the morning of April 14th Mr. Lincoln called his Cabinet together. He had reason to be joyful, but he was anxious to hear from Sherman. Grant was here, and he said Sherman was all right; but President Lincoln said he feared, and related a dream

a dream which he had previous to Chancellorsville and Stone River and whenever a disaster happened. The members of the Cabinet who heard that dream will never forget it. A few hours afterward Sherman was not heard from but the dream was fulfilled. A disaster had befallen the Government, and Mı. Lincoln's spirit by Booth's assassin hand had returned to God who gave it."

Here is another version of this matter from a different

source:

SIR M. E. GRANT DUFF, in his "Notes from a Diary," tells the story as follows. It was told to the author by Charles Dickens, who had it from Stanton, the Secretary of War. Dean Stanley, who had also heard Dickens tell the story, corroborated the accuracy of the present version. Stanton had been called to a Council at the President's, but arrived somewhat late.

After the Council was over, I walked away with the Attorney-General, and said to him, "Well, if all Councils were like this, the war would soon be at an end. The President, instead of sitting on haif-a-dozen chairs and telling amusing stories, has applied himself to business, and we've got through a great deal of work." "Yes," said the Attorney-General, "but you were late. You don't know what happened." "No," I answered. "What did happen?" "All the rest of us," rejoined he, "were pretty punctual, and when we came in we found the President sitting with his head on his hand, and looking very unlike himself. At length he lifted his head, and looking around us, said, "Gentlemen, in a few hours we shall receive some very strange intelligence." Very much surprised, I said to him, “Sir, you have got some very bad news." "No," he answered, "I have got no news, but in a few hours we shall receive some very strange intelligence." Still more astonished, I said, "May we ask, sir,

L

what leads you to suppose we shall receive this intelligence?" He replied, "I've had a dream. I had it the night before Bull's Run. I had it on some other occasion (which Mr. Dickens had forgotten), and I had it last night." This was stranger than ever, and I said, "May we ask, sir, the nature of your dream?" He replied, "I'm alone — I'm in a boat, and I'm out on the bosom of a great rushing river, and I drift, and I drift, and I drift." At this moment came your knock at the door. The President said, "but this is not business, gentlemen. Here is Mr. Stanton." Five hours afterwards Lincoln was assassinated.

DR. ADAM CLARK, the distinguished Methodist Commentator, was a Spiritualist. In commenting upon Saul and Samue! (see his Commentaries, pp. 298-299), says:

"I believe Samuel did actually appear to Saul; and that he was sent to warn this infatuated king of his approaching death, that he might have an opportunity to make his peace with his Maker."

"I believe there is a supernatural or spiritual world, in .which HUMAN spirits, both good and bad, live in a state of consciousness."

"I believe that any of these spirits may, according to the order of God, in the laws of their place of residence, have intercourse with this world and become visible to mortals."

BISHOP JOHN P. NEWMAN, Gen. Grant's pastor in Washington, D. C., is a Spiritualist. He attended seances with other distinguished persons in the palatial residence of Senator Stanford, San Francisco. From a printed sermon of his delivered at the funeral of an aged lady at No. 561 Madison avenue, New York, I make the following extracts.

"This venerable woman has gone, not to sing songs, nor to be idle, nor indifferent as to the scenes of earth and time. These sons and grandchildren over whom she watched with tenderest love here, she will continue to love and guide hereafter. The belief is all but universal that the spirits of the departed have returned to earth. The best of the Greeks and Romans were

strong in this opinion, and those eminent in the church for learning and piety have cherished this common faith.

"Two worlds met in Bible times. The communications were as real then between earth and heaven as between New York and London to-day. From Adam till John of Patmos there was frequent intercourse between those who had gone and those who were left behind.

"Angels dined with Abraham, were companions of Daniel in the lion's den; they conversed with Mary; they delivered Peter irom prison; they visited Cornelius, the Roman Centurion. Celestial visions were given to Isaiah and the prophets, to Paul and the apostles, to Stephen and the martyrs, while Samuel and Moses and Elias were returned to earth. And why should we suppose that there is less interest in heaven for earth now than in the glorious past? We have the inspired record of the return of five persons to our earth, three of whom entered the spiritworld through the portals of the grave."

"And there was another who was born here and went to that spirit-land and returned to us and remained with us from June 44 A. D. till June 64 A. D., a period of twenty years; and six' years after he made this declaration public. He said: 'I was caught up to the third heaven.' This is levitation as taught in 1 Kings xviii: 12; Ezekiel iii: 14; in Acts viii: 39-40. He went not only to the place of departed spirits, but to heaven, where he hard unspeakable words. . . Do not say if only one of our race and time would go and return and witness to us it would be sufficient? Most lawyers are satisfied with one good witness. The law is that two witnesses are sufficient to confirm a fact but here are eight - Samuel, Moses, Elias, Christ, and four apostles. These eight witnesses are as good as eight hundred.

"But do the communications between the two worlds continue to this day? Let us not be deterred in answering this question, because a great Bible fact has been perverted for lust and lucre. Let us rise to the sublimity and purity of the great Bible truth, and on this day of sorrow console our hearts there

with. It was the opinion of Wesley that Swedenborg was visited by the spirits of his departed friends. Dr. Adam Clark believed that the departed spirits returned to earth."

THE APOSTLES AND DISCIPLES of Jesus Christ were Spiritualists. Jesus chose them because they had mediumistic, or spiritual gifts. Paul heard the spirit voice. Both Paul and Peter had trances, as do the mediums of to-day. And Jesus expressly said: "He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do." Again he said, 'These signs (various spiritual manifestations) shall follow them that believe." And these signs, gifts, and demonstrations of the future life did follow the early Christians for the first three centuries. Mosheim confirms this view, saying:

"It is easier to conceive than to express how much the spiritual powers and the extraordinary divine gifts which the early Christians exercised on various occasions, contributed to extend the limits of the church. Though the gift of foreign tongues appears to have gradually ceased, yet other spiritual gifts, healings, prophecies, visions, and the discerning of spirits with which God favored the rising church, were, as we learn from numerous testimonies of the ancients, continued to some extent for several centuries."

that

IGNATIUS, native of Syria and pupil of Polycarp, declares

"Some in the church most certainly have a divine knowledge of things to come. Some have visions; others utter prophecies, and heal the sick by laying on of hands; and others still speak in many tongues, bringing to light the secret things of men, angels, and expounding the mysteries of God."

Many confirmatory testimonies might be quoted from Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Apollinaris, Cyprian, Lactantius, and others of the earlier fathers. The Phrygian Montannus affirmed with great emphasis that "These continuous prophecies, healing gifts, tongues, and visions are the divine inheritance of the true Christian," quoting in confirmation the

old Scripture words, "Where there is no vision the people perish."

ST. ANTHONY, in one of his fiery sermons, exclaimed:

"We walk in the midst, of demons, who give us evil thoughts; and also in the midst of good angels who give us heavenly thoughts. When these latter are especially present, there is no disturbance, no contention, no clamour; but something so calm and gentle that it fills the soul with gladness. The Lord is my witness that after many tears and fastings I have been surrounded by a band of angels, good spirits, and joyfully joined in singing with them."

TATIAN, in his orations against the Greeks, said:

"Your poetess Sappho was an impudent courtesan, and sung her own wantonness; but our women full of faith in Christ are chaste, and our virgins, at the distaff, utter divine oracles, see visions, and sing the holy words that are given them by inspiration."

TERTULLIAN, with fierce authority, challenged the heathen (Roman orthodox religionists) to a trial of superiority in the matter of casting out demons, and the exercise of other spiritual gifts characterizing Christians. Among other facts, he referred to a sister's prophecies and very remarkable revelations. These are his words in the "De Anima:"

"There is a sister among us who possesses a faculty of revelations. Commonly during religious service she falls into a trance, holding communion with the angels, beholding Jesus Himself, hearing divine mysteries explained, reading the hearts of some person, and administering to such as require it. When the Scriptures are read or psalms sung, spiritual beings minister visions to her. We were speaking of the soul once, when our sister was in the spirit [entranced]; and, the people departing, she then communicated to us what she had seen in her ecstasy, which was afterwards closely inquired into and tested. She declared she had seen a soul in bodily shape, that appeared to be a spirit, neither empty nor formless, but so substantial that it