“I am your betrothed, your confiding companion. I have watched over you with more care than you would have deemed necessary, had I been formally united with you in marriage. I have come now as a spirit to remove your doubts, and conduct you to a circle where the weariness of the world will disturb no more.”
“A spirit! a spirit!” I said in amazement.
“Yes, a spirit, a spirit you mourned as dead, is with you.”
“Is it possible? it is not—no, it is not.”
“It is possible. Never question what you know, Thomas.”
“I doubt not my senses, but my sight.”
“Then take my hand, as you once plighted your love to me, and bear me witness that what you feel is not a delusion, nor my speech a mockery of heaven.”
I gave her my warm hand, and never doubted again. But, ere the morning sun had appeared, I passed the portal of death, and saw the neighbors and friends preparing for the funeral. The minister was sent for. He came. With uplifted hands he besought God to comfort the weeping circle; but I saw he had no confidence that his prayer would be answered. He bewailed death as a curse, and mourned that Adam and all his posterity had no hope in heaven, only in Jesus. He opened what he said was the word of God, and read, “There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again;” but what is man, that the Almighty should call him to a new sphere, he did not seem to comprehend.
As I stood near him during the whole service, I felt moved to say, “Oh, thou of little faith; wherefore dost thou doubt?” But my companion said, “He will not believe though one go to him from the dead; he has Moses and the prophets, Jesus and the apostles, but will he not dispute their sayings?”
T. Can he dispute what he shall see and hear?