ODOLOGY: AN ANTIDOTE TO SPIKITUALISM, BEING AN ANALYSIS OF THE CLAIMS OF SPIRITUALISM IN THE LIGHT OF THE BIBLE. (First Published in 1852,)

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1 CD CD CD CURTIS H. PO BOX 673 CHATHAM, NJ ODOLOGY: 2 -TAUGH BERLIN w *--«< : AN ANTIDOTE TO SPIKITUALISM, BEING AN ANALYSIS OF THE CLAIMS OF SPIRITUALISM IN THE LIGHT OF THE BIBLE. (Frst Publshed n 1852,) I JOHN THOMAS, M.D., Author of "Etps Israel"; "Eureka, an Exposton of the Apocalypse" n 3 vols.; and. other tvorks. " Now the sprt speaketh expressly, that n the latter tmes some shall depart from the fath, gvng heed to seducng sprts, and doctrnes of demons." Paul to Tmothy (1 Tm. v. 1.) BIRMINGHAM : C. C. WALKER, 21, HEKDON ROAD, SPAEKHILL PRICE ONE PENNY. [THIRD EDITION.] 1 "*} '

2 r~ ODOLOGY. PKOFESSOR REICHENBACH, n hs experments on certan crystals and persons, through the medum of hghly-senstve ndvduals, has ascertaned that a flud of a blue and yellow colour, more subtle than electrcty, s thrown off from the poles of the crystals, and from the ends of the fngers. It s not vsble to persons n a normal state of the nervous system, whch s adapted only to the percepton of ordnary phenomena ; but when the bran s exalted beyond what s usual, though short of actual nsanty, thngs nvsble to others are perceved, pertanng to ths hghly attenuated or rarfed exhalaton, whch s probably the electromagnetc flud reduced to an aura by the pecular atomc organsaton of the bodes from whch t s gven off. On ths flud Rechenbach has bestowed the name of OD I suppose for the same reason that Dr. Faraday styles the electrcal poles electrod8 (electrodes) from electron, amber (by the frcton of whch electrcty was frst artfcally dscerned), and odos, a way the poles beng regarded merely as the doors or ways by whch electrcty passes. The od s the boundary of the decomposng matter n the drecton of the electrc current. Rechenbach's flud passes off at the ods or poles; and as he regards t as somethng else than electrcty, magnetsm, or galvansm, he calls t by another name, even the Grecochemcal term for the extremty from whch t exhales. I have styled ths artcle Odology (from logos, a dscourse, and od), or dscourse upon Od. Not that I am gong to dscuss the subject of Od Rechenbachcally; but, belevng that the phenomena of the " sprtualsts" are Odstc, f anythng, I have chosen to denomnate what I have to say upon the subject by Odology, rather than by Pneumatology, Psychology, or any other word whch concedes the unproved and unprovable affrmaton of the exstence of supposed dead men's ghosts dsembodedly. EMANATIONS OF BODIES AND CHTSTALS. The electro-magnetc od s constantly passng off from the electrodes, or poles, of anmal bodes and certan crystals. It s probable that our bodes are enveloped wth a halo of t, for everythng has ts halo accordng to the followng testmony : " It s well _ known," says Mrs. Grffths, " that around and adherng to all surfaces there s a halo of dem-transparent lght, seen only, however, when the object for experment s n a certan poston wth regard to the eye and the lght whch falls on t. Ths halo s not dependent on any pecularty of colour or materal, for t encompasses every object n nature, whether t belong to the anmal, vegetable, or mneral kngdom ; whether t be square or round, black or whte, opaque or transparent, sold or flud." The halo of our bodes, t s probable, conssts of Rechenbach's odc flud, the colour of whch s vsble to those who are hghly odc, or n a state n whch the od s abundantly generated. It s of a delcate blue when gven off from the postve electrode, and yellow from the negatve pole of crystal. From the fnger tps of a male subject t exhales off a blue colour about an nch long; but from those of a female the jet s nconsderable, mpartng, as t were, a lumnousness to ther extremtes. From graveyards ths odc exhalaton s abundant. It has been seen to cover a necropols to a depth of four feet, as a lambent blue haze. Ths s doubtless the flud generated by the decomposng anmal matter beneath the sod. Lke phantom shps at sea, produced by refracton of the lght reflected on the frmament from real shps, phantom appearances are sometmes seen by senstve nervous systems, produced by refracton of the odc rays n and upon the mrror formed by the magnetc halo of the earth, whch emanate from the forms corruptng n the dust thereof. These phantoms (n Greek styled phantasma)" are called "separate," or "dsemboded sprts," by the gnorant and supersttous, under the supposton that they are the real men and women, boys and grls, who used to enact lfe's folles n the flesh! They are, no doubt, as real as phantom shps, and as awfully mysterous, to the unphlosophcal and scrpturallyunenlghtened as they are to the untutored barbarans of the forecastle ; but, real as the phantom shp spectreb are, who would be so crazy as to mantan that they are the souls or sprts of the shps whch gave them moton over the dark blue sea? Or that they are the dsemboded ghosts of the vessels caught up to the thrd heavens? Yet ths would be just as ratonal as the psychologcal theosophsms of the schools, pulpts, and " crcles," about souls, ghosts, and sprt worlds. "Matt. xv. 26 ; accordng to Greabach, Luke xxv. 37, 39, should read phantasma, not pneuma.

3 There are a few dscoveres n electrcal scence worth knowng n connecton wth ths subject. Professor Moser, as the result of hs researches n Thermography, remarks that " All bodes radate lght, even n complete darkness." Agan, he says, " The rays of ths lght act as ordnary lght," and that " Two bodes constantly mpress ther mages on each other, even n complete darkness." Thermographc experments prove these prncples, and lead hm to the concluson that there s latent lght n certan vapours, as well as latent heat. The ordnary condton of the human bran, and organs suppled by ts nerves, s that of adaptaton to the common exteror aspect of mponderable matters, such as lght, heat,- the grosser forms of electrcty, sound, &c. But there s a more exalted or refned percepton of these thngs, whch the anmal organsaton of ts own power, however ntensfed by nherent exctaton, cannot attan to. Our percepton of the latent mponderables, latent lght, latent heat, latent electrcty, or od, latent sounds, &c, may be rendered more acute than ordnary ; but t can never rpe to the hghest penetraton whch s possble wthout the superaddton of somethng whch the anmal nature possesses only to a very lmted degree. THE SPIRIT OF GOD OMNISCIENCE. Ths somethng s the sprt of God wthout measure." All lvng anmals have t n some degree, for " n God " they " lve, and move, and have ther beng; " and f He were to " gather unto hmself hs sprt and hs breath, all flesh shall persh together, and man shall turn agan unto dust." 6 Ths mnmum possesson of God's sprt, possessed by quadrupeds and man, s just suffcent for the purposes of that pecular consttuton of thngs we call " ths lfe;" but for the physcal percepton of thngs vsble to bengs of a more refned organsaton than ours, the sght of whch wll be vouchsafed at a future tme, called " the world to come," the present amount of sprt s not suffcent. Ths can do for man what s proved, and what may yet be proved : but not what s randomly affrmed. He s not ordnarly n harmony wth the latent mponderables ; but God s ntensely and completely so. Hence, " the darkness and the lght are both alke to hm." If a man was mprsoned n darkness a thousand feet below the earth's surface, God would see hm as dstnctly as we see each other above ground n the lght of noonday. Men profess to beleve ths; but upon what prncple s t that God sees thus n darkness? Because Hs nature, every atom of whch s, as t were, condensed lghtnng, glowng wth such an ntensty that ts radaton s felt throughout the boundless unverse, "John. &Job xxv. 14, 15. penetratng through all substances, and developng lfe and moton n all thngs, from the mnutest anmalcule to the globe of the vastest magntude. Hence, He s called " lght," and a " consumng fre." The rays from Hs presence, called sprt, dluted wth the grosser menstrua of the earth's products, place Hm n nner relaton to the mponderables, whch are but one and the same prncple, varously developed by the meda through whch t passes nto the receptacle whence t came. Thus, for nstance, the most subtle prncple of the earth's halo s sprt, whch s called by dfferent names, such as electrcty, magnetsm, &c. Ths halo s ts reservor, as t were. It s dluted wth atmospherc ar. We breathe t. It pervades every atom of our bodes, and havng enabled our organsaton to perform ts functons, t exhales from the electrodes of our system as Od nto the reservor where we derved t by breathng. Thus a crcle or crcut exsts of the external atomc form-changng flud, nternal transformed matter, and nervous current, closng the crcut by Od (latent lght radatng n darkness) exhalng nto the outer flud. Now, ths outer reservor of flud may be regarded as a hghlypolshed and extremely senstve mrror, n whch can be excted latent ode spectres, whch become vsble sometmes to those whose brans are subjected to odc exaltaton. The spectral mpressons may emanate from corruptng bodes, mneral or other substances, and from lvng brans actng upon other lvng brans. Rechenbach's graveyard experments have demonstrated the frst; thermoelectrography the second; and anmal magnetsm, n all ts varetes, the thrd. EXPERIMENTAL SPECTRAL IMPRESSIONS. We may adduce here a phlosophcal experment, llustratve of what we mean by latent spectral mpressons. Take a pece of polshed metal, glass, or japanned tn, the temperature of whch s low, and havng lad upon t a wafer, con, or any other such object, breathe upon the surface : allow the breath entrely to dsappear; then toss the object off the surface and examne t mnutely; no trace of any thng s vsble, yet a spectral mpresson exsts on that surface, whch may be evoked by breathng upon t. A form resemblng the object at once appears, and, what s very remarkable, t may be called forth many tmes n successon, and even at the end of months. Other nstances of the knd have been subsequently descrbed by M. Mo?er." M. Karsten placed a con on a pece of plate glass, whch, beng supported by a plate of metal not nsulated, the sparks from the conductor of an electrfyng machne were made to strke,on the con, "Draper's Text Book of Chemstry, p. 97.

4 thereby causng them to pass smultaneously through the con and the metallc plate. After one hundred turns of the machne, the con was removed ; the glass plate appeared perfectly unaltered (the ghost was nvsble), but when breathed upon, a perfect mpresson of the con n ts most mnute detals became vsble. M. Karsten says that the mpresson s not produced by traces of the electrc flud remanng adherent to the glass plate; because the mpresson stll remans wth great dstnctness, after all traces of electrcty have dsappeared, after the glass has been wped wth a handkerchef. And agan, these mpressons are nether destroyed, nor even weakened, by passng a stream of the opposte electrcty over them." INVISIBLE EXISTENCES. From these experments we see, that a thng may exst and yet be nvsble. Furthermore, that by breathng upon the thng mpressed, thngs hdden may be manfested; thrdly, that ths can be effected at the end of months; and fourthly, that 1'nscen but real mpressons of words and fgures can be made on surfaces by electrcty, and afterwards made vsble by breathng. These prncples are scentfc demonstratons. And, pray, what s scence? It s knowledge. Human knowledge, or scence, when t s really knowledge, conssts of the lttle men have dscovered the few general facts they have found obtanng n the unverse, and more especally n ths terrestral system, n relaton to the earth, ts substances, and man upon t. Men know but lttle of the laws to whch God has subjected Hs earth and the thngs belongng to t, compared wth what remans to be revealed. The most scentfc of men are comparatvely very gnorant. Ther knowledge of general facts s exceedngly lmted; and ther reasonngs upon them, and ther deductons very often (more often than otherwse) remarkably llogcal, and sngularly absurd. The wsest among them are free to confess ths. And f the wse be fools n scence, how grossly gnorant and foolsh must the multtude be, whch troubles not tself wth general facts, rght reason, or scentfc prncples at all! And yet t s the gnorant who undertake to draw conclusons from data the most recondte, and pronounce the Bble a cheat, f t teach not accordng to what they have predetermned t ought to teach. But, after all, the multtude s not so much to blame for ths as ther gudes. Lke prests lke people. The theosophst reasons out from nsuffcent data a crude theory, whch pleases hs fleshly mnd, and then goes to the Bble to cull soundng epthets to sanctfy t, nstead of allowng "Fsher'a Photogenc Manpulaton, Part II., pp. 39, God's Holy Word to teach hm as a babe, and then to prove all thngs by ts rule. Ths procedure s emphatcally the folly of our age. All classes are gulty of t, and n consequence rush headlong to the adopton of theores whch destroy the truth and stultfy themselves. General facts are the laws by and through whch God sustans all thngs and operates upon them. By these laws a relatonshp s establshed between Hm and man, who s subjected to ther operaton n common wth mnerals and vegetables. Thus, electrcty acts unformly whatever the nature of the thng acted upon ; the products of that acton vary accordng to the medum through whch t acts. Lke electrctes repel, and unlke ones attract, whether mnerals, vegetables, clouds, or anmal substances be the subject of ther power. When God speaks to man He speaks electrcally, that B, by Hs sprt; for electrcty s the term scence has bestowed upon what the Bble styles sprt. All physcal phenomena are produced by the sprt actng accordng to laws pecular to t, a very few of whch are found scattered about n works of scence. When the Creator wlls to speak, He does t by the same sprt that shvers the sturdy oak or rends the rocks asunder. Sometmes He communcates Hs mnd by makng drect spectral mpressons on the magnetc mrror of the bran. In ths case a man n hs sleep sees objects and hears sounds that have no real exstence; but are representatve of realtes past, present, or future. These are the dreams and vsons of the prophets. Sometmes, He speaks medately, but stll electrcally, as through Jesus Chrst to hs apostles, whose method we wll look nto brefly n connecton wth the prncples brought out n M. Karsten and Dr. Draper's experments. FORGOTTEN MENTAL IMPRESSIONS. Thngs, deas, or mages may exst upon the bran's tablet or sensorum, and yet be nvsble (that s, not be recollected by the ndvdual who receved them), and consequently nvsble to all other persons, from hs nablty to utter them. Though thus nvsble, the deas are nevertheless exstent, and actually present wthn. They exst, however, n the state of latent spectral mpressons, and n order to be evoked or made vsble, they need to be breathed upon by the same prncple that mpressed them upon the sensorum. Now, the sensora, or magnetc mrrors, or mnds of the apostles had been prepared," or hghly polshed (to speak artstcally), by the process they had undergone by the mnstry of John the Baptzer. They were n that state whch s represented by the polshed metal or glass n Dr. Draper's experment, ready for the con to be mpressed upon t. Jesus came, the medum through whch the Father operated n word and deed. 11 He spoke the words, layng them, so to speak, lke con upon the polshed tablets of ther hearts; whle the Father, who performed the mracles, passed, by ther effect, the electrcty of Hs sprt, as t were, through the words and ther sensora, stampng "Lnke. 17. &John v. 30.

5 8 mpressons there after the llustraton of M. Karsten's experment, wth the electrfyng machne. " I can of mne own self do nothng," sad the Lord Jesus ; " The Father s n me. The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself : but the Father that dwelleth n mu, he doeth the works." Ths proves what we have sad, that Jesus was the Father's medum, through whom, by Hs sprt, He operated on men's mnds by words confrmed by mracles, n strct accordance wth the laws llustrated by the experments before us. THE SPIRIT OF GOD AND MEMORY. The apostles saw and heard many thngs durng ther attendance on the nstructons of the Great Teacher, whch contnued to the end of months, as hdden spectral mpressons upon ther sensora, but whch were afterwards evoked n lnes of lvng lght They saw Jesus rde nto Jerusalem on an ass' colt, as predcted by Zecharah. But one of them referrng to t says, " These thngs understood not hs dscples at the frst; but when Jesus was glorfed, then remembered they that these thngs were wrtten of hm, and that they had done these thngs unto hm."" They knew what was wrtten n the prophet, and they saw what the people dd on the occason referred to ; but ther knowledge was a latent spectre untl made manfest some tme after at the glorfcaton of Jesus. But what happened then by whch these latent spectral mpressons were evoked? The sprt was breathed upon them after the llustraton contaned n Dr. Draper's experment. But why were they not evoked before Jesus was glorfed? For the reason assgned by John, n speakng of the gft of the sprt " The Holy Sprt," says he, " was not yet gven, because that Jesus was not yet glorfed." 6 Speakng of hs teachngs, Jesus sad to them, " These thngs I have told you, that when the tme shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. When the sprt of the truth s come, t wll gude you nto all the truth : It shall glorfy me."" The glorfcaton n ths senae was the recevng thngs concernng Jesus, and showng them to the apostles evokng the mpressons already exstng, and communcatng new ones, as evnced n ther wrtngs. In ths way they were glorfed as well as Jesus; for, recevng the sprt of the truth, t became n them as a fountan of lvng streams; thus, " Whom he justfed them he also glorfed."* The Lord Jesus was glorfed, n a certan sense, after hs resurrecton, before he was receved up nto glory ; and therefore, before he ascended, he gave a measure of the Sprt to hs apostles not a full charge as on Pentecost, but a suffcent charge, so to speak, to evoke the hdden spectral mpressons, the effect of whch electrfcaton s seen n ther words and actons, between the ascenson and Pentecost, compared wth those before the crucfxon. In brngng out these mpressons, he proceeded as n Karsten and Draper's experments wth the cons; for the apostle says, " He breathed upon them and sad, Labete pneuma hagon, Receve ye Holy Sprt; " and from that tme they had authorty to remt sn. "John x. 16. Wohn v. 39. "John xv. 4, 13, 14. ^Rom. r. 30. MAN AND ANGELS "IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD." Man was made n the mage and lkeness of God. Or, as Davd sath,-" Thou hast made hm to fall short a lttle of the Elohm,"" or angels. He s, therefore, lke to them n form, and capable of smlar manfestatons; but he falls short of ther perfecton of beauty, strength, and electrcal or sprtual exaltaton. The Elohm, gods, or angels, are not spectral mpressons, any more than men and women are, though they can make such mpressons. They are ponderables, occupyng space that cannot be occuped by another body at the same tme. They are not ghosts, or dsemboded wnged phantoms, through whch you may sweep your arm as through a shadow, and leave them undvded. They are bodes of a nature capable of corporealsng a thunderbolt wthout deteroraton, or hazard of destructon. Hence they can walk n the glowng furnace unaffected, as they can also whom they choose to mantle n a halo of ther sprt. 1 " They can eat and drnk, and do eat and drnk, materal substances; and have feet that can be handled and washed as the feet of men. "Let a lttle water, I pray you," sad Abraham to three of them, " be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And they sad, So do, as thou hast sad." The popular notons about angels are mere superstton. Dsemboded sprts wth wngs are spectral mpressons, made by oda emanatons from nnate human folly on the unpolshed sensora of the gnorant. Wnged heads of chubb}' babes, peepng out of clouds on the margn of nner glory, are spectres of mnds bewtched or crazed by the " phlosophy and van decet" of theosophcal magcans, and prophets of the " sprt world " a world oe electro-magnetc spectrala. Such angels as the people's heads are flled wth floursh -there, and only there; and the darker the ntellect, the more vvdly are they seen n all ther glory. Hence fanatcs, worshppers of dead men's ghosts (called by them "sants") and angels, see more phantoms of the knd than the less ntensely foolsh; others on ther death-beds, when sometmes ther sensora are more than ordnarly excted, and ther latent spectral mpressons become vvd, have vsons of such angels, and even hear, as men hear n dreams, celestal musc, and nvtatons to depart and come to Jesus! Hence error stamps the sensorum as ndelbly as truth can do ; and confrms tself wth falsehood n the artcle of death. ANGELIC CONTROL OF THE WORLD UNDER GOD. The angels of Jehovah do Hs commandments, hearkenng to the voce of Hs word.* By Hs sprt, through them, He shapes the course of human affars, that they may arrve at an apponted end, when Jesus and the resurrected sants ^sangelo " equal to the angels," no longer fallng a lttle short of them, wll assume the government of the world. These noble and glorfed men, real, not phantom, sprts, cannot be evoked at the wll and pleasure of ralway travellers, and crcles of backwoods sectarans, and consulters of the "Ps. v. 5. & Dan.. 25; Is. xxx. 14, 15. cgen. xv. 8. <*Ps. c. 20.

6 10 11 dead! How prostrate must be the human mnd to succumb to such a concet! Honest they may be, as honesty goes; but 0, the nexpressble gnorance of the Dvne Testmony such pagan practces dsplay! " Should not a people seek unto God? Should they seek to the dead n behalf of the lvng? To the Law and the Testmony; f they speak not accordng to thy word, t s because there s no lght n them." Ths s the unerrng rule. The consulters of the dead do not obtan answers accordng to ths word, though they do accordng to the latent spectral mpressons on the mnds of ther "medums," and those who consult or seek to know through them. There s therefore no dvne truth to be extracted from ther answers ; the truth they have s only an evocaton of what exsts n the mnd of man. The thngs I advocate are matters of dvne testmony and ' reason. They need nor demand no confrmaton from the spectral mpressons, vsble or nvsble, of " medums " gnorant of the frst prncples of the oracles of God. Grantng that all they say they see and hear n ther sprt world s really seen and heard, t mltates not one ota aganst anythng proved by the testmony of God. They see and hear nothng but what begns and ends n the carnal mnd Everythng they reproduce s the mere magnetc reflecton of human acton, or human thought, from the sensorum of the medum ; or the magnetc mrror, lake, sea, or reservor, n whch we exst lke fsh n the teemng waters. JOHN IN PATMOS. A prophet, one of the apostle John's brethren (perhaps Enoch or Eljah), was sent as an angel to hm n Patmos. He was sent to show hm future thngs," whch then had no exstence, and many of them at present also have none, exeept n the mnd of God. There the underved archetypes of them exst, and no one could see them there, unless he was placed en rapport wth the dvne mnd. When ths should be effected, he could behold them there n all ther wonderful symbolsaton glowng on the dvne sensorum. No one, however, was allowed to gaze upon ths manfestaton proxmately, but Jesus. Hence the Apocalypse s styled " the revelaton whch God gave to Jesus Chrst," that he mght communcate t to hs servants on earth. In dong ths, he sent an angel, called " hs angel," who was qualfed to sgnfy t to John, that he mght wrte a descrpton of t to Chrst's servants. Now, n sgnfyng t to John, the angel had to present vsble spectral mpressons before the apostle to mpress hs sensorum n the camera of hs bran wth the objects transferred from the mnd of the Father to the Lord Jesus, and then to the angel. Ths was effected by the sprt shnng upon the dvne scenery, and beng thence reflected upon John's sensorum, " shnng nto hs heart, to gve hm the lght of the knowledge of the glory of God n the face of Jesus Chrst; " and all the angel had to do to accomplsh ths, was to place John en rapport wth hmself, so that the sprt passng from hm to John would transfer the spectral mpressons to hm, and make hm clarvoyant. The crcle beng complete, the sprtual current crculated through the group; and "Rev. xx. 8, 9 :. 19. I John records the fact, sayng, " I was n the sprt, and heard behnd me a great trumpet voce" "He that hath ears to understand let hm hear what the sprt sath." MEN BUT IMPERFECT MEDIUMS. Now, man beng made n the lkeness of the angels, can mtate them, wthout knowng t, n many thngs, only n an mperfect manner. The Quaker " lght wthn " can be made to shne wth latent or odc lght upon the sensorum of a prepared " medum." " If the lght wthn you be darkness, how great s,that darkness! " Ths s the character of the Quaker " lght," whch, that sect teaches, every man brngs wth hm nto the world! It s the electro-magnetc halo of the sensorum, stamped n after lfe wth all sorts of spectral mpressons, accordng to the teachng the pupl may happen to receve. Now take two such persons, and make one a " medum," called formerly a wzard or a wtch, and the other a consulter of the dead through hm, or her. In preparng the medum, you have preternaturally exalted, or rendered unusually senstve, the sensorum you have so hghly polshed the plate as to prepare t to receve mpressons ts electro-magnetc halo s susceptble of the most delcate touches. Now place the seeker to the dead eh rapport wth the medum, and cause to pass from hs sensorum a current of whatever you choose to call t electrcty, magnetsm, od, or what not. Ths done, there s a connecton establshed between them whch untes the haloes of the two; so that even the hdden spectral mpressons of the seeker are mpressed on the sensorum of the medum, and the wtch sees and hears n dream-sght and dream-sound thngs whch the seeker may have hmself forgotten. But the relatonshp establshed s not lmted to the seeker and the wtch ; through her, t extends to all she knows, and through them, to others, and reactng upon herself ; and so through the seeker, to all the ramfcatons of hs acquantanceshp, both lvng and dead. He says, " Brng me up Samuel! " And Samuel, vvdly depcted on the sensorum of the seeker, appears also evoked a» a spectral mpresson before the magnetc sght and hearng of the wtch or medum. Saul saw nothng and heard nothng of hmself ; but perceved by the woman's descrpton that t was Samuel. "What Rawest thou? " sad he to the woman. She told hm; and " he perceved that t was Samuel," and made obesance. The conversaton between the spectral mpresson and Saul was carred on through the wtch, as through a medum at ths day. She heard as we hear n dreams, and what she heard she reported; and Saul's spectral forebodngs became prophetc n the wtch's mouth. DISEASE AND GHOSTS. Spectral mpressons may be made n dvers ways upon the sensorum. Irrtaton of the stomach wll do t. A gentleman n Ednburgh told me that for sx weeks he had the appearance of a pg's head sttng upon hs left shoulder, so that whenever he looked

7 12 13 o a to that sde he saw t starng hm n the face. He was sufferng from dyspepsa. It was as much the dsemboded sprt of a pg as the spectres seen by medums are the dsemboded sprts of dead men md women, boys and grls, nfants and sucklngs. When hs stomach was restored to healthy acton, the pg's ghost vanshed from the sensorum, and was consequently dethroned from my. frend's shoulder ; so, when the exctaton of the medum's sensory from another cause ceases, the dsemboded sprts and all the angels vansh n a trce! THE EARTH'S MAGNETIC HALO. Reasonng from the facts presented n the experments of the con, we mght argue that the actons of men cause hdden spectral mpressons to be made on the external magnetc halo of the earth, whch reman after they are dead and long forgotten ; so that were the Almghty to breathe upon t wth Hs Sprt, a man's hstory would be evoked lke the handwrtng on Belshazzar's palace wall. Even these exteror spectral mpressons may be dscerned by medums of pecular sensblty; so that they may perceve scenes after the actors have become quet. Clarvoyants have seen many thngs upon ths prncple. Elsha's s a case n pont here. The Kng of Syra warred aganst Israel, and devsed ambuscades for hs enemy ; but Elsha, who was n Dothan afar off, warned the Kng of Tsrael and saved hm, not once nor twce. The Kng of Syra suspected treason n hs own camp; but he was told by one of hs followers that Elsha, the prophet n Israel, told the Kng of Israel the words that were spoken n hs own bed-chamber." Here the spectral mpressons made upon the unversal magnetc mrror by the Syran's words were breathed or shned upon by God, and evoked upon the sensorum of the prophet by the operaton of Hs Sprt, whch gave wngs to the matter. Ths s the " brd of the ar" that reveals even the nmost thoughts of men. Therefore, " curse not the kng ; no, not n thy thought; and curse not the rch n thy bed-chamber : for a brd of the ar shall carry the voce, and that whch hath wngs shall tell the matter." b Let no man commt crme, and say, " No eye sees me, therefore the offence shall be hd." Sooner or later hs sn may fnd hm out. The mpressons of hs deeds upon the earth's magnetc halo may happen to be reproduced upon the sensorum of some sleepng or wakng medum ; or stare hm n hs own face when he shall rse from the dead, and behold hs actons wrtten, lke Belshazzar's doom, on the magnetc page, n words of lvng lght thus verfyng the proverb, trte yet true, that ' murder wll out." " DOCTRINES OF DEMONS." Unless God thnk ft to nfatuate a people by ther own folly and presumpton, and so create spectral mpressons of thngs upon the sensora of ther wzards beyond the range of ther own sphere, the n 2 Kngs v. 8. >> Eccl. x. 20. f second sght of medums never contemplates deas, or mages, or shadowy forms, whch are not purely of human orgn. All the thngs they have seen are but the spectral mpressons of human thoughts, words, or actons. The doctrne they utter s always traceable to some sectaran theosophsv some double-dstlled theologcal foolery, always at varance wth " the law and the testmony." If they stumble upon a truth, t s just that proporton of truth that happens to be blended wth human foolshness ; and beng truth, serves as a decoy to lead them nto the mazes of a labyrnth from whch there s no possblty of extrcaton. From what I have read of " Sprt Worldsm," I have no hestaton n sayng that t s mere "lyng dvnaton." I have a volume at my sde, Gahagnet's " Celestal Telegraph, or Secrets of the Lfe to Come revealed through Magnetsm," a book of 240 large 12mo pages, whch s full of ths sort of thng. It s a French work, and on page 220 the author nqures, " On earth s there aught that we can hde from the percepton of a clarvoyant? It s not, therefore, rdculous to admt that n the world of sprts none s any longer able to conceal aught ; t s the Book of Lfe whch wll be open to all." Hence, a relatonshp beng establshed between a clarvoyant and " sprts" n the nvsble, messages may pass between lvng bodes on earth and dead men's ghosts n heaven or hell as by telegraph, and clarvoyants become the see-ers and prophets of ther famlar sprts or gods! In ths way are lad broad and deep agan the foundatons of a new system of dolatry, of whch the magnetsng crcle-men who entrance the clarvoyants are the prests. Already, n the hands of these gnorant people, the Bble s what the clergy have made t by ther preachng a mere " dead letter." They msapply t and they can do nothng else at pleasure, and cull from t texts, wthout regard to contexts, to sut ther purpose to sanctfy ther nonsense n the esteem of those n whom some veneraton for " the Law and the Testmony of Jehovah " s supposed to be stll unextnct. Now, the ssue s between the Magnetc Book of Lfe the Book of Magnetc Spectral Impressons and the Book of the Covenant, usually styled the BIBLE. Both volumes cannot be dvne revelatons of the future, or exponents of the same truth; for they foretell opposte events, and teach doctrnes subversve of each other. THE DOCTRINE OF THE BIBLE. The Magnetc Book of Lfe s nothng more than the magnetoethereal spectral mpressons pertanng to the lvng generaton, whose mnd, or sensoral halo, s the mrror from whch s darkly reflected ts own thoughts; whle the Bble s a revelaton from Jehovah of the fate of all exstng governments, of Hs purpose to establsh a Theocracy on ther runs ; of the destny of natons for the comng thousand years; of the eternal consttuton of the globe from the end of that perod ; of the condton of the human race when all thngs terrestral become new ; and of how we of ths and others of past

8 14 generatons, snce the world began, may consttute a part of Hs Theocracy, and become dwellers on the earth for ever. These are great and glorous destnes, upon whch the prests and prophetes3es of " the Sprt World" can throw out no lght. Ther dvnatons upon these topcs, where not borrowed from the Bble, are only lyng rhapsodes the dark and malarous thnkngs of nervous flesh, rotng n the spectrala of musty theosophsms, talked nto t by the gospel nullfers and pulpt mar-texts of the " chars " and " sacred desks " of " Chrstendom." Lke the old Athenan sprt-worldsts who wthstood Paul, they reject the resurrecton of the mortal body n resolvng t nto the ntroducton of the sprt of man nto the sprtual world on the total cessaton of the heart's acton! The Bble says " Many who sleep n the dust of the earth shall awake."" And agan, " The earth shall cast out the dead ; " " and no more cover her slan; " b and that we may know by what power the dead shall rse, and who shall partcpate n the resurrecton of the just, t s wrtten, " IF the Sprt of God that rased up Jesus from among the dead (ek nekron) dwell n you, He that rased up Chrst from among the dead shall also make alve your mortal bodes through hs ndwellng Sprt n you." 0 Ths s teachng the resurrecton of dead bodes from earth's dust, n whch they are mngled a resurrecton effected by Jehovaa's Sprt through Jesus' 1 at the reorganzaton of the rghteous dead, and not at the dssoluton of ther exstence here. SPIRITUALISM AND THE RESURRECTION. But compare wth ths, and spurn wth contempt, the followng drvellng foolery of sprt-worldsm taken from Cahagnet. It s the clarvoyant Swede who vapours: " The sprt of man," says he, " after the separaton, remans a short tme n the body, but only untl the total cessaton of the heart; ths happens dfferently, accordng to the nature of the dsease of whch the man des; for the movement of the heart n some lasts a certan tme, and n others ceases at once; no sooner does ths movement cease than man s resusctated, but ths s brought about by the Lord alone. By resurrecton we mean the sprt of man leavng the body, and ntroduced nto the sprtual world ; correctly speakng, ths resurrecton should be termed the awakenng!" The awakenng beleved n by sprtsts s very dfferent from the awakenng taught n the Bble, as must be obvous to the weakest ntellect. The clarvoyant awakenng dffers n the tme and subject of t; t s the awakenng of a dead man's ghost at the last pulsaton of hs heart, whle hs body s stll untouched by decomposton; whle the Bble awakenng s the awakenng of a dead man hmself at some tme, t may be fve thousand years, after he has actually mouldered nto dust. Now whjch are we to beleve? Baal's prophets, or Jehovah? The spectral llusons of the flesh, or the testmony of the lvng God? The crazy old mesmerst of Sweden, or the apostles of Jesus Chrst?» Dan. x. 2. I" Isa. xxv. 19, 21.» Rom. v Cor. v " THE SPIRITS " NOT ALWAYS RIGHT. A worthy correspondent thnks that the answers obtaned by the dead-seekers from the spectres before the medum's sensorum s " the strongest argument for the exstence of sprts separate from matter." I grant t. It s doubtless the strongest, and but weak at that. It s the argument of a dream to prove a fact. But the argument cannot be receved as vald ; for the dream-answers are rot always rght, as he testfes n the case of the second gentleman. He says, "For nstance, two gentlemen called at one of these Crcles, n a cty where they were entre strangers, and where they stayed but a couple of hours. They went nto the room where ' the crcle' was already ' gettng responses.' One of them asked f he mght put questons at once, as he was gong out by the next tran. Permsson was gven ; and n answer to hs questons, he got n a few mnutes all hs past hstory, many crcumstances of whch, he thought, were only known to hmself; and others whch had been carefully lmted to a small crcle of hs ntmate frends. The other gentleman was almost equally successful; but one or two mstakes were made n ther answers to hm. The frst gentleman had all hs questons answered correctly and promptly, though some of them were asked mentally, and others by wrtng on a card (takng care to conceal what was wrtten from every person), and then pontng to a wrtten queston (keepng the card out of sght), he was at once answered, and always correctly. I mght tell you a multtude of such nstances, where there could be no colluson and no dshonesty.... Ther answers are often surprsng to all who hear, and present the strongest argument for the exstence of sprts separate from matter that I have ever seen. Responses from " the sprts " are not always rght. But answers from God are nfallble. Hs sprt never makes mstakes; nor s t presumable that any ntellgences of a true sprtual nature, n harmony wth Hs sprt, are ever gulty of untruthful utterances. The " sprts," therefore, whatever they be, are nether of God nor of " the just made perfect." But may they not be the sprts of the wcked or unjust; f they be, then the dsemboded exstence of sprts s as much proved as though they were the sprts of the just? Granted. If by a sprt s to be understood no more than a spectral mpresson on a medum's sensorum, mesmercally evoked by the thnkng of the dead-seeker, I grant that such sprts do exst separately from the persons they represent, as the spectral mpresson of the con exsts on the halo of the mrror separately from the con tself. All the phenomena observed belong to sprts of ths class, and prove only ther exstence under mesmerc exctaton. Before ther evocaton before the medum's sensorum, they exst only as mages before the seeker's mnd when he thnks of them. CLAIRVOYANCE. I can now see before my recollectng faculty a chld of three years old, standng wth a ruler n hs hand, wth whch he had just struck me over the head. Ths chld, a lttle brother, has been dead over

9 1 1 1 thrty years. I see hs mage, and f I were placed en rapport wth a medum, I could make hm see the chld's appearance; but would t be logcal to conclude that he saw the chld. hmself, or the real ndvdual, whch a sprt s supposed to be? If the spectral mpressons, or sprts, seen were real persons, and had cognzance of human affars, they would make no' mstakes n ther responses; they would speak truth only, unless they were wcked persons. It s admtted that they err, and on theologcal subjects t s notorous that the *7 medums utter the most stupd nonsense; hence, I conclude that they are not of God, nor of Hs sants, whatever they be. Now, t s not my busness to prove that these lyng spectres are not real persons. I do not undertake to prove negatves. I have shown that they may be phlosophcally accounted for. It s for the sprt-mongers to prove that the forms observed by ther clarvoyants are realtes, and, therefore, not appearances only; and that they were formerly emboded n human clay, and lved n the world, as men, women, and chldren now exst theren. The knd of proof must be dfferent from anythng they have yet produced. However, the declaraton of the spectres through the clarvoyants cannot be receved, because n a multtude of nstances they have proved themselves to be lars, and, therefore, unworthy of credt; besdes that unsupported self-testmony s ncredble. It may be true, and t may not. If, then, the spectres say they lved n human clay as ts anmatng, thnkng prncple, let them gve us proof from God that ther asserton s true. Jesus Chrst, the snless man, dd not requre hs unsupported testmony to be receved; shall we then admt the self-testmony of the lyng spectres of the wcked dead! Persh the thought! "If," sath the Lord, " I testfy concernng myself, my testmony s not credble."" We demand, therefore, confrmaton of spectral assertons strong as Holy Wrt, because asserton s no proof. They tell us, or rather medums do, that they are the ghosts, or sprts, of dead men, and that they know a great many thngs, and much more than the lvng. But upon ths pont the Word of God gves them the le drect. It testfes that " the dead know not anythng : " b and that " there s nether knowledge nor wsdom n Sheol," 0 whther we go. Now " dvnes " make ths word Sheol equvalent to Hades, whch they say s " the place of departed sprts." Well, let us accept ther defnton for the present; how then reads the latter text? Even thus: " There s nether knowledge nor wsdom n the place of departed sprts," whch theologcal mesmersts term " the sprt-world! " Ths s, wth me, authorty outweghng the testmony of all the spectres n creaton, wth all the opnons to boot of the many thousands of smpletons judges, lawyers, doctors and parsons, and less dstngushed dupes who vanly magne they converse wth lvng sprts from the vasty deep. Our correspondent thnks, that " the whole system promulgated n our wrtngs goes down f the clams put forth by these sprt-mongers be establshed." By establshed he means proved to "John v. 31. t>eccle. x. 5. "Eccle. x be Ood's truth; or else, establshed as true n the estmaton of all men.. If the latter be hs meanng, the system we advocate only goes down n regard to mere human opnon. Its truth s not at all affected by_ manknd's opnon of t: because men who are gnorant of the true Bble-doctrne judge accordng to the thnkng of the flesh, whch knows not the thngs of the sprt, because they are sprtually dscerned," that s, they are dscerned by the lght shed upon them by the sprt, n the prophetc and apostolc testmony, or wrtngs.. We advocate the system exhbted n ths testmony, whch went down n the- estmaton of ther contemporares, n whose judgment the sprt-mongers of the apostles' day establshed the noton that the spectres seen by the clarvoyants n the dol temples were the dsemboded mmortal souls of the dead. As ths noton went up, the apostolc doctrne of the mmortalty of the body at the resurrecton went down, as at ths day. It ate out the truth of mmortalty at resurrecton only as a gangrene, 6 and left n ts place nothng but a foetd, ll-condtoned ulcer, whch has reduced the patent to a gaspng state. The gangrene s everythng; the apostolc doctrne scarcely to be found beyond the lds of the Bble. On the other hypothess, t s doubtless true that f the sprtsrers' clams be proved to be God's truth, the system we advocate raont wll he exploded. No doubt of t. It ought to be ; for f ther clams be true, the system we exhbt must be false utterly and entrely false. There s no agreement between sprt-worldsm and the Bble; so that f mesmersed theology be God's truth, God s not the author of the Bble; and, as we advocate the thngs taught n ths book, whch are altogether at varance wth the spectre-revelatons of clarvoyants, we must go down wth the Bble, and share wth t the msfortune that peradyenture mght befal t. But such an hypothess s monstrous. God can be the author of no doctrne at varance wth Bble teachng. Ths He has planly declared n the text below." The Bble s not to be tested by the peepngs and mutterngs of famlar-sprt medums, and the tabletappngs of mesmerc crcles ; but ther utterances, on the contrary, by ts word, whch s the truth. We stand or fall by ths ; and feel no apprehenson of the result, though a thousand mllons of sprts, a thousand tmes told, pronounce the reveres of the possessed the nfallble and eternal truth of God. QUESTIONS AJNSWEHED. In concluson, I present the followng reples questons propounded through our correspondent: are as follows : 1. How do you account for the forms seen by the Mount of Transfguraton? It s clamed sprtual bodes of Moses and Eljah were seen 2. How dd the lord's body, after resurrecton, and as suddenly vansh out of sght? Wll, "1 Cor l>2 Tm. k "Isa. v n bref to the whch questons the dscples on that the souls or there. appear suddenly, t be so wth our

10 18 bodes n the resurrecton? And why was he never seen except by the dscples? 3. What dd the young man wth Elsha see? And what was done to hm to enable hm to see? What was that sght of the patrarchs and prophets whch enabled them to see angels? 4. Where was Paul caught up to when he says he was taken nto the thrd heaven? Where s the heaven of angels ; and could Paul's body be taken to t? 5. What does the Lord mean by hs argument aganst the Sadducees? If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are already rsen, the argument seems to me merely a catch and dshonest. 1. To QUESTION NO. 1, I respond, that I have nothng to do but to beleve Matthew's testmony n regard to the Transfguraton and ts attendant crcumstances. I have nothng to do wth the clams of sprt-mongers n the case. Matthew says nothng about " forms," or " souls," or " sprtual bodes " beng seen there. He says, " There appeared unto Peter, James, and John, Moses and Eljah talkng wth Jesus." Luke testfes substantally the same thng, sayng, " There talked wth hm two men, who were Moses and Eljah, who appeared n glory, and spake of hs decease whch he should accomplsh at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were wth hm were heavy wth sleep: and when they were awake they saw hs glory, and the two men that stood wth hm."" Now I ask any man, not crazed by sprt-worldsm or " theology," when he s awake n the mdst of a crowd, what does he take those lvng thngs to be whch he sees around hm? Would he not reply, " Men to be sure? " Suppose I were to say to hm, " No; they are sprt-forms, or souls, that once nhabted human bodes ; they are not men, but the ghosts of men, whch became ' sprtual bodes ' when the hearts of ther old bodes ceased to beat" would he not say I was ether a madman or a fool? Or, f nether, that, on the supposton of hs beng a dupe, I was amusng myself at hs expense? If ratonal, would he not argue that they must be men, because they presented to the eye all the marks by whch men are ordnarly known? The apostles were matter-of-fact men, and reasonable wthal. They judged of Moses and Eljah as they dd of other men, and therefore called them by the rght words, stylng them " two men." Whatever qubble mght be rased about Moses because he ded cannot at all affect Eljah, who never ded; and therefore never experenced a resoluton nto two parts. But we need add no more. Moses ded, and must have been rased from the dead, f he n realty appeared as a man, and not as part of a vson merely, before three wtnesses wde awake. There s no dffculty or mystery n the case, except wth those whose mnds are spoled by " phlosophy and van decet." 2. THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF THE LORD'S BODY, or the Lord rather, for the Lord and hs body are one and the same, was the result, not of any change upon hm, but of an effect produced by hm upon the eyes of hs dscples. " Ther eyes were holden "Matt. xv. 3 ; Luke x that they should not know hm," untl he thought proper to release ther sght from the restrant. Mary saw Jesus, but dd not know hm for the same reason." The eyes of the dscples gong to Emmaus were holden. The meanng of ths s gven n the words, " And ther eyes were opened, and they knew hm." Hence to hold the eyes s to shut the sght, so that though the lds be unclosed, certan objects shall be nvsble. AN ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENT. I have performed an experment smlar to ths upon the eyes of a person now n ths cty n the presence of many wtnesses. I frst mesmersed hm by lookng at hm steadly n the eye. By ths process the lds were closed so that he could not open them. I allowed hm to reman n ths state for some tme, and then brought hm out of t by wave of the hand upwards and backwards. He could now see and converse wth anyone. I told hm to look at my fnger whch I held before hm, and about sx nches above the level of hs eyes. Whle he was dong ths I carred t oblquely upwards and forwards as far as I could convenently reach, and then suddenly wthdrew t from the lne of vson. Ths left hm starng wth the eyes wde open upon vacancy, wth a countenance as blank and nexpressve as a corpse. He was now n the state of eestaey. Hs eyes " were holden " completely; for he could see nothng. In proof of ths a lghted candle was passed almost near enough to snge the lashes, but wthout causng a wnk. Everythng n the room vanshed from hs vew wth the jerk of my fnger from the lne of vson; and appeared agan as suddenly as I waved my hand upwards before hs eyes, whch "opened them" to the objects by whch he was surrounded. The Lord Jesus, who understood man's physque better than all the lvng, operated upon the dscples more sklfully. He could close ther sght upon some objects at once, whle he left them capable of dscernng others. In ths way he made hmself nvsble to them, and entered wth them unseen nto ther room, where he contnued to hold ther eyes untl they shut the doors for fear of the Jews, when he opened them, and was dscovered standng n ther mdst, to ther no lttle amazement, as may be supposed. When he parted wth the dscples at Emmaus, he dd not vansh as a fgure from a magc lantern; but, as the margn of the texts reads, " he ceased to be seen of them ; " that s, he took hs departure. Just men, made perfect at the resurrecton, wll, doubtless, have the same power over mortals to make themselves vsble or nvsble as they please, by holdng or openng ther eyes; for of them t s testfed " they shall be lte hm." He was never seen so as to be recognsed by others than hs dscples, because t was contrary to God's plan that he should be seen by any others. He was only to be seen by wtnesses, that hs resurrecton mght be a matter of testmony and fath, that belevers mght walk by fath and not by sght; therefore, the eyes of all men were holden except " the wtnesses chosen of God " b and the Roman guard. "Luke xxv. 16 ; Jno. xx. 14 : xx. 4. ''Acts x

11 20 3. ELISHA'S SERVANT- saw on the mountan near Dothan " horses and charots of fre," such as Eljah ascended to heaven n. They descended to Elsha, and, at hs nstance, n obedence to Jehovah's command, ther rders smote the Syran host wth blndness. The (servant's eyes were made more open, and the Syrans' were closed by the same sprt. The patrarchs and prophets saw angels as they saw men, by ther natural sght. When men do not see them, t s ether because there are no angels present to be seen, or because ther natural Bght B holden that they may not see. 4. PAUL WAS NOT REMOVED FROM EARTH WHEN HE SAW PARADISE. When he s wrtng about the Thrd Heaven and Paradse, he tells us he s treatng of " Vsons and Revelatons of the Lord ; " that s, of thngs represented and communcated to hm by the Lord, as they were of old tme to the prophets, and afterwards to John n Patmos. He was so absorbed n the contemplaton of what he saw and heard that he was altogether unconscous of hs present exstence. He had a vson of Paradse, or a vson of the Thrd Heaven. He dd not see Paradse or the Thrd Heaven, but a representaton of them as they wll be when the Kngdom s establshed by the God of heaven n the land promsed to Abraham, and shall be n contnuance after the thousand years shall have passed away. The " heaven of adgels " s ther abode n some of the stars. Hence they are styled "the Mornng Stars; " but whch of the heavenly bodes s not testfed ; therefore, I cannot tell. Paul's body could have been taken anywhere God pleased; but, as I have sad, t, that s, he, never left the earth. He was rapt n vson, unconscous of where he was. 5. IN HIS ARGUMENT WITH THE SADDUCEES, JESUS meant to prove the resurrecton of the dead from Moses' wrtngs ; and he dd prove t trumphantly. He does not even hnt, much less affrm, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob " are already rsen." He sad, " That the dead are rased even Moses has shown at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham," &c.; that s to say, " that there s to be a resurrecton of the dead, Moses teaches n callng Jehovah Abraham's God." How so? Because Jehovah s not a God of dead men. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead men; therefore, for Jehovah to become ther God they must become lvng men; for Jehovah s a God of the lvng, not of the dead. Hence ther resurrecton s necesstated, ab that s the only way n whch the dead can become lvng. Ths beng so, he s called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whle they are actually dead, " because they all lve to hm " n the sense of rsng from the dead to lve; for " God, who makes alve the dead, calls ta me onta thngs not exstng as though they were." a The Lord of glory dealt not n " catches" nor " dshonesty " ; these are the weapons of sprt mongers, and of those who have more respect for the foolshness of men than the words of the lvng God. "Rom. v. 17. Frank Jucku, Prnter, 85, Alton St., Brrnnr/han.. Tel