come all things to all men, if by any means they may

save some."

Let this account for ancient spirits not returning. When a spirit gives us the name of Adam, Eve, Tubal Cain, or Vulcan, we put them down, not as the original persons who had these names, but as more modern spirits, who were honored with these or some other

names.

QUERY NO. 13..

If spirits are subject to such temptations to impose on the credulous as persons are in this life, and as the answer to the above question would indicate, what good can Spiritualism do?

Answer. In important matters there is a way to test spirits. The divine admonition, "try the spirits," in many cases should be put in practice. In many cases it makes no more difference who the spirit than who the medium is. If we go to the spirit for thought, for ideas, we care not what spirit imparts them any more than we care what medium it is through whom a test comes. If we are after a test of individuality, and not simply of spirit existence, try them. There are rules by which it can be done. Your mother can speak words to you that no other person can. You should always wait for those words before you recog

nize her.

As to the direct good of Spiritualism, I answer, whether a test was ever given or not, whether a spirit ever told the truth or not, Spiritualism is a demonstration of an existence beyond this. A man, by telling a falsehood, proves his consciousness and ability to choose between a lie and the truth, hence his

ability to tell the truth. Thus Spiritualism demonstrates another world, and that that world is filled with the diversity of character that there is in this, thus indicating that the inhabitants of that country emigrated from this.

QUERY NO. 14.

May not a new scientific discovery spoil all there is of Spiritualism?

Answer. No, it can not. A new discovery may, in some measure, modify many theories respecting Spiritualism, but can not overthrow it. A new scientific discovery may modify the modes of teaching mathematics, but no future discovery in any science will change the fact that two multiplied by two will bring four as a result, or that two added to five will make seven. So whatever discoveries may be made, nothing can overcome the one already made, that we are not dependent on our five senses for all our knowledge; that men have seen through solid walls and granite mountains; that they have heard words spoken a thousand miles distant; have been told by an unseen intelligence something they did not know before. Do you call it "mind reading"? Be it so. It was not done with the physical senses; then there are spiritual senses which bid defiance to all the laws governing gross matter. If they do that, and it is proved by the spiritual phenomena, then this spiritual sense bids defiance to death, and Immortality is triumphant.

CHAPTER XVI.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AND SPIRITUALISM.

An interesting book. Then and now, the Analogy. -A solemn Warning.Skepticism of the disciples. -"Infallible Proof."- Better Manifestations Today. The waiting Time. The Promise. What is the Comforter? - Jesus' coming. The Holy Ghost. The two Men. - Synopsis of Acts II.— The Cripple healed. - How it was done. - Peter in Court. — Admissions of his Adversaries. - House and Furniture shaken. — Ananias and Sapphira.— Shadow Cures. - The Same now. Case in St. Louis.- Apostles imprisoned. - Liberated by Spirits. Report of the Committee. A modern Case. - A "Mysterious Man."- Stephen's Sermon. - Stephen a Clairvoyant.-Assassination of Stephen. - Peter as a developing Medium.- Simon does not understand the Matter. Philip a Medium. -Angels talk to him. A Spirit carries him away. Author carried by Spirits. Another Case. - A new Star.

ONE of the most interesting books in the Bible is the one which, in our English translations is called the Acts of the Apostles. A more correct rendering would have been the "Practice of the Apostles."

No person, who believes at all in apostolic example, can refrain from admiring that book, as it is the only one that gives us anything of an idea of apostolic practices. It is, however, not for the purpose of exhibiting the minutiae of apostolic preaching and example that this chapter is written, but to exhibit their sayings and doings on the one question of Spiritualism, and the analogy in their and our relation to the world. Bible believers may draw great profit from such a lesson.

Before commencing a commentary on this Book of

Acts, I would call attention to an apostolic warning. When the Jews disputed the phenomena attending the new religion, Paul used the words of the prophets as follows (Acts xiii. 40, 41): "Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you."

From this we perceive that it was hard to get a skeptical sectarian to believe in the work [manifestations] of the apostle's day. This skepticism does not seem to have been confined to the outside world; even the disciples were doubtful on many of the manifestations they themselves witnessed. It was said of those who were Jesus' most intimate earthly companions (Matt. xxviii. 16, 17), "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him: but some doubted."

While some doubted, others believed the manifestations to be entirely conclusive. The writer of the book under consideration, in speaking of the manifestations to the apostles, says, "Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. To whom also he showed himself alive, after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." (Acts i. 2, 3.)

Here the proofs that Jesus was alive are declared to be infallible and what are they? Why, nothing more

than that "he showed himself alive," and was seen forty days, and spake. All of these manifestations, and more, are witnessed at Moravia, N. Y., and other places, every day. Did those referred to in these verses prove that Jesus was alive, then we have all the evidence that could be desired to prove that our friends of yesterday, who to-day are in the spirit world, still live. If that text under examination does not prove that Jesus is alive, then there is no text that does, and Christianity can not be proved.

One more point in this text deserves consideration. This Jesus told his disciples that they should wait for the fulfillment of a promise which they had heard from him. That waiting consisted in their forming a circle, and sitting in it until the day of Pentecost, which was ten days from this fortieth day, the last on which Jesus was seen, until seen by Paul some years after. This promise, to which he refers, can be none other than that found in John xiv. 16-26.

There are so many good points in the "promise and Jesus' comments, that I must trouble the reader with a lengthy extract. "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. while, and the world seeth me no more; me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that

Yet a little

but ye see