A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer.

  • Farmer, John S.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    adoption of idolatrisus and debasing sentiments, and their faith was constantly being undermined, and many times was totally subverted. The prohibition, therefore, in every light was a necessary one, a—care for the integrity of the faith of the nation, and for the existence of the ration itself, demanded it, and it was eminently proper; but it is evident that communication with the spirit-world, when directed by what was then considered enlightened judgment, was not condemned. ‘•Throughout the Bible, whei-ever witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy, &c., are spoken of, it is in the spirit of entire confidence in their reality as powers, and in harmony with the universal belief of the times, and the denunciations of the practice of these ai-ts were always levelled against it as a practice of real arts, and not against any pretensions to certain assumed powers which did not exist. “So with false prophets, they were perhaps as numerous as the true, and throughout Biblical history, wherever we find true prophets we also find the false, and they were often the subjects not alone of denunciatio?'', but of the punishment of death, and nowhere in the Scriptures, neither in the Old or New Testaments, is supermundane agency denied them, for the language used in regard to them is: ‘ The. Lord sent a lying spirit ’ to speak through them; or as it was with {Saul; ‘but the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.’ “If the propriety and necessity of the Levitical laws against witches, and false gods, or evil spirits, are mantained, then it must be admitted that they did exist, and if they existed then they must exist now, for the s.ame natural laws that governed then govern now, and there is not in the Bible a syllable which can be construed into an intimation that they should cease to exist. Orthodoxy claims that all the malevolent agencies, such as Satan and the evil spirits that act as. his instruments, are still in active existence, and surely in the olden, time they found no more efficient rneans through which to speak than sorcerers and witches, and these still exist, and all Biblical evidence and analogical reasoning tend to show that these agencies should still exist. “ When we regard witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries—its claims to the same paternity as the witchcraft of the Bible, the evils that flowed from it directly and indirectly—I believe we must allow that evil spirits were at its helm during its reign in Europe, as they were during its sway with the Israelites. If from the identity of character, and from the marked similarity of the witches with those of the Bil)le, it be evident and admitted that they were of the same stock, and that diabolical or low spirit agency Was concerned in the occurrences at both periods, then it follows that evil or dark spirits do exist, and they do manifest through witches and others, and the truth of spirit intercourse, though in a hideous form, is undeniable. If this again be admitted, I would ask if evil spirits can com- municate with men through depraved and corrupt mediums, why c.annot elevated spirits communicate through moral and virtuous, mediums ? Is it that the spirits from Hades have a larger liberty aiidi possess greater power, than the spirits or angels from lira von