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Pot-Pourri of Koreshan Science.
Random Notes from Various Lectures.
Change can only be made in the spiritual states; hence chemistry is false.—From lack of Koreshan education, a professed Koreshan may be confounded by a question, but never is he confounded because of any weakness of the science.—The sun symbolizes love and wisdom; the moon symbolizes good and truth.—We have space in the external world; we have quality in the spiritual world to correspond.—Gender is not more manifest in man than in every department of God's universe.—All activity is engendered through the relations of male and female elements originating somewhere as an adequate cause.—The Anglo-Saxon nation, which is feminine (the "mother country,") speaks of the sun as masculine; the German nation, which is masculine, (the "fatherland,") speaks of the sun as feminine.—The sun is the center of inflowing and outflowing energies. Its apex of convergence is feminine; its apex of divergence is masculine.—The moon is reflected upon a sea of hydrogen.—There are poles as related to space, and poles as related to qualitative change.—Koreshanity includes science and philosophy. It supposes a double origin of the human race—an origin in truth and an origin in fallacy, good from above and fallacy from beneath.—Knowledge culminates in the union of the spiritual and natural worlds. Jesus could teach both the spiritual and the natural worlds, because he was the conjunction or nexus of the two.—The fall of the church began in the Lord Christ, when his spirit was sown.—Every corpuscle produces three qualities of spirit.—The red corpuscles of the blood are buried in the spleen, to be resurrected in the duodenum as spiritual energy.—There is no real money in the world today, no money without the stamp of Caesar.—Love of money will continue so long as money is necessary.—The Greek root of the word money signifies to guard women. That guard, in modern times, is the marriage ceremony.—The commercial idea, in every domain, is the central idea of life. Gog (roof) signifies capital; Magog (floor) signifies labor.—There are ten beginnings of life,—ten principles of science which will restore man to the image and likeness of his Creator.—Originally man obtained in the form and function of God—he had the potencies and parts of God, who is a three-in-one Being.—Mortal man is a dying man. Man is dying through the misapplication of law.—Death is the result of the fall, and resurrection is not complete until death is overcome.—Christianity was the fruit of one month of the tree of life. Nineteen hundred years ago, we had the fruits of the spirit in Christ, also the perfection of the body.—A cycle of the zodiac produces the garden of Eden and the planting.—The first Adam was a living soul, a living breath (nephish means the breath of Deity), personated in the Lord Jesus. The second Adam was a quickening spirit, to make man like the first Adam.—God's animal nature descends into the sensual nature of humanity: this is the spirit of the beast which goeth down.—Jesus was the seed of the Father, not the seed of the woman; therefore he was the serpent's head, and the seed of the woman bruised him.
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CORRESPONDENCE.
Estero, (New Jerusalem,) February 22, 1894.
E. A. Graham: Dear Sister in Koresh:—I presume you are looking for a letter from me again, now that we are fairly located in our new quarters, so I commence this letter on Washington's birthday. The Prof, and myself have been digging sweet potatoes for the last four days, with the thermometer over 80 degrees in the shade, how does that compare with your howling blizzards? We rolled out some seventy bushels for home use. The potato patch is on Surveyor's Creek, S. W., about eleven miles from our camp on Estero Creek, where we found plenty of mosquitoes to annoy us. They troubled us greatly, and we were exceedingly glad when ready to return to our home, where freedom (comparative) reigned from such pests. The potato patch was only about one and one half miles from the Gulf coast, adjoining a "residenter" by the name of H. Danielson, who has lived there for eight years, on the last habitable place near the coast. He has a fine orange grove, lemons, dates, figs, bananas, etc., and gave us all the oranges and lemons we could eat. Bro. Gustave Damkbhler purchased two hundred fine ones at eighty cents per hundred, for home use. One tree had many fine lemons on it; he told us to pick them all and carry them home, which we did. The tree was in blossom for another crop. How does this compare with the cold waves of the North? I want no more of them.
The woods are full of beautiful flowers. Here we are harvesting our potatoes, gathering fruit, admiring the trees in bloom—with ripe fruit on them at the same time—and relishing our milk and honey, in one of the most delightful climates on the face of the globe. Ah! do not heave such a long sigh,—wishing you were here too. I certainly wish you were, and all the rest of the dear, loving ones at Beth-Ophrah. We are so happy and contented in our new home that we do not mind the work of pioneer life; in fact, we love it.
We rolled out great potatoes that weighed from three and one half to four and one half pounds each. Oh, such fine ones! Bro. Gustave took a load home, returning the next day with bread and honey, coffee, etc. You see, we have had experience at least. We set our hook and line at night in Surveyor's Creek; next morning hauled in a large catfish which, when dressed and parboiled, then fried, was relished greatly, with baked sweet potatoes. Danielson set his line, and the same morning caught a shark about three feet in length. They are not, however, the man-eating kind. He catches many of them, and uses them as fertilizer around his fruit trees. Such schools of jack fish as we saw in the creek, one to two feet in length; hundreds and hundreds of them! They are excellent eating. I hear Bro. Gustave's boy caught forty one day—since we have been down here—with hook and line; they are quite gamey. There are millions of them. What we do not need for immediate use, are salted for future use. Several wild deer have been seen at times by some of our party. Alfred saw a number of them one day, on his way to Ft. Myers.
On our way, some seven miles south from Estero Creek to Surveyor's Creek, we came to a plantation—fruit-trees of many varieties, a large lime grove, and lemon trees loaded with fine, large, ripe lemons. Here a man was dressing some large fresh water trout; I should judge they weighed from two to three pounds each. He said we could catch, in twenty minutes, all we wanted; they are very gamey. This is a wonderful country for fish of all kinds. Perhaps next May or June we will go with Bro. Gustave to the Gulf Coast for turtles, and gather eggs by the thousands—both turtle and sea fowl. We shall also get a few of the large turtles to bring here for home use. We want some that will tip the beam at from two hundred to six hundred pounds each.—That is the way to get your meat and barrel it up ready for use at any time.
This movement to Florida is one of the most wonderful, and will prove the most important of any move ever made in the history of the world. It would seem to be an important one in the establishment of God's kingdom in earth in accordance with the prayer of the Christ: "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Here are the most wonderful resources for great things; here man may utilize his greatest energies in the line of industries beneficial to humanity and to the upbuilding of the kingdom, where love to the neighbor may have full sway, where all may enjoy peace and love, for here seems to be an equitable adjustment of all things. Here, too, seem to be all the facilities for the building of a great city. A more propitious point would be hard to find for a city like that contemplated—"The New Jerusalem."
"Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel. * That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof. That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers. That saith of Cyrus, He is my Shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel."
This is our Leader, our High Priest. Oh what a glorious one to lead us safely through the wilderness.
"I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts. Thus saith the Lord, the laborer of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, surely God is in thee; and there is none else."
So you can readily see where the help will come from to build this wonderful city. How grand to be living in such a time as this, and to be among those preparing and making place for the city of our God! Surely the outlook from the present surroundings harmonizes completely with the prophecies. This is an important work, and an important time in which we live. Life and immortality are before us. I would that all were in this grand work. It is more than all the world beside; therefore, let us surrender all to God's all-conquering love, and the establishment of his kingdom in earth. The time has come when we must sacrifice our idols, whate'er they be, if we would become inheritors and possessors of the kingdom, for without holiness no one may see the Lord. He that overcometh shall possess the throne.
Sunday, February 25, has come—a beautiful day, such as most of the days have been since stepping on Florida soil. I fear our letters will almost make you homesick in thus speaking of our charming surroundings,—the equable climate, delicious fruits, elegant fish, superb free-stone water, beautiful flowers on every hand, from which the honey bee gathers the precious sweetness, and the fine stream or creek (sixty to seventy-five feet or more in width, fifteen feet deep,) with its ebb and flow of tides, so grand to sail upon or bathe in its electric, sparkling, phosphorescent fluid. The boys have great sport in swimming, diving, plunging, and spurting in the salt sea water like young whales, and this in February! It is like summer here, you see. Alligators, did you say? No fear of them. The fear is on the other side; the alligator gets out of the way. There were two of them, the other day, on the very bank that the girls use for going in and out of the water. Jacob killed one, and Joe thought he had the other, but it got away.
Our table is daily spread beneath the shade of the beautiful mango trees, now in bloom, near the house formerly occupied by Bro. Gustave. Here we are surrounded by other trees, such as bananas, limes, oranges, cocoanut, date, camphor, cabbage palmetto, and others. We enjoy our meals in picnic style, having oranges, lemonade, honey, milk (in can), bread, fish, sweet potatoes three times a day, rice, grits, and many other things—this all under the canopy of heaven. Ever since we have been here, it has been delightful, agreeable, and pleasant; not once have we been compelled to surrender on account of disagreeableness of the weather, or anything approaching it.
Since we came here, we have prepared the ground, grubbed and dug up roots—oak, palmetto, and other roots—by the ton, and planted seeds of various kinds which are now up and growing nicely. Melons are showing up finely. We shall plant every few weeks, and thus have melons the year round. Peas and beans are up, six to eight inches high, as well as sweet potatoes, corn, etc. Lela is learning the management of bees. She and Bro. Gustave commenced Saturday, the 24th, to extract honey. That day they got about seventy-five pounds of beautiful honey. There will be in the neighborhood of forty gallons to extract. From now on, every week throughout the season, they should take off from two to three hundred pounds; thus you see it is quite an industry. We now have twenty swarms.
We have had some rain storms, which have agreeably cooled the atmosphere, although through the day we generally have a nice sea breeze, which makes the atmosphere so soft, balmy, exhilarating, and refreshing, that it is a pleasure to inhale the gentle zephyrs of Florida. Catarrh and colds disappear as if by magic. One morning the thermometer was down to 54 degrees, and once to 44 degrees above zero; but that was soon after your terrible blizzard up North.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 7, No. 7 · Mar 31, 1894 · PDF pp. 9-10