HAD LAID HIS HANDS UPON HIM. In modern language, we should say-Joshua was rendered prematurely and permanently intellectual in consequence of being properly magnetized by Moses.

Hippocrates says "there exists a singular property in the human hand to pull and draw away pains, aches, and diverse impurities, from the affected parts, by laying the hand upon the place, and extending the fingers toward it."

Solon says

"The smallest hurts sometimes increase and rage,

More than the art of physic can assuage;

Sometimes the fury of the worst disease,

The hand by gentle stroking can appease."

If you will turn to the 1st Kings, i. 1—4 verses, you will discover that the principle of psycho-sympathetic contact was acted upon by the physicians of king David—seemingly, with the express intention to restore the vigor and animal heat to the body of the revered monarch. I could quote numerous paragraphs from the sacred writings of other nations, to show how familiar some persons have been, in the most ancient stages of humanity's growth, with the incipient processes of magnetism, and with some of the common exhibitions of clairvoyance. But the subjects of these inental powers were superstitiously supposed to be divinely inspired. Hence they were almost invariably deified and worshiped. All religious chieftains have been thus unnaturally regarded; and truth has thus frequently been obscured beneath the superstitious garments of deification. This was the case with Moses, and Jesus, and Mohammed, and every man, in fact, who ever was sufficiently clairvoyant to read the thoughts of another, or to find any thing which was hidden from the superficial gaze of the bodily senses. description, or degree, of clairvoyance is the common possession of many minds, and is familiarly exhibited in all parts of the inhabited world; and yet, for the exercise of the same identical power, Jesus

This

has been deified into a supernatural personage, and is worshiped as the representation of the eternal God,-endowed with prophetic and miraculous powers. But the age of deification is rapidly expiring, and personal excellence will supply its place!

Did you ever, friends, take your Bible and read, and without any unnatural or exaggerated reverence, the simple accounts of clairvoyance, as that power was frequently manifested by Jesus during his three years' labor for humanity? If you never have read it thus, I trust you will soon be able to do so. Read, for example, the first part of the fifth chapter of Luke; how Jesus told Simon to cast his net, who complained that he and his partners had "toiled all the night” and had “taken nothing." But Jesus, perceiving where the fish were then swimming, said "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." By following his directions implicitly, "they inclosed a great multitude of fishes;" so large a quantity that their net was broken. Now, this is an example of good ordinary clairvoyance.

But again, turn to the fourth chapter of John; where it is related how Jesus was joined at Jacob's well by the woman of Samaria. And after some very highly correspondential conversation with her which she did not understand, he thought he would convince her that he knew more concerning truth than she believed. Hence he said unto her, "Go, call thy husband, and come hither." But she was skeptical, and said, in order to test his powers, “I have no husband." Thou hast well said, "I have no husband," said he; "for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband." This astonished her very much, and she saidsaid-“Sir, I perceive thou art a prophet." Now, it does not appear that Jesus gave her any other personal evidence of his spontaneous clairvoyance; but it is distinctly clear that her ungovernable enthusiasm, in consequence of being thus unexpectedly convinced, was so strong that she went about telling her exaggerated story-saying, "Come, see

a man which TOLD ME ALL THINGS THAT EVER I DID"-from the simple fact, which has frequently occurred in our midst, that one mind perceived, sympathetically, the thoughts of another! It is good to fix this idea in your minds-that the woman did not tell the truth. She said he told her "all things" that she " ever did;" whilst, from John's relation, we learn that he simply told her about the five husbands,—all the remainder of his conversation being expressly of a correspondential and prophetic nature. And yet it seems that "he that believeth shall be saved;" notwithstanding much belief was the direct offspring of the exaggerated testimony of men and women who witnessed the occasional manifestations of magnetism, as a curative agent, and of clairvoyance, as a power of discerning thoughts, future events, and hidden things. Thus, in the thirty-ninth verse of the same chapter, we read, that many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did."

Another good instance of sympathetic clairvoyance is related of Jesus. In the fifty-second verse, a nobleman was convinced, together with his whole family, that Jesus was "the Saviour of the world," by his simply informing the nobleman that his son was still living, and that the fever had left him the day before, "at the seventh hour." It appears, also, from John's record, that Jesus said to those who surrounded him-" One of you shall betray me;" and to convince Peter that he perceived correctly, said—“He it is to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it"-this he gave "to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon," and subsequent events demonstrated the fact that Jesus did read Judas correctly. In the same chapter, Jesus gave evidence that he understood very nearly when and how he was to die. This power of prophetic sympathetic discernment of future events is possessed by many individuals; and I find interesting demonstrations of its exercise among all nationsespecially, among gifted and talented leaders of great political or

religious movements. The Swedish philosopher, Baron Swedenborg, discerned the time and manner of his own death, and expired at the precise time predicted. The celebrated Dr. Walker, of Dublin, foresaw when he was to die, and also that he would be certainly buried alive, which was subsequently verified by examining his body a few days after interment. Dr. Binns concludes his narration of this case thus-"Here is a man who possessed an instinctive knowledge that he should be buried alive, and who was so convinced of it, that he wrote a treatise, with a view, if possible, to avert so horrid a calamity; and still further to assure himself, entered into a compact with a second party, for the fulfillment of certain precautions. before he should be consigned to earth, yet, disappointed in the end, he was, as it were, compelled to bow to the inscrutable fiat of that law of natural contingencies which the imaginative Greeks erected into supertheism, and consecrated by the tremendous name of Destiny."

In reading the Primitive History, why are we not as reasonable and consistent in our deductions as we generally are in the perusal of other writings? When we read of the manifestations of modern clairvoyance; when we hear of the correct reading of thought, or of disease, or witness the constant fulfillment of common prophecies; why do we put it down sometimes as "deception," "imagination," or "unaccountable instinctive knowledge ?"—Whilst, when we read the descriptions of the same mental sympathy, and of powers of psychometrical discernment, in the pages of the Old or New Testament, we put it down to the direct influence of the Holy Ghost, or to "the miraculous interposition of God?" If you will analyze your own minds, you will receive the proper answer to these questions. Habits of thought-first impressions-prevailing custom-popular theology-existing methods of education, by which your minds have been unconsciously molded; these are the unequivocal answers. But it may be urged that modern manifestations of mind can not

be depended upon, in all cases, with regard to the fulfillment of prophecies, as the Bible prophecies can be relied on--the latter always being correctly fulfilled. Hence, that we can not make the Bible miracles harmonize with recent disclosures in magnetism and psychosympathetic clairvoyance. In reply to this, I will here promise to furnish, from the great storehouse of modern developments in mind. and science, to any individual who will undertake to institute a biblical comparison, miracle for miracle, testimony for testimony, prophecy for prophecy, mistake for mistake, fulfillment for fulfillment; and show that we have as much, yea more, reason and incontrovertible philosophy for believing modern developments to be "miraculous" and "divinely instituted," than the advocates of supernaturalism have for believing their prophets to have been "divinely inspired" of God.

In order to convince you that the clairvoyance of the Old Testament authors was not always good and reliable-being sometimes. merely the result of psycho-sympathy, as already explained—I am impressed to remind you of a few facts in illustration. About two thousand four hundred years ago, Ezekiel prophesied (see twentyninth chapter, 10--12) for the Lord, as he supposed, in this wise—“I will make the land of Egypt waste and desolate; no foot of man nor beast shall pass through it; neither shall it be inhabited forty years." This prophecy has never been fulfilled. Again (see Ezekiel xxxvii. 22,) "I will make them ONE nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all." And Joel says, in his third chapter and twentieth verse, “Judah shall dwell forever; and Jerusalem from generation to generation." These passages, and many others might be cited, to demonstrate the conspicuous fact, that hundreds of common prophecies, uttered or written by the Old or New Testament authors, have never been even partially fulfilled. These prophecies will not admit of any figurative or correspondential interpretation :