Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

390 OF MATTER, MIND, AND SPIRIT.is not more evident as properties of ponderable matter than reason andpassion and consequent will are of mind ; nor is will less evidently theoffspring of reason and passion, than momentum isof vis inertise and gravitation.The existence of these attributes of mind is as evident as is theexistence of those of ponderable matter, and the incomprehensibility oftheir origin or mode of operation should no more be an obstacle to beliefin the former case than in the latter.1897. Nothing is more thoroughly fundamental and essential in thedoctrine inculcated by revelation than the omnipoteucy of the will of God.According to Scripture, the whole heaven and earth, and all that is inthem, sprung into existence in consequence of the fiat of the Deity, whosewill, under the designation of " overruling providence," is alleged toregulate every thing, even to the fall of a sparrow, or the advent of a pestilence.It follows that the suggestions which I have made respecting thepowers of mind are perfectly orthodox, so far as the mind of the Creatoris concerned; and as, according to orthodoxy, man is made after God's ownimage, however humble and minute may be the being so made, his mind,so far as it exists, must be, within the sphere allotted to it, existing uponan analogous footing to that of its author. The idea of all things comingfrom the creative power of God as the first cause, involves the existence ofthe divine-will power, of the first cause; and consequently, beings endowedwith an analogous will, must, so far as they have any available existence,be endowed with will-power, of which the potentiality may be more extensivein spirits than in mortals.1898. It is because there is no other imaginable power which can beproductive of the rationality of the universal creation, that forms the greatargument for assuming the will of a reasoning Deity to be the cause ofcauses. Vain were it to appeal to any irrational force under the name ofodylic, or any other, to explain the divine attributes on which this argumentreposes. In like manner, the assailants of Spiritualism cannot findany nominal force, whether new or old, which can explain the rationalityof the results which I have submitted to the public in this book, as comingfrom the minds of my spirit friends.Of Spirit independently, or as distinguished from Mind and Matter.1899. It has been alleged above, that three ideas must exist in the conceptionof every rational being; nihility, mind, matter.1900. Mind is distinct from matter in its usual acceptation ; but it alsodiffers from nihility. There are some attributes common to mind andmatter; since they cannot be considered as nothing, they must both besomething. Therefore, the word thing applies, to either, and thing issometimes received as synonymous with matter. But between these twokinds of things, mind and matter, we have an intermediate thing called