The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1853-01-13

sgcyy to Explain Spiritual KiapPin=.
That able English author, Isaac Taylor,
thus dsposes of the very question which
Spiritual Rappings bring up, while discuss
ing the noises which disturbed the the early !
home of John Wesley:
Wesey's instinct of belief, which was a
prominent characteristic of his mud, met no
counteractive force in its structure, which
was not at all of the piiosophc cast He
reasoned, more than he thought this, how
ever, is too significant fact not to claim dis
tinct consideration hereafter. The often
told story of .Jeffery's" tricks, and antics at
the Epworth parsonage, need not in this
place be repeated; but they must be alluded
to in passing, for this strange episode in his
early history took effect upon Wesley in a
decisive manner. Might we say that it so
laid open his faculty of belief, that ':right
of way'' Tor the supernatural was opened
through his mind, and to the end of bis life
there was nothing so marvellous that it could
not freely pass, where .Jefery" had passed
before It. @
In thus speaking, we are far from Intend
, ing 10 make light of SD well-attested and re-
, markable story that of the long-con-
tiHued noises and jostlings of the Epworth
imp. There is need, in an instance like
this, to feel as.if the alternative we're either
to reject mass of well sustained and copous
r evidence; or, il it be admitted, then to talk
: fof "Divine interpretations or miracles nd
SO to make ourselves liable to the indeterInin-
: ate question, "What purpose, worthy Of God
: can be subseryed by these, or similar occur
e rences1 The mistake is, when such oc-
d currences are not of a kind that can be re-
/. ljected as tricks or fctions, Immediately to
attribute to them a religi US meaning, or to
see in them the hand of heaven.
Why should any such hypothesis be resort.
cd to!--we do not so think in parallel instan.
ces. Once in a century, or not so often. or
s a summers evening, stray Arabian locust
IT a genuine son OF the desert tempest-borne
we know not how, has alighted in II yde
- Park, or elsewhere. This rare occurrence
and which it is difficult to explain, is indeed
: out of the course of nature; but it if not su
IS pernatural; certainly it is not religion,
If event Nor, to judge o. them by their an
a parent characteristics, are many other mex
= plicable occurrences, similar to the Epworti
rectory noises and disturbances, to be though
NJ of as touching any religious question. Il
,r truth, there is nothing in these facts of ;
"A celestial complexion; nor are they gray,
enough to be reputed Internal NC can in
* cur no risk of committing sacriege when W,
l. deal with occult folk, such as "Jefiery," huff
lg ingly and disrespectfully. Almost, while in
n tent upon these quaint performances, ON,
seems to catch glimpse of u creature--half
u intelligent, or idiotic, whose FRANKS are 'lik
O. those of one that, using brief opportunit
lg given it by chance, is going to the extent o
" Its tether in freaks of bootless mischief
70 Why may not this be thought Aruun
= US, as most believe, are beings of a bie
~ order, whether good or evil, and yet not cog
Tn nizable by the sense of man. But the ana
IT, logies of the visible world favor the suppose
us ton that, besides these there are orders. O
=, species, of all grades, and some, perhaps no
" more intelligent than apes or than Mos
er That these species have no liberty. ord
lie narily, to infringe upon the solid world
ne manifest; nevertheless, chances, or mischan
=, ces, may, in long cycles of time, throw som
y (like the Arabian locust) over his boundar,
and give him an hours leave to dispor. hin
sell among things palpabIe. ora r--..
ba ISAAC TAYLOR.