Chapter XXIII (2)

Various ingenious machines for locomotion and amusement attracted general attention. Another source of interest were the graceful and picturesque groups of children moving in the air. At intervals, one of the most fascinating of their number would descend with offerings of fruits and flowers for our guests. The amazement expressed by our visitors, as these lovely children would suddenly sweep down through the air like graceful birds of radiant plumage was delightful for us older inhabitants to witness.

This city contains several institutions of learning which are accessible to all; not only those can become inhabitants of this city who have a taste for the beauties and refinements of life, but needy aspirants from earth may be introduced by them into these establishments.

Previous to entering the spirit world I had supposed everything here would be free, but I have found here, as on earth, that nothing can be attained but by exertion, and that the great diversity of talent and of gifts necessarily enforces a system of exchange.

All men are not alike inventive in the spirit world. The inventor, by his fertile brain, constructs an article which the majority desire to possess, and for that article they give him an equivalent. It may be a picture or it may be a song.

Here the artisan is not hampered as on earth; his time--the mere time employed in mechanical labor--is of short duration. Our facilities for creating are so immensely superior to those of earth that but a brief period is required for producing a result. The remaining time is devoted mainly to the development of the mind, to amusement, and to scientific research.

I stated in the beginning of my letter that I was visiting the home of Abraham Lincoln. He is residing here with some members of his family, and appears very happy and contented. The son for whose loss he grieved amid the honors of the White House, is now his friend and companion.

Matters of state, as I learn from conversation with him, occupy his mind but little; but he is deeply interested in humanity, and is anxious to elevate and harmonize the whole human family.

His influence for good is powerful, and he exerts it constantly.

Theodore Parker and Hawthorne both reside in this city. Parker, as I have been told, when he first came here, decided to devote himself to the cultivation of land; but he has drifted again into the rostrum, and twice a week you may see the fair maidens and gallant swains of Spring Garden wending their way to his beautiful little home and garden in the suburbs, where, amid the flowers, he descants to them, in his eloquent way, on life and the attributes of the human soul, and also upon his earth experiences.

So you perceive he exemplifies by his own actions the wise saying, “Once a prophet, always a prophet.” His original mind cannot keep silent, and his thoughts find readiest utterance in speech.

Hawthorne is living here with his beautiful daughter, who devotes her attention to art.

His mind is as active as ever. He informs me that many of the mysteries that seemed inexplicable to him while on earth are now cleared up.

I have spoken of the noble buildings of this city, surrounded by spacious gardens and beautified by trees and flowers, fountains and singing birds; but I have not alluded to the way in which property is held, and the reader will naturally inquire if these handsome dwellings are owned by their occupants.

They are not, but are simply loaned to them. Spirits congenial to those at present residing here lived in them ages agone.

It is true, each individual taste may alter and embellish the buildings and surroundings, but these improvements belong to the city and not to the individuals. The titles are vested in the community, and its members can vote, as in the case of Abraham Lincoln, in reference to any individual coming among them.

There are three daily papers issued in the city, and only three. One is especially devoted to reporting news from earth,--revolutions that transpire, changes in state and national politics, recent accidents which have thrown individuals suddenly into the spirit world, and to recording the names, as far as possible, of persons who have deceased from earth.

Disasters that occur on sea and land are immediately telegraphed to the newspapers in Spring Garden and published for the use of the community.

It may be interesting to the curious to know that in cases like the sinking of a vessel, where fifty or a hundred individuals are suddenly ushered into the spirit world, delegates are sent out from this and other cities to meet the sufferers and offer them the hospitalities of the city, in accordance with their individual merits and degrees of development.

Our method of printing newspapers differs materially from that in vogue on earth.

Our papers might be termed photo-telegrams. A much less space is occupied by a communication of a given length than the same would require in your papers. We have a system of short-hand, understood by all, similar to that used by your telegraphic operator.

We have various places of public amusement, two fine theatres which are devoted to dramas originating with the inhabitants of our world, and another appropriated to the representation of dramas familiar to earth. Our places of amusement are of large capacity, hence but few are needed; and the people of this city being congenial in their natures, as many as possible like to assemble in one place.

The several actors who have been famed on earth appear at the theatres in Spring Garden. Garrick, Kean, Kemble, Booth, Vandenhoff, Cooke, Macready, Rachel, and Mrs. Siddons, visit us from time to time.

Among our distinguished actors are many who on earth were clergymen, politicians, and of other occupations.[A]

[Footnote A: I am told that the Rev. Newland Maffit is at present a distinguished actor in the spirit world. ED.]

GILBERT STUART.

_ART CONVERSATION_.

People are fools in religion, and worship as divine the most stupid monstrosities ever conceived of! Only tell the masses that St. Luke, St. John, or Mary Magdalen was the author of some absurdity, which, if you or I had originated, they would scoff at, and they will clasp their hands in mute admiration over that miracle of art!

So it seems to me to be with Spiritualists. Drawings devoid of taste, hard, and out of proportion, are received by them with acclamations of joy, and credited, if they are figures, to Raphael, and if landscapes, to Claude Lorraine or some other great master of art.

Now I, for one, wish people would use their brains, and not be so easily gulled.

It is truly wonderful that a spirit can make a person draw a straight line who never could draw any but a crooked one. It partakes something of the miraculous, I admit; and that spirits should produce likenesses, and representations of flowers, scrolls, and ornamental designs, and unearthly landscapes, through mediums whose powers of representation and artistic talents have never been developed, is indeed marvellous! but that these drawings should be called works of art, and looked upon as the genuine offspring of those immortal painters, is ridiculous, and a thing to be deprecated by every intelligent spirit and Spiritualist, either here or in any other world!

Why, God Almighty himself could not take a raw, unschooled, undisciplined hand, and produce a work of art!

If a medium is content with what he has done, if he does not comprehend the faults of his work, if his eye and brain are not educated artistically,--then he must stand like a machine working in a groove.

Neither Phidias nor any of his descendants could inspire a high production through such means!

Now I do wish that _educated artists_ would seek to be controlled by us spirits; or that those mediums whom we do influence would go to school, and submit to the drudgery that is necessary to give them skill in design and execution.

Then could we hope to represent something of the progress of art in the spirit world; and would be enabled to depict marvels of landscapes, and the seraphic beauty of the human face with its grace and perfection of form, as it meets us in this artistic land.

Yon ask if we have galleries of art here. I should think so: art-love is immortal! You do not suppose that Benjamin West, Washington Allston, Henry Inman, Copely, Stuart, and we Americans who loved our art, would be satisfied with laying down the brush, and would have contented ourselves with singing and playing on cymbals constantly for the hundred years or so that we’ve been here? Now, where there is a will there is a way, and having the will, we have found the way to exercise the genius which God gave us.

Speaking of music, the gift is cultivated here to an extent that would set the _dilettanti_ of earth wild with ecstasy!

_Music, Poetry, Art, Oratory_, and _Scientific Research_, form the principal occupations of the beings in this immortal world of ours, and language is incapable of conveying an idea of the perfection which our noble and glorious faculties have attained.

Art is about to undergo a revolution. At present too much attention is given to the literal rendering of a fact, and imagination, which is merely a faculty for reaching the immaterial, is checked; but ere long painters will turn their attention to representing scenes in spirit life, and the inspiration which attended the old masters when they gave wings to their fancy and cut loose from identical imitation, will return.

Let the camera and the photograph reproduce the exact outline and minutiae, but let the artist paint with the pencil of imagination and inspiration! Only permit imagination to have root in the material world. As no man can become a good angel who has not developed his physical nature in harmony with his spiritual, so neither painter nor medium can represent the artistic beauties of the natural world, nor of the spirit world, unless he has had a good physical training. It is only through the _physical_ that the imagination can express itself with beauty and correctness. Truth is beauty, and is always proportionate; the light equalizing the dark, precisely as in the perfection of art a mass of shadow is balanced by a proportion of light.

One of the most agreeable places of rest or there-abouts is the artists’ rendezvous--a building larger than St. Peter’s at Home, magnificent in structure, and filled with wonderful paintings.

Here artists and authors of all nations are to be found. You can step in any morning and have a chat with Lawrence, Reynolds, Lessing, Delaroche Hazlitt, Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Willis, Irving, Anthon, Sigourney, Osgood, Booth, Kemble, Kean, Cooper, Vandenhoff, Palmerston, Pitt, O’Connel, Lamartine, Napoleon, Margaret Fuller, Charlotte Bronté, Lady Blessington, and others of note, who have made themselves illustrious during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. People of congenial tastes and aspirations can readily obtain admittance, and all freely engage in conversation on topics connected with art and literature.

A large garden is attached to the building, filled with every manner of fruit-tree, and is accessible to all; any poor devil of an artist can go there and some bewitching Houri will present him with all the delicious condiments which his taste or fancy can demand.

In these matters the inhabitants of earth need to take a lesson from us.

I prophesy that America will be a pioneer in these reformations, and will, in some Central Park, erect a building similar to this, where aspiring artists may receive food for the soul and the body, and where artistic minds can meet and interchange ideas.

EDWARD EVERETT.

_GOVERNMENT_.

The Christianized world supposes that the form of government now existing in the heavenly system is that of a monarchy; that God is the supreme ruler of the whole universe, embracing not only the little planet Earth, but the countless starry worlds and invisible systems that roll through space. But more directly in its imagination does it place him as the sole monarch and kingly ruler of the spirit world. It seats him in fancy upon a gorgeous throne, material in every aspect of its magnificence; a throne of gold and jewels, as described by that Miltonic poet, St. John, in his “Revelations.”

This is the prevailing faith of Christendom; a faith which to the majority seems knowledge as positive as the fact that Victoria rules the British people, and sits upon the English throne.

Yet this is the conception of a people fond of barbaric pomp and splendor. A conception unsupported by reason and at variance with fact.

Nearer to the truth was the old Greek nation; a nation which embodied the intellect, the wisdom, and the refinement of the present age.

That nation, in its belief in the government of the spiritual universe, was wholly Polytheistic, believing in many gods, and, as I have said, approached nearer the idea of the form of government as existing in the spirit world, for it is a Republic of Gods.

It is a law of the universe that all vast bodies must be divided and subdivided into smaller ones. Every system is a constellation and every constellation is a congeries.

In accordance with this law, the universal world of _spirit_ is broken up, is divided and subdivided.

In these divisions and subdivisions forms of government ensue, differing slightly one from another, according to the progressive development of the people; and an unlimited monarchy is not known in the spirit world.

There are some clinging to their old habits, associations, and education, who would fain raise the representatives of royalty on earth to the same positions in the spirit world when they become residents there. But the effort, when made, cannot be sustained. The one-man power is incompatible with spiritual laws and spiritual justice.

In a world where the external trappings are torn away and the internal nature of man is exposed to observation, the prerogatives of earthly kings have but little power.

The republican form of government is destined to overthrow all the monarchies of earth. As the world progresses and knowledge becomes universal, individuals will be able to govern themselves.

It has been only through ignorance and superstition, and the limited knowledge of the masses, that the kings and emperors of earth have been enabled to sway their jewelled sceptres over the necks of the people. But their reign is drawing to a close; their glories have culminated; and the day is rapidly approaching when earth will be governed even as the heavens above are governed. As in the world of nature, “the same chance happens alike to all,” and every child in time may become a man and every infant a father, and the experience of one becomes the experience of all, so in the government of the spirit world, every man can rise and become for a space of time the patriarchal dictator of a republic.

The prevailing form of our republic differs from that of the American republic in many particulars. Our term of office is of shorter duration than with you. Our directors while in office make friendly excursions to other republics. Matters of state with us are not so weighty or complicated as with you, nor are encroachments and reprisals so common. We are not compelled to sustain such vast armies and navies, involving the necessity of directing and superintending them.

As a rule, people who have entered the second stage of existence desire a change. They desire to live with more simplicity and freedom, and are eager to begin their new life with nobler aspirations. Therefore, they assimilate with comparative ease with our form of government.

Our directors are our fathers. The nearest approach to our system is the government of the Mormons in Utah. Pardon me, if, in making this statement, I offend any delicate sensibility. I allude not to their creed, but to their mode of public administration.

As I have stated, the inhabitants of the spirit world are divided and subdivided into associations, or bodies, which in your world would be termed nations and states. For example, the nation to which I belong is represented by the American people. The nationalities of earth present different traits and characteristics which set them apart, though in a general aspect they present one whole. Even as in the ornithological world different species of birds represent the feathered race, and though differing in many particulars and forming separate varieties, yet assimilate as a whole, so nations migrating to the spirit world form separate nationalities. And, as I have stated, some of them, educated in the belief of the divine right of kings, choose a form of rule nearer approaching the monarchial than the republican. Among such often arises a Napoleon, a man of powerful intellect, a mind to grasp all circumstances, and a will to direct, who succeeds in placing himself in a position which he retains for years.

But as the hereditary right of kings cannot exist in the spirit world, the emperor or dictator is chosen by the people, as was the custom of the ancient Romans.

Intercourse of nations with us is not bounded by the obstacles that exist on earth. Prominent ideas prevailing among the most intelligent masses of spirits become the views of the whole. This your own world exemplifies. As the means of communication become more facile, as the various arts of locomotion obliterate distance, the remote and barbarous nations, brought into proximity with the civilized, assume their habits, adopt their modes of action, and follow their form of government.

I can safely predict for you a similar result. In the spirit world those nations once most tenacious of kingly rights and of the majesty of the throne, lay quietly down their regal crowns, and assume the unostentatious cap of the republic. So will all the nations of earth follow their spiritual leaders and hurl out from the round globe the crumbling thrones and sceptres of kings and emperors and the tottering papal chair of Rome, down, down, into the vast tomb of antiquity!

FREDERIKA BREMER

_FLIGHT TO MY STARRY HOME_.

I was in Stockholm when the ambassador, who is sent by the all-wise Father to pilot his children to the unknown land of roses, called for me, and I was obliged to part with the body which, though homely and unattractive, like the dear, good “family roof,”[A] had rendered me service in many a stormy day.

[Footnote A: Swedish term for umbrella.]

The feeling I experienced in taking my departure was like that of going out into a pitiless storm, and it was followed by an intense prickling sensation, similar to that familiarly known as the “foot asleep.” This, I afterwards understood, was occasioned by the electrical current passing through my spirit as it assumed shape upon emerging from its old frame.

Some twenty minutes perhaps elapsed after the breath leaving the body before I became perfectly conscious in my new form. Upon recovering the use of my senses, my whole attention was drawn from myself to the friends who had gathered in the room which had so recently been my sick chamber.

As I watched them combing the hair and attiring the white, stiff figure that lay so solemnly stretched upon the couch, my emotions were indescribable. I endeavored to speak, but my voice gave but a faint sound, which they evidently did not hear--as a spirit, I attracted no attention. This caused me deep grief, for I desired them all to see me still living.

My sad emotions were presently dispelled by the sound of most mellifluous music bursting upon my senses; and as I turned my eyes to discover the source from whence it proceeded, I beheld, resurrected before me, a group of dear old friends, whose bodies were already dust and ashes in the Swedish grave-yards, and in the cemeteries of the old and new worlds. A hearty burst of joy escaped from my lips as I recognized them. We laughed, cried, shook hands, and kissed first on one cheek and then on the other, with the same enthusiasm and naturalness we would have shown had we been inhabitants of dear old mother Earth.

“Come, Frederika! Dear Frederika! don’t stay gazing on that old body! Leave friends who cannot talk with you and come with us!” they clamored on all sides. Their voices were like a full orchestra; besides, some had instruments of music, upon which they improvised little songs to my honor. I was fairly bewildered. Presently they formed a circle about me and commenced whirling rapidly around and around. I felt as in a hammock swayed by the wind; a dreamy lethargy stole over me, and I gradually became unconscious; and thus, I am told, they bore me through the earth’s atmosphere, out in the stellar spaces, to a new world--a world not of the earth, earthy, but the New Jerusalem which I had so often pictured to my fancy.

A soft, pleasant breeze blowing directly upon my face, restored me to consciousness. I opened my eyes, and, lo! I was reclining upon a divan in a great pavilion. The friends whom I had previously recognized were around me, some making magnetic passes over me, others engaged in preparations for my comfort. Upon seeing me awaken, several friends approached with flowers and fruits. The term “flowers,” though a beautiful appellation, gives but a faint idea of these marvellous creations.

My attention was particularly attracted to one whose corolla was of deep violet striped with gold, having long silvery filaments spreading out from the cup in lines of light like the luminous trail of a comet.

In a state of delicious languor, I watched the varied wonders before me. The pavilion, which was of silver lace or filagree woven in the most exquisite patterns, was a hundred or more feet in circumference, and adorned with open arches and columns on its several sides. These columns and arches were of coral and gold, which contrasted with the silver network, and the blossoms and foliage of curious plants and vines which graced the interior, forming altogether a structure of singular elegance and beauty.

Numberless forms like the fabled peris and gods of mythology glided in and out of these arches, and approached me with offerings of welcome. One blooming Venetian maiden presented me with a crystal containing a golden liquid, which she said was the elixir of the poets and painters of her nation. The name she gave it was “The Poet’s Fancy,” and she informed me that it was distilled from a plant which fed upon or absorbed the emanations which the active mentalities of these poetic beings exhaled.

This information was quite new to me, and gave me pleasure, as it accorded with my ideas of correspondence. So I sipped the “Poet’s Fancy,” and imagined that its delicious, aromatic flavor vivified me like rays of sunshine. If, previously, I had been charmed, I now certainly experienced a power of enjoyment and quickness of perception tenfold increased.

I then inquired for Swedenborg, Spurzheim, and Lavatar. “You will meet them further on,” said she, smiling. “They are not here.” I was so well pleased with her that I twined my arm around her fairy-like form and we glided away together. As I desired to obtain a peep at the outside of the beautiful pavilion, my companion led the way, pausing here and there to present me to groups who had advanced for that purpose. The company I found to be composed of writers and painters, interspersed with a few of my own personal friends; and I felt gratified to find myself so well received by those whom I had known on earth as celebrities.

“’Tis strange,” I remarked to my companion, “that such choice minds should all be gathered together in one place.”

“They are spirits congenial to your own,” said she. “Like attracts like, and they have come from their respective homes in the spirit world to welcome you here.”

“Ah,” said I, “I now begin to understand what all this fine company means! This is my reception.”

As we were leaving the pavilion we were joined by Herr Von ----, the celebrated Swedish naturalist who had recently entered the spirit world. He congratulated me upon my safe arrival, and kindly offered to act as _cicerone_ and to point out to me the marvels by which I was surrounded.

To my astonishment, on reaching the open air I discovered that the pavilion was located upon the summit of a lofty mountain. The face of this mountain was of many colors and glistened like precious stones. My friend led me to the point of a precipice on one side and bade me look down. This I did, and beheld phosphorescent rays issuing from the sides.

“What wonder is this?” I asked. He informed me the mountain was magnetic in its character, and that it was, so to speak, the first station from earth, and a point easily attained by a spirit newly arriving from that planet. He said I was not permanently to remain upon the mountain, but was placed there until I should become acclimated to the spirit atmosphere, and to acquire strength before travelling to that portion of the spirit land which would form my permanent abode.

The apex of the mountain formed a flat plain about two miles in extent. We walked onward some distance, when he pointed out to me another pavilion, much larger than the one to which I had been borne. The exterior form of each was alike, and resembled a Turkish mosque; the crown-like canopy which formed the top being surmounted by a ball so dazzling in brightness that I was obliged to turn my gaze from it. This ball was composed of an electric combination, which shed its rays far through space. “And,” said the good Herr Von ----, “as the pavilion is used for the reception of the friendless and the homeless, they are attracted and guided to it by its coruscations.”

We proceeded some steps further, and he showed me how the mountain, which is steep and precipitous on the northern exposure, sloped into broken chains and lower elevations on the southern; and from this point, looking down, I beheld through the clear atmosphere a billowy landscape, clothed with soft, rich verdure, more fresh and green to the eye than that which covers dear mother Earth.

“How wonderful are thy works, O God!” I exclaimed, as we retraced our steps. And I could not but reflect upon the singular trait exhibited by Jesus of frequenting a high mountain to pray. Surely, altitude elevates one into the spiritual state, and no doubt Christ felt nearer to the spirit world when elevated far above Jerusalem, on the mountain-top, amid the clouds. Thus, looking down from the sublime height, I realized for the first time that I too was a spirit and an inhabitant of the world in which Jesus dwelt!

LYMAN BEECHER.

_THE SABBATH_.

In the days of my ministrations on earth, it was pretty generally believed that the Sabbath day was one of peculiar sanctity; and that the Creator, having completed the creation of the earth in six days, had rested upon the _seventh_ from the labor attendant on that work. But science, which is ever at war with the Jewish record, has established the fact that the world was not created in that short space of time.

The multiplicity of worlds created also disprove the idea that the Creator could have rested during any set period of time.

Some zealous skeptics, to counteract the belief in the sanctity of the Sabbath, have asserted that mind can never rest, and that as _God_ is a spirit, rest to him is impossible.

Even granting this hypothesis, history and research have proven the wisdom and utility of the Jewish Sabbath, as established by the great lawgiver, Moses.

The Jews at that time were an active, restless, laboring people. Their industry had enriched Egypt, and having escaped from her oppressive bondage, they were liable, in their efforts to found a nation of their own, to carry their habits of industry to excess.

Probably they overworked their slaves, their cattle, themselves, and the “stranger within their gates.” Their wise lawgiver, under the direct influence of spiritual guides, promulgated this law: “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy man-servant, thy maid-servant, thy cattle, nor the stranger within thy gates.”

And this commandment has been handed down from the Jewish to the Christian nations. With the early Jews it was a day of recreation, of dancing, and of song. The early Christians employed the day at first in social intercourse, afterwards it became a day of sacred ordinance; and, as copies of the Scriptures were rare, they met on that day to hear them read, and in their simple faith would select passages and apply them to their own necessities.

When the Christian religion invaded Pagan countries and became established, the days which had formerly been appropriated to feasting and sacrificing to the gods and goddesses became the fast-days of the Romish Church.

When Protestantism arose, she swept off from her calendar these fast-days, and returned to the simplicity of the Jewish Sabbath.

Puritanism followed and gave a literal meaning to the text, “Thou shalt do no work.” Under her reign, all labor was suspended on the seventh day. A strict watch was set upon the actions of the individual: household duties were neglected: fires were not lighted or food cooked. The great world of activity stood still.

Rest so severe embittered men’s judgment, and the Sabbath became a day for prying into the derelictions of each other. A rigid observance was placed upon men’s actions, and stringent laws were made to punish the offender against this enforced rest.

So tyrannous and exacting did the Puritan observers of the Sabbath become, that their rigid formulas created a rebellion in the minds of the succeeding generation, and so great has been the reaction, that in our day it has become a common assertion that “all days are alike,” and the steam-car and the horse-car, the coach, and the hack, ply their busy wheels through the streets of our large cities, and the church-goers travel thereon to their different sanctuaries.

“All days are alike to God,” says the reformer; “why should we observe the Sabbath more than any other day?” I will tell you why: a concentration of the spiritual nature of men throughout Christendom necessarily creates a magnetic atmosphere through which spiritual beings can approach. The sincere and devout worshippers in every land congregating in churches upon one day, send forth waves of magnetic light which extend into the world of spirits. The music and the prayers are borne upward on this current, and great batteries are thereby formed that cannot but affect the souls in Paradise. They respond to the music and the prayers, and worshippers in the churches feel their magnetic influences. Those who are sincere in their religious faith say that they feel “heaven opened to them.” Even those who attend church from fashion, or for the purpose of meeting their friends and neighbors, are there brought in contact with spiritual influences which could reach them in no other way.

The experience I have gained since my entrance into my spiritual home has given me more liberal ideas of the uses of the Sabbath, and taught me that to the working man it is a necessary day of recreation. But I lift my voice against its becoming one of beer-drinking and boisterous sports. The workman who is confined to the bench or the workshop, in the midst of a crowded city, for six days of the week, will certainly be benefited by seeking the green fields and healthful influences of the country; but on reaching that desirable Eden, let means be provided for his instruction; so, while sitting under the leafy trees, his mind may be benefited, and his bodily organism rested, rather than injured by feasting and rioting in the public gardens and parks.

Field preaching should become a regular institution of the Sabbath; and discourses instructing the mind in morals and sciences should be given in the tent, or under trees, in parks and woods set apart for that purpose. Then would, the object of the Sabbath be attained. As I have said, the spiritual nature is more open to the reception of truth on that day.

The state of sleepiness, which is a well-known attendant on the Sabbath, is indicative of the magnetic influence; and those who discard the day, and secretly pursue their active employments, would do well to heed the remarks I have made.

Before I close, I wish to make some observations upon the present style of preaching as compared with the sermonizing of my day. When I occupied the pulpit, the doctrines of election and predestination were the principal themes that engaged the attention of ministers.

Free will and coerced will were questions which puzzled the theologian. Looking upon the Bible as an inspired book, the most careless sentence therein expressed became a word of weighty import. We engaged the minds of our hearers with abstract questionings and reasonings. But we never could make the doctrine of predestination accord with that of free will. Nor could we clearly account for the presence of evil, while we believed the Creator to be all wise, all powerful, and cognizant of the end from the beginning. Yet these were the topics which the minister of my day discussed and endeavored to make clear to the comprehension of his hearers. We did not treat of every-day life; the pulpit we considered too sacred for such topics. Religion with the masses became an abstract state of holiness. Men assumed long faces and sober bearings upon the seventh day; but their every-day life was something different, which the minister and his ministering did not reach.

But the pulpits of to-day are platforms of another kind. They have altered, even as their shape has altered. Their outward construction corresponds to their teachings. In my day the pulpit was narrow and straight, and was lifted high above the people. But at the present day a step only separates it from the congregation. It is broad, low, and open. The teachings received from it correspond with its change of form. The ministers of to-day are one with their flock. Their discourses are practical, relating to every-day affairs. They no more discuss the questions of Satan, of angels, and archangels, nor arouse an undefined fear by descanting on the mysterious prophecies of Daniel: they talk to you like _human beings._

I remember being somewhat shocked while listening to sermons preached by my son, H.W. Beecher. I recall sitting near his pulpit, and longing to get up and tell the congregation my views of texts and matters of which he was discoursing. I thought then it was because the race was going backward--becoming less intellectual--that men should be content to listen to sermons that contained so little theology. But experience in spirit life has caused me to change my opinion.

I now see that Beecher, Spurgeon, and a vast host of others, are teaching human souls the great truths which will fit them for life hereafter. I have done now with endeavoring to solve improbable problems, and with simple faith in man’s efforts for his own progression, I give my testimony as to the uses of the Sabbath, and the advantages of religion in advancing their progress, and in preparing the spirit for its future home.

PROFESSOR GEORGE BUSH.

_LIFE AND MARRIAGE IN THE SPIRIT WORLD_.

The two worlds--the spiritual and the material--are like twin sisters whom I have seen, so similar that their acquaintances could not distinguish between them, and yet so dissimilar that an intimate friend would wonder why one should ever be mistaken for the other.

I propose to give a short account of the society and conditions of life in the spiritual spheres.

The Swedenborgian Society of which I was a member while on earth, continues to exist as a body in the spirit world, though Swedenborg, the great seer and founder of that sect, is not a leader among them. He has his country seat in Swedenborgia, a beautiful and intellectual settlement named after him, where he retires within himself, and directs his great mind in developing his science of correspondences, which he proposes to arrange so systematically that it will become a part of the teachings of earth’s children.

It was never his design to become the leader of a sect, but his desire was simply to reveal like a telescope that which was unknown. He is deeply interested in the political condition of Sweden, Norway, and Germany, and exerts his vast intellect towards emancipating the minds of those nations from the bondage of church and state.

It is curious to witness with what fidelity Swedenborg described in many instances the condition of the soul after death; and also to perceive in other instances how utterly he misinterpreted the visions presented.

Such discrepancies are incidental to all clairvoyant states; and this is not surprising, for it is incidental to humanity.

Man sees clearly when the prejudices of education and the influence of his loves do not pervert his vision.

What political economist, strongly biased in favor of one mode of government, can contemplate dispassionately an opposing form?

The theological belief which Swedenborg imbibed in his early youth, tinctured his description of the heavens and hells of the spirit world, causing him to represent the soul as reaching a period in its love of evil when it cannot retrace its steps. The hells of the spirit are similar to the hells of earth, being like them the result of the ignorance and perverted loves of animal man.

What hell more fearful than the hell of licentiousness? Yet it is merely the animal side of the heaven of love.

Swedenborg discovered hells in spiritual existence, where the inmates lived lives of prostitution. His statement concerning such hells is true. Individuals who have lived such lives upon earth cannot suddenly be transformed. Their habits become _spiritual diseases_ with them.

Now, as to marriage, the mere form does not make the wife different from the courtezan, but her love exalts her above that condition. If she be united to a man who is repulsive to her nature, and yet submits to his embraces for the considerations of family, or home, or public opinion, she is on the same plane with the courtezan.

It is a proposition generally believed, that there is a soul-mate for every human being, and it is usually supposed that in the spirit world those mates are found, and that those united there live together inseparably. But as there exists in the spirit world the same states, the same variety of progressive development among men and women as in this world, so unions are formed there in which one soul develops beyond the capacity of the other, and in such cases changes must ensue.

I will now speak of marriages more in detail.

In the summer land the union of the man with the woman occurs from very similar causes to those which bring about like unions upon earth--the man is drawn to the woman and the woman to the man through the operation of a natural law. If instinct were not so impaired by the cultivation of the external faculties, there would arise but little difficulty--on earth in selecting partners adapted to each other. Considerations of wealth and position are permitted to influence your selections rather than the idea of congeniality and adaptability.

In spirit life this method is reversed, and the marriages formed there are productive of greater happiness than those among men in the first condition of life.

But as I have stated, marriage in the spirit world is not an indissoluble bond. Some minds associate together in harmony and expand in the same direction, and with these the union is permanent. I have seen such in the spirit world,--beautiful and noble souls intertwined and aspiring together.

There be others whose states and conditions after a time become changed. Such seek new companions, and this is permitted without discredit to the individuals.

Many forms of marriage ceremonies are extant in the different societies and countries. Garlands of flowers and symphonies of divine music are bestowed upon the bride and groom. Bright bands of spirits from the celestial heavens attend them, for they represent in their love and in their wedded joy the harmonies of nature!

While they love, sin, sorrow, darkness, and all evils shrink from sight.

From these spiritual marriages are born soul attributes. Human beings are never generated in the second condition; they need what is known as the material world for their nurture and growth; and yet I understand that in some of the more refined spiritual existences births have occurred. The beings born there are indigenous--not generated by earth parents, but offspring of those refined conditions.

I know not of this as a fact; yet if we take the old Jewish Bible as a history, we find an analogous statement there in the assertion that Christ was born of God in a spiritual state of existence previous to entering this earth plane.

Spirit soils and atmosphere interblend and produce trees, shrubs, flowers, and the cereals, but the human being, after the second birth, ceases to reproduce his species. His children are thoughts born of the spirit. After birth succeeds death. The soul passes through many stages of existence in the process of refinement. The next state of existence to the material, I term the spiritual, and the one beyond that the celestial, and beyond that the seraphic.

In the next state, to which I in common with all men who have not passed some hundreds of years in the spirit world belong, individuals pass through a condition analogous to death upon the earth.

Spiritual bodies are subject to a process of refinement and decay; and the soul, as the winged butterfly to which it is likened, throws off its cerement and assumes a new form.

But with us the transmigration is not veiled in darkness and mystery as with you. We can watch the transformation; we can see the spirit emerge from its old casement more ethereal than ourselves, but still visible; and we can hold communion with it.

So slight is this change with us that your mediums seldom touch upon the fact.

Spirit is inseparable from matter, and can give neither form nor expression without it.

The Great Invisible Creator of the Universe must have thought of trees, flowers, beasts, birds, fish, and the wonderful exhibitions of form through the vast realm of matter, previous to their existence.

But he had to give them shape in matter--perishable but re-creative matter; and if the Master-mind of all cannot express his thought otherwise than with this ever changing, yet ever reconstructing thing called matter, how can the human soul manifest but through a spiritualized condition of matter, ever changing yet ever re-creating and refining, mounting higher and higher, from the earthly to the spiritual, from the spiritual-to the celestial, on--on--till finally reaches Deity--himself!

JUNIUS BRUTUS BOOTH

_ACTING_.

All great actors are media for spirit influx. It would be a marvellous sight if the curtain which hangs between the spirit world and the stage were uplifted, and the invisible drama which is being enacted exposed to view. Then would you behold “the airy spirits” to whom Shakspeare so truthfully alludes, moving like comets in gorgeous light around the inspired actor!

Inspiration is _motion, acceleration, intensity_; it has no part or parcel with lethargy.

I recall my past experience, portions of which I review with regret. In endeavoring to obtain this energy, this motion, this acceleration, I was obliged in my ignorance to resort to artificial means. A knowledge of the laws of spirit life would have enabled me to have avoided this mistake; but that knowledge I did not possess.

The actor of the present day is blessed with the knowledge that he has merely to throw himself into the magnetic state, and become _en rapport_ with spiritual conditions, to find himself inspired--inflated with the divine magnetic current which flows from the spirit world to the inhabitants of earth. If a player desires to represent a certain character,--let it be the subtle, fiend-like Richard III. or the crafty Richelieu,--the customary mode of studying such characters is to endeavor to imagine one’s self to be the person. That is the first step towards mediumship; for it is one degree from the natural, towards the superior state. Usually, through ignorance, the student proceeds no further than this point; and the spirit assistants can only partially aid him. But an actor possessing the knowledge of placing himself _en rapport_ with these characters, whether traditional or real, is immediately cut loose from his surroundings and becomes the Richard or Richelieu whom he would personate.

From the brain of every spirit medium ascends a blazing sun, which burns the brighter when the magnetic relations between it and the spirit world are most perfect. This blazing light, this radiant effulgence, is perceived instinctively, though not knowingly, by every individual who listens to a discourse from a “trance medium.” So from the brain of the actor this glorious light throws out its rays into the assembly, and when he becomes fully inspired, its magnetic influence is felt with overpowering vividness; and the result is, the audience themselves are set in motion, and from pit to gallery you hear vociferous applause.

There are actors who are good, and who acquire fame, who have never felt this divine afilatus. The intellect of the audience appreciates them for their declamation, for the art and artifice which they manifest; but the humblest and most illiterate of that assembly know well that this studied eloquence does not fire the brain.

But it will not do to trust blindly to spirit control; a knowledge and constant study of human nature is necessary.

It is a well-known fact that a person steadily looking at one point will influence twenty others to look at that point also, and to imagine they see some object before them. Understanding this principle, you may work upon each attribute in the minds of your audience. If fear is to be aroused, do as your neighbor does as he hastily enters your house after meeting with a fearful calamity. You become excited before even hearing the evil which has befallen him. Every faculty can be acted upon in the same manner--grief and joy alike.

Of the ventriloquial powers of the human voice, many speakers are ignorant. The tyro on the stage wishing to make the remotest individual in his audience hear, bawls at the top of his lungs. He is unaware that the organs of the human voice are a kind of electrical machine, governed by the will-power, and that the actor has merely to throw his will and direct his mind to a given point, for his voice to reach that point and produce a far more startling effect than the loudest blast that any pair of lungs could bring forth. Thus the lowest whisper can be made to tell at the farthest corner of the theatre.

But perhaps I have said enough of the methods best adapted to produce representations of character on the stage. The question may arise in the mind of the reader, whether there is any opportunity of exercising the talent of acting in the spirit world, supposing that talent to have been cultivated in this.

In the remotest ages, and among the most uncultivated nations, as well as among the most highly civilized, the power of representing human passions and events has been exercised instinctively, showing this power to be as much a portion of the soul’s attributes as the gift of thought or of fancy. If one belongs to the immortal condition, the other does also.

One of the chief enjoyments which the all-wise Creator has made attainable to the inhabitants of the starry heavens is that of dramatic representations of life, character, and events, transpiring in the countless worlds that wheel through space.

The field of the actor for depicting the truths of human nature in the world of spirits is vast and unconfined!

Eloquence is appreciated on earth, but that appreciation is weak and tasteless compared with the estimation of that “gift of the gods” by the inhabitants of the summer land.

Some blind, short-sighted investigators tell you there is no speech among us; they would lead you to imagine that we inhabit a world blank and void of sound; that stillness more unbroken than the grave pervades our mysterious realm.

Conjure up the picture in your fancy, reader--the soul shrinks back from such a state! The spirit world is _all_ voice. Never have I heard notes clearer, louder, deeper, than resound through the electric air that surrounds my home.

The gift of speaking, and of representing individualities separate from your own identity, is a spiritual gift decidedly; and with us theatres and amphitheatres are as numerous as churches are with you. I will leave the description of these structures for the ready pen and speech of our friend Burton.

JOHN WESLEY.

“_THE DIVISION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, INTO SEVERAL BODIES, AND ITS RE-ORGANIZATION INTO ONE GENERAL BODY.”_

I will take for my text this sentiment from the New Testament: “I will draw all men unto me, and there shall be one church and one people.”

The church which was organized by our Lord[A] Jesus Christ was designed to establish a feeling of brotherhood between separate and distinct classes of people, and to abolish the system of castes, which was the prevailing sin of the eastern nations.

[Footnote A: The word “Lord” is used in the sense of an earthly lord who cares for his people.]

Christ made no distinction between the Sadducee and the Pharisee, the publican and the saint, the high priest of the temple and the lowliest of his followers. He placed the affections above the intellect, truth and sincerity above wealth and worldly position.

The church which he originated for many years followed in his footsteps. But as it increased in numbers it accumulated wealth, and with wealth came power, and from that power issued discord and separation.

Thus, the church divided and subdivided, and split into a thousand pieces, formed new interests, created new beliefs, and sowed dissension and envy with a free hand.

Such has been the condition of the church for the past ten or twelve centuries. Meanwhile, in the Heaven of Heavens, has arisen a powerful movement directed towards restoring it to its original state of purity and simplicity. This great movement, like a mighty river seeking its outlet, has rushed on, diverging at several points, and at length found the reservoir it sought in what is termed _Spiritualism_.

The spiritualistic movement opened the gates for the expression of skepticism, which the formalism, the tyranny, bigotry, and externalism of the Church awakened in the minds of the people of every enlightened Christian nation; and the result has been a criticism so pungent, and an examination so thorough and direct, into the deformities of the Church, that she has been obliged to contemplate her own condition and the rottenness of her position, until she fairly trembles at the view of her disjointed parts.

On every hand now, at the present moment, efforts are being made to consolidate--to rejoin. On one side you behold the Protestant Episcopal Church offering to unite with the Methodists, from whom, since my day, they have stood aloof, as an illegal and fanatical people whom they could not fellowship.

On the other side, you see them stretching to the Roman Church, forming a brotherly compact of forms and ceremonies with Papacy.

One branch of the Presbyterian Church wears the robes of the Roman Church, and thus that is linked to Catholicism.

All these denominations which have stood apart so long, whose theology has been so antagonistic, are now merging into one Church.

In the face of the great danger which Spiritualism or Liberalism has brought to their sight, they endeavor to return to their first estate, but in returning they lose their identity.

This result is sure, though unperceived by them.

One by one, they will give up this point of difference and that point of difference, this creed and that creed, for the sake of harmony. This vestment they lay aside, and that form, until they will all be swallowed up, and neither Methodists nor Calvinists, Baptists nor Lutherans, Armenians, Jews, nor Gentiles, will remain. Then the primitive Church of Christ will be revived again upon earth, simple and unostentatious; its creed will be the creed of Jesus Christ:

“The brotherhood of man, and the love of God for his children.”

This creed, you perceive, embraces the whole of the spiritualistic faith, which is causing these great changes throughout the Church of Christ on earth.

* * * * *

At this point it will not be inappropriate to make some allusion to the mysterious sounds which occurred in my house in Lincolnshire, England, at intervals within the space of three or more years during my earthly ministrations.