Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/44

36 him. You know that he says, 'in my name you shall cast out demons'?"

"I know, but Christ is God, and I have called upon him."

"Have you read the Gospels for nothing? Does not Jesus say, 'No man cometh to the Father, but by me?' His is the only name under heaven, given among men, whereby we may be saved. It is the appointed order, and you cannot be helped without conforming to it; for spiritual laws are as inflexible as natural laws."

I thanked him, and then recounted my experience, asking, at the close, if he thought it was infestation.

"Most assuredly I do," he answered. "I have often witnessed it. It may be called the first stage of "possession," and we cannot doubt that, without disbelieving the plain testimony of Scripture."

"And why do we not read of similar things in profane history?"

"We do; but they go there under the names of demonism and witchcraft, and are now generally disbelieved. They are, however, as true as anything in history. Some of the best of men have been possessed and infested, and Luther himself practised exorcism."

"It seems to me strange," I answered, "that a good Providence should allow demons to torment mortals."

"It is no more strange," he replied, "than many other things that we see every day. Why do infants suffer? Why are the sins of the fathers visited upon the children, to the third and fourth generation? We cannot tell; but we can rest in this—that God is all goodness and all wisdom."

"And this bogus Franklin, did he tell you who he was, and why he followed me?"

"No, he did not. He evidently kept something back, but I will have it from him. I never yet met a spirit whom I could not win by kindness and forbearance. He said he knew your father on the earth, but had lost sight of him in the spirit world."

"Knew my father! Ah! that accounts for my having his name from the medium so correctly. "AndAnd [sic] it must have been my good angel that, even then, inspired me with distrust of that evil spirit."

"Undoubtedly it was. We are never left alone, and if we seek aright for help, we shall come off more than conquerors through him who loves us."

I went away early, but after that night the "demons" left me, and I have never since heard oath or blasphemy from the lips of any but a mortal.

The sensible reader will be surprised if I say that, after this experience, I again attempted the investigation of Spiritualism. But I did. The subject has a strange fascination. It draws one like the wine cup or the gaming table, and when he has once received an inkling of its occult laws, it is next to impossible to resist the inclination to probe deeper into its mysteries.