Visions of heaven and hell

Preface

■" He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance." — Numb. 24 4. " But while they made ready, he fell into a trance, And saw Heaven opened. " — Acts 10:10,11. " Even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance; And saw Him (Jesus) saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem : for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me." — Acts 22:17,18.

It is certainly not contrary to revealed truth, as found in the Word of God, or to history, or to instances personally known, to believe that the Lord has seen fit to deal with His people, at times, through visions. The three quotations above, referring to Balaam, Peter, and Paul amply prove this, while the visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and other prophets, as well as those of John the Revelator, demonstrate beyond a doubt, God's manifestations in this particular.

What the inspiring cause of the experiences related in this book was, is a matter we cannot determine for the reader. But we are inclined to believe that what these people claim to have seen and heard was revealed to their inner or spirit consciousness by God, or by other spirit or angelic intelligences from a sphere higher than that of Earth. All who read these accounts with candor must be deeply impressed with their solemnity.

What a hallowed, quickening influence comes to the soul while perusing the narrators' testimony of what they saw and heard of the beauties of Heaven and its happy, glorious inhabitants, and what sadness and awe fall upon the heart when reading of the terrors of Hell and the anguish of the unfortunates consigned to its gloom.

4 PREFACE.

Some of these accounts have been considerably condensed by omitting portions, without using asterisks where matter was left out; otherwise they could not have been crowded into a work of this size. The visions of six different persons are given, that of three men and three women, living in widely separated parts of the World, and at widely different periods of time. The similarity of the testimony of these six different people as to what they saw and heard is singular and impressive, and would seem to be a proof of the reality and truthfulness of the visions.

Several other similar experiences could have been added. John Wesley, in his Journal of August, 1746, vol. 1, and also in his Journal of August, 1759, gives an account of people under his own observation (evidently among his own flock) who had visions of Heaven and Hell. In describing the appearance of one of these persons- while in the trance state, Wesley says: the " face showed an unspeakable mixture of reverence and love. I do not know whether I ever saw a human face look so beautiful. "

WILLIAM TENNENT'S VISION.

The Life of William Tennent (Presbyterian minister) from which this account is taken, was published by Robert Carter & Bros., New York. The author of the memoirs gives the following account of Tennent having been three days in a trance : He became prostrated with a fever, and by degrees sunk under it, until, to appearances, he died. In laying him out, one felt a slight tremor under the left arm, though the body was cold and stiff. The time for the funeral arrived, and the people were assembled. But a physician, Tennent's friend, plead that the funeral might be delayed.

During the interval various efforts were made to discover signs of life, but none appeared save the slight tremor. For three days and nights his friend, the physician, never left him. Again the people met to bury him, but could not even then obtain the doctor's consent. For one hour more he plead ; when that was gone, he craved half an hour more. That being expired, he implored a stay of fifteen minutes, at the expiration of which Tennent opened his eyes.

The following brief account is given in Mr. Tennent's own language, and was related to a brother minister : " As to dying, I found my fever increase, and I became weaker and weaker, until all at once I found myself in Heaven, as I thought. I saw no shape as to the Deity, but glory all unutterable. I can say as Paul did, I heard and saw things unutterable. I saw a great multitude before His glory, apparently in the height, of bliss, singing most melodiously. I was transported with my own situation, viewing all my troubles ended, and my rest and glory begun, and was about to join the great and happy multitude, when one came to me, looked me full in the face, laid his hand on my shoulder, and said, ' You must go back.' "

O VISIONS OF HEAVEN AND HELL.

" These words went through me ; nothing could have shocked me more. I cried out, ' Lord, must I go back V With this shock, I opened my eyes in this World. When I saw I was in this World I fainted, then came to, and fainted again several times, as one probably would naturally have done in so weak a situation."

" For three years the sense of divine things continued so great, and everything else appeared so completely vain, when compared to Heaven, that, could I have had the World for stooping down for it, I believe I should not have thought of doing it."

To the writer of his memoirs, Mr. Tennent, concerning this experience, once said : " I found myself, in an instant, in another state of existence, under the direction of a superior being, who ordered me to follow him. I was accordingly wafted along, I know not how, till I beheld, at a distance, an ineffable glory, the impression of which, on my mind, it is impossible to communicate to mortal man."

" Such was the effect on my mind of what I had seen and heard that, if it be possible for a human being to live entirely above the world, and the things of it, for sometime afterward, I was that person. The ravishing sounds of the songs and hallelujahs that I heard, and the very words that were uttered, were not out of my ears when awake for at least three years. All the kingdoms of the Earth were, in my sight, as nothing and vanity. So great were my ideas of heavenly glory that nothing which did not in some measure relate to it could command my serious attention."

Mr. Tennent lived a number of years after this event, and died in the triumphs of a living faith, March 8, 1777, aged seventy-one years, his mortal remains being interred at his chapel in Freehold, New Jersey. He was an able, faithful preacher, and the divine presence with him was frequently manifested in his public and private ministrations. In personal appearance he was tall, erect, and of spare visage, with bright, piercing eyes, and grave, solemn countenance.

MISS D— 'S VISION.

The following account was related and vouched for by Robert Young, the missionary. It was published in 1841, and later by different publishers : While residing in a British colony as a Christian missionary, I was

called one evening to visit Miss D , who was said

to be dying, Mrs. Young, by whom she was met weekly for religious instruction, feeling a deep interest in her spiritual welfare, accompanied me to her residence. We found her in the chamber of a neat little cottage, exceedingly ill, but confiding in the merits of Jesus, and, after spending some time with her in coiir versation and prayer, we commended her to God, and took our departure, without the least hope of seeing her again in this life. Soon after we left she seemed to die, but as the usual signs of death, which so rapidly develop themselves in that country, did not appear, her friends anxiously waited to see the end.

She was watched with great interest both night and day, and, after having been in this state for nearly a

week, opened her eyes and said, " Mr. C is dead."

Her attendants, thinking that she was under the influence of delirium, replied that she was mistaken, as he was not only alive but well. " O, no !" said she, " he is dead ; for a short time ago, as

I PASSED THE GATES OF HELL,

I saw him descend into the pit, and the blue flame cover

him. Mr. B is also dead, for he arrived at Heaven

just as I was leaving that happy place; and I saw its beautiful gates thrown wide open to receive him, and heard the host of Heaven shout, ' Welcome, weary pilgrim !' "

Mr. C was a neighbor, but a very wicked person, and Mr. B , who lived at no great distance,

many years had been a member of the Church of God. The parties who heard Miss D 's startling and confident statements immediately sent to make inquiries about the two individuals alluded to, and found, to their utter astonishment, that the former had dropped down dead about half an hour before whilst in the act t)f tying his shoe; and that about the same time the latter had suddenly passed into the Eternal World. For the truth of these facts I do solemnly vouch.

She then went on to tell them where she had been, and what she had seen and heard. After being sufficiently recovered to leave the house, she paid us a visit, and Mrs. Young, as well as myself, heard from her own lips the following account of what she had passed through. She informed us that at the time she was supposed to 'die, a celestial being conducted her into the invisible world, and mysteriously unveiled to her the realities of Eternity. He took her first to Heaven, which she represented as infinitely exceeding in beauty and splendor the most elevated conceptions of mortals, and whose glories no language could describe.

She told us that she beheld the Saviour upon a throne of light and glory, surrounded by the four-andtwenty elders, and a great multitude, which no man could number, among whom she recognized patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and all the missionaries who had died in that colony, besides many others whom she mentioned, and, although those parties were not named by the angel that attended her, yet she said that seeing them was to know them.

She described these celestial spirits as being variously employed, and, although she felt herself inadequate to convey any definite idea of the nature of that employment, yet it appeared to be adapted to their respective mental tastes and spiritual attainments. She also informed us that she heard sweet and most enrapturing music, such as she had never heard before, and made several attempts to give us some idea of its melodious character, but found her notes too earthly for that purpose.

While thus favored, the missionaries already referred to, and other happy spirits, as they glided past her, sweetly smiled, and said they knew whence she came, and, if faithful to the grace of God, she would, in a short time, be admitted into their delightful society. All the orders of Heaven were in perfect and blessed harmony, and appeared to be directed in all their movements by a mysterious influence, proceeding from the throne of God.

She was next conducted to a place whence she had

A VIEW OF HELL,

which she described in the most terrific language and declared that the horrid shrieks of lost spirits still seemed to sound in her ears. As she approached the burning pit, a tremendous effort was made to draw her into it, but she felt herself safe under the protection of her guardian angel. She recognized many in the place of torment whom she had known on Earth, and even some who had been thought Christians.

There were princes and peasants, learned and unlearned, writhing together in one unquenchable fire, where all earthly distinctions and titles were forever at

an end. Among them she beheld a Miss W , who

had occupied a prominent station in society, but had died during the illness of this young woman. She said

that when Miss W saw her approach, her shrieks

were appalling, beyond the power of human language to describe, and that she made a desperate but unsuccessful effort to escape. The punishment of lost souls she represented as symbolizing the respective sins

which had occasioned their condemnation. Miss W ,

for instance, was condemned for the love of money, which I had every reason to believe was her besetting sin, and she seemed robed in a garment of gold on fire.

She said there was no sympathy among these unhappy spirits, but that unmixed hatred, in all its frightful forms, prevailed in every part of the fiery regions. She beheld parents and children, husbands and wives, and those who had been companions in sin, exhibiting every mark of deep hatred to each other's society, and heard them in fiendish accents upbraiding and bitterly cursing each other. She saw nothing in Hell but misery and despair, and heard nothing there but the most discordant sounds, accompanied with weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

While she gazed upon this revolting scene many souls arrived from Earth, and were greedily seized by devils amid horrid shouts of hellish triumph.

FROM THE GATES OF HELL

Miss D was conducted to another position, whence

she had a view of Heaven, and Hell, and Earth; and she described the Earth as appearing like a vast stage crowded with human beings, and full of confusion and blood. From this stage persons were continually stepping off and others were rapidly approaching its edge, and would very soon disappear ; among whom was

Mrs. L , an intimate friend of ours, who died a

fortnight afterwards. Other persons, whom she named, were represented as near the edge of the stage; and although quite well when she made this communication, did in every case shortly afterwards leave this probationary state.

One of the days in which Miss D lay entranced

was the Sabbath ; and she told us that she knew where I and my colleague preached on that day; and from each chapel she perceived holy incense rise, which she described as mingling together and coming up before the throne ; then taken by the Saviour and presented to the Father, whilst angels and all the company of Heaven rejoiced together. She also stated that during one of Mrs. Young's visits to the house where she lay entranced, she saw her sitting by her bedside, reading to the family a chapter out of St. John's Gospel, and then saw her kneel down and pray with them. She likewise gave us to understand, that matter, under none of its forms is any interruption to the vision or

.MOVEMENTS OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS.

She was next taken to a place whence she was permitted to see the moral state of the World. A lady, holding a prominent situation in the church, was represented as sitting under a tree of most luxuriant and beautiful foliage, with a long tube in her mouth, by which she was drawing people to her ; and the conducting angel informed Miss D that the tube indicated

the power of this woman's persuasive language, the foliage of the tree her religious profession, and its trunk the state of her heart. On looking at the trunk, she beheld that its core was rotten, and full of venomous reptiles. Miss D told this afterwards to the

lady in question; and from her unchristian temper on the occasion, and her subsequent conduct, she fully proved the correctness of the representation.

A lady was represented to her as attired in the purest white, and surrounded by a number of little children, whom she was striving to wash in pure water, that they too might be white and clean; and the angel told her that the lady's robe was indicative of her purity of heart, and her holiness of life, and that her employment symbolized the nature and effects of her exertions in the Church of God. I was well acquainted with this lady, and could bear witness to the correctness of this picture ; for she was in my opinion one of the holiest of women, and was exceedingly useful to children and young people ; indeed, the honored instrument of bringing many of them to God.

According to the testimony of Miss D , she knew,

without being informed, the various beings she met with in the world of spirits. It appears to be a region of knowledge intuitively obtained, without any laborious effort or inquiry. This view of the subject is calculated to strike terror into the hearts of those who,

BY THEIR NEGLECT OR INFLUENCE,

destroy souls, as it supposes they will know their victims when they shall meet them in the world lying beyond the tomb ; but it is a view well adapted to excite pleasurable emotions in the breast of those who " turn .many to righteousness," as it encourages the hope of their recognizing their " spiritual. children. "

The opinion seems correct that the inhabitants of Eternity know what is taking place in this World. The temptations presented by wicked spirits, the guardianship of angelic beings, the cloud of witnesses represented by the apostle as looking from their place of rest upon Christians running the race set before them, and the joy felt in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, certainly very strongly countenance the opinion. This also agrees with Miss

D 's statement; for she told us most distinctly

that the state and circumstances .of the population of our Globe were fully known to the inhabitants of the other world. How startling is the thought ! If Earth is without a covering to Eternity.

Miss D lived about three years after this trance,

and then died happy in the Lord.

JAMES B. FINLEY'S VISION.

The following account was published in the Christian Witness, and in other publications: That Heaven is real there can be no doubt. That others beside St. Paul have been allowed a view of Paradise, is evident from the testimony of the most reliable witnesses. One of the most interesting and touching incidents of this character is related by James B. Finley (Methodist minister) in his Autobiography. It occurred in 1842, when he was Presiding Elder of the Lebanon District, Ohio Conference.

He tells us that he was " winding up the labors of a very toilsome year. I had scarcely finished my work till I was most violently attacked with bilious fever, and it was with great difficulty that I reached my home." He sank rapidly. The best medical skill failed to arrest the disease, and life was utterly despaired of. " On the seventh night," he says, " in a state of entire insensibility to all around me, when the last ray of hope had departed, and my weeping family and friends were standing around my couch, waiting to see me breathe my last, it seemed to me that a heavenly visitant entered my room. It came to my side, and in the softest and most silvery tones, which fell like rich music on my ear, it said : ' I have come to conduct you to another state and place of existence/ In an instant, I seemed to rise, and, gently borne by my angel guide, I floated out upon the ambient air. Soon Earth was lost in the distance, and around us on every side were worlds of light and glory. On, on, away, away from world to luminous worlds afar, we sped with the velocity of thought. At length we reached the gates of Paradise ; and O, the transporting scenes that fell upon my vision as the emerald portals, wide and high, rolled back upon their golden hinges !"

" Language, however, is inadequate to describe what then, with unveiled eyes, I saw. The vision is indelibly pictured on my heart. Before me, spread out in beauty, was a broad sheet of water, clear as crystal, not a single ripple on' its surface, and its purity and clearness indescribable."

" While I stood gazing with joy and rapture at the scene, a convoy of angels was seen floating in the pure ether of that world. They all had long wings, and although they went with the greatest rapidity, yet their wings were folded close to their sides. While gazing, I asked my guide who these were, and what their mission. To this he responded : ' They are angels, dispatched to the World from whence you came, on an errand of mercy/ I could hear strains of the most entrancing melodies all around me, but no one was discoverable but my guide. At length I said : ' Will it be possible for me to have a sight of some of the just made perfect in glory V Just then there came before us three persons; one had the appearance of a male, the other a female, and the third an infant. The appearance of the first two was somewhat similar to the angels I saw, with the exception that they had crowns upon their heads of the purest yellow, and harps in their hands. Their robes, which were full and flowing, were of the purest white. Their countenances were lighted up with heavenly radiance, and they smiled upon me with ineffable sweetness."

" There was nothing with which the blessed babe or child could be compared. Its wings, which were most beautiful, were tinged with all the colors of the rainbow. Its dress seemed to be of the whitest silk, covered with the softest white down. The driven snow could not exceed it for whiteness or purity. Its face was all radiant with glory; its very smile now plays around my heart. I gazed and gazed with wonder upon this heavenly child. At length I said : ' If I have to return to Earth, from whence I came, I should love to take this child with me, aad show it to the weeping mothers of Earth. Methinks when they see it, they will never shed another tear over their children when they die.' So anxious was I to carry out the desire of my heart that I made a grasp at the bright and beautiful one, desiring to clasp it in my arms, but it eluded my grasp and plunged into the river of life. Soon it rose up from the water, and, as the drops fell from its expanding wings, they seemed like diamonds, so brightly did they sparkle. Directing its course to the other shore, it flew up io one of the topmost branches of one of life's fair trees. With a look of most seraphic sweetness it gazed upon me, and then commenced singing in Heaven's own strain : ' To Him that hath loved me, and washed me from my sins in His own blood, to Him be glory, both now and forever. Amen/ "

"At that moment, the power of the eternal God came upon me, and I began to shout; and, clapping my hands, I sprang from my bed, and was healed as instantly as the lame man in the beautiful porch of the temple, who went ' walking, and leaping, and praising God.' Overwhelmed with the glory I saw and felt, I could not cease praising God."

" The next Sabbath I went to camp-meeting, filled with the love and power of God. There I told the listening thousands what I saw and felt, and what God had done for me; and loud were the shouts of glory that reverberated through the forest."

This is a most remarkable case. Father Adams, a member of the Ohio Conference, told us that he was present at the camp-meeting, and heard Mr. Finley relate the circumstances, when such power fell on the people that not less than five hundred sinners were crying to God for mercy, while the Saints of God shouted for joy.

ARCHIBALD BOYLE'S VISION.

The following account has been published in various religious publications. It is found in The Night- Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe, issued in 1848. In her book she says, concerning the vision, that it is " an undoubted and well-attested fact. An account of it was published at the time." About ninety years ago (or perhaps about 1758) there was in Glasgow a club of gentlemen of the first rank in that city. They met professedly for card-playing, but the members were distinguished by such a fearless excess of profligacy, as to obtain for it the name of " The Hell Club." They gloried in the name they had acquired for themselves, and nothing that could merit it was left untried. Beside their nightly or weekly meetings, they held a grand annual festival, at which each member endeavored to outdo all his former outdoings in drunkenness, blasphemy, and licentiousness.

Archibald Boyle had been at one time a youth of the richest promise, being possessed of dazzling talents and fascinating manners. No acquirement was too high for his ability ; but, unfortunately, there was none too low for his ambition. Educated by a fond and foolishly indulgent mother, he early met in society with members of " The Hell Club." His elegance, wit, gaiety, and versatility of talent, united to the gifts of fortune, made him a most desirable victim for them: and a victim and a slave, glorying in his bondage, he quickly became. Long ere he was five and twenty, he was one of the most accomplished blackguards it could number on its lists. To him, what were Heaven, Hell or Eternity ? Words, mere words, that served no purpose, but to point his blasphemous wit, or nerve his execrations ! To him, what glory was there equal to

VISIONS OF HEAVEN AND HELL. \J

that of hearing himself pronounced " the very life of the club?" Alas! there was none; for as soon as man forgets God, who alone can keep him, his understanding becomes darkened, and he glories in that which is his shame.

One night, on retiring to sleep, after returning from one of the annual meetings of the club, Boyle dreamed that he was still riding, as usual, upon his famous black horse, toward his own house — then a country seat, embowered by ancient trees, and situated upon a hill now built over by the most fashionable part of Glasgow — and that he was suddenly accosted by some one, whose personal appearance he could not, in the gloom of night, distinctly discern, but who, seizing the reins, said, in a voice apparently accustomed to command: " You must go with me." " And who are you ?" exclaimed Boyle, with a volley of blasphemous execrations, while he struggled to disengage his reins from the intruder's grasp. " That you will see bye-and-bye," replied the same voice, in a cold, sneering tone, that thrilled through his very heart. Boyle plunged his spurs into the panting sides of his steed. The animal reared, and then suddenly darted forward with a speed that nearly deprived his rider of breath ; but in vain, in vain ! Fleeter he flew r , the mysterious, half-seen guide, still before him ! Agonized by, he knew not what, of indescribable horror and awe, Boyle again furiously spurred the horse. It fiercely reared and plunged; he lost his seat, and expected at the moment to feel himself dashed to the earth. But not so ; for he continued to fall ■ — fall — fall — it appeared to himself with an ever-increasing velocity. At length this terrific rapidity of motion abated, and, to his amazement and horror, he perceived that this mysterious attendant was close by his side. " Where," he exclaimed, in the frantic energy of despair, " where are you taking me — where am I — where am I going?" "To Hell," replied the same iron voice ; and from the depths below, the sound so familiar to his lips was suddenly re-echoed, " to Hell."

l8 VISIONS OF HEAVEN AND HELL.

Onward, onward they hurried in darkness, rendered more horrible still by the conscious presence of his spectral conductor. At length, a glimmering light appeared in the distance, and soon increased to a blaze. But as they approached it, in addition to the hideously discordant groans and yells of agony and despair, his ears were assailed with what seemed to be the echoes of frantic revelry. They soon reached an arched entrance, of such stupendous magnificence, that all the grandeur of this World seemed in comparison but as the frail and dingy labors of the mole. Within it, what a scene! too awful to be described. Multitudes, gnashing their teeth in the hopelessness of mad despair, cursed the day that gave them birth; while memory, recalling opportunities lost and mercies despised, presented to their fevered mental vision the scenes of their past lives. Their fancy still pictured to them the young and- lovely, moving up and down in the giddy mazes of the midnight dance ; the bounding steed, bearing his senseless rider through the excitements of the goaded race; the intemperate, still brawling over the midnight bowl, the wanton song, or maudlin blasphemy. There the slave of Mammon bemoaned his folly in bartering his soul for useless gold ! while the gambler bewailed, alas ! too late, the madness of his choice.

Boyle at length perceived that he was surrounded by those whom he had known on Earth, but were some time dead; each one of them betraying his agony at the bitter recollections of the vain pursuits that had engrossed his time here — time lent to prepare for a far different scene !