Let the Pilgrim of the Shadow look to his daily walks. Let him desire not death, nor life, but bide his time with patience, running the race set before him; as a laborer waits at evening at his master's door for his hire, so let him wait for his reward. Renouncing riches and worldly ambition, flying from all anger, hatred, and discord; in all gentleness practising good with love for all men; evil shall pass him by, and he is preparing a peaceful life here and immortality and joys hereafter.

As the most obscure soldier in an army may sometimes destroy the strongest fortress of the enemy by a well directed fiery arrow, so the weakest and most obscure man, when he makes himself the courageous champion of Truth, may overthrow the most solid ramparts of bigotry, superstition, and error.

Thou shalt protect weakness, unselfishly aid each other without noise, and never remember the offences of an enemy when misfortune overtakes him. Love of his fellow-creatures in gentleness, should be the ruling principle of the just man in all his works, for such weigh most in the celestial balance, while the wrongs we inflict upon our neighbors follow us like our shadows.

As the body is strengthened by muscles, so is the Soul fortified and strengthened by love, kindness, and virtue. By this man is united with God. He who is humble and gentle in heart and Spirit is beloved of God and needs nothing more. His very presence brings peace. This man of silent wisdom is like the gigantic banyan-tree, whose beneficent shade affords freshness and renewed life to the plants that surround it, but let him fear all worldly honor and flatteries more than poison, and feel only contempt for worldly riches.

The so-called death of man is only a birth into new life. Sometimes we catch glimpses of the golden ways, and see the dear faces radiant with youth, and one touch of a gentle hand or a whisper from long silent lips is priceless and invaluable, worth all our lives or dreams. All our tender memories are comforted with the blessed consolation that our dear ones still live and still love us. None so well as a Spirit friend can restore lost strength and vigor of the living, warming and quickening the pulsations of the weary heart.

How all of us like sometimes to speak and go back in memory to visions of fair and loving faces of bright companions that have passed over the silent river. How they do cling and live in our memory, sublimated in the crucible of death from all imperfections and deficiencies; clothed in all their virtues and tender kindnesses, radiant in love. Months and years hurry by, and all the world is growing old; but they are for ever young.

"I dreamed a dream of an old, old love,

And sweet was that dream of bliss,

For it brought me a hand from the spirit land
And the touch of a spirit kiss,

A sense of happiness pure and bright,

Like a dove on my bosom lay,

With the breath of a wing and the odor of spring

My sorrow had passed away.

So I know my old love as an angel lives

Beyond where the pale stars shine,

That she comes from above, on a mission of love

To bring peace to this soul of mine."

The sweet communion of the immortals with man, the True Spirit of the Love of God, having survived the centuries, and seen the rise and fall of empires and kings, puts off the dusty sandals of the ages, and steps out into the light of the morning of these latter days a living Truth, not to be vanquished. The dawn of the sunlight of this new morning of the world is the outbreak of irresistible day.

Spirit communion is a shaking of hands across the vast gulf of the centuries with our own Spiritual ancestors. The heavens are opened before our enraptured eyes. We gaze into the regions of the blest. He who has once breathed the perfume of the violets that bloom on the golden heights of Spirit is so filled with holy peace and love that he is never again content with earthly things. This is the flower few mortals have seen and lived, but its fragrance fills the whole fair earth; the flowers of the Angels which gives one fire enough in his heart to warm a world.

The guardian Angels come to us like the serenely setting sun as he kisses the earth good-night. If like a child you ask them whence they come, with gentle smile, modest as an Angel's love, they answer, "From far as the uttermost bounds of creation, and further than man's rushing thoughts."

Spirit Truth and Spirit communion are priceless gems; pillars built on the solid, imperishable rocks of the ages. We Pilgrims of Light have whole libraries of facts and armies of living witnesses. In this stage of the world's history, Spirit is coming very near to men and the narrow intolerant creeds of the ages will melt before it like snow wreaths in the morning sun, and the shower of wit, ridicule, and sarcasm, all directed by ignorance, which has beat upon Spiritualism for the last generation will soon pass away and be forgotten like a tale that is told.

Oh, may your higher love and hope of heaven keep your earthly

record fair, and may you be guided by the higher impulses of the inner being. Otherwise, woe betide you at the hour of death, for in the land of Soul and Spirit ideas are all incarnated and become living realities, surrounding and enclosing every creature in the atmosphere to which he belongs, restraining his vision to the special sphere in which he dwells. So on the first awakening in Spirit one steps forth in the immutable law and procedure of the land of Souls.

"And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying:

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good-will, toward men."— Luke ii: 13, 14.

"The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."-2 Cor. xii. v. 7.

Man marks the earth with evil troubles and harsh discords, or else entwined

With ascending light and good forms Union with nature's harmonious heart-beat.

Which wakes the Soul of man to throb in chords of melody with the Great-Central - Heart of All.

The Truths of Spirit communion is heaven's best gift;

That points out an hereafter and shapes our ends;

Conducts us to our homes, and lands us safe on the long-wish'd-for shore.

CHAPTER IX.

THE CULTIVATION OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS, OR THE GUIDANCE OF THE UNSEEN HAND.

"ARISE, Shine; for thy Light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."

THE TRUE EDUCATION OF MAN IS SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT.

"It is too late! Ah, nothing is too late,

Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate."

Neither height nor depth can measure the possibilities of the human Soul. The perfect Love of God knows no difference between the rich and the poor. Men usually desire four things in life, vis.: Love, Wealth, Fame, and Power. All else are considered as amusement or something to be forgotten. To the natural man Spirit and Soul are mere side issues—as Paul says, "foolishness unto him." But when death comes there is another hope, a new desire. Doubts have existed in some minds whether it is right to look beyond the veil. As a matter of fact, everything is behind the veil, till some daring investigator brings it to the front. If the Great Power that made us, and governs everything, determined we should not communicate with a world of being unseen by ordinary vision, it would be impossible for us to do so; it would be impossible for us to find the veil and walk behind it; but if such communication exists, it is proof positive that it is not only allowable but desirable. All things are good with good men.

"Now old things have passed away; behold! all things have become new."

Spiritual Development is an opening of the portals to that other world, where "millions of Spiritual creatures walk unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep."

To him who has crossed the Rubicon and burned his ships, counting the costs, the hopes, the joys, is presented the Truth, as brother

presents to brother, the living Truth, the positive absoluteness of the actual realization and knowledge that awaits Development, Illumination, and Understanding. He will now fully realize that man has a spiritual as well as a corporeal nature; in other words, that the real man is a spirit, which Spirit has an organized form, composed of spiritual substance, with parts like and corresponding to those of the corporeal body; that man as a Spirit is immortal. Being found to survive that change called physical death, it may reasonably be supposed he will survive all future vicissitudes. That there is a Spirit world, or state, with its substantial realities, objective as well as subjective. That the process of death in no way essentially transforms the mental constitution, or the moral character of those who experience it.

That happiness or suffering in the Spirit world, as in this, depend not on arbitrary decree or special provision but on character, aspirations, and degree of harmonization, or personal conformity to universal and Divine law.

As one grows, and the Soul's growth makes it more attuned to Spirit, all darkness clears away from the inner being. The development of Soul enkindles lofty desires and spiritual aspirations; delivers from painful fear of death, and dread of imaginary evils consequent thereon, as well as prevents inordinate sorrow and mourning for deceased friends; it gives a rational and inviting conception of the after life to those who use the present worthily; it stimulates to the highest and worthiest possible employment of the present life, in view of its momentous relations to the future; it energizes the Soul in all that is good and elevating, and restrains the passions from all that is evil and impure.

Development of Soul prompts our earnest endeavors by purity of life, by unselfishness of aspiration, to live constantly en rapport with the highest conditions of Spirit life and thought, knowing that charity and goodness, purity and holiness, precede happiness in all worlds.

It stimulates the mind to the largest investigation and freest thought on all subjects, especially on the vital questions of Truth and duty, that we may be qualified to judge for ourselves what is right.

and true.

It cultivates self-reliance and careful investigation by taking away the support of arbitrary authorities, and leaving each mind to exercise its own truth-determining powers.

It quickens all philanthropic impulses, by emphasizing the Truth of Universal Brotherhood, and the duty of living for the good of all,