~nnber ~nrhers. A HISTORY OF THE VARIOUS MESSIANIC CLAIMANTS TO SPECIAL DIVINE PREROGATIVES, AND OF THE SECTS THAT HAVE ARISEN THEREON IN RECENT TIMES. BY WILLIAM OXLEY. .Author of " 1'ht PhilollOphy of Spirit," "Euupt, and the Wonder.< of tl~e Land of the Pha.·ao/ls," I" i ~onh.on: TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL. 1889. (All Rights Reserved.) Digitized by G oog Ie JAN 2 IBGO ,r). :/­ ..() ..-<-~/~ , . ' (/ PRINTED BY JA)JES BURNS, I), SOUTHAMPT0:-1 ROW, HIGH HOLBOR:-1, LONDON, W.C. Digitized by Goog Ie EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. (In Old Age.) ;- \ f Digitized by Google ~reface. I have undertaken the publication of this work, not as a mere curiosity of literature, but to present the public with a · chronological record of actual historical events that have transpired in the religious world within little more than a century of time from the present date. There is one key, and one only, that will solve the astoun­ ding record of the story which is stranger than fiction, and that is a psychological one. Every one of the heroes and heroines, who figure in this melo-dramatic history, at a certain period came under influences that developed uncommon and abnormal faculties, known as clairaudience and clairvoyance, which caused them to come into contact and communion with beings whom they, rightly or wrongly, thought were inha­ bitants of other spheres of life, and whom they in their ignorance endowed with a power and position nothing less than Divine. Knowing nothing of the law which operates in the production of psychological phenomena, they fell into the error of taking the apparitional appearances for realities, i e., that the visional representations were actually what they took them to be ; and as a consequence they became inflated with the idea of their own personal position, and sub­ ordinating their intellectual faculty to their emotional feelings, they fell a prey to enthusiasm and fanaticism, which, in so many cases, were productive of disastrous results to their equally deluded and fanatical votaries. Digitized by Goog Ie ( iv ) Within my own knowledge there have been many more who essayed to become Messiahs, Madonnas, &c., but as these proved abortions I will consign them to oblivion. Nevertheless the wide-spread prevalence of a belief in the the Messianic Advent-covering a much larger area than the general public are aware of-is a subject worthy the attention of thoughtful minds, as to whether or not it has any basis of fact either in science, philosophy, or religion. The incidents narrated, and gathered from reliable sources, will serve to point a moral, if not to adorn a (true) tale. I may state that the Mahomedan religious world is being troubled in a similar manner by the appearance of two con­ tending Mahdis, who are now engaged in settling their respective claims to be the long-expected " Great Prophet of God " by the sword; but the materials for writing their history are so scant that I content myself with the bare mention of the fact. WILLIAM OXLEY. Manchester, May let, 1889. Digitized by Goog Ie ~onfenf.s. Page EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 4 ANN LEE 18 JoHANNA SouTHCOTT 27 JosEPH SMITH 35 EnwARD IRviNG 51 THOMAS LAKE HARRIS 60 MARY ANN GIRLING 78 JAMES "\VHITE 97 THE MoTHER 120 HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY 143 KEsHun CHUNDER SEN 180 ~o~f~aifs. ~ EMANUEL SwEDENBORG (in Old Age) Frontispiece vEMANUEL SwEDENBORG (iu his 46th Year) ••• facing page 4 --ANN LEE. " " 18 vJ. SoUTHCOTT , , 26 \ J. SMITH , 34 " VT. L. HARRIS 60 " " ·• M. A. GIRLING 78 " " ., IsRAEL's SANCTUARY -·· " 108 Digitized by Goog Ie Digitized by Goog Ie A CHAPTER OF MODERN SPIRITUAL HISTORY. ----<··:----- N my late Chapter of Ancient History, I was chiefly con­ I cerned with the Land of Egypt, the undoubted parental source of the civilization and religion of Christendom. The present series will form an historical record of the great j Spiritual Movement of modern times, which must eventuate in a revolution of human thought and sociology, more potent than anv that has heretofore affectetl the destinies of the human race on thi11 earth. Nolens volens, this Spiritualistic Movement is a factor that cannot and will not be ignored, and it marks an epoch in human history that the future hi~torian will not be able to disregard ; and thanks to the " Press," the effects of this remarkable influx of spiritual vitality can. never become-as in times past-the subject of legendary tradition, manipulated to suit the claims and self­ iuterests of privileged castes. Past history shows that the few and intermittent instances of the then great men with exceptional intellectual attainments were, after their decease, utilized bv the Sacerdotalists for the mental enslavement of the mass: 'l'he chief characteristic of the now evolving state of human mentality is its universality. It is no longer exemplified by few and exceptional instances, but extends its influence world-wide; albeit it is most active in the most advanced portions of the race, dwelling on the European and American continents. It were well to answer the queries: "\Vhat is this Spiritual Movement? \.Yhence comes it? and Why now? n Digitized by Goog Ie 2 MODEitN SPIRITl'AL HISTORY. Put.into a few words as possible, it is the putting forth, or flowtring out, of latent powers appertainit.g to the human bting, by the removal of certain obstacles; and follows iu order of sequence as regularly. if not as naturally, as auoJes<'ence SU<'Ceeds youth and infancy. lts chief purpose appears to be the demonstration of the continuity of individual human life after physical dissoluriurr. Until our day and time none could answer with certitude the question, "If I di.,, shall I live again; if so, where and how'?" ] t pertains to the scientific 11nd philosophic historian to record the fact, that in thi!! nineteenth l'entury A.D., indubitable and self-evident proofs have been, aud are being, given in vast numbers, of this conscious continuity of indi. vidual human life beyond the grnve, and thi<! hy the actual manifestAtion, in a great variety of fonus, of men, women, and clrildreu. who have passt!d from physical into other conditioul! of being. From the aecnmnlated mass of infor­ runrion given by these returning ones, we shall soon be as conversant with the realities of the nt>xt step in life as we are with our present surroundings It is ralleti b.v us the "spiritual world"; but it appears to be a very natural world, the difference between that and this mundane one being determined by conilitions and surroundings, and alt!l.Oilgh these have nothing in common one with the other, yet the human being in both spheres ran with equal certitude and conl:iistency say, and feel, and know, "I am myself and not another." 1t does not come within the scope of this present Chapter to enter into details descriptive of the laws which. govern these two states of being, and so I content myself with specifying the fact that so it is. I do not pnrpose to write a history of Spiritualisti<', or rather p~ychological, phenomena, snch as the thousand and one methods by which the disembodied beings make their prest>nre and power known to mortAls, for this departu.ent has alr~ady been filled by abler pens than mine; but it is my intention to narrate and record what haR resulted from the meutal plane, in the attem}lted formation of communities, societies, religious systems, and the likE', by certain persons, who, as sensitive recipients of the new influx. have vainly and erroneously mistaken the purport of the " Revelation:~ " o;9;,,zed by Google ISTRODUCTION. 3 of which they have been the recipients. Most of these are abortions and fungoid outworkiugs, lacking the beauty and grace and power of a gradual and orderly sequential intellectual development. Out of the present chaos, caused by competing and conflicting claimants for personal honour, &c., will ari13e a new and better order, as men and women become educated into the right use and understanding of what is at present a novel power. Like the heat and light from the central orb of our solar and planetary system, which is indispensable to universal living forms, and which is shared by all alike, even so the qnickening of the human principle is not the monopoly of a favoured few, but is the right and property of the whole human race. So much as a prelude. It is scarcely possible for us of this generation to realize the state and condition of human society in the earlier part of the last century : it was simply stagnant. Christianism and Mahomedanism had fou~ht the duel, and both combatants were exhausted, the conflict ending in a drawn battle. The Protestant Reformation had stirred Christendom to the depths, but the mass were little benefited, and the net result was a schism, and to that extent a breaking-up of the solidarity of the Roman Catholic Church, so far as Western Europe was concerned. Towards the close of the past, and from the commence­ ment of the present century, a change has taken place ; and what this means, we have only to contrast any populous centre, dty or town of to-day with the appearance it presented 150 years ago. · A fabulous magic wand could not have wrought so marked a change, and we are living witnesses of a transformation more stupendous than the history of the past ever recorded. In a sense other than that attributed to an old sentence of words, ·we can now utter in reality, "Old things are passing away, and all things a,re becoming new." Material prosperity, or the acquisition of mundane wealth for tbe purposes of personal enjoyment, is the great effort on the part of the mass in civilized states and conditions, and the struggle in the attempt consumes the chief part of a life.