some prophetic notices with which he was favoured by the genius who attended him."-Plutarch.

THRASYBULUS went out against the tyrants, and there went also by his side, in foremost rank, the prophet or man of God, habitually consulted before a battle; while promising victory he predicted his own death, which took place.

DIODORUS informs us that the oracle of Delphi, on the birth of Agathocles, foretold that "the child would bring dreadful calamities upon the Carthaginians and all Sicily." And so it came to pass.

CLASSIC.-" Timarchus, who was curious on the subject of the angel of Socrates, went to the cave of Trophonius to consult the oracle about it. There having for a short time inhaled the prophetic vapour, he felt as if he had received a sudden blow in the head and sank down insensible. Then his head appeared to him to open and to give passage to his soul into the other world; and an imaginary being seemed to inform him that the part of the soul engaged in the body, entrammelled in its organization, is the soul as ordinarily understood; but that there is another part or province of the soul, which is the diamond-this has a certain control over the bodily soul, and among other offices constitutes conscience. In three months you will know more of this.' At the end of three months died Timarchus."

CHILON the Lacedæmonian, was an accidental witness of the wonderful prodigy which occurred at the Olympic games while Hippocrates had sacrificed a victim. The brazen vessels, which were filled with the flesh and the water, boiled up and overflowed without the intervention of fire. Chilon advised Hippocrates, first of all, not to marry a woman likely. to produce him children; if he was already married, to repudiate his wife; but if he had a son, by all means to expose him. Hippocrates despised the warning, and had a son, called Pisistratus, the same who so oppressed Athens.

CANDAULIS, KING OF SARDIS.-Having exposed his wife to the gaze of his friend Gyges, the queen in revenge of the insult gave Gyges the option of murdering Candaulis, and taking her and the kingdom, or being killed himself. He preferred the former, and became king. The Delphic oracle confirmed Gyges in the sovereignty, but declared that the family of Candaulis should be avenged in the person of the fifth descendant. CREESUS, whose frequent recourse to oracles

is well known, and whose terrible overthrow by the Persian, Cyrus, formed an epoch in the history of nations-was that fifth. Croesus was evidently a man of much shrewdness, as his management of his wars illustrate. Take the instance of his testing the oracles of Greece, and of Libya, Delphi, the Phoenician Abas, Dodona, Amphiaraus, Trophonius, the Milesian Branchidæ and Libyan Ammon. He arranged that on the hundredth day from their departure from Sardis, they were to respectively ask the oracle what Croesus was doing; they were to write down and communicate to him the reply of each oracle. Of the answers in general there is no account remaining, except that they were unsatisfactory. But the Lydian's messengers no sooner entered the Delphic temple, and proposed their question, than in heroic verse the Pythian answered

"I count the sand, I measure out the sea,
The silent and the dumb are heard by me :
F'en now the odours to my sense that rise,
A tortoise boiling with a lamb supplies:
Where brass below and brass above it lies."

Croesus at once made known his opinion that there was no true oracle but that-the Pythian-for it alone explained his employment at the time. It seems that on the day appointed for his servants to consult the different oracles, determining to do what it would be equally difficult to discover and explain, he had cut in pieces a tortoise and a lamb, and boiled them together in a covered vessel of brass.

From the numerous instances we have of the responses of the oracle at Delphi, it cannot be disputed; that the priestess had the power of not only knowing what was then transpiring at a distance, but knew what would happen in generations to come. "Nonsense" does not annihilate the facts, but the facts should provoke enquiry as to the law which produces them.

ALEXANDER, when young, consulted the priestess of Apollo, and she foretold "that a Lycian would conduct him into Persia." After he had conquered various nations, and determined on attempting the conquest of Persia, he found the entrance into Persia very difficult on account of the roughness of the country, and because the passes were guarded by the bravest of the Persians. But a man, who spoke both

Grecian and Persian, offered himself as guide to Alexander, and showed him how he might enter by taking a circuit. He did so, and conquered. The man who acted as guide was a Lycian by his father, and a Persian by his mother.

JOSEPHUS." Thou, O Vespasian! thinkest no more than that thou hast taken Josephus himself captive; but I come to thee as a messenger of greater tidings; for had not I been sent by God to thee, I knew what was the law of the Jews in this case, and how it becomes a general to die. Dost thou send me to Nero? For why? Are Nero's successors till they come to thee still alive? Thou, O Vespasian! art Cæsar and emperor-thou and thy son. Bind me now still faster, and keep me for thyself; for thou, O Cæsar! art not only lord over me, but over the sea and land, and all mankind; and certainly I deserved to be kept in closer custody than I am now in, in order to be punished if I rashly affirm anything of God.' One of the friends that were present said to Josephus, 'I cannot but wonder how thou couldst not foretell to the people of Sotapata that they should be taken, nor thy captivity.' To which Josephus replied, I did foretell to the people that they would be taken on the forty-seventh day, and that I should be caught alive by the Romans.'"

CHRISTIAN. Read the sacred books for numerous predictions. In closing up this Section on Predictions, I wish to point out one important feature in connection with the "bringers of tidings" through seers, or prophets, or mediums; as angelic predictions are by men misunderstood. Angels, as a rule, give the commencement of the epoch, men the turmoil or apparent close; angels the date of infection, men the date of apparent death; consequently the information given through seers is often thrown aside as not to be depended on. Angels are right, men wrong. In another way errors arise, in very many cases; an apparent death takes place, say on Friday evening; but the spirit of life often remains in the body for several hours after-so that the actual death is on Saturday or Sunday; but the register and the tombstone say Friday.

SECTION X.

SPIRIT-POWER-IMPRESSIONS.

IMPRESSIONS.-Read that book of special providence called "The Lord's Dealings with George Muller." Muller is a man who never asks for a subscription to support the ONE THOUSAND ORPHANS God has committed to his care-he never buys food on credit; if he has no money to buy bread for the orphans, he kneels; tells the Lord he is his servant, and that the orphans are his, and that there is no money for food; and the prayer is answered. Some one in Bristol, or elsewhere, is " PRESSED" that the orphans are in want, and the uneasiness is so felt, that they bring or send sums ranging from a penny to pounds. The orphans being thus fed from hand to mouth for weeks by prayer. Muller, neither by word nor look, letting it be known the straits he is in for money. If the reader wants a wonder-book of divine oversight, buy a copy, and read it thoughtfully. God has in his word said, he will be a father to the fatherless. Where are the fathers and mothers of those children—extinct? No. Living? Yes. Think you they do not pray for their earth children, it is inhuman to think so; nay, more, in the knowledge of the fact of deceased relatives being, under divine law, allowed to minister to their earth relatives. Can we not, in thought, see one thousand fathers, and one thousand angel mothers, hovering over the Bristol Orphan Asylum; watching and assisting Muller by influencing, IMPRES SING relatives and others to give of their abundance. Oh! if the spiritual eyes of the inhabitants of Bristol could be opened, they would see a sight which would astound them, as much as Élisha's servant was astounded; when his eyes were opened and he saw the hill side, and the air filled with spirits assisting the prophet. Let us give the following illustrations:

FEB. 8, 1842.- "We never were in greater poverty, and if the Lord were not to send means before nine o'clock to-morrow morning, his name will be dishonoured; there was in the boxes at the orphan houses 2s. 14d., and 1s. 4d. came in for stockings; but unless more come in, we will not be able to take in the milk. Truly, we are poorer than ever; but my eyes are not shut at the empty stores and purse, but to the riches of the Lord only."

FEB. 9.—"This morning I went between seven and eight

o'clock to the orphan houses, to see if the Lord had sent anything. When I had arrived there, he had just two or three minutes before sent help. A person in going to his house of business this morning, had gone already half a mile, when the Lord was pleased to lay the orphans upon his heart. He said, however, to himself, I cannot return now, but will take something this evening; and thus he walked on. Nevertheless, he could not go on any further, but felt himself constrained to go back, and take to the orphan houses three sovereigns. Muller says, Thus the Lord in his faithfulness helped us, and help was never more truly needed, and it came only two or three minutes before the money was required.' He says, 6 This way of living brings the Lord remarkably near. He is, as it were, morning by morning inspecting our stores, that accordingly he may SEND help. Greater and more manifest nearness of the Lord's presence I have never had, than when after breakfast there were no means for dinner for more than one hundred per-" sons ;* or when, after dinner, there was no means for tea; and yet the Lord provided the tea, and all without one single human being having been informed about our need." "

NOT DEAD." While in New Orleans, in February 1854, our friend T. L. Harris, the author of 'A Lyric of the Golden Age,' was requested to officiate in his ministerial capacity at the funeral of Augustus Wang. After promising to comply with the request, he was subjected to a powerful spiritual influence, and impressed to say that the spirit still preserved its connection with the body; that Mr. W. had a partial consciousness of what was going on, but that he would be released from his mortal restraints in about thirty-six hours. These statements were communicated to the family, and the body was thereupon taken from the coffin, and placed in bed; after which, faint but distinct signs of life were perceptible. Mr. Harris directed a lady to take Mr. W. by the hand, and tell him that T. L. H. was conscious of his situation, and would see that he was not buried alive. The lady did so, whereupon Mr. W. distinctly pressed her hand. He remained in that state, without undergoing any apparent change, from that morning until the afternoon of the next day, when spirits announced that he had left the body, and marks of decomposition ensued."

HAND CONTROLLED." In the summer of 1853, Mr. Harris, in company with two other gentlemen whose names are in the writer's possession, was induced to visit an unsettled and

*Now a thousand.