§ 9. THE AGE OF SPIRITUALISM.

THE whole world seems to be looking for a Revolution. Some expect an orthodox Millennium; others, a golden age of phrenology; others still, a physiological regeneration of the human race; and not a few are awaiting, in anxious or hopeful suspense, the trump of the Second Advent, and the day of judgment. We also are looking for a Revolution; and we will endeavor to set forth our idea of the form in which we expect it will appear.

Dividing human nature into four departments, viz., the PHYSICAL, MORAL, INTELLECTUAL, and SPIRITUAL, we hold that man can be truly regenerated only by the paramount development of his spiritual nature. Accordingly we believe that the great change which is coming, will be an outburst of spiritual knowledge and power-a conversion of the world from sensuality, from carnal morality, and from brain-philosophy, to spiritual wisdom and life. It has been said that the Bible was not designed to teach any of the natural sciences. But the time will come when that book will be acknowledged as the great repository of the facts and principles of a science which rightfully takes precedence of all others, viz., SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY-the science which treats of the nature, power, attraction, repulsion, and fellowship of spirits; which refers health, wisdom, and righteousness, to the energy of God; and disease, fatuity and sin, to the power of the devil; which thus points out, as the only means of radical reformation, the expulsion of the spirit of evil on the one hand, and spiritual union with God on the other.This is the science which in the phenomena of its practical application, gleamed out from time to time along the whole course of the Jewish dispensation; which blazed up and for a little space lighted the whole earth in the time of Christ and the apostles; and which is destined, notwithstanding all the attempts of unbelief to quench it, by covering it with the infamy of mysticism, to break forth again, consume the partition between heaven and earth, and become the judgment-fire of the world.

We have come to the belief that such a Revolution is approaching, by several distinct lines of argument, which we will briefly trace.

I. If our fourfold division of human nature is correct, we may expect to find in the growth and education of the race of man, under the superintendence of God, a progression from the physical to the moral, from the moral to the intellectual, and from the intellectual to the spiritual. Accordingly, the past history of the world may be legitimately divided into three distinct periods, corresponding to three of these departments. The first extends from Adam to Moses, and may be called, the period of physical development: the only account we have of it, represents it as a period of physical longevity and sensuality: it certainly was not a period of either moral or intellectual discipline. The second extends from Moses to Christ, and may be called the period of moral development, as it was distinguished by the administration of the Mosaic law, and the special moral training of the Jewish nation. The third extends from Christ to the present time, and may be called, the

period of intellectual development. The Gentiles, who took the place of the Jews in the school of God after the destruction of Jerusalem, have never equalled them in moral strength, but have far exceeded them in intellectual attainments. The Greeks seek after wisdom;' (1Cor. 1: 22;) and Greek and Latin wisdom has been the predominant element of Gentile Christianity. Scholarship, rather than moral power, has been, and is, the test of eminence among the clergy. The harvest of this third period has been a wonderful advance of science' in every direction.

Three periods, then, of the education of the world are past. The fourth, i. e., the period of spiritual development, is that which is approaching. II. By a more particular survey of the history of the Jewish and Gentile churches, we shall come again to the same conclusion. During the first thousand years of the Mosaic dispensation, i. e., down to the last Babylonish captivity, God instructed and disciplined the Jews, chiefly by ceremonies, providential and miraculous manifestations, and occasional inspiration of individuals. The mass of the nation were ignorant of letters; and for a long time the only copy of the law in existence, was that deposited in the ark of the covenant. The employment of the Bible as a means of general instruction, dates from the period of Ezra, after the return from Babylon. that time copies of the writings of Moses and the prophets began to be multiplied and circulated, synagogues were built, and the Jews as a nation came under the influence of the letter of the word of God. This we may call the first reformation of the Jewish church.

At

After several centuries, when the way had been prepared by the letter, the Spirit of the word of God was given. The Holy Ghost was poured upon the primitive church-not merely on a few favored individuals, but on all who believed-and wrought in them, and by them, not only all manner of signs and wonders, but righteousness and salvation. All were taught of God. All were admitted to personal acquaintance with the Father. we may call the second reformation of the Jewish church.

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Passing now to the Gentile church which succeeded the primitive, we find that the process just described was, in the course of a few centuries, completely reversed. As the Jewish church received first the letter, and then the Spirit; so the Gentile church, descending by the same steps which the Jewish church had ascended, lost first the Spirit, and then the letter of the word of God. The ministers of the primitive church aspired to be only the servants of the Holy Spirit. It was their business not so much to teach the people themselves, as to introduce them to the great invisible teacher, the Spirit of truth. But the time soon came when the bishops enlarged their office, and became the principal teachers of the people. Of course they crowded the Spirit out of the world. This was the first step of apostasy from the word of God.

In process of time, the bishops began to be jealous of the Bible also, as being a teacher that in part superseded their office. Accordingly they took upon them to forbid the common use of it. The people were cut off from the letter, as well as the Spirit of the word of God. This was the second step of the apostasy; and it consigned the Gentile church to the dungeon of the dark

ages. There it lay a thousand years. Then commenced another reforma

tion.

We are prepared by our previous observations to anticipate the nature and process of this return to the word of God. As the Jewish church ascended, and the Gentile church descended, each by two steps, so we naturally look for two steps in the re-ascension of the Gentiles. As the Jews received first the letter and then the Spirit, and the Gentiles lost first the Spirit and then the letter, we may presume that in returning from their apostasy the Gentiles will recover first the Bible and then the Holy Ghost.

This presumption exactly accords with the actual history of the Gentile reformation, so far as it has yet advanced. The great achievment of Wickliffe, Huss, Luther and Calvin, was the rescue of the Bible from its imprisonment. The motto of Protestantism is-The Bible is the only and sufficient rule of faith and practice.' In the translation and universal circulation of the scriptures, which has been accomplished within the last few centuries, we recognize the first reformation of the Gentile church, corresponding to the work of Ezra and the fathers of the Jewish synagogue. But the second reformation is yet to come. The letter of the word of God has been recovered, but the Spirit remains yet to be won. The labors of Luther and Calvin have not restored to the Gentile church the inspiration and divine power of the day of Pentecost. Protestantism has no more of the spiritual glory which crowned the primitive church, than Popery; in fact it is an accepted proverb through all reformed Christendom, that the age of miracles is past? and by that is meant, that the age of the manifestation of the power and glory of the Holy Spirit is past, never to return; that all pretensions to inspiration, and spiritual power, such as attended the morning of Christianity, are out of date and under sentence of infamy.

The first reformation, then, has not restored original Christianity, and the analogy of past history clearly instructs us to expect a second reformation, as much more glorious than the first, as the day of Pentecost was more glorious than Ezra's feast of tabernacles.

III. The signs of the times indicate that God is making ready for a great spiritual manifestation. In the midst of the idolatrous enthusiasm of the day for physical improvement, legal morality, and scientific discovery, there is a wisible movement of the public mind toward spiritual truth. Germany, the pioneer-land of the Reformation, the emporium of human wisdom, notwithstanding its rationalism,' is teeming with psychological theories, which our phlegmatic intellectualists call mysticisms;' but which in fact are approximations to the Spiritual Philosophy of the Bible. From Germany the leaven has gone forth into England and this country. Men of note in the learned and religious world, are not ashamed to indulge in speculations, which once would have been classed with the hallucinations of Swedenborg and Ann Lee. Nor is the spiritualizing leaven confined to those upper classes whose leisure and cultivation, allow them to philosophize. Mysticism' has assumed a visible and popular form in the phenomena of Mesmerism, and has gone out into the highways and hedges,' compelling men, high and low, to believe that spirits are actual and potent substances; that life can dwell in life, and

will actuate will. We know, that both these movements-the philosophical and popular are only approximations to the development of true Spiritual Philosophy, and that they are associated more or less with unbelief and worldly motives in their advocates. Yet we regard them as influences, sent and directed by heaven, to turn the minds of men toward the invisible world -premonitory symptoms of the approaching spiritual Revolution.

As the mariner, when he has taken an observation, and ascertained his place on the chart, knows how to trim his sails and set his helm, so we, with these views of the position of the world, and of the counsels of God, find our pathway clearly marked out. Our business is to be co-workers with God in ushering in the last period of man's education-the second Reformation-the victory and reign of spiritual wisdom and power. In devoting ourselves to this object, we have the satisfaction of knowing that we are not acting under the influence of blind and therefore impotent benevolence; that we 'run not as uncertainly, and fight not as one that beateth the air.' The direction of our course is parallel with the visible current of human destiny, and with the manifest movements and purposes of God.

The views which have been presented, also direct us to the means by which we may most effectually co-operate with God in the spiritual regenera tion of mankind. As the Bible is the great manual of Spiritual Philosophy, our main business as co-workers with him, is to serve as door-keepers to the Bible-to do what we can to make all men meditate therein day and night;' and especially to bring forth into due prominence the spiritual doctrines of the Bible.

§ 10. THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF MAN.

I. WHAT IS A SPIRIT? The dictionaries answer-An immaterial substance;' which is the same as to say, 'It is not matter!'-a definition too negative to give any valuable information. We answer-It is a fluid; having many of the properties of caloric, light, electricity, galvanism and magnetism; and, in addition to these, having powers of assimilation, growth, and self-originated motion, being susceptible of personality, feeling, intelligence, and will.

If any object to our calling spirit a fluid, we appeal for authority to the Bible. On almost every page of that book, the language commonly used with reference to the nature and operations of air, water, and other fluids, is applied to spirits. For examples, see Matt. 3: 11, John 7: 38, 39, and 20: 22, Acts 2: 2, and 10: 44, 45, 1 Cor. 12: 13, Eph. 5: 18.

If it is still objected that it savors of materialism, to say that spirits have many of the properties of caloric, light, electricity, &c., we appeal again to the Bible. Without adverting particularly to the representations in scripture, of powers in spirits analogous to the pervading quality of caloric, the

radiation of light, &c., it is sufficient for our present purpose to refer the reader to a few passages in which one of the special characteristics of electricity-its power of passing from one point to another by material conductors -is attributed to the spiritual fluid. See Luke 8: 43-46. Acts 8: 17, 18, and 19: 12.

Our definition should not be accused of materialism, till it is settled, that caloric, light, electricity, galvanism and magnetism, are material substances. Turner, in the introduction to his Chemistry, (p. 15) says that the imponderable fluids are agents of so diffusible and subtle a nature, that the common attributes of matter cannot be perceived in them. They are altogether destitute of weight; at least, if they possess any, it cannot be discovered by our most delicate balances. They cannot be confined and exhibited in mass like ordinary bodies; they can be collected only through the intervention of other substances. Their title to be considered material is therefore questionable.'

But admitting that these fluids are material, still it will be seen that our definition assigns to the spiritual fluid only a part of their properties, and places it in a category beyond them, by attributing to it vital powers. Turner saysMatter, though susceptible of motion, has no power either to move itself, or to arrest its progress when an impulse is once communicated to it.' (p. 13.) This is the true point of distinction between matter and spirit. The one has power of action in itself; the other has none. Our definition, therefore, by superadding to the properties of caloric, light, electricity, &c., the power of self-originated motion, as one of the attributes of spirit, places spirit beyond the boundaries of matter.

We freely confess that we are so far materialists, that we believe there is no such vast chasm between spirit and matter as is generally imagined, but that the two touch each other, and have properties in common-that caloric, light, electricity, galvanism and magnetism, are in some sense, connecting links between the material and spiritual worlds-that spirit is in many respects like these fluids, and is as truly substantial as they. We do not ascribe to spirit length, breadth and thickness,' in the common acceptation of those words, because the nature of all fluids precludes those properties. Who ever thinks of attributing length, breadth and thickness to the sunlight? One would not know how to measure or which way to go in taking the dimensions of such a substance. Yet if a specific portion of any fluid is separated from the mass and confined in a solid vessel, that portion of fluid assumes the length, breadth and thickness of the vessel. So if a specific portion of spirit or life is confined in an animal form, that life assumes the length, breadth and thick ness of that form. In this sense we believe that spirits have length, breadth and thickness.

Materialism is not the only error men are liable to fall into in their speculations on spiritual science. Every extreme has its opposite. There is a vast amount of morbid anti-materialism among religionists and metaphysicians. When the notion that spirit is an immaterial substance,' is carried so far as to deny all substantial qualities to spiritual beings, we call it etherialism, or hyper-spiritualism, and regard it as an error quite as pernicious as materialism.