The Spirit LandEmmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Religion
The Spirit Land
Emmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Spiritualism
It is said that the theological teachings of these spirits generally
agree with those of Davis, Swedenborg, and others who have claimed to
receive their impressions from spirits. Accordingly, we find them using
the term _higher and lower spheres_, instead of _heaven and hell_.
Swedenborg prophesied that the year 1852 would be the one to decide the
fate of his church or his doctrines; and Capron and Barron tell us that
"the probabilities now seem to be that his general spiritual theory
will, not far from that time, be very generally received." We presume
that the "mysterious rappings" are considered by them as so many omens
of such an event. And we may reasonably conclude that they are as
_decisive_ tests, as _sure_ prognostications, as were the various
celestial signs of the coming of the end of the world in 1843. The
believers in the "harmonial philosophy" have their miracles in
attestation of their theory; and so of the Millerites. On Saturday
evening, January 18, 1851, we are told by La Roy Sunderland, that Mrs.
Cooper (clairvoyant medium) was taken to Cambridge, by Mr. Fernald and
a friend, for the purpose of visiting a gentleman who had been confined
by a spinal difficulty some ten years or more. The spirits gave
beautiful responses for his consolation, and in the sight of all
present, _the sick man and his bed_ were moved by spiritual hands
alone. The sick man and the "bed whereon he lay" were both moved by
attending angels, without any human power. And more recently, a Mr.
Gordon, it is said, has been taken up and his body moved some distance
entirely by spiritual hands. Were such miracles ever wrought in favor
of Millerism? Most assuredly, if we are to believe the Millerites
themselves; and even more in favor of witchcraft also. At a meeting of
the friends of Millerism, held in Waltham, in 1842, a lady was taken
from her seat by some unseen power, and carried up to the ceiling of
the room; and she afterwards declared that it was done without any
effort on her part. More recently, (1851,) another lady of the same
place testifies that she has, in a similar manner, been taken from her
seat in church and carried up above the tops of the pews. And at times,
at the advent meetings, strange noises have been heard, houses also
have been shaken, mirrors shattered to pieces, and furniture broken,
and all have been considered by the Adventists as so many auguries or
signs of the approaching dissolution of all things, to take place in
1843.
We have already made mention of the fact, in another place, that
bewitched persons used to be carried through the air, on brooms and
spits, to distant meetings, or Sabbaths, of witches. But we will now
give a case to the point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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