that rapping spirits would be dreadful destroying spirits also in this country, if their operations will not be stopped by the application of the means which are comprehended in our message of Peace.  But I did not try those spirits in circles of spiritualists, till I received order from my leaders to do so.  Opportunity was given in Pittsburgh, Pa. by the reports published in some English and German newspapers regarding the mediumship of Christina Beil, (as the name of that medium of German parents is correctly written, but English reporters wrote it Beail, although it is the German Beil, that means a hatchet or axe)[T].  Her mediumship aroused a general attention, and while crowds of attendants were convinced that raps by which questions were answered, were produced by spirits, sceptics denied it, and Mrs. Swisshelm published in her “Saturday Visitor” the results of her investigations of spirit rappers at Christina Beil’s mediumship.  She thought, that raps must have been produced by some trick of one or the other mortal, although she was not able to discover the trick.  The same confession was made in German newspapers by a German Lutheran Pastor.  The excitement moved a skilful German chemist who was also a strong materialist, to investigate the matter in the expectation that he might find out the trick.  But he was sincere and confessed, that raps purporting to come from spirits, were produced by beings who understood the questions.  But under the circumstances of his investigations they could not be produced by mortal men, and must have been produced by invisible agents.

A few days before my reading of those reports, a rapping spirit had been shown to me in an extraordinary manner, to relate which in this epitome there is no room.  But by that manifestation I was instructed, that I should try the rapping spirits of Christiana Beil in the presence of sufficient witnesses.  The same German learned chemist, and a German Pastor of the Reformed Church and other witnesses were present, when I tried the spirits of Christina Beil.  Also that pastor belonged to that school of theologians who send their departed into such an eternity, from whence there is no return to mortal men.  Such folly is according to our knowledge of the condition of the departed most pitiful materialism in disguise.  But at our meeting with that medium in the house of her mother, soon a number of rappers commenced to show by raps in a number of places of the room, that they were ready to give answers to our questions.  The medium commenced to ask, and instantly all others became silent, and the strongest amongst them gave answers with raps.  To the question with whom he wished to converse, the pastor was shown by strong raps as the person with whom the spirit wished to converse, and he signified by raps also that he was ready to give his name by pointing out the letters of his name with raps.  The pastor repeated the alphabet, and was quite astonished, that the letters spelled