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


| self.
!, Facts of This kind are occurring all over ,h
land Young girls, little children, who kno'
nothing whatever of any language but the
own, are controlled by Spirits, and other lar
guages are uttered through their organs. I
this passive state, tones, accents, and commun
cations are given, which friends in the body rec
ognize as coming from friends who have gon
before them to the Spirit world. Now We ar
told that the Divine Spirit fell, in the past upol
the disciples gathered together on the day o
Pentecost, and they went out to speak to tn,
nations gathered in Jerusalem-the Greeks, tn.
Illyrians, the Romans, the Cappadocians-eacE
in his own lang. age. Here are the same phe
nomena, and even more than that, for we are moi
told that any test communications were then giveI
| from departed Greeks or Romans. But here
through the unconcious mediums, who never had
a chance to learn those languages, these commu.
nlcations are given with such effect, that they
| convince the skeptical mind who hears them, and
make him believer in the genuineness of the
| phenomena. We have our bodies of scientific
men: earnedly they discuss concerning the pre-
else antiquity of fossil oyster, or the age OF
some cypress root in the delta Of the Mississippi.
They gather together at the nations expense in
Washington, and publish learned disquisitions as
TO the cause of roosters Growing at a certain
hour ofthe night And oh will not the coming
age ridicule our pseudo-scientifc men of this!-
And yet, when Spirits speak through mediums in
the grand classical tongues of the past-when the
Greek, the Latin and Chaldic, and Persian, as
we'll as the modern dialects, roll out from chill
dren's tongues, they lay the papers, not on the
table nor under the table, butt they trampe them un
der, their feet as the ancient Jews trampled the
wisdom of the Just One of Nazareth. Yes, learn
edy they speculate as to the primal forces that
first organized Hchens, that first clothed the gray
granite with incipient vegetation; and when,
from the great world of causes, actual and taDg-
Bile, spiritual and natural organizations are made,
and seen, and felt, and the departed through them,
become visible 10 the senses, they call these
phenomena unworthy OF investigation! And
when one, or score, or hundred, more candid
than the rest, investigate and come out and tell
us what they have seen, they ostracized, call
ed to order, cannot speak, are hssed and choked
down. And SO truth goes begging in the street,
while falsehood sits in a chair of purple in the
Smithsonian Institute, established for the diffu-
sion of useful knowledge among men.
There is one little argument which will illus
trate the spiritin which these manifestations are
met among another class Of men, whom we have
esteemed worthy of all honor, and whom we have
clothed with authority, for whom we have built
temples grander than this, that they my reveal
truths new as well as old. refer to the clergy |
in the family of a learned divine. They amused
themselves with them, and, with most of their |
friends, ridiculed them, until serious lover of
truth-a friend of the family-urged them to form /
circle, which they did and through the medi- |
ums of the family of this divine, the Spirits COM
municated, and gave them test-answers, de-
monstrating the identity of the Spirits COM
municating, which amounted 10 satisfaction.
The family OF the divine, after this friend receiv-
ed his communications, asked for something from |
the Spirits. They spelled out one word--a sig
nifcant word-and that woel was "Mockery,
Mockery." And ask if these manifestations
have not been Knocked at! crucifed as between
two thieves! if the finger of scorn has not been
pointed at them by the very men claiming to be
the leaders of public opinion! if the cry has not
gone out aft thou be true, save thysef, and come
down from this cross!"
am admonished to brevity and pardon me if
leave several points untouched, and will pass
on and call your attention to another head: under
which we may class the spiritual phenomena of
the present day. To those of you who believe in
immortality-that when man leaves the body
he enters the Spirit-world- ifthe spirit could
still hold the corpse-like hand and speak through
those cold, palid lips, he could tell US what he
sees in that great dswning vsion-l would say
that tens ofthousands of intelligent and virtuous
infdels, but members of all the
churches in tie lend-pass, at the present time,
into states in which, retaining their connection
with the body TO a certain extent, as 10 use
The hands to write and the lips to speak, yet are
80 far free from it as to behold the wonders and
beauties Of the heavens, and communicate what
they see. We are told that in the ancient times
certain of the disciples of Jesus passed into the
same condition, saw the Spirits, talked with them,
md came back and told what they saw. If We
believe these facts, therefore, upon the evidence
,fthe dead, we called upon to believe in cores
bonding facts upon the evidence of the living. Be
levers in Observation-Disclosures in the Bible as Il e
Word of 6 God-beever5 in the great spiritual facts
If the New Observation-Disclosures in the great truth
hat God never contradicts himself-helievers in
he great fact that the God of the departed is the
God ofthe lving-belevers in the great prophecy
hat man shall be delivered from the grossness
IF materially. and hold communion with the skies
believers in the great truth of mnsteriDg Spirits
Il ask, if according to the postulates of your
,wn faith, you are not bound to believe in the
facts upon the testimony of good
md Just men at the present day!
Spirits prove themselves to be SpiIits-prove
hat they actually do communicate at the present
lay not alone by answering, under suitable con-
litions, thousands of questions covering all the
acts of their past life, but also by lifting human
bodies, and carrying them through the air. Chris
Testament, that Phillip was translated from one
locality to another. If you believe that, call
lpon you to believe the corresponding facts OF the
1resen day upon the evidence of Just men and
Christian men-men OF thought and Judgment
men who say that the senses are reliable in con-
junction with the reason in determining facts as
evidences. You who have been accustomed to
try evidence and weigh testimony--I ask if you
believe in the evidence of the senses on one point,
ire we not bound to believe the evidence of the
senses on another! Ii we believe the evidence
of our senses when we clasp the hands of our
friends, are we not bound, on the evidence of the
senses-when they are appealed 10, and the facts
ire given--to believe that we clasp the hands OF
Spirits, We who believe on intellectual evidence
that the spirits of our friends living in mortal
bodies do communicate, are we not bound. when
an equal weight of testimony is given TO believe
that the departed speak as we'll as the lvingt
A few words more and have done. 1t is ad-
mitted by the clearest intellects and the highest
of all times, that man does not orr
gnate IDEAS but that they flow down in an order
" influx from ministerng Spirits-irom the skies
from God. Now, as believers in Spritualism,
we stand subjectvely on the same platform stood
On by Plato, Anaxagoras, or, in modern times,
by Coeredge, Kaut, Cousin, and by our highest
adding to the simple order, method
and precision, and finding in external, objective
phenomena of eorrespondences, the evidences of
the genuineness of an external faith. Grand and
solemn thought that as by the body we are con-
nected to the earth, SO by the mind we are con-
with the skies as by the sensuous
we take cognizance of the world
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