“My old friend, Mr. Helleberg. I know you have been waiting and wanting to hear from me, and I have been just as anxious to respond. Here in the spirit world we have order and system, and each one must bide his time. My time has come to speak a few words to you, and I assure you, my dear old friend, I seize the opportunity with pleasure I can not fully express.
“I remember that the new light of spiritual truth came to me first, and I was the humble instrument in the hands of higher intelligences to assist you in obtaining it. I was a medium for exalted spirits to lead you and others into the light, and that for a great and noble purpose, for way back to that time the plans were laid for the work in which you are now engaged so nobly and fearlessly. You are also, my dear friend, a medium, for it is true that all persons whom spirits can influence, however unconscious it may be to themselves, are mediums in the true sense of the word.
“You are helping others to grow and expand in spiritual knowledge, and you will be astonished when you come over to look back and see the work you have done, and to receive the plaudit, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ I have been blessed beyond measure for the little I was enabled to do, but your reward will be greater than mine. Your opportunities were greater and you cheerfully yielded your energies, time, and means, to the work.
“If Spiritualists could only realize the treasures they are laying up for themselves by advancing the banner of truth, and the joys in consequence that await them on the golden shore, they would spare no pains or means and omit no effort in spreading the gospel of glad tidings. Oh, how I would exult with joy if the New Church people would see and preach this beautiful and blessed truth. They will yet get their eyes open, and step out of their little creed-bound narrowness, and stand upon the broad and heavenly platform of the Lord and this spiritual truth, for they are one and the same. Swedenborg will speak to them from the higher life, and I pray they may heed him. Your old friend,
“William Gailard.”
WM. LLOYD GARRISON.
At the sitting June 9, 1882, came the following:
“For long years before the emancipation of the slaves I waged a fierce and bitter warfare against the institution of African slavery in the United States. The overthrow of that accursed institution became the absorbing and central idea of my soul from my early manhood. All other themes, questions, and subjects, I subordinated to that one dominant purpose of my life. When I had lived to see that institution swept out of existence, equal civil rights secured, and manhood suffrage conferred, irrespective of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, I felt a sweet heavenly calm rest upon my soul, accompanied by the consciousness that I had not lived in vain. I felt that my efforts, however feeble, had helped to forward to a glorious consummation that long eventful struggle, and that by aiding in pushing along the car of progress and freedom, the world had not suffered by my having lived in it. When the victory had been achieved I had advanced far ‘into the vale of years,’ and realized that my life forces were well nigh exhausted. They had been mainly expended in my life work as editor, lecturer, etc., in a warfare upon an unholy condition in which upward of four millions of human beings, with God-given souls, had been placed by sheer force and without their own consent. I saw and still see needed reforms that call aloud for help, willing souls, and ready hands. Reform in the currency, reform in the tariff, reform in the civil service, a complete overhauling and reconstruction of government, the overthrow of rum, and the enfranchisement of women. God will and is raising up noble souls for this noble work, and you may be assured that the spirit world is neither indifferent nor inactive. Spirit bands are forming every-where, instrumentalities are being chosen, and agencies are being arranged for the work. The millions of high and exalted souls of the higher life will, ere long, descend upon the children of earth with their inspiring and propelling influence, and a revolution in the realm of mind will be inaugurated that shall eventuate in the accomplishment of needed reforms. I shall be among the number with all my strength and soul.
“Wm. Lloyd Garrison.”
WILBERFORCE.