Page:Resurrection Rock (1920).pdf/345

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A DIFFICULTY WITH HEAVEN
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cently had been reading and their illustration in the recent return of "J.Q." of Galilee to display his flaming torch presented far different images; in these even Jaccard now believed; and these portrayed Lucas Cullen, remaining in his own character and personality, encountering the spirits of the departed as individuals retaining personalities which were their own upon earth. Lucas did not relish such encounters.

Kincheloe would be there; and J. Q. and Henry Laylor and, worst of all, Richard Drane. They would not seek to injure him, so said the books; but Lucas rather preferred, if he met them again, that they should try. But no; they would be kind to him. Kincheloe "kind" to him! And Quinlan and Laylor and Drane! The thought made Lucas writhe. And others, whom he had injured or deceived in life, would be there to be "kind" to him; and they would know all about him—his daughter Deborah and Carew, Ethel's father. They would know, for instance, what he had recently done to Ethel. Well, whatever men like Parding and Jaccard thought, Lucas would have no faith in such inhabitants of heaven; he preferred to continue to believe in the perpetual chorus of washed-out half-wits.

But a belief, he found, was not a thing which one can command.

The English medium, Mrs. Brand, continued her extraordinary work in New York City for about ten days longer; then she came to Chicago, "sitting" in private homes of several of the most prominent people of the city and demonstrating evidences of communication to the full satisfaction of the increasing groups of devotees, and daily convincing the skeptical of the reality of her powers to reach the world beyond. She