'Twixt two worlds : a narrative of the life and work of William Eglinton

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The Story of a Haunting Spirit. 57
not to the same extent, nor tor the same reason. But they all ask for and need your help
and your prayers, and this is the greatest and noblest end of Spiritualism— to aid poor
unhappy spirits to free themselves from earth and progress upwards. After a while, when
this spirit can control the medium with calmness, he will come himself and tell you, through
him, all his history, and how he came to fall. Meanwhile, we thank you very much for
allowing us to draw so much strength from you, and helping us with your sympathy ;
and
I hope shall see you to-morrow night, and that you will believe me always to remain your
I
loving friend, Joky.' "
Such is the touching story of an earth-bound spirit, for whom the hearts of the medium's
guides went out in human compassion and sympathy. Shells ! reliquce ! elementah ! Such narratives
as this, and there are hundreds on record, give the lie direct to such monstrous perversions of the
truth, born in most cases of ignorance. I have often been puzzled to account for the obliquity of
vision displayed by some-Theosophists in face of such unimpeachable testimony to the humanity of
returning spirits, and only lately has the problem been solved for me. Talking with a prominent
Theosophist one day, I soon discovered that the range of his vision, as regards Spiritualism, did
not extend beyond the floating guitars, the musical boxes, and buffoonery of the worst type of
seance prevalent in the past. He knew nothing of that higher Spiritualism, of the cherished
communion of thousands of private family circles, where of a truth the real fruits of the spirit are
seen—in the joy, the love, the happy reunion of soul with soul. I felt I could not disabuse him
—he was not prepared. It is this hidden knowledge of the secrets of the Holy of Holies of
Spiritualism that forms the real strength of the movement. Theosophists may talk of "shells"
and "elementals," and Psychical Researchers of their "unconscious secondary selves," and so-called
"scientific" methods, and both may render themselves a laughing-stock alike to the world and
Spiritualists. But, in the speech of One of old, may we not exclaim that it is "easier for a came!
to pass through the eye of a needle" than for those lacking a child-like thirst for knowledge and
a receptive and sympathetic mind to pass the threshold of the Unseen