Penclings from immortality

Front matter

J UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, j

PENCLINGS FROM IMMORTALITY.

A COLLECTION OF

Preface

This work is a compilation of spiritual writings, some of which were copied from writings seen clairvoyantly by myself upon the wall, and others are inspirational writings from the invisible intelligences imparting to me inspiration upon various topics at different periods. Also, ideas given through rny husband's, (Samue] Sunderlin,) mediumistic gifts, some of them as far back as the year 1868, which thereafter has been compiled inspirationally through me for publication in this work, or more elaborately explained to suit the invisibles which are among the astronomical discoveries, the causes which moves the planets on their axis being explained through his mediumistic powers, that the liquid attracted in the interior of planets toward the centre of the planet produced a revolution of the liquid in the centre which caused the revolution of planets upon their axis, and to demonstrate it more conclusive they impressed me of the heat increasing toward the centre which would cause a revolution of the liquid around this increased heat in the centre, of the cooler particles of liquid v PREFACE.

around the increased heat which would also produce a revolution which would give the planet the same motion, they also gave through him the motion of planets in their orbits being produced by attraction of the sun upon them or that the revolution of the earth upon its axis was what moved the moon around with it, which explanation they thereafter gave through a clairvoyant sight to me of the worlds and suns revolving upon their axis and moving the elements of space around with them, which gives the motion of all elements and bodies therein, around them in an orbit, and that their orbits were eliptical from electrical attraction. They gave through his mediumship the cause of the rarity and density of atmosphere around planets and its effects of light and heat upon their surface, and many other ideas too numerous to mention in a short preface, but that some of his spiritual ideas were imparted through inspiration to me for publication or more elaborately explained thereby to suit the invisible intelligences imparting them is true as regards some of the theories of this work in its compilation for publication. The Authoress.

Contents

PAGE.

Omnipotence 9

Where are They ? 12

Introduction

This work is devoted to freedom of thought and the unbiased prejudices of the Nineteenth Century. That through its drifting sentiments some jewel borne may reach the hearts of earth, from the invisible shores, to enlighten the soul that may reach upward in the day-break hours of mental obscurity, that our invisible guardians may send a ray of light beyond the setting sun of life, from the beautiful hereafter which awaits us all.

Then, as you may read these pages, read them with unbiased minds and let light fall where it may. We hope some longing soul may thereby become lightened of its burden, and the obscurity which clouds the mortal vision of man from the beautiful light of the unending day, become so radiated that they may see spiritually through the veil of materiality and catch a glimpse of that immortal light, so fitting us to receive with undazzled vision the beautiful hereafter, which is drifting us all toward the farther shore.

PENOILIN.GS." FROM IMMORTALITY.

O Infinite! how beautiful, how glorious and sublime, Unchanging in Thy perfectness through all eternal time ; Thy laws unfolding constantly, the supreme of Thy power, From human minds to bud and leaf expanding in the flower. Or to the worlds in starry space Thy laws are still the same, All we behold, or know, or feel, is written on Thy name ; For what can be, or e'er exist, but what Thou art the cause ? The Infinite that's everywhere in Thy unchanging laws. Thou art the moving spring that acts through all of nature's

ways ; Creating and unfolding minds of every hue and phase, As well as bud and blossom, or sunshine, dew and rain All speak its own development engraven with Thy name. Thy body, the vast whole, that acts the universe entire ; Thy soul, the power that thrills throughout the whole as thrills

the lyre.

With deep toned music, master hands have touched the keys

that ring, So Thou throughout the universe art thus the moving spring ; And we, a part of the Infinite do live and move in Thee, As inspiration long ago had spoke of Deity; Unfolding and expanding toward diviner power,

All elements are perfecting to higher life each hour.

If then we form a part of God, to die we never can,

The smallest atom Infinite, which we can understand

As changing not within us, is mind, which we can see,

From youth to age sustaining its own identity.

Then if mind is the Infinite that is unchanging not,

The spark within the mortal from Deity we've got,

Which is unchanging through all change of the material form,

Then mind continues through all change, through ages yet

unborn — For God, in the unchanging, through all that we can see, That moves material substance is immortality. Yet all is God eternal, as nothing wastes for naught, While the material substance in something new is wrought. Creation moves unceasingly, just as the same begun, Is God's eternal movement, His laws unceasing run ; If it began in mind, then mind will ever be Continuing its developments through all eternity. The apple falls unto the earth, the same just now, to-day, As did attraction laws o f God in ages passed away. His will that moves the whole entire is the unchanging, where It acts the same when contact of elements are there ; Combining them in forms of life, with correspondence too, The elements combining these laws were acting through. And so in God we live and move to-day as doth all life, Uniting and progressing to perfectness from strife. The winding streams, the fragrant bowers, the starry worlds

of light, Are moving onward, speaking forth of Deity more bright ; Yet some may worship at the shrine and call it Deity — Some central spot as in the church an altar fair to see. But give me God to worship in His own boundless form, The universe of worlds and suns, the sunshine, calm and storm; Revolving on through endless change, upward from sin and

strife,

Where He doth speak in perfectness of freedom to all life.

If God is the development of all we know or see,

And will the same continue through all eternity,

Like one great mechanism of life, revolving wheels in wheels.

OMNIPOTENCE. II

Of solar systems, worlds and suns, of life that thinks and

feels, Then surely awe-struck praise the same must thrill the human

mind, When comprehending one vast whole of grandeur so sublime. Without beginning, without end, progressing on to where These elements attracted in lives and worlds so fair, Within the grand arcana, all moving onward still, To what we see and comprehend immensity doth fill. All praises seem to echo in one sublimer thought, Of grandeur toward Deity, than what we have been taught Of God who occupied a throne like ancient kings of days When governments of kings had ruled man's undeveloped

ways.

The inspiration of that hour illustrates to the mind A symbol in those days of God, the best that they could find. To comprehend of Deity that ruled the whole supreme, Most surely God upon a throne must sit as king or queen ; But mind as well as governments advances to this day, Eepublics live, and freedom born, and man has learned the way, That God exists omnipotently in freedom through the whole, And sees in God more higher still, divine, supreme control. Unending and eternal; O, God ! we know and see, Through ages still advancing, all praises are to Thee.

Wiethe Ws Vftey?.

I'll speak of a land of fadeless bloom,

Of a land that's immortal beyond the tomb,

A land where the spirit doth enter in,

Is a world more bright that is freed from sin.

This land of bloom is the world where they Have gone from us that have passed away ; They will welcome us then, as we enter there, Its portals of beauty— its worlds so fair,

Where sunshine and shadows may linger still, But its joys supreme our hearts will fill, Its joy increases when worlds where they Are waiting now shall have passed away.

To lands beyond of fadeless light, Where no sin doth enter nor sorrow blight, Gather the gems of fadeless bloom To sparkle and shine beyond the tomb.

The jewels worn in our crown will be

The gems of thought we have gathered free,

Along life's pathway, here and there,

E're we entered the portals of worlds so fair.

The truths we've gathered and garnered in The soul most pure that is freed from sin, Will rise in the light of the endless day, The highest, beyond where no shadows play.

VOICES. 13

Voided

Peering through the misty veil of darkness

A thousand shining lights are seen to-day,

Like silvery radiance gleaming on the mountain,

Casting its reflection in the valleys far away.

What is this shining light arising like a vapor

From some unknown and distant murmuring sea ?

It is the gentle breath — the lighted taper —

Which God has sent to light the way to thee.

Sent from the far-off climes of light supernal,

The loved ones which will beckon thee to bliss,

The cord which binds us to the eternal,

The silvery pathway from that world to this.

Thus, sweetest voices of our loved ones long departed,

Welcome us in all the rosy hours of day ;

Bright guardian spirits which no mildew blighted,

From earth life to the shores where'er they stray.

What can be sweeter in all our life immortal,

Than this, the knowledge which is given free,

For us to learn and know that the eternal

Has thus unbarred its golden gates to thee.

Voices murmuring ever from out the distance,

Like music wafted o'er some moonlit sea ;

Telling sweeter tales of an existence,

Life-long, eternal, welcoming you and me.

We'll chant eternal praises to the giver,

For love expressive gleams from every tongue ;

The fond assurance given us forever,

That earth-life is immortality just begun.

¥l\e^e i£nof)ektlv

There is no death, 'tis but a change, From life to life more bright,

And through eternity's vast range We soar to higher light.

Eternal praise to Him who gave

Existence first on earth, And then another higher still

Into the second birth.

Thus God in love and perfectness,

Forever we do see, Bearing us onward, upward still,

Through all eternity.

For all the works which He hath made,

Shall not be made in vain ; In wisdom He moves on and on,

Then praise, O, praise His name !

A DEATH SCENE. 15

8 f)ektl\ &eii e.

I saw a mother's anguish wild,

When death had robbed her of her child, And bore its beauteous form away,

And left her but the mouldering clay.

She clasped the infant to her breast

In wildest strains of tenderness, But not an answering sound would give

Assurance that it still might live.

She pressed warm kisses on its cheek, With grief beyond what tongue could speak

But cold and white its lips were still, And yielded back an icy chill.

Then all the bitterness and woe, That human heart could ever know,

Seemed to stir the mother's soul And crush with grief beyond control.

For whitherward its life had flown, Seemed all so dark in the unknown ;

But while I gazed upon the scene, An angel come, with brow serene.

It was her mother — long since dead — With radiant brow and noiseless tread;

She clasped the infant to her breast, In sweetest robes she had it dressed.

And looped away with tiny flowers

She'd plucked from the immortal bowers,

And fair and plump its shoulders peeped Above its robe, and looked so neat.

Methought the mother's heart with joy, Would thrill, could she have seen her boy,

With cherub forms that come to wait And bear it on to heavon's gate.

But down they bended low in prayer, And could not know that they were there,

For creeds and doctrines long had said, A fearful thing is with the dead.

And closed the portals of their mind, Away from those of heaven's clime,

To hear not songs of spirits' glee, Praise God for immortality.

And know not guardians come and weep With us when sorrows seem so deep,

From out immortal bowers of bliss, And on our foreheads print a kiss.

And strive to raise our thoughts away, To brighter skies beyond the clay ;

How much of gladness it would bring To man to rob death of its sting.

To know that loved ones gone before, With loving arms our infant bore,

The light that heaven gives to save, And give us "victory o'er the grave."

HISTORY. 17 ins¥Q§Y.

History is the great study of human life. All turn instinctively to the pages that record the events and doings of men who have lived before them. Its study is sought for by the scholar,, the sage, the philosopher.

The traveler in vain strives for some relic among the cities of the dead, the ruins of ancient sepulchres, and colossal caverns, to unearth some trophy of the ages past, that will mark the events and doings of man, that have preceded him.

Vespers to-day have sung sonorous music to its praise. Though the men who gave birthplace to the sciences and learnings of history have wandered — like the poet, Homer, in the streets of his native city — a poor, forlorn beg gar, unappreciated. Or, like Demosthenes, who spoke to the rolling waves of the ocean his first efforts of oratory unnoticed by the populace of his native land. Or Socrates, whose name is renowned in history to-day as the greatest scholar of his age, was derided and scorned by his own people, who were unable to comprehend the vastness of his thoughts — thinking him a wild fanatic, a curse to the world from which they excluded him by the fatal poison.

Thus there is always more sacredness in the recounted deeds of the past, than the present moments which gave them birth.

Thus we go back to Aristotle, to Socrates for sciences, — to Demosthenes for oratory, — to Homer for poetry, — and to those Roman and Grecian Senators, who echoed the thoughts of the heroes and sages of the dead.

America to-day is far outrivaling in giant understanding upon the great topics of liberty and political strife, the thoughts of sages that sleep in the tombs of antiquity and whose thoughts are living in the pages of history.

Coming ages will yet immortalize the name of American glories, her free institutions, her halls of learning. We live in a nobler age, far surpassing the past.

The voices of our American youths startle from their lethargy the pages of science, and un tomb from the dust of ages new sciences, new truths that are outstripping the pen of the past.

Look to the means which have succeeded them. Our giant intellects have constructed the telegraphic links, which span the depths of the ocean. And tht; New York broker quietly sitting in his office, can hold converse across the rolling waves of the Atlantic with his friend as quietly

HISTORY. 19

sitting in Europe. Or convey his thoughts to the waves of the Pacific sitting in his laboratory in London.

It is almost omnipresence of thought that excels the modern above the years of the past, when man worked with the problem of science untouched as it were. For then man used the means of sail ships — copying from the little nautilus that spreads its sails to the deep and rides triumphantly over the waves, as his best means of invention, for transporting news and commerce from one country to another, through the tedious journey of weeks.

But modern science unfolds from the leaves which were left unturned by the ancients, steamers freighted with the commerce of the whole world, plowing o'er the ocean depths from continent to continent in the short period of days.

Again, our magic Telescopes have spanned the heavens and unfolded her starry realms, as planetary systems, as worlds of beauty, peopled with living, breathing life of grandeur, kissed by the breezes of far off realms of purity, in the boundless fields of infinite space. But what was it in the ages ol past history ? Man looked upon the starry realms above us as lighted candles which God had made expressly for our benefit; to lighten the earth with a vast canopy of beauty, to please the eye, and the sun, the great orb of light, to the solar systems of worlds, to revolve around us instead of the earth around the sun, that it was governed by the passions aud whims of men, who like Joshua commanded it to stand still and it obeyed.

Such is the history of the past. And to-day modern science, far excelling in grandeur, cannot live in the hearts of men with that sacredness as the past history of those who have lived before them.

Ages yet to come which shall succeed us in knowledge and science, when we are sleeping among the tombs and doings of men, that will be recorded upon the pages of history, then a sacredness will be thrown over the acts and doings of our lives, of the present age, in the pages of history.

Then let us each work for a grand and nobler end, that we may leave footprints in the sands of time. Do and act in the great drama, which is yet to be sung by vespers when a higher language than our own shall have buried the identity of that which we speak to-day in oblivion, only to be recited by the scholar, the sage, among the dead languages of those who have lived before them. Then a sacred name will be ours, and history will record our deeds with honors, and our names live to be perpetuated adown the columns of futurity.

MARRIAGE. 21

J^ailik^e.

O, holy is the hour, when marriage sits supreme, To bind in unison two hearts sailing on life's stream; Exclusively all other lights from out the world are drawn, And centered in the hearts of each to radiate each form.

The sunshine and the rainbow hue speak from each other's eyes, As if its silvery lustre was borrowed from the skies; There angels o'er the union of loving souls entwine, Breathing thoughts of purity from far-off angel climes.

So loving hearts entwined on earth are still entwined above, Where soul and thoughts eternal doth speak of fadeless love; For God is love, and fadeless the principle must be, So if we love in perfectness 'tis all eternity.

The unison of souls r jmain if love united here, Then the sacred bonds of marriage each one of truth revere, The flowers that gild its casket, the household flowers of love, Are jewels sparkling ever to decorate above.

And still its radiant lustre will bright and brighter grow, If perjured not with truthlessness its light to overthrow ; Let each then bound in unison sacredly revere The marriage bond in perfectness, then its shadows disappear.

¥l|e ]\iotl\er'£ Si^wef.

Child, dearest child ! I come back to earth, Back from the scenes of a glorious birth — Back from the land where the flowers ever bloom, For death has surmounted the grave and the tomb; Guardian Angel from God sent to thee, Child, dearest child, I am ever with thee.

Through the years that are passed that have furrowed thy brow,

I have watched o'er thee, the same then as now;

{Striving to shield thee from sorrow and care.

Though you knew not or thought not that I could be there.

Such is a mother's love, constant and true,

Loving to visit the earth life with you.

Life with its cares and its toils soon are o'er,

Then you will enter on this fairer shore;

Where verdure eternal will bloom as the spring—

Time of your life that no care will bring,

Only the love of warm hearts and true,

That wander the green fields celestial with you.

Then praise Him who gave thee existence on earth, Where dark is the vision of this higher birth; For death soars above the grave and the tomb, In a land that's immortal where flowers ever bloom, And the cares of this life will recede one by one, While onward and upward in that life beyond.

NEVER GIVE UP. 23 j\fevei" Gjive lip.

Never give up, though sorrow and care Are casting their shadows of gloom and despair ;

For life's darkest morning oft ends in a day. Whose sunlight has swept all the shadows away.

Never give up, but stem the rough tide

Of life's ocean waves, and you'll safely out-ride

The tempest tossed sea, with its foam- crested surge, For the wildest of storms will in calmness submerge.

Never give up, for the angels of light Are pointing awpy to a haven more bright ;

To beckon thee onward and upward to where Thy life will be freed from sorrow and care.

Then let not adversity crush life's great aim, But steadily climb up the hillside of fame; And your banner will float in time yet to be,

On Fame's highest monument, stainless and free. Never give up, was the motto so brave

Of Heroes that sleep, our country to save ; That struggled through dangers as great in the past,

And bore to man freedom triumphant at last.

As great is the bondage that fetters the mind, And makes mankind slaves to creeds of a kind,

Enchained us from ages to ages to come; Then never give up till freedom is won .

Till each human being that lives on the earth May think, act, and reason, regardless of birth,

For freedom of thought is the gift that doth bring The voices of loved ones on angelic wing.

Never give up, for the lives of the past That taught inspiration, the multitude cast

Its fetters to chain the truths which they give ; The same inspiration on earth now doth live.

Then never give up, for surely you'll win, If this is your motto when once you begin;

A cause that is noble — 'twill give you a name, If you never give up on the banner of fame.

^pitkpli.

I live in a world of beauty, My life 's like a silvery tree Whose leaves are unfolding in glory, And blossoms through all time to be.

VOICES. 25

Yoice^.

I come, I come, with the silvery band, That echoes from out the silent land; My home in the silent hearthstone bright, Is now shut out in the darksome night; For my path away in the dark unknown, Is closed above the silent tomb.

They come around the hearthstone there

And breathe for me a silent prayer;

They gaze in awe at each pictured scene,

Each token of me that comes between

The days that have lengthened to years since I

Had taken my flight to the upper sky.

How vain is man as he gazes there,

On each crucifix in silent prayer,

And knows not the way that the dead have birth,

Away from the light of the angel hearth;

Or whether with God their flight may be taken,

Or fast asleep 'till the tomb is shaken

With a mighty trumpet noise to wake

Their sleep so dense, e'xe their flight they take;

Is there not some way where the dead have flown,

Some cord between to the yet unknown ?

By which our existence fair and bright,

Can glimmer through with a ray of light ?

We answer yes; O, wait and see, What may be given from us to thee ; And open thy mind that we enter there With a ray of thought or a whispered prayer, Instilled like the dews on the flowers of even, That opens to catch as it falls from heaven.

Again the silent hearse has cast its mournful shadow within our midst; and the funeral tread has borne away one more of our number to the silent graveyard, whose cadences strike a knell upon the harp strings, in mournful melody, to the many weeping hearts o'er the last resting place of the dead, where the spring flowers will blossom and the wild birds sing their requiem, and the passer-by again pause to point the finger to a new made grave, and sigh o'er the final resting place of all.

For like the unfledged bird within its mother's nest, they see not the green fields and sunny skies that will greet their outstretched wings when they are able to soar away unfettered among the bios soms of summer.

And so it is with death to the mortal vision of many. The lips so hushed and still in death's embrace no more to them breathe forth in silent accents of love and tenderness, for they hear them not.

DEATH. 27

But to me they come around us in the form and robes of loveliness which earth knows not. They whisper in our ears the words of tenderness, they hear them not. They press upon their lips the love untold in words, striving in vain to soothe the mourning hearts which know not of their presence.

They bring bright wreaths of flowers from their sweet, sunny clime, and place upon their brow longing for some known way. in which their loved ones, still on earth, may know their presence. To let them know that the dead, cold form of clay, they laid so tenderly away to rest within the tomb, is but the rusty garment which they wore on earth to shield that pure, bright spirit form in its enfoldment which God so gloriously had made for life eternal.

Then weep no more, for while the funeral train passed on, above the hearse that bore the earthly form, I saw her with a band of spirits bright; with wreaths of flowers and harps of music she hovered o'er that funeral train, she pressed her lips of love upon the- brow of those who wept for her.

I saw her strive in vain to soothe their grief, to tell her tale of brighter worlds, of green and snnny climes, in which she roamed in spirit worlds. How she longed to soothe their grief, to tell them that she lived and would leave them not, but day by day she'd come to them and strive to breathe a thought within their mind, to tell them of the sweet and lovely worlds where spirits dwell that's s;ood and true.

I saw her brilliant in her lovely robe, stirring up the multitude of spirits bright as they passed, saying wake the reveries of these mourning friends of mine. Tell them that I sleep, no more. That earth has not a portal to hold me in the tomb. Let them know that I live, clothed in beauty, strong as an empire; not gone away in the cold and silent dust, or in the heavens where I see them not, or feel not their pangs.

Then I saw the spirits come and cluster near, spoke in trumpet tones of love, told of beauties far away in worlds eternal. But the mourners and waiting friends heard them not, for their minds were fed on delusion, thinking of a heaven far away where spirits lived, or mortals resting lowly in the grave till God should bid them rise to judgment.

0, the joys of earth supernal! Unknown to man. Which makes life Ti«re a paradise when we behold bright spirits of our loved ones hoveling near, bearing bright blossoms of immortality, to scatter o'er the earth, and lift us from its sorrows, its thorns, as we behold the blossoms which ivill perfect in the ages yet to come.

There is no death, but life more bright, Unfolding to our view, And from death's gloom of darkest night To life we're passing through.

Its wisdom, and its joys and love, Surpasses all we know, For those that live in realms above, Exceeds the earth below.

DEATH. 29

In knowledge and in science great, In joys and sorrows too, We have not passed beyond the state Where this we do not view.

But time doth work its endless way, To where our lives will be, So high in brighter worlds of light, Its joys no sorrows see.

Then God, in his great creative plan, Of all his works we know, Has brought the joys destined for man, Instead of endless woe.

And so eternal praises give To God who made all life, Immortal to progress and live, Beyond all sin and strife.

PENCILINGS FROM IMMORTALITY.

u © l\o6k }1q to gleep.'

THE MOTHER'S REPLY.

I hear thy sad wail of regret for the hours

Of childhood again, from my heavenly bowers,

And whither my flight o'er the earth I have sped,

And angel of light to strew o'er thy head

The heavenly blossoms of patience and love,

To guide thy sad thoughts to the bright worlds above,

That are waiting to greet thee when earth cares are o'er,

And its sorrows will then be remembered no more.

There no mildew of time its brightness can rust, In the world which is fadeless, O, child of the dust ! Then mourn not, and grieve not, for days which are flown, Whose fruits yield a harvest, thy soul wealth has sown For others to reap. There's a world that doth give Its merits impartial to all that doth live ; Its truthful endowments on each to bestow, For man sees the surface, while God sees below.