You are in:
The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1863 > October
October
“A century ago society was influenced by the materialistic ideas reproduced in all forms and translated into most literary and artistic works. Disbelief was in fashion and the denial of everything including God was in vogue. Present life was considered positive and beyond that it was all uncertainty.; This lead to people living out their lives for the present because after that who cares! That was the thought of all of those that pretended to be above prejudices and for that reason called themselves ‘strong minds’. One must acknowledge that they were the largest number and among them where the ones who were assigned the task of driving and guiding society and whose example would necessarily have great influence.
The clergy also suffered from this influence. The public or private conduct of several of its members where completely contradictory to their teachings and Jesus’ teachings. The clergy did not believe in what they preached because if they did firmly believe in a future lifeand in the punishments they would have passed over less the interests of heavens than those of Earth. Thus, the foundations of every human institution had been sought in the material order of things. However, they ended up recognizing that those institutions lacked a solid supporting point for the ones that seemed well established would fall flat on a stormy day, given that the vices were masked by repressive laws but mankind had not become better.
What would that supporting point be? That was the question that they tried to answer and even recognized that God could be useful to something in the universe. Later some strong Spirits started to fear and to avoid discounting the future (they did that in their lips only) they said: People pretend that everything ends with death but what do they know the ones who say so? In fact it is only their opinion after all. Before Christopher Columbus people also believed that there was nothing beyond the oceans. And if there were something beyond the grave? It would be interesting to know, however, because if there is something we all have to go through as we all die. How does one live there? Good? Bad? The question is important and must be considered. But what if we continue to live beyond the physical body? We must then have a soul. The soul would not be fake then? Then, how is that soul? Where does it come from? Where does it go to?
A vague uneasiness took over these boasters before the idea of death. They started to seek, to discuss, recognizing that they would never be okay on Earth, regardless, and that in some cases they would even be very bad, then casting their eyes and hopes towards the future. All the extremes find their reaction when not in agreement with the truth because it is only the truth that is unable to be changed. The materialistic ideas had met their apogee. It was then that they noticed that they did not provide what was demanded from them; that they would leave an emptiness in the hearts; that they would create an unfathomable abyss that would back up in horror as they do before a rock cliff. Hence an aspiration for the unknown and as a consequence an inevitable reaction towards the spiritualist ideas as the only possible way out.
It is a reaction that has manifested itself for some years now. But humans arrived at the apex of intelligence. At this age, when the capacity of understanding reached maturity, mankind can no longer be led like in the infancy or adolescence. The positivism of life taught them to search. We say more, made it necessary to understand the whys and hows of everything for in our mathematical century there is the need for the awareness of everything, to calculate everything, to measure everything in order to probe the terrain where we set foot.
They want certainty if not material at least moral even in the abstraction. It is not enough to say that something is good or bad; people want to know why it is good or bad and if there is or there is not reason to prescribe or prohibit that. That is why blind faith no longer has a place in our “thinking” century. They no long ask for faith. Today they wish for and are thirsty of that faith because it is a necessity. They want a reasoned faith though. Discussing their belief is a necessity of the time that willing or not one has to accept.
The spiritualist ideas respond well to the general aspirations since they are preferable to skepticism and the idea of the oblivious because people instinctively know that they are right but they satisfy imperfectly only because the soul is still left in vagueness and those ideas are on their own powerless to provide the solution to a number of problems.
Simple spiritualism is in the position of a person that feels the objective but still does not know the path to achieve that and that finds obstacles on the way. That is why a large number of writers and philosophers have lately probed these mysterious secrets; why so many systems have been created aiming at the solution of innumerable problems that remain insoluble.
Regardless of these systems being rational or absurd they do not witness a lesser spiritualist tendency of the this time, tendencies that are no longer mysteries; that people no longer try to hide and from which, on the contrary, they are proud of as they formerly were of their disbelief.
If none of those systems got the absolute truth it is incontestable that several were close or made it blossom and that the discussion that followed paved the way preparing the minds for such studies.
It was in those eminently favorable circumstances that Spiritism arrived. A little bit earlier and it would have clashed with the almighty materialism; a little bit later and it would have been muffled by blind fanaticism. It shows up at the moment when fanaticism killed by the disbelief that it provoked itself it no longer can oppose a serious barrier to Spiritism, a time when fanaticism is fatigued by the void left by materialism; at the moment when the spiritualist reaction, provoked by the excesses of materialism, takes all minds over when people are looking for the great solutions that are of interest of the whole humanity.
Therefore it is at that moment that it comes to resolve these problems not by hypothesis but by effective proofs, giving Spiritism the positive character, the only one that satisfy the times. There people find what was not found elsewhere. That is why it is accepted so easily. Thousands of organizations paved the way and continue to do that gradually sowing the professed ideas.
One must not believe that there are only serious books read by a small number of scholars. Notice how much the Spiritist thoughts abound in the form of romance or bulletins, penetrating everywhere even among those that think the least about Spiritism. These are so many other latent germs that will blossom when the great light comes so that they will be familiarized with the new ideas.
One of the most important principles of Spiritism is undisputedly that of the plurality of the physical existences, that is the reincarnation, voluntarily or out of ignorance confused by the skeptical with the principle of metempsychosis. Without this principle, we face so many unsolvable difficulties in the moral and psychological order that many modern philosophers were led to it by the force of reason as a necessary law of nature, like Charles Fourier, Jean Reynaud and many others. That principle, today openly discussed by renowned people who yet are not Spiritist has a tendency to be introduced in modern philosophy. With that key in hand people will see new horizons opening up before their eyes and the most difficult issues been level planed like magic. Such a position cannot be avoided. People will be led to that by the force of things because the plurality of the existences is not a system but a law of nature that sticks out from the evidence of the facts.
Although not elevated to the position of a doctrine or not so clearly formulated as in Fourier and Reynaud, the principle of the plurality of the existences is now found in a number of authors and consequently in every mouth so that one can say that it is in the order of the day and tends to find a place amongst the most common beliefs given that in several of them it precedes the knowledge of Spiritism. It is a natural consequence of the spiritualist reaction that takes place at this time with the strong impulse of Spiritism.
With respect to the citations our only difficulty would be in the choice. We shall be restricted to the passage below from one of the latest novels by Mrs. George Sand: Mademoseille de la Quintinie, an outstanding philosophical work that made the index of the Roman curia as well as the Revue des Deux Mondes[1] in its publications number 1 and 15 in March, April and May 1863. The passage is about a very guilty priest that is taken by regret to the earthly reparation and atonement after the rigorous advices of a lay person that says the following:
“You say that you have overcome the age of passions! No, because you have entered the age of vengeance and persecutions. Watch out! However, irrespective of your fate among us I tell you that we will meet again in another place where we will get along better and love one another instead of fighting each other. Like you, I don’t believe in the that evil goes unpunished and in the efficacy of the error. I believe that you will atone the voluntary hardening of your soul by great lacerations of the heart in another life. All that is left to you is to enter the progressive path of happiness for I am certain that everything can be rescued starting from this life. The human soul is gifted with wonderful powers of repentance and rehabilitation. This is not contrary to your dogma, and your contrition word says a lot."
In a forthcoming article we will examine the works of Mr. Renan about the life of Jesus and will show that despite its appearance and without the knowledge of the author it is a spiritualist reaction. Materialism uselessly shakes the circle of logic and universal awareness that surrounds it, however much it proclaims the obliviousness. Its final screams are muffled by the voice that shouts in all corners of the world: “We have an immortal soul.” But who will benefit from the reaction? That is what a not distant future will tell us. Hoping to be able to talk about Mr. Rena’s work we insistently recommend a little brochure to our readers in which the question seems to be handled in a very rational way, with precious observations about this delicate issue. The title is: “Réflexions d’un orthodoxe de l’Église grecque sur la vie de Jésus, by M. Renan (Didier e Co., price 50 cents).
[1] Review of two worlds (TN)
The clergy also suffered from this influence. The public or private conduct of several of its members where completely contradictory to their teachings and Jesus’ teachings. The clergy did not believe in what they preached because if they did firmly believe in a future lifeand in the punishments they would have passed over less the interests of heavens than those of Earth. Thus, the foundations of every human institution had been sought in the material order of things. However, they ended up recognizing that those institutions lacked a solid supporting point for the ones that seemed well established would fall flat on a stormy day, given that the vices were masked by repressive laws but mankind had not become better.
What would that supporting point be? That was the question that they tried to answer and even recognized that God could be useful to something in the universe. Later some strong Spirits started to fear and to avoid discounting the future (they did that in their lips only) they said: People pretend that everything ends with death but what do they know the ones who say so? In fact it is only their opinion after all. Before Christopher Columbus people also believed that there was nothing beyond the oceans. And if there were something beyond the grave? It would be interesting to know, however, because if there is something we all have to go through as we all die. How does one live there? Good? Bad? The question is important and must be considered. But what if we continue to live beyond the physical body? We must then have a soul. The soul would not be fake then? Then, how is that soul? Where does it come from? Where does it go to?
A vague uneasiness took over these boasters before the idea of death. They started to seek, to discuss, recognizing that they would never be okay on Earth, regardless, and that in some cases they would even be very bad, then casting their eyes and hopes towards the future. All the extremes find their reaction when not in agreement with the truth because it is only the truth that is unable to be changed. The materialistic ideas had met their apogee. It was then that they noticed that they did not provide what was demanded from them; that they would leave an emptiness in the hearts; that they would create an unfathomable abyss that would back up in horror as they do before a rock cliff. Hence an aspiration for the unknown and as a consequence an inevitable reaction towards the spiritualist ideas as the only possible way out.
It is a reaction that has manifested itself for some years now. But humans arrived at the apex of intelligence. At this age, when the capacity of understanding reached maturity, mankind can no longer be led like in the infancy or adolescence. The positivism of life taught them to search. We say more, made it necessary to understand the whys and hows of everything for in our mathematical century there is the need for the awareness of everything, to calculate everything, to measure everything in order to probe the terrain where we set foot.
They want certainty if not material at least moral even in the abstraction. It is not enough to say that something is good or bad; people want to know why it is good or bad and if there is or there is not reason to prescribe or prohibit that. That is why blind faith no longer has a place in our “thinking” century. They no long ask for faith. Today they wish for and are thirsty of that faith because it is a necessity. They want a reasoned faith though. Discussing their belief is a necessity of the time that willing or not one has to accept.
The spiritualist ideas respond well to the general aspirations since they are preferable to skepticism and the idea of the oblivious because people instinctively know that they are right but they satisfy imperfectly only because the soul is still left in vagueness and those ideas are on their own powerless to provide the solution to a number of problems.
Simple spiritualism is in the position of a person that feels the objective but still does not know the path to achieve that and that finds obstacles on the way. That is why a large number of writers and philosophers have lately probed these mysterious secrets; why so many systems have been created aiming at the solution of innumerable problems that remain insoluble.
Regardless of these systems being rational or absurd they do not witness a lesser spiritualist tendency of the this time, tendencies that are no longer mysteries; that people no longer try to hide and from which, on the contrary, they are proud of as they formerly were of their disbelief.
If none of those systems got the absolute truth it is incontestable that several were close or made it blossom and that the discussion that followed paved the way preparing the minds for such studies.
It was in those eminently favorable circumstances that Spiritism arrived. A little bit earlier and it would have clashed with the almighty materialism; a little bit later and it would have been muffled by blind fanaticism. It shows up at the moment when fanaticism killed by the disbelief that it provoked itself it no longer can oppose a serious barrier to Spiritism, a time when fanaticism is fatigued by the void left by materialism; at the moment when the spiritualist reaction, provoked by the excesses of materialism, takes all minds over when people are looking for the great solutions that are of interest of the whole humanity.
Therefore it is at that moment that it comes to resolve these problems not by hypothesis but by effective proofs, giving Spiritism the positive character, the only one that satisfy the times. There people find what was not found elsewhere. That is why it is accepted so easily. Thousands of organizations paved the way and continue to do that gradually sowing the professed ideas.
One must not believe that there are only serious books read by a small number of scholars. Notice how much the Spiritist thoughts abound in the form of romance or bulletins, penetrating everywhere even among those that think the least about Spiritism. These are so many other latent germs that will blossom when the great light comes so that they will be familiarized with the new ideas.
One of the most important principles of Spiritism is undisputedly that of the plurality of the physical existences, that is the reincarnation, voluntarily or out of ignorance confused by the skeptical with the principle of metempsychosis. Without this principle, we face so many unsolvable difficulties in the moral and psychological order that many modern philosophers were led to it by the force of reason as a necessary law of nature, like Charles Fourier, Jean Reynaud and many others. That principle, today openly discussed by renowned people who yet are not Spiritist has a tendency to be introduced in modern philosophy. With that key in hand people will see new horizons opening up before their eyes and the most difficult issues been level planed like magic. Such a position cannot be avoided. People will be led to that by the force of things because the plurality of the existences is not a system but a law of nature that sticks out from the evidence of the facts.
Although not elevated to the position of a doctrine or not so clearly formulated as in Fourier and Reynaud, the principle of the plurality of the existences is now found in a number of authors and consequently in every mouth so that one can say that it is in the order of the day and tends to find a place amongst the most common beliefs given that in several of them it precedes the knowledge of Spiritism. It is a natural consequence of the spiritualist reaction that takes place at this time with the strong impulse of Spiritism.
With respect to the citations our only difficulty would be in the choice. We shall be restricted to the passage below from one of the latest novels by Mrs. George Sand: Mademoseille de la Quintinie, an outstanding philosophical work that made the index of the Roman curia as well as the Revue des Deux Mondes[1] in its publications number 1 and 15 in March, April and May 1863. The passage is about a very guilty priest that is taken by regret to the earthly reparation and atonement after the rigorous advices of a lay person that says the following:
“You say that you have overcome the age of passions! No, because you have entered the age of vengeance and persecutions. Watch out! However, irrespective of your fate among us I tell you that we will meet again in another place where we will get along better and love one another instead of fighting each other. Like you, I don’t believe in the that evil goes unpunished and in the efficacy of the error. I believe that you will atone the voluntary hardening of your soul by great lacerations of the heart in another life. All that is left to you is to enter the progressive path of happiness for I am certain that everything can be rescued starting from this life. The human soul is gifted with wonderful powers of repentance and rehabilitation. This is not contrary to your dogma, and your contrition word says a lot."
In a forthcoming article we will examine the works of Mr. Renan about the life of Jesus and will show that despite its appearance and without the knowledge of the author it is a spiritualist reaction. Materialism uselessly shakes the circle of logic and universal awareness that surrounds it, however much it proclaims the obliviousness. Its final screams are muffled by the voice that shouts in all corners of the world: “We have an immortal soul.” But who will benefit from the reaction? That is what a not distant future will tell us. Hoping to be able to talk about Mr. Rena’s work we insistently recommend a little brochure to our readers in which the question seems to be handled in a very rational way, with precious observations about this delicate issue. The title is: “Réflexions d’un orthodoxe de l’Église grecque sur la vie de Jésus, by M. Renan (Didier e Co., price 50 cents).
[1] Review of two worlds (TN)
Mr. Costeau, one of our brothers in Spiritism, has just died. He was inhumed on September 12th last at Montmartre cemetery. He was a good man led back to God by Spiritism. Hehad a total, sincere and profound faith in the future. He was was a simple worker who practiced charity in his thoughts, words and actions according to the his scarce resources. He always found ways of helping those who were less fortunate.
It would be a mistake to believe that the Parisian Society is an exclusively aristocratic gathering because it counts on more than one working class person; it welcomes every devotion to its cause be it from the highest or the lowest social echelon; the aristocrat and the artisan are fraternally hand in hand there.
Sometime ago, at the wedding of one of our colleagues, who was also a modest worker, there was a high ranking foreign dignitary with his wife, a princess, both members of the Society that did not feel diminished for seating side-by-side with other guests although the ceremony celebrated in an obscure chapel had luxury reduced to its simplest expression. The fact is is that Spiritism does not segregate based on class or pretend to try and move everybody to the same impossible social level, Spiritism makes people appreciate from a different stand point the fascinating prism of the world. It teaches that the little one may have been great on Earth; that the great may become little and that in the celestial kingdom earthlsy classes are not taken into account. That is how it leads to true fraternity by logically destroying the social prejudices of cast and color. Our brother Costeau was poor and leaves behind a widow in need. Hence he was taken to a common ditch, a door that leads to heavens as much as the sumptuous mausoleum.
Mr. d’Ambel, vice president, and Mr. Canu, Society secretary, led the burial. One and the other gave speeches at the tomb that caused marked impression in the auditorium and among the gravediggers who were visibly touched although insensible to such ceremonies. Here is Mr. Canu’s eulogy:
“Dear brother Costeau! Just a few years ago many among us, and I confess I was the first one, would not have seen anything in this grave but the end of human miseries and after that the void, that is, nothing for the soul to deserve or atone and consequently nothing for God to reward, punish or forgive. Today, thanks to our divine doctrine, we see here the end of our trials and to you, dear brother whose remains we return to Earth, the triumph in our works and the beginning of the deserved reward to your courage, resignation and charity, in one word, your virtues and above all, the glorification of a wise, powerful, just and benevolent God. Hence, dear brother, take our thanksgivings to the feet of the Eternal who wanted to dissipate from around us the darkness of error and disbelief because not long ago we would have told you with a warm forehead and a discouraged hearth: Good by forever friend. Today we say with our heads up and radiating hope and with our hearts full of courage and love: So long, dear friend and pray for us.”
Mr. d’Ambel’s eulogy:
“Ladies and gentlemen, and you, dear colleagues of the Parisian Society, this is the second time that we lead a colleague to his last dwelling. The one that we came to say farewell to he was one of those obscure fighters that the difficulties of life always found unbreakable; the absolute certainty, however, had failed him long ago. Thus, as soon as he got to know Spiritism he was fast to embrace a doctrine that brought him the truth and whose teachings reassure the afflicted of this world in their trials.
Modest worker, he always accomplished his tasks with the serenity of the just and the adversity that hurt him so badly in his last days, for our sorrow, also opened up for him, rest assured all of you who hear me, a next career of prosperity and venture.
Ah! I am so sorry for not having our venerable master in Paris! His authoritative voice would please our brother much more than mine and he would have paid a more considerable tribute than I can in my insignificance. I wanted to give a better solemnity to our colleague but I was informed too late in order to be able to communicate with all members of the Society that were in Paris. However, irrespective of the small number present here we represent the Spiritist family united by a common faith in the future from one end to the next. We are the delegates of many millions of followers in whose name, dear and missing colleague, we come to ask you to contribute to the propagation of our great doctrine, to the limit of your new abilities, a doctrine that supported you so strongly amidst your last cruel trials.
Ah! As so eloquently our dear president Allan Kardec said at the burial of our brother Sanson, before such a supreme time the Spiritist faith gives a strength that only those who carry that can realize and Mr. Costeau had that faith at the highest level.
Dear Mr. Costeau, be assured that the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies had you in high regardf. You will always be remembered as one of the most diligent members. It is in the name of the Society, in the name of its president, in the name of your devastated wife and sister that I come to tell you, as our friend Mr. Canu said, not a good-bye, but so long in a happier world. May you be able to enjoy the happiness that you deserve there; may you come to reach out to us when our time to be there comes.
I beg the Spirits of Mr. Jobard and Mr. Sanson to welcome our colleague Mr. Costeau and facilitate his access to your serene regions.
Dear Spirits, pray for him. Pray for us. So be it.”
--
After this eulogy Mr. d’Ambel textually read the prayers for those who have just died that was dictated at the tomb of Mr. Sanson (Spiritist Review, May 1862).
Mr. Vézy, one of the mediums of the Society, a well-known name by our readers for the beautiful communications of St. Augustine, stepped down into the ditch and Mr. d’Ambel evoked Mr. Costeau out loud who then gave the following communication through Mr. Vézy, a communication read to all those present and that was heard by all with their bare heads and profound emotion, including the gravediggers. In fact, hearing the words of a dead person inside the grave was a new and touching spectacle.
“Thank you friends, thank you. My tomb is not sealed yet and nonetheless the earth will momentarily cover my remains. But you know that, my soul will not be buried by this dust. It will float in space towards God.
Thus, how reassuring it is to say despite the annihilated envelope: Oh No! I am not dead! I live the true life, the eternal life!
The funeral of the poor is not followed by the crowd. Proud manifestations don’t take place at the tomb and despite that, friends, believe me there is no lack of immense multitude here and good Spirits followed with you and with the heartful women the body that lies here! At least all of you believe and love the good God.
Oh! Dear wife, we certainly do not die because our body is broken! From now on I will always be with you to help you and reassure you in order to withstand your trial. Life will be tough to you but the idea of eternity and the love of God fulfilling your heart will lessen your sufferings!
Relatives that embrace my dear companion, love and respect her; be her brothers and sisters. Do not forget that you must assist one another on Earth if you want the eternal rest of the Lord.
And you, Spiritist brothers and friends! Thank you coming to say good-bye to me at this dwelling of dust and mud. But you do know well that my soul lives immortal and that my soul will sometimes ask for your prayers that I will not refuse, helping me in this magnificent path that you have opened to me when I was alive.
Good-bye to those who are here. We may see one another beyond this grave. The souls call me.
Good-bye. Pray for those in suffering. So long.
Costeau”
After the final arrangements of the funeral those gentlemen payed a Spiritist visit to the tomb of Georges, at the same cemetery, the eminent Spirit that gave beautiful communications through Mrs. Costel and that were eventually admired by our readers. Mr. Georges was Mr. d’Ambel’s brother-in-law. Through Mr. Vézy they collected the following words:
“Although we don’t live here (the burial place), we like to come here to thank you for your prayers in our favor and for the flowers that you lay on our tombs. It is so good that they created these places of rest and prayer! The souls can talk more at will and out of these intimate impulses they can better exchange feelings: one by the tomb, the other above it!
You have just said farewell to one of your friends; I thank you for not having forgotten me. I was with you in that crowd of Spirits that elbowed one another by the freshly opened grave and I felt happy for reading conviction and faith in your hearts. I mixed my prayers with yours and the blessed Spirits carried it to God! My good friends the Spiritist faith will travel around the world and will finally convert the confused ones into wise people. It will even penetrate the hearts of priests like the ones you have just saw smiling causing you a real pain (reference to the kind of religious ceremony that took place). Their scandalization makes your heart bleed but you overcome that by thinking in the good you were doing to your friend. He is here by my side asking me to thank you in his name.
You have already been told that the tomb is life. Come sometimes by the shade of the willow, by the foot of the mortuary cross, in calmness and silence, and you will hear a divine harmony; the breeze will allow you to hear the concert of our souls, singing God… eternity… Then some of us will stick out from the sacred chorus to come and instruct you about your destinies. What was a mystery to you up until now will gradually unveil before your eyes and you will be able to understand your beginning and your future greatness.
Then you will have a meeting here with those whom you wish to learn. Here you will read the pages of eternity and the book of life will be always open to you. In this place of peace and calm the voice of the Spirit seems to be better heard by the one who wishes to learn; it takes magical and sound proportions and its accents penetrate even more the one that it intends to achieve.
Work with fervor and zeal for the propagation of the new idea. I will help you tirelessly and if the tranquility of the grave scare some they should know that the Spirits happily instruct everywhere. Good-bye and thank you! I wish I could transmit to the whole world the faith that fulfills you! I truly say, though, that Spiritism is the lever with which Archimedes will move the world!
A few words in particular to you, my brother, since the occasion is proper. Tell me sister that she must always love the God imposed duties however heavy they may be. Tell her to love our mother and to replace me by her side. Tell her to take care of my daughter, to smile to the skies and find perfume in all flowers of Earth…
As for you, my brother, I have both of your hands in mine.
Georges.”
Double teaching sticks out from the above. It could cause surprise the fact that a Spirit that died so recently could communicate with such clarity but one must remember that Mr. Sanson was evoked at the mortuary chapel before the body was carried away and that he gave a beautiful communication at that time and that everyone was able to read in the Spiritist Review. His mental confusion had lasted only a few hours as in fact it is known that the detachment is fast for the morally advanced Spirits.
On another hand why has Mr. Vézy stepped foot into the grave? Was there a utility for that or was it all just a scene? Let us promptly reject the second motive since serious Spiritists act serious and religiously and make no scenes. At that occasion it would have been a profanation.
Certainly the utility was not absolute. There must be a more special testimony of sympathy particularly considering that the dead was buried in a common ditch. As a matter of fact access to those ditches is easier than to the private ones whose entry is narrow; Mr. Vézy was more comfortable to write there. However, from another point of view this could have had a reason that probably was not in Mr. Vézy’s mind. It is a known fact that the evocation facilitates the separation of the Spirit from the body and may shorten the time of mental confusion. It is also known that the links that connect the Spirit to the body are not always entirely broken just after death. Here a remarkable example: A young man had had a horrible sudden death. He had, like many rich young men, a lighthearted life, that is totally bounded to matter. He spontaneously communicated with an acquainted medium of ours that knew him in life, asking to have him evoked and for prayers by his grave to help him break the links that he had with the body from which he was unable to separate. There must certainly be a magnetic action facilitated by proximity of the body and there may perhaps be one of the causes that instinctively lead friends of the dead to go to the place where the body is located.
It would be a mistake to believe that the Parisian Society is an exclusively aristocratic gathering because it counts on more than one working class person; it welcomes every devotion to its cause be it from the highest or the lowest social echelon; the aristocrat and the artisan are fraternally hand in hand there.
Sometime ago, at the wedding of one of our colleagues, who was also a modest worker, there was a high ranking foreign dignitary with his wife, a princess, both members of the Society that did not feel diminished for seating side-by-side with other guests although the ceremony celebrated in an obscure chapel had luxury reduced to its simplest expression. The fact is is that Spiritism does not segregate based on class or pretend to try and move everybody to the same impossible social level, Spiritism makes people appreciate from a different stand point the fascinating prism of the world. It teaches that the little one may have been great on Earth; that the great may become little and that in the celestial kingdom earthlsy classes are not taken into account. That is how it leads to true fraternity by logically destroying the social prejudices of cast and color. Our brother Costeau was poor and leaves behind a widow in need. Hence he was taken to a common ditch, a door that leads to heavens as much as the sumptuous mausoleum.
Mr. d’Ambel, vice president, and Mr. Canu, Society secretary, led the burial. One and the other gave speeches at the tomb that caused marked impression in the auditorium and among the gravediggers who were visibly touched although insensible to such ceremonies. Here is Mr. Canu’s eulogy:
“Dear brother Costeau! Just a few years ago many among us, and I confess I was the first one, would not have seen anything in this grave but the end of human miseries and after that the void, that is, nothing for the soul to deserve or atone and consequently nothing for God to reward, punish or forgive. Today, thanks to our divine doctrine, we see here the end of our trials and to you, dear brother whose remains we return to Earth, the triumph in our works and the beginning of the deserved reward to your courage, resignation and charity, in one word, your virtues and above all, the glorification of a wise, powerful, just and benevolent God. Hence, dear brother, take our thanksgivings to the feet of the Eternal who wanted to dissipate from around us the darkness of error and disbelief because not long ago we would have told you with a warm forehead and a discouraged hearth: Good by forever friend. Today we say with our heads up and radiating hope and with our hearts full of courage and love: So long, dear friend and pray for us.”
Mr. d’Ambel’s eulogy:
“Ladies and gentlemen, and you, dear colleagues of the Parisian Society, this is the second time that we lead a colleague to his last dwelling. The one that we came to say farewell to he was one of those obscure fighters that the difficulties of life always found unbreakable; the absolute certainty, however, had failed him long ago. Thus, as soon as he got to know Spiritism he was fast to embrace a doctrine that brought him the truth and whose teachings reassure the afflicted of this world in their trials.
Modest worker, he always accomplished his tasks with the serenity of the just and the adversity that hurt him so badly in his last days, for our sorrow, also opened up for him, rest assured all of you who hear me, a next career of prosperity and venture.
Ah! I am so sorry for not having our venerable master in Paris! His authoritative voice would please our brother much more than mine and he would have paid a more considerable tribute than I can in my insignificance. I wanted to give a better solemnity to our colleague but I was informed too late in order to be able to communicate with all members of the Society that were in Paris. However, irrespective of the small number present here we represent the Spiritist family united by a common faith in the future from one end to the next. We are the delegates of many millions of followers in whose name, dear and missing colleague, we come to ask you to contribute to the propagation of our great doctrine, to the limit of your new abilities, a doctrine that supported you so strongly amidst your last cruel trials.
Ah! As so eloquently our dear president Allan Kardec said at the burial of our brother Sanson, before such a supreme time the Spiritist faith gives a strength that only those who carry that can realize and Mr. Costeau had that faith at the highest level.
Dear Mr. Costeau, be assured that the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies had you in high regardf. You will always be remembered as one of the most diligent members. It is in the name of the Society, in the name of its president, in the name of your devastated wife and sister that I come to tell you, as our friend Mr. Canu said, not a good-bye, but so long in a happier world. May you be able to enjoy the happiness that you deserve there; may you come to reach out to us when our time to be there comes.
I beg the Spirits of Mr. Jobard and Mr. Sanson to welcome our colleague Mr. Costeau and facilitate his access to your serene regions.
Dear Spirits, pray for him. Pray for us. So be it.”
--
After this eulogy Mr. d’Ambel textually read the prayers for those who have just died that was dictated at the tomb of Mr. Sanson (Spiritist Review, May 1862).
Mr. Vézy, one of the mediums of the Society, a well-known name by our readers for the beautiful communications of St. Augustine, stepped down into the ditch and Mr. d’Ambel evoked Mr. Costeau out loud who then gave the following communication through Mr. Vézy, a communication read to all those present and that was heard by all with their bare heads and profound emotion, including the gravediggers. In fact, hearing the words of a dead person inside the grave was a new and touching spectacle.
“Thank you friends, thank you. My tomb is not sealed yet and nonetheless the earth will momentarily cover my remains. But you know that, my soul will not be buried by this dust. It will float in space towards God.
Thus, how reassuring it is to say despite the annihilated envelope: Oh No! I am not dead! I live the true life, the eternal life!
The funeral of the poor is not followed by the crowd. Proud manifestations don’t take place at the tomb and despite that, friends, believe me there is no lack of immense multitude here and good Spirits followed with you and with the heartful women the body that lies here! At least all of you believe and love the good God.
Oh! Dear wife, we certainly do not die because our body is broken! From now on I will always be with you to help you and reassure you in order to withstand your trial. Life will be tough to you but the idea of eternity and the love of God fulfilling your heart will lessen your sufferings!
Relatives that embrace my dear companion, love and respect her; be her brothers and sisters. Do not forget that you must assist one another on Earth if you want the eternal rest of the Lord.
And you, Spiritist brothers and friends! Thank you coming to say good-bye to me at this dwelling of dust and mud. But you do know well that my soul lives immortal and that my soul will sometimes ask for your prayers that I will not refuse, helping me in this magnificent path that you have opened to me when I was alive.
Good-bye to those who are here. We may see one another beyond this grave. The souls call me.
Good-bye. Pray for those in suffering. So long.
Costeau”
After the final arrangements of the funeral those gentlemen payed a Spiritist visit to the tomb of Georges, at the same cemetery, the eminent Spirit that gave beautiful communications through Mrs. Costel and that were eventually admired by our readers. Mr. Georges was Mr. d’Ambel’s brother-in-law. Through Mr. Vézy they collected the following words:
“Although we don’t live here (the burial place), we like to come here to thank you for your prayers in our favor and for the flowers that you lay on our tombs. It is so good that they created these places of rest and prayer! The souls can talk more at will and out of these intimate impulses they can better exchange feelings: one by the tomb, the other above it!
You have just said farewell to one of your friends; I thank you for not having forgotten me. I was with you in that crowd of Spirits that elbowed one another by the freshly opened grave and I felt happy for reading conviction and faith in your hearts. I mixed my prayers with yours and the blessed Spirits carried it to God! My good friends the Spiritist faith will travel around the world and will finally convert the confused ones into wise people. It will even penetrate the hearts of priests like the ones you have just saw smiling causing you a real pain (reference to the kind of religious ceremony that took place). Their scandalization makes your heart bleed but you overcome that by thinking in the good you were doing to your friend. He is here by my side asking me to thank you in his name.
You have already been told that the tomb is life. Come sometimes by the shade of the willow, by the foot of the mortuary cross, in calmness and silence, and you will hear a divine harmony; the breeze will allow you to hear the concert of our souls, singing God… eternity… Then some of us will stick out from the sacred chorus to come and instruct you about your destinies. What was a mystery to you up until now will gradually unveil before your eyes and you will be able to understand your beginning and your future greatness.
Then you will have a meeting here with those whom you wish to learn. Here you will read the pages of eternity and the book of life will be always open to you. In this place of peace and calm the voice of the Spirit seems to be better heard by the one who wishes to learn; it takes magical and sound proportions and its accents penetrate even more the one that it intends to achieve.
Work with fervor and zeal for the propagation of the new idea. I will help you tirelessly and if the tranquility of the grave scare some they should know that the Spirits happily instruct everywhere. Good-bye and thank you! I wish I could transmit to the whole world the faith that fulfills you! I truly say, though, that Spiritism is the lever with which Archimedes will move the world!
A few words in particular to you, my brother, since the occasion is proper. Tell me sister that she must always love the God imposed duties however heavy they may be. Tell her to love our mother and to replace me by her side. Tell her to take care of my daughter, to smile to the skies and find perfume in all flowers of Earth…
As for you, my brother, I have both of your hands in mine.
Georges.”
Double teaching sticks out from the above. It could cause surprise the fact that a Spirit that died so recently could communicate with such clarity but one must remember that Mr. Sanson was evoked at the mortuary chapel before the body was carried away and that he gave a beautiful communication at that time and that everyone was able to read in the Spiritist Review. His mental confusion had lasted only a few hours as in fact it is known that the detachment is fast for the morally advanced Spirits.
On another hand why has Mr. Vézy stepped foot into the grave? Was there a utility for that or was it all just a scene? Let us promptly reject the second motive since serious Spiritists act serious and religiously and make no scenes. At that occasion it would have been a profanation.
Certainly the utility was not absolute. There must be a more special testimony of sympathy particularly considering that the dead was buried in a common ditch. As a matter of fact access to those ditches is easier than to the private ones whose entry is narrow; Mr. Vézy was more comfortable to write there. However, from another point of view this could have had a reason that probably was not in Mr. Vézy’s mind. It is a known fact that the evocation facilitates the separation of the Spirit from the body and may shorten the time of mental confusion. It is also known that the links that connect the Spirit to the body are not always entirely broken just after death. Here a remarkable example: A young man had had a horrible sudden death. He had, like many rich young men, a lighthearted life, that is totally bounded to matter. He spontaneously communicated with an acquainted medium of ours that knew him in life, asking to have him evoked and for prayers by his grave to help him break the links that he had with the body from which he was unable to separate. There must certainly be a magnetic action facilitated by proximity of the body and there may perhaps be one of the causes that instinctively lead friends of the dead to go to the place where the body is located.
We have already mentioned the other retreat installed in Cempuis by Mr. Prévost, member of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, near Grandvilliers, Oise County.
The construction as well as internal installations are now finished. They are adjacent to the facility, although independent, a wonderfully looking chapel in gothic style. It was inaugurated last Sunday, July 19th, St. Vincent de Paul’s day, to whom it is dedicated; it was a charitable ceremony with distribution of bread, wine and meat to the poor of the perish. On the occasion Mr. Prevost gave the speech below that we are glad to publish :
“Ladies and gentlemen,
You know the reason for this gathering thus I will not take long with useless details that will not add anything to what you already know. The physical work is practically done thanks to the evident protection of the Almighty that kindly supported my efforts. We are here as a family and all of us, I have no doubt, are animated by the same feelings of his divine benevolence. Let us then unite in a unique impulse of gratitude asking him to continue to assist us and provide us with the lights that we lack.
God of Earth and Heavens, sovereign Lord of all things, have mercy on our weakness! Raise our hearts to you so that we can learn to do as you wish and so that all of our actions are in agreement with your universal law. Lord, let our soul be fulfilled by your love; may our soul fall in love with the sacred fire of conviction and prove its faith through acts of trough charity. Every creature, regardless of how good they are, must show charity towards their neighbor otherwise will be like a beautiful tree without fruits.
Therefore help us, infinite Power, to overcome the obstacles that could be erected before us, hindering our desire to become useful in our mission that you have assigned to us. Give us the strength to accomplish it with love and sincerity.
God, you are pleased with the assistance to the elderly because that is an act of justice. They were on the way before us. They opened ditches that were watered with their sweat and we harvest the fruits. Their experience today is a worn field but where we can still harvest. It is then fair that we compensate their sacrifice by ensuring their rest after the work. It is a duty to us because that is what we would like for ourselves but to carry that out we need your assistance since we are aware of our weakness.
It is also in your name, Lord, that the orphan will find a new family. The abandoned child will grow among us embedded by the gentle divine fire with which you favored St. Vincent de Paul to whom we ask for assistance so that we can carry out this work following his example.
Infinite Spirit, everything is in you, everything is for you, and nothing is beyond you. Punishments as well as rewards come to us from your blessed hand. You know our needs. We are your children and submit ourselves to your divine Providence.
The good Spirits that preside over the destinies of Earth, before your paternal eyes, the guardian angels of humanity, deserve your trust, Lord. We hope that for you they may help us to keep intact the sublime code of moral promulgated by Jesus Christ, your beloved son. Love your God, he said from the top of the cross, eighteen centuries ago; love one another; love your neighbor as you do to yourself; practice charity to everyone and everything. That is his law, Lord, and that law is yours. May it be printed in our hearts and make us see everyone as our neighbor that are your children like we are. So be it.
My friends, my brothers, let us follow that great example and have a sincere faith in God. He will help us to withstand the consequences of the bad direction imposed on society by forgetting those duties long ago. Many things now follow the path prescribed by the Creator. Despite the egotism that still dominates a large number of people, fraternal love is better understood; the prejudices of cast, sect and nationality fade away gradually; tolerance, one of the children of the evangelical charity, make antagonisms that have for so long divided the children of the same God disappear piece by piece; feelings of humanity infiltrate the hearts of the masses and have already realized great things on several corners of the planet.
The lay-off by several factories in France have not long ago experienced the kind effect of that love to the neighbor. This balsam to the suffering speaks out loud in favor of our country; one does need to see the hand of God there. We are glad to see the first nation of the civilized world taking to the most distant places the fruits of this love to humanity that can only be given by true greatness that found it at the radiant center of the cross, supported by the light of progress that forces mankind to be better to the other thus improving themselves.
My friends, with the help of instructed and educated people I hope to build a library in the future, an instructive and moral library, adjacent to this building, where everyone will be able to find the means of improving themselves with respect to their souls and hearts.
I am most thankful to you who attended my appeal, coming to offer a common thanksgiving in recognition for the foundation of this establishment.
From this day of July 19th, 1863 onwards this chapel dedicated to St. Vincent de Paul whose kind and immortal image is portrayed in its stained glass windows, consecrated by its founder who wishes that it be considered a sacred place, a place of prayer.
Here God must be worshiped and before the symbol of his love for humanity; before this venerable and great figure of the apostle of Christian charity, all must be convinced that the love to the neighbor is to be practiced by actions and must be in people’s hearts rather than lips.
Before we part ways let us say the dominical prayer:
‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.’ Mathew 6:9:13
On that occasion Mr. Prévost was kind enough to personally send us the amount of 200 francs for the works of charity whose utilization, unfortunately, is not difficult to find.
We reference to the speech above the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies voted unanimously and by acclamation to send him the following letter:
“Sir and dearest colleague,
The Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies of which you are a member heard with great interest the speech that you gave during the inauguration of the chapel at the retreat that you founded in your property in Cempuis. The speech is the expression of the noble feelings that drive you; it is worthy of someone who has given such a good use of the fortune that was acquired by work and that does not wait for death to have it beefing others because it is in life that you impose deprivation on yourself to increase their share.
The Society is honored for having in its ranks a follower that makes such a Christian application of the principles of the Spiritist Doctrine. It has unanimously decided to let you know officially about its vivid gratitude and fraternal sympathy towards the humanitarian work that you have undertaken and towards you in particular.
Yours sincerely…”
Mr. Prevost’s fortune is entirely the result of his work and merit. After having suffered the setback of the revolutions that took it away from him, he rebuilt it with courage and perseverance. He has now gotten to the age of retirement; he could as well use it for the pleasures of life but he is satisfied with the strictly necessary, contrary to many others, expecting not to need anything else so that his brothers in Jesus may share his superfluous. His reward will then be beautiful and he enjoys its taste by the pleasure that results from the good that he does.
To the eyes of certain people, however, Mr. Prévost is very wrong because he is a Spiritist and professes the doctrine of the devil. Yet his speech is not that of an atheist or even that of deist, but the one of a Christian. His moderation itself is a proof of charity because he abstained from any bad word about his neighbors and even from making any reference to those who associate his help to conditions that his conscience cannot accept.
The construction as well as internal installations are now finished. They are adjacent to the facility, although independent, a wonderfully looking chapel in gothic style. It was inaugurated last Sunday, July 19th, St. Vincent de Paul’s day, to whom it is dedicated; it was a charitable ceremony with distribution of bread, wine and meat to the poor of the perish. On the occasion Mr. Prevost gave the speech below that we are glad to publish :
“Ladies and gentlemen,
You know the reason for this gathering thus I will not take long with useless details that will not add anything to what you already know. The physical work is practically done thanks to the evident protection of the Almighty that kindly supported my efforts. We are here as a family and all of us, I have no doubt, are animated by the same feelings of his divine benevolence. Let us then unite in a unique impulse of gratitude asking him to continue to assist us and provide us with the lights that we lack.
God of Earth and Heavens, sovereign Lord of all things, have mercy on our weakness! Raise our hearts to you so that we can learn to do as you wish and so that all of our actions are in agreement with your universal law. Lord, let our soul be fulfilled by your love; may our soul fall in love with the sacred fire of conviction and prove its faith through acts of trough charity. Every creature, regardless of how good they are, must show charity towards their neighbor otherwise will be like a beautiful tree without fruits.
Therefore help us, infinite Power, to overcome the obstacles that could be erected before us, hindering our desire to become useful in our mission that you have assigned to us. Give us the strength to accomplish it with love and sincerity.
God, you are pleased with the assistance to the elderly because that is an act of justice. They were on the way before us. They opened ditches that were watered with their sweat and we harvest the fruits. Their experience today is a worn field but where we can still harvest. It is then fair that we compensate their sacrifice by ensuring their rest after the work. It is a duty to us because that is what we would like for ourselves but to carry that out we need your assistance since we are aware of our weakness.
It is also in your name, Lord, that the orphan will find a new family. The abandoned child will grow among us embedded by the gentle divine fire with which you favored St. Vincent de Paul to whom we ask for assistance so that we can carry out this work following his example.
Infinite Spirit, everything is in you, everything is for you, and nothing is beyond you. Punishments as well as rewards come to us from your blessed hand. You know our needs. We are your children and submit ourselves to your divine Providence.
The good Spirits that preside over the destinies of Earth, before your paternal eyes, the guardian angels of humanity, deserve your trust, Lord. We hope that for you they may help us to keep intact the sublime code of moral promulgated by Jesus Christ, your beloved son. Love your God, he said from the top of the cross, eighteen centuries ago; love one another; love your neighbor as you do to yourself; practice charity to everyone and everything. That is his law, Lord, and that law is yours. May it be printed in our hearts and make us see everyone as our neighbor that are your children like we are. So be it.
My friends, my brothers, let us follow that great example and have a sincere faith in God. He will help us to withstand the consequences of the bad direction imposed on society by forgetting those duties long ago. Many things now follow the path prescribed by the Creator. Despite the egotism that still dominates a large number of people, fraternal love is better understood; the prejudices of cast, sect and nationality fade away gradually; tolerance, one of the children of the evangelical charity, make antagonisms that have for so long divided the children of the same God disappear piece by piece; feelings of humanity infiltrate the hearts of the masses and have already realized great things on several corners of the planet.
The lay-off by several factories in France have not long ago experienced the kind effect of that love to the neighbor. This balsam to the suffering speaks out loud in favor of our country; one does need to see the hand of God there. We are glad to see the first nation of the civilized world taking to the most distant places the fruits of this love to humanity that can only be given by true greatness that found it at the radiant center of the cross, supported by the light of progress that forces mankind to be better to the other thus improving themselves.
My friends, with the help of instructed and educated people I hope to build a library in the future, an instructive and moral library, adjacent to this building, where everyone will be able to find the means of improving themselves with respect to their souls and hearts.
I am most thankful to you who attended my appeal, coming to offer a common thanksgiving in recognition for the foundation of this establishment.
From this day of July 19th, 1863 onwards this chapel dedicated to St. Vincent de Paul whose kind and immortal image is portrayed in its stained glass windows, consecrated by its founder who wishes that it be considered a sacred place, a place of prayer.
Here God must be worshiped and before the symbol of his love for humanity; before this venerable and great figure of the apostle of Christian charity, all must be convinced that the love to the neighbor is to be practiced by actions and must be in people’s hearts rather than lips.
Before we part ways let us say the dominical prayer:
‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.’ Mathew 6:9:13
On that occasion Mr. Prévost was kind enough to personally send us the amount of 200 francs for the works of charity whose utilization, unfortunately, is not difficult to find.
We reference to the speech above the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies voted unanimously and by acclamation to send him the following letter:
“Sir and dearest colleague,
The Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies of which you are a member heard with great interest the speech that you gave during the inauguration of the chapel at the retreat that you founded in your property in Cempuis. The speech is the expression of the noble feelings that drive you; it is worthy of someone who has given such a good use of the fortune that was acquired by work and that does not wait for death to have it beefing others because it is in life that you impose deprivation on yourself to increase their share.
The Society is honored for having in its ranks a follower that makes such a Christian application of the principles of the Spiritist Doctrine. It has unanimously decided to let you know officially about its vivid gratitude and fraternal sympathy towards the humanitarian work that you have undertaken and towards you in particular.
Yours sincerely…”
Mr. Prevost’s fortune is entirely the result of his work and merit. After having suffered the setback of the revolutions that took it away from him, he rebuilt it with courage and perseverance. He has now gotten to the age of retirement; he could as well use it for the pleasures of life but he is satisfied with the strictly necessary, contrary to many others, expecting not to need anything else so that his brothers in Jesus may share his superfluous. His reward will then be beautiful and he enjoys its taste by the pleasure that results from the good that he does.
To the eyes of certain people, however, Mr. Prévost is very wrong because he is a Spiritist and professes the doctrine of the devil. Yet his speech is not that of an atheist or even that of deist, but the one of a Christian. His moderation itself is a proof of charity because he abstained from any bad word about his neighbors and even from making any reference to those who associate his help to conditions that his conscience cannot accept.
The event below was reported by the Patrie last April:
“Yesterday the owner of a house at Rue de Cherche-Midi allowed the tenant to move out without paying rent after acknowledging his debt. However, while the furniture was being transported away the owner regretted his decision and demanded payment before the move. The tenant became desperate followed by his sobbing wife and two very young children that were also crying. The scene was observed by a passerby gentleman who had been awarded with the Legion of Honor. He stopped. Touched by the devastating spectacle he approached the miserable debtor and learning about the outstanding rent he reached out with two bills and disappear, followed by the blessings of that family that he had just rescued from despair.”
The journal Opinion du Midi, from Nimes, reported in July another case of similar nature:
“A fact that has just happened is as strange for its mystery as touching for its objective and kindness of the author. Three days ago, we were informed that a terrible fire had almost completely destroyed a store and the workshop of a person named Mr. Marteau, a woodworker in Nimes. We told the story of that unfortunate man that meant his ruin since the insurance he had was infinitely lower than the amount necessary to cover the value of the destroyed merchandise.”
“We learned today that three trucks loaded with woods of several types and tools were unloaded in front of his workshop.. The person in charge of delivery alleged total ignorance with respect to the name of the actual donor. He said that he did not know the person who had assigned him with the task of transporting the wood and tools to Mr. Marteau, knowing nothing beyond that task. He left after unloading the three vehicles.”
“Joy and happiness replaced Mr. Marteau’s abatement that was unchanged since the day of the fire.”
“May the unknown generous person that helped to rescue someone from the misery with such a nobility and without which the situation could have been irreparable, may that person receive here our thank you and the blessings of a family that henceforth owes him the kindest consolation and that may soon owe him their prosperity.”
It is heart soothing to learn about these facts that from time to time come to counter reports of crimes and turpitudes exhibited on newspapers’ columns.
Facts as reported above demonstrate that virtue is not entirely banned from Earth as certain pessimistic people believe. There is no doubt that evil is still dominating but when we look in the shadows we find that there are more violets under the weeds, that is, larger number of good souls than expected. If they look so sparse is due to the fact that true virtue does not seek evidence whilst the vice manifests openly in plain sight. It is a vice because it is proud. Pride and humbleness are the two poles of the human heart. One attracts the whole good, the other the whole evil. One is calm, the other is a storm. Conscience is the compass that shows the path leading to each one of them.
The anonymous sponsor, like the one that does not wait for death to give to the ones that don’t have, is undisputedly the good man by excellence; it is the personification of the modest virtue, the one that does not seek people’s applause.
Do good without ostentation is an unquestionable sign of moral superiority because it requires a lively faith in God and in the future. It is necessary to abstract from present life and identify oneself with a future life to expect the approval of God, renouncing to the present testimony of people.
The unfortunate one blesses the unknown and generous helping hand from the bottom of his heart and such a blessing rises to heavens more than the applause of the crowds. The one who seeks more the cheers of mankind than that of God demonstrate more faith in people than in God and that the present life has more value than a future life. If the person says the opposite acts like someone who does not believe in what they say.
How many people only help in hopes that the helped one will proclaim the benefit from the rooftops; who would give a large amount in day light but would not give a single coin in obscurity! That is why Jesus said: those who do good with ostentation have already received their reward.[1] In act God owes nothing to the ones who seek compensation on Earth. The only missing prize is the price of their pride.
Certain critics may perhaps ask: What does it have to do with Spiritism? How many funnier cases won’t you tell than this boring moral! (Jugement de la morale spirite, by Mr. Figuier, vol. IV, page 369). This has to do with Spiritism in the sense that Spiritism,by providing an unbreakable faith in God’s benevolence and in a future life and thanks to Spiritism, people doing good for the good, the good ones will one day be less scarce than today. The newspapers will then have less crimes and suicides to register and more actions of the kind that gave rise to these considerations.
[1] Mathews 6, 2 - “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
“Yesterday the owner of a house at Rue de Cherche-Midi allowed the tenant to move out without paying rent after acknowledging his debt. However, while the furniture was being transported away the owner regretted his decision and demanded payment before the move. The tenant became desperate followed by his sobbing wife and two very young children that were also crying. The scene was observed by a passerby gentleman who had been awarded with the Legion of Honor. He stopped. Touched by the devastating spectacle he approached the miserable debtor and learning about the outstanding rent he reached out with two bills and disappear, followed by the blessings of that family that he had just rescued from despair.”
The journal Opinion du Midi, from Nimes, reported in July another case of similar nature:
“A fact that has just happened is as strange for its mystery as touching for its objective and kindness of the author. Three days ago, we were informed that a terrible fire had almost completely destroyed a store and the workshop of a person named Mr. Marteau, a woodworker in Nimes. We told the story of that unfortunate man that meant his ruin since the insurance he had was infinitely lower than the amount necessary to cover the value of the destroyed merchandise.”
“We learned today that three trucks loaded with woods of several types and tools were unloaded in front of his workshop.. The person in charge of delivery alleged total ignorance with respect to the name of the actual donor. He said that he did not know the person who had assigned him with the task of transporting the wood and tools to Mr. Marteau, knowing nothing beyond that task. He left after unloading the three vehicles.”
“Joy and happiness replaced Mr. Marteau’s abatement that was unchanged since the day of the fire.”
“May the unknown generous person that helped to rescue someone from the misery with such a nobility and without which the situation could have been irreparable, may that person receive here our thank you and the blessings of a family that henceforth owes him the kindest consolation and that may soon owe him their prosperity.”
It is heart soothing to learn about these facts that from time to time come to counter reports of crimes and turpitudes exhibited on newspapers’ columns.
Facts as reported above demonstrate that virtue is not entirely banned from Earth as certain pessimistic people believe. There is no doubt that evil is still dominating but when we look in the shadows we find that there are more violets under the weeds, that is, larger number of good souls than expected. If they look so sparse is due to the fact that true virtue does not seek evidence whilst the vice manifests openly in plain sight. It is a vice because it is proud. Pride and humbleness are the two poles of the human heart. One attracts the whole good, the other the whole evil. One is calm, the other is a storm. Conscience is the compass that shows the path leading to each one of them.
The anonymous sponsor, like the one that does not wait for death to give to the ones that don’t have, is undisputedly the good man by excellence; it is the personification of the modest virtue, the one that does not seek people’s applause.
Do good without ostentation is an unquestionable sign of moral superiority because it requires a lively faith in God and in the future. It is necessary to abstract from present life and identify oneself with a future life to expect the approval of God, renouncing to the present testimony of people.
The unfortunate one blesses the unknown and generous helping hand from the bottom of his heart and such a blessing rises to heavens more than the applause of the crowds. The one who seeks more the cheers of mankind than that of God demonstrate more faith in people than in God and that the present life has more value than a future life. If the person says the opposite acts like someone who does not believe in what they say.
How many people only help in hopes that the helped one will proclaim the benefit from the rooftops; who would give a large amount in day light but would not give a single coin in obscurity! That is why Jesus said: those who do good with ostentation have already received their reward.[1] In act God owes nothing to the ones who seek compensation on Earth. The only missing prize is the price of their pride.
Certain critics may perhaps ask: What does it have to do with Spiritism? How many funnier cases won’t you tell than this boring moral! (Jugement de la morale spirite, by Mr. Figuier, vol. IV, page 369). This has to do with Spiritism in the sense that Spiritism,by providing an unbreakable faith in God’s benevolence and in a future life and thanks to Spiritism, people doing good for the good, the good ones will one day be less scarce than today. The newspapers will then have less crimes and suicides to register and more actions of the kind that gave rise to these considerations.
[1] Mathews 6, 2 - “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
Some people believe that the Spirits only come when called. This is a mistake not made by those who know Spiritism for they know that that Spirits frequently show up spontaneously, without being called, leading us to the argument that if we are prohibited fromcalling the Spirits they cannot be precluded from coming.
Nonetheless, they will say, they come because of the practice of mediumship and because others are called. If you abstained then they they would not come. It is another serious mistake and the facts demonstrate how many times the Spirits manifested by vision, hearing or any other means, to persons who had never heard of Spiritism. Hence it is not against the mediums that the prohibition must be issued but against the Spirits so that they don’t communicate not even with God’s permission.
Those spontaneous communications attract much more interest when done by Spirits that were not expected or known and whose identity may later be verified. We mentioned a remarkable example in the story of Simon Louvet, published in the Spiritist Review, March 1863.
Here is another educational fact obtained by a medium that we know:
A Spirit by the name François Franckowski shows up and says the following:
Nonetheless, they will say, they come because of the practice of mediumship and because others are called. If you abstained then they they would not come. It is another serious mistake and the facts demonstrate how many times the Spirits manifested by vision, hearing or any other means, to persons who had never heard of Spiritism. Hence it is not against the mediums that the prohibition must be issued but against the Spirits so that they don’t communicate not even with God’s permission.
Those spontaneous communications attract much more interest when done by Spirits that were not expected or known and whose identity may later be verified. We mentioned a remarkable example in the story of Simon Louvet, published in the Spiritist Review, March 1863.
Here is another educational fact obtained by a medium that we know:
A Spirit by the name François Franckowski shows up and says the following:
“Love to God is the feeling that summarizes all loves, all abnegations. Love to the homeland is a ray of that sublime feeling. Oh my poor country! Oh unfortunate Poland! How many disgraces have fallen upon you? How terrible the crimes of those who consider themselves civilized and how much punishment to the miserable ones that want to hinder freedom! Oh God! Keep an eye on that unfortunate country and forgive those that are totally dedicated to vengeance, not thinking that you will punish them on the other side of life! Poland is a blessed land because it entails great devotion and none of its children are cowards. God loves the ones who forget themselves for the benefits of all. It is a reward to the devotion of the Polish people that will be forgiven and their punishment broken. I died victimized by our oppressors, cursed by all. I was young, I was twenty-sfour years old and the excruciating pain of having lost everything she loved in the world is killing my mother: her son. Pray for her, I beg you, so that she may forget and forgive my executioner for without such a forgiveness she is doomed to be separated from me forever…Poor mother! I only saw her again in the morning of my death and it was so terrible to feel the separation… God have mercy on me and I am always with her since the moment I was able to unravel from the rest of vitality that connected my Spirit to my body… I come to you because I know you will pray for her, so good and ordinarily resigned but so revolted against God since the time I was not there anymore… She needs to forgive. Pray for that sublime forgiveness of a mother to the murderer of her son to come to finish a life so gloriously begun. Good-bye. You will pray, won’t you?
François Franckowski
The medium had never heard of such a person and perhaps thought that he had been the victim of a mystification when, a few days later, received several pieces of linen that had been purchased rolled in a fragment of the Petit Journal from July 7th last. The medium read it mechanically when under the title “Capital Executions” read an article that began like this:
François Franckowski
The medium had never heard of such a person and perhaps thought that he had been the victim of a mystification when, a few days later, received several pieces of linen that had been purchased rolled in a fragment of the Petit Journal from July 7th last. The medium read it mechanically when under the title “Capital Executions” read an article that began like this:
- “We found curious details about the execution of a young Polish man who was a prisoner of the Russians. Franckowski was a twenty four year old young man. He still has his parents who were given permission to visit him in prison. Since he had no weapons when arrested he was condemned to be hanged by the war council. I witnessed the execution and cannot think of that terrible event without emotion…”
It is followed by a detailed report of the execution and about the last moments of the victim, killed with the courage of a hero.
To those who deny the manifestations – and their number diminishes daily – to those that attribute the manifestations to imagination, to the reflex of thoughts, even unconsciously, we ask where the medium could have gotten the intuition of the name Franckowski, a twenty-four year old man; from the mother that came to see the son in prison; from the fact that the medium had not heard absolutely no knowledge about, that even had doubts about and whose confirmation was found in a cut of paper that surrounded a package? And it is necessary that the piece of paper be the one that contains the precise report of the event. You will say: Yes, it was chance. Be it since for you everything is by chance. However, how about the rest?
Those who intend to prohibit the communications under the pretext that they proceed from the devil or any other, we ask if there is anything more beautiful, nobler, and more evangelical than the soul of that son that forgives the executioner; that begs the mother to also forgive, pointing at the forgiveness as the condition of salvation! And why has the soul come to that unknown medium and later on gives an irrefutable proof of identify? To ask for prayers so that his mother may forgive. And you will say that this are the words of the devil? I wish all those who speak in the name of God would speak in such a way! They would touch the hearts more than with anathema and curses.
To those who deny the manifestations – and their number diminishes daily – to those that attribute the manifestations to imagination, to the reflex of thoughts, even unconsciously, we ask where the medium could have gotten the intuition of the name Franckowski, a twenty-four year old man; from the mother that came to see the son in prison; from the fact that the medium had not heard absolutely no knowledge about, that even had doubts about and whose confirmation was found in a cut of paper that surrounded a package? And it is necessary that the piece of paper be the one that contains the precise report of the event. You will say: Yes, it was chance. Be it since for you everything is by chance. However, how about the rest?
Those who intend to prohibit the communications under the pretext that they proceed from the devil or any other, we ask if there is anything more beautiful, nobler, and more evangelical than the soul of that son that forgives the executioner; that begs the mother to also forgive, pointing at the forgiveness as the condition of salvation! And why has the soul come to that unknown medium and later on gives an irrefutable proof of identify? To ask for prayers so that his mother may forgive. And you will say that this are the words of the devil? I wish all those who speak in the name of God would speak in such a way! They would touch the hearts more than with anathema and curses.
Some members of the Church use Moses’ directive to not enage in communications with the Spirits but if his law is to be strictly observed on that point it must be followed on all others. Why would his law be correct on this point but not on others? One must be consistent. If we acknowledge that his laws are no longer in harmony with our time and customs on certain things there is no reason to be different with respect to the prohibition of the evocations. As a matter of fact, we must refer to the reasons that led him to such prohibition, reasons that made sense then but that are certainly no longer here.
As for the death penalty that followed the breach of that law, we must consider that he was very prodigious in that and in his Draconian legislation the severity of the punishment was not always an indication of the severity of the fault.
The Hebrew people were tempestuous, difficult to lead and could not be tamed but by terror. Besides, Moses did not have much choice as he had no way to punish his people through more modern means, like a jail or correction center. He was only able to control his people through purely psychological penalties. Hence, he could not scale up punishments as in our days.
Now would that be necessary to respect death penalty in all applicable cases for respect to his law? Besides, why people insist so much on bringing back this article of the law and remain silent with respect to the beginning of the chapter that prohibits clergymen from having the ownership of earthly properties and from sharing inheritance because the Lord is their inheritance? (Deuteronomious, Chapter XVIII).[1]
Moses’ law has two distinct parts: God’s law per se, given at Mount Sinai and the civil or disciplinary law, adequate to the customs and character of the people. One is invariable, the other modifies itself over time and nobody should believe that it can be governed by the same means. How we addressed the Hebrews in the desert during the Middle Ages could not be applied to France of the nineteen century.
Who would, for example, dream of reviving today the following article of Moses’ law: “If a man or a woman is hurt by the horn of an ox and the person dies the ox will be stoned without remission, the meat will not be eaten and the owner of the ox will be acquitted.”
What do God’s commandments say? “You shall have one God only; you will not use God’s name in vain; honor your father and your mother; do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false testimony against your neighbor; do not covet your neighbor’s possessions.” Here we have a law that belongs to all times and all countries and for that very reason has a divine character but it does not deal with the prohibition of evoking the dead from which we must conclude that such prohibition was a simple disciplinary measure according to the circumstances.
Hasn’t Jesus modified Moses’ law and isn’t his law the code of Christianity? Hasn’t Jesus said: You heard what was said to former peoples and I tell you this…? There isn’t a single place in the Gospels with prohibition to the evocation of the dead. It is something very serious to have been left out by Jesus Christ from his instructions when he dealt with issues of much more secondary order. Or should we follow one priest that when asked about such objection said that “Jesus forgot to talk about it”.
Since the pretext of Moses prohibition is inadmissible, they then bring the idea that the evocation is a lack of respect to the dead whose ashes must not be disturbed. When such evocation is carried out religiously and with deference there is no disrespect but there is a prompt response to such an objection. The Spirits come in good will when called and even spontaneously without being called; that they give testimony of their satisfaction in communicating with people and eventually regret the obliviousness in which they are sometimes left.
If they were disturbed in their silence or if they were unhappy with our calls they would either tell us or do not come. If they do come, it is because it is convenient to them since we know nobody that has the power of forcing and bothering the Spirits, impalpable creatures, considering that we cannot apprehend their bodies.
There is another alleged reason, when they say that the souls are either in heavens or in hell. The ones in hell cannot leave hell. The ones in paradise are in complete beatitude and well above the mortal ones to be bothered by them. There remain the ones in purgatory but those are the suffering ones and must think in their salvation before anything else. Well, if neither ones nor the others may come it is only the devil that come in their place.
In the first case, it would be very rational to suppose that the devil, author and provoker of the first revolt against God, in an eternal rebellion, who does not experience regret or remorse for his actions, be more rigorously punished than the poor souls that he drags to evil and that many times are just guilty of a temporary fault over which they feel a bitter remorse. Far from that what does happen is exactly the opposite. Those unfortunate souls are condemned to terrible sufferings, without a truce or mercy for eternity, without a single moment of relief, and during that whole time the devil, author of all that evil, enjoys a plentiful freedom, going around the world and recruiting victims, taking all forms and shapes, given to all sorts of pleasures, even having fun by interrupting the course of God’s laws since the devil can even make miracles.
Frankly speaking the guilty souls should envy the fate of the devil. And God goes quiet and allows them to act, without the imposition of any brake, not even allowing the good Spirits to come to counter the devil’s criminal actions! Is this in good faith logical? And those who profess such a doctrine can they swear with their hands in their conscience that they would stick their hands in the fire to sustain that this is true?
The second case raises an issue whose difficulty is equally great. If the souls that enjoy beatitude cannot leave their place of rest to come to rescue the poor mortals, something that in-passing must be said would be a very egotist happiness, why does the Church claim the support of the saints who must enjoy an even greater beatitude? Why does the Church offer the help of the saints to its followers in their afflictions, in their diseases and to keep them from all miseries? Why, according to the Church, the saints and the Virgin herself come to show up to people and even make miracles? Do they leave heavens to come to Earth then? If they can do so why can’t others?
Since all the reasons given to justify the prohibition of communication with the Spirits cannot withstand a serious examination, there must be another unconfessed one. That reason could well be the fear that very enlightened Spirits could come and clarify people about certain points, allowing the righteous ones to get to know how things are in the other world and the true conditions to become happy or unfortunate. That is why for the same reason a child is told: “don’t go there because the werewolf is there”, people are then told: “don’t call the Spirits because it is the devil that comes”.
But that will be useless. If people are prohibited from calling the Spirits they cannot preclude the Spirits to come to people to remove the light from below the bowl.
[1] “The Levitical priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.” (T.N.)
As for the death penalty that followed the breach of that law, we must consider that he was very prodigious in that and in his Draconian legislation the severity of the punishment was not always an indication of the severity of the fault.
The Hebrew people were tempestuous, difficult to lead and could not be tamed but by terror. Besides, Moses did not have much choice as he had no way to punish his people through more modern means, like a jail or correction center. He was only able to control his people through purely psychological penalties. Hence, he could not scale up punishments as in our days.
Now would that be necessary to respect death penalty in all applicable cases for respect to his law? Besides, why people insist so much on bringing back this article of the law and remain silent with respect to the beginning of the chapter that prohibits clergymen from having the ownership of earthly properties and from sharing inheritance because the Lord is their inheritance? (Deuteronomious, Chapter XVIII).[1]
Moses’ law has two distinct parts: God’s law per se, given at Mount Sinai and the civil or disciplinary law, adequate to the customs and character of the people. One is invariable, the other modifies itself over time and nobody should believe that it can be governed by the same means. How we addressed the Hebrews in the desert during the Middle Ages could not be applied to France of the nineteen century.
Who would, for example, dream of reviving today the following article of Moses’ law: “If a man or a woman is hurt by the horn of an ox and the person dies the ox will be stoned without remission, the meat will not be eaten and the owner of the ox will be acquitted.”
What do God’s commandments say? “You shall have one God only; you will not use God’s name in vain; honor your father and your mother; do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false testimony against your neighbor; do not covet your neighbor’s possessions.” Here we have a law that belongs to all times and all countries and for that very reason has a divine character but it does not deal with the prohibition of evoking the dead from which we must conclude that such prohibition was a simple disciplinary measure according to the circumstances.
Hasn’t Jesus modified Moses’ law and isn’t his law the code of Christianity? Hasn’t Jesus said: You heard what was said to former peoples and I tell you this…? There isn’t a single place in the Gospels with prohibition to the evocation of the dead. It is something very serious to have been left out by Jesus Christ from his instructions when he dealt with issues of much more secondary order. Or should we follow one priest that when asked about such objection said that “Jesus forgot to talk about it”.
Since the pretext of Moses prohibition is inadmissible, they then bring the idea that the evocation is a lack of respect to the dead whose ashes must not be disturbed. When such evocation is carried out religiously and with deference there is no disrespect but there is a prompt response to such an objection. The Spirits come in good will when called and even spontaneously without being called; that they give testimony of their satisfaction in communicating with people and eventually regret the obliviousness in which they are sometimes left.
If they were disturbed in their silence or if they were unhappy with our calls they would either tell us or do not come. If they do come, it is because it is convenient to them since we know nobody that has the power of forcing and bothering the Spirits, impalpable creatures, considering that we cannot apprehend their bodies.
There is another alleged reason, when they say that the souls are either in heavens or in hell. The ones in hell cannot leave hell. The ones in paradise are in complete beatitude and well above the mortal ones to be bothered by them. There remain the ones in purgatory but those are the suffering ones and must think in their salvation before anything else. Well, if neither ones nor the others may come it is only the devil that come in their place.
In the first case, it would be very rational to suppose that the devil, author and provoker of the first revolt against God, in an eternal rebellion, who does not experience regret or remorse for his actions, be more rigorously punished than the poor souls that he drags to evil and that many times are just guilty of a temporary fault over which they feel a bitter remorse. Far from that what does happen is exactly the opposite. Those unfortunate souls are condemned to terrible sufferings, without a truce or mercy for eternity, without a single moment of relief, and during that whole time the devil, author of all that evil, enjoys a plentiful freedom, going around the world and recruiting victims, taking all forms and shapes, given to all sorts of pleasures, even having fun by interrupting the course of God’s laws since the devil can even make miracles.
Frankly speaking the guilty souls should envy the fate of the devil. And God goes quiet and allows them to act, without the imposition of any brake, not even allowing the good Spirits to come to counter the devil’s criminal actions! Is this in good faith logical? And those who profess such a doctrine can they swear with their hands in their conscience that they would stick their hands in the fire to sustain that this is true?
The second case raises an issue whose difficulty is equally great. If the souls that enjoy beatitude cannot leave their place of rest to come to rescue the poor mortals, something that in-passing must be said would be a very egotist happiness, why does the Church claim the support of the saints who must enjoy an even greater beatitude? Why does the Church offer the help of the saints to its followers in their afflictions, in their diseases and to keep them from all miseries? Why, according to the Church, the saints and the Virgin herself come to show up to people and even make miracles? Do they leave heavens to come to Earth then? If they can do so why can’t others?
Since all the reasons given to justify the prohibition of communication with the Spirits cannot withstand a serious examination, there must be another unconfessed one. That reason could well be the fear that very enlightened Spirits could come and clarify people about certain points, allowing the righteous ones to get to know how things are in the other world and the true conditions to become happy or unfortunate. That is why for the same reason a child is told: “don’t go there because the werewolf is there”, people are then told: “don’t call the Spirits because it is the devil that comes”.
But that will be useless. If people are prohibited from calling the Spirits they cannot preclude the Spirits to come to people to remove the light from below the bowl.
[1] “The Levitical priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.” (T.N.)
Spiritist dissertations
Bordeaux, medium Mrs. Collignon
NOTE: This communication was given in a Spiritist Center in Bordeaux as a response to the above question. We had written the preceding article before learning about this message about the same subject. We published it despite the coincidence due to the agreement of the ideas. Many others were obtained in several places with the same teaching what demonstrates the agreement among the Spirits about the subject. This objection, not more justifiable than all others that oppose the relationship with the Spirits, will fall by itself.
-o-
Is then man so perfect that it is useless to test one’s strength? Is our intelligence so developed that it can bear the whole light?
When Moses brought a law that could take the Hebrew people from their slavery state, reviving in them the forgotten idea of God, he was force to downplay the light to their capacity of vision and science to their capacity of understanding.
Why don’t you also ask: Why had Jesus allowed himself to remake the law?
Why did Jesus said: “Moses told you: an eye for an eye and I tell you to do good to your enemies; blessed be the ones that curse you; forgive the ones that oppress you”? Why has Jesus said: Moses told you: The one who wants to leave his wife allow her to divorce but I tell you: do not separate what God united.
Why? It is because Jesus was speaking with more advanced Spirits than those incarnate during Moses’ time. It is necessary to adapt the lesson to the comprehension of the pupil. Those who ask and doubt have not yet arrived to the position that they will have and still don’t know what they will one day know.
Why? You should then ask God why he has created the weed that was even used as food by man; why he created trees that only grow in certain climates, in certain latitudes, and that mankind was able to spread and grow everywhere.
Moses told the Hebrews: “Don’t summon the dead”, as we tell the child: don’t play with fire.
Wasn’t the evocation that gradually turned into idolatry among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Moabs and all peoples of antiquity? They did not have the strength to support science, were burned and the Lord wanted to preserve some people so that they could serve and perpetuate his name and his faith.
People were perverted and prone to dangerous evocations. Moses prevented the worse. Progress should happen among the Spirits, as among men, but the evocation was known and practiced by the princes of the church. Vanity and pride are as old as humanity thus the chiefs of the synagogues used the evocation and frequently used it badly; that is why the rage of the Lord fell upon them sometimes.
That is why Moses said: “Don’t evoke the dead”. But the prohibition itself demonstrates that the evocation was usual among the people and it was the people that he prohibited.
Hence, let those who ask why speak. Open before the eyes the history of the planet that they cover with their little steps and ask them why, after so many cumulated centuries, it is taking them so long to advance so little? Their intelligence is not developed enough; their routine constricts them; they want to keep their eyes closed despite the efforts carried out to have them open.
Ask them: why God is God? Why are they illuminated by the Sun?
Have them study and seek and they will find in the history of antiquity that God wanted that such knowledge vanishes to revive later with more intensity when the Spirits in charge of bringing it were stronger and did not succumb to its weight.
Don’t bother, my friends, with idle questions and meaningless objections made to you. Always do what you have just done: ask and we shall gladly respond. Science is of those who seek it; it then comes to show itself. Light illuminates the ones that open their eyes but darkness thickens out to those who want to keep them closed. The refused are not the ones who ask but those who make objections with the sole objective of extinguish the light or that dare not look at the light. Courage, my friends! We are ready to respond every time that it is needed.
Simeon, for Mathews
NOTE: This communication was given in a Spiritist Center in Bordeaux as a response to the above question. We had written the preceding article before learning about this message about the same subject. We published it despite the coincidence due to the agreement of the ideas. Many others were obtained in several places with the same teaching what demonstrates the agreement among the Spirits about the subject. This objection, not more justifiable than all others that oppose the relationship with the Spirits, will fall by itself.
-o-
Is then man so perfect that it is useless to test one’s strength? Is our intelligence so developed that it can bear the whole light?
When Moses brought a law that could take the Hebrew people from their slavery state, reviving in them the forgotten idea of God, he was force to downplay the light to their capacity of vision and science to their capacity of understanding.
Why don’t you also ask: Why had Jesus allowed himself to remake the law?
Why did Jesus said: “Moses told you: an eye for an eye and I tell you to do good to your enemies; blessed be the ones that curse you; forgive the ones that oppress you”? Why has Jesus said: Moses told you: The one who wants to leave his wife allow her to divorce but I tell you: do not separate what God united.
Why? It is because Jesus was speaking with more advanced Spirits than those incarnate during Moses’ time. It is necessary to adapt the lesson to the comprehension of the pupil. Those who ask and doubt have not yet arrived to the position that they will have and still don’t know what they will one day know.
Why? You should then ask God why he has created the weed that was even used as food by man; why he created trees that only grow in certain climates, in certain latitudes, and that mankind was able to spread and grow everywhere.
Moses told the Hebrews: “Don’t summon the dead”, as we tell the child: don’t play with fire.
Wasn’t the evocation that gradually turned into idolatry among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Moabs and all peoples of antiquity? They did not have the strength to support science, were burned and the Lord wanted to preserve some people so that they could serve and perpetuate his name and his faith.
People were perverted and prone to dangerous evocations. Moses prevented the worse. Progress should happen among the Spirits, as among men, but the evocation was known and practiced by the princes of the church. Vanity and pride are as old as humanity thus the chiefs of the synagogues used the evocation and frequently used it badly; that is why the rage of the Lord fell upon them sometimes.
That is why Moses said: “Don’t evoke the dead”. But the prohibition itself demonstrates that the evocation was usual among the people and it was the people that he prohibited.
Hence, let those who ask why speak. Open before the eyes the history of the planet that they cover with their little steps and ask them why, after so many cumulated centuries, it is taking them so long to advance so little? Their intelligence is not developed enough; their routine constricts them; they want to keep their eyes closed despite the efforts carried out to have them open.
Ask them: why God is God? Why are they illuminated by the Sun?
Have them study and seek and they will find in the history of antiquity that God wanted that such knowledge vanishes to revive later with more intensity when the Spirits in charge of bringing it were stronger and did not succumb to its weight.
Don’t bother, my friends, with idle questions and meaningless objections made to you. Always do what you have just done: ask and we shall gladly respond. Science is of those who seek it; it then comes to show itself. Light illuminates the ones that open their eyes but darkness thickens out to those who want to keep them closed. The refused are not the ones who ask but those who make objections with the sole objective of extinguish the light or that dare not look at the light. Courage, my friends! We are ready to respond every time that it is needed.
Simeon, for Mathews
Private meeting, March 10th, 1863
Medium Mrs. Costel
My memory has just been evoked by my portrait and my poems; twice touched in my feminine vanity and self-love of poetry, I want to acknowledge your benevolence, sketching in broad traces the silhouette of the false devout that are to religion what the falsely honest woman is to society. The subject is in the picture of my literary studies whose nuance was expressed in Lady Tartufe.
The false devout sacrifice appearance and betray the true; they show a dry heart with humid eyes, their purse is closed and their hand open; they speak of the neighbor with good will, criticizing their actions in a sweet way, exaggerating the bad and diminishing the merit. Eager on the acquisition of mundane things they cling on imaginary treasures that death disperses, neglecting the true values that serve the righteous ones and form the wealth of eternity.
The hypocrite of devotion is the reptile of the moral world. Vis and low they avoid the faults punished by public vendetta, committing criminal acts in the shadow. How many destroyed and spoiled families! How much betrayed trust! How many tears, and even how much blood!
Comedy is the opposite of tragedy. Evil marches behind the buffoon and the false devout have inept creatures by followers, only acting by imitations: like in the mirror they reflect the physiognomy of their neighbors. They take themselves seriously; deceive themselves; ridicule their beliefs in their shyness; exalt what they doubt; show ostentation and light up little hidden candles to which they give much more importance than to the virtue of the sacred host.
The false devout are the true atheist of virtue, of hope, of nature and of God. They deny the true and affirm the false. Meanwhile, death will carry them blotted out of the make-up, and covered with tinsel which disguised them, and throw them panting in full day light.
Delphine de Girardin
Medium Mrs. Costel
My memory has just been evoked by my portrait and my poems; twice touched in my feminine vanity and self-love of poetry, I want to acknowledge your benevolence, sketching in broad traces the silhouette of the false devout that are to religion what the falsely honest woman is to society. The subject is in the picture of my literary studies whose nuance was expressed in Lady Tartufe.
The false devout sacrifice appearance and betray the true; they show a dry heart with humid eyes, their purse is closed and their hand open; they speak of the neighbor with good will, criticizing their actions in a sweet way, exaggerating the bad and diminishing the merit. Eager on the acquisition of mundane things they cling on imaginary treasures that death disperses, neglecting the true values that serve the righteous ones and form the wealth of eternity.
The hypocrite of devotion is the reptile of the moral world. Vis and low they avoid the faults punished by public vendetta, committing criminal acts in the shadow. How many destroyed and spoiled families! How much betrayed trust! How many tears, and even how much blood!
Comedy is the opposite of tragedy. Evil marches behind the buffoon and the false devout have inept creatures by followers, only acting by imitations: like in the mirror they reflect the physiognomy of their neighbors. They take themselves seriously; deceive themselves; ridicule their beliefs in their shyness; exalt what they doubt; show ostentation and light up little hidden candles to which they give much more importance than to the virtue of the sacred host.
The false devout are the true atheist of virtue, of hope, of nature and of God. They deny the true and affirm the false. Meanwhile, death will carry them blotted out of the make-up, and covered with tinsel which disguised them, and throw them panting in full day light.
Delphine de Girardin
What does it matter to you the age of patriarchs in general and that of Methuselah in particular? Nature, know this well, has never been contradictory or shown irregularities and even if the human machine has varied any time it has never repelled the material destruction: death.
As I have already told you the Bible is a magnificent oriental poem in which human passions are divinized like the passions idealized by the Greek like the great colonies of Asia Minor.
There is no need to match concision with emphasis, clarity with diffusion, the coldness of reason and modern logic with the oriental exaltation. The cherubims of the Bible had six wings as you know: almost monsters! The God of the Jewish would bathe in blood; would you like your angels to be the same as those and your sovereignly good and just God to be that one same God?
Hence you must not ally your poetic modern analysis with the lying poetry of the antique Jews or Pagans. The age of the patriarchs is a moral figure and not a reality. The authority, the memory of those great names, of those true shepherds of peoples, enriched by the mystery and legends that radiated around them, existed among those superstitious and nomad worshipers of memories. It is likely that Methuselah had lived for a long time in the hearts of his descendants.
Notice that in the oriental poetry every moral idea is incorporated, incarnate, covered in a brilliant, radiant, splendid form, contrary to modern poetry that discarnate that breaks the shell allowing the idea to rise to heavens. Modern poetry is not only expressed by the color and shine of the image but also by the firm and correct drawing of logic, in a word, by the idea. How would you like to join these two great and contrary principles? When you read the Bible by the rays of the orient, among the golden images, in the endless and diffuse horizons of the deserts, of the steppes, let electricity flow, trespassing the abysses and darkness’s, using your reason to always judge the difference in time, forms and understandings.
Lamennais
Lamennais
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, July 11th 1862
Medium Mr. Flammarion
Did you hear the confusing sound of the reverberating sea when the northern wind swells the waves or when it breaks with its roaring silver blades on the shore? Did you hear the loud clatter of lightning in the dark clouds or the whisper of the forest under the blast of the evening wind? Have you heard in the depths of the soul that multiple harmony which speaks to the senses only to pass through them and to reach the thinking and loving being? If therefore you have not heard and understood these silent words, you are not children of revelation, and you do not believe yet. To these I will say: "Come out of the city at this silent hour when the starry rays descend from heaven and, gathering in yourselves your inner most thoughts, contemplate the spectacle that surrounds you, and you will arrive before dawn to share the faith of your brethren. To those who already believe in the great voice of nature, I will say, "Children of the new covenant, it is the voice of the Creator and the conservator of beings, who speaks in the turmoil of the waves, in the sound of thunder; It is the voice of God that speaks in the breath of the winds: friends, listen again, listen often, listen for a long time, listen always, and the Lord will receive you with open arms. O you, who have already heard his powerful voice down here, you will understand it better in the other world.
Galileo
Medium Mr. Flammarion
Did you hear the confusing sound of the reverberating sea when the northern wind swells the waves or when it breaks with its roaring silver blades on the shore? Did you hear the loud clatter of lightning in the dark clouds or the whisper of the forest under the blast of the evening wind? Have you heard in the depths of the soul that multiple harmony which speaks to the senses only to pass through them and to reach the thinking and loving being? If therefore you have not heard and understood these silent words, you are not children of revelation, and you do not believe yet. To these I will say: "Come out of the city at this silent hour when the starry rays descend from heaven and, gathering in yourselves your inner most thoughts, contemplate the spectacle that surrounds you, and you will arrive before dawn to share the faith of your brethren. To those who already believe in the great voice of nature, I will say, "Children of the new covenant, it is the voice of the Creator and the conservator of beings, who speaks in the turmoil of the waves, in the sound of thunder; It is the voice of God that speaks in the breath of the winds: friends, listen again, listen often, listen for a long time, listen always, and the Lord will receive you with open arms. O you, who have already heard his powerful voice down here, you will understand it better in the other world.
Galileo
Thionville, January 5th 1863
Medium Dr. R…
There is a great law that dominates everything in the universe: the law of progress. It is due to that law that man, an essentially imperfect creature, must walk through all phases that separate him from perfection. There is no doubt that God knows the time that each will take to get to the end. Since every progress results from the endeavor for its realization, there would be no merit if mankind did not have the freedom of following one path instead of another. In fact, true merit can only result from the actual work done by the Spirit in order to overcome a more or less considerable resistance.
As each of us ignores the number of existences that took part in their moral advancement, nobody can prejudge that great question and it is particularly, in this point, that the infinite benevolence of our Celestial Father shines in a more remarkable way, side by side, with the free-will that we were granted with, sowing landmarks in our paths that illuminate our deviations. Hence, it is due to a remnant predominance of matter that many people persist in remaining deft to the warnings that come from all sides, preferring to spend a life that had been given for the advancement of the Spirit with deceiving and momentary pleasures. One could not affirm without blasphemy that God wanted the unhappiness of his creatures for the unfortunate ones always atone both in a badly lived previous life as well as after their refusal to follow the good path when it had been clearly shown to them. Hence it is up to each one to abbreviate the trial to endure. That is why so many safe guides are provided so that each person is entirely responsible for the refusal to follow the advices and still, in that case, there is a sure means of mitigating a deserved punishment following sincere signs of regret and prayer that is always attended when said with fervor. Thus, free-will does effectively exist in man but with a guide: the conscience. All of you who have access to the great focus of the new science, do not neglect the opportunity to incorporate the eloquent truths that it reveals and the remarkable principles that are its consequence. Follow them faithfully because that is the shining place of your free will. On one side think about the fatal consequences for you if refusing to follow the good path, as well as the wonderful rewards that await in case you obey the instructions of the good Spirits. That is, in turn, the place where the divine prescience will shine.
It is in vain that men seek the truth in all means provided by science. That truth that seems to escape is always on our side and the blind do not notice it.
Wise Spirits from all countries to whom is given to lift the tip of the veil do not neglect the means that the divine Providence his offered you! Provoke our manifestations; allow all your less fortunate brothers to benefit from them; take to all of them the Spiritist world and you will have deserved well because you will have significantly contributed to the realization of the designs of the Providence.
Medium Dr. R…
There is a great law that dominates everything in the universe: the law of progress. It is due to that law that man, an essentially imperfect creature, must walk through all phases that separate him from perfection. There is no doubt that God knows the time that each will take to get to the end. Since every progress results from the endeavor for its realization, there would be no merit if mankind did not have the freedom of following one path instead of another. In fact, true merit can only result from the actual work done by the Spirit in order to overcome a more or less considerable resistance.
As each of us ignores the number of existences that took part in their moral advancement, nobody can prejudge that great question and it is particularly, in this point, that the infinite benevolence of our Celestial Father shines in a more remarkable way, side by side, with the free-will that we were granted with, sowing landmarks in our paths that illuminate our deviations. Hence, it is due to a remnant predominance of matter that many people persist in remaining deft to the warnings that come from all sides, preferring to spend a life that had been given for the advancement of the Spirit with deceiving and momentary pleasures. One could not affirm without blasphemy that God wanted the unhappiness of his creatures for the unfortunate ones always atone both in a badly lived previous life as well as after their refusal to follow the good path when it had been clearly shown to them. Hence it is up to each one to abbreviate the trial to endure. That is why so many safe guides are provided so that each person is entirely responsible for the refusal to follow the advices and still, in that case, there is a sure means of mitigating a deserved punishment following sincere signs of regret and prayer that is always attended when said with fervor. Thus, free-will does effectively exist in man but with a guide: the conscience. All of you who have access to the great focus of the new science, do not neglect the opportunity to incorporate the eloquent truths that it reveals and the remarkable principles that are its consequence. Follow them faithfully because that is the shining place of your free will. On one side think about the fatal consequences for you if refusing to follow the good path, as well as the wonderful rewards that await in case you obey the instructions of the good Spirits. That is, in turn, the place where the divine prescience will shine.
It is in vain that men seek the truth in all means provided by science. That truth that seems to escape is always on our side and the blind do not notice it.
Wise Spirits from all countries to whom is given to lift the tip of the veil do not neglect the means that the divine Providence his offered you! Provoke our manifestations; allow all your less fortunate brothers to benefit from them; take to all of them the Spiritist world and you will have deserved well because you will have significantly contributed to the realization of the designs of the Providence.
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, medium Mrs. Costel
Pantheism or the incarnation of the Spirit, the idea in the shape, is the first step of Paganism towards the law of love revealed by Jesus. Greedy for pleasures, intoxicated by the exterior beauty, antiquity almost did not see beyond its own eyes. Sensuality and lust made it ignore the melancholies that stem from the uneasiness of doubt and repressed love. Antiquity feared the gods whose smoothed images decorated the living rooms of their homes. Slavery and war corroded it from inside and outside. The outstanding sounds and beauties of nature hopelessly invited mankind to understand its magnificence although nature was also feared or worshiped like the gods. The sacred woods attended the horrors of the oracles and not a single mortal separated the benefits of their solitude from the religious ideas that shook the tree and had the stone shuddered.
It is convenient to study Pantheism from two angles. First the infinite separation of the divine nature divided in all parts of creation, getting together again in the tiniest details as much as in its magnificence, in other words, a flagrant confusion between the work and the worker. Then in second place comes the assimilation of humanity, or even better, its absorption in matter. Former Pantheism had the divinities incarnate; modern Pantheism assimilates mankind to the animal kingdom and give rise to the creating molecules from the ardent oven where vegetation is born, confusing results with the principle.
God is the order that human confusion could not disturb. Everything has its place: sap to the trees, thought to brains. Not a single idea, child of the times, is serendipitously left abandoned. It has its path, a close relationship that finds its meaning connecting to the past and inviting the future. The history of religious beliefs is the proof of this absolute truth for there has not been any idolatry, system or fanaticism that would not have had its imperious and powerful reason of being. They all advanced towards light, all converged to the same objective and they will all come to confound, like the waters of a long river reaching the vast and deep sea of the Spiritist unity. Thus Pantheism the precursor of Catholicism carried the seed of God’s universality. It inspired in people fraternity towards nature, a fraternity that would be taught by Jesus and to be practiced with one another, a sacred fraternity that today is reinforced by Spiritism that victoriously reconnects the earthly creatures to the spiritual world.
I truly say this to you that the law of love slowly and continuously unfolds its infinite spirals. It is that law that in the mysterious rites of Indian religions divinizes the animal, sanctifying it for its weakness and humble services. It was that law that populated the purified homes with familiar gods. It is that law that makes each religion spell out one word of the divine alphabet.
But the proclamation of the universal idea that summarizes them all was reserved to Jesus. The Savior announced love and made it stronger than death. He said to mankind: “Love one another; love in pain, joy and misery; love nature, your first initiator; love the animals, your humble companions; love what begins, love what ends.
The verb of the Eternal is called love and it embraces in an inextinguishable kindness the Earth that you dwell and the Heavens that will receive you purified and triumphant.
Lazarus
Pantheism or the incarnation of the Spirit, the idea in the shape, is the first step of Paganism towards the law of love revealed by Jesus. Greedy for pleasures, intoxicated by the exterior beauty, antiquity almost did not see beyond its own eyes. Sensuality and lust made it ignore the melancholies that stem from the uneasiness of doubt and repressed love. Antiquity feared the gods whose smoothed images decorated the living rooms of their homes. Slavery and war corroded it from inside and outside. The outstanding sounds and beauties of nature hopelessly invited mankind to understand its magnificence although nature was also feared or worshiped like the gods. The sacred woods attended the horrors of the oracles and not a single mortal separated the benefits of their solitude from the religious ideas that shook the tree and had the stone shuddered.
It is convenient to study Pantheism from two angles. First the infinite separation of the divine nature divided in all parts of creation, getting together again in the tiniest details as much as in its magnificence, in other words, a flagrant confusion between the work and the worker. Then in second place comes the assimilation of humanity, or even better, its absorption in matter. Former Pantheism had the divinities incarnate; modern Pantheism assimilates mankind to the animal kingdom and give rise to the creating molecules from the ardent oven where vegetation is born, confusing results with the principle.
God is the order that human confusion could not disturb. Everything has its place: sap to the trees, thought to brains. Not a single idea, child of the times, is serendipitously left abandoned. It has its path, a close relationship that finds its meaning connecting to the past and inviting the future. The history of religious beliefs is the proof of this absolute truth for there has not been any idolatry, system or fanaticism that would not have had its imperious and powerful reason of being. They all advanced towards light, all converged to the same objective and they will all come to confound, like the waters of a long river reaching the vast and deep sea of the Spiritist unity. Thus Pantheism the precursor of Catholicism carried the seed of God’s universality. It inspired in people fraternity towards nature, a fraternity that would be taught by Jesus and to be practiced with one another, a sacred fraternity that today is reinforced by Spiritism that victoriously reconnects the earthly creatures to the spiritual world.
I truly say this to you that the law of love slowly and continuously unfolds its infinite spirals. It is that law that in the mysterious rites of Indian religions divinizes the animal, sanctifying it for its weakness and humble services. It was that law that populated the purified homes with familiar gods. It is that law that makes each religion spell out one word of the divine alphabet.
But the proclamation of the universal idea that summarizes them all was reserved to Jesus. The Savior announced love and made it stronger than death. He said to mankind: “Love one another; love in pain, joy and misery; love nature, your first initiator; love the animals, your humble companions; love what begins, love what ends.
The verb of the Eternal is called love and it embraces in an inextinguishable kindness the Earth that you dwell and the Heavens that will receive you purified and triumphant.
Lazarus
This remarkable and conscientious book is the work of a distinct scientist that proposed to find the demonstration of the reality of Spiritualist ideas from science and from the observation of facts. It is another piece supporting the thesis that we put forward above. It is more still because it is a first step, almost official, of science in the Spiritist way; as a matter of fact, it will be followed soon – and we are certain about it – by other even more resounding adhesions that will make deniers and adversaries of all schools to seriously think about it. It is enough to mention the following excerpt to show the mind frame of the work. It is found in page 331.
“It can be seen – and that is undoubtedly a sign of the times – the Spiritist sect that I already mentioned in paragraph 15, rapidly reaching persons of all classes and the most enlightened ones, not to mention the late and missed Jobard, from Brussels, that had become one of the liveliest champions of the new doctrine.
The fact is that if we examine this doctrine only in the little pamphlet of Allan Kardec, What is Spiritism? It is impossible not to notice how clear and homogeneous its morality is, consistent with itself, how satisfying it is to the mind and the heart. If the reality of communications with the invisible world were taken away people would always have that, and that is a great deal; it is enough to attract many members and explain its ever-increasing success. As for communications with the invisible world, I believe I have scientifically demonstrated that they were not only possible, but that they should take place every day in sleep. Inspiration during the state of vigil whose authenticity or nature is impossible to doubt, according to what I said, is in fact a communication of that kind although there could be cases in which they are only the result of a greater degree of activity of the mind. Now, if one verifies where the communication is translated by knowledge foreign to the medium that receives them and see nothing there that is not highly likely and it is in every case an issue that can be resolved in the absence of wise men, that each medium has the notion of their own knowledge in their normal state – and that can be judged by friends and family members better than anybody else – so that if Spiritism makes daily wonders beyond the moral issue it is apparently due to the fact that it produces mediums in quantity sufficient to produce proofs of their particular condition to whoever wants to examine them without preconceived ideas.
“Morality, as I understand it and as I deduced from scientific notions – I am not afraid of acknowledging it – has multiple points of contact with the one transmitted by Mr. Allan Kardec’s mediums. Also, I am not far from admitting that if there are many pages written by them that do not surpass the ordinary reach of human minds, including theirs, there must be, and there are, some of such a reach that it would be impossible to write other similar ones in their own rights.
All that makes me wish that a doctrine that does not offer a minor danger and, on the contrary, elevates mind and spirit as much as one can wish for in the interest of society may expand more and more every day. Because according to what I have read I imagine that it is impossible to be a good Spiritist without being a good man and a good citizen. I do not know many religions about which one can say the same.”
“It can be seen – and that is undoubtedly a sign of the times – the Spiritist sect that I already mentioned in paragraph 15, rapidly reaching persons of all classes and the most enlightened ones, not to mention the late and missed Jobard, from Brussels, that had become one of the liveliest champions of the new doctrine.
The fact is that if we examine this doctrine only in the little pamphlet of Allan Kardec, What is Spiritism? It is impossible not to notice how clear and homogeneous its morality is, consistent with itself, how satisfying it is to the mind and the heart. If the reality of communications with the invisible world were taken away people would always have that, and that is a great deal; it is enough to attract many members and explain its ever-increasing success. As for communications with the invisible world, I believe I have scientifically demonstrated that they were not only possible, but that they should take place every day in sleep. Inspiration during the state of vigil whose authenticity or nature is impossible to doubt, according to what I said, is in fact a communication of that kind although there could be cases in which they are only the result of a greater degree of activity of the mind. Now, if one verifies where the communication is translated by knowledge foreign to the medium that receives them and see nothing there that is not highly likely and it is in every case an issue that can be resolved in the absence of wise men, that each medium has the notion of their own knowledge in their normal state – and that can be judged by friends and family members better than anybody else – so that if Spiritism makes daily wonders beyond the moral issue it is apparently due to the fact that it produces mediums in quantity sufficient to produce proofs of their particular condition to whoever wants to examine them without preconceived ideas.
“Morality, as I understand it and as I deduced from scientific notions – I am not afraid of acknowledging it – has multiple points of contact with the one transmitted by Mr. Allan Kardec’s mediums. Also, I am not far from admitting that if there are many pages written by them that do not surpass the ordinary reach of human minds, including theirs, there must be, and there are, some of such a reach that it would be impossible to write other similar ones in their own rights.
All that makes me wish that a doctrine that does not offer a minor danger and, on the contrary, elevates mind and spirit as much as one can wish for in the interest of society may expand more and more every day. Because according to what I have read I imagine that it is impossible to be a good Spiritist without being a good man and a good citizen. I do not know many religions about which one can say the same.”
Preached at Metz Cathedral, 27-29th May 1863 by Rev. Father Letierce, from the Company of Jesus
Refuted by a Spiritist from Metz and preceded by considerations about Spiritist madness[1]
We are always pleased to see serious followers entering the fight when they add calm and moderation to the logical arguments. This is a behavior that we must always follow even against those who do not use the same methods as us. We congratulate the author of this brochure for being able to unite these two qualities in his very interesting and conscious work that will be, no doubt, received with the deserved consideration. The letter inserted at the introduction of the work is a testimony of sympathy that we could not acknowledge better than by transcribing it here in full for it is a proof of how much he understands the doctrine as well as the following thoughts that he uses as an epigraph:
“We believe that there are facts that are not visible to the eye or tangible to the hand; that cannot be reached by the scalpel or the microscope however perfect we can imagine them to be; that equally escape taste, smell, hearing and that nonetheless are susceptible to verification with an absolute certainty. (Ch. Jouffroy, preface of Esquisses de philosophie morale, page 5).”
“Do not believe in every Spirit but have them tested to see if they are from God.” (Gospel)
“Dear Master,
Will you kindly accept the offer of this modest defense of Spiritism, a scream of outrage against the attacks against our sublime moral? To me that would be the strongest evidence that these pages are dictated with the same spirit of moderation that we daily admire in your work and that should guide us in all of our endeavors. Please accept it as a naïve essay of one of your recent followers, as the profession of faith of a true believer.”
“If my effort succeeds I shall attribute its success to your elevated sponsorship; if my unskilled voice does not find echo, Spiritism will not lack other defenders and I will be appeased with my own conscience for having been approved by the immortal apostle of our philosophy.”
-o-
We extracted the following passage from the brochure with one of the sermons by Rev. Father Letierce to give an idea of the power of his logic.
“There is nothing that may shock reason by the admission, within certain limits, of the communication between the Spirits of the dead with the living ones. Such communication is perfectly compatible with the nature of the human soul and numerous examples are found in the Gospels and in the Life of Saints. But they were saints, they were apostles.
“As for us, poor sinners, on the ramp of corruption, we who would frequently only need a helping hand to guide us back to good, isn’t that a sacrilege, an insult to the divine justice, to ask the good Spirits that God has spread around us for advices and guidance for our moral and philosophical instruction? Isn’t that an impious audacity to ask the Creator to send us guardian angels to endlessly remind us about the observation of his laws, about charity, the love to our neighbors and to teach us about what to do to the limit of our strength in order to achieve their own level of perfection as soon as possible?”
“That appeal to the soul of the righteous ones, in the name of God’s benevolence, is only heard by the soul of the bad ones, in the name of the infernal powers. Yes, the Spirits do communicate with us but not the condemned Spirits. Their communications and teachings, it is true, are such that could have been dictated by the purest angels. All of their speeches breathe the highest virtues from which the lowest ones must serve us as an ideal of perfection that we can hardly achieve in this life but it is only a trap to better attract us; it is like poison covered in honey with which the devil wants to kill our soul.”
“In fact, the soul of the dead, according to Allan Kardec, has three classes: those that arrived at the state of pure Spirits, those that are on the path towards perfection and the soul of the bad ones. The first ones, given their own nature, cannot attend our appeal. Their state of purity makes it impossible to have any communication with human beings that are trapped in a very thick envelope. By the way, what would they do on Earth? Preach things that could not be understood?
“The second ones have a lot to work for their own moral betterment to waste any time and come to talk to us. They are not the ones that come to assist us in our sessions either.”
“What is our last resort then? As I said, it is the soul of the sinners and these are the ones who are always ready to come. Always available to take advantage of our error and our need for instructions they come to us in large numbers to drag us along with them to the abyss where they were thrown by the just punishment of God.”
[1] Brochure in-18, price 1 franc; by mail 1.1 franc – Paris: Didier & Co., Ledoyen; Metz: Linden, Verronnais bookstores.
Refuted by a Spiritist from Metz and preceded by considerations about Spiritist madness[1]
We are always pleased to see serious followers entering the fight when they add calm and moderation to the logical arguments. This is a behavior that we must always follow even against those who do not use the same methods as us. We congratulate the author of this brochure for being able to unite these two qualities in his very interesting and conscious work that will be, no doubt, received with the deserved consideration. The letter inserted at the introduction of the work is a testimony of sympathy that we could not acknowledge better than by transcribing it here in full for it is a proof of how much he understands the doctrine as well as the following thoughts that he uses as an epigraph:
“We believe that there are facts that are not visible to the eye or tangible to the hand; that cannot be reached by the scalpel or the microscope however perfect we can imagine them to be; that equally escape taste, smell, hearing and that nonetheless are susceptible to verification with an absolute certainty. (Ch. Jouffroy, preface of Esquisses de philosophie morale, page 5).”
“Do not believe in every Spirit but have them tested to see if they are from God.” (Gospel)
“Dear Master,
Will you kindly accept the offer of this modest defense of Spiritism, a scream of outrage against the attacks against our sublime moral? To me that would be the strongest evidence that these pages are dictated with the same spirit of moderation that we daily admire in your work and that should guide us in all of our endeavors. Please accept it as a naïve essay of one of your recent followers, as the profession of faith of a true believer.”
“If my effort succeeds I shall attribute its success to your elevated sponsorship; if my unskilled voice does not find echo, Spiritism will not lack other defenders and I will be appeased with my own conscience for having been approved by the immortal apostle of our philosophy.”
-o-
We extracted the following passage from the brochure with one of the sermons by Rev. Father Letierce to give an idea of the power of his logic.
“There is nothing that may shock reason by the admission, within certain limits, of the communication between the Spirits of the dead with the living ones. Such communication is perfectly compatible with the nature of the human soul and numerous examples are found in the Gospels and in the Life of Saints. But they were saints, they were apostles.
“As for us, poor sinners, on the ramp of corruption, we who would frequently only need a helping hand to guide us back to good, isn’t that a sacrilege, an insult to the divine justice, to ask the good Spirits that God has spread around us for advices and guidance for our moral and philosophical instruction? Isn’t that an impious audacity to ask the Creator to send us guardian angels to endlessly remind us about the observation of his laws, about charity, the love to our neighbors and to teach us about what to do to the limit of our strength in order to achieve their own level of perfection as soon as possible?”
“That appeal to the soul of the righteous ones, in the name of God’s benevolence, is only heard by the soul of the bad ones, in the name of the infernal powers. Yes, the Spirits do communicate with us but not the condemned Spirits. Their communications and teachings, it is true, are such that could have been dictated by the purest angels. All of their speeches breathe the highest virtues from which the lowest ones must serve us as an ideal of perfection that we can hardly achieve in this life but it is only a trap to better attract us; it is like poison covered in honey with which the devil wants to kill our soul.”
“In fact, the soul of the dead, according to Allan Kardec, has three classes: those that arrived at the state of pure Spirits, those that are on the path towards perfection and the soul of the bad ones. The first ones, given their own nature, cannot attend our appeal. Their state of purity makes it impossible to have any communication with human beings that are trapped in a very thick envelope. By the way, what would they do on Earth? Preach things that could not be understood?
“The second ones have a lot to work for their own moral betterment to waste any time and come to talk to us. They are not the ones that come to assist us in our sessions either.”
“What is our last resort then? As I said, it is the soul of the sinners and these are the ones who are always ready to come. Always available to take advantage of our error and our need for instructions they come to us in large numbers to drag us along with them to the abyss where they were thrown by the just punishment of God.”
[1] Brochure in-18, price 1 franc; by mail 1.1 franc – Paris: Didier & Co., Ledoyen; Metz: Linden, Verronnais bookstores.