A Book Written by the Spirits of the So-Called Dead Part 11

"Oh, thou Infinite Spirit of Truth, soul of all things, we humbly approach Thee at this hour. We know our praises can not exalt Thee for Thou art already infinitely exalted. We know how vain are our adulations of Thee, and that we can not change or make Thee other than what Thou art, a being permeating all things, ever pure and changeless. We know Thou hast existed in all the past, and for Thee and Thine there is no ending in all the measureless immensity of future time. Thou art infinite and perfect in all Thy great attributes of love, wisdom, and power, the true and everlasting trinity. We know we serve Thee best when we seek and labor for the good of Thy children, whether they be in realms of spirit being or in mortal life.

We feel the inspiration of Thy words--'Do good to all'--wafted to our anxious ears on every breeze, and we bow in reverence before the eternal words written on all the works of Thy mighty creation, 'Love one another even as I love all.' We look not for Thee in temples of human construction, or in buildings vainly dedicated to Thy worship, but we discover Thee in all that Thou hast brought into being by the creative energies of Thy almighty power. We hear Thy majestic voice in the mighty roar of old ocean and in the gentle murmurings of the brooklet. We hear Thy voice in the thunderings of the storm king and in the soft whisperings of the zephyrs. We behold Thee in the stately form of the oak and in the sweet blossoming and blooming flowers. Wherever we go, wherever we look, and in whatever we behold there Thou art ever present. Oh, Thou mighty master spirit of the universe, bless Thy children every-where. Strengthen Thy messengers, ministering spirits from the land immortal, to teach those still in the bonds of the flesh the sublime and eternal truths of immortality. May Thy children in mortal learn that wisdom which teaches righteous living, heroic dying, life-unending and eternal progression.

Shower divine blessings on this aged brother who is seeking to know of Thee through Thy ministering angels. Strengthen his faith, increase his knowledge, cheer his heart, and as he nears the end of the journey of mortal life fill his soul with that joy that can only be bestowed by the spirits of dear ones who have pa.s.sed to the better land. Bless, oh Father, this n.o.ble medium, a chosen instrument of the spirit world, through whom to transmit messages of love. Bless all such instruments. Encourage and invest with continually increasing powers this n.o.ble band of spirits, and enable them through their chosen and beloved medium to bless and cheer the hearts of many by the impartation of light divine, and may that light radiate through their souls as the sunbeams descending from the golden orb of day illuminates the physical world. Accept, oh Lord, from the fulness of our souls this our earnest prayer. Amen."

CHAPTER XVII.

GREETINGS FROM HORACE GREELEY, J. G. BENNETT, AND HENRY J. RAYMOND, TO F.

B. PLIMPTON, a.s.sOCIATE EDITOR OF THE CINCINNATI "DAILY COMMERCIAL."

During the visit of the celebrated medium, Henry Slade, to Cincinnati, recently, a reporter of the Cincinnati "Daily Enquirer" visited him and secured a sitting, during which Mr. F. B. Plimpton, a.s.sociate editor of the Cincinnati "Daily Commercial," by invitation was present. The day following, the "Enquirer" reporter, in speaking of the seance in the columns of his paper, referred to Mr. Plimpton in disparaging terms as being a believer in Spiritualism, etc. In the succeeding issue of the "Enquirer" Mr. Plimpton had published over his proper signature the following rejoinder:

DR. SLADE AND HIS "CONFEDERATE."

_To the Editor of the Enquirer._

Your reporter makes much of my accidental meeting with him at the rooms of Dr. Slade. I had called on the doctor's general invitation (he being an entire stranger to me), not with the thought of witnessing any of the so-called manifestations, but to have a chat with him touching some points of his European experience.

In the course of our conversation he incidentally mentioned that he had an appointment with a press representative, and shortly afterward your reporter came in, and was introduced to me as "Mr. Culbertson." Having met the young gentleman on a recent social occasion, when he was introduced to me under his right name, his ident.i.ty was not obscure to me, but it would have been the height of impoliteness on my part, an invited guest, to have interfered with any little plan he may have formed to entrap the magician.

It is a trivial and common form of deception, and as Dr. Slade does not profess to be a mind-reader, it is as easy for a stranger to impose on him in that way as upon an ordinary person. So, as "Mr. Culbertson" your reporter remained from the beginning to the end of the sitting.

Why Dr. Slade changed his mind and allowed me to remain during the seance I do not know, and do not care to know. It seems, however, to have excited the suspicions of your acute reporter, who amusingly presents me to your readers in the light of a confidante of the doctor. This is too ridiculous to receive serious refutation. It was the sheerest accident that I was present at all.

Your reporter very fairly states the phenomena witnessed, except where his lively imagination charmingly interferes with strict accuracy, and tempts him to adorn his narrative with divers bra.s.s ornaments of his own invention. But he must pardon me if I decline to accept him as an expert at his own valuation, since by his own statement he stands condemned of practicing the only deception at all explicable, and then not telling the truth about it.

He is, however, ent.i.tled to his own conclusions, which must be very valuable, considering the time he has devoted to investigation. There is no accounting for the superior insight which a young man has into phenomena, that have baffled old heads after years of patient study. It may be remarked, however, that to denounce as trickery and fraud phenomena otherwise not easily explained is a ready way of ridding one's self of the whole business.

Though not giving much attention of late years to the subject, I am a Spiritualist, and not ashamed to own it. The time has pa.s.sed when it is necessary to doff one's hat and apologize in this or any other intelligent community for being a Spiritualist. It is, at least, as creditable as to discourse without knowledge and condemn without investigation.

F. B. PLIMPTON.

On Thursday, February 2d, at Mrs. Green's, among other matter received came the following:

"Respected Sir: We are here this morning to ask you to go and see Mr.

Plimpton, of the "Commercial," and say to him for us, that we not only thank but congratulate him for his recent bold and manly utterances in favor of truth. The time has arrived for those blessed with the knowledge presented by Spiritualism to bravely avow it, and we are glad that he has taken the initiative in the Queen City of the West. The time has truly pa.s.sed when such avowal entails social ostracism or any kind of persecution. The banner of truth has been unfurled, and ye brave souls marshal the veteran hosts under it and onward to victory. You will find less obstruction than you think, for believers in this much-abused gospel of light are more numerous than you conceive. Besides you have myriad hosts of heaven at your backs. Falter not, move onward with firm and confident step. Be steadfast and true and bright laurels await you. The victory is not always to the strong, but to the active, the vigilant, and the brave. The army of Spiritualism has already swollen into huge proportions, and its ranks are being daily augmented. The decree has gone forth and the triumph will come. Truth shall arise for the eternal years of G.o.d are her's, and nothing can stay or r.e.t.a.r.d the onward march to victory of the grand army of invisible hosts.

"HORACE GREELEY.

"J. G. BENNETT, SR.

"HENRY J. RAYMOND."

CHAPTER XVIII.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM HORACE GREELEY, GOVERNOR O. P. MORTON, AND A. P.

WILLARD.

On the 7th of April, among other things, I received the following:

"Unless some changes are made in the conduct of your government direful consequences are to be apprehended. Under the present mode of administration it is continually subjected to very heavy straining, and it can not much longer stand it. Many reforms are needed, and the requirements of patriotism demand that they be seriously considered and acted upon. Your civil service is entirely wrong, and can not be continued much longer without serious detriment to your form of government. The integrity and stability of your inst.i.tutions are constantly menaced by it.

You claim that you have an elective government. Is the claim true?

Thousands of important public offices are not filled by the elective voice of the people. They are filled by appointment from purely partisan considerations--for partisan purposes and as a reward for party services and party zeal. Fitness and worthiness are secondary and minor considerations. Hence arise clamorings of party strife, and the engendering of the festering sore curses of corruption. The Presidential office had better be abolished than to continue it invested with such vast patronage in dispensing official appointments. There exists no valid reason why the people themselves should not select from their neighbors postmasters, revenue officers, etc., as well as state, county, and township officers. The Presidential office should either be dispensed with or its inc.u.mbent elected by a direct vote of the people without the intervention of the c.u.mbersome and corrupting electoral machinery. The electing of men to elect other men to office is the dodging of a responsibility and the surrendering of a right of the people that can not be defended upon sound principles.

"Another danger confronts you menacingly and demands watchful attention.

It is the startling aggregations of wealth among the few, and wrung from the sweat of labor. These immense acc.u.mulations find utilization in the creation of merciless monopolies which have already a.s.sumed gigantic and threatening proportions in the United States.

"Stock gambling is not a whit better in morals than any of the games of cards by which the unwary are fleeced out of their hard earnings. The partic.i.p.ants and operators in the one are no better than in the other, and yet the one, under your Christian civilization is applauded while the other is denounced. How long yet will the people continue to be hoodwinked and handicapped by designing political tricksters. We have seen the star of hope, but now behold the star of promise rising in its refulgent splendor, and therefore we take heart.

"H. GREELEY."

HON. O. P. MORTON.

On the 13th of April the following communication was received, purporting to come from the late United States Senator from Indiana, Oliver P.

Morton, viz:

"Amid the rancor and jealousies of party strife I came in for a full share of abuse and vituperation. I was denounced most bitterly as an ambitious man, wholly unconscionable and indifferent as to the means employed in the accomplishment of party ends. Now, I frankly confess that I was not a saint in politics, nor always, politically speaking, perfectly orthodox. I am free to admit that I was so const.i.tuted that when I once believed a certain view to be sound and right I never hesitated to use all the appliances and machinery of party to secure its triumph. I was called a bold man in politics. I am proud of this, for it is in contradistinction to all that is sneaking. I aimed to always be right, and believed, in a certain qualified and honorable sense, that the ends justified the means.

Those who are vociferating so loudly and screaming so painfully about bad and corrupt men, are generally traveling in the same boat, with the same sails spread to the breeze. In my mind and heart the country's good was always a paramount consideration, and I have as few regrets as most men who have devoted as long a period to public life. The man out of office feels himself called upon to denounce the man who is in, and affects to believe himself especially endowed with the requisite qualities to purify the public service, but when safely ensconced in the inc.u.mbency he too soon finds himself a Barkis, who "is willing." There are many good and true men engaged in public political life, but none perfect, and you would be as successful in ransacking _hades_ for an angel of light in your efforts to find a perfect politician. Whatever is wrong and corrupt in your public service and political life will never be corrected and purified by the politicians alone. As well might you hope for a deadly eating cancer to eradicate itself, or the upas tree, with its deadly emanations, to give forth health-breeding and life-sustaining exhalations.

The remedy rests alone and wholly with the great ma.s.ses of the people. The prost.i.tution of office to the debasing influences of bribery and corruption must be made odious by fixing austere penalties against the offender, and the prompt and indiscriminate enforcement of them.

Misfeasance and malfeasance in public office ought to be considered an unpardonable crime, and the guilty dealt with accordingly. Let the people teach their officials the doctrine that a continuation of political existence depends wholly on fidelity to the public interests, and the honest, faithful and efficient administration of their official trusts.

When there is willful dereliction of duty, or a failure by grossly reprehensible conduct to meet the just public expectations, not only relegate the offender to the walks of private life, but impose such punishment as shall be deemed adequate to the enormity of the crime, and will deter others from the commission of like offenses.

"O. P. MORTON."

GOV. A. P. WILLARD.

May 19, 1882, I received the following from Ashbel P. Willard, who I learn was at one time Governor of the State of Indiana, viz.:

"Good morning, sir. I was, during my earth life, a politician, and, to a certain extent, a successful one, if success may be measured and determined by captivating the ma.s.ses, and thereby securing elevation to office. I was in early life surrounded by poverty, and arose from humble conditions to the chief magistracy of the great commonwealth of Indiana. I was of the common people, always kept myself closely allied to them and their interests, and if you will excuse the egotism, always felt that I was near their hearts. I was called an orator, and probably to some extent this was true, for nature had favored me highly in that direction by organization, and I have occasion to be thankful that whatever gifts I may have possessed, they were aimed to be exercised for the promotion of the public good and the happiness and prosperity of the people. In youth I obtained a common education and taught school, and by teaching the young the rudiments of education I was enabled to study and observe the different tendencies and characteristics of mind. While engaged in this pursuit I discovered some properties of my own mind and some gifts of speech, which, in public utterance, subsequently distinguished me--not so much in the forum as on the "hustings" during periodical political excitements. I soon discovered that the power I was enabled to wield in political disputations was attracting the people to me, and their voices at the ballot-box soon called me into official position and consequent prominence.

"Whatever faults I may have had, it is a proud satisfaction for me to know that it was never charged that I ever betrayed either a private or public trust. But in my day things were quite different from what they are now.

The politicians in my day were imbued with a different and a higher patriotic sense of obligation to the public interests and the general public weal. The great war of the rebellion seems to have poisoned the divine streams of patriotism, and the politicians of to-day seem to have drank too freely therefrom. You have pa.s.sed through evil times, and they are still upon you.

"The best minds of the spirit world are hard at work seeking to purify the waters of political life. It must begin at the fountain head. The people, the great ma.s.ses who const.i.tute the fountain of all political power, must be awakened to a realization of the wretched condition into which they have permitted public affairs to drift. There must be a quickening of the public conscience and a revivifying of the patriotism of the early fathers of the republic. The sanctifying influences of the patriotism of the revolution must again permeate the hearts of the people. The politicians, always cunning and watchful of the tendencies and driftings of the public mind, will either fall in with the new order of things, or be forced to retire and subside from public notice. The great minds and patriotic hearts of Washington, Lafayette, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Hanc.o.c.k, Paine, Webster, Clay, Douglas, Lincoln, Garfield, and hosts of others, are coming from the skies, leaving for awhile the glorious pursuits and joys of spirit unfoldments to speak to the people, and to lead them away from the demoralizing and corrupting influences of the partisanship of the day into better channels and loftier patriotism.

"How shall the work of purifying the public service, restimulation of patriotism, and the placing of the waning fortunes of the country upon the high road of prosperity be done? _First._ What is needed to be done?

_Second._ How shall it be done? These questions, so pregnant with mighty results, should engage your earnest and prayerful consideration. These matters may be discussed and presented to you, and I am glad that the means will be furnished to lay them before the people.

"If what I have said will be the means of arousing one patriotic citizen to the necessity of the governmental reformation now in contemplation by our spiritual congress, I shall feel then supremely happy that the little effort in writing these feeble lines was not in vain.

"I was known when in the form, and am still, as