“Then she, too, sees like yourself?”

“She does.  And every day my experiences are too real and tangible for me to deny, or even doubt that the loved, and so-called ‘lost,’ are with us still.  To my mind, there is nothing unnatural about it.  Every day my faith deepens, and not for all the glory of this life would I change my belief.  Death has brought myself and Alice nearer together.  But I can only state to you my faith in this, my experience cannot be imparted.  Each must seek, and find, and be convinced alone by personal experience and observation.”

“I believe you, and your earnest words have sunk deep within my mind, yet in modern spiritualism I have little faith.”

“Mere phenomenal spiritism is of course only designed to arrest the attention; its other form appeals to the soul, and becomes a part of the daily lives of those who realize it.”

“But I have heard of so much that was contradictory, so much that cannot be reconciled.”

“Neither can we reconcile the usual manifestations of life.  Our daily experiences teach us that seeming absurdities abound on every hand.”

“That is true.  I sometimes think I shall never get the evidence which my nature requires to convince.”

“In God’s own time and way it will come, and when you are best fitted to receive it.”

“But please go on, Mr. Wyman, and tell me more of your experience.”

“I would I could tell you how often when I am weary, my dear Alice comes and watches over me at night; how truly I feel her thoughts, which she cannot express in words; and how, when the poor and needy are suffering, she leads me to where they dwell amid scenes of want.  When my pure child speaks thoughts beyond herself, and describes to me some vision which I at the same time behold, with the exact look and gesture of her mother, I say I believe in spirit communion.  I can well afford to let the world laugh; I know what I see and feel.  And well do I know how much there is mixed with this modern spiritism, which has no origin save in the minds of the persons who substitute their hopes and thoughts for impressions.  On this I have much to say to you at some future period.  It is well that it is so, else we should not discriminate.  Life is so full of adulterations, that which the world calls ‘evil’ is so mingled with that it calls ‘good,’ would it not be strange if this phase should come to us pure and unmixed?”

“It would not take you long to make me a convert to your faith; yet I hope sometime to have my own experiences.  If there was not so much that conflicts with our reason, I think every one would naturally accept the belief you so fondly cherish.”

“Without such conflicting experiences, we should be mere machines.  We must grow in every direction, using every faculty for our guidance, yet ever remembering there are mightier realms than reason, and that the human soul must often go beyond that portal, to catch glimpses of the silent land.”