Glass , ! 11£4 
 
 Book J^l 
 
 Copyright N° . 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
ENTERED ACCORDING TO THE ACT OF CONGRES8. 
 1905. 
 
broken Beams 
 
 from the "** 
 
 Summerlanb 
 
 B? rtDanu Hutbors. 
 
 publtsbefc b£ B. Gaston 
 
 An memory of ber wbo for forts pears was bis 
 companion, counsellor anfc frienfc. 
 
 Gompfleo ano Bofteo 
 
 be 
 
 •fcelen 1R. Connor. 
 

 OCT II itfOb 
 
 fjifri 
 
Zo ©ur Jftienbs. 
 
 T^TT S a pla; 
 
 S a player, however skillful, can bring forth but 
 imperfect music from an ill-tuned instrument, 
 so can the unseen forces bring but un- 
 satisfactory results through inferior mediums. And as (in 
 the first instance) the harmonies proclaim not only the 
 skill of the performer but the quality of the instrument he 
 plays, even so are the manifestations of psychic phenomena 
 an index to the character and intelligence of the medium 
 through whom they are obtained. 
 
 Thus do the communications which follow, speak the 
 merit of the messengers through whom they were received, 
 although they are not presented for the purpose of earning 
 either praise or criticism, but rather for their preservation, 
 that in years to come, should the light of our faith 
 burn but dimly and counterfeit phenomena seem to 
 strip from our treasured philosophy much of its dignity 
 and lofty aim, we may turn with grateful hearts to this 
 little book, and feel the same unquestioning confidence, 
 the same fearlessness of purpose as that of our beloved 
 kinsfolk through whose constant and conscientious effort 
 these messages were received. 
 
 We do not expect they will speak the blessing to- 
 others, they do to us, but there is good in them for alL 
 It is when we know our necessity that the heart cries out, 
 and these messages (enabling us to ever feel the nearness 
 of our vanished loved ones), have been a tonic to our lives. 
 They have been like the grateful shade of a mighty tree 
 on the heated plains. They have borne us through tem- 
 pests of grief out into the great calm. And as they have 
 done unto us, so may they do unto you— nourish and 
 strengthen the comforting faith of Man's Immortality, 
 and Eternal Progression! 
 
 H. N. C, 
 
Un flfcemoriam. 
 
 "Everyone according to the gift which bounteous Na- 
 ture hath in him closed." —Shakespeare. 
 
 EARLY eighty-five years ago there dwelt, on a 
 farm near Rushford, New York, one John 
 Hammond, a bachelor of thirty summers— a 
 most sedate age in those days of early marriages! When 
 Eliza Butterfield, the staid and industrious young woman 
 of fifteen years, (accomplished on the spinning-wheel and 
 hand-loom, and in the feminine art of housekeeping) came 
 to his hermitage to do for a meed, a bit of spinning, to- 
 gether they wove the matrimonial robe which they were 
 destined to wear for fifty busy fleeting years. 
 
 There was no hint of race suicide in those days of 
 large families, and John and Eliza reared ten children 
 to honest industrious God-fearing manhood and woman- 
 hood. Of these a daughter, Thankful Caroline, began her 
 earth-life on June fifth, 1836. 
 
 As if born to teach us how to bear life-long affliction 
 courageously, she met her first foe to physical ease in the 
 golden days of babyhood. Her father, during a business 
 trip to a neighboring state, suffered from a severe attack 
 of inflammation of the eyes, and on his return home, not 
 realizing it was epidemic, failed to isolate himself from 
 his family till his complete recovery. The unfortunate 
 result was that every member from eldest to youngest suf- 
 fered in turn. All recovered, however, save the infant 
 Thankful. The frail blossom of babyhood was too fair and 
 tender to throw off the blighting touch, and ever afterward 
 her eyes, which should have been her faithful servants, 
 clearest mirrors of her soul, were constant sources of pain 
 and self-sacrifice to her. Her constant and characteristic 
 
attitude in her maturer years— the attitude in which she 
 is ever pictured in our memory— had its beginning in her 
 childhood days when the little head with its brown silken 
 tresses was pathetically bowed to shield her sensitive eyes 
 from the garish light. Her play hours must ever be spent 
 in shadowy places, in dim twilight corners. 
 
 With an unusual aptitude for learning and a hunger 
 for study, she was unable as she grew older, to obey the 
 necessarily cruel injunction to give absolute rest to her 
 eyes, and in their moments of ease, she would steal up to 
 her chamber, book in hand, creep softly under the bed— 
 her favorite reading place— and with the treasured volume 
 slipped under the valance out into the light, herself in 
 darkness, she would happily read and study the hours 
 away. Her favorite book was the great family Bible, its 
 large print affording her friendly entertainment and in- 
 struction even when her sight was most imperfect. 
 
 Considering the degree of scholarship she attained 
 (a degree much higher than was usual in those days) not- 
 withstanding the obstacles in the way of her education 
 one cannot help wondering to what heights she might have 
 climbed under favorable conditions. As it was, she per- 
 severed in her studies and entered the high school. Being 
 a natural mathematician and fond of that study, she 
 passed from algebra to the higher mathematics, geometry 
 and trigonometry, with surprising ease. She had, also, a 
 broad knowledge of literature, her father being a man of 
 letters and one to whom books and newspapers were a 
 necessity whatever economies must be practiced. 
 
 Her great love for poetry was manifested even in her 
 early childhood, by the pleasure she found in memorizing 
 verses. Byron, Scott, Pope and Burns were her favorites; 
 and in her latter days even after her martydom of suffer- 
 ing, she could still repeat much of the "Lady of the Lake." 
 Pope's "Essay on Man" and page upon page of Byron, 
 besides verses from the pens of many other poets. 
 
IT was while the child Thankful was yet a little maid that 
 that part of the country was electrified by the "Roch- 
 ester Knoekings. ' '* 
 
 Excitement and curiosity ran highland when the al- 
 leged spirits declared that the phenomena need not be con- 
 fined to the Fox Sisters alone, there were few families in 
 that vicinity who did not woo mediumship by holding 
 weekly seances in darkened rooms, religiously awaiting 
 results. It was so in the Hammond family, and after a 
 time Ruth (an elder sister of Thankful 's) and Lyman 
 Sibley, the husband of another sister, (Mary) could, by 
 sitting together, receive communications by means of 
 ' ' table-tipping. ' '** 
 
 About this time the family removed to Pennsylvania, 
 and interest in the singular phenomena smouldered some- 
 what owing both to the change of location, and to the fact 
 of Lyman's and Mary's removal to another state; but it 
 was again fanned into flame by the timely visit of a cousin, 
 Lodencia Scott, (mother of the renowned Mrs. Cora L. V. 
 Richmond) who was herself a medium. During her stay, 
 the family, together with a few neighbors, organized a 
 circle, and, after patient waiting, were rewarded by com- 
 ing into touch with the invisible through the united 
 mediumship of the young maid Thankful, and one Athel- 
 ston Gaston, a youth who lived near by— a youth who had 
 "come to scoff and remained to pray." 
 
 * Note. — "Rochester Knockings" was the name given the first 
 published manifestations of the phenomena of modern Spiritualism, 
 through the mediumship of the Fox sisters, at their home near Roch- 
 ester, New York. 
 
 ** Note. — It was a most laborious process. A small round stand 
 with a plate under one of its three legs, would rythmically vibrate 
 back and founh while the alphabet v. as being repeated over and over 
 again. As the desired letter was named the table foot would give 
 three short successive taps on the plate beneath it, and pencil in 
 hand, some one of the members of the circle jotted down each letter 
 as it came. In this manner the messages contained in this little book 
 were all received, save those of Sarah Wycoff. 
 
6 
 
 "Rose of the Wilderness"* the guiding spirits named 
 this circle of faithful souls, and letter by letter, were 
 rapped out these beautiful messages of love, of faith, of 
 charity, of lessons in noble living, of hope beyond the 
 grave ! 
 
 IT was about this time that the sweetest of influences 
 came into their lives. In the family circles Thankful 
 would become entranced, and after a few moments of 
 silent waiting it seemed to them that some mysterious 
 Force— a Force quite separate and distinct from herself— 
 had taken possession of her, and was trying to address 
 them through her physical organism. These efforts to 
 speak proved unavailing, however, and were finally dis- 
 continued for some unknown reason,** but soon afterwards 
 there unfolded before their wondering eyes, a most re- 
 markable phase of this singular phenomena. 
 
 Wholly unconscious she was! How different her per- 
 sonality from that of her usual self! The serious-faced 
 girl who habitually sat with bowed head, or soft cheek 
 resting on her slender hand, when under this mysterious 
 Influence held her head erect; her dim eyes met the light 
 unflinchingly; her lips parted in a happy smile; and her 
 whole face radiant with animation and gladness, the while 
 her deft fingers formed with incredible swiftness a series 
 of signs or symbols, which for a time, seemed to defy in- 
 terpretation, and mock at the eager hearts of the little 
 
 * Note. — This name was peculiarly applicable, as the Hammond 
 family was the only one within a radius of hundreds of miles who had 
 any interest in Spiritualism or had openly continued its investigations 
 despite the growing unpopularity of the new philosophy. 
 
 ** Note. — They afterwards learned it was doubtless owing to 
 the unfamiilarity of the controlling spirit, (Sarah WycofF) with the 
 
 organs of speech. 
 
band of Seekers after Truth— Truth in whatever guise she 
 came! 
 
 Happily someone suggested 'ere long, the possibility 
 of these signs being letters of the deaf and dumb alpha- 
 bet,* and oh! the delight then manifested by the young 
 medium— silent after the manner of the mute.** 
 
 "Yes, yes, yes!" her head nodded repeatedly and em- 
 phatically; and she seemed overjoyed that at last they 
 had guessed her meaning, and she would thus be enabled 
 eventually to talk with them; to bring them comfort and 
 good cheer. Letter by letter from A to Z she slowly and 
 patiently taught the mystified family the significance of 
 each and every symbol; but it was the young Athelston 
 who became proficient in her voiceless language, and who 
 could read her words with the same ease and rapidity with 
 which she spelled them. 
 
 The first message received from this controlling spirit 
 was by way of introduction. Her name, she told them, 
 was Sarah Wycoff. In her earth-life she had been a deaf- 
 mute; the daughter of a wealthy merchant in New York, 
 that city having been her birthplace and home. Her's had 
 been the stirring times of the Revolutionary War and birth 
 of the young republic. And after but a fleeting glimpse 
 of the beauty and mystery of earthly life and love, she 
 had died in the glad sweet morning of her womanhood! 
 
 Her's was a beautiful Influence and a very marked 
 one. She was intellectual, poetical and witty— above all 
 she was healing balm! As the tide of the years rolled on, 
 and sorrow came to the family group, and disheartenment 
 and hardships, no consolation so sweet as Sarah's! No 
 heart so heavy she could not lighten its burden! No soul 
 athirst to whom she could not point the way to the waters 
 
 * The deaf and dumb alphabet was then practically unknown, 
 except to those obliged to use it as a means of communication with 
 others. 
 
 ** Note. — For forty vears she was thus controlled from time to 
 time, yet never once, while under this influence did she make an 
 articulate sound. 
 
8 
 
 of Life! She was one of their greatest teachers, and her 
 coming was ever greeted with enthusiasm, not only be- 
 cause her words were always especially adapted to their 
 needs, but because her mode of communicating was more 
 speedy and satisfactory, and far less fatiguing both to 
 medium and members of the circle. 
 
 THE close union of these young mediums, Athelston and 
 Thankful, in things spiritual, naturally led to a cor- 
 respondingly close union in things temporal. He was 
 young, untried in the world of commerce, and possessed 
 nothing save a fair name, integrity of purpose, a stout 
 heart, and ready willing hands. No hint of what the 
 future held for him. No faintest shadow of the financial 
 success and political honors which were to crown him in 
 after years! Yet the young god, Cupid, was as blind (or 
 as far-seeing) then as now, and the maid of his choice 
 trustingly gave her life into his keeping, and together they 
 builded their own home-nest— their humble Alabama!* 
 
 One child came to bless them,— a wee girl who brought 
 with her, from out the vast Unknown, the precious gift 
 of Parenthood, and silently laid it at their feet. For 
 three short years was she given them in sacred trust; then 
 the silent winged Messenger bore her spirit back to the 
 Hand that gave. Oh that tiny, tiny form ! Temple of their 
 Baby- Alma's living soul! Shrine whereat they wor- 
 shiped ! What though it be taken from their clinging arms 
 and placed in the lap of the royal mother— Earth? The 
 priceless Gift she brought them, yet is theirs. It is fade- 
 less, incorruptible, undying! Never can it be withdrawn; 
 Throughout Eternity shall it be theirs! 
 
 It was to their knowledge of Spiritualism, born of 
 
 * Alabama : "Here we rest." 
 
9 
 
 their own mediumship, they turned for consolation. They, 
 together with their whole family connection, had at times 
 borne both ridicule and ostracism* in its cause; but their 
 reward was ever sure. It was Light to them in darker 
 hours; smiling Hope in discouragement; Comfort in be- 
 reavement ; and in the first bitter days of this, their great- 
 est sorrow, it did not fail them. As the years glided by, 
 Alma, their only beloveci child, did not become to them 
 a mere sacred memory— a bright star illumining the deep, 
 deep Past!— but remained instead a sweet reality. Their 
 souls, attuned to voices not heard by duller ears, received 
 assurances of her continued existence; of her growth and 
 development: were told from time to time of her interests 
 and aspirations. They could often feel her presence too, 
 and always, the mantle of her love enfolded them! 
 
 Soon after Alma's death Mr. and Mrs. Gaston turned 
 their faces hopefully toward the West. He did his farm- 
 work; she with the assistance of her mother, attended to 
 her household affairs, and taught the district school. Yet 
 ever during those work-laden years, far removed as they 
 were from former ties, in the solitude of their prairie 
 home, they faithfully set aside a night each week for soli- 
 tary communion with loved ones in the realm of Spirit. 
 How sadly was the family circle broken! Grandfather 
 Hammond and three daughters Elizabeth, Ruth and 
 Lucretia, were no longer of this world, and the remaining 
 members of the family were widely scattered; all having 
 married and settled in homes of their own. 
 
 * The phenomena of modern Spiritualism was at first received 
 with interest and enthusiasm by the churches and their leaders as it 
 was proof positive of immortality. In those days, however, the 
 theology of the Evangelical churches was vastly different from that of 
 today, and when this mysterious Force began to preach progression 
 after death; that not faith alone could save, but good works as well; 
 that Heaven and Hell were conditions, not localities; that Deity was 
 an all-merciful all-forgiving Father, not a vengeful Being with the 
 limitations and weaknesses of the children He had created; it was a 
 philosophy, they were then unable to comprehend, and unwilling to 
 receive. They forthwith ceased all investigations and denounced it 
 from the pulpits. This was the beginning of a prejudice which has 
 at times resulted in the persecution of mediums and ostracism of its 
 adherents. 
 
10 
 
 In time they drifted back to Pennsylvania where Mr. 
 Gaston forsook farming and engaged in the lumber busi- 
 ness; cautiously at first, but confidently later, when suc- 
 cess crowned his every effort. After several changes of 
 location they finally chose Meadville as their permanent 
 home. He became mayor of that city and served two 
 terms, a period covering four years, and was later elected 
 to Congress. 
 
 For some time he had been interested in the Cassa- 
 daga Lake Free Association (the " Chautauqua " of the 
 Spiritualists) the assembly grounds of which were located 
 at Lily Dale, New York. After serving several years on 
 the Board of Management, he was finally chosen as its 
 Chief Executor— an office which he held for eighteen years. 
 The Camp was then in its infancy, and under his wise 
 and generous leadership, became the "flower" of all simi- 
 lar assemblies. 
 
 IN the meantime, Mrs. Gaston beloved and tenderly cared 
 for in her beautiful home, was over-shadowed by the 
 most terrible affliction. At the first indication of her trou- 
 ble physicians whom she consulted were united in declar- 
 ing a surgical operation necessary, as, under existing con- 
 ditions sudden death was imminent; and at the longest, 
 she could not hope to live more than five years. Their 
 invisible friends, however, protested against the use of the 
 knife, consequently Inclination strengthened by Faith de- 
 cided them in their course. 
 
 For more than twenty years, to the amazement of the 
 medical profession, to the amazement of all who knew her, 
 this remarkable woman courageously battled for life, for 
 health, yes, even for pleasure! Never acknowledging the 
 existence of an alien growth which must one day conquer 
 her indomitable will; always ignoring pain; ever replying 
 
11 
 
 "I am well" to all inquiries; she sought diversion by- 
 means of much company; traveling with her husband or 
 others; interested herself in sight seeing, so far as her 
 sensitive eyes and limited sight would permit; and kept 
 her whole physical condition secondary to her strong men- 
 tality, although the discomfort attendant upon this con- 
 stantly increasing growth hampered her in walking, 
 wearied her in sitting, and weighted heavily even her 
 sleeping hours. 
 
 One day, while being driven to the home of her foster 
 daughter in company with a niece who lived with her, she 
 suffered a stroke of paralysis. After the first shock, she 
 rallied, and bravely renewed her battle for life. For more 
 than seven years she sat in her wheeled chair unable to 
 so much as change her position unaided, yet she seldom 
 alluded to her pain or weariness. With an indulgent hus- 
 band, faithful attendants and kindred, and many sympa- 
 thizing friends, there were none who could rescue her 
 from the resistless current of Disease which was merciless- 
 ly bearing her away from their sight. During her last 
 hours her suffering was excruciating; yet her marvellous 
 silence in regard to her pain was broken only when her 
 spirit was too near the Border-land to continue its control 
 over her physical being; and then— ah then! it was not 
 to us she cried aloud in her agony, but to those invisible 
 to us who were awaiting her birth into that other life.* 
 
 On October fourth, nineteen hundred, three, as the first 
 rays of dawn awoke a silent, sleeping world, her spirit 
 freed from its pain-racked imprisonment, peacefully as- 
 cended to its long Home! 
 
 Helen N. Connor. 
 
 me 
 
 * "I am ready, father; I want so to go! Why don't you take 
 ? " were her last words. 
 
There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, 
 Than are dreamed of in your philosophy. 
 
 —Shakespeare. 
 
 MESSAGES FROM 
 
 JOHN AND ELIZA HAMMOND 
 
 AND THEIR CHILDREN 
 
 Nelson, Ruth, Libbie and Lucretia. 
 
 ALSO 
 
 THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THEIR SON 
 
 BENTON 
 
 In passing from earth to spirit-life by accidental and 
 instantaneous death. 
 
Borne on the viewless breath of Inspiration, we 
 come, laden with Love and Old-Time Remembrance, 
 to tell you of Life beyond the Shadows of Time! 
 
^| I EATH had a bitter sting for me. It was leav- 
 
 I ing my family. All the burden falls on 
 
 c ^fc > ^, ^^^ Gene. I want to send the boys some 
 
 advice when I can. Tell Father I shall be here to meet 
 
 him when he comes. 
 
 Nelson Hammond. 
 November twenty-second, eighteen hundred, sixty-four. 
 
 MY dear wife and children: I am ever mindful of the 
 many loving thoughts and anxious desires you have all 
 felt to hear from me since my release from my old body. 
 I can give you no earthly advice that is worthy of much 
 weight. I feel as much interest in your prosperity, as ever 
 I did, but my mind is engrossed in my new-found life. 
 I can give you but little satisfaction beyond protestations 
 of eternal remembrance. Your father, 
 
 John Hammond. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-seven. 
 
 MY dear children : Through the kind favor of higher in- 
 telligences, I am permitted to address you, and I 
 sincerely hope we may all profit by these brief seasons of 
 communion. I see no reason why you should not all be 
 happy in the enjoyment of health and plenty in a rising 
 country. Do the best your hands find to do, but at all 
 events do something, and when employed rest content in 
 
16 
 
 the noble and self-sustaining consciousness of an integrity 
 of purpose. 
 
 Be on the alert for opportunities that will come 
 in the course of time, and above all things, try to 
 make your mother as comfortable and happy as is con- 
 sistent, and your circumstances will permit, and surely 
 you will have your reward. "Blessed are the poor in 
 spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ' ' Leaving with 
 you a father's blessing. I will withdraw for the present. 
 
 John Hammond. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-seven. 
 
 DEAR Flora: I can give little but an echo across the 
 dim chasm of years. 
 
 We are ever nearing the goal, where we may all meet 
 as in the olden time; and when we again clasp welcoming 
 hands, the night of separation and physical death will melt 
 away like the memory of a troubled dream. 
 
 You have treasure here which will surprise you, in 
 your child which has grown to womanhood unknown to 
 you. It is good to have an angel -child in your flock; I 
 was grateful for mine, when a lone stranger in the land of 
 Spirit. 
 
 Now my children, study and cultivate the spiritual, 
 that the change called "Death" may not surprise you, 
 when it loosens the cord of physical life, and leaves you 
 free for broader unfoldment. 
 
 I can give you no conclusive proof of my presence or 
 identity. Only let my spirit whisper to yours, that I 
 am really,— 
 
 Thy Father, as of Old, 
 
 Nelson Hammond. 
 
 De Alton is with me. 
 
17 
 
 FORTH from the dismal void beyond the tomb there 
 rises a tangible and eternal home, whose attributes are 
 adaptation, knowledge and progress. An active, spiritual 
 faith may fill up this rough outline with as much of light 
 and beauty as their spiritual conceptions are capable of 
 conceiving, and yet fall far short of the reality. 
 
 When will faith become actual knowledge? When 
 death is lost in everlasting life; when mortality is cast off 
 and immortality put on. 
 
 John Hammond. 
 
 YES I will communicate, I will speak volumes to your 
 listening spirit if I have the power. I will tell you 
 of my happy home beyond the dark vale of mortality and 
 the many things you want so much to know. 
 
 I have met and rendered timely aid to the dear friend 
 whose fate was so much of a mystery. Were it for no 
 other reason I could not regret my early departure from 
 earth. I have also seen another, whose memory is dear 
 to you and who does not forget. 
 
 I felt like one born into new life and beauty when I 
 awoke that eventful day and found my identical self be- 
 yond the river ; and without a lingering regret at my abrupt 
 departure, I took up my new life* with a glad song of joy 
 and thanksgiving. 
 
 Genie** is my entire charge. He is the same bright, 
 happy child as his brief earth life always pictured. Here 
 he is a reality, there he was a fleeting sunbeam. Here he 
 is undying; there he was torn by physical pain. It is 
 hard to be separated, but faith makes bright the future 
 glorious meeting which awaits you all. 
 
 Libbie. 
 
 * Sarah once said Libbie was the happiest new-born Spirit she 
 had ever seen. Libbie seemed never to have had a regret for her 
 earth-life. 
 
 **Eugene, infant son of Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Nichols. 
 
w 
 
 18 
 
 HEN the central sun, which lights the whole vast 
 spiritual universe, shines directly over our circle, 
 we all repair to the Mount of Instruction as it is called. It 
 is many times larger than the earth. But I will not attempt 
 to describe it, for you cannot imagine anything of its 
 beauties. There we are met by many great, wise and 
 good spirits, who, having progressed on far above us, re- 
 turn to teach and bring us gifts from their homes which 
 we have never seen. They give us instruction in every 
 department of nature or science as you call it. 
 
 We do not study from books, but we look at the revo- 
 lution of God's infinite creation and they explain all they 
 know of the cause and effect. For example, if one desires 
 to study music, he soon learns that to understand harmony 
 well, he must study all nature. So closely linked are all 
 the laws of science, that we cannot learn one separate law 
 without a knowledge of the whole. 
 
 When our guardians leave us, we go forth on various 
 missions. Some, (and among these I am included) go 
 down among lower spirits to teach them what has just 
 been taught to us. We carry our gifts to show them, and 
 in this way they, too, catch a glimpse of the purer spheres. 
 
 Ruth E. Hammond. 
 
 WE are here, (which means within speaking distance), 
 and now for a speech! 
 
 I was with you positively in the past; I am with you 
 comparatively for the present; and I hope to be with you 
 superlatively in the future. (You know I am a "right 
 smart" scholar, I have made so fine a beginning). 
 
 Now I will tell you about our good folks at home. 
 Father is my father still, though not as you knew him last. 
 Youth and age are harmoniously blended in his noble face. 
 His hair is abundant and brown. He is our counsellor and 
 
19 
 companion— all that you, who knew him on earth, might 
 fancy and yet more. 
 
 Lucretia shows the advancement due to her earlier 
 birth into spiritual life, though she is not so free as Ruth. 
 Her child binds her to earth. Do not forget, for her 
 sake, my brothers and sisters, the close tie of consanguinity. 
 
 Lebbie. 
 
 HANNAH : Mother : I feel far away from earth and the 
 scenes of my brief life upon it ; yet near, supremely 
 near to your spirits, and would fain send a faint echo 
 across the dim chasm of years which intervenes between 
 us. But when we meet over here, the pause will dispel, 
 like darkness before the morning. 
 
 Lucretia. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-nine. 
 
 WILL you invite us to your Christmas feast? We can 
 enter, unbidden guests, and take a snuff of the goodies 
 and you dull fellows will never miss what we take, any more 
 than you miss the honey from the flower, which the little 
 bee has extracted. Would it not be a holiday indeed if 
 we could meet and enjoy an interchange of memories and 
 experiences, both earthly and spiritual? We shall all be 
 present, an unbroken family of invisible spirits. 
 
 Then appreciate as you ought the presence of those who 
 are still visible to your outward senses, for their forms are 
 fleeting as the summer sunshine; and you weep afresh 
 •over the new void in the physical world, and prize the 
 
20 
 
 parted blessing more forcibly when it can return no more. 
 
 Libbie. 
 Received the night before Christmas, eighteen hundred, 
 seventy-one, at Adamsville, Pa. 
 
 THE old song charms me, the old love warms me and I 
 come. No word is fitly spoken. The silence is unbroken, 
 yet here I am, my own veritable self! While I see, you sit 
 in shade, and I cannot rejoice meeting with you, as I would 
 wish. Though near, yet are we separate. 
 
 The scenes which surround me are unknown to you and 
 I can only speak to you intelligently of the past, which is 
 not pleasant. You all remember enough of me, a moody, 
 weary little being, with plenty of pride and ambition; 
 with more force than strength. But the old page is turned : 
 the new one is better. It is the old tale oft repeated. Phy- 
 sical inability rendered my earthly life a failure. Nothing 
 remains of it but love and memory. 
 
 Libbie. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy -nine. 
 
 DREARY, frozen, chilling, snow-clad Iowa ! Poor lonely 
 trio ! Full well I know how to sympathize with you, for 
 the memory of it is to me, a confused medley of chilblains, 
 shivers, catastrophies, sloughs and hair-breadth escapes. 
 But remember the glorious summer which will soon be be- 
 fore you, radiant in its luxuriance, its fresh and beautiful 
 coloring. And soon, very soon, will your spirits rise on 
 immortal pinions from the stormy scenes, of this ice-bound 
 
21 
 
 earth to the bright Home above where no false romance 
 awaits you, but a life of substantial progress. Love to all. 
 
 Father and Libbie.* 
 Iowa. 
 
 MY dear, dear Son: I do come to you today. I know 
 it is hard for you to understand how our life in 
 spirit can be as real and tangible** as your life on earth. 
 It is not only as tangible but more so, as here in 
 spirit-life our every thought is reflected so that all others 
 can perceive it as well as ourselves. Therefore we can 
 hide nothing from each other. 
 
 Yes, dear son, it is more tangible than earth life. 
 Your Affectionate Father, 
 
 John Hammond. 
 
 WELL, I have come merely to fill your blank leaf with 
 something blanker. My earthly ideas are all spirited 
 away and my non compos mind makes poor steerage with no 
 brains*** of its own to act upon. But we are all happy and 
 contented over here, without any brains, and that is better 
 than you are with them. Then look forward and prepare 
 for the brainless state! If you know but little when you 
 cross over here, you need not be surprised, for you do not 
 
 * John Hammond and daughter Elizabeth. Her messages are 
 usually signed "Libbie"; sometimes "Lizzie." 
 
 ** In reply to query by Luthan Hammond — "Is spirit-life as 
 tangible aud satisfactory as was your earth-life?" 
 
 *** One of the persons present at the .seance had several days- 
 previous, in the privacy of her own home made some laughing con- 
 jectures as to how spirits were able to think — having no brains. 
 
22 
 
 store up such a heavy stock of knowledge in your proba- 
 tionary state, even though endowed with the priceless gift 
 of "brains." 
 
 LlBBIE. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-nine. 
 
 THE ponderous wheels of Old Father Time move slowly 
 forward, and the Star of Hope and Faith shines 
 broader and clearer, as I see you drawing nearer the divine 
 reunion which awaits us. Believe on ! for faith is the surest 
 anchor for the spirit through the dark mental and physi- 
 cal sufferings of earthly life. 
 
 Poor Benton will soon return from his western pil- 
 grimage, thoroughly disheartened;* and I need not tell 
 
 you to heal and bless, for I know you will Now is 
 
 your golden opportunity to exchange a little earthly 
 treasure for a divine and everlasting happiness. Remem- 
 ber the choicest blessings come from doing good to others 
 —to those less favored by birth-right. 
 
 I have already prolonged my letter beyond the pro- 
 scribed limits. With much love, I am as ever 
 Your Husband and Father in Spirit, 
 
 John Hammond. 
 March, eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
 * For several successive seasons all of Benton's hard work on 
 his western farm had been in vain. The crops were ruined once by 
 drought, again by a killing frost, and yet again by grasshoppers. 
 The above communication was received shortly before his return to 
 Pennsylvania. Several months after his arrival he was killed by the 
 falling limb of a tree. 
 
23 
 
 MY Dear Family : I welcome you all— the in-coming and 
 departing generations. 1 am with you still through 
 all the varied scenes of life, with all a father's love and 
 tenderness, free from earthly parents' anxiety, for I know 
 all things are well with each and every one of you. Where 
 once the light of faith was faintly shining on my earth- 
 bound spirit, now I am blessed with the full sunlight of 
 absolute knowledge. Faith in the Supreme Power, that 
 shapes even the minutest incidents of every individual life, 
 should be the anchor of every human soul. Then cultivate 
 faith, and above all foster warm family relations and this 
 will sweeten every bitter drop in the cup of human life. 
 
 I am not able to say a tithe of what I would wish. 
 I would fill you to overflowing, with thanks for the divine 
 beauties of immortal life, the ever increasing glory of mere 
 individual existence! 
 A father's blessing, 
 
 John Hammond. 
 June, eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
 I TOOK my poor, broken, wounded boy in my arms and I 
 will make him whole and will give him rest. "The 
 pitcher that was broken* at the fountain" was but brittle 
 potter's clay, and shall be exchanged for pure flexible, 
 spiritual raiment, that neither time nor accident can sully. 
 The cord that was loosed, was but the cord of flesh, but 
 the golden cord of love and sympathy is not broken. It 
 rises above the "wreck of matter and the crush of worlds." 
 Be comforted by faith. Time rights every bitter affliction 
 and unites every congenial spirit. More anon. 
 
 May peace brood over your mourning spirits and bind 
 
 * Note. — On the last morning of his earth-life Uncle Benton had 
 read aloud to his family the 12th chapter of Ecclesiastes. 
 
24 
 
 like a kind, tender mother. I add my blessing and his. 
 
 John Hammond. 
 July twenty -fourth, eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
 THE waves of death are dark, but the light beyond is 
 cheering. The arid, sultry field of physical labor is 
 well exchanged for the softer radiance of this better life, as 
 axe and saw are laid aside. Yet it would have taken 
 many weary blows to have purchased for my family, what 
 this one blow gave or will give them.* In this instance fate 
 was kind. I now see they need a father's care more than 
 any temporal blessing and my cries are for them whom 
 fate has robbed of their birthright. I can say no more. 
 Benton, (Through the help of others). 
 
 HE will see the light clearer and then see a Father's 
 hand outstretched, even in the darkness, to each and 
 all. Do not let grief engross you. By cheerful faith you 
 may help and strengthen him. 
 
 James Reed. 
 July thirty-first. 
 
 * He alluded to his life insurance. 
 
25 
 
 THE bitterness is past. The light of a new life warms 
 and floods my whole being with sunshine and joy. 
 Thank God the life of accidents is over. 
 
 Benton. 
 August, eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
 THE spiritual life— the first out-growth of earthly life, 
 —is a sickly, slender twig hardly worth the name of 
 Immortality, yet here we find Time, Space and Opportunity 
 for enlargement of the inner-man as soon as we can draw 
 away from the earthly troubles, that bind us to the dear 
 ones left behind. I have been trying to look forward and 
 around me. There is much that is pleasing and beautiful 
 here, but my mind continually reverts to my family on 
 earth. This is my one great sorrow. You are now my 
 only medium of communication with any and all left be- 
 hind. 
 
 Many thanks, and blessings infinite are due to you, 
 my more than brother, for the kind feelings manifested 
 toward my little family. That is the only way Love can 
 reach me now. 
 
 Mother, I am not unmindful of your love, your grief 
 nor your feeble state of health. I know it now better than 
 I did before. We will all see the good of our trials, in 
 the sweet bye and bye. 
 
 T. B. Hammond. 
 September, eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
 THE light of spirit life is clearing away the dark mists 
 of my earthly career, and I begin to see, with a spirit 
 freed from the damp miasma of earthly misfortune. I am 
 
26 
 
 happy in a clearer vision than my earth-life ever gave. I 
 can rest my children in the provident arms of the infinite 
 Spirit from whence they sprung, their Father from the 
 beginning, while my fatherhood was but accidental,— mo- 
 mentary. I know that sometime, in the beautiful future, 
 there will be a grand re-union, and my kind Parent will 
 give me back my own jewels, reset in never-fading radiance 
 and shining in immortal beauty. 
 
 Benton. 
 
 October, eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
 THE darkness of doubt is fast passing away from the 
 minds of earth's children and the pure light of 
 faith is filling earth's atmosphere with resignation, peace 
 and love. 
 
 Good Night. 
 
 YOU spoke of hearing from me. I respond with much 
 joy in the assurance of kind regard breathed forth 
 in that wish. I mean to give you a sketch of my peculiar 
 exit from the body and entrance into spirit-life for I ex- 
 perienced some of Alvin Congdon's sensations. 
 
 A violent death, though not painful for the body, is 
 very unpleasant for the inner man. But I forbear, for 
 I am assured by no lesser personage than your father, that 
 Arthur is needed at home.* 
 
 Benton. 
 January seventeenth, eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
 *Note.— Arthur (A. B. Gaston) hurriedly left for home. There 
 he learned that his infant son had been taken ill during his absence. 
 
" The soul, immortal substance to remain conscious of jov, and capable of pain." 
 
 —Prior. 
 
 Experience of XL, B. Ibammono 
 
 In Passing from Earth to Spirit-Life by Accidental and 
 Instantaneous Death. 
 
 HASTY or violent death is neither physically 
 nor spiritually beautiful, yet the divine gift 
 of immortal life raises the spirit above 
 the reach of the ugliest wreck which the elements of nature 
 can invent. 
 
 "Feel the blow? He never knew what hurt him!" is 
 oft repeated above the inanimate form thus bereft of 
 spiritual life, and, were the body all of the man, this would 
 probably be correct ; but as the real man dwelling in the 
 body, suddenly finds his physical habitation crumbling, 
 he is painfully conscious of the mighty change. As the 
 water from a fountain is suddenly shaken into a million 
 tiny drops, and each individual drop reflects the same ray 
 of light and multiplies it a myriad times, so was my spirit 
 broken; and the terrible image of that death reflected in 
 each minute particle of my being. Each drop of the brain, 
 so to speak, represented a part of my spiritual life, in 
 which the death was mirrored forth, as perfectly as a sun- 
 beam in a drop of dew. Do you think now I knew what 
 hurt me? 
 
 More again, I can speak no more on this theme to- 
 night! Next time I will speak of life after I was gathered 
 together: saved from darkness. 
 
 T. B. H. 
 January twenty -third, eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 (Continued.) 
 
Conttnueb. 
 
 ^T^ILLED! Collapsed! Struck out! Finished!" was 
 * *• the one thought that rang through the aisles of 
 my shaken spirit, like many chimes from the knell of des- 
 tiny. When confusion grew faint and yielded her scepter 
 to the universal law of peace and order, another thought 
 stole in and said: "Where am I"? How did it all happen? 
 Then for the first time in all my life I looked around with 
 spiritual vision. 
 
 "What did you see?" you will say. Only my own 
 body extended lifeless upon the ground, ragged, soiled and 
 broken! For the moment I felt an infinite pity for the 
 forsaken clod. "Poor wretch, you have been kicked down 
 the last step, now rest, for you are free from the restless 
 spirit that prompted all your misfortunes ! ' ' 
 
 I actually shed the first tears that fell over its fate, 
 then closed my eyes to the sad picture. It was no longer 
 any part of me and I looked upon it as some foreign 
 substance. I had now no power of volition. I could not 
 will to see or know anything. I tossed upon the restless 
 sea of immortal consciousness without wish or thought for 
 the future. All longing was for the fabled stream of 
 Lethe, where I might sink and banish thought forever. 
 
 Suddenly a voice, strangely familiar, sounded low and 
 sweet before me. The words were, "Blessed, thrice blessed 
 is the heir of immortal life, for its joys are sure and stead- 
 fast. " Immediately I was a boy again, for it was Lucre- 
 tia's voice; and her face, calm and smiling, was before me. 
 
 ' ' Look before you, not behind. Light is here. Father 
 is here. Home is here. Eeality is here. The fruition of 
 every pure aspiration is found here and the solution of 
 every human mystery. The beacon light is ahead, come 
 forward ! ' ' 
 
29 
 
 I LOOKED, I gazed bewildered through what seemed a 
 long vista of wavering, glimmering objects. I dis- 
 tinctly saw light, warmth and a cheerful scene in the dis- 
 tance, but, trying to gather my weak spiritual powers into 
 thought, I gasped: "I have lost my jewels! I cannot go 
 that way for I left them! I must go back,— back into dark- 
 ness and storm, for I left them uncared for. I did not 
 love them enough when I was with them, and I must not 
 leave them!" You see, the human was stronger than the 
 spiritual within me; and with all my former obstinacy, I 
 persisted in going in the wrong direction. 
 
 Now, do not imagine that I still remain unpersuaded 
 to be a spirit instead of a mortal man, for stern facts 
 are more stubborn than fiction. I would still like to be 
 back, but I am across, nolens volens, so I tip my hat, spell 
 good night, step down and out. 
 
 March sixth, eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
 Conclufceb, 
 
 AFTER many devious stumblings through the dark 
 regions of doubt and despair, my storm-tossed spirit 
 came out into the light or perception of a new scene. It 
 was not belonging purely to either sphere, but a blending 
 of the two, as death is the door upon the threshold of which 
 my spirit still stood, no longer dwelling in the lower and 
 repudiating the higher. I looked and saw, first a crowd of 
 people. Conspicuous to my vision was my father, {our 
 father) and all the rest of the dear departed friends as- 
 sembled together. Need I say I was overwhelmed with joy 
 and surprise? They all seemed so natural and yet so 
 changed ! 
 
 I was so exalted by this new view, that I forgot for 
 the time to look back on the other side of the door. Per- 
 
30 
 
 haps it would have been better had the door been closed, 
 for I saw a sad knot of dear earthly faces, gathered around 
 —what? An open grave! A polished box stood beside it, 
 containing the former husband and father, the mortal arm 
 paralyzed— the protector lost; buried from sight beneath 
 the summer sky! 
 
 Look on this picture, then on that. Lo, the contrast, 
 yet so closely allied! The grave is the dividing point, or 
 rather, the link connecting two shifting worlds, each reach- 
 ing out in a long line of love and remembrance. 
 
 T. B. Hammond. 
 
 YES, we are "far away" yet very near! Absent and 
 then present in the space of a thought! Invisible, 
 yet a real, tangible presence; dead yet alive, our ex- 
 istence is dual to you and our life a mystery. Aye, all 
 life, either earthly or spiritual, is equally mysterious, and 
 will be a lesson for eternal Time to unravel. 
 
 I am saddened by my children and their unsettled 
 manner of life, but when the ' ' heavens and earth are rolled 
 together like a scroll," and time itself is lost in the im- 
 measurable firmament of Eternity, then, ah then, it will 
 make no difference I suppose! 
 
 T. B. H. 
 
 THE scene which greets me here is a purely domestic 
 one, of which I love to claim one happy unit; yet, 
 can I justly claim anything earthly? Cut off by fate, I 
 have nothing left but the ghostly ashes of a broken, deso- 
 late home to contemplate. Yet if the family must be scat- 
 
31 
 
 tered, I trust, as in the present instance, they may become 
 units in the circle where Fate drops them. After all this 
 may prove a wise, good ordinance and why should they 
 not be all right? 
 
 Young, happy-tempered, docile and affectionate, they 
 must surely win a way. For proper unfoldment I will 
 trust all to the fullness of , time and to the infinite law 
 of Love. , Eternal gratitude to you all. 
 From the broken spirit of 
 
 T. B. Hammond. 
 
 MY Dear Wife and Children : I remember you with in- 
 visible presence and immortal love and tenderness. 
 Your circle looks lonely and broken tonight yet each link 
 removed there makes the chain longer across the opposite 
 side. Death diminishes the list on one side only to add to 
 the other, thus decreasing the attractions of the physical 
 world in a two-fold ratio. All are well on this side. The 
 glories of the spirit world are immeasurable, and the rich 
 gift of immortal life from the Divine Author, a pearl of 
 priceless value. 
 
 Benton is happy since he sees his family contented 
 and in good condition. He says he is not partial to their 
 childhood being passed in Sadsbury, yet thinks it prefer- 
 able to continued shifting from place to place. 
 
 Live with the sunlight of a great inheritance bathing 
 your aged temples, my dear wife, and let it lend dignity to 
 your closing life, and peace and benignity to your ripening 
 spirit. Love and smile on all and the sunshine will be re- 
 flected back with redoubled radiance into your own spirit. 
 I give my loving benediction to you all. Good night. 
 
 John Hammond. 
 
32 
 
 MY Dear Little Maude : There is a balm in every afflic- 
 tion; a joy in every sorrow; a sweet drop in every 
 bitter draught. I am glad to see you here tonight. You 
 look beautiful to me, your fond father. My first born and 
 pride! I surround you with my blessings. Always remem- 
 ber me. Try to do what you think I would approve as 
 nearly as you can. Ralph is happy, for he is asleep. Re- 
 member his father to him. 
 
 Try always to be a kind, elder sister to each of the 
 little ones, and you will find many treasures in the in- 
 coming life before you. I do not mean gold or silver, but 
 something which shines bright when all such dross is for- 
 gotten. Now do you know what I mean ? 
 Good bye. 
 
 T. B. Hammond. 
 February, eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
 TO Maude : Tell Maude her father bids her to think of 
 the future, not of the past. Let the memory of her 
 parents, as they once were, be sacred, not bitter. I add 
 my blessing, but I do not wish to speak to her often for 
 fear of clouding her young life. My love is constantly 
 around her. Good night and good bye. From her father. 
 
 T. B. Hammond. 
 
 I AM with you tonight, and see my children grown toward 
 manhood's and womanhood's estate, and apparently 
 doing well. I feel inexpressibly grateful that their life- 
 lines have fallen as kindly for them as possible under the 
 circumstances. Had I been spared I might have done much 
 
33 
 
 yet we are all pupils under the supreme laws of life— Ex- 
 perience and God's great Universe,— and I have had my 
 influence over the sphere of thought which has ordered 
 their early lives. 
 
 T. B. Hammond. 
 September, eighteen hundred, ninety-three. 
 
 YES Sophia,* we are still one. And shall not the heart 
 respond to the head, and shall the head live with- 
 out the vital current which flows from the heart? Can a 
 body be builded without a spirit? The spirit must have a 
 world, or continued life in this world. And I, Nelson, 
 am waiting for my dear friend and companion to believe, 
 receive, and recognize. I have time. I can wait. 
 
 Horatio Nelson Hammond. 
 
 TO Grandmother: Our home is waiting, be patient 
 and hopeful and cheerful, like one just waiting for 
 the first through train to bear one safely home. When 
 the silent Messenger calls to bring you up higher, I shall 
 be just beyond, and our meeting will be more joyful than 
 our earthly life ever conceived or dreamed of. 
 
 Strive to make the sunset of life beautiful, lovable and 
 holy, in view of the glorious dawning of life immortal. 
 
 John Hammond. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy -eight. 
 
 * Note.— To Sophia, his wife, who was not a believer in Spirit- 
 ualism. 
 
34 
 
 WE are united— your father and mother ! No interven- 
 ing years divide; no gray hairs mar; no grave 
 yawns between. All that is past! The bitterness that is 
 ever found in the last drops of poor suffering human life 
 has been tasted, and the bitter portion changed, in the 
 twinkling of an eye, to a scene of glory, shining with the 
 effulgence of the second (or spiritual) birth. 
 
 With memory strengthened, and youth renewed, we 
 meet at will and mutual desire. Our earth-lives are past. 
 The scroll is sealed by the angel of physical dissolution; 
 and our love, sympathy and memory still remain with you; 
 to which we add our immortal blessing. 
 Your affectionate father, 
 
 John Hammond. 
 June eighteenth, eighteen hundred, eighty-two. 
 
 DEAR Children : I cannot say much, only / am across 
 at last and find life here, without the body, a reality. 
 No longer a doubt or mystery about it. All is plain to me 
 now; and I am glad to be relieved of the weak, worn old 
 body, and glad the rest of you are rid of it too. 
 
 I always tried to do the best I could and make no 
 trouble, and now I give you all my best wishes and will 
 try to help you when your turn comes to suffer and to die. 
 It is a hard ordeal to pass, but it is quickly lost when fairly 
 over. We are happy together, you know all that! 
 Your mother, 
 
 Eliza Hammond. 
 June twenty -eighth, eighteen hundred, eighty-two. 
 
35 
 
 DEATH is only a change from the old life to a better, 
 fuller life. It is true, children. I did use to doubt. 
 Now I know you are all in the doubting stage. Never 
 mind ! you will know in time. Benton is here, but does not 
 come to communicate. Says he does not know what is 
 best for you. I remember you all my children. 
 
 Eliza Hammond. 
 February eleventh, eighteen hundred, eighty-three. 
 
 THESE words and words, and no deeds, do not suit 
 me. I always liked deeds better than professions, 
 but when you go crosswise of two worlds you cannot carry 
 anything back but professions and protestations of your- 
 self, about yourself, and your surroundings. That is why 
 I do not like to communicate often. It does not seem to 
 pay you for your time and trouble. 
 
 I used to get so tired. I do not tire now. I speak to 
 tell Sally and the children that I remember them, but I 
 can only speak words of cheer; I cannot do as I once did. 
 I must leave that for the rest of you. Benton, father, and 
 the girls all send love across from our sunny home to 
 you,— pale, weary sojourners on the slippery receding 
 shores of Time! 
 
 Eliza Hammond. 
 
 1 CANNOT say much. I remember you all with much 
 love, and thank you all for your kindness to me in 
 sickness and old age. Father is with me. He seems as 
 perfectly natural to me as if we had never been parted a 
 day, only he seems more as he did when he was younger. 
 
36 
 
 The children are more changed to me than father is. One 
 thing I have found out, young folks change faster here 
 than older ones. I like the change from that life to this. 
 I had everything to gain and nothing to lose but pain and 
 distress ; and I could do nothing for any of you. My earth- 
 ly work is done, I guess, for I cannot do much at this stand- 
 tipping. 
 
 Eliza Hammond. 
 
 I AM with you often; not so much as formerly, yet have 
 by no means forgotten my friends on earth; and I 
 welcome with ever-increasing pleasure each one as he comes 
 across. As the band diminishes there, I see it increase 
 here; and soon expect to see the Reaper bring you all in, 
 ripe and sound; for Time has planted many furrows in 
 your brow, and gray hairs multiply, giving many proofs 
 of the ingathering which shall come with that " happy 
 day/' that glorious awakening to a fuller, purer life. 
 
 John Hammond. 
 
 I DO not come on "the wings of the morning/'' but on 
 the darker shades of the night. It is a question whether 
 I yet belong to the "angel band" the old song proclaims. 
 I know nothing about "the arms of God" yet, or any of 
 the "Heavenly host," that "angels" are supposed to un- 
 derstand, but I remember and love the old time-worn 
 
37 
 
 melody, that my feeble voice once joined in, striving to 
 call down the "good angels." 
 
 Well, you all know my identity! I am thrice glad to 
 meet you here. Many, many of the dear ones are here if 
 you could but see with a spiritual vision. They are ' ' faces 
 you do not see" yet you shall see us "more." Faith and 
 myself join in the assurance. I might tell you who is here, 
 but will leave it for faith to complete, as Thelston is tired. 
 
 "Brother rest. Labor, be at rest. Grief, let not thy 
 voice be heard." Pain is the expression of inharmony of 
 body or mind. 
 
 Query: If you cannot give us the names will you tell 
 us how many of our friends are present? 
 
 Answer: Will I number the stars or commence at the 
 third foot of this wavering stand and count upwards the 
 links of a never ending chain that leads upward, nobody 
 knows where? Take Sarah, Ephraim and me for the lower 
 link, the link that swings the foot. Rest again. 
 
 Libbie. 
 
 HOW are you old, old women? I hardly knew your 
 faces, they are so ' ' winkled and wunkled. ' '* I have 
 not a gray hair! What makes you so old? Are you cross? 
 Or care worn? Well, when I have a chance I will help 
 smooth them all out ! And ' ' Little Addie ' ' is spirited away* 
 I think. She has inherited her father's physical. Love 
 and remembrance to all. 
 
 Ruth E. Hammond. 
 
 * Note. — She quotes her brother, Benton (T. B. Hammond) 
 who in his childhood greatly feared an old gentleman, because he 
 was so "winkled and wunkled." 
 
 ** "Little Addie" had grown to middleaged womanhood. 
 
38 
 
 FROM the flower-crowned heights of the Better Land 
 we come, to breathe soft words of love and remem- 
 brance. You are all changed since I lived and was in your 
 midst; yet in spirit you are the same,— unchangeable! So 
 am I. Time, death and birth into spiritual life can work 
 no rapid change in the individual spirit. Time brings 
 gradual unfoldment, yet the indwelling identity is for- 
 ever the same, unchanged and unchangeable. 
 
 You knew me as " sister Ruth," and though the name 
 fell with the external body that gave it birth, yet I am 
 essentially the same in spirit, with all the memories of the 
 old life still clustering around me; and when I come back 
 among you, the old name falls naturally from my un- 
 changed spirit, though so long divested of the outer gar- 
 ment that bore that honored title. I have never walked 
 among literal "palm trees," yet, oh dear! What have I 
 done? Or rather what have I not done? Everything, yes 
 everything; and alas! nothing that I can tell in the Eng- 
 lish language. That is why I cannot write letters to you. 
 I remember my native tongue, but I no longer love it; it 
 cramps me back to my old original self too much and 
 I never was bookish. It's like trying to wear a pair of 
 baby shoes. 
 
 Now I know you are glad, happy to excuse me, and 
 let me seek my proper element, for I am your loving sister 
 Ruth and that love never cramps me, although the letters 
 do. Did you not want to hear from me this time? We 
 cannot all write with the same pen at once. I really be- 
 lieve the last arrivals have crowded me out. You know I 
 always would go anywhere "without an invitation." 
 
 Ruth. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-two. 
 
39 
 
 WE are always with you, ever faithful, ever sure, al- 
 though you do abuse (?) us sometimes. Yet our 
 weapons are spiritual and must prevail over the puny arm 
 of flesh. Give us time, for time alone must destroy the 
 body while it strengthens the spirit. 
 
 Don't think you can put us down, for if the earth 
 should be "melted with fervent heat" and the firmament 
 of starry suns be "rolled together" like a scorched news- 
 paper, still we Will live on unquenched. Don't you dare to 
 doubt us because you live in a perishable city, for we dwell 
 in a "city not made by hands, eternal in the Heavens." 
 "Ears have ye, yet hear not." We are "born again." 
 "They that are born of the spirit are spirit." 
 
 Libbie. 
 
 WE come, an invisible presence, drawn by this little 
 concourse of earthly friends. A band of fathers, 
 mothers, sisters, brothers, children, friends and lost com- 
 panions, each bearing an offering of love and good will 
 for some loved one left behind in the shadow of time. 
 You never think toward us, or yearn for us in vain. We 
 always respond, be the number ever so little. We measure 
 the earnest desire, the holy aspiration, the pure love and 
 faith. All else to us is dross. 
 
 We can only utilize the power we control; only make 
 use of such implements as are within our reach. 
 
 John Hammond. 
 January twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred, eighty-five. 
 
M 
 
 40 
 
 Y Dear Children : Again we come from the highlands 
 of our second life to clasp hands with you across 
 the boundary of spiritual and material life. 
 
 "What may I do ? I would strengthen your faith, touch 
 your waning earthly love with a spark from the altar of 
 eternal Love and make your life glow with that divinity 
 which is your birth-right. 
 
 I am your father still, though suns, centuries and 
 worlds should intervene. 
 
 John Hammond. 
 June twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred, eighty-seven. 
 
Immortality o'er sweeps 
 
 All pains, all tears, all time, all fears— and peals 
 
 Like the eternal thunders of the deep 
 
 Into my ears this Truth— Thou livs't for ever! 
 
 —Byron. 
 
 MESSAGES FROM 
 
 EDMUND AND PHYLINDA GASTON 
 
 AND THEIR CHILDREN 
 
 Imogene and Ephraim 
 
 ALSO 
 THE EXPERIENCE OP EPHRAIM 
 
 In passing from earth to spirit-life. 
 
THDle Come Wot from jEtbereal tomes* 
 
 We come not from ethereal homes 
 
 Which fancy shapeless rears; 
 But from the near unfading domes 
 
 In wisdom's shining spheres. 
 
 We come not from the silent mound 
 
 Beneath the marble urn; 
 But with immortal being crowned, 
 
 From realms of light return. 
 
 We come not at the trumpet note, 
 Nor deep toned organ's high refrain, 
 
 But near the loving soul we float 
 Drawn by attractions golden chain. 
 
 We come not 'neath the stately spire, 
 Where earth taught clergy con the page 
 
 O'er which they labor to confer 
 
 New life to truths grown dull with age. 
 
 But inspirations child we seek 
 
 And whisper truths unknown before, 
 
 And kindle up the glowing cheek 
 
 With sparks from wisdom's untaught lore. 
 
 Imogene Gaston. 
 
HERE is a deep unfathomed fountain of inspira- 
 tion within every soul, whose pure and effulgent 
 waters attract and reflect the divine rays of 
 Truth and Wisdom and will, ultimately, flood the spirit in 
 a halo of holy light. 
 
 Imogene. 
 
 LOVE and good will toward all men sweeten every 
 bitter drop in the cup of human life. Cheerfulness 
 promotes health, spiritually and physically. Smiles are 
 the sunlight of Heaven. Heaven is not a place but a con- 
 dition. It may be here as well as elsewhere. If not within 
 your own souls it is not anywhere. 
 
 Query: Do not the surroundings have an influence 
 upon the spirit ? 
 
 Answer: In some degree, but the soul (or spirit) is the 
 centre of all conditions, just as each sun forms the centre 
 of its own solar system and gives light and coloring to the 
 planets that revolve around it. 
 
 Imogene. 
 
 ^•^■HARITY suffereth long and is kind." By this is 
 
 v^ meant that broad, universal Love which looks with 
 
 pitying eye o'er all the unhappy passions of inharmonious 
 
 man. Remembering then how much suffering must be 
 
45 
 
 borne before the wrong is overcome, strive to subdue all 
 rebellious feelings. 
 
 I. G. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-three. 
 
 WE are here ; happy, joyful to greet you home again, 
 yet we do not forget to pity each sorrow and strive 
 to soothe each separate sadness. There is a balm for all 
 human weakness. The world is bright and beautiful. 
 Jewels of love and kindness are scattered all around you. 
 If you will open your spirits to the benign influence, all 
 may be well with each and all of yon 
 
 I. G. 
 
 ON the happy festal days when you meet in the social 
 circle to enjoy the dear intercourse of kindred, re- 
 member there is another invisible circle hovering around 
 rejoicing in your every joy, and sorrowing over every cloud 
 that darkens your spiritual horizon. That band is com- 
 posed of the dear departed ones. A father, a mother, a 
 daughter and sisters would unite on this holy day to greet 
 you with a renewal of love, thus drawing you nearer the 
 realm of spirit, where we may all be united— an unbroken 
 family in the beautiful home above! 
 
 Imogene. 
 
 THERE is no period of time when the spirit of man 
 is so inaccessible to spiritual influx, as during the 
 first bitterness of grief at the loss (by death) of a dearly 
 
46 
 
 loved friend. The spirit seems to sink, stultified for a 
 season, within a gloomy void, where its own divine char- 
 acter in sacred, silent communion with the indwelling God 
 of the universe, is forced to seek consolation from its own 
 interior Being. It finally emerges from the darkness of 
 sorrow, purified and resigned; thus fully prepared to re- 
 ceive intelligence from the higher world. 
 
 Thus, my friends, would I bring you joyful tidings in 
 the morning which succeeds the night of darkness, from 
 the dear spirit* so recently released from the shores of 
 Time. She is as happy a new-born spirit as ever I knew. 
 Many of her little foibles sprang from a weak physical 
 condition from which she is now entirely released. She 
 has no regrets for her departure. Simply says had she 
 been warned of the change that occurred, she would have 
 visited you all. You will soon hear from her personally. 
 Good night. 
 
 Imogene. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-seven. 
 
 MY Dear Friends : The pleasures of the spirit are sub- 
 tle and fill the entire being. In man's transitory 
 life, easily thrown off the balance, a false wordy thought, 
 or idea, often mars the spirit's harmony. I would fain 
 give you a precious pearl from the store-house of wisdom; 
 but I can only point them out. It is for you to sow and 
 garner and reap the reward of your own labor and dili- 
 gence. 
 
 Do not get discouraged and faint by the wayside. 
 The journey of life is often toilsome, but it is only through 
 mortal life that the crown of immortality is attained — 
 that boon to which all nature is aspiring. There is a rich 
 
 * Libbie Hammond, who died very suddenly of heart failure. 
 
47 
 
 (reward for the lowliest laborer and the most ignorant, if 
 honest, in the bright scenes of immortal life. I speak of 
 what I know by actual experience. ''Straight is the gate 
 and narrow the way, that leads to eternal life" and all 
 mankind must walk therein. 
 
 Live more for the spiritual and less for the external 
 and future generations will reward you. 
 
 Imogene. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-eight. 
 
 BELIEVE on ! we will help you in every season of trial. 
 We strive to strengthen the bonds of fraternal affec- 
 tion, that, united, you may assist and save each other. Not 
 from universal ruin, but simply from many of the little, 
 petty ills that destroy so much of human happiness. 
 
 Heaven is not a haven of rest. Neither is it a place 
 fitted up for pure spirits. It is simply a condition of har- 
 monious love; of perfect trust in the Supreme Power that 
 governs the universe; and a well grounded Principle that 
 is entirely impervious to every artifice with which tempta- 
 tion may seek to stain the spotless robe of the spirit. This 
 condition may be attained as well on earth as in spirit-life. 
 Strive for it, it is more precious than are earthly treasures. 
 Yours in love. 
 
 Imogene. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty -eight. 
 
 THE shifting scenes of time and circumstance bring me 
 here again, to speak in behalf of your whilom little 
 daughter* now grown to full and complete stature— a tall, 
 
 * Alma, only daughter of Hon. and Mrs. A. Gaston. 
 
48 
 
 fair maiden with yellow curly hair, that winter winds or 
 summer sun has never deepened to a darker shade. She 
 sees many other bright-eyed maidens around you and is 
 attracted here much by their songs and merry laughter and 
 wishes very much to be one among you. At least she wants 
 to be remembered. May her memory be a living, unfailing 
 source of peace and joy to your trusting, believing souls; 
 and make you tender and kind to the young and unde- 
 veloped around you. She retains only the color of the 
 eyes; the fair, unsullied complexion and tint of hair. All 
 else is changed. You would scarcely know her, unless aided 
 by spiritual perception, which will certainly be yours, 
 when released from the physical. 
 
 Imogene. 
 
 THE happy meeting of friends long separated is a pure 
 and fitting emblem of that higher and holier reunion 
 of kindred spirits in the eternal home. Knowledge is the 
 key that unlocks the human soul and fills it with the genial 
 light of a warm and living faith. Then know that I, 
 Ephraim H. Gaston, still live and enjoy a real individual- 
 ized existence, entirely distinct from all earthly form. / 
 can, and do visit and love you; still join in the family 
 gathering with even more than my former interest; al- 
 though unseen and unheard by your outward senses, yet 
 my presence is tangible and felt by you all. 
 
 Ephraim H. Gaston. 
 May, eighteen hundred, sixty-seven. 
 
^\ I EAR B] 
 
 Brother: I am anxious to impart some 
 thoughts to you and through your means, 
 c --*^ >< — ^ — to the rest of the dear loved ones 
 on earth. I feel and appreciate your great desire to 
 hear from me and will respond as far as lies in my 
 power, but I find this is more difficult than I antici- 
 pated. / There are few mediums pure and unselfish enough 
 to be reliable messengers for intercommunion; but thanks 
 to the kind Father of Light, there are a few noble ones. 
 And is not their work a glorious one? » 
 
 Do you desire to know how I feel and am employed? 
 I am much happier and better satisfied than when I lived 
 on earth. I felt a void for some time because I missed 
 my home society ; but now I am employed in improving. I 
 feel serene in the knowledge that we shall all be united 
 soon, if we keep our affections warm and bright. Love is 
 the only bond between spirit and spirit. All others are 
 mortal and perish with the body ; this alone is deathless. 
 
 I realized the whole process of dying as I had ever 
 desired to do. It was without spiritual suffering, and the 
 old body was so worn out by previous pain, that it gave 
 way without a struggle. 
 
 When I found myself actually free and looking down 
 silently upon my now deserted body, and saw my dear 
 friends sorrowing so tenderly around it, oh, how I longed 
 to speak to them, that they might know I was still so near ! 
 But while I had reached the much desired haven of re- 
 pose, I found I could no longer speak to, or even be seen 
 by those dearest to me. It seemed so strangely unnatural 
 to be so close to them, and yet be wholly powerless and 
 unable to communicate with them. There, before me, lay 
 the silent form through which I had so lately spoken and 
 acted considering it a part of. myself almost. For a mo- 
 
50 
 
 ment I felt a strong desire to return to it, with all its 
 pains, for the sake of speaking to those I loved. 
 
 "This is the bitterness of death; Take me away, I 
 cannot bear the scene ! " I cried. In a moment the familiar 
 room with its loved occupants had vanished and, for the 
 first time, I realized the presence of spiritual beings like 
 myself. One near me I knew immediately to be Aunt 
 Lucinda by her resemblance to mother. I felt comforted 
 by her presence, she seemed so good and loving. Then 
 Grandmother Gaston met me with such a smile of welcome 
 that I seemed a child again, so fresh did the memory of 
 my early days come back to me in her dear face. 
 
 Many others also came to welcome me. Among them 
 our spirit sister, Imogene. 
 
 At last a bright, intelligent spirit, whom I felt at 
 once to be a superior being, came forward and said: "Is 
 there no one else you desire to see?" Then I thought of 
 Alma, and there she stood sure enough, looking so natural, 
 her head leaning on her little hand and a shy smile on her 
 face. She was looking at me from the corner of her eyes, 
 just as she used to do. She is a beautiful child and I could 
 but wish that I had such a one to meet me here. 
 
 It was a number of days, nearly a week, before I was 
 permitted, or even desired to visit the scenes of my home 
 life, the parting had indeed been so painful. I felt I had 
 passed the boundary where I could no longer associate with 
 them; and the thought of seeing them in sorrow, without 
 the power of speaking, was dreadful. I derived much com- 
 fort and strength when I first visited Arthur and was able 
 to draw nearer to him than to the others. Not that I loved 
 him more, but the view he took of my death coincided more 
 with mine and there is spiritual harmony between us. 
 Then, too, he felt my death to be good, rather than evil. 
 My spirit derived strength from him and I felt comforted 
 and happy within his influence. 
 
 When at last I visited my dear wife and mother— those 
 two so closely united to my affections— I felt a real glow 
 of tender emotion. When I saw their spirits clothed in the 
 
51 
 
 shining light of resignation, and yet their love as pure and 
 deep as before, I felt a glow of love and joy in their pres- 
 ence which I cannot describe. Gustie, not even death can 
 separate us, so long as you remain true to my love and 
 memory. I am with you much and derive much comfort, 
 guarding your foot-steps. I know of your sorrow and 
 loneliness, and sympathize earnestly with you, but brighter 
 days will dawn for you even while on earth. Will you re- 
 member me in joy the same as in sorrow? Our love is 
 now the only tie which binds us, and let us keep it pure, 
 unsullied and enduring. 
 
 Dear father and mother, I know you will remain un- 
 changed. Though you love your other children ever so 
 dearly, they will not occupy my place in your affections; 
 and I am glad it is so. Trust me, I shall not forget to 
 give you a warm return; and when you are done with the 
 scenes of earth, I will meet you with joy, beyond the Val- 
 ley of Death. 
 
 Ephraim. 
 July, eighteen hundred, sixty -four. 
 
 FATHER, Mother, Arthur, Grover and all: I am here, 
 just across the narrow way. So near that my im- 
 palpable touch may rest upon your unconscious brows; 
 happy in your presence yet not without alloy, for you see 
 me not. 
 
 I have been learning many of those coveted les- 
 sons in wisdom, which my brief, broken, earthly life de- 
 nied me. The spirit here revels in an infinite variety -of 
 means of improvement,— all he or she is capable of enjoy- 
 ing. You must know I am delighted with such a life. It 
 exceeds my wildest flights of fancy. 
 
 Aunt Lucinda is one of my dearest friends and teach- 
 
52 
 
 ers of the Christian virtues, of which she is a shining 
 example. Good night. 
 
 Ephraim. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty -nine. 
 
 LIFE has been called a vapor. I would say Physical 
 Life is indeed a dark vapor swept away vanquished by 
 Death, leaving the real life free and untrammelled. Death 
 is not entirely like the infolding of a door to an interior- 
 compartment. To me it was more like the exit from a mis- 
 erable, rayless old tenement into the free pure air of a 
 fair spring morning, yet strange to say, I longed for a 
 time to return to it, shattered as it was, for the sake of 
 those I loved. 
 
 Time and broader Light however have purified 
 my earthly loves, and freed me from all the shackles of" 
 the world, where my body was born, suffered and died with- 
 out my volition or consent. All that is worthy in me, and 
 in my love, lives purified— immortalized ! The rest is swept 
 away with the vapor. 
 
 Now do you believe this is Ephriam? If so, it is 
 well. If not it is no matter. I have but made a beginning, 
 yet it must be my ending for this time. Immortal love 
 to all. 
 
 Ephraim. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-nine. 
 
 1LOVE to communicate, yet what can I say that will 
 profit you, beyond words of love and remembrance?' 
 You know such words grow stale and pointless. I have- 
 
53 
 
 seen Alvin,* he is not yet quite reconciled to the change. 
 He clings to earthly things but will soon be 0. K.* 
 
 Arthur, I am nearer and more dependent upon you 
 for strength and comfort, than any other earthly friend. 
 Don 't become entirely absorbed in business or family affec- 
 tions and fail your spirit brother, thus losing your in- 
 fluence in the upper world. Influence is what man strives 
 for, you know. 
 
 Ephraim. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy. 
 
 1AM here brother, still rejoicing in your joys, and sor- 
 rowing in your sorrows, unless enabled by a broader 
 faith to see real good in a seeming evil. All wrong is 
 right, not understood. The spiritual view is not a material 
 one. The mind when free to act untrammelled, will work 
 itself clear of all impurities. Be not absorbed in any tem- 
 poral pursuit or pleasure. Strive at all tvmhs to follow 
 your highest conceptions of Duty and Bight and you will 
 finally rise above all the shafts of malice and the clouds- 
 of Material Sense. 
 
 Welcome good mother. Good night 
 
 Ephraim Gaston. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-eight 
 
 MY Brothers: As one I loved you. Love and appre- 
 ciate each other while you may. Counsel and 
 strengthen one another for the conflict. Life should be 
 
 * Alvin Congdon, whose letters appear later. 
 
 ** Ephraim was a telegrapher. O. K. meaning "all right," is a> 
 term used by operators. 
 
54 
 
 something more than a mere pleasant holiday, or a feverish 
 grasping after worldly emolument. It should be the birth- 
 place of noble, unselfish aspirations and struggle for spirit- 
 ual growth. 
 
 Ephraim. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-nine. 
 
 I AM glad you seek me brother Arthur. It helps to make 
 me stronger to associate with my earthly friends. I 
 may be more advanced spiritually than you are, yet you are 
 attaining a strength, by your physical life, that my short, 
 blighted earth life can never hope to bring. Strength and 
 wisdom combined form powerful concomitant levers for 
 pushing us upward and onward. So you see I am not so 
 much ahead as you thought. If I can give you spiritual 
 knowledge you may give back strength of character by 
 longer contact and battling with the forces of the physical 
 world. 
 
 E. H. G. 
 
 THE river rolls rapidly onward toward the sea and the 
 swift current of your earthly lives will soon bring 
 you all with me into the free, open expanse of spirit life. 
 I await you still. Though I do not hover around my 
 earthly idols so much as formerly, yet I love to visit and 
 mark the progress of my old-time companions and early 
 loves, none more earnest and steadfast than those formed in 
 "boyhood days. And I love to watch you pass the milestones 
 that bear you nearer home to Heaven and me. 
 I see father and mother much and often. 
 
 E. H. G. 
 
55 
 
 MY children, I am here. A mother's presence still I 
 Though the form I used to wear is yours, (or mine), 
 no longer, yet I am among you. Love one another as when 
 you were my little children playing around my knee. Live 
 worthily. Deal justly and kindly by each and all. Be 
 pleasant and friendly to all your neighbors. Try to be 
 happy yourselves and you will be sure to impart happi- 
 ness to others. 
 
 If I can never manifest my presence satisfactorily dur- 
 ing your natural life, it is a consolation that I may meet 
 you all at the dawning of spiritual life, just as I met you 
 all at the birth of physical life, with love and tenderness. 
 That is all. 
 
 My language was broken and imperfect. I meant that 
 my spirit was with you often, though my body is gone. 
 Your mother, 
 
 Phylinda Gaston. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy -eight. 
 
 DEAR Friends and Children: I am glad to meet 
 so many of you here. I hope you may be very happy 
 together, and create a friendly, genial, gentle influence, 
 that will invite and attract many of each side of life. 
 
 Aunt Eliza, I see and sympathize with you often and 
 much. Do you ever think of " Linda?" I was the most 
 fortunate in not having to wait the summons so long as 
 you. I am pleased that father has gone to see Schuyler. 
 It will do them both good. Tell him to go and see Eunice 
 some time. 
 
 I will not fatigue you longer with my little nothings. 
 If I could read to you a clear title of my spirit-self, you 
 would find unbounded love and good wishes for all my 
 
56 
 
 friends, children, grandchildren dear, and my kind old 
 •companion more than all others. Yours, 
 
 Phylinda Gaston. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-nine. 
 
 YES, I am with you all and bless you with a mother's 
 blessing. But my words are few; my words are 
 weak; and incredulity is strong. False sophistry weaves 
 its web of doubt and unbelief around nearly all I would 
 reach. What can I do but watch and wait for the uplifting 
 of the veil, thin though it is, and breathe a silent blessing ? 
 Your living, loving mother, 
 
 Phylinda Gaston. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
 THE shady side of life is past and all is clear and plain 
 to me now. As I was satisfied with you there so am 
 I better satisfied now— more full of joy here with all my 
 old-time friends. I want to give you all the evidence I 
 am able to cheer you along for we are together— your 
 mother and I— parents to you all. 
 
 Edmund W. Gaston. 
 January, eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
 ARTHUR: Father wanted to tell you that ' c Donnie" 
 knew him— had not forgotten him, and was glad to 
 see him. That alone almost made him glad to be here 
 
57 
 
 instead of there. He says Donnie is prettier now than 
 ever. Father and mother both love him so much;— and 
 I too, as much as a childless man is capable of loving. I 
 still call myself a ''man." All honor to so proud a title f 
 Your brother, 
 
 Ephraim. 
 January thirtieth, eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
 THELSTON: We come to give you a little word of 
 greeting, your father and I. Our home is now here, 
 and our interest in life and its changes centers here in 
 «mr new and broader sphere; yet we shall never forget 
 the little nest of boys and the one girl we left in the life 
 behind us— left to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of 
 their first estate, then to join us in this higher, holier life, 
 the glory of which is beyond comparison in earthly scenes 
 or human language. So you see that while earth is fair 
 to you, it is dark and uncomely to us, and love alone can 
 attract us back over the thorny surface. Yet we do visit 
 you all often, I assure you, and love and care for you still. 
 Lovingly your spirit parents, 
 
 Phylinda and Edmund Gaston. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
 DEAR Children and Friends: I cannot speak in flow- 
 ing sentences, but I am " mother" still and if my 
 love and best wishes could bring the coveted blessing, the 
 incoming year would shower upon you all, the choicest 
 treasures of health and happiness! 
 
 Phylinda Gaston. 
 
58 
 
 MY Daughter, My Children: I cannot express to you 
 how happy we are to see you all together again. 
 It will do you all good to meet on the journey of mortal 
 life and renew your childish affections. Be united as chil- 
 dren even when your hair is white with age. Try to unite 
 the simple love and faith of a child with the wisdom of 
 riper years. Be harmonious and loving; live faithful and 
 true, and, when you are done with time, you may meet 
 death in peace, and be happy in the light of Eternity. 
 Your loving mother, 
 
 Phylinda Gaston. 
 
 WE come— a shining band from the approaching bor- 
 ders of the spirit land. 
 We do not change except as all "good folks" should 
 change— and that is from good to better. (Now your 
 mother smiles and says "They will think we are growing 
 self-satisfied!") 
 
 I do feel well satisfied with this side of life. When 
 an old man wakes and finds himself suddenly made over — 
 young again— he has good cause for praise. Don't you 
 think so? 
 
 Love and kind remembrance for all. 
 
 Edmund and Phylinda. 
 (We are hardly old enough to be "father" and 
 "mother" to such old fellows as you are!) 
 
 January twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred, eighty -two. 
 
 THE light of a beautiful faith, founded on a knowledge 
 of continued, unbroken life beyond the dark Valley, 
 gilds even the most painful scenes of earth life with a 
 
59 
 
 golden halo of hope and praise. As the brown earth con- 
 tains within its dark, clammy mold, the promise of the 
 ever varying verdure of spring, so the crude, barren 
 spiritual seance bears the germ of humanity's highest hope 
 made a living, certain reality; the mingling of the upper 
 and lower life in one. 
 
 Do not be discouraged for we are with you alway, 
 and never tire. Our presence is unseen, our joy hidden 
 from the physical sense, yet are our spirits filled with joy 
 and love unspeakable. Fathers and mothers are here, sis- 
 ters, brothers and children, all smiling a happy welcome on 
 some loved, earthly face. Why do you not meet oftener? 
 
 I have not much to induce me to return to your muddy 
 sphere. It is no longer a home to me, even in name, since 
 my worthy progenitors have passed into the skies. I am 
 
 Ephraim. 
 
 CHILDREN, Friends and Neighbors: This would in- 
 deed be a happy and glorious meeting if we could 
 be seen as we see; if you could know us as we know you; 
 but this is not according to nature's design and we must 
 all submit. 
 
 I am glad to see so many of you together, but I have 
 such dear friends with me where I am and feel such sweet 
 pleasure in their society, that I have cut loose from the 
 old, earthly bonds, and wait for you here, but do not follow 
 you around over your human pathway. When I was human 
 I trod the earthly path ; now I am spirit, I have thrown off 
 the shackles as unfit for further use. 
 
 Query: Can you not go to the Banner of Light free 
 circle and communicate? 
 
 Answer. I do not desire it and could not probably if 
 I tried. Imagine a greater crowd than could cover this 
 whole earth, if they had bodily presence, and you can 
 
60 
 
 form only a faint idea of the throng that gathers around a 
 public medium. E. W. G. 
 
 THE immortal world, (or the life which is yet to come 
 to you), is filled with never-fading beauty. Then 
 look forward to the incoming glory, rather than backward 
 to lost hope and departed blessings. It is the nature of 
 material pleasures to fade and grow pale as youth gives 
 way to middle life, yet there should be a divine transfigura- 
 tion in the real man; and as the material wanes the spir- 
 itual should continually brighten, until old age brings forth 
 the new-born spirit into the light of a perfect spiritual 
 existence. 
 
 This is from an identity known to you all as Ephraim. 
 My earth life has almost faded, swallowed up as a past 
 childhood, or state of imbecility. My love fraternal, and 
 filial affection alone remain undimmed. 
 
 Ask Arthur if he remembers a conversation we had 
 one Sunday in the house in the hollow on a then absorbing 
 topic ? What thinks he now of it ? He is not sorry now that 
 he heeded my counsel. I will say no more. He will know 
 to what I refer. 
 
 (This last proved an excellent personal test to A. B. 
 Gaston.) 
 
 BORNE on the electric chain of thought and desire, I 
 am here to communicate to you; I whom you knew 
 so recently as Ephraim in the flesh, now no longer Ephraim 
 in the flesh, but Ephraim in spirit still. Since Arthur so 
 earnestly desires it, I will say a few words to him. 
 
61 
 
 Yes, Arthur, I was present when you were writing, as 
 I always am when you are thinking of me and spiritually 
 desire my presence, and I have derived much comfort and 
 strength from visiting you; I can come into close com- 
 munion with you when you are alone and unoccupied with 
 worldly pursuits, but your surroundings are repellant to 
 my nature, hence I visit you rarely unless alone. The hours 
 of physical rest are more favorable to spirit communion 
 than the others, and spiritual communications are given 
 much more freely at night than during the day. 
 
 I am gradually shaking off the weakness and taint 
 which clung to my inner man from its long association 
 with physical disease. I feel happy and free, and think 
 I am destined to a full realization of my highest aspirations 
 for knowledge and all its attendant blessings. You are 
 all dearer to me than ever, yet I am growing strong and 
 self-reliant, and, with this development, the world and 
 my former life recede to give place to the new and more 
 beautiful life, which is dawning upon me. 
 
 Ephraim. 
 
 BROTHERS, when I see you striving along the path of 
 middle life, moderately successful in its fruition, I 
 feel something akin to sadness that I have lost the exper- 
 ience of a full, ripe earth life. Appreciate it! When I 
 look back over my attainments I feel they are not so full 
 as yours may be. The advantage is not all with the early 
 death. 
 
 E. H. G. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
. 62 
 
 HUMAN life begins with one single sentiment which is; 
 self-love. From this root we see many branches in 
 later life, such as parental, fraternal, conjugal and pa- 
 ternal love, all springing from self, and more or less selfish 
 in their nature. Human or earthly life in the maximum, 
 scarce rises even to pure fraternal love; yet all the selfish 
 loves must germinate, flourish and die, before the indi- 
 vidualized spirit can bring forth an immortal, Universal 
 Love, which must at last culminate in Love Divine. 
 
 The lesson designed is this : Strive at least to cultivate 
 fraternal love, else all spiritual instruction and communion 
 were in vain and without fruit. 
 
 Fraternally yours in spirit, once in flesh. 
 
 E. H. G. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
 I AM afar, yet near enough to see, love and remember, 
 "What signifies a few days, years or ages, that cirele 
 away," as the old Reader says, "to an immortal state for- 
 ever limitless?" Does not that thought tire your weaker, 
 mortal part,— make your brain reel with its weight? 
 
 It is not wonderful that the mind of man often ignores 
 the infinite and endless existence, especially when depend- 
 ing entirely upon reason, for no human train can grapple 
 and conquer by reason alone. Faith, spiritual perception 
 and love must aid in the work, or the mind becomes skep- 
 tical. 
 
 E. H. G. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty -one. 
 
63 
 
 I COME. Am here to meet the expressed wish of one still 
 very dear to me. 
 
 I am the same tonight yet greatly changed from that 
 other night when my weak, worn spirit was released from 
 the sick, dying body and I left you all behind to try new 
 scenes in an untried life beyond the physical. The inter- 
 vening years have brought changes to you all, yet more to 
 me outside, than to you within the mortal. I have dropped 
 many of my youthful foibles and replaced them with some- 
 thing better, I trust, yet. every pure sentiment I then felt 
 and understood, still lives with me bright and imperish- 
 able. All of love that was purely spiritual, is treasured as 
 a part of my spirit's best possessions. All else perishes 
 with the body, as death refines, purifies the spirit. 
 
 Blessed is that spirit who has a good stock on hand, 
 when the Messenger comes to assort the bundle! I have 
 said little, yet much. 
 
 Ephraim. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
 SUFFERING while in earth-life is nothing to the freed 
 spirit. Its memory only is recalled like the dim out- 
 lines of a troubled dream. Yet if the moral qualities of the 
 spirit are enhanced by its influence, it remains with us here 
 a rich inheritance, a glorious reward that time and death 
 can never destroy. 
 
 Let this lesson be with you to comfort and sustain you 
 during the dark hours of physical suffering that must come 
 to all. 
 
 e. h. a 
 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-two. 
 
64 
 
 THELSTON, I am here,— not with the old-time pipe 
 exactly but the "pipe of peace" and remembrance 
 puffing around you with hearty good-will! 
 
 What are you all about here in Meadville? Are you 
 becoming rich, and puffing pride from your pipes? Poor 
 Atlantic! It seems like a deserted country when I look 
 at it now. No more. 
 
 Edmund W. Gaston. 
 November eighteenth, eighteen hundred, eighty-three. 
 
"Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, 
 Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, 
 Can be retentive to the strength of Spirit." 
 
 —Shakespeare, 
 
 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF 
 
 ALVIN CONGDON 
 
 In his Passing from Earth to Spirit- Life by Accident. 
 
 ALSO 
 MESSAGES PROM HIS BROTHER AND SISTER 
 
 Levi and Cordelia. 
 
T f T LL hail 
 
 LL hail, my friends, whom the meanderings of 
 an earthly pilgrimage have brought again to- 
 gether. 
 Do you still see the Star of Faith and Hope brightly 
 gleaming through the mists and clouds, which ever attend 
 the unfolding of the immaterial spirit from the material 
 form? The cloud and the storm, are as necessary condi- 
 tions for the germinating grain, as the genial atmosphere 
 and the warm sunshine. 
 
 Apply this grand law of nature to every mental storm 
 which arises over your spiritual horizon. 
 
 Cordelia. 
 Eighteen hundred, fifty -nine. 
 
 PHYSICAL suffering and earthly trials will soon be 
 over, then will your spirit rise where the narrowness 
 of worldly ambition will be lost in a nobler field of labor, 
 and a clearer view of the best interest and happiness of the 
 soul. All the grasping covetousness with which man is 
 perplexed, when viewed here, appears like the fretting of 
 a child for a gilded toy. 
 
 ij 7 Levi Congdon. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-three. 
 
 MY Friends : Though I am just across the river, I am 
 very glad to bid you good cheer and that is all I 
 am able to do. When I pass beyond all troubles in the 
 valley, I will give you my experience. Be faithful to your 
 belief. 
 
 Alvin Congdon. 
 January, eighteen hundred, seventy. 
 
"Spirits with easy intercourse pass to and fro."— Milton. 
 
 ZbeJ£xpexienceot&lK>in&ot\Qbon 
 
 |\ IV Y Dear Friends: I am with you in spirit, as 
 
 \/ near as when my bodily presence formed 
 
 -^- r -^-^— ^ «^» , one of the mystic circle in the past. I 
 
 purpose giving you a simple sketch of my first impressions 
 
 after crossing the dark river of death. 
 
 The first sensation I experienced was a rapid and 
 whirling motion in utter darkness and awful silence. The 
 din of a railway depot was thus, in the twinkling of an eye 
 as it were, exchanged for the dark valley and shadow of 
 death. 
 
 When the vibrations ceased and I became quiet again, 
 I saw a faint light ; and soon a form appeared in the dim 
 twilight that now surrounded me and, taking me by the 
 hand, said in a clear voice : ' ' Come up higher, my brother, 
 into the light and sunshine of the new life that is just 
 dawning upon you. ' ' 
 
 ' ' Cordelia ! ' ' I said, for I knew her instinctively, with- 
 out thinking of anything strange or unearthly connected 
 with the vision. " Where am I? What has happened?'' I 
 asked. "When shall I continue my journey? Where is the 
 train and when does it start?" and many more incoherent 
 questions. 
 
 My brother, have no regrets; Leave the Past, turn 
 to the Light ! Do not mourn, that you have thus suddenly 
 been called from the immaterial and fleeting life, to real 
 abiding existence— that the fading garment of mortality 
 has been torn off by accident, only to be exchanged for 
 the shining robe of immortality. Come forward to the 
 light of your new home ! ' ' 
 
 Much more she said that I cannot tell you, but I could 
 not understand her. I fancied she was asking me to choose 
 
69 
 
 between earth and spirit-life. So I told her "no," that 
 when I had accomplished my journey and finished my 
 earthly work, I would come gladly, but I must now go 
 back." 
 
 Accordingly we parted company, and I sought the 
 train and silently took my seat in the car. Everything 
 appeared strangely unnatural. I looked upon everything 
 with a new interest, for I saw the interior as distinctly as 
 the exterior. No one noticed me, and I justly concluded 
 that I was not seen by any one. I could not understand 
 my clairvoyant sight or my invisible presence. I felt sure 
 I was myself, unchanged, although others did not seem 
 disposed to recognize the fact. After the conductor had 
 passed me without question, I spoke to my nearest fellow- 
 passenger in regard to the matter and saw, to my astonish- 
 ment, that my conversation was entirely unheeded! I was 
 bewildered and unhappy and made no more attempts to 
 talk with anyone. 
 
 Suddenly I was in Vineland! I scarcely know how. 
 Yet surely the place looked familiar enough to be no de- 
 ception. I new through the streets, met some of my old 
 friends and shouted forth my welcome, but they neither 
 looked at, nor spoke to me. I went to my old boarding- 
 place and entered unbidden; bolts and locks opened for 
 me, as for Peter and John of ancient time. I now exerted 
 every known means in my power to manifest my presence, 
 but without avail. Occasionally their thoughts rested upon 
 me for a moment, then some passing event would erase the 
 impression. I know not how long a time I spent there. 
 It did not occur to me to measure time, my mind was so 
 perplexed; I only know I felt miserably unhappy. The 
 visit was not what I had expected. 
 
 All at once I felt there was trouble at home and imme- 
 diately formed a resolution to start back at once. 
 
 "Yes," I thought, "they will be glad to see me come 
 home so soon; it will be a pleasant surprise for Myra and 
 mother; probably they are mourning my absence now." 
 
 There was comfort in this assurance and I sped on, 
 
70 
 
 feeling instinctively that I no longer needed the aid of 
 railroads to carry me homeward. I floated on through 
 space, I know not how, propelled by some invisible power, 
 but I was satisfied, for I felt conscious that I was home- 
 ward bound. A faint light surrounded me. Suddenly I 
 heard the sound of weeping and knew that I was there. 
 
 " Mother! Myra!" I cried, but the voice of wailing 
 alone replied. 
 
 A spiritual blindness for a time enveloped everything 
 in darkness and I prayed earnestly for light. Remember, 
 the light of the sun was now of no avail to me. But light 
 came at last and I cannot describe how I was startled, when 
 I saw the image of myself,— my body— lying before me r 
 stark and lifeless! Then and there, was I born into spir- 
 itual existence and full and complete consciousness. How 
 much of my previous experience was a reality, I cannot 
 determine, but what will follow I do surely know. All the 
 events, thoughts, and motives of my past life, came throng- 
 ing upon my now fully awakened spirit. I found myself 
 in possession of a perfect memory of everything in con- 
 nection with my earthly life, even to the minutest particu- 
 lar. With the old shell, perished the power of forgetting. 
 I could have repeated my whole life-history without a 
 break. I was an unseem, silent witness to that funeral; 
 sitting in close and sympathetic connection with my dear 
 ones, yet entirely unowned and unobserved by all; and I 
 went to see my broken clay companion laid beneath the 
 surface of its parent-earth. 
 
 I come now to a radical change in my spiritual ex- 
 perience. After the burial I did not return with my 
 mourning family. I felt I needed a change. Looking 
 upward for divine aid, I again saw Cordelia and many 
 other spirit friends above and around me. 
 
 " Cordelia/ ' I said, "I have finished. I come to be 
 guided to the light of my new home." 
 
 Now language falters, for how can I describe a purely 
 spiritual scene to unborn spirits? Ephraim was among 
 the throng who met me on the borders of the spirit world. 
 
71 
 
 Overjoyed was I to meet his shining face, and warmly did 
 he welcome me. I felt all unworthy of spiritual being and 
 spiritual society ; and seeing this, they told me my presence 
 proved my worthiness, since, in this world of reality, there 
 is no seeming. It is entirely impossible for any one to 
 reach a position which they are not qualified to fill. 
 
 Time with you. Eternity with me, rolls on, and I am 
 satisfied, happy even, in the change. I now view the acci- 
 dent of my physical death as a wisely ordered event re- 
 sulting in my spiritual good. The old body was nearly 
 worn out and could have been of no more assistance to the 
 development of the spirit-; hence it was but an incum- 
 brance. 
 
 In conclusion I will say : If you would have a pleasant 
 spiritual awakening ; if you hope for peaceful visions in 
 the hour of physical dissolution, your life on earth must 
 be prudent and wise. Do not be forgetful of the destiny 
 which awaits you, nor neglect your higher nature for sor- 
 did selfish pursuits. 
 
 Tell the dear ones all this, and more. I visit, guard 
 and love them, even more than when on earth. 
 Farewell, 
 
 Alvin. 
 September, eighteen hundred, seventy. 
 
 ALL hail, my friends I There is beauty on both sides of 
 life. Beauty there, for the fair body and well bal- 
 anced brain, but beauty here for every eye to see and a 
 path of progress for each individual spirit. None are 
 exempt. The lowest and vilest will at last grow upward 
 toward the Source of all knowledge and love. 
 
 AiiVHf. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
72 
 
 TIME has made many changes since I met with you 
 some twenty years ago in the past, yet we are in- 
 dividually the same men and women now as then. Nature 
 has robed and unrobed your spirits in new flesh garments 
 since that time. — And mine? Well, I hope mine have 
 changed, too, for the better. Time has written some marks 
 of improvement upon my imperishable garments. I am 
 Alvin. I dwell in the " Summer Land" in a home of my 
 own, with many joys, such as I enjoyed among you all, 
 only very much better, higher, purer, and above all, more 
 enduring. 
 
 I think of you more frequently than you think of 
 me. The difference is, I am in a world where spirit is 
 paramount. You still live where matter wears the chief 
 glory of existence. 
 
 Alvin. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty -one. 
 
Then let us fill this little interval, this pause 
 of life, with all the virtues we can crowd 
 into it.. 
 
 —Addison. 
 
 MESSAGES FROM 
 
 SARAH WYKOFF 
 
 By means of the Deaf and Dumb Alphabet. 
 
QUERY: What and where is Heaven? 
 Reply: Heaven is where the spirit's best and 
 —^^^) highest affections centre. Yours may be 
 in one locality, mine in another. 
 
 Let petty annoyances pass by you, as the idle wind, 
 without thought or care. Persevere, be valiant in well 
 doing, and the victor's laurels will spangle your new spir- 
 itual raiment with richest tracery of silver chastity, and 
 golden lines of Duty well done. 
 
 To Addie from one who loves her well. 
 
 Sarah. 
 October, eighteen hundred, eighty-five. 
 
 H ftbougbt Suggested) b$ tbe Song : 
 "fferHwae." 
 
 WHEN our bodies die and our spirits are freed, we 
 leave a magnetic chain or cord behind in every 
 spirit who truly loves us wound fast around that staple 
 by which we may ever return. And just so long as you 
 keep this love pure and strong, we cannot be "far away." 
 If, however, you let the staple rust, decay and fall, 
 then, oh then, the link is lost and we "soar away" in- 
 deed! 
 
 Moral. If you desire us keep the staple both bright 
 and strong. 
 
 Sarah. 
 October, eighteen hundred, eighty-five. 
 
76 
 
 WE always add to the top of our houses. We never 
 build round the sides, or on the ground, but al- 
 ways up. We grow higher and higher like the boy's bean- 
 stalk, till we get out of sight. This is the best way I can 
 draw comparisons. With us, it is growth and development. 
 Your buildings represent money, but in the spirit world, 
 our buildings represent mind-wealth ; and those who have 
 only a small stock of mind-material, must be satisfied with 
 a small house. A very small one indeed, represents the 
 brain-culture of many a man who goes out of a large, beau- 
 tiful ' ' stone-front ' ' there on earth, but as he grows in good- 
 ness, and in spirituality, he may enlarge it just as you 
 enlarge by your larger stock of money. With us it must 
 be real worth— money has no longer any value. 
 
 Sarah Wycoff. 
 
 AN angel child* draws near, very near. He has fresh 
 roses in his hand. He lives in the Summer-land 
 where flowers bloom perpetually. See, he smiles, puts out 
 his little hand and says, in baby language. "Papa sees 
 me now." And truly we believe papa does see, in spirit 
 and in truth, though no material-form greets the physical 
 eye. Such meetings will keep alive his remembrance and 
 love as nothing else could. He is beautiful and happy and 
 learns rapidly. 
 
 It is nice to have jewels on earth and it is well to have 
 one jewel beyond price set in the kingdom above to keep 
 us in mind that there is a life beyond. 
 
 Sarah to Arthur. 
 November fourth, eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
 * Donald, infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur B. Gaston. He is 
 the child referred to in one of Ephraim Gaston's messages as 
 "Donnie." 
 
77 
 
 a flower from tbe Sunns $i&e* 
 
 To Nellie.* 
 
 I saw your Father's garden, dear, 
 'Twas living green. While here and there 
 A flower upon its margin grew, 
 Of varied form and brilliant hue. 
 
 "Give Nell," said he, "a hollyhock, 
 I raised them from the same old stock 
 That round our smoke-house used to bloom, 
 Within our earthly garden home." 
 
 With scarlet leaves and golden cup, 
 Where sweet perfume comes welling up, 
 They stand in rows, on slender stalks, 
 And beautify your father's walks. 
 
 Go forth to some fair sunny spot 
 Upon the ground that holds your cot, 
 And plant his favorite flower there, 
 And guard the germ with tender care. 
 
 And when the stalks are filled with bloom, 
 And lade the air with rich perfume, 
 The flowers of love and faith shall fill 
 Your soul with sweeter fragrance still. 
 
 Father and Sarah. 
 May tenth, eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
 * "Sarah" assumed control of the medium one evening when she 
 was alone with a sister (Mrs. Hannah Nichols), and her two daugh- 
 ters, the younger of which, Nellie, then a small child, had not been 
 well enough to attend a children's party to which she had been in- 
 vited. Sarah came, taught Nellie the symbols, and turned her disap- 
 pointment into real pleasure by giving her the above message. 
 
78 
 
 Couldst thou but soar on Faith's broad wing 
 
 To yon bright spheres above; 
 
 All passions base behind you fling, 
 
 And robe yourselves in love; 
 
 Then would celestial muse divine 
 
 Thy pen's dull point inspire, 
 
 Breathe heavenly truths in every line, 
 
 Touched with seraphic fire. 
 
 Sarah. 
 
 H Wreatb. 
 
 A wreath of flowers I bring to thee, 
 Faith, Hope and Love and Charity 
 
 Compose this garland rare. 
 Around thy soul do thou entwine, 
 And let it with thy thoughts combine 
 
 This heavenly crown so fair! 
 
 The scarlet buds of Faith ne'er fade; 
 Alike in sunshine and in shade 
 
 Its petals will expand. 
 The soul, with its pure fragrance fraught, 
 Looks o'er the ills of life as naught 
 But heralders of blessings, brought 
 
 Forth by the Father's hand. 
 
 The golden flower of Hope reveals 
 A mellow tinted light, which steals 
 
 All sadness from the soul. 
 All prospects dark are hid from view, 
 Or covered with a roseate hue 
 Which fills the soul with life anew, 
 
 Its powers to unfold. 
 
79 
 
 But ah! the blossoms of pure Love 
 Spread o'er the wide expanse above 
 
 That marks the Spirit-Home. 
 To nature's emblem ever true, 
 I dress the flowers of Love in blue, 
 Or paint them in the glorious hue 
 
 Which fills the heavenly dome. 
 
 When e'er its petals are unfurled, 
 When e'er it spreads o'er all the world 
 
 No room is left for strife. 
 Stern war, in its pure fragrance dies, 
 Oppression from its presence flies, 
 Forgot the orphan's tears and sighs 
 
 And all with joy is rife. 
 
 Next, Charity with spotless leaves, 
 The gratitude of earth receives, 
 
 Where e're its buds unite. 
 O'er all men's faults it draws a veil, 
 And only tells the pleasant tale 
 Of virtue's deeds and love revealed, 
 
 Upon its blossoms white. 
 
 These priceless ornaments entwine, 
 And let them with thy being join 
 
 And bloom forever fresh. 
 Within the garden of the mind, 
 
 Let their united beauties shine. 
 Faith, Hope, Love, Charity, combined 
 To draw forth all thy powers divine, 
 Thy soul shall ever bless. 
 
 Sarah. 
 
The spirit of man which God inspired, 
 Cannot perish with this corporal clod. 
 
 —Milton. 
 
 LITTLE SERMONS 
 BY 
 
 JAMES REED. 
 
Y Dear Young Friends : Faith without works 
 is dead. Strive to let the light of a pure 
 , faith shine forth in every word and 
 work, that all around you may feel the influence of your 
 manifold spiritual instructions ! In domestic life you mean 
 well, have true principles, but you are weak and easily 
 thrown off your balance by the petty annoyances of every 
 day life. 
 
 It is not the most important steps in life that most try 
 •a man's unwavering integrity and virtue, but the daily 
 and hourly battling with the little adverse duties of the 
 moment, when the spirit has grown weak and weary ; when 
 the guiding lights within the watch-towers of reason and 
 conscience have been clouded by worldly selfishness and 
 cares. In the former trials, the real man calls forth all the 
 latent powers to aid him in the issue. In the latter, he 
 is oft-times unguarded and becomes the victim of blind 
 impulse, fancy or passions base. Guard against these 
 pigmy, yet mighty evils, my children. 
 
 No more at present. 
 
 James Reed. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-seven. 
 
 ARE you not all messengers of the spirit? If you but 
 strive to hear and heed the inward voice of the spir- 
 itual intuitions, its promptings will become more and more 
 palpable to the interior senses without any gold or other 
 earthly treasure. All physical nature is full of an invis- 
 ible life-giving element, without which your bodies can- 
 -jiot live. You do not see it, yet it must be with you or 
 
84 
 
 you perish physically. Even so the spirit must be sus- 
 tained by invisible forces. By this means, if properly cul- 
 tivated and understood, all may receive absolute knowledge 
 without money and without price. The white-winged mes- 
 sengers are anxiously waiting and watching, in every 
 household, for the first dawning of that recognition of their 
 invisible power, which is so necessary to every human indi- 
 vidualized existence, although unseen or unknown. 
 
 THERE is a purpose shown forth in all created things, 
 —some beneficent design for the being created; and 
 when you have attained the supreme heights of perfect 
 bliss, then, and not until then, should you begin to imagine 
 that you have reached the ultimatum of life, and are ready 
 to take the declining plane and slide back towards the dark 
 waters of Forgetfulness. 
 
 Your worldly Materialists are going to take a few 
 journeys up the mountain-side of life, and when they are 
 ready to take passage up the higher slope, in a lighter 
 conveyance, they imagine they are going to fall asleep for 
 ever more. Truly we think this more dark than the old 
 Redemption plan, as any waking is better than Eternal 
 Sleep. 
 
 Well, we have tired you out, little scribe. Many 
 thanks. 
 
 J. R. 
 
 BE not cast down. When the spirit of truth and sin- 
 cerity is with you, who can be against you? Indif- 
 ference is the stupor of the too worldly mind. We think 
 
85 
 
 it has the same effect upon the spirit, that alcohol has upon 
 the body. May light from the spirit-world fill your home 
 with peace and love; visitants more precious than mere 
 earth can bestow. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy -eight. 
 
 YOUR strains breathe first of faith, hope, reunion in the 
 bright beyond, then of prayer and reverence for the 
 Divine Author of our being ; and again of the joy and bliss 
 of inter-communion of the spheres. Spiritualism is the 
 beacon light which renders faith something more than a 
 poetical myth; hope and union and love a living reality. 
 We cannot speak and command and call forth light from 
 darkness. The "still small voice" of the spirit must speak 
 with power, only to those whose souls are attuned to the 
 heavenly harmony. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-nine. 
 
 AS the fitful gleams of sunlight on a gusty November 
 day, indicate the flood of light beyond the clouds; 
 so the dim rays of spiritual unfoldment just as surely 
 herald forth a warmer, clearer glow, that shall come 
 streaming over every individualized spirit, quickening each 
 and all with a power to raise the dark mantle of ignorance 
 and error that all may be purified by a heavenly baptism 
 of light,— more light! 
 
86 
 
 YES, truly, earthly joys and sorrows are but faint types 
 of the living reality which greets us in the realm of 
 mind. Then stand fearless amidst the wreck and havoc 
 of war, steadfast in an unyielding faith in immortal life. 
 Be only fearful of wrong doing. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty -three. 
 
 MY friends, do not think we have deserted you. We 
 do not wish to give lessons in the rudiments always, 
 but desire you to rise into the broader and clearer light 
 of interior perception. 
 
 Where there is a deep yearning for spiritual light, the 
 soul-faculties gradually become developed within the sun- 
 light of a truthful mind, and the spirit is surrounded with a 
 halo of heavenly knowledge. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-three. 
 
 WHEN the aspirations of a new-born spirit rise above 
 the baser passions, it draws the spirit upward into 
 clearer light than earth affords to any, save a few fine 
 organizations whose spiritual perceptions pierce through 
 all the stormy earth-clouds of passion. But those who are 
 ruled by the lower faculties hover among their kindred 
 vices, and are no better off, except that they are more 
 easily reached and influenced by their wiser guardians. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-three. 
 
87 
 
 WHEN the blighting frost of worldly ambition is baffled 
 by the stern principles of rectitude and duty, the 
 spirit grows inflexible and cold— though just and exact- 
 ing; but when subdued by divine Love, perpetual sun- 
 shine irradiates every kindly deed, and the spirit grows 
 beautiful and graceful as well as strong and firm. 
 
 Cultivate a spirit of love as well as a spirit of justice. 
 Love, Justice and Wisdom combined, form the perfect 
 man. 
 
 You possess more of justice than love, hence I call 
 your attention to the latter. 
 
 THERE is an Eternal Principle of Immortality within 
 man's divine nature which can never be erased 
 however low he may sink in the scale of physical develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty -four. 
 
 AS the yellow splendor of the moon fills the night with 
 many fleeting phantoms, so does the twilight of 
 spirit-communion, people the untaught mind with weird, 
 mysterious fancies. Yet, as the glories of the incoming 
 day sweep away all the unreal shadows of the night, so 
 will the light of the incoming life clear away all doubts 
 and fears and seeming discrepancies in the spiritual realm. 
 Keep the lamp of faith forever trimmed and burning. 
 
 Your mother, brother and hosts of friends send you 
 greeting from across the River. 
 
88 
 
 WE are with you, more in trials than in sunshine. 
 You have our deepest sympathy, our holiest, ten- 
 derest influences, when tried by secret sorrow or subject 
 to any peculiar affliction. Each soul knows its own bitter- 
 ness and to this we would fain administer a healing balm 
 that should dispel all dark clouds from the spirit and 
 make it radiant with the perpetual bloom of cheerfulness 
 and love. 
 
 Good night, and may pure spirits seek kindred attri- 
 butes in each one of you; aye and not search in vain! 
 
 MY Dear Protege: I am still mindful of you, though 
 you are now a man in the strife and turmoil of a 
 business life and I stand on the invisible side, therefore 
 in the background of physical life. 
 
 Never forget, however, that I am assuredly with you, 
 
 and often aid you too, in thoughts, ideas and suggestions; 
 
 and though you do not realize me, yet would you miss me, 
 
 as you miss the air or the sunshine which you do not see. 
 
 Then never doubt me again. 
 
 J. R. 
 
 THE infinite possibilities of the Future rise clear and 
 bright within the broad domain of the spirit. Life 
 has a beauty and serenity here, that earth-life seldom 
 realizes. The "wages of sin are pain and death, but the 
 gift of God is Eternal Life. 
 
 Do not then strive to "sell your birthright for a mess 
 of pottage." 
 
89 
 
 THE fair, pure temple of the spirit is indestructible 
 both from within and from without. Do not seek to 
 war against Nature's laws with puny arms of flesh, for she 
 must surely vanquish. 
 
 Yours in spirit, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 THE dark chasm is bridged. Light is fast dawning 
 upon the minds of earth's children. The old re- 
 ligious fables are giving way before rational knowledge of 
 the incoming life; and we, its representatives, are bring- 
 ing to those we leave behind, as much of absolute intelli- 
 gence from our side as it is possible for us to give and 
 for you to understand. Though the knowledge is only 
 partial, and mingled with much imperfection, it is rapidly 
 dispelling the night of superstition. When morning comes 
 after darkness, man cannot but see his old phantoms fade 
 and disappear before the light! 
 
 You may say— " There is no life beyond the physical 
 death ; there is no God ; there is nothing which is not purely 
 material." Then comes the soft gentle influence of de- 
 parted loved ones, speaking the familiar language so fond- 
 ly remembered, and you know you feel that they still live 
 and love you as of old. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
 HE ugliest forms of life are beautiful, and all is 
 Life! There is no death— only change in Life. 
 
90 
 
 THE light of the pure sweet morning dawns clear and 
 bright, after the night of darkness and storm ! Thus 
 the black pall of grief and despair is gradually lifted and 
 dispelled, by the unfolding and rising of the fair sun- 
 light of Faith and Immortal Love, that looks above the 
 changes of death and time, to that blessed reunion in the 
 real undying Life— the life of the higher spheres. 
 
 The voice of the husband and father rings out cheery 
 words of love and remembrance, in the clear calm morn-, 
 ing, after the night of grief is past, so be comforted and 
 hope on, work on, trust on to the end. 
 Your guardian and friend, 
 
 James Reed. 
 
 THE spirit hosts come pouring in, each one verifying 
 the old primeval truth of immortal kinship ! 
 
 There are three fathers present, and each seeks an 
 earth-born son, thus proving that earthly ties live beyond 
 the flesh that gave them birth. Spirit speaks to kindred 
 spirit; and the spirit of man knows, feels itself to be im- 
 mortal, undying, unchanging in its eternal individuality. 
 But its body companion is formed of opaque matter, and 
 is often blind to the light of the spirit. The material body 
 is invisible to me as a spiritual being. My spiritual body 
 is invisible to you as a material substance, yet my spirit 
 is cognizant of yours, and vice versa. 
 
 The spirit of the patriarch father and new-found son 
 clasp hands and seek together the earthly son and brother. 
 The younger spirit-father flies to meet his favorite son, 
 here present. The absent brother obeys the call of kin- 
 ship, and comes forward to join the invisible throng. Sis- 
 ters are here, and the newly united parents; all showing 
 that love paternal, and love fraternal are not lost or van- 
 quished by physical dissolution. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
91 
 
 THE love that is wafted to you from the spiritual 
 spheres is something, which although you cannot 
 see, taste or handle is yet rich with the glow of Hope and 
 Promise for human progress. Hope that the mystery of 
 life and its many changes may be unfolded and made clear 
 through spiritual knowledge; and Promise that doubt and 
 darkness may be succeeded by the pure light of a rational 
 faith. 
 
 Yet as the myriad voices of physical nature are 
 silent before the man who loves only sensual pleasures, 
 so is the " still small voice" of the spirit hushed before 
 the mind entirely engrossed in worldly pursuits and aims. 
 
 l J. R. 
 February eighteenth, eighteen hundred, eighty-three. 
 
 WE welcome you all in the name of your spirit friends 
 who are anxious to waft back a thought of recogni- 
 tion, from the, to you, invisible world. Yet we are real, 
 palpable presences, and claim our share of your love and 
 remembrance. We will speak further when you meet 
 again. Have our added blessing. 
 
 A familiar spirit,— when on earth James Reed by 
 name— speaks for the others. 
 
 Some of the new friends may speak when they get 
 acquainted with our methods. One, a tall lady, wishes to 
 do so when she can. 
 
 THOUGH the dark waves of disease and death have 
 destroyed my mortal body yet my freed spirit still 
 lives and I return triumphant in my new found life. I 
 
92 
 
 now have demonstrated that pain and dissolution can only 
 kill the body, that the soul lives on after, loves, remem- 
 bers and may return and see all our dear earthly friends. 
 
 Death has lifted every former care and cloud from 
 my now glorified spirit and I am willing, happy, to wait 
 for the blissful reunion which the fullness of time must 
 surely bring to us all. I will not fully identify myself, 
 my good kind friend knows who I am. 
 
 From the tall lady who recently passed over. 
 
 J. R. 
 February fourth, eighteen hundred, eighty -three. 
 
 BE not desponding my young friends. The clouds will 
 all disperse and the mental horizon of your spirit 
 grow clear as a spotless mirror, on which may be shadowed 
 forth the uses of every trial. 
 
 Let your faith buoy you up through the cares of life. 
 
 MY Dear Protege : Be of good cheer and keep a strong 
 hold of the firm anchor of faith and hope; and if 
 the storm rages, the troubled waters cannot quite over- 
 come. 
 
 Soon your storm-tossed craft will be anchored within 
 a peaceful haven, whose fair, sunny margin touches the 
 fertile valleys of the Summer land, the home of purity, 
 peace and progress. Yours fraternally, 
 
 ST. R. 
 
93 
 
 THERE are many beautiful and exalted truths hid be- 
 neath these crude manifestations. 
 If you have patience and perseverence to delve 
 through the bitter crust of darkness and inharmony, you 
 will be rewarded with the pure light of interior wisdom. 
 
 DO not be disheartened. Try to open a channel that 
 the tides of love and wisdom which roll o'er the vast 
 ocean of spirituality may flow into your spirit. 
 
 If you were fitting a passage to some foreign country, 
 you could not expect to complete it immediately. Then 
 be willing to labor in the cause of Truth; and when angels 
 are with you, never despair of success! 
 
 YOU know we still live, and ever surround you with 
 continued love and remembrance, so let silent Faith 
 fill the hour with inspiration, sweet and holy. 
 
 Be not so entirely engrossed in physical wants and 
 temporary necessities, but let your spirit rise in divine 
 attraction toward its real eternal Home. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 James Reed. 
 (In behalf of many waiting friends). 
 
 YOUR dear congenial friends who have passed to spirit- 
 life, clasp hands with you across the stormy gulf of 
 Physical Dissolution Cherish their memory and love! 
 
 The purer light of a new spiritual era is advancing 
 
94 
 
 over the whole universe of intelligent beings, and your 
 little home enjoys a share of its coming brightness. Then 
 strive to rise above the petty ills of time that yon matf 
 receive a richer draught of spiritual knowledge which will 
 abide with the immortal man forever. 
 
 AGAIN and again have we given you messages of love, 
 encouragement, reproof, warning and counsel. Why 
 reiterate? 
 
 Let unfoldment come from within, rather than from 
 without. 
 
 James Reed. 
 
"How must a spirit late escaped from earth 
 The truth of things new blasting in its eye, 
 Look bach astonished on the ways of men 
 Whose life's whole drift is to forget their graces. 9 ' 
 
 —Young. 
 
 EXPERIENCE OF 
 
 L. W. VAUGHN 
 
 On his awakening in Spirit-Life after having been killed 
 in the war. 
 
 1863. 
 
fj RIEND Hammond: I see you have not forgotten 
 |ti me. I have had a sore time but am not sorry to 
 -^- be in spirit-life. 
 
 "Doc." 
 
 Query: Can I do anything for your children? 
 Answer: I require nothing of you Friend Ham- 
 mond,* save a continuance of your friendship. 
 
 December ninth, eighteen hundred, sixty-three. 
 
 pB 
 
 IEND Hammond: When you look into a deep dark 
 pit or well, what makes you think it has a bottom? 
 
 "Doc." 
 December sixteenth, eighteen hundred, sixty-three. 
 
 * On his return to Pennsylvania from a Western state where 
 he had made the acquaintance of Mr. Vaughn, Mr. Hammond 
 had lost all trace of his friend. Therefore, it was a most convincing 
 test when, through the mediumship of persons to whom he was 
 wholly unknown, Mr. Vaughn related the manner of his death; when it 
 occurred and where; and later investigation proved the details 
 to be correct. It had been Mr. Vaughn's habit to address him as 
 "Friend Hammond" in speaking to him. 
 
Experience of %, W. l^ausbn. 
 
 KIEND Hammond: The first knowledge I had 
 of existence, after I was shot, I found my- 
 self in silence and darkness, devoid of even 
 a memory of the past. I knew not what I was, 
 nor where I was. I seemed to be the only living 
 thing in a universe of darkness; but after a long 
 sojourn in the field of silence, recollection gradually came 
 to the rescue and gave me something to meditate upon 
 which, though bad enough, was better than nothing to 
 think about. I prayed, oh ! how earnestly, for light and the 
 power of motion; prayed that I might know whether I 
 was among friends or foes; for I did not yet know I was 
 beyond the reach of rebel warfare ! 
 
 Gradually objects around me became visible, and I 
 found myself surrounded by beings still more miserable, 
 many of them, than I. The mute agony, pictured on the 
 countenance of some, was unutterable; while others looked 
 calm and peaceful. I soon noticed some beings of a higher 
 order flitting around, striving to alleviate the sufferers. 
 
 "Oh!" thought I, "They are angels come to wait 
 upon the dying! But they do not look like dying men, 
 I see no wounds. My wound is gone! What means it? 
 Where am I? Am I myself? 
 
 As these questions swept through my mind, I saw a 
 form standing before me. I looked at it inquiringly. She 
 raised her hand and directed me, by motion, to look away 
 from my surroundings, upward into the realms of light. 
 Then as she placed her arm around me, I felt a new 
 strength. imparted to me and soon realized a desire to go 
 with her from this dungeon. No sooner had I felt this 
 wish, than we began to rise into clearer atmosphere, and 
 nature's universe smiled upon us, in the light of truth 
 
99 
 
 and intuition. Beauty surrounded us and happiness filled 
 all my being. No blood marks were visible, throughout the 
 limitless realms of spirit existence! No strife or discord 
 marred the harmony of the scene! 
 
 There my guide drew her supporting arm from around 
 me and said: 
 
 "Can you attune your soul to the scenes of peace 
 and love, or will you still dwell in the spirit of warfare, 
 strife, hatred and misery? These passions must be for- 
 ever overcome, before you can drink from the fount of 
 wisdom, peace and love." 
 
 For the first time the consciousness that I was living 
 in the world of spirits came over me. The emotions that 
 surged through my spirit, no language of mine can de- 
 scribe. All my earthly life rose before me, clear and 
 distinct. Not a word, a look, a thought or an incident 
 was forgotten. 
 
 When looked upon by the light of truth, how dis- 
 gusting did the sins, follies and passions of my earthly 
 life appear. I sorrowed over a mis-spent life mostly, but 
 when a noble deed passed in review, how lovingly would 
 memory cling to it, anxiously wishing that the bright spot 
 might spread over the darker portion. Yain hope! It 
 only made the surrounding gloom more apparent. 
 
 As the friends and acquaintances of my earthly life 
 passed quickly before me, all the scales of externalism 
 dropped from my eyes and I saw, internally, every motive 
 that formed the basis of their friendship or aversion for 
 me. Many false garbs grieved my spirit vision, but, when 
 you, Friend Hammond, came along, I was shocked with 
 no hollow pretense of unfelt friendship. 
 
 This is why I came back to you. I found I had 
 thrown away many real blessings and accepted many 
 sugar-coated lies. Of all mankind, the hypocrite, hon- 
 ored and respected, looks the worst, in the light of truth. 
 His whole life is a lie, with now and then a crack where 
 the real man peeks out, in spite of the painted coat of 
 falsehood. 
 
100 
 
 Continued 
 
 WHEN I had travelled over the scenes of my earthly life, 
 I viewed the lonely spot where my old body had been 
 left to mingle in the dust with the remains of friend and 
 foe, in the bosom of one common Mother. I found that 
 about two months had elapsed since I had been severed 
 from the lump of earth I once called myself. It was as 
 hard for me to realize that the decaying substance before 
 me, had ever formed a part of myself, as it used to be to 
 believe I could live away from it. Then questions began 
 to arise in my mind, in regard to my past experience in 
 that dark, silent place, and I looked for my guide. No 
 sooner did I desire her presence than she was with me, 
 like an angel of light, ready to give me instruction. I 
 spoke to her, as you might ask your mother, of the for- 
 gotten scenes of early childhood. 
 
 "I was in no dungeon," she told me; "The elements 
 of light, love, wisdom and truth, surrounded me then as 
 now. My mental condition had caused the darkness— 
 my spiritual perceptions being too weak to behold the ob- 
 jects around me. Place is nothing in spirit-life, but 
 condition, capacity, makes its own surroundings. The 
 light of God's Truth, shines everywhere, but the spiritually 
 blind cannot perceive it until their faculties are quickened, 
 by the desire to arise from the dark conditions." 
 
 "Well" said I at length, "where am I to find a place 
 in this unbounded land of the spirit?" 
 
 "Your place," she replied, "is where your aspira- 
 tions, endowments and attractions draw you. I have 
 helped to open your perceptions to a faint knowledge of 
 the beauties of harmony, love and wisdom. If you desire 
 to be a resident of the realms of Peace, you must bring 
 your whole soul into harmony with the scenes I have shown 
 you, then will you possess nature's password and coun- 
 tersign to advance. No armed warriors will ever arise to 
 
101 
 
 bar your ingress to any of nature's unlimited dominions, 
 save the spiritual foes of Progress,— ignorance and inhar- 
 mony. You have the power within you by which you may 
 vanquish these, if you will use them. I leave you now 
 to follow your own attractions. I shall be with you again 
 to instruct you, if you desire it." She disappeared in an 
 instant. 
 
 When left to myself, a feeling of sad loneliness per- 
 vaded my spirit. All the past elevation of mind I had 
 enjoyed seemed to desert me, and I longed for earth and 
 the friends and jovial companions I had left behind. 
 
 ' ' War is feetter than the quiet here ! ' ' I thought ; and 
 with the thought was drawn back to earth where I wan- 
 dered from place to place, but found no satisfaction any- 
 where. I could not approach my wife. A gulf seemed to 
 spread its wide jaws between us. I could see that she 
 mourned my loss but I had not served to turn h»r mind 
 away from the world. I shed many bitter burning 
 thoughts (I will not say tears) over my dear children 
 left, as they were, in a selfish world with no protecting 
 arm to shield them from the follies of life. 
 
 I FOLLOWED the army for a long time, but found no 
 peace nor pleasure in the element which surrounded me 
 there. Yet I could not get away from the attractions that 
 held me. It is an awful feeling, to be within the surging 
 elements of passion, hatred and strife, where all is active 
 fighting and feel its influence upon you, yet have nothing 
 to do, and I finally cried for my guide to take me away 
 or to help me to take part in the combat I saw around 
 me. 
 
 ''Are you so weak and inefficient that you see no good 
 work you can do, in the midst of human suffering 
 
102 
 
 and soul misery? Such a scene should call forth your 
 sympathy and exertion for the distressed. Here you 
 stand, praying for something to do, with the most heavenly 
 work around you— loving deeds of mercy." 
 
 I felt rather than heard this rebuke, and a feeling of 
 shame swept over me when I found myself in the pres- 
 ence of that pure being to whom I had been calling for 
 help. 
 
 "Come," she said, with a sorrowful smile of sym- 
 pathy and encouragement, "let us go together and strive 
 to alleviate the suffering of some soul more unhappy than 
 you are." 
 
 Then we mingled among the spirits of the dying, and 
 the tales of woe, crime and misery I there read, in the 
 light of my wiser counsellor, beggared all description, and 
 seemed to mock at and swallow up all my lighter sorrows, 
 just as the light of the sun absorbs all the lesser lights. 
 I soon found, that by the help of my guide, I could im- 
 part a soothing influence to many of my brother soldiers, 
 who were dying on the bloody field, as I had done before 
 them. In doing this I felt more real happiness than I 
 had ever known before. My views of humanity enlarged, 
 while looking on these dying men. I saw, when divested 
 of all sordid interests, that all mankind are much better 
 than a worldly view would present. There is not so much 
 difference between the high and the low as we are apt 
 to think, from our external view. 
 
 Since I see these things, my perceptions have been 
 quickened, and I have found plenty of employment in 
 elevating my own misguided spirit, and in helping my 
 fellow soldiers. My beautiful counsellor still extends her 
 protecting power to me, whenever I need her aid and am 
 in a proper state to receive her instruction. I can go 
 among my former associates and return at will, for a 
 stronger attraction now draws me above, in the pure adora- 
 tion I now feel for her, who helped me out of the pit of 
 ignorance and crime. 
 
103 
 
 Conclu&eb, 
 
 BUT little more remains to be told. I can give you no 
 idea of my life, because I can find no written lan- 
 guage wherein to express it. I progress more than when on 
 earth, because I am drawn more away from the tempta- 
 tions of passion, and have a more extensive field for gain- 
 ing knowledge. There are, too, myriads of wise, kind 
 spirits, ready to give me any desired instruction. Here 
 kindness and wisdom go hand in hand. All are taught 
 without money and without price; without aught save the 
 spiritual injunction, "Go and do thou likewise." 
 
 My employment is mostly among the soldiers. I visit 
 my children often and try to exert a good influence over 
 them, but I am so weak and they are surrounded by such 
 a worldly element, that it is not much I can do for them. 
 When I first learned of this mode of corresponding with 
 the world I felt anxious to try to do something for my 
 boy. I saw you retire to a quiet country life and fol- 
 lowed, hoping to find some means of making my presence 
 known, and, by the assistance of my dearest friend. I have 
 been able to give this imperfect account of spiritual ex- 
 perience. 
 
 All I have to say in conclusion is, that I hope "you 
 may so live," that when you pass through the last great 
 change, which is no change, your sensations may all be 
 pleasant. 
 
 From your reformed friend, 
 
 L. W. Vaughn. 
 January sixteenth, eighteen hundred, sixty-three. 
 
-"Death only this mysterious truth unfolds, 
 The mighty soul how small a body holds!" 
 
 —Dryden. 
 
 fllMscellaneous. 
 
Y Dear Children: Though time has woven 
 your once bright locks with threads of sil- 
 ver, and children's children fill your 
 hearts with new love, in spirit, you are my children still, 
 and I am with you in every trial. 
 
 rieve not too bitterly over wrongs, for temporal 
 trials are fleeting and transitory when viewed in the light 
 of Eternity, where Truth is ever uppermost and Justice 
 is ever done. Sorrow is only a stepping-stone to future 
 light and progress. 
 
 A father's blessing is all I can leave with you. 
 
 Oliver Butterfield. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-seven. 
 
 GRIEF is itself a medicine and bestowed to improve 
 the fortitude that bears the load. 
 We are here my daughter— your mother and I.— 
 Luman— Yes and Cynthia too, who feels an interest equal 
 to any one of us. She says she loves you for the care, 
 grief and anxiety you have suffered for her and hers; 
 and as for me, did not my pity and tenderness draw me 
 to your presence, I should never approach earth, so tired 
 am I of all its gloomy influence. 
 
 I have cheering words for you believe me. * * * 
 Therefore, be comforted. 
 
 "We are with you. "Who are they against you?" 
 Love and memory across the so-called "Silent River." 
 
 Oliver Butterfield. 
 Thanksgiving, eighteen hundred, eighty-six. 
 
107 
 
 MY Dear Daughter Lydia : A long separation has in- 
 tervened since a father's words of love have been 
 borne to your listening, patient spirit, yet that parent 
 has ever been as near, as tangible and as undying in his 
 love and remembrance, as the kind mother whose bodily 
 presence has been your strength and support, through the 
 
 situdes of these many earthly, years; and the power 
 that moves this inanimate wood, speaks forth your father's 
 thoughts as clearly as did ever the familiar tones so well 
 remembered in the past. 
 
 Well do I recollect the despairing kindness, the wealth 
 of love lavished upon me by the dear little group as they 
 gathered around me during those mournful days,— that 
 trying ordeal of pain and suffering that marked the clos- 
 ing scenes of my earthly pilgrimage, and the extinction 
 of physical existence. Though the parting was bitter for 
 us all. yet was the re-union with those gone before sweet; 
 and the freedom from all earthly sin and anguish was 
 supreme bliss. Still I know that God is good and He 
 "doeth all things well." 
 
 I am glad to say this to you, and I could follow up 
 the mystic rap with thought after thought, with blessing 
 added to blessing, but it cannot be, for I am forced to 
 say good night and good bye, though only for a little 
 season. 
 
 Your loving father, 
 
 Issac Hammond. 
 
 MY Daughter: I can say but little tonight. 
 Do not be troubled for the future. Do each day 
 what your hands find to do, according to your strength; 
 and be content. 
 
 When I view your beautiful life, and well-ordered 
 spirit, crowned with purity and knowledge, I feel and 
 
108 
 
 know there can be nothing but good in store for such as 
 you. 
 
 May a father's blessing rest upon you always like a 
 benediction; and make all dark paths brighten for your 
 weary feet. 
 
 Isaac Hammond. 
 
 DILIGENT research is the beginning of wisdom. We 
 have given you many lessons, have you learned them 
 well? Do you love your brother man better for these in- 
 structions ? 
 
 When drawing nigh to spirit friends, do not draw 
 away from the many loving hearts pulsating in the life 
 which surrounds you. As you love those beneath you, 
 even so may you hope to be assisted by those above you. 
 We will not dwell longer on this. Do what good you 
 can healing and each striving will bring an increase of 
 power for good. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 NO, the dear departed are not forgotten by earth's 
 children. They cannot make them dead in their 
 affections, thus carrying a living proof of immortality 
 within their own souls. 
 
 Then cherish the memory of the departed loved ones, 
 for the remembrance of a father, a mother, a brother, a 
 child or sister in the spirit home, will serve to brighten 
 and purify your lives. 
 
 Anon. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-nine. 
 
109 
 
 MOTHER : I am here to give you a letter spelled out 
 by this a b c. I should have liked to stay with you, 
 to help you; I was neither ready nor willing to leave you 
 but I find life here, good, and I will prepare a place for 
 you, and be ready to meet you, when you come ; not paper 
 and paint as I did there in our house, but some thing far 
 better ! 
 
 You wanted me at home with you and after I re- 
 turned I was taken away by that dreadful accident. I 
 did not suffer much; was only bewildered; and rose from 
 the water unhurt. 
 
 Do not mourn, for I visit you every day. I should 
 be so happy if you could know this! You will believe 
 it won't you mother? Have faith in my love, and we will 
 wait with smiling faces and serene spirits until we meet 
 again where accidents can come no more. 
 I am your son, 
 
 Hakvey Wier. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-four. 
 
 WHEN I drifted out, I saw and recognized Annis 
 first. She came to me where I lay. 
 I wanted to speak and comfort you all, but I could 
 not. I wanted to tell you how much easier it was to live 
 without the body; that I was delighted with the change; 
 that the only bitterness was parting from you all. What 
 I could not tell you then, I tell you now. 
 
 A. G. Nichols. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty -one. 
 
A 
 
 110 
 D ALINE, how are you and the family? 
 
 We are waiting — watching 'round the borders of 
 life to see how you are all coming on. We do not watch 
 all the time, mind you ! for we wander away through the 
 soft light of the Better land, where never ending variety 
 fills us with perpetual gladness, that never grows old nor 
 cold. We hunt in the valley for the "straight and narrow 
 path" which leads on to the hill-tops beyond; and whether 
 we find it or not we are all right anywhere ; at home every- 
 where : always in touch with the best things of life ! (Now 
 do not envy us for we will "save some for you.") 
 
 At times we take the other trail, come back to you 
 here and look through the crust of matter. Struggling 
 on, tired, restless, vain, you make me think of little gold- 
 fish in a glass globe gilded with your fine clothes; always 
 trying to get out; never quiet; never satisfied; forever 
 wanting to do something else; possess something more! 
 
 Well, never mind! The globe will fill up in time, 
 and you will find an opening at the top through which 
 you may swim out. There you will find me. your father, 
 in the vast ocean beyond the neck of the "globe,"— your 
 present nursing-bottle ! 
 
 Good night. 
 
 Asa G. Nichols. 
 October twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred, eighty -five. 
 
 WE will meet where the valley is so narrow, that we 
 may clasp hands across the fearful chasm and find 
 it after all only a little ditch, that the foot may span 
 dry-shod. 
 
 Good night all. Just think of me. 
 
 Asa G. Nichols. 
 
Ill 
 
 WE are ever faithful ever sure ! 
 Though rugged storms on the hill-tops of Time 
 may mark your earth-life with rifts and wrecks, yet faith 
 is steadfast, and immortal individual existence a sub- 
 stantial reality! 
 
 Awaiting you here on the borders, are your parents, 
 children and sisters. Let your record be stainless and 
 without reproach that the meeting may be a joyous one 
 when you join us here. 
 
 Anon. 
 November fourth, eighteen hundred, eighty-five. 
 
 WE have no topic. Suggest one. I am Ouina. 
 Query: How are our friends in spirit-life em- 
 ployed ? 
 
 Not raising potatoes and beans, but growing some 
 plants so very much neglected in your world that in- 
 deed, I doubt whether many of earth's children would 
 know the genuine growth from the spurious. They are 
 known as Honor, Charity, Truth, Justice, Knowledge, 
 Virtue and many similar plants that must be cultivated 
 before we can become far advanced in the Path of 
 Progress. 
 
 Query: Do they study the sciences? 
 
 Yes. Science is the soul of all things, both animate, 
 and inanimate. 
 
 Query: Can you give us a character-poem? 
 
 Who wants one? I can give but one, my medium 
 is not well. 
 
 October, eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
112 
 
 Zhe pearl of Greatest price- 
 
 (Character-poem.) 
 
 The spirit, through those dark orbs glancing, 
 A weary, restless longing seems to show. 
 
 The mirth and wit upon its surface dancing, 
 
 Hide deeper waves of thought than in the sunlight glow. 
 
 Flashes of truth and tenderness come stealing 
 
 From 'neath the lighter foam of earth-taught lore, 
 
 The purity and strength of womanhood revealing. 
 
 (A richer, rarer gem than fills a monarch's earthly 
 store!) 
 
 Fair pearl of purity! all colors glinting, 
 Each shade reflecting, yet retaining none. 
 
 Within thy polished bosom, rainbows freshly tinting, 
 Yet changing oft, forever white alone. 
 
 "The Pearl of greatest price" thy name shall be, 
 Emblem of womanly purity. 
 
 OUINA. 
 
 To Addie N. Lauer. 
 
 THE vast cornucopia of the spirit-world hangs over 
 you like a silver crescent, ready to baptize you with 
 a beneficent power;— the symbol of faith and patient wait- 
 ing. 
 
 You shall surely be rewarded. We do not know just 
 the form it may assume. It falls like the gentle dew, and 
 
113 
 
 here springs a rose, there a violet, and yonder a lily, ac- 
 cording to the nature of the plant developed, each perfect 
 after its kind. Even so it is with human blossoms. 
 To one who understands. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 WE are few, yet many. A host, in individual spirit- 
 life, may throb in each minute atom of space that 
 your little dwelling encloses. How closely are we allied 
 to you,— how near and yet how far away! So near, we 
 may fan your brow and cheek with our invisible presence ; 
 yet so far, that only the death of the physical may bring 
 us completely and fully to know and enjoy each other. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 I AM charmed, entranced! The spirit of music and 
 poesy floats into our harmonized presence, borne on 
 the invisible wings of those old, time-honored songs. 
 
 We have no test, but simply words of love and greet- 
 ing for the strange friends. They must seek well and 
 diligently, for pearls are rare and dross is abundant. 
 
 Lebbie. 
 
 MOVE on fearlessly sister mine. Life is very pleasant 
 if you cull but the roses and muffle the thorns. If 
 they sting, hide the wound until it is healed again. 
 
 Libbie. 
 
114 
 
 WE are once more with you to teach you to live a life 
 of usefulness and purity and progression while in 
 this lower sphere; to look forward with material hope and 
 pleasure to a higher, holier existence. "Will you receive 
 and follow our divine instructions? Let us give you the 
 elements of a pure life. 
 
 Keep the body clean and clothed in fitting raiment, 
 for purity cannot dwell in impurity. 
 
 Take food to sustain the body and not to clog the 
 spirit. 
 
 Avoid unworthy thoughts at all times. While re- 
 clining on your couch in the hours of darkness, the spirit, 
 if elevated, rises and mingles with superior beings. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 BE united in steadfast principles of virtue and integ- 
 rity. Union is strength. The cord of many strands 
 is the stronger. 
 
 WHEN the fleeting pleasures of time and sense are ex- 
 changed for the more abiding joys that spring from 
 a mind which has overcome all evil propensities by follow- 
 ing the path of duty— a path which leads into the fair 
 sunny fields of purity,— then will every temptation re- 
 sisted be an unfading beauty to the spirit forever; and 
 each fall alas! leave its inerasible image on the immortal 
 spirit. Strive to harmonize the mind, that temporal and 
 eternal interests may clasp hands in the daily routine of 
 life. 
 
115 
 
 We will try next time to give you something more 
 personal. Truth is always impersonal. 
 
 May good angels guard -you to peace and happiness. 
 Good night, 
 
 Anon. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-nine. 
 
 FAITH may not become absolute knowledge until we 
 pass from the portal of physical life and enter the 
 realm of the spirit. Then faith will be lost in the light 
 of a perfect unfoldment of the spirit. 
 
 We would not promise to bring conviction to one who 
 has no inward light, for their unfoldment has not yet 
 come. Such must await the divine transfiguration. It 
 will surely come. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 YES we come,— an invisible host from the to you, un- 
 seen world. 
 The rain does not soil our garments, nor the wild 
 wind chill our flexible spiritual body. We bend supreme- 
 ly near each waiting longing spirit, and are unspeakab 1 :* 
 happy to meet you all a little nearer home ! 
 
 Libbie. 
 
116 
 
 Gbe Silver lake, 
 
 (Character-poem given to Archie E. Gaston.) 
 
 The crags and steeps rise far above 
 
 The lakelet's sandy bed; 
 A faithful semblance of their strength 
 
 Upon its waves is spread. 
 
 When raging storms with angry breath 
 
 Beat o'er its granite walls, 
 And, toppling from some rocky point 
 
 A broken fragment falls; 
 
 Within its clear, unruffled breast 
 
 A splash, then all serene! 
 The eddying rings in waves roll out, 
 
 Then smooth, and hide the scene. 
 
 The liquid mirror of the lake 
 An image of thy spirit proves, 
 
 It's pale, pure depths reflecting back 
 All that it sees and knows and loves. 
 
 When high beyond thy youthful ken 
 
 The elements of life wage war, 
 Only faint ripples now and then 
 
 Disturb thy thoughts borne from afar. 
 
 The "Silver Lake" thy name shall be, 
 Emblem of youthful purity. 
 
 OUINA. 
 
 October, eighteen hundred, eighty. 
 
117 
 
 EARTH life is but the stepping stone to a better, holier 
 state. The birthplace of an eternal, individual, pro- 
 gressive existence, where the spirit in its unceasing evo- 
 lution shall forever enjoy the sunlight of perfect knowl- 
 edge, purity and love. 
 
 AS the giant oak springs from the infant plant with 
 three small leaves, so do the broad truths of spiritual 
 communion spring from three tiny raps. 
 
 D. D. 
 May, eighteen hundred, eighty-three. 
 
 THE spirit land is beautiful and bright. No fear, no 
 doubt enters its clear and boundless expanse. All 
 is love, peace and progress. 
 
 The birth of the spirit is sometimes through physical 
 suffering and mental darkness, yet the rising of the sun 
 is so glorious, that the night of physical pain is soon lost 
 in the splendor of the morning. God is our kind Father, 
 and Christ is our elder Brother. This is true Christian 
 faith. 
 
 E. A. Briscoe. 
 
 w 
 
 E are with you. What will you have? 
 
 Why consolation? 
 Are you sick, weary, discouraged and far from Home t 
 
118 
 
 If sick in body take little pills. If sick in spirit take 
 equal parts of faith and hope. If weary and discouraged, 
 —wait! Best, until the spirit is strengthened and re- 
 newed by the inherent powers of immortal life, ever re- 
 membering that you have an Eternity of time before you, 
 and nature never hurries at her work. 
 
 Imitate her example ; and Home may appear afar off, 
 when really your tired feet may be treading its very 
 threshold and the latchet just be rising, drawn by some 
 gentle kindly hand within, ready to give you familiar 
 greeting. 
 
 January first, eighteen hundred, eighty-eight. 
 
 FREEDOM from passional discord is conducive to spir- 
 itual attainments. Thus the secluded hermit enjoys 
 pleasures, and plucks many rare gifts from the overhang- 
 ing boughs of inspirational knowledge, upon which his 
 heaven-directed senses are fixed. Yet he does not reach 
 that high standard of moral excellence, universal benevo- 
 lence and manly independence, which crowns the spirit 
 after a life spent in worldly pursuits, i." e., if the moral 
 and spiritual have acted well their part in the drama of 
 his life. 
 
 R. Van Rensaeller. 
 
 FRIENDS, I give you welcome! I am so happy to re- 
 mind you of her you called "Lodency.' ? 
 Yes, I can preach better sermons than of old. The 
 earth is good and so is all life outside this little planet. 
 
119 
 
 I am glad, sister, you keep up good cheer, for clouds. 
 be they ever so dark and threatening, a breath of fresh 
 east wind will sweep them away, and lo! the sun is still 
 shining and all nature is clothed and bathed in light and 
 renewed life ; and all is Love everywhere throughout God 's 
 infinite universe. 
 
 I wish this might be continued longer, but time and 
 circumstance— earth 's tyrants— forbid. 
 
 Lodencia Scott. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-six. 
 
 WE are here,— an unbroken chain of spiritual affinity 
 over which time and death have no power ; still lov- 
 ing, remembering, and aiding with even more than a 
 former interest. 
 
 I AM so glad to have you all together where I may say 
 a word to you ; for like all others, I love to be remem- 
 bered and sought. 
 
 You will never seek me in vain; for my memory— my 
 love for you all. is as undying as my existence! 
 
 "Pheme" Mc Arthur. 
 
120 
 
 There is never a night but there follows a morning; 
 
 Never a darkness, the light won't destroy. 
 There seldom comes joy but there first is a warning, 
 
 Yet the warning itself may not be a joy. 
 
 There's never a day but has its tomorrow, 
 Seldom a victory gained without strife. 
 
 There's hardly a life that's not shadowed by sorrow, 
 Yet the shades of the night show the joys of the life. 
 
 Lyman Sibley. 
 Eighteen hundred, ninety-one. 
 
 WE are near, very near you tonight. Our love and 
 sympathy encircle each and every one of you, yet 
 we are devoid of test conditions and can only appeal to 
 your simple, trusting faith. We love the faith of a noble 
 spirit better than any flour, rope-tying or any of the usual 
 phenomena attending physical manifestations. 
 
 When spirit becomes cognizant of spirit, the physical 
 is no longer necessary. This is the true spirit communion. 
 It only remains for the exceptional few to demonstrate 
 spiritual truth to the physical senses. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 MY Dear Children: During the hours of nature's long 
 repose we love to hover near our earth-bound 
 friends and find them willing to receive words of love and 
 
121 
 
 remembrance from those who have passed on before; from 
 those whose earthly faces are seen no more among men. 
 
 What do we desire to impress most forcibly upon 
 your minds by our message? Simply this: That earthly 
 life is not the primary object of man's existence. 
 
 Weak man! Though nature sounds this truth by a 
 myriad of audible voices, he forgets, and struggles on to 
 reach the pinnacle of worldly ambition; when lo! he falls 
 into a new life and wakes surprised, aghast, and unpre- 
 pared for the spiritual being that Nature and her hand- 
 maiden (Death) have been vainly striving to make him 
 remember. 
 
 My friends, when physical Death overtakes you, let 
 him not surprise you, but meet him as a welcome mes- 
 senger from mother Nature, bearing the summons for a 
 higher and better position in the Father's beautiful man- 
 sion of Immortality. 
 
 C. Russell. 
 
 PERMIT me to say that I, Wm. Newton, am present. 
 I do not know that you will acknowledge or remem- 
 ber me, but that makes no difference to me,— nor to you 
 perhaps. 
 
 We are an unbroken family across the line. Not in 
 Heaven, for I am not there yet, nor do I want to be there 
 nearly so badly as I want to be back on earth to redeem 
 some of our mistakes. 
 
 Wm. Newton. 
 
 BELIEVE on! we will help you in every season of 
 trial. We strive to strengthen the bonds of fraternal 
 affection, that, united, you may assist and save each other. 
 
122 
 
 Not from universal ruin, but simply from many of the 
 little, petty ills that destroy so much of human happi- 
 ness. 
 
 Heaven is not a haven of rest. Neither is it a place 
 fitted up for pure spirits. It is simply a condition of har- 
 monious love; of perfect trust in the Supreme Power that 
 governs the universe; and a well-grounded Principle that 
 is entirely impervious to every artifice with which tempta- 
 tion may seek to stain the spotless robe of the spirit. 
 
 This condition may be attained as well on earth as in 
 spirit-life. Strive for it; it is more precious than are 
 earthly treasures. 
 
 Yours in love, 
 
 Anon. 
 
 WE are near, yet without theme, topic or question; an 
 informal meeting without leader on either side. 
 Each waits for another. We from our side, look down 
 through the dark waves of materiality and see a half dozen 
 faces looking up toward us with a vague, mute appeal to 
 learn something, yet asking nothing definite:— the hardest 
 of wishes to satisfy. 
 
 The Spirit "World! How many have attempted to 
 describe it, yet how dim are the pictures presented, and 
 who can describe the infinite, illimitable home of the im- 
 mortal spirit of man? Yet it seems possible for me to 
 give you an intelligent account of the little portion of it 
 that I see and inhabit. 
 
 First, it is filled with natural objects in which the 
 spirit delights. We have birds, flowers, and even beasts 
 if we love them. Although we do not need them to bear 
 us or our burdens, if we love them around us, we may 
 cultivate them. The higher we advance the less we see 
 of them. 
 
123 
 
 More again, you are weary. Meet at regular inter- 
 vals, have a leader and definite expressed wishes, and you 
 can have more satisfactory instructions. Good night and 
 good wishes. 
 
 From a Host of Spirit Friends. 
 
 WE are not lost, nor forgetful of your faithful attend- 
 ance on us for spiritual light and knowledge. 
 Like the parent-bird, we would fain leave you to try 
 to soar aloft, unaided except by your own intuitive per- 
 ception; as the tutor who tires of precept and leaves his 
 pupil to profit by practice. 
 
'Tis not the whole of life to live 
 Nor all of death to die. 
 
 —James Montgomery, 
 
 flfcosaics. 
 
NEVER let your pleasures rise above the calm, 
 quiet joys which reason and spirituality sanc- 
 tion; then shall your sorrows never fall below 
 the influence and control of these unerring and immortal 
 guides. 
 
 Chas. Barton. 
 
 THE light of the spheres shines forever clear and stead- 
 fast. Strive to rise above the shadows of time and 
 sense. Keep your thoughts pure and your lives will be 
 true. 
 
 Ephraim H. Gaston. 
 
 FOLLOW the light of inspiration. It will lead you 
 through the shadows of darkness and doubt, into the 
 fair, sunny clime of progressive knowledge. 
 
 Ephraim H. Gaston. 
 
 DEFORMITY and darkness of spirit breed contempt 
 for the real Truth, and pride in the false; but light 
 generates life in the cold silent germ; and life breathes 
 of future Hope and Progress. 
 
 Imogene Gaston. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-nine. 
 
128 
 
 LET the holy emanations of divine spiritual love ever 
 beam from your countenances, filling the whole vast 
 area of your influence with the perpetual sunshine of uni- 
 versal love. 
 
 James Reed. 
 
 ARE you sad, weary, discouraged? Live on, trust on, 
 hope on, and above all believe on, in the unfailing 
 Source of Goodness and Power ! If the duties of life seem 
 small and irksome, keep them well burnished with the 
 genuine sheen of fraternal love and benevolence. 
 Do not repulse any who wish to join you. 
 
 James Reed. 
 
 LET love, faith and good will toward all, lighten and 
 smooth the rough descending pathway to the boun- 
 dary and final outlet of physical death. 
 
 John Hammond. 
 
 BE ever tranquil. Let the passing moments bear you 
 onward peacefully, until the ruffled stream of phy- 
 sical life sweeps onward, through the narrow passes of 
 Time, into the unlimited Sea of Eternity: into the un- 
 spotted glory of the higher life! 
 
 John Hammond. 
 
129 
 
 LIFE is a mystery which only eternal duration may 
 slowly unroll before our vision. 
 Death is only an accident of Life— a change from one 
 key to another, in the un-ending rythm of Progression. 
 
 Ephraim H. Gaston. 
 
 rEAT life is successful, which stands for Honor, Truth, 
 and Justice through every ordeal of time and chance. 
 The Wheel of Fortune does not register the success- 
 of a life; it only marks the life-rate of worldly emolu- 
 ments which perish with the shell. The real man is often 
 dwarfed by such success. 
 
 James Reed. 
 
 EVER remember there is more light than darkness; 
 more good than evil; more love than hate; more joy 
 than sorrow; more health than sickness; and ultimately, 
 all Discord becomes Harmony; and Good is evolved out 
 of every condition of life. 
 
 'John Hammond. 
 
 NEVER become lost in a whirlwind of doubt and dark- 
 ness. Seek the pure sunlight of faith, that you may 
 discern the substance of things hoped for, thus adding 
 knowledge to faith. 
 
 John Hammond. 
 November eighteenth, eighteen hundred, eighty-three. 
 
130 
 
 BE not dead in faith, but let your light shine clear and 
 bright before all men, that all may know the man- 
 ner of faith which sustains you. 
 
 Do not smuggle Spiritual Truth as something to blush 
 for. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 WE may ever draw near, yet it is not always wise to 
 write by this tedious means of conveying a few 
 broken thoughts. The end and aim of our brief sentences 
 was long since accomplished— the proof given. We can 
 only give a repetition. 
 
 We want you to pass on to something higher. The 
 spirit-world is full of untold treasures ready for the pure, 
 receptive nature who listens with understanding to the 
 "still small voice" of the spirit, which speaks to every 
 human soul, and may be heard. The receptive faculties 
 of man are fast learning to follow the light of intuition; 
 it is permeating and diffusing a new light into all depart- 
 ments of earth-life— social, religious and scientific; all feel 
 the life of its revivifying influence. 
 
 Our unacknowledged power is the moving motor of 
 progress. We love to be acknowledged, yet the great 
 truths of immortal Life do not suffer, even though the 
 Messengers are unrecognized and forgotten. 
 
 KNOWLEDGE makes us sure and steadfast over the 
 route, in the darkest hours of a rayless night, but 
 a pure faith is better for it lights up with a soft, silvery 
 
131 
 
 radiance, the unknown paths equally with the known. 
 While Knowledge must be limited, Faith o'er sweeps the 
 entire limitless universe. Knowledge cannot guide you 
 over an unknown path, for you must first pass over, be- 
 fore you know the way. But faith's sweet light may fore- 
 stall actual knowledge. 
 
 What is faith? It is an inherent faculty of the im- 
 mortal spirit of man. The higher the development of the 
 spirit, the purer and more enlightened is the faith. 
 
 Anon. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-nine. 
 
 LIGHT and darkness, chaos and order, growth and de- 
 cay, devastation and restoration are sent forth as 
 twin sisters by the overruling forces from mother Nature's 
 vast arcana. 
 
 All inharmony will be adjusted. All seeming evil 
 w T ill finally give place to higher conditions and the one 
 only evil, ignorance, will be exorcised. Truth and har- 
 mony must prevail. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 "A spirit meek and lowly, 
 Blessed with affection holy." 
 
 Name me by my words. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-one. 
 
 AS you walk down the shores of Time, the dark waters 
 of Death recede ; the opposite shore grows nearer and 
 fairer, and each messenger that is sent to bear some dearly 
 
132 
 
 loved one across in the spiritual bark, seems to diminish 
 the faint dividing line; to lessen and narrow and smooth 
 down the dark waves that lie between. 
 
 When led by a pure, rational faith, the passage is 
 so narrow and the waters so .placid, that you may step 
 from shore to shore, without even dipping you feet into 
 the so-called stream of Death. 
 
 Anon. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-three. 
 
 BE earnest but not over zealous for the truth. "The 
 fire of straw, soon kindled, makes a flash, and is 
 gone, leaving no heat behind; but the deep burning heat 
 of the anthracite sends forth a silent glow which fills your 
 parlors with the bloom of summer." Thus it is with an 
 earnest, consistent life. Though quiet and unobstrusive, 
 its influence is above all censure. 
 
 "Example is better than precept." We have given 
 you "line upon line and precept upon precept, here a 
 little and there a little." Who is to give that nobler lesson 
 of example? 
 
 Anon. 
 Eighteen hundred, seventy-three. 
 
 WHEN a mighty nation embraces a spirit of oppres- 
 sion at its birth, the death struggle with liberty 
 must surely come, however happy and prosperous it may 
 be for a season. Thus it is, with the spirit who fosters 
 bad propensities; a spiritual warfare is going on, until 
 the wrong is vanquished and harmony is restored. 
 
 Anon. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-three. 
 
133 
 
 GRINDING poverty dwarfs the spirit, while boundless 
 wealth pampers pride and folly. Strive to gain a 
 competence but do not sigh for riches. 
 
 DARK as the shadows of life may seem, they are but 
 fitful moving clouds after all! Beyond and above 
 them, the warm genial sun is forever shining, and the 
 birds of Paradise are forever singing their glad songs of 
 joy and praise! 
 
 Attune your spirits to the heavenly harmony of uni- 
 versal "Love and Good Will to all men;" and if you 
 chance to stand beneath a fleeting shadow, do not forget 
 the flood of sunshine beyond, which gilds each passing- 
 pall of blackness with a lining so golden, that when the 
 mantle is turned, your startled vision will scarce withstand 
 the gorgeous coloring. 
 
 Have patience and await the divine transformation. 
 It is surely coming. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 CULTIVATE your spiritual being and though the 
 tyrannous discipline of relentless war surround you 
 like a dark spirit of evil, yet your souls may rise on the 
 wings of truth and love, into the clear sunshine of per- 
 petual harmony and peace. 
 
 This is one lesson. Study, learn, treasure, practice it. 
 
 Anon. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-three. 
 
134 
 
 BE not despondent. Time with progressive march is 
 bearing you forward into the pure, fair regions of 
 absolute Life immortal. Its messengers continually whis- 
 per to your waiting spirit of its incoming glory.. 
 
 If the messengers sometimes fail you, can you not 
 rest in peace on the faith and trust of long and rich ex- 
 perience? We do not wish to speak through wood, but 
 more directly— spirit to kindred-spirit. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 AS the brown earth contains within its dark clammy 
 mould, the promise of the ever-varying verdure of 
 Spring, so the crude barren spiritual seance bears the 
 germ of humanity's highest hope made a living reality — 
 the mingling of the upper and lower world in one ! 
 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-five. 
 
 WHAT shall we say? Speak and we obey if we can. 
 Shall we tell you of the home you love? 
 The home of the spirit has just as much of beauty 
 and symmetry .as the indwelling spirit is able to perceive; 
 on more. The habitation is adorned with just what the 
 occupant can make; no more. There is no over-reaching 
 here. Every member of society has its own only. None 
 may borrow or steal. How poor, how naked are some born 
 into spirit-life! But when the immortal spirit is thrown 
 upon its own resources, it soon rallies its latent powers 
 and clothes itself with honor and glory. 
 
 All hail to the power of the indwelling spirit of Man ! 
 
 Anon. 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty-three. 
 
135 
 
 BE not desponding my young friends. The clouds will 
 all disperse and the mental horizon of your spirit 
 grow clear as a spotless mirror, on which may be shadowed 
 forth the uses of every trial. 
 
 Let your faith buoy you up through the cares of life. 
 
 James Reed. 
 
 WE come. We bring many good gifts; chief est among 
 which are the treasures of Love and Good Will 
 that roll in for all, from the near borders of the Spirit 
 shore. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 THE light of a beautiful faith founded on a knowledge 
 of continued unbroken life beyond the dark valley, 
 gilds even the most painful scenes of earth-life with the 
 golden halo of Hope and Promise. 
 
 Ephraim Gaston. 
 Easter, eighteen hundred, eighty-three. 
 
When Nature ceases, thou shalt still remain. 
 Nor second chaos bound thy endless reign; 
 Fate's tyrant laws, thy happier lot shall brave; 
 Baffle destruction, and elude the grave. 
 
 —Tickell. 
 
 THE LESSONS OF SPIRITUALITY 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER LITTLE SERMONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES BARTON. 
 
EAR the Cross of Truth firmly and unwaver- 
 ingly through dark morasses, and shadows 
 of ignorance. Push back the sorrow- 
 ing billows of despair and passion. Do not let them roll 
 above you, freezing the spirit and locking up all the foun- 
 tains of life. 
 
 The spirit is indestructible. Do you not receive daily 
 the holiest assurances of the eternal individuality of the 
 divine soul? 
 
 Eighteen hundred, fifty -nine. 
 
 GO on with your investigation; be earnest in your de- 
 sire for truth; let no motives foreign to this holy 
 object steal among your little number, and success will 
 ultimately crown your efforts. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty -three. 
 
 STRIVE to live a pure, harmonious and progressive 
 life, that you may he daily, hourly in spiritual com- 
 munion, without the intervention of wooden furniture. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-three. 
 
140 
 
 THE gleanings of spiritual life glimmer but faintly 
 amid earth's contending elements. But when the 
 fire of adversity has purified your nation, and the loving 
 spirit of forgiveness and peace again hovers around it, 
 imparting more real majesty than its bold defiant eagle, 
 then we hope to pour down a flood of heavenly light and 
 knowledge upon an emancipated people. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-five. 
 
 NEVER let your pleasures rise above the calm, quiet 
 joys which reason and spirituality can sanction. 
 Then shall your sorrows never fall below the influence 
 and control of these unerring and immortal guides. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty-five. 
 
 YOU are all faithful and deserve better manifestations 
 than we are able to produce. Yet it is good for you 
 to meet anywhere and think towards the life beyond. The 
 change will not shock you, if you study upon its many 
 phases. 
 
 As no two persons are precisely the same, so no two 
 spirits experience like sensations in the hour of physical 
 dissolution. Those who have lived a noble, useful life 
 here, are ripe for usefulness and happiness beyond and 
 you should strive to live for this end. It is the only meed 
 worth winning in the race of life, for it is an eternal 
 prize. 
 
 Eighteen hundred, eighty -one. 
 
T 
 
 141 
 
 HE starry firmament is peopled by an unnumbered 
 host of living, thinking individualized beings, that 
 serve to fill infinite space with intelligence and thought. 
 
 You cannot then direct thought or question upward 
 into space, that every echo from your mind does not touch 
 myriad intelligences, each one bringing back an answer 
 redolent, with truth and love. Every zephyr that fans 
 your cheeks has a thousand answers to your questioning 
 spirit. 
 
 Learn to read aright the lessons of the spirit. 
 
 August, eighteen hundred, eighty-five. 
 
Zhc Xessons of Spirituality. 
 
 V HE lessons of spirituality are designed to impart 
 
 a deep and abiding hope, a firm and unfaltering 
 
 -^- trust in man's immortality; a more extensive 
 view of the principles of universal brotherhood; greater 
 knowledge of the ascending path of progress; a more 
 exalted conception of the Infinite Father; more rational 
 ideas of future rewards and punishments; and a general 
 knowledge of the immutable and unchangeable laws of 
 nature, which embrace all science, philosophy and art,— 
 the principles of which, spiritual beings desire to elucidate 
 to the mind of man. 
 
 The channel is often weak and broken, and but a faint 
 glimmer of the flood of struggling beams beyond, pierces 
 the gloom, but as the first dim ray which lights the dark 
 eastern horizon, speaks of day's sure approach, so do these 
 stray beams herald forth, with unerring voice, the rising 
 of a glorious spiritual luminary, which shall fill the soul 
 of man with renovating warmth and beauty. 
 
 But why prophesy of the future when the present lies 
 before us, whereon to mould figures of living love and 
 wisdom? Because, when the airy pinions of hope, carry 
 the soul to flowery scenes beyond, the present catches the 
 inspiration and the scroll is impressed with more light 
 and graceful characters. 
 
 Now let us look back and review the principles before 
 enumerated. A belief in the immortality of the soul has 
 been prevalent in the human race since the beginning of 
 the earth's diurnal course around the center of light; an 
 intuition, vague and devoid of wisdom, filled with dark 
 spectral doubts, hideous devils and revengeful gods. But, 
 as the spiritual sun rises and the light of progression 
 grows clear, these phantoms disappear. The shadow of 
 
143 
 
 an angry God, however, still darkens the pathway of 
 earth's inhabitants. 
 
 In the vast concourse of physical nature, every law 
 by which it is governed proves clearly to the philosophical 
 mind the indestructibility of matter, hence its immortality. 
 The reasoning mind of man arises, asserts its superior 
 claims and says: "Is the inanimate substance, which 
 knows nor feels nothing and has no beauty nor life save as 
 I move it, or breathe into it,— this poor clay— to enjoy the 
 divine gift of immortality, and its ruler to be lost in the 
 whirlpool of oblivion?" No! my instinct, my intuition, 
 my spirituality have ever said, "Thou art immortal;" 
 and now my reason joins in the common chorus, "Child of 
 immortality thou shalt live for ever!" 
 
 When man, in his relations with his brother man, is 
 governed by the divine principles of universal brother- 
 hood, he has a more exalted standard of human excellence 
 than even the golden rule can impart, for this, ofttimes, 
 asks more sacrifice of him than he would require of his 
 brother. The law of mutual dependence is a beautiful 
 provision of prolific Mother Nature, for cementing the 
 interests of mankind in one vast common cause. If any 
 selfish individual strives to detach himself from the com- 
 mon stock of humanity, he finds he is but one link in the 
 endless chain of universal brotherhood, dependent, not 
 only on all the higher members, but just as much on all 
 the lower ones in this indivisible body of it. 
 
 When you behold the vicious, the ignorant, the de- 
 graded around you, do not spurn them from your pres- 
 ence, but remember, in the economy of nature that they 
 are not only dependent on you for light and strength to 
 come up higher, out you, too, must make of them a stepping 
 stone for your future ascension. Do not seek companion- 
 ship among the low and vile, but do not bar them from 
 the light of your better example. Ever be their friend 
 and counsellor in word and deed, then shall the perpetual 
 sunlight of universal love finally diffuse a warmth and 
 radiance through their undeveloped souls; and the germ 
 
144 
 
 of divine thought and feeling will burst the icy barrier of 
 darkness and frost that has enveloped them, and sparkle 
 in the firmament of immortal being. 
 
 The law of progress is the fundamental principle of 
 physical nature. The infant develops into the man of 
 strength and agility. The thread-like shoot, which the 
 eye can scarcely discern and the careless foot might trample 
 on, becomes the majestic forest tree which the elements 
 contend against for centuries in vain. The bud is trans- 
 formed into the flower, the flower becomes fruit, the fruit 
 yields seed after its kind, which in its turn multiplies many 
 fold. Thus the whole mighty material structure, including 
 worlds, suns, and solar systems, is progressively unfolding 
 from lower forms of development up to the higher. 
 
 When the material form has reached the summit of its 
 interior strength and power, it stands, for a season, a 
 monument to the creative power of nature. Then the 
 spirit, which permeates and sustains it, gradually un- 
 clasps from its embrace and the inert matter is carried 
 wherever the attraction of gravity is the strongest. 
 
 You might ask, " Where is the progression, since the 
 material elements have all fallen back to their original 
 condition?'' 
 
 I reply : It is the spirit that reared them, that reaped 
 the benefit of their production; that is seeking some higher 
 form, by which to continue its own unfoldment. It is 
 the spirit only, which fills all time and space, ever striving 
 to individualize itself; the spirit only, that continues to 
 live and progress, through all the changes of physical na- 
 ture and of all her works! 
 
 Man possesses the only individualized spirit of the 
 external world. In him the crude spirit of nature and the 
 divine spirit of Wisdom meet, clasp hands and unite the 
 temporal and eternal, in one common march, along the 
 highway of Progression. 
 
 The Father of the Universe, that mighty omnipresent 
 and all-pervading Power, which fills all space with life, 
 light, love and wisdom! What can we, the created, know 
 
145 
 
 of the Creator? Nothing but His manifestations through 
 His works. We see His wonderful goodness in adapting 
 all His creatures to their own peculiar condition and we 
 love this divine attribute. We see His perfect wisdom 
 and we adore. His infinite Love is dimly reflected in our 
 own soul, by the mirror of our own imperfect love and 
 this we worship. His unlimited power is displayed to us, 
 and we fear and revere Him as the Author and Controller 
 of our destiny. Thus we are led to fear, love and worship 
 one unseen Supreme Being— of whom we know nothing, 
 save that He is called God. 
 
 I have told only the oft repeated lesson of God's ob- 
 scurity and immensity. The question now arises, "Is ther- 
 a personal God? or is this indwelling Life and Power, but 
 the divine elements of nature ? Is nature the God, or only 
 the outspoken language of Deity?" 
 
 These are grave questions and require God to solve 
 them. 
 
 I am only a pilgrim on the highway of Progression, 
 but, having advanced a little farther than yourselves, can 
 say that I have seen no more of God here, than while on 
 earth, save as my perceptions have grown clearer; and 
 I can better appreciate the Father in His works as I in- 
 crease more and more in spiritual knowledge. Since He 
 fills all space He must be every where alike; yet He is 
 individualized or He is nothing. 
 
 Hence my reason bids me believe in an individual 
 God. 
 
 Chas. Barton. 
 Eighteen hundred, sixty -four. 
 
146 
 
 5PIR1T-C03IMUNI0N is the influx of faith and knowl- 
 edge of a higher life, from the disembodied spirit 
 to the spirit still clothed with earthly form; not the mere 
 moving of inert matter or the little sayings thus imparted. 
 Yet are we glad to meet you with a thought even in this 
 imperfect way. What can we add to increase your love, 
 faith and good will to your brother man, — to make you 
 wiser, better, happier? I know no recipe for perfect bliss, 
 except perfect labor and growth. 
 
 Will it help you in the stern duties of physical life 
 to know that hosts of spirit friends attend you through 
 every bitter trial, surrounding you with love and sympa- 
 thy like a wall, to protect you from the sins of selfishness 
 and passion? 
 
 Many friends are here. Though the veil is thin to 
 our spiritual vision, to the physical eye, it is dark and im- 
 penetrable. How shall we rend it in twain,— how? 
 
 Your spirit friends send greeting. Good night. 
 
 QUERY. Are dark circles better than light for de- 
 veloping mediumship? 
 Answer. When all the members are pure and honest, 
 .'arkness i* a better condition than light. 
 
 WE respond. The invisible messengers of the spirit,— 
 a host— attend you, all yearning for love left be- 
 hind! 
 
 We would fain bring faith to the unbelieving; hope 
 to the despairing; love to the mourning; and, above all, 
 
147 
 
 knowledge and truth to the whole world, but we cannot. 
 The cardinal virtues are of slow growth and must be cul- 
 tivated long and diligently ere they can blossom and bear 
 fruit in the spirit of man. Gold or jewels cannot purchase 
 them, neither can they come to man simply for asking, 
 but are the sure reward of continual culture. 
 
 The spirit-life is a continuation of earth-life, not 
 merely the opening and closing of a door. It is putting 
 off the worn-out robe of mortality and putting on the 
 light, pure, yet imperishable garment of the spirit. This 
 change of raiment forestalls a still greater change in the 
 individual spirit itself, a change in all the habits, pur- 
 poses and associations of life. The aims and pursuits must 
 all meet with a radical and entire change. 
 
 Happy is that spirit who does not love too well the 
 enjoyment of the flesh, for such pleasures cannot enter the 
 realm of the spirit. Truly are we changed in the twinkling 
 of an eye. 
 
 Are you tired of us ? We could continue ad infinitum. 
 
 Chas. Barton. 
 
OCT 11 t9Cb 
 
 The thing that hath been, it is that which 
 shall be; and that which is done, is that which 
 shall be done: and there is no new thing 
 under the sun. 
 
 —Ecclesiastes I-IX. 
 
 We give you a cordial hand-shake across the 
 mystic line which, like the girdle-belt of the 
 earth, exists only in conditions, not in space. 
 
 LBJ e '07 
 
Broken Beams 
 
 from tbe 
 
 Summer lanfc* 
 

Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 
 
 PreservationTechnologies 
 
 A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
 
 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
 Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
 (724) 779-21 1 1