him out to be the Son of God, what would our clever fellows have said?"Bah!-blasphemy!" Had they seen his miracles, what then? They would have had a ready answer, as their clever congeners then had,-"Oh! that is the devil."

Well, let us see what will come of this;-perhaps we may have to wait "All the Year Round;" but, no matter, let us wait. Whether an individual sees something or nothing, that makes no difference to us. We are of the same opinion as Dr. Johnson: "There are no people, rude or learned, amongst whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion could become universal only by its truth."

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

THE Spiritual Telegraph has hitherto fulfilled the office of a record of some of the strangest marvels of which human nature or human experience are the subject. It has also in some measure discussed these marvellous things with opponents, and as a rule, made common cause with narrators. A page or two may now be profitably devoted to the exposition of principles, or rather to a consideration of the written Word, as the repository, perhaps, of divine wisdom digested into practical rules, by the observance of which the state of mind properly called "Spiritual," may really be attained.

The earnest conviction of the writer, that a standard of this kind is indispensable-a conviction that has ever gained in strength and depth, as he became better acquainted with the phenomena of spiritualism, and the doings of spiritualists—has induced him to forward some preliminary observations on the character of Luke's Gospel, which may, or may not, be followed by a particular elucidation of the history, as circumstances direct. At present, he only seeks to awaken the attention of spiritualists to the great fact, that their guide is the Word, and that no codex of principles will ever be compiled on another foundation. Not, indeed, a guide to the practice of incantations or other magical rites, but a treasury of that interior wisdom, the perversion and self-application of which becomes magical, and the right procedure of which is what it teaches, line by line, as it unfolds to human comprehension its marvellous order and beauty.

We turn to the Gospel of Luke for this order, especially, because we find that apostle writing under a deep sense of its importance. He remarks, in effect, that many distinct accounts

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and declarations existed concerning Jesus, acknowledged the Christ, but a connected and full history was yet wanting:(1.) "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a narration (or history) of those things which are (most surely) fulfilled in us. (2.) Even as delivered unto us by those who were eyewitnesses of the same, or by others who were the reporters of their accounts. (3.) It seemed good unto me also, having exactly traced all things from the very first, to write unto thee in (such) order, O excellent Theophilus, as that thou mayest know the absolute firmness of those words (or things) in which thou hast been instructed."

While affirming that Luke was moved by the Spirit of the Lord to set forth the narrative, as he says, "in order," we do not attribute want of order to the other Gospels, but so many different perceptions of order. The narrations alluded to by Luke were of the same character perhaps, as the ill-considered reports which Papias mentions, who says: "I will not hesitate to set down in writing to you whatever things I formerly well learnt from the Elders, and well remembered, maintaining the truth about them. For I did not take pleasure like most men in those who spoke the most, but in those who taught the truth; not in those who quoted the commands of others, but in those who delivered the commands given by our Lord in the faith, and springing out of the truth. But, if by chance any one came who had followed the Elders, I examined the words of the Elders; what said Andrew, or Peter, or Philip, or Thomas, or James, or what John, or Matthew, or any other of the Lord's disciples? As for instance, what Aristion, and the Elder John, our Lord's disciples say, "For I did not consider that what came out of books would benefit me so much as what came from the living and abiding voice."

On comparing these words with the above Preface to the Gospel of Luke, it will be seen that the same uncertainty in the multitude of narratives concerning the life of our Lord is alluded to. If it be supposed that his words, on the contrary, apply only to the other received Gospels, we must still understand that the order he perceived was complete and full as addressed to a certain state of the heart and mind, being that of the indwelling light as born in man after his purification. The greater fulness of Luke carries with it the absolute assurance that it contains the particular form of special doctrine that we seek. Even Papias, in another fragment, very curiously says, "Mark became the expounder of Peter, and wrote accurately whatever he delivered, not indeed in a regular order, such things as were either said or done by Christ. But afterwards, as I said, he followed Peter, who delivered his teachings as occasion served, but did not make a regular arrangement of our Lord's words;

so that Mark made no error, thus writing some things as he delivered them. For he took forethought of one thing, not to leave out anything of what he heard, or to make a mistake about anything therein." "Matthew, he adds, in the Hebrew dialect, wrote the oracles, and each person interpreted them as he was able." (Writings of the Early Christians, collected by the Rev. Dr. Giles).

Papias convinces us that each of the Apostolic writers faithfully recorded so much of the truth as he knew, either by hearsay or experience, and this is all that we require in the external history. That the record in each case was overruled and inspired with the divine wisdom itself is what we may reasonably believe, and what would certainly appear if a complete exposition could be given.

The key to the interpretation of Luke is contained in the name itself—it is the Gospel of Light. If the example of the Mosaic books were followed, its title might very justly be written not Luke, but Light, from the meaning of the name in Greek. It is the light given in man, the things fulfilled "in us," that Luke was inspired to describe "in order. This at least, is what we believe and wish to affirm. It is the study of the eternal light, in the order of its genesis and procedure, until man is made spiritual, that we submit to all who devoutly believe in the reality of spiritual intercourse, and in spiritual influences.

By the Light of the Word, we understand a substantial thing a power in the concrete-a something much more potent than the electric spark, as certain to grow in the regenerated nature and manifest the CHRIST, as the mere point of vitality in the ovum is to become a human being. John identifies the light with the creative and formative power, and then treats of it in its deepest sense as pure love, and as the very life of man. Luke, we have already observed, treated of it rather in the order of its procedure as the light of truth, or the eternal word; its everlasting procession, or its ceaseless flowing through soul and spirit, and body, being expressed in the historical figures of that Gospel.

The importance of this threefold distinction in the interpretation of the Gospel, may serve for the subject of a separate communication. One concluding remark, however, on the doctrine of representation-which at once vails over and reveals the existence of such an order in man's nature. If this doctrine be true, and its truth or falsehood must soon be manifest from the attempt to expound it, all the persons named in the history, all the events, must be regarded as celestial and spiritual expressions of an allegory having a divine meaning. Instead of many persons, one is meant-He in whom celestial light has its

birth. One speaking, and another speaking, going, doing, &c., are to be interpreted as figures of the soul's experience, that is to say, of the procedure of perceptions, thoughts, and affections, good or evil, in relation to the birth of light. The historical record of the miraculous conception and life of Christ is therefore a sublime mystery, teaching us that He who came in the flesh eighteen centuries ago, is really ever coming as the Saviour of men-ever clothing himself with humanity, and bearing its sins-ever creating, or perfecting in those who receive him, a truer manhood than their own. This doctrine, which appeals directly to religious experience, is thus recognized by one of the most heart-searching of the genuine poets who still walk the earth in brightness.

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O God, take care of me!

Pardon, and swathe me in an infinite love,
Pervading and inspiring me, thy child.
And let thy own design in me work on,
Unfolding the ideal man in me;

Which being greater far than I have grown,
I cannot comprehend. I am thine, not mine.
One day, completed unto thine intent,

I shall be able to discourse with thee;
For thy idea, gifted with a self,

Must be of one with the mind whence it sprung,
And fit to talk with thee about thy thoughts.
Lead me, O Father, holding by thy hand;
I ask not whither, for it must be on."

E. R.

Mr. J. R. M. Squire, one of the editors of The Banner of Light, published at New York and Boston, has recently come to London, and will be happy to find Subscribers for that paper amongst the English Spiritualists. He is furnished with letters of introduction from The Hon. R. D. Owen and from Judge Edmonds, the latter of whom speaks of him as having been one of the most wonderful physical mediums he has ever seen. The power has, however, we understand from Mr. Squire, almost ceased for some time. Mr. Squire has given us an account of some of the manifestations through him, one of the most remarkable being that he was frequently lifted to the ceiling of the room, in the presence of large circles of friends, and that he remained there long enough to write on the ceiling, and so often, that the ceiling of one room in which this most frequently occurred was blackened with the marks of his pencil! This would be a difficult fact to account for by "the reflex action of the mind," or even by Dr. Carpenter's theory of "unconscious cerebration. The same wonderful phenomenon has also occurred to Mr. D. D. Home, both here, and in France and other countries.

ELIZABETH FRY.

RARE readers of spirit have some Quaker preachers been. Many times in their meetings have they been enabled to make hidden things in the hearts of those present manifest, to speak comfort to silent misery, words of rebuke to secret thoughts of sin, and words which were strength to souls in which heaven with hell was struggling. Even more markedly has this been the case in private ministry than public, when the preacher goes from house to house, visiting families and individuals, and after a period of silent waiting on the Great Spirit, he ministers to the states of those before him, having with such awful sanction and help, entered into their heart with no end but to work in them the Divine will.

Many are the cases which rise to my mind of such searching and revealing, and one connected with a celebrated woman let me relate. Mrs. Elizabeth Fry was a Quaker Preacher, and in one of her religious visits among the families of her sect in a northern city, she closed her duties by inviting to her inn persons not in membership with the Society of Friends, but who attended their meetings; so that she might have with them "a religious opportunity.' Amongst these "outsiders," was a lady who went to meet Mrs. Fry, and together in her room they sat for a period in solemn silence. At last Mrs. Fry spoke. "My dear," she said, "I have felt much troubled whilst sitting with thee. I am afraid thy mind is not at peace with itself; that thou art trying to walk in two ways with thy Lord and the world, which can never be; that thou also art sometimes in vain company, and now art reading some profane book. Is it not so, my dear friend?" The lady struggled with surprise, and the sense of the awfulness of a presence that could thus pierce the secrets of her life. "Is it not so, my dear ?" repeated Mrs. Fry. "It is," answered her companion. "I am at present reading Paine's Age of Reason, and my mind is filled with doubts and torn with cares. ." "I knew it was so," returned Mrs. Fry. I pray thee, my dear, abandon such reading; if the book is thy own destroy it-if another's return it, and beg the lender to do so." With some earnest words of spiritual counsel and sympathy, which kept their savour for many days, this curious interview ended.

Quakerism could render up thousands of such stories occurring all down its history of two hundred years. They are witnesses to Spiritualism-to Spiritualism, without which this world has never been; and when Spiritualism has its history written these testimonies of Quakerism must not be forgotten.

W.