own three dear little ones, who left the mortal ere earth's ills had tinged the gossamer of their spirit-garments with a single stain. Angels are their teachers; progress their eternal destiny. Oh, how blessed is Spiritualism in all the trying scenes of life! Would I had a thousand tongues to tell its glories and sing its praises! To its promulgation under the inspiration of a circling band of spirits, I have consecrated my powers, dedicated my life. So have you, and many, many, other noble souls.

"Deeply do I sympathize with reform-workers, lecturers, and media, negative and sensitized from the heavens. Oftentimes their sorrows are many, their joys few. Beautiful are the crowns that await them in the glorious hereafter.

"Were it not for the feeble health of my wife, and sudden departure of Louis, I should remain here at least a year, and do earnest missionary work in behalf of Spiritualism. I am stopping in an excellent family, Victor B. Post's; the spirits have named them 'Peace and Harmony.' These, with many other dear friends, entreat me to remain another year; but duty calls me home.

"I must tell you, by the way, that I have formed the acquaintance of Mrs. Eliza W. Farnham; met her in the lunatic asylum, Stockton, California. She is the matron; and her brilliant, solid intellect, boundless benevolence, and deep comprehension of principles, charmed me. During several evenings, she read from unpublished volumes she is preparing, read me select passages from Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass,' and several European poets. She told me she delivered the first lecture upon Spiritualism ever given in California. She spoke highly of you, Mary F. Davis, and others of her sex laboring for woman and the great interests of reform. And, only think,- little, anxious, jealous souls, hardly worthy to unloose her shoe-latches, have tried to traduce this great, noble woman. Blessings upon her! I'm proud I ever clasped her hand, a prelude to abiding friendship."

"PETOLUMA, CAL., Jan. 15, '62.

"Dear Charlie, -Accept my thanks for the love-message sent me from 'Louie' through you. Oh, the dear pet child, how I want to clasp him to my bosom upon my return home! You know, Charlie, that I am enthusiastic in my love nature; loving not only children, but music, flowers, and friends, almost to distraction.

"The news of Louie's leaving the earth-life almost overcame me at first. I was not prepared for it; for I had just been to a mountain-village, by stage, to preach a funeral sermon, and had gatherings in my ears, making me nearly sick: but I was sustained by two spirits, and made to feel that it was not only right, but 'all for the best,' as my dear brother Nite says. I have heard from him through J. V. Mansfield of Boston. Accept my thanks for the promise that I shall hear from Louie often through you. It will cheer me in my lonely pilgrimage along the Pacific coast."

CHAPTER IX.

THE CHAIN OF PEARLS AND SPIRIT BANDS.

"Have ye heard, have ye heard, of the angel of love,
Who, with glory of princess and grace of a dove,
Leaves her seraph abode in the sunsets of even,
Gathering pearls on earth for crowns in heaven, -

Have ye heard of this angel of love?" — SPIRITUAL PILGRIM.

"The mortal world may be divided, but the nobility of intellect of the spirit-world is one." -HUDSON TUTTLE.

MANY a spirit outside of Mr. Peebles's band had promised him great things, decking his pathway with prophetic flowers. The intention may be as pure as a little child's, that brings us the roses without the thorns; but it indicates that such ministration is unschooled in the moralizing rudiments of adversity, and unreliable. A flattering spirit, so far from being a guide, should be guided.

About a year and six months in California, and Mr. Peebles returned to Battle Creek, greatly recuperated, and was received with hearty welcome. Absence only strengthened the bonds of fellowship.

When he stepped upon the stand to renew his ministerial labors, amid so many smiling faces, the choir sung two original songs, com→ posed by Mrs. D. M. Brown, reviewing the departure and return: "We would welcome thee, our brother,Welcome thee from o'er the sea;

From the perils and the trials

That we know attended thee.

And we come, we come, to greet thee,
Safe returned from distant lands;

Feeling thy inspiring presence

Binds us close in friendship's bands.
And we love, we love, to welcome,
Welcome thee from distant lands."

It was a thrilling moment.

The words and the music of "wel

come and "response" changed thought to heart; and heart was in the hand of greeting to their dear pastor.

When once more put in direct communication with the spirits, through his long-tried medium, he felt confident that the way would open more propitiously. Thus far, he had battled for a certain attainment of spirituality, so often required by his heavenly guards. Now that his health had improved, he sanguinely asked them if the life-line would not be straighter, drawing him nearer a sunny experience.

"I have been to California," he added, "under your approval; have done my work there; have a more practical appreciation of human needs; have returned, as you see, quite vigorous and full of faith, — what say you now? are not matters more promising?"""

Perasee had mentally forecast the trial-scenes rising in view, and showed them to his brother Nite, then speaker for the silent band:

"No, friend Peebles," said Mr. Nite, "your pathway is begirt with thorns, and jagged rocks will pierce your feet: your horoscope just before us is rough and stormy. We throw around your neck a chain of pearls, pearls which reflect your life, your plans, thoughts, purposes, deeds. All things are dual. These spiritually reflect your outer life, as your spiritual sensorium reflects your inner life. Symbolically, you are chained by these beautiful pearls.

"A lady friend of yours, clad in robes of purity, known among us as 'Queen of Morn,' and in your world as 'Madame Elizabeth,' sister of Louis XVI. of France, from this chain, which I put around your neck, has suspended a cross, indicative of trials and crucifixions in your pilgrimage. But be of good cheer, you shall overcome, and every sorrow will give fragrance to the bud that blossoms over your heart."

Not many months after, Madame d'Obeney, a celebrated traveler and Spiritualist, met Mr. Peebles in the East, and surprised him with a gift, significant of the pearls mentioned by the spirits, consisting of a string of beads, carved from the wood of an olive-tree that grew on Mt. Olivet, in the very garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus had his "strong crying and tears." He then had a cross made, after the pattern shown by the spirits, the front of it of beautiful pearl, the back of pure gold, on which were engraved the names of spirits in his band:

LORENZO PEEBLES.

CANA.

JAMES LEONARD.

MADAME ELIZABETH.

HOSEA BALLOU.
MOZART.

PERASEE LENDANTA.
AARON NITE.

JOHN W. LEONARD.

This circle of sympathizing spirits are not authority to him whom they inspire. Constitutionally skeptical, he can accept no authority but the God of truth and wisdom, love and purity, manifest in himself. "Judge ye of yourselves," said Jesus, "what is right."

Mr. Peebles wears the string of olive beads around his neck, screened from the public eye, but the cross is exposed. Many an iconoclast has jeered at his cross, taunting him with the sobriquet of "Catholic," "Episcopal priest," "Your Christian Highness," and the like; and in one instance a jealous aspirant proposed to send him a string of Catholic beads. From all such Mr. Peebles kept his own secret, conscious it is imprudent to "cast your pearls before swine." Those olive beads continually remind him of the spiritual chain of pearls which the spirits put around his neck, admonishing him as to his life, thoughts, purposes, and deeds," — how to keep these unstained. Oh, the cross! the pearl of wisdom, the gold of love! every name thereon engraved is associated with trying and hallowed associations. It has ever been to him his Urim and Thummim, life light and shade. These he will wear to the end of this rudimental pilgrimage, when, tendered to another worthy of the trust, he will behold its counterpart, the living pearls, the "treasures laid up in heaven," — what spiritual beauties he has unfolded amid earth's tears and self-denials.

Let the profane jeer at these symbols; the good and true will revere this sibylline oracle which only the pure in heart can interpret. But whose the hand that wove the chain and twined it round his neck? whose the voice that bade him be "hopeful, trustful, faithful?" whose the heart throbbing in those pearls?

When in New York, soon after this interview with spirits, Mr. Peebles called on W. P. Anderson, spirit-artist, who drew a likeness of Madame Elizabeth. To his surprise, a chain, similar to the one she had pictured to his mental vision, was around her neck. The artist paints her in one of her aspirational moods, wearing upon her beautiful brow a gemmed crown.

Soon after procuring the much-prized likeness, Mr. Peebles was one day indifferently walking the streets of Boston, when, of a sudden, he wheeled into an antiquarian library, having no thought of being spiritually influenced, and was impressed to search for the Bhagavat Geeta. Failing to find it, he turned to go out, and, in passing, was drawn instinctively to the "French Department." There he was whirled round with a shock, and caused to stoop down and put his hand on a history of Louis XVI., in which was a likeness of himself and his sister Elizabeth, resembling that of her in the spirit-painting, hair the same, chain of pearls around her neck,

with a cross attached. Dr. G. Haskell and others, being present, saw in a moment the correspondence between the two pictures. This strengthened Mr. Peebles's faith in his guides, and made him buoyant in spirit. The question recurs, Whose the hand that led him to that history? The same that twined the cross with the string of pearls?

"Love reflects the things beloved."

Spiritually, our fathers and mothers, Who are they? who our educators? "Wiser than we know," by birthright we are represented in the high councils of immortals. Many-fold as nature is, sphered in spheres derived from all planes of life, past and present, we are constitutionally banded with spirits of other races and ages, just as the webs of our being run.

"Our echoes roll from soul to soul,

And grow for ever and for ever."

After Mr. Peebles became more conscious of angel-presence, he began to inquire into the history and identity of spirit-bands and their special work.

Through the trance-mediumship of Dr. A. P. Pierce of Boston, by whom ancient spirits are writing histories and philosophies unknown in the libraries, he conversed with erudite spirits of millennian ages, and with Jehovah, the Lord of the Hebrews, identified as an Egyptian priest, who instructed him in the ministries of angels at that remote period. At other times he talked with Brahman seers, Egyptian hierophants, Chinese moralists, Persian fire-worshipers, Druidic priests, Platonic philosophers. Associated with these ancients, under their inspiration, he has for years been on a pilgrimage to caves, ruins, geological relics, moss-grown records on monuments and obelisks, and antiquarian libraries. From instinct he is thus a student of Nature, ruins, and arts. Force of circumstances also molds his love to flow in such channels. Organically spiritual, battling with adversities, so often assailed, so disappointed in a thousand expectations, he courts solitude, and finds in pensive meditations a soul-joy. In that beautiful story of "Paul and Virginia," over which we all used to weep when boys and girls, the historian says, "All suffering creatures, from a sort of common instinct, fly for refuge amidst their pains to haunts the most wild and