302. " While awaiting the coming of unity, each person believes he himself has the truth, and main tains that he alone is in the true; an illusion that does not fail to call to him deceiving spirits : on what can an impartial and disinterested man base his judgment ?"
" The purest light is obscured by no cloud ; the diamond without flaw is most valuable : judge, then, the spirits by the purity of their teachings. Unity will come from that side where good has never been mingled with bad ; to that side man will rally by the law of events, for they will judge that there is the truth. Remark, besides, that the fundamental princi ples are everywhere the same, and should unite you in a common thought —the love of God and the practice of good. Whatever may be the mode of progression supposed for souls, the final end is the same, and the means of attaining it is also the same —do good ; and there are not two methods of doing it.
" Should there arise capital differences as to the principle, even, of doctrine, you have a certain rule for valuing them — the following : The best doctrine is that which best satisfies the heart and the reason, and which contains the most elements to lead men to good ; it is, I assure you, the one that will prevail. " Spirit of Truth."
Remark. The contradictions that present them selves in spirit communications may arise from the following causes : the ignorance of some spirits ; the deceptions of the inferior spirits, who, either from malice or mischief, say the very contrary from what the spirit whose name they have usurped has already said elsewhere : the will of the spirit, who talks accord ing to the times, the places, and persons, and consid ers it useful not to say everything to everybody ; the insufficiency of human language to express the things of the incorporeal world ; the insufficiency of the means of communication which do not always permit the spirit to render his whole thought; finally, to the in terpretation each one may give of a word or an expla nation, according to his ideas, his prejudices, or the point of view from which he sees the thing. Study, observation, experience, and the abnegation of all sentiment of self-love, alone can teach us to distinguish these different shades.
