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which ought to receive as much attention from the public press as prize fights, murders, suicides and divorces, especially when the pursuit of the study will show the enlightened people of earth how to avert and prevent many of these terrible tragedies.

My investigations have proved to me that the majority of mediums are at times in communication with disembodied spirits, and therefore cannot be called frauds. But they have also proved that most mediums are as a rule unable to distinguish between mind reading and seership, or between the good and the evil forces which control them; and that they too frequently become a prey to the latter before they end their career. They resort to fraud and trickery often when unable to produce the real conditions they seek, because they have grown weak and unbalanced by relinquishing their own individuality to so many obsessing spirits.

The progress of humanity has been hindered by the teachings of the orthodox creeds that by sudden repentance and death a man becomes an angel of glory.

There are as many classes in the worlds beyond as there are here, only there a soul's position is decided by its spiritual growth while here, and not by any material standards. It is rare indeed that a medium who gives over her individuality and selfcontrol to the free use of the spirit world receives, or long retains, a hold upon the higher class of spirits. If any woman on upper Fifth avenue left her doors open night and day and invited the whole of New York to enter while she slept, it is not likely the desirable people of the town would become her guests. She would soon find her mansion dominated by the tramps and criminals. And yet an occasional old friend would drop in, knowing her impulses were good, her intentions kind, but even those would eventually be driven out by the other element.

This is precisely what the professional medium does who allows herself to be dominated by all sorts of visitors from unseen shores.

UNITY.

There are two methods of investigating this subject. One is subjective and destructive; the other is constructive and leads to mastership.

For any man to declare today that there is no such thing as mastership and ablsolute knowledge of these subjects is as much an evidence of blind ignorance as was the attitude of those who persecuted Galileo for declaring the earth moved.

Without exception the real knowers (who are far and away more advanced souls than the world's thinkers) warn us from the destructive methods of mediumship. One of the great teachers proves to us all who will study the subject that hypnotism is a crime against the subject and against the hypnotist's

own nature.

As Florence Huntley has said in speaking of his book on the subject:

"Hypnotsm is one of the greatest psychological crimes. It is a crime to grab a man by the throat and thus force him to do your bidding. Is it not a greater crime to grasp a man by the soul and do likewise? Hypnotism is a crime against the intelligent soul of man, and deprives it of the inalienable right invested by nature."

Hundreds of mediums are hypnotized by the disembodied spirits who take possession of them. When these spirits do not come, the mediums are driven to fraud and trickery. To detect a medium in trickery on one occasion is no proof that she has not given genuine messages from disembodied beings, good or bad, on scores of occasions.

There is scarcely a form of mediumship I have not investigated. With the progress of time I have grown more and more convinced of the immortal truth underlying it all, and also of the danger lurking in such investigation.

Many remarkable messages, and a number of wonderful prophecies, afterward verified, have come to me from time to time; yet on scores of occasions have I been told the thing I was silently desiring

would occur, which did not prove to be the fact. A round of the famous mediums at one period of my life brought me the assurance from all but one that a certain event I hoped for would transpire. It proved nothing but mind reading, and the event never did transpire. When the one psychic failed to predict it I questioned her, but she insisted there was nothing to authorize my hopes.

Other matters wholly foreign to my mind were sketched out by her and have been verified in later years. This was veritable seership.

A beautiful, gifted and cultured woman recently related to me her experience with mediumship. Always sensitive and psychic, she began to hear voices and receive the most beautiful messages from the world beyond. Remarkable poems, stories and essays were dictated to her. She yielded herself more and more to these influences, and grew indifferent to the things and people of earth. And when she was quite under the domination of other minds, suddenly the beautiful and sweet messages ceased, and profane, wicked and vicious voices assailed her.

This is what happens to thousands of people who allow their God-bestowed will and individuality to be given over to the hypnotists on earth and to controls from the other shore.

I would earnestly advise any one who is not in robust physical condition and not in the possession of a strong will, a clear, reasoning brain and a well-balanced mind, to keep away from psychic phenomena.

During a time of very active investigation I learned the important fact that my own sense of personal responsibility and my will power were both being lessened by frequenting these places. I was unconsciously leaning upon predictions or being discouraged by the absence of them.

Added to this came the knowledge that it is of vital importance to keep our minds wholesome, our brains occupied, our bodies strong and healthful, and

our desires clean and normal, if we would escape obsession by unclean spirits and earth-bound souls, and if we would earn immortal life on a high plane. Many degenerates, if not all, half the insane and many invalids, are simply victims of obsession.

-ELLA WHEELER WILCOX, in Chicago American.

SWEET SLEEP.

[In New York City, on Sixteenth Street, between Union Square and Fifth Avenue, is a woman's hotel, called "The Margaret Louise Home," built by Mrs. Eliot Shepard, formerly a Mi s Vanderbilt, in memory of a dearly loved daughter by that name. In every room, hanging by the mirror of the dressing bureau, is a banneret of broad, colored satin ribbon, on which is printed these beautiful lines by Ellen M. R. Gates. It may be sung to the tune of Ortonville, by repeating the fourth lines; and if sung several times just before retiring, will be found to be conducive to a quiet sleep and soothing rest.— GRACE LANGDON DAVENPORT.]

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Sleep sweet within this quiet room,

O thou, whoe'er thou art,
Nor let no mournful yesterday
Disturb thy quiet heart.

Nor let to-morrow scare thy rest
With dreams of coming ill.

Thy Maker is thy changeless Friend,
His love surrounds thee still.

Forget thyself and all the world,

Put out each feverish light;

The stars are shining overhead;

Sleep sweet! Good-night, good-night!

Happiness is thinking straight and seeing clear and having a true perception of the value of things,' says Margaret Deland. There are as many opinions of happiness as there are people in the world, but the first and most important thing to learn is that happiness is a spiritual possession and is independent of material things. Is the world any better or happier for our grievances? Poverty of mind or cowardice of the soul is shown by a tendency to throw on others the trivialities of our own discomfort."

"God makes our sunshine; we make our own clouds."

BY C. F.

(Text from the Revised Version.)
Lesson 8. August 20.

JEHOIAKIM BURNS THE WORD OF GOD.- Jer. 36:21-32.

21. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes that stood beside the king.

22. Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month: and there was a fire in the brasier burning before him.

23. And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, that the king cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brasier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the brasier.

24. And they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.

25. Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them.

26. And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king's son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but Jehovah hid them.

27. Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,

28. Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned,

29. And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah thou shalt say, Thus saith Jehovah: Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?

30. Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.

31. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they hearkened not.

32. Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

GOLDEN TEXT Amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God.- Jer. 26:13.

Jehoiakim the king represents a ruling state of

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