Hierophant, The.
Monthly Journal of Sacred Symbols and Prophecy.
1842--1843 Monthly
New York, NY. Publisher: Mark H. Newman / Dayton and Newman. Editor: George Bush.
1/1-12, June 1842, May 1843. $1.50 a year, 24 pp.

This was devoted to Bush’s scholarly expositions of the secrets and symbolism of the Hebrew prophets, especially Daniel -- the title of the journal means "expounder of sacred mysteries" -- to soothe what he perceived as "the prevalent anxiety in the christian mind to know what the Scriptures actually teach respecting the grand futurities of the church and the world -- the Millennium, the Second Coming and Personal Reign of Christ, the Prophetical Destiny of the Jews, the New Jerusalem, the Resurrection the End of the world, &c." Bush (1796-1859) was not only a distant relative of the Presidents Bush but was a Biblical scholar (professor of Hebrew at New York University when this journal was published), and an abolitionist and reformer. In 1845 he joined the General Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian) and edited its journal the New Church Repository and Monthly Review. On the appearance of the revelations of Andrew Jackson Davis and then spiritualism, Bush for a time embraced the new movement, impressed by, among other things, the wonderful ability of the spirits mediated by E.P. Fowler to communicate in Hebrew. By 1852, however, he had become disillusioned and wrote for the Repository a 50-page review ("Pseudo-Spiritualism") of 29 books and journals of the movement, concluding that while the phenomena were unimpeachable the method of communication chosen by the spirits (table-turning) was vulgar.

"We have become satisfied of the reality of the phenomena, that is to say, that they are not the product of fraud, collusion, legerdemain, or human contrivance of any kind. We are convinced that they are of a veritably preternatural origin. . . . We know, indeed, that this mode of manifestation by the rapping, or rocking, or removal of tables, not only stumbles faith, but provokes ridicule, with the mass of worldly men, as something utterly beneath the dignity of the dwellers of the spiritual spheres."

Columbia University; NYPL; City College of New York; New York University; Fordham University; BL, etc.

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