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"Does a Glass Bring Back to View a Vessel That Has Gone Out of Sight?"
The Holy Ghost Then and Now.
Knowing no other use for a glass at sea except to bring back into view an object that has gone out of sight, or what amounts to the same thing, reveal one that has not yet come into sight, I never had any curiosity to test the fact; yet, at the request of a respected reader of THE SWORD, I took the pains to do so. Taking my station under the friendly shade of a clump of saw palmettos, I watched two sail vessels as they made their way along the west shore of Estero Island, and onward toward the entrance to Charlotte Harbor. One of them went on and on until, diminishing to a mere white speck, it finally disappeared from my field of vision. For some time I stood looking intently in the direction whence it disappeared; I then applied the glass, and saw it plainly. This was repeated several times with the same result; with my unaided eye, I could see no sail; with the glass, the familiar object still stood out before me.
While I was in the midst of these experiences two strangers, evidently visitors in the country, came strolling down the beach; one of them had the curiosity to ask me what I was doing. After explaining the circumstances, I asked him if he would like to look at the sail through the glass, and upon his answering in the affirmative, I handed it to him and showed him where to look for the vanished object. He said he saw the sail, and that it was black. I told him that the sail was white, but that there was a post in about the same direction, that presented a black appearance. Looking again, he said he saw the white sail. I asked him to observe it well, and then try if he could see it without the glass. After looking intently, he declared that he could see nothing of it.
That these results were obtained without the aid of a powerful glass, will be apparent when the reader learns that Captain Gilbert trained the same glass on the vessels as they passed our port, and remarked that if it was a strong glass he ought to be able to read the names on the vessels, but he could not. Taking everything into the account the test could scarcely have been more satisfactory.
When men get from under the prejudices of so called science that have bound them for ages, one of the marvels will be that they ever supposed that it required the intervention of the curve of the earth to hide from view an object which they plainly saw rapidly growing smaller as it receded from them. Such fact must inevitably take it out of view at no great distance, whatever the contour of the earth's surface. Whoever has stood upon a perfectly straight railroad track (as I have many times) and has seen the rear end of a departing train rapidly contract, up and down and sideways, until it became a mere speck and then disappear entirely, or has watched the course of a toy balloon, or one of the larger birds, or, mayhap, a balloon (presenting as much visual surface as a ship, and from its height capable of being seen farther) until it "melted away into the blue empyrean," and still believes that it requires the intervention of the earth's curve to take a receding object, however large, out of sight, is himself out of the reach of argument, and hopelessly daft on the subject of vision.
—O. F. L'Amoreaux.
Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. —Thoreau.
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The Catholic church especially (of all the so called Christian churches) claims to be the repository of the Holy Ghost, and to be influenced by the same power that actuated its recipients on the day of Pentecost. Others of her offspring, the various sects in Protestantism, also claim that, although its power may be dormant, there come seasons of great spiritual influx, when they claim to be moved by the Holy Ghost, and wonderful things transpire to prove its power in actuating and redeeming souls. To be sure there has been in the past, (in some of the revivals of religion, where a church has been indifferent,) some indications of a spiritual growth, and that in spite of the backslidings of many of their so called converts. But the whole effort has, in these days, degenerated into a veritable hypnotic exhibition of mind power over a people, which power is measured by the popularity of the speaker and his ability to arouse an emotional excitement which might better be directed into more useful channels.
Let us compare the results of the Holy Ghost when it was first manifested in the twelve disciples, diffusing from them into many on the day of Pentecost. Let us observe how it operated in the primitive church, as practiced by the first followers of the Lord, and ascertain if any in the succeeding times have ever really walked in paths of equity and righteousness, as did those early Christians. We read in Acts ii: 44, 45, as follows: "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." And again: "Neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the apostles' feet."
It was not a small number that had all things common; there were the one hundred and twenty disciples who met at Pentecost, and also the three thousand that were added. But to make it more explicit; all that believed so practiced. Before the seed (disseminated on that feast day) had begun to disintegrate and decay, according to the law of all growth, the early Fathers taught the ethics of socialism as a tenet of Christianity. St. Augustine thus admonishes: "Let your charity attend to this: it is because of private properties that law suits, hatreds, brawls, scandals, and sins arise. Blessed are they who so prepare a place for the Lord that they do not exult in their private place."
After transforming their lives in such manner, the Holy Spirit became more widely diffused and was sown broadcast upon all kinds of soil (as described in the parable), which soil means the various degrees of the minds of ordinary sinful humanity. Then this divine seed went down into darkness and decay, just as any seed does before it can begin, from its central life germ, the process of reproduction. So we can say that this precious seed of the kingdom, this Comforter which went forth from the very substance of the Lord's body, through the law of transmutation, was sown in humanity, "cast out into outer darkness," and through all these nearly nineteen hundred years has been transforming the minds of those who, like good soil and sunlight, could furnish nourishment for its growth.
How wonderfully simple yet marvelous this growth, and how clear when we realize the truth that the law of reproduction in the vegetable domain is carried over into the realm of reproduction in the thought world! How, then, can it be possible for a body of people to be what they claim—a "Holiness Band," or to be redeemed and fully converted by the Holy Spirit, when it has simply been subject to the laws of growth through its cycle? One might as well claim that a child is born when it is begotten, or at any time during the period of its gestation. To claim to be converted, then, is surely proof of the ignorance of truth.
Did not Jesus say to Peter: "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren"? He was then a believer and follower of the Lord, but could not be converted until, in the process of his development through various embodiments, the seed sown was ripened; then only could he really and truly strengthen his brethren with the Bread of Life.
Under the first impulse of the reception of the seed (the Holy Spirit) the Apostles performed wondrous works, and founded a church which practiced the Lord's teachings as it has not done since; for where do we find, among so called Christians, an exemplification of the communal life, and obedience to the command, "Love thy neighbor as thyself"?
"Come out of her, O my people"! is the command; for out of the darkness and fallacies of a worn-out and degenerate church, will come the truly aspiring ones in expectation of that final quickening which, through the office of the Messenger of the Covenant, will resurrect us into immortal life. Then will be manifest the perfect biune or virginal beings—God's own temple, like unto the first perfect seed, the God-Man and the Man-God—Jesus Christ, whose descent into humanity will produce a glorious harvest of many sons of God.
—M. E. K.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 10, No. 4 · Apr 1896 · PDF pp. 19-20