Nine Days in Heaven: A True Story (33 page)
When I arrive in paradise, free from mortality, I will praise Him with a pure and undivided heart. I will exalt the name of my Redeemer in loud anthems throughout eternity.
T
HE FOLLOWING TESTIMONIALS ARE PRESENTED HERE IN THEIR
original form, except for a few slight changes where words have altered significantly in meaning or were particularly difficult to understand. Although obviously different in style to our language of today, they are quite easy to follow—unlike the language of the main text of the original book.
Statement of Original Publisher
The increasing demand for this work, with so little effort to call public attention to it, confirms our first impressions, that it is the Book for the age; one greatly needed to supply the deficiency intuitively sensed by the mind of the present generation.
Edition after edition has been published and passed silently into the hands of the reading public. Reports of an encouraging nature reach us from all sections where it has found its way, and the united testimony of those who avail themselves of the work is, that, to read is to be benefited.
Its sound theology, purely religious sentiment, and thrilling descriptions of scenes enacted beyond the grave, as seen by the spirit of the young girl, while her body lay entranced, cannot, it seems to me, fail to strengthen the faith of the Christian in the truths of Revelation. More particularly is it adapted to the youthful mind of this age, to awaken in it a love of the Christian Religion as it unfolds so graphically the great plan of man’s Redemption—“which things the angels desire to look into.”
I have witnessed its effect upon the youthful mind. They, while listening to the thrilling story of Marietta, seem borne along with her enraptured spirit, and with it to witness the unfolding of visions, by which the Infants are being taught to know their Redeemer, that they too might be able to realize and love Him, who was once a babe in a manger; then a man of sorrows acquainted with grief; then suffering death and triumphing over the grave, for the redemption of a ruined and forlorn race.
I unhesitatingly state it as my firm and unwavering belief, that the spirit of Marietta Davis, like John, the Revelator, while his body was in the Isle of Patmos, visited scenes beyond the grave, and there saw and heard what she relates. However this may be, if the truth can be brought to reach the mind, and win the affections to the Christian Religion, all is gained that should be desired.
—S
TEPHEN
D
EUEL
D
AYTON
, O
HIO
S
EPTEMBER
1, 1856
Testimonies Authenticating the Vision
The following testimonials from the mother and sisters of Marietta Davis, and from Emerson Hull, MD, who has been a resident of Berlin for many years and is a physician of eminence, are but a part of those in possession of the editor but are considered sufficient to authenticate the narrative.
1. Testimony of the family,
Berlin, NY, November 15, 1855
Rev. J. L. Scott:
Dear Friend,
Since you have been publishing the trance of Marietta Davis, in the
Mountain Cove Journal
, some of the readers have written to us to ascertain its authenticity. Upon this account, and to relieve you from embarrassment, we submit the following for your disposal:
Marietta Davis was a member of our family; she was born in this town, where she lived until called by death from us.
She was not of open religious habits; being disinclined to religious conversation. During the revival in the winter of 1847–1848, her mind, as you well know, was religiously exercised; but she could not obtain the reality of the faith others had found, so as to enable her to join her young friends in the truths of the Gospel. In August following she fell into a sleep, or trance, from which she could not be awakened. In that state she remained nine days; and when she awoke, she said she had been in heaven; that she had seen there many of her old friends and relations who were dead; and Jesus the Redeemer. From that time her hope in heaven, through Jesus, was strong; and she rejoiced in the prospect of a final admission into the Paradise of Peace.
During her short stay with us, after she came out of the trance, she related what she said she had seen, heard, and learned during her sleep; but much of what she told us, she said she wished should not be mentioned then, for the world was not prepared to hear it. The trance, as you published it, as far as we can recollect, is correct; only you have omitted much. Marietta fell asleep in August 1848 and died the following March, and at the time and in the manner predicted by herself.
Y
OURS
,
N
ANCY
D
AVIS
, M
OTHER
S
USAN
D
AVIS
, S
ISTER
S
ARAH
A
NN
D
AVIS
, S
ISTER
2. Testimony of the attending physician,
Berlin, NY, November 15, 1853
Rev. J. L. Scott:
Dear Sir,
In the Summer of 1848, with yourself, I visited the widow Nancy Davis, of this town, in the capacity of medical attendant upon her daughter Marietta, who had fallen into a state of catalepsy, or trance, in which she remained nine days, and from which to awaken her human skill seemed unavailing. When she returned to her normal state, she related much of a remarkable character, which she said she had learned while in the trance.
Having read portions of what you have published in the
Mountain Cove Journal
, I am prepared to give my testimony as to its strict correspondence to what I heard her relate before her death.
Y
OUR
O
BEDIENT
S
ERVANT
,
E
MERSON
H
ULL
, MD
3. Testimonies of prominent ministers
living at the time of the vision
Lest some who have not read this Trance, and are therefore unacquainted with its character, should class it with books “got up” by the “spirit media” of the day, and to assure the reader that its correct sentiment and pure spirit commend it to the confidence of the Religious Public, we insert the following statements of the Rev. Mr. Waller, of Kentucky, and the Rev. Mr. Miller, of Springfield, Ohio.
Rev. G. Walker, one of the first ministers of the Baptist order, in Kentucky, whose sound Theology and good sense won him, for twenty-five consecutive years, the highest office in his denomination, and whose name is sufficient commendation for any Work through the wide field of his usefulness, and wherever his name is known, writes as follows:
“I have carefully examined a book bearing the title:
Scenes Beyond the Grave
, purporting to be a simple narrative of scenes enacted beyond the grave, and witnessed by the spirit of a young girl while she lay entranced, as the testimony shows. Of this I express no opinion; but fully approve of its pure and deep-tone spirit of Christianity, and sound Theology.
“The Scenes are so truly depicted, and so beautifully and thrillingly told, that it cannot fail to secure the judgment, and win the confidence and affections of all who read it.
“I am constrained to say, that in purity of style, and richness of composition, it is not excelled by any work I have read. I should be pleased if it could be placed upon the table of every family, and read in every common and Sunday school in the land. Disbelief in Christianity can have little influence where it is read. It is particularly adapted to the use of families and schools, to form in the young mind the first impressions. I therefore very cheerfully recommend it to the public, and particularly to all who love the Bible and the Christian religion.
G
EORGE
W
ALLER
L
OUISVILLE
, K
ENTUCKY
J
UNE
15, 1855”
Rev. Mr. Miller, of Springfield, Ohio, Minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a man of deep devotion and marked piety who has not only the confidence of his Church, but for some twenty years has held a responsible office—the gift of the people of his city and county—in a letter speaks thus:
“Rev. J. L. Scott:
“I have before me the first part of the Trance of Marietta Davis, entitled
Scenes Beyond the Grave
, which I have read with inexpressible delight; and it so far exceeds any work I have previously read, which treats upon the lost state of man, and his redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ, that I am constrained to urge upon you the necessity of placing it in the hands of every family in the land.
“Its richness, and purity of style, its poetic grandeur and figurative excellence, so possess the mind of the reader, that he seems himself ‘entranced,’ and borne far beyond the darkness and imperfections of earth, to be an observer with the spirit of Marietta, of the lovely scenes that occupy the inhabitants of heaven; and also as was revealed to her, the reader realizes most deeply the depth of iniquity into which man is fallen by reason of sin, and becomes lost in the contemplation of the boundless goodness bestowed in his redemption.
“Her description, as revealed to her, of the display of Justice, and Mercy, the meekness, love and suffering of the Saviour, in the purpose and completion of the plan of Salvation, is unequalled; and the narrative of what she saw in Paradise, where the infants from earth are received, agreeing so perfectly as it does with our highest hopes of the blessedness of our little ones, who have departed this life, fills the reader with ecstasy.
“No language of mine is in any way capable of explaining the feelings that awaken in the soul, while reading the narrative, and whatever may have been the inspiring cause (and I believe she saw what she relates), I feel that whoever reads the Trance with any degree of care will receive from it lasting benefit.
“I am therefore eager that it should be spread abroad through the land, and the more especially, since it is so well calculated to counteract the destructive influence of the disbelief in Christianity, now so abundantly proclaimed by the advocates of modern Infidel Spiritualism.
“In the bonds of Christian affection, I am yours,
R
EUBEN
M
ILLER
S
PRINGFIELD
, C
LARK
C
O
., O
HIO
J
UNE
9, 1855”
4. Testimony of Marietta’s pastor
The work now presented to the public as depicting
Scenes Beyond the Grave
does not come without authority for its somewhat startling title. In the summer of 1848, a young woman named Marietta Davis, aged twenty-five years, residing with her mother Mrs. Nancy Davis, at Berlin, New York, fell into a sleep or trance, in which she remained for nine days. All endeavours on the part of her friends and of her physicians failed to arouse her from this unnatural state. When at last she awoke to a consciousness of external things, she was in the full possession of all her natural faculties, with an almost supernatural acuteness of perception superadded.
Before she fell into the trance, her mind had been considerably exercised in regard to her future state; but there was yet a lingering doubt that greatly disturbed her. Her mother and sisters were exemplary members of a Baptist Church, in Berlin, then under my pastoral charge, but Marietta’s doubt seemed to have kept her from the enjoyment of the hope in which her family so confidently rested. But when she came out of the trance, in which she had lain for so many days, it was with joy and rejoicing over the unspeakable things that she had seen and heard. Her mouth was filled with praises to God, and her heart swelled with gratitude to him for his loving kindness. She averred that while her body lay as it were in death, her spirit had visited the eternal world. She informed her friends that she was not to remain long with them: but should soon go hence to enjoy a mansion prepared for her in her heavenly Father’s Kingdom. After this she lived seven months and died at the time predicted by herself; and so perfectly did she know the hour of her departure, that when it arrived she selected a hymn and commenced singing it with the family; and while they sang, her spirit took its flight so gently as not to attract attention. Thus the hymn commenced with her friends on earth, and doubtless concluded with the angels in heaven.