The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-09-25
FAITH IN THINGS SEEN.

lCNs LII OtOWC, was ulo otlo1S Adilh III
the life hereafter. 1t was in his case
something more than faith; it was
knowledge. And it was knowledge
derived from actual personal expert
ence. He was aware Of the reality of
the Spirit-world, and of its nearness to
the earth-life, through his own expert
ence. His Christian faith derived
vital and important support from what
he personally saw and knew. To him
the veil was often withdrawn, and he
was permitted to see and hold COM
munion with those who had ''gone be-
FORE" 1t is not the prerogative, even
of the all-iDtruding modern journalist,
against whose busy pen so few pro-
vipces of individual private life are
permitted to maintain proper and
invulnerable privacy, to invade the do
main of the private life Of such man
as Professor Stowe, whose experiences
in his intercourse with the other world
he had right to hold sacred. To in
discriminate companies he never talked
of these things, and those of his friends
to whom he ever mentioned the sub
ject were few indeed; but it is known
that he was entirely satisfied that he
often saw and conversed with, in the
privacy and quiet Of his own home,
those who were no longer the occu-
pants of earthly bodies, and that this
gift of spiritual clairvoyance and clair
audience was potent to take away
much of the sense of bereavement, and
to fix his thought, like Paul's habitually
on the higher realities. An article in
the Hartford Covant, evidently in
spired from source where the facts of
the case were known, correctly says of
DIR. Stowe that his interest was great
at all times ''to know what was on the
other side." He was radically con-
WINGED of the nearness of the other life,
for his own almost daily experience for
thirty years had revealed to him the
possibility, and not only the possibility
but the fact, that the so-called "dead"
can and do return, and are often
Though unseen by most) in very truth
close by us; and that the love between
parent and child, and husband and
wife, is not destroyed, or even OBJ
structed, by the natural process called
death, which, DR.. Stowe felt, is but the
silent opening of door that takes the
freed ones into another, more refined,
and better stage of being. His spirit
ual visitors were SO real, that he some
times was for moment at fault in
judging whether they were such, or
were still, like himself, in the earthly
body. No wonder the writer we have
referred to says:
death to him had no terrors. In
deed, he had for a long time been eager
to go, and if he exhibited Impotence
about anything, it was his detention
here in this cumbrous body. His
Christian faith was that of child, alb
solute and unqualified. His deep &c
quaintance with German speculation
had not in the least affected his simple
trust. In fact, when he was most ill
and the end seemed at hand, his cheer
fulness always rose, and it was apt to
sink little with returning strength.
He was more than ready to go. But
last June, when Mr.. Gladstone made
his experiment, he became so pro-
foundly interested, that he said to the
writer one day, L should like to stay
here few weeks longer and see how
Gladstone comes OUT"
To such persons indeed Death has
no terrors." The only danger in their
case is that they may be led to dwell
too much upon 1.-The other side," and
become too much drawn by the mag
netism of the higher life, and the reali-
ties of the other world, and thus lose
their interest in, and desire for the con-
tinuance of the life here, with its ties
and its duties. 1t was Mrs. Stowe
herself who wrote,-of 1.-The Other
World'-
1t lies around us like cloud,
The world We do not see;
Yet the sweet closing of an eye
May bring us there to be.
Sweet hearts around US throb and beat
Sweet helping hands are stirred,
And palpitates the veil between,
With breathings almost heard.
And in the hush of rest they bring,
IT'S easy now to see
How lovely and how sweet a pass,
The hour of death may be.
This clear faith which is more than
faith, no doubt largely helped to make
the effect which the newspaper article
already quoted speaks of when it fur
Their says, The doctor was an opti-
mist. Hartford (Ct.) Times.
To repress a hard answer, to confess a
fault, to stop, whether right or wrong, in the
midst of self -defense, in gentle submission
these sometimes require a great struggle
for life and DEATH but these three efforts ara