Luther and Mclancthon, 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.[A] 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.

[Footnote A:  The spirit of Rev. Dr. John M. Krebbs, of New York, states through this clairvoyant that the cause of his mental aberration 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.]

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.

N.P.  WILLIS.

A SPIRIT REVISITING EARTH.

(A FRAGMENT.)

How wondrous I
Through illimitable space, where myriad suns
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,
The towering mountain and the massy
Icebergs of the Polar sea sweep past
His sight like fading visions.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.

ALONE.

Far away from earthly care,
Free as a bird, I soar through air,
And think of thee in thy sad, lonely home,
Watching and waiting for thy love to come. 
Dost thou hear me call thee, Sweet!  Sweet! 
Many the years till we shall meet.

My spirit home is bright and fair
With flowers and birds and wonders rare. 
Seraphic the faces that on me smile,
But the one I love is on earth the while,
Will she hear me calling, Sweet!  Sweet! 
Many the years till we shall meet.

Many the years I’ll watch and wait
Till I see thee at the golden gate,
Then in my arms will I bear thee away
To my jewelled home where sunbeams play. 
Then together we’ll sing, Sweet!  Sweet! 
Well worth the waiting thus to meet.