THE following extracts, from writings of past and present times, will speak for themselves. It is to be hoped they will speak to many hearts, and serve the purpose for which they were originally written by those who, being dead, yet bear witness to Christ. We need no proofs of the fulfillment of the promise, that the Comforter, having come, should abide forever in the Church of God. But the proofs have never been wanting; and they may at least serve to arrest the attention of some who have read history without any perception of Divine action in the minds of men. A common feature of great awakenings, or manifestations of the power of the Spirit, has been the simultaneous teaching of divine truths in lands far apart, and to races and persons who had little in common. And, on the other hand, the similarity of the Divine teaching in ages far apart, amidst absolutely different mental surroundings, must be obvious to all who will take the trouble to compare the writings of past and present times, which claim to bear witness to the communion of the soul with God, and which are at the same time based upon a belief of the great foundation truths of Christianity, as revealed in Holy Scripture. The extracts from the writings of Gertrude von Hackeborn are taken from the copies made of them by Gerhardt Tersteegen in his Leben Heiliger Seelen. Those of Julian of Norwich are also taken from the same source, but with further extract, from the work of Serenus de Cressy, published in the seventeenth century. The history of Richard Rolle may be found in some of the papers of the Early English Text Society, and in the preface to his Psalter, from which extracts are given. May the same Voice which spoke to the holy men and, women of old, speak by their means to many now. The sheep will recognize the voice of the Shepherd. And let none suppose that the faith which leads to joy unspeakable and full of glory, and to the enjoyment of “those things which the angels desire to look into,” is a faith which tends to idle dreaming and visionary sentiment. “Wherefore,” says the Apostle Peter, in the verse following, “gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”