persons are represented to us, my love, as living alone from the world, with haggard age and decrepitude, to distinguish them from the rest of the world. They are said by legendary tale to hold communion with supernatural, deep, and sombre shadows, and to reside in caves and rocks, where but an occasional glimpse of the heavens are admitted, or as the wandering lightnings flit through mazy, dark, and fleeting clouds, opens to the view for a moment the firmament of God. Saul met this poor haggard wizard, and at once unfolded the cause of his visit. "I pray thee," said he, "divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee." "Behold," rejoined the woman, doubting the intention of Saul, suspecting, as he had once ordered the expulsion of all such persons from the kingdom of Israel, that he merely wanted to apprehend and punish her: "Behold," she said, "thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?" By the Lord, Saul asseverated, "As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? Bring me up Samuel."-O my child, when we think of the troubled dead rising, the heavens

sending forth pealing thunders, and the trembling earth widening into chasms, with convulvise effort, as it were, the grave awfully struggling ere it yields its victim spirit to its kindred world again, we feel a cold thrill through our souls when we contemplate such an interview between the dead and living! Let me hasten to say, my child, Samuel rose. "When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. The king said unto her, Be not afraid for what sawest thou? I saw gods ascending out of the earth," replied the witch of Endor. "What form is he of?" enquired Saul. "An old man cometh up," she said, and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceiv ed that it was Samuel, on which he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself. Why hast thou disquieted me? interrogated Samuel, to bring me up? I am sore distressed, answered Saul ; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? rejoined the prophet; and the Lord hath done to him, as he

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spake by me: for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David: because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me."

"O, where, Mamma?" In the grave, my love; death was at hand to Saul and his sons.-O Mamma, tell me no more! I feel so frightened lest Samuel's ghost should come to us!-Nay, my love; the day is past when the spirits of the dead were permitted to further the infinitely wise acts of God, and when miracles and visions were expedient to testify a proof of a living God. A greater miracle than those exist at this day, which is faith, by which we see things invisible to our carnal eyes, having communion with God himself, and with those who are spiritual.

Indeed there are many people, of great good sense in other matters, my child, who believe in apparitions. It is ascribable, I should believe, to their ignorance of the faculty of vision; that state in which we often fall, between sleep and awaking, produces representations of persons and things on

which our minds have been previously occupied in considering; and such have been the apparent truth of these visions, that minds have been strongly impressed with their realities. I am strengthened, my child, in this opinion, because these visions are said merely to appear at night, when this ocular delusion is more fitted to produce this false impression on our minds. Partial darkness, or obscurity, are the most powerful means by which the sight is deceived. The fear and caution with which we move during the night; the thoughts of ambuscades and assassinations which pass rapidly through our minds; loneliness, and deprivation of the pleasures of light and society, inspire the trembling soul with horror and uneasiness. In this dark or twilight, therefore, the imagination frequently transforms an inanimate body into a human figure; but it is a singular operation on the nerve of the eye, on account of a want of stimulus, which occasions this illusion and as our ancestors were ignorant of these facts, they believed them to be figures which they denominated shades. But you may be satisfied, my child, that God does not permit the spirits of the dead to rise to visit us; and if we seek him, and love him, we shall never apprehend those awful and solemn visitations which are the operations of a wicked and an evil conscience, but

to which the children of God are strangers. The rising of Samuel before Saul, however, is an awful type of the horrors of those mental perturbations which belong to the restless pillow of the guilty, aud which is a decided visitation from the Lord.

“ But, Mamma, you have said nothing of the second Adam." It was necessary to mention the cha→ racter of David to you, my child, that you might understand the relation of the second Adam to man; and by bringing before you the characters of David and Saul, I am enabled to explain the difference between those filled with the Holy Spirit, and those who are led by the power of the serpent and the world.

Now David, although he was an anointed servant of God, filled with his Holy Spirit, yet mark, my love, his troubles, disappointments, and persecutions ; but observe also, his meekness, forbearance, and loving friendship. You perceive no revenge, envy, hatred, malice, ingratitude, pride, or vanity, although anointed to be a king. Indeed he was, as God said, one after God's own heart; but hitherto he had been kept, as Adam was in his original righteousness, by the Spirit of God. Look at Saul, from whom the Holy Spirit was taken. He was full of pride, vanity, jealousy, hatred, revenge, thirst for human blood, even the most innocent, even the life of him who