< The Authority of Spirit? (continued from page 11-22) >
The real question is, since that which is outside nature can act through nature and personate nature, and, as it would appear, so acts and personates in order to teach those who have been place by the laws of their being in natural relations—by what authority does it so act, and personate, and teach?
This is a grave question for those who place themselves in the hands of spirit guides or controls.
These have of course, satisfied themselves that their controls are not the agents of a spiritual deluder working out some subtle design, and therefore ought to have it in their power to throw light on a point where more light is greatly needed. Will they deign to impart their light to those who, though not less earnest than themselves in their desire to know and follow the leading of the truth, have been left by the deific intelligences in the hands of nature?
Bishop Berkeley did not deny the reality of nature. What he denied was the existence of what philosophers termed “matter”—an undemonstrable universal substance underlying the structure of all natural objects.
The “matter” of the physicists of the present day is the reverse of this: for it consists in the elements, or the one element to which the ultimate structure of all natural objects can by analytical processes, be reduced—to synthetical combinations of which, by natural process carried on under natural law, they attribute the existence of all natural objects, without entering into the vexed questions of the how or why, the by, what, or whom they were called into being.
Spiritualists should remember that there is a large class of persons who are neither Spiritualists nor Materialists, although firm, believers in the reality of nature, and the intention of the Author of nature, as revealed through its workings, that all teaching should reach them through natural channels influencing them during, by, and through, the uses they make of their natural lives.
It seems to me that so far Spiritualists have thrown themselves too exclusively into one side of their work, the establishment of their facts, which they have done with a success of the extent of which they must be daily becoming more conscious. They ought now to take up its other side, the teaching value of those facts; and, having proved the existence of spirit-action should concentrate their efforts on the demonstration, not of the identity of individual spirits—which is wholly beside the question—but on the authority of spirits as teaching guides.
Spirits may be immortal; may have a right to teach, and to claim that their teachings are divine. But so far, as it appears to me, it has not even boon attempted to prove either of these positions.
15th January, 1881.
<Untitled> (The weather of the last...)
The weather of the last few days has probably prevented some news from reaching us in time for this week’s issue. The high wind has drifted the snow into railway cuttings over a large section of the country, and delayed or stopped some of the mails.
Mrs. Blandy, sister of the “Davenport Brothers,” is a powerful physical medium, and she is now giving seances in America. Mediumship runs in particular families, and is hereditary. The lute Mr. Guppy was of opinion that the children of very young parents have a special tendency to mediumship.
Manifestations in the Light:—Mrs. Mary Marshall, the celebrated medium of years gone by, informs us mat she is again about to sit for manifestations, strong and varied manifestations in daylight used to be the chief characteristic of her mediumship; she informs us that her power is still as strongas ever. Last Wednesday evening we heard strong raps on the floor and elsewhere in her vicinity, in the light, while she was standing on the centre of a thick soft cushion. By those raps her “John King” said that he was not the same John King who communicates through any other medium; also that his name was a symbolical one, and not literally real.
The Demise of Mr. Epes Sargent
In a letter received by us some weeks ago, Mr. Epes Sargent, that most faithful and valued worker in the cause of Spiritualism, informed us of the dangerous state of his health. We regret to learn that he has since departed this life. The Hanner of Light, of January 8th, states that he passed from the sufferings of earth, on Thursday evening, Dec. 30th. closing his long and useful career in the body almost with the final hours of the departing year.
He was born in Gloucester, Mass., September 27th, 1813.
The disease which finally proved fatal to Mr. Sargent was a cancer which developed on his tongue, and defied all known remedial efforts by medicine or otherwise; all that could be done was accomplished for the alleviation of his sufferings.
His brother, Mr. James 0. Sargent, states that the height of the disease was reached on Wednesday, Dec. 29th, and that after passing a painful and restless night, this dear friend of every friend of humanity fell into a sound and peaceful sleep, like that of childhood, a repose from -which he never awakened, but which deepened on the evening of Thursday into the sleep of death—for the physical body.
He further states that on Sunday, December 26tli, he saw the deceased for the last time. On that occasion, while the shadows of death were even then closing around him, the patient endeavoured to express a few words to his brother, and succeeded, but imperfectly, in enunciating: “I wish I could tell you my thoughts.” The brothers clasped hands, and then with a sad face the one turned from the bedside of the dying man to go his way, but as he was about leaving the house he was called back to the sick room by the nurse, who exhibited to him a paper whereon Mr. Sargent (touched by the evident sorrow of his relative, and desirous of informing him that he had no doubts for the future) had written a sentence to explain the meaning he had been unable orally to convey: “I meant merry thoughts not sad ones!”
On Sunday, January 2nd, at 1 p.m., the funeral services took place at Mr. Sargent’s late residence, 68, Moreland Street, Boston; a large number of relatives and friends attended. The mortal remains—in an elegant casket of rosewood, which was choicely crowned with flora) offerings—were disposed in the library near the spot where stood the desk at which Mr. Sargent had in past times accomplished so much excellent literary labor. The exercises were introduced by a chant from the well-trained choir of Dr. Brooke’s church, wherein was expressed the Psalmist’s trust, “Yea, though I walk through the valley and shadow of death I will fear no evil.” The Rev. John Gorham Brooks, of the First Religious Society of Roxbury, then read selections from the Scriptures, setting forth the abounding love of God for all his children; after which he introduced the Rev. William Mountford, of Boston, a warm personal friend of the deceased, who proceeded to deliver a solemn address in respectful memory of him who had passed on.
Encouragement for Workers
Encouragement for Workers:—It is instructive to mark the treatment of some of those who do a largo amount of public work in Spiritualism. Mr. Joy, who had laboured hard for one of the organisations, found himself divorced from his honorary secretaryship. Miss Kislingbury was next attacked, then Dr. Carter Blake, who had given weeks of gratuitous work to aiding in cataloguing the library, and in conducting seances. The next onslaught was upon Mr. Harrison, and the last one upon Miss Burke, although nobody has any fault to find with her. Those who initiated all these attacks were mostly one small knot of persons, and to what record of good works of their own for the movement, are they able to point?
Editor's notes
- ↑ The weather of the last... by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 439, January 21, 1881, p. 35
- ↑ The Demise of Mr. Epes Sargent by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 439, January 21, 1881, p. 35
- ↑ Encouragement for Workers by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 437, January 7, 1881, p. 11
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 439, January 21, 1881, p. 35
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London Spiritualist, No. 437, January 7, 1881, p. 11