You will remember the excellent chapter on spiritual gifts by our elder brother, Paul, when he says: "Now, brethren, concerning- spiritual gifts I would not have yon ignorant." And then he proceeds in a marvelously clear and concise manner to state the nature of the different gifts, and afterwards to indicate under what circumstances they should be exercised.

It is a remarkable fact, however, that our brethren of the Church not only steadily refuse to consider, excepting seldom, this chapter on spiritual gifts, but also refuse to apply it in any way to the manifestations of Modern Spiritualism, saying that spiritual gifts have departed; that they were only exercised in the time of Jesus and his apostles, or previously, and were not intended for general observation.

If not intended for general observation, how can we be assured that any of that which is recorded in the New Testament belongs to the present time? - that the Golden Rule, the Sermon on the Mount, or any advice given by Christ to his disciples, is intended for Christians of the present day to follow? If spiritual gifts are to be ignored by the Church, what are the " signs" that were " to follow them that believe," and how are they to be aware that the spirit of Christ is with them when the same gifts are not exercised to-day?

There are others who say: " What is the necessity of mediumship? Why must mediums be employed?" And they contend that one can hold direct communion with God without the necessity of intermediate messengers; and many in the Church claim that this is the only method of divine revelation to man. If so, then why are they so steadily and constantly perusing and pursuing the records of the past? What the necessity for the Church? Whence the hierarchy at Rome and in England that is made the law and the ordinance of the Church? Why should there be ecclesiastical schools and colleges? Why the necessity of a Christian clergy, since every man, if he is only to receive communication concerning the standard faith direct from God, must be his own medium?

But as they steadily and strenuously maintain that the Bible is the recorded word of God, then whence were the messengers and angels who revealed that word? And why were these mediatorial instruments employed to speak the word of God to man?• Why not give it directly? What was the necessity of the angel talking with Abram and Lot? And why were all the signs and wonders given to the prophets? And why were there any prophets if the word of God is spoken directly to each human life? And above all, (I say it reverently,) why the necessity of a mediator if man only receives his intelligence of supernal things directly from God? Is not that adequate *? And if Jesus is the final revelation, why accept Paul or John? Why not close with the works of Christ, and not consider the Acts of the Apostles anything.? If spiritual teachers, interpreters of the word of God, are necessary at all, why may not an added word be necessary? Why not another and another teacher? And why not, if the gifts of the spirit are indicated by that which Christians perform, why not the gifts of healing, of tongues, of interpretation of tongues, and other workings of wonders to-day as well as in the olden time?

No theologian can answer these questions. They belong to a region of thought that he steadily puts from him, and except for theological purposes, he refuses to admit the present intervention of angels or spiritual messengers with the affairs of men. But let a saint of the Church pass away, receiving at the last minute the conscious presence of angelic ministrations, and seeing with clear vision the angels that attend to point the way heavenward, and the Church is not slow to record it as evidence of the presence of God's holy spirit. Let a revival of religion spread throughout the land, or that which is termed such, and the healing of some one who has been ill for years is accomplished under the excitement and stimulus and prayerful influence of the Church, it is heralded through the whole land as another of the evidences of God's presence among men.

Miracles at the present day within the Church are permitted; outside of the Church they are denied. The only difference between to-day and the time of the Jewish dispellsation is, that then the Jews refused to receive anything that did not come within the accepted pale and letter of the Church or within the Temple, and said, " Can any good come out of Nazareth?" The Nazareth of to-day is Spiritualism; is outside of the Church; and whatsoever claims to have the stamp of spiritual manifestation is denied as impossible, while the Church claims that prayer and the ministering of angels among the saints is one of the accepted possibilities of the Church at the present time.

Let us be consistent, at least, and not deny to others that which we claim for ourselves. As Spiritualists, let us gel (lie example of abroader charity and deeper philosophy by including the manifestations within the Church as a part of the phenomena of Spiritualism. We can afford to do this, since in looking over the gifts enumerated by Paul, there is not one of them which every intelligent Spiritualist has not witnessed in the last thirty years, and there is not one of them that is not in existence to-day as a portion of the express form and manifestation that Spiritualism presents itself in.

" The gifts of the spirit " is, according to the understanding of your speaker, the correct term. There are many Spiritualists who, in order to be very scientific, refuse to be at all religious, and therefore, in order to be consistent, deny the manifestations of past time, or think they were only medium-ship. That word only is quite unnecessary, since mediumship can include all of the past and all of the present without in the least degree detracting from the former or unduly extolling the latter. If the air is a medium by which the rays of light are conveyed to your vision; if the optic nerve and the visual organ is itself the medium by which the consciousness of light is conveyed to the sensorhun, there is nothing to forbid the light of all spiritual presence shining through whatever atmosphere, personality or presence that may be necessary to convey spiritual meaning unto man.