M. I fear such will be found the case. He resisted the Holy Ghost. He resisted prayer. He was opposed to religion. Alas! he is beyond the reach of mercy. So saying, he arose, and said, “we will pray.”
He was nearly through with a long prayer, when he called upon God to “remember all who remember not thee. Remember, Oh God!” said he, “all who are out of the ark of safety; for we fear thou hast permitted one of thy works to perish forever. Oh, God! spare thy rod, and let not thine anger be kindled against thy enemies. Thou hast mercy for those that love thee, and wilt thou not also have compassion on those who need thy salvation?” When he had concluded, I heard the servant say to herself, “Who is my judge?”
I responded, by a gentle impression on her mind, “He will judge others, but not as he judges himself.”
“It is even so,” she seemed to answer. “I never was acquainted with Paine,” she said, mentally; “but he was never convicted of any very great crimes that I have ever heard; I wish others were as good as he. Then, I should not be scorned because I am poor, and have to work for a living. May be, it is all right, but I can’t see it.”
My companion rejoined, “Thus it is, and thus it will be, till wisdom shall come from heaven, gentle as the dew, and free as the air, to chase away the ignorance of a deceived world. Never will mind rise up in the vigor of wisdom, till celestial light shall dissipate the wrongs and woes of misguided mind. I have seen the mind of man groaning in despair, and no one to lift the burden from his soul. I will not mock my inferiors, nor envy my superiors; but I will lead you, Thomas, to a fountain where no impurity can be seen, and where you may bathe in water without shore or bound.”
“But where do we go?” I inquired.
“We go where the weary find rest, and the conflicting antagonisms of human society disturb no more. We go where the pure will never become vitiated with wrongs, and where rivers of light roll on, refreshing the mind forever. We go where nature is understood, and her laws obeyed. We go where truth is wisdom, and where no mockery of duty answers the call of need. We go where we wish, and when we go, we will not cease to remember that our return will be cheered with music, vibrating in harmony with human redemption from the whirlpool of angry waters. We will not tarry among the wrongs and evils of a mourning world, but we will visit a wonder away from human cares, where order and harmony are appreciated, and spirits concentrate to admire and glorify the Ruler of unnumbered worlds. There is a world you have not seen, a music you have not heard, a joy you have not experienced, where the storm of contention lashes not against its shore, nor the groans of distress reach the borders of my spirit home.”
We went in company. But, at every step of our journey, I saw new wonders, which I propose to write, with the consent of this medium, for the instruction and enjoyment of those who must ere long become travelers over the same road, to a wisdom which none but celestial beings enjoy. Therefore, wonder not who writes as you read; for my name will be now recorded, as with the pen of a ready writer, by whose hand I am permitted to subscribe myself,
THOMAS PAINE.