Switzerland, but his correspondence with his friends had never been
interrupted for years. Years after his removal the above-mentioned lady
was taken ill, and at once predicted the day and hour of her death. On
the appointed day she was cheerful and perfectly composed; at a certain
hour, however, she raised herself slightly on her couch, and said with a
sweet smile, "Now it is time for me to go and say good-bye to Father C."
She immediately fell asleep, then awoke again, spoke a few words, and
died. At the same hour the monk was sitting in Bellinzona at his
writing-table, a so-called pandora, a musical instrument, by his side.
Suddenly he hears a noise like an explosion, and looking up startled,
sees a white figure, in whom he at once recognizes his distant friend by
her sweet smile. When he examined his instrument he found the
sounding-board cracked, which, no doubt, had given rise to his hearing
what he considered a "warning voice." The Rev. Mr. Oberlin, well-known
and much revered in Germany, and by no means forgotten in our own
country, where a prosperous college still bears his name, declares in
his memoirs that he had for nine years constant intercourse with his
deceased wife. He saw her for the first time after her death in broad
daylight and when he was wide awake; afterwards the conversations were
carried on partly in the day and partly at night. Other people in the
village in which he lived saw her as well as himself. Nor was it by the
eye only that the pious, excellent man judged of her presence;
frequently, when he extended his hand, he would feel his fingers gently
pressed, as his wife had been in the habit of doing when she passed by
him and would not stop. But there was much bitterness and sorrow also
mixed up with the sweetness of these mysterious relations. The
passionate attachment of husband and wife could ill brook the terrible
barrier that separated them from each other, and often the latter would
look so wretched and express her grief in such heartrending words that
the poor minister was deeply afflicted. The impression produced on his
mind was that her soul, forced for unknown reasons to remain for some
time in an intermediate state, remained warmly attached to earthly
friends and lamented the inability to confer with them after the manner
of men. After nine years the husband's visions suddenly ended and he was
informed in a dream that his wife had been admitted into a higher
heaven, where she enjoyed the promised peace with her Saviour, but could
no longer commune with mortal beings.
It is well known that even the great reformer, Martin Luther, knew of
several similar cases, and in his "Table Talk" mentions more than one
remarkable instance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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