MISSION TO THE DEAD.
Immortal-Soulism is producing its own peculiar fruit in the sectarian churches and denominations, or Brotherhoods, Pagan Mesmerism, which is its ancient sire, and the parent also of all the spiritologies of our day, is possessing them with confounding effect. The brotherhood theologies have prepared professors for any and all of the speculations arising out of surrounding chaos. They have alienated the people from Moses and the Prophets; so that being disarmed of the Spirit’s sword, they are falling defencelessly, by thousands, before Mesmerism, theologically interpreted. Mesmerism proves all things conceived by the fleshly mind, because it is of and from the flesh. It begins in the flesh and ends in the flesh. Thus the circle is complete. Animal magnetism reveals the flesh to the flesh, being the spirit of the flesh. It is the magic lantern to the thalami off the optic nerves, passing before them the spectralia of “philosophy and vain deceit.” Hence, sky-kingdom heavens, aerial sheols in outer darkness fifty miles sky-high, subterranean hobgoblin hells, spirit-worlds, immortal souls in mortal sinful flesh, baby-spirit salvation, pre-resurrection ghost-life, adult salvation without belief or obedience of the gospel, and a thousand other modifications of foolishness, are all satisfactorily proved in the opinion of the carnal mind by mesmerism. The brain thinks mesmerically, so that in the absence of scriptural knowledge, it approves them all. Thus, great flaming revivalists, to whom the bible was more or less of an embarrassment, have become so illuminated by animal magnetism as to reject the scriptures altogether. Now, it is a notable fact, that while they have done this, they continue brawling advocates for the “immortal soul” of the flesh, and the “spirit-world” adapted to it. This is consistent enough, for the Bible gives no aid and comfort to immortal-soulism; so that by throwing it aside as of inferior authority to mesmerism, or of no authority at all, their position is strengthened in argument with those who argue against immortal-soulism on natural grounds. The only immortality the Bible reveals is immortality of a resurrection, or transformed, body. It promises this only to the saints of God, to qualify them for an endless possession of his kingdom. The Bible is therefore unencumbered with the foolishness of Mesmeric Theology. It teaches nothing that the flesh approves in relation to the world to come. This conviction relieves us of much lumber, and enables us to make short work of otherwise interminable logomachies.
Mesmerised theology seems to be preparing troublous times for the Campbellite Brotherhood, among the rest. For years past Mr. C. has been labouring in a certain direction, which the editor of the “Christian Magazine” appears determined to alter. Mr. C., I believe, holds to a hobgoblin hell, in which immortal-souls writhe and shriek in eternal torture. He regards this as a Bible truth, and quite consistent with the attributes of God! The “Magazine’s” theory is opposed to this. “Speculations,” says J. B. F., “as to the exact nature and duration of punishment are unwise, because neither is clearly revealed. The Spirit which dictated the Bible, seems to have intended that an indefiniteness should spread itself over the whole subject.”—M. H., p. 393. These few words, if received, tell with humbling effect upon my friend at Bethany. They tell him, in effect, that he has misconceived the whole matter; which is doubtless true, without adding an atom of credibility to the Magazine’s assumption. Mr. C. has been contending for “the exact nature and duration of punishment” for a long period; but his editorial brother in faith tells him that they are not revealed: therefore all he has been writing hitherto is mere speculation; and “speculations,” says the Magazine, “are unwise.” Well, I do admit that my friend has been a very unwise and even weak speculator in his time, upon a multitude of topics; but with all his wanderings and meanderings, it must be confessed that he is right in repudiating the notion of the “indefiniteness” of the whole subject of punishment. Though Mr. C. cannot define the nature and duration of the punishment revealed in the Bible, its definiteness is nevertheless exhibited there. But to understand the subject, the mission of the Christ must be understood; concerning this, however, Mr. C. and the Magazine are, both of them, in the dark—therefore neither of them can be expected to talk any thing very sensible in the case. In regard to them it can only be a question of relative erraticism—whether the old absurdity or the new one, be the more unscriptural!
“Heaven and hell are in our midst every day,” says the Magazine, as quoted by Mr. C., who regards the saying as no evidence of its editorial wisdom. But there is more truth than fiction in the conceit. The present world is the Sinner’s Heaven, and the Saint’s Hell; hence it is styled “an evil world.” If hell be a place of suffering, the Saints have certainly had it here for ages. God has chastened them; and the Sin Power, and all in whom Sin’s spirit reigns, have tormented and destroyed them with dreadful cruelty. While the present state has been the hell of the Saints, it has been a place of Paradise for their enemies. These have the glory, and honour, and power, and riches off the system, at their control. They possess fine farms, well stocked and tilled, and yielding abundance of wealth; splendid mansions; accomplished families, and all that heart can wish. It is the Sinners who possess these things in superfluity; and so much do they enjoy themselves, that they would hold on to them for ever if they could. This is all the heaven they will ever possess, unless they embrace the gospel of the kingdom, and devote their substance to the Lord, and become his stewards of the same. Heaven in this world or state, and heaven in the next, is an allotment granted to none of the sons of men who would partake of the joy of the Lord. Heaven now and hell hereafter; or Hell now and heaven in a future state, are the alternatives presented to mankind under times of knowledge. Who that understands ‘the word of the kingdom’ would prefer the Sinners’ Heaven to the Saints’? Or, who would not rather endure the past and present torments of the Saints in body and estate, than encounter the terrors of the Lord in the Sinner’s hell to come? It is better to pass from a terrestrial heavenly state, as the Saints will do; than to descend from the Sinner’s into a hell to be manifested in the territory of the Fourth Beast of Daniel, for the torment of the goat-nations and their rulers at the appearing of the Lord. A heaven and a hell, then, ‘are in our midst every day;’ but not the heaven of the Saints, nor the hell of the wicked. These have neither of them an existence yet; and can have none till the Lord comes, and literally turns the world upside down.
But the foolishness of the Magazine becomes flagrant in its notion of a ‘posthumous mission to the dead, (who have not before heard the gospel,) in order to translate them from a miserable prison to heaven.’ The ghosts, or disembodied immortal souls, of dead evangelists, I suppose, are to be sent to immortal miserable, or hellish spirits, in the spirit-world, to preach the gospel to them, to induce them to repent, and to exchange their misery for bliss! I do not find what sort of a gospel is to be preached in that mesmeric world; but I suppose the same sky-kingdomism, with spirit-baptism in spirit-water, for spirit-remission of fleshly sins, as contended for by the brotherhood to which the editor of the Christian Magazine belongs! Nearly all hell will doubtless be emptied in twenty-four hours, if the gates be wide enough for the out-rushing crowd, after the spirits of the missionaries arrive, preaching translation to heaven; nearly all, I say, for it is the vast majority alleged to be there, who have never heard of gospel truth.
A gentleman of Pittsburgh, rejoicing in the name of the Church, who constitutes himself ‘armour-bearer’ to my friend the Supervisor, writes concerning the Magazine’s ‘hallucination,’ in the following words: —‘I am truly sorry to see that bro. Ferguson has got a maggot in his brain’—the Caledonians say ‘a bee in his bonnet,’ which is decidedly more elegant. ‘This,’ he continues, ‘will destroy his usefulness and influence,’ that is, in propagating Campbellism; ‘and probably end in his becoming a wandering star, like Mr. Thomas. This figment of bro. Ferguson’s is, in my estimation, infinitely worse than Thomasism. If there be ‘a damnable heresy’ this is unquestionably one. I can see in it a perfect Pandora box. I regard the propagation of such a sentiment as the destruction of all that is vital in religion.’
Poor Mr. Church! What dost thou know of what thou callest ‘Thomasism!’ Many years ago thou didst see a few things from my pen when I was in fellowship with the darkness out of which thou hast not discovered star-light enough to wander for the last twenty years. Thou hast read all the foolishness palmed upon me by thy Supervisor; but of what I really believe and teach, thou art as ignorant as the ‘maggot’ in thy brother’s brain. Whatever it be, it seems there is something ‘infinitely worse’ than what constitutes me ‘a wandering star.’ But if thou knewest what I teach concerning thy religious system, I doubt if thou wouldst favour my supposed views with the admission of an infinite betterment compared with the ‘unquestionably damnable heresy’ before us. Thy religious system is without vitality, and can never live unless what thou dost ignorantly style ‘Thomasism,’ be infused into it, that is, ‘the gospel of the kingdom.’ The bee in thy brother’s bonnet can do the vitality of a corpse no harm. His religion is thy religion, and for all it can offer, a man who understands Moses and the Prophets, would not exchange a pinch of snuff.
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Since the above was written, the eighth number of the Magazine has come to hand. The editor declares that my friend C. has misrepresented him. I regret to be compelled to testify, from dear-brought experience, that he is quite capable of doing so. ‘There is not a statement,’ says the editor, ‘which he makes, with regard to our views, that is true.’ We doubt not but the Magazine knows its own sentiments best; and is quite competent to say if fairly represented or not. Mr. C. does not faithfully quote the scripture; therefore it is not to be expected he will do the fair thing by an opponent. This is a pity; for no end is promoted but evil. But I almost despair of teaching him better manners. Let the Magazine take him in hand, and see if it can make anything of him; may be he is not incorrigible.
The editor cries out for justice, sheer justice, as all he asks; but this, we opine, he’ll never get. We never could obtain it; and his heresy is pronounced to be ‘unquestionably damnable,’ and ‘infinitely worse than’ ours—being destructive of all vital religion. Mr. C. never acknowledges that he has committed, or is in the wrong.
The editor says, that the substance of the whole matter between him and his opponents is the utterance of ‘an opinion, that men who have not heard the gospel will hear it before they are condemned by it.’ By ‘men will hear it,’ I suppose he means disembodied immortal souls will hear it in prison, or hell, as he may define it. For this opinion there is not the shadow of a foundation in the Bible. It is absolutely true, that men who have not heard it will not be condemned by it. They are ‘condemned already’ by the Adamic sentence under which they are born—Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. From this sentence, nothing can deliver men but the gospel of the kingdom, faithfully obeyed in their present corporeal entity, in the times before Christ appears and shuts the door. Men are not held responsible under ‘times of ignorance;’ for ‘the ground of condemnation is that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light.’ This implies the offer of knowledge and its rejection. Where it has not been offered, there will be no resurrection to gospel-condemnation; this is reserved for those who sin against the light.
We are happy, from the evidence of the present number of the Magazine, to be able to acknowledge that we were mistaken in supposing, that the editor was a mere echo of our Bethanian friend. We have, however, still to complain of misrepresentation at his hands. But Mr. C. is repaying him in full for the measure he meted out to us. I have received no justice from the Magazine, and the Supervisor in return will grant him none. How admirably things work round in this crooked world of ours! “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.” So let it be!
EDITOR.
August 10, 1851.
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