sand fold. The reason that God took away their eye and their hand and their brain was that he might give them something more limber, more wieldy, more skilful, more multiplitant.

'I remark again, that all our departed Christian friends, who in this world were passionately fond of music are still regaling that taste in the world celestial. The Bible says so much about the music of heaven."

Spiritualists are often accused of taking too materialistic views of the spirit world; listen to the great preacher:

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Again I remark that those of our departed Christian friends who in this world had very strong military spirit are now in armies celestial and out on bloodless battle. There are hundreds of people born soldiers. They cannot help it. They belong to regiments in time of peace. They cannot hear the drum or fife without trying to keep step to the music. They are Christians, and when they fight they fight on the right side. Now, when these our Christian friends, who had natural and powerful military spirit, entered heaven, they entered the celestial army.

"I have not so much faith in the army on the ground as I have in the army in the air. O God, open our eyes that we may see them. The military spirits that went up from earth to join the military spirits before the throne-Joshua, and Caleb, and Gideon, and David, and Samson, and the hundreds of Christian warriors who on earth fought with fleshy arm, and now have gone up on high, are now coming down the hills of heaven ready to fight among the invisibles. Yonder they are- coming, coming. Did you not hear them as they swept by?

"What are our departed Christian friends who are explorers doing now? Exploring yet, but with lightning locomotion, with vision microscopic and telescopic at the same time. A continent at a glance. A world in a second. A planetary system in a day. Christian John Franklin no more in disabled Erebus pushing towards the North Pole, Christian De Long no more trying to free blockaded Jeannette from the ice, Christian Livingston no more amid African malarias trying to make revelation of a dark - continent; but all of them, in the twinkling of an eye, taking in that which was unapproachable.

"What are our departed friends who found their chief joy in study doing now? Studying yet, but instead of a few thousand volumes on a few shelves, all the volumes of the universe open before them-geologic, ornithologic, conchologic, botanic, astro

nomic, philosophic. No more need of Leyden jars, or voltaic piles, or electric batteries, standing, as they do, face to face with the facts of the universe.

"What are the historians doing now? Studying history yet, but not the history of a few centuries of our planet only, but the history of eternities—whole millenniums before Xenophon, or Herodotus, or Moses, or Adam was born: history of one world, history of all worlds.

"What are our departed astronomers doing? Studying astronomy yet, but not through the dull lens of earthly observatory, but with one stroke of wing going right out to Jupiter and Mars and Mercury and Saturn and Orion and the Pleiades-overtaking and passing swiftest comet in their flight. Herschel died a Christian. Have you any doubt about what Herschel is doing?

"What are our departed Christian friends, who in this world had their joy in the healing art, doing now? Busy at their old business. No sickness in heaven, but plenty of sickness on earth, plenty of wounds in the different parts of God's dominion to be healed and to be medicated. You cannot understand why that patient got well after all the skilful doctors in New York and Brooklyn had said that he must die. Perhaps Abercrombie touched him Abercrombie who, after many years of doctoring the bodies and the souls of people in Scotland, went up to God in 1844.

"Most of those ministers have their people around them already. When I get to heaven, -as by the grace of God I am destined to go to that place, I will come and see you all. Yea, I will come to all the people to whom I have administered in the Gospel, and to the millions of souls to whom, through the kindness of the printing press, I am permitted to preach every week, in this land and in other lands-letters coming from New Zealand and the uttermost parts of the earth, as well as from near nations, telling me of the souls I have helped - I will visit them all. I give them fair notice. Our departed friends of the ministry are engaged in that delectable entertainment now.

"What are our departed Christian friends, who in all departments of usefulness were busy, finding their chief joy in doing good-what are they doing now? Going right on with the work. John Howard visiting dungeons; the dead women of Northern and Southern battle-fields are still abroad looking for the wounded; George Peabody still watching the poor; Thomas Clarkson still

looking after the enslaved-all of those who did good on earth busier than before. The tombstone is not the terminus, but the starting-post."

Certainly a spirit has touched the lips of the preacher.

Gentlemen, I write to inform you of a fact of which you seem to be entirely ignorant; i.e., "THE WORLD MOVES. As surprising as this statement may appear to you, it is, nevertheless, a stubborn truth; the time of bigotry and intolerance is past. The great mass of civilized and enlightened mankind, individually, think for themselves, and they form their opinions from evidence as it is presented and impressed on their individual understandings; dogmas and creeds are fast losing their binding influence on the human mind; priest-craft no longer fetters reason, and dares not attempt to abridge the liberty of thought; and you might as well attempt

To stem a stream with sand,

Or fetter flame with flaxen band,"

as to check the progress of belief in "Modern Spiritualism." Not only do you find it mingling its cheering hopes and promises with the teachings from orthodox pulpits, but men of genius in the literary world kneel reverently at its shrine; science has bowed before its mysteries, while the public prints of the day do not hesitate to present its claims before the people.

I copy the following significant article from a daily paper of very large circulation, and I commend it to your consideration.

A PASSAGE WORTH PRESERVING.

The world is always grateful to a stout-hearted and loftyminded man or woman who makes an unusually good case against the terrors of death. Especially is this true when the plea for peace and happiness beyond the grave is put upon broad grounds that appeal to every fine soul's instinctive sympathies.

And when such a declaration of faith is made by a man revered for his unquestioned genius and loved by a multitude of admirers, the good gift made to the world is all the better and more highly prized.

In a letter published in the October number of Scribner's Magazine, for the first time, Thackeray performs this great service to his fellow-men. The beauty and power of a passage relating to death mark it as one of the finest flashes of his genius, and a gem well worth preserving. We reproduce it herewith:

"I don't pity anybody who leaves the world, not even a fair young girl in her prime; I pity those remaining. On her journey, if it pleases God to send her, depend on it there's no cause for grief; that's but an earthly condition. Out of our stormy life, and brought nearer the divine light and warmth, there must be a serene climate. Can't you fancy sailing into the calm? Would you care about going on the voyage, but for the dear souls left on the other shore? But we shan't be parted from them, no doubt, though they are from us. Add a little more intelligence to that which we possess even as we are, and why shouldn't we be with our friends though ever so far off?... Why, presently, the body removed, shouldn't we personally be anywhere at will, -properties of creation, like the electric something (sparks is it?) that thrills all round the globe simultaneously? and if round the globe, why not Ueberall? and the body being removed or elsewhere disposed of and developed, sorrow and its opposite, crime and the reverse, ease and disease, desire and dislike, etc., go along with the body; a lucid intelligence remains; perception ubiquitous."

Do not think for a moment, gentlemen, that you can "report" Modern Spiritualism out of existence. Why, but yesterday it was a baby plant; to-day it is a magnificent oak, beneath whose refreshing shades millions are reposing; yesterday it was a glimmering spark; to-day it is a beacon light, throwing its rays far beyond the darkness of the tomb; illuminating the once dread and dreary unknown with the cheering light of hope and faith. No other Christian belief affords its certainty of fulfilment, no other faith demonstrates its truth to the doubting mind so clearly and conclusively as does " MODERN SPIRITUALISM.”

CHAPTER VII.

"A goodly apple rotten at the heart,

O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!"

SHAKESPEARE.

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

Exodus xx. 16.

To the member of your Commission who wrote that portion of your report entitled

"THE SLADE-ZÖLLNER INVESTIGATION,"

this chapter is most respectfully dedicated. Your Commission as a body is only responsible for it in so far as they have endorsed it and sanctioned it, by giving it the immortality incident to your investigation and report. I will not take the time to notice all of its misrepresentations or the manifest motives that prompted them. I will leave that to an abler pen than mine, and will refer the reader as well as your Commission to the very able letter of C. C. Massey, - to whom you refer in your report, and whose positive denial of nearly all your statements makes it a simple question of veracity between one member of your Commission and an intimate friend of Professor Zöllner, who translated his work.

I will only give your summary of your investigation of the experiments of this eminent German scientist, that my readers may better understand Mr. Massey's letter, and how fully you are contradicted therein.

SUMMARY.

On page 114 of your report you say:

Thus it would appear that of the four eminent men whose names have made famous the investigation, there is reason to