realm of terrestrial spheres. Duration is a faint resemblance of its nameless self. JEHOVAH: August appellative! is but the retiring echo of a truer name:-Majestic utterance, yet the expiring cadence of the CAUSE thus orally expressed. THOU most HOLY-BEING eternally unknown, THOU art our FATHER, and heaven the Pavilion of thy Thought thou givest as our home. MOST BENEFICENT. THEE Wwe adore, whom as the Word we know; and best we know thee when in our heart thy Love we feel. All Perfection thou! Our weakness brings us to the dust: thy hand of Mercy lifteth up. In Thee we live; from Thee our sense derive. POWER OMNIPOTENT! Thou movest immensities. Universe Terrestrial, Spiritual, Celestial, Seraphimal, God-like, Divine; are as inferior stars in unimportant constellations encircling Thee. LIFE: define it? Never! It is, and that is all frail man may know. SPIRIT: Who hath known thee? Who of thy element conceived? Thou art eternal, and thy shadows dwell in man. Mortality seeth thee not; nor doth gross nature sense thee. Neither materiality confine thee. What thou art, who knoweth? Of what thou doest, peradventure, dependent beings know somewhat! Can read thee in thy works; thy goings forth; and comprehend the degrees of thy movement the retiring wake causeth in thy immensurable Procedure: or in thy receding presence bask as on the bosom of infinity beneath the glory of the eternal Sun. All Spirit-forms are as minutest dew drops trembling on the open flower of time terrestrial, or of duration in the realms above. THY MANIFESTATION: is whate'er thou doest, and in whatever form. HATH MAN A SPIRIT FORM that shall survive the ordeal of Mortality? and when the body is dissolved shall it still exist? QUESTION of immortal worth: how answered? Man endure forever? But why? And where? The Holy Word informs us. BUT DO THE DEAD remember whence they were and those still groping in the dismal realms of shadowy time? And ever to the earth return? Ah! this, this is the question of the age! Men seek to know? God of the just do they presume? Have any right, or cause, or means to touch the vail that mortality hath woven? SPIRITS OF THE DEAD! are ye arousing mortals from their dull lethargy? the pall and sepulchre removing hence forever? inviting men amid the tombs where millions sleep, from whence to pierce the death-night air, that clouds the vision of thy home? Is what we hear the work of your own hands? Are ye "Rapping," "Tipping," "Chaunting," "Unfolding mortal seeing," and "unmasking heaven?" O, ye Wisdom from on dead! is this your work? This volume is devoted to the history of spir itual phenomena, commencing with the race in Eden and concluding with the introduction of modern spiritualism. As somewhat lengthy passages are introduced from the Scriptures, it may be well to notice that many remarkable events recorded in the Bible, and many prophecies pertaining to all time, and which bear directly upon the subject under discussion, are quoted in full in order to show that the Bible's claims to divinity are infinitely above any and all of the phenomena of modern spiritualism. There are facts presented in this volume which must establish, in unprejudiced minds, the truth of the scriptures beyond criticism. For the revelation of Divine Power, as shown by the record quoted, reveals the contrast between Divinity and "Spiritualism" in such a manner as to disclose the Divine Nature of one, and the human frailty of the other. And it is moreover established that a like spirit to that revealed in this age, entered Eden, and also induced sun, moon and star worship, possessed and inspired the false prophets, aud opposed Jesus and his apostles. To defend the Christian Religion, to remove the doubts of some; establish the faith of others, and sustain the Truth, has been the author's object in this volume. 301 |