“You do not pray in public?”
“No; Christ enjoined secret prayer.”
“True; but he prayed in the presence of others, and on the cross prayed in the presence of thousands, ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.’ The seventeenth chapter of John is a prayer uttered in the presence of his disciples. The apostle Paul, on one occasion, kneeled on the sea shore in the midst of a large assembly, and vocally invoked the divine blessing. And most of good men and good women in all ages and in all climes, whether Christian or Pagan, have sanctioned the practice. The tongue loves to speak what the heart feels, and a prayer straight from the heart, often has more influence on an assembly than a good sermon. Of course, it is a great sin to pray or preach ‘to be seen of men,’ but praying and preaching with the spirit and the understanding, are heaven-appointed means to christianize the soul. There is, doubtless, much hypocritical praying as well as preaching, but the abuse of a good thing is not a valid reason for its abandonment. You oppose singing, I understand. Why do you?”
“The Friends in their worship are governed by the spirit, and singing is an art, taught and learned, hence they exclude it from their worship.”
“Learning to read is an art, and yet you read the Bible. Speaking correctly is an art, but you cultivate correct speaking in your meetings. The spirit does not teach you how to read or how to speak. Music is a science of which God is the author, and in studying music we learn of the wisdom of God, and in singing we sing his praise. A good hymn sung correctly is a sermon and a prayer; it unites the hearts of all who hear, and stirs the soul to its depths. Why do you all wear the same style of dress?”
“Because we abhor fashions.”
“But it seems to me that your people are great lovers of fashion. There is a Quaker fashion, and you all, men, women and children, stick to it through thick and thin. If one of your members deviates from your fashion he is dealt with as an offender. You do not run after every fashion, but you adopt the fashion of the times of Charles II., and will make no improvement. I despise fashion more than you do, for I consult my own taste, and not the frivolous whims of crack-brains in the nineteenth or sixteenth century.”
A gentleman here told me a singular story. A physician and a lawyer lived in Richmond; they were intimate friends, and spent much time together. Both were zealous infidels, and they promised each other, that the one that should die first, if he lived after death, would return to his friend left on earth if he was able to do so. The physician died, but the survivor thought not of the promise, for he was sure death had spared nothing of his friend. Several months after the physician’s death, the lawyer was astonished to see his departed friend enter his office. He slowly approached the couch on which he was lying, for it was night, and reminded him of their mutual promise; said he had made several efforts before to visit him but failed; told him that both of them were mistaken about death; that the man did not die; he only put off the body and entered on a higher sphere of existence, and that most of mankind were in error concerning the second stage of life, that being much more like this world than many imagined. After an affectionate adieu, he disappeared, promising to return, if possible, but he saw him no more. The gentleman related the circumstance to his friends, and they, of course, laughed at him, and said he was crazy or asleep, whereupon he went before a magistrate and testified under oath, that what he related was strictly correct. He was ever after a believer in immortality; he said he knew there was a future life, for he had seen one from the land beyond the vale.
A gentleman in Ohio related to me the following: He ran a flouring mill, located at the foot of a hill, on the top of which was his residence. His aged father often spent an hour or two in the mill. One day he observed him enter the building, with staff in hand, and after remaining a few minutes, walked out. Nothing was said by either party, and several times they passed within three or four feet of each other. Stepping to the door soon after the old gentleman went out, he saw his father slowly ascending the hill to the house. He immediately had occasion to go to the house, and not seeing his father, inquired for him, and was informed that he was lying down. He went into his room and found him asleep, and was told he had been on the bed a full hour.
Another intelligent friend related the following: His family and another family occupied one house in an Ohio town—the former the front, and the latter the rear part of the building, and a gate, two feet from the front door, was the entrance to the rear of the house. The gate swung hard on its hinges, and with much noise. About ten at night, my informant, from his front door, observed a person on the sidewalk approaching the house; having a peculiar appearance, he requested his wife to step to the door and see who it was. To both he seemed a stranger, and both remarked that he made no noise walking on the stone pavement. When opposite the gate, and two feet from where they were standing, he turned and passed through the gateway to the rear of the building out of sight. Supposing the gate was open, as the traveler did not stop to open it, the gentleman stepped aside to close it, when, to his atonishment, he found it shut. On opening the gate he found that it made as loud a report, and required as much effort as usual. Not being able to account for all this, he inquired of his neighbor if any one had called, and was answered, nay. That night a woman in the rear part of the building died. It is quite fashionable to cry humbug and delusion, when such stories are related; but I do not raise that cry, neither have I a satisfactory explanation of them to offer. The history and tradition of all nations and people are full of what seems to be the supernatural; and if that part is all false, how can we credit the balance of their history? But most people, after all, have, at least, some vague impressions, that the departed have something to do with the world they once inhabited. And why should they not?