good spirit of his wife into ways of pleasantness and
into paths of peace; and he urged upon the medium
that it was the duty of humanity to obey the behests
of their best friends in the “spirit world.”
Finally the
medium consented that if he would deed wer to her what
property he possessed she would agree to follow the
directions of the spirit and marry him. The matter was
consummated in legal form, and Mr. N. with his medium
wife and her daughter proposed to make the formerly
cold and cheerless home of Mr. N. all that his spirit-
wife had wished for him. It was a very -short time,
however, before the poor old gentleman was very glad
to abandon home and all, to get free from the two
“she-devils,” as he afterward knew them.
But did not this shake the confidence of Mr. N.
in Spiritism? By no means. He merely communi-
cated with his wife again through another medium and
was informed that a lying spirit had misrepresented
her entirely and that she had given no such bad advice.
Knowing these facts concerning his history when we
met him shortly after, and he tried to urge upon the
writer the claims of Spiritism, we said to him, “Mr.
N., we will admit that Spiritism is backed by some
super-human phenomena, but we deny that the pow-
ers which communicate represent themselves truthful-
ly.
They claim to be friends and relatives who once
lived in this world, but the Scriptures assure us to the
contrary of this that there is no work or knowledge or
advice in the grave, and that the dead know not any-
thing. (Eccl. 9: 5, 10 ) They declare that the only
hope of a future life is by a resurrection from the dead.
You know, Mr. N., that whatever these powers may
be which claim to be the spirits of your friends, their