Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

who attend church from fashion, or for the purpose of meeting their friends and neighbors, are there brought in contact with spiritual influences which could reach them in no other way.

The experience I have gained since my entrance into my spiritual home has given me more liberal ideas of the uses of the Sabbath, and taught me that to the working man it is a necessary day of recreation. But I lift my voice against its becoming one of beer-drinking and boisterous sports. The workman who is confined to the bench or the workshop, in the midst of a crowded city, for six days of the week, will certainly be benefited by seeking the green fields and healthful influences of the country; but on reaching that desirable Eden, let means be provided for his instruction; so, while sitting under the leafy trees, his mind may be benefited, and his bodily organism rested, rather than injured by feasting and rioting in the public gardens and parks.

Field preaching should become a regular institution of the Sabbath; and discourses instructing the mind in morals and sciences should be given in the tent, or under trees, in parks and woods set apart for that purpose. Then would the object of the Sabbath be attained. As I have said, the spiritual nature is more open to the reception of truth on that day.

The state of sleepiness, which is a well-known attendant on the Sabbath, is indicative of the magnetic influence; and those who discard the day, and secretly pursue their active employments, would do well to heed the remarks I have made.

Before I close, I wish to make some observations upon the present style of preaching as compared with the sermonizing of my day. When I occupied the pulpit, the doctrines of election and predestination were the principal themes that engaged the attention of ministers.

Free will and coerced will were questions which puzzled the theologian. Looking upon the Bible as an inspired book, the most careless sentence therein expressed became a word of weighty import. We engaged the minds of our hearers with abstract questionings and reasonings. But we never could make the doctrine of predestination accord with that of free will. Nor could we clearly account for the presence of evil, while we believed the Creator to be all wise, all powerful, and cognizant of the end from the beginning. Yet these were the topics which the minister of my day discussed and endeavored to make clear to the comprehension of his hearers. We did not treat of every-day life; the pulpit we considered too sacred for such topics. Religion with the masses became an abstract state of holiness. Men assumed long faces and sober bearings upon the seventh day; but their every-day life was something different, which the minister and his ministering did not reach.

But the pulpits of to-day are platforms of another kind. They have altered, even as their shape has altered. Their outward construction corresponds to their teachings. In my day the pulpit was narrow and straight, and was lifted high above the people. But at the present day a step only separates it from the

The

congregation. It is broad, low, and open. teachings received from it correspond with its change of form. The ministers of to-day are one with their flock. Their discourses are practical, relating to every-day affairs. They no more discuss the questions of Satan, of angels, and archangels, nor arouse an undefined fear by descanting on the mysterious prophecies of Daniel: they talk to you like human beings.

I remember being somewhat shocked while listening to sermons preached by my son, II. W. Beecher. I recall sitting near his pulpit, and longing to get up and tell the congregation my views of texts and matters of which he was discoursing. I thought then it was because the race was going backward—becoming less intellectual that men should be content to listen to sermons that contained so little theology. But experience in spirit life has caused me to change my opinion.

I now see that Beecher, Spurgeon, and a vast host of others, are teaching human souls the great truths which will fit them for life hereafter. I have done now with endeavoring to solve improbable problems, and with simple faith in man's efforts for his own progression, I give my testimony as to the uses of the Sabbath, and the advantages of religion in advancing their progress, and in preparing the spirit for its future home.

PROFESSOR GEORGE BUSH.

LIFE AND MARRIAGE IN THE SPIRIT WORLD.

THE two worlds- the spiritual and the materialare like twin sisters whom I have seen, so similar that their acquaintances could not distinguish between them, and yet so dissimilar that an intimate friend would wonder why one should ever be mistaken for the other.

I propose to give a short account of the society and conditions of life in the spiritual spheres.

The Swedenborgian Society of which I was a member while on earth, continues to exist as a body in the spirit world, though Swedenborg, the great seer and founder of that sect, is not a leader among them. He has his country seat in Swedenborgia, a beautiful and intellectual settlement named after him, where he retires within himself, and directs his great mind in developing his science of correspondences, which he proposes to arrange so systematically that it will become a part of the teachings of earth's children.

It was never his design to become the leader of a sect, but his desire was simply to reveal like a telescope that which was unknown. He is deeply interested in the political condition of Sweden, Nor

way, and Germany, and exerts his vast intellect towards emancipating the minds of those nations from the bondage of church and state.

It is curious to witness with what fidelity Swedenborg described in many instances the condition of the soul after death; and also to perceive in other instances how utterly he misinterpreted the visions. presented.

Such discrepancies are incidental to all clairvoyant states; and this is not surprising, for it is incidental to humanity.

Man sees clearly when the prejudices of education and the influence of his loves do not pervert his vision.

What political economist, strongly biased in favor of one mode of government, can contemplate dispassionately an opposing form?

The theological belief which Swedenborg imbibed in his early youth, tinctured his description of the heavens and hells of the spirit world, causing him to represent the soul as reaching a period in its love of evil when it cannot retrace its steps. The hells of the spirit are similar to the hells of earth, being like them the result of the ignorance and perverted loves of animal man.

What hell more fearful than the hell of licentiousness? Yet it is merely the animal side of the heaven of love.

Swedenborg discovered hells in spiritual existence, where the inmates lived lives of prostitution. Ilis statement concerning such hells is true. Individuals who have lived such lives upon earth cannot suddenly

« VorigeDoorgaan »