Strange Visitors Part 26

I recall my past experience, portions of which I review with regret. In endeavoring to obtain this energy, this motion, this acceleration, I was obliged in my ignorance to resort to artificial means. A knowledge of the laws of spirit life would have enabled me to have avoided this mistake; but that knowledge I did not possess.

The actor of the present day is blessed with the knowledge that he has merely to throw himself into the magnetic state, and become _en rapport_ with spiritual conditions, to find himself inspired--inflated with the divine magnetic current which flows from the spirit world to the inhabitants of earth. If a player desires to represent a certain character,--let it be the subtle, fiend-like Richard III. or the crafty Richelieu,--the customary mode of studying such characters is to endeavor to imagine one's self to be the person. That is the first step towards mediumship; for it is one degree from the natural, towards the superior state. Usually, through ignorance, the student proceeds no further than this point; and the spirit a.s.sistants can only partially aid him. But an actor possessing the knowledge of placing himself _en rapport_ with these characters, whether traditional or real, is immediately cut loose from his surroundings and becomes the Richard or Richelieu whom he would personate.

From the brain of every spirit medium ascends a blazing sun, which burns the brighter when the magnetic relations between it and the spirit world are most perfect. This blazing light, this radiant effulgence, is perceived instinctively, though not knowingly, by every individual who listens to a discourse from a "trance medium." So from the brain of the actor this glorious light throws out its rays into the a.s.sembly, and when he becomes fully inspired, its magnetic influence is felt with overpowering vividness; and the result is, the audience themselves are set in motion, and from pit to gallery you hear vociferous applause.

There are actors who are good, and who acquire fame, who have never felt this divine afilatus. The intellect of the audience appreciates them for their declamation, for the art and artifice which they manifest; but the humblest and most illiterate of that a.s.sembly know well that this studied eloquence does not fire the brain.

But it will not do to trust blindly to spirit control; a knowledge and constant study of human nature is necessary.

It is a well-known fact that a person steadily looking at one point will influence twenty others to look at that point also, and to imagine they see some object before them. Understanding this principle, you may work upon each attribute in the minds of your audience. If fear is to be aroused, do as your neighbor does as he hastily enters your house after meeting with a fearful calamity. You become excited before even hearing the evil which has befallen him. Every faculty can be acted upon in the same manner--grief and joy alike.

Of the ventriloquial powers of the human voice, many speakers are ignorant. The tyro on the stage wishing to make the remotest individual in his audience hear, bawls at the top of his lungs. He is unaware that the organs of the human voice are a kind of electrical machine, governed by the will-power, and that the actor has merely to throw his will and direct his mind to a given point, for his voice to reach that point and produce a far more startling effect than the loudest blast that any pair of lungs could bring forth. Thus the lowest whisper can be made to tell at the farthest corner of the theatre.

But perhaps I have said enough of the methods best adapted to produce representations of character on the stage. The question may arise in the mind of the reader, whether there is any opportunity of exercising the talent of acting in the spirit world, supposing that talent to have been cultivated in this.

In the remotest ages, and among the most uncultivated nations, as well as among the most highly civilized, the power of representing human pa.s.sions and events has been exercised instinctively, showing this power to be as much a portion of the soul's attributes as the gift of thought or of fancy. If one belongs to the immortal condition, the other does also.

One of the chief enjoyments which the all-wise Creator has made attainable to the inhabitants of the starry heavens is that of dramatic representations of life, character, and events, transpiring in the countless worlds that wheel through s.p.a.ce.

The field of the actor for depicting the truths of human nature in the world of spirits is vast and unconfined!

Eloquence is appreciated on earth, but that appreciation is weak and tasteless compared with the estimation of that "gift of the G.o.ds" by the inhabitants of the summer land.

Some blind, short-sighted investigators tell you there is no speech among us; they would lead you to imagine that we inhabit a world blank and void of sound; that stillness more unbroken than the grave pervades our mysterious realm.

Conjure up the picture in your fancy, reader--the soul shrinks back from such a state! The spirit world is _all_ voice. Never have I heard notes clearer, louder, deeper, than resound through the electric air that surrounds my home.

The gift of speaking, and of representing individualities separate from your own ident.i.ty, is a spiritual gift decidedly; and with us theatres and amphitheatres are as numerous as churches are with you. I will leave the description of these structures for the ready pen and speech of our friend Burton.

JOHN WESLEY.

"_THE DIVISION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, INTO SEVERAL BODIES, AND ITS RE-ORGANIZATION INTO ONE GENERAL BODY."_

I will take for my text this sentiment from the New Testament: "I will draw all men unto me, and there shall be one church and one people."

The church which was organized by our Lord[A] Jesus Christ was designed to establish a feeling of brotherhood between separate and distinct cla.s.ses of people, and to abolish the system of castes, which was the prevailing sin of the eastern nations.

[Footnote A: The word "Lord" is used in the sense of an earthly lord who cares for his people.]

Christ made no distinction between the Sadducee and the Pharisee, the publican and the saint, the high priest of the temple and the lowliest of his followers. He placed the affections above the intellect, truth and sincerity above wealth and worldly position.

The church which he originated for many years followed in his footsteps.

But as it increased in numbers it acc.u.mulated wealth, and with wealth came power, and from that power issued discord and separation.

Thus, the church divided and subdivided, and split into a thousand pieces, formed new interests, created new beliefs, and sowed dissension and envy with a free hand.

Such has been the condition of the church for the past ten or twelve centuries. Meanwhile, in the Heaven of Heavens, has arisen a powerful movement directed towards restoring it to its original state of purity and simplicity. This great movement, like a mighty river seeking its outlet, has rushed on, diverging at several points, and at length found the reservoir it sought in what is termed _Spiritualism_.

The spiritualistic movement opened the gates for the expression of skepticism, which the formalism, the tyranny, bigotry, and externalism of the Church awakened in the minds of the people of every enlightened Christian nation; and the result has been a criticism so pungent, and an examination so thorough and direct, into the deformities of the Church, that she has been obliged to contemplate her own condition and the rottenness of her position, until she fairly trembles at the view of her disjointed parts.

On every hand now, at the present moment, efforts are being made to consolidate--to rejoin. On one side you behold the Protestant Episcopal Church offering to unite with the Methodists, from whom, since my day, they have stood aloof, as an illegal and fanatical people whom they could not fellowship.

On the other side, you see them stretching to the Roman Church, forming a brotherly compact of forms and ceremonies with Papacy.

One branch of the Presbyterian Church wears the robes of the Roman Church, and thus that is linked to Catholicism.

All these denominations which have stood apart so long, whose theology has been so antagonistic, are now merging into one Church.

In the face of the great danger which Spiritualism or Liberalism has brought to their sight, they endeavor to return to their first estate, but in returning they lose their ident.i.ty.

This result is sure, though unperceived by them.

One by one, they will give up this point of difference and that point of difference, this creed and that creed, for the sake of harmony. This vestment they lay aside, and that form, until they will all be swallowed up, and neither Methodists nor Calvinists, Baptists nor Lutherans, Armenians, Jews, nor Gentiles, will remain. Then the primitive Church of Christ will be revived again upon earth, simple and unostentatious; its creed will be the creed of Jesus Christ:

"The brotherhood of man, and the love of G.o.d for his children."

This creed, you perceive, embraces the whole of the spiritualistic faith, which is causing these great changes throughout the Church of Christ on earth.

At this point it will not be inappropriate to make some allusion to the mysterious sounds which occurred in my house in Lincolnshire, England, at intervals within the s.p.a.ce of three or more years during my earthly ministrations.

These mysterious sounds, even in that day, were supposed to have been caused by spirit agency. I have ascertained that that supposition was correct; and my attention has since been directed to the fact in Church history, that every separation from the Church body which has originated in a desire to return to the simplicity and purity of the primitive followers of Jesus, has been attended by similar mysterious demonstrations.

Luther and Mclancthon, Knox and Calvin, and the earnest dissenters and reformers of every age, have been haunted in like manner. I say haunted, for they generally have misunderstood the aim of these spiritual visitants.[A] It has devolved upon the scientific researches and the skeptical but investigating mind of the nineteenth century to form a process by which the spirit of the departed can communicate with the dwellers in Time.

[Footnote A: The spirit of Rev. Dr. John M. Krebbs, of New York, states through this clairvoyant that the cause of his mental aberration while on earth was a misinterpretation by him of a spiritual vision which he was permitted to receive. Thus misunderstanding the aim of his spiritual visitants, he became haunted with a fallacy which ultimated in his death.

ED.]

To me this science was unknown. Had I been acquainted with the facts with which I am now familiar, I might have established a more liberal Church, but as it was, this daily a.s.sociation with an unseen spiritual presence enlarged my views of the condition attending the soul after death, and caused me to give utterance to thoughts which happily have aided in preparing the world for the Universal Church which ere long will lift its towering dome toward Heaven.

N.P. WILLIS.

_A SPIRIT REVISITING EARTH_.

(A FRAGMENT.)

How wondrous I Through illimitable s.p.a.ce, where myriad suns And systems roll their mighty orbs, The spirit moves like some strange wingless bird, Darting through s.p.a.ce with rapid flight Until he nears his native home, The earth.