Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1855-03-11

oPPinS PiiCuOlsHd, uOh puDuCly assert Tn
/, the phenomena are occasionedb by departed Spirit
1t will not do, with body of credible witness
embracing all classes in society, Of this charact
and magnitude, to cry fraud | lean not, of cour,
attempt learnedly to explain the rationale of Il
| fact. Time forbids. No more is the Cbristis
! minister obliged to explain how Christ healed Il
leper, stilled the sea, or talked with Spirits. w
appeal as Christ did in his reply to the disciple
| of John, to the facts. Hundreds of thousands
| intelligent men and women, upon what seems
them absolute evidence, proclaim hat they hay
communicated with their departed friends. | asl
as was asked of old, hath this thing been done i
a corner! Overlapping the limits of our own cont
nent. these manifestations are now occurring /
all parts of the civilized world
Who are the mediums for such manifestations
Gray-headed men and women, standing on tn
brink ef eternity, and so through all this colder
link of life, to infants unweaned, clergymen
editors, highest scientific authorities jursts, ply
slcians, merchants, mechanics, hunters of TN
forest, and sailors at the yard-arm.
Where have the wrappings been heard! II
the most crowded assemblies, and alone in the
midnight chamber, at the birth of the infant anC
in the departure and burial of the dead. In circles
of bankers in the New York Exchange, in the
lagoons Of the Pacific.
Whet has been said through the rappings!
Millions of test answers to mental questions
laying bare heart-secrets, life-secrets, voices OF
recognized intelligence, and faithful love, from
the mi lions gone to the millions crying for some
voices from out that silent sky. All! it is as if
the mighty heart of all departed loved ones
impulsed its deathless blood-drops, and dropping
them in golden sounds upon the living earth.
.. The second method by which Spirits COM
muncate is by temporary organizations of matter.
A gentleman who is not identified with Spiritual
ism, but who is perhaps clear-headed and keen
an observer as our nation affords, has informed
me that in circle recently, FIVE sheets of paper
were placed upon the floor, and FIVE pencils were
at once seen writing on these sheets. Senator
Simmons, of Rhode Island, informs US, that a
Spirit purporting to be his son, without the in
terventon of any visible agency, controlled q
pencil, and gave a communication in the same
manner. There are various localities in the
country where this form of phenomena is contin-
ually occurring. Now, if we admit such facts,
we admit the existence of power that is able
to grspple the pen and write out its own thought
free from any apparent mortal agency If we
are to credit tEe testimony of, perhaps, hundred
thousand witnesses, the atoms of the atmosphere
are condensed, and used by Spirits ; by the use of
which, as through temporary organization, the
disembodied intellect operates on objects in the
material world.
Widely varying opinions must exist concerning
the hidden laws whereby these phenomena are
produced by Spirits; facts themselves, however,
are too broad and current for dispute. If we ad-
nit that Spirits can, under suitable conditions,
condense the elements of matter dffused in space,
then is opened up the most important field for in
vestgation that has ever dawned upon the world.
So tar from matter being an impenetrable wall
between man on earth and man unfettered and
immortal, it all becomes fluent medium for the
appearing and the operation of the departed. Now
Spiritualism covers this broad domain. So far
from intelligent Spritualists being the dreamers
of the age, they are engaged, with all their
senses quickened, with all the intellectual pow
ers energzed, with all of the moral perceptions
opened and Illuminated, in solving the universal
relations between mind and matter. lift great
thing for Agassiz or Humboldt TO disintegrate
the strata of the planet and discover how the
God Of ages worked myrads of ages past, though
that knowledge is of the past how much grander
is it to discover the great formative powers that
operate in the present to ascertain, not alone
how the fossils Of antiquity had their origin, but
actually to witness, as Spirtualists do now, the
living forces of the universe performing the lv-
ing work. | am glad to know, am glad to rec
DgRize the shining of a divine idea in every
crystal and every petrifacton ; l sympathze with
those who unswathe the mummed past how
hen can refuse TO sympathze with that gran
Ter science that brings me face to face with super
5ensuous realities, that shows me how disembodi- |
ed Spirits can speak through external air, and |
make it vibrate on the tympanum-how they |
1recipitate the constituents of the atmosphere so
rs to form visible hands that can see, and tam |
gible hands that can feel; nay, how much more |
hall my bosom thrill to that stupendous opera |
ion, whereby my friends clothe themselves with |
electrical elements of light, and so descend to the
natural plane of vision, as to reappear to my |
perception and radate the sunshine of immortal
owe through the eyes upon the heart
8. One of the most interesting OF all philo-
optical experiments is that by which the human
,ody under the influence of galvanic current
) made, though the Spirit has fed, to manifest
nee more the functions of vitality. 1t is start
ing TO see the corpse rise as if the breath OF life
nee more were in its nostrils This, however,is
ut trifing matter compared to another class
f spiritual phenomena witnessed everywhere
throughout our land. refer now to those phe-
Iomena known as Spiritual possessions. There
re perhaps hundred THOUSAND mediums of dif-
erent kinds. The eyeds close, the nerves re-
az, the pulse ceases almost to beat, state deep
r than sleep deep as death and its great spiritual
waking, is induced upon the subject. Then
hat paralyzed form, quickened by an invisible
ire, rises, the lips utter words that evidently are
lie production of a mind distinct from the spirit
nhabiting the organization. The phenomena Of
peaking medumship are thus presented. You
re all familiar with the fact that skilful bio
ogcel operator can produce states by the opera
ions Of the mind upon persons ofdelicate nervous
organization, in which the subject shall utter,
lot his own thought, but the ideas existing in the
mind of the operator. No one disputes it. 1t
GEMS as if these biological discoveries had been
permitted and ordered to prepare the world for
he mental operations of risen Spirits.
4. The fourth class Of phenomena. still more
gnfcant because more personal, may be STYLED
into the world of Spirits. When
man dies, he lays aside the external form;
lothed upon with a garment of spiritual sub
tance, he beholds tangible Spirit-creation. He
ees according to state, the inhabitants of that
immense abode and could the spirit who has
st left the body still retain possession OF its
ips to speak, or its hands to write, the wonders
i that sublime apocalypse could be at once made
manifest to the vision of the Spirit, and commu-
heated to the mourners weeping round the rent
,ody of its mortality. Now this thing is sub
tantially effected through the phenomena alluded
o. The spirit actually does become go far dis
connected from the body as TO see with Spirit
yes, hear with Sprit-ears, and thrill with Spirit
ouch to the harmonies of the world of Spirits
ctains, still, however, sufficient control of the
'rGans OF speech TO indicate the nature OF that |
most absolute condition, that eternal life that |
lnimates Us.
We assert, then, that we believe in modern |
Spiritualism-in the communication of Spirits with |
material things-because Spirits tangible prove |
heir power to 90 control, under suitable condi- |
ions, the ultimate essences or refined substances
IF the natural world ms IN assume temDorary or