Hydesville: The Story of the Rochester Knockings, Which Proclaimed the Advent of Modern SpiritualismTodd, Thomas Olman
History
Hydesville: The Story of the Rochester Knockings, Which Proclaimed the Advent of Modern Spiritualism
Todd, Thomas Olman
Spiritualism
The records of these persecutions and slanders abound with disgraceful
and painful incidents which, whilst being discreditable to the persons
responsible for their propagation redound with full credit to the honour
and integrity of the mediums selected by the Spirit world to be the
forerunners of a new dispensation.
And thus the fiery cross, carried by the hands of unseen messengers,
sped from point to point; the beacon fires lighted by invisible hands
gleamed on every mountain top, and the low muffled sound of the
spirit-raps that first broke the slumbers of the peaceful inhabitants of
the humble tenement at Hydesville, became the clarion peal that sounded
out to the millions of the Western Hemisphere, the anthem of the soul's
immortality, chorused by hosts of God's bright ministering angels.
THE MAIDENS OF THE DAWNING LIGHT.
(Leah, Kate, Margaret.)
* * * * *
Oh, rustic little martyrs for the truth!
Whose earthly eyes so oft were dimmed with tears,
While on your cheeks the blush and bloom of youth
Was yet unsoiled by unborn struggling years.
Long years of suffering, years of holy joys,
Years of defeats and years of victories;
Years of sweet singing and of brawling noise,
Despair--but ever angel messages.
The memory of your mortal lives comes back;
Poor little girls! Why was the world so rough?
Of balm you brought there ever was a lack--
Of heavenly tidings never half enough!
Yet when to you the gentle "rappings" came,
Telling the story of immortal life,
The hungry world went crazy-mad to blame,
Accuse, defile, hunt, mob, make venomed strife.
Humble and poor as Christ was--kindly, too,
It seems so strange the thistle, hatred, grew
To whip your tender backs, with great ado,
Because you builded better than you knew.
But that is over. You have disappeared
From conflicts and from suffering, and to-day
From God's high country, we, your friends, endeared
By common aims, feel that you look this way.
Welcome, oh, heavenly sisters! See the light
Your youthful fingers kindled! How it spreads,
Lighting up places where were sin and night,
Whitening souls and shaping princely heads.
Lo! far it spreads! Beyond the rolling seas
Vast congregations celebrate the day
Your questionings unlocked death's mysteries,
And hailed the angels, who had come your way.
--Emma Rood Tuttle.
APPENDIX
A SEQUEL to the "ROCHESTER KNOCKINGS," after 56 years.
* * * * *
Copied from the "Banner of Light," (Boston, U.S.A.)
December 3rd, 1904.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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