Now, mediumship is whatsoever and whomsoever is necessary to convey the message of the spirit world to man. A table may be a medium, a horse or dog may be a medium, and human beings may be the highest mediums for communicating to themselves or others; and he who refuses to accept the ministration of spirits, and claims that the only source of his wisdom is direct from God, shuts himself off from God by his peculiar egotism, from the ministrations of all his land; since no human being is independent of every other human being-, and since the direct voice of God to man has nothing to do with that which we term mediumship, or the distinct ministration called revelation. These are words spoken by intermediate agents - those who perceive higher truths, and hand them down to others. All are not prophets, but it is possible for all to become prophets; all are not apostles, but it is possible for all to become apostles; all are not workers of miracles, all are not teachers, all are not endowed with interpretation of tongues; but there is no distinct line by which you can trace these gifts other than in the source from whence they come.

By this we mean that the medium through whom we now address you neither possesses a different organization nor different temperament, so far as the gift of mediumship is concerned, from those of other persons present who might equally well have been chosen as the instrument of our work; that the gift of speech which is now hers might equally have been given to any one of you. And more than this: so distinctly is mediumship a gift and no part of the individual will or organism, that it has been known to be transferred instantly from one to another - the gift leaving one medium and instantly taking possession of another, and the other entirely different in temperament, in organization, in physical being and in mental culture. To illustrate: When the medium through whom we now address you was twelve years of age, her former teacher, (who was greatly puzzed over the gift that had come to the child,) said, mentally; "Now, if this be an outside power, why can it not take possession of me?" Instantly the spirit who was controlling this medium ceased to control her, and the teacher, much to her surprise, became possessed of the same intelligence who had spoken through this medium, and commenced to talk, being conscious all the while that she was speaking, but powerless to prevent it, and announced the very name that had previously been speaking through the child medium. This experiment has been frequently tried with similar results.

So, when one has a gift of mediumship and prizes it but little, the gift is often taken from them and bestowed upon another. But the desire cannot produce the gift, for we know of hundreds of excellent people, with the best aspirations and the purest wishes, who most earnestly desire to be mediums, and if mind, or imagination, or individual will-power, had anything to do with it, they would have long ago been mediums, but not one indication of mediumrhip can they receive. While others, who seem to value the gift but little and who seemingly trifle with it, are made the instruments of most wonderful manifestations. Is not this evidence that it has not its origin in the individual volition, or yet even the association of the individual, and that the selection is made without reference to your human wishes or desires, and that if you were to be consulted you would, perhaps, be mediums to-day and not mediums to-morrow; mediums for convenience and not for love; mediums for personal and individual gratification, and not for the benefit of the world? Those are taken who can be best used, even sometimes through their selfishness, for the better promulgation of the facts and phenomena to the world; while others are chosen for instruments because of their spiritual endowments.

There can be no doubt that the whole subject of mediumship must be distinctly traced to the plane of spiritual gifts •in order to be satisfactorily explained, and this brings us to a still broader proposition.

Spiritualism, as well as mediumship, are both under the control of intelligent minds who know what they are doing; they are not simply trying experiments, and who do not, either in accordance with human desires or human conditions, change the ministrations to the caprice of the individual on earth.

Mediumship is a unit. By this I mean that the most insignificant phase of manifestation, as it is termed - take for instance the rapping upon a table or chair - may be equally valuable with the most eloquent utterance. There are those among our theological friends, as well as those among our highly intellectual and cultured friends, who say, " Why should spirits, wise, and great, and good, descend to such insignificant methods us rapping upon tables and chairs?" I beg your pardon, sir, but has it ever occurred to you that the click of the telegraphic instrument where you are receiving a message from your loved son or daughter, is a very insignificant method of communication? Has it ever occurred to you that the quill with which Shakspeare might have written his splendid plays, was a very insignificant thing for the production of poems? And thai Dante, writing his Paradisso at the end of a goose quill, is a most ridiculous picture? Yet I make no doubt that as a scholar you are quite ready to accept the poem without reference to the instrument through which it was given. You arc quite ready to accept the telegraphic message from your beloved friend, even though a clicking seems meaningless to you; and I make no doubt that if you stood by the window where your immortal friends can give you a message, that you would not long cavil, but make intelligible the words, " I am not dead but still living," since that message would carry away all thought of the trivial manner in which it comes.

Has it ever occurred to you, either theological or cultivated aesthetic friend, that the method employed is not a compliment to you? That it is not the spirit that is degraded, but that it is an indication of the materiality of the present age? And that because you will not listen to the voice which might come to your own spirit, saying, " I am not dead but living." your friends are obliged to knock first on the outer door to gain admittance, possibly, to the door of your intelligence?