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SPIRITUALISM, ITS TESTS, HARMONY, PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. MR. & MRS. U. CLARK, EDITORS.] [$1 A VOLUME, IK ADVANCE. VOL. II.] AUBURN, N. Y., THURSDAY JUNE 30, 1859 [NO 40. For the Clarion. Spiritual Freedom. FOR FOURTH OF JULY, 1859. Still liberty weeps for her patriots dead. Though no stone marks the spot, with the names of her braves, ’Tis enough that for freedom they struggled and bled, And the flag of the Union floats over their graves. But a nobler banner now trails in the dust And nobler spirits now yearn to be freed • Hearts truer than they are by tyrranny crushed, And holier martyrs to freedom now bleed. An army with banners in silence they com e; From ocean to ocean as brothers they m e et; Not a bugle’s shrill blast nor roll of a drum To herald the way for the conqurer’s feet. But hearts that lie bleeding, to passion a slave, And tear drops in silence and solitude shed, Are the signals that marshal the true and the brave. The wreathes that encircle the conquerer’s head. Then look up, ye sad ones, whom might hath borne down, For the flag of true freedom shall e’er be unfurled, And her emblem with lovelier stars shall be crowned, W hen true independence encircles the world. E. A. H. W atertown, N.Y. For the Clarion. Tl»e Celestial Vintage. BY SARAH A. MANN. Thou ever beautiful and living vine, Embracing space and thought and time, Upward to Thee the striving tendrils climb. Are the grapes not gleaned, The wine-press tro d '? May I not drink thy richer life, 0 God ? Ah, weary, toiling, waiting, hopeful soul, Say, canst thou not p our the ocean’s mighty whole Into the streamlet’s scanty bowl 1 The purple fruit Still bendeth low Beneath the seven hued b o w ! Ye are flowers all from the purple vine, And all must tread the wine press, Time ; And life doth flow, the Life Divine. Truth shall ope the golden stream, ; Love shall bid the waters flow ; Then/patience; wait the vintage through. Pawtucket, R. I. Spiritual Clarion. M R . a n d M R S . U . C L A R K , E d it o r s . M I S S r.TAIl'Y JA W S K I N G , A s s i s t a n t . AUBURN, N. Y„ THURSDAY, JUNE 20 T o O u r P a t r o n s - All subscribers are notified when their | time expires, unless their subscription is im- [ mediately renewed or the paper is returned, or some special understanding is had, bills will be sent them or their names stricken out, | at the discretion of the publisher. The C l a r i o n is now issued only every other week i hut every patron will receive fifty-two mini 1 bers for a volume or year, regardless of time. The speedy co-operation of all Spiritual friends is solicited to enable us to resume our weekly issure. The entire proceeds of this paper aro devoted to actual expenses and the cause of Spiritualism. For terms and News paper Law see last page. F o r m s , C e r e m o n i e s a n d O r d i n a n c e s . Henery C. Pierce, of Cheneyville, Louisi ana, under date of May lltb , 1859, writes Rev. U. Clark—Dear Sir :—Being anxious to learn something of the position you take in respect to church forms and ordinances, I take the liberty of addressing you again. Remarkable Spiritual developments have oc curred here, an account of which has ap peared in the Christian Spiritualist. I write you with more confidence, from the fact that I recently met a gentleman,Mr. L. Reynolds, of New York,a former acquaintance of yours, and he speaks of you in the highest terms, j I wish to inquire whether Spiritualists as a religious organization, have any church or dinances, as baptism, the Lord’s Supper, con firmation, etc, Information on these points would he received with great favor by your friond and anxious inquirer. Yours for immortality. Spiritualists as a body have no formal re ligious organization. The only kind of or ganizations existing among us, are those for the purpose of managing financial and exter nal affairs. We ignore all attempts to em body the religion of Spiritualism in anything like a society, sect, institution, creed, form, or ordinance ; it were like attempting to or ganize the sun light, the air, or the elements of life. W e recognize the central importance of individual freedom; but the moment we attempt anything like an external organiza tion, insisting on forms, oreeds and restric- I tions, the souls of individuals become cramped, confined, subjected to authorities and standards outside of themselves, aud must submit, no longer called upon to feel their own accountability, no longer thrown baok on their own responsibility, no longer stimulated or permitted to exereise their own reason or religious institutions. Spiritual ism begins by recognizing Ijod and the spirit world opened withfreedom for all to commu nicate, receive and apply according to their individual conditions and creeds. Each must seek, find and appropriate for themselves. God and tlic angels must he revealed to indi viduals according to their planes. To pre scribe any sectarian organization, with forms and creeds, would be like prescribing ordi nances to govern our communications with each other on the social plane ; like manu facturing rulers to guide us in the exercise of lore and friendship, and all tbo social sympathies of life. This folly has been at tempted long endugb. Sectarian organiza tions. seeking to proscribe the soul, have re sulted in enslaving millions of the weak,while they have failed to entrammel the minds of the strong, the bold, the free. No man of rational enlightenment or large liberty, will allow any class of men to mould him into anything like stereotyped sects, creeds, or ceremonies. The same is obvious in -social and affectional affairs. Laws and cus toms may be instituted, but the diviner af fections of the human h eart can subsist only in the atmosphere of freedom, and at times they will break over all the hounds of ordi nances and conventionalisms. Law makers phrenologists and physicologists may manu facture codes, charts and creeds to regulate marriage and the affections, yet, after all, men and women will fall in love and marry, regardless of all these external parapharna- lia. The central element of all life and religion is Love; love flowing down from God, through angelic beings, thence manifest in the human heart, and flowing out over tho plane of humanity in deeds and desires of divine goodness. And freedom is the essen tial condition of this divine, angelic and hu man love. So far as individuals can become perfectly united in organizing some methods of action, the result may prove favorable: h u t the spirit of life and religion can never find true, spontaneous expression in any externa 1 organization. It anticipates a perpetual growth in tho individual soul, while a sect, creed and form must perpetually cramp and t
