Part 13 (1/2)

FORESHADOWINGS.

The ”signs of the times” are pregnant with coming and wonderful events. The rapid progress of mind, the developments through the sciences--which are now throwing flood-lights upon Divine revelations, and giving to the enlightened world a more comprehensive knowledge of the Great Jehovah, and of His wonderful works--are all potent with argument of the necessity that the effort for a UNITED CHURCH should speedily be made. A partial comprehension of these wonderful developments, without further aids, may tend to throw doubt and suspicion upon the minds of many, as to whether or not any of the Christian organizations have comprehended the true plan of salvation.

Whilst a divided church, a divided ministry, and their opposite teachings can but tend to strengthen such doubts, bewilder the mind, and lead to _Infidelity_.

Now it rests with leading spirits and teachers of _every_ Christian denomination--whether _Protestant_ or _Catholic_--to say whether this advance shall be made in behalf of _true religion_: the Church of G.o.d, and the salvation of souls, or in the interest of Satan, the opposing enemy; whether this advance shall be true _Christianity_, or _Infidelity_; whether the upbuilding of the Kingdom of Christ, and hastening the time when He shall reign in the hearts of all; or, by indifference and default, permitting the upbuilding of _Babylon_, and the reseating of the ”SCARLET WOMAN,” _and_ thus tenfold intensifying the great and _final struggle_.

There is a _true philosophy_ in religion, and by instructing the mind to comprehend this, the final happy results will ensue.

We often hear ministers praying for the time to come ”when the world shall be converted to G.o.d; when all shall know Him from the least unto the greatest.” They claim the promise that such a time _will come_, and yet can but see that wickedness is gaining ground, and that within their church organizations they do not number _one third of the population_--even in what are denominated Christian countries, nor do they keep pace with the increase of population, and yet they seem contented with their ”little flocks.”

Ye ministers of the ”LIVING G.o.d,” if ye have come to ”Mount Zion” by faith and prayer, and ”holy living,” we call upon you to unite your efforts in the spirit of _brotherly love_ and CHRISTIAN UNITY, and show to a ”peris.h.i.+ng world” that you are in _earnest_ in your Master's cause, and that you desire the salvation of the _whole human family_, else He may say to you, ”_I will come quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place._”

In regard to the theory we have advanced as to the location of Heaven, we leave you, and all, to examine the revelations of G.o.d through the lights of science; Nature around you, and with _reason_ bearing upon the fact that G.o.d, the Great Jehovah, the Creator of all, though a _Spirit_, is not a _myth_; and that reality, law, order, and system universally prevail throughout all His works, and with these He governs His Universe.

G.o.d's own revelations, the lights afforded through the sciences, Nature around us, true philosophy and reason, all confirm our hypothesis. Cut loose now from this, and we can anchor nowhere, save in a blind incomprehensible faith, ever floating and drifting as in a _sea of ether_, and surrounded by impenetrable _mystery_ and _gloom_.

All hold and teach that the spirit, when it leaves the body, flies away from _mortality_ and Earth, and goes to the place prepared for it by its Creator. The celerity with which spirit moves we do not now know, but the reality and law of its flight does exist, and this by G.o.d's own arrangement and established agency in Nature. That such agency is continually with us, and ready at all times for the use of disembodied spirit, we cannot doubt--nay, possibly its principle or element is _in_ and _of_ us, from the first moment of our existence, through all subsequent time, and will continue to all eternity to come.

The _blood_ is the life of man, its element or stimulae of life is _electricity_, let this but escape from the blood, and with it the soul or spirit has fled, and the body is left to moulder back to dust.

We find electricity to be a principle of _immateriality_; an element of _fire_, which pervades all things, in a greater or less degree, not only solids and fluids, but also atmosphere or air.

Now let us consider this element which G.o.d has permitted man to comprehend as existing in nature, and yet veils it from our sight, and, although he permits us to use it for beneficial purposes, yet we can never see or comprehend more than its _effects_, for, in itself, it is _ethereal_ and no mortal eye can behold it. Man has not only been permitted to comprehend that the principle of electricity does exist in Nature, but also to measure, by time, its rapid flight. Thus, with proper appliances, this Earth can be belted with it in about _one tenth_ part of a second of time. It would seem to almost annihilate time, and s.p.a.ce, as its flight is nearly 300,000 miles a second--being more than one third swifter than _light_.

In preceding pages, we have dwelt upon the distance of our Earth from the Sun, and also distances to various planets, and to some of the fixed stars, and _nebulae_, far away in sidereal regions. We have given you the conclusions of the most scientific Astronomers throughout the world. Their measurement of distances by light have been shown to approximate correctness, and the truth of their deductions we cannot doubt. They have explored regions so far remote, that it is rendered certain that it has required _light several hundred thousand years_ from the time it left its native Sun, to reach our Earth, and that these rays travelling from thence, are now successively arriving and beaming upon the eye when it is placed to the telescope. Indeed, from one cl.u.s.ter of suns, or nebulae, beyond the ”milky way,” it is computed that the light derived from thence has been 700,000 years in transit, although travelling at the rate of 192,000 miles a second.

Now all these facts are astounding, and must impress every reflecting mind with force. All can see that Astronomers, by the aid of that wonderful gift of G.o.d to man--the telescope--have looked abroad, and have penetrated and surveyed with the eye s.p.a.ce far remote in sidereal regions, to the extent of which it would require 300,000 years for _electricity_ to reach at a flight of 300,000 miles a second, and yet they have not discovered any thing greatly different from our own planetary system, nor any object or seeming phenomenon they could denominate _heaven_. Without a solution of these facts, is not the mind bewildered and _lost_ in the hazy contemplation? If heaven is still _far out beyond_, what period or measure of Eternity may it requite for the spirit, or soul to reach it after leaving the body?

Knowing that there is stern reality, regulated law, order, and motion in all pertaining to Jehovah, His creations and government; even the _mind of faith_ staggers, and must founder in the contemplation of conceptions so mighty and so mysterious.

You have taught us to believe that heaven is a ”fixed place,” and has a ”permanent locality,” but while accepting this through faith, you have failed to give us a _permanent thought_. Therefore, notwithstanding all our hopes and desires, _mystery_ and _gloom, dark and impenetrable_, have shrouded the mind's eye of faith; leaving no light but an excited and restless _imagination_, and we call upon you to give _faith_ and _hope_ a _resting-place_ somewhere else than floating in _ethereal regions_, and wandering about with _blind chance through illimitable s.p.a.ce_.

Our hypothesis locates heaven just where _we believe it is_, and _to it_ the spirit can ascend, on _angel-wings of electricity_, in a fraction of eternity equal to only _five minutes of time_. And, although discoveries through the lights of science directed our mind thither, and a.s.sisted its comprehension, yet we believe _Divine Revelations alone sustain our views_, and thus afford the mind a resting place where _faith_ and _hope_ can anchor, and be founded in reality, in _immutable and_ ETERNAL TRUTH. The laws of Nature, the controlling influence of that world, our perceptive faculties and _reason_, all proclaim that it must be so. Its protecting fires s.h.i.+eld it from mortal sight, yet proclaim to us through ten thousand blessings showered upon our earth, _'tis there!_ 'TIS THERE!!

Are any ready to ask why the ”_glory-light_” of that heavenly world, represented as ”far above the brightness of the Sun” cannot be seen?

Such inquiry must exhibit a lack of knowledge respecting the nature of G.o.d, the GREAT SPIRIT; as also of any proper conception of the immortal spirit of man. That light is _for spirit alone_, and cannot be seen by mortal eyes, and that which is darkness to us while our sight is veiled with mortality, so far as relates to that heavenly world and our future, becomes--after the death of the body--transcendent brilliancy, and the light of the ”glory of G.o.d.”

We have abundant evidence of this fact. Remember that when the Great Jehovah made His presence manifest on Mount Sinai, although the mountain burned with fire, yet--to mortal vision--all the surroundings were filled with ”thick clouds and darkness.” Yea, ”clouds and darkness were made His pavilion,” and, to mortal eyes, ”_are the habitations of His throne_.”

The light of the ”_glory of G.o.d_” is for spirit alone, and _its_ radiance will make even the light of the _Sun_ darkness to the _spirit-eye_. It is possible that should He unveil Himself, and throw a flash of His _glory-light_ upon this world, it would in an instant of time destroy the whole race of man, and every living thing, for He hath said, ”_No one shall see me and live._”