Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-11-17
THE UNSEEN UNIVERSE.
OUR CONTACT WITH THE SPIRIT
UAL WORLD CONSIDERED.
An Interesting Discussion of Psy-
Geological Subject Which is
of Universal Speculation.
[By Rev. John F. von aerrlich.l ]

JIOn. stevenson, NOnNaY, owen. russell
Bronte, George Eliot and many other
writers have set people thinking. Think
ing what? Thinking that "there is more
'twixt Heaven and earth than has been
dreamt Of in our philosophy" Thinking
that there Is vast realm of mental, spirit
ual and psychological powers and posi-
bilities which is as yet little known-un-
explored-but within whose boundary
lines advanced thinkers have now entered.
Humanity is ever asking the question
"Haye we heard from the other side, and
what is the proof Of it?' "What will be
our condition on the other side, and how
do we know it?p All through the Old
Testament scriptures We read of the near
ness of the spiritual realm to the material
that they are not lying leagues and
leagues apart, but that they touch and
border upon each other. But does
the contact, the communication.
continue in this present day? Yes.
If it ever did! and let US not be deferred
In examining and investigating this
exalting, spiritualizing subject because
a great Bible fact and a sweet.
holy consolation has been perverted and
used by some for deceit and money-be-
cause a deep and holy consolation, proven
by the Scriptures, has been perverted into
an unworthy side-show of pretended rap
pings, phenomena and visible manifesto
tions
The mere fact that you and myself do
not see a thing does not prove that it has
no existence. The mere fact that you and
myself do not hear a thing does not prove
that it may not be heard. The mere fact
that you and myself do not feel thing
does not prove that it may not be felt. Faith
may be as much as sight, and consciousness
may prove as clearly as visible manifesta-
ton. The mere fact that you and myself
do not understand a thing does not prove
that it may not be understood by those
more spiritually enlightened or largely
gifted. But some say these strange and
preternatural things are against the laws of
nature. But by what warrant does any
one assume TO determine what the laws of
nature permit or DO not permit? Does
any one presume to know it all, or has
God revealed to any cold, ungifted ma
terialist the whole range of mental and
spiritual powers and possibilities What
mean these occasional instincts, intuitions
and flashes OF wonderful capabilities, un-
less to show that the soul and spirit are
now in their budding infancy? There may
be sounds, sights and existences all about
us which, for want Of power to see or feel
or hear, may go undiscovered by our ordi-
nary senses!
We may walk through some fair garden
at midnight, with the lilies and carnations,
the azalias and roses all about u.s. but un-
seen and unrecognized on account of the
darkness, and only when here and there
whittier bloom CLEANS out and sweet, faint
oders from unseen sources steal through
the dewy stiffness, do we feel and know
that We are in a garden, amid the shrubs
and blossoms. Now shall we doubt the
existence of the flowers because we cannot
see them? So, too, We may sit on some
hillside with the glorious landscape spread
all around, yet, owing to the dark pail of
thrown over valley and hilltop,
we can see nothing Of natures widespread
ing loveliness. But it is all there Just the
same as though a summers sun were pour
ing his beams down upon it. The mere
fact of conditions being such that we do
not see or hear a thing does not initiate
against its reality and existence. You
wake up of a summers morning and the
air is filled with mist and fog, and the
whole atmosphere about you is distinctly
visible. You can see but little distance
through it; but in a short hour it is all
gone-everything is clear and all has be-
come invisible. Has anything been lost?
Is anything gone? No; only change of
atmospheric conditions What before was
visible, by contact with heat, by attenua-
ton has become invisible So all through
the material world inyisibility does not
prove non-existence.
The Word of God speaks Of many things
about which we doubt and waver simply
because in our intellectual and spiritual
feebleness we cannot comprehend them
We may lay it down as a fixed fact that in
moral, spiritual, and intellectual things,
that which has taken place In the past is
possible in the present and future All
through the Scriptures we read of angels
and ministering spirits. Are they not
ministering spirits sent forth to minister
to them that are heirs of salvationw In
sour text we have a scene which has its
analogy in the illustration of the garden
or landscape obscured by the midnight. If
the tourist wait until the darkness has
been lifted, the grand scene will spread be-
fore him. 1t is there Just as real and
grand as il will be when the sun is in its
meridian splendor, but conditions are such
that he cannot see it.
So it was not until the Lord had
opened the young mans eyes, who was
with Elijah, to see spiritual things
that he saw horses and chariots of
fire about him. They were there Just the
same, but the physical eyes could not be-
hold them. So, too, there are many things.
yes, the grandest and best things in Gods
great universe, which now we cannot see.
WE cannot see the human spirit with its
powers OF love and hate, of thought and
sympathy, only as it plays upon the face
and features. But who ever doubted its
separate identity and existence from the
material body?
There are many things we may not see
but We may know and feel them. We
should no more confuse or identify love,
thought, sympathy and Imagination with
the material brain than the weaver should
confuse and identify the cloth that is
woven with the loom that it is woven
upon. The fact that man reasons and in
fers above and beyond material things is
itself proof positive that his mind is not
material nor a merely material produc-
ton. Everything demonstrates that the
soul possesses powers and capabilities that
the material senses could not give or ac-
count for. Our senses are constituted for
this world and we are to wisely enjoy it.
But our undeveloped spirits are constituted
for still higher realm of existence and
achievement; and if our very natures are
not false in themselves we must, in all
fairness, realize those promises and expec-
instinct and intuition were not placed by
mails to mislead but to direct and guide
them.