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TESTIMONY OF THE CELEBRATED OBERLIN. 157
written on this kind of spiritual phenomena, containing
the facts, with his own reflections upon them. One of
these occurrences I can here relate. the year 1806, a
tremendous convulsion of nature occurred in Switzerland,
which deeply moved the whole of Europe : it was the
fall of the Rossberg, a great mountain, which suddenly
fell, and buried several villages under its ruins. This
catastrophe excited the greatest consternation throughout
the whole surrounding country, and deeply affected
Oberlin and the people of Steinthal. As it was cus
tomary in cases of deep excitement for some person or
other in the valley to become clairvoyant, that is, to have
their spiritual vision opened ; so in this case, several
individuals became clairvoyant, and the unfortunate
people who had been destroyed by the mountain, were
seen in the world of spirits. They appeared, said
Oberlin, in places very similar to those they had left
in the natural world, and associated together, as they
had been accustomed to do, but by degrees they sepa
rated from each other, and were associated according to
their moral worth. This account, Oberlin observed, was
in agreement with what Swedenborg says respecting the
state of man immediately after his departure from this
world ; and likewise respecting what he states in regard
to the manner in which spirits associate together, or
constitute societies ; for all are there arranged according
’to their moral worth,’-those who are good, and, in
similar affections, constitute heavenly societies, and those
who are evil, and in similar malignant dispositions, form
infernal societies.
"So convinced was Oberlin of the salutary importance
of teaching his flock respecting heaven and hell, and the
correspondent relation which man sustains to the spiritual
world, that he formed a chart, or map, representing heaven,
which he hung up in his church. This celestial diagram,
as it was called, was taken from Solomon’s temple, which,
in all respects corresponded to heaven. These corres、
pondences Oberlin had derived from Swedenborg, and he
pointed out to his flock, that according to their humility,
piety, fidelity, and their love of being useful to each other,
;
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