Dr. Selim Newell was giving testimony concerning the character of John P. Weeks on this day in 1842. Weeks was from Danville and had been gravely ill, but remarkably had recovered.

Upon recovery, he wrote about the impact of his illness, both physically and spiritually. Dr. Newell and others corroborated the account of Week’s illness, but the story of his spirit traveling from Danville to paradise and then hell and back again was more difficult to verify.

Weeks’ travelogue warranted testimony, because it contradicted the Advent Doctrine of the good soul sleeping in the grave and the destruction of the wicked.

Photo courtesy the Vermont Historical Society.