KINGDOM AND AGE
TO COME.
“And in their days, even of those kings, the God of heaven shall set up A KINGDOM which shall never perish, and A DOMINION that shall not be left to another people. It shall grind to powder and bring to an end all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever.”—DANIEL.
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ODOLOGY;
OR, THEOLOGICAL MESMERISM
WITCHCRAFT REVIVED ANEW.
The following correspondence will serve to introduce the subject which we have styled Odology, the derivation of which we shall give hereafter, when we come to treat upon the suggestions it contains.
“Dear Sir:
“I think you have done the “spirits” too much honour in explaining their “rappings” on philosophical principles. I believe they are a set of knaves, and their “rappings” and “tappings” mere tricks of legerdemain. I have seen the “Wizard of the North” perform many more surprising.”
“E. Q. M.”
* * *
“Dear Sir:
“In the Herald,” for April, is a short notice of the remarkable phenomenon which is now attracting so much notice in the Northern States, under the name of “Spiritual Manifestations.” Your correspondent selected a very poor specimen as the subject of his communication. There are hundreds of “mediums” in this region; and most of them are persons whose character for integrity has hitherto been unimpeachable. Their answers are often surprising to all who hear; and present the strongest argument for the existence of spirit separate from matter, that I have ever seen. For instance, two gentlemen called at one of these Circles in a city where they were entire strangers; and where they stayed but a couple of hours. They went into the room where “the circle” was already “getting responses.” One of them asked if he might put questions at once, as he was going out in the next train. Permission was given; and in answer to his questions, he got in a few minutes all his past history, many circumstances of which he thought were only known to himself; and others which had been carefully limited to a small circle of his intimate friends. The other gentleman was almost equally successful; but one or two mistakes were made in their answers to him. The first gentleman had all his questions answered correctly and promptly, though some of them were asked mentally, and others by writing on a card, (taking great care to conceal what was written from every person,) and then pointing to a written question, (keeping the card out of sight,) he was at once answered, and always correctly. I might tell you a multitude of such instances, where there could be no collusion, and no dishonesty.
“And now, brother, I will give you to understand why I take the liberty of troubling you with this statement. I do not believe that these are the works of “disembodied spirits;” for I believe in no such existences. But what are they? These things are facts. How are they to be accounted for? They seem to come into direct collision with views I have for years entertained, as you well know. But I must be able to explain them, at least to myself. I have exchanged farms with a man who was a “medium,” and became crazy by it—“possessed of the Devil,” he says; and he is a very honest man. There are forty of these mediums in the village of Battle Creek near here; and there are some in this neighbourhood. Do you read any of the papers that are devoted to this subject? I wish you could read the past volumes of “The Spirit World,” published in Boston by Le Roy Sunderland. There are startling facts in it. Now, what I want to say is that this new delusion, is the most dangerous one you have ever been called upon to meet. The whole system promulgated in your writings goes down, if the claims put forth by these spirit-mongers are established. And it seems to me more important that you should attack and demolish this new opposition than that you should defend your position against any and all others. If you do not take up this subject and do it justice, you must not be surprised if your subscribers in these vicinities, where these things abound, fall away.
“And now I am upon this subject, let me propound a few questions, which have been put to me by believers in separate spirit existences:
“I send you some numbers of a Swedenborgian paper which is sent to me; and call your attention to some passages by pencil marks. I remain, truly your brother, in the Hope of the
Kingdom and Age to Come,
“JOHN B. HOXIE.”
Marshall, Calhoun, Michigan,
May 19th, 1852.
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Professor Reichenbach, in his experiments on certain crystals, and persons, through the medium of highly sensitive individuals, has ascertained that a fluid of a blue and yellow colour, more subtile than electricity, is thrown off from the poles of the crystals, and from the ends of the fingers. It is not visible to persons in a normal state of the nervous system, which is adapted only to the perception of ordinary phenomena; but when the brain is exalted beyond what is usual, though short of actual insanity, things invisible to others are perceived, pertaining to this highly attenuated or rarified exhalation, which is probably the electro-magnetic fluid reduced to an aura by the peculiar atomic organization of the bodies from which it is given off. On this fluid Reichenbach has bestowed the name of OD; I suppose for the same reason that Dr. Faraday styles the electrical poles electrods (electrodes) from electron, amber, (by the friction of which electricity was first artificially discerned) and odos, a way—the poles being regarded merely as the doors or ways by which electricity passes. The od is the boundary of the decomposing matter in the direction of the electric current. Reichenbach's fluid passes off at the ods or poles; and as he regards it as something else than electricity, magnetism, or galvanism, he calls it by another name, even the Greco-chemical term for the extremity from which it exhales.
I have styled this article Odology (from logos a discourse and od) or discourse upon Od. Not that I am going to discuss the subject of Od reichenbachically; but believing that the phenomena referred to in the foregoing communication are Odistic, if any thing, I have chosen to denominate what I have to say upon the subject by Odology, rather than by Pneumatology, Psychology, or any other word which concedes the unproved and unprovable affirmation of the existence of supposed dead men's ghosts disembodiedly.
The electro-magnetic od is constantly passing off from the electrodes, or poles, of animal bodies and certain crystals. It is probable that our bodies are enveloped with a halo of it, for every thing has its halo according to the following testimony. "It is well known," says Mrs. Griffiths, "that around and adhering to all surfaces there is a halo of demi-transparent light, seen only, however, when the object for experiment is in a certain position with regard to the eye and the light which falls on it. This halo is not dependent on any peculiarity of colour or material, for it encompasses every object in nature, whether it belong to the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom; whether it be square or round, black or white, opaque or transparent, solid or fluid." (Silliman's Journal, Jan. 1st, 1840.) The halo of our bodies, it is probable, consists of Reichenbach's odic fluid the colour of which is visible to those who are highly odic, or in a state in which the od is abundantly generated. It is of a delicate blue when given off from the positive electrode, and yellow from the negative pole of crystal. From the fingertips of a male subject it exhales of a blue colour about an inch long; but from those of a female the jet is inconsiderable, imparting, as it were, a luminousness to their extremities.
From grave yards this odic exhalation is abundant. It has been seen to cover a necropolis to a depth of four feet, as a lambent blue haze. This is doubtless the fluid generated by the decomposing animal matter beneath the sod. Like phantom-ships at sea, produced by refraction of the light reflected on the firmament from real ships, phantom appearances are sometimes seen by sensitive nervous systems, produced by refraction of the odic rays in and upon the mirror formed by the magnetic halo of the earth, which emanate from the forms corrupting in the dust thereof. These phantoms (in Greek styled phantasma [Matt. 14:26; according to Griesbach, Luke 24: 37, 39, should read phantasma, not pneuma.]) are called "separate," or "disembodied spirits," by the ignorant and superstitious, under the supposition that they are the real men and women, boys and girls, who used to enact life's follies in the flesh! They are, no doubt, as real as phantom-ships; and as awfully mysterious to the unphilosophical and scripturally-unenlightened, as they are to the untutored barbarians of the forecastle. But real as the phantom-ship spectres are, who would be so crazy as to maintain that they are the souls or spirits of the ships which gave them motion over the dark blue sea! Or that they are the disembodied ghosts of the vessels caught up to the third heavens! Yet this would be just as rational, as the psychological theosophisms of the schools, pulpits, and "circles," about souls, ghosts, and spirit-worlds.
There are a few discoveries in electrical science worth knowing in connection with this subject. Professor Moser, as the result of his researches in Thermography, remarks that "all bodies radiate light even in complete darkness." Again, he says, "the rays of this light act as ordinary light;" and that "two bodies constantly impress their images on each other even in complete darkness." Thermographic experiments prove these principles, and lead him to the conclusion that there is latent light in certain vapours as well as latent heat. The ordinary condition of the human brain, and organs supplied by its nerves, is that of adaptation to the common exterior aspect of imponderable matters, such as light, heat, the grosser forms of electricity, sound, &c. But there is a more exalted or refined perception of these things which the animal organization of its own power, however intensified by inherent excitation, cannot attain to. Our perception of the latent imponderables, latent light, latent heat, latent electricity or od, latent sounds, &c., may be rendered more acute than ordinary; but it can never rise to the highest penetration which is possible, without the superaddition of something which the animal nature possesses only to a very limited degree. This something is the spirit of God without measure—John 3:34. All living animals have it in some degree; for "in God" they "live, and move, and have their being;" and if He were to "gather unto himself His spirit and His breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust". — Job 34:14-15. This minimum possession of God's spirit, possessed by quadrupeds and man, is just sufficient for the purposes of that peculiar constitution of things we call "this life;" but for the physical perception of things visible to beings of a more refined organization than ours, the sight of which will be vouchsafed at a future time, called "the world to come," the present amount of spirit is not sufficient. This can do for man what is proved, and what may yet be proved; but not what is randomly affirmed. He is not ordinarily in harmony with the latent imponderables; but God is intensely and completely so. Hence "the darkness and the light are both alike to him." If a man was imprisoned in darkness a thousand feet below the earth's surface, God would see him as distinctly, as we see each other above ground in the light of noonday. Men profess to believe this; but upon what principle is it that God sees thus in darkness? Because His nature, every atom of which is, as it were, condensed lightning, glowing with such an intensity, that its radiation is felt throughout the boundless universe, penetrating through all substances, and developing life and motion in all things, from the minutest animalcule to the globe of the vastest magnitude. Hence He is called "light," and "a consuming fire." The rays from His presence, called spirit, diluted with the grosser menstrua of the earth's products, place Him in inner relation to the imponderables, which are but one and the same principle, variously developed by the media through which it passes into the receptacle whence it came. Thus, for instance, the most subtile principle of the earth's halo is spirit, which is called by different names, such as, electricity, magnetism, &c. This halo is its reservoir, as it were. It is diluted with atmospheric air. We breathe it. It pervades every atom of our bodies; and having enabled our organization to perform its functions, it exhales from the electrodes of our system as Od into the reservoir where we derived it by breathing. Thus a circle or circuit exists of the external atomic form changing fluid, internal transformed matter, and nervous current, closing the circuit by Od (latent light radiating in darkness) exhaling into the outer fluid.
Now this outer reservoir of fluid may be regarded as a highly polished and extremely sensitive mirror, in which can be excited latent odic spectres, which become visible sometimes to those whose brains are subjected to odic exaltation. The spectral impressions may emanate from corrupting bodies, mineral or other substances, and from living brains acting upon other living brains. Reichenbach's graveyard experiments have demonstrated the first; thermo-electrography the second; and animal magnetism, in all its varieties, the third.
We may adduce here a philosophical experiment, illustrative of what we mean by latent spectral impressions. Take a piece of polished metal, glass, or japanned tin, the temperature of which is low, and having laid upon it a wafer, coin, or any other such object, breathe upon the surface; allow the breathe entirely to disappear; then toss the object off the surface and examine it minutely; no trace of any thing is visible, yet a spectral impression exists on that surface, which may be evoked by breathing upon it. A form resembling the object at once appears, and, what is very remarkable, it may be called forth many times in succession, and even at the end of months. Other instances of the kind have been subsequently described by M. Moser. (Draper's Text Book of Chemistry, p. 97)
M. Karsten placed a coin on a piece of plate glass, which being supported by a plate of metal not insulated, and the sparks from the conductor of an electrifying machine were made to strike on the coin, thereby causing them to pass simultaneously through the coin and the metallic plate. After one hundred turns of the machine, the coin was removed; the glass plate appeared perfectly unaltered, (the ghost was invisible,) but when breathed upon, a perfect impression of the coin in its most minute details became visible.
M. Karsten says, that the impression is not produced by traces of the electric fluid remaining adherent to the glass plate; because the impression still remains with great distinctness after all traces of electricity have disappeared, after the glass has been wiped with a handkerchief. And again, these impressions are neither destroyed nor even weakened by passing a stream of the opposite electricity over them. (Fisher's Photogenic Manipulation, Part 2, p. 39, 42-46.)
From these experiments we see, that a thing may exist, and yet be invisible. Furthermore, that by breathing upon the thing impressed, things hidden may be manifested; thirdly that this can be effected at the end of months; and fourthly, that unseen, but real impressions of words and figures, can be made on surfaces by electricity, and afterwards made visible by breathing. These principles are scientific demonstrations. And pray what is science? It is knowledge. Human knowledge or science, when it is really knowledge, consists of the little men have discovered—the few general facts they have found obtaining in the universe; and more especially in this terrestrial system, in relation to the earth, its substances, and man upon it. Men know but little of the laws to which God has subjected His earth and the things belonging to it, compared with what remains to be discovered or revealed. The most scientific of men are comparatively very ignorant. Their knowledge of general facts is exceedingly limited; and their reasonings upon them, and their deductions very often, more often than otherwise, remarkably illogical, and singularly absurd. The wisest among them are free to confess this. And if the wise be fools, in science, how grossly ignorant and foolish must the multitude be, which troubles not itself with general facts, right reason, or scientific principles at all! And yet it is the ignorant who undertake to draw conclusions from data the most recondite, and pronounce the Bible a cheat, if it teach not according to what they have predetermined it ought to teach. But after all, the multitude is not so much to blame for this as their guides. Like priests, like people. The theosophist reasons out from insufficient data a crude theory which pleases his fleshly mind, and then goes to the Bible to cull sounding epithets to sanctify it; instead of allowing God's holy word to teach him as a babe, and then to prove all things by its rule. This procedure is emphatically the folly of our age. All classes are guilty of it; and in consequence, rush headlong to the adoption of theories which destroy the truth, and stultify themselves.
General facts are the laws by and through which God sustains all things and operates upon them. By these laws a relationship is established between Him and man, who is subjected to their operation in common with minerals and vegetables. Thus, electricity acts uniformly whatever the nature of the thing acted upon; the products of that action vary according to the medium through which it acts. Like electricities repel, and unlike ones attract, whether minerals, vegetables, clouds, or animal substances, be the subject of their power.
When God speaks to man He speaks electrically, that is, by His Spirit; for electricity is the term science has bestowed upon what the Bible styles Spirit. All physical phenomena are produced by the spirit acting according to laws peculiar to it, a very few of which are found scattered about in works of science. When the Creator wills to speak, He does it by the same spirit that shivers the sturdy oak, or rends the rocks asunder. Sometimes He communicates His mind by making direct spectral impressions on the magnetic mirror of the brain. In this case a man in his sleep sees objects and hears sounds that have no real existence; but are representative of realities past, present, or future. These are the dreams and visions of the prophets. Sometimes, He speaks mediately, but still electrically, as through Jesus Christ to his apostles, whose method we will look into briefly in connection with the principles brought out in M. Karsten and Dr. Draper's experiments.
Things, ideas, or images may exist upon the brain's tablet, or sensorium, and yet be invisible; that is, not be recollected by the individual who received them; and consequently invisible to all other persons from his inability to utter them. Though thus invisible, the ideas are nevertheless existent, and actually present within. They exist, however, in the state of latent spectral impressions, and in order to be evoked, or made visible, they need to be breathed upon by the same principle that impressed them upon the sensorium. Now the sensoria, or magnetic mirrors, or minds, of the apostles had been prepared, (Luke 1:17) or highly polished (to speak artistically) by the process they had undergone by the ministry of John the Baptiser. They were in that state which is represented by the polished metal, or glass, in Dr. Draper's experiment, ready for the coin to be impressed upon it. Jesus came, the medium through which the Father operated in word and deed (John 5:30). He spoke the words, laying them, so to speak, like coin upon the polished tablets of their hearts; while the Father, who performed the miracles, passed by their effect the electricity of his spirit, as it were, through the words and their sensoria, stamping impressions there after the illustration of M. Karsten's experiment with the electrifying machine. "I can of mine own self do nothing," said the Lord Jesus; "the Father is in me. The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." This proves what we have said; that Jesus was the Father's medium through whom, by his spirit, He operated on men's minds by words confirmed by miracles, in strict accordance with the laws illustrated by the experiments before us.
The apostles saw and heard many things during their attendance on the instructions of the Great Teacher, which continued to the end of months, as hidden spectral impressions upon their sensoria, but which were afterwards evoked in lines of living light. They saw Jesus ride into Jerusalem on an ass's colt as predicted by Zechariah. But one of them referring to it says, "These things understood not his disciples at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him." (John 12:16). They knew what was written in the prophet, and they saw what the people did on the occasion referred to, but their knowledge was a latent spectre until made manifest some time after at the glorification of Jesus. But what happened then by which these latent spectral impressions were evoked? The Spirit was breathed upon them after the illustration contained in Dr. Draper's experiment. But why were they not evoked before Jesus was glorified? For the reason assigned by John, in speaking of the gift of the spirit— "The Holy Spirit," says he, "was not yet given: because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). Speaking of his teachings, Jesus said to them, "These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. When the spirit of the truth is come, it will guide you into all the truth: It shall glorify me" (John 16:4, 13, 14). The glorification in this sense was the receiving things concerning Jesus, and showing them to the apostles—evoking the impressions already existing, and communicating new ones, as evinced in their writings. In this way they were glorified as well as Jesus; for receiving the spirit of the truth, it became in them as a fountain of living streams; thus, "whom he justified, them he also glorified." (Rom. 8:30). The Lord Jesus was glorified in a certain sense, after his resurrection, before he was received up into glory; and therefore before he ascended he gave a measure of the spirit to his apostles—not a full charge as on Pentecost, but a sufficient charge, so to speak, to evoke the hidden spectral impressions, the effect of which electrification is seen in their words and actions, between the ascension and Pentecost, compared with those before the crucifixion. In bringing out these impressions he proceeded as in Karsten and Draper's experiments with the coins; for the apostle says, "He breathed upon them and said, Labete pneuma hagion, Receive ye holy spirit;" and from that time they had authority to remit sin.
Man was made in the image and likeness of God. Or, as David saith, watkhasseraihu meat maielohim, thou hast made him to fall short a little of the Elohim, (Psalm 8: 5) or angels. He is, therefore, like to them in form, and capable of similar manifestations; but he falls short of their perfection of beauty, strength, and electrical or spiritual exaltation. The Elohim, gods, or angels, are not spectral impressions, any more than men and women are, though they can make such impressions. They are ponderables, occupying space that can not be occupied by another body at the same time. They are not ghosts, or disembodied winged phantoms, through which you may sweep your arm as through a shadow, and leave them undivided. They are bodies of a nature capable of corporealizing a thunderbolt without deterioration or hazard of destruction. Hence they can walk in the glowing furnace unaffected, as can they also whom they choose to mantle in a halo of their spirit (Daniel 3:25; Isaiah 33:14-15). They can eat and drink, and do eat and drink material substances; (Genesis 18:8) and have feet that can be handled and washed as the feet of men. "Let a little water, I pray you," said Abraham to three of them, "be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And they said, So do, as thou hast said." The popular notions about angels are mere superstition. Disembodied spirits with wings are spectral impressions made by odic emanations from innate human folly on the unpolished sensoria of the ignorant. Winged heads of chubby babies, peeping out of clouds on the margin of inner glory, are spectres of minds bewitched, or crazed, by the "philosophy and vain deceit" of theosophical magicians, and prophets of "the Spirit-World"—a world of electro-magnetic spectralia. Such angels as the people's heads are filled with flourish there, and only there; and the darker the intellect the more vividly are they seen in all their glory. Hence fanatics, worshippers of dead men's ghosts (called by them "saints") and angels, see more phantoms of the kind than the less intensely foolish; others on their deathbeds, when sometimes their sensoria are more than ordinarily excited, and their latent spectral impressions become vivid, have visions of such angels and even hear, as men hear in dreams, celestial music, and invitations to depart and come to Jesus!! Hence error stamps the sensorium as indelibly as truth can do; and confirms itself with falsehood in the article of death.
The angels of Jehovah do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His word (Psalm 103:20). By His spirit, through them, He shapes the course of human affairs that they may arrive at an appointed end, when Jesus and the resurrected saints—isangeloi— "equal to the angels," no longer falling a little short of them, will assume the government of the world. These noble and glorified men, real, not phantom, spirits, cannot be evoked at the will and pleasure of railway travellers, and circles of backwoods sectarians, and consulters of the dead! How prostrate must be the human mind in this truly heathen land to succumb to such a conceit! Honest they may be as honesty goes; but Oh the inexpressible ignorance of the Divine Testimony such pagan practices display! "Should not a people seek unto God? Should they seek to the dead in behalf of the living? To the Law and the Testimony if they speak not according to the word, it is because there is no light in them." This is the unerring rule. The consulters of the dead do not obtain answers according to this word; though they do according to the latent spectral impressions on the minds of their "mediums," and those who consult or seek to know through them. There is therefore no divine truth to be extracted from their answers; the truth they have is only an evocation of what exists in the mind of man. The things I advocate are matters of divine testimony and reason. They need not demand confirmation from the spectral impressions, visible or invisible, of "mediums," ignorant of the first principles of the oracles of God. Granting that all they say they see and hear in their "Spirit World" is really seen and heard, it militates not one iota against any thing proved by the testimony of God. They see and hear nothing but what begins and ends in the carnal mind. Everything they reproduce is the mere magnetic reflection of human action, or human thought, from the sensorium of the medium: or the magnetic mirror, lake, sea, or reservoir, in which we exist like fish in the teeming waters.
A prophet, one of the apostle John's
brethren, (perhaps Enoch or Elijah) was sent as an angel to him in Patmos. He
was sent to show him future things (Revelation 22: 8- 9; 1:19), which then had
no existence, and many of them at present also have none, except in the mind
of God. There the underived archetypes of them exist, and no one could see
them there, unless he was placed en rapport with the Divine mind. When
this should be effected, he could behold them there in all their wonderful
symbolization glowing on the Divine Sensorium. No one, however, was allowed to
gaze upon this manifestation proximately, but Jesus. Hence, the Apocalypse is
styled "the revelation which God gave to Jesus Christ," that
He might communicate it to His servants on earth. In doing this, He sent an
angel, called "His angel," who was qualified to signify it
to John, that he might write a description of it to Christ's servants. Now, in
signifying it to John, the angel had to present visible spectral impressions
before the apostle—to Daguerreotype his sensorium in the camera obscura of his
brain with the objects transferred from the mind of the Father to the Lord
Jesus, and then to the angel. This was effected by the spirit shining upon the
divine scenery, and being thence reflected upon John's sensorium, "shining
into his heart to give him the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ:" and all the angel had to do to accomplish
this, was to place John en rapport with himself; so that the spirit
passing from him to John would transfer the spectral impressions to him, and
make him clairvoyant. The circle being completed the spiritual current
circulated through the group; and John records the fact, saying, "I was
in the spirit, and heard behind me a great trumpet voice"— "he that
hath ears to understand let him hear what the Spirit saith."
Now man being made in the likeness of the angels, can imitate them, without knowing it, in many things, only in an imperfect manner. The Quaker "light within" can be made to shine with latent or odic light upon the sensorium of a prepared "medium." "If the light within you be darkness, how great is that darkness!" This is the character of the Quaker "light," which that sect teaches every man brings with him into the world! It is the electro-magnetic halo of the sensorium, stamped in after life with all sorts of spectral impressions, according to the teaching the pupil may happen to receive. Now take two such persons, and make one a "medium," called formerly a wizard or a witch, and the other a consulter of the dead through him, or her. In preparing the medium, you have preternaturally exalted, or rendered unusually sensitive, the sensorium—you have so highly polished the plate as to prepare it to receive impressions—its electromagnetic halo is susceptible of the most delicate touches. Now place the seeker to the dead en rapport with the medium and cause to pass from his sensorium a current of whatever you choose to call it—electricity, magnetism, od, or what not. This done, there is a connection established between them which unites the halos of the two; so that even the hidden spectral impressions of the seeker are daguerreotyped on the sensorium of the medium, and the witch sees and hears in dream-sight and dream-sound, things which the seeker may have himself forgotten. But the relationship established is not limited to the seeker and the witch; through her it extends to all she knows, and through them to others, and reacting upon herself; and so through the seeker to all the ramifications of his acquaintanceship, both living and dead. He says, "Bring me up Samuel!" And Samuel vividly depicted on the sensorium of the seeker, appears also evoked as a spectral impression before the magnetic sight and hearing of the witch or medium. Saul saw nothing and heard nothing of himself; but perceived by the woman's description that it was Samuel. "What sawest thou?" said he to the woman. She told him; and "he perceived that it was Samuel," and made obeisance. The conversation between the spectral impression and Saul was carried on through the witch as through mediums at this day. She heard as we hear in dreams, and what she heard she reported; and Saul's spectral forebodings became prophetic in the witches mouth.
Spectral impressions may be made in divers ways upon the sensorium. Irritation of the stomach will do it. A gentleman in Edinburgh told me that for six weeks he had the appearance of a pig's head sitting upon his left shoulder, so that whenever he looked to that side he saw it staring him in the face. He was suffering from dyspepsia. It was as much the disembodied spirit of a pig, as the spectres seen by mediums are the disembodied spirits of dead men and women, boys and girls, infants and sucklings. When his stomach was restored to healthy action, the pig's ghost vanished from the sensorium, and was consequently dethroned from my friend's shoulder; so when the excitation of the medium's sensory from another cause ceases, the disembodied spirits, and all the angels, vanish in a trice!
Reasoning from the facts presented in the experiments of the coin, we might argue that the actions of men cause hidden spectral impressions to be made on the external magnetic halo of the earth, which remain after they are dead and long forgotten; so that were the Almighty to breathe upon it with His spirit, a man's history would be evoked like the handwriting on Belshazzar's palace-wall. Even these exterior spectral impressions may be discerned by mediums of peculiar sensibility; so that they may perceive scenes after the actors have become quiet. Clairvoyants have seen many things upon this principle. Elisha's is a case in point here. The king of Syria warred against Israel, and devised ambuscades for his enemy; but Elisha, who was in Dothan afar off, warned the king of Israel and saved him not once nor twice. The king of Syria suspected treason in his own camp; but he was told by one of his followers, that Elisha, the prophet in Israel, told the king of Israel the words that were spoken in his own bed-chamber (2 Kings 6:8). Here the spectral impressions made upon the universal magnetic mirror by the Syrian's words, were breathed, or shined, upon by God, and evoked upon the sensorium of the prophet by the daguerreo typism of His spirit, which gave wings to the matter. This is the "bird of the air" that reveals even the inmost thoughts of men. Therefore, "curse not the king; no, not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings, shall tell the matter" (Ecclesiastes 10: 20). Let no man commit crime, and say, "No eye sees me, therefore the offence shall be hid." Sooner or later his sin may find him out. The impressions of his deeds upon the earth's magnetic halo may happen to be reproduced upon the sensorium of some sleeping or waking medium; or stare him in his own face when he shall rise from the dead, and behold his actions written, like Belshazzar's doom on the magnetic page, in words of living light-thus verifying the proverb, trite yet true, that "murder will out."
Unless God think fit to infatuate a people by
their own folly and presumption, and so create spectral impressions of things
upon the sensoria of their wizards beyond the range of their own sphere, the
second-sight of mediums never contemplates ideas, or images, or shadowy forms,
which are not purely of human origin. All the things they have seen are but the
spectral impressions of human thoughts, words, or actions. The doctrine they
utter is always traceable to some sectarian theosophism—some
double-distilled theological foolery, always at variance with "the law
and the testimony." If they stumble upon a truth, it is just that
proportion of truth that happens to be blended with human foolishness; and
being truth, serves as a decoy to lead them into the mazes of a labyrinth from
which there is no possibility of extrication. From what I have read of "Spirit
Worldism," I have no hesitation in saying that it is mere "lying
divination." I have a volume at my side, Cahagnet's "Celestial
Telegraph, or Secrets of the Life to Come revealed through Magnetism," a
book of 240 large 12mo pages, which is full of this sort of thing. It is a
French work, and on p. 220 the author inquires, "On earth is there aught
that we can hide from the perception of a clairvoyant? It is not, therefore,
ridiculous to admit that in the world of spirits none is any longer able to
conceal aught; it is the Book of Life which will be open to all." Hence a
relationship being established between a clairvoyant and "spirits" in
the invisible, messages may pass between living bodies on earth and dead men's
ghosts in heaven or hell as by telegraph, and clairvoyants become the see-ers,
and prophets of their familiar spirits or gods! In this way are laid
broad and deep again the foundations of a new system of idolatry, of
which the magnetizing circle-men who entrance the clairvoyants, are the
priests. Already in the hands of these ignorant people the Bible is what
the clergy have made it, by their preaching, a mere "dead letter."
They misapply it (and they can do
nothing else) at pleasure, and cull from it texts, without regard to contexts,
to suit their purpose—to sanctify their nonsense in the esteem of those in whom
some veneration for "the Law and the Testimony of Jehovah," is
supposed to be still unextinct. Now the issue is between the Magnetic Book
of Life—the Book of Magnetic Spectral Impressions—and the Book of the
Covenant, usually styled THE BIBLE. Both volumes cannot be divine
revelations of the future, or exponents of the same truth; for they foretell
opposite events, and teach doctrines subversive of each other. The Magnetic
Book of Life is nothing more than the magneto-etherial spectral impressions
pertaining to the living generation, whose mind, or sensorial halo, is the
mirror from which is darkly reflected its own thoughts: while the Bible is a
revelation from Jehovah of the fate of all existing governments, of His purpose
to establish a Theocracy on their ruins, of the destiny of nations for the
coming thousand years, of the eternal constitution of the globe from the end of
that period, of the condition of the human race when all things terrestrial
become new, and of how we of this, and others of past generations since
the world began, may constitute a part of his Theocracy, and become dwellers
upon the earth for ever. These are great and glorious destinies, upon which the
priests and prophetesses of "the Spirit World" can throw out no
light. Their divinations upon these topics, where not borrowed from the Bible,
are only lying rhapsodies—the dark and malarious thinkings of nervous flesh,
rioting in the spectralia of musty theosophisms talked into it by the gospel-nullifiers,
and pulpit mar-texts of the "chairs" and "sacred desks" of
"christendom." Like the old Athenian spirit-worldists who withstood
Paul, they reject the resurrection of the mortal body in resolving it into the
introduction of the spirit of man into the spiritual world on the total
cessation of the heart's action! The Bible says, "Many who sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake" (Daniel 12:2). And again, "the
earth shall cast out the dead;" "and no more cover her slain;" (Isaiah
36:19, 21) and that we may know by what power the dead shall rise, and who
shall participate in the resurrection of the just, it is written, "IF
the spirit of God that raised up Jesus from among the dead (ek nekron) dwell in
you, He that raised up the Christ from among the dead, shall also make alive
your mortal bodies through his indwelling spirit in you"
(Romans 8:11). This is teaching the resurrection of dead bodies from earth's
dust in which they are mingled—a resurrection effected by Jehovah's spirit
through Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:14) at the reorganization of the righteous dead,
and not at the dissolution of their existence here. But compare with this, and
spurn with contempt, the following drivelling foolery of spirit-worldism, taken
from Cahagnet. It is the clairvoyant Swede who vapours— "The spirit of
man," says he, "after the separation, remains a short time in the
body, but only until the total cessation of the heart; this happens
differently; according to the nature of the disease of which the man dies, for the
movement of the heart in some lasts a certain time, and in others ceases at
once; no sooner does this movement cease than man is resuscitated, but
this is brought about by the Lord alone. By resurrection, we mean the
spirit of man leaving the body, and introduced into the spiritual world;
correctly speaking, this resurrection should be termed the awakening!"
The awakening believed in by spiritists is very different from the awakening
taught in the Bible, as must be obvious to the weakest intellect. The clairvoyant
awakening differs in the time and subject of it—it is the awakening of a dead
man's ghost at the last pulsation of his heart while his body is still
untouched by decomposition; while the Bible awakening is the awakening of a
dead man himself, at some time, it may be five thousand years, after he has
actually mouldered into dust. Now which are we to believe? Baal's prophets, or
Jehovah? The spectral illusions of the flesh, or the testimony of the living
God? The crazy old mesmerist of Sweden, or the
apostles of Jesus Christ?
(To be continued.)
* * *
INQUIRY TOUCHING
THE TEMPTER.
Dr. Thomas:
Dear Sir—In your otherwise surpassingly interesting work, styled “Elpis Israel,” you speak of the agent in the original temptation as only an animal. You ascribe to him a huge degree of mentality, without moral obliquity, and making the worthiest use, possible, of his faculties. On this idea and the general subject, I ask—
1. Does not this subject, of the temptation, as you present it, stand in utter contrariety to the testimony of our Lord; “The Devil is a liar from the beginning”?
2. Is not “the beginning,” Genesis 1: 1; Matthew 19: 8; John 1: 1; and John 8: 44, substantially the same? Or do they not refer to the earliest record of the subjects spoken of in the Scriptures? If so, has not “the Devil” a place “in the beginning,” as really as “the Serpent”?
3. Does not the New Testament teach that there is a Tempter, as really as a “Christ”—The Tempted? Matthew 4; Luke 4. He is distinct from, and out of, or away from our Lord. John 14: 30.
4. If such be the representation by inspired teachers, and by the “Faithful and True” himself; how can we be safe in departing from it? —or can we do thus and not act on the same principle of all error?
5. As the term “Dragon” represented anciently the Egyptian Sovereignty or Sovereign (Ezekiel 29: 3) as the term applied to their leading animal, the idolised crocodile—and as Egypt oppressed Israel and opposed God—does it not apply to Rome in Revelation as the oppressor of Israel and the church only on the same principle that “Babylon” does?
6. As Pharaoh, the actual agent in oppressing Israel, was as real as his Dragonic-crocodile representative, why not allow “the Serpent;” and “the Devil” both the precise place they occupy in Scripture?
(On some ancient coins of Augustus, Egypt was represented by a crocodile. Bochart says that Pharaoh in Arabic signifies a crocodile. Isaiah 27: 1; 2: 9; Ezekiel 29: 3—McKnight, Ep. P. 705, Essay 8, Comp. Com.)
An answer will be thankfully received. Your former is general and indefinite; an answer to this would be definite.
Yours in the truth, J. B. COOK. June 19th, 1852.
* * *
THE BIBLE
DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE TEMPTER CONSIDERED
NO. 1.
“Jesus partook of flesh and blood, that THROUGH DEATH he might destroy that having the power of death, that is, the devil.”—PAUL.
The
“Inquiry touching the Tempter,” appeared in the Advent Harbinger of June
19th, of the current year. The worthy querist is of opinion, that
what has been presented in Elpis Israel, on the subject of the Devil and Satan,
“is general and indefinite.” That it is general, and does not go
argumentatively into the support of the doctrine there exhibited, is indeed the
case; nevertheless I think, that what I have set forth is sufficiently definite
for the reader to perceive what I believe the scriptures to teach concerning
the devil, in the several passages where it is alluded to. However, I do admit
with my friend, that what I have said about the Devil and Satan is not as
definite as I could have made it. I was not writing upon that topic
particularly; nor did I care to say more than was necessary to the
comprehension of the general matter of the book. In treating of Israel’s Hope,
or the Kingdom of God, I could not avoid saying something of evil, and “that
having the power of death,” which the full fruition of that hope is to
eradicate from the earth, from society, and from the moral and physical
constitution of flesh and blood. But I did not lay a heavy hand upon the
subject, knowing how much “the Devil” is respected by some, worshipped by
others, and venerated in some way by nearly all. Not that this abstractly
considered would have deterred me from giving him his due; for I have no favour
for him though he may approach me as a minister of righteousness, a professor
of Sacred History, or an angel of light—2 Corinthians 11: 13-15; I see in him
only one causing men to fall, and an adversary to the truth, that
is, to the gospel of the kingdom in the name of Jesus. I wished to get this all
important topic systematically before the British public, as I am now
endeavouring to do before the American, in Elpis Israel; therefore, I did not
wish to offend their prejudices by being too explicit touching their idol, lest
they should close the book before they got at “the things of the kingdom of
God.”
I have said little, or nothing that I recollect, in any other writings concerning “His Satanic Majesty.” The time had not come, and no one sought to bring me out upon the subject. I have in past years had so many devils of one sort or another to contend with, that I did not care to increase their host by denying their master’s existence in the popular sense. But, “steadfast in the faith,” I have successfully resisted the scripture devil, and he has fled from me—James 4: 7; 1 Peter 5: 9. The antidikos diabolos, or OPPONENT CAUSING (me) TO FALL, if he could, with all his satellites, are either hors du combat, or so used up, that they have left me free from the necessity of defending myself lest I should be devoured. They have done their worst; and no clamour that they can raise can do more than induce me to serve them up for the entertainment of my readers, by way of recreation in the severer study of the Law. The time is come, then, when the outcries of “the Devil’s” clients may be disregarded. He is, doubtless, a very “potent, grave, and reverend signior” with the world, with whom it is a point of expediency not to offend him, if possible. Men, therefore, like to hear him spoken of with respect; and as the terror of him is very useful in keeping evil doers in awe, and compelling some of them to “seek religion,” they do not like the fear of him diminished: and by way of recommending themselves, we presume, to his tender mercies, if he should happen to get everlasting possession of them, they make a great clamour, and persecute with hard speeches, those who can see no other devil in the Bible than Sin incarnate in flesh and blood, and manifested in the personal, social, and political works of mankind—and no other Satans, than personal, and politically organised, adversaries to the righteous and the truth. But I am not careful to avoid offending “the Devil” or his friends now; neither shall I regard their conclamation. My desire is to make men hate the devil, speak unrevilingly to Satan, and to fear none but God and his Christ; whom to know is love and to obey unto eternal life.
During my residence in London I became acquainted with a physician, somewhat famous in the scientific world and a believer in the kingdom of God, who purchased a copy of Elpis Israel, and at the same time presented me with a pamphlet he had published, entitled “An Inquiry into the existence of a personal Devil.” It consists of twelve lectures and an appendix, making ninety-six octavo pages. It contains much good sense on the subject; and as far as I think its contents in accordance with the scriptures. I shall reproduce them in these columns. In the first lecture are some very excellent remarks on the investigation of truth, which very appropriately precede the examination of the subject, and which I beg leave to introduce in this place in order to propitiate a candid consideration of what I have to say.
“Sound
thinking,” says he, “that is, cultivated and well-directed common sense,
applied to the discovery of truth, either natural or revealed, has followed the
rule, that Nothing ought to be believed as true unless its truth can be
demonstrated by an appeal to the facts recorded in the Book of Creation, or to
the Book of Revelation.
“The Naturalist, that is, the student of the truths written in the book of creation, says, “To the book of creation: if any man speak not according to this book, it is because there is no light in him.”—(Homo, naturae minister et interpres, tantum facit et intelligit quantum de natura ordine re vel mente observaerit; nec amplius seit, aut potest. —Bacon.)
“The Spiritualist, that is, the student of the truths written in the book of revelation, says, “To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them”—Isaiah 8: 20.
“Rigid adherence of late years by the naturalists to the above rule in reference to the subject of natural, or creation-written, truths, has been the cause of immense progress in natural science: and is it not, without any improper presumption, to be inferred, that a similar rigid adherence to this rule in matters relating to the spiritual Bible-written truths, in other words, in matters relating to the moral and religious condition of man, will be attended with equal progress?
“It is a lamentable fact that, in this matter of rigid adherence to this rule of truth-investigation and truth demonstration, “the children” who study the things of the natural world are far in advance of, “are wiser in their generation than are the children” who study the things of the spiritual world.
“It is from this cause that such diversities of opinion prevail among professing christians: an evil not to be remedied, as the Romanists would remedy it, by squeezing all men’s minds into one universal square impudently called the mind of the church; or as Milton describes the patent uniforming process, “starching them into the stiffness of uniformity by tradition.” (Milton’s Prose Works; Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing.) This is not the method; but the only method is to establish as binding upon all christian inquirers the rule already recorded, that Nothing in spiritual matters ought to be believed as true unless its truth can be demonstrated by an appeal to the original scriptures, and this to the satisfaction of every well-constituted, truth-loving mind.
“This rule once generally recognised and practically carried out, will make the candid and ingenuous all of one mind; will establish uniformity, the true uniformity of belief, one founded on the conviction, and not on the suspension of the understanding.
“Sincere men of science are of one mind in regard to chemical, mechanical, and mathematical facts; this oneness having been arrived at by rigidly adhering to the prescribed rule in studying the Book of Creation. What, then, is there in spiritual subjects to prevent men pursuing revelation-recorded truths, arriving at a similar oneness of mind in regard to those truths, recorded by the same Divine Mind, and guided by the same God of Order, as dictated the other book of instruction?
“Taking this rule as the guide, and holding the principles that, revelation being “information from God,” being a truth discovery, its truths are therefore for discovery, and that these truths are to be discovered with a certainty as great as that connected with the creation-truths, it is proposed to consider
THE DEVIL.
“As a consequence of being guided by this rule it will be essential to throw behind us, and as far as possible to banish from our mental condition, all the various notions that have been instilled into our minds, in conjunction with the Devil, by means of nurse-stories, pictures, and even by the pleasing religious romance writer, Bunyan, and by that stupendous-minded poet, Milton. The descriptions, however beautiful, and the notions thence derived, however strong, must be to us as inquirers after truth, as though they were not.
“Knowing, however, how strong early impressions are, how constantly they obtrude themselves whenever the subjects with which they were originally introduced into the mind are brought before the view, we require to be continually on the alert lest when we, in relation to the influence of mental associations, are asleep, they may enter in and divert our minds from the good old way—the Law and the Testimony.
“From the Book of Creation nothing can be learned of the existence of the Devil.
“Formerly, the miseries of the world led some to imagine and to believe in the existence of some powerful malignant spirit. The Magi taught the existence of a good and of an evil spirit, between which existed an irreconcilable enmity: an opinion constantly discernible in the Egyptian and Grecian mythologies; and, modified by circumstances, and consequently, in manifestation, traceable in the mythologies of almost all nations, the more uncivilised the nations the ideas associated being the more absurd.”
Though,
as the Doctor truly says, nothing can be learned of the existence of a personal
Devil from the Book of Creation, yet the mythological dogma might be deduced
from an observation of existing facts. Natural evil, such as
earthquakes, floods, pestilence, famine, &c., human wickedness, and death,
contrasted with natural good, was seen to prevail everywhere.
Inquisitive brains speculating upon this would naturally attribute the one to
an evil cause, and the other to a good one; and as these causes were manifestly
superhuman, the carnal mind being unenlightened by revelation on the subject,
rushed to the conclusion that the causes were two intelligent, powerful, and
antagonistic Spirits, one of which, the author of good, they styled Oromazd,
and the other, the author of evil, Ahriman. The latter became the Devil
of the Gentile world; and as men stand more in awe of the terrific than of the
good, they invented superstitions to propitiate the Devil rather than to do
honour to the author of all the benefits they enjoy. This was the origin of the
dogma of an omnipotent, omnipresent, and personal Devil in the East; whence the
nations of the west imported it when their fathers migrated to the “isles of
the Gentiles afar off.” They represent him in their statuary and pictures
as half goat and half man, with horns and hoofs, and forked tail, and black as
soot, with a three pronged pitch-fork in his hand! The three myths, the
mythologies of the pagans, of the papists, and of the protestants, represent
the object of their terror under the same form substantially; * and all of
them assign to him a local habitation in what they call “hell.”--------
* In Leviticus 17: 7 and 2
Chronicles 11: 15, the word “devils” is seirim, rendered daimonai
by the Seventy, and signifies He-goats, which were worshipped by the
Hebrews in Egypt and Palestine, after the example of the Egyptians. They were
adorned as the representatives of satyrs, or wood-demons,
supposed to resemble them, and to live in deserts. In Isaiah 13: 21, speaking
of Babylon the prophet says, “Satyrs (seirim) shall dance there,” that
is, He-goats shall do so. The Egyptian He-Goat worship was adopted by the
Greeks and Romans, who adored him as the representative of Pan, the
prince-demon of the woods, and principle of all things. Pan is described as a
monster in appearance, having two small horns on his head, a ruddy complexion,
and flat nose, with the lips, thighs, tail, and feet of a goat. “It is not
improbable,” says Parkhurst on the word sahir, “that the christians
borrowed their goat-like picture of the Devil, with a tail, horns, and cloven
feet, from the heathenish representations of Pan the terrible.” Thus the Devil
of the vulgar superstition was dug out of the grave of paganism by the early
corrupters of Christianity, the charnel house of “all the abominations of
the earth.”-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The things affirmed of the mythic Devil have been commingled with scripture phrases, applicable only to the devil and satan of the Bible; and with tradition. Stripped of the former, the Devil of “Christendom” is essentially the Devil of the Mohammedan and Pagan worlds; the latter being the sire of the Devil of our contemporaries, against which we have more particularly to protest as an existence as fabulous as “the immortal souls,” or “separate spirits” of ancient and modern mesmerism bewitched. These popular fancies are all of one and the same visionary origin—the phronema tou sarkos, THE THINKING OF THE FLESH, termed in the common version of the scriptures, “the carnal mind,” which Paul avers is “enmity against God, and unsubject to his law”—Romans 8: 7. Hence, its thoughts are not God’s thoughts; and its conclusions, in every particular, at variance with his. Show me an opinion, a principle, or an article of faith, originated by the carnal mind, or agreeable to it, and I will prove it to be false by the law and testimony of God. Creation’s book interpreted theologically by speculators, ignorant of the ideas revealed in “the oracles of God,” the word of the prophets and apostles, is the source of all the foolish notions which have perverted the public mind in regard to religious subjects. We must purge ourselves from these upon all topics, that of the Devil among the rest, if we would bring our thoughts into harmony with the thoughts of God.
The mythic devil-dogma of the Gentiles, I have said, has been combined with tradition. Between Oromazd and Ahriman, that is, between God and the Devil, say the Orientals and their disciples of the west, “there is an irreconcilable enmity.” This doctrine of “enmity” is a truth handed down from Noah, to go no further back, and misapplied. The irreconcilable enmity is that which God said he would put between the Serpent and the Woman; and between the Woman’s Seed and the Serpent’s Seed; that is, between the serpent-adherents of falsehood, and the righteous constituents of the Bride; and between the Chief of the political organization of the serpent-community, and the Great Captain and Husband of the Bride—Genesis 3: 15. These are the two great parties into which mankind were to be divided; and between whom there was to be irreconcilable enmity, until one or the other of them should be exterminated from the earth. The two chiefs are the Heads of each contending party contemporary with each other upon the earth—contemporary at the bruising of the heel of the one; contemporary also at the bruising of the Head of the other: two adverse POWERS incarnated in two irreconcilably hostile organizations of mankind. The people of the east, though “become vain in their imaginations, and darkened in their foolish heart,” still retained this tradition derived from their ancestors, when, with “a mind void of judgment,” they fabricated their theory of Oromazd and his enemy Ahriman. They did not retain God’s knowledge in its purity, but perverted it, and turned it into a mythology of the Devil.
The believers in the Devil of the Gentiles could do no more than they have done towards explaining the origin of the world’s miseries. The thinking of the flesh attributed their origin to the God-hating malevolence of a personal devil existent before the formation of man; the Bible, on the contrary, refers them all to SIN as their cause, and to divinely appointed EVIL as the punishment of sin. The popular notion is a clumsy effort of the carnal mind to explain things too high for it; and the scripture testimony it adduces to sanctify its absurdity only exposes it to contempt. It tells us that this pre-existent immortal Devil was “Lucifer, son of the morning,” who “fell from heaven!”—Isaiah 14: 12—(Alluding to the Devil a writer says, “the height of capacity in Lucifer only increased the fall of that Son of the morning.”) Would any one that understands the prophets be so infatuated as to dream of proving the pre-adamic existence of the Devil by such a passage as this? The record concerning Lucifer is part of a prophecy of the overthrow of Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty by the Medes and Persians, commencing with the beginning of the thirteenth of Isaiah, and ending at the twenty-seventh verse inclusive of the next chapter. Lucifer is Belshazzar, who was so named 181 years before his fall, because he was the light-bearer, or sun, of the Chaldean heaven. The prophet, in vision, seeing him prostrate as “a carcase trodden under feet,” exclaims, “Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof?” How dark must that mind be that can press a prophecy of the fall of a man from the throne of a pagan empire, into the service of demonstrating the existence of a personal Devil before the creation of man upon the earth! What absurdity is too great for the credulity of the carnal mind after this!
The Bible doctrine of the devil is its teaching concerning sin. This is certainly an important subject, and one which it is desirable every one should understand. The Gentiles do not understand the teaching of the scriptures concerning Sin; it is impossible, therefore, that they can know any thing about the devil and satan exhibited in the testimony of God. Sin is the synonym of devil in the text we placed at the head of this article; I do not mean it to be inferred, however, that I hold that the word sin is the meaning of the words devil and satan wherever they occur in the English version of the scriptures. The words, devil and devils, occur about one hundred and twenty times in the English Bible, but they are by no means in the original scriptures. Two distinct words are used; and in eighty-two passages of the one hundred and twenty, the word employed is quite distinct from that which, in the remaining thirty-eight and the above text among the number, is the representative of the word devil in the common translation. In the eighty-two texts the word is daimon, and its derivatives, which ought never to be translated devil either in the sense of a personal devil or of sin. Of these eighty-two only four belong to the writings called “The Old Testament,” in which it is devils and not devil. In the thirty-eight passages the original word is diabolos. Now, if the word devil be the correct rendering of diabolos, it is certain that it cannot be the proper interpretation of daimon; and consequently to render daimon by devil must lead into error. I do not, therefore, affirm that sin is synonymous with devil and devils in those texts which have daimon for their representative in the Greek; but that where the original is diabolos the radical idea is sin. I conclude, then, that distinct Greek words being used in the eighty-two texts, and the thirty-eight texts, the ideas represented in the two classes are distinct, although rendered by the same word in English; and that consequently, all arguments in relation to the Devil, as derived from the eighty-two, would be deceptive and of no weight, because the Devil is not referred to therein at all.
The thirty-eight texts in which diabolos occurs are—Matthew 4: 1, 5, 8, 11; 13: 39; 25: 41: Luke 4: 2-3, 5-6, 13; 8: 12: John 6: 70; 8: 44; 13: 2: Acts 10: 38; 13: 10: Ephesians 4: 27; 6: 11: 1 Timothy 3: 6-7, 11: 2 Timothy 2: 26; 3: 3: Titus 2: 3: Hebrews 2: 14: James 4: 7: 1 Peter 5: 8: 1 John 3: 8, three times in this verse: Jude 9; Revelation 2: 10; 12: 9, 12; 20: 2, 10.
In our prefatory text the words are ton to kratos echonta tou thanatou, toutesti, ton diabolon—“the having the power of the death, that is, the devil.” Ton echonta is masculine to agree with diabolon, not because the thing having the power of death is a male; but because the word by custom of the Greek tongue is in that gender. The thing having the power of death is it not him; unless by prosopopeia the it is converted into a person, as in this text—Romans 7: 13, kath hyperboleen hamartolos, pre-eminently a sinner. This diabolos, or devil, whatever it may mean, the apostle says, Jesus came to destroy. It is therefore, not an immortal devil; but one which will sooner or later be annihilated by the power of Jesus, the Woman’s Seed. To destroy the devil is to take away the devil from the world; that is, to take away the Sin of the World; hence, said John the Baptist concerning Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin off the world.” This is the mission of Jesus, to take away every curse from the earth—Revelation 22: 3; 21: 5; and certainly when this is accomplished, Diabolos and all his works will be destroyed—1 John 3: 3.
Now, to accomplish this great work of destroying the devil and his works, Paul says, Jesus became flesh and blood, therefore subject to death like his brethren, that he might die. I can understand this if the devil mean sin; but on the hypothesis that diabolos means the Gentile Devil, I confess I can see no sense in it. Why should Jesus become flesh and blood to destroy such a devil as the world believes in? Why should he become mortal to conquer the immortal Devil? —The devil which men suppose is to torment their species in fire and brimstone in all eternity? Will any one of his friends make this mystery intelligible, if they can? If the devil to be destroyed be such an one as is supposed, Jesus ought to have appeared in the nature of angels, and not in the weakly nature of the seed of Abraham. He would then have been strong and invulnerable; and an overmatch for the foul fiend perhaps; though if mere strength were required, I see not why the angels could not have given him his quietus thousands of years ago.
But no. The angels, even all the hosts of them, could not, and cannot, destroy diabolos, or the Bible-devil, which torments our race, upon the principles laid down by eternal wisdom. This diabolos is the thing that has “the power of the death,” which subjects all the living to corruption. It has this power now, even over the saints, though the King of Saints is no longer holden of it. It will retain this power till their resurrection, when they will be subject to its control no more. It will still, however, retain its hold upon humanity for a thousand years longer; but when that long period is accomplished, the rest of the dead, who are to inhabit the earth for ever with the Saints and their King, will be extricated from its deadly embrace; for “the last enemy, DEATH, shall be destroyed.” Ah! Death is the last enemy; yes, and the first enemy was Sin, who introduced it into our world; for “the wages of Sin is Death.” Here are cause and effect face to face. Human tradition makes the popular Devil the first enemy and the last, the Alpha and the Omega of all their woes; but not so the Bible, Sin was the first, and Death will be the last; because Sin being taken away, Death, its penalty, will be abolished as a matter of course. As far as possibility is concerned the matter might be reversed. If death were taken away and not sin, sin would then be immortal—Diabolos would live for ever—a result, however, that cannot be; because it was to prevent the immortality of sin on the earth that the flesh and blood called Adam and Eve, were expelled from Paradise—Genesis 3: 22-23. Sin must be destroyed. This is a victory that must be obtained before God can with honour to himself abolish death. But the destruction of sin has a deeper meaning than simply putting down rebellion. Death cannot be abolished so long as sin exists in the flesh; for “the body is dead because of sin”—Romans 8: 10—it is the physical principle within us that makes us mortal. But enough for the present. In the next number I will resume the subject.
EDITOR.
* * *
VISIT TO BRITAIN.
THE FORLORN-HOPE DEFINITION OF THE GOSPEL—THE
DECLARATION OF THE GOSPEL FILED BY PAUL DEMOLISHES IT—PREJUDICE AGAINST US ON
THE WANE IN EDINBURGH—A PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION OF RESPECT—VISIT TO HOLYROOD AND
TO THE CROWN ROOM IN THE CASTLE—THE REGALIA AND CROWN-JEWELS OF SCOTLAND’S
KINGDOM—A WEEK AT HARROWGATE—LETTER FROM EDINBURGH.
The forlorn hope led on by the lawyer and the deacon against our position, was based upon the following words of the apostle— 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4.
“Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also
ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep
in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I
delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that
he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures.”
I had stated that the things concerning the kingdom to be restored again to Israel under the New Covenant, and concerning the name of the anointed Jesus, were the subject-matter of the Gospel to be believed for salvation; and that to omit the things of the kingdom was to mutilate the gospel, and to make it of none effect. This was a deep thrust into the consciences of those who were either ignorant of the things of the kingdom, or, if they knew them, did not believe them. The lawyer and the deacon, both Baptists, I suspect were in this predicament, which is, indeed, a pretty universal dilemma. They felt themselves, therefore, bound to justify themselves, and to show, if they could, that the gospel was restricted to three facts and a single truth concerning Christ—the facts being the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; and the doctrinal truth that “he died for our sins:” so that if a man believe these, he believed the gospel, and would be saved if he did not forget them. To prove this they adduced the passage above quoted as an obvious demonstration of their position, and an unanswerable, and triumphant refutation of mine. But “he that is first in his own cause seemeth just: but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him.” This happened to them and we searched them to the following effect.
They laid great
stress, as is usual, on the phrase “first of all,” to prove that
when Paul preached the gospel, the first thing he did was to deliver himself
concerning the crucifixion and death of Jesus for our sins, which is called “preaching
him crucified.” But to this I objected that Paul did not say “first of
all;” but en protois, “among the first things”—“I delivered to
you among the first things that which I received, how that Christ died for our
sins, &c.” It is not true that Paul delivered this in the Gentile sense
of the phrase “first of all,” that is, that the first thing he preached
was the crucifixion of Jesus for sins. When he went among those who had the
scriptures of the prophets, and professed to believe them, the first thing he
did was to lay before them the things concerning the Christ; and when he
thought he had sufficiently enlightened them upon these matters, he then
submitted to them the things concerning Jesus, and his name. But when he
went among idolaters, who knew not the prophets, he first showed them the
absurdity of idol-worship, endeavouring in so doing to turn them from dumb
idols to the living and true God, whose messenger he announced himself to be;
he then proclaimed God’s future vicegerent reign over the nations by A
RIGHTEOUS MAN whom he had prepared for the purpose, having raised him from
the dead; which resurrection was an assurance that said Divine Kingdom would
certainly be established. Having thus introduced the subject of the King’s
resurrection, he then preached to them Jesus, that is, the things concerning
him; who confirmed the apostle’s testimony “with signs, and wonders, and
divers miracles, and distributions of the Holy Spirit, according to his will.”
The foregoing statement is proved by Paul’s course at Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth; for thus it is written, “And Paul, as his manner was, went into the synagogue of the Jews, and three Sabbath days (or Saturdays) reasoned with them out of the scriptures (of the prophets, the only scriptures then in being,) opening and alleging that it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from among the dead (ek nekroon).” While he confined himself to this, the general question, he was listened to without tumult. The Jews had no objection to listen to the discussion of the question, “Is the Anointed One to suffer death, and to rise from the dead, before he assumes the reins of government over Israel and the nations?” This is clear from Paul’s adventures at Corinth as well as at Thessalonica. There he reasoned with the Jews for several Sabbaths, during which all was peace and quietness, and obviously, because he said nothing about Jesus. He spoke only of the Christ, without affirming whether he had appeared or not. But when Silas and Timothy joined him from Macedonia he was encouraged, and, being pressed in spirit, could no longer forbear to affirm that the Christ had appeared, and that the crucified and resurrected Jesus was He. This avowal threw the hitherto peaceable Jews into an uproar, as the announcement of the same truth had at Thessalonica. It is evident, therefore, from the effect produced at both places, that Paul did not preach the things concerning Jesus first of all. If he had, his first discourse would have resulted only in tumult. He would not have convinced a single Jew. He had first to prepare the minds of the Jews by convincing them from the prophets that, whoever the Christ might be, and whenever he should appear, he must prove himself worthy of exaltation to David’s throne by obedience unto death, from which God would deliver him by a resurrection to everlasting life. If he could get the Jews to believe this he would remove the great obstacle in the way of their confessing that Jesus was the Christ. This obstacle consisted in their belief that the Christ, whenever he came, would appear at once in power and great glory. If Jesus had appeared thus they would have received him gladly; but because he appeared in humiliation, contrary to their expectation, he became an obstacle, “a stone of stumbling and rock of offence.” Knowing the state of their minds upon the subject, Paul proceeded cautiously and wisely; first opening to them the prophets, that is, expounding the scriptures that they might understand their teaching concerning the Christ. When they comprehended this, they perceived that the King expected by the nation was to appear as “a poor and needy man,” despised and persecuted by his contemporaries to an ignominious death, and afterwards to rise from the dead; and that this crisis of his fate was to be made the foundation of a mystery, through which remission of sins, and a right to share with the Christ in his kingdom for ever, might be obtained. A mind so prepared would have no difficulty in assenting heartily to the proposition that the Jesus whom Paul preached was that Christ, when the declaration was confirmed of God by the miracles wrought in his name before them.
Now, the things first preached by Paul, namely, concerning the Christ, were the things of the kingdom; for Christ is equivalent to king, because kings are anointed ones. In preaching Christ to the Thessalonians, he taught them that there was another king than Caesar—Acts 17: 7, who should come from heaven with the angels of his power, taking vengeance on those who obeyed not the gospel he preached—1 Thessalonians 1: 10; 2 Thessalonians 1: 7-10. He invited them to a participation in his kingdom and glory—1 Thessalonians 2: 12, a resurrection from the dead if accounted worthy of it, and deliverance from the wrath to come—1 Thessalonians 4: 16; 2 Thessalonians 1: 5; 1 Thessalonians 1: 10. In preaching Jesus Christ, he taught them that Jesus was that king in whom would be fulfilled all the things written concerning him in the prophets. This doctrine of a king from heaven to rule the nations upon the earth, as Jehovah’s vicegerent, sounded out from Jerusalem to every part of the Roman dominion until it reached the ears of the reigning emperor, whose jealousy it excited so much that he made decrees, forbidding any one to proclaim it. Now, I would like to know, if Paul had taught that Jesus was king of a dominion in the skies, or beyond them, would the Roman emperor have forbidden his subjects to affirm it? On the contrary, is it not clear, that Paul preached the establishment of a kingdom on the Roman territory, and that it was this that alarmed Caesar? What would Caesar, a pagan, have cared about the kingship of Jesus so long as he supposed it was to be confined to the heavens, and not to interfere with his jurisdiction? He would have regarded it with as little concern as Victoria does the preaching of the kingdom by the dissenters, who declare that the Lord’s kingdom is not of this world, but purely spiritual and ethereal.
Paul had a
special reason for reminding the Corinthians that he delivered to them the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for sins, “among the first
things.” It was this. There were some of Hymenaeus and Philetus’s disciples
among them, who affirmed that “the resurrection was past already”—2
Timothy 2: 17-18, and that consequently, “there is no resurrection of the
dead”—1 Corinthians 15: 12—hereafter. They had embraced again that old
clairvoyant fable of heathenism concerning souls, or “separate spirits.” They
affirmed that man had a soul in him which was capable of a disembodied
existence, which it actually assumed at death. This was the current and
universal opinion of the day, which made Paul’s doctrine of the resurrection
of the mortal body so absurd in the estimation of the people.**
** Titus, who was contemporary with Paul, in his speech to the Roman soldiers before the attack on the tower of Antonia at the siege of Jerusalem, thus addresses them: “For what man of virtue is there who does not know that those souls which are severed from their fleshly bodies in battles by the sword, are received by the ether, that purest of elements, and joined to that company which is placed among the stars: that they become gods, demons, and propitious heroes, and show themselves as such to their posterity afterwards?”—Wars of the Jews, by Josephus, book vi., c. i., sec. 5. Good orthodox doctrine, is it not? Titus would have made quite a capital divine for our day, if he would just have interlarded his sermons with a few bible-phrases, and instead of speaking of Jupiter and the gods, called them Peter and the Saints!!
The holders of this fabulous tradition argued from their assumption to conclusions subversive of the truth. As souls are received by the pure ether, and joined to the company among the stars, a resurrection of the body to inherit a kingdom in the land of Israel, is unnecessary. Manifestly. They denied it, therefore; and so rejected both the resurrection and the kingdom. Now, it was to vindicate the truth concerning these, and to demolish their “philosophy and vain deceit,” their “science falsely so called,” to the conviction of every right-minded reader, that he wrote the fifteenth chapter of his letter to the Church at Corinth. In the eleventh verse he reminds them that he preached a resurrected Christ, in whom they believed. He did not preach a Christ who died for sins, whose soul was received by the ether, and joined to a company among the stars. The Christ he preached was raised bodily from the dead, not from among the living in a world of spirits; but the same bodily person who was buried, and continued buried till the third day, after which he was seen by five hundred and twelve persons, and last of all by himself, as one born out of due time. “Now,” says he, this being so—“if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” Here is the reason for his reminding them that Christ’s resurrection was preached to them “among the first things.” It was to elicit from them self-condemnation for obviously stultifying themselves in, at one and the same time, admitting the resurrection of Christ the first-fruits, and denying the resurrection of the dead in him! He did not introduce the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for sins, as a definition of the gospel; but as among some of the first things of which the gospel treats. The gospel stated in the fewest words is, “In Abraham shall all nations be blessed”—Galatians 3: 8; Genesis 12: 18; but if there be no future resurrection, there can be no blessing of the nations in him and his seed—Daniel 12: 2; Galatians 3: 29; for both he and they are sleeping in the dust of the earth, where they must forever remain if the dead are not raised.
Though I object to the third and fourth verses containing a definition of the gospel, I admit that the chapter at large contains a declaration of the gospel preached by Paul. It is evidently so, for he informs the reader in the first verse, that he is about to declare, or make known, the gospel which he had preached to them. It had become necessary to do so; for some of them were letting slip the things they had once believed. Now look at the items of the declaration, and behold the topics treated of by the apostle when he preached the gospel. Here they are—the death of the Christ for sins, his burial, and resurrection; the future resurrection of the dead by him at his coming; his subsequent reign till the end comes; his subjugation of all enemies during his reign, and the destruction of death at the end of it; the delivering up of the kingdom to the Father then, when the mediatorship shall be abolished, so that God may be all and in all; the kind of body the resurrected saints shall possess, and their glory, to fit them for the possession of the kingdom of God; the transformation of the faithful contemporary with the resurrection; and the church’s victory over “the gates of hell” through Jesus Christ the Lord. These are the great gospel-truths contained in that word which Paul taught in Corinth for a year and six months; and which “many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptised”—Acts 18: 11, 8. There is not a syllable here about “separate spirits,” and sky-kingdoms; but every thing to the contrary, adduced, too, to refute them. The major part of the Corinthians remained faithful to the things declared, as the apostle says in reference to them, “wherein ye stand;” and adds, “by which ye are saved if ye hold fast to a certain word I preached to you, unless ye have believed in vain.” In the common version these italics read, “if ye keep in memory what.” They are two words in the dative case in the Greek answering to “what,” namely, tini logo, “to a certain word”—the word of God, that is, “the law and the testimony” bound up and sealed among the disciples—Isaiah 8: 16, from which, by the reasoning of the apostle, were brought out the things set forth in the declaration of the gospel of the kingdom, so interestingly filed in the fifteenth of Corinthians. “I worship the God of my fathers,” said he. How did he worship him? “Believing,” he adds, “all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets”—Acts 24: 14: and as he believed so he preached, “witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come”—Acts 26: 22. This was that “certain word” which he preached, and upon the holding fast to which the salvation of men is predicated.
The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for sins, according to the prophets, is only an item of the declaration filed. The great multitude of professors believe this in our day in a certain sense: that is, they assent that in some way remission of sins is connected and dependant on the death of Jesus; though of the prophetic and law-instruction in the case, they know nothing. But while this is credited, they ridicule the other items of Paul’s declaration with Epicurean and Stoic mockery. If they assent to the resurrection of Jesus, they nullify the resurrection of the dead at his appearing, and a posteriori his, by their animal-magnet-ismalism about “separate-spirits” and “spirit-world,” making it perfectly unnecessary and superfluous; which is in effect denying it—nay, numbers say boldly, that all the resurrection there is, is the awakening of the soul at its final separation from the body when the heart ceases to beat. The item of the declaration about the appearing again of Jesus in the world, is one against which they are particularly spiteful. They crack fool-jokes at the idea of his coming to this cursed, and sin-polluted, earth again; not having wit enough to perceive, that it is this very defilement of earthly things that makes his return absolutely necessary, that he may take away the sin which curses them. The kingdom meets with no more favour at their hands than the appearing of its king. This is an item of the declaration they have nullified as completely as the resurrection of the first fruits. Paul preached one kingdom only. He said nothing about a “kingdom of grace” distinct from a “kingdom of glory.” Moses, the Prophets, John the baptiser, Jesus, and the Apostles, and the whole Israelitish nation, hoped for, and discoursed about but one kingdom, namely, “the kingdom of God.” This, our contemporaries say was set up on Pentecost, and that men enter it when they are immersed! I would like to know if men are not in possession of the kingdom when they are in it? So the leaders of the people teach; for they say, the apostles ascended the thrones of the Twelve Tribes of Israel on Pentecost, when they entered and possessed it! According to this, flesh and blood can and do inherit the kingdom of God, which is contrary to the declaration filed by the apostle, which says, “they cannot;” in other words, that the putting on of incorruptibility and immortality are indispensably necessary to the inheriting of the kingdom. Then as to the nature and place of the kingdom, they resolve it into principles assented to, and locate it among the stars; while the apostles, being in the promised land, placed it at the coming of Christ to reign over his enemies, not at his going to; and exhibit it as a proper kingdom with the Twelve Tribes as its subjects, the nations for its empire, and Jesus and his brethren as Jehovah’s kings and princes throughout all the earth. Look at the declaration, item for item, and analyse the reasoning which elicits them, and after comparing the whole with the pulpit-gospels, then let any man of sense and candour conscientiously deny my position if he can, namely, that the thing now preached for gospel, and assented to by the people, is not the gospel preached by the apostles at the command of Jesus, but “another gospel,” which can give no one that trusts in it remission of sins and a right to eternal life in the kingdom of God. If the apostle worshipped the God of his fathers, modern “christians” do not; for they not only do not believe all things written in the Law and the Prophets; but they are destitute even of respect for their authority, treating them as old, musty, unintelligible, records, which have long since answered their end, and consequently of no further account to the generations of an age so enlightened as the nineteenth century!
My exhibition of the declaration filed in this remarkable chapter had the effect anticipated. The forlorn hope was paralysed, and those who led it, if not convinced, had nothing more to say; and as midnight was fast approaching, a move was made that terminated the evening, leaving all in apparent harmony with themselves and one another.
I discoursed to the people in Edinburgh about ten times, and seemed to gain credit with them the longer I remained among them. This was better than being received with a great character, and leaving with none. They had received me hesitatingly, but relinquished me with regret; as will appear from the following epistle written by one, who, though an officer in the Queen’s navy, rejoices in righteousness and the truth.
Edinburgh, November 9th, 1848.
Dear Sir and Brother:
Myself
and ----- are anxious to express to you the interest we feel in your welfare
and progress. We had our share of the unfavourable impression produced
by certain rumours, and we are thankful we were not suffered to listen to the
voice of the “accuser of our brethren,” who is at the bottom of all
mischief. Having seen and heard for ourselves, we can now bid you “God
speed,” and hope you will not be discouraged, either by the craft of
designing men, or the mistakes and short-sight of ignorant ones; bur pursue
steadily the path you have marked out for yourself, “despising the shame,”
and “overcoming evil with good;” so that when your course is finished,
you may say with Paul, “I have kept the faith.”
We will esteem it a favour if you will accept a pencil
case as a memorial of your visit here, and specially of our personal regard and
esteem. I wish I had been so circumstanced that I could have exercised a
greater degree of hospitality towards you: ----- joins with me in wishing you
health, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit; while for myself, I remain your
brother in the faith and hope of the gospel.
J.W.S.
The writer of this letter and his friend, both members
of South Bridge Hall congregation, were not the only persons whom our
discourses had dispossessed of the evil which had been created in them by the
enemy of all righteousness. A desire was created in many to give a public testimony
in our favour as an expounder of the prophets and apostles. They proposed to
hold a soiree, or evening, at the Waterloo Assembly Room. Although I do
not like to be the subject of public demonstrations I acquiesced, as it seemed
to be much desired; and on the ground also that it would give no aid or comfort
to the accuser and adversary in America and Britain, who was doing all he could
to close the ear of the people against me as an utterly worthless fellow. A
very considerable and respectable company of the odds and ends of Edinburgh
society assembled on the occasion to express their gratitude and good will
towards us for our work of faith and labour of love in their behalf; and to bid
us “God speed” in our future enterprises connected with the interpretation
and defence of “the Testimony of God.” The business of the evening was
very well and orderly conducted under the auspices of Alexander Melville Bell,
Esq., who presided as chairman of the soiree. Speeches were made appropriate to
the occasion, and in the intervals the
audience was charmed into the blandest disposition by the sweet strains of
instrumental and vocal music furnished con amore for the evening. It was
“a quiet tea party” on a large scale, at which music, refreshments, speeches,
and the questioning of our humble self for the resolution of doubts and
difficulties, were the entertainment of the friends. There was a little bit of
display, however, which as far as my feelings were concerned, would have been
more satisfactory in the breach than the observance. It was the unexpected
presentation to me of a purse of six sovereigns, with a complimentary speech by
the chairman. A man cannot travel in Britain without money, and as I was “running
to and fro” for the benefit of the public, and not of myself, * I had no
hesitation in accepting it; but then, I had rather it had been given in a more
private and business-like way. All who are acquainted with me know that I do
not labour for gold and silver, or present reward. I can neither live nor get
along without it any more than other people; not having discovered the art of
paying printers, steam companies, and domestic necessities with air and ether,
however pure and abundant the supply. But, though it is indispensable as a
means of operating, a public presentation of gold to a labourer in the
gospel has an unseemly appearance. It looks as though he had been labouring for
that as his reward; a semblance, which, although it might not be observed by
others, the practice being familiar, was perceived by myself, and made the
acceptance of it, under the circumstances, more painful than agreeable. The
intention was kind, though its expression was not the happiest; I therefore
made the best acknowledgment I could, in hope that it would be the last time my
friends, in being “at charges with me,” would give it the
appearance of a reward conferred, rather than a contribution to a common
enterprise, in which the only persons advantaged were themselves. * See next
page.
* This is proved by the fact that my receipts
did not cover my return voyage to America, &c., having not received more
than four shillings over travelling expenses in the island. Much money was
raised, but it was necessarily expended in printing, hiring assembly rooms, and
paying board for me during my sojourn in divers cities: the surplus just
accomplished what I have said.
About
11 P.M. the soiree was brought to a close by the chairman proposing a vote of
thanks to me, for the instruction and edification they had received in the
interesting lectures they had heard; and at the same time suggesting that a
committee of gentlemen be formed, whose business it should be to get
subscribers for the publication of the book I had promised to write at the
request of many of the citizens of Glasgow, setting forth the great and
important truths they had listened to with so much delight. The proposal for a
committee was adopted, and fourteen of the audience were named, who agreed to
serve. But before the vote of thanks was put, a very zealous philanthropist arose
in the midst, and objected to the vote being taken until I defined my position
in regard to American slavery; as though the favours conferred on the modern
Athenians were lessened or increased by the complexion of my opinions upon that
exciting topic of the day. Zeal without discretion has but one idea, which it
obtrudes under whatever circumstances, without regard to time, place, or
fitness. This was the case with the objector, and the chairman perceived it. He
therefore pronounced the objection irrelevant, and not to be entertained at
that crisis. Dr. Thomas had laid the audience under obligation by his
disinterested endeavours to enlighten them in the scriptures of truth. They
appreciated his services, and did not at all conceive it necessary to ascertain
what were his opinions upon all the debatable questions of the day, before they
expressed their heartfelt thanks for what had been accomplished in their midst.
He should therefore submit the motion, which had been seconded, to the company,
which would doubtless respond to it unanimously. The motion was agreed to nem.
‘con. Save the philanthropist, who persisted in withholding his thanks,
which, of course, left us a prey to the most poignant grief! Our friend then
vacated his seat, and his able conduct in the chair being testified and
approved in due form, the evening was closed, and the company retired to their
respective abodes.
During
my sojourn in Edinburgh I visited some of the lions of the place, such as
Holyrood House, the Castle, the Regalia there, &c. I shall not occupy space
with a description of these things, which is amply detailed in the popular
guide-books of the day. Holyrood is a gloomy looking place, with the ruin of
the old Abbey attached. To one acquainted with its history it is an object of
disgust and abhorrence. It was the royal residence in past ages of ignorance,
superstition, barbarism, and crime, incarnate in the kings, queens, and courts
of Scotland. It was once a very splendid abode of royalty, when men’s ideas of
greatness and magnificence, could soar no higher than the barbaric pomp of a
Faustin, or the rich vulgarity of a country town. It is an object of national
veneration, which is considerably heightened in the popish mind of the country
as being the occasional residence of that lady of easy virtue, Mary Queen of
Scots. The blood-stain is still shown on the floor where Rizzio, her Italian
favourite and musician, was murdered in her presence by Darnley and his
associates, who afterwards buried him under the floor off the passage leading
from the palace to the Abbey. Tourists look upon these relics of former ages
with a sort of superstitious worship; but to a mind accustomed to contemplate
the glories of the Age to Come, they are but the mementos of human wretchedness
and vanity, which the sooner they perish the better, with the recollection of
all the viciosities they memorialise. We have said enough in a former notice
about the Castle of Edinburgh, standing on
“The steep and iron belted rock,
Where trusted lies the monarchy’s
last gems—
The Sceptre, Sword, and Crown
that graced the brows,
Since father Fergus, of a
hundred kings.”
These
precious, but useless, baubles are deposited in the Crown-Room of the Castle.
They rest on a marble slab in a dark place, enclosed, beyond the reach of the
longest arm, by a circular iron palisade extending from the floor to the
ceiling, and illuminated by a lamp so placed as to bring them into view.
Besides the sceptre, sword, and crown, are four ancient jewels, bequeathed to
George IV by the late Cardinal York, the last male descendant of James VII of
Scotland. These jewels are “the St. George,” “the St. Andrew,” a Sapphire Ring
set round with diamonds, and a golden collar of the Order of the Garter. The
St. George is a badge off the order off the Garter, of gold, richly enamelled
and set with diamonds. On one side of the St. Andrew is the image of Scotland’s
patron Saint, or mahoz, finely cut on an onyx, set round with diamonds;
on the other, a secret opening under which is placed a fine miniature of the
Queen of Denmark. The Sapphire Ring is the coronation ring of Charles I; and
the Collar that presented to James VI by Queen Elizabeth.
The
Crown, supposed to have been made in the reign of Robert the Bruce, is of a
remarkably elegant form. The lower part consists of two circles, the undermost
much broader than that which rises over it, both are composed off the purest
gold, and the uppermost is surmounted or relieved by a range of lily flowers,
interchanged with flowered crosses, and with knobs or pinnacles of gold, topped
with large pearls, which produces a very rich effect. The under and broader
circle is adorned with twenty-two precious stones, betwixt each of which is
interposed an oriental pearl; the stones are topazes, amethysts, emeralds,
rubies, and iacinths, set plain in the ancient style of jeweller’s work. The
smaller circle, which surmounts this under one, is adorned with small diamonds
and sapphires alternately, and its upper verge terminates in a range of the
crosses, lilies, and knobs topped with pearls. James V surmounted these circles
with two imperial arches crossing each other, and closing at the top in a mound
of gold, which again is surmounted by a large cross patee, ornamented
with pearls. The bonnet, or tiara, worn under the crown, is of crimson velvet,
turned up with ermine. The tiara is adorned with four superb pearls set in
gold, and fastened in the velvet, which appear between the arches. The crown
measures about nine inches in diameter, twenty-seven in circumference, and
about six inches and a half in height from the bottom of the lower circle to
the top of the cross. The whole appearance of this ancient type of sovereignty
does great credit to the skill and taste of the age in which it was formed.
The Sceptre
is a slender and elegant rod of silver, about thirty-nine inches in length, the
stalk being of hexagon form, divided by three ornamented rings, and surrounded
by an antique capital of embossed leaves, supporting three small figures,
representing the Virgin Mary, Saint Andrew, and Saint James. The ornamented
niches, in which these Mahuzzim are placed, are again surmounted by a crystal
globe of two inches and a quarter in diameter, and yet again by a small oval
globe topped with an oriental pearl. When laws were passed in the Scottish
Parliament, they were presented by the chancellor to the king, who ratified
them by touching them with the Sceptre, in token of the royal assent.
These Honours of Scotland’s kingdom have passed through many vicissitudes of an interesting kind. They were in the custody of George Ogilvy, lieutenant-governor of the castle of Dunnottar in 1652, when it was besieged and closely blo