supposed to have been caused by spirit agency. I have ascertained that that supposition was correct; and my attention has since been directed to the fact in Church history, that every separation from the Church body which has originated in a desire to return to the simplicity and purity of the primitive followers of Jesus, has been attended by similar mysterious demonstrations. Luther and Melancthon, Knox and Calvin, and the earnest dissenters and reformers of every age, have been haunted in like manner. I say haunted, for they generally have misunderstood the aim of these spiritual visitants.* It has devolved upon the scientific researches and the skeptical but investigating mind of the nineteenth century to form a process by which the spirit of the departed can communicate with the dwellers in Time. To me this science was unknown. Had I been acquainted with the facts with which I am now familiar, I might have established a more liberal Church, but as it was, this daily association with an unseen spiritual presence enlarged my views of the condition attending the soul after death, and caused me to give utterance to thoughts which happily have aided in preparing the world for the Universal Church which ere long will lift its towering dome toward Heaven. * The spirit of Rev. Dr. John M. Krebbs, of New York, states through this clairvoyant that the cause of his mental abberration while on earth was a misinterpretation by him of a spiritual vision which he was permitted to receive. Thus misunderstanding the aim of his spiritual visitants, he became haunted with a fallacy which ultimated in his death. ED. And systems roll their mighty orbs, The spirit moves like some strange wingless bird, Darting through space with rapid flight Until he nears his native home, The earth. His home no longer; He has become the denizen of a world More rare and beautiful than earth. With quickening pulse and grand emotion He gazes down upon the globe, Whose habitations he has left forever! Cities with their palaces and towers, Surging seas, leafy forests, and fields of grain, His sight like fading visions. (211) ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. ALONE. FAR away from earthly care, And think of thee in thy sad, lonely home, My spirit home is bright and fair Many the years I'll watch and wait BARON VON HUMBOLDT. · THE EARTHQUAKE. THIS mysterious and awful visitant, which convulses the earth apparently without warning, is, however, like all the manifestations of nature, preceded by signs which the observing and understanding eye can perceive and calculate upon as unerringly as the astronomer can determine the approach of a comet. The inhabitable earth is merely a shell or crust over the great mass of uninhabitable matter. The world beneath the earth's surface is as diversified as the world above. It has its mountains, its streams, its plains, its caverns, and its internal volcanoes. As fearful storms, accompanied by lightning and rumbling thunder, sweep over the earth's surface, so beneath the crust occur electric storms, accompanied with terrific combustions of gases, which in their efforts to escape convulse the outer earth, and in many cases rend the shell asunder. The earthquake which has recently (August 13, 14, 15, and 16, 1868) shaken the Pacific coast was occasioned by the discharge of the pent-up gases beneath, and also in part by the heated condition of the outer surface. ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. ALONE. FAR away from earthly care, And think of thee in thy sad, lonely home, My spirit home is bright and fair With flowers and birds and wonders rare. Many the years I'll watch and wait |