who communicate. "Try the Spirits whether they are of God, for many false seers are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of (or from) God. Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus (the) Christ is come in the flesh, is of God; and every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus (the) Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God." The persons referred to by St. Paul, as having the power of discerning or seeing Spirits, and of prophesying, must have communicated some of their seeings and hearings to the churches, as did Agabus and others; and also Philip's four daughters. Acts. xi. 27, 28.-Acts xxi. 9. "And in those days came seers from Jerusalem to Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit, (acting in him) that there should be a great dearth." Again,-"St. Paul and his companions visited Philip the Evangelist-stayed at his house, and the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy" or in other words were Seeresses-and as they were not superior to Paul, and Paul had his knowledge from a Spirit who spoke to him; we must conclude, that that was the usual manner those who had gifts were acted upon. CONVERSE therefore with "Spirits" or "Angels from the Lord" by or through Mediums, was not and is not forbidden; but on the contrary, converse with them is sanctioned, if they confess Jesus (the) Christ is come in the flesh, and is of God.

I have, in proving that it is not contrary to `Scripture for man to communicate with Spirits, gone a step farther; and proved from Scripture, that disembodied human beings have been chosen instruments of God, to "Bring tidings."

The continuation of the spiritual gifts to the Christian Church, is proved by Irenæus, A.D., 292:—who states the prevalence of spirit manifestations in his day; and also states of the members of the church-"Others have fore-knowledge of things future, and have visions, and the gift of prophesying; others, by imposition of hands, do restore the sick, and heal all manner of diseases. Moreover, they now speak in all tongues by the Spirit of God, even as St. Paul spake," &c.

SECTION VI.

PAGANDOM.

THE Oneness of men's minds on the great vital truth, THAT THERE IS A DEITY; is not only seen in the religious faiths in three quarters of the world; but it is sown broad cast throughout the nations, or the empires of the other two divisions, Asia and Africa.

Mahometanism is "There is one God, and Mahomet is his seer." Brahminism is the belief in "one God and the incarnation of a trinity of powers." China revels in the same faith of "one God;" and their faith in a future world is so strong, and the desirableness of getting there is so weaved in their very being; that the choicest present you can give a Chinese, is a handsome coffin. Africa teems with the idea of the "Great Spirit." Go where you will, and you have the upheaving of this belief, this certainty, in various forms, depending on the climate, and the scenery by which men are surrounded. If you read their books, or listen to their legends, or to their narratives of personal experience, all are magnetised to this truth as the needle to the pole--spirit manifestations as developed in the tropical climates of the east, far exceed in power any manifestations in temperate or arctic regions. However varied may be the details of religious ideas, the GREAT GRAND PIVOTAL FACTS stand out:-There is a God-there are Spirits-and man is Immortal.

The various phases of spirit development may be seen in the books of magic, and the forms and ceremonies of various nations; but as there is no need for consuming our time in collecting distant proofs, while at our doorsteps we have them in abundance; the subject narrows its bounds for the purpose of our testing its nature and capabilities.

SECTION VII.

A FRAGMENT.

THE painter has before his mind the ideal of that which he attempts to perpetuate on the canvas; he perceives forms of beauty; but his materials have not the transparency, the brilliancy, the fluidity he wishes; they do not etherealise as he would wish; but yet he works, and works, till his body is weary, and his eye is faint-he is weary in, but not of his work.

The chemist, in the midst of his chemicals and retorts, perceives principles, and he works and fags, he elaborates his knowledge into fresh combinations; the magnitude of his subject, and its various phases, would fill volumes; but he has to group and condense all to perhaps a few lines, which may be called the life of his thinkings and observations; but the very plodding of his mind from effect to cause, by the monotonous step after step, of practical research and reasoning, reacts upon the body, produces fatigue, and by sympathy, reacts upon the mind, and produces inertness; notwithstanding the vitality of the principles in nature, and the important results which are to flow to society from the proper application of them.

A feeling akin to the foregoing, has been stealing over me; even in the knowledge of the vastness of the subject of spirit life, and the importance of its demonstration to my fellow men as a FACT-the importance of being an instrument for rivetting the truth of the reader's immortality in the mind, thereby giving firmness of hold to his faith. The mass of proof at disposal, taken from the annals of past time, in the ordinary history of Christendom, as well as in the biographies of the eminent men of all the kingdoms wrapt in its mantle. And again, in presence of the thousands of proofs under various circumstances, which shine out in so-called Pagan theology; the mind is subdued and paralysed; at the task of selection and condensation from the vastness of all, to within the space of the

few pages now at disposal. The feeling is-If the public mind was prepared for supporting any man in the task of issuing a suitable number of volumes by a sale of the work, equal to any of the ordinary every-day three volume novels;-then the dead weight would be removed. How happy the mop-headed, shirtless boy is, ragged and bare-footed, as he runs into the hay-field, and romping in the little banks of hay, tumbles about, and kicks his heels in the air;-give him a crust of bread, and a handful of water, pure, clear, and cool, from the hill-side stream; and you have a care-nought and dread-nought urchin, who knows and cares nothing about the anxieties and toils the farmer has had to produce the scene around;-he knows nothing of the process in the animal system by which hunger is created; and why certain substances are in combination: He feels hungry, and he knows food will remove it. So is it with many Christians, their knowledge of innate laws hangs as tatters around them; but they are happy-they trust that their bread will be given them, and their water will be sure; and they revel in the perception of present and future pleasures.

Reader, have you ever felt as I do now? "O that I had the wings of a dove, then would I flee away, and be at rest" -not the rest of laziness, but the rest of change-ever active, ever receiving, and giving: IMMORTALITY-living for ever, is man's birthright: flee away to the loved one of boyhood, and the wife of manhood-flee away to the sons and the daughters who have taken their flight-flee away to the loved brothers and sisters, the playmates of youth-flee away to gaze on those bright spirits who have scattered pearls of wisdom among their fellow men when on earth-flee away, and bask in the sunshine of God's attributes as unfolded to those unseen millions of our fellow men, who have worked, and struggled, for their fellow men on earth-REST.

While thus feeling, and totally unfit for perceiving how in wisdom I should so order my thoughts for the remaining sections of this work, I strolled out, and passing an old book stall;

I,while peering over the collection, saw a book labelled "Dick on the Future State;" and when turning listlessly its pages, I saw the words "CAPITAL of the Universe." I was roused, I liked the idea, turned to the heading of the section, and found it to be "The Throne of God." I read, and was so gratified, that whether in or out of place, it must have a place as an introduction to the phenomena of spirit life. "It is as the sound of many waters." I felt as a child up-gazing, and listening to the thoughts of a man. It reminds me of my thinkings in contrast with John Martin's on the appearance of the angel in the Revelations with one foot on the sea and another on the land. I conceived a man six foot high, one foot in the waveripple, and the other out of it; but "Martin," in his picture, has an angel, one foot in the sea, the other on the land; and his body towering above the clouds, the clouds in the sky only reaching his waist: his heart, his shoulders, his head, are up in the deep blue sky: a conception worthy of the theme, and akin to that of David after his examination of the laboratory of the universe; he looking at, or rather trying to comprehend the presence of the GREAT CHEMIST at work-burst out with the expression" who weigheth the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance." Dare I alter, and say, who weigheth the Suns in scales, and the Planets in a balance.