state) to select the right kind of medicine, giving Mr. Peebles directions in preparing it for the patient. The woods, fields, and gardens were their laboratories.

Powhattan named Mr. Peebles "Preach." One night he was quite ill; when this Indian, always on the alert, ordered medicine. "Take times (three fingers), once great dark" (midnight). Mr. Peebles objected, stating he could not wake at that hour. "Me risk,” was the reply: "me wake you,” ordering him to put his watch on the table.

Just at midnight broke forth a voice, “Preach! Preach!! up get: time by the tick thing."

Rousing, he at first thought he had been dreaming; when it spoke again in his wakeful consciousness,—

"Up get, Preach! tick thing, time up. Preach !"

Taking the medicine in hand, he drank a toast to the faithful spirit, and in a moment was locked in

"Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep."

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During the healing and lecturing peregrinations, the uniform custom was, after retiring, to entrance the medium. "Be not disturbed," said the spirits: we know our own business." Perfectly entranced, an invisible silver chord flickering over the silent body, Mr. Peebles holding the pulseless hand, deeply anxious lest death might rob its tenant, the spirits, taking the medium to lower planes, would teach him lessons of warning, and thence higher, into medical temples, instruct him in the laws of spiritual science and better modes of healing.

The true spiritual teacher is a physician of souls. The leaf is nourished by the root; so is the spirit-world by our healthful conditions. The body is the crystal of spirit. Heal at the life-springs. Bring the balm of an angel's love. This healing band, in cases of

obsession, scattered the dark influences, regenerated the self-abandoned, brought wandering spirits into light. Being at Port Huron, Mich., Mr. Peebles was introduced to Dr. Hawkins, healing spirit for Dr. S. D. Pace, a successful physician, who purposely per mitted several suicides to control him, that Mr. Peebles might address them from the earthly side to which they gravitated. With words of hope, tenderly he alluded to their early days under the paternal roof, to the moral uses of temptation resisted, closing with these words, "If you would be angels, you must seek to make others angels." They listened; and how hallowed was their joy!

The curative agencies for obsession are thus happily delineated by Mr. Peebles in one of his late pen-productions,

"Kindness and firmness, aspiration and self-reliance, pleasant physical, social, and mental surroundings, with gentle harmonizing magnetic influences from circles of exalted spirits, through noble, pure-minded media, these are the remedies. Speak to

the obsessing intelligences as men, brothers, sisters, friends; reason with them as members of a common Father's family; and at the same time, demagnetizing the subject, bring a healthier, purer magnetism, and calmer, higher, and more elevating influences to the patient's relief. This was Jesus' method: it should be ours."

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Powhattan, once a fierce warrior, was converted to peace principles in the spirit-world. He was at first very shy of the whites, retaining a strong antipathy for many years. Occasionally, William Penn, with his benignant face, with form so beautiful, crossed his path on those "hunting-grounds;" but his selfish resolution not to speak to him was at length conquered by so much sweetness of sphere. Penn all this while was seeking to reach his heart, SO incased in the vestment of blood." Powhattan listened to his words, felt their love, was softened and converted; since which time, he has ever endeavored to inspire Indians with love of peace among themselves and the whites. Every 4th of July, the day when first he revealed himself to Mr. Peebles, he wished to celebrate the advent of universal peace with him and his medium, and such other spirits and earthly friends as chose to be there. They used to assemble in the woods, engage in solemn worship; Powhattan addressing the "red brethren in the Indian dialect, and Mr. Peebles the "pale faces" in English. The first celebration of the kind was held near Leonidas, Mich. ; where about forty citizens commingled their orisons with those of a host of Indians gathered from the spirit country in peace council. These were memorable anniversaries, ever fraught with subdued inspiration, bringing the sympathizing whites nearer the brotherly heart of the lone Indian.

CHAPTER VIII.

EL DORADO.

"Weary souls

By thee have been led up unto the fountains
Whence the deep tide of living waters flow,
And into that fair light of heavenly truth

Which like a blessed rainbow spans the future,

And bridges all the dark abyss of death."— FANNY GREEN.

NEARLY four years of toil in Battle Creek, each widening in influence, when the spirits advised a change of climate, to recuperate his wasted health. was the response. That land had long haunted him. was his resolute talk.

"Whither?" was the question.

"California," "Go I must,"

Upon the temporary suspension of his pastoral relations with the "Free Church," resolutions were passed, speaking of him as "a true teacher," having "purity of life and honesty of purpose; and prayers were breathed upon him amid tears that welled up from many hearts.

"The Jeffersonian," a secular paper of Battle Creek, thus noticed his departure:

"While we part with him, it is our desire to say, that few better persons are found in this mundane sphere than Mr. Peebles and his amiable lady; for we know that this resolution on their part will effect a vacancy in our midst quite hard to be filled."

During his absence, his desk was supplied by such personages as Warren Chase, Benj. Todd, Bell Scougal, F. L. Wadsworth, of whose labors he spoke with grateful credit.

Amid farewells and waving of handkerchiefs, he embarked for California, on New Year's, 1860, in steamer “ Ariel.”

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Ocean and island scenery invigorated him. When sea-sick, the angels visited him. He said in a letter to "Clark's Spiritual Clarion,"

"Whilst suffering from sea-sickness, I felt my spirit-friends continually around me; and how delightful the delicate touches of their fingers upon my forehead; their impressions how calming!

"Crossing the isthmus of Panama, ideally reveling amid those groves of lemons cocoas, and palms, I coasted the Pacific, recalling the words of Shelley,

"My soul is an enchanted boat,

Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float

Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing;
And thine doth like an angel sit

Beside the helm, conducting it.” ”

At San Francisco, he made himself known to Rev. A. C. Edmunds, editor of "The Star of the Pacific" (Universalist), who represented him as a "Universalist-Unitarian-Spiritualist," with enco

miums as follows:

"Mr. J. M. Peebles, of Battle Creek, Mich., arrived in San Francisco on the 25th ult. (March, 1861), and is now temporarily tarrying in Sacramento. We bid him welcome to California. He comes among us, not as the bearer of parchments from ecclesiastical associations, but as one divinely commissioned by the Father to speak the truth according to the measure of his understanding, imparted by the Spirit and the inspiration which the Fountain of Good has given to every man. We admire the platform of Brother Peebles, believing that every man should think and act for himself.

"Bound to no party, to no sect confined,

The world our home, our brethren all mankind:
Love truth, do good, be just and fair with all;
Exalt the right, though every ism fall."

Among the friends that greeted him, there were Judge Robinson, Senator E. H. Burton, V. B. Post and family; Fanny Green, the poetess, who addressed him burning words of encouragement in his reforms; and T. Starr King, the patriot and spiritualistic Unitarian, received him with heart warm as the baptism of that tropical clime.

Mr. Peebles wrote several valuable articles for "The Star of the Pacific," in which he gave spiritual interpretation to biblical lore, for the benefit of the Universalist community, with a view of converting some to "a a knowledge of the truth;" and was also a correspondent of A. J. Davis's "Herald of Progress," in which he reported his spiritual experiences in California. Seeing the favorable notices in "The Star," the Universalist papers of the Atlantic States reported him "as preaching Universalism in California!" "The Chicago New Covenant" (D. P. Livermore) noticed him thus:

"Rev. J. M. Peebles, of Battle Creek, Mich., formerly of our communion, and now advocating a phase of Spiritualism that in no way conflicts with Universalism, is to leave for California in November or December. He will probably locate at Sacramento. His first object is health: that restored, he will resume preaching."

"The Universalist Companion," a statistical pamphlet, said,

"The Rev. J. M. Peebles was preaching Universalist sentiments in San Francisco, by last advices.”

This insult, "

by last advices," Mr. Peebles reviewed in a letter to "The Ambassador.”

"Advices and reports are unreliable just in the ratio of individual negligence and depravity. The millennium will be near when advices are correct, and men report what they positively know. . . . The phrase, 'preaching Universalist sentiments' is correct, allowing the Protestant's privilege of private judgment and free expression. So do Unitarians proclaim 'Universalist sentiments;' so do most of the Swedenborgian clergy; so do lecturers upon the Harmonial Philosophy; so do all spiritualistic mediums, whether normal or abnormal; so does Henry Ward Beecher, when in his highest and happiest pulpit moments: and what of it? Simply this: It demonstrates the moral growth of the race, and a general tendency of the thinking masses to embrace broader theological views, touching the attributes of God, the administration of the divine government, the soul's educational capacity, and the final destination of humanity; and certainly no enlightened Christian gentleman, especially of the liberal school, would forbid the casting out of devils; i.e., the evils and errors of old sectarian theology, though under other names than the one he may have seen fit to adopt."

Seeing favorable notices in Universalist papers, certain Spiritualists alleged he had renounced Spiritualism; and he drew the sword also on such. Writing "The Herald of Progress," he said,

"Supposing I had, the sun would shine, the stars glisten, the world move, truth would be truth, and bigots bigoted. No! I have not renounced Spiritualism, Universalism, Unitarianism, Quakerism, or rather the truths that underlie them: for each symbolizes a central truth; and all truths manifest the harmonic law of unity. Octave notes do not jar; nor does unripe fruit contradict the mellowed fruitage of autumn. There are a few one-idea, one-sided 'Spiritualists,' who can perceive no truth in the universe, unless christened Spiritualism; and they seem to think themselves heaven-appointed watchmen, to gruffly growl around, and guard their imperfectly-conceived notion of that 'ism.' It becomes a 'hobby;' and they ride the poor thing hoofless. I would as soon accept the teachings of Pius IX., or sectarian churchdom, as authoritative, as communications from spirits. . . . Every thinker, given to meditation, will discriminate between use and abuse. To affirm there have been no abuses, no 'froth nor scum,' under the name of Spiritualism, manifests not only a most deplorable ignorance and imbecility, but the very quintessence of impudence. . . . I am indebted to spirit intercourse for my knowledge -- I say knowledge of immortality, the location of the spirit-world, --I the condition of the immortalized, the occupation of the loved gone before, and their progressing toward the infinite. Those love-messages that have greeted me from the thither side of death's peaceful river, I cherish above all price, and shall till I reach the