■1^ 
 
 7^. 
 
 ,5s^. 
 
y^^^/ 7. 
 
 /&^- 
 
arV16832'^°™" ""'""»«!' Library 
 A" Angel's message : 
 
 olin,anx 
 
 3 1924 031 447 851 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031447851 
 
AN 
 
 ANGEL'S MESSAGE. 
 
AN 
 
 ANGTEL'S MESSAOE. 
 
 BEING A SERIES 
 
 ANGELIC AND HOLY COMMUNICATIONS 
 
 RECEIVED BY A LADY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN WESLEY AND CO., 
 
 54 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 
 1858- 
 
Presiient vi/lute / 
 
 yf-Sr/f 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 MITCHELL AND SON, PalNTEBS, 
 
 WARUOUR-ST., OXFORD-ST. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This book is of a very new and unheard-of nature. 
 It comes before you as a revealment of long-Jost and 
 hidden things. It is not brought out in the ordinary 
 course of other works ; but it comes in an extraor- 
 dinary way, with very extraordinary pretensions : for 
 it is written with the pen of nature, but dictated by 
 the voice of a spirit. 
 
 The words have all been given to the writer in an 
 abnormal, state of the mind, — they are of decidedly 
 spiritual origin. They are her words only inasmuch 
 as they have clothed the spiritual ideas that were 
 poured into her passive mind. Yet she has heard 
 them as words in her spirit-ear ; for she. hears no out- 
 ward voice whatever. Her will has not been in any 
 
 b 2 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 way concerned in their production. She has endea- 
 vored to keep her mind in as passive a state as pos- 
 sible, and has never once commenced her mediatorial 
 writings without putting up an inward prayer to 
 Godj that He alone would guide and direct her mind, 
 in order that she might receive with perfect purity 
 the treasures of wisdom and the sentiments of love 
 which have been given to her in the way described. 
 
 She has, throughout, been aware of the probable 
 reception it will meet with from the public. She is 
 well assured that it may be much abused by an un- 
 believing world, — that her own motives, even, for 
 bringing it before that world, may be much misunder- 
 stood, — that all she has been directed to say will not 
 be received by the many. But she is ardent in her 
 love of truth, and in her desire to enlighten, benefit, 
 and console all who may need to be so cared for. 
 The love of God is deeply planted in her heart ; there- 
 fore she was a fitting instrument to carry out His 
 merciful designs of blessing His children in the world 
 of nature. 
 
 That God is not far from you. He is ever near to 
 bless and to strengthen those who need the strength 
 which He alone can give them. But you must come 
 unto Him before you can receive it. Therefore, let 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 me, who am not known to mortal eyes, endeavor to 
 persuade you to lay aside your worldly wisdom, and 
 your self-derived intelligence, and listen to the still 
 small voice of truth j for it is a very sacred thing 
 that is here to be revealed to your perceptions. It is, 
 as the Bible, true, but not, as the Bible, inspired, in 
 the way that holy volume is. Read your Bibles with 
 a feeling of holy awe and inward veneration for every 
 word, line, and verse ; it is as the voice of God that 
 then speaks to your spiritual existence. Read this 
 book as a record of truth that has descended to earth 
 from the power of that God, who directed His holy 
 prophets and apostles to write that which the mortal 
 eye hath not seen, nor the mortal ear heard. 
 
 It is to confirm your faith in the great Book of 
 Life that I am sent. I am an angel of heaven, but 
 I was once a mortal man on earth. I am well aware 
 that many who turn over the pages of this volume 
 will say, " This spirit does not teach true doctrine ; 
 he is not a believer in much that our church sets 
 forth as truth, and also some of his statements do 
 not seem to agree with the words of Scripture j there- 
 fore he cannot be a true or good spirit, but must be 
 a deceiver of the people, — why hear ye him 7" 
 
 Believe not anything that contradicts that holy 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 record of divine truth, — the Bible. If I contradict 
 one word, one precept, or one doctrine, that is taught 
 in that sacred book, set me aside ; for I shall indeed 
 be a false and deluding spirit. Try me, prove me ; 
 and stand by me only as I lead you to the Word of 
 God. Only as I open and explain its sacred page, 
 listen to what I say. Be ye sure, my friends, that I 
 desire you to " prove all things, and to hold fast that 
 which is good." 
 
 I am aware that you may perceive that there are 
 some passages which do not appear to cohere with the 
 natural wording of Scripture; but it is by the spi- 
 ritual sense in unison with the natural, that the 
 Sacred Scriptures are to be explained. If you will 
 patiently peruse these pages, you wiU then be in a 
 position to receive or reject, as it may appear good to 
 you, what is here laid down as the truth as it is in 
 Christ Jesus, our blessed Lord and Saviour from all 
 evil, as well as from error and delusion. 
 
 I do not desire to anticipate any portion of the his- 
 tory of my connexion with the natural writer, which 
 I have herein introduced. It is not remarkable ia a 
 natural degree, but it is very much so in the spiritual 
 affinity which is fully described in these pages. 
 
 Beloved of earth ! read, mark, and attentively con- 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 sider the statements made in this book. Do not 
 hastily conclude. Open your minds to God, — ^to your 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, and pray to Him that He will 
 shew you by His Divine Power, if this book is fair 
 to look upon in His sight, or whether it be only a 
 transcript of error and delusion, — a sign of the last 
 times, as some, alas ! may think. Yes, beloved, it is 
 indeed a sign of the last times of error and confusion 
 of tongues. The conflict of truth with error is fast 
 coming to a crisis, for the Babel is falling, — the tower 
 already trembles, and it will fall, and a new city will 
 be built up from its ruins. The voice of one crying 
 in the wilderness will say, "Behold the Lamb of 
 God." I say so; I wish to point to the Lamb of 
 God. I wish to draw aU hearts to Him, to the spot- 
 less Lamb of God, — to Him who walked your earth 
 as God in the flesh, — who veiled His Divinity for a 
 season that He might heal you of your divers diseases, 
 — who bore our sorrows and our infirmities, — who 
 will lead all as sheep into His fold, — who will deal 
 gently with those that are feeble, and will carry the 
 lambs in His bosom. 
 
 O my readers ! lift up your sotiIs to this God of 
 love, — of mercy unspeakable. He looks with an eye 
 of divine favor on all. He wiU " turn the ungodly 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 to the wisdom of the just." He desires not ven- 
 geance, but to Him belong the issues from death. 
 His living attribute is love j— it is a love passing the 
 love of women, — ^it is a love passing the comprehen- 
 sion of men ; — ^it is omnipotent, omnipresent, and it 
 is omniscient. 
 
 I have now said enough to induce you to turn over 
 the pages of this book. Do so with prayer, — do so 
 with all due regard to the exercise of your own judg- 
 ment; — for till that is convinced, you must, on no 
 account, give credence or assent to anything that is 
 here recorded. Do so also with a due regard to the 
 tender and delicate feelings of her who is the medium 
 for bringing my thoughts to earth. They are to be 
 considered as the thoughts, sentiments, and observa- 
 tions of one, who, by the love and mercy of God, is 
 now far removed from your world ; for he has been, 
 for some years, an inhabitant of heaven. He has 
 sorrowed and he has joyed on earth ; but the joy was 
 faint and fleeting, the sorrow was more abiding. 
 But of that I speak not here. The shadows of my 
 life on earth are developed in these pages. They 
 were not cast on my soul in vain; they have prepared 
 the eye of my spirit to behold the glories of the 
 spheres. They are mirrored in the waters of the 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 lake before you ; do not ruffle its calmness by casting 
 in mire, — do not sully its purity, but love to gaze on 
 it with tranquillity, and with a soul reJEreshed by its 
 hallowing influence. 
 
AN 
 
 ANGEL'S MESSAGE. 
 
 These pages are a record of Truth ; and it is the 
 very truth, neither more nor less, that shall here be 
 told. Yes ! lift up your soul to God, to whom you 
 owe so much, for saving you from error and false 
 feeling. I see you pray that as He is giving me the 
 power to do this, so He will give you the power to 
 work with me; that every word may he as He shall 
 direct. You desire to follow me truly : for when this 
 work is done, you will have great satisfaction, not 
 only in reading it yourself, but in knowing that all 
 who have been interested in the progress of these 
 communications are at last in possession of the whole 
 in a complete form. 
 
 In the commencement of your mediumship you 
 received very beautiful communications from the 
 spirit of your beloved mother. She wrote all that 
 
2 AN angel's message. 
 
 you received before I was knowu to you, and she 
 revealed me to you. Oh my own! you had no 
 thought of my being in any way connected with you, 
 because there had been no connexion in the world ; 
 and so you wept, and said, " Oh no ! it cannot be, 
 it can never be \" But I have now been permitted 
 to shew you that we are spiritually united. You 
 now know that what you thought so impossible, can 
 be by the power of God; for He has joined us 
 spiritually together. I have many things to tell you, 
 and many new states to open in you ; but all cannot 
 be revealed at once. You remember our Lord's 
 words, "I have many things to say unto you, but 
 you cannot bear them now." Oh! have great pa- 
 tience and faith, all ye who love the Lord, for there 
 are great things in store for ye all. 
 
 The Scripture has said, "When they shall rise 
 from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in 
 marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven." 
 How are the angels in heaven ? Are they men and 
 women, or not either ? Have they neither parts nor 
 passions ? Do they not love God ? Do they not love 
 mercy, truth, and goodness ? Do they not love all 
 that is holy and pure, sacred and heavenly, in its ori- 
 gin and degree ? Do they not pity the ignorant and 
 self-destroying sinner ? Therefore they have passions, 
 but holy passions. They love purity, and hate all 
 impurity. They do not hate the person, but they 
 
AN angel's message. 3 
 
 love and pity him, while they hate and abhor his 
 impurity. They are of like passions with God ; for 
 He loves aU. His rain descends on the just and on 
 the unjust. His sun shines on all alike ; but all do 
 not turn their faces to that sun of love and mercy : 
 all -will not walk in the strait and narrow way, but 
 will take the downward path that is broad but leadeth 
 to destruction. Now I wish to take you to the strait 
 and narrow way ; but put confidence in me only as it 
 appears ta you that I lead you to Christ — ^to Him 
 who has said that in heaven "they neither marry, 
 nor are given in marriage." 
 
 How are these sacred words to be understood — 
 according to the letter alone, or according to the 
 spirit within the letter ? Jesus said, " My words are 
 spirit, and they are life" — "the letter killeth, the 
 spirit maketh alive ;" that is, the letter, taken alone, 
 is dead, but when united with the spiritual sense, it 
 is vivified. Therefore let us now see what is the 
 spirit of the words, " For when they shall jji^e from 
 the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in mar- 
 riage, but are as the angels which are in heaven." 
 
 Is there no spiritual marriage, no union of the 
 souls that God has made male and female from the 
 beginning ? Are they ever made one flesh naturally ? 
 Must it not be spiritually that they are so? Are 
 not Christ's words "spirit and life?" Did He not 
 always answer according to the spirit? When the 
 
 b2 
 
4 AN angel's message. 
 
 Sadducees asked Him concerning the woman who 
 had had seven husbands, did they ask the question in 
 a spiritual or a natural sense? And how did the 
 Lord answer them ? Did He not adapt His answer 
 to their low conceptions of the married state ? For 
 in the world a woman may have seven husbands, and 
 yet not one of them may be spiritually united to 
 her. There may have been no union of soul with 
 any of the seven, or there may have been with one, 
 but with one only ; and she shall surely be his wife 
 in heaven, and none other. " They twain shall be 
 one flesh, and let no man put them asunder." 
 
 To my own, these truths have been familiar from 
 her childhood — they are her household gods — they 
 have fed and nourished her spirit from early years ; 
 but few see them in the light that she has been 
 brought up to view them in. 
 
 She is now reading a book she is much pleased 
 vrith, by an American author, being an account of 
 his communications with spirits and angels of a high 
 class,* and she is becoming much impressed with the 
 truth and beauty of that workj and although not 
 spiritually dictated, it is still designed to inculcate 
 the same grand and important truth which I desire 
 to impress upon the minds of all who read this book, 
 — ^that although the angels of heaven " neither marry, 
 nor are given in marriage," according to the flesh, 
 * Harris's Wisdom of Angels. 
 
AN ANGEL S MESSAGE. & 
 
 they do so according to the spirit — that spirit which 
 will live for ever eternal in the heavens. For if 
 marriage is a holy institution, it must be eternal; 
 for nothing can be holy that is not. But it is insti- 
 tuted by God Himself for eternal purposes, and is 
 indeed holy, pure, chaste, and everlasting. Let no 
 man say it is not. Let no man say it is for the 
 world of nature alone. It is for the world of nature 
 first, and for the world of spirit for ever. 
 
 Thus it is that I am permitted to come and com- 
 municate with one who will be mine in eternity. In 
 the world she knew me not as hers ; she saw me but 
 for a brief period of time, and then I thought not of 
 her, I valued her not ; I thought much more of her 
 parents ; I was not then open to the fascinations of 
 a young and pretty girl. She thought, of me very 
 dififerently to what I supposed ; for she saw ia me a 
 man very different to those she knew, or whom she 
 thought she should be thrown into society with. She 
 had her own private meditations. She loved to see 
 how I delighted to converse on holy themes. She 
 saw that I was older than her, and that the world 
 had no charms for me. It then had for her. She 
 loved the dance and the look of admiration she ex- 
 cited in those who gazed on her graceful form as she 
 flitted by in gay attire. She feared that all these 
 girlish tastes might become an abidiag love; and, 
 oh! she. would fain have given up all those worldly 
 
AN ANGEL'S MESSAGE. 
 
 thoughts, and have passed her life with me. She 
 thought I was young, and yet how spiritual, — I was 
 gay sometimes, yet how truly good and deeply inter- 
 ested in holy spiritual truth, — ^how I should take her 
 out of aU the folly, and aU the snares and fascination 
 of gay society which she felt she was rapidly going 
 into. So she did hope and think that perhaps I might 
 be the one whom Providence had selected to be hers. 
 
 Oh, how little did I dream of what was going on 
 within that young and innocent bosom, which did 
 not heave when I approached, nor did I notice any 
 conscious look when my eye met bar's. When I 
 walked with her and my sister, we did not dwell on 
 heavenly themes ; for though I knew that she loved 
 them, yet did I deem her too young to converse with 
 the depth of wisdom which I then required. 
 
 I soon left her presence, and thought no more of 
 her, for I had no reason to do so. I did not caxe for 
 her, she therefore thought, why should she think of 
 me? Other interests ensued, and other thoughts 
 succeeded those that had occupied her mind while I 
 was with her, and even for a time after I had 
 left her, for she still remembered me \vith interest, 
 and rejoiced at the correspondence which was opened 
 between me and her father. But I never alluded 
 to her with any such feeling, and little imagined 
 that she would care about my letters, for they were 
 generally on abstruse spiritual themes, such as 
 
AN ANGEL S MESSAGE. 7 
 
 were not likely to engage the attention of one so 
 young. 
 
 But it was far otherwise. She had heard, seen, 
 and felt, that which could never be eflfaced from her 
 memory. She went, as she had expected, into much 
 gay society : she danced, she laughed;, she adorned 
 her person, she sought to please, but it was a vain 
 show; for though she felt as she appeared at the time, 
 often did my form rise before her mental vision : and 
 when she thought thereon, she wept, for she said 
 within herself, " Oh, how different he is to all the 
 men I shall meet where I am going." So she did 
 not forget me as I forgot her. 
 
 While I was with her, she had loved to know that 
 I talked with her father on high and heavenly themes, 
 for I had learnt to love the sacred page of Holy 
 Writ, and I then delighted in conversing on spiritual 
 subjects. I had formerly passed through much that 
 was dark and drear. I had had my doubtings of 
 God's truth. I had read infidel authors, and had 
 thought their arguments could not be gainsayed. I 
 had built up a Babel which had to be pulled down. 
 Down it all came at last ; and oh, how great was the 
 confusion that ensued ! The mists of error and false 
 reasoning covered my soul. I took up the Bible, but 
 I could not understand its meaning. I cried out to 
 God, but the echo of my own voice alone came back 
 to me. Oh yes, beloved! I now see why it was I 
 
8 AN ANGEIi's MESSAGE. 
 
 then heaxd no answering voice. I called, but the 
 building I had myself built up sent forth its echo on 
 my soul's ear, or rather, the ruins of that Babel 
 which had fallen around me. Oh, how hollow was 
 its sound ! How dark the shadows cast by that 
 Babel of false reason. But at last the Lord opened 
 my eyes, and I saw " men as trees walking." I saw 
 holy truth at last; I heard its voice calling to me 
 and saying, " Come up hither, and I will shew thee 
 the holy city." 
 
 I loved no woman, for I had seen none that could 
 satisfy my soul. No, not even her who is now my 
 own : for my conjugial principle was not open when 
 I saw her on earth; it was kept closed till I came 
 here. I use the word conjugial to denote a more in- 
 terior affection than is expressed by conjugal, for that 
 term may be applied to all married partners, whereas 
 conjugial only applies to those who are spiritually 
 united. 
 
 I loved her father. I saw in him one deeply versed 
 in spiritual truth ; a man many years my senior, but 
 yet of gay and youthful manners, whose converaation 
 much delighted me. I saw that he had a wife that 
 was his counterpart in every spiritual attainment, 
 and yet whose deep woman's soul was fuU of every 
 sweet feminine grace. I loved to gaze into her deep 
 earnest eyes, and hear her reiterate all her husband 
 had said, only adding all the gracefulness, — oh! 
 
AN ANGEL S MESSAGE. « 
 
 such sweetness there was in her way of saying things 
 — of propounding holy truth in so simple a manner, 
 that it reached the heart as well as the brain. 
 
 I had some dear ones with me who were much 
 captivated by my new friend's charming wife, and 
 who also loved to listen to the words of truth that 
 feU from her pallid lips, for sickness had been busy 
 with her. A painful malady taught her, day by day, 
 that on earth there is no rest for the weary. She 
 looked on her children, and for them — oh no ! she 
 did not wish, but she hoped it might be in the good 
 providence of God, that she should yet be spared to 
 watch over their tender youth; though both were 
 past their childhood, she well knew the young and 
 lovely girl would long need a mother's eye. She 
 knew her son had to mix in the world, to which he 
 was then a stranger; and how well she performed 
 her duties, that daughter and that son can testify. 
 
 I shall here produce a poem which that Christian 
 mother wrote, when she whose hand now traces these 
 lines had attained her twelfth year ; for it will shew 
 how much her mother was to her. 
 
 " TO MY DAUGHTEE, 
 
 "ON HEE ATTAINIHa HEE TWELFTH YEAK. 
 
 " Spring, in her earliest robes of white and green, 
 With timid footsteps and with looks serene ; 
 
 b3 
 
10 10 AN angel's message. 
 
 The silvery wreath still glistening on her brows, 
 
 Dropping Its snowy blossoms as she goes, 
 
 Breathed on me sweet this mom, and sweetly smiled : 
 
 She told me of thy natal day, my child ! 
 
 That blissful day that gave thee to my sight. 
 
 Beloved object ! source of true delight ; 
 
 Dear to thy mother as her vital breath ; 
 
 One for whose sake a respite still from death 
 
 She prays, in fervent hope the boon to gain. 
 
 And long on earth thy guardian friend remain. 
 
 Though other dear ones would her loss deplore, 
 
 A shorter period might their peace restore ; 
 
 Thy father's reason, and thy brother's youth. 
 
 Would timely reconcile the mournful truth ; 
 
 But thy ripe feelings, ne'er by sorrow tried, 
 
 Could feebly stem affliction's powerful tide ; 
 
 Long would the tributary torrent sweU, 
 
 Ere firm religion could its force repel. 
 
 More than lost tenderness thy tears would claim ; 
 
 Exalted duties stamp a mother's name. 
 
 Not in the soothing voice, the fond embrace, 
 
 Or smiling features only, canst thou trace 
 
 The overflowings of maternal love, — 
 
 The prompt rebuke its influence will prove ; 
 
 The kind restraint will, as a golden chain, 
 
 Bind thee to virtue and her heav'nly train; 
 
 And when thy days of infancy are fled. 
 
 When full-blown roses deck thy virgin head ; 
 
 Wilt thou not then require a mother's care, 
 
 To teach thee how that blooming wreath to wear ? — 
 
 Not to expose it heedlessly to view. 
 
 Whilst yet bespangled with life's morning dew ; 
 
 Lest youthful vanity thy bosom move, 
 
 To deem each sportive sigh the breath of love. 
 
 The bud, whilst sheltered in its mossy cell. 
 
 In unexpanded beauty safe may dwell ; 
 
 But if when blown it rashly courts the gale. 
 
 In blushing sweetness, and a form so frail ; 
 
AN angel's message. 11 
 
 Tom p'rhaps too rudely from the parent stalk, 
 Its balmy honors strew the verdant walk ; 
 Or one by one they flutter in the wind, 
 Leaving a bare unlovely stem behind. 
 My child's fair wreath a happier lot shall know, 
 Exhaling virtues o'er her gentle brow ; 
 Till time an amaranthine crown bestows. 
 And wisdom's never-fading flow'ret blows. 
 ' But who, this enviable gift to gain, 
 WUl teach thy chUd, if thou should'st not remain. 
 My honor'd mother?' sweet Affection cries. 
 On thy loved father turn thy tearful eyes ! 
 In him an abler guardian shalt thou find, — 
 One in whom love and wisdom are conjoined. 
 
 Ere yet thy infant form my bosom prest. 
 The fond anticipation filled my breast ; 
 That to a daughter which I asked of heaven. 
 His temper with his virtues might be given. 
 Not for a beauteous form and lovely face, 
 My prayers were offered at the Throne of Grace ; 
 But for a casket of unblemished mould, 
 To guard a gem of pure celestial gold ; 
 That, like a polished alabaster shrine. 
 Deriving lustre from the lamp within. 
 The sacred flame of an angelic soul. 
 Enkindling, might irradiate the whole. 
 Hope gathered strength, when in thy early morn, 
 I saw its heavenly rays thy mind adorn ! 
 
 Haste then, my child ! thy peaceful couch to leave ; 
 Haste thee, thy parent's blessing to receive ! 
 They ask not for thee this world's transient wealth. 
 But heavenly gifts with innocence and health ; 
 A thirst for knowledge, and a taste refined. 
 With sweet contentment, — treasure of the mind; 
 A heart that glows with pure religion's fire, 
 In whose bright beams all earth-born thoughts expire. 
 And Oh ! may God thy Saviour e'er attend. 
 And guide thy footsteps to their destined end !" 
 
12 AN angel's message. 
 
 The desire to know anything of the previous life 
 of a spirit should never be expressed or even felt by 
 mortals; for they cannot tell whether it is allowed 
 for the spiritual being to return to a recollection of 
 his existence in the natural world, or not; and it 
 may be that to recall the scenes of his life in that 
 world would much distress him, and thereby inter- 
 fere with his progress in the world of spirit. But as 
 I have been brought to a recollection of all my states 
 of trial and temptation passed through when I was a 
 man on your earth, I have no such pain in the con- 
 templation of them; because it is a state in which 
 the Lord has placed me for a peculiar purpose of His 
 own. I have not been drawn into it from any desire 
 on the part of my wife and medium on earth, or by 
 any one else. I have not desired it from myself, but 
 it has been unexpectedly opened in me ; just as much 
 so as the mediatorial power to communicate with me 
 has been bestowed upon her, my earthly and spiritual 
 companion ; for she is both the one and the other. 
 I am delighted, refreshed, and strengthened by be- 
 holding what I was, and what I now am. I can now 
 see how it was that the good Shepherd of Israel led 
 me through the wilderness I have left ; for, beloved, 
 ye may well call it a wilderness. There is here and 
 there to be found a soHtary flower of hope or promise, 
 but "the wind passeth over it and it is gone." I 
 gathered some of these blooming, fresh-looking buds 
 
AN angel's message. 13 
 
 of promise, in my lonely wanderings on the shores of 
 earth ; but they one by one withered in my hand : so 
 I laid them all aside, and thought to gather no more, 
 for if I did, doubtless they also would wither away, 
 and the place thereof would know them no more. 
 
 I walked the shore of earth a solitary man ; a man 
 of ardent feelings, of strong passions, of a thoughtful 
 turn of mind, of a loving nature ; but I had few to 
 expend it upon. I loved my friends, but few of them 
 understood me. They thought me secret and con- 
 centrated within myself; but I was only thoughtful 
 and singular because I had aspirations that could not, 
 as I believed, ever be realized. I wrote the following 
 sonnet to give vent to my pent-up sorrow : — 
 
 " I sigh and sigh, oppressed with inward sense 
 Of wants ungratified, — of powers unused, — 
 Of holy truth with error all oonftised, — 
 
 Of weakness left almost without defence. 
 Conscious of aspirations strong and pure, 
 
 After the Good Supreme, — mine own offence 
 Unveiling hefore God, — I still endure 
 The misery that seeks in Tain a cure. 
 
 How long, God ! shall I thine aid implore, 
 To strengthen me against myself, and give 
 That power hy which alone my soul can live 
 
 And manifest Thy beauty more and more. 
 In all those boundless energies that moye 
 The souls of those who walk with Thee in love?" 
 
 I mourned in secret, but outwardly I was a gay 
 companion. I could laugh with a loaded heart, I 
 could essay to be. witty with a tear in my eye. It 
 
14 AN angel's message. 
 
 brings one and many into the eyes of her who loves 
 me, to hear that ; but she prays her God to keep back 
 her own feelings for me, that she may perform this 
 imexpected duty aright. She forgets that she has 
 done the same herself; — that she has smiled to cover 
 the tear that was just ready to gush forth ; she has 
 driven it back tiU her chamber door was closed, and 
 then came down the pent-up torrent. 
 
 So it was with her, and so it was with me. We 
 have both mourned in secret j and we have both ap- 
 peared to the world to be much happier than we 
 really were. 
 
 I see she questions how far this sort of dissimula- 
 tion may be considered allowable. No, beloved ! it 
 is not allowable, for it is wearing a mask ; yet if it 
 is practised to relieve others of the pain it would 
 occasion them to perceive that you, whom they love, 
 were unhappy and suffering, it is very pardonable; 
 but if it proceed, as it very often does, from pride, 
 from a dislike to be pitied, then it is not so pardon- 
 able. In my case it proceeded from pride, and from 
 an inward dislike to be considered a "melancholy 
 fellow," which is the epithet I should have won for 
 myself by not appearing as gay and thoughtless as 
 my daily companions were. Some of them may read 
 these lines, and they will hardly recognize their gay 
 college friend, who had his ready jest and his thought- 
 less mood of gaiety with them. 
 
AN angel's message. 15 
 
 She who writes these lines has had her secret 
 sorrows. They have oppressed her spirit when none 
 were by who cared to know them; and they have 
 also borne her company when she has been with 
 those who were very dear to her, and whose tender 
 feelings would have been much wounded to know 
 that she whom they so loved was suffering from an 
 inward depression of spirit. Therefore it was that 
 her face belied her heart, and she smiled, as I have 
 said before, to conceal the tear that was fast swelling 
 in her eye. 
 
 But you will say, Why was this ? what caused this 
 inward sorrow ? Ask her ; but she cannot tell. It 
 was ever a mystery to herself. It came and went, 
 she knew not why, for its cause was hid from her. 
 
 Oh ! she is saying, it is her soul's history. But it 
 is enough that half is here narrated as of sufficient 
 import to shew how a true woman will long for the 
 conjugial state, and a true man also. She is now 
 satisfied beyond what she could have hoped for on 
 earth. But there are very many who long, and yet 
 are not satisfied till they come here. But love your 
 trial, for it will bless ye when heaven dawns upon 
 your soul; it will gladden your lonely heart to see 
 an angel form approach with tender looks, to lead ye 
 to the bowers of holy conjugial love. 
 
 Be ye not afraid of any unhallowed feeling coming 
 in the way. She who is your's will not appear till ye 
 
16 AN angel's message. 
 
 are purified from the taint of earth. I knew not 
 mine till I became so. I approached her not till I 
 had been purged with hyssop, and washed whiter 
 than snow. I did not watch over her till I could 
 look upon her with a hallowed eye, — with a sacred 
 feeling of awe; for though she was not pure as an 
 angel, still she desired to be so. She prayed to be- 
 come so. She was careless of prayer ere the veil 
 was withdrawn ; but she knew that God loved her, 
 and she desired to love God. She wept, but she 
 prayed rarely. She did not feel that she could pray 
 earnestly enough, so she wept instead, 
 
 I saw her tears, but I did not speak to her soul ; 
 for her spirit-ear was as yet closed : it could not hear 
 my voice. It was not for me to open it ; but I saw 
 that it would be opened. I gazed on her prostrate 
 form as she lay and wept, and sighed out her soul's 
 heaviness. 
 
 But at last there came a change over her weary 
 spirit. It was reported that a certain young man 
 had arrived from a distant land, who was what is 
 called a medium, through whom departed spirits could 
 manifest their presence to mortals ; and that the most 
 extraordinary phenomena occurred : that tables were 
 movedj^ and that even mental questions were replied 
 to by rapping sounds proceeding from the board at 
 which a party of persons might be seated to hold 
 communion with their departed relatives. It was 
 
AN angel's message. 17 
 
 also stated that various portable things were con- 
 veyed from one person to another by invisible agency, 
 so that many sceptics were convinced of the truth 
 and reality of a future state of existence by these 
 extraordinary means j and that the young man had 
 very remarkable trances, in which he could see and 
 describe the appearance of departed spirits, so that 
 they were immediately to be recognized by their 
 friends still in the flesh. 
 
 Now all this excited a very deep interest in the 
 mind of her who was so often longing to be taken 
 out of her house of clay, and to be elevated into that 
 house which is incorruptible, eternal in the heavens. 
 So that when she herself heard and saw, she became 
 deeply impressed with the truth and reahty of these 
 things; and she derived much and lasting comfort 
 from the assurances that were, through the medium, 
 afforded her of the presence and watchful guardian- 
 ship of her angel mother, which was the truth. 
 
 She had a bracelet taken from her arm and given 
 to her father by an unseen power. She thought it 
 was that angel mother, for the artful medium said it 
 was, and that he saw it on her spirit arm ; but he 
 lied, for no particular spirit did it. Yet it may be 
 said to have been done by a spirit, for it was spirit 
 influence that effected it, but not any one identical 
 being. 
 
 But did it never occur to you, my own, that spirits 
 
18 
 
 are able to feign themselves angels of light, although 
 they may he devils from hell ? I see that you did so 
 question it in many ways; hut when you heard of so 
 much good being done by these things, you applied 
 the passage, " By their fruits ye shall know them ;" 
 and so you thought you had tried the spirits and 
 found them to be of God. 
 
 Now I will shew you that it was all permitted for 
 a season, to effect a very great good. Your mind 
 could not at that time have grasped aU that has since 
 been presented to it ; but I see that you are now well 
 prepared to receive the explanation which your hea- 
 venly Father desires may be conveyed to your mind. 
 
 It will very likely surprise you to hear that it was 
 a very great delusion ; for your dear mother did not 
 do what you thought she did, nor did any spirit out 
 of the flesh do it ; but the medium did it by a magi- 
 cal power which he possesses to a very great extent ; 
 for to feign the appearance of reality is the very life 
 of magic. 
 
 But when you sat in circle at the house of a much- 
 loved friend, without any professed medium being 
 present, you received communications of a similar 
 nature, though they were then confined to rapping 
 and table-moving. How then are you to account for 
 that ? You all received very striking answers to your 
 questions, and very remarkable proofs of the pre- 
 sence of your departed ones were given. Not only 
 
19 
 
 yourself, but also your cousins who were with yoUj 
 received the same evidence of spirit power to com- 
 municate with those they had loved on earth. 
 
 I shall now proceed to shew you that all this may 
 he done, and yet not one departed spirit have had 
 anything to do with it. 
 
 I wish you always to bear in mind that I am not 
 to have a machine to work upon, but one who has 
 her own independent judgment to consult ; and until 
 that judgment is convinced, I do not wish you, in 
 any case to assent to that which I may lay down as 
 the truth. I am an angel sent by the All-wise to 
 shew you and other mortals what is the truth ; but if 
 you cannot receive it, put it aside till the proper time 
 shall come, and then will you see clearly that I have 
 told you the very truth. I am not so likely to be 
 misunderstood by my own, because her affections go 
 with me. Her heart is at rest ; that is, she is now 
 feeling so happy and peaceful under the assurance 
 that the Almighty wiU protect her from aU evil, and 
 that he will also lead her into the paths of truth. 
 
 Oh, my beloved ! the time may be long ere all will 
 see and feel as you do; for you open your soul to 
 God. You pray that He will lead you, and protect 
 you from all error. You go to Him for your daily 
 bread, asking Him to give you all your feelings and 
 desires. 
 
 But I shall not be able to proceed if you are not 
 
20 AN angel's message. 
 
 prepared to expect that much I may have to say will 
 be contrary to your preconceived opinions ; for you 
 believe that aU the various manifestations you have 
 witnessed were the work of departed spirits. Not 
 so; some were, and some were not, but were pro- 
 duced by those still in the natural body. I will 
 therefore now proceed to shew you what part of 
 these mysterious things are produced by departed, 
 and what part by imdeparted, spirits. 
 
 Every human being is a spirit, whether in the 
 world or not ; therefore the spirit in the flesh may 
 produce sounds or raps on a table just as well as the 
 spirit out of the flesh. You remember that your 
 father once suggested this idea, and that a worthy 
 man then present was pleased with it ; but you did 
 not yourself give any heed to it, not deeming it to 
 be the true way of accounting for the raps you have 
 so often heard, both in circles and out of them : for 
 as you well knew that some of them could only be 
 produced by departed spirits, you did not see why 
 the whole should not be. Now I will, as I have said, 
 proceed to point out to you by what means you may 
 always know whether a spirit manifestation is pro- 
 duced by one in, or by one out of the flesh. 
 
 When you were sitting in circle at the house of 
 the friend referred to, you heard, for the first time, 
 with much surprise and pleasure, the much talked of 
 spirit-rap. You put your questions with some emo- 
 
AN angel's message. 21 
 
 tion, for you felt it was your dear departed mother 
 who was thus communicating with you. Your father, 
 and all who were with you, did the same, and very 
 wonderful were the replies that you received. Yet, 
 in all but one case, they were just what you ftilly ex- 
 pected they would be. That case seemed to indicate 
 to you that it was an independent power that pro- 
 duced the answer to your questions — sometimes by 
 raps, and sometimes by very decided movements of 
 the table at which you were aU seated. Now in the 
 case to which I have just referred, what evidence 
 have you that the answer, or the sentiment which 
 appeared to be expressed by the sudden and unex- 
 pected movement of the table, did not exist in the 
 mind of some, or perhaps of only one, of the persons 
 present ? You do, I see, think that it might possibly 
 have existed in the mind of the questioner, who was 
 the daughter of the spirit you supposed to be giving 
 the answer ; and you cannot tell what passed in her 
 mind at the moment of asking her question. Neither 
 can you teU what effect that latent idea, which was a 
 true one, may have had in obtaining the response, 
 and also causing the movement of the table towards 
 you ; for the remark immediately followed, " That is 
 because you have always taken such an interest in 
 him." 
 
 But I will not have you any longer suppose that it 
 was any feeling of recognition on the part of his 
 
22 
 
 departed mother, that caused the table, on that well- 
 remembered evening, to move towards you. It was 
 simply produced by the thought which followed the 
 
 question, " Do you watch over T , dear mamma ?" 
 
 The answer was given in the affirmative, and the table 
 then approached you. But be not so sure that any 
 departed one was concerned in its movements ; for, 
 except ia the case just related, the whole was occa- 
 sioned by the force of the concentrated wills of those 
 present. That spirit mother was indeed present, but 
 she did not produce the answer : it came as a natural 
 effect of the thought, or, perhaps, of the knowledge 
 only, in the mind of the daughter who put the ques- 
 tion. So the mother saw the truthful answer. But 
 had the daughter asked, "Is the spirit of such or 
 such a one present?" believing that they were so, 
 when truly they were not, then would that spirit 
 mother have produced the number of sounds requisite 
 to indicate a negative answer to the question which, 
 it was supposed, would be replied to in the affirmative. 
 On that notable occasion, all the spirits thought of 
 with so much affection, were present, and many others 
 also. 
 
 I will now explain, as far as I have the power given 
 me, how these " raps," as they are called, are pro- 
 duced. I have just caused a clear sound or rap to be 
 heard by my medium, on the table at which she is 
 now writing ; and she feels pleased to think that I 
 
23 
 
 am so neax as to be able to produce that sound. Now 
 I am not in a state to do it myselfj for I do not 
 occupy that particular sphere in which those spirits 
 reside who have that power. I therefore desire one 
 of them to make such a sound on the table, because 
 I wish her to hear it, in order that I may be able to 
 write, through her, an explanation of the way in 
 which these mysterious sounds are produced by us 
 spirits. 
 
 All angels have, on particular occasions, and for 
 particular purposes, the power to control the action 
 of spirits who are in an inferior degree of spirit life. 
 They do not do so of their own will, but of the 
 Lord's will in them. The presence of a spirit who 
 can produce a rap, is co-existent with the necessity 
 that it should be done. Now in spirit language, all 
 this is communicated in an instant of time, as you 
 say in your natural language ; that is, I look at him, 
 and he sees in my face all I wish him to do. He 
 produces a certain effect on her brain: the conse- 
 quence of that proceeding is, that the effluvia of her 
 natural body is concentrated, and, by a law of matter 
 and spirit combined, it is propelled on to the table ; 
 and, on coming in contact with that material object, 
 a slight explosion takes place, which reaches her 
 natural organ of hearing as a rap or sound ; then I 
 remove the presence of that spirit from her, and 
 continue my process of dictation into her mind. 
 
24 
 
 So now I have told you how the raps are made 
 to convey spiritual discourse to your natural mind. 
 There are very many who may prefer to believe that 
 a spirit can do it by knocking on the table with 
 his hand, in the same way as he would when in 
 the world j but if you wish to know the truth, I have 
 just given it you : if you cannot receive this explana- 
 tion, then believe as you feel most inclined ; for it 
 will not hurt any one to believe that the appearance 
 is truer than the reality. There are some who like 
 to investigate the nature and causes of things, and 
 others who only care about the outward eflfects : both 
 these classes of persons must take that which best 
 suits their natm-al disposition and calibre of intellect. 
 
 I will here repeat, that on the occasion last referred 
 to, no professed medium was present : my own had 
 not then become one. I shall not say who was the 
 medium, for all were partially such. 
 
 I have stated that the young man previously men- 
 tioned as a reputed medium, was gifted vrith the 
 power of magic to a very great extent, and that he 
 thus produced all those marvellous effects which have 
 BO much astonished and perplexed those who wit- 
 nessed them. The power of locomotion seemed to 
 be given to many inanimate objects, such as tables 
 and chairs : watches were conveyed from one person 
 to another, and musical instruments were played on, 
 without any visible agency. The case I have alluded 
 
AN angel's message. 25 
 
 to as occurring to my own and her father was of the 
 same description, hut it was not of the same extra- 
 ordinary character as many other feats performed in 
 the presence of a numerous company, who nightly 
 assembled to sit at the table with this gifted young 
 person, a professed medium for producing the pre- 
 sence of departed spirits, to convince their mortal 
 friends and relatives that they truly were living 
 beings in a spiritual world. Alas ! that such things 
 should be needed to confirm such a truth ! 
 
 But the departed spirits who were supposed to be 
 present, were not so in reality j for they could not 
 approach one gifted with the evU. power of magic. 
 Their presence was simulated by the deceitful ones 
 who are ever in communion with their like in the 
 flesh; for the young man of whom we are speaking 
 is a powerful medium for evil spirits to manifest 
 themselves through. Magic is a power not much 
 known at the present day. Formerly it was carried 
 on to a very great extent. It is an unseen power 
 proceeding from the will of an evil spirit, not from 
 the will of God; it is an inversion of the laws of 
 order according to which He has created the uni- 
 verse. 
 
 The young man had what were sijpposed to be 
 trances, but which in reality were only certain states 
 of clairvoyance into which he could put himself, for 
 the purpose of looking into the minds of those prcr 
 
26 AN angel's message. 
 
 sent. In this state he could simulate the identical 
 voice and manner of a departed one, so that his friend 
 in the flesh could not reasonably entertain a doubt of 
 his spirit being wholly present. It has been said 
 that this person informed those present that deceased 
 relatives with whom they believed themselves to be 
 in no way associated, were with them, knew them, and 
 watched over them ; and that in some cases he even 
 revealed the presence of relatives who had left the 
 world without their ever having had any knowledge 
 of their existence. In these cases, the departed one 
 was in connexion with the party to whom the com- 
 munication was made, and therefore he could, in a 
 clairvoyant state, easily discover that fact. 
 
 I have elsewhere explained the way in which raps 
 are produced. Tables are made to move, in answer to 
 the questions of those seated at them, by the same 
 spiritual power, but by spirits in a different sphere ; 
 that is, a spirit may be able to answer you by pro- 
 ducing raps on the table; but he may not be able 
 to move one, or the contrary may be the case. But, 
 as I have shewn with regard to the rap, so is it with 
 the spirit who moves the table : he does not lift it 
 with his hands as he would have done when in the 
 natural body, but he produces an effect on the organi- 
 zation of the medium present, in order to attain the 
 object he has in view, namely, to convey to your 
 mind an answer to your question through the move- 
 
AN angel's message. 27 
 
 ment of the table at which you are sitting. For, to 
 have a table movedj it is absolutely necessary that 
 there should be a medium present who is open to 
 influences from the class of spirits who have the 
 power to produce that particular effect ; or if a rap 
 is to be heard, there must be a rapping medium pre- 
 sent. Now my own is thinking that she is not a 
 rapping medium, and yet she has frequently heard 
 these raps when she has been quite alone; indeed, 
 they have occurred to her much more frequently in 
 that case than when in the presence of others. This 
 will shew you that all mediums may receive mani- 
 festations of a lower character than that which is the 
 distinctive nature of their mediumship; but they 
 cannot receive those of a higher spiritual develop- 
 ment until a certain process has been gone through 
 within their spiritual and even natural organization. 
 
 There is a great distinction to be observed between 
 the movement of tables and other things produced 
 by magical art, and the true spiritual phenomena of 
 receiving answers to questions, and holding conversa- 
 tional intercourse with departed relatives and friends 
 by the means of orderly spiritual manifestations. 
 The one is truly heavenly, and therefore perfectly 
 allowable; but the other is diabolical and profane. 
 The difference is this, — a person desires to affect his 
 friend, who does not believe in the contiguity of 
 spiritual beings ; so he invites him to sit at a table, 
 
 c2 
 
28 AN angel's message. 
 
 for the purpose of receiving rapping or table-moving 
 communications from the departed ones. This is a 
 holy purpose, and should always be entered upon with 
 prayer — either audible or otherwise — and with a mind 
 elevated by a true desire to benefit and enlighten the 
 unbeliever present. Then will the spirits who are 
 called upon to communicate, be of a pure and truth- 
 ful character : none other will desire to approach that 
 hallowed sphere of love to a blind and suffering bro- 
 ther. But if, on the contrary, a medium sit down at 
 a table to seek for open intercourse with the departed, 
 for the secret end of advancing his own reputation 
 or advantage in any way, then will he undoubtedly 
 attract the presence of evil spirits, or genii, as the 
 most diabolical of the inhabitants of heU are called ; 
 and he will, at the expense of his own spiritual Ufe, 
 promote his desired object: for the table, or any- 
 thing else, may be moved, lifted off the floor, dashed 
 to pieces it may be, not by the will of God, but by 
 the infernal host which his own evil lust has called 
 up from the caverns of hell. 
 
 Oh! how I see my medium wonder at all this; 
 for it is quite new to her, though she thinks it may 
 not be so to all. But she loves truth, and will readily 
 acknowledge herself to have been under a false im- 
 pression, as she has been. I shall therefore now 
 pursue my own course of reasoning quite independent 
 of her mind, for I see she wiU only write down just 
 
AN angel's message. 39 
 
 whatever words or expressions I may find it necessary 
 to dictate. 
 
 I shall now proceed to explain the phenomenon of 
 trance, which is very frequently experienced by those 
 who hold open intercourse with departed spirits. It 
 is a state in which the outward or bodily senses are 
 laid asleep, but those of the mind are fuUy awake. 
 A trance medium should be very careful, when ex- 
 pecting to be entranced, to put up an inward prayer 
 to his Divine Protector — not trusting to any spirit or 
 even angel — that he may be preserved from all harm, 
 or the possibility of anything evil, false, or delusive, 
 approaching him. Then wiU his spirit indeed be safe 
 in the hands of its Maker, and he or she may sink 
 to rest as calmly as the infant on its mother's breast ; 
 for it is as a mother watches over the slinnbers of her 
 tender babe, that the Almighty One wiU watch over 
 the spiritual sleep of the medium, in order that the 
 faculties of the spirit may be employed by the an- 
 gelic beings closely gathered round, to bring into open 
 intercourse with themselves the company of earthly 
 ones who are waiting to catch the music of the 
 spheres, which will then pour forth in human lan- 
 guage from his unconscious lips. But if, whUe he is 
 engaged in this holy act of prayer, he becomes sensi- 
 ble of an inward oppression of mind, or, it may be, 
 of an outward bodily oppression or pain, or he does 
 not feel so calm or composed as he could wish to be. 
 
30 
 
 AN ANGEL S MESSAGE. 
 
 let him, in such case, on no account, submit himself 
 to be taken up into the spiritual element of life, for 
 it is not pure. His sensitive nature is affected by an 
 uncongenial sphere from among the company present ; 
 and though he may not perceive who, or how many, 
 among them are not pure enough to admit of the 
 intercourse which will be opened through him, if he 
 become entranced; still he may be very sure that 
 " there is death in the pot," and that there is much 
 need of the leaven of inward righteousness to be 
 cast in. 
 
 If the trance medium would give himself up to the 
 entire guidance of God, then would he be saved from 
 very many of the trials and mortifications that often 
 beset his path. But to shew you exactly how he 
 should carry out this end, I wiU suppose a young 
 person of either sex, to be entranced in the company 
 of one or more persons who are of a sceptical turn of 
 mind ; that is, they think it more than probable that 
 the medium is going to deceive them by giving utter- 
 ance to an address from his own conscious power of 
 mind, under the pretence that he is all the while per- 
 fectly unconscious. One person present may be in 
 that false persuasion, and another may fully believe in 
 the genuineness of the trance or unconscious state of 
 the medium ; but his impression may be that the whole 
 is a disorderly proceeding, and that none but false 
 and delusive spirits wiU speak through the medium. 
 
31 
 
 A very good man may hold either of these opinions, 
 not being aware that they are false. The medium is 
 thus placed in a very opposing sphere ; but if he has 
 prayed to the Lord who seeth in secret, he will be 
 preserved from all harm, and the words which he 
 may give utterance to, may be so directed as to meet 
 the difficulties, or answer the doubts and objections 
 of both the sceptical parties present, and much good 
 may thereby be effected; for my own has known 
 cases in which unmistakable evidence has been given 
 of the trance state being not only perfectly genuine, 
 but of a very heavenly and exalted character. 
 
 Be ye then careful, my young friends, who are 
 trance mediums. Look up to God your Saviour. 
 Do not suppose that the company of angels and good 
 spirits you think you wiU enter, when your bodily 
 senses are laid asleep in trance, will be sufficient to 
 protect you from the wiles of the evil and false ones, 
 who are ever watching you -with serpents' eyes, ready 
 to devour up the green herb and the tender bud of 
 your soul's garden. Be never afraid of allowing your- 
 selves to be entranced, but do so in the way I have 
 described. It will then be a holy and blessed privi^ 
 lege, which ye may not shrink from without refusing 
 the means God has placed in your way to draw many 
 an erring one into His fold. Ye may also greatly com- 
 fort and sustain many sinking hearts, by pointing out 
 the way to obtain that consolation and hope which 
 
32 AN angel's message. 
 
 they require. Be prayerful, calm, and temperate in 
 all things ; never desire to be entranced of your own 
 will, but only because it appears to you to be the will 
 of God; and always attend closely to the observa- 
 tions I have been permitted to make for the benefit 
 and enlightenment of all those who either are, or 
 may become, trance mediums. 
 
 The appearance of spirit hands and arms is so very 
 remarkable that it is with difficulty believed to be 
 possible. But as they have been made visible to 
 many persons, those who have witnessed the other 
 branches of spirit phenomena have no doubt of the 
 reality of this phase also. 
 
 When a spirit has long since departed your earth, 
 if he is in a good and progressing state, it is not pos- 
 sible for him to assume that outward appearance. 
 But as he wiU always retain a great degree of love 
 and regard for those he has left behind, he is anxious 
 to make that affection appear even to the outward 
 senses of his relatives and friends on earth. 
 
 All angels can command the attendance of spirits 
 who are of a lower degree; and therefore, if per- 
 mitted by the Lord, one of them can be commissioned 
 to take of the effluvia from the person of the medium, 
 or from the various members of the circle present, 
 and by condensing it, can form a temporary covering 
 for his spirit-hand, which shall be quite solid and 
 tangible, so that it can be grasped by you, and can 
 
AN angel's message. 33 
 
 convey external objects from one part of the room to 
 another. These hands can take hold of anything 
 just as well as you can ; hut if you retain them long 
 in your hand, they will melt or dissolve away. They 
 can be seen by all present. It does not require any 
 spiritual preparation to see them, for they are quite 
 material during the time of their existence. My 
 own has beheld such a hand, and has seen it remove 
 a wreath of natural flowers from the head of one of 
 the party present, bear it round the table, and after- 
 wards let it fall on the board, as it were from a height 
 above it. 
 
 My friends, it is not to excite curiosity or wonder 
 that all these things have come to pass. It is not 
 even for the purpose of gratifying your natural affec- 
 tions, that they are ordered of your heavenly Father ; 
 but to benefit, to bless, to enlighten your spiritual 
 minds, and to lead you to Himself. Many and many 
 a darkened mind has been brought to a knowledge of 
 sacred truth through the spirit-rap, and many a silent 
 tear has been stayed in its course, many an unbeliever 
 has been brought to a certain knowledge of a future 
 life, and a revelation to cling to. 
 
 O ye atheists, infidels, or whatever ye like to be 
 called, search into the depths of your own hearts, 
 and see if what ye think and persuade yourselves to 
 be the truth, yields ye a full measure of happiness or 
 not ! If it satisfy your natural cravings, rest in it ; 
 
 c3 
 
34 AN angel's message. 
 
 it is your solitary portion : but if ye be not satisfied, 
 let it fall, scatter it to the winds, and again look into 
 your soul's well, and I will promise ye a measure full 
 and running over with the good things of heaven, 
 which ye may taste of even ere ye enter its sacred 
 portals ; for it is the gate of life ye will enter, ere ye 
 approach unto the gate of paradise, 
 
 I will now resume my discourse on the nature of 
 these seeming trivial, yet very important, phenomena, 
 which it has perplexed so many to account for. 
 
 A party of persons sit down to a table for the pur- 
 pose of witnessing spirit manifestations. They wish 
 the table to be moved in a particular way ; a spirit 
 present also wishes it to be moved in a certain direc- 
 tion. In both cases it is the will of a spirit that 
 causes the motion which immediately ensues; for 
 those in the flesh are spirits as well as those out of 
 the flesh. 
 
 If a person at the board desire a spirit to state by 
 so many raps, how many years it is since Jie left the 
 world (knowing that it is, — say, three years), the 
 table emits three distinct sounds. But suppose the 
 questioner does not know how long a period of time 
 has passed since the spirit purporting to be present 
 has left the world for eternity, then wiU he enquire 
 into the truth or falsity of the statement conveyed to 
 his mind by the number of raps proceeding from the 
 table, and if he find it to be correct, — that it truly 
 
AN angel's message. 35 
 
 is three years since that person departed the present 
 life, — then will he have reason to believe that it was 
 his identical spirit who thus told him so. But if 
 there were any person present at the table who knew 
 that it was three years since death seized the natural 
 body of the spirit communicating, he then cannot be 
 so certain that the sounds were produced by the de- 
 parted spirit ; for it may be that they were produced 
 by the will, or even by the involuntary thought, of 
 that person. It is always preferable to communicate 
 mentally, for then identity is much more readily 
 proved, the question being perceived by the spirit 
 alone. But then he should put such questions as are 
 likely to be answered only by the spirit he is com- 
 municating with : if a parent with his departed child, 
 he may say, " How is it with you, my child ; are you 
 in a happy state, or are you only preparing to enter 
 heaven?" Then the child-spirit must give an ex- 
 planatory answer, which will most probably identify 
 him to the mind of his earthly parent. A husband 
 may be thus communicating with his departed wife, 
 and he says mentally, "O my wife, I am grieved 
 that you have left me to walk the path of life alone." 
 The spirit- wife replies, " I have not left you ; I watch 
 
 over you, dear ; I am ever with you, though 
 
 you see me not ; I can see your spirit, and we shall 
 be again united here." 
 
 Remarks of this nature may be made, and replies 
 
36 
 
 obtained, that will tend greatly to comfort and con- 
 sole the bereaved of earth ; and the replies given by 
 the departed may be so distinctive and characteristic 
 as to exclude the possibility of doubt in the mind of 
 the earthly communicant. These replies will always 
 be given through the alphabet of your language, that 
 is, a person present repeats it (or the questioner may 
 do so mentally), and the raps will occur at the men- 
 tion of the letters which go to spell the words required. 
 If the manifestation is by table-moving, the right 
 letters wiU be indicated in that way : or if there is a 
 writing medium present, it may be that the spirit 
 can move his hand to write the required answers, — 
 which, if the remarks or questions are given mentally, 
 is a very satisfactory mode of holding communication. 
 No one can produce the sounds or knocks heard on 
 a table, unless he is in a state to be open to spirit in- 
 tercourse ; neither can any one cause a table to move, 
 unless he is in a state to admit the presence of those 
 spirits, who can, by an effort of their wUl, produce 
 that particular phase of spirit manifestation. Now I 
 am not a spirit that can either rap or move a table, 
 or anything else, but I can write through a medium, 
 who is so constituted that her mind can receive me 
 into it. You will, therefore, perceive that there is a 
 spiritual power required to produce the raps and 
 movements, which nevertheless come through the 
 brain of the medium. But it is thought that the 
 
AN angel's message. 37 
 
 whole proceeds from the departed ones; this is the 
 error, — the departed must act in unison with the un- 
 departed. 
 
 A departed heing sees that his earthly relative is 
 about to open a communication with him; so he 
 prays the Lord to be permitted so to act upon him as 
 to be able to give truthful replies to his questions ; or 
 to make such remarks, or deliver such messages, as 
 shall conduce to his spiritual benefit. If permission 
 be granted, the spirit places himself en rapport with 
 the spirit in the flesh, and if he asks such questions 
 only as he well knows how to answer himself, a truth- 
 ful answer will be the inevitable consequence, if the 
 questioner is in an orderly state of mind, not other- 
 wise. But if he asks for information on a subject of 
 which he is ignorant, then the spirit acts on his 
 brain, or if he is not a medium, on the brain of one 
 that is, and produces the number of sounds or move- 
 ments required to indicate a truthful reply. 
 
 It is the same if an independent message has to 
 be conveyed, such as, " I am a spirit who lived so 
 many years ago in your world, and I wish to say that 
 I am very happy. My name was so and so, and I 
 can be heard of at such and such a place." 
 
 I have said that I have a recollection of the states 
 passed through during the period of my earthly pil- 
 grimage, for it has pleased the Lord to open that par- 
 ticular state in me. It is not a usual one with spirits 
 
38 AN angel's message, 
 
 and angels; for immediately after the departure of 
 the spirit from the body, the natural memory is 
 closed, and is not again opened tiU it is seen by the 
 Lord to be a state necessary to enable them to carry 
 out some merciful design of His providence. 
 
 Now in the case before us, the spirit remembers 
 that he once lived a mortal man on your earth, and 
 that he had some dear one living in a certain portion 
 of it, to whom he desires to communicate the mes- 
 sage he has delivered to a medium, who, it may be, 
 is a stranger to him, and he sees that thus all is 
 regulated by the Divine Providence ; for his earthly 
 friend will be much more seriously impressed by re- 
 ceiving it from a stranger, than if it came from one 
 known to the spirit when in the body. 
 
 The Lord is good and kind, therefore the simple 
 desire of a poor spirit to inform his earthly friends 
 that he is happy, is attended to by Him. O ye who 
 think it beneath your dignity to watch for the spirit- 
 rap ! He who made ye is not so high but that His 
 Almighty ear is ever open to the simple request, the 
 tender longings, the little weaknesses of His children, 
 as well on earth as in the various spirit-spheres. The 
 infant's wail is not imknown to Him. He sees its 
 tender frame, for He has made it, and nourished it in 
 its mother's womb. He has seen its progress, and 
 His eye has noted its natural longings, which He 
 Himself has given it. Did He not give man a heart 
 
AN angel's message. 39 
 
 to love his fellow-man ? And has He been unmind- 
 ful of the means to satisfy that longing, — that crav- 
 ing for sympathy which exists in every human breast ? 
 Is it then beneath the dignity and the awful attri- 
 butes of Deity to give those means by which the poor 
 simple one — the little one in spirit — may have that 
 longing gratified? Does not power belong to God 
 alone ? Then is it not the greatness and the nobility 
 of power that it provide for the weak as well as for 
 the strong? Therefore it is that the poor in spirit 
 are provided for. The rich may not require the 
 crumbsj but the poor do ; therefore give to the poor, 
 if ye would have treasure in heaven. Be not there- 
 fore ashamed to sit at the poor man's table, but 
 rather deem it an honor and a privilege ; for " more 
 blessed is he that giveth than he that receiveth," — 
 that is, if ye receive of his little things in a true and 
 humble spirit, then will it bless ye more than aU that 
 is given and received with a proud and haughty look, 
 for in the first case it blesseth both the giver and the 
 receiver, but in the latter, not either. Therefore 
 despise not the humble spirit-rap, for it is of mighty 
 import. It makes the hidden things of heaven to 
 become known to mortal ears. It is as the lightning 
 and the thunder clap; it reverberates far and wide. 
 Its lightning flash is seen, and its thunder peal goes 
 through your atmosphere, and men say, "What is 
 that?" It resounds through the thick and humid 
 
40 AN angel's message. 
 
 air j it lets fall heavy showers j it passes, and the air 
 is cleared. Tender flowers are almost crushed by its 
 violence ; but then they look up, and put forth greater 
 sweetness than before. So is it with the storm and 
 the thunder, and the rain of spirit influence coming 
 into your world. As a thunder-storm so is it unex- 
 pected ; it falls not on all, it is only where it is most 
 required j there it comes down in full force, and it 
 clears your mental atmosphere. It resounds fax and 
 wide, and those who are in its immediate neighbour- 
 hood hear the report of it and say, " What is that ? 
 Is it possible that spirits can come and communicate 
 with their friends on earth ? No, it cannot be ! what 
 idle tale is this ?" But some say, " Nay, but let us 
 see if it be so or not :" and these are the wise ones, 
 for they know that great wonders have taken place of 
 old, and how shall they say that they may not now 
 be taking place ? So they endeavour to witness 
 manifestations, or if they have not the opportunity 
 of doing so, they seek for credible witnesses who 
 have seen and heard ; or they read with avidity all 
 that has been written on this subject, and if they 
 find it to be worthy of credit, they are assured that 
 a great marvel has taken place, and they begin to 
 reason and reflect on the probable consequences of 
 such a great fact being in existence. 
 
 But you say, " How is it possible to suppose that 
 the Lord would permit His saints and holy angels to 
 
AN ANGElt's MESSAGE. 41 
 
 come down to the level of our sphere to rap on tables, 
 or to communicate with us at all, unless the mind he 
 in a very elevated state for the reception of angelic 
 intercourse. If it is so to be, why do they not 
 appear to us at once, or speak to us with an audible 
 voice? even that would be too low for glorified spirits 
 to condescend to do." Yes, beloved, so it would, if 
 it were not the Divine will that they should do so ; 
 and how is it then? Are the spirits of just men 
 made perfect too high to do their Master's bidding ? 
 Did not the angel of the Lord' come to Manoah, and 
 announce the birth of Samson ? Did he not touch 
 the offering of Gideon, and cause fire to come from 
 the rock? Did he think it beneath his dignity to 
 make use of human means to cause a flame of natural 
 fire to spring forth? Why did he not say the word, 
 or why did he do anything but will that the flame 
 should issue forth ? Even because he had to accom- 
 modate his action to the low natural capacity of the 
 mortal before him, for whose spiritual elevation he 
 had descended to earth, a messenger from his divine 
 Master above. 
 
 Beloved, ye judge after the flesh, and not accord- 
 ing to the spirit within. The flesh is weak and must 
 be fed with milk; but when ye become spiritual, the 
 Lord will feed you with strong meat fit for spiritual 
 men. Therefore despise not the milk, for ye are 
 babes now. But some of you may not need it, even 
 
42 AN angel's message, 
 
 nowj so let it be for those who do. If ye could bear 
 to see an angel face to face, how many are there who 
 could not ! Bless ye the Lord that He has provided 
 for the weak as weU as for the strong. Bless and 
 thank Him for the babe's milk, as well as for the 
 strong man's meat. Ye were babes in spirit once, 
 and if He had not nourished you then with the babe's 
 food, how should ye now be able to receive the strong 
 man's meat? 
 
 Be ye not therefore slow of heart to believe. The 
 worldly-wise will smile on you with a look of pity for 
 your credulity, if you say you are a believer in spi- 
 ritualism, as in your world spirit-intercourse is called. 
 Just so would the proud Pharisee of old, if you had 
 said that you believed that Jesus was the Christ. 
 But how would you have felt? Would you have 
 given up that beUef because of his contemptuous 
 sneer? "O no," you will say, "but Christ's words 
 were spirit and life." What does that mean, " spirit 
 and life ?" Is it that they bore a sacred impress on 
 them? "The divinity was apparent through them, 
 but with regard to modem spirit manifestations we 
 see nothing of the kind," No, but ye do not look 
 for it. Ye may have read some indifferent specimens 
 of spirit-writing, or some wild dissertation on the 
 subject, and so thought the whole very much beneath 
 the notice of sensible minds. 
 
 But have you ever thought that there are spirits of 
 
43 
 
 every grade and class ? so that if ye are in a disorderly 
 state of mindj ye will call down disorderly associate 
 spirits J and if ye desire to write by spirit-influence, 
 then will some one of these come and write his own 
 fancies through your pen, in a low disorderly manner. 
 The disorder does not emanate from God, but from 
 yourselves ; for if the mind is in a state to admit any 
 chimerical notion that may be presented to it, it is 
 readily perceived by those spirits who are of a like 
 genius, and the result follows as a natural consequence. 
 But if ye will put aside all low selfish longings to 
 work in your own way, and will put up your daily 
 prayer to God for strength and knowledge from Him 
 alone, quite independent of any spirit or angel, how- 
 ever high, and wUl ask Him only to shew you what 
 it is your duty to doj and to desire ; then will ye be 
 quite safe from the intrusion of spirits, who are ever 
 on the alert to seize the reins of government. 
 
 " He maketh His angels ministers," and it is as 
 His ministers alone that we come. Do not worship 
 us ; we are your brethren ; worship God. He is our 
 Father and your Father; worship Him all ye His 
 hosts, both small and great, rich and poor together. 
 I have come as His messenger, to shew you, by His 
 divine power, that there is a true and a false spi- 
 ritualism. I use the term because it is now generally 
 adopted to denote, as I have said before, the existence 
 of, and the belief in, spirit-intercourse in whatever 
 
44 AN angel's message. 
 
 form it may take place ; I am therefore endeaTOuring 
 to point out the way to avoid the false and to choose 
 the true. I present truth before you, and if you can 
 receive it, do so, and God wUl bless you in it ; but if 
 you cannot, then let it pass, — it is not yet the time for 
 your eyes to be opened. If ye who so reject it, love 
 the Lord, go on and try to love Him more ; but if 
 ye can receive it, it will aid ye to love Him more 
 truly, for it will shew ye what good things are in 
 store for those who wish to love Him more and more 
 truly and fully. 
 
 I have now given a long and minute account of the 
 nature and tendency of what are usually called phy- 
 sical manifestations. They are of very great import- 
 ance to be well understood, and are very valuable as 
 forming a foundation and introduction to the higher 
 branches of spirit- communion, which usually follow, 
 if sufficient interest has been excited to induce con- 
 tinued investigation of the subject. So that if you 
 desire to have open communion with your departed 
 relatives in the more elevated form of writing, let a 
 pencil be taken iu the hand, and placed on a piece of 
 blank paper, as though you were about to write, and 
 you wiU probably soon find it moved by an invisible 
 power, independent of your will, and that lines, 
 letters, words, and eventually whole sentences appear 
 on the paper before you. By continuing this practice, 
 the hand will at last be moved to trace much more 
 
AN angel's message. 45 
 
 legible characters, and you will find that your departed 
 relative or friend can thus discourse with you as pal- 
 pably as before he left your sphere. 
 
 O my own ! how you dwelt upon the thought that 
 your loved mother still remembered you with all 
 the ardor of her loving nature ! How you loved to 
 think that she had seen your tears — ^that she had 
 watched over your lonely hours ! How it cheered 
 your drooping spirit when she wrote through your 
 own hand, that you would become a medium, but 
 that "you must love God, and put your whole 
 trust and confidence in Him ;" that " you must pray 
 to Him;" that "you must beware of those who 
 would make all their stay in aU that spirits tell them." 
 
 Now it was with deep and earnest prayer that my 
 own medium took her pencil, to try if she might be 
 permitted to hold open communion with spirits. She 
 did not ask her mother to come and write through 
 her hand, but she asked her God to shew her whether 
 it were right and allowable for her thus to hold open 
 intercourse with the departed. She prayed Him to 
 tell her, by some guardian spirit, if it were not so, 
 and then she would relinquish the attempt, never 
 again to renew it. In this frame of mind it is im- 
 possible for any deception to occur, for the desire is 
 wholly directed by God, and He wiU send His mes- 
 sengers to reply to the pure request to be thus guided. 
 Then was her hand moved to form the letters of the 
 
46 AN angel's message. 
 
 words I have already quoted. She then asked men- 
 tally, if she might know who it was that then directed 
 her hand, and it was written, " Your angel mother." 
 Oh ! how she longed to behold that angel's face ! 
 but it was enough that she was permitted thus to 
 communicate with her who had so loved her when on 
 earth. She dwelt on the image of her loved one — 
 her only dear one above, as she then believed, for she 
 knew not me ; she had never once thought of me, her 
 whole mind dwelt on her mother — ^her ardent-loving 
 mother, — her protector in her childish days, her 
 watchful guardian in her riper years, her charge 
 through long and weary years passed in sickness and 
 in pain. She thought of the nights she had lain at 
 her side, of the head she had so often placed on the 
 pillow beside her, of the wasted form she had borne 
 in her arms, for affection gave her strength. She 
 had watched the progress of the disease that caused 
 that dear one to need her daily tending, and she well 
 remembered how peacefiil was the hour that closed 
 her earthly sojourn. It was the one hope that eter- 
 nity presented before her mental vision, that she 
 should again behold that loved one above, where pain 
 and sorrow are no more; therefore it was that when 
 her hand was moved to write " your angel mother," 
 she raised her soul on high, and blessed God's holy 
 name, that He had permitted that angel one to com- 
 municate with her. 
 
AN angel's message. 47 
 
 I shall here introduce some of that angel mother's 
 messages of love to her who needed the counsels of 
 wisdom they contain. 
 
 " When I see I have, J , heavenly one, been 
 
 happy in sheltering those I love from the danger they 
 were in of falling into the error of supposing that all 
 open intercourse with those who have passed from 
 earth was not allowed, I stand in the heavenly por- 
 tals, and bless the Lord that He has delivered both 
 you and me from such a daxk state." 
 
 " I shall now, my own precious chUd, be able to 
 shew you all that appears strange and unexplained in 
 
 what has been written. When I said that W 
 
 was your own husband, I meant that he was, when 
 in the world, the one heaven has intended for you 
 when you open your eyes here. I see that you are 
 surprised, but it is the truth." 
 
 " When you see others leave the world before you, 
 be not too much distressed, for they are gone home 
 before you. Be thankful that their trials are past. 
 I see that this does not distress you. Only fear sin. 
 Have open spirits, for your end is not yet. I see 
 that you dread a long life; but live for God, and 
 delight yourself in doing good. I wiU always be 
 with you. Live in the love of being of use to others ; 
 then will the time not seem long. Love to benefit 
 those who love you. I see that this comforts you. 
 
48 
 
 Your mediumship will compensate you for many pri- 
 vations ; then, when you come here, you shall see that 
 all was as was ordered by Infinite Wisdom for the 
 greatest possible good. I have seen that you have 
 often wished to be taken away, but that was not 
 right. Love to live that heaven be more deeply 
 planted in your soul ; for if you were to come here 
 before your time, heaven could not be given to you. 
 When you have passed through those necessary trials 
 that God sees fit for you, then you will be prepared 
 to enter upon those joys that await all those who 
 have patiently followed the Lord in the regenerate 
 life. I see that you desire to improve, and to discard 
 all those impatient feelings which you have so often 
 indulged ; therefore be sure that you will not have to 
 mourn over them in vain." 
 
 " I have seen how happy I have made you all by 
 aU that has been written. Love and bless Him who 
 
 has shewn you, dear J , that you have some one 
 
 that loves you here. Dear W sees that you 
 
 love his memory. He sees that before I told you of 
 his love for you, my dear child had always thought 
 him a very high spirit, but that now I have been 
 permitted to tell her, she will be sure to believe it is 
 indeed true. I see how thankful you are to my 
 Lord and Master for such and so precious a display 
 pf divine blessing." 
 
AN angel's message. 49 
 
 " I shall now tell you more about W . I see 
 
 that this opens your heart to him who loves you more 
 
 than I can tell you. For he is your own W , he 
 
 is your conjugial partner — the one heaven has in- 
 tended for you from all eternity. I see that you are 
 now thankful that you never formed any connexion 
 in the world." 
 
 " I will now tell you what wiU give you great con- 
 fidence. W himself wUl write through you in 
 
 his own hand." 
 
 "I see that I have given you great happiness. 
 I have no more to say. When you begin again, 
 W will write through you." 
 
 Then it was I took the hand her heart had given 
 to me, and I wrote through the pen of nature all 
 that my spirit had to say. I told her of my inward 
 love. I told her of her faults — for she then had 
 faults — I warned her of their consequences. They 
 were not what you would call serious ones, but they 
 were so to eyes unaccustomed to the world of nature. 
 She dwelt in the sphere of earth, so she thought it 
 right to do as others did, and to say that which 
 others said. She did not ask her God if it were right ; 
 but she thought it must be so in the world of nature, 
 though she knew it could not be so in the world of 
 spirit. Now, beloved, this is an error that very many 
 of you fall into. You think you cannot be so truth- 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 AN ANGEL S MESSAGE. 
 
 ful as you would like to be, because you are in an 
 untruthful sphere; so you help to make the world 
 more and more untruthful and insincere. You think, 
 and sometimes say, that it is a pity it should be so ; 
 but you do nothing to prevent the continuance of the 
 evil. Doubtless, it has never occurred to you how to re- 
 pair this breach in the world's bridge of life; but I will 
 tell you, as I told her, when she wept over some fall 
 she had made in her passage over this bridge of life ; 
 for such is truth : it is akin to purity of thought in 
 holy things, it is purity of action. It is essential to 
 all holiness — all spirituality ; it leads to life eternal. 
 It is the very essential life of all good spirits and 
 angels. How can they approach you if you are 
 untruthful. If you live in the habitual practice of 
 conformity to an untruthful world, how are they to 
 penetrate the clouds you have yourself caused to 
 ascend from the foul atmosphere of earth ? Let it 
 be far from you, my dear friends, to pander to the 
 low and selfish propensities of your fellow men. 
 Leave them the swine's food, but seek you the bread 
 of heaven. 
 
 It is without the slightest regard to either praise or 
 blame, that I write through my medium : I do so with- 
 out considering her feelings, opinions, or prejudices. 
 Now some of you may feel inclined to say, " What 
 right has this spirit to blame us ? for we do not think 
 there is any harm in what he prohibits as not condu- 
 
AN angel's message. 51 
 
 cive to a high spiritual development." But I am not 
 to be deterred from giving you a warning in your spi- 
 ritual ear, that such things as I shaU proceed to men- 
 tion, will not tend to prepare you for a heavenly state, 
 where all is purity, peace, and angelic love. For if 
 you do not begin to practice those sacred feelings 
 while you are in a natural state of existence, you will 
 find it very difficult, if not impossible, to do so when 
 you come into a spiritual sphere ; for the natural life 
 is the basis and foundation of the spiritual. There- 
 fore be careful to prepare a sure foundation whereon 
 to build the house which wiU remain for ever, eternal 
 in the heavens. 
 
 You do not Kke to have your faults and failings 
 noticed. You strive to conceal them from one ano- 
 ther, but you forget that they are ever exposed to the 
 searching eye of God and His angels, who often can- 
 not approach you on account of the repellant sphere oc- 
 casioned by the daily nurturing of evil and bad habits, 
 of harsh and untrue states of mind, of hard thoughts 
 concerning your fellow mortals, of unjust judgments 
 regarding those in whose society you may be. 
 
 How often do you encourage a feeUng of hatred, 
 instead of one of love and pity, for those who you 
 think are evil. Always hate the evil and false prin- 
 ciple you observe in others, but do not hate the sub- 
 ject of it. What could become of you if God were 
 to hate and punish you for your faults, instead of 
 
 d2 
 
52 
 
 loving you and desiring to cure you of them ? He 
 looks with an eye of love and extreme pity on aU. 
 Do you wish to imitate Him ? Then feel for your 
 fellow mortals. Do not love to blame them, but pity 
 them with aU your heart. Pity the murderer more 
 than his innocent victim ; pity the man of the world, 
 who has his portion in his present life, and looks for 
 nothing beyond; pity the usurer, who gets rich in 
 your world, and makes himself poor in the world to 
 come ; pity all who suffer : but, most of all, let your 
 compassionate feelings be bestowed upon the evil, the 
 cruel, the rejected of your race. They are the most 
 fitting objects for your pity to be expended on. Pity 
 the corrupt monarch on his throne, much more than 
 the poor desolate one that has no home on earth : he 
 shall be comforted hereafter; but the man of sin 
 must go to his like in heU, "there will be weeping 
 and gnashing of teeth." 
 
 Be truthful in your speech, in your manner, in 
 your outward appearance. It is often difficult to 
 decide how far deception is allowable on the ground 
 of charity and kindness. Now there is no charity in 
 dissimulation, be it practised for any motive whatever. 
 It is an unclean thing, and can never become clean ; 
 it is an evil beast, that will devour the green herb of 
 your soul : therefore put it far from you, if ye would 
 grow in the garden of the Lord, where no unhallowed 
 feeHng can exist. 
 
AN angel's message. 53 
 
 So it was, that when I entered into her mind with 
 my open sphere of love, I brought up all these secret 
 faults to her view ; for she knew not that they were 
 faults before — she saw them only as desires to please 
 those with whom she was associated. By that, I do 
 not mean that she indulged in the harsher feelings 
 I have mentioned above; but that she was not so 
 truthful in all the daily concerns of her life in the 
 world, as I wished her to be. 
 
 It was long ere I could direct her mind aright, for 
 she wished to have some outward proof that 1 was 
 really hers, that it was true that I had loved her. 
 She had never thought that I had done so, for I had 
 not on earth : therefore she could not well understand 
 how it was that I could do so now. But a spiritual 
 affection cannot be proved by natural means. She 
 was seeking for that which was not ordered by God, 
 — for that which was contrary to His divine will. I 
 never did love her in the world, yet she wished it to 
 be proved that I did ; so a statement came as a con- 
 firmation of her own desire for that which was not 
 true. It is a universal law of spirit intercourse, that 
 if a proof is desired from any low or selfish motive, 
 a seeming proof will be given, but which, when 
 tested, will be found to be a false one. But you, my 
 readers, will say, "How can a good and truthful 
 spirit ever say that which is untrue and delusive?" 
 Even because he cannot help it, for his mind is en 
 
54 AN angel's message. 
 
 rapport with that of the medium, and he does not 
 know, for the time being, but that he is saying that 
 which is quite true. This will shew you that if you 
 do not put away your own desires, we spirits cannot 
 act with any degree of purity or truthfulness through 
 you. It is as clear water coming into an impure 
 vessel ; it is inevitably sullied. 
 
 I shall again quote from the communications of 
 her angel mother; for if she had observed the cau- 
 tion contained in them, she would not have fallen 
 into the error we are now considering, 
 
 " Heaven is not always in the hearts of those who 
 wish to be guided by its laws. Heaven is sometimes 
 shut out by the warring passions of mankind. The 
 angels strive to break through the clouds, but it is 
 not for them to tell what the Lord alone knows; 
 therefore when you desire that angels should be with 
 you, try to put aside your own wishes." 
 
 If we did not see within our own minds, that all 
 we have and all we are is evil and false, and that we 
 must sink into all kinds of profane and unholy snares, 
 if we look not every moment, — ^yes, every moment, 
 of our lives to God, who alone can protect us from 
 them, we might become liable to think we were in 
 ourselves perfect and good, and needed not that any 
 should help us. Even as the little innocent child 
 leaves its mother's, or its nurse's arms, and knows 
 not till it falls, what need it has of her watchful care ; 
 
AN angel's message. 55 
 
 so then it cries out to her, and looks up for her arm 
 and her tender gaze, to comfort as well as to raise it 
 from the ground. Even so is it with man. my 
 beloved ! you fell and hurt yourself, and when you 
 cried to me, I could not help you, for I too had need 
 of the arm and the tender gaze of our heavenly 
 Parent. But when you looked to Him alone, He 
 raised you, and sent me to help and comfort you. 
 
 Every living creature is in the true order of its 
 creation, man only is out of that order. It is from 
 his own self-wiU that that disorder has arisen. O 
 that all would see and feel how easy it is, and yet 
 how high a state, to be in the true order of creation ! 
 It is only to allow ourselves to be led of G-od into all 
 that is holy, pure, and good, — this is to be in the 
 true order of creation. It is His blessed will to lead 
 all into the paths of peace — to bring all unto Him- 
 self. But man is not willing so to be led ; man is a 
 free agent, and all his thought is to govern himself. 
 
 I have been permitted thus to come and write 
 through one who has opened her whole soul to God j 
 who is only desirous to do so more and more. It is 
 her prayer at night, her early thought when she 
 again opens her eyes to the light of her world. Her 
 soul is now in a state of order ; she is not anxious for 
 the future, for she well knows that aU is provided for. 
 She is thinking how every incident that has passed, 
 has led her to this happy state. But it was not 
 
56 AN angel's message. 
 
 always so to her. She has had bitter thoughts, — 
 dreadings of the future, — ^longings, O such longings, 
 to taste of death, and, as she thought, to come here ; 
 but she knew that could not be till the right time 
 came, for she was blest with a knowledge of the 
 truth. Yet why did it not satisfy her soul ? Why 
 did she not rest in it, and live as others do, happy 
 and content ? She is quite willing to bear her share 
 of blame, as she calls it, for these bitter feelings, but 
 she remembers that they commenced in childhood. 
 They have always been very mysterious to her, — she 
 could not account for them. 
 
 I have seen all this, but she is wondering how I 
 could have done so, when all the time I was living in 
 the world, a youth and young man, with my own 
 joys and sorrows. Now I shall tell her, and all to 
 whom I am addressing these papers, that it has all 
 been shewn to me. I know her life as it is written in 
 her book of life. It is there recorded. Not a tear 
 has dropped, not a sigh was breathed, that left not a 
 sign, an indelible mark, on the pages of that book. 
 It is the spiritual record that is meant. I have seen 
 all that I have here described, as I should have seen 
 it in a book ; and I have, as it were, turned over the 
 pages of that book, and there it has been shewn to 
 me. 
 
 O yes, dear ! this is a new idea to you ; but you 
 wiU find so many new ideas crowding upon you as 
 
AN angel's message. 57 
 
 you proceed, that you will no longer be surprised at 
 anything. All will tend to shew you how truly won- 
 derful are the ways of God. " His wisdom is un- 
 searchable and His ways are past finding out." I 
 shall not be able to explain every thing connected 
 with these hidden ways, whereby our holy and hea- 
 venly Protector provides for our various necessities, 
 and leads all who are willing to be so led, into His 
 divine plan for the desirable state of entire depend- 
 ence upon Him. 
 
 She has been led by a path that is not much fre- 
 quented, therefore I have put aside its briars and 
 thorns, to shew you how it has led to where she now 
 stands. But her bosom is heaving at the thought of 
 having its secrets laid bare for every eye to gaze on. 
 But she will not shrink from doing God's holy will, 
 in order to promote His divine purpose of blessing 
 all who will come to the light and open their eyes, 
 and see what good things He has prepared for those 
 that love Him. 
 
 O my own ! I am not so much disturbed at your 
 thoughts as you fear I may be. I am writing for a 
 holy purpose, and it is only necessary for you to put 
 yourself in the hand of God and fear not, and all I 
 do will greatly delight you, and, under His provi- 
 dence, be the means of blessing many. I see that I 
 am already greatly delighting you, for you feel very 
 happy in what I am doing j and it is so very unex- 
 
 d3 
 
58 AN angel's message. 
 
 pected to you, for I have always told you tliat I 
 would not write for others, but for you alone. 
 
 I do not use my medium as a machine, but as a 
 co-partner with me in the production of this work, 
 inasmuch as she must open her mind for me to enter. 
 Yes, dear, you say, you only want to know exactly 
 what part God desires you to take in it, that you 
 may do it. 
 
 Now I will not have any shrinking from that 
 which I am going to propose for us. I shall see if 
 you can so open your mind to me, as to be able to 
 give up all attempt to control any of the expressions 
 or phrases I may find it necessary to use. I wiU not 
 have any fear that they will not be quite understood, 
 for I desire to be understood by those only who are 
 in a state to be benefitted by what they understand. 
 Therefore I will have you follow me into that which 
 will sometimes appear to you to be too secret for 
 other eyes than ours. But I have told you this must 
 be, if all the good is to be done that God intends by 
 this work. I will not hesitate to shew you that I 
 will lay our secrets bare for the eye of any who may 
 derive benefit from their pure and holy nature being 
 revealed. 
 
 Oh, I see how you are endeavouring to raise your 
 thoughts to God, that He may shew you if it is really 
 right to be done as I say. O no, dear ! I will not 
 tell you, but it will be shewn to you as you proceed ; 
 
AN angel's message. 59 
 
 only you will be very careful not to put up any hind- 
 rance to the carrying out of God's holy purpose. 
 " Oh !" she says, " God forbid that I should do that." 
 No, dear, you wiU not do it ; so I shall proceed with 
 much confidence. 
 
 It is not for the eye of any profane or sensual 
 passer by that these pages are written. It is to the 
 pure in heart, and aU who desire to be so, that I am 
 now addressing myself. Those who choose to sneer, 
 or cast an unwholesome breath on what is essentially 
 pure, chaste, and very holy in its nature, may do so 
 to their own shame, and their certain discomfiture 
 hereafter; for to such it will be as the stone that will 
 grind to powder, but as a stone of holy truth to 
 those who can look upon it in its own divine purity. 
 
 She who writes these lines is my wife more than 
 may be thought possible by those who have not had 
 a similar state opened in themselves. She is not so 
 as to her natural body, but she is so as to her spiritual 
 body, as well as to her spiritual mind. For " there 
 is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." 
 The one is within the other as a kernel within a shell. 
 But this state can come to the outward perception 
 of those only who are open to spirit-intercourse. No 
 others can perceive, during their life in the world of 
 nature, that which belongs to the spirit alone. This 
 state constitutes mediumship ; for she who is mine is 
 not only a writing medium, but she is also suscep- 
 
60 
 
 tible of very palpable impressions of my presence 
 with her. We are one; and she has received the 
 assurance of that truth by other means than the 
 merely being told so in these writings ; although she 
 fuUy believed it to be as she was informed by the 
 communications she received from her dear departed 
 mother, ere I was myself allowed to write through 
 her, or to manifest my presence in any way to her 
 outward senses. Oh ! she places her soul in the 
 hands of her God, when she has to record that holy 
 union of the spiritual body as well as soul, which has 
 been vouchsafed to her with me. Therefore respect 
 her sacred feelings, and with holy awe look upon this 
 page. It is a startling fact that is here stated, but 
 do not deny its possibility. Remember that all things 
 are possible with God. "Fear not, only believe." 
 She is my spiritual wife, but not my natural wife ; 
 j^or I am removed far above a natural sphere. It is 
 only as she can elevate her soul above nature, that I 
 can become conjoined to her spiritually, though not 
 naturally. 
 
 It is a very sacred thing that has been revealed to 
 her ; and when she reflects upon it, the magnitude of 
 it is overpowering. But she has been weU nurtured 
 in the pure conjugial principle. She knows how 
 sacred a feeling it is ; and although she is just the 
 same to all outward seeming, her soul is ever lifted 
 up on high, with praise, thanksgiving, and watching. 
 
AN angel's message. 61 
 
 lest any low or earthly thoiiglit should mingle with 
 her soul's delight in the love she feels I have for her. 
 Never do I approach her but she puts up her soul's 
 petition for strength, — ^for true and pure feelings, to 
 the God who has opened her soul to receive me. 
 Fervent are her devotions; she puts up her prayer 
 with inward joy of heart, and when she thinks how 
 she is hlest, the tear comes, — the tear of too much 
 happiness — of an overflowing cup — the drop that runs 
 over when the cup is filled to the brim. 
 
 It may be that you have never heard of spirit- 
 union in this way, and you have thought that the 
 marriage tie belonged to the natural world only. But 
 herein is a great mistake ; for in the world of spirit, 
 there is no union of soul that is not outwardly ex- 
 pressed as in the world of nature. All that is holy 
 and pure is of the spirit : and if the marriage union 
 is holy and pure, it must proceed from God. 
 
 O ye who have wives that are very dear to ye ! 
 pause ere ye gaze with an unhallowed eye upon this 
 page. Ye who know what it is to have a young and 
 innocent bride, ye wiU know right well what it is to 
 be a husband. Ye, if ye are open to the pure streams 
 of holy light from heaven, will know that it is a very 
 precious charge ye have to keep. And ye who have 
 tasted of these joys in aU their heavenly purity, but 
 Vfho now walk the earth alone, whose sorrows have 
 been outwardly expressed by the dark mourning 
 
63 AN angel's message. 
 
 band — fitting emblem of the band of gloom that 
 encircled your spirit within — think ye, O ye sorrow- 
 ful ones ! that she who so loved ye, and whose spirit 
 seemed so entwined with your own, loves ye no 
 more? Is His mercy who gave her that power to 
 love, clean gone for ever ? Is there no inward voice, 
 no mental dictate, no silent impression that it is not 
 so ? In the silence of the outward passions, is there 
 no still small voice saying, " I live — I am not dead — 
 I am in heaven, but I love thee still — I watch over 
 thee — I will never leave thee — my spirit is with thy 
 spirit — bear this seeming separation for a while, it 
 may be but a little while, and we shall again be united 
 here, where there is no death, no crying, no mourn- 
 ing band; for death is swallowed up in victory?" 
 Be ye not, therefore, hard to believe ; for the spiritual 
 marriage union is a great truth, as ye wiU, one and 
 all, find it to be when ye enter the gate of heaven. 
 
 But aU may not desire to be thus re-united. They 
 may not have been mentally suited — ^the interior 
 principles of their miuds may not have been cast in 
 the same mould. In this case, when the merely 
 natural link which had joined them together for a 
 time, is severed by death, they do not desire to be re- 
 united in the heavenly marriage. Though there may 
 be a kindly and tender feeling of friendship for the 
 lost one, yet wiU it not be an abiding sorrow of heart, 
 such as he who has lost the true partiier of his bosom 
 
AN an&el's message. 63 
 
 will experience. For such a one will feel that none 
 can, or ought to, supply her place. O ye who feel this 
 need of a soul's partner ! who long and earnestly de- 
 sire to meet with such a one, ye are in the true order of 
 God's creation ; for it is not good for man to dwell 
 alone. Bless ye Him who has given you this holy 
 desire, this inward longing. It is the cup ye are 
 holding up to God ; it will be filled to the brim : but 
 it will be in His own good time. Be not impatient, 
 lest the self-will to be in God's order lead ye into the 
 path of all disorder. Therefore love your trial, for it 
 will bless ye in eternity. 
 
 It is by a just discrimination of the female charac- 
 ter that ye will ensure to yourselves much happiness 
 in the married state, and thus enter upon joys truly 
 heavenly, even before ye are called upon to enter the 
 portals above. I know that it is often very difficult 
 to tell whether a woman is suited to you or not, and 
 and it may be discovered, when too late, that a mis- 
 take has been made, and that, although she is good 
 and virtuous, still she is not mentally suited to you. 
 In such a case, bear with the uncongeniality ye ob- 
 serve in her : tend her delicately through life, but do 
 not cherish the idea of an eternal union of soul with 
 her. She may be the mother of your children, and 
 is therefore entitled to all tenderness and respect. 
 But if she be found unworthy of your regard, then 
 will ye have a severe trial j but ye must bear it with 
 
64 AN angel's message. 
 
 becoming patience, and know that it has been per- 
 mitted for some wise and hidden purpose, and let it 
 console ye that it will not be an eternal union, for it 
 will be dissolved at the death of the body. 
 
 I have said that I loved not on earth. I preferred 
 a lonely state during my natural life, rather than to 
 have a home with an uncongenial partner. I once 
 hoped to have had one, but the holy conjugial feeling 
 was not called forth tiU I came here : then was it 
 shewn me that I had one on earth who was mine, 
 but whom I had not known, as such, while I too 
 walked that earth. I cannot reveal all the secrets of 
 spirit-life j so be content to hear that I saw a heart 
 well prepared to love me truly, with an abiding and 
 encreasing love of a true conjugial nature. Then did 
 my grateful praises rise to Him who had spared my 
 lonely heart from the sorrows consequent upon an 
 uncongenial union. 
 
 "But," you may say, ''how is it possible for an 
 angel in heaven to love a mortal woman on earth, 
 whom he did not love when he was a man on that 
 earth himself? Such a thing cannot be, for if it 
 could, we should most certainly have been told so in 
 Scripture." But our Lord had very much more to 
 teU you that you could not then have borne to hear. 
 Some time ago, my own beloved could not have borne 
 to hear what has now been revealed to her. It would 
 not have blessed her then as it now does. And be- 
 
AN angel's message. 65 
 
 sideSj in past days, it might not have been possible for 
 any angel or spirit to come and declare himself to be 
 the conjugial partner of a woman still in the world. 
 
 It is not merely to shew you that great marvels 
 may take place in the world of nature^ during your 
 advancement in the regenerate life, that I am sent, but 
 to point out the true way to be happy in that world 
 towards which you are day by day progressing ; and 
 also to shew that it is very possible for you to have a 
 foretaste of those heavenly joys, even while you are 
 journeying towards that land of promise. But some 
 of you may sigh and say, " Ah no ! there is no rest 
 for me on this side the grave." No, there may 
 be none. But do not weepj those that will dry 
 your tears are very close at hand. There are angel 
 watchers; every human being has them closer to 
 him or her than any natural friend can be : they wait 
 on you, they wait to raise the veil that covers the 
 glories of the celestial spheres. Prepare to go with 
 them when that veil is raised, for it falls not again ; 
 and if ye be not ready, where wiU ye find yourselves ? 
 But fear not : look to Christ, pray to Him, ask Him 
 to give you good and holy desires and feelings, and 
 to enable you to act according to them. Christ is the 
 "Rock of Ages," look to Him alone. Then wiU 
 you feel so sure that He will give you strength to 
 pass through every trial; for He who feedeth the 
 ravens is able to feed you, He who gave the heavenly 
 
66 AN angel's message. 
 
 manna is also able to give you food from heaven. 
 He who gives you, day by day, the bread that nou- 
 rishes your body, can and will give you also that 
 bread which nourishes your immortal soul. 
 
 Do not ever think that any spirit or angel can help 
 or even comfort you in states of trial. Go to God 
 for your bread of life, and for the water of refresh- 
 ment. He can sustain you under every sorrow, tem- 
 poral or spiritual. He commissions us to ward off 
 the evil, but we cannot do it of ourselves. He may 
 direct us to be with you, and to counsel you to look 
 up to Himself for help, for consolation and strength ; 
 but to look to us for it instead of God, would be 
 to depend on the broken reed instead of the great 
 staff of life. 
 
 I am one who wiU lead you into the fold of Christ. 
 When you look unto Him, He will send His angel 
 messengers to meet you, and they will shew you the 
 way to come to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and 
 the Life. They are in His fold, so they can shew 
 and lead you in the right path ; they will delight to 
 teU you how pleasant a state it is, how sweet are the 
 flowers that grow in the garden of the Lord, how 
 bright is the Sun that shines there, how joyous the 
 greeting ye will receive when ye enter the gate of 
 Paradise. 
 
 I have of myself no power to work upon my 
 medium, I can only affect her mind in proportion 
 
AN angel's message. 67 
 
 as her inmost desire is given to Godj that she may be 
 endowed by Him with ever-encreasing power to look 
 up to Him, and to be in all things, even the most 
 ordinary, guided and governed by Him alone. She 
 is mine only as God gives her to me. I have no 
 power to control her affection, she gives it to me but 
 as God supplies it to her. He gives her the power 
 to love me, and He gives me the power to love her. 
 My spirit is very ardent ; it loves with an encreasing 
 ardor of spiritual affection, and it meets with a heart 
 so devoted to me, that her prayer at night seldom ends 
 without, " O Lord ! unite our hearts together in one, 
 make us one life in thy sight ; but thy wiU. be done." 
 She is just thinking that no earthly language can ex- 
 press her feeling for me. I am a part of her life, 
 only it is a part that she may love without loving her- 
 self. I am therefore much beloved. 
 
 I will not have any shrinking from speaking of 
 herself, for she is begging me not to do so. Where 
 others are concerned, it is only a species of selfish- 
 ness to desire to withhold any mention of oneself 
 that may benefit them, or add to their measure of 
 confidence in the wonderftd works of His providence. 
 She must necessarily sometimes speak of herself. I 
 am not aware that she has hitherto shrunk from it, 
 because she is always anxious that all who are able to 
 receive it, may know how much blessing she has re- 
 ceived from these holy communications. I have not 
 
68 
 
 been so secret as she supposed was necessary : for she 
 fears that none but herself could altogether compre- 
 hend the delicate nature of our union. It is only to 
 be breathed ia the air of heaven ; it is holy and pure; 
 it is the voice of God speaking in our souls. All 
 who are truly conjugial will experience its holy joys, 
 for they are nourished here : they are the golden rays 
 of our sun; they permeate all our fibres; they are 
 the source of aU our other joys; they spring from 
 the one Fount of our lives ; they are the halo that 
 your painters love to place on our brows. 
 
 I see that I am warm on this subject. I am not 
 like a man on earth, who only knows that his wife 
 loves him because he sees it in her eyes, in her 
 manner, in her voice, in the words of love she greets 
 him with ; but I see it in my wife in her soul, in her 
 supreme love, in her love of God, who is ever fore- 
 most in all her thoughts, in all her actions. She 
 dare not stop, though she fears I am going to speak 
 of her too much. She says, "Tell how God has 
 done it all for us." Yes, so I will. It is His work ; 
 it is His power in us. But He does not love us 
 more than others. He loves all alike. He loves 
 even, — ^yes, not even, — ^for He loves the poor beggar 
 in your streets. He is leading him even as He is 
 leading us. He is leading all, but it is by different 
 ways. 
 
 I did not love her in the world, but we are spiritu- 
 
AN angel's message. 69 
 
 ally united; we love each other because God has 
 joined us together; and He has done so without our 
 knowledge, or our having anything to do with it. 
 This connexion can only exist between conjugial 
 pairs, for they are joined in spirit from the beginning. 
 All are born thus united, but all do not meet in the 
 world of nature. Her spirit has been opened to re- 
 ceive me spiritually, during her sojourn in the prepa- 
 ratory state of existence. Such a case is rare, and is 
 not thought possible to be. But it will become much 
 more frequent as mortals are able to receive it, even 
 as it has been revealed to her ; and as it blesses her, 
 so will it bless others. All who can receive the know- 
 ledge of such a state being possible, are delighted 
 and refreshed by it. Oh! have great patience and 
 faith, all ye who love the Lord, for there are many 
 good and holy things in store for ye all, when ye are 
 able and willing to receive them. If I have told you 
 anything that comforts you, bless Him who has ena- 
 bled me to do so. I am but an instrument in the 
 hand of the Lord ; it is by His power only, and so 
 far as I can receive it within my own soul, that I am 
 able to communicate my ideas to her. She is the 
 natural, and I am the spiritual medium for bringing 
 down to earth the good things of heaven. It is there- 
 fore due to God, that when any of my readers are in 
 any way pleased or instructed by that which they 
 may meet with in this book, that they do immedi- 
 
70 AN angel's message. 
 
 ately raise their grateful thanks to Him who is alone 
 able to delight their spiritual minds. 
 
 I have no power to cause you to receive these com- 
 munications as angelic or heavenly revealings. I 
 have not made her believe that which I have told her, 
 for she has often doubted and questioned my state- 
 ments; not that she thought it possible that I was 
 deceiving, — or not telling her the truth ; but she has 
 frequently questioned within herself whether there 
 might not be some disorderly feeling existing within 
 her own breast, that might suUy the stream of truth 
 that I pour into her mind, and cause it to become 
 polluted with the soil of earth. 
 
 This is the way in which she has received all my 
 statements of spiritual facts. They have been carried 
 to the sanctuary of God, to be weighed in His un- 
 erring scale ; and then has she obtained the assurance 
 she needed, before admitting them into her heart and 
 mind. 
 
 Beloved of earth, let me entreat you to go and do 
 likewise. Weigh all I have said in the balance of the 
 sanctuary. Do not measure it by your own pre- 
 existing opinion, by your science and your worldly 
 wisdom ; for by that rule, the hidden things of hea- 
 ven, and the wisdom of spiritual beings, wiU appear 
 as foohshness. 
 
 The light of the world is as thick darkness com- 
 pared with the light by which the eye of the spirit 
 
AN angel's message. 71 
 
 is illumined. I know the worlds and I know the 
 spirit that is in it, and the spirit that is above it, for 
 I am one who have access into the world of nature 
 through my own ; and I can traverse the sphere of 
 spirit, into which her perceptions cannot yet reach, 
 because she is clothed with that which I have laid 
 aside. 
 
 These are startling statements to bring before a 
 sceptical world j but what is that to me? I make 
 them because they are true, and because I am sent 
 and instructed so to make them. It will not hurt me 
 if you cannot believe them ; neither will it hurt her 
 who knows that they are true, and who lives in my 
 hourly presence : for she knows that I am hers and 
 that she is mine, as well as if I were to come and 
 stand before her bodily eyes, and teU her so. But if 
 you can receive this truth that has been so long kept 
 from you, then wUl it bless both her and me. She 
 only desires it on your account, not on her own ; for 
 her heart is set on things above, and the noise and 
 tumult of earth does not affect her spirit. In her 
 soul's sanctuary she has prayed to be supported 
 through every outward trial and combat of truth 
 against falsity and error. 
 
 Beloved, I do not claim any thing like inspiration 
 for these writings ; but they are given in a miraculous 
 way ; that is, it is unusual. They are not given in 
 the manner of any earthly production : for my me- 
 
72 AN angel's message. 
 
 dium puts her pen on the paper for her morning's 
 employment of writing for me, and she knows not 
 what the first word will be, much less the subject she 
 is about to write on. She prepares the quantity of 
 natural element that will, she well knows, be filled 
 with closely-written words, of which she has no more 
 previous idea than any of you could have, before 
 reading them in this book. It must, therefore, be 
 called miraculous or supernatural ; that is, it is not 
 natural for any one to write in the way in which I 
 have said this book is written ; for the pen of the me- 
 dium goes straight on, without stopping to give her 
 time to consider one word before it is on the paper. 
 She can, and does, use her own judgment afterwards, 
 to consider whether such and such portions of her 
 written papers will be desirable to be published or 
 not, and she omits those she may see are only in- 
 tended for herself, or are not expressed in a manner 
 suitable to the geineral reader. She is, at the time 
 of writing, in close and open communion with me, 
 and I teU her, in her spirit-ear, all that I wish her 
 to say. 
 
 The spiritual sight may be opened, as well as the 
 hearing j and I may be permitted to shew my medium 
 the sights of heaven. That can only be done by open- 
 ing her spirit-eye, for it is closed at present; but 
 when the Lord pleases He can commission me to 
 open it, and then she can be shewn whatever it is 
 
73 
 
 desirable, in His good providence, that she should 
 see as well as hear. Between the state of seeing and 
 that of hearing there is much difference, inasmuch 
 as the one is more spiritual than the other. For the 
 words which she hears are the natural words of your 
 human language. Now when I speak to her in her 
 spirit-ear, I do not give utterance to any words, but 
 I have the idea before me, and I look into her mind, 
 and there behold the natural elements with which it 
 will be necessary- to clothe it, in order to make it 
 reach your natural powers of conception. Thus the 
 words are mine as well as the idea ; for she does not 
 receive the idea till I have myself thus clothed it. 
 But when I speak to my angelic associates, I do not 
 use any human langua,ge ; for they are spiritual, and 
 therefore they understand and answer me in the same 
 way, by an immediate flow of ideas ; which is per- 
 ceived as an harmonious flow of sound merely, — not 
 in the words of any language whatever. 
 
 Hence you wiU perceive how it was that when the 
 Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles of old, all 
 present heard them speak in their own particular 
 tongue : — " And they were all amazed, and marvelled, 
 saying one to another. Behold, are not all these 
 which speak Galileans ? and how hear we every man 
 in his own tongue, wherein we were bom 1" Then, 
 after naming the various countries whose inhabitants 
 were present, it is said, " And they were all amazed. 
 
74 AN angel's message. 
 
 and were in doubt, saying one to another, What 
 meaneth this ? Others mocking, said. These men are 
 full of new wine. But Peter, standing up ~with the 
 eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them. Ye 
 men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be 
 this known unto you, and hearken to my words ; for 
 these men are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it 
 is but the third hour of the day. But this is that 
 which was spoken by the prophet Joel : And it shall 
 come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour 
 out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your 
 daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall 
 see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams : 
 and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will 
 pour out, in those days, of my spirit, and they shall 
 prophesy : and I will shew wonders in heaven above, 
 and signs in the earth beneath ; blood, and fire, and 
 vapour of smoke : the sun shall be turned into dark- 
 ness, and the moon into blood, before that great and 
 notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to 
 pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the 
 Lord shall be saved." 
 
 I have given all this portion of Scripture because 
 it bears so evidently upon the subject we are consider- 
 ing, and will, perhaps, enable you to see how it is to 
 be reconciled with Holy Writ ; by which, as I have 
 said elsewhere, the truth of all statements is to be 
 tested J for if they do not agree with that Book of 
 
75 
 
 Life, they cannot possiMy be true, but must be as a 
 false Christ that would but lead you into some secret 
 chamber of error and delusion. 
 
 The apostles were in a spiritual state at the time 
 of delivering the address which was uttered by them, 
 in the words of their own natural language ; but, on 
 reaching the organs of hearing of the men present, 
 it fell into their language, whatever that might be, 
 for all the various nations heard Peter speaking in 
 their own particular tongue. This is the miracle, as 
 recorded in the Bible history. This was the effect of 
 the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them. 
 
 But when I speat to my own, the utterance of the 
 ideas I pour into her passive mind, would not have 
 any miraculous effect on others, because she is not 
 inspired by the Holy Spirit, as the apostles were, at 
 the time of speaking, but is only open to my spirit. 
 
 But the eye being a more spiritual organ than the 
 ear, it can be opened to behold the scenery of heaven 
 just as the angels do ; and then natural language can 
 be made use of to convey as clear an idea as possible 
 of that which has been spiritually seen. 
 
 My own medium does not know how it is with me 
 at the time I am dictating my thoughts to her, for 
 she never sees me, but only hears, as it were, a tacit 
 voice within her mind pronouncing, with perfect dis- 
 tinctness, all the words she immediately writes down, 
 as rapidly as her powers of caligraphy will admit of 
 
 E 2 
 
76 AN angel's message. 
 
 her doing. It may be that a certain word is changed 
 after she has correctly written it from the inward dic- 
 tate. I tell her to change it by an impression in her 
 mind, in the same way as the first word was given. 
 
 To shew you how perfectly independent I am of 
 her mind or her desires, I will here inform you that 
 I, on one occasion, suddenly and unexpectedly, 
 changed the subject of my dictation, and caused her 
 to hear the words of a little poem, the subject of 
 which was unknown to her, as the circumstance to 
 which it alludes had not then taken place. It relates 
 to the removal of a child into eternity, which was 
 not at aU expected, when she was made to write the 
 lines which will be found in a subsequent page of this 
 book. It is not usual for me to know anything re- 
 garding forthcoming events ; but it can be given me 
 so to do, if it is desirable, for a particular purpose, as 
 it was in this iastance. Thus it is that I act upon 
 her ; for she does not write by hand-guiding, as some 
 mediums do, and as she did at the commencement of 
 her mediumship. That is usually a preparatory stage 
 only, in the opening of spirit-intercourse, for bring- 
 ing the thoughts of angels and spirits down to the 
 level of your sphere. But as the mind becomes ac- 
 customed to receive spiritual communications, the 
 hand-guiding ceases, and it is perceived by the 
 medium, that an interior mental process has com- 
 menced. 
 
All the ideas I transmit to the medium are given 
 to me in the same unusual way that they come to 
 her perception ; for I am the spiritual as she is the 
 natural medium ; and whatever is holy and true must 
 proceed from God^ — ^it flows forth from Him as a 
 stream of living water, into the minds that are pre- 
 pared to receive it, with ever-springing freshness and 
 life-giving power. 
 
 But yoii may say, " How are we to believe that the 
 merely personal history narrated in this book could 
 have been given in the way just described?" No, 
 beloved, it was not so ; but it is given me to look 
 into her mind, and, as I said before, there to read 
 her book of life. I can then relate to you such por- 
 tions of it as are essential to your comprehension of 
 the spiritual states that are herein described. 
 
 I am to be influenced by one consideration only, — 
 that it is the will of God that I should so dictate my 
 thoughts, which I receive from Him. He only knows 
 what wiU be the efiect of the act I thus perform. I 
 do not, — and, it may be, I never shall know, — I do 
 not wish to know anything that He conceals from 
 me. I work for God alone, and for man only as he 
 can receive what I am the instrument for bringing 
 down to liim. 
 
 I see that many will be benefitted and strengthened 
 in their faith in holy and unseen realities, by the 
 perusal of these pages, because I have already seen 
 
78 AN angel's message. 
 
 that blessed efifect produced in those who have read, 
 or heard them read in MS. So I am rejoiced in 
 spirit to see and think that this will be the effect of 
 their being made as public as possible. This is the 
 great end of my existence, — ^this is the great end of 
 all the powers of heaven, — ^to bless, to protect from 
 evil and false persuasion, all who will be led to God, 
 — to Christ their Saviour. This is the only source 
 of all the beauty, glory, and happiness of heaven. 
 Every spirit who desires to become an inhabitant of 
 heaven, must put down his self-hood, and labor, or 
 desire to labor, for the good of others, his only re- 
 ward being the sight of their blessing and eternal 
 happiness in their Father's kingdom. 
 
 Thus it is that I am working at the present mo- 
 ment. I pour my spiritual thoughts and perceptions 
 of truth into the passive mind of my medium. She 
 has been chosen for this work because she is a fitting 
 instrument. Her habits of life, her leisure both of 
 mind and body, render her capable of performing the 
 part which devolves upon her in a suitable and or- 
 derly manner. She does not ever neglect any earthly 
 duty for the sake of this her spiritual employment. 
 Her mind is just as active in aU the concerns and 
 relations of the external sphere in which she at pre- 
 sent resides. The cares of life, with all its outward 
 requirements, are just as assiduously attended to by 
 her, as though she had no such sacred commission to 
 
AN angel's message. 79 
 
 execute ; for she believes that it is a high and holy 
 commission that she is called upon to fulfil, as the 
 natural instrument for bringing into outward form, 
 high and heavenly themes proceeding from an angel 
 in heaven — one with whom §he is already interiorly 
 connected, and with whom she wiU be associated in 
 eternity. 
 
 I left your earth in middle life. I was not very 
 young, but not advanced in years. But natural age 
 has nothing whatever to do with spiritual age. I had, 
 when I left your world, passed through aU the trials 
 that it was necessary for me to pass through in a 
 natural sphere ; therefore I was removed from it iuto 
 a spiritual sphere, but not to the one which I now 
 inhabit. I went into the world of spirits ; that is, 
 into the general sphere of spirit-life, where all spirits 
 assemble immediately after their release from the na- 
 tural body. There I found myself surrounded by 
 associates of like tastes and habits with myself, and 
 I did not know that anything particular had oc- 
 curred ; for I did not remember anything about the 
 scene I had just left. My last iUness, and the cir- 
 cumstances attendant upon it, were wholly obliterated 
 from my memory ; and so I talked and laughed with 
 my companions, and read and studied as I had been 
 used to do in your world. 
 
 But at last there came a change over me. I began 
 to reflect that what I now saw, I had never seen 
 
80 
 
 before, and that I seemed to have new and more 
 vigorous faculties and powers of thought and concep- 
 tion than I had ever besn conscious of before. New 
 ideas seemed crowding in upon me. I read my 
 Bible ; but now I could trace the spiritual and hid- 
 den meaning in every line, and that without any 
 eflfort, or even the conscious desire to do so. Then 
 I found that I had an attendant who was ever ready 
 to explain, in lucid language, all that needed explana- 
 tion ; and when I looked at him, his face seemed to 
 shine forth all that he uttered. I became very much 
 attached to this new friend, for so I thought him ; 
 not knowing that he was none other than my own 
 particular guardian angel, who had secretly attended 
 all my wanderings on earth. 
 
 So at last it came to pass that he told me I was 
 now a spirit, that I had left the earth-sphere, never 
 again to return to it, and that I must now think 
 only of preparing myself for heaven ; for, as I had 
 loved goodness and truth on earth, I should not find 
 it difficult to enter therein, when I had passed 
 through all that would yet be necessary to prepare 
 my soul for that abode of the blessed. 
 
 It was then, for the first time since my departure 
 from earth, that a sadness fell upon me. I had dis- 
 covered that I was a spirit, and yet I was not in 
 heaven, but had still trials to pass through before I 
 could get there. So I began to consider what would 
 
AN angel's message. 81 
 
 be the nature of the trials which I perceived were 
 implied in the words and demeanour of my angelic 
 guide. He, perceiving my depression, raised his eyes 
 to heaven, and, with a smile of joy, said that there 
 was the rest for the weary. I read on and studied, 
 much as I had done in the natural body ; but at last 
 I found that I had feelings and propensities that did 
 not seem to accord with a spiritual state of existence, 
 and therefore I thought, how could I ever be fit to 
 enter heaven. At this idea I was much distressed, 
 and thought to mourn over it in secret. But I was 
 told by an angel guide that that would be of no 
 avail J I must pray earnestly to the Lord for help 
 and strength to overcome all that was loathsome 
 within me. 
 
 O how I cried out to Him at all times ! I prayed, 
 and ceased not ; for He sustained me. I essayed to 
 mix once more in the society of the angelic beings 
 around me ; but again the same evil thing came up, 
 and turned my dancing into mourning. I loved 
 purity, I desired to be made pure ; I was willing to 
 be tortured to be made clean. Then it was that a 
 holy calm fell on my sorely-troubled spirit. I felt 
 the warmth of angel love. I saw that there was 
 hope. I clung to it as a drowning man to a reed ; 
 but the reed I had got hold of was the great staff of 
 life : it supported me though many succeeding trials ; 
 for I had others, though less severe to pass through. 
 
 E 3 
 
83 AN ANGEIi's M£SSAG£. 
 
 Similar trials are experienced by many who leave 
 the natural world in the habitual exercise of low and 
 selfish tastes, which may not usually be considered 
 injurious, but are, nevertheless, of a merely worldly 
 nature. Such are the inordinate indulgence of the 
 bodily appetite, the love of luxury in all its various 
 forms, the indulgence of external pleasure to an ex- 
 cessive degree, and also many other things which 
 pertain to the world, and to the delight of the bodily 
 senses alone. 
 
 The pleasures of life are very desirable to be en- 
 joyed in their proper place and degree; but when 
 carried to excess, they are equally injurious to both 
 mind and body. So that, if you would save your- 
 selves the necessity of having to pass through trials 
 after the death of the body, endeavor to cultivate 
 more heavenly tastes than some, alas! do in the 
 world of nature ; for you would, even now, be shocked 
 to think that you could desire to have in heaven that 
 which is so essential to your enjoyment on earth. 
 And yet, as I have shewn, when you enter the world 
 to come, you will not at first know that anything 
 unusual has occurred to you ; for you will have no 
 recollection of the scene you have left. The door 
 wiU be closed, and the door of the spirit-life wOl be 
 opened. Then will you seek for the indulgence of 
 the same low and sensual tastes and habits you have 
 so much enjoyed on earth. But where will they lead 
 
AN angel's message. 83 
 
 you? To the society of tlie blessed^ or to those 
 whose only enjoyment consists in the exercise of 
 propensities from which an angel wUl avert his spi- 
 ritual senses ? 
 
 When I was a man on earth, I loved holy truth and 
 virtue; but I had many faults and bad habits, for 
 I knew not then that they were such. I shall not 
 here specify the exact nature of them, but they were 
 not to be got rid of without pain; therefore I am 
 anxious (and, by the unspeakable mercy of God, I 
 am now permitted) to come and thus warn others 
 not to indulge in many things that may appear to 
 them to be very harmless and allowable, but which 
 are not calculated to prepare them for the society of 
 angels. 
 
 O my beloved ! put away childish things. Think 
 what ye are, — for what end ye have been created, 
 and for what land ye are bound. Time is fast speed- 
 ing away: the hour is approaching when you will 
 say, " Shut the door of the world, and draw the cur- 
 tain before the window that lets in the light of the 
 natural sun." Then will aU the vain shew of the 
 world appear in its true light, and what looked so 
 gay and pleasant will be seen to be full of tinsel, 
 and to be decked out, with tawdry colors that will 
 cause you to close your eyes with a feeling of inward 
 disgust and loathing. 
 
84 
 
 I see that my medium desires that I may be allowed 
 to say something concerning animals in heaven, and 
 in the spiritual spheres generally; but she puts up 
 her prayer that it may not be so, if that desire springs 
 only from her . own natural feelings. Now I shall 
 not tell her from what feeling her thought arises, 
 but she wiU see into what path I shall lead her. 
 
 As the nature of spiritual animals is a subject that 
 would involve a great deal of the peculiar philosophy 
 of heaven, which in many respects is quite different 
 to the received theories of the world, to enter fiilly 
 into it would only give rise to profound disquisitions, 
 which would not be so profitable as many other hea- 
 venly themes, whereon it is more in accordance with 
 divine order for us to descant. 
 
 I am, however, thus far permitted to describe the 
 nature of the spiritual animal creation. Do not ever 
 suppose that the soul of any animal whatever is im- 
 mortal. The life that animates the body of an 
 animal is not spiritual, and being merely natural, it 
 must therefore perish with the natural body. The 
 natural body of man does not rise again from the 
 tomb, it perishes there ; but man has a spiritual soul 
 that can never die ; that is, it must exist for ever. 
 This spiritual part of man is clothed with a suitable 
 spiritual covering, which is called a spiritual body. 
 The spiritual soul has a natural soul attached to it, 
 otherwise it could not subsist in a spiritual and na- 
 
AN angel's message. 85 
 
 tural sphere at the same time. The spiritual soul 
 has a spiritual covering, and the natural soul has a 
 natural covering. The animal has only a natural 
 soul, and consequently only a natural body. "When 
 a man dies, or leaves the world of nature to enter the 
 world of spirit, he lays down his natural soul with 
 his natural body, never again to resume either the 
 one or the other. The animal does the same ; but 
 having no spiritual soul, he has no spiritual body, 
 because there is nothing for that body to cover. So 
 the man goes into a spiritual sphere in his spiritual 
 body, and the animal returns into the sphere of the 
 world, to be reproduced in some other form of natural 
 life. Not so with man ; for if the spiritual degree of 
 life is not opened in him in the world of nature, it 
 may be opened in the world of spirit. 
 
 Now, unless the Lord had mercifully provided 
 means for the better enlightenment hereafter of 
 many of His low and debased human creatures, few 
 of them could ever attain to the spiritual degree of 
 life, any more than the animal creation; for their 
 habits and customs are, in many respects, very little 
 different, and they can only be compared to beasts of 
 burden. But they are not like unto them spiritually, 
 though they may be so naturally. Therefore it is 
 that after the departure of the soul that has slept 
 away its spiritual existence on the bed of nature, it 
 rises into a sphere where there is a light that will 
 
86 
 
 penetrate into every low and narrow alley of the 
 mind ; and the man of sloth perceives that a day has 
 hegun to dawn, such as he had never looked on be- 
 fore. A new creation has opened and developed 
 to his mental perceptions, and his spirit-eye can dis- 
 cern that which was hid from it in the natural world. 
 
 O ye who slumber in darkness and in the shadow 
 of death, then will the light of love shine on ye! 
 But let us pause, — will it then shine on all, — will it 
 penetrate into the soul of every living human being ? 
 Yea, it will, if they open the windows of the soid to 
 receive it, but not if they keep them shut and barred 
 by the force of evil. It may be that a man does not 
 know how to open his soul's windows while on earth, 
 yet when he is removed to a purer atmosphere, he is 
 glad and rejoices to find they can be opened. So it 
 is with him who only slumbers ; but, alas, not so 
 with him who is spiritually dead ; he must go to the 
 habitation of death : but as he is a man and not an 
 animal, he b'ves a living death. 
 
 But I have promised to say how it is that we have 
 animals, — spiritual animals. They are seen far and 
 near in all the quarters of heaven, but they are 
 always those of a peaceful and amiable nature, and 
 they are very beautiful in appearance, very gentle in 
 manner, and of a truly engaging character. They 
 will all allow you to caress them, and will feed out of 
 your hand ; but the angels do not ever love them in 
 
AN angel's message. 87 
 
 the way that many do in your world. When a 
 message of love is to be conveyed from one society to 
 another, it is usual to see a lamb, or sometimes a 
 dove, or a horse with wings bearing that message, 
 inscribed on a scroll, or something of that kind, in 
 his mouth. This animal or bird is then in the de- 
 light of its life ; that is, for the time, or during the 
 continuance of that state in the angels : it is con- 
 scious of a feeling of pleasure, because it is in a state 
 of order. It is a creation arising from the affection 
 of the society which has sent the message of love of 
 which it is the bearer; but when that sentiment 
 reaches its completion, — that is, when it is received 
 by the angelic society to which it was sent, — then 
 the animal, being no longer needed, ceases to exist. 
 
 So, in our paradises and fields, we behold various 
 animals in the fall enjoyment of creation. They are 
 quite as conscious of life and perception as those in 
 the earth-sphere, but they only remain so as long as 
 the angels around them are in the particular state of 
 mind to which their presence and appearance corre- 
 sponds. . It may be that when I have mine own with 
 me in this sphere, that our conversation, and the 
 affection we may be exercising towards each other 
 at one time, (as you would call it, but I call it 
 state,) would be represented by a dove ; then there 
 will be doves seen, sitting on the branches of the 
 trees among which we may be walking, and as we 
 
88 AN angel's message. 
 
 pass they will coo and fly down to us. Now these 
 doves will be quite real, they will not be mere phan- 
 toms, — ^they will see us, and will feel a love for us, 
 and will therefore be attracted towards us. But if 
 our state changes, then will other animals of a dif- 
 ferent kind become associated with us, and accom- 
 pany us, as long as we continue to converse on that 
 particular theme to which their nature corresponds. 
 They delight us by their presence, because we know 
 -that they are spiritual creations, not only to please 
 the outward senses, but to recreate and exhilarate the 
 inward spirit. 
 
 My medium is, at the present moment, uncertain as 
 to whether she is to be permitted to write for me or 
 not ; for she is of a very sensitive nature, and she is 
 just now in the spiritual presence of an infant spirit, 
 who has recently departed from the earth-life. She 
 has just been to visit the remains of a little one of a 
 humble class ; for her soul is fond of the little ones 
 of earth, and she used to smile on the little being 
 now gone to her home above, as she sat in her path, 
 when her footsteps wended their homeward way to 
 her own happy abode. I see that she has just been 
 trying to console the mother for her lost child, by 
 representing the beauty and peace into which her 
 babe has now entered. 
 
89 
 
 My own is true to her woman's nature, and the 
 sight of an infant form will fill her heart with love 
 for them ; and she burns with a desire to turn their 
 tender minds to God, and the angel watchers she 
 believes to be with them. She has just told the 
 little brother of an angel sister, that she is not in the 
 cofiin beside which they stood, but that the body was 
 only her abode on earth, for her spirit is now in hea- 
 ven, where there are beautiful flowers, and where all 
 is beautiful and happy, — and that when he is good, 
 his angel sister will be with him, and she will be 
 so pleased then. The child looked on her face, and 
 said, " Yes ;" but poor little one, he knows not how 
 truly he answered her who sought to raise his little 
 soul on high. She prays for the little ones left to 
 wend their way through the winding paths of earth, 
 — she prays that the sister angel may be as a watcher 
 in the night, to guard their souls from harm, and to 
 lead their steps aright, — to join her in her Father's 
 home above. my own ! weep not ; your love for 
 the little ones of earth is not equal to the love of 
 their Father in heaven. His eye is on them, and on 
 all who need His care. It is Himself who gives you, 
 and all who experience a like feeling, — that holy de- 
 sire to raise and bless the ignorant with a knowledge 
 of heavenly truth. She who nurtured you in your 
 own infancy was much filled with that inward love 
 for the helpless little ones of earth, and you have 
 
90 AN angel's message. 
 
 sprung up in the soil of that blessed feeling. You 
 can well imagine what a mother's feelings and aspira- 
 tions must and ought to be. O ye who are mothers ! 
 love as her mother loved her offspring. Not on the 
 bodies of your children be all your care, — your 
 thoughts expended. Tend their bodies for the sake of 
 the spirit within. Read the outpouring of a true 
 mother's soul, in verse harmonious, which I have 
 placed in this work, because it may speak to the 
 heart of some thoughtless mother, and thus that 
 loved one above may be delighted to see the tree she 
 planted, bearing fruit she thought not of, when her 
 hand laid its roots in earthly soil. 
 
 Beloved of earth, all is fair to look upon in your 
 world, when the light of your natural orb shines upon 
 its beauties. There is a peace which speaks in elo- 
 quent language to the heart that is open to the sweet 
 voice of living nature. So is it with the sim of hea- 
 ven ; your mind's eye can behold it, for it comes to 
 your perception as a sweet calm that falls upon the 
 inward senses — a rest from sorrow — a confidence in 
 the Protector of your souls — a joy of heart — a gleam 
 of hope — a power to love — a sense of being loved. 
 These feelings are all rays from the sun of heaven, 
 permeating through the fibres of the soul, creating 
 there a genial glow — a morning brightness — an even- 
 ing splendor — a purity of feeling — a hallowed thought; 
 it may be, in ye of earth, a tear — ^but a tear of joy — 
 
AN angel's message. 91 
 
 one that, like the dewdrop on the green lawn, mU 
 but add a radiance to the beauty of this inward scene 
 of holy, happy, angelic peace. 
 
 But let us not be content with the contemplation 
 only of holy and divine themes. There is need of 
 action. There are those of our fellow beings, our 
 brethren in the flesh, who are slumbering in darkness, 
 and even worse than its mere gloom is on them. 
 They breathe a miasma — a pestilential atmosphere. 
 They are inhaling the breath of destruction. " There 
 is death in the pot, O man of God !" and if we are 
 not ready to cast in the meal, they will perish ; for 
 they have gathered wild gourds instead of the grape 
 of truth, which would have strengthened and nou- 
 rished their souls. Beloved, it was Grod who told 
 His servant the prophet to cast meal into the pot, 
 and then to pour out and let them eat ; therefore, 
 if ye look up to Him, and ask Him, He will tell ye 
 in your soul's ear, what ye should do to stay the 
 pestilence that walketh at midnight, and the destruc- 
 tion that wasteth at noonday. He will shew ye 
 where to find the meal that will cause the contents 
 of the pot to be " very good," and to be found to 
 contain life instead of death. I am one who desires 
 to cast meal into your pot. But ye may say. It is 
 veiry good, and there is no death in it. No, there 
 may not be death in it, but the meal that I will put 
 in, may make it more nourishing, more satisfying to 
 
92 
 
 the spiritual mind than it was before. I write for 
 those who love to hear what an angel has to say ; for 
 he comes as one from a distant land, to which ye are 
 aU boundj and it may be that he bears a message 
 that is very sweet for ye to hear. For why else does 
 he come? He has to descend to speak to ye in 
 your earthly language — ^to communicate with ye in 
 a tongue that is now foreign to his own ; for he has 
 long left the scene of his earthly sojourn, and has a 
 home above. There he is surrounded by every hea- 
 venly delight; he has one on earth who loves him 
 next to her Lord, who gives her that power to love 
 him. He leaves communing with her to speak to 
 ye — ye whom he has never known, and whom he 
 never may know. Why, do ye ask, does he do so ? 
 Even because his heart is full of love for ye all ; even 
 because it wiU gladden his soul to enlighten, or 
 benefit, or console, any one of ye, however humble. 
 I see it will gladden her who writes, if the little pea- 
 sant boy she has been talking to about his angel 
 sister, can thereby have his childish thoughts raised 
 to heaven. She would do much, and will still try to 
 bless those little lowly ones with words of angel story. 
 She thought to take a flower of earth to place on the 
 bosom of the corpse when she went to see it ; but 
 she wUl endeavor to strew heavenly blooms on the 
 little ones that now play alone, where the little being 
 gone home used to sit and smile on her as she passed by. 
 
AN angel's message. 93 
 
 I perceive that at various times during this writing, 
 she has been conscious of an air or breath on the 
 hand she rest^ on the paper. It began immediately 
 after her return from the visit to the earthly remains 
 of the child above alluded to, and she therefore sup- 
 poses it is occasioned by the proximity of her spirit ; 
 particularly as I have said that infant spirit is very 
 near. But it is occasioned by the presence of a host 
 of infantile spirits, who love her for her tender feel- 
 ings. They love to come and bear her company, 
 while her thoughts are bent on the little ones of 
 earth. They love to mingle their tender feelings of 
 affection with hers. Their souls are open to her; 
 they can breathe freely in her presence ; they rejoice 
 to see her with me ; they love a true conjugial sphere. 
 They will be with us more openly when she too comes 
 here. Oh ! she thinks with joy, that will be when her 
 body, too, will be laid, as the little one she had just 
 seen, in its earthly cof&n. 
 
 Be not ye who love the Lord 
 
 Afraid of any sorrow, 
 
 For it will but bless 
 
 The soul that mourns. 
 
 Lift up your heads 
 
 All sorrowing ones, 
 
 And let the light 
 
 Of love shine on ye. 
 
 Be not ye afraid 
 
 Of any mortal care. 
 
94 AN angel's message. 
 
 There is a sun that brighter shines 
 
 On those that mourn. 
 
 It is the sun of Love Divine. 
 
 Lift up your heads 
 
 All sorrowing ones, 
 
 And see your souls' release. 
 
 Be not afraid ! 
 
 The morning dawns 
 
 With such a bright effulgence, 
 
 That it casts a light before. 
 
 Lift up your heads, 
 
 O mortal mourners I 
 
 Be not ye cast down, — 
 
 Behold the hand Divine ! 
 
 It comes to bless the sorrowing soul ; 
 
 It bears a message for ye. 
 
 Be not ever lonely. 
 
 Sweet and holy 
 
 Is the message for ye. 
 
 Take, O take it quickly, 
 
 For it bears a blessing to ye. 
 
 Lift, O lift the portal * 
 
 Of your soul's desiring. 
 
 Let it enter on the threshold 
 
 Of your holy temple. 
 
 " Give, O give me back my one, 
 Give her back to me !" 
 
 Say ye so, beloved? 
 
 Be not ever selfish. 
 
 She is gone before ye, — 
 
 She is gone to love ye. 
 
 In the spirit 
 
 She is with thee. 
 
 Be, be not ever selfish : 
 
 Bead, O read your inward soul. 
 
AN angel's message. 95 
 
 " Shall I have a wilUng heart 
 To bring back my lost one ? 
 Shall I have my lost one back ? 
 Take, take the dear one gone 
 To her Father's home ! 
 I would not restore her 
 To her mother's arms below, 
 For her soul is blest above, 
 Where she liveth now. 
 Take, O take away. 
 All that selfish is ; 
 And restore my withered heart 
 With the dew of heaven." 
 
 Be not ever mourning 
 
 For the lost below. 
 
 They are found above, 
 
 Where the blest assemble. 
 
 Be, O be ye ever grateful 
 
 For the hope of heaven. 
 
 It win cheer the desolate, 
 
 And will calm the troubled breast ; 
 
 It is given to cheer ye 
 
 On your upward way. 
 
 Be ever grateful to your Father. 
 
 Leave, leave repining, 
 
 'Tis a useless sorrow. 
 
 That would call her back to earth, — 
 
 That would close her gate of life. 
 
 And bring back the twilight hour. 
 
 Leave, O leave your vain repining, 
 
 And give thanks to Christ on high ! 
 
 Belov'd, look up on high, 
 And see the angel watchers. 
 
96 AN angel's message. 
 
 Bright are the beams of love 
 That from their faces glow. 
 Holy is the hrightness 
 That on the infant gleams. 
 Happy is the mother 
 That has a habe on high. 
 Blessed is the morning 
 That on that offspring dawns, 
 Beaming with effulgence 
 Of celestial glory. 
 Happy is the shining 
 Of the perfect day, 
 That for ever will remain 
 On her face immortal. 
 Look up from the clay. 
 And remember her 
 As an angel watcher 
 In life's holy Eden. 
 On her brothers see her smile. 
 On her mother dear ; 
 On her father's low estate, 
 See the little one look down. 
 Dry the tear of sorrow. 
 Eaise the eye of faith 
 To her soul departed ; 
 Love to think of her above. 
 In her Father's house : 
 Love to see her angel form 
 In the angel garb. 
 Be not bound to earth below. 
 But seek her home above. 
 Be ye glad to think of her 
 As an angel guide 
 To that heavenly land 
 Where no sorrow comes, — 
 Where the lost are found, — 
 Where all shall blessing find. 
 In your home on high. 
 
AN angel's message. 97 
 
 The mercy and love of God is shewn, not only in 
 the grand and striking outline of life's varied pic- 
 tures, but also in the most minute and delicate 
 touches of His hand on its surface. Its lights and 
 shadows are aU arranged by Him; and His divine 
 plan is marked in the little form of some blade or 
 herb, or some tiny flower, that too often escapes the 
 observation of those who are prone to dwell only on 
 its more prominent features. 
 
 The mine of earthly jewels .may yield many a gem 
 that will sparkle in a monarch's crown, and pass un- 
 noticed there. But take one little solitary diamond, 
 place it in a ring, and give it to her who loves you ! — 
 she will not exchange it for all its fellows in the 
 coronet of earthly grandeur. It will be a richer 
 treasure in her eyes than all that can be bestowed by 
 kingly power ; for it was the voice of love that said, 
 " Take this, and wear it for me \" It was given to 
 her by a power that the monarchs of earth bow before, 
 and in whose grasp the strong become weak. 
 
 My own has no gem of earth to wear for me, but 
 the cross of gold I wore and cherished, now rests on 
 the bosom of her who loves me. Yet, not till our 
 spirit-union was in nature sealed, did my once-trea- 
 sured cross become her own ; but now, as a marriage 
 ring, it never leaves her earthly form. 
 
 My own beheld me in a dream ere she knew me 
 to be hers ; and although she gazed on my spiritual 
 
98 AN angel's message. 
 
 form, she knew me not, but wondered wliat angel I 
 could be ; for she saw that I had an angel's face, and 
 long golden hair, and was clothed in the vestments 
 of heaven ; — that I gazed on her with earnest eyes, 
 that I was elevated above the earth whereon she stood, 
 and was surrounded by clouds, some light, but others 
 dark and lowering, which, at last, closed and hid me 
 from her view. 
 
 Oh ! how she has since dwelt upon this vision — 
 this ghmpse she was allowed to have of my spiritual 
 appearance. How, in the hours of trial that soon 
 succeeded, it cheered her soul to recall it to her me- 
 mory ; for she well knew then that it was I who had 
 thus shewn myself to her; and she now knows that 
 the clouds by which I was surrounded represented 
 those mental states (some of them very dark ones), 
 that have since overshadowed her spirit, and some- 
 times even hid me from her view. Oh ! how she has 
 prayed and longed to see me as she did then, that 
 she might know of a certainty that it was the truth 
 I was telling her ; what reasonings within herself, if 
 indeed it could be true, or whether it were but a 
 dark temptation — a fearful trial that she was passing 
 through — a dream that she should awake from — a 
 passing shade of the night. Oh ! how I have heard 
 her pray that God would shew her if this thing were 
 indeed true, or that He would take it away if it were 
 not. How the tears have dropped one by one, as she 
 
AN angel's message. 99 
 
 has pondered on these things ! Sometimes she has 
 thought, " Yes, it must be so," and then again have 
 come the clouds that hid me from her view. 
 
 Many and many are the clouds that hang over 
 mortals, and many and many are the bright and 
 shining ones that watch behind those clouds. Some 
 are darker than others, — some are light and gilded as 
 the evening sunset, — ^but they are generally as fleet- 
 ing, for the shadows of night succeed, and their 
 brightness is gone for a time. But the morning 
 dawns, and again they are gilded even to the shining 
 of the perfect day. So has it been with her, and so 
 wUl it be with many. A day of your world is often 
 compared to a life, and so it may be j for as the hours 
 advance, so states progress, and the changing face of 
 nature is a semblance of your changing states. 
 
 In some cases, spirits become visible to the natural 
 sight. It is not so impossible to see them with the 
 bodily organ of vision as is generally supposed, for 
 the eye is a very spiritual organ, and it can be so 
 prepared as to behold spiritual beings apparently by 
 natural light. Where this is the case a human being 
 may be seen standing near you, of like proportions 
 with yourself, but of a more fragile or transparent 
 appearance. Now my own has never beheld a spirit 
 in this way, but she perfectly well remembers to have 
 seen, when in a state between sleeping and waking, 
 a beautiful female sitting at her bed-side, placing 
 
 f2 
 
100 AN angel's message. 
 
 flowers on her prostrate form. She lay in calm con- 
 templation of this lovely being, who was then her 
 angelic guide and constant attendant, and who 
 watched her sorrowing spirit with much affection. It 
 was then a heavy time with her who is now so happy ; 
 her pillow might have been stUl wet with tears, but 
 at the moment of seeing the heavenly visitant, her 
 heart was reposing for a season, refreshed by the 
 tranquil slumbers that usually followed the painful 
 feelings which caused those tears to flow. So she lay 
 and gazed with her spirit-eyes on the angelic form 
 beside her, and saw the flowers she was carefully 
 placing upon her person. At last she placed a wreath 
 of white roses on the bed. My own then raised her- 
 self up (as it appeared to her, for her body did not 
 move from its recumbent position), in order to get a 
 full view of the angd's face, the profile of which was 
 alone visible to Tier ; but the spirit gently turned her 
 head away, so as to prevent her face from being fully 
 seen, and my own then awoke from the kind of trance 
 she had experienced. 
 
 Spirits are sometimes seen by mediums in this way, 
 but some are accustomed to behold them when per- 
 fectly awake, and in the light of day ; but then they 
 are in a very different state. But to see spirits in 
 the way I have described my medium to have done, 
 is much more truly spiritual and interior; for the 
 natural mind is then asleep, yet the spirit is awake ; 
 
AN angel's message. 101 
 
 for she saw all the natural objects in her room at the 
 same time. 
 
 She has received the ardent caresses of her loved 
 spirit-mother, when in a state for open communion ; 
 but this was also before her writing mediumship com- 
 menced. On one occasion the visitation was pre- 
 ceded by the appearance of a white dove of very- 
 brilliant aspect, sitting on an eminence and looking 
 towards her. She calmly contemplated this vision, 
 and remarked to herself how beautiful it was ; being 
 perfectly awake, — ^yet her bodily eyes were sealed, so 
 that she could not open them, though earnestly de- 
 siring to do so. Ou the disappearance of the dove, 
 she was palpably embraced, but she saw no form ; 
 her spirit -eye could see the dove, hut not the angelic 
 being who then approached her. Well did she know 
 it was the spirit of her she loved, for I was then un- 
 known to her. Plainly did she perceive that ardent 
 sphere of love ; palpably did she feel the living breath; 
 clearly did she hear the whispering voice (but could 
 not catch the words it uttered, for her spirit-ear was 
 not suflSciently opened), — rapidly did that angel form 
 pass over her passive frame, and she opened her 
 eyes to the world of nature, filled with the tears of 
 joy, for well she knew that it was an angelic visita- 
 tion. She has also received kisses on her forehead, 
 when so fully awake that she has asked if they might 
 be repeated, and they were repeated as plainly as 
 
103 AN angel's message. 
 
 before; the feeling being precisely as though her 
 brow were pressed by human lips, though none were 
 in the room with her. She has felt drops of crystal 
 water fall on her forehead, and has also asked if it 
 might be repeated, which was done. These latter 
 cases occurred when she was perfectly awake, for in 
 the last instance she was about to rise, as the morn- 
 ing sun warned her it was already day. 
 
 I see that she is conscious of many other indica- 
 tions of the close proximity of the spiritual world, 
 and of the power sometimes given to its inhabitants 
 to make their presence known to mortals ; but those 
 I have here recorded are sufficient to shew that it is 
 all under the guidance of the Almighty that these 
 wonderful things occur} for they could not possibly 
 do so without His divine superintendence. They are 
 not permitted for the sole purpose of exciting your 
 astonishment, or of merely aflFording you gratifica- 
 tion; but on account of the train of thought to 
 which they will naturedly give rise. You would per- 
 haps be very much astonished at first, as my dear 
 one was, but at last you would, as she did, begin to 
 reflect how very near the spiritual world must be for 
 such things to be possible, — and by having your re- 
 quest for a repetition immediately attended to, you 
 would perceive that it is possible to converse men- 
 tally with departed spirits. 
 
 There are also sensational experiences, sometimes 
 
AN angel's message. 103 
 
 of a very remarkaWe character, attending a state 
 of open intercourse; but of these I shall not say 
 more, than that they proceed from a spiritual law, 
 and are the consequence of the state of preparation 
 which even the bodily organs and internal viscera 
 must undergo, to produce the right and suitable con- 
 ditions to enable spirits to act through those natural 
 organs, in order to communicate with the medium, 
 and thereby with others. 
 
 To have the power of open communion with heaven 
 bestowed during the earth-life, is not to be consi- 
 dered as any special display of divine favor, any more 
 than to have it kept closed till the entrance into the 
 spirit-life; because some minds are so constituted 
 that they cannot admit open intercourse in any form 
 without danger to their peace, both in the present 
 life and in the one to follow. It is a false impression 
 to suppose that the mediatorial condition will neces- 
 sarily injure the health ; — it will rather improve it, if 
 the medium is in an orderly state of mind ; but if 
 not, it will undoubtedly injure the health of the body 
 as well as that of the mind. There are many who 
 have rashly attempted to open it without considering 
 the sacred nature of such communion; and have 
 thereby brought on states of trial, and subjected 
 themselves to be so led and deluded by artful and ill- 
 disposed spirits, that fearful sufferings have been the 
 inevitable consequence. Many of you desire it to be 
 
104 AN angel's message. 
 
 opened in you at once, because you think you could 
 do much good ; but be assured that if you could do 
 good either to yourselves or others, by having the 
 mediatorial state opened in you, it would not be 
 withheld. 
 
 I hear my own pray that she may be kept in the 
 entire subjugation of self, and dependence upon God 
 alone. Beloved ! that is the only true form of prayer. 
 You may put it in as different, or in as many, words 
 as you please, but let that sentiment pervade all the 
 prayers that you offer up to God ; you wiU then be 
 free from all delusion, whether you are open to spirit- 
 intercourse or not. A.S long as you feel the full im- 
 port of that holy sentiment, no false or lying spirits 
 can approach you; and if they have done so, they 
 wUl flee away, and never dare to come within your 
 spiritual atmosphere again. 
 
 The mediatorial condition is not consequent upon 
 individual regeneration, but as it collectively advances, 
 that state wiU be much more frequently experienced ; 
 for it is a faculty given to every human being, but at 
 present, few can receive it without incurring the dan- 
 ger of perversion. The development of high mediums 
 is often attended with painful trials to themselves, 
 but I have no sympathy with those who think they 
 can detect error where only painful experience is re- 
 lated. The drop of bitterness is sometimes obliged 
 to be allowed to fall into the cup of truth. It wiU 
 
AN angel's message. 105 
 
 cause some to dash it from them. My own medium 
 removed it from her lips for a brief period, and 
 thought that she could never taste of it again; but 
 she essayed to taste again, and how has she been 
 blest by it ! 
 
 I am now an angel, and she who writes this record 
 is a woman in your natural world. But her spirit is 
 open to holy influences from heaven; and it is by 
 this means that I come, by the permission of God, to 
 lead and instruct her, and now — ^by the great mercy 
 and love of God — I am permitted to teach and to 
 shew you also, that there are many things that are yet 
 unknown to most of you. It has seemed good, in 
 the wise counsels of the Almighty, to reveal to her, 
 what is usually hid from the rest of her sex, — ^that 
 she has a conjugial partner here. But she is praying 
 her God to give her true humility, for she well knows 
 that her infirmities are many. They often come 
 before her ; and then she raises her soul to God, and 
 He shews her all that I am come to shew her — that 
 she is a very weak fallible mortal, but that He who 
 keeps her soul in His hand, is very strong, and is able 
 to preserve her from all harm. 
 
 The voice of love has never reached her outward 
 ear. It has been implied by looks and words, but it 
 was never permitted to assume a more decided form. 
 The expected disclosure of the secrets of the heart 
 was never made, the breath of love was never breathed. 
 
 F 3 
 
106 AN angel's message. 
 
 I am therefore the only one who has ever said, " I 
 love thee/' I am the only one who has received her 
 heart, and oh! she prays her God and my God to 
 give her a fitting heart for me to love ! She opens 
 aU her soul to me ; and one of the great and many 
 blessings she thinks she has to praise Him for, is, 
 that she loved — she truly loved — none other. Her 
 spirit has often been sad when she has thought that 
 she has never been loved ; for it was the natural hope 
 that she should be. It had been nursed in the warm 
 bed of conjugial love ; for when she was born, it was 
 the true sphere of that holy love that she came into. 
 It was the spring, that was typified by the verdure 
 that then adorned the face of nature. It bloomed 
 in holy flowers in the souls of her parents, and she 
 came like a tender bud that opened and expanded in 
 the sun of that love. O my own ! I, too, pined for 
 one who could know me as I was, for I too was deso- 
 late and alone. It was love of that particular kind 
 that I sought, but I found it not. 
 
 Be not slow to catch the voice of truth. Listen 
 for its music. Pray that your soul's organ may be 
 touched vrith a hallowed finger, and open your mind's 
 eye to behold the ministering angel, as he strikes the 
 note of harmony unearthly that ye have never listened 
 to before. The ear of her who is mine, is now ever 
 open to that heavenly strain, but it is only kept so 
 by looking up to God. But, perhaps, you also believe 
 
AN angel's message. 107 
 
 that your eye is raised to His throne^ and your spirit- 
 ear is kept open to His voice, and yet you cannot 
 believe in this thing. How is this ? It is that you 
 have not fully opened your mind to receive the light 
 from heaven; the windows of your soul's mansion 
 are kept shut and barred by prejudice, and by the 
 force of the falsity ye have admitted into that abode 
 of life, — ^that all open intercourse with the departed 
 is disorderly and bad, leading to error and delusion. 
 Beloved, how is this ? What is the effect of the open 
 intercourse she has enjoyed for so long a time past? 
 What evil, or what falsity has it led her into ? What 
 self-exaltation has it caused? How is it to be de- 
 plored ? What mischief has arisen from it ? Answer 
 all these questions, with perfect truth and sincerity, 
 and see what the result will be, and believe and act 
 accordingly. 
 
 END OF part I. 
 
AN 
 
 ANGEL'S MESSAGE. 
 
 PART II. 
 
AN 
 
 ANGEL'S MESSAGE. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 In this portion of my work, I desire to bring before 
 you those sacred truths and principles which will be 
 the means, under the Divine auspices, of elevating 
 your spiritual minds to Him, who desires to bring 
 you all into a state to become eternal recipients of 
 love and blessing from Himself. All who come to 
 Grod, by opening their miuds to receive His holy in- 
 flux, are nourished by Him : and they wiU all be so, 
 more and more ; for the light of truth has come into 
 your world, and all who love light better than dark- 
 ness, will have their spiritual eyes opened to discern 
 it. 
 
 I see that there are many who will say, "But if 
 an angel is to come down to teach us, and tell us of 
 heaven and heavenly things, why does he not tell us 
 something new ? There must be a very great deal 
 that he leaves unsaid and unrevealed." O yes ! there 
 is much that he has left untold and unrevealed of the 
 
112 AN angel's message. 
 
 spiritual concerns of life. " Why," do ye ask, " has 
 he done so ?" Even because your mind's eye cannot 
 yet be unsealed to see that which might be presented 
 before your spiritual sight, nor your spiritual ear 
 opened to hear with certainty all that might be poured 
 into it. Remember the Lord's words wjien He walked 
 your earth. Ye are still in the same case : there are 
 many things that are kept within the treasury of the 
 Lord's house, to be revealed to mortals when they 
 are prepared to receive them. Your eyes must become 
 adapted to the light as it descends to you, and it will 
 descend more and more as you are able to bear it, 
 and to derive benefit from its reception within you;' 
 for so far as you are able to be blessed by it, so far 
 only will your Heavenly Pather bestow it upon you. 
 
 The light of heaven is very bright, it shineth in 
 dark places. The owls of false persuasion wLQ be 
 startled by it, and will fly to and fro in your mental 
 atmosphere; and some may say, "Why are we 
 thus disturbed? We slept calmly before, and de- 
 sired it not. Let the birds of night sleep in our 
 soul's habitation ; for when they are awakened they 
 shriek and are affi-ighted." Yes ! but then they will 
 fly away, and the dove of peace will come and nestle 
 in the bosom that was desolate before. 
 
 The rain-drops of truth that already fall on earth, 
 cannot yet be received by all ; for some doubt their 
 heavenly origin, and say, " Why does not the whole 
 
AN angel's message. 113 
 
 shower come at once? Our land is barren; these 
 solitary drops do hut mock its need of refreshment — 
 they are too insignificant to proceed from the fount 
 above." Nay^ beloved, rather say they are the cer- 
 tain indications of an invigorating shower of truth, 
 that is held in suspension over your heads. When it 
 comes it will penetrate to the heart, it wiU refresh 
 the flowers that already grow there, and it wiU cause 
 the slumbering germ to spring up, to put forth the 
 bud of promise, and to develop the blossom of good, 
 that will yield a rich harvest of fruit to be gathered 
 for the vintage above. 
 
 Therefore take the little I can at present give ye. 
 It is true that I know more than I teE ye — ^that I 
 see much more than I can open your eyes to behold ; 
 but while ye long for a more copious draught from 
 my chalice, ask yourselves if ye have thought of God 
 — of His nature and attributes — as ye might have 
 done. Have ye felt on all occasions as ye think an 
 angel would feel under like circumstances ? Some, 
 I doubt not, have done so ; for many an angel veiled 
 in flesh, walks your earth that ye know not of; and 
 when the eye of such a one reads these pages, his 
 soul will be lifted up with praise and thanksgiving, 
 that the truths which have so blessed him, will now 
 be made known to others. He has long known the 
 way to heaven, he has long revelled in the luxury of 
 dwelling on holy themes, the sacred page is his daily 
 
114 AN angel's message. 
 
 study, his heart is full of love to all mankind ; but 
 his soul has often mourned in secret, that others did 
 not know of the good things to be had from a know- 
 ledge of even the most simple truths. He has seen 
 a good man moiu-n with a despairing grief, because 
 he knew not that there is a holy marriage-tie that 
 can never be severed ; he has seen a kind and generous 
 heart, yet rebuke an erring one with harshness ; he 
 has seen an open nature, yet stoop to deceit — to pan- 
 der to some low worldly associate ; he has seen the 
 Word of God, that to him was fuU of light, consi- 
 dered a dark mysterious record : he has seen all this, 
 and where he could, he has pointed to the Light and 
 Life of men. 
 
 But can one individual finger point out the way 
 to all? Many will not read this book; they will 
 never hear of it. Some will not care about it when 
 they do ; some will read it out of curiosity ; for they 
 will be much amazed at its title. Some will read 
 it because they will, think to find some absurd or 
 false statements in it, to confirm their preconceived 
 opinions, that all such open communion with departed 
 spirits is disorderly, and therefore dangerous. But 
 some, it is hoped and believed, will read with their 
 minds open to the light of heaven; and although 
 they may find many things in it with which they are 
 well acquainted, yet will they be pleased to think 
 that these truths and exhortations to good feelings, 
 
AN angel's message. 115 
 
 may now be presented to some wlio did not know 
 them before, and thus some little chord of sympathy- 
 may be touched — some still small yoice may be raised 
 that will whisper to the conscience within, " I have 
 not felt or acted as this angel says we ought to do," 
 and then there will be a reasoning process commenced, 
 which will give the attendant angels and spirits in- 
 gress into the affections, and a way will thereby be 
 opened for the light of heaven to pour in. 
 
 The beauty of angels is according to the degree of 
 regeneration they have severally attained during the 
 earth-life; but they also progress in perfection to 
 eternity : therefore, one is more beautiful than ano- 
 ther, one is more youthful in appearance than another, 
 one is more happy than another. Those who have 
 been long dead, as you call it, the most truly live ; 
 for they look generally younger and more lovely than 
 those who have more recently departed from your 
 sphere. 
 
 On leaving the earth-sphere, there is much dross 
 clinging to the soul. This has to be removed, some- 
 times by a very painful process, sometimes by a pro- 
 cess less painful, and some can be prepared for heaven 
 by a very pleasant process. All are treated accord- 
 ing to their various requirements ; some require pain 
 to purify them, and others need only to be soothed 
 and comforted. AU are tenderly treated, and all are 
 loved. Even the evil and violent man is not treated 
 
116 AN angel's message. 
 
 with any degree of harshness or seyerity. His com- 
 plaint is considered just as a good physician consi- 
 ders the ailment of one on earthj whose only care is 
 to remove the diseasej and that with as little suflFer- 
 ing to the patient as possible. But if the evil be 
 deeply rooted, it wUl take both time and suffering to 
 remove it; particularly if the evil one is not willing 
 to have it removed : for it does not depend upon the 
 will of the spiritual patient, as it does upon that of 
 the natural one, whether he will submit to be cured 
 or not. If it is seen by the searching eye of God 
 that an evil heart can be made whole. He does not 
 attend to the desire to be let alone, and allowed to 
 continue in the practice of evil habits, or the indul- 
 gence of bad feelings. 
 
 I have said that I was very happy on my first en- 
 trance into the spirit-sphere. I did not then perceive 
 any particular change of life ; but if I had not suf- 
 fered, I could never have had what I now receive. 
 I must have remained shut out from the society of 
 angels, who cannot endure the presence of any spirit 
 who has earthly impurity attached to him, which 
 ought to have been'laid in the grave with his natural 
 body, there to perish, to be consumed by loathsome 
 worms and crawling things of the earth, to which 
 the gross and evil lusts of the flesh correspond. So 
 that if you would all try to put aside your low and 
 merely sensual appetites and propensities, while you 
 
117 
 
 are living in the body, they would be put off with 
 that body, never again to rise from the grave in which 
 it has been laid ; and you would thereby save your- 
 selves much suffering and anxiety of mind, on your 
 entrance into the life of the spirit, which is the true 
 life, the only one to be properly considered life. 
 
 You will be surprised, as I was, when you wake to 
 the life of the spirit without the natural body, to 
 perceive how truly you seem to live, with what elas- 
 ticity of thought, power, and motion, you are en- 
 dowed. The atmosphere wiU be so much more 
 rarified, and all the powers of thought and percep- 
 tion will be so immensely encreased ; and when you 
 become aware of the change that has taken place, 
 not only within, but without you also, your spirits 
 will rise in proportion to its greatness. But it is only 
 as you have progressed in goodness and truth in the 
 world you have left, that you can retain this joyous 
 state of feeling ; for if you delight in impurity, you 
 cannot associate with the pure in heart. You may 
 think to conceal it from the eyes of angels, as you 
 have previously done from those of men; but an 
 angel, or even a good spirit, cannot be so deceived. 
 He will perceive an evil odour from your presence ; 
 you will appear to him as an ugly and deformed 
 object, from whom he must avert his spiritual eye : 
 for God cannot look upon sin, and therefore, he who 
 is transformed into His image, cannot do so either. 
 
118 AN angel's message. 
 
 Then will come upon you pain and sorrow of heart, 
 such as you had never experienced before ; and if you 
 desire to put away the evil offence from before the 
 eyes of God and His angels, you will pray fervently, 
 with deep and earnest contrition of soul, to the Lord 
 your Saviour, that He wiU, by His divine power, 
 cleanse you from the defilement that you perceive is 
 stUl clinging to you. 
 
 Happy will it be for ye, my friends, if ye feel this 
 spiritual desire to be made clean j that is what is 
 meant by being washed in the blood of the Lamb. 
 For it is by the cross and passion of Christ, the Lamb 
 of God, that the purification from your sins can be 
 effected. He came upon the earth a lamb, white 
 and spotless, but He took upon Himself your evil 
 nature. He was tempted in all points like as ye are. 
 He felt the power of sin uncontrollable to any mortal ; 
 but He was God. He alone could control it. He 
 alone could bruise the serpent's head ; He alone could 
 look upon sin, and sin not. He alone could combat 
 with all hell, could overcome the powers of darkness, 
 and He alone could bring life and immortality to 
 light. Therefore, beloved, though your sins be as 
 scarlet. He can make them white as wool. 
 
 But this happy change cannot come to pass with- 
 out the mind being conscious of a holy longing — an 
 inward aspiration to be virtuous and pure, and it 
 must also be very willing to suffer, if it is given to 
 
AN angel's message. 119 
 
 understand that suffering will be necessary, to com- 
 plete the purifying process. 
 
 But I have said, it may be that an evil man is so 
 immersed in his lusts and fantasies, that he does not 
 wish to leave them ; yet it may appear to the omni- 
 scient eye of God, that by suffering he can be puri- 
 fied from those evils, which are bearing him down to 
 hell, and that, by such purification, he may be 
 brought into a state to regard goodness and truth as 
 the great end and blessing of his existence. In this 
 case, the man is put into the furnace of his own pas- 
 sions, and when he is almost distracted by the torture 
 they will occasion in his spiritual nature, he despairs 
 of ever being different. He thinks he is in hell, 
 where he deserves to be, for he remembers then, with 
 bitter anguish, aU the evil things he did when in the 
 world ; how he murdered the innocent, how he pol- 
 luted the pure, how he destroyed widows' houses, 
 and sought to build up his own den of iniquity; and 
 he thinks he is now justly punished for all these 
 crimes committed in the flesh. He sees how much 
 suffering, torture, and hideousness, evil passions occa- 
 sion to others, and now to himself also. He thinks 
 of the good things he may have enjoyed in the life 
 of the natural body ; but where are they now ? They 
 come before his mental vision, but to mock and deride 
 the agony of his present condition. He sees no way 
 out. His companions exult in his misery; he is shut 
 
120 AN angel's message. 
 
 up with, them, and how can he ever leave them ? 
 Had he been in the natural body, he would have 
 sought relief by death, by forcibly quitting the mortal 
 tenement ; but there is no death unto the spirit. He 
 is now a spirit, so he must live for ever as he is, — a 
 wretched devil in hell. 
 
 O beloved ! let us leave this awful scene. Let us 
 look on the pitying faces of the angel- watchers. The 
 wretched spirit sees them not ; he sees only the forms 
 of horror by whom he is surrounded, and whom he 
 would fain leave, if he could. But, my friends, God 
 is love, and mercy is His living attribute. He does 
 not exercise these principles on some only, but on all. 
 I have often repeated that God loves not as man 
 loves, but as man ought to love, if he would be an 
 image and likeness of his Maker ; for God loves all 
 alike, He is no respecter of persons. He loves even 
 the devils in hell, but He abhors the evil that has 
 caused them to be there, — that has created around 
 them a hell instead of a heaven. 
 
 O my readers, look at the words of Scripture by 
 the light of heaven j let the sun of divine love shed 
 a golden ray on its sacred page, and do not think 
 that the light of nature is all-sufficient to shew you 
 its hidden glories. It there says, that God is angry 
 with the wicked every day, — that He taketh vengeance 
 on His adversaries, — that He is wrathful and furious. 
 Yea, beloved. He appears so indeed to the evil man. 
 
121 
 
 for he suffers in the way I have described. He raises 
 the cloud of evil exhalation^ and sees God's face as a 
 devouring flame, because it seeks to penetrate that 
 cloud. 
 
 But His Almighty eyjs is quick to discern the 
 shadow of turning in the poor spirit we have contem- 
 plated. He sees this prodigal afar off, and He has- 
 tens to meet him. He prepares the fatted calf; that 
 is, He prepares the good things which He will give 
 the lost one, in such a way that they will the most 
 refresh and strengthen his weary soul. 
 
 Happy are the servants He employs to do His bid- 
 ding ; anxiously do they watch His face to catch the 
 word of commission, to go to the tortured soul, and 
 infuse into his mind a faint ray of hope. It must be 
 but a very faint and modified gleam of light that is 
 at first allowed to penetrate that dark prison-house ; 
 for it is a hell of evil passion that this spirit has been 
 put into. It is typified by the flame, and the burn- 
 ing pitch, and brimstone, mentioned in Scripture. 
 All such language, when used in Holy Writ, is to be 
 taken in a strictly metaphorical sense ; the natural 
 elements of fire, pitch, and brimstone, do not exist 
 in a spiritual world. 
 
 A very faint yet perceptible ray of heavenly light, 
 in the form of a dawn of hope, has crossed the mind 
 of this suffering one; then again it seems to fade 
 away, and — "No, there is no hope for me!" — is 
 
 G 
 
122 AN angel's message. 
 
 again his sorrowful cry. But once morej and when 
 least expected^ conies that faint gleam of promise, 
 and now, behold, it lasts a little longer, and it seems 
 more tangible. So it comes and goes ; it is as the 
 coming and going of the waters. At last the dry 
 land appears, and the mountains are seen ; and the 
 man looks out of the window of his soul, and sees 
 the mountain-top of blessing afar off. He begins to 
 think that there is a God, and he has heard that He 
 is very merciful and kind, and that Jesus Christ came 
 into the world to save sinners, — to save such as he is i 
 so if he prays to Him, who shall say what message of 
 love may come ? At all events, he can try, and if it 
 fail, his condition will be no worse than it is already. 
 Beloved, see the soul in hell lift up its spirit-eyes 
 towards the realms of the blessed ! See this Noah 
 open the window of his ark, and let forth the heavenly 
 dove, that had so long been pent up without stretch- 
 ing her wing, or sporting in the atmosphere above ! 
 She flies with steady wing tosi^ards the mountain- top 
 in sight; but she cannot reach it, for her wing is 
 weakened by long imprisonment. So she returns 
 again, without any message of love, any answer to 
 the petition that the troubled soul has sent forth. 
 Just so it is with the voice of one unused to pray : 
 he puts up a weak, unimpassioned form of words, 
 that seem inclined to return from whence they came. 
 Again the heart is sad, and hope is faint. The waters 
 
AN angel's message. 123 
 
 flow to and fro, but there is no more land in sight. 
 AH is a desolate, weary waste. There is no green 
 leaf to be seen, no rest for the sole of the dove's foot. 
 Why send her forth again? she will only return 
 devoid of anything in her mouth. 
 
 But at last the mountain is so plainly seen, that 
 the human prisoner will put up another petition for 
 help. He sends forth again his dove of prayer — of 
 supplication to God most high. This time his prayer 
 is answered; his dove returns with an olive-branch 
 in her mouth. He takes her in ; and when agaiu he 
 puts up his prayer, or sends forth his dove, she re- 
 turns no more, for she has found a rest for the sole 
 of her foot. His prayer is answered, heavenly mes- 
 sengers are come. They bear him up in their arms, 
 lest he should dash his foot against a stone — lest any 
 more evil passions should cross his upward path — lest 
 he should return to the heU from whence they are 
 bearing him. Gradually they accustom him to the 
 light of heaven ; for it is all very new to him. His 
 eye is yet dim with tears ; but they were tears of 
 sorrow for the. evil he had done in the natural world. 
 He has mourned, so now he is comforted; he has 
 wept, so now his tears are wiped away. He rises, 
 he progresses; but he remembers with dread and 
 anguish, how bitter was the cup that restored him. to 
 life — how severe was the knife that removed the 
 canker from his heart's core. 
 
 g3 
 
124 AN angel's message. 
 
 Be not slothful in the concerns of the spirit, for 
 the spirit is of more importance than the body. The 
 spirit will live for ever, but the body will go to its 
 dust — dust to dust, and ashes to ashes — spirit to 
 spirit — like to like — good to good — evil to evil — 
 darkness to darkness — light to light. 
 
 God sees the interior mind of man, and He sees 
 that there is evil in the hidden part, which is not visi- 
 ble to the human eye. He sees that, unless the silver 
 that is within is purified from the dross that covers it, 
 destruction will ensue. The process may be a very 
 fiery one, but it will be short. It will save from an 
 eternity of woe, from impurity which would bear 
 him down, far from the peaceful homes of heaven, 
 where purity, peace, and happiness may be his for 
 ever. Would it not be much more reasonable to be 
 horrified, to know that terrific scenes were being per- 
 petrated for ever, with encreasing anguish, rather 
 than that a short period served to effect a cure of the 
 evil, which, if suffered to remain in tranquillity, would 
 have had that direful effect ? 
 
 Is it not, then, by a mercifiil dispensation of Pro- 
 vidence, that fearful trials are sometimes allowed to 
 be experienced by mortals, before entering the eternal 
 state ? For when the veil of earth is rent, then will 
 they rise prepared to receive of the good things 
 which their ever-watchful Lord is ready and waiting 
 to bestow upon them. The night may be dark and 
 
AN angel's message. 125 
 
 full of horror and dismay ; but the morning cometh, 
 and bright will be the dawning of the day that begins 
 in heaven, where the suffering soul will come fresh 
 from the purifying process ; tender wiU be the hands 
 that wiU receive it, hallowed and pure will be the 
 kiss of love from angel lips, quickly will they drop 
 the veil over the scene it has left, and with their 
 angel fingers raise the one that will reveal to the 
 enraptured sight the eternal glories of the spirit 
 spheres. 
 
 Oh ! what revealings of hidden thoughts, of secret 
 motives, will be opened to you all, as ye, one by one, 
 enter the spiritual sphere. The light of heaven will 
 penetrate into every secret chamber of your soul. 
 All will be made to appear. Your secret sins will be 
 seen in the light of His countenance. The little 
 tender feeling — the tear of sympathy — the sigh of 
 regret for another's woe — the pitying look — the un- 
 hallowed word — the careless indifference — ^the harsh 
 rebuke, to the wounding of some gentle spirit — will 
 all come forth here. The despised of earth may 
 have had his, or her, hallowed thoughts ; they shall 
 not one of them be lost. They are richer treasures 
 in the eye of God, than all the gold and the jewels 
 of your earth. The tender word spoken to a suf- 
 fering brother — the tear that fell unnoticed by any 
 mortal eye — is noted here. It is a pearl beyond all 
 price, for it may save a soulj its holy influence is 
 
126 AN angel's message. 
 
 very precious in the sight of God ; it fell for another, 
 it is the sweet absence of self. Perhaps it was but 
 for a moment, and the rough manner, the look of 
 hard indifference, returned. Yes ! but it cannot take 
 away the impress of that one unseen tear — seen by 
 no eye but God's. It will swell into a river that will 
 wash away many and many a blot on the mirror of 
 your lives. It will make it so clean that, at last, the 
 face of God will be seen in it. O ye who judge your 
 fellow-man, pause and think of this ere ye do so ! 
 Ye see not as God sees; for He seeth the hidden 
 part, but ye see only the outward covering. 
 
 Oh ! how you would love your fellow-mortals if you 
 could know how God loves them, " He opens His 
 hand, they are fiUed with good;" but he does not 
 shut his hand. The remembrance of His good things 
 may be lost ; but they have been stored up for the 
 day of need. The little seed may have been sown, 
 it may lie a long time dormant, the dust and the soil 
 of earth may lay upon it ; but at last comes the rain : 
 the showers of long pent-up tears may come and 
 water the little seed ; it shoots forth its tender leaf j 
 the hardened soul is surprised to see it ; it becomes a 
 little stronger ; it puts forth another and yet another 
 leaf; it sends forth a branch ; it brings forth a bud ; 
 it produces a flower ; the flower looks up to God ; 
 His sun shines upon it ; it puts forth sweet scent. 
 
 Now this is an exact illustration of a principle in 
 
AN angel's message. 127 
 
 the human spirit. A tender thought — a long lost 
 remembrance of some dear one who once loved us — 
 a kind word that was once spoken — may come back, 
 borne upon the tide of life, borne upon dark waters, 
 it may be, but at length cast upon the shore of our 
 inward man. Fearful and terrible may have been 
 the storm that cast it there ; but there it is at last. 
 The tide recedes, and leaves the little seed, calm and 
 quietly lying on the strand of our heart. A gentle 
 breeze wafts it upward; slowly it ascends, for there 
 are hard and barren rocks in the way ; they are the 
 long cherished principles of error and evil habits, 
 that must be overcome, ere this little tender thing 
 can find a spot of genial earth, wherein to take root 
 and make to itself an abiding place. 
 
 Let us now give up this simile. The man or 
 woman in whom all that is prefigured by it has taken 
 place, becomes cognizant of new feelings : a new life 
 is entered upon. yes! new aspirations take the 
 place of those that were low and grovelling in their 
 nature, and a new object in life appears. 
 
 My friends, be ye not hard of hearing : for even 
 among the most desperate there may be a shade of 
 turning ; there may be a shade of pity that is hardly 
 perceptible even to the person exercising it. A mur- 
 derer may feel this little waft of heavenly air passing 
 over him, even while in the execution of the cruel 
 act : his hand may have been stayed but an instant. 
 
128 AN angel's message. 
 
 a second, by that hallowed feeling : it got into his 
 soul through some small aperture in his mental con- 
 stitution, that was open towards heaven. Quickly 
 the evil ones closed it up, and his hand gave the fatal 
 blow, without any further feeling of remorse. He is 
 condemned, and dies on a scaffold. But is his soul 
 most certainly lost? God forbid that any mortal 
 should say it is. The little faint ray of heavenly 
 light has shone on his dark soul, black and polluted 
 with a series of crime, — a life, it may be, of evil, of 
 misery and degradation, unknown to those who are 
 far removed from the scenes in which he has been 
 nurtured. The opening wherein that little shade of 
 pity entered, can never be permanently closed. It 
 was veiled over, but it can be opened again; and 
 when it is so, a little more pity will enter : the aper- 
 ture will be enlarged, the light from heaven will 
 come in more abundantly, the ray will penetrate into 
 dark recesses, sombre chambers will be lit up by it. 
 The spirit-man will, at last, shudder at, (shall I say) 
 at himself. Yes ! he will see how happy others are ; 
 his victim even, if good, will come and tell him he 
 too may be happy, he need not fear. He will wonder 
 very much at aU this, for he thought he was going to 
 hell, there to suffer everlasting torment ; but instead 
 of reproaches, he is consoled, he is treated very 
 kindly, he is at last moved to tears. O, then, what 
 joy in heaven ! He is loved, and tender hands wipe 
 
AN ANGEL'S MESSAGE. 
 
 129 
 
 away the tears. He desires to leave those evil aad 
 cruel fiends who were exulting in his downfall, and he 
 would go with those who are so kind, and ready to 
 perform such good offices for him. 
 
 This is ever the course that our Heavenly Father 
 pursues towards His fallen creatures ; therefore, judge 
 ye not any. Love and pity, and do all in your power 
 to relieve your suffering fellow-mortals, both morally 
 and physically. Judge them not; not even those 
 who torture and slay your body. Pity them, do not 
 wish to harm them, lest by so doing ye shut the gate 
 of heaven on yourselves, instead of opening it for 
 both to enter. Follow your Lord and Master, — 
 " pray for those who persecute you and despitefuUy 
 use you." Prevent their doing the like again, but 
 do not wish to be revenged on them. "They know 
 not what they do." Had you been born under like 
 circumstances, how shall ye say what manner of men 
 ye might have been. 
 
 Beloved, ye look on the bodies of men, but God 
 looks on their souls. Ye see them not always, but 
 God's eye is never closed on any human creature, 
 white or black, rich or poor, clean or unclean, king 
 or slave. AH — all are alike to Him. All are equally 
 loved ; all are equally provided for in His Almighty 
 counsels. There is not one tiny infant, one loath- 
 some being that crawls upon your earth, that is not 
 under His minute inspection, — whose little tendencies 
 
 g3 
 
130 AN angel's message, 
 
 to good or evil ai'e not watched with a scrutiny that 
 the mortal mind cannot grasp the idea of. 
 
 Man, in his blindness, — O yes ! and in his impious 
 presumption, has thought that he could rule the uni- 
 verse much better than God. He has thought that 
 he would not have had any evil in existence, conse- 
 quently, no pain — no suffering — no wrong — no injus- 
 tice — no oppression — no cruelty. Why do all these 
 things exist, if God is all-powerfiil, all-merciful? Why 
 does He not delight to shew it by immediately stop- 
 ping such frightful calamities by a sudden fiat of His 
 word ? He called the earth into existence, — why does 
 He not caU it from sin and misery, and make it at 
 once beautiful and good, and all its inhabitants happy 
 and blessed ? O man ! thou worm of to-day ! dost 
 thou indeed think and reason so? Is thy thought 
 higher than God's thought? "He who made the 
 eye, shall he not see ?" " Yes," ye may say, " He, 
 or something, has given us reason, and it is by the 
 light of this reason that we thus see, and think, and 
 reason.'^ 
 
 I shall not be able to convince any who will not open 
 their minds to receive light from heaven ; for " the 
 light shineth in darkness, and the darkness compre- 
 hendeth it not." Ye are as the grass of the field : it 
 is cut down and withereth ; it feeds the animals of 
 your earth ; but it nourisheth no man, — no spiritual 
 truth can live by the principle of natural reason alone : 
 
AN angel's message. 131 
 
 yet, if well directedj it may be made the means of 
 - leading ye into the knowledge of holy and spiritual 
 truth, — it will bear ye into the holy city, as the ass 
 whereon the Lord of Life rode into Jerusalem, there 
 to partake of the passover, the type of that passover 
 above, which will nourish and satisfy your souls. 
 
 Oh! my beloved, rest "not in the outward appear- 
 ance, it is wrapped for a while in mystery ; even as 
 the napkin that was about the holy head of Christ — 
 found lying by itself — not with the other clothes; 
 clothes are truths ; it is not perceived as other truths ; 
 that is, it is a truth that God does govern and rule 
 all things, and aU men, for the greatest possible good, 
 but in what way, or in what order, cannot, in the 
 light of your world, be clearly seen ; it is the " nap- 
 kin folded together, and lying by itself;" it will be 
 unfolded here, it is too holy to be touched by mortal 
 hands ; it cannot be unfolded in your world. 
 
 This truth may be further illustrated by the pas- 
 sage of Scripture, which relates the circumstance of a 
 young man hating followed the Lord, with a linen 
 cloth cast about his naked body; you seek to lay 
 hold on it, but it eludes your grasp, and flees from 
 you in its naked purity ; it leaves but its outer cover- 
 ing, and that is but a linen cloth, — it is not formed 
 into a garment for you to put on. 
 
 Have great faith and confidence in God, for He 
 has a holy purpose in all that He does. No ! nothing 
 
132 AN angel's message. 
 
 is iu vain. All is as was ordered from the beginning : 
 not that any are predestined to suffer, bnt it is fore- 
 seen that suffering is the only means of bringing 
 those who do suffer, into communion with God, ena- 
 bling Him to bless and protect them from evil. 
 
 There are many who suffer, they know not why ; 
 yet if they would ask God to shew them, He would 
 send the stiU small voice that would speak to their 
 souls, and would say, — " If thou wouldst have trea- 
 sure in heaven, take up the cross and follow me." 
 For it is by submitting to trials, with confidence that 
 they are necessary, that the cross will become light, 
 and the burden easy to bear. 
 
 All the angels that are in heaven have passed by 
 the way that ye are now passing to your Father's 
 home, therefore they can sympathize in your trials ; 
 some of them have been grievously tormented for 
 righteousness sake. 
 
 I am desirous to comfort and to console all who 
 are suffering and passing through earthly trials, for 
 they will lead to great and lasting biasings. This is 
 the most difficult to be discerned when the sufferer is 
 a child ; for children under a certain age are not re- 
 sponsible for their actions ; but if they live in your 
 world, they wiU become so; therefore the previous 
 suffering is permitted for ends of use, to be attained 
 when the little sufferer shall become of an age to be 
 a responsible agent. 
 
AN angel's message. 133 
 
 In some cases a child is known to suffer very mucli, 
 previous to its removal from tlie earth-sphere; but 
 then it has to go through the same regenerating pro- 
 cess above, which it would have done, had it remained 
 below J but all suffering wiU cease. The little tender 
 being will, in the spirit-sphere to which it has been 
 removed, receive the heavenly influx in a much larger 
 proportion, than it could have done as an inhabitant 
 of earth. 
 
 It is usual for you to say of a remarkably preco- 
 cious child, — " he is too good, or too clever, to live :" 
 by that you mean, that he appears to have attained 
 perfection at so early an age, that he must be ripe 
 for the vintage above. But herein is a great mistake. 
 He is not taken away because he is ripe, but because 
 he has early completed, his earthly pilgrimage, — he 
 has progressed more rapidly than is usual with chil- 
 dren of his age, and therefore he wiU receive of the 
 spiritual influx, which can be poured more directly 
 into his cup of life from the chalice above. 
 
 But, blessed be God ! there are many who attain 
 to an advanced age on earth, passing through many 
 sorrows and trials, who are very open to the breath of 
 life that wafts upon them from heaven. Many an in- 
 ward eye is uplifted through the veil of flesh, and many 
 an inward ear is open to the voices of heaven, and 
 the harmonies of truth ; they strike a pleasant chord 
 on the vigorous soul within the aged house of clay. 
 
134 AN angel's message. 
 
 It is His divine will that all should be saved ; but 
 if the free-will is perverted, and instead of putting 
 ourselves under His banner, we will go and fight 
 under the banner of God's foes, then how can He 
 drag us out from the enemy's ranks, and say, I will 
 have ye under my control ; ye shall be happy in my 
 way ; ye shall eat of my supper. Would there not 
 be found many and many a one, alas ! who had not 
 on a wedding garment? — who must be cast out to 
 where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth ? 
 The halt, the lame, and the blind, may come in, if 
 they have on the garment of righteousness, in which 
 they win appear in the wedding chamber of heaven. 
 
 It is not intended that the veil which at present 
 covers the face of Scripture, should remain thereon for 
 ever. The literal sense is as a veil over the spiritual 
 or interior meaning, that lies concealed beneath that 
 holy covering. It will be removed, as the natural 
 one was from off the face of Moses, when he went 
 into the tabernacle to speak with God. 
 
 The Scripture histories are all to be considered as 
 types and symbols of hidden and divine realities, 
 which cannot be revealed to those who are not pre- 
 pared to acknowledge them as such, and who would 
 only pervert their sacred import. The letter of Scrip- 
 ture, — the little simple histories that your children 
 love to read, — that your sages mark and try inwardly 
 to digest, — are fraught with a meaning that angels 
 
AN angel's message. 135 
 
 love to study, — that they cull their wisdom from, — 
 that they draw their hallowed feelings from, — that 
 they contemplate with wonder and admiration. 
 
 I am desirous to lead you to Christ ; for it is to 
 Him ye must look to have your minds enlightened. 
 If ye come not to Him, ye must remain blind ; for 
 ye will only hear the sound and confusion of the mul- 
 titude. But cry out to Him when ye know that it is 
 the Christ who passeth by, and He will hear your 
 cry, and will command that ye be brought unto Him. 
 I am only one of those who will readily come and say 
 to you, " Be of good comfort. He calleth for thee." 
 I will raise you up from the ground, and will bring 
 you to Him, to have your eyes opened ; for I can no 
 more do it than His followers of old, who gladly 
 cheered the poor blind man, and helped him to come 
 to the opener of blind eyes ; and He will say, " What 
 wouldst thou that I should do unto thee ?" For He 
 desires that we should ask for our blessings, and then 
 we are better prepared to receive them. So go to 
 Him and say, " Lord, that I may receive my sight." 
 
 O my brethren ! how many and many would re- 
 ceive their sight if they would go to Christ, to have 
 their blind eyes opened. Ask ye Him truly, — that 
 is, with an earnest heart ; pray to Him for light, — 
 more light. He will hear your prayer. He will an- 
 swer it Himself. Be ye sure of this. Be confident 
 that your prayer is heard. " Fear not, only believe." 
 
136 AN angel's message. 
 
 He will anoint your eyes with His divine principle 
 of love to Himself; then will you see, — yes, you will 
 see " men as trees walking ;" that is, you will see 
 spiritually what you before saw naturally. And 
 though you never saw before, you will see, and know 
 that what you now see, are men ; that is, spiritual 
 truths. The man whose eyes the Lord opened, had 
 never seen either trees or men ; then why did he say, 
 " I see men as trees walking ?" What did he mean 
 by it ? He did not know what he was saying ; but 
 that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said it ; for 
 he uttered a great spiritual fact, when he said those 
 few words. They were pregnant with a deep hidden 
 sense, that appeared not to the natiu'al men standing 
 by, and gazing on the Lord of Life, — to see what He 
 would do next; for they saw that the miracle was 
 imperfect. The man did not see clearly, he only 
 saw men as trees, and he thought that trees walked. 
 But they knew not that a spirit moved upon the face 
 of the waters, — that the man who stood with his 
 blind eyes turned upon .the man of sorrows before 
 them, was trying to see the Lord of heaven and earth 
 — ^his Maker and their Maker. They knew not that 
 the coarse outer garment concealed the form of God 
 in the flesh ; they knew not that they also saw men 
 as trees walking ; — that is, that they too were spiri- 
 tually blind, and believed that natural things, natural 
 types and shadows, were aU-sufficient for progression 
 
AN angel's message. 137 
 
 in spiritual attainmeiits. But when the Lord again 
 put His hand upon the blind eyeSj the man of the 
 old dispensation saw all men clearly; he saw that 
 trees did not walk, but that it was men who could 
 alone walk with the Lord of Life — the opener of 
 blind eyes. Thus the man of the new dispensation 
 of light win see that spiritual truths are contained 
 within the letter of Scripture, and that for this reason 
 it is to be venerated and loved, — that even the hem 
 of the garment of sacred Truth is to be kissed, for it 
 covers a divine soul, — the God of men, — of angels, — 
 of all that is, that was, and is to come. 
 
 Beloved, if ye had been blind to outward things, 
 and had seen them not, how would ye gaze on them 
 for the first time after your eyes had been opened ? 
 If your ears had been closed to earthly sound, how 
 would ye have listened to the harp, the psaltery, and 
 viol, when ye first heard the strain fl.oat on your 
 atmosphere? Would ye not have raised your soul 
 on high with an adoration to the Creator of these 
 natural things, such as ye had never felt before? 
 Even so will it be when your spirit-eye is opened, 
 and your spirit-ear is unstopped ; for now — yes, even 
 now — ^many of you think the externals of religion 
 are all-sufficient for spiritual progression. 
 
 My own ! you see the application of this miracle : 
 but it has a much deeper and more interior sense 
 than this. It is a holy picture or representation of 
 
138 AN angel's message. 
 
 the Church as it was in the time of our Lord's advent. 
 It was so dark and blind a state of things, that even 
 when the Lord was personally seen by her, she knew 
 Him not, because her spiritual eye was closed, and 
 the natural one only was open. 
 
 I see that you are pleased when I explain any por- 
 tion of the Word to you : but it rather tries you ; 
 for it is a new phase of your mediumship. You will, 
 therefore, be very carefal not to be too much excited 
 by it. Yes, dearest ! you are very thankful for all 
 I am permitted to do, not only for you, but for others 
 also, I see how you fear any thought of self in it, 
 and desire to love God above all things else, — that 
 He may anoint your eyes with what comes from 
 Himself, and that it may be mixed with the clay of 
 your earth; that is, that what is spiritual may be 
 prepared by the Lord, in a way to cohere with the 
 natural, and thus be made to effect the purpose of 
 opening your eyes. 
 
 Many things are unknown to you, but you think 
 it is not the time for you to know all. You will feel 
 much the same to eternity ; for there is always some- 
 thing to be known— something to acquire — that we 
 had not before. It is the new life which descends to 
 us every moment ; it can never be exhausted. It is 
 a well of water springing up into everlasting life ; it 
 comes from the only fountain of Ufe; it is Christ 
 sitting at the well. We bring our pitchers to Him. 
 
139 
 
 He will give us all we desire, if we desire truly — for 
 He knoweth what we have need of, — and if we know 
 who it is that saith unto us, " Give me to drink." 
 
 The Lord gave the woman of Samaria spiritual 
 truth in return for her natural drink. When you 
 love the Lord as a little child, and delight to be led 
 of Him into all goodness and truth, then you give 
 the Lord that for which He thirsts ; and then will 
 he give you spiritual water, which is truth of a higher 
 and more celestial character; for it wUl spring up 
 into a well of life, of living waters : it wUl cause you 
 never to thirst any more ; for it wUl be in you as long 
 as you can be with the Lord, for He will come into 
 the city of your souls. 
 
 The passage is full of hidden meaning, which I 
 am not at present desirous to explain further; for 
 she who receives it into her natural mind, is my 
 pitcher, and she is not accustomed to hold the water 
 of spiritual truth in this way ; so she does not yet 
 hold as much as I should require, to give drink to 
 those who are longing for a more copious draught. 
 
 I see that all I have said has greatly blessed her ; 
 but she also feels that there is much more tha,t might 
 be given. O yes, dear ! so there is ; but you cannot 
 have more till you are better able to receive it. Oh ! 
 my one dove ! no, do not be impatient. I see how 
 it delights you. Do not fear, it shall all come in 
 time ; but I wiU have no impatience, no hurrying on 
 
140 AN angel's message. 
 
 of states that must be gradually developed. No! 
 I see that you will be quite calm, and wait for the 
 true development of your state j for only in propor- 
 tion as it orderly progresses, can it bless you, and be 
 of use either to yourself or others. O yes, dear! 
 that is the way I desire you to progress in. I will 
 not assist to bring on states that require great spi- 
 ritual strength, before you are able to bear that strong 
 food which must be given you, to enable you to carry 
 out what God requires of you. 
 
 Great blessings and holy treasures are ours, for I 
 am progressing with you. We go hand in hand 
 through life. Although you did not know me, hardly 
 at all, in the world, I am with you now. God has 
 shewn you that I am with you. 
 
 AU angels are spirits ; but all spirits are not angels. 
 Now, as I have described elsewhere, when I entered 
 the world of spirits — as all do immediately after the 
 demise of the natural body, — I had there to undergo 
 various states of preparation, before I became an an- 
 gel, which is the ultimation of all the states a spirit 
 may have to pass through, either in the flesh or out 
 of it. .During my state of progression in this first 
 stage of spirit-existence, I could not be allowed to 
 hold open communion with my conjugial partner on 
 earth ; for I myself had yet to learn : therefore, how 
 could I be commissioned to lead and instruct her? 
 It would have been the blind leading the blind. But 
 
AN angel's message. 141 
 
 as I advanced into higher states, I became gradually 
 aware of our interior connexion ; and, although she 
 was stiU an inhabitant of the sphere I had left, yet 
 that I could be interiorly conjoined with her spirit, in 
 such a way and degree, that we could progress toge- 
 ther into the heavenly life, and that I might be 
 allowed to watch over her, and guide her steps in an 
 upward direction. 
 
 I am not pleased if you, dear ! think that I am 
 only with you when your mind is in an elevated state. 
 I am always with you ; not more so, but more openly 
 so, when you can withdraw your mind somewhat 
 from outward influences. If I were with you in the 
 world, I could not be of the spiritual benefit to you 
 that I am now. I should have my trials going on, 
 and they would add to yours, and you could not have 
 the comfort and blessing of my spiritual companion- 
 ship as you now have. Oh ! it is vain to think of 
 what would have been! It never has been, so it 
 never could have been. All is ordered by God. All 
 I am permitted to do for you is for a holy purpose. 
 I am in the order of my existence, and you are in 
 yours ; but our souls are cast in the same mould, that 
 is, your soul is, in a measure, so much as mine as it 
 is possible to be ; for it is a counterpart of mine. 
 
 I can write all my thoughts through her, using 
 her but as my pencil for that purpose. She well 
 knows that I can only do so as she is enabled by 
 
142 AN angel's message. 
 
 God, to keep her inward mind fixed steadfastly upon 
 Him; and she prays to Him in her own thought, 
 that He will so keep her all the time that I am 
 writing through her. So that I am only able to 
 proceed in proportion as He will, and can, give her 
 this special manifestation of His power. She has, 
 throughout the progress of this book, been exhorted 
 so to look unto Him alone, that I have never seen 
 her take up her pencil to follow my thoughts, as I 
 dictate them to her, without first raising her inward 
 thoughts to His throne ; — that is, she has endeavoured 
 to place herself en rapport with me, through the 
 power of God. She has not asked me to tell her, of 
 myself, what she was next to do or to say, for the 
 carrying out of this work ; but she has been led to 
 look to the Lord alone for the power to do so, and 
 to ask Him to enable me to lead her according to 
 His divine will, and not, ia any case, according to 
 her desires or wishes. Therefore I have not told or 
 instructed her beforehand, as to how she was to pro- 
 ceed ; but she has, day by day, taken up her pen to 
 write, as it should be given her at the moment ; only 
 earnestly desiring to have her mind opened and en- 
 lightened by God alone. Hence it is that she has 
 perfect confidence that all she does, flows forth from 
 His divine power, not only within her own mental 
 organization, but within mine also : for she knows 
 that we are of one mind, and that it is by virtue of 
 
AN angel's message. 143 
 
 this sacred union of sotiI, that she is enabled so to 
 act, and to write that of which she has no previous 
 knowledge. 
 
 But it might also be given her by another process, 
 as I have elsewhere shewn, and then she would only- 
 have to place her hand passively on the paper, with 
 the pencil prepared to write. In that case I should 
 act upon her material frame, instead of on her na- 
 tural mind ; and this process would only come to her 
 outward perception, as a power that moved and guided 
 her hand to form certain letters, indicating the words 
 necessary to form the sentence that I wished to ap- 
 pear on the paper before her. Now in both cases of 
 spirit-writing, the propelling power is just the same, 
 only the action is on different parts of the body. 
 For in order to affect her mind, I must act upon her 
 brain; but if she wrote by hand-guidiug, I should 
 influence the nerves and muscles of her hand. The 
 various parts of the human frame are all connected 
 together, so that when I. act on her brain for the pur- 
 pose of enabling her to portray my ideas in outward 
 form, I influence both brain and hand at - the same 
 time, so that the hand- action is co-existent with the 
 brain-action; the one is quite inseparable from the 
 other. Thus she cannot form a single letter that I 
 do not originate by my interior action upon her. 
 
144 
 
 AN ANGEL'S MESSAGE. 
 
 Let the sons of toil look up and behold the day of 
 rest that is dawning on them. O yes, it will be a 
 day of inward rest ! But what is rest ? I ask the 
 question of aU. Some will answer it in one way, 
 some in another. All the travellers of earth need 
 rest ; they need it naturally, and they also need it 
 spiritually. Some need a rest from sorrow, — a rest 
 from the shedding of tears j some need a rest from 
 worldly care — from battling with the world, — from 
 going to and fro, and from walking up and down in 
 it. But some have no such need ; they have of the 
 world^s goods enough and to spare ; they are rich in 
 nature, but are they rich in spirit ? Yes, there are 
 some rich ones of earth whom the Lord can look 
 upon with approbation, — who will sell all that they 
 have to give to him who hath not, and who follow 
 their Lord whithersoever He goeth ; for they are the 
 true rich ones of heaven ; they live in His presence, 
 and they know that they are only truly rich while 
 they are with Him, for He leads to where moth and 
 rust do not corrode. 
 
 There are those who are rich in your sense of the 
 word, whose inward spirit is clothed in rags; who 
 have no habitation above the mansion on earth, — 
 whose natural state is the semblance of what their 
 spiritual state ought to be, but which, alas! it is 
 not. 
 
 Beloved! there are also the poor in spirit, who 
 
145 
 
 loTe muchj who, though they may have nowhere to 
 lay the head of the body, yet lay the head of the 
 spirit on the breast of Christ, as He sits at the table 
 of their souls. 
 
 The design of the Creator is that all should be led 
 by Himself into a state of eternal progression. This 
 is the end of His creation : this is the path He desires 
 you to follow, for He is Himself the very essential 
 principle of all true happiness. He has made it as 
 the light of His sun, and desires to see it shine on 
 all alike : but if it is turned away from, and darkness 
 and all disorder is sought and preferred before it, 
 then must the spirit so turning away from his Maker 
 and Divine Protector, be led back to the path he has 
 forsaken, by a circuitous route, that will cause the 
 journey to his Father's house above, to be both toil- 
 some and painful. The ascent will be steep and diffi- 
 cult, for the soul has now to climb over hard and 
 baorren rocks, because he has departed from the true 
 path, and has thought that he could devise a way for 
 himself. But his Father sees him afar off, and sends 
 the messengers of His bounty to meet him, and to 
 shew him that he has chosen the broad way leading 
 to destruction. But if it were only from a want of 
 light, or that he mistook a meteor gleam for the Sun 
 of righteousness, then will his ear be opened to the 
 voice of those who wiU say unto the weary traveller 
 on an inhospitable shore, " Be not afraid ; there is a 
 
 H 
 
146 AN angel's message. 
 
 welcome awaiting thee in thy Father's house: He 
 has sent us to guide thy steps aright." 
 
 Give to God thine heart — thy immortal part ; and 
 give to the world that which the world demands as 
 its due. Give to God the things that he God's ; and 
 give to Caesar, Caesar's tribute. 
 
 Live in the world as men passing through a foreign 
 land on their way home. Do not make a home 
 where there is none that can satisfy a longing, ear- 
 nest heart ; where there is ever and anon a tear suc- 
 ceeding a smile, — where the one soon changes to the 
 other, — where the cup of happiness extatic, may at 
 any moment, be dashed from your lips. 
 
 Let us see how we should live the life that leads to 
 heaven, — ^that will give us a foretaste of the heaven 
 we desire to reach. 
 
 The natural and spiritual education of the human 
 subject should be carried on simultaneously, — ^the one 
 progressing within the other, just as the form of a 
 beautiful insect is known to do within a rough unor- 
 namented shell. 
 
 Let a child be taught to love God, — to look up to 
 Him as the Creator and Preserver of all things, — of 
 all men, of all that he sees, of all that he hears, and 
 of all that he can do, or feel, or think, or receive into 
 his mental consciousness. Let him be early told that 
 he is indebted to this One munificent Being for all 
 the childish joy, aU the innocent pleasure, he expe- 
 
AN angel's message. 147 
 
 riences. Let this idea be placed before his infantile 
 mind, when he rises from his little couch, and also 
 when he again lays his head on its pillow, for the re- 
 pose necessary to recruit the strength of his little 
 frame. Let the strength of the spirit be cared for 
 too ; not by merely teaching him to repeat a form of 
 words, but tell him that if, as he tries to sleep, he 
 thinks of God, and thanks Him in his own way, for 
 all the enjoyment of the past day, God will love him, 
 and will give him more real blessings than he is then 
 able to receive J for that He desires to prepare him to 
 become an angel in heaven j but that he also must 
 desire it, and endeavor to let the Lord make him 
 one ; then wiU the angels come to shew him the right 
 way. 
 
 A Christian mother should thus instruct her child ; 
 and how will she then call down a blessing upon her 
 own head ! For she will be doing an angel's work, 
 and the angels above will consociate with the angel 
 below; they will be fellow-laborers in the same vine- 
 yard. 
 
 O my friends ! if ye could see behind the veil of 
 flesh, and gaze on the unveiled spirit-scene that ye 
 have called around the little sojourner in a strange 
 land, (for it is not the home of his fathers, it is but 
 the passage that leads to it), — ^if ye who love to care 
 for the body, knew what the spirit receives when ye 
 look to God yourselves, and teach your babes to raise 
 
 h3 
 
148 AN angel's message. 
 
 their little hands on high, ye would fain leave all and 
 follow Him who said, " Suffer the little children to 
 come unto me, and forbid them not." 
 
 The child so taught and instructed, wiU rise into 
 states of knowledge and consequent progression to- 
 wards the interior life, that cannot be recognized by 
 his earthly guardians ; for they see only his outward 
 bearing, but his angelic guardians look upon his in- 
 most spirit, and will then be enabled to infiise holy 
 states of wisdom into all his worldly acquirements; 
 and while he is learning the alphabet of nature, he 
 wiU be acquiring the heavenly literature of his im- 
 mortal soul ; the one will form the basis of the other. 
 Shew him how to blend heavenly with natural in- 
 struction in all that he learns ; and in all that he de- 
 lights in, let the wisdom that is above nature have a 
 part. Let all the grand truths and realities of life, be 
 to him but as the basis for the grander realities of 
 the life beyond the tomb. Let that abode of earthly 
 defilement be looked upon as the gate of life, that 
 must be unlocked to every mortal that traverses the 
 soil of earth. And say how God desires to open it 
 on heaven, the glories of which every Christian 
 mother should know how to paint before the eyes of 
 those she has nourished at her breast, and whose 
 spirit-life may be not the less dependant upon her 
 care. How would ye condemn the unnatural parent 
 who could refuse the milk of nature to her helpless 
 
AN angel's message. 149 
 
 babe, yet how many neglect to nourish their children 
 with the milk of spiritual knowledge. 
 
 But where is this spirit- wisdom to be found ? how 
 can we learn it? in what books shall we find it? 
 Beloved ! it may be taught us on our couch. In the 
 darkness of the external sphere^ the night may be 
 light about us ; for there is a sun that shines by night 
 as weU as by day ; it penetrates into the obscure re- 
 cesses of the soul, and there it brings hidden things 
 to light; it lights up the secret motive, the silent 
 thought. The covered spring of every action of our 
 past life, becomes visible by its clear shining on a soul 
 that desires to open its windows to let it in. It pene- 
 trates into the two hemispheres of the brain at the 
 same time ; it lights up the chambers of the under- 
 standing and the will together, and it warms them, 
 so that they can act in unison, — the one reflecting its 
 hallowed gleams upon the other. Then, beloved, we 
 shall rise from our contemplations, and go forth into a 
 new world, even in that very sphere of nature through 
 which a vista will be opened into the world of spirit. 
 
 Is there any among the sons of men who will say, 
 Nay, let us alone to take our own course ? Are there 
 still Israelites among you who wUl prefer the flesh- 
 pots of Egypt, to the land that is flowing with milk 
 and honey? WUl you bear the yoke of bondage 
 unto sin, and not take off your golden ear-rings and 
 give them to the Moses who wiU lead you where you 
 
150 AN angel's message. 
 
 shall behold the liTing God, and to the mountain 
 whence you shall receive of the new covenant of 
 righteousness that shall make you free unto salva- 
 tion ? What is salvation ? Why should ye seek it ? 
 Ye see the man of the world happy in the world's 
 ways. Ye see the man of commerce enjoy the gains 
 of ill-gotten wealth. Ye see the man after God's 
 own heart, despised and little cared for. The one 
 lives in a palace, the other in a hut. The one is very 
 fair to look upon in the light of your sun : he is sur- 
 rounded by the bright and the fair ones of earth. 
 The herb on his lawn is green, and the flowers of 
 nature send a fragrant aroma through his coxu'tly 
 halls. But how does he appear in the sight of God 
 and His holy angels ? They have palaces too j they 
 are refreshed by the perfumes of heaven : but how 
 do they look on their gems and their flowers ? Do 
 they see but the outward show ? or is the gem that 
 glistens with celestial lustre not eloquent with themes 
 of angelic wisdom, that speak to their spiritual per- 
 ceptions, as did the Urim and the Thummim of old ? 
 Even so is it with the gem, and the rainbow, and the 
 flower of the paradise above. 
 
 He who has been transformed into the image and 
 likeness of the Maker of all things, will find a vague 
 undefined perception of delight, gliding with silent 
 footstep into the mansion of his soul, that the man 
 of the world knows not of. 
 
AN angel's message. 151 
 
 The flower of earth is the embodiment of the 
 flower of heaven. Did none grow there^ no germ 
 could bud and blossom in the soil of nature. It is 
 the procreation that is above nature, that causes the 
 green herb to spring forth for the service of man — 
 for his pleasure, and for his wisdom also. There is 
 not a tiny floweret that peeps from forth your way- 
 side hedge, that is not a germination from the germi- 
 nation above — from the garden that is fiUed with the 
 blooms of paradise, that bear a bud and a blossom de- 
 lighting the inmost senses of those who tread therein 
 — of those who once trod the path of earth, with a 
 flower of hope in the breast, but a thorn that ever 
 and anon pricked the finger that sought to place it 
 there. 
 
 O ye who love the rose of earth, from . whence, 
 think ye, comes the hallowed feeling ? Is it not an 
 emanation from some power that natural thought 
 cannot reach, that natural reason cannot penetrate, — 
 some undefined power that makes the scent of flowers 
 as a breath that is eloquent with a hidden meaning — 
 a living essence that speaks to the immortal part of 
 man, that passes through his corporeal part, and 
 reaches the sensorium of his soul? 
 
 Why is it that no animal cares for the fragrance of 
 these children of nature, whose breath is so delight- 
 ful to the refined senses of mankind ? Even because 
 the animal has no power to take into its soul, the 
 
153 AN angel's message. 
 
 spiritual aroma they contain, and which they give 
 forth to man alone. Is there a peasant babe who 
 does not love to gather the wild blossoms of the wood, 
 and to scent their odoriferous breath, with a feeling of 
 enjoyment that belongs to the human kind alone ? 
 Is there a sentiment within the breast of man, that 
 does not exist, that has not pre-existed in the Deity ? 
 Is there then a pure and unsullied sense, that does 
 not proceed from Him as the fountain of life from 
 whom that sense has emanated ? Hence, then, it is 
 that there are flowers in heaven; hence it is that 
 there are flowers on earth ; hence it is that ye love 
 to cultivate them around your habitations — ^that ye 
 love to inhale their breath j for it is a foretaste of 
 the joys and pleasures of heaven that ye then ex- 
 perience. The angels delight in their paradises, as ye 
 do in the gardens of earth ; and they perceive that 
 while their own interiors are recreated and refreshed 
 by this never-ending, and ever-renewing scene of 
 beauty and grace, the little one, fresh from the earth- 
 life, is delighting his infant spirit by revelling in the 
 sweets of — oh yes ! — of heavenly nature, as he did in 
 its prototype on earth. He has left the nature that 
 was the body or covering, and he has come into the 
 nature that is the soul — ^the life-giving essence of 
 that nature which has place on earth. There is a 
 spirit in nature, and there is a spirit in man, that 
 rests with the Creator alone. There is a spirit that 
 
AN angel's message. 153 
 
 cannot be seen even by the eye of spirit ; for it is the 
 essence, the fountain of the life, which animates all 
 moving beings, and nature also. 
 
 The little one, fresh from the arms of its earthly 
 parent, is very delicately tended, or he would expand 
 into no flower of promise, but would only be ex- 
 hausted by the pressure of the spiritual element into 
 which he has been removed. He is given to the care 
 of one who wiU supply the place of the mother on 
 earth, for a season, till the babe of heaven shall have 
 gained strength to bear the intelligence that he is no 
 longer a child of earth. 
 
 I have elsewhere said, that this information is but 
 gradually brought to the perceptions of those who 
 depart from the land of their nativity, when the days 
 of childhood and youth have passed ; for it is a uni- 
 versal law, that no sudden revealment of a change of 
 state should be divulged to the subject of it. It is 
 by degrees of elevation that perfection of state is 
 attained. The term perfection, being in a strict sense 
 applicable to the Deity alone, is only used in a rela- 
 tive sense, to denote a higher and higher degree of 
 progress in the regenerate life of the spirit ; for pro- 
 gression does not cease with the departure from the 
 first stage of advancement. 
 
 There is, therefore, no sudden transition of feeling, 
 which would interfere with the calmness necessary 
 to be preserved, in order that the airs of heaven may 
 
 h3 
 
154 AN angel's message. 
 
 waft in gentle breezes over the surface of the soul's 
 lake, and that the shadows and reflections therein 
 portrayed, may be still and unruffled. For if the 
 child were to be made aware that he was an inhabi- 
 tant of heaven, he would not desire to learn, but 
 would only request to be shewn its magnificent sights, 
 without any other object than the gratification of his 
 external senses. But as he supposes that he is still on 
 earth, he does not think at all about it ; for he has 
 no reason to do so, as everything appears to him to 
 be just the same as he has always been accustomed to. 
 But where is his tender, loving mother, or his little 
 infant companions? Behold them around himj he 
 sees her, though she is shedding the tear of natural 
 sorrow, and cannot behold her spirit-babe. All have 
 a spiritual appearance, which is visible here, and 
 which only portrays such emotions as are spiritual> 
 The sorrow of a parent at losing her child, is not spi- 
 ritual, but wholly natural, and therefore it has no 
 outward embodiment here, where the atmosphere will 
 not contain a natural thought or afiection of the mind. 
 But a spiritual sorrow can be seen and known by 
 spiritual beings, in order that they may be enabled 
 to minister to the subject of it. To the spirit-child's 
 enraptured sight, the tear is changed to a pearl of love, 
 and the sigh is eloquent as the music of the spheres ; 
 for the one and the other are but outward expressions 
 of love. 
 
AN angel's message. 155 
 
 The conceptions of the Deity are all mirrored in 
 the world of nature. She is the outward form and 
 expression of the divine reality, existing, and pre- 
 existing, in the mind of God. How else is she to 
 be considered an outbirth or creation of God ? Can 
 there, O man ! be a form of terrestrial grandeur, that 
 is not eloquent to the soul that looks on it ? Is it 
 not wondrous to behold ? But of what use is won- 
 der ? Yet, if wonder lead to admiration, and admira- 
 tion to a thought of God, and a thought of Him who 
 made mountain and valley, beget an adoration, — a 
 lifting up of the human soul to its Maker and their 
 Maker, — then do ye ask why the earth is made 
 as it is, and why there is mountain and valley, 
 and lake, and sea, and flower, and herb, summer 
 and winter, heat and cold? Why is it that man 
 and woman walk on its surface, and why do the 
 very stones cry out with a voice, that speaks to the 
 ear that is cultivated enough to understand their 
 speech ? 
 
 The .world is a prototype of the mind of man. 
 There is the herb springing forth into light and 
 righteousness, there is the clean and the unclean 
 beast, and the moth that corrodes the garment of 
 truth, the vesture that should be whole without seam 
 or rent. There is the mountain-top that should rise 
 to heaven, and the plain that should be for the flocks 
 and herds to repose in, and there are streams of 
 
156 AN angel's message. 
 
 living waters to refiresh and strengthen the calves, and 
 the tender lambs of the soul's aflfections. 
 
 I have endeavored to shew that there is a voice 
 and a living spirit in all things, that speaks to the 
 soul of every human being ; but aU do not hear that 
 voice, nor perceive the harmony of outward nature 
 with inward spirit. The time is, however, approach- 
 ing, when this voice will become much more audible j 
 and when ye become spirits in a spiritual sphere, ye 
 will see that these things are so, and that I have in- 
 deed told you the truth. But if ye do not open your 
 minds to desire to be instructed, ye wiU remain blind, 
 as ye are at present ; for wisdom is not given to those 
 who do not seek it, in the world of spirit, any more 
 than it is in the world of nature. Ye must cultivate 
 the desire for spiritual knowledge in the first sphere 
 of life, ere ye can receive it in the second; then wiU 
 it be given in great measure : but if ye do not care 
 about it, it will not be forced upon ye. 
 
 I desire to do the will of Him who has said to me, 
 " Go and communicate these thiags to her you love, 
 and, through her, to those whom you love not per- 
 sonally, but whom you do love as a collective body 
 of God's children." 
 
 Beloved, God does not say these very words to me, 
 but He gives me to perceive, in a spiritual way, that 
 such is His holy wiU ; consequently it is my delight 
 to do, and to carry out into the ultimates of nature, 
 
AN angel's message. 157 
 
 that whicli He has designed before I came into exist- 
 ence. I have labored to fulfil that design, and to 
 bear His message faithfiiUy to you ; it is for you to 
 receive or to reject that message, as it shall seem good 
 to you. I do my part, do ye yours. I pray to my 
 Lord and your Lord, that He wiU give the power to 
 fulfil the mission of love He has entrusted me with. 
 She who writes it with the pen of nature, prays for 
 the same purpose j and you who are to receive it, 
 should pray that you may hear it aright. I am not 
 sought by her for her own gratification, independent 
 of the gratification she has in performing God's holy 
 win. I am in a like frame of mind, and if we have 
 been thus drawn together, how shall ye say it is not 
 the Lord's doing, even though it be marvellous in 
 your eyes ? You may say, " Such knowledge is high, 
 I cannot attain unto itj" but do not forget that all 
 things are possible with God. AU things are possible 
 to Him, save the infringement of His own laws. 
 God cannot make a law, and Himself break it ; nor 
 can He give that for which there is no recipient. 
 
 I have represented myself as having been much 
 tried when in the world of nature, and to have been 
 acquainted with sorrow; therefore, when I behold 
 others, and even those who were, and still are, per- 
 sonally beloved by me, passing through severe trials. 
 
158 AN angel's message. 
 
 sorrows, and contests with the flesh, I am not dis- 
 tressed, because I know how necessary it is for them j 
 and that without them, no eternal joys could be en- 
 tered upon; yet it is a painful contemplation that 
 such things should be needed, and that men should 
 not be able to rise at once from the sphere of earthy 
 into the sphere of heaven, without having to undergo 
 very painful and distressing trials ; for they are some- 
 times deprived of their worldly possessions, or they 
 lose the objects on which they had placed their na- 
 tural aflfections, or they mourn because others mourn, 
 or because they have a sorrowful heart, and cannot 
 tell whence it comes. Some are afflicted with bodily 
 illness, pain, and divers diseases. AU these occasions 
 for sorrow come from God; yes, it is His mercy that 
 causes you to weep and lament, as well as to rejoice. 
 He does not deprive you of your glittering toy, to 
 punish you, but that He may thereby prepare you to 
 receive the substance in place of the shadow. He 
 wiU take away the crown of tinsel, if it so engross 
 your love, 'that you desire not the crown of gold,-:— 
 the crown that is above all price, which He desires to 
 give you. 
 
 But, as I have said, it is not always to be perceived, 
 or even surmised, why we suffer. We think we love 
 purity, — we love all that is good and true, and yet we 
 are subjected to painful trials, — to conflicts with evil, 
 — from which there seems to be no way of escape ; 
 
AN an&el's message. 159 
 
 •for we pray and look up, and yet are not relieved ; 
 but the struggle goes on still, and the spirit wiU not 
 give his name to Jacob, that he may know whence 
 he is ; but we may be sure it is a spirit from God we 
 are struggling with, for when he has fulfilled his mis- 
 sion, he wiU depart, leaving a blessing from above. 
 
 I have said that it is the mercy of God that causes 
 — not only permits, but causes, the severe trials that 
 so many of you have to pass through, on your way to 
 your home above. The winds rise, and the bark of 
 the soul is tossed to and fro ; and though Jesus sleep- 
 eth, ye need not fear, for where He is there is safety ; 
 and when He pleases. He can say to the winds and 
 to the waves, " Be still !" Be not slow to discover 
 the form of God, when your waves run high; and 
 when ye see that it is Jesus, say, " Lord, bid me come 
 unto thee." 
 
 I am desirous to explain further, because there is 
 much misapprehension on this point. I am not sent 
 to my own on earth, in this open, way, to soothe and 
 comfort her, or merely to rejoice her spirit; but I 
 am sent to aid, strengthen, and prepare her to receive 
 further blessings above. I am not desirous to dry 
 her tears on earth, if they cannot be stayed, without 
 causing her to weep when she comes here. I would 
 far rather behold her pillow still wet, than dry it, to 
 the destruction of the smile which I hope to see her 
 wear in heaven. Therefore, if she fall into error, or 
 
160 
 
 have any false or worldly feeling, that cannot be ad- 
 mitted here, she must weep it away on earth ; for 
 then she will be free from it when we embrace in 
 heaven. She asks her God to permit me to shew 
 her her faults, and to send me with the cup of 
 strength, to enable her to put them aside ; therefore 
 she is sustained by the Lord, not by me. 
 
 Beloved ! ask God for your thoughts ; ask Him for 
 your feelings, your desires, and your motives of action. 
 Ask Him not only for these, ask Him for your trials ; 
 ask Him to shew you your faults, and to give you 
 strength to put them away. Ask for your daily bread. 
 Be grateful to Him for your perceptions of joy and 
 satisfaction in all you do. Do not receive a faint ray 
 of hope, of gladness, from whatever cause it may 
 proceed, without recollecting that He alone is the 
 source of it. RecoUect that nothing is too minute 
 for His concern, — that all — from the pleasure afforded 
 by the sight of an insect sporting in the sunbeam, to 
 the highest gratification we are capable of receiving, 
 — ^is equally an emanation from Himself — an outpour- 
 ing of His divine love for us, a display of His divine 
 favor, and of His desire to draw us to Himself. 
 
 But as it is not usual for men in the world I have 
 left, to ask or pray to God for their thoughts, they do 
 not always come from a pure source; hence come 
 vain imaginings, and false feelings, and wrong judg- 
 ments, and all unkindness, to the sorrow and wound- 
 
161 
 
 ing of some gentle spirits, who do ask God for their 
 thoughts and feelings, as well as for their daily bread ; 
 by which is too often understood only the refreshment 
 of the body J but as the spirit is of more consequence 
 than the body, let your grace be said, by your lips 
 and in your heart, for the food which the ravens can- 
 not bring you, nor the fowls of the air fly away with ; 
 for it may come when your earthly table is unspread 
 with the things that perform their use, and then 
 perish ; but which ye had better not taste of, if it lead 
 ye not to the bread of heaven. 
 
 Let me, therefore, advise ye, one and all, when ye 
 sit at the board of nature, to raise the mind to the 
 contemplation of that table which is ever spread with 
 the food of life, if ye have the spiritual health and 
 appetite to eat thereof; and if ye have it not, go to 
 the Physician of your soul, and ask Him to give ye 
 the recipe that shall restore the wasted strength of 
 your immortal constitution. 
 
 Let not past blessings be forgotten, but love to 
 take the staff that has been laid aside, once more in 
 the hand, and lean on it with confidence, for it wiU 
 support the feeble knees of the spirit. Let the me- 
 mory of past joys cast a halo on the evening-path of 
 life. Why did they come? They were blessings 
 then, — think ye they are not blessings now, though 
 their advent has long since passed, as a tale that was 
 once told, or a song that was once sung, or a chord 
 
163 AN angel's message. 
 
 tliat was once touched? But who told the tale that 
 was so pleasant to hear, or who sang the song, and 
 touched the chord, that made such sweet music in 
 the soul? Was it not He who made the instrument, 
 and placed the chord in it, and made the ear, and 
 prepared the atmosphere to transmit its sound? 
 
 I have often alluded to my being now an inhabi- 
 tant of heaven, but I have not given any specific 
 account of how my life there is spent, or what is the 
 nature of my various pursuits in the regions of the 
 blessed, I am not only desirous to do so for you 
 who are to read this book, but I am also pleased to 
 fulfil this mission for her who writes it ; for up to the 
 present moment, she is utterly ignorant as to how I 
 employ myself in my mansion above. Therefore I 
 see that it will enlighten her, as well as you, to re- 
 ceive the account of my proceedings in the state of 
 life I am in. 
 
 I am not conscious of anything analogous to sleep, 
 as experienced by you; but I pass into a quiescent 
 state of mind, when compared to that state in which 
 I am actively employed in doing my Master's work. 
 I behold the paradise I occupy gradually become en- 
 veloped in a softer light; and I then know that I 
 must repose for a season. I do so till I perceive that 
 the atmosphere is again translucent with the rays of 
 
AX angel's message. 163 
 
 the divine sun, which is shining with renewed splen- 
 dor on the scene hefore me. 
 
 1 arise, and go forth to my morning occupation ; 
 and what is that ? It is given me, as the occasion 
 requires. To receive the prayer and adoration from 
 her I love, and to present it before the throne of 
 Him to whom it is addressed, — ^to elevate my own 
 perceptions in unison with hers; or, it may he, to 
 guard her soul from falling into some error, or to 
 dictate my thoughts to her, or to enkindle some fresh 
 desire within her, to be still more upheld by God, 
 and to depend still more fuUy upon Him. It may be 
 that she is open to me, and I can come to her out- 
 ward consciousness, in one or other of the various 
 ways in which she is accustomed to receive me. 
 
 But she is not always conscious of my presence 
 with her in any way ; and how is it with me then ? 
 I am preparing for our future re-union here ; I am 
 struggling with the causes that delay its immediate 
 fulfilment. They are the hindrances to a perfect re- 
 ception of the life of the spirit, which cannot as yet 
 be fully received by her, as it will be, when she is in 
 a state to be removed to her final abode in the spi- 
 ritual sphere. 
 
 Now I see that all this does not give you any clear 
 idea of the way in which I am usually employed. I 
 mix in society with my angelic companions, and join 
 in their pursuits and pleasures, as they do in mine. 
 
164 
 
 We are all similarly employed, save that I am given 
 to communicate openly with her whose soul I tend ; 
 but I am by no means the only one who is allowed 
 this privilege, although the case is, at present, of 
 rare occurrence. Therefore my state is, in some de- 
 gree, different to theirs. They are all occupied in 
 guarding and watching over mortals, but all are not 
 tended in the same way. 
 
 I have elsewhere shewn that there are various paths 
 leading to the mansions above, so that as the disposi- 
 tions and tendencies of mortals are of different kinds, 
 so are the occupations of angels various in their 
 nature and degree. 
 
 We are gay and sportive, or we are grave and con- 
 templative ; we are retiring in our habits, or we are 
 prone to seek the society of others, just as our dis- 
 position may be. Our tastes, and our modes of in- 
 dulging them, are as diverse as yours. We each re- 
 tain the peculiar complexion of our natural lives. 
 We are not materially changed, — we are only elevated 
 into a higher degree of life. Each one retains his, 
 or her, own particular characteristic nature; and 
 this is even carried out in the external appearance of 
 angels and spirits. For the one that was of a dark 
 complexion in the world, will be of the same hue 
 here; — the one with fair and light lineaments, will 
 retain the same distinction of outward appearance. 
 Thus, when my own saw me in vision, she observed 
 
AN angel's message. 165 
 
 that my hair was of a golden shade, and that my 
 eyes were of a blue cast, because that was the com- 
 plexion I wore in the world of nature. 
 
 The appearance of spiritual beings is always deter- 
 mined by a law of consanguinity with the mental 
 endowments. This law extends to the choice and 
 nature of the garments with which they are clothed, 
 both as to color and appearance. Some are aU white, 
 others are of divers colors; the garment of native 
 purity is alone sufB.cient for those who are in the 
 highest stage of angelic life ; but as all these diversi- 
 ties of appearance proceed from interior causes, the 
 angels thus distinguished, are not associated together, 
 but reside in different quarters of the heavens, which 
 are arranged into various spheres or planes, for the 
 reception of the various societies of angels which in- 
 habit them. 
 
 When I am seen by those who knew me in the 
 world, they will immediately recognize me as the 
 same being; for although angelic beauty may be 
 bestowed, it does not take away from the specific ex- 
 pression of character which belongs exclusively to 
 each individual. It may be difficult for you to con- 
 ceive how this can be with those who attain to a great 
 age in the world, and become very decrepit, and even 
 deformed in outward contour. Yet the spirit within 
 may be young and lovely, and the spirit-form will be 
 
166 AN angel's message. 
 
 so too ; that will be a faithful portraiture of the in- 
 dwelling soul. 
 
 I have said that angels are men and women, — ^that 
 they dwell in mansions, and that they dwell in para- 
 dises Med with the flowers of heaven ; but they are 
 also recreated with the harmonies of song, and the 
 melody of music. The senses are all gratified there 
 to the fuU extent, and that is much greater than it is 
 in your world j for the spiritual organs are much 
 more refined than the natural. 
 
 The angels are blest with the power to transmit 
 their thoughts to one another, without the need of 
 external language. They can perceive by a glance, 
 all that you would require a long sentence to convey. 
 An idea is conceived in the mind, and a desire felt to 
 communicate it to a companion ; it is done by turn- 
 ing the face towards him, and when the eyes meet, 
 all that is begotten in the one, is conveyed to the per- 
 ceptions of the other. Thus it is that thought begets 
 thought, and a communication may be carried on 
 without any audible sound or verbal expression. The 
 tones of the voice are not always so articulate as to 
 be heard as words ; but a harmony pervades the whole 
 atmosphere of heaven, which instils knowledge and 
 wisdom into its inhabitants. This concord of sweet 
 sounds arises from the one universal sphere, which 
 pervades the breath of life there. It is a breathing 
 
AN angel's message. 167 
 
 love-sphere j it exhales from every individual, and 
 animates the whole scene. 
 
 There are, as I have said, a great variety of dis- 
 tinctive characteristics among spiritual beings ; there- 
 fore the scenery in one quarter is very different to 
 what it is in another. All are located according to 
 their different genius, tastes, and acquirements. 
 Those who are not suited to us, are removed to a dis- 
 tance : they are not forced from us, but absence is 
 consequent upon nonconformity of disposition. By 
 the like law, similarity of state attracts the presence 
 of certain spirits, whose society is mutually conge- 
 nial and agreeable. Thus it is that those who are 
 conjugiaUy related, are instinctively attracted towards 
 each other. 
 
 I am anxious to give, — so far as it is permitted me, 
 — as clear an account as I can, of the nature and 
 general economy of the life of heaven. I have not 
 passed into it without retaining a strong desire to be 
 made an iastrument in the hand of God, to enlighten 
 and elevate my fellow beings, who are now traversing 
 the same road to their home above. 
 
 My life in heaven is as varied as yours is in the 
 world. It is, in a measure, consequent upon the 
 order of yours j that is, it is regulated by the law of 
 spiritual affinity which we severally hold with mortals 
 on earth. Is my own sad, — I am engaged ia tnrniag 
 that sadness to her immortal gain; is she joyful, — I 
 
168 AN angel's message. 
 
 temper her joy, in such a way that it may be conge- 
 nial to the joyfulness which may be felt within an 
 angel's bosom ; is she at prayer, — I bear it up, by 
 receiving it into my spiritual discernment, and rais- 
 ing mine own perceptions to the Deity. I do not 
 hear it sooner than He does, but the one act is si- 
 multaneous with the other. I see her prepare for a 
 duty of friendship, and I love to trace the course of 
 her inward reflections ; if she think only of her own 
 gratification in it, I bring forward thoughts of the 
 pleasure and comfort it may afibrd to the one for 
 whom the act is to be performed. If I perceive any 
 low or selfish motive gaining strength, I suggest that 
 such a feeling is not heavenly, and that it is not as 
 an angel would feel. Then I see her open her soul 
 to God, for she knows that He alone can help her, 
 when she becomes conscious that the serpent is trying 
 to tempt her to take of some forbidden fruit. 
 
 This will suffice to shew the action of good spirits 
 on mankind ; — but man is also open to the wiles of 
 evil ones, who watch for the shadow of turning to- 
 wards them, and their dark abodes. They act in 
 exact opposition to the influences I have described, 
 and insinuate evil desires, evil passions, and all un- 
 cleanness. But with those who turn to God, their 
 action is only perceived as a feeling of horror at that 
 which they endeavor to suggest to the mind j — and 
 thus additional strength is given to the powers of light. 
 
AN angel's message. 169 
 
 But as all the occupations I have mentioned, are 
 wholly spiritual in their nature, I am well aware that 
 it win be difficult for you to realize them to your 
 natural conceptions. It is also difficult for me to 
 bring my spiritual perceptions into affinity with yours, 
 so as to render my remarks as intelligible as you may 
 desire. 
 
 I have passed out of human ken, yet I live in a 
 scene of beauty and perfect harmony. I am not cog- 
 nizant of any material change in my habits of life, 
 as I spent it in the world, save that I am less dis- 
 tracted by outward consciousness. I am not disturbed 
 by divers spheres emanating from uncongenial asso- 
 ciates. I am surrounded by those that are of like 
 tastes and habits with myself, and I love to mix with 
 them in all their sports and pleasures of an intellec- 
 tual character; for the angels are all youthful in feel- 
 ing and disposition, as in manner and appearance. 
 Therefore there is much gaiety and delight of life, 
 such as is of an angelic character. I am often a 
 guest at the abodes of others, and I can receive an 
 angel companion into my own mansion of peace. 
 
 I cannot fully describe our feasts of wisdom, and 
 our various entertainments. They are of a nature 
 that would transcend your comprehension, bounded 
 as it is by the confines of materiality. There are 
 mansions, and there are gardens, and there are 
 flowers, and there are gems. There are scenes of 
 
 I 
 
170 AN angel's message. 
 
 varied beauty, of simple loveliaess, and of sublime 
 grandeur. There are flocks and herds, and there are 
 men, women, and children. There is the simple 
 true-hearted peasant, and there is the highly culti- 
 vated mind, and there is the prince of magnificence, 
 dispensing bounty and blessing wherever he appears. 
 There is the gentle wife, and there is the maiden that 
 will be given in marriage. There is the youth of 
 early promise, and there is the joyful girl, — the boy, 
 and the babe. They have aU breathed your atmo- 
 sphere; they have all dwelt in nature's habitation, 
 ere they came into the habitations of spirit. They 
 are all subject to the same laws, — ^they are regulated 
 by one Hand, according to the requirements of every 
 individual member of the angelic societies of which 
 the heavens consist. 
 
 I have not passed into the spirit-life without re- 
 taining a great degree of afiection for those I have 
 loved on earth, and who have bestowed so deep a 
 regard upon me. But how do I now love them? 
 Not in the same way that I did when I was with them 
 in nature, but with a far higher and truer degree of 
 affection than I then had the power to exercise. For, 
 as I have shewn, all the powers of perception and 
 feeling are immensely increased by the putting off of 
 the natural tenement. Therefore I am now able to 
 return the affection with which I am stiU regarded by 
 those who have mourned for me, with tenfold vigor; 
 
AN angel's message. 171 
 
 for it is no longer a natural but a spiritual affection 
 that I entertain for them. But let their love for me 
 be spiritual also. Do not dwell on the form of earth 
 that has faded away, but be ready to recognize the 
 spirit-presence that now addresses you. Be not slow 
 to see the portraiture herein depicted to your view. 
 Look not on the outward garb, but look on the im- 
 press of spirituality that beams forth from these 
 pages. He whom you love is here, — he speaks to 
 you now, though not with the voice, yet through the 
 pen, of nature. Think of him as a spirit. He is 
 still your loved one, though he walks not at your 
 side; and though your natural ear cannot hear his 
 voice, your spiritual perceptions may (if you pray for 
 it), detect his spiritual presence. You cannot hold 
 the open communion with me which she who writes 
 these lines enjoys, but you can receive the consolation 
 of knowing that I am with you, and that I love you 
 stiU, — ^not as a mortal, but as an immortal should 
 love. 
 
 I have left the earth whereon I walked, 
 And I tread the heavens ahove ; 
 I am not sought by the mortal eye, 
 But I dwell in the courts of love. 
 I dream not there, of the passing scene 
 That has closed on my mortal sight ; 
 But I wake to the conscious peace 
 Of a day that for ever is fair. 
 I gaze on the nature ahove. 
 And I see the nature beneath ; 
 
 I 2 
 
172 AN 
 
 I trace out the likeness of love, 
 
 On the emerald hank that I wreath 
 
 With the flowers I gather therefrom. 
 
 I monld aU my joys by the hope 
 
 That still glistens in all that I do, — 
 
 That the beings of earth I have left 
 
 Will gather the blossoms I sow. 
 
 I am given to one of my heart, 
 
 And I tend her with delicate care ; 
 
 I am loved as a true woman's part. 
 
 And I spring into life with her soul. 
 
 I am given to be with her — one. 
 
 And I join in her praises to Grod. 
 
 1 am fraught with a power from on high. 
 
 That from Love has descended to me ; — 
 
 And I take a rich treasure away, 
 
 That congenial with me has become. 
 
 And now I am borne on eternity's wing. 
 
 To the homes of my fathers of old. 
 
 And there I am given to see 
 
 That blessing with increase descends, — 
 
 That angels and spirits of heaven 
 
 Will again walk with mortals the path 
 
 They so long have been banished from here. 
 
 Not visible yet, in the clouded horizon. 
 
 Are the visions of beauty become ; 
 
 But soon on the morrow of life, 
 
 Behold the bright choristers rise ! 
 
 They come with the harp and the timbrel and dance. 
 
 They come with the wisdom of angels behest. 
 
 See the rays of morning splendor ! 
 See the light of noonday sun ! 
 Let the rain of tender mercy 
 Now descend on glowing hearts 1 
 Set your homes in heavenly order. 
 For the guests above are coming. 
 
AN angel's message. 173 
 
 Let the table there be spread 
 
 With the milk and with the honey ; 
 
 And let many loved ones be 
 
 There invited to attend. 
 
 Let the heart with sorrow filled, 
 
 Not refuse the kindly greeting ; 
 
 And let those that smile and those that mourn, 
 
 Be with heavenly manna fed. 
 
 I have left the world of nature, yet I can behold 
 the scenery of that world just as well as you can, but 
 I do so only through the perceptions of my earthly 
 companion. She looks on a scene of beauty, and 
 her senses are thereby gratified ; I perceive the efiect 
 in her mind, and I also there behold all the images 
 which have caused her enjoyment. I have also left 
 the first stage of spirit-life ; therefore I can behold 
 all that pertains to it, and its laws of progression; 
 and I have become elevated into a state that admits 
 of my communicating with one who is still in the 
 world, and through whom it is that I behold outward 
 nature. 
 
 But I am not always in a condition to hold open 
 intercourse with her ; nor is she always in a state to 
 admit of open communion with me : hence interrup- 
 tions occur, preventing the continuance of her writing 
 for me. This is not of chance, because all is arranged 
 by the Divine Providence for the development of that 
 which He is bringing down to mortal comprehension. 
 
174 AN angel's message. 
 
 It is thus that the whole plan of the world goes 
 on : — a dream may be given to warn you that if you 
 go out, you will be in danger of losing your natural 
 life, because it is intended that you should remain on 
 earth for a time longer; but another who had no 
 such dream, went out and was killed. The one was 
 just as much under the watchful eye of Providence 
 as the other, for it was as good for the one to be 
 taken as for the other to be left. 
 
 I am desirous to make some further remarks on 
 the subject of eternal progression, for it is much be- 
 lieved in at the present day. It is a doctrine founded 
 in truth, yet there is much error connected with it. 
 Good spirits and angels, as I have said, all progress 
 towards a more and more perfect state of existence ; 
 but the lost also progress towards a final state ; it may 
 be, to one of less perversion, or it may be, the con- 
 trary. For if a man is so immersed in evil that he 
 cannot be reclaimed, he will not admit of any influx 
 from God through the heavens ; for he is a dead car- 
 case, and his dry bones cannot be shaken by the 
 breath of life. 
 
 Beloved, this is a painful subject ; but though dis- 
 tressing, it is useful, and therefore we must proceed 
 with it} for to suppose that a confirmed evil being 
 can ever return to the true order of his creation, is 
 as erroneous as to believe that the angels of heaven 
 can so far forget their high estate as to fall into the 
 
AN angel's message. 175 
 
 snares of evil which hell would gladly prepare for 
 them: darkness may be enlightened, but light can 
 never become darkness ; it would be an inversion of 
 the laws of order by which the universe is held in 
 subjection to the power of God ; it cannot be. 
 
 But there are, alas ! many Satans in hell, and they 
 bum with all evil passions and unholy desires. They 
 are those who have so cast from themselves the pre- 
 cious gifts of God, that now they have no longer the 
 power to receive them ; they are those who weep and 
 gnash the teeth, not for sorrow at their state of evU, 
 but with rage that they cannot draw others into the 
 pit with themselves. These wretched beings are lost 
 to every feeling of pure and unsullied enjoyment. 
 They would perceive no pleasure in the society of the 
 blessed, for they have no faculties that could, in any 
 way, be gratified by it. They would be so out of 
 their congenial element, that it would be to them only 
 a more refined kind of torture than that which they 
 are accustomed to endure ; therefore it would be no 
 act of mercy in God to elevate them into heaven, 
 but whoUy the reverse. His mercy, however, does 
 extend to these miserable ones ; His divine attribute 
 of love reaches to the caverns of hell : He there tem- 
 pers the suffering in such a way that it shall not be 
 more severe than is absolutely needed to preserve the 
 order of its government. He restrains the violent 
 by fear, if no other motive will cause them to desist 
 
176 AN angel's message. 
 
 from tormenting their fellows. But if they can be 
 restrained by other motives, those which will occasion 
 the least amount of suffering are made instrumental 
 for effecting that object. 
 
 I desire to warn you against the indulgence of 
 unholy thoughts. They are perceived in hell as 
 readily as a pure aspiration is in heaven. An angel 
 hears your prayer at the same instant that God does ; 
 and a devil hears your curse with the same electrical 
 rapidity. A thought — a prayer — a pure desire — a 
 hallowed feeling — touches a chord that vibrates here, 
 and returns its message back to you : a dark idea — 
 a revengeM thought — an evil feeling — sends forth a 
 putrid breathj that is quickly scented by those who 
 dwell in impurity ; for it is the breath of life to them : 
 and they will then consociate themselves with the 
 one from whom it emanates. The angelic host must 
 then depart, and leave you to the comrades you have 
 yourself called up from heU. Hell will be within 
 you, though you still walk the earth ; so also heaven 
 is within you if the mind be in a heavenly state ; for 
 there is no distance pertaining to the spirit. 
 
 I have, throughout these pages, represented myself 
 as one arisen from the dead, who has come to you to 
 say that which Moses and the prophets have not re- 
 vealed to you. They have not told you that mortals 
 can communicate with spiritual beings, and they 
 have not told you that men do not go to their dust 
 
AN angel's message. 177 
 
 to wait for a day of resurrection from the dead, nor 
 that angels are all those who have once trod the path 
 of earth, even as you do now. That men and angels 
 are alike gifted with human passions is also unsaid 
 by them : and that they marry and are given in mar- 
 riage, according to the spirit, is a truth that is not 
 received in the usual course of Christian belief. But 
 from whence comes the fact of my being able to 
 write this book? Is it not a voice that none can 
 close the ear to ? And why is it so ? for there are 
 many things that the ear may be closed to, and that 
 need not be dwelt upon, as to whether they be fact 
 or not : ye may repose on the bed of nature just as 
 calmly, without the knowledge of many thiugs that 
 daily pass around you. 
 
 But as to spirit-presence and spirit-power, the 
 case is very different. If I, or any other spirit, come 
 and say to you, "I am a living man in a spiritual 
 world, yet I am sent and commissioned by my God 
 and your God to descend to earth and to say such 
 and such things to you," how are ye then to answer 
 me ? — with a calm look of indifference, or a refusal 
 to attend to the message of which I am the bearer ? 
 I have come to my own on earth, but at first she 
 received me not; for she said within her heart, 
 " How shall I, weak and uninformed as I am, tell 
 whether this is an angel of God, or whether it be only 
 a shadow that is passing over me, that the morning 
 
 i3 
 
178 AN angel's message. 
 
 brightness may dispel ?" But when she saw that I 
 told her holy truth, that I opened pure and heavenly 
 states within her soul, then she gained courage and 
 strength to look up and ask her God whether I was 
 an angel of light or not ; and when I became further 
 and further revealed to her, she saw that aU I had 
 said was indeed true, pure, and very holy in its na- 
 ture, and that it was becoming the means of elevating 
 her soul to Him who had sent me to affect her as 
 none other influence had or could have done. There- 
 fore she i&now one with me, and lives in my presence 
 as one who only breathes freely when she is in that 
 congenial atmosphere ; for I am as essential to her 
 existence as she is to mine. We are truly married 
 partners, and we are united by a bond that cannot 
 be severed either in my world or the world she still 
 inhabits. 
 
 Bead the lines of earthly seeming 
 
 That have come she knows not how : 
 
 Bead the pleasures and the pains 
 
 Of two immortal beings. 
 
 Let the heart he glad 
 
 That a hlessing came 
 
 To the one of earthly hearing, 
 
 And to him who hade her write. 
 
 Let the measure I have chosen 
 
 Be a counterpart of one 
 
 She sings only in her heart. 
 
 For, ever silent is her voice, 
 
 And her ear is not attuned 
 
 To the melody of art ; 
 
AN angel's message. 179 
 
 But her spirit sings the song 
 Of a lovely inhom heart. 
 
 'Tis the soul of woman, 
 
 'Tis the soul of man, 
 
 That in unison are Mended 
 
 Into one melodious strain. 
 
 'Tis the harmony of heaven 
 
 That to earth comes down, 
 
 Borne upon celestial pinions. 
 
 'Tis a strain ye have not heard 
 
 In the days gone by. 
 
 But when comes the rain of blessing 
 
 That is fast preparing. 
 
 Then will melody arise ; 
 
 And as tlu'ushes on the lea. 
 
 With rich music fill the air. 
 
 So will spirit-voioes be. 
 
 As a morning brightness. 
 
 And as an evening glow, 
 
 So will spirit-presence come. 
 
 As a beam of transient beauty 
 
 Will aU earthly splendour fade ; 
 
 And when earthly toys have been 
 
 One by one laid low. 
 
 See the living pearl of beauty 
 
 A life-long lustre shed 
 
 On the brow with early care 
 
 That so oreasSd was, — 
 
 See the fragile one grow strong, 
 
 See the aged one grow young, 
 
 See the goal ye all have sought. 
 
 In the realms of perfect day. 
 
 I have passed into that state of existence in which 
 it is perfect day, and I have not lain in the tomb 
 
180 AN angel's message. 
 
 awaiting a day of judgment, which, I perceiye, 
 through my connexion with her I tend, is the gene- 
 ral belief amongst men. 
 
 Now I know nothing of creeds and the dictates of 
 men. I only know that, whereas I was blind, I now 
 see, and that I was dead, and am now alive. I know 
 that I live in the presence of God and His angels, as 
 well as you know that you live among men in your 
 world. So that I need not to reason about it ; for 
 the case is just as plain to my perceptions as it is to 
 yours. Yet the Scripture has said, "When they 
 shall arise from the deadj" but you see I have arisen 
 from the dead, and yet the Scripture is not, cannot 
 be, broken. " How, then, are we to receive this fact, 
 for one or the other must be false ?" Nay, my friends, 
 both are true, the Scripture is true, and my message 
 and commission to you is a true one also, — ^the one 
 is as true as the other ; only, if ye see by an untrue 
 light, ye cannot perceive it to be so. The Scriptures 
 are to be spiritually discerned ; death is death unto 
 sin, and life is life unto righteousness ; day is day unto 
 the light of truth, and night is night unto the dark- 
 ness of error. Eead your sacred volume by the light 
 of spirit, and not by the light of nature only ; for 
 without spirit, nature is dead ; but with spirit, it is 
 vivified. 
 
 I am not disposed to close this volume till I have 
 said all that it is permitted me concemiug the state- 
 
AN ANGEL S MESSAGE. 
 
 181 
 
 ments of doctrine that have here and there fallen 
 from me. I am not anxious to impress upon you 
 any truth which you have not the present ability to 
 receive. If you are well-pleased to remain as you 
 are, and find that your creed is all-sufficient to lead 
 you to the breast of Christ, then lean on Him and 
 be thankful; but if you have been dissatisfied or 
 uncertain in your belief, and feel that it is not as the 
 staff of life, cast it aside at once, for it will not be of 
 any service to you in your way to the table above : 
 and then my remarks may tend to shew you where 
 you may find a sure resting-place for your faith. 
 
 Be not hard to receive the truth I have brought ye 
 down from above, but take the key I now offer ye, 
 and unlock the holy sanctuary with it, and behold 
 the stones on Aaron's breast-plate, how they speak 
 to those who can understand their language, and the 
 eloquence of their utterance. 
 
 The lapse of time that is necessary between the 
 natural and spiritual birth is determined by the na- 
 ture of every individual spirit : there is no universal 
 law on that point, but on all others there is a uni- 
 versal law, which can never be infringed. There is 
 no exception to the law of spirit-birth immediately 
 on the decease of the natural body. The spirit leaves 
 its earthly habitation, and it rises in a spiritual tene- 
 ment instantaneously on quitting the natural one. 
 It can never put that on again; for such a return 
 
182 AN angel's message. 
 
 to materiality would be most revolting to spirit- 
 perception. 
 
 Matter to matter is gone, 
 And spirit to spirit has risen ; 
 Death onto death the tribute has paid, 
 And life unto life on eternity floats. 
 Blessing with purity comes. 
 And blessing with purity stays. 
 Light is the light of the soul. 
 And darkness let darkness be still. 
 Let voices to spirit be given. 
 And silence with silence remain. 
 Let beauty with innocence dweU, 
 And calmness with holiness rise. 
 Let the flower be a fragrance of heaven 
 And the gem but a mineral thought. 
 Let perfection with God be portrayed. 
 And let symbols be eloquent words. 
 Let music be touched by the hand 
 That is spirit of harmony given ; 
 And earth be the emblem of soul, 
 That to God a rich harvest shall yield; 
 And creation return to the paradise home 
 Of the Eden that blossoms above. 
 
 I am now an inhabitant of heaven, and I cannot 
 be seen by natural vision, for spirit is only visible to 
 spirit ; and, therefore, if ever I should be seen in the 
 world, it wiU be by the spirit of those to whom I 
 may appear, beiag so prepared as to be able to per- 
 ceive spiritual beings. But as I am not open to 
 others, as I am to her who writes for me, it is not 
 likely that any others will ever behold me, as she has 
 
AN angel's message. 183 
 
 done in the visions of the night, or as she may do if 
 it so please our Lord. 
 
 But as I am not to dwell on this theme any fur- 
 ther, I shall only advise you to relinquish aU idea 
 that the natural body will ever rise again from the 
 tomb. It is decomposed and given to the winds of 
 your atmosphere ; it floats on the breath of life that 
 animates creation, but to be re-composed into some 
 other structure. It cannot be transported into a 
 spiritual sphere ; for between nature and spirit there 
 is a great gulph fixed, so that the one cannot pass 
 over to the other : the idea is as monstrous to spirits, 
 as a phantom of the imagination may be to you. 
 It would be as unnatural for a spirit to be again 
 clothed in flesh, as for a dead body to arise and walk 
 into your streets, — a thing that men would flee from 
 in terror. 
 
 Now I shall again request you to read your Bibles 
 by the light of spirit, and not according to the lan- 
 guage of nature only. The alphabet of nature is 
 dead without the indweUing spirit. The form of 
 words used in Scripture is a body sanctified by the 
 spirit that animates it. It is a picture; but if ye 
 see it by the torch-light of a false persuasion, ye will 
 see shadows mingling with the forms of beauty that 
 are painted by God's own hand, and they will fiit 
 across its translucent scenery, and make it a con- 
 fused mass of objects that cannot be clearly discerned. 
 
184 AN angel's message. 
 
 for the need ye will have of the spiritual light of 
 truth where\rith to see God's most holy revealings to 
 man. 
 
 I must not be misunderstood in this portion of 
 my work. I do not come to teach you the truth as 
 it is in Christ Jesus, but I come to make you see that 
 there is reason to fear that many have erred in their 
 most holy faith ; for it is holy : it is the water of life, 
 even though it be not so pure as to be quite free 
 from error. It is the Church of Christ ye are mem- 
 bers of, but it is not pure as the Church above; for 
 there they know that spirit is alone cognizable to 
 spiiit, and that many things which are held as truth 
 in the world, are only so far true, as they can be of 
 use to lead ye to the higher and more spiritual truths 
 and realities of heaven. 
 
 I now take my leave of ye who have borne with 
 me through these pages. They have been produced 
 in an abnormal way, and have been given by the 
 power of God, bestowed upon two individuals — the 
 one in a natural, and the other in a spiritual, degree 
 of life ; and, however unheard of this state of things 
 may be, it is the very truth. But the issue remains 
 with God. 
 
 This book will go forth into a polluted world j but 
 may there yet be found many and many a one who 
 earnestly desires to come out of that pollution, — 
 many to whom it may bring light, consolation, and 
 
AN angel's message. 185 
 
 strength. May it bring a renewed spirit — a hope- 
 ful, calm demeanor — a smile instead of a tear — to 
 many a yearning heart, many a longing soxd, many 
 a desolate sorrowing one. Your Heavenly Father 
 desires to see you aU smile. He will wipe away your 
 tears, even on this side of the grave; but seek ye 
 His face evermore. 
 
 THE END. 
 
■^''^^^-;