THE TESTIMONY OF A SPIRIT On Friday, December 17th, at a séance held at the Spiritual Library, and reported in another column, a spirit gave the following communication: “ Friends, I am a stranger among you. I was born of religious parents—of parents really and truly religious and good, acting up to the light which they had re ceived. I was taught that God chastens those whom He loves, and I was chastened many, many times, and each stroke of the rod I esteemed as a blessing. Gene rally, I said, with my lips, 'Lord, I thank thee for my chastening,' but in the inmost recesses of my soul a cry arose, 'Unjust! unjust ! Why should I be punished thus?' Years rolled on, and I became the wife of one I loved and respected; we were both of us regular attendants at a place of worship, and week by week I tried to draw nearer to the throne of mercy. Soon we were blessed with a little blue-eyed daughter, whom I loved most dearly, yet but five summers rolled over her pretty little head, when the angel of death called her away. Friends counselled and prayed, but she had gone to heaven, and they told me that “it was a mercy,' that “it was loving of God to call her from this sinful world.’ Outside I was calm, but what a sea was raging within, to hear them say so calmly and coldly, 'It is loving of God to take her away!' My heart rebelled though my lips were silent; I struggled against what I thought was the devil, but which I now know to have been my better nature. Again years rolled on, and a son was born. He was a wilful boy and wayward, and as he grew up to be a young man he became worse; he proved to be what those in earth life call 'a curse' in all his acts. His father and mother could not reclaim him; religion had no charms for him ; he could see no beauty in the Atonement, and said, 'I will trouble no Saviour with my sins, but be responsible for my own deeds.’ This led him into company I abhorred. Then my husband passed away, but still it was, 'Thy will be done.' Oh, the loneliness of the long winter months, with no kind husband with endearing attentions and loving words. Then I prayed, and asked for courage and hope. My life, as I now see, was a continual war between my inner nature and my outer. My son went abroad, sickened, and died. The news came home. Like a stone I sat; all life seemed to have deserted my frame; I neither moved nor stirred ; I merely thought. My other faculties were dead. I was pointed to my religion and told that there I could get happiness and hope, and should at last sit on the right hand of the throne. But where was my son? Friends held back what they would say, but the words rose in their minds like the whisper of a hissing serpent  'He is gone, we Worse, worse hope, to heaven; but, we fear, to hell.' and worse. Disease came, and death changed all. I re covered consciousness on the shores of the other life; saw my husband, daughter, and son, so bright and glorious—the face of my son shone like a star fron heaven, and I was happy under his love. Still I could not understand how or where I was. I asked why they tarried on the way to God. My husband said, 'This is I said, 'Shall we never see the Saviour?' our home.' He replied, 'I cannot say; I have never seen Him; I have heard His precepts in spirit life, and I do not care to see him, for I have His precepts, and they are as good as His presence.' 'But why is our son here? They told me that he had gone to perdition.' 'Those words hastened thy departure; but see, he is here ! It is not a dream; it is real. You are a spirit—an “angel” so-called ; all around you is real, even as you are real.’ I replied, 'As God has been so good, so loving, surely He will extend the same clemency to all?' My husband said, 'True, it is so. All will be happy. and the fearful place the Church tells you about has no existence beyond their fevered imaginations. This bright and beautiful place is the inheritance of all God’s children.' Then, I said, with both my heart and my lips, 'Lord, be praised!' and from that moment I began to worship God in spirit and in truth. I trust that you will all be the happier for this ray of truth de scending from above; I hope that the history I have related to you will never find its parallel, and that the way of people through life will not be so full of thorns as mine was. Love the truth. It is the brightes jewel in the treasury of the Deity. Friends, having passed through the narrow influences of an earthly life, I here tell you the truth. I find that creeds and dogmas