Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

sation of the fullness of the times, a deliverance from disease and death as well as sin. It will be recollected, that these are alledged to be the direct works of the devil. When therefore, the blessings of redemp tion shall be fully enjoyed, and believers are wholly rescued from his power, they will obtain complete freedom from disease and death. This dispensation we are to understand, has begun at Putney, and the brethren there are already enjoying the promised deliverance. We give Mr. N.'s statement in respect to it, from the Spiritual Magazine' of October last.

[ocr errors]

The Association, or church of Perfectionists in this town, was established in 1838. This body of persons has been from the beginning, withdrawing more and more from confidence in the medical systems of the world, and relying more and more on the power of God. The physicians of the town have had but a very little practice among them. Their diseases, in most cases, have been treated on the principles of the faith practice. The fact to be noted is that not a single death has occurred among them. During the same nine years, the average population of the town has been about 1400, and the average number of deaths about 24 annually, or 216 in all. We have paid no part of this tax to the king of terrors, though our due proportion would have been six or seven deaths.*

[ocr errors]

The fact we have stated is not to be attributed to our freedom from sickness. We have had a reasonable share of diseases, both chronic and acute. But they have been controlled, as we believe, by the power of God; certainly not by the power of medicine. Instances of recov ery by faith among us have been very numerous. We will present a few samples

of them.

"My own case deserves to be recorded. The facts are these. In consequence of long and loud speaking, and the wear and tear of a laborious life, I contracted in 1842 a disease of the throat and lungs, which deprived me of the use of my voice in public, and rendered ordinary conversation painful. I was evidently threatened with the consumption.

At

Mr. N. adds, however, in a note; 'Some of the Perfectionists have lost small children-five or six in all, during nine years; but these cases do not probably belong to the account, because we are speaking only of believers.'

first, I listened to friends and physicians, so far as to make some slight experiments of medication, but I obtained no help in this way, and finally, in the face of Dr. John Campbell's warning and advice, I gave up my case to the sole treatment of Jesus Christ. I grew worse till Sept., 1845, and at that time, had abundant external reason to expect a speedy death. When the symptoms were at the worst, Jesus Christ advised me to neglect my disease and act as though I was well. I did so, and entered upon a course of new and severe labor with my voice, in meetings and in conversation. From that time I

have been substantially well, and have performed more hard labor with my tongue, in the last two years, than in any other two years of my life.

"The case of Mrs. Fanny Leonard is well known in this community. About a year ago, after the birth of a child, she began to decline. The symptoms of her disease were severe pain in her breast She and side, and sinking weakness. became worse, till her friends had little hope of her recovery. In March, of the present year, a general persuasion manifested itself in our Association, that she would be healed by the power of God. As that persuasion arose, she still sunk. At length, the crisis of faith and of her She received disease, came together. strength at the very time when our faith predicted it, and she received it by the laying on of hands. She has been visibly improving ever since, and is now a healthy woman.

"The case of Mrs. M. E. Cragin may be briefly referred to here. From the period of her sixteenth year till the past summer, she has been subject to frequent attacks of the sick headache.' The disease increased upon her, till its visits were expected regularly, as often as once a week.

Many attempts were made to subdue it by medicines, but nothing availed. In May last, it became constant and terribly distressing. Death seemed inevitable. We resisted the disease as a spiritual power, not by medicine, but by the faith and will of our hearts. The devil was cast out of her stomach, and she has not had an attack of the sick headache' since.

"John R. Miller has long been subject to severe attacks of headache. On one of these occasions, in the course of the last summer, I went into his room and found him on the bed, suffering dreadfully. I laid my hand on his head and told him to shake off the devil. He arose at once, perfectly free from pain, and has not been troubled with this disease since."

But the most remarkable instance of healing was affected in the case of a Mrs. Hall. Mr. N. pronounces

[ocr errors]

it as unimpeachable as any of the miracles of the primitive church!' From her own account of her state her diseases were literally legion.' Dropsy, a serious affection of the spine, a liver complaint, breathing very difficult, night sweats, hectic fever, a dreadful cough, a terrible pressure on her brain, and total blindness, are comprised in the fearful catalogue. Mr. Noyes commenced experimenting upon her in animal magnetism, in consequence of which, as she says, she began to recover. Subsequently, she lost her confidence in him, married an infidel, sunk into unbelief, and her diseases returned with greater violence than ever, accompanied by 'ulceration of the kidneys.' But this defection from the faith was only temporary. Mr. N. was invited to visit her again, and did so; -the result of which we give in his own words.

"After Mrs. Hall returned to our fellowship, I began to have a strong impression that the first signal manifestation of healing power would be in her case. The fact that she had come under my care several years ago, and a cure had been commenced, which had been defeated for the time by evil powers, seemed a pledge of a complete work yet to come. Her connection with an infidel husband and an infidel father, made her case just such an one as we might suppose God would choose, if he wished to strike a death blow at unbelief. From the time when she invited me to visit her, I felt myself challenged to a public contest with death. I made up my mind not to go to her till I could go in the fullness of faith; and I had an assurance that my dealings with her, at this time would not be like those of the former trial, but altogether more swift and decisive.

"Mrs. Cragin's case was yet upon my hands. Her enemies, though often routed, yet persecuted her from time to time, and I found at last, that the traitor who let them in was a subtle spirit of unbelief. It became evident to me that a decisive and final victory over unbelief was essential to a permanent victory over disease of any kind, forasmuch as unbelief is the protecting cover of all subordinate powers of evil. It also became evident that I could not reasonably expect to carry victory over unbelief abroad, till I had obtained it at home. This then was the

burden that lay upon my heart, viz. Į must lift Mrs. Cragin out of the grave of unbelief before I can hope to be able to raise Mrs. Hall. Under this burden I labored about a week. Faith was the subject of constant investigation in our June) the contest with unbelief came to meetings. On Monday (the 21st of its crisis, in the case of Mrs. Cragin. In the evening meeting she testified her assurance that Christ had saved her for ever morning I saw that all was ready for a from the unbelieving spirit. The next

movement towards Mrs. Hall. Her sister was at my house and wished to be carried home. I and Mrs. Cragin went with her.

"The first half hour of our visit to Mrs. H. was spent in general discourse on the subject of faith. When I had finished what I had to say, I called on Mrs. Cragin to speak. She commenced but had not proceeded far, when she began to be pale and faint. I took her by the hand and supported her as she sank into death. I said to her several times, in a loud voice, Look at me.' She heard me not. Her eyes were open, but fixed and glassy, like a dead person's. I carried my head forward, till my eye was in range with the direction of hers. At that moment there was a glimmer of recognition in her eye. I smiled, and she replied by a smile. Immediately, the deadly spell passed away, and Mrs. C. emerged with angelic life and beauty. (!) This scene was afterward repeated in a milder way.

"When these transactions were finished, Mrs. C. and I placed ourselves in more immediate communication with Mrs. Hall, by taking hold of her hands. I perceived that the power of unbelief was broken. Mrs. Hall declared with emphasis that she felt something good' taking place in herself, while Mrs. Cragin was dying. Up to this time, I had no very definite idea of what was to be done for Mrs. H. The way seemed to be open for her release, but the cir cumstances in which I found myself were new, and I shrunk from anything like over-boldness, or experimenting. thought and spoke of returning home, and yet it seemed to me that she ought to go with me. On the whole, I could not leave her so.

"At length, as I walked the floor, meditating on new things, an omnipotent will began to infuse itself into my consciousness. I said in my heart, with the freedom which goes with the power of realization- God shall have his own way in this matter.' Soon after this the way was naturally and easily opened for me to call her forth from her prison, and I did it with full consciousness of the cooperation and authority of God. After

[blocks in formation]

"This event took place about two weeks ago. I have never doubted since that I was healed instantaneously by the power of God. I can honestly say, that whereas for eight years, I have been a miserable, bed-rid, half dead victim of disease, I am now well.”—Spiritual Magazine, July, 1847.

Such, then, is Perfectionism ;not the half-way doctrine of Wesleyanism or Oberlinism, but the system carried out to its full develop ment, both in faith and practice. A glance at the sketch of it now given, will show it to be a curious mixture of almost all the speculative vagaries new and old which have in different ages been published to the world;-a sort of theological olla podrida, in which, besides some shreds of sense and truth, are mingled Materialism, Swedenborgianism, Manicheism, Antinomianism, Transcendentalism, Bushism, Fourierism, and 'come-outism,' stewed in the 'spiritual fluid' of Animal Magnetism, and served out by John H. Noyes in the commons of the Association in Putney, Vt. We have no marvel that they who are accustomed to feed on such fare, should, like the aforesaid Mrs. Cragin, be distressed with frequent at tacks of sick headache,' and need more than once to have 'the devil cast out of their stomachs !'

We regret to have occupied so much space with a topic which may, perhaps, be regarded as unworthy of the notoriety we are giving it. Yet when we remember the career of Millerism and Mormonism, still so recent, to say nothing of the early history of Perfectionism itself, in Connecticut, we are compelled to own that nothing is insignificant, which affects the faith and conduct of mankind in the momentous conVOL. VI.

25

cerns of eternity. Nothing is too absurd to be believed by somebody, or, when sufficiently excited by fanaticism, to force its way like a moral tornado, through all our churches. And in view of the notoriety which the so-called sciences of phrenology and animal magnetism are obtaining at this day, we should not wonder if Perfectionism, of the sort before us, of which the latter is the very life and soul, should again break forth upon the churches with still greater resources of mischief, and more deplorable success than before.

It is not that we are in any measure inimical to the object, at which this and kindred systems profess to aim, that we thus speak. We say God speed to aught that will truly elevate the standard of piety among professing Christians. But it is because, in our view, all the tendencies of such a system as this are destructive of that end, that we would expose it. The human mind is prone to extremes. Disgusted and repelled by such a crude mixture of error and mysticism, and such extravagant pretensions in its advocates, men go as far the other way, and suppose that the duty of perfect holiness, is as much a chimera as its professed attainment. This is surely an evil, great and deplorable. In this age of the church, she can not afford any relaxation of motives, urging to the most eminent spiritual attainments. The providence of God in the world, her own internal wants, and the commands of Christ in his word, all join in urging her to a higher standard than she has ever hitherto reached. Without it, the day of the world's conversion must remain distant. Without it, the true power and excellence of Christianity can not be exemplified. Without it, irreligion and infidelity on the one hand, and error and fanaticism on the other, will never be vanquished. While then, our confession, with that of Paul, should ever be, in penitent

humility, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect," we should still recognize its obligation and say, " But this one thing I do ;-forgetting those things

which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 1 press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

RELIGIOUS TOLERATION.

It is only within these two or three hundred years that Religious Toleration has had any place among the wants or aims of the Christian world. The development of such a want the rise and growth of such a doctrine-and the broader and more spiritual field in which it is yet to find application, are topics of the deepest religious and philosophical interest.

For many ages the current doctrine and practice had been, to adopt as a standard certain prevalent formulas of faith and worship, and to require, in the name of all power, spiritual and temporal, absolute and universal conformity to these, on peril of penalties in such case provided. Hence, the very names of that crime of holding any other than the established doctrine-heterodoxy, another opinion; heresy, aigeois, a choice, of course a variation; as if to exercise a choice, when the truth is all ascertained and propounded by authority, were manifestly a crime! For is not the truth one? And are not men bound to receive and hold it, and not something else than it? An orthodoxy being established, any other doc trine is evidently a heterodoxy; a choice is a heresy, and can not be tolerated. God having made things and truths in a certain way, and all these being mapped out definitely by authority, even as He has established them, by what right shall any man depart from that? By what right shall any man be allowed to depart from that? Shall not all powers whatsoever concern them

selves in this highest matter? For is it a thing of indifference whether a man hold the truth? Verily, it is of the greatest possible difference

for holding the truth, he shall be saved; not holding that, but choosing, he shall not be saved. There fore, let church and state join hands to save all souls. Here is the truth: hold men to that, as you would hold them from perdition. If they choose they will differ; and if they differ, they will be damned.

This was the prevalent theory through the ages which constitute, in more than one sense, the middle passage of Roman Christianity. But it could not hold when the thick darkness was rolled off from the world. And even then it would not wholly yield, nor admit at once any considerable modification. It might be expected even to show its full deformity and put forth its worst workings, only when its quiet hold on the world should begin to be shaken. Till then it rested for the most part unprovoked, in the peace. ful consciousness of being always, everywhere, and by all admitted. Accordingly the age of cruelty and blood, the era of the stake and the rack, is found intervening between the old reign of darkness deep enough to secure quiet uniformity, and the period of so much light as rendered diversity incurable by burning. While as yet the human mind was unemancipated, and thought had not yet begun to work on religion, it cost little expense of blood, little infliction of any kind to secure uniformity of faith and

worship. Now and then a Wicliffe must be crushed; but one example sufficed for an age to quell all heresies, all choosings. But when the flood of light poured over the world in the 16th century, light in some such measure as to match the copious darkness, then came the struggle. The strong man armed kept the house, and the stronger strove to enter. The demon must needs rend his victim in the leaving. Hence it is in the transition period that we find the full fruits of the ancient doctrine in the horrors of persecution.

And in this was given one of the most needful and salutary lessons of the Reformation. Somewhere in the times we needed a demonstration of the real purport and capabilities of the no-toleration doctrine, the besetting vice of all religions; and the martyr-age of the Reformation gave it, so that it will be ever memorable to the world. By that very demonstration, in part, it has become impossible, we may hope, ever again to establish in its fullness a doctrine so odious and malignant.

This transition period is marked by another curious feature. The light seems to have been, for a long time, almost solely objective in its operation. It shone on things, and not in men. It revealed more clearly than ever before what ought to be believed what was truth, what error; but it slowly penetrated the souls of men, to enlighten them as to the nature of religious belief and the rights of conscience. Accordingly the sons of light go forth in the great battle of the Reformation with the same weapons, for a time, with the children of darkness. They, too, will make men hold the truth with them, too, no choosings shall be allowed-no heresies. The great difference, too long, was only this: The things, nine and thirty in number, more or less, which Protestants would force upon the consciences of men, were by God's favor, not

far from truths-and the others would force men to believe even a greater number of lies. No spirit ual franchise was yet anywhere recognized. The right to inquire, examine, prove anything and then reject or believe-the right to choose at all what a man would believe, and how he would embody his be lief in worship to God-was long equally an offense to Papist and Protestant.

Thus far, no approach had been made, or as yet seemed probable, toward freedom in religion. Abso. lutisin was simply passing from Ro. mish into Protestant hands, modified, but in no essential changed. In England, mere state-churchism was apparently coming forth as the only product of the Reformation. Had this been all, the world would in. deed have gained something; but the idea of religious freedom would have found no development. The Protestant state-church, which was the first result of the struggle, insisted still on the right and the pow. er to enforce religious uniformity, and was not a whit behind the old school in which it was bred, in denouncing private judgment and individual choice in religion-equally claiming with Romanism itself, a sovereign authority over all consciences, an absolute dictatorship in all matters of faith and forms. And such the church of England remains to this day in its theory-happily impotent to realize that theory, and able to do after its kind only far enough to serve the new ages with a live specimen of the old spiritlike some polar monster drifting far down into softer latitudes on a field of ice, cold to the last, yet melting as it goes.

But how different had this been, if no third element had had place in the great experiment! Such an ele ment God did not suffer to be wanting. Almost simultaneously with the birth of English Protestantism, Puritanism appeared; and the ma

« AnteriorContinuar »