirled them, and disposed of them by a wid of its own, independent and nresistible. And perhaps, also, we mortals may be spirituady affected, for numbness or quickness, by conditions de pendent on even the particular quarter of the universe, wherein our earth may happen to be carrying us. It is common experience that we are dull or lively, with the state of the atmosphere, and especiaEy as to elec tricity. Also, at present, we are bome, annually, through showers of what are caEed falbng stars, but of which, anciently, there would seem to have been no knowledge. Men " are fearfudy and wonderfudy made " ; and as being possibly children of God, they are the creatures not of a Commonwealth simply, nor a continent, nor even of a planet, but are natives of the universe. And a grand and worthy saying was that of Paul, as to the coming of Christ, and sounding like what he might have been taught of God, — " The fulness of the time was come." But why did not everybody know it, when the time was come ? But further yet than that, why has not everybody since Adam known all that the heavens have been proclaiming: and why do so few people know even to-day what the best astronomers have caught ? John the Baptist could scarcely bebeve in himself. He knew that he was the " voice of one crying in the wilderness " ; but he did not know that he was Elias. As indeed how could he know that at a time, when all that he knew of the one behind him was, that himself he was not worthy to take off his THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 397 shoes. By the Spuit, afterwards, he was shown that the Christ was Jesus. And Jesus subsequently was enabled to say of him, " This is Ehas which was for to come." Truths from the highest are not readily sub ordinated by the earthly understanding : and the moni tions of the Spuit are but slowly translated into the dialect of common life. Of the preceding remark, there is some Elustration even in the hfe of Jesus. When the Spirit came upon him, in John's sight, there had to be a reception of it and appropriation. And Jesus did not on the instant, begin to teach on the river-side, nor look round for the nearest sick person to heal. " And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wdderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan ; and was with the wdd beasts ; and the angels minis tered unto him." This was not unbke what happened to Ezekiel, when the word of the Lord first came to him. " So the spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit ; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me." For soli tude and fasting, Jesus was, for the time, like some prophet of the Old Testament. But not even once would he seem to have been a subject of that ecstasy, which was characteristic of the prophets. Nor even would he seem to have had what was a common expe rience with Daniel. " And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days ; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business ; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it." But still apparently, Jesus was not on the instant, both as to body and mind, ab solutely congruent with the Spirit, which had come 398 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. upon him. And mdeed long afterwards, the Son of man prayed in regard to his suffering greatness as the Son of God, " Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me : nevertheless, not my wdl, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him." And so when Jesus was " led up of the Spirit, into the wdderness," it was that he might be tempted, as indeed he could not but be ; it was that he might man ifest his temper, whde growing suddenly out of the condition of a humble Nazarene, into something even greater perhaps than " the nature of angels " ; it was that he might commence his Messiahship with over coming Satan, at his greatest advantage ; and it was, that in quiet and apart from the world, he might have his soul quicken, and fid, and strengthen with that Spirit, which was to become his without measure. THE SPIEIT. THE Spuit, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost ! There is nothing which more intimately concerns us than that, and nothmg, also, which is more difficult to know about, theo- logicady. And yet perhaps it is simple enough, for wiEing and simple people. However, of all the various kinds of knowledge, proverbially seB-knowledge is the most difficult. And perhaps it is because the Spirit is so near to us, and is indeed part of us, at times, and bke the breath we draw, and the strength we have, and the hght we see by, that it has been so hard to think about. Says Baumgarten : " The doctrine of the Holy Spirit remained a long time undecided. It lay near to the first church in a practical respect only." And says Neander : " Some bebeved him to be a mere power ; some confounded the idea of person with the charism ; others supposed him to be a creature ; others believed him to be God ; and others still were undecided. The practical recognition of him, however, as the prin ciple of the divine life in man, was almost universal in the early church." It would seem, however, as though perhaps the uncertainty of the primitive Chris tians may have been a better thing than the certainty of their successors could possibly have been, two or 400 THE SPIRIT. three hundred years later. For, in the fourth century of our era, the Christian Church was permeated through door and window, by Hifluences from the surrounding world of heathenism and " philosophy falsely so called." The Apostles' Creed, as it is caded, would seem to have been the earliest creed of the Church. And as to the Spirit, this creed says simply, " I believe in the Holy Ghost." And for a more particular belief than that, the Creed would certainly commend us to the Scrip tures, and not to the controversiahsts of the third and fourth centuries. What, then, is to be understood by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit ; that Spirit which was promised and poured out ; which rested on a person, and with which people were baptized ? Like " the Word," it is a phrase both generic and special, and of various mean ings. The primary meaning of the Scriptural word for Spirit is breath or wind; just as the primitive meaning of " Logos " is that by which men word their thoughts. Other meanings of the word "spirit" are the spirit of a living man, and the spirit of a man which has departed the body. Angels are caded spirits. God is described as benig spirit ; and his ac tion in nature and on man is said to be through the Spirit. Jesus Christ said that God is spirit. At the beginning of creation, " The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." And said Job, " By his spirit he hath gar nished the heavens." And said Elihu to Job, " If he . gather unto himself his spirit and his breath, aE flesh shaE perish together, and man shall turn again unto the dust." It is true that " there is a spuit in man " ; THE SPIRIT. 401 but it is from another spirit than itseE, that it Eves to any good purpose ; for it understands aright only by " the inspiration of the Almighty." Spirit is the life of everything. And it is the hfe of my life ; and it is also what must be with me, as a foreign presence, or else I could not be myself, nor think, nor have a word on my tongue. " Such knowledge is too wonderful for me ; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shaE I go from thy spirit ? " But besides this pervad ing, Efe-supporting presence of the Spirit, there is an action of it which is intermittent, conditional, and occasional. When " aE the sons of God shouted for joy " at the begriming of our earth, no doubt, it was mainly, be cause for them, the new house prophesied of its in habitants, that were to be, age after age. And as to the human body merely, it is plain now, that type after type in creation, it is what nature had been forecasting, from the first saurian that ever crept, and from the time when the elephant was endowed with a trunk, so wonderfuEy Eke the arm and hand of a man, for pliabdity, adaptability, and deEcacy of touch. Yes, and from a period long before Adam, by a hundred symptomatic creations, nature prophesied of man, as he was to be, not merely as to the shape of his body, but even also as to those instincts which largely determine his manner of hfe. Out of the same dust of the ground as an elephant was the body of Adam formed, by the Lord God ; but into that human body, as being a_ temple, wherein there was to be worship afterwards, there was breathed " the breath of hfe ; and man became a Eving soul." That 402 THE SPIRIT. breath ! to aE eternity, it is the difference of a step be tween the highest bestial and the lowest spiritual ; it is the width of a proper miracle, on the scale of creation. He is bable to be confused by light, for which inci dentally he may not be ready; but otherwise by na ture, man is all that the best beast is, and additionaEy, he is created with a susceptibibty as to influences, from what is super-bestial, and even supernatural. What was written as to a higher plane spiritually than what Adam started on, is yet applicable as to the coming of the first man into the world, — "A body hast thou pre pared for me." And because of its adaptation as to the world which now is, and because also of its porch-like nature as to the world which is to come, the frame of man, as connected with the book of nature, is what might weE prompt the soul to say, " Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy wdl, 0 God." A living soul, that could be spoken to, spirituaEy, and that could hear, and that was even also free to hear or not to hear, to obey or not to obey ! A new creation this ! And also this was the commencement of a new era under the skies. For " the Spirit of God " which had been moving "upon the face'of the waters " had become now a voice Ha the garden of Eden, — the Lord God speaking. " The Lord God speaking ! " exclaims our modern scepticism. "That could not have been, for he was not obeyed; and so on any understanding of it, sym- bobc or otherwise, there can be no meaning in that narrative." And who are we that think so ? We are persons certainly that own to conscience, and who have THE SPIRIT. 403 therefore been Hke Adam and Eve, over and over again, for that disobedience, which seems so incredible in them. For, certainly, we cannot say that the voice of conscience would be more authoritative than it now is with us, merely for quivering on the air before reach- Hag us spuituaEy. When man was created, it was by the same Spirit as that which garnished the heavens, though by a diversity of operation. And when that Spirit which had coerced and informed the elements began the training of creatures in the image of God, it was neces sarily through adaptation, and by being fatherly as wed as almighty, and by being perhaps a voice, while as yet conscience had not begun to speak, and by being com panionship for the first human beings in the solitude of an unpeopled world. In the Scriptures, when it is said that God spoke, the right understanding would seem to be, that it was through an angeL Jacob had a dream, or more pre cisely perhaps, a vision in a dream, as to which he says what foEows. " The angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying Jacob: and I said, Here am I." But then that same personage, which had commenced speaking as an angel, as he continues his speech, says, " I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the piHar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me." When Moses was keeping bis flock of sheep near Mount Horeb, " the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush." And when Moses went near to see how there could be such a fire, and the bush not be burning with it, the voice which caEed to him out of the bush was from God, and it 404 THE SPIRIT. said, "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abra ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And similarly, it is to be read, " The Lord went before them by day in a piEar of a cloud, to lead them the way." And almost immediately afterwards it is written, "And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them : and the piEar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them." • In the Book of Numbers, it is to be read that Moses talked with the Lord, and said as to the Egyptians, "They have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest be fore them, by daytime in a piEar of a cloud, and in a piEar of fire by night." And yet at the commencement of the Gospel of John it is written, " No man hath seen God at any time." Now, how are these two very dis tinct statements to be reconciled? It is to be done through a third, very simply; and it is to be read in the Book of Exodus, along with many laws, which were given at Sinai. " Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not ; for he wid not par don your transgressions : for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do ad that I speak ; then I wiE be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine angel shaE go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amo- rites and the Hittites." When then by the letter of the Scripture it would THE SPIRIT. 405 seem as though God had been seen or heard, it is to be understood that it was through his angel that God was manifested. No doubt, in the preceding text, there is impbed a phEosophy of revelation which has not been common, for many ages ; but it is not therefore the less certainly Scriptural : and it is indeed the philosophy of the Spirit. Seven hundred years later than the giving of the Decalogue at Sinai, was this utterance through Isaiah the prophet, as to the Lord, and the angel of God. " For he said, Surely they are my people, children that wdl not Ee : so he was their Saviour. In all theu affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them : in his love and in his pity he redeemed them ; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebeEed, and vexed his holy Spirit." Later stiE than these words by three hundred years, were the prophecies of Malachi. The last of the proph ets he was. And the Spuit as it spake through him anticipated the Gospel. And the foEowing words would seem to foreteE that the inauguration of Chris tianity would, in some way, be attended by that angel of God who had been "the angel of his presence" for the Israebtes. " Behold, I wiE send my messenger, and he shad prepare the way before me : and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in : behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." What a strange and wonderful utterance this is to think upon ! It is the Spirit speaking from afar off, but for effect at the present day, almost as though in an unknown tongue. For it impEes probably knowl- 406 THE SPIRIT. edge which is lost, though not perhaps irrecoverably. The words of that prophecy are to be read to-day by the natural eye. But some time they wiE be spirit uaEy discerned ; and then they wiE be Eke an angel testifying as to the Gospel, from his own connection with it. In the Scriptures, then, an angel of God is God him seE, as it were. And it would seem also as though a spirit in the service of God might some time have been accounted as the Spirit of God. And this per haps is an import of the phrase which is illustrated by the saying of a Jewish Babbi, as quoted by Lightfoot, in his Horm to fire. It is a state in which ths^|j|ul^^gas€Iy itself, and hears through its spiritual ears, and sees through its spuitual eyes, and is conscious of another atmosphere than this of earth. Also then being " in the Spuit " means often, being in a state in which the body is nothing, and through which, also, the soul is among spirits and may see angels. At the time of the conversion of St. Paul, Ananias told him, "The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his wiE, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth." And now how were these words made good ; and how was Jesus Christ seen by Paul? Tins is what Paul himself says : " And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even whde I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance ; and I saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem ; for they wid not receive thy testi mony concerning me." And that the trance which he wrote of is as though his body had been abobshed for a time, or as though the soul's connection had been sus- 414 THE SPIRIT. pended with it, is plain by what St. Paul says as to his having been in Paradise, when he heard things, which, though he might have felt, he was unable to utter for want of words. The Principia of Newton never have been and never can be translated into Erse. Nor possibly, therefore, could the sublimities which Paul heard in Paradise have been reducible into Greek, by any human skid. And as to that abnormal state which he experienced, his words about it are for sim plicity almost as wonderful as what he narrates. And indeed they are the. words of a man famibar with mir acles. These are the words : " I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I can not tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot teE*: God knoweth), such an one caught up to the thud heaven." During the trance which Paul had in the temple, at Jerusalem, it is possible that his spirit may have parted from his body, and by some spiritual law may have reached either Paradise or the third heaven, like a ray of hght. But also it is conceivable that while Paul was entranced in the temple, his soul may simply have been wearing the body like insensate clothes, and been receiving some influence from above, by which it became more and more intensely spuitual, and by which also it found itseE successively in affinity with one heaven, and another, and even a third. And of that preternatural experience, as to the manner, either understanding weE corresponds with such texts as these, in the Book of Bevelation, " Immediately I was in the spirit," and " He carried me away in the spirit." This beHag " Hi the Spirit " would seem to be con- THE SPIRIT. 415 currently with nature. Man by his nature is capable of intromission as to spirit, and of being caught up into Paradise, and of hearing what the Spirit says, and what also angels may have to say or show. And in regard to revelation, the deep sleep of the body which was experienced by prophets and apostles may have been but a consequence of theu souls having been intensely quickened in some way, at some point. For often persons, with great excitement, mentaEy, have found that there had been thunder without their notice, and that even they had been severely wounded, without knowing that they had been struck. And in deed many times, martyrs and confessors have tes tified, as to their having had no sense of pain, whde the torturers were at work upon them. But how are men approached or reached or affected by the Spirit ? In many ways perhaps, and contin gently on many conditions, as to person, time and place ; as indeed may wed be supposed, when it is re membered how persons differ from one another, men taEy, and by education and by nationality, — and also how men of the same descent must necessarily be dif ferenced by the varying tone of the successive cen turies into which they are born. In one age, a man may Hve by the Holy Ghost, and be strong and joyful in it, without a wish for a muacle or a though^ of one. Whde in another age, a man cannot think but that he grows from birth to death simply from out of his earthly self, Eke a plant rooted in the earth ; and for him, therefore, some gift of the spuit, or some miracle or sign, might be of infinite im portance, as a thing for thought ; because of its mani- 416 THE SPIRIT. festing a connection for him with a world invisible of spirit. A royal miscreant like Ahab was not approachable by the Spirit, as though he had been some " bruised reed." Isaac, the patriarch and shepherd, may have been capable of having the Lord appear to him in a vision, in the night, while yet he may have been utterly incapable of having the Spirit of the Lord breathe through him, for the wording and soul of a psalm. Just before his death, Jacob was more fully prophetic than in aE his life before. "And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves to gether, that I may tell you that which shaE befall you in the last day." And why, and how was this ? It was because almost his spirit was inside of the spir itual world, and was within hearing perhaps of the angel of the covenant ; and it was because he would within a few minutes have " gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost." • Before the prophet Samuel was caded, there had been a time, for the Jews, when " there was no open vision." And that time would seem to have been so long as that even there had occurred with it a change in the use of words. For, in connection with Samuel, it is to be read, that in Israel " he that is now caded a prophet was beforetime caEed a seer." And indeed it was not because of a long time having elapsed, or be cause of mere worldly craving, that ever the word of the Lord 'was vouchsafed. Nor ever was the Spirit receivable by everybody alike. WhEe the Jews were yet on their journey from Egypt to the promised land, the Lord had said, by way of magnifying Moses, over THE SPIRIT. 417 his successors, " If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord wiE make myself known unto him in a vision, and wdl speak unto him in a dream." Before there can be a revelation from the highest, there must be a receptive state in some person on the earth. And it is but a development of this truth, according to the phi losophy of revelation, to say that certain persons of a prophetic temperament, must have been faithful to their nature and have been welcomed among their fedow-creatures, before God can draw nigh to men through the Spirit, rather than by convulsion, pes tilence, and the terrors of the Lord, or by that penal bbndness, which is none the less fearful because it does not know of itself. As to the preceding statement, worldly objection of any kind is nothmg. What is aE the state of Boeotia to-day, in comparison with Homer ? Poetry is a mighty influence ; for it glorifies the earth and man's hfe in it ; and it can prepare in the mind the way of the Lord. And yet not every man, but only one man in the seventeenth century, was born with a soul which could so live on earth as to leave behind, on its departure, the works and the glory of John Milton. Thoughts from on high as to God, or high thoughts concerning God, can reach mankind only through such minds as may, at any time, be open and wilbng to receive them. This, gentle manner of approach is not however of necessity. Though certainly the way of the Spirit, in this world, at present, would be confusion worse than what happened at the tower of Babel, and would even be suffering worse than what the Israelites were punished with, in the desert, but that it is tem- 18* AA 418 THE SPIRIT. pered for us and administered, by what in a Christian way, may be called the fatherhood of God. And in deed the condescension of God, toward this world, as he wraps it about and fills it with his Spirit, is not by acts dating from eras, but it is continuous, and bke a stream, for " ho, every one that thirsteth." Man must think of God, before he can feel that God remembers him. " Draw nigh to God, and he wiE draw nigh to you." A lonely disciple is not without Christ, and yet also these words are not a mere truism, however they may be interpreted, " where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." And in these words, there is some thing spiritual meant, and beyond what Novabs may have intended inteEectuaEy when he said, " Certaudy my beHef gains infinitely as to strength, as soon as it is shared by another person." " The assembbng of yourselves together " is a form of waiting for the Spirit, whether or not it be so under stood by mere church-goers. Men are approachable by the Spirit, not only as individuals, but as societies. Any day, by the mysterious alchemy of the universe, seekers after God may suddenly have their earnestness open out into the Spirit, and have the Spuit come in upon them. And with taking " sweet counsel together," and walking " unto the house of God Ha company," and with looking steadfastly towards heaven, Christians are in a way to see it open, and to have their hearts fill with a strange, unearthly joy in the Holy Ghost. " He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that dihgently seek him." And so also is it as to the Spirit. It was on bebevers THE SPIRIT. 419 in an expectant attitude, and on those who did " wait for the promise of the Father," that the Spirit was poured forth, after the ascension of Jesus Christ. They were drawn together by their faith ; and the thoughts of ad of them were conjointly a longing expectation. " And when the day of Pentecost was come, they were aE with one accord in one place." According to the Scriptures then the Spirit was that of which there can be an outpouring in one age and a dearth in another. It is what can be imparted to a man, and what can be withdrawn from him, and it is what also he can quench as to himself. Occasionally, also, it is what can be imparted by one man to another, not however as arbitrary grace, but only like some an gelic whisper, for the inmost being of the recipient. In the evening after his resurrection, the disciples be ing assembled together in a room, of which the doors were closed for fear of the Jews, Jesus became present among them and breathed on them, and said, " Beceive ye the Holy Ghost." The Holy Spirit was also com municable, occasionaEy, by the apostles, through their hands, whEe placed on right-minded persons. Arguing with the high priest and the councE, at a very early day in the Church, Peter said of the Holy Ghost that it was what " God hath given to them that obey him." And at a later period than this, when Peter was preach ing to hearers who were not all of them Jews by blood, to the astonishment of them of the circumcision, " the Holy Ghost feE on aE them which heard the word." Spiritual affinity had met the Spirit, through the agency of Peter, at Caesarea, and then and there and thereby began to be fulfilled that promise which was made to 420 THE SPIRIT. Abraham by the Lord, almost twenty centuries before, " I will make of thee a great nation, and I wid bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a blessing ; and I wid bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee ; and in thee shad ad fam- Eies of the earth be blessed." Also apart from aE hu man agency, and at all times and everywhere, on the assurance of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is what can certainly and even perhaps suddenly be obtained by everybody, by prayer. " If ye then, being evd, know how to give good gifts unto your chddren, how much more shad your heavenly Father give the Holy Spuit to them that ask him ? " The Spirit of God may be poured out on men, in multitudes ; or it may spread from heart to heart bke a flame ; or by possessing itseE of the body of some man, it may even speak expressly. It may reach one man, like some " word of the Lord " suddenly revealed in the mind ; and to another man it may be imparted by angebc agency. It may strike a man with convic tion, whde he is in a crowd : and conceivably it may get lodged with him, during deep sleep, when some times God " openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his pur pose, and hide pride from man." The Spirit is always the selfsame, but Hi operation it may be of infinite diversity. And for this reason, it is variously described. The Spirit is the Holy Ghost ; but the Holy Ghost is a phrase, which cannot always be used for the Spuit of God. Chaos became order and was made to blossom with beauty, and the heavens around were garnished by the Spuit of God, THE SPIRIT. 421 but not by the Holy Spirit; because fire and water, trees and animals, are all alike incapable of holiness ; and so too are ad the stars, however they may differ from one another in glory. Propheticady what came upon Balaam was the Spirit of God ; and it was by the same Spirit that prophets and apostles were inspired : but if in them it was the Holy Spirit and differed from what Balaam felt, it was because of their having been better men than he, and sensitive to hobness ; and because it was, as it is written, " holy men of God spake as they were moved hy the Holy Ghost." In the Gospel of John, the following words were spoken, with a view to the distress which the disciples were soon to feel, and what also would be their need of instruction. And in these passages the Spirit is the Holy Ghost, and it is the Comforter, and also it is the Spirit of truth. " I wid pray the Father; and he shad give you another Comforter, that he may abide With you forever; even the Spirit of truth." And then soon afterwards Jesus says, " The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father wid send in my name, he shad teach you ad things, and shall bring ad things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." In the New Testament, what is " the Spirit of your Father," as mentioned by Matthew, is " the Holy Ghost " as recorded by Luke. Men are reached by the Spirit, on one plane and another. As walking, thinking, working creatures on the earth, " the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." But for men " in the image of God created," the Spirit can be the Holy Spirit. And 422 THE SPIRIT. by still other persons, the Spirit of God can be felt like the spirit of the Son of God, for, tenderness and encouragement, and sweet loving assurance. And to men who feel as Jesus felt, and who feel also that cer tainly it cannot be otherwise than that "the Father loveth the Son," Paul would say, as though it were the way of the universe, " and because ye are sons, God bath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." God, that made aE things, is " all things to aE men " to a greater extent than ever Paul was made. From north to south, from the earth to the sun, and from one sun to another, it is by the Spirit of God, that the uni verse is coherent. And it is by the- same Spirit, that men are made to differ, and the stars also from one another in glory, and one era on this earth from an other, as time wears on. When the beasts of the field were made, it was by the Spirit, but not by as much of the Spirit of God as what created man in his own image. And man, as he Eves, is more and more recep tive of that Spirit. There are persons who believe in the Spirit as a pious word, but cannot conceive of it as an actuality which concerns them. And there are some who say scornfully, "What sign is there of the Spirit, any more than there is of spirit, at all ? A mere Hebra ism ! Who but the Jews ever thought of it ? And what way is there by which it could ever get at us ? There is no possibidty of it between us and the sun ; and under the earth, there is certainly nothing of the kind." But now the argument from ignorance is good only as it is used by persons who know a great deal, which those scornful ones never do. THE SPIRIT. 423 The susceptibilities of human nature as to spiritual action, are many, as may perhaps have aEeady ap peared. And additionally this is conceivable. As the body is the case of the soul, so may animal magnet ism serve for the corporeity of the Spirit, sometimes, and for one or two purposes. Just as it is written as to Peter and John among the Samaritans, " Then laid they theu hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost." But indeed myself already I am spirituaEy in- sphered, and so I have been ever since I was born as a living soul. It is true, as I look up, that there is nothing between me and the sun, for such eyes as I can open as yet. Nor is it likely that ever my spirit ual sight will be opened, tid I shall have got through the vabey of the shadow of death. But stiE if I could look to-day, with those eyes, through which it is possible that hereafter I may even see Uriel in the sun, I should discern between this earth and the al tered look of that luminary, at various distances, signs probably of principalities and powers, and ways of com munication with the New Jerusalem ; and I should be sensible of the magic properties of another atmosphere than this of earth ; and I might thereby also perhaps become conscious of strange affinities drawing me like old friendships, towards Paul or Dante ; and toward some angel, who may at some time have encamped about me in a time of trouble, without my knowledge ; or toward some remote ancestor, whose name I may never have heard of; or toward some spirit, whose course in his earthly life was marked by like lines with my own ; or toward some feEow-Christian, who may 424 THE SPIRIT. have thrided, in church, without my knowledge, to the same movement of the Spirit as what quickened me. Is it said that there is no avenue for the Spirit, as to human nature ? It might as weE be said that there is no channel Ha the au, whereby words can pass from man to man ! The universe is abve with the Spirit and with spiritr ual occupants, and has always been thought to be so, except by a few people now and then, and here and there, — persons of a nature somewhat elephantine as to outlook, and unfortunate as to education. Accord ing to an old word for a prejudice on the subject, there are those who cannot beHeve in the existence of spirit. There have been persons, especiaEy in France, who have been even bigoted against a behef in human immortahty or in spirit. During the first half of this century, magnetism was ardently studied in France, but when it began to give signs of being spirituaEy connected, some of its greatest adepts were shocked and scandaEzed as being men of " the world that now is." The Baron Dupotet was so affected ; but yet he could not but say, " There is an agent in space, whence we ourselves, our inspiration and our inteEigence pro ceed ; and that agent is the spiritual world which sur rounds us." Those are the words of a French adept and scholar as to magnetism, and which were true to his own knowledge, -as he thought. And these words foEowing are by Confucius, the contemporary, indeed, of the prophets Zechariah and Haggai, but yet who was also a Chinese, "An ocean of invisible intedigences surrounds us." Plotinus has been quoted in opposi- THE SPIRIT. 425 tion to Christ and the apostles by anti-supernaturabsts, who apparently were quite unaware of -his claims to be an ecstatic. But Plotinus said, what, no doubt, was of his own experience, as he believed, " All things are fuE of demons," or in plain Engbsh, "Everywhere there are spirits." This spirituabty of the universe is the testimony of almost aE tribes and nations, in every age. It was the persuasion of Greece, and Egypt, and Chaldea. Under the bght, conjointly of history and criticism, what the Scriptures were especiaEy given to teach is not the re aEty of the spiritual world, as many people think, but rather the certainty and nature and operation of the Spirit of God, or the Holy Ghost. It is of the nature of the godhead, that it should be always reveabng itself, in one way and another ; in the make of a diamond, in the beauty of a fern ; Ha the cry of a young raven and the manner in which it gets answered ; in the appearance of the first man on earth ; and in that gbmmer of Providence, which is perceptible on the stream of time historically, and which to some eyes is as dubious as phosphorescence, and yet stdl as certain. Geology is science as to the Spirit of God, while it was shaping the earth. And the Bible is the history of the Spuit, in its relations with man. The tent of Abraham, the sojourn in Egypt, the captivity in Baby lon, Moriah, and the lake of Gablee are but accessories to the history. The Old Testament and the New are a revelation of every man to himseE, through the Spirit, and a revelation also of the eternal Spirit as it acts in time. 426 THE SPIRIT. And now perhaps we are in a way, wherein can be resumed more inteEigently what was being discussed about Elijah as the forerunner of Jesus Christ. And it should be remembered, that what is now being con sidered is in connection with the reign of the Spirit, made visible. During the transfiguration, the disciples saw Elias in the spiritual world, and so when Jesus referred to his death, as being perhaps not far off, " his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the Scribes that Elias must first come ? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shaE first come, and restore aE things. But I say unto you, that Elias is come al ready, and they knew him not, and have done unto him whatsoever they bsted. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples under stood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist." John the Baptist was a man like any other Jew, and yet also he was Ebas. The philosophy of this matter is the same as that which was entertained by the sons of the prophets, after Elijah had vanished in heaven, when they said, "The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed them selves to the ground before him." And so according to this account, John the Baptist, in the flesh, may in some way possibly have been influenced by Elijah, whde dwelbng in a state altogether foreign to flesh and blood, and sun, moon and stars. For the spirit indeed, time and space are nothing, or nearly so ; while sameness of mind or spiritual affinity may, under God, be almost everything. But why should John the Baptist have been inspired by Ebas, or in any way have been Elias ? It was, no THE SPIRIT. 427 doubt, because of the spiritual constitution of the uni verse. And thereby it was not an exceptional event, but was in conformity with other things, which concern us, and of which some perhaps affect us frequently. In Patmos, John received a revelation from an angel, which revelation the angel had received from Jesus Christ. And it was in a similar manner, probably, that Elijah was concerned with Christ, as making the Bap tist " go before him in the spirit and power of Ebas." And indeed the whole ministration of the world, in teEectuaEy, moraEy, and spuitually, is largely by me diation. For when influences from above reach men, commonly it is through a certain few, who are bke mediators for the rest. And according to St. Paul, not only was the law " ordained by angels," but also it was " in the hand of a mediator." It was by the foreknowledge of God, and through the operation of spiritual laws no doubt, and of his own free-wBl also, that Elijah was the spuit and power of John the son of Zacharias the priest. But now Ebas had left the earth nine hundred years, when he intervened through the Baptist. And yet also, nine teen hundred years before Jesus was born, there had been " preached before the gospel unto Abraham." Often on earth, that which is a mystery of the king dom of heaven had its beginning with the Spirit, and is outside of the reach of mere reason, and is what only the Spirit can ever show, or even hint about. According to the Book of Bevelation, " Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shad be his people." In a state of more or less intedigence Archbishop Fenelon, Jacob 428 THE SPIRIT. Bohme, George Fox, and Wilbam Law, and Sweden borg, and Charles Wesley and his brother John, and multitudes, more or less like them, have entered into the court itself of that temple, during the last two or three hundred years. But nevertheless, one generation after another, for, now, a long time, whEe Christians have been going up to the temple for worship, com monly they have had but a poor behef, and often none whatever, as to the holy of hobes, and the positive, kind, famibar, human nearness of the Spirit. The holy of holies ! Now under Christ Jesus, the actual place of it is in the soul itseE, if only men had faith Ha it, and could beHeve in the Spirit. And indeed it is in the Spirit, and from the Spirit, that man is to Hve to aE eternity, and even just as he does already. For, truly the human body is the high est formation of the Spirit which there is Hi connec tion with this earth. And indeed, opticady, diamonds of the purest water are but ancient experiments in the workshop of nature, with a view to the human eye. The recent discoveries, through which the powers of nature lend themselves to human use, and under the application of which the fields grow more fertile, and the depths of the earth yield up their treasures, are often spoken of, as nature unveihng herself. Nature unveriing herself, — what is that ? O thou poor idol ater of second causes, what is nature ? Nature is but one of the lower titles of God. And " nature unveding herseE," if it means anything, means the Spirit of God, revealing itself of its own good-wdl on a plane which is level with human inteEect. But, at its best, what is aE that eases our bodily THE SPIRIT. 429 hfe, or even that glorifies existence for us, as mere denizens of this earth, in comparison with that reve lation of the Spirit, of which man spirituady is sus ceptible ? FearfuEy and wonderfuEy made as man is as to bis body, he is yet more wonderful stid as to his soul. And of aE the creatures that have ever been on this earth, man only is what can answer, in any way, to the fatherhood of God. And we human creatures, at this late time, ought to be able to understand read- dy the meaning of St. Paul, when he asks, " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwedeth in yon ? " JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. THIS essay is simply what it purports to be, and is not a treatise on Christology. During his stay in the wdderness, Jesus was quali fied for his work, by having his spirit tried to the utter most by what he was to preach against. His trial was probably hke the trial of Abraham as to his faith, and was while his soul was in a state wherein it was exer cised independently of his boddy senses, and irrespec tively of geographical bmitations. And E that condition should be called a state of vision, it should be remem bered that a vision differs from a dream much more widely and profoundly than even waking does. From out of his inmost being Jesus withstood that concen tration of ad temptation, for which as to subtlety the word is Satan. " And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan ; and with the wdd beasts : and the angels ministered unto him." On his reappearance, after his seclusion in the des ert, he received a message from John the Baptist. The day of the Lord is hght only for the children of light. And by some persons it is never known of while it is passing. John the Baptist was to be famous forever, in connection with the gospel, and yet for discern ment, spiritually, of the time in which he was living, " he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 431 than he." John was the forerunner of Jesus, and also he had borne " record, saying, I saw the Spirit descend ing from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him " ; and yet " when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another ? " It was a " day of visitation." It was the tune of the Spirit, and by the Spirit, judgment was to be formed. John, as wed as Jesus, was withinside of its sphere. John was in mortal danger of his Hfe ; and Jesus probably felt that he was himseE on the way to Calvary ; and so, as though death were nothing, because of the surrounding hght from heaven, " Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see ; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shaE not be offended in me." This answer to John was exactly Eke the claim which he had made on his return from the wilderness. He had taught in various synagogues acceptably. " And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up : and as his custom was, he went into the syna gogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach debverance to the 432 JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at Hberty them that are bruised, to preach the accepta ble year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of ad them that were Ha the synagogue were fas tened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfided in your ears. And aE bare him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son ? " Those gracious words are not to be known of now ; but it would seem, that Hi some way, they were provocative, as they were thought about. And then miracles, bke what had been heard of, from Capernaum, would seem to have been ex pected. And thereupon by Jesus, it was stated that a miracle was not a thing for everybody, nor forthcoming always at demand. Very instructive is the narrative of this matter by Luke. More and more devibsh always does the spuit of the world become with argu ing against the Spirit of God. And so it was, that in Iris own city, on a Sabbath day, and after having been admired for his gracious utterance, that Jesus was in danger from ad who heard him, for " they led him unto the brow of the hill whereon theu city was budt, that they might cast him down headlong." In the synagogue on that Sabbath day, as Jesus read and spoke, it was because of his having " returned in the power of the Spuit into GaHlee." The power of the Spuit ! what was that ? It was the same thing as what is implied in this text, "And Jesus being fud of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spuit uito the wdderness, being forty days JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 433 tempted of the devri." It was that controding, inspir ing power, by which, on account of his nature, it is conceivable that practicady he may have been bke almightiness in a robe of clay, and Hke omniscience, as far as the scanty words of a poor dialect could af ford it utterance. Said Jesus of himself, " He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God : for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." And as further illustrating this union of Jesus with the Father, by the Spirit, for the manifesta tion of the Father on earth, Jesus said, " The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him ad things that him seE doeth : and he wdl show liim greater works than these, that ye may marvel" As used by Jesus, the phrase, "the Father that dwedeth m me," would seem to be of the same import as " the Spirit of the Lord is upon me." And like this variety of phrase is what fodows. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus teds his disciples, " Whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye : for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost." But according to Matthew it was worded thus, " For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." After his temptation, Jesus " returned in the power of the Spuit into Gahlee." It may help to elucidate the phrase, to remember that Suneon was a just man and devout, and one of whom it is written that " the Holy Ghost was upon him," and that at the presenta tion of Jesus, " he came by the Spuit into the tem ple." 19 BB 434 JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. To the modem mind it is something strange, and a thing to be challenged, that Jesus should have arrived in GaHlee " in the power of the Spirit." Whereas the phrase was easily and naturaEy inteEigible till within less than the last two hundred years ; and indeed had been so in every age of that spiritual descent, by which we Christians derive from Abraham. As to familiarity of behef, connecting heaven with earth, first an angel disappeared, and then a spirit be came improbable, and then by degrees the Holy Ghost became less and less inteHigible, and more and more limited as to what it might seem to mean. And this has been as a murky effect of those various philoso phies of a materialistic origin, which have obtained during the last two hundred years. It is at this point that the records of revelation are bable to be obscured to minds thus accidentally darkened. But the reha- bdity of the Scriptures, as to meaning, is not therefore invalidated. For a dictionary may be lost ; but E it should be found again, and answer its purpose as an interpreter, it is not therefore the less trustworthy. And indeed the mere records of Christianity, with theu multitudinous corroborations, historical and psy chological, are in the high court of reason, and by comparison, far superior, as to credibdity, to all the ev idences, on the strength of which geology prides itseE. But apart from this all and above it, is what is the mam evidence as to Christianity, as soon as ever a man be gins really to hear the gospel ; because " the Spirit it self beareth witness with our spuit, that we are the children of God," and because further " it is the Spuit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth." JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 435 For a moment, on that Sabbath day in Nazareth, while prejudice was asleep, and whde he was being Estened to Hi the synagogue, with aE eyes fastened upon bun, Jesus was probably for everybody a man of prophecy, and for some, perhaps, even the Messiah. But with being offended in him, his hearers had bim change in theu sight, to what apparently was worthy not only of excommunication, but even of death, ac cording to the law of the synagogue. Said Nicodemus to Jesus, "Babbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these muacles that thou doest, except God be with him." But notwithstanding these miracles, soon after wards this happened. Said Jesus, " He that is of God heareth God's words : ye therefore hear them not, be cause ye are not of God. Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not weE that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devE?" On the same facts such (Efferent judgments, because of such different judges ! And in a simdar manner, and to a great extent, Christ Jesus was even to his believers, what they were ready or qualified for cading him. And thence per haps he may have been apprehended variously by persons of different schools, rabbinically, and other wise, and according also as they may have had right of entrance into the temple, as converts, or as Hebrews of the Hebrews, or as priests. And indeed before the buth of Jesus, some of the various descriptions as to his office, were certainly phrases which were in use among the Jews, and were not improbably employed as synonymes, though of diverse origins scholasticady. 436 JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. And so in the first age of the Church, Jesus " was a prophet mighty in deed and word before aE the people " ; and also he was the angel of the covenant : he was the Son of man and the Son of God : he was the light of the world, and he was the Word made flesh : and he was the Saviour of the world, and also its Judge. He was " the Lamb slain from the founda tion of the world," and he was the " great high priest that is passed into the heavens," and also as Christ, he " through the eternal Spirit offered himseE without spot to God." And further it is as to Christ Jesus, that it is written in the epistle to the Hebrews, " After the simditude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal command ment, but after the power o"f an endless hfe." A grand statement this ! But yet at the time when it was made it must certainly have been much more readily intedigible by " a Hebrew of the Hebrews," or by one brought up at the feet of Gamabel, than by " devout Greeks." The sun is a thousand things for operation, as it rises, and so also was the sun of righteousness. Said Jesus as to John, " A prophet ! yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee." And that, by which Jesus Christ was the fulfilment of the various conceptions, which his contemporaries had of him, was that by which he could say of himself, " God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." The Spirit of God is equivalent to all miracles in one, just as it is the essential spirit of aE the de- JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 437 velopments or creations which have been since the time, when what was " without form and void " began to grow into the forms and powers of that nature, which surrounds and supports us. It is " the spirit of hfe," from insect to man, and more divinely stdl it is " the spuit of hfe in Christ Jesus," through a sense of which any man may become " a new creature." It is the spirit of the universe waiting on man, as far as what is universal and eternal can possibly express it seE through what is merely temporary and local, or as far as human nature is possibly susceptible of it. But here it may be said, " What then ? and how is it ? Human nature, at its best — dust of the earth, however divine the soul may be that wears it — hu man nature, how is it approachable by that Spuit ? For indeed credibdity is something and indeed it is a great matter." And so it is : and every seed is a pre sumption of there being somewhere a soil fitted for it ; and " every word of God " implies that properly some where there are " ears to hear." And whatever gift in any age has come " down from above," must certainly have reached man, through some channel of which his own nature was the receptiveness. A kind word can soothe a man mentaEy : and why then should not a man full of " the spirit of life," be able to attune fel low-creatures, bodEy, and heal them with a touch ? Some people have a wonderful sense as to character, and a singular instinct as to the spirit of their times-, and the significance and connections of events : and is it not conceivable that such persons, if quickened from above, would readEy grow prophetic ? Certain people have remarkable experiences as to dreaming ; and it 438 JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. would seem that by nature they may be Eke those persons who were susceptible of visions in Pentecostal times. This is certain and very striking, psychologi cally. At a time of great excitement, as to some high matter, social or reEgious, a thousand persons wdl sud denly feel themselves affected towards one another bke brethren, and as though pervaded and possessed by a common spirit. And by the transforming and elevat ing effects of this spirit, every man in the crowd wid feel as though he had become a new man. And so indeed he may be, for the moment, because of the affinity which he experiences as to ad the souls about him ; and through which he thrills to whatever is strongest spiritually, in the Eving crowd of which he is a member. And what is this, but a manEestation of some of those susceptibibties, on which as a prep aration, when the heavens are wilhng, the Spirit is poured out ? The body of man may be clay, but it is aEve with spiritual possibilities, because of the in- dweding soul. But Jesus was not accessible to the Spirit, simply as the prophets were. He was never convulsed, nor after his return from the desert, with his nature explored by his resistance of Satan, was he ever entranced. Nor for mood was he dependent on external assistance of any kind, as sometimes the prophets were. But through him, as a serene atmosphere, the Father that dwelt within him, did the works which were won dered at, and spoke the words. Jesus Christ was, on this earth, the Spirit of the Highest, in action among men, as condescendingly as when with that Spirit chaos was first agitated, and those JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 439 ways were started through which by development and concurrence, and by "word upon word" injected into nature, and with, at last, the breath of God for inspira tion, there was produced a bving soul in the image itseE of God. And the Father, who was in Jesus, was the Spirit. But also that presence was the Spirit, as it never was or could have been Hi any other person on this earth, because there never was another, who could have been caEed Son of God, as he was. And under the high heavens, it was because of the sonship of Jesus, that the Spirit in him was the Divine fatherhood. When Jesus visited his own country, it is written because of unbeHef about him, though he healed " a few sick folk," yet that " he could there do no mighty work." And therefore the Father in him, was not the abnightiness of the universe bearing down upon men for its own way as mere power, but was a spirit more tender than that even of the prophecy by Isaiah, wherein it is written, " Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord." Jesus slept, and no doubt it was that he might wake the better. And sometimes his soul was joyous, and sometimes sorrowful. And therefore the eternal Spirit was expressive through him humanly. And it is not therefore necessary to suppose that every word of his in tbe cottages of Nazareth, or in Decapolis, or on the Lake of Galilee, or in Jerusalem, were' his words as the Messiah ; for, between his baptism by the Spirit and his crucifixion, he must necessarily have uttered a thousand times more words than what his Messiahship could have been concerned with, and especiady as the 440 JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. Son of man "came eating and drinking," and as though in the fair fulness of human nature. The cry from the cross, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " argued probably in Jewish ears, not despair, but simply wonder, humanly, that he was not more distinctly conscious of the Spuit. And not improbably, by the state Hi which he was upon the cross, that cry was uttered from something like that same level in his nature, as that from which at the river Jordan, he said to John, as to his being baptized, " Suffer it to be so now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Such a consideration as the foregoing is to be enter tained by us human beings reverently and humbly, separated as we are from the first century of our era by so many days and nights, and so many varieties of thought and speculation. According to John Smith, an eminent theologian of the seventeenth century, it was in conformity with what had been the practice of the old prophets, when Jesus associated with him the apostles as eyewitnesses and hearers. And, no doubt, the gospels are records, like what were kept among the Jews, in all ages, of the utterances of persons, who were bebeved to have the Spuit. Of the ancient prophets, according to Jewish history, the utterances of some which were once in books are now lost. And of the Hfe of Jesus, of course, there was much of what was wonderful, which was never recorded, — " many other things which Jesus did." But as to the Spirit, for those who read by the Spuit, ten pages are almost as good as a thou sand. And if not " spiritually discerned," the world JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 441 itself fuE of books as to Christ, would not mean more than what the pages of the Four Gospels do. Said Jesus to the apostles, " Ye also shaE bear wit ness, because ye have been with me from the begin ning." And as what they might rely upon for assist ance, after his death, Jesus told them of " the Com forter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shad teach you ad things, and bring ad things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." The prophets spoke from the Spirit, in the respective dialects of their various times and circumstances. And it was in some similar way that Matthew and John are such different biographers. In writing the hfe of Jesus, Matthew evinces the faculty of the pubbcan, and the man of business and facts. And perhaps by no inspuation that was possible could some of the discourses of Jesus have ever been brought to his remembrance, as they were to the mind of John : because he could never, in hearing, have apprehended them, even momentarily, as John did. And of all the apostles, the " disciple whom Jesus loved " was evidently the one in whose mind, with the quickening of the Holy Ghost, the words and image of Jesus would most readily revive. The Gospel of John has latterly been regarded by some critics as less certainly authentic than its three companions. It is manEestly more spiritual than they are ; and it was therefore, no doubt, less popular than they were in the earlier ages of the Church; and therefore, also, it was not quoted by writers, as the other Gospels were. That the Gospel of John differs in tone from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, 19* 442 JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. and also in amplitude of remembrance is actuady evi dence as to its authenticity, when it is remembered who John the evangelist was ; for because of what he had been to Christ he was probably beyond ad the other apostles, receptive of the Spirit, which, as Jesus said to them, was to " bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." But there are persons who demur to this, and who say, " The Spirit ! That is a possibility. But how possibly could any man ever have been affected by it, and how did it operate upon him ? " But now how is the spirit immortal of a man connected with his mortal body : or how even does the wid of a lion strike with his paw ? Indeed, the universe may resound ever so loudly with that stream, which is the spirit of bfe, and there will be some, at times, who wid say, " I do not hear, be cause I do not know how I ought to." And there is many a philosopher, at the present day, who does not consider that perhaps he may be partiady insensate as to spirit, by wrong education ; and who is like some blind man under the Fads of Niagara, who should say, " It might be by the sound. And intedigent men, for a long whde, have fancied it so. But as I do not my self see that it is so, I wEl not believe Hi the roar, as being an effect of these incredible Falls. And what for the multitude is the apparent sense, must be ex plicable, philosophicaEy, in some other way." But there are people who are in a stiE worse condition, mentally, than that blind man under the FaEs. For they hold seriously that they ought not reaEy to believe in anything at aE, because they have never been ad mitted behind theu own eyes, .where they could watch JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 443 that mechanism of nature with its spiritual connections, through which external objects become thoughts in the mind. A man who is not to be contented in any other way, than by being not only himseE, but also a wit ness with his own eyes, apart from himself, is neces sarily in some way beside himseE. But enough as to this scepticism of the day ! For it is twenty-five hun dred years out of date as a novelty ; as is evident by these words in the prophecies of Isaiah, "Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou ? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth ? " And like the absurdity denounced through the prophet Isaiah, is the folly which demurs to the Spirit of God, simply as not being concurrent with such laws of nature, as have been ascertained at the present day, and as not apparently being willing to be classed and manipulated, Hke the laws of chemistry. The Old Testament and the New, and the Apocry pha also, in its degree, together with ecclesiastical memoirs of all ages, and along with them many a pas sage also in pagan literature, — these are the history of man, as the subject of the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost. And Christians differ from one another doc- trinally, not altogether because of more or less learn ing, or because of more or less inteEect, but because also as to the Spirit, some persons are more susceptible than others are, and some less. And this may be just simply as one man differs from another man, as to poetic sensitiveness, Nor in this statement is there anything of presumptuousness implied. For the ac tion of the Spirit is but one among many influences, by which character is formed, as is evident from the 444 JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. fact that Judas was one of the twelve. The Scriptures are like a labyrinth, which may be forced and broken through by seB-wril ; but the clew to them, and that by which alone there is any intelbgence as to the ways involved, is the Spirit, as a subject of behef. And in deed the Spirit of God may wed be credited as what made the rod of Aaron to bud and blossom, and as be ing also what, at its wid, might make a child of God display himself bke an archangel, and hold ad sur rounding nature bke a servant. The Spuit is everything as to power and adaptation and knowledge. By it coral insects budd their cells, and through it new worlds are being evolved. And the " Spirit of life in Christ Jesus " is that same Spirit which seraphs glory in, and which also so clothes " the grass of the field." And so now what is there in the Gospels, for which the Spirit cannot be credited, as it was embodied in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and spake in his words, and acted in his deeds ? " 0, but," it is said, " no evidence as to the Spirit can be strong enough to upset belief as to the invariableness of nature." And this is said in easy forgetfulness of the fact, that there must have been ten or twenty different systems of nature known to men, as they have fancied. But such indeed is the unspiritual state of the Christian Church in some places, that Doctors of Divinity might be taught things of primary impor tance by the paganism of Greece and even of Mada gascar. As to the miracles of Jesus, the age in which they occurred is an important witness for their credibility, though it is seldom remembered. Jesus appeared in JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 445 the world, announced and also welcomed by prophetic voices ; and his appearance was " when the fulness of the time was come." His era was "the day of the Lord." And while it was passing, spiritual agencies were unusually active in Palestine, at least ; and even the common air seemed to be a vague inspiration, as it was breathed. The age of Jesus Christ was what Micah had prophe sied for his people, and those in authority over them ; " The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation com eth ; now shad be their perplexity." It was the time which had been foretold by Malachi, four hundred years before, and which the people of Israel thought they would know by the token, which he gave. " Behold, I wdl send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." How that token as to Ebjah was given has already been stated But of the manner in which it was regard ed by the Jewish mind, this is evidence that the dis ciples said to Jesus, " Some say that thou art John the Baptist ; some, Ebas ; and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." And this incident is also of the same nature, that during the crucifixion, when Jesus uttered a cry which was not properly heard by some per sons, they said, " This man calleth for Elias." And all the whEe it had been as Jesus had said himseE, as to John the Baptist, and after his execution, " Ebas is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they Hsted. Likewise shaE also the Son of man suffer of them." 0, words so simple and so wonderful, and out through which spoke the Spuit of the Most High, and as to which, by comparison, the 446 JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel themselves are but those of minor prophets ! Ebas not recognized at his spiritual coming, — Jesus on his way to be crucified, — and Jerusalem with that fate becoming certain for it which Jesus Christ had pre dicted, — and all the while the Scribes and Pharisees tri umphant, — this all was because of the Spirit of God ; which, when it is active, attracts some and repudiates others, inspires a Messiah and his witnesses, and also makes still more distinct the temper, and ways of them that would kid the prophets, and stone them that are divinely sent. That special spirit-power, under which the Jews had been living ever since the caE of Abraham, was drawing in the first century of our era all the tendencies among them, open and latent, towards one point. And that point was Jesus of Nazareth, as connected with the Spirit. The question was asked, in one way and an other, of Jesus, " Art thou he that should come ? " And answer was made not only by Jesus personally, but also by the Spirit to which he appealed, and even also by " the signs of the times." Said Simeon, pro- pheticaEy, at the presentation of ' Jesus in the tem ple, " Behold, this chdd is set for the fad and rising again of many in Israel ; and for a sign, which shall be spoken against." And Jesus as the Christ, was the trial of his people ; and his day was that of their visr itation. Faithfulness to the Spirit, in the past, would have recognized him at once as the Christ. But the penal blindness of the people was such, that at the sight of Jerusalem, Jesus could but weep and say, " F thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 447 the things which belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from thme eyes. For the days shaE come upon thee that thine enemies shaE cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shaE lay thee even with the ground, and thy chddren within thee, and they shaE not leave in thee one stone upon another ; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." It was a " day of the Lord," and an age of prophecy. During the ministry of Christ, Vespasian was but an obscure youth in Italy ; but also he was fitting himself unconsciously, as an instrument for the hand of the Lord, — he under whom, as the emperor of Bome, Jeru salem was to be captured, and the temple destroyed. The eagles of the legions were scattered over the vast empire, but in Jerusalem, there was a spirit working bke destiny, which inevitably would draw the armies of Bome round the city, bke eagles about a carcass. Peter, James, and John in vision saw Moses and Ehas talking with Jesus, as they believed. And as a simple matter of history, it is certain that at that time aE the ancient warnings in the law, as to disobedi ence in regard to the Spirit, were immediately about to be made good, by the dispersion of the Israelites among aE nations ; and in a manner, as to the thorough ness of which, the last eighteen hundred years are sol emn witnesses. 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem! there was coming on thee, as Christ said to thee at the time, and as to thy people, " aE the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew be tween the temple and the altar." And the next words 448 JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. after these are of prophecy, and are very wonderful. They are the Spirit in judgment on its subjects. " Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation." And those things, as prophecies of trou ble, are to be found recorded in the Gospel of Matthew ; and as the actualities of history, they are to be read of in the Wars of the Jews, by Josephus. In a fud view of history, it is hardly possible to think otherwise, than that nations are subject to waves of rise and fall spiritually. But the age of Jesus was the outcome of nearly two thousand years of administra tion by the Spirit among the Jews, and in a way more special than any other people ever experienced. Those years, which were the last of the Jewish peo ple in Palestine, and which also were the first of our Christian era, — they were truly, as Malachi had fore told, " the great and dreadful day of the Lord " ; and yet also, at the very beginning, they were what Zacha rias could sing of, on the prompting of the Holy Ghost, saying, " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath visited . and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of his servant David ; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began." That wonderful season ! As the bke of it, there is nothing else to be conceived of, than the movement of the Spuit of God, for a new world, and the quickening of the elements, once, out of what was without form and void. It was a period in which "' unclean spirits " were un usually numerous ; and during which it felt almost as though " the rulers of the darkness" of this world " JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 449 might even loom upon the sight. It was an era in which often " the word of God " gleamed like " the sword of the Spirit." It was a time singularly charged with spirit. And when the marvellousness itself of that age is considered, miracles, as " signs of the times," would seem to have been almost as natural as fireflies are to the umbrageousness of a tropical climate. It is not in tbe scope of this essay, to argue the credibility of the miracles recorded in the Gospels, one by one, nor yet to join in the controversy as to the reasonableness of the miracle concerned with the withering of the fig-tree. Everything, which is to be learned about these miracles, circumstantiady and his torically, is easily accessible. The miracles of Christ, however, were not universady believed, in his own day ; nor were his miraculous words always understood. Said Jesus even as to great multitudes, "In them is fulfided the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shaE hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shad see, and shad not perceive." The mira cles of Jesus, not believed in his own time, as certainly they were not by the Sanhedrim ! How, then, can it be expected that they should be credible to-day ? Simply, because it is possible, that even to-day, there may be a better judgment as to those miracles, than even what the members of the Great Council could have formed For, at this day, we are living long after the events, and can see and estimate, and adow for the prejudices, by which the Pharisees and Sad ducees were bbnded. It may be said, that to-day, men may be prejudiced as to retrospect. And of course, that is true. But yet candor, at this present time is 450 JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. not Hable to a tenth part of the offuscation, to which a member of the Sanhedrim was subject by the mere act of entering the chamber of the CouncE In favor of the Messiahship of Jesus, that Councd itself is evidence now, by the manner in which it came to an end. And at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, every soldier round the city, in his place, was an unconscious witness for Jesus as a prophet. And at the destruction of the temple, because of what Christ had said, every stone, as it was thrown down, cried out as to " the name of the Lord." The miracles of Jesus were " signs of the times." And the times, as they seemed to be signified, were abundantly fulfilled. That " day of the Lord," that great era of the Spirit, how can it possibly be understood, without even a belief in the Spirit ? And it cannot be but that the commentary of many a famous divine, upon its oc currences, trying to reconcile them to one another and to reason as he thinks, must be what the angels con cerned therewith would utterly disown. And especiady, it is only as a man stands within the Hght of the Spirit, or as" he apprehends what may be called the science of the Spirit, that the evidence as to the resurrection of Jesus becomes fairly intelligible. Why did one man see, and another man not ; and why on one or two occasions, with seeing, was there not instant recognition ? Simply because it was seeing by the Spirit, and with eyes which were opened by it, in some persons more than in others. It was seeing Jesus by eyes adapted to a body which had become of that nature, that it could appear in a room, " when the JESUS AND THE SPIRIT. 451 doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews." The Scriptures are not fully and fairly inteEigible, when read according to the Analysis of tbe Human Mind by James Mid, or any other such phdosophy. For they presuppose a pneumatology, by which man is soul as weE as body ; and by which whde he is chained to the earth, he is yet also a nursling of the skies. JESUS AND THE EESUEEECTION. AS the Mosaic dispensation was drawing towards its close, more and more express became the minis tration of the Spirit through it. Moses had been a law giver, and David and Isaiah had been prophets ; and Gideon had been like the sword of the Lord, and Solo mon like a miracle of wisdom. But patriarchs and prophets, and ad the angels who had ever been con cerned with them, religiously, were but like servants, when compared with him to whom "God giveth not the Spirit by measure." For " when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him." To the foregoing does any one say, " Ancient Hebrew idiom ! " disdainfully ? And so perhaps it is. But what then ? Was there ever a philosophy which did not have its pecubar terms and phraseology ? Or is science, in the least degree discredited, because its nomenclature is foreign to the mind of a Kaffir ? And is craniology, or is the science of even dead bones, so simple, as that a person can read a treatise on oste ology with the same intelligence and words which suffice him perfectly as a merchant ? And history and science, in combination, as to the connection of man with God by the Spirit, ever since there was first a manifestation of the divine image on the earth, — is it JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 453 anything strange as to this, that it may perhaps need interpretation, in some degree, even as geology does, 01 astronomy ? How many men there are who grow spnituady blind* through self-sufficiency ! and with their flippant speeches, how many more persons there are who are perverted from the simplicity of truth ! No past age can ever be known as it was, except by a lamp bke what the Hght of that time was. And mere self-assertion on a subject Hke that of " the ful ness of the time" would be of the nature of blas phemy, except as desecration about a temple was never possible from mere chirping sparrows, because of their being ignorant. Does a man deny the resurrection of Jesus, as hav ing any pertinency for him, because of its involving considerations for which he has not the requisite learn ing, or for which he thinks that he has not time ? or because it claims to be something so very unbke to the tenor of his dady newspaper. Or does he demur to the New Testament as being of any special concern for him, because of its antiquity ? Then let him remem ber, tbat from this present hour to the first day of the first year of our Lord is a shorter space of time, than it was from the birth of Jesus Christ to the promise which was made to Abraham at his cad, " In thee shad ad famriies of the earth be blessed." By every drop of blood in his veins ; by every modi fication of every thought which he has ; and by every stripe of suffering, ever endured in the world, and through which, Hi any manner, boddy or spirituaEy, he is healed, man is a chdd of the past, throughout ad its generations. Men are historicaEy born, and are 454 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. bound historicady. And the more of a man that any individual may be, so much the more solemnly is he responsible as to the ages behind him, for what they may have to testify. Disown the past" simply as being ancient ! a man might as well disown God as not being his own little self ! Length of time, merely, does not separate human beings. After three thousand years, the Book of Buth is like a tale of yesterday. And yet at this very hour hate cannot possibly understand love, and is separated from it by what, as to space, may be caEed infinity. As to historical events, time is almost nothing ha comparison with distance by philosophy, or spuitual state. * The state of mind being changed in which docu ments are read, it is as though the documents them selves had been written afresh ; and then what had seemed to be discrepancies according to a materiabstic understanding, when read according to a spuitual phEosophy may become parts which even corroborate one another. How strangely and often figures of speech have be come disfigurements of facts ! And how often, also, an earnest man has been reduced to mere rationalism in theology, because of the manner in which "the things of the Spuit " have been argued, as though they were material monuments, and properly the subjects of arithmetic, geometry, and mere logic ! The age of Jesus Christ, — that day of the Lord was not exactly Hke yesterday, though yet to-day there are means by which, criticady and historically, it is to be known of as it was. The resurrection of Jesus JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 455 is not a mere incident in history, because it is in finitely connected. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shad aE be made alive." That " new sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid " was about to be the birthplace, as to manifestation, of " the Lord from heaven." And that same place, when left vacant by the resurrection of Jesus, was about to become the cenotaph of mere Judaism. When Jesus was transfigured on the mount, it was because of the Spirit ; and through tbe Spirit it was that the apostles saw him, and Moses and Elias with him. And it was because of the Spuit, that there was " heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." A voice from heaven had just borne him witness ; when Jesus said to his hearers, " And I, E I be lifted up from the earth, wEl draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die." 0 wonderful age and day of the Lord ! A day which in vision Abraham had desired to see, and also had seen ! And yet, too, it was a day as to which, fourteen hun dred years later than Abraham, it was doubtful, pro phetically, how people would be able to endure it on its coming ! And what a time, indeed, that time was ! And indeed otherwise than wonderful how could that age have been, wherein he was living through whose death the human race was t» be born again . " Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him : and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead ; and of some, that EHas had appeared ; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. And Herod 456 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. said, John have I beheaded; but who is this, of whom I hear such things ? " Herod was a Sadducee, prob ably, and yet .with his ears a bttle open for hearing. Astonishing times they were ! as, indeed, well they might have been, whde destiny as to Jerusalem was making itself sure ; and whde the prophets seemed to be calling out aloud and afresh their old predictions-, and while those events were occurring, of which the four gospels were to be the long-enduring records. The promise to Abraham was about being fulfilled; and what anciently was but a germ of destiny, was about to become fud-orbed, and to rise upon the na tions, spiritually, as the sun of righteousness with healing in its wings. A wonderful age it was ; for it was the greatest age, as to crisis in history, which has ever been. It was an age as to the fuE manEestation of which imperial Bome was but a servant for making ready highways for its great news ; or, at best, but an unquestionable, though unconscious, witness as to the keeping of the sepulchre, in and from out of which Jesus rose again. Plato and iEschylus, and also Aris totle, — what has their worth been, in comparison with the language which they used, and through which Greece was but Hke an intelligent secretary, for help ing apostles and others to pubHsh their histories, epistles, and visions, Hi the best manner possible, for the best intedects of the age ! It was under heaven, and on the earth, " the fulness of the time," more completely than Paul himself, per haps, ever thought, and in ways of which it is con ceivable, that hereafter science will have much to say as to the conditions which concurred, teEuric, mag- JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 457 netic, and celestial, and also as to something psycho- logicaEy, by which human nature may itseE have been ripened for fresh conditions of growth. Let the wisdom of Egypt have been all which can possibly be claimed for it ; and let the wise men of the East have been in formed ever so mysteriously ; yet, as a fact, historically, .was not there once famdiarly named in the cottages of Gablee, and current in the streets of Jerusalem, a name which has proved itseE, up to this trine, to have been above every other name ? And therefore that age may weE be credited for having been what Paul claimed for it as " the dispensation of the fulness of tune," and thereby also, under Heaven, as the con centration of aE those forces, by which human beings Hve and move and are Hfted up. When Jesus cried out, " 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem ! thou that krilest the prophets ! " he was at a point, both as to time and place, where the general effect of Jewish history was becoming manifest, as to the law which was given by Moses ; and as to the long rebel- bousness, which was punished by the captivity in Babylon ; as to what Samuel and Saul had been in regard to one another; and as to what David had sung, and what so very differently he had sometimes done ; also as to Solomon so wise and so foolish ; and as to the time in which Ahab and Ebjah knew of one another ; and as t6 the ages respectively of the proph ets from Isaiah to Malachi The world was at the beginning of a new era, which was to date from Jesus of Nazareth, as he was popu larly caEed, but yet " the world knew him not." For indeed, at that time, it was a crisis of that nature, and 20 458 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. so great, as that what is Eght to one is darkness to a thousand. And, indeed, otherwise than from that rea son how could there have been " kdled the Prince of life " ? And, indeed, that Prince himself said as to the people of his time, " If therefore the hght that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness ! " When heaven draws nigh to earth, it is with a light, which is bbnding darkness for some persons, while yet for others it is like what angels might emerge from. Heaven draws nigh to earth for quickening. And with quickening they are the latent faculties of men which specially are made remarkable. And it is with remembering that the spiritual atmosphere at the be ginning of our era would seem to have been inten sified, that many of its incidents become intelligible, such as the revival of prophecy, and the incursion of unclean spirits. A day of the Lord is a time in which men spiritually are under pressure, for the better if they are good, and for the worse if they are bad. And such a time was that wherein were included the Hfe, crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And even as it was as to Jesus Christ, that on being " put to death in the flesh " he was " quickened by the Spirit," so also there were those as witnesses who were raised as to their latent spiritual faculties, and which were those by which they saw and heard him ; and so, also, there were others more numerous stid than they, who felt, spiritually, as to Jesus and death that "it was not possible that he should be holden of it." The resurrection of Jesus was the manifestation of a JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 459 crisis as to mankind, under heaven ; and it is not to be understood, at aE, apart from time and place and a be Eef in the Spirit. • In regard to the resurrection of Jesus, many of the objections as to beEef in it originate in such a state of mind as what would say this, "Anatomists and chemists standing round, let a dead body, on a table, get up and talk, and then perhaps men wiE beHeve." And the brothers of the people who talk thus would say, " Seeing is bebeving ; and as we did not see, we do not bebeve." But what is Supreme in the Universe would seem to be careless of human pettiness, even at its grandest ; and sometimes even it would seem to have " chosen the foobsh things of the world to con found the wise." The resurrection of Jesus was the greatest fact of a great age, and it was the culmination of the greatest earthly crisis under heaven, and as to the significance of which, not Jerusalem only, but Egypt and Assyria, and Greece and Bome, and ad time, also, by the way of prophecy, were concurrent. In the Gospel of Matthew, it is written, as to Pilate, whde Jesus was on his trial before him, that " when he was set down on the judgment-seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man : for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him." A sign of the times this was, and as to what the atmosphere was, spiritually. Pi late's wife had this experience. And so strange it is, that it has been so bttle noticed. The prediction of his Lord as to Peter, that he would deny him thrice in one short night, is accounted as having been wonder- 460 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. ful because of the manner of its fulfilment ; and surely so it was. But this dream of Pilate's wife is evidence as to what the state was of what may be called the atmosphere, spiritually, in Jerusalem, at that time. And of bke proof is the opinion of Caiaphas as to the expediency of kilbng Jesus, which " spake he not of himseE ; but, being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation." As to the picture of the crucifixion which the gos pels give, how many wonderful lines there are, which could never have been drawn except from life ! And also they are bnes which are self-sufficient, as to evi dence, for a critical understanding ! For a man with " ears to hear " that incident is as true as truth itself, as to what the thieves said to one another as they hung on their separate crosses, and as to what Jesus replied to one of them. Such words, at such a time, and from such lips ! " And Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." This paradise was certainly not heaven, because even after his resurrection Jesus said to Mary, " Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." The state into which Jesus passed after his death as a mortal was that apparently wherein, on his entrance, he " preached unto the spirits in prison." That place or state, therefore, of paradise was probably one of hope fulness. And on this understanding, these words of Jesus to the penitent thief are intelEgible and also in finitely tender. As to the time during which Jesus was dyHag on the cross, it is written, " Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over aE the land unto the ninth hour." JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 461 And by another evangebst, it is said that " the sun was darkened." According to the use of language, it is not necessary to suppose that there was an eclipse of the sun, either natural or supernatural. Nor yet fairly ought the historian to be considered as being held by his words to mean anything more than a preter natural darkness in perhaps the region round Jerusa lem. As to whether that darkness was noticed in Bome, or experienced by Caractacus in Britain, is simply a superfluous question. It has been sometimes supposed that this darkness was an effect in nature occasioned by her conscious sympathy with the sight of the crucifixion. But that, of course, is mere sentimentabsm. There are some illustrations which might be adduced on this subject, which would be abundantly credible to some persons, but which yet cannot be pleaded here without an ar gument, which would be a book in itself. That darkness was probably not a special but an accompanying miracle. It was simply an incident in connection with the death of Jesus ; and what was miraculous in it was because of that miracle of or ganization which Jesus Christ himself was. And prob ably that strange darkness round Golgotha was because of the greatness of that soul, which mortally was con nected with nature, and which by that connection was in agony. With every breath which any man draws, the au about him is changed and impoverished. Nor is man connected with the air, merely as concerns oxy gen and nitrogen, but by electricity and magnetism, and also, probably, by other ways which are unknown, And so it is readily conceivable, that in some manner 462 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. the forces of nature may have been unbalanced and darkened, whdst the soul of Jesus Christ was being loosened from connection with them. And as to this supposition, there are some things analogous, histor icady and psychologically, of which some great minds have been well persuaded. The thought of there being any possible connection between a tempest and an earthquake was once ac counted superstitious, but at present it is scientific. That by pestilence, there could be an obscuration of the atmosphere, was once supposed to be merely a fancy, but now it is an ascertained fact. And like what im mediately precedes, let also what fodows be mentioned for what it may be worth. Several times in history, as to men who had been Eke the right arm of direc tion for theu times, it is recorded that on dying, the atmosphere about them seemed to signify itself by darkness or by tempest. And now let it be remem bered that by a spiritual phEosophy, which is not bkely to become extinct, Christ Jesus Avas the " one mediator between God and men." And then the darkening, which there was round about, at the tune of his crucifixion, wiE not seem so strange as neces sarily to be incredible ; nor yet so anomalous but that even science may be expected some time to demonstrate the manner of it. "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bot tom." In the temple there were two veEs ; but the one which was speciaEy " the veE " must have been the second veE, behind which was "the tabernacle JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 463 which is caded the Hobest of aE ; which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant ; and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy-seat." These things were memorials of the past, as to the Spirit. And they were also signs of what the Jewish people had been to God, as " a pecubar people." And the tearing of the ved before them was emblematic that thenceforth " the things of the Spirit :: were open to aE persons, who should anywhere ever be quickened by the Spirit. And it was the work, perhaps, of " the angel of the covenant." And it was done, probably, as a prepara tion of the minds of men against the day of Pentecost, and what ensued upon it. By the same evangelist who has just been quoted, it is said, in continuation, that " the earth Ed quake and the rocks rent." This probably happened in the same way as at the resurrection. "And the graves were opened ; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resur rection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." Not graves, but monumental tombs, are what the evangebst himseE mentions. And the bodies which appeared unto many certainly were not resuscitated flesh and bones. That could never have been, concurrently, at least, with the doctrine of St. Paul. " But some man wdl say, How are the dead raised up ? and with what body do they come ? "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die." And then, in continuation of his argument, 464 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. the apostle explains that "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." The world of nature on that morning, at Jerusalem, was powerfully inter penetrated by spirit, and so was very pEant, perhaps, to angehc agency. And it may be that angels opened the tombs of some weE-known saints, in celebration of Christ's victory over death ; and it may be, also, that the saints themselves were present at the time, because of there having been a door opened from Hades, by which for Christ to return into his natural body, in this world of nature, on his way to " the right hand of the Majesty on high." And these bodies of the saints, or these saints as spiritual bodies, were visible to many, but not to everybody. They were seen by those persons whose spiritual " eyes were opened," through that power of the Spirit which was abroad, and by which the time was characterized. When the chief priests and Pharisees appbed to Pilate, as the Eoman governor, to have a guard set over the sepulchre, they said it was because " Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet abve, After three days I will rise again." That proph ecy was from the Spirit, just as afterwards the resur rection itseE was. Peter argued that the resurrection of Jesus had been foretold by David in a psalm, which is called prophetic ; and Peter, probably, had a much better knowledge of the Spirit, and its manner of utter ing itself, than is possible at this dark, materialistic day. And, no doubt, that Spirit which was the res urrection of Jesus did flash with forethought of it, in the minds of some of the prophets. Bectified as to translation, these are the words which were cited by JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 465 Peter from David : " For thou wdt not leave my soul in Hades : neither wdt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." The soul of Jesus was not to be left in the common world of spirits, the intermediate world, or waiting-place of spuits, though it was indeed to enter it, as certainly it did, when Jesus proceeded to preach to " the spirits in prison." Nor was the body of Jesus to see corruption. And it would seem like some security for the exact fulfilment of the prophecy, that for those hours during which the body was in the tomb it was partiady embalmed. "Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in bnen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden ; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus." Moses and EHas had talked with Jesus, as to " his decease which he should accompbsh at Jerusalem"; and not improbably they may have been present at the entombment of his mangled body, though invisibly; and it may be, too, that in Hades, somewhere, they may have heard Christ's announcement of himself to spuits in prison. It was dark in the tomb, with its door shut and sealed ; but suddenly and soon there was going to be " Hght from heaven, above the brightness of the sun," Hke the splendor, with which Paul, at his conversion, saw the risen Jesus invested. At the resurrection of Jesus, " behold, there was a great earthquake ; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like 20* DD 466 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. lightning, and his raiment white as snow : and for fear of him, the keepers did shake, and became as dead men." It is not necessary to suppose that that earth quake was what might have been felt on the heights of Capernaum ; for, no doubt, it was of the same local character, and from the same spiritual cause as when a little later " suddenly there came a sound from heav en as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting." It was an earthquake from spiritual power present, bke what there was when " at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God ; and the prisoners heard them. And sud denly there was a great earthquake, so that the foun dations of the prison were shaken ; and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed." Earth hangs on heaven by chains which grow so fine that they are what seraphs can handle, as they stand about the throne of God. And when angels ap proach material objects, it is with a touch more subtle and mighty than that of electricity. An angel with a countenance like lightning might weE shake the earth by the sole of his foot. And because of such an one, at the door of the sepulchre, " the keepers did shake and became as dead men." And they were affected just as the companions of Paul were, at the time of his conversion ; and they again were affected as those men .were who were with Daniel when there was about him that power which disclosed itself in a vis ion, and on whom " a great quaking fed." Behind the letter of the Scriptures, on these points, bes a broad field of what once was knowledge, but which now is a fog of materiaHsm, for almost every JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 467 reader. Peter the Apostle, had looked into the empty sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection, and af terwards had seen Jesus again and again, and talked with him ; and what he wrote as to Jesus, about twenty-five years later than his last sight of his Mas ter, is that he was " put to death Ha the flesh, but quickened by the Spuit." But was that crucified body quickened ? No ; not altogether perhaps. Though there may probably have been a quickening, by which the mortal remains of Jesus may have been affected, on his recall from Hades. But was the heart that had been pierced healed again nriraculously ? Probably it was not. The body of Jesus, as it lay in the tomb, was not the body of an ordinary man. Says St. Paul, " All flesh is not the. same flesh," and that temple of the Holy Ghost which was the body of Jesus had proba bly been sublimed in such a manner as that on his return from the world of spirits into this realm of na ture, his body, on its assumption, became but like that thin robe which justly avaried for keeping him awhile within the sight of his disciples. In the Book of Ecclesiasticus, it is said of Elisha, that " after his death his body prophesied," or was an outlet for spiritual" power. A few months after the burial of EHsha there was war with the Moabites, " and it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, be hold, they spied a band of men ; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Ebsha : and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Ebsha, he re vived and stood upon his feet." Perhaps the body of Ebsha, at the tune of his death, was haE ready for 468 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. bebag translated, and it may be that after the body was dead there lingered in it something of that vitalized magnetism which, by its strength, may have been one of the conditions of that spiritual receptiveness, through which, at the wiE of the Lord, he was a prophet. It is certain that there is a chemistry as to the con nection between the soul and the body ; and it is attested by a thousand wonderful facts, although so little is known, as yet, as to its laws. Early in the Book of Genesis it is to be read, " And Enoch walked with God : and he was not ; for God took him." According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, the translation of Enoch was connected with his faith. It is conceivable with his long Hfe and walk with God, that the body of Enoch may have become so ethereal- ized, as that his soul, on its passage from earth to heaven, may simply have parted from what dropped, in a moment, into a handful of common dust. And Ha some manner Hke this, probably, did the -soul of EHjah clear itseE of nature. For, certainly, it could not have been with an ordinary body that EHjah entered a chariot of fire, and went up to heaven in a whnl- wind. And, no doubt, by some such path as that by which he vanished, Elijah was present at the trans figuration of Christ. But along with Elias, also, Moses " appeared in glory." And it is noticeable that, as to the mortal end of Moses, or what went with his body, there was a mystery. " So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him Hi a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor ; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 469 On the morning of the resurrection, probably, the soul of Jesus entered his dead body, and then shook from itself the sublimated dust. And so Jesus re tained about him only as much earthiness as would hold his wounds, and enable him to satisfy people as to his personal actuabty and his identity. At the door of the sepulchre, whde angels in white were inside of it, suddenly Jesus was recognized by Mary, as he stood near her. " Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." And yet only eight days later " saith he to Thomas, Beach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side : and be not faithless, but bebeving." These two incidents are worthy of notice, as being bkely, some time, to suggest something as to the chem istry of the spuitual body. The body which Thomas touched was that of Jesus whde he was standing withinside of our earthly sphere ; and perhaps it may have been capable of being hard ened at wdl But also it was the same body Ha winch afterwards Jesus " ascended up far above aE heavens." By his resurrection, Jesus was not merely an appari tion, or a spirit ; for he was thereby clothed with another nature than what a phantom wears. Said Jesus to the disciples, when they were frightened at his appearance among them, on the first evening after his resurrection : " Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself : handle me and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." And yet with that body he could appear suddenly in a room, the doors being shut. 470 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. On the morning of the resurrection, Jesus was not to be touched, as not having yet ascended to his Father ; but within a few hours afterwards he was even to be handled. And thus, certainly, he had ex perienced some change further than that in the sepul chre, by the marvel of which he stood alive, and within the sight and hearing of Mary Magdalene. And some further change stiE than that would seem to have been experienced by him, when, after his last mterview with his apostles, and his last words to them, on Obvet, " he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight." For, after this event, he was seen by Paul twice, at least ; but not under the same con ditions as before. For to Paul he was visible only through the Spirit, and Hi vision. And so, also, it was that he was visible to Stephen. When Stephen was put on his trial, " aE that sat in the council, look ing steadfastly on him, saw his face, as it had been the face of an angel." And, after his argument as to Christ, when his judges gnashed on him with theu teeth, " he, being fuE of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." 0 wondrous fact, about which the more there is which is learned, the more certain and wonderful wdl it be come ! 0, those triumphant words of Paul to Timo thy, as to " the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought Efe and immortabty to hght through the good news " ! What, then, was the resurrection ? It was the pas sage of Jesus from the world of spirits into heaven, through the realm of nature, and especiady by the JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 471 way of his mortal body. " 0 death, where is thy sting ? O Hades, where is thy victory ? " But now there are persons who will say, " Why then did Jesus not walk into the judgment-hall, and speak to Caiaphas ; and why did he not show himself in the market-place ; and why did he not mount the steps of the altar, to the utter confusion of every enemy ? " But why then does God not confute his blasphemers with thunder and lightning, every day ? and why, un der high heaven, are not the highest truths as to morals and phEosophy borne in irresistibly upon aE minds ahke ? And perhaps also Jesus would not have been able, and could not even have wished, to show himseE to Caiaphas. Also affairs which involve the higher laws of the Spirit are not to be summoned for examination into the market-place. It is a precept which has wide and deep reasons behind it, spirituaEy, " Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine." And tbe reasons even why Peter saw Jesus Christ, and those for which Caiaphas and PEate did not see him, would be found, when spnitu- aEy considered, to corroborate one another. It is a general truth, " Draw nigh to God and he wiE draw nigh to you." And perhaps something psychologically being aEowed for, only those who recognized Jesus as the Christ, or seeing him in his humiliation, were capable of being quickened, so as to see him, on his way through the earth to his glory. As to the universe, Jesus, after his resurrection, was in a region intermediate between this world and the next, or rather he was in a state by which he was free of both worlds. He appeared among his friends sud- 472 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. denly, by some unearthly way, and then as suddenly he was gone. As affecting his visibdity, there were two conditions, of which one was what may be caded the fine earthiness, which he stiE held about him like a veil ; and^ the other was the Spirit, and through the Spirit some persons were quickened as to theu eyes and ears spirituaEy, so as that they not only saw and heard Jesus, but even also angels attendant on him. The body of Jesus after the resurrection was the same body as before in the eye of an angel, perhaps, although it had ceased to be recognized by the law of gravitation, and perhaps might have stood before Pilate, and never have been seen. Essentiady and germinady, the body which was taken up into heaven was the same body which was crucified on the cross, and the same body which the chdd Jesus had when he " in creased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." In a grain of wheat, not as a possibibty merely, but as an organized fact, there is latent " first the blade, then the ear, after that the fud corn in the ear," not visibly to a human eye, but very curiously so, perhaps, to an angel by what may be called the spirit of science. From the cross to the sepulchre, there was carried the crucified body of Jesus ; and a seal was set on the door against it, and a Boman guard. And that body as it was laid down in the grave-clothes was never seen again. Jesus as he was seen outside of the sepulchre, talk ing with one and another and walking, and visible also to aE the apostles together, and to five hundred per sons at once, and to Paul also once and again, in vision, — Jesus crucified, dead, buried, and risen, is the original JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 473 of that apostle's doctrine as to the resurrection, " It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." And why ? Why at aE should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead, and do so at that time especiaEy ? 0 fulness of the time ! O ex tremity of human want, when the whole creation was groaning and travaihng in pain together ! 0 the ear nestness of that expectation which everywhere was waiting in the truest souls, for the manifestation of the sons of God ! And age after age, how many had prayed these words, in the faith of something great, " Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him ? or the son of man, that thou makest account of him ? Man is Hke to vanity : his days are as a shadow that passeth away. Bow thy heavens, 0 Lord, and come down : touch the mountains, and they shaE smoke." And towards that new tomb which was hewn out of the rock, truly the heavens were bowed down, in what was "the fulness of the time." And at that sepulchre, when radiant angels emerged withinside of it, it was because the way had been opened for them, from above, by the Spirit. The strength by which " was roded back the stone from the door," the earth quake, and the quaking of the keepers simply were signs of there being present " power from on high." Humanly speaking, the Father Everlasting was about to raise his Son from the dead, and to show him openly. But as under high heaven, the prophecies of the Spuit as to Jesus were then about to be made good, by the Spirit itself. The wrath of a nation had hurried on to a point, whence the highest praise as to 474 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. God was to begin. And the words of Peter are exact when he writes of Christ as having been "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spuit." But when Christ " ascended up on high," where did he go ? For the firmament, scientificady, now is nowhere. Where then was it, that Christ Jesus went ? " He was received up into heaven," just as it is writ ten. But heaven has nothing to do with anyrfirma- ment, whether phenomenal or real. And it is to be looked for, only in such a direction as that by which Christ with ascending " took captivity captive." Jesus said to Nicodemus, " If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shad ye bebeve E I teE you of heavenly things ? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven." Now, what does this mean, but that Jesus, as to his spirit and spuitual connections, was Hi heaven, whde yet with his bodily tongue he was talking with Nicodemus in Jerusalem ? And there is nobody open to the Spirit but can feel how this may be. Because, with myself, it is certain that my highest mood, spiritually, differs from my badness far more than any change which could happen- for me, by the widest locomotion, or even by the death of my body. But it is said, " 0, but heaven and earth are so different ! For, as to our earthly lives, there are fixed points, by which to think ; but as to heaven, who knows about it, any way, except by faith ? " Now, that faith which is not an increment, spirituaEy of knowl edge, is as worthless, as ignorance itseE. And this is true even as to the resurrection of Jesus. Faith is spiritual bebeving. It is the persuasion of a man as JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 475 to things beyond his reach inteEectuaEy, because of what he is himseE, or of what he knows, or otherwise feels. And this statement agrees with faith, as being possible, even as a gift of the Spirit. For the Spirit reaches persons only as they are open to it. The wicked Ahab could never have become St. Paul. But Saul the persecutor was in a ripe state of knowl edge, theologicady, when he was converted in a mo ment by a voice from heaven. And, no doubt, " the pricks " against which Paul was finding it hard to kick were the misgivings which he was having, as to its being possible, for many reasons, that Jesus of Naz areth might reaEy be the Messiah, and the fulfilment of prophecy, and" the desire of all nations." And so, in a moment almost, he became another man than he had been, with hearing a voice from out of a blinding glory say, " I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou per secutest." And thenceforth with bim, every age in the past, up to Abraham, was a witness for Christ, as also was the temple, and the veil of the temple too, and the order as to sacrifices, and the law as to clean and unclean, and the angel of the covenant, and every other angel that ever stooped on this earth for a visit. And on hearing the Master speaking from above, and from out of glory, at once Paul began to experience that change, a Hebrew of the Hebrews though he was, through which it seemed to him, with all the nations of the earth in fuE view, that "the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." Definite departments, those of nature and spuit as to man ! For some purposes, at least, it is certain that 476 JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. the flowering of nature is what spirit begins from. And it is true, no doubt, as to the resurrection of Jesus, that even natural science, as an unbeliever, has got to yield its testimony, when the time shad have come. And that tune wdl be when some per son shad be wise with the wisdom of this present age, and chddlike as towards the Spuit of the Universe, and God over ad. Notoriously, this earth hangs upon the sun ; and should it then be an improbable tiring, that there may be a " sun of righteousness " in the light of which, and dependent on which, for their best, our souls may have their being? Those planets, which are of the sisterhood of our earth, as to the' sun, affect one another in theu orbits ; and is it then a thmg too foreign for thought that, spirituady, we human be ings may be rightly influenced as to our Eves, by what, as to origin, is " far above ad principahty and power " ? Every atom in this earth of ours, and in every human body, is sensitive as to the course of a comet; and should it then ready be inconceivable that, with the Father of lights, there may be thoughts as to man, which may have theu earthly expression at such tunes as those wherein, historicady, and so cially, and spiritually, mankind is as though it were reaching up towards heaven, in bbnd entreaty, at a great crisis ? And is it, then, anything incredible ? is it even a thing improbable ? and is it not actuaEy, as to heaven and earth, and as to aE history, and as to science also, at its surest, a probabibty, which is al most hke certainty itself, that the condescension of the Highest, as to human need at its uttermost, should have eventuated in Jesus and the resurrection ? JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION. 477 Soul and body is what we human beings are. And bodriy, there is nothing wonderful, which can be dis covered for us, as to our connection with the sun or the moon or the stars, or with those laws of nature which concern this earth especiaEy ; but tenfold more than that, and a hundred-fold, we ought to be ready to bebeve as to our poor souls, struggling upwards out of sin and spuitual darkness. And, mdeed, as countless almost as the rays of the sun which are caEed Eght, must be the connections which there are between heaven and earth, spiritually, because of God, " of whom the whole famdy in heaven and earth is named." And now as to this earth, and ad earthiness, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." THE CHUECH AND THE SPIRIT. THE resurrection of Jesus, or his quickening as to the body, was not a disconnected fact. It had been ordained from before Abraham ; and spiritually, it had been intimated during many ages ; and expressly it had been foretold in the utterances of Jesus himself. And it was the consummation of Judaism, as to its purpose, that, in connection with it, Christ should have been "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." On that evening of the first day, when Jesus suddenly appeared among the eleven, after his resur rection, he must have said much as to the Scriptures, which is quite outside of our abibty even to conjec ture about, for want of spiritual understanding. But to those eleven astonished apostles Jesus said, " These are the words which I spake unto you, whde I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scrip tures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached Hi his name among ad nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things." And afterwards Jesus said, " Behold, I THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 479 send the promise of my Father upon you : but tarry ye Ha the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." That promise of the Father, which was revealed to the world through the consciousness of Jesus Christ ; that prophesying of the Spuit, as to its course, and which indeed is characteristic of it, was what was verified, at the day of Pentecost. But not to Jesus only had that wonderful event been foreshown, for also as to its certainty there had been indications from the Spirit, through the prophets, from long ages before. And so it was that Peter said to an assemblage of the Jews on the day of Pentecost, " Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." And his particular citation as to proph ecy is, " that which was spoken by the ,prophet Joel ; and it shad come to pass in the last days, saith God, I wid pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh : and your sons and your daughters shaE prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams ; and on my servants and on my handmaidens I wid pour out Hi those days of my Spirit ; and they shall prophesy." And of this prophecy thus cited by St. Peter, the grandest instances are the Apostle to the Gentries, and Ananias by whom he was cured of his blindness, and Peter himseE along with Cornelius, that centurion of the ItaHan band. And indeed, it was through these four men, and what they experienced in vision, or during entrancement by the Spirit, that the Gospel got itself extended as an offer to the Gentiles, and to people everywhere, who were neither Pharisees nor 480 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. Sadducees, nor even Galileans. Beligiously, and stdl more ecclesiastically, this is what has never perhaps been sufficiently considered. And for persons of competent understanding, it would seem to imply what might be the death of theological dogmatism. Paul was journeying to Damascus, with letters from the high-priest, for persecuting the disciples of Jesus, when " suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? And he said, Who art thou, Lord ? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest : it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wEt thou have me to do ? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." And at Damascus there was a man caEed Ananias, and in a vision, just as Paid had heard the Lord, he also heard him directing him as to Paul, and where he was to be found, and saying, " Go thy way : for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I wid show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias, went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on. him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be friled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fed from his eyes as it had been scales ; and he received sight forth with, and arose, and was baptized." Simultaneously with the events just narrated, would THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 481 seem to have been the experiences of Paul and Cor nelius. In Caesarea, Cornebus was an- officer in a Boman legion ; but yet he was a Gentile believer in the God of Abraham ; and he had a vision, in which an angel directed him to send to Peter, and told him also of the town and the house where the Apostle was to be found. And on this angelic impulse, three Ipersons were sent with a message from a quarter, which, for a Jew, was unclean. How, then, was it possibly to be received by Peter ? But to Peter also, against the arrival of the messengers, there was a vision vouchsafed, wherein he saw what was curiously significant; and wherein also thrice it was said, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." 0 wonderful history of that time when, through the Spirit, heaven was so close to this earth ! For when Peter and Cornebus met, the Jews in the company were astonished, "because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gEt of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God." What is time on this earth, except as man is con cerned with it? And so it was wed because of the coming of Christ, that time as to men should have be gun to count the years afresh. " Power from on high," was the promise of Christ as to this earth, as he left it, by rising. And when it arrived it was power, adapted as to man, by the fatherhood of God. For, indeed, it was power of the same origin as that, with the move ment of which, a world without form and void began to take shape, and grow, and bring forth, and become this surrounding nature. But it is said, " 0, angels and visions are so different from stages of develop- 21 EE 482 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. ment, or from the path of nature, as she feels her way upwards ! " Is man then properly to be catalogued along with the whale or the elephant ? Also if ever we men are to be spirits, why should we not be spirit ually met to-day ? And not the Gospel only, nor yet along with it, the philosophy also of history, but even material science itself, by the way of analogy, would demand of men, a state of expectancy as to the Highest, and as to " power from on high." And as mediator between God and mankind, and as foretold by prophets, and as trusted in to-day, what is Jesus Christ, but an advance in the human race, a later Adam, who was made " a quickening spirit " ? In spiritual darkness, what bewilderment there has been as to the day of Pentecost ! And as to that day, very strangely, some time, on reading, will many things seem, which have been written by persons zealous as to the letter of the Scripture, and by others, also, who have thought as to human nature, that the limitation as to experience, of any man, anywhere and in any age, should be accounted as the exact measure of human susceptibibty, as to the Sun of righteousness, during aE time. For that outpouring of the Spirit was sim ply the quickening of men as to their immortal facul ties and connections, and as to some ways, which are latent mostly, by which human beings are " members one of another," whether in the flesh, or out of it. And that " manifestation of the Spirit " was " power from on high " reaching earth, through the " one Mediator be tween God and men, the man Christ Jesus." But say some persons, "How was that, and how possibly could it have been ? 0 that we could heart- THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 483 ily think it ! " And is this present a day for such a difficulty as that ? In a few years, it wiE be possible for any common man to send his word round the earth in a moment almost, and even almost to converse sbnultaneously with all the chief cities of the world. Surely, for a person of ordinary intelligence, a tele graph-office ought to be a humble but sufficient hint as to the manner in which, through the Spirit, ad souls, everywhere, be open to God and lis angels. Under high heaven, everywhere, there is the Spirit of God ; but rocks and graven images are not as sus ceptible of it as human beings ; nor yet is a cannibal open to it, Ha the same degree, as an ascetic. And what Christianity means is that a man bving in the spirit of Jesus Christ, on this earth may hope and be sure, that Ha some way his soul wiE be reached by " the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost." And the book of Acts, as the history of the Spirit, in its connection with the first age of the Christian Church, is what any man may trust to, as manifesting the condescension and love with which he himself is regarded as he goes to church as a Christian, or codects himself for medi tation in his closet. At the conversion of the Apostle to the Gentiles, I myseE was contemplated in the foreknowledge of God, as much as Saul, " a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city." And it was by the same way as that by which the promise looked when it said, as to Abraham, " In thee shall aE famdies of the earth be blessed." And tbe vision, which Peter had on the seaside, at Joppa, was vouchsafed for me, just as certainly as it was in favor of a Bpman centurion, 484 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. at Caesarea. And at Athens, on the hid of Mars, when Paul addressed the philosophers, Epicureans, and Stoics, as to God and the resurrection, I myself was preached unto, by the Spirit. Indeed, every miracle which is recorded in the book of Acts is connected with that Gospel, which is the life of my life, and which has been like a light shining in darkness, these many hundreds of years. And just as being of faith, I am " blessed with faithful Abraham," so also was it a matter of as great concern for me as it was for any Eoman, when Paul, at Bome, " dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teach ing those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ." Jew and Gentile became one in Christ. " For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Fa ther. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and for eigners, but fedow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God ; and are budt upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himseE be ing the chief corner-stone ; in whom ad the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord : in- whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit." The preceding statement concerns the origin of Christianity ; for the Church did not grow, as a sect grows to-day. It was not a human undertaking, and its leadership was unearthly and strange, for it chose as its instruments " the foolish things of the world." What an outburst of soul those words of Paul are ! A Jew of Tarsus, and a few men in Judaea, fishermen mostly, and calbng themselves apostles, were opposed THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 485 to Jerusalem and the temple and the priesthood, and to the Eoman Empire, and to Paganism, every where with its thousands of temples. "And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are ; that no flesh should glory in his presence." It would seem, tone and style being considered, and time and place, that never possi bly could those words have been written by Paul un less by inspuation from that Spirit, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and which can choose an earthen vessel, wherewith to demolish a kingdom. The early Church was quickened in the world by the Spirit : and visions, angels, and prophets were agencies through which it was acted upon. Tlie Holy Ghost was advice, and courage, and inspiration ; and it was waited for impEcitly. Just before Jesus was taken up, he commanded the Apostles not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait, and said, " Ye shaE receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shaE be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in aE Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." And while they were aE waiting together in one place, " suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it friled aE the house where they were sit ting. And there were seen tongues flashing about, Hke as of fire, and it rested upon every one of them, and they were ad filled with the Holy Ghost, and be gan to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." And so the Apostles and others became " lively oracles " and instruments of the Spuit. Be- 486 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. cause of a miracle at the gate of the temple, which was called Beautiful, Peter and James were placed as criminals before the high-priest. And then what Christ had said came true, " But when they shad lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate : but whatso ever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost." " And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power or by what name have ye done this ? " and, just as had been foretold, the answer which came was from " Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost." On being discharged, Peter and John joined their friends imme diately. " And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together ; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness." Ten years after this last incident, Peter lay in prison, between two keepers ; and unceasing prayer was made for him by the Church. "And behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison : and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise, go quickly, and his chains fell off from his hands." What happened to Phibp was a curious instance of the manner in which men were actuated by the Spirit. He was at the city of Samaria. " And the angel of the Lord spake unto Phdip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusa lem unto Gaza." And as he went, he met a man who had been at Jerusalem to worship ; and who proved to be " of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians." He "was returning, and, sitting Ha his THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 487 chariot, read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyseB to this chariot." At the end of the conference, the Ethiopian " answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commaaded the chariot to stand stiE : and tbey went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch ; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Phdip, that the eunuch saw him no more : and he went on his way rejoicing. But Phdip was found at Azotus." This was an interposition by the Holy Ghost, with which, probably, a kingdom was concerned. And it was an amazing discovery made, as to Ethio pia, in these latter times, by adventurous travellers, that it was a country which was Christian, and which, alsq, had churches. But we modern Christians, ecclesiasticaEy derive from St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, and it was with a view to us all that Paul was such a manifes tation of the Spirit as he was, and that he was also himself such a wonderful interpreter, as to the Spirit. Peter, James, and Jude, and almost even John, with the rest of the apostles, are Eke nothing, Ha comparison with Paul, as to the philosophy of revelation, although he caEed himself, as perhaps he may have been, in some ways, "the least of the Apostles." As to Christianity, Paul wrote to the Galatians, " It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me."* And his start as an Apostle was thus. At Anti och, in the church, there were prophets ; and " as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost 488 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." It should be noticed, that it was by the speech of these prophets, in the church, that the Holy Ghost had its utterance. And so it was, that Paul was started as an,Apostle to the Gentiles. And always afterwards, there was an open ing over him, from heaven. He went through Phry- gia and about Galatia, but was " forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia"; and when he wished to go into Bithynia, it was not what " the Spirit suffered." Soon afterwards " a vision appeared to Paul in the night; there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immedi ately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them." A year after this, Paul was at Athens, and by a few words of his on the hill of Mars, Plato and Epicurus were surpassed. From Athens he went to Corinth, where he was rejected by most of the Jews. And in that city, he lodged with a man whose house was close to the synagogue. " Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace ; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee : for I have much people in this city." In connection with this vision, it is well to remember how famous the name of Corinth has been ever since, because of the " mani festation of the Spirit " in the church there, and as to which Paul wrote. After some five or six years, Paul was at Miletus, whence he sent for the elders of the church at Ephesus; because he was feeling himseE THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 48*9 hedged in upon a road, from which he could not hold back, and because of which " they should see his face no more." He reviewed his Efe amongst them ; and he exhorted them ; and he prayed with them. And a very affecting time it was. " And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befaE me there : save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflic tions abide me." At Jerusalem, the high-priest Anani as was awaiting liim ; and also the Lord, in a vision ; and at Malta, a shipwreck was about to be bis experience. Paul bad advanced to Ceesarea, when there hap pened a curious incident, as to the manner in which the Holy Ghost would sometimes express itself. " And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, so shaE the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shaE deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." On the staus of the castle, at Jerusalem, Paul though in custody, had leave to speak, which he did in Hebrew. And he told of the manner of his conversion at Damascus, and of his hearing Jesus speak, and also of his return afterwards to Je rusalem, where he both saw Christ and heard him. "And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance ; and saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem : for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every 21* 490 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. synagogue them that beEeved on thee : and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. And he said unto me, Depart ; for I wiE send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." By these words, then and on the next day, the Jews were greatly enraged. "And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, feariiig lest Paul should have been puded in pieces of them, com manded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle. And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul ; for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Bome." On the voyage to Italy, the vessel in which he was embarked, was in great danger for a long time. But said Paul, " There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul ; thou must be brought before Caesar : and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee." The preceding two or three pages, not one person in ten will read intedigently, without being much sur prised. Such talk as there has been, and such folly also as to the Fathers of the Church, and the Founders ! Not Augustine, great, good man as he was, nor any body between him and St. Clement, nor yet St. Clem ent himself, ought ever to have been accounted as a Father. And were James and John and Peter and Paul truly founders of the Church, though so often they have been so caded ? No founders at aE were they ; for they were but " earthen vessels," as Paul THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 491 himseE would have said. Precisely, they were mere earthen vessels, through which the Spuit could speak among men, and act. The true Church is the Church of the Spirit. And it is not anything, either as to place or state of in- teEigence, wherein one beEever can say, " I am of Paul ; and another, I am of Apollos." 0 the grand eur, spiritually, of those words of Paul himself ! They are the words of an Apostle, who was so great, as to the Spirit, because, partly, of his ability for self- bumdiation. And these are the words, " Who then is Paul, and who is ApoEos, but ministers by whom ye bebeved, even as the Lord gave to every man ? I have planted, ApoEos watered, but God gave the increase. So, then, neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God tbat giveth the increase." But there is something more yet to be learned from the history of Paul. He was converted in a mo ment. And what happened to Saul the persecutor, is what is possible, in some degree, for everybody, at this present day. For though Jesus does not now ap pear in vision, yet " because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts." It was, as they were taught by the Comforter, and as they had things brought to theu remembrance by the Holy Ghost, that the Apostles came at last to un derstand what their Master had been and was become. It was by the Spirit that they were endowed and sent and guided as Apostles. The discipleship of Paul began very differently from that of the other Apostles. Perhaps, personally, he had never " known Christ after the flesh," and it is 492 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. certain that he assisted at the martyrdom of Stephen. Paul was the convert of Christ in glory. And in Paul, Judaism itself was converted, and became lu minous with the Spirit, and a witness for Christ. It was in spirit that Paul saw and heard Jesus ; and even the gospel, which he preached, he had by the Spirit. He speaks of there being to be a judgment of " the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." He teEs of a meeting at Jerusalem, with which even Peter was concerned, and says, " But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me : God accepteth no man's per son :) for they who seemed to be somewhat in confer ence added nothing to me." And what even he told the Corinthians, as to the Lord's Supper, was what Jesus Christ had told him. " For I have received of the Lord that which also I debvered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night Ha which he was be trayed took bread : and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you : this do in remembrance of me." That last evening of the earthly bfe of Jesus was the subject of a revelation to Paul. Does that seem to be a strange, inconceivable thing ? Yet it is incredible, altogether, only because of inconsideration. In com mon Hfe, there are things which might' hint psycho logically, as to its possibEity. And an electric tele gram is no mean argument as to its probability. When " suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about "-; and when a voice was heard say ing, " I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest," it may wed have been that electricady, magneticady, THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 493 spirituaEy, Jesus was revealed in the mind of Paul, with aE the suddenness of a flash, and the fulness of a gospel. For that voice which was heard was the voice of Jesus himseE, and therefore of all that ever Jesus had been, or thought, or done, or endured. Twenty-four years after his conversion, Paul wrote his Epistle to the Galatians, in which he tells of what his zeal and knowledge had been as a Jew ; and of its having pleased God to reveal his Son in him ; and of the Ettle intercourse which he had ever had with the other Apostles. " But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Perhaps it was because of his state theologically as well as fervently, that Paul was approachable, for con version, in the way through which he was, by Christ in glory. And Ha the history of Christianity, and as concerning its development, it is certainly a very sig nificant fact, that the Spirit should have obtained its broadest, deepest, and highest interpretation through a man who was not even one of the twelve. It would seem to be of the essence of Christianity, that " Christ is the head of the Church," and that " the head of Christ is God." Times and seasons may not always be tbe same for the Church, any more than they are for the world, which changes from day to day, with the course of time and the discoveries of science. And Jesus, at " the head of aE principality and power," and with many miEions of souls calHng themselves by his name, in regard to interest and administration, may be as certainly " the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls " 494 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. as when he came within sight of Stephen, when he was about to be martyred, or as when he showed him self on a plane, so near to this earth, as that Paul could hear him speak. Miracles are not for every age perhaps, and certainly not for every day and hour, or else they would soon cease to be " signs and wonders." Says St. Paul, " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost." No doubt this senti ment is in accordance with the manner of his own conversion. But yet what person is there to-day, who has that knowledge as to the Spuit, for which, reasonably, Paul ought to be credited ? And it is plain, that we live by our affinities spnituaEy, as surely as our bodies last on, by those affinities, which they have for air and food, through the lungs and the stomach. An earnest aspiration is the opening of a channel be tween man and God : and an act in the spirit of Christ is affinity with him, wherever he may be. And there are ways which psychology knows of, and as to which even the science of nature has its corroborations, by which it would seem that the recognition of Jesus as " the head over ad things to the church," might be as simple as the way by which the eye finds the place of the sun at noonday. It is true, that every day is not clear at noon ; and it is true, also, that many a man is living by the Holy Ghost, who cannot think himseE that he is Eving so, because of his humibty, or because of his " phdosophy falsely so caEed." There must be spiritual affinity in some way, how ever humble, before a person can be reached by the Holy Ghost; for a statue of stone has never yet been quickened. And Jerusalem, which is from above, THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 495 has many ways which reach down towards this earth, but they do not open in every age, and over aE places, alike. The phEosophy of the whole material universe is involved in my body, and in its various organs and faculties, — in my eyes, ears, lungs, heart, and abdity for action. In the atmosphere of the sun, there can be no great disturbance, but it reports itself in me. And myself, I could not go to New York, probably, but the planet Uranus would have some sense of my jour ney. And now is it not strange that my body, my old coat of clay, should be so wonderful; and yet that it should be so hard for me to believe in my spuitual relations, and even in the mere possibility of there being either help for me, or detriment in the in visible ? And yet there is nothing more simple and natural, E only I could think so, than that with be Heving in the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I should have the Spuit of His Son come in upon my souL Before a man can see, he must open his eyes and look. As to God, it is written that " without faith it is impossible to please him," ¦ — faith enough, that is to say, for making a man open his eyes and consider. " For he that cometh to God must bebeve that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that ddigently seek him." Widely different as to spiritual results are even these two states, — that of denial as to spiritual influ ences, and that of expectant dependence on heaven, even when doubtful as to whether it has itseE ever been met. But, indeed, probably there is not a thought which I have of any weight, but is the weightier be- 496 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. cause of some personage or law of the spiritual world. It was a glorious utterance of Christ, which concerned me, personally, when arguing from parental love as to its readiness with children, he exclaimed, " How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ? " As a Christian, I am cautioned against incidentady incurring a condi tion, wherein Satan might tempt me. On my repent ance of evil, I am told that there is joy among the angels of God. And I know that in my true prayers, " the Spirit itself maketh intercession " for me. Ad round my spiritual sphere, I am open; and it is at my own choice, whether or not I wid be divinely connected. And just as I was " blest with faithful Abraham," so also was I involved spirituady Hi the his tory of the Jewish Church. And every miracle which is recorded in the New Testament happened on my behaE. The messengers who went to Peter, at Joppa, were a deputation on my behalf, because of a vision, which a centurion had. And when Paul was con verted, it was partly because I was one of the Gentiles, for whom he was to be started as an Apostle. And those miracles, and ad the other miracles of the Scrip tures are signs, or sign-posts, by which it was intended that we Christians should be aided in placing ourselves aright as to mental attitude before Heaven, and con formably also with those forces, invisible and occult, which sweep round the world, and which sometimes aid in shaping the souls of men, and sometimes also in confounding them. What then ! are we to be expecting the age of the Apostles over again, and those manifestations of the THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 497 Spuit, by which it was accompanied ? No ! for never does time go backward : and also tbe administration, which is from above always is providential and on- gouig. And truly, many of the gifts, by which the Spuit manEested itself in the earliest days of the Church, ought to-day to be accounted but Eke food for " babes in Christ." But yet not improbably, they may ;aE reappear, in the Church, for a time, when people shaE begin to be doubtful about the rationaHsm and rituaHsm, and the mere way of tradition, by which, respectively, to a great degree, they have been bving "in a vain show " of Christianity. And indeed it is possible^ that the Spirit may be more ready with its minor manEestations than many Christians can easdy suppose. The gifts of the Spuit are not ad of them of the same significance : just as the faculties, by which man is better than dogs, are not of uniform excellence. The mere working of miracles does not argue as much power mentaEy, as the discerning of spirits. The faculty of speaking in divers kinds of tongues might be worthless almost, unless a person were present with a gift for the inteipretation of tongues. And even the two gifts conjointly, would apparently, by St. Paul, have been accounted inferior to " the word of wisdom." Also a man might have the Spirit manifest itself through him, without his being, himseE, Hi the least degree, the better for it ; for by " the word of wisdom " a man might be the mouthpiece of power from above, and yet himseE remain unenbghtened, though a wonder ad the while, and a spectacle to angels and men. The Spirit can do better than quicken the nature of 498 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. man superficiady, even though thereby, for the time, it may be made to flash with wonders. The Spirit, as to manifestation, finds and takes us human beings, as its instruments, according to its own wisdom. And, therefore, among the twelve, there was a Judas, in order that the other eleven might plainly seem to be " earthen vessels." The mairifestation of the Spirit, through individuals, by signs arid wonders, is but an indication, on the surface, of those powers by which men are all influenced, as being the offspring of God. And Paul, and Peter, and Ananias of Damas cus, and CorneEus, a centurion of the ItaEan band, are instances of the manner in which men are 'divinely dealt with, as individuals and as nations both. And at this present time, the Spirit may be trusted for some other manifestations than what were made through Jews and Gentries eighteen centuries ago. Age after age, more and more susceptible of the fashioning power of the Spirit, did this earth be come as it slowly grew into shape, and supported the creatures that swarmed and raced about it. Pro gress is recognized as being a law as to human beings, even though the way of it may be through darkness often, and with convulsions for its footsteps. And in the Christian Church it cannot be otherwise, than that with ripening under heaven, one generation after another, souls on earth should generally have become susceptible through the Spirit to some diviner issues than could weE have been manEested whde Nero was emperor of the world, or than even at the time when Constantine became a Christian, and the first Christian emperor of Bome. And if only a Ettle THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 499 something more were developed as to its state, or sup- pEed, never would the world have been as open to the Spirit as it is at this time, by predispositions accruing from poHtics, and from science, and from good-wid among men towards one another. In that region, whence we mortals are acted upon spirituaEy, it is written " that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Probably it is far off as yet,. stdl, as St. Paul would say, it is nearer than when we Christians first bebeved, — that New Jerusalem, which St. John saw in vision, and as to which he said, " I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her hus band." And latterly men prophetic, in one way and another, have had sight of that New Jerusalem as an ideal, without wed knowing what it was, and have thereby become reformers as to the ways of this world. And poets, in the quiet of meditation, have felt their souls strangely attuned, without suspecting, perhaps, that it was by the music which is made by heaven as it draws nearer to earth. The agonizing doubts which many Christians are having, are but the throes of souls in bondage to creeds, who are struggbng, unconsciously, for "the glorious liberty of the children of God." At this time every sect almost, and even the Papal, is more sharply divided against itself than it is against its neighbors. And this is because of that quickening of the Spuit, which mere traditionary behef cannot en dure, and always resists. What was said to the dis ciples, by Jesus Christ, as to the end of the world, 500 THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. involves the phdosophy of the universe, intellectually, as to its grander periods. And wars and rumors of wars, of which there have latterly been so many, and earth quakes and pestilences in different places, and the rise of false prophets are signs of the times, and of the pressure downwards of power from on high. Jesus said to the disciples, " I came not to send peace but a sword," and this was because even of his being the Prince of Peace ; for there is nothing which so exas perates evil as the presence of goodness. Also, of the nature of the times, wherein we are bving, Spirituabsm is evidence, for it finds that the ved is grown thin, which separates between us denizens of nature and some of the dweders in the sphere of spirit ; and it shows also that civdized people are, psychicaEy, more sensitive, at the present moment, than probably they ever have been before. The heavens are being bowed towards the earth ; and there are signs of the nearer coming of the Son of Man, even though from a quarter where indeed a thousand years are as one day. It may be a long whEe, before the kingdoms of this world wiE become the suburbs of the New Jerusalem ; but yet of that city of God as archetypal there is more thought in the minds of men to-day, than ever there has been before ; and slowly but surely the ways of this world, politicaEy, are being drawn out, in a manner, by which they can be met, by those streets which reach down, spiritually, from above. AEeady there is about us the atmosphere of " that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven." And happy are they who have any sense THE CHURCH AND THE SPIRIT. 501 of it ! For thereby tbey have become kings and priests unto God and the Father, and are clear of this earth as to priestcraft and darkness. Let those who are " taught of the Lord " teach what they leam. Let those who have "joy in the Holy Ghost " not fear to show it. Let those who are quick ened from within as to righteousness, they know not how, trust that perhaps they are prophets of the Spirit. And let every one who catches a strain, Eke the song which John heard in the Spirit, repeat it as best he can for his fedow-creatures. "Great and marvedous "are thy works, Lord God Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints." INDEXES. INDEX TO TEXTS QUOTED. Page Page 2. Luke xvi. 31. 123. Acts vii. 53. 3. 2 Kings vi. 6. tt Hebrews ii. 2. 10. Matthew xv. 33. tt 1 Timothy vi. 15. 14. Ezekiel xxx. iii. 32. u Revelation i. 1. 21. James v. 15. 125. Numbers xii. 6. 24. Mark vi. 5. 126. Luke xxiv. 45. 33. 1 Corinthians ii. 10. 127. 2 Kings vi. 17. it Romans viii. 26. 130. Luke v. 12. 47. 1 Corinthians xv. 44. tt 1 Samuel ix. 9. tt 2 Kings vi. 17. 131. Jeremiah xiv. 14. 48. 2 Samuel xxiii. 2. 132. Zechariah xiii. 2. 75. Acts iii. 4. " Jeremiah xxvi. 9. 76. Daniel ii. 28. tt Jeremiah ii. 8. U Deuteronomy iii. 3. tt Numbers xxiv. 4. 77. Exodus viii. 19. tt Judges vi. 34. U Mark ix. 39. 133. 1 Corinthians xii. 4, 7 78. John vi. 30. it 1 Corinthians vi. 17. 79. 1 Corinthians xii. 28. 134. Judges xiv. 5. U John xx. 29. " 2 Corinthians xii. 10. U Matthew xxiv. 24. tt Judges vi. 12. (( Ephesians vi. 12. a Judges vii. 18. 80. 2 Thessalonians ii. 9. it 2 Samuel xxiii 2. u 1 John iv. 1. 135. Luke ii. 26. 11 Revelation xix. 20. u Acts vi. 10, 15. 81. 1 Corinthians xii. 10. u Revelation i. 11. ft Matthew vii. 16. 136. 1 Kings xiii. 26. 83. Romans viii. 9. a 1 Samuel x. 10. 84. 1 Corinthians ii. 11. a 1 Samuel xi. 6. 85. 1 Corinthians xv. 45. it 1 Samuel xvi. 14. 91. 1 Timothy iv. 14. a 1 Samuel xix. 23. 92. Luke xix. 37. 137. 1 Kings iii. 18. 11 Luke xix. 40. 138. Numbers xii. 2. 95. Isaiah vi. 5. u Exodus xxi. 18. it Psalms cxliv. 5. 139. 2 Samuel xii. 7. 106. John iv. 23. k John xi. 51. tt John xx. 29. u Galatians ii. 8, 11. 110. John v. 8. 140. Acts xix. 11. 113. Exodus vii. 11. n 2 Corinthians xii. 2. tt 1 Samuel xxviii. 13. tt 1 Corinthians xiv. 18 it Matthew xxii. 31. 141. 1 Corinthians ix. 27. 114. 2 Timothy i. 10. " Galatians i. 15. 116. 2 Corinthians iii. 15. 149. Ephesians vi. 12. 119. Genesis xlix. 29. tt Isaiah xxix. 11. 122. Acts x. 10. 167. Revelation i. 10. tt Acts xi. 15. (( Revelation ii. 7. 123. John x. 35. 170. 1 John iii. 2. 506 INDEX TO TEXTS QUOTED. 171. Romans viii. 26, 23. " 1 Corinthians xv. 44. 174. Romans viii. 16. 182. Joel ii. 28. " Revelation i. 6. 190. Isaiah viii. 19. tt John iii. 8. 198. Acts xvi. 16. 202. Psalms xxxix. 3. 204. Luke ix. 49. 206. 2 Corinthians xi. 14. 209. 1 Timothy iv. 1. 217. Romans viii. 17. 221. 1 Corinthians xiii. 12. 223. Job xxxii. 7. 229. John xiv. 11. tt Matthew xxiv. 24. 230. 2 Thessalonians ii. 9. " Revelation v. 13. tt Revelation xiii. 13. " Mark xvi. 17. 231. Mark xiii. 22. 1. Matthew vii. 22. 232. 1 John iv. 1. 'k 1 Corinthians xiv. 32. 233. Job xxxiii. 14. 234. Matthew xvii. 1. " Mark vi. 4. tt John vii. 31. 235. Matthew xii. 22. " Luke xii. 56. " Matthew x. 24. 237. Matthew xii. 39. 238. John ix. 13. " John xi. 48. 239. John xiv. 11. tt Mark vi. 2. it Mark v. 28. " Matthew viii. 10. 241. Luke x. 17. 242. Acts xiv. 9. 243. Acts i. 7. " Acts iii. 19. it Matthew xvii. 20. 249. 1 Corinthians i. 21. 250. John vi. 26. 251. Exodus iv. 8. 252. Mark viii. 17. 253. 1 Kings xiii. 18. 254. Acts viii. 18. 259. 1 Corinthians iii. 1. 261. 1 Corinthians x. 11. 263. Revelation xxii. 1. 266. 1 Corinthians xii. 13. 268. Ecclesiastes xi. 5. 270. John iii. 11. 273. Habakkuk i. 16. 274. 1 Corinthians ii. 9. 278. Matthew x. 28. 279. 1 Corinthians xvi. 17. 280. Genesis xxviii. 2. 281. John xiv. 12. 282. 1 Corinthians xv. 28. 2S4. Romans viii. 16. 286. Matthew xxviii. 2. 288. 2 Corinthians v. 1. 299. Numbers xi. 26. 300. Matthew xi. 25. 301. Isaiah xlix. 15. 302. Job xii. 7. 309. Tobit xii. 15. 310. Daniel x. 10. 314. Hebrews v. 12. 316. 1 Corinthians ii. 13. 318. Numbers xxii. 5. 320. 1 Corinthians xii. 8. 326. 2 Kings v. 11. 329. Romans i. 3. 332. Job xxxiii. 14. 333. Numbers xii. 6. U Joel ii. 27. 334. Acts xviii. 9. 342. John i. 14. 343. Numbers ix. 10. " 1 Samuel xvi. 12. 344. Jeremiah i. 5. tt Amos vii. 14. tt Judges iv. 4. 345. 1 Kings iii. 5. " 1 Kings x. 3. tt 1 Kings xvii. 10. tt 2 Kings iv. 8. 346. 1 Kings xxii. 14. 347. Hosea vi. 4. 348. Amos vii. 12. 349. Luke vii. 25. 11 Ezekiel xxxiii. 30. 350. Leviticus xvii. 7. " Deuteronomy xxxii. 17 351. Judges ii. 12. (( Jeremiah ii. 8. a 2 Chronicles xi. 15. 352. 2 Kings i. 2. i. 1 Kings xx. 22. 353. Jeremiah vii. 18, 23. 356. 1 Samuel ix. 5. 357. 2 Kings v. 3. tt 2 Kings vi. 12. tt Exodus xxxi. 2. " 1 Chronicles xxviii. 11. 358. 2 Samuel xxiii. 1. " Deuteronomy xx. 4. tt 1 Kings xx. 13. 359. 2 Kings vii. 1. INDEX TO TEXTS QUOTED. 507 359. Exodus xviii. 15. 418. James iv. 8. 360. Numbers xxvii. 21. tt Matthew xviii. 20. " Deuteronomy xvii. 9. tt Hebrews xi. 6. tt 1 Samuel x. 19. 419. Acts i. 4. 361. 1 Kings xix. 15. U Acts ii. 1. tt 2 Kings ix. 1. it John xx. 22. i( 2 Kings iii. 11. " Acts v. 32. 362. Zeehariah iv. 1. (1 Acts x. 44. 364. Isaiah xxviii. 13. 420. Genesis xii. 2. 372. Deuteronomy iv. 7. *' Matthew vii. 11. 376. Daniel vii. 9. tt Job xxxiii. 16. U Ezekiel i. 19. 421. 2 Peter i. 21. 389. Haggai ii. 7. ii John xiv. 16. 391. Galatians iii. 8. u Matthew x. 20. 393. Isaiah ii. 2. u Luke xii. 12. '' Malachi iii. 1. it Job xxxii. 8. 394. Matthew xxiii. 37. 422. Galatians iv. 6. »' Malachi iv. 5. 423. Acts viii. 17. tt John i. 32. 426. Matthew xvii. 10. 395. Galatians iv. 5. it 2 Kings ii. 15. 397. Mark i. 12. 427. Luke i. 17. *' Ezekiel iii. 14. (1 Galatians iii. 19. *> Daniel viii. 27. 1( Galatians iii. 8. 398. Luke xxii. 42. (1 Revelation xxi. 3. 402. Hebrews x. 7. 429. 1 Corinthians iii. 16 403. Genesis xxxi. 13. 430, Mark i. 13. lb Exodus iii. 2. u Matthew xi. 11. 404. Exodus xiii. 21. 431. John i. 32. it Numbers xiv. 14. if Matthew xi. 2. a Exodus xxiii. 20. a Matthew xi. 4. 405. Isaiah Ixiii. 8. it Luke iv. 16. U Malachi iii. 1. 432. Luke iv. 29. 406. Revelation i. 4. 433. John iii. 34. 407. 1 John iv. 1. " John v. 20. " 1 Corinthians xiv. 29. n Mark xiii. 11. it 1 Corinthians xii. 10. ii Matthew x. 20. 408. 1 Corinthians xiv. 18. ii Luke ii. 25. " 1 Corinthians xiii. 1. 434. Romans viii. 16. 409. John iii. 34. a 1 John -". 6. tt John i. 51. 435. John iii. 2. " Genesis xxviii. 12. " John viii. 48. 410. Malachi iv. 5. 436. Hebrews vii. 15. 14 Matthew xi. 9. 441. John xv. 27. 411. Luke ix. 28. (1 John xiv. 26. 11 John xii. 28. 443. Isaiah xiv. 10. 412. 1 Peter i. 11. 445. Micah vii. 4. " Matthew xvii. 9. it Malachi iv. 5. It Acts x. 3. ti Matthew xvi. 14. u Acts x. 10. n Matthew xvii. 12. a Daniel x. 9. 446. Luke ii. 34. 413. Genesis xv. 12. n Luke xix. 42. t. Acts xxii. 14. 447. Matthew xxiii. 35. " Acts xxii. 17. 448. Luke i. 88. 414. 2 Corinthians xii. 2. 449. Matthew xiii. 14. 416. Genesis xlix. 1. 450. John xx. 26. tt 1 Samuel iii. 1. 452. Hebrews i. 6. 417. Numbers xii. 6. 455. John xii. 32. 508 INDEX TO TEXTS QUOTED. 455. Luke ix. 7. 478. 457. Ephesians i. 10. Matthew vi. 22. " 458. 479. 459. Matthew xxvii. 19. 480. 460. John xi. 51. " tt Luke xxiii. 43. 481. tt John xx. 17. " ff 1 Peter iii. 19. 484. tt Matthew xxvii. 45. 11 461. Luke xxiii. 45. 485. 462. Matthew xxvii. 50. k tt Hebrews ix. 3. u 463. 1 Corinthians xv. 35. 486. 464. Hebrews i. 3. " tt Matthew xxvii 63. t( 465. Psalms xvi. 10. John xix. 40. iiii tt Matthew xxviii. 2. 487. 466. Acts ii. 2. tt tt Acts xvi. 25. 488. tt Daniel x. 7. " 467. 1 Peter iii. 18. it tt Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 13. n tt 2 Kings xiii. 21. 489. 468. Genesis v. 24. tt 11 Deuteronomy xxxiv. 6. " 469. John xx. 17. 490. a John xx. 27. It tt Ephesians iv. 10. 491. tt Luke xxiv. 39. 492. 470. Acts i. 9. tt u Acts vi. 15. ff tt Acts vii. 55. 493. n 2 Timothy i. 10. ti 471. 1 Corinthians xv. 55. 494. 11 Matthew vii. 6. 495. 472. Luke ii. 52. 496. 478. 1 Corinthians xv. 44. 499. tt Psalms cxliv. 3. " 474. Mark xvi. 19. 500. tt John iii. 12. " 475. Galatians iii. 24. 501. 477. 1 Corinthians xv. 57. Luke xxiv. 44. Luke xxiv. 49. Acts ii. 36. Acts ix. 3. Acts ix. 15. Acts x. 15. Acts x. 45. Acts xxviii. 30. Ephesians ii. 18. 1 Corinthians i. 28. Acts i. 8. Acts ii. 4. Mark xiii. 11. Acts iv. 7. Acts iv. 31. Acts xii. 7. Acts viii. 26. Galatians i. 15. Acts xiii. 2. Acts xvi. 6. Acts xvi. 7. Acts xvi. 9. Acts xviii. 9. Acts xx. 22. Acts xxi. 20. Acts xxii. 17. Acts xxiii. 10. Acts xxvii. 23. 1 Corinthians iii. 5. Romans ii. 16. Galatians ii. 6. 1 Corinthians xi. 23. Galatians i. 11. 1 Corinthians xi. 3. 1 Corinthians xii. 3. Hebrews xi. 6. Luke xi. 13. Revelation xxi. 2. Romans viii. 21. Matthew x. 34. Revelation xxi. 10. Revelation xv. 3. INDEX OE SUBJECTS. Amos and the priest, 348. Angel of the covenant. 463. " " presence, 405. Angels, in the Scriptures, 120. " and the Jewish law, 373. " and God, 403. Anthropomorphism, 370. Anti-supernaturalism, 3, 24, 91, 168, 293, 296, 332, 364, 385, 390, 402, 422, 434, 437, 442. 459, 471, 479, 483. Aquinas, St. Thomas, 177. Arago, D. F. J., 51. Atheism, a word as to, 307. Augustine, St., 212. Baker, Rachel, 99. Barclay, Robert, 16. Baxter, Richard, 23, 82, 120. Belief, intelligent, 365. Bible, the, and mistranslations, 118. Blind leaders of the blind, 40, 301, 305, 312, 336. Blindness, spiritual, 149. " " from scholar ship, 104. " " from science, 40. Bohme, Jacob, 13. Bonaventura, St., 192. Bridget, St., 99. Biichner, Dr., 63, 297. Cassaubon, Isaac, 159. Catholic and Protestant, 98, 116, 119, 201, 225, 297, 313. Charity as a means to knowledge, 221. China praised, 214. Christianity, the beginning of, 391. " the essence of, 493. " the meaning of, 483. Chrysostom, St. John, 87. Church, the, and the Spirit, 28, 4i 8. " the true, 491. Church-going, 338, 418. Cicero, 144, 331. Clairvoyance, 174, 271, 297. Clement, the Recognitions of, 186. Commonwealth of England, 247. Confucius, 424. Cudworth, Ralph, 168, 186, 245. Cupertino, St. Joseph of, 100. Demoniacs, 116. " modern, 91. Dream, that of Pilate's wife, 459. Dreaming, the natural oracle, 325, 331, 337. Dreams and the Scriptures, 332. two, 179. Dupotet, the Baron, 424. Ecstatics, 152. " and witchcraft, 159. Endor, the woman of, 113. Faith, 243, 474, 495. Farmer Hugh, 48, 73, 192. Ficinus Marsilius, 61. Forum, the Roman, 148. Fox, George, 13, 202, 219. Franklin, Benjamin, 129. Froude, J. A., 57. Fulness of the time, 456. Gibbon, E., 147. God, as the Creator, 43. " and his angels, 120. " and man, 278, 281, 341, 418, " and nature, 49, 302, 373. " and the peculiar people, 377. " and the soul, 301. " the Church of, 484. Gods, false, 112. Goethe, 307. Greatrex, 99, 297. Hades, 115. Heathenism and Christianity, 147, 316. Herbert, Lord of Cherbury, 40. Hitchcock, E. A., 54. 510 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Homer, 331. Honesty the best policy, 24, 72. Immortality and Judaism, 114. " " Paganism, 113. Inspiration, the nature of, 319. " universality of, 76, 317, 327. Jesus, 329. " variously apprehended, 435. " and the 'Spirit, 397, 430. " and the crucifixion, 460. " and the resurrection, 452, 478. " and the Jews, 446. Jews, the, as a peculiar people, 377. " at the coming of Christ, 382. " and Plato, 369. John, the Gospel of, 441. Josephus, 387. Judaism and mankind, 392. Knowledge and ignorance, 70. Lachish, Simeon Ben., 83. Lateau, Louise, 152. Levi, Rabbi Ben, 116. Lightfoot, John, 78, 256, 406. Limborch, Philip a, 122. Logic and religion, 267. Loyola Ignatius, 192. Lupton Arthur. 150. Luther Martin, 7, 227. Magnetism, 323, 424. Maimonides, Moses, 120, 236, 408. Man and God, 495. " and history, 483. " historically bound, 107, 453. Man as a spirit, 37, 130, 170, 220, 262, 268, 278, 282, 314, 324, 336, 340, 401, 476. " and the Spirit, 400, 428, 482. " open to the Spirit, 437, 442. " born of the universe, 314, 396, 495. " spiritually insphered, 423. Martyr, Justin, 122. Marvels of the present day, 162. Men and monkeys, 108. Mesmerism, 156, 297, 324, 326. Mill, James, 69, 451. Miracje, as a Scriptural word, 227. Miracles, 1, 8,22, 38. " ignorance as to, 2, 81, 93. " various definitions of, 224. " defined, 248. " and science, 74, 120, 264. Miracles, and human nature, 285. " and pneumatology, 309. '' and the creative spirit, 264. " and the Spirit, 283. " as signs, 245, 248, 280, 283. " and speculative science, 308. " and nature, 42. " and the material universe, 290. " and the spiritual universe, 290. " and doctrine. 71, 75, 235. " and character, 139, 231. " and the Scriptures, 229, 237. " and their significance, 75, 238, 251, 279, 449. " the light of, 260. " religiously important, 292. " and the believing spirit, 90. " ways of believing in, 104. " and Christian belief, 36. and belief, 22, 106, 239. 278. " not unnatural, 282, 286, 324, 331. " why not more common, 93, 295, 494. ' " conditional, 240. " and all time, 496. " and the present day, 162, 260, 449. " not for everybody, 164. " modern, 162, 298, 324, 331. " as witnessed by seraphs, 46. " and a spiritual world, 95. " like prophecies, 280. More, Henry, 168, 201. Mori, Maria. 153. Moses hearing the Lord command, 343. Nature, the laws of, 46, 73, 306. " " a figure of speech, 49, 74. Neander, Augustus, 20, 197, 399. Neri, St. Philip, 298. Newman, 161. Newton, Sir Isaac, 44, 54, 247. Oracles, ancient, 334. Origen, 319. Owen, John, 82. Palestine at the birth of Jesus, 382. Paul, St., 140, 413, 487. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 511 Pausanias, 145. Pentecost, 482. Philip the Apostle, 486. Pius the Seventh, 193. Plato, 164, 316, 319, 332, 387. Plotinus, 13, 26, 158, 212, 425. Pneumatology and the Scriptures, 110. " illustrated, 16, 89, 95, 127, 173, 206, 233, 243, 265, 269, 276, 288, 309, 321, 324, 367, 377, 385, 396, 423, 438, 454, 455, 468, 493. Powell, Baden, 66. Progress, law of, 366. Prophecy, 383, 389, 408. " and human nature, 316. Prophets, who were, 94, 131, 343. " how commissioned, 343. " social position of, 346. " and priests, 347. " false, 112, 232. 351. Prospects, spiritual, 243, 270, 333,497. Pusey, E. B., 155. Receptiveness, spiritual, 329. Renan, J. E., 4, 85, 94. Resurrection of Jesus, 286, 252. Revelation, and primitive germ as to, 333. " made through angels, 120. " and new truths, 316. " a primal truth as to, 376. " the philosophy of, 44, 123, 201, 218, 272, 290, 343, 373, 403, 417, 425, 430, - 458. Revivals, religious, 202, 220. Rome, ancient, 147. Saul and Samuel, 136. Schiller, J. C. F., 171. Science and Miracles, 38, 120, 271, 306, 402. " and its limitations, 200, 291, 301. " and human nature, 282. " and spirit, 213, 268, 283, 475. " and religion, 283, 301, 337, 428. " obsolete forms of, 177. " and electricity, 62. Scott, Dr. Walter, 194. Sheol or Hades, 115. Shrewsbury, the Earl of, 153, 159. Smith, John, 440. Souls differ, 320. Spirit, the, 30, 400. " " variously described, 420. " " and the Old Testament, 340. " " and the Scriptures, 450. " " as a theocracy, 360, 392. " " and the prophets thereof, 131. " " and its course, 479. " " and its effects, 356. " " in action, 27. " " and its instruments, 347, 498. " " various manifestations of, 320, 420, 489. " " gifts of, 320, 496. " " experiences of, 321, 330. " " and its teaching, 319. " " as inspiration, 356, 379. " " and receptiveness, 320. " " and conviction, 474. " " as between man and God, 494. " " and the soul, 322, 392. " " and all men, 379. " " men differenced by, 443. " " and human individual ity, 354. 376. " " grieving, 330. " " living bv, 182, 415. " " being in, 413. " " and miracles, 283. " " and logic, 319. '' " the original of the church, 484. " " and the Future, 498. Spirit, 12, 18, 30, 40. " and matter, 166. " and science, 183. " descent by, 380. " as a word' degraded, 103, 315. Spirits and inspiration, 407. " familiar, 113. " unclean, 117, 175, 198, 293, 296, 406, 446. Spiritual states, 166. " world about us, 182. Spiritualism, 63, 184, 20.3, 299, 369, 425, 500. " and the Old Testament, 369. " and the Scriptures, 209. u the phenomena of, 160, 206, 211. " an estimate of, 208, 216, u significance of, 212, 218. 512 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Spirit-rappings, 199, 203, 217. and science, 61. " and Baden Powell, 63. Stanley, Arthur P., 76. Stigmata, on the, 158. Stilling, Heinrich, 88. Strauss, D. T., 10, 53. Suetonius, 387. Swedenborg, Emmanuel, 89. Tacitus, 387. Telegraph, electric, 271, 4S3. Tertullian, 214. Testament, the Old, 340, 368. " as a history of the Spirit, 363. " its own evi dence, 368. " " and the New, 311, 375, 382. Theocracy, the Jewish, 342, 352, 392, 446. Theology, modern, 22, 43, 92, 96, 112, 124, 175, 191, 193, 197, 200, 208, 231, 255, 293, 300, 305, 315, 339, 369, 444. Theology, modern, state of, 198. " " externality of, 315. Theology, modern, weakness of, 96, 191. " " and superstition, 162, 208. " confounded by Spiritualism, 190. Time, fulness of the, 388, 395, 456. " spirit of the, 265. Tongues, the gift of, 408. Trance, the state of, 413. Transfiguration, the, 411, 455. " was in vision, 412. Unbelief, modern, 2, 16, 19, 23, 36. Universe, the, not a machine, 65. " " and man, 264. " "as to men and spirits, 294. " " as to miracles, 280. Vespasian, 447. Virgil, 389. Vision, the state of, 122, 310, 413. " instances of, 479. Warning from a bird, 182. Wesley, John, 184. Word of the Lord, 124, 312, 342, 367, 378, 400. THE END. Cambridge : Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.