Mississippian professor, went with me on to 'Lookout Mountain,' over the late battle-field. Picked up bullets, pieces of shells, and other trophies of war and death. He and several soldiers engaged in the battle told me all about it. I went several times to Gen. Howard's headquarters. Generals were as thick as were the frogs in Egypt.' I have no respect for gaudy trappings. . . . Heaven help our poor soldiers! Their sufferings are terrible. Oh, the effects of army life upon twothirds that go thither! . . . The weather is pleasant now. The birds sing. The ground is covered with dead mules and horses. Reckless soldiers travel this way and that, day and night. . . . I can not write. The office is full of folks; some for gain, some for clothes, some to have unruly soldiers arrested. It is Babel!' the last place on earth for a refined organization. My only happy moments are when I walk away from every human being. I am alone, all alone, although in the midst of an army of men!" In response to a letter of inquiry, J. O. Barrett received this cordial testimonial from his army friend and brother, who was one of our sterling Spiritualists,- a reform lawyer, defending justice and truth: "605 WALNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 1, 1871. "J. O. BARRETT: Dear Sir,- In answer to your note of inquiry respecting the army life of James M. Peebles, it affords me pleasure to say it was unexceptionable and thoroughly consistent with his peace principles. "In the winter of 1863-4, he was employed by me as a clerk in the quartermaster's department at Bridgeport, Ala. During the time he continued in the service of the Government, we occupied the same tent, and most of the time the same couch. "Such was my confidence in him, that he was intrusted with the most responsible duties; and although property amounting to tens of thousands of dollars passed through his hands daily, no mistakes were found in his accounts, and not a penny stuck. Though often placed in the most trying circumstances, he never lost his equanimity, nor evidenced a disposition of retaliation toward those who had wronged him; but, on the contrary, he everywhere manifested, by word and deed, a gentle, forgiving, and loving spirit, coupled with that sterling integrity which never sanctions wrong. "The example of such a man is always good; but in the rough experiences of army life it is invaluable. "At the end of several months' service, his health declining, he was obliged to return home, much to the disappointment of all who knew him. I am glad to hear you are preparing his biography; for the life of such a man will be of lasting service to humanity. He is one of the saviors of the nineteenth century. "Faithfully yours, DAMON Y. KILGORE." Writing of wars and military armies Mr. Peebles says: War is murder on a gigantic scale. Its basic foundation is retaliation. It stimulates combativeness. It is Mosaic; it is barbarian. It is unchristian. It is expected that the wild animals of the forest will fight because they are animals. And the nearer that tribes and nations approach the selfish animal plane of existence, the more do they thirst for blood and engage in war. 66 It will not be denied by any student of history that during the first three hundred years after Christ, an Israelite or a pagan, embracing Christianity, refused to fight. If pressed by the government to enlist, the prompt reply was, 'No; I have enlisted under the banner and am a follower of the Prince of Peace. I can not consistently fight; and can not because I believe in Him who said, "My kingdom is not of this world, if it were, then would my servants fight." 'We Christians are superior in this,' said St. Jerome, we do not fight with our enemies.' The good St. Martin exclaimed, 'I am a soldier of Christ, and therefore I do not fight.' Charles Sumner, the late distinguished United States Senator, said in a congressional speech, War is a damnable profession a trade of barbarism."" "Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold."— Lowell. "And he set the rods which he had peeled before the flocks in the gutters; . . . and the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle, ring-streaked, speckled, and spotted."— Bible. "It seems that every creed or tribe of earth Conceives a God, and gives him form and birth -Barlow's "Voices." Mr. Peebles has generally kept aloof from the multitudinous attempts of Spiritualists to organize a creed, thus making a new sect. He had quite enough of church organization while connected with the Universalist denomination. He has always loved freedom- especially the freedom to speak his own sentiments on the burning questions of the day and hour. The official hands of certain ephemeral organizations occasionally tried to abridge this freedom and confine their speakers to "Spiritualism proper," which was met with such prompt and open contempt that the trial was not many times renewed. In the highest sense of the word Spiritualism is the equivalent of the universal religion. The rank and file among Spiritualists have not taken kindly to old traditions, nor will they work in any kind of harness which new recruits from the churches are anxious organize the "ism" Moreover, the great to have them try on. All attempts to into a creed have proved dismal failures. body of Spiritualists embraces such a heterogeneous aggregate of opposing elements - as regards character, culture, methods of investigation, opinions on vital problems and varying degrees of tolerance and intolerance — that they have found it quite impossible to pull together in anything like harmony. Nor is this surprising when we remember that the Spiritualist ranks are recruited from all classes of society and from every shade of belief - from orthodox dogmatism to the rankest materialism, and from the most conservative school in social morality, to those who hurl their bold blasphemies at all social sanctities! There are people here who love order; people of culture, scholarship, scientific attainments, and extreme sensitiveness, people predisposed to all the refined courtesies, and who would conserve somewhat the traditions which have descended to us from immemorial generations. Per contra, we have another class,- people who have completely broken with the past, with all its traditions; people who detest the very name religion, claiming to be law unto themselves; people who assume the right to intrude their presence into any public assembly and interrupt the proceedings with their objections and coarse criticisms. These people spurn all formal rules of procedure, and treat with contempt all precedents. It is therefore not surprising that such incongruous elements within one body should not only become a frequent occasion of irritation, but also of antagonism and bitter reproaches. Yet, notwithstanding these seemingly insurmountable barriers, the Spiritualistic movement in America has effected marvelous transformations in general society in the last half century. Mr. Peebles's attitude toward these opposing factions has been uniformly one of tolerance and fraternity. Beneath and beyond these surface indications, he saw the general drift was toward a more enlightened freedom and an ampler field for the exercise of the intelligence and religious emotions. While he theoretically rejects the yoke of social and religious custom which society complacently endures, he nevertheless holds his notions of freedom as strictly amenable to that unwritten social and moral law which is fashioned in the mental concept of each succeeding generation. Mediumship presents a many-sided problem. On the one hand it is allied with material facts and phenomena in a manner to become wholly amenable to scientific treatment and determination. On the other hand it is allied with psychic forces and occult laws, with which we have only a very imperfect acquaintance. The psychic realm is a province too, which, if one enters unworthily, is beset with the gravest dangers! When mediumship involves the complete surrender of the will to foreign control, it submits itself to the dominion of intelligent agents from whom it has no guarantee that it will not be exploited, robbed of individuality, and the organism made a tenant house for unscrupulous and selfish spirits. There is but one safeguard in entering this dangerous domain, and that is with the single motive to become an instrument for the blessing and uplifting of others. With motives less conscientious and noble the candidate becomes extremely liable to obsessions and a partial loss of individuality. How often we are disappointed in the lives of mediums, a large per cent of whom are unreliable characters, who inevitably drift into current vices. Some are complete moral wrecks. Especially does mediumship for material exhibitions seem to deplete the body of some vital element which the medium is prone to supplement with dissipating practices. But these sensitive, negative characters are entitled to our helpful sympathy since they are predisposed to take on and reflect the dominant influences in our average social environments. Sensitives often enter the charmed circle of mediumship out of curiosity, or with a selfish motive, and thus being gradually drawn within the sphere of obsessing influences, have passively committed themselves to the evil ways of the obsessing power. Note the career of Henry Slade as a melancholy illustration of the dangers which lie on the threshold of one peculiar phase of mediumship. Nor is it an easy matter to determine to what extent me |