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In the
“Life of William Tennent,” that zealous, devoted minister, and friend and
fellow-laborer of Whitefield, the author of his memoirs gives an account of
Tennent being three days in a trance. He became prostrated with a fever, and
by degrees sunk under it, until, to appearances, he died. In laying him out,
one felt a slight tremor under the left arm, though the body was cold and
stiff. The time for the funeral arrived, and the people were assembled. But a
physician, Tennent’s friend, plead that the funeral might be delayed. |
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Tennent’s
brother remarked: “What! A man not dead who is cold and stiff as a stake?”
The doctor, however, prevailed; another day was appointed for the funeral.
During the interval, various efforts were made to discover signs of life, but
none appeared save the slight tremor. For three days and nights his friend,
the physician, never left him. Again the people met to bury him, but could
not even then obtain the physician’s consent. For one hour more he pled; when
that was gone, he craved half an hour more. That being expired, he implored a
stay of fifteen minutes, at the expiration of which Tennent opened his eyes. |
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The
following brief account is given in Mr. Tennent’s own language, and was
related to a brother minister: “As to dying, I found my fever increase, and I
became weaker and weaker, until all at once, I found myself in heaven, as I
thought. I saw no shape as to the Deity, but glory all unutterable. I can say
as Paul did, I heard and saw things unutterable. I saw a great multitude
before His glory, apparently in the height of bliss, singing most
melodiously. I was transported with my of situation, viewing all my troubles
ended, and my rest and glory begun, and was about to join the great and happy
multitude, when one came to me looked me full in the face, laid his hand upon
my shoulder, and said: “You must go back.” |
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“These
words went through me; nothing could have shocked me more. I cried out:
“Lord, must I go back?” With this shock, I opened my eyes in this world, I fainted, then came to, and fainted again several
times, as one probably would naturally have done in so weak a situation. |
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“For three
years the sense of the Divine things continued so great, and everything else
appeared so completely vain, when compared to heaven, that could I have had
the world for stooping down for it, I believe I should not have thought of
doing it.” |
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To the
writer of his memoirs, Mr. Tennent, concerning this experience, once said: “I
found myself, in an instant, in another state of existence, under the
direction of a superior being, who offered me to follow him. I was accordingly
wafted along, I know not how, till I beheld, at a distance, an ineffable
glory, the impression of which on my mind, it is impossible to communicate to
mortal man. |
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“Such was
the effect on my mind of what I had seen and heard, that if it be possible
for a human being to live entirely above the world, and the things of it, for
some time afterward I was that person. The ravishing sounds of the songs and
hallelujahs that I heard, and the very words that were uttered, were not out
of my ears, when awake, for at least three years. All the kingdoms of the
earth were in my sight as nothing and vanity. So great were my ideas of
heavenly glory, that nothing which did not in some
measure relate to it, could command my serious attention. |
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Mr.
Tennent lived a number of years after this event, and died in the triumphs of
a living faith, |
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The following
was related and vouched for by the late Robert Young, the missionary. We
quote his account of the trance as given in a tract entitled, “A Vision of
Hell,” issued by the Evangelical Publishing Company, Chicago: |
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“While
residing in a British colony as a Christian missionary, I was called one
evening to visit Miss D----, who was said to be dying. Mrs. Young, by whom
she was met weekly for religious instruction, feeling a deep interest in her
spiritual welfare, accompanied me to her residence. We found her in the
chamber of a neat little cottage, exceedingly ill, but confiding in the
merits of Jesus; and after spending some time with her in conversation and
prayer, we commended her to God, and took our departure, without the least
hope of seeing her again in this life. Soon after we left she seemed to die;
but as the usual signs of death, which so rapidly develop themselves in that
country, did not appear, her friends anxiously waited to see the end. |
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“She was
watched with great interest, both night and day; and after having been in
this state for nearly a week, opened her eyes and said: "Mr. C---- is
dead." Her attendants, thinking that she was under the influence of
delirium, replied that she was mistaken, as he was not only alive but well.
"Oh, no!" said she, "he is dead; for a short time ago, as I
passed the gates of hell, I saw him descend into the pit, and the blue flame
cover him. Mr. B---- is also dead, for he arrived at heaven just as I was
leaving that happy place, and I saw its beautiful gates thrown wide open to
receive him, and beard the host of heaven shout: "Welcome, weary
pilgrim!" |
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“Mr. C----
was a neighbor, but a very wicked person, and Mr. B----, who lived at no
great distance, many years had been a member of the |
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VISIT TO
HEAVEN. |
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“After
being sufficiently recovering to leave the house, she paid us a visit, and
Mrs. Young, as well as myself, heard from her own lips the following account
of what she had passed through. She informed us that at the time she was supposed
to die, a celestial being conducted her into the invisible world, and
mysteriously unveiled to her the realities of eternity. He took her first to
heaven, but she was told that, as she yet belonged to time, she could not be
permitted to enter into that glorious place, but only to behold it; which she
represented as infinitely exceeding in beauty and splendor the most elevated
conceptions of mortals, and whose glories no language could describe. |
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“She told
us that she beheld the Savior upon a throne of light and glory, surrounded by
the four-and-twenty elders, and a great multitude which no man could number;
among whom she recognized patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and all
the missionaries who had died in that colony, besides many others whom she
mentioned; and although those parties were not named by the angel that
attended her, yet she said that seeing them was to know them. |
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“She
described these celestial spirits as being variously employed; and, although
she felt herself inadequate to convey any definite idea of the nature of that
employment, yet it appeared to be adapted to their respective mental tastes
and spiritual attainments. She also informed us that she heard sweet and most
enrapturing music, such as she had never heard before, and made several
attempts to give us some idea of its melodious character, but found her notes
too earthly for that purpose. |
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While thus
favored, the missionaries already referred to, and other happy spirits, as
they glided past her, sweetly smiled, and said they knew whence she came,
and, if faithful to the grace of God, she would, in a-short time, be admitted
into their delightful society. All the orders of heaven were in perfect and
blessed harmony, and appeared to be directed in all their movements by
mysterious influence, proceeding from the throne of God. |
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“She was
next conducted to a place whence she had |
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A VIEW OF
HELL. |
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“This she
described in the most terrific language, and declared that the horrid shrieks
of lost spirits still seemed to sound in her ears. As she approached the
burning pit, a tremendous effort was made to draw her into it; but she felt
herself safe under the protection of her guardian angel. She recognized many
in the place of torment whom she had known on earth, and even some who had
been thought to be Christians. |
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“There
were princes and peasants, learned and un-learned, writhing together in one
unquenchable fire, where all earthly distinctions and titles were forever at
an end. Among them she beheld a Miss W----, who had occupied a prominent
station in society, but had died during the illness of this young woman. She
said that when Miss W saw her approach, her shrieks were appalling, beyond
the power of language to describe, and that she made a desperate but
unsuccessful effort to escape. |
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“The
punishment of lost souls she represented as symbolizing the respective sins
which had occasioned their condemnation. Miss W----, for instance, was
condemned for the love of money, which I had every reason to believe was her
besetting sin; and she seemed robed in a garment of gold, all on fire. Mr.
O----, whom she saw, was lost through intemperance; and he appeared to be
punished by devils administering to him some boiling liquid. |
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“She said
there was no sympathy among these unhappy spirits, but that unmixed hatred,
in all its frightful forms, prevailed in every part of the fiery regions. She
beheld parents and children, husbands and wives, and those who had been
companions in sin, exhibiting every mark of deep hatred to each other’s
society; and heard them in fiendish accents upbraiding and bitterly cursing
each other. She saw nothing in hell but misery and despair, and heard nothing
there but the most discordant sounds, accompanied with weeping, and wailing,
and gnashing of teeth. |
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“While she
gazed upon this revolting scene, many souls arrived from earth, and were
greedily seized by innumerable devils of monstrous shape, amid horrid shouts
of hellish triumph, and tortured according to their crimes.” |
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John
Wesley, in his Journal of August, 1746, vol. 1, pages 374-375-376, concerning
one he styles “S.T.,” says: |
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“About six
in the morning she was rising, and inwardly praying to God; when on a sudden,
she was seized with a violent trembling. Quickly after she lost her speech in
a few minutes her hearing; then her sight, and, at the same time, all sense
and motion. |
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“Her
mother immediately sent for Mrs. Designe, to whom she then went to school. At
the same time her father sent for Mr. Smith, apothecary, who lived near. At
first he proposed bleeding her immediately, and applying a large blister; but
upon examining her further, he said ‘It signifies nothing, for the child is
dead.’ About |
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“As soon
as I lost my senses, I was in a dismal place, full of briers, and pits, and
ditches; stumbling up and down, and not knowing where to turn, or which way
to get either forward or backward; and it was almost quite dark, there being
but a little faint twilight, so that I could scarce see before me. I was
crying, ready to break my heart; and a man came to me, and said: ‘Child,
where are you going?’ I said: ‘I could not tell.’ He said: ‘ What do you
want?’ I answered: ‘I want Christ to be my refuge.’ He said: ‘You are the
child for whom I am sent; you are to go with me.’ I saw it grew lighter as he
spoke. I observed his clothes; they reached down to his feet, and were
shining and white as snow. |
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He brought
me through a narrow lane, into a vast, broad road, and told me: ‘This leads
to hell; but be not afraid; you are not to stay
there.’ At the end of that road a man stood, clothed like the other, in
white, shining clothes. Turning to the left hand, we went down a very high,
steep hill. I could scarce bear the stench and smoke of brimstone. I saw a
vast many people that seemed to be chained down, crying and gnashing their
teeth. The man told me, the sins they delighted in once they are tormented
with now. I saw a vast number who stood up, cursing and blaspheming God, and
spitting at each other; and many were making balls of fire, and throwing them
at one another. I saw many others, who had cups of fire, out of which they
were drinking down flames; and others, who held cards of fire in their hands,
and seemed to be playing with them. |
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“We stayed
here, I thought, about half an hour. Then my guide said: ‘Come; I will now show
you a glorious place.’ I saw the gate of heaven, which stood wide open; but
it was so bright I could not look at it long. We went straight in, and walked
through a large place, where I saw saints and angels; and another large
place, where were abundance more. They were all of one height and stature;
and when one prayed, they all prayed; when one sung, they all sung. And they
all sung alike, with a smooth, even voice, not one higher or lower than
another. |
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“We went
through this into a third place. There I saw God, sitting upon His throne. It
was a throne of light, brighter than the sun. I could not fix my eyes upon
it. I saw three, but all as one. Our Savior had a pen in His hand. A great
book lay at His right side; another at His left; and a third partly behind
Him. In the first He set down the prayers and good works of His people; in
the second He set down all the curses, and all the evil works of the wicked.
I saw that He discerns the whole earth at a glance. |
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“Then our
Lord took the first book in His hand, and went and said: ‘Father, behold the
prayers and the works of my people.’ And he held up His hands and prayed, and
interceded to His Father for us. I never heard any voice like that; but I
cannot tell how to explain it. And His Father said: ‘Son, I forgive Thy
people; not for their sake, but Thine.’ Then our Lord wrote it down in the
third book, and returned to His throne, rejoicing with the hosts of heaven. |
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“It seemed
to me as if I stayed here several months but I never slept all the while. And
there was no night; and I saw no sky or sun, but clear light everywhere. Then
we went back to a large door, which my guide opened; and we walked into
pleasant gardens, by brooks and fountains. As we walked, I said: ‘I did not
see my brother here’ (who died sometime before). He said: ‘Child, thou canst
not know thy brother yet. Thy spirit is to return to the earth. Thou must
watch and pray. Thou shalt come again hither, and be joined to these, and
know everyone as before.’ I said: ‘When is that to be?’ He said ‘I know not,
nor any angel in heaven; but God alone.’ |
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While we
were walking, he said: ‘Sing.’ I said ‘What shall I sing?’ And he said: ‘Sing
praises unto the King of the place.’ I sung several verses. Then he said: ‘I
must go.’ I would have fain gone with him; but he said ‘Your time is not yet;
you have more work to do on earth.’ Immediately he was gone; and I came to
myself, and began to speak. |
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“She
received remission of sins when she was nine years old, and was very watchful
from that time. Since this trance she has continued in faith and love.” |
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Touching
Incidents and Remarkable Answers to Prayer By S. B. SHAW. |
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From: http://www.ccel.org/ |