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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1863 > December > Instructions by the Spirits
Instructions by the Spirits
Paris, August 14th, 1863
“The struggle waits for you, my dear children. That is why I invite all of you to imitate the gladiator of previous times and get ready. The forthcoming years are full of promises but also of anxieties. I do not come to say: the day of the battle is tomorrow! No, because the time of the fight is not certain yet but I come to warn you so that you are ready for any eventuality. Up until now Spiritism only found an easy and almost flowery path whereas from now on the attacks in your direction will have a totally different character: time has come when God will appeal everyone, when he is going to judge his faithful servers and give each one the part that they have deserved.
You shall not be physically tortured as in the first days of the Church; there will not be killing flames like in the Middle Ages but they will torture you morally; there will be traps, armed by friendly hands; they will act in the shadows and you will receive the blows not knowing who sent them towards you and you will be hurt and your chest injured by the poisoned arrows of slander.
Your pain will lack nothing; there will be defections in your ranks and supposedly Spiritists lost in pride and vanity will allege independence, saying: We are the ones in the right path!
They will try to sow bad weeds onto the groups provoking the formation of dissident groups; they will entice your mediums taking them to a bad path, deviating them from the serious groups; intimidation will be used against some, fascination against others; all weaknesses will be exploited. Besides, don’t forget that some saw in Spiritism a role to play, an important role, and today they are deluded in their ambitions. These will be promised a new way, something that otherwise they cannot find. Then, with money, so powerful in the last century, won’t they find accomplices to represent undignified comedies to discredit and ridicule the doctrine?
These are the trials that wait for you, my dear, but from which you shall exit triumphant if you beg for the Almighty help from the bottom of your heart. That is why I repeat with my whole heart: My dear, embrace one another and be vigilant because it is your Golgotha that follows and if you are not crucified in flesh and blood you will in your interests and in your affections and in your honor! It is a serious and solemn time. You must then leave behind the petty discussions, all the puerile concerns, every idle question and any vain pretension of prominence and self-love.
Be concerned with the great interests that are in your hands and for which the Lord will make you accountable. Unite so that the enemy will find your ranks compact and unbreakable. You have an unequivocal password, touch stone with which you can recognize your true brothers, for that word means abnegation and devotion and summarizes all of the duties of a true Spiritist. Courage and perseverance, my children! Know that God oversees and judges you. Remember also that your spiritual guides will not abandon you down while you walk the right path.
As a matter of fact, all this war will only have a period and will turn against those who thought to create arms against the doctrine. Triumph, and no longer the bloody holocaust, will irradiate the Spiritist Golgotha.
So long my dear children. Greetings to all!”
Erastus, disciple of the apostle St. Paul
One of the maneuvers predicted above has just come true from what we heard. A letter tells us that a young lady had attended a meeting only once left her home and moved in to the house of a strange person from where she was taken to a home of the mentally ill, as if taken by the Spiritist madness; her relatives were only informed afterwards, when everthing had already happened. Twenty days later the family was granted authorization to see her when she was then criticized for having left them. She then confessed that she was promised money to pretend madness. Even at that time the attempts to convince her to leave and come home were useless.
If that is how Spiritist mad people are recruited the means is more dangerous to those that employ it than to Spiritism. When someone reaches out to such a gimmick to defend their own causes, it is the most positive proof that they are out of good arguments.
We then tell the Spiritists: When you see similar things rejoice instead of becoming sad for they are signs of a near triumph. In fact, there is something else that must encourage you: our ranks grow not only in number but also in moral strength and you have already seen more than one renowned person to come out and resolutely defend Spiritism and with grab the glove thrown by our adversaries with a strong hand.
Texts of irresistible logic daily show them that the Spiritists are not mad. Our readers know the excellent refutation to the sermons of Rev. Letiece by a Spiritist of Metz. Now we have the not less interesting one given by the Spiritists of Villenave de Rions (Gironde), about the sermons of Father Nicomède. The Verité of Lyon is known for its profound articles. The November 22ndnumber in particular deserves special attention. The Ruche de Bordeaux enlightens with new supporters as capable as dedicated. Finally, if there are many aggressors there aren’t fewer defenders. Hence, Spiritists, have courage, confidence and perseverance because it is alright and according to what had been predicted.
The communication below develops one of the phases of the serious issue that we have just discussed and cannot but forearm the Spiritists about the difficulties that will accumulate in this period.
“The struggle waits for you, my dear children. That is why I invite all of you to imitate the gladiator of previous times and get ready. The forthcoming years are full of promises but also of anxieties. I do not come to say: the day of the battle is tomorrow! No, because the time of the fight is not certain yet but I come to warn you so that you are ready for any eventuality. Up until now Spiritism only found an easy and almost flowery path whereas from now on the attacks in your direction will have a totally different character: time has come when God will appeal everyone, when he is going to judge his faithful servers and give each one the part that they have deserved.
You shall not be physically tortured as in the first days of the Church; there will not be killing flames like in the Middle Ages but they will torture you morally; there will be traps, armed by friendly hands; they will act in the shadows and you will receive the blows not knowing who sent them towards you and you will be hurt and your chest injured by the poisoned arrows of slander.
Your pain will lack nothing; there will be defections in your ranks and supposedly Spiritists lost in pride and vanity will allege independence, saying: We are the ones in the right path!
They will try to sow bad weeds onto the groups provoking the formation of dissident groups; they will entice your mediums taking them to a bad path, deviating them from the serious groups; intimidation will be used against some, fascination against others; all weaknesses will be exploited. Besides, don’t forget that some saw in Spiritism a role to play, an important role, and today they are deluded in their ambitions. These will be promised a new way, something that otherwise they cannot find. Then, with money, so powerful in the last century, won’t they find accomplices to represent undignified comedies to discredit and ridicule the doctrine?
These are the trials that wait for you, my dear, but from which you shall exit triumphant if you beg for the Almighty help from the bottom of your heart. That is why I repeat with my whole heart: My dear, embrace one another and be vigilant because it is your Golgotha that follows and if you are not crucified in flesh and blood you will in your interests and in your affections and in your honor! It is a serious and solemn time. You must then leave behind the petty discussions, all the puerile concerns, every idle question and any vain pretension of prominence and self-love.
Be concerned with the great interests that are in your hands and for which the Lord will make you accountable. Unite so that the enemy will find your ranks compact and unbreakable. You have an unequivocal password, touch stone with which you can recognize your true brothers, for that word means abnegation and devotion and summarizes all of the duties of a true Spiritist. Courage and perseverance, my children! Know that God oversees and judges you. Remember also that your spiritual guides will not abandon you down while you walk the right path.
As a matter of fact, all this war will only have a period and will turn against those who thought to create arms against the doctrine. Triumph, and no longer the bloody holocaust, will irradiate the Spiritist Golgotha.
So long my dear children. Greetings to all!”
Erastus, disciple of the apostle St. Paul
One of the maneuvers predicted above has just come true from what we heard. A letter tells us that a young lady had attended a meeting only once left her home and moved in to the house of a strange person from where she was taken to a home of the mentally ill, as if taken by the Spiritist madness; her relatives were only informed afterwards, when everthing had already happened. Twenty days later the family was granted authorization to see her when she was then criticized for having left them. She then confessed that she was promised money to pretend madness. Even at that time the attempts to convince her to leave and come home were useless.
If that is how Spiritist mad people are recruited the means is more dangerous to those that employ it than to Spiritism. When someone reaches out to such a gimmick to defend their own causes, it is the most positive proof that they are out of good arguments.
We then tell the Spiritists: When you see similar things rejoice instead of becoming sad for they are signs of a near triumph. In fact, there is something else that must encourage you: our ranks grow not only in number but also in moral strength and you have already seen more than one renowned person to come out and resolutely defend Spiritism and with grab the glove thrown by our adversaries with a strong hand.
Texts of irresistible logic daily show them that the Spiritists are not mad. Our readers know the excellent refutation to the sermons of Rev. Letiece by a Spiritist of Metz. Now we have the not less interesting one given by the Spiritists of Villenave de Rions (Gironde), about the sermons of Father Nicomède. The Verité of Lyon is known for its profound articles. The November 22ndnumber in particular deserves special attention. The Ruche de Bordeaux enlightens with new supporters as capable as dedicated. Finally, if there are many aggressors there aren’t fewer defenders. Hence, Spiritists, have courage, confidence and perseverance because it is alright and according to what had been predicted.
The communication below develops one of the phases of the serious issue that we have just discussed and cannot but forearm the Spiritists about the difficulties that will accumulate in this period.
Family gathering, February 25th, 1863
Medium Mr. d’Ambel
There is currently a reoccurrence of obsession, the result of the struggle that the new ideas must inevitably face against incarnate and discarnate adversaries. Obsession, skillfully exploited by the enemies of Spiritism, is one of the most dangerous tests to be faced by the doctrine before it is established in a more stable way in the heart of the masses hence it must be fought by all possible means, and in particular by the judiciousness and energy of your earthly spiritual guides.
Mediums show up from all sides with a supposed mission, called up, as they say, to carry the flag of Spiritism and plant it in the ruins of the old world, as if we had come to destroy but we are here to build.
There isn’t a single person, however mediocre they might be, that had not yet a Spirit telling them, like Macbeth: ‘You will also be king’, and that does not consider themselves destined to a very special apostolic mission.
There aren’t many private and even familiar meetings in which there hasn’t been at least one soul that thinks a lot of herself, believing to be indispensable to the success of the cause; too pretentious to just accept the task of a normal worker that brings their stone to the building. Ah my friends! That is too much dedication for very little result! Almost every new medium is submitted to that temptation in the beginning. Some resist to that but many fail at least for some time until the time when after successive falls they come to be dissuaded.
Why does God allow such a difficult test if not to demonstrate that good and progress can never establish in your hearts without work and without the combat; if not to make the triumph of truth shinier by the difficulties of the struggle? What is it that certain Spirits want through the exaltation of pride and self-love but to hinder progress? They will unsuspectedly be the instruments of trials to give evidence to the good and the bad servants of God. A Spirit reveals the secret of transmutation of metals to one, like that medium in R…; another one reveals events that will supposedly take place like to Mr…, establishing the period, dates and the persons that will be involved in the drama; a mystifying Spirit teaches the secrets of diamond formation; to others they indicate hidden treasures, easy fortune, wonderful discoveries, glory and honor, etc. In one word, people’s ambitions and greed are skillfully exploited by mean Spirits. That is why you see those unfortunate obsessed persons everywhere, preparing to take their place in the Capitol, with such a serious and arrogant face that saddens any impartial observer.
What is the result of all of those fallacious promises? Deception, annoyance, ridicule and sometimes bankruptcy, fair punishment to the lazy pride that believes to have been chosen to do everything better than anyone, neglecting advices and forgetting the true principles of Spiritism.
Modesty is the hallmark of the mediums chosen by the good Spirits as much as pride, self-love and say mediocrity are the characters of those inspired by inferior Spirits. The former neglect communications that keep them away from the truth as much as the latter sustain the superiority of what they receive against everybody else even if that is an absurd.
It results that and according to the words given at the Parisian Society by its spiritual President, St. Louis, a true Tower of Babel is about to be erected among you. In fact, one does need to be blind or deluded in order to not acknowledge the crusade that has been launched against Spiritism by the natural adversaries of any progressive and freeing doctrine, added by the spiritual crusade directed by all of those pseudo wise Spirits, false great men, false religious and false brothers in erraticism, entering in a common cause with the earthly enemies, amidst the multitude of mediums that they have fanaticized and to whom they dictate so many false statements.
But look at what is left out of all that foundation established by ambition, self-love and envy. How many haven’t you seen falling and how many will you still see! I tell you this that every edifice that is not founded on the truth, the only solid foundation, will fall because only the truth can challenge the times and triumph over utopias.
Sincere Spiritists, have no fear for the momentary chaos. Time is not far when truth, yanked from the veils that some intend to cover it, will come out shinier than ever and its clarity will illuminate the whole world, sending its detractors back to the shadows, those who had their moment of evidence for their own confusion.
Therefore, my friends, you must defend yourselves not only against the attacks and slander of your living adversaries, but also from the dangerous maneuvers of your adversaries in the spiritual world. Strengthen yourselves through healthy studies and in particular by the practice of love and charity and recharge yourself in your prayers. God always illuminates those that dedicate themselves to the promotion of truth when acting in good faith and without any personal ambition.
Besides, Spiritists, what does it matter to you, mediums that in the end are just instruments? What you must take into account is the actual value and reach of the teachings that you receive; it is the moral purity that you are taught; it is the clarity and accuracy of the truths that are revealed to you; it is, finally, the instructions that correspond to the legitimate aspirations of elevated souls and are in agreement with the general and immutable laws of logic and universal harmony.
Inferior Spirits that take the place of apostles before their obsessed, as you know, have no scruples in taking the most venerable names; hence it would be outrageous that I, one of the last disciples of the Spirit of Truth, would be sorry for having had my modest name used by them; I then repeat what I incessantly said to my medium two years ago: Never assess a mediumistic communication by the name that signs it but only by its intrinsic content. It is urgent that you be forearmed against every publication of suspicious origin that appear now and will appear in the future, against all of those that would not have a clear and honest attitude, and rest assured that many will be produced in the fields of the enemy, in the visible as well as in the invisible world, with the objective of spreading disagreement among you.
It is up to you to be caught in that since you have all the elements need to assess them. Be you must also know that every Spirit that announces oneself as a superior Spirit and in particular with an infallibility second to none, that Spirit is, on the contrary, the opposite to everything that he announces so pretentiously.
Since the time when the kind Spirit Francois-Nicolas Madeleine alleviated part of my spiritual burden I was able to evaluate the whole Spiritist work and do the moral statistics of the workers that help in the vine of the Lord. Ah! If so many imperfect Spirits sneak in the mission that we carry I am even more sorry to attest that among our best supporters on Earth many have fallen before the weight of their tasks and gradually returned to the paths of their old weaknesses, so much so that the great ethereal souls that advised them were, since then, replaced by less pure and less perfect Spirits.
Ah! I know that virtue is difficult but we don’t ask for and we don’t want the impossible. Good will is enough to us when followed by the desire to do the best.
My friends, relaxation is pernicious in everything because much will be demanded to those that after having elevated themselves by the renunciation of their own individuality have fallen back to the cult of matter, and even allowed themselves to be driven by selfishness and self-love. Yet we pray for them and condemn nobody because we all must remember the magnificent teaching of Christ: ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’
Your followers count to the millions today. The false masks of the brothers that was recently mentioned by your momentary President fall all over. I am not recommending that your ranks may only accept the spotless and white sheep; no because the sinners are the ones that more than anybody else have the right to find refuge against their own imperfections. I advise you to be suspicious of the others, the dangerous hypocrite to whom we are tempted to place our trust in principle and at first sight. They show strict behavior and a serious and dignifying behavior to the eyes of the crowds that says: ‘These are respectable people!’ Nonetheless, perfidy and immorality sometimes hide under that appearance.
They are accessible, helpful, full of amenities; they sneak into places; voluntarily invade privacy; listen behind doors and pretend to be deaf to be able to hear even better; the present disagreements and excite and feed them; they move between opposing fields and ask about each one. What is it that this one is doing? What is the bread winning activity of the other one? Who is this person? Do you know the family? Then you see them quietly moving in the shadows and spreading little maleficence that they were able to collect, carefully poisoning them with lively slander. ‘These are rumors in which we don’t believe’, they say, bud then add: ‘Where there is smoke there is fire’, etc.
You must add the hypocrite of the spiritual world to these hypocrites of incarnation and then, my dear friends, you can see how much I am right in advising you to act, from now on, with extreme reservation and to watch out for any and every reflected enthusiasm and imprudent action.
I said you live in a time of crisis, even more difficult given malevolence, but from which you shall come out stronger, with firmness and perseverance.
The number of mediums today is incalculable and it is sad to see that some consider themselves the only ones called upon to spread the truth to the world and rejoice before banalities that they consider real monuments, poor deluded people that lower their heads under the arches of triumph, as if the truth had waited for their arrival before being announced.
Neither the strong, nor the weak, neither the educated nor the ignorant had that exclusive privilege, because it was through the intermediary of a thousand unknown voices that the truth had spread and it is exactly because of that unanimity that it was duly acknowledged.
You must count those voices; count those that listen; count in particular those whose hearts are touched by them if you want to know in which side the truth is.
Ah! If all mediums had faith! I would be the first to bow before them. But most of the time they don’t have but only the faith in themselves, such is the size of pride on Earth! No, their faith is not the one that moves mountains and that make someone walk on the water! It is the case to repeat here the maxim from the Gospel that has served as my theme since the first day I made myself heard among you: ‘For many are invited but few are chosen.’
In short, there are publications on the right, on the left, on all sides, pros and cons in all senses and in all forms; exaggerated criticism from people that know nothing about it; heated sermons from people that are afraid; to summarize I say that Spiritism is in the order of the day. I shake every brain and agitates every conscience, an exclusive privilege of great things. Everyone presents that it carries the principle of renovation that some vow to support and others fear.
But what is going to be left after all this? What shall come out of this Babel tower? A huge thing: the vulgarization of the Spiritist idea and the true doctrine!
The conflict is unavoidable because mankind is stained by a lot of pride and selfishness to accept any new truth without opposition. I even say that the conflict is necessary because it is the friction that dismount false ideas pointing out to the strength of those that resist.
Amidst this avalanche of mediocrity, impossibilities and surreal utopias the splendid truth shall spread in its greatness and magnificence.
Erastus
Medium Mr. d’Ambel
There is currently a reoccurrence of obsession, the result of the struggle that the new ideas must inevitably face against incarnate and discarnate adversaries. Obsession, skillfully exploited by the enemies of Spiritism, is one of the most dangerous tests to be faced by the doctrine before it is established in a more stable way in the heart of the masses hence it must be fought by all possible means, and in particular by the judiciousness and energy of your earthly spiritual guides.
Mediums show up from all sides with a supposed mission, called up, as they say, to carry the flag of Spiritism and plant it in the ruins of the old world, as if we had come to destroy but we are here to build.
There isn’t a single person, however mediocre they might be, that had not yet a Spirit telling them, like Macbeth: ‘You will also be king’, and that does not consider themselves destined to a very special apostolic mission.
There aren’t many private and even familiar meetings in which there hasn’t been at least one soul that thinks a lot of herself, believing to be indispensable to the success of the cause; too pretentious to just accept the task of a normal worker that brings their stone to the building. Ah my friends! That is too much dedication for very little result! Almost every new medium is submitted to that temptation in the beginning. Some resist to that but many fail at least for some time until the time when after successive falls they come to be dissuaded.
Why does God allow such a difficult test if not to demonstrate that good and progress can never establish in your hearts without work and without the combat; if not to make the triumph of truth shinier by the difficulties of the struggle? What is it that certain Spirits want through the exaltation of pride and self-love but to hinder progress? They will unsuspectedly be the instruments of trials to give evidence to the good and the bad servants of God. A Spirit reveals the secret of transmutation of metals to one, like that medium in R…; another one reveals events that will supposedly take place like to Mr…, establishing the period, dates and the persons that will be involved in the drama; a mystifying Spirit teaches the secrets of diamond formation; to others they indicate hidden treasures, easy fortune, wonderful discoveries, glory and honor, etc. In one word, people’s ambitions and greed are skillfully exploited by mean Spirits. That is why you see those unfortunate obsessed persons everywhere, preparing to take their place in the Capitol, with such a serious and arrogant face that saddens any impartial observer.
What is the result of all of those fallacious promises? Deception, annoyance, ridicule and sometimes bankruptcy, fair punishment to the lazy pride that believes to have been chosen to do everything better than anyone, neglecting advices and forgetting the true principles of Spiritism.
Modesty is the hallmark of the mediums chosen by the good Spirits as much as pride, self-love and say mediocrity are the characters of those inspired by inferior Spirits. The former neglect communications that keep them away from the truth as much as the latter sustain the superiority of what they receive against everybody else even if that is an absurd.
It results that and according to the words given at the Parisian Society by its spiritual President, St. Louis, a true Tower of Babel is about to be erected among you. In fact, one does need to be blind or deluded in order to not acknowledge the crusade that has been launched against Spiritism by the natural adversaries of any progressive and freeing doctrine, added by the spiritual crusade directed by all of those pseudo wise Spirits, false great men, false religious and false brothers in erraticism, entering in a common cause with the earthly enemies, amidst the multitude of mediums that they have fanaticized and to whom they dictate so many false statements.
But look at what is left out of all that foundation established by ambition, self-love and envy. How many haven’t you seen falling and how many will you still see! I tell you this that every edifice that is not founded on the truth, the only solid foundation, will fall because only the truth can challenge the times and triumph over utopias.
Sincere Spiritists, have no fear for the momentary chaos. Time is not far when truth, yanked from the veils that some intend to cover it, will come out shinier than ever and its clarity will illuminate the whole world, sending its detractors back to the shadows, those who had their moment of evidence for their own confusion.
Therefore, my friends, you must defend yourselves not only against the attacks and slander of your living adversaries, but also from the dangerous maneuvers of your adversaries in the spiritual world. Strengthen yourselves through healthy studies and in particular by the practice of love and charity and recharge yourself in your prayers. God always illuminates those that dedicate themselves to the promotion of truth when acting in good faith and without any personal ambition.
Besides, Spiritists, what does it matter to you, mediums that in the end are just instruments? What you must take into account is the actual value and reach of the teachings that you receive; it is the moral purity that you are taught; it is the clarity and accuracy of the truths that are revealed to you; it is, finally, the instructions that correspond to the legitimate aspirations of elevated souls and are in agreement with the general and immutable laws of logic and universal harmony.
Inferior Spirits that take the place of apostles before their obsessed, as you know, have no scruples in taking the most venerable names; hence it would be outrageous that I, one of the last disciples of the Spirit of Truth, would be sorry for having had my modest name used by them; I then repeat what I incessantly said to my medium two years ago: Never assess a mediumistic communication by the name that signs it but only by its intrinsic content. It is urgent that you be forearmed against every publication of suspicious origin that appear now and will appear in the future, against all of those that would not have a clear and honest attitude, and rest assured that many will be produced in the fields of the enemy, in the visible as well as in the invisible world, with the objective of spreading disagreement among you.
It is up to you to be caught in that since you have all the elements need to assess them. Be you must also know that every Spirit that announces oneself as a superior Spirit and in particular with an infallibility second to none, that Spirit is, on the contrary, the opposite to everything that he announces so pretentiously.
Since the time when the kind Spirit Francois-Nicolas Madeleine alleviated part of my spiritual burden I was able to evaluate the whole Spiritist work and do the moral statistics of the workers that help in the vine of the Lord. Ah! If so many imperfect Spirits sneak in the mission that we carry I am even more sorry to attest that among our best supporters on Earth many have fallen before the weight of their tasks and gradually returned to the paths of their old weaknesses, so much so that the great ethereal souls that advised them were, since then, replaced by less pure and less perfect Spirits.
Ah! I know that virtue is difficult but we don’t ask for and we don’t want the impossible. Good will is enough to us when followed by the desire to do the best.
My friends, relaxation is pernicious in everything because much will be demanded to those that after having elevated themselves by the renunciation of their own individuality have fallen back to the cult of matter, and even allowed themselves to be driven by selfishness and self-love. Yet we pray for them and condemn nobody because we all must remember the magnificent teaching of Christ: ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’
Your followers count to the millions today. The false masks of the brothers that was recently mentioned by your momentary President fall all over. I am not recommending that your ranks may only accept the spotless and white sheep; no because the sinners are the ones that more than anybody else have the right to find refuge against their own imperfections. I advise you to be suspicious of the others, the dangerous hypocrite to whom we are tempted to place our trust in principle and at first sight. They show strict behavior and a serious and dignifying behavior to the eyes of the crowds that says: ‘These are respectable people!’ Nonetheless, perfidy and immorality sometimes hide under that appearance.
They are accessible, helpful, full of amenities; they sneak into places; voluntarily invade privacy; listen behind doors and pretend to be deaf to be able to hear even better; the present disagreements and excite and feed them; they move between opposing fields and ask about each one. What is it that this one is doing? What is the bread winning activity of the other one? Who is this person? Do you know the family? Then you see them quietly moving in the shadows and spreading little maleficence that they were able to collect, carefully poisoning them with lively slander. ‘These are rumors in which we don’t believe’, they say, bud then add: ‘Where there is smoke there is fire’, etc.
You must add the hypocrite of the spiritual world to these hypocrites of incarnation and then, my dear friends, you can see how much I am right in advising you to act, from now on, with extreme reservation and to watch out for any and every reflected enthusiasm and imprudent action.
I said you live in a time of crisis, even more difficult given malevolence, but from which you shall come out stronger, with firmness and perseverance.
The number of mediums today is incalculable and it is sad to see that some consider themselves the only ones called upon to spread the truth to the world and rejoice before banalities that they consider real monuments, poor deluded people that lower their heads under the arches of triumph, as if the truth had waited for their arrival before being announced.
Neither the strong, nor the weak, neither the educated nor the ignorant had that exclusive privilege, because it was through the intermediary of a thousand unknown voices that the truth had spread and it is exactly because of that unanimity that it was duly acknowledged.
You must count those voices; count those that listen; count in particular those whose hearts are touched by them if you want to know in which side the truth is.
Ah! If all mediums had faith! I would be the first to bow before them. But most of the time they don’t have but only the faith in themselves, such is the size of pride on Earth! No, their faith is not the one that moves mountains and that make someone walk on the water! It is the case to repeat here the maxim from the Gospel that has served as my theme since the first day I made myself heard among you: ‘For many are invited but few are chosen.’
In short, there are publications on the right, on the left, on all sides, pros and cons in all senses and in all forms; exaggerated criticism from people that know nothing about it; heated sermons from people that are afraid; to summarize I say that Spiritism is in the order of the day. I shake every brain and agitates every conscience, an exclusive privilege of great things. Everyone presents that it carries the principle of renovation that some vow to support and others fear.
But what is going to be left after all this? What shall come out of this Babel tower? A huge thing: the vulgarization of the Spiritist idea and the true doctrine!
The conflict is unavoidable because mankind is stained by a lot of pride and selfishness to accept any new truth without opposition. I even say that the conflict is necessary because it is the friction that dismount false ideas pointing out to the strength of those that resist.
Amidst this avalanche of mediocrity, impossibilities and surreal utopias the splendid truth shall spread in its greatness and magnificence.
Erastus
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, November 20th, 1863
Medium Mrs. Costel
“Duty is a moral obligation, first before oneself and then before the others. It is the law of life and it is found in the tiniest details as much as in the most elevated acts. I will only speak of the moral duty and not of those imposed by profession. In the order of feelings, duty is very difficult to realize because it is in opposition to the seductions of instinct and heart. Its victories bear no witnesses and its defeats have no repression.
The intimate duty of a person is given to one’s free-will. The goad of conscience, that guardian of inner probity, warns and sustain it but it is frequently powerless before the sophisms of passion. The accomplished duty of heart elevates mankind but how can one measure that? Where does it start? Where does it end? It begins exactly where you threaten the happiness and the rest of your neighbor and ends at the border that you would not like to see transposed against yourself.
God created everyone equal for the pain. Great or small, ignorant or enlightened, all suffer for the same causes so that each one can judiciously assess the harm that can be caused. The same criteria do not exist for the good, infinitely more varied in its expressions.
The equality before pain is a sublime providence of God that wishes his creatures, instructed by the experience, do not do harm to one another by alleging ignorance. Duty is a practical summary of all moral speculations; it is the bravery of the soul that faces the anguishes of the combat; it is austere and simple, ready to yield to the many complications and inflexible before temptations. Anyone that does their duty loves God more than the creatures and the creatures more than oneself. That person is at the same time judge and slave in the same cause.
Duty is the most beautiful laurel of reason. It stems from that like the son from the mother. A person must love duty not because it prevents the miseries of life from which humanity cannot escape but because it gives the necessary strength for the development of the soul. No one can send away the chalice of atonement.
Duty is painful in its sacrifices and evil is bitter in its results but those pains, almost equal, have completely different results: one is healthy like the drugs that recover health, the other is harmful like the parties that ruin the body. Every superior stage of humanity has a greater and more radiant duty. There is never an end to the moral obligation of the creature to God. It must reflect the virtues of the Eternal that does not accept an imperfect sketch but he wishes the shine of greatness of his work resplendent before his eyes.
Lazarus
Medium Mrs. Costel
“Duty is a moral obligation, first before oneself and then before the others. It is the law of life and it is found in the tiniest details as much as in the most elevated acts. I will only speak of the moral duty and not of those imposed by profession. In the order of feelings, duty is very difficult to realize because it is in opposition to the seductions of instinct and heart. Its victories bear no witnesses and its defeats have no repression.
The intimate duty of a person is given to one’s free-will. The goad of conscience, that guardian of inner probity, warns and sustain it but it is frequently powerless before the sophisms of passion. The accomplished duty of heart elevates mankind but how can one measure that? Where does it start? Where does it end? It begins exactly where you threaten the happiness and the rest of your neighbor and ends at the border that you would not like to see transposed against yourself.
God created everyone equal for the pain. Great or small, ignorant or enlightened, all suffer for the same causes so that each one can judiciously assess the harm that can be caused. The same criteria do not exist for the good, infinitely more varied in its expressions.
The equality before pain is a sublime providence of God that wishes his creatures, instructed by the experience, do not do harm to one another by alleging ignorance. Duty is a practical summary of all moral speculations; it is the bravery of the soul that faces the anguishes of the combat; it is austere and simple, ready to yield to the many complications and inflexible before temptations. Anyone that does their duty loves God more than the creatures and the creatures more than oneself. That person is at the same time judge and slave in the same cause.
Duty is the most beautiful laurel of reason. It stems from that like the son from the mother. A person must love duty not because it prevents the miseries of life from which humanity cannot escape but because it gives the necessary strength for the development of the soul. No one can send away the chalice of atonement.
Duty is painful in its sacrifices and evil is bitter in its results but those pains, almost equal, have completely different results: one is healthy like the drugs that recover health, the other is harmful like the parties that ruin the body. Every superior stage of humanity has a greater and more radiant duty. There is never an end to the moral obligation of the creature to God. It must reflect the virtues of the Eternal that does not accept an imperfect sketch but he wishes the shine of greatness of his work resplendent before his eyes.
Lazarus
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, July 4th, 1862
Medium A. Didier
“Animal sacrifice was severely condemned by the philosophers of antiquity. An elevated Spirit rejects the idea of blood and particularly the idea that blood pleases God. Notice that we don’t talk about human sacrifice but to the sacrifice of animals offered in holocaust.
When Jesus came to announce the Good News, he did not order the sacrifice of blood because he was only concerned with the Spirit. The great wise men of antiquity also were horrified with this kind of sacrifice and they only ate fruits and roots.
Those incarnate on Earth have a mission to accomplish. Their Spirit must be fed by the Spirit and the body must be fed by matter but the nature of the matter influences – easily understood – the density of the body and consequently the manifestations of the Spirit.
Those that have a temperament strong enough to live like the anchorite do good by avoiding meat because they can then be more easily led to meditation and prayer. However, in order to live like that one would need a more spiritual nature than yours and that is impossible given the terrestrial condition and, most importantly, nature never acts against common sense and hence it is impossible to mankind to go unpunished by submitting to such deprivation.
It is possible to be a good Christian and a good Spiritist and eat as one wishes within reason. It is a kind of side question to our studies but not less useful and benficial.
Lamennais
Medium A. Didier
“Animal sacrifice was severely condemned by the philosophers of antiquity. An elevated Spirit rejects the idea of blood and particularly the idea that blood pleases God. Notice that we don’t talk about human sacrifice but to the sacrifice of animals offered in holocaust.
When Jesus came to announce the Good News, he did not order the sacrifice of blood because he was only concerned with the Spirit. The great wise men of antiquity also were horrified with this kind of sacrifice and they only ate fruits and roots.
Those incarnate on Earth have a mission to accomplish. Their Spirit must be fed by the Spirit and the body must be fed by matter but the nature of the matter influences – easily understood – the density of the body and consequently the manifestations of the Spirit.
Those that have a temperament strong enough to live like the anchorite do good by avoiding meat because they can then be more easily led to meditation and prayer. However, in order to live like that one would need a more spiritual nature than yours and that is impossible given the terrestrial condition and, most importantly, nature never acts against common sense and hence it is impossible to mankind to go unpunished by submitting to such deprivation.
It is possible to be a good Christian and a good Spiritist and eat as one wishes within reason. It is a kind of side question to our studies but not less useful and benficial.
Lamennais