A Book Written by the Spirits of the So-Called Dead Part 13

"A SUICIDE."

CHAPTER XX.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM THOMAS PAINE, MARGARET FULLER, AND THANKS OF SPIRITS.

Aug. 31, 1882. The following from the spirit of Thomas Paine, on capital punishment, was received:

"I am here to-day, sir, to say a few words in opposition to capital punishment. What is the argument in its favor? One citizen has taken the life of another citizen, and you say he has thereby forfeited his right to live. From whence do you get this doctrine? Does it belong to and is it a reflex of your boasted Christian civilization? The Mosaic law demanded an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but is this the doctrine of Jesus, the a.s.sumed founder of Christianity? If you think so, you certainly have not read him attentively, and it may be profitable to you in considering the subject to read the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in the fifth chapter of Matthew, especially the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth verses.

"You coolly and with the utmost deliberation usher these imperfectly developed souls out of one life into another, thereby ridding yourselves of human monsters and fiends by sending them to be cares, pests, and annoyances to the people of another world. And this you call Christian charity, benevolence, and fair dealing. But you say they can repent before they are shuffled off by the hangman, and thus be saved. If this be true, the best service you can render all villains and evil disposed persons is to hang them as the surest means of saving their souls in heaven, for if they are permitted to live and die natural deaths the chances are that they will never repent, and all consequently go to h.e.l.l. But this is a subterfuge. It is the unholy spirit of revenge that actuates you, and you consider not the victim's good. Certainly heaven is not yearning for these cutthroats and outlaws, and h.e.l.l, according to orthodoxy, is already crowded and overpopulated. One man, either through ungovernable pa.s.sion or malice prepense, takes the life of another. Now, he generally has some real or imaginary grievance, but without even this excuse your courts take the other life, just as if one wrong justified another. Your plea that protection to society demands this course is untenable. Is it true that no adequate protection can be afforded except by judicial murder? Would not the confinement of the culprit subserve the same purpose, with the additional humane advantage of allowing the opportunity to reform and become better, and best of all, to let the voice of G.o.d, through natural law, call him from time to eternity.

"Christians can not rise up to the sublime alt.i.tude of adopting, in practical life, the enn.o.bling teachings of the Nazarene including love and forgiveness, as long as they believe the G.o.d of their worship to be a vindictive and pa.s.sionate being full of spleen and vengeance. To believe in such a G.o.d naturally inspires the effort to imitate his characteristics, and hence they become spiteful and vengeful, and in favor of taking human life on the scaffold, because a badly organized mortal in a fit of rage or in the pursuit of revenge for, perhaps, an imaginary wrong done him, slays his neighbor. The killing of one man by another is no worse than judicial murder, and both are relics of barbarism and a past heathen age, and you ought to have done with them. To-morrow, Margaret Fuller on prayer.

"THOMAS PAINE."

MARGARET FULLER.

Sept. 1, 1882, came the following writing from the spirit of Margaret Fuller:

"True prayer is the yearning of the soul for something it feels the need of. It need not be expressed in silent words or oral declamation. Every aspiration is in the true sense a prayer. Every aspiration, though silent, has its potencies, reaches out and attracts its kindred spiritual affinities. If your soul-yearnings and aspirations are of a sordid and purely earthly nature, they affect and attract corresponding influences in the invisible realm of being, permeate your soul and limit it to that sphere. If, on the other hand, your aspirations pertain to the realm of the lofty and beautiful, you render yourself thereby receptive to the grand and enn.o.bling influences of the pure and heavenly. If you pray for riches in a worldly sense you prepare the mental, moral, and spiritual conditions to attract the spirit misers and the selfish. If you pray for spiritual illumination and aspire to moral excellence, you bring to your sphere and aid the n.o.ble and unselfish children of the more exalted spiritual spheres. If you meditate a wrong deed or action you will be successful in drawing to your a.s.sistance those unfortunates of the spirit world who have not outgrown the tendencies, inclinations, and imperfections, of their earthly careers and conditions. Hence the very great importance of being mindful for what you pray. The spiritual influences that you attract and which thereby become a.s.sociated with you, exert a powerful influence in directing your footsteps, molding your actions, and in the construction of your spiritual temple in the new life just before you. Would you desire the companionship of spirit paupers and spirit tramps, become one yourself, and you may depend on success. Would you prefer rather to be attended by good and n.o.ble spirit and spiritual influences, aspire to be good and n.o.ble yourself, and your success is a.s.sured. Of one thing be enlightened, your spirit attendants during your mortal journey will be no worse than you are yourself. It is yourself that prepares the conditions and not they. If your actions are upright, your aspirations n.o.ble, and your thoughts elevated toward the divine, you thereby exert a positive repellant power that no evil can overcome, and in such a generated atmosphere an evil influence can no more dwell than oil can mix with water. Bear this great law in mind, and take advantage of it and you are safe and all will be well. Heed it not in conduct and thought and it will rebound upon you with damaging effect.

"Hesitate not to invite undeveloped spirits to your seances if your purpose be to benefit them. For such a motive on your part will draw around you the encircling influences of angels and the divine protecting love, and no harm can befall you, but much good to the poor spiritual wanderers in spiritual darkness. They must be lifted up, and you can be of great service as auxiliaries to the advanced spirits who labor for their redemption. By such a course you are praying such prayers as will bring upon you blessings from the angelic spheres

"MARGARET FULLER."

At the same sitting came the following closing remarks by the medium's immediate control:

"I am requested to state that with this ends the present book, and to express to you, Mr. h.e.l.leberg, the thanks of the spirits who have communicated for your attentiveness, painstaking, and honest purposes. The band of the medium have done all they could to a.s.sist them and from them have received benedictions. Besides it has been a labor of love on our part to be, in any sense, a.s.sistants to so many exalted spirits.

"We also thank you for your gentlemanly deportment towards our medium, and for the earnest and honest interest you take in her welfare. I speak for the entire band.

"NETTIE, _the Control_."

[APPENDIX.]

CHAPTER XXI.

MRS. GREEN'S MEDIAL HISTORY.

The following is a partial history of the development and mediumistic experiences of Mrs. Lizzie S. Green, the medium chosen by the spirits in transmitting the matter contained in this volume:

She was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, on the second day of December, 1844, and consequently at this writing is in her thirty-eighth year.

The following narrative of her mediumship was written by her husband, dictated by herself, and when written out was p.r.o.nounced by her to be correct, and she adopts it her own. It is believed that this briefly recited history can not fail to be interesting to the general reader, since it contains matter and experiences not only absorbingly interesting but truly wonderful, and evidences the existence of a power that all thoughtful and candid persons will agree is worthy of investigation.

Those who have enjoyed Mrs. Green's acquaintance socially for years invariably speak of her as a truly honest woman, faithful wife, loving mother, steadfast friend, in intellectual capacity far above and beyond her educational advantages, and as possessed of many other sterling qualities of heart. Those who have come in contact with her in the exercise of her medial gifts can not fail to have been impressed with her frankness, simplicity of character, and the unquestionable honesty of her nature.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

This tribute to her integrity and moral worth is given because well merited, and by one who not desiring notoriety and fame wishes simply to be known as

A FRIEND.

NARRATIVE OF HER MEDIUMSHIP.

"My conscious mediumship began in the fall of 1868. It commenced by the opening of my spiritual vision, enabling me to see spirits, scenes, landscapes, etc., in their spirit world. When in the proper state or condition of pa.s.sivity I have been permitted to behold innumerable throngs of spirits, and at times to hear their voices. The phase of clairaudience added to my clairvoyance I prized highly, and sorely regret that shortly afterwards a fit of sickness deprived me of the gift of hearing spirit voices, and for a time seriously r.e.t.a.r.ded my other mediumistic development. I am happy to be able to state, however, that with my gradual restoration to health my clairvoyant perceptions began to increase in power and beauty, and now the voices of the arisen dear ones again greet my anxious and ever attentive ears.

"I desire to state in this connection that in all my intercourse with spirits they have never deceived me in a single isolated instance. They have always been truthful and straightforward in their statements and dealings with me.

"In the earlier stages of my mediumship and still sometimes I was frequently controlled to personate the peculiar and characteristic idiosyncracies of spirits during earth life, and to delineate their sickness and death. Sometimes I would be rendered entirely unconscious and at other times only partially so. I shall never forget one memorable occasion of complete unconsciousness and the occurrence during it as related subsequently by eye witnesses. An old lady was present in the circle who I had never met before, and of whose history I had no means of obtaining the slightest knowledge. At the time I was wholly ignorant as to whether she had ever been a mother or the maternal head of a family, until I saw and described minutely a spirit standing by her side, who she readily recognized as her deceased son. 'What was the cause of his death?'

she eagerly inquired. Almost instantly my consciousness was suspended, preceded by a violent tremulous motion all over my frame. I fell to the floor in a violent fit, and so terrible was it, and so true to nature in all its terrible details that no little alarm was manifested by the various members of the circle. It thoroughly demoralized and threw them into consternation. I need only add that old Mother Thompson (for that was her name) has never since doubted the return of the spirit of her son George, for the poor man had not only suffered a quarter of a century from that appalling affliction, epileptic fits, but actually died in one. I soon recovered my normal condition and received the apology from the spirit for having used me so roughly, stating that his extreme anxiety to convince his beloved mother of his presence induced him to disregard delicacy and to overcome all obstacles in the way of the accomplishment of his purpose.

"A little girl came to me on a certain occasion and said to me, 'Please go and see my mother and tell her I am not dead.' 'Where does your mother live?' I inquired. After giving me the necessary directions where and how to find her, I said: 'But your mother is a stranger to me, and perhaps if I go to her on an errand of that kind she will drive me from her door.'

'No she won't,' interposed the little pleader, 'she will be glad to learn that I am not under the cold ground but alive.' I marshaled the courage to go, yet I greatly feared the result. I was met at the door by the one I desired to see, and without giving sufficient time to explain the object of my call, I was cordially welcomed indoors. After being seated, and after the usual courtesies had pa.s.sed, I opened the subject by saying, 'You have a little girl that has gone to the other world?' 'Yes,' said she, falling into tears, 'she was a dear, darling child, and I have had no rest since she left me. She was the idol of my heart, and it seems that I can never become reconciled to her death. Really, at times, I can scarcely realize that she is dead.' Here a pause ensued, and her grief was so intense that the waters of sympathetic sorrow involuntarily flowed down my own cheeks. Rallying, however, as quickly as I could, I said: 'My good woman, your Mary is not dead. She stands there by your side and wants me to say to you, 'Mother, I am not dead; do not weep for me, for I am still with you.' 'How! What does this mean?' exclaimed the mother in apparent bewilderment, 'I saw her poor little precious body consigned to the cold and cheerless grave.' 'Yes,' I interrupted, 'but her spirit--the immortal and only valuable part of herself--was not buried beneath the ground.

Hold, she wishes me to describe her, and further, to prove her ident.i.ty.

She is a bright, blue-eyed girl of eleven or twelve summers, light auburn hair naturally inclined to curl, and falls in beautiful ringlets around her neck, forehead of the Grecian mold, face even and rounded, with a mark resembling a raspberry under her right eye, and she died from scarlatina.'

'Why, did you know Mary when she was living?' was immediately asked. I a.s.sured her I did not. 'Does the description fit her?' I inquired.

'Perfectly,' was the reply; 'who told you about her,' she added. I answered: 'My good woman, believe me, until to-day I did not know you were in existence. The facts I have stated to you I obtained from your Mary without the slightest knowledge of either your or her history.' After further conversation on the subject, and after describing other spirits, whom she readily recognized, the interview terminated, with a pressing invitation to return, and the a.s.surances that she had derived from my visit inexpressible joy and happiness. In a few days thereafter I was unexpectedly called away from St. Louis and have never returned. Letters from friends who were cognizant of the circ.u.mstance as related by herself, inform me that Mrs. Collins is happy in the knowledge of spiritualism, has become reconciled to the temporary absence as to physical form of her child, and sends me her benedictions.

"In 1869 while holding a circle at Aurora, Ind., composed of a few intimate friends and neighbors, a gentleman--a stranger to all of us--applied for admission, stating that he had been left by the east bound train, and not being able to resume his journey until the following morning, and hearing of my mediumship, he desired, if agreeable, to have a sitting, or be allowed to join the circle for that occasion. My husband cordially a.s.sented. Our stranger friend had been seated but a short time when I saw a spirit forming by his side. I watched the process, and to my utter astonishment, which I at once made known, the spirit had a rope around his neck and presented a frightful appearance. I observed, 'I see a spirit with a rope around his neck, with tongue protruding,' etc.

'Describe him, madam, if you please,' spoke the stranger. I did so; the spirit for the purpose changing his appearance to that of his natural condition. The stranger became very much excited, arose, seized his hat, and nervously remarked, 'This is a great test to me. Several years ago I was sheriff of an interior county in Indiana, and that man, Jim Roberts, was sentenced to be hanged for the murder of his father-in-law, and I am the one who executed the sentence of the court.' When in the act of taking his departure, he suddenly turned around, and plaintively inquired: 'Has Jim got any thing against me? I only did my duty as an officer of the law.' On being a.s.sured that no ill feeling was entertained by the spirit against him, but that he appeared as he did more for the purpose of a test than any thing else, he took his departure. I have never seen him since.

He gave me, however, considerable notoriety in the community by relating his wonderful experience with a spiritual medium, and advised every one to shun mediums unless they were prepared and willing to have every thing connected with their past lives revealed and made known. Perhaps this abused spiritualism may yet become the instrumentality of compelling people to walk uprightly in their dealings with their fellowmen.

"These are a few among hundreds of such instances that I might relate, but the s.p.a.ce allotted will not permit. I wish now briefly to refer to another phase of my mediumship. At various intervals I have had prophetic warning, and prophetic revelations have also been given me. I have also had what might be appropriately termed panoramic visions of past events of those both in and out of the body, and of events to transpire in the future of earth life. These visions, especially those prognostic of the future, have been truly wonderful. It is an oft quoted saying that 'coming events cast their shadows before,' and there remains no doubt in my mind but what spirits--whether all, I am not prepared to say--can sufficiently forecast the future as to reveal events and actions concealed from mortal discernment in the bosom of coming time. Let me mention a few instances in my own experience as evidence of the existence of this power.

"In 1869, myself and husband were holding a seance alone, at Aurora, Ind.

We were living in the lower part of the city, near the river bank. Aurora is situated on the banks of the Ohio river, twenty-five miles below Cincinnati, Ohio. A little above the center of the city fronting the river a small stream, called Hogan creek, empties into the Ohio. Three or four hundred yards above the junction of the two streams and on the banks of the aforementioned creek, is located the mammoth distillery, owned by Messrs. T. & J. W. Gaff & Co. It has been consumed three times by fire and as often rebuilt. At the time of which I am speaking, we put blankets up to the windows in the room to be used for our dark circle, and by this means effectually excluded all external light. After extinguishing our lamp light, we sat patiently, awaiting manifestations. In the course of a half hour I saw and said, 'I see a large brick building on fire. The light from its ascending flames is flooding the river in front of the city.

There, I see a poor man burning up in the fire. I see its majestic walls crumbling to pieces and falling into a huge ma.s.s of ruins.' At this juncture, we heard out doors the cry of fire! fire! and soon the bells of the quiet little city began to announce to its citizens that the insatiate fire-fiend was engaged in his terrible work of devastation and ruin. We hastened to the door only to behold, true to the vision previously given, the bosom of the river as brilliantly lighted up as though illuminated by the rays of the sun at his meridian height. T. & J. W. Gaff & Co.'s distillery was on fire and burned to ruins, and another concomitant of the vision was too sadly verified--a man was literally burned to ashes.

"Soon after this occurrence, a very dear lady friend called to see me. She contemplated a trip to Indianapolis, and intended to start on the morrow train. I said to her, 'Do not start to-morrow. Defer it until the succeeding day. I see an accident on the road, and I see written in the air these words, "Within twenty-four hours." I prevailed on her to postpone the trip in accordance with the warning of the vision. She had no occasion to regret it for the train on which she intended to be a pa.s.senger jumped the track before it reached its destination, and while no one was very seriously injured, yet it might have been otherwise had my friend been on board. She might not have escaped so luckily.

"The shocking casualty of the collision between the United States mail steamers America and the United States, on the Ohio river, between Cincinnati and Louisville, will be well remembered, especially by the people along the line of that route. The night of the painful occurrence I was a member of a circle held at the residence of Mr. Lewis Shirley, of Jeffersonville, Ind. I saw the collision, the boats on fire, etc., at an hour antedating by several hours the time when the unfortunate event transpired. So thoroughly was I convinced that the verification of the vision was close at hand that I prevailed on a son of Mr. Shirley to meet the carrier-boy at the ferry landing early the following morning to procure a copy of a Louisville daily paper. When the boy returned with the paper I was not surprised to find in its columns an account of the disaster, which I had plainly and vividly seen a number of hours prior to its actual occurrence.

"On another occasion I saw a fire raging. I saw it was a two-story brick house. I saw men rolling barrels out of the burning structure, and from the rapidity of their movements and the ease and facility with which the barrels seemed to be handled and propelled along, I concluded they were empty and so expressed myself. My husband inquired, 'Where is the fire at?' I placed myself in as pa.s.sive a state as possible, but could get no answer. The questions were then asked: 'Is it Louisville?' 'No.' 'Is it Jeffersonville?' 'No.' 'New Albany?' 'No.' 'Indianapolis?' 'Yes.' These answers respectively I saw written in the air or what appeared so to me.

On that night, as we learned by the papers subsequently, a large barrel factory at Indianapolis was destroyed by fire.