"WASHINGTON, D. C., October 25.

"DEAR BROTHER PEEBLES,-. . . An organization is not to come by throwing together a heterogeneous mass of antagonistic materials, expecting them to fall into order and harmonious combinations. Nature's method, God's method, is different. A little seed, or nucleus of life, is deposited; and this attracts to itself such materials as are fit and proper to constitute the body to be built. So, if there is to be an organization among the crude materials of the Spiritualistic field, it must come of the deposit of a germ of vital truth, first in individual hearts, or, perhaps, in an individual heart,— so vital as to attract around it by slow concretion the individual particles that will form a living and powerful body. I have no faith in the Convention-al method. It will eventuate in nothing but the formation of, at best, a lifeless body, an external shell, not pervaded by the living spirit. Let these little nuclei begin to be formed, and I shall have some hope. But these must not be mere financial organizations,-" to sustain a free platform," -on which a babel of contradictions may be enunciated. There must be a basis or center of vital yet catholic truth,- something positive, and not merely negative,- something which shall be esteemed of more value than all things else, something which shall pervade and control the daily life of the believer. . . .

"Our meetings are got up too much on the star system of theatrical managers. Speakers are employed to draw, not to tell practical truths, or to develop a practical form of faith, or lead the way to a divine life. . . . I earnestly recommend you for Washington, and am glad you are engaged. I anticipate much from your coming.

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"Yours truly,

A. E. NEWTON."

DETROIT, MICH., Nov. 28, 1866. 'Dear Brother Peebles,— Your last two lectures in Detroit gave me inexpressible joy and hope; because of their plainness upon that subject which, it seems to me, lies at the foundation of human progress. I mean the righteous generation of human beings. I want to bless you for your bravery

in ascribing the beauty of Christ's character, to some extent, at least, to his antenatal conditions.

"But (pardon me) in the evening, when you spoke so forcibly, and I think so truly, of the sin against blasted human buds, did you not stop just where it might be inferred that the guilt rested mainly on the mother? How about the father?

"I know your heart is right here as everywhere, and doubtless your head, too; and I will not say it is your duty to go farther in public; you and your guides know best. But I have felt impelled, for the sake of the thousands of overtaxed, unloved, suffering, must I say outraged wives, to beseech you to be faithful to husbands. If not in public, then in private, arrest their attention in some way. Men can control this whole matter if they will; and I have faith enough in human nature to believe 'tis not so much depravity as ignorance that prevents. Then give them light. When women have no unasked children, there will be no more murdered ones. If the soul becomes immortal at conception, 'tis but a step to the truth that there should be no waste of the life-forces. I am glad, thrice glad, that you accept that truth. I almost think, when that is generally accepted in heart and life, the world will be saved.

"Am I presuming in giving you these hints? if so, my love for humanity, my earnest desire to see the race lifted from ignorance and death into light, life, and happiness, must be my apology.

"Now, permit me to say, not to flatter, but to inspire,few, very few, are so well prepared to handle this whole subject as yourself. Your psychological power over an audience, your personal purity and delicacy, fit you admirably for the task. I can not but feel that this duty, in a peculiar manner, is resting upon you, and, when well performed, one of the brightest, sweetest buds in the wreath placed by the archangel on the brow of the youth, will have unfolded to shed its beauty and fragrance on a grateful world.

"God bless you, in the inner and the outer man, and make you ever more and more useful, is the prayer of

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'Your friend,

"LUCINDA S. WILCOX."

"CROWN POINT, IND, Feb. 15, 1867.
As time bears us on through

MY DEAR BROTHER,

this world, I feel more and more your brotherly spirit. There is one soul linked with another in golden chains, riveted with the saintly hands of angels. All that I am I owe to you.

"LT. H. E. LUTHER."

"MOUNT LEBANON, May 17, 1867.

“J. M. PEEBLES: My Esteemed Friend, I have just read an article in the Western Department of The Banner of Light which no man in the outer court of the temple of the Lord on earth but yourself could write.

"You are a blessing to your race, a living spring in the desert of Korah. It is truly comforting to my sin-wearied soul to read such words as the article referred to contains.

"Go on; and be it your mission to teach the holy truth of the existence of a Resurrection Order, of which Jesus was but the type to this generation; and many will hear and read, and believe and bless. When they find that on earth they may rise with Christ, or rather Jesus, into an angelic estate to love God with all their hearts, and that they have no need of any lust of the flesh or mind to make them complete in happiness in time as in eternity.

"I send you my love, for your love of purity.

"We have just received a visit from an editor of the Agriculturist Department of The Tribune, N. C. Meeker, a man likeminded with yourself.

Your friend,

"ELDER F. W. EVANS."

"PENN YAN, N. Y., Nov. 5, 1867.

"MY DEAR BROTHER J. M. PEEBLES,- It is now nearly ten years since you came to me in Battle Creek, and kindly laid your hand upon my shoulder, speaking in my ear the first words of true, manly friendship that I ever heard. I then doubted you. I judged you by my past experiences; but you taught me the world is not all pretension. I oftentimes think that my life was a stupendous vision of darkness, or half-wakeful dream, up to the very hour I first met you. Then and there

the sunlight of usefulness shone upon me. Then my guiding star wheeled me into new orbit, while over your luminous path I cast a dark shadow. Faithful to the charge intrusted to your care by the angel Morning Star,' you held out firm to the end, until time by its reward proved your labors not in vain. With a heart overflowing with deepest gratitude, I remember all this. . . .

"My audiences are increasing. May the blessings of God's ministering angels rest upon you!

"Thank God and the good angels, the battle is past, the race is won, and the victory is ours!

"Your sincere brother,

"E. C. DUNN."

"BUFFALO, N. Y., Jan. 17, 1868.

“J. M. PEEBLES: Dear Sir,-— . I must tell you how deeply I have been pondering your little sermon, An apple for nothing, if it falls off before it ripens.' So I mean to hang on; for Heaven knows I am green enough. . . .

...

"You spoke to me of a volume you expect to issue, ' Spiritualism among the poets.' Pardon me for asking if your attention has been particularly directed to William Blake, artist and poet of Queen Elizabeth's day, I think. He claimed to get both poems and pictures, you recollect, from angels; and gave proof enough in his works, I should judge, of the verity of his claim.

"When I was a little girl, his simple rhymes that prefaced Mary had a little lamb,' were sweet to me as wild honey. You recollect,―

'Piping down the valleys wild, —

Piping songs of pleasant glee,

On a cloud I saw a child,

And he, laughing, said to me,' etc.

Fit beginning for a poem with so heavenly a moral, 'Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know.'

"Very respectfully,

"AMANDA T. JONES."

"NEW YORK, Sept. 11, 1868.

"MY DEAR BROTHER J. M. PEEBLES,-. . . If you can use me in any way, only say so. Time, money, the legal profession, any thing at your command that man can accomplish, I will promise to do for you. . . . With the help of higher power, ere long, I trust, you may hear of your young disciple, whom you caused first to look into this great and glorious subject of Spiritualism. . . .

"Yours fraternally,

"GEO. M. DANFORTH."

"NEW YORK, Sept. 26, 1868.

"DEAR FRIEND PEEBLES,- How often I think of you, of your blessed work. You saved me spiritually. . . . Your articles in The Banner, replete with thoughts ennobling, afford me much happiness. The one concerning Demons, obsessions,' etc., I read with great interest. Bless you, brother! The angels, I believe, from the choice fields of thought and wisdom, call for you both blossoms and the sweets to shed upon your life,— so full and abundant does it appear.

"Your very true friend,

"MILTON RATHBUN."

Rev. Geo. Severance, of Glover, Vt., Universalist, corresponded with Mr. Peebles. In a letter of June 13, 1869, after a kind allusion to Rev. Eli Ballou, editor of The (Universalist) Repository, as a Spiritualistic brother, whom Mr. Peebles favorably noticed, he said,

"The value of Spiritualism consists in the fact, we have access to the other world, and can judge of the nature and character of its inhabitants. The revelations of Spiritualism on this point are worth more than all the Bibles and treatises that have been written from the old point of view. We can see now how the sacred books of the Oriental nations originated. We can look upon Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses, Mohammed, and all the old worthies, not as impostors, but as men moved and inspired by the spirit-hosts of the departed of their respective nations."