Voices

I regret extremely that I can procure for you no corroborative evidence about my brother-in-law. My sister is far too nervous a person for me to have told her at the time. The event [i.e., the death] occurred on the 9th of August, 1874. [We have verified this date in the FreemarCs Journal, which describes the death as having been rather sudden. Mrs. Maunsell heard the voice 3 or 4 days before ; and though her brother-in-law was probably at that time in a somewhat abnormal state, the accuracy of coincidence which (if correctly remembered) would justify us in regarding the former experiences as very probably telepathic, is lacking to this one.] (620) From Mr. J. Augustus Edmonds, 16, Waterloo Road South, Wolverhampton. The evidence is third-hand, and is admitted by special exception (Vol. I., p. 158, note). Mr. Edmonds received the account of the second of the two incidents narrated from both his father and brother. 1883. Mr. Edmonds j&rst describes a very serious illness which attacked his father (the Rev. T. 0. Edmonds, pastor of the Baptist Church, St. Andrew's Street, Cambridge,) in the year 1831. During the illness a letter was received from a friend of his father's, the Rev. Josiah Wilkinson, of Saffron Walden, Essex. It was to this effect. I don't vouch for the perfect verbal accuracy. It was addressed to my mother. ' I have been made aware ^ of the alarming illness of your dear husband, but I have the happiness to assure you that his sickness is not unto death.' The note concluded with a message of love, when my father 1 Mr. Edmonds does not know whether Mr. Wilkinson had heard of the illness in any normal way, or whether the first intimation of this fact, as well as the assurance of recovery, was communicated in the abnormal manner afterwards described. The assurance of recovery may easily, of course, have been subjectively imagined, and in no way concerns us here. 568 SUPPLEMENT. [chap. should be able to receive it, and of sympathy to herself. This note arrived when my father was to all appearances as near his end as at any period of his illness. When my father was able to see a few friends, Mr. Wilkinson came over and urged him, as soon as he was permitted to move, to come with my brother Cyrus, his second son, and visit him, which they did. These three being alone, my father mentioned this note and said it very much surprised him, on account of the singularly confident manner in which his recovery was spoken of. To which Mr. Wilkinson replied that in several instances he had been told by an audible voice of some fact specially concerning his interests or welfare, a voice which none but himself heard, and there was no visible presence. These intimations, he said, had always been made to him during his family worship, and (I believe I am right in saying) that they had never been mentioned out of his own family. He said, however, ' I will relate one such case. ' I was kneeling at prayer one morning with my family, when a voice said,