Several of those converts told me their experience, and
pressed me to visit some medium myself, in hopes that I might witness
something that would lead to my conversion. I was, at the time, so
exceedingly skeptical, that the wonderful stories which they told me,
only caused me to suspect them of ignorance, insanity, or dishonesty;
and the repetition of such stories, to which I was compelled to listen
in almost every place I visited, had such an unhappy effect on my mind,
that I was strongly tempted to say, "All men are liars." I had so
completely forgotten, or explained away, my own previous experiences,
and I was so far gone in unbelief, that I had no confidence whatever in
anything that was told me about matters spiritual or supernatural. I
might have the fullest confidence imaginable in the witnesses when they
spoke on ordinary subjects, but I could not put the slightest faith in
their testimony when they told me their stories about spiritual matters.
And though fifty or a hundred persons, in fifty or a hundred different
places, without concert with each other, and without any temptation of
interest, told me similar stories, their words had not the least effect
on my mind. The most credible testimony in the world was utterly
powerless, so far as things spiritual were concerned.
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