Words are not culture. Formulated ideas are not truths. The inspiration of the spirit world is adequate, not only to construct sentences grammatically, not only to speak impressively, but, fortunately, to do this without robbing the mind and spirit of its inspiration.

If we had our choice (it may sound iconoclastic) we would sooner trust the children of the present generation to the intuition that is dominant within them than to have the mechanism of universities and schools, that to-day in hot-beds of intelligence and intellectual growth, forces the young mind into avenues that are unnatural, and sacrifices the health of the body to that forcing process of the brain.

If we had our way, we would run the risk of inspiration taking care of men's souls, and have done with the bickering and striving of theological societies. If we had our way, the whole system of human education would be reversed. It would not be what can we make of our children, but what are they? that we shall perceive the gifts God has given them, and endeavor to unfold those gifts.

I know of no horticulturist that trains his plants and tender shoots to grow by placing a stone-weight upon them; and I know of no system of grape-growing that robs the vines of their beauty and productiveness, by trampling upon them. I know of no way that forest trees are made to expand to their native beauty and wonderful growth by putting iron bands around them. And yet the human mind has survived this affliction for many hundred years. You have to congraulate yourselves that you are not idiots after all.

The power of the spirit has proven itself to be superior to this sepulchre in which intellect has been placed. And now, into this utilitarian age, into the midst of this clamor of intellectual growth and culture; into the midst of this intellectual materialism, the clear light of spiritual life and spirit intelligences, like the crisp odor from the far off ocean of inspiration, has swept into man's life, bringing every one of the spiritual gifts with it. Every one that was laid by on the theological shelf as valueless; every one that theology had said was impossible to-day - only existed in the day of miracles - they come trooping in like white birds from the great ecean of eternal life, saying, "We are neither dead nor out of place, but are fresh from the hand of the Infinite, and will have our way."

So they are having their way; they are showing their signs in your midst, and one of the chiefest of these signs is the gift of knowledge.

It comes confounding the priests and professors of theology; it comes disputing with them in their own temples and places from the lips of little children; it comes to gentle women, unaccustomed to speech, and with its stern logic and superior power makes itself manifest and felt. It comes into the halls of legislation, and there turns back the tide of the inquisition that would force men to do obedience to laws which their conscience does not approve. It comes to sustain the gift of healing, to sustain the gift of the working of wonders, of miracles: to sustain the gift of prophecy. It comes with all history at its bidding; it can refer you to the oracles of the past time; it can tell you of the manifestations of the spirit; it can say to you, Confucius and Plato and Buddha were the bearers of its truth; it can tell you of prophets in all times - of Isis and Osiris; it can tell you of the history of India and Persia; of Egypt, that Mother of Nations, and it can go back of all history and show you the fountains whence the source of human knowledge springs.

It can breathe upon you the matchless mysteries of all past times; unlock the secrets of the pyramids; reveal the wonders of the Temple of the Sun; unveil the mystic significance of the Sphinx, and show you a God behind all these symbols, responding eternally, and potent for good, making His altars in every age, His angels ministering spirits, and little children the mouth-piece of His wonders.

It can make the feeble things of earth to confound the wise, and rear up the instruments of its power so that tongues, and languages, and sciences, and kingdoms of human power are as naught before it. And yet man says: "We must have schools to educate our mediums ! "

Educate them to do what? To speak correctly? Then the voice of the spirit is in vain. To live correctly? That must be by spiritual growth.

If you have had enough of superficial organizations in past time, in the name of heaven let the spirit do its work ! If men and women are good they will lead good lives; if they are not good, the false assumes a superficial piety which cannot be hid from the searching eye of the spirit.

You have healed over these wounds long enough; let the spirit teach you to do good, and above all, see that the mote is cast from your own eye.

What will you teach them? The gifts of the spirit ". You do not know them. The process of mediumship? You do not understand it. Under what conditions they become mediums, you have not the slightest knowledge on that subject; you do not know the first letter of the alphabet of making one of the smallest spiritual manifestations. You cannot tell, were you summoned to-day, under what condition the first rap was produced. You do not know the laws, you do not understand the methods, you have no scientific formula, no words, no ideas with which you can grasp the subtle forces by which a spirit moves an atom of matter.

Shall you teach that which you have not even the alphabet of? Nay, rather let it be that the result shall flow into your lives; for after all the gifts of prophecy, of the working of miracles, of the gift of healing, of the gift of tongues, of the interpretation of tongues, of the gift of knowledge, and the gift of wisdom, is it not that divinest Charity shall flow through your lives, and that the opulence of spiritual life shall make for itself in your midst the grand treasure-house of intelligence?

Do not think, therefore, you who say you would like to be Spiritualists if it will give you knowledge of history, or of chemistry, or of geology, or of astronomy, that you can find this gift with that motive.

We have never known any who wished to shine in intellect, and whose mental culture was to be made the standard of spiritual truth, and who were to take an external unfold-ment of spiritualism for the purpose of brilliant intellectual attainment, ever succeed.

There came to us in our ministrations once a young man, who said: "I have listened to this, and if it can impart to me a knowledge of history, of geology, of languages and science, I would like to be cultivated in this school." And straightway we said to the young man: "Go thy way! Universities, colleges, encyclopedias are for external culture; but if you will have the gift of the spirit; if you will seek the kingdom of its love; if you wish to know its measureless sources of light; if you would have the work of the spirit wrought in your life, you must seek it from within."

And he came day by day and hour by hour to listen to the word and the teaching. Less and less the thought of the brilliant culture was in his mind; less and less the idea of the teaching of the schools, until finally the one pervading thought was, not to study astronomy, or mathematics, or history, but the knowledge of the soul - how is that best attained? And into his young life there came such a wonderful work as Christians profess, but few possess. Fur, after all the teaching he perceived that goodness is more than intellect; that charity is greater than all gifts, since it is unfailing. And in every word and thought of his life he endeavored to apply this teaching.

If you do this, I assure you it is a greater wonder than all knowledge, than all the mysteries of ancient lore; than the learning which is valueless, or the science which is but the means to an end. This clear, pure, transparent and perfect whiteness of the soul is the only knowledge that is worth the possessing; for when moons and stars and suns shall fade; when astronomy shall cease to have relation to your being; when the earth and its laws can no longer affect you; when the chemical changes of organic life cease to obstruct or fetter you, that whiteness of the soul shall shine and gleam through all the starry heavens, and make for itself a place in the eternal kingdoms of light.

Is not this the greatest knowledge? Is not this the divinest test? This one superabundant and absolute life; this one pervading whiteness, greater than death, greater than time, greater than sense, greater than all things save immortal life - and that is the ultimate gift of knowledge.