d left home. I had not
been thinking of that, but in spite of everything it had been revealed
to me in my dream. Was it a dream, or was it real? Had my spirit
travelled home, the spirit that knows no boundary or limits, had I seen
a vision of what really existed?

Such a thing was without precedent in my experience, and yet why should
it not be? Our bodies are not ourselves. We are distinct from the
flesh, the bone, the sinew, why then might not the spirit have liberty
to go home to its early associations?

I could remain in my cabin no longer. I rushed up to the deck, saw two
sailors standing at the post of duty. I spoke a word to them, and then
went towards the forecastle alone.

The night was as still as death, not a ripple could I see on the
waters. I looked around me, and all was smooth, placid sea. I looked
upwards and saw a cloudless sky, the full moon was almost as bright as
the sun itself, so much so that the stars barely showed themselves.
Now and then I could hear the gentle lapping of the water against the
vessel's side, but beyond that--nothing.

I stood alone, minute after minute, thinking. I could not forget my
dream, for such I had forced myself to believe it was, when----

What was it I heard?

The cry of a woman! A wail of distress!

My heart seemed ready to burst; but I listened.

Then I heard words. I heard my own name uttered by a woman' voice!

And I was alone on a vessel, with nothing but men on board, hundreds of
miles from land, and no other vessel near.

"Roger! Roger! where are you?" said the voice.

I answered not, I could not, for my tongue clave to the roof of my
mouth, but eagerly I listened.

"Come to me, Roger! Come to me, or they will kill me!"

It was Ruth's voice, carried by the power of God to me. I was wanted
home. I was sure of it, yet I could make no answer to what I had
heard. For years I had forgotten God, but He had not forgotten me. He
had revealed Himself in the voice I had heard. He had carried the
message of Ruth's heart to me. I was sure now that there was a God in
Heaven, and that He was telling me to frustrate evil.

Then something told me that all this was fancy, the result of an
excited brain. I had been dreaming, and now I fancied I had heard what
only existed in a mind half mad. I rushed to one of the sailors.

"Did you hear a woman's voice, just now?" I said.

"Woman's voice?" said the man, evidently surprised, "why no, sir!"