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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1868 > February > Instructions of the Spirits
Instructions of the Spirits
The Messiahs of Spiritism
1. - You have been told that one day all religions will merge into the same belief; well, this is how it will happen. God will give a body to a few superior Spirits, and they will preach the pure gospel. A new Christ will come; he will put an end to all the abuses that have been going on for so long, and he will unite men under one flag.
He's born, the new Messiah, and he'll restore the gospel of Jesus Christ. Glory to his power!
It is not allowed to reveal the place where he was born; and if someone comes to tell you, "He is in such and such a place," do not believe it, for no one will know until he is able to reveal himself, and by then great things must happen to smooth out the ways.
If God lets you live long enough, you will see the true gospel of Jesus Christ preached by the new Missionary of God, and a great change will be made by the preaching of this blessed Child; at his powerful word, men of different faiths will join hands.
Glory to this divine envoy, who will reestablish the misunderstood and badly practiced laws of Christ! Glory to the Spiritism that precedes him and that comes to shed light on all these things!
Believe, my brothers, that it is not only you who will receive such communications; but keep this secret until further notice.
Saint Joseph, Sétif, Algeria, 1861.
Observation: This revelation is one of the first of its kind that has been transmitted to us; but others had already preceded it. Since then, a large number of communications on the same subject have been given spontaneously in different Spiritist centers, in France and abroad, all of which agree on the basis of the thought; and as the need not to divulge them was understood everywhere, and since none has been published, they could not be the reflection of each other. This is one of the most remarkable examples of the simultaneity and concordance of the teaching of the Spirits, when the time for a revelation has come.[1]
2. - It is incontestably admitted that your time is a time of transition and general fermentation; but it has not yet reached that degree of maturity that marks the life of nations. It is to the twentieth century that the reorganization of humanity is reserved; all the things that are going to be accomplished by then are only the preliminaries of the great renovation. The man called to achieve it is not yet ripe to accomplish his mission; but he has already been born, and his star appeared in France marked with a halo, and was shown to you in Africa, not long ago. His route is marked in advance; the corruption of morals, the misfortunes that will be the result of the unleashing of passions, the decline of religious faith, will be the precursor signs of his advent.
Corruption within religions is the symptom of their decadence, as it is that of decadence of peoples and political regimes, because it is an indication of lack of true faith; corrupt men drag humanity down a fatal slope, from which it can only escape through a violent crisis. It is the same with religions that substitute worship of the Divinity with the worship of money and honors, and that show themselves greedier for the material goods of Earth than the spiritual goods of heaven. (Fénelon, Constantine, December 1861.)
3. - When a transformation of humanity must take place, God sends on a mission a Spirit capable, by his thoughts and by a superior intelligence, of dominating his contemporaries, and of imparting to future generations the ideas necessary for a civilizing moral revolution.
From time to time, we thus see beings rising above the common man, like beacons, guiding them in the path of progress, and making them cross the stages of several centuries in a few years. The role of a few is limited to a country or a race; they are like subordinate officers, each leading a division of the army; but there are others whose mission is to act on the whole of humanity, and which only appear in the rarer periods which mark the era of general transformations.
The role of some is limited to a country or a race; they are like subordinate officers, each leading a division of the army; but there are others whose mission is to act on the entire humanity, and that only appear in the rarer periods that mark the era of general transformations.
Jesus Christ was one of these exceptional envoys; in the same way you will have, when the time is come, a superior Spirit that will direct the whole movement, and will give a powerful cohesion to the scattered forces of Spiritism. God knows how to modify our laws and our habits, and when a new fact presents itself, hope and pray, for the Lord does nothing that is not according to the laws of divine justice that govern the universe. For you who have faith, and who have devoted your life to the propaganda of the regenerative idea, it must be simple and just; but God alone knows the one that is promised; I limit myself to saying to you: Hope and pray, for the time has come, and the new Messiah will not fail you: God will know how to designate him in time; and moreover, it is through his works that he will assert himself. You can expect many things, you who see so many strange things compared to the ideas accepted by modern civilization.
Baluze, Paris, 1862.
4. - Here is a question that is repeated everywhere: is the announced Messiah the very person of Christ? There are many Spirits with God who have reached the top of the ladder of pure Spirits, who have deserved to be initiated into his designs, to direct their execution. God chooses among them his superior envoys assigned to special missions. You can call them Christs: it's the same school; they are the same ideas modified according to the times.
Therefore do not be surprised with all the communications that announce to you the coming of a mighty Spirit under the name of Christ; it is the thought of God revealed at a certain time, and that is transmitted by the group of superior Spirits that are close to God, who receive from him the emanations to preside over the future of the worlds gravitating in space.
He who died on the cross had a mission to fulfill, and this mission is renewed today by other Spirits of this divine group, who come, I repeat to you, to preside over the destinies of your world.
If the Messiah of whom these communications speak is not the personality of Jesus, it is the same thought. It is the one that Jesus announced when he said: "I will send you the Spirit of Truth who must restore all things,” that is to say, bring men back to the sound interpretation of his teachings, for he foresaw that men would deviate from the path he had marked out for them.
It was necessary, moreover, to complete what he had not been able to tell them then, because it would not have been understood. This is why a multitude of Spirits of all kinds, under the direction of the Spirit of Truth, came to all parts of the world and to all peoples, to reveal the laws of the spiritual world of which Jesus had postponed the teaching, and to lay, by Spiritism, the foundations of the new social order. When all the foundations have been laid, then the Messiah will come who must crown the edifice and preside over the reorganization with the help of the elements that will have been prepared.
But don't think that this Messiah is alone; there will be several who will embrace, by the position that each will occupy in the world, the great parts of the social order: politics, religion, legislation, in order to bring them together towards the same goal.
Besides the principal Messiahs, superior Spirits will arise in all parts, and like lieutenants of the same faith and the same desire, will act in common accord under the impulse of the higher thought.
That is how the harmony of the whole will gradually be established; but certain events must take place first.
Lacordaire, Paris, 1862.
[1] Communications of this kind are innumerable; we only report a few here, and if we are publishing them today, it is because the time has come to bring the fact to the knowledge of all, and that it is useful, for the spiritualists, to know in which direction the majority of Spirits stand.
1. - You have been told that one day all religions will merge into the same belief; well, this is how it will happen. God will give a body to a few superior Spirits, and they will preach the pure gospel. A new Christ will come; he will put an end to all the abuses that have been going on for so long, and he will unite men under one flag.
He's born, the new Messiah, and he'll restore the gospel of Jesus Christ. Glory to his power!
It is not allowed to reveal the place where he was born; and if someone comes to tell you, "He is in such and such a place," do not believe it, for no one will know until he is able to reveal himself, and by then great things must happen to smooth out the ways.
If God lets you live long enough, you will see the true gospel of Jesus Christ preached by the new Missionary of God, and a great change will be made by the preaching of this blessed Child; at his powerful word, men of different faiths will join hands.
Glory to this divine envoy, who will reestablish the misunderstood and badly practiced laws of Christ! Glory to the Spiritism that precedes him and that comes to shed light on all these things!
Believe, my brothers, that it is not only you who will receive such communications; but keep this secret until further notice.
Saint Joseph, Sétif, Algeria, 1861.
Observation: This revelation is one of the first of its kind that has been transmitted to us; but others had already preceded it. Since then, a large number of communications on the same subject have been given spontaneously in different Spiritist centers, in France and abroad, all of which agree on the basis of the thought; and as the need not to divulge them was understood everywhere, and since none has been published, they could not be the reflection of each other. This is one of the most remarkable examples of the simultaneity and concordance of the teaching of the Spirits, when the time for a revelation has come.[1]
2. - It is incontestably admitted that your time is a time of transition and general fermentation; but it has not yet reached that degree of maturity that marks the life of nations. It is to the twentieth century that the reorganization of humanity is reserved; all the things that are going to be accomplished by then are only the preliminaries of the great renovation. The man called to achieve it is not yet ripe to accomplish his mission; but he has already been born, and his star appeared in France marked with a halo, and was shown to you in Africa, not long ago. His route is marked in advance; the corruption of morals, the misfortunes that will be the result of the unleashing of passions, the decline of religious faith, will be the precursor signs of his advent.
Corruption within religions is the symptom of their decadence, as it is that of decadence of peoples and political regimes, because it is an indication of lack of true faith; corrupt men drag humanity down a fatal slope, from which it can only escape through a violent crisis. It is the same with religions that substitute worship of the Divinity with the worship of money and honors, and that show themselves greedier for the material goods of Earth than the spiritual goods of heaven. (Fénelon, Constantine, December 1861.)
3. - When a transformation of humanity must take place, God sends on a mission a Spirit capable, by his thoughts and by a superior intelligence, of dominating his contemporaries, and of imparting to future generations the ideas necessary for a civilizing moral revolution.
From time to time, we thus see beings rising above the common man, like beacons, guiding them in the path of progress, and making them cross the stages of several centuries in a few years. The role of a few is limited to a country or a race; they are like subordinate officers, each leading a division of the army; but there are others whose mission is to act on the whole of humanity, and which only appear in the rarer periods which mark the era of general transformations.
The role of some is limited to a country or a race; they are like subordinate officers, each leading a division of the army; but there are others whose mission is to act on the entire humanity, and that only appear in the rarer periods that mark the era of general transformations.
Jesus Christ was one of these exceptional envoys; in the same way you will have, when the time is come, a superior Spirit that will direct the whole movement, and will give a powerful cohesion to the scattered forces of Spiritism. God knows how to modify our laws and our habits, and when a new fact presents itself, hope and pray, for the Lord does nothing that is not according to the laws of divine justice that govern the universe. For you who have faith, and who have devoted your life to the propaganda of the regenerative idea, it must be simple and just; but God alone knows the one that is promised; I limit myself to saying to you: Hope and pray, for the time has come, and the new Messiah will not fail you: God will know how to designate him in time; and moreover, it is through his works that he will assert himself. You can expect many things, you who see so many strange things compared to the ideas accepted by modern civilization.
Baluze, Paris, 1862.
4. - Here is a question that is repeated everywhere: is the announced Messiah the very person of Christ? There are many Spirits with God who have reached the top of the ladder of pure Spirits, who have deserved to be initiated into his designs, to direct their execution. God chooses among them his superior envoys assigned to special missions. You can call them Christs: it's the same school; they are the same ideas modified according to the times.
Therefore do not be surprised with all the communications that announce to you the coming of a mighty Spirit under the name of Christ; it is the thought of God revealed at a certain time, and that is transmitted by the group of superior Spirits that are close to God, who receive from him the emanations to preside over the future of the worlds gravitating in space.
He who died on the cross had a mission to fulfill, and this mission is renewed today by other Spirits of this divine group, who come, I repeat to you, to preside over the destinies of your world.
If the Messiah of whom these communications speak is not the personality of Jesus, it is the same thought. It is the one that Jesus announced when he said: "I will send you the Spirit of Truth who must restore all things,” that is to say, bring men back to the sound interpretation of his teachings, for he foresaw that men would deviate from the path he had marked out for them.
It was necessary, moreover, to complete what he had not been able to tell them then, because it would not have been understood. This is why a multitude of Spirits of all kinds, under the direction of the Spirit of Truth, came to all parts of the world and to all peoples, to reveal the laws of the spiritual world of which Jesus had postponed the teaching, and to lay, by Spiritism, the foundations of the new social order. When all the foundations have been laid, then the Messiah will come who must crown the edifice and preside over the reorganization with the help of the elements that will have been prepared.
But don't think that this Messiah is alone; there will be several who will embrace, by the position that each will occupy in the world, the great parts of the social order: politics, religion, legislation, in order to bring them together towards the same goal.
Besides the principal Messiahs, superior Spirits will arise in all parts, and like lieutenants of the same faith and the same desire, will act in common accord under the impulse of the higher thought.
That is how the harmony of the whole will gradually be established; but certain events must take place first.
Lacordaire, Paris, 1862.
[1] Communications of this kind are innumerable; we only report a few here, and if we are publishing them today, it is because the time has come to bring the fact to the knowledge of all, and that it is useful, for the spiritualists, to know in which direction the majority of Spirits stand.
Marked Spirits
5. - There are many superior Spirits who will contribute mightily to the reorganizing work, but not all are Messiahs. They must be distinguished as:
1st – Superior Spirits that act freely and out of their own will;
2nd – Marked Spirits, that is, designated for an important mission. They have a luminous radiance that is the characteristic sign of their superiority. They are chosen from among the Spirits capable of fulfilling it; however, since they have their free will, they can fail for lack of courage, perseverance or faith, and they are not immune to accidents that can shorten their days. But as the designs of God are not at the mercy of one man, what one does not do, another is called to do. That is why there are many called, and few chosen. Blessed is he who accomplishes his mission according to the views of God and without failing!
3rd – The Messiahs, superior beings who have reached the highest degree of the celestial hierarchy, after having reached a perfection that henceforth makes them infallible and above human weaknesses, even in the incarnation. Admitted to the counsels of the Highest, they directly receive his word, that they responsible for transmitting and having fulfilled. True representatives of the Divinity, of which they have the mind, it is among them that God chooses his special envoys, or his Messiahs, for the great general missions, whose details of execution are entrusted to other incarnate or discarnate Spirits, acting on their orders and under their inspiration.
Spirits of these three categories must contribute to the great regenerative movement that is taking place. (Somnambulistic ecstasy, Paris, 1866.)
6. - I come, my friends, to confirm the hope of the high destinies that await Spiritism. This glorious future that we announce to you will be accomplished by the arrival of a superior Spirit who will summarize, in the essence of his perfection, all the old and new doctrines and who will, by the authority of his word, rally men to the new beliefs. Like the rising sun, he will dispel all the obscurities piled up on the eternal truth by fanaticism and non-observance of the precepts of Christ.
The star of the new belief, the future Messiah, grows in the shadows; but already his enemies are trembling, and the virtues of heavens are shaken.
You ask if this new Messiah is the very person of Jesus of Nazareth? What does it matter to you if it's the same thought that drives them both! It is imperfections that divide the Spirits; but when the perfections are equal, nothing distinguishes them; they form collective units without losing their individuality.
The beginning of all things is obscure and vulgar; what is small grows; our manifestations, greeted at first by disdain, violence or the banal indifference of idle curiosity, will spread waves of light on the blind and will regenerate them.
All great events have had their prophets, both praised and unrecognized. As Moses led the Hebrews, we will lead you to the promised land of intelligence.
Striking similarity! The same phenomena are produced, no longer in the material sense, intended to strike childish men, but in its spiritual sense. The children have become adults; as the goal raises, the examples no longer appeal to the eyes; Aaron's rod is broken, and the only transformation we make is that of your hearts being attentive to the cry of love that, from heaven, echoes on Earth.
Spiritists! Understand the seriousness of your mission; tremble of joy, for the hour is not far off when the divine envoy will rejoice the world. Hardworking Spiritists, be blessed in your efforts, and be forgiven in your mistakes. Ignorance and turmoil still steal from you a part of the truth that only the heavenly Messenger can fully reveal. (Saint Louis, Paris, 1862).
7. - The coming of Christ has brought your Earth back to feelings that have, for a moment, subjected it to the will of God; but men, blinded by their passions, could not keep in their hearts the love of neighbor, the love of the Master of heaven. The envoy of the Almighty opened to humanity the road that leads to the blessed dwelling; but humanity has retreated from the immense step that Christ had made it take; it has fallen back into the rut of selfishness, and pride has made it forget its Creator.
God allows his word to be preached once again on earth, and you will have to glorify him, for he has been good enough to call you as the first ones to believe in what will be taught later. Rejoice, for the times are near when this word will be heard. Improve yourself by taking advantage of the teachings that he allows us to give you.
May the tree of faith, that is taking such long-lasting roots at this time, bear its fruit; may these fruits ripen as the faith that animates some of you today will ripen!
Yes, my children, the people will follow in the footsteps of the new messenger announced by Christ himself, and all will come to listen to this divine word, for they will recognize in it the language of truth and the way of salvation. God, who has allowed us to enlighten you, to support your walk to this day, will still allow us to give you the instructions you need.
But you, the first favored by the belief, you also have your mission to accomplish; you will have to bring those of you who still doubt these God allowed manifestations; you will have to shine onto their eyes the benefits of what has consoled you so much; for in your days of sadness and dejection, hasn’t your belief sustained you; hasn’t that given birth to that hope in your heart without which you would be left discouraged?
This is what must be shared with those that do not believe yet, not by untimely haste, but with caution and without clashing head-on with prejudices that have long rooted in them. You don't pull up an old tree all at once, like a shoot of grass, but gradually.
Sow now what you want to harvest later; sow the grain that will come to bear fruit on the ground that you will have prepared and from which you will collect the fruits, for God will take into account what you have done for your brothers. (Lamennais, Le Havre, 1862).
Future of Spiritism
8. - After its first stages, Spiritism seasoned and freeing itself more and more from the obscurities that served it as swaddling clothes, will soon make its appearance on the great stage of the world.
Events move with such a speed that one cannot ignore the powerful intervention of the Spirits who preside over the destinies of Earth. There is something like an intimate thrill in the flanks of your globe, in childbirth; new races from the higher spheres are swirling around you, awaiting the hour of their messianic incarnation, and preparing themselves for it by studying the vast questions that are stirring the Earth today.
We see on all sides signs of decrepitude on uses and legislation that are no longer in line with modern ideas. The old beliefs that have been dormant for centuries seem to be awakening from their secular inertia and are astonished to see themselves grappling with new beliefs, emanating from the philosophers and thinkers of this as well as the past century. The degraded system of a world that was only a simulacrum collapses before the dawn of the real world, of the new world.
The law of solidarity, of the family, passed to the inhabitants of the States and then conquered the whole earth; but this law, so wise, so progressive, in a word, this divine law, was not limited to this unique result; infiltrating the hearts of great men, she taught them that, not only was it necessary for the great improvement of your world, but that it extended to all the worlds of your solar system, to extend from there to all the worlds of the immensity! This law of universal solidarity is beautiful, because this sublime maxim is in that law: all for one, one for all.
Here, my children, is the true law of Spiritism, the true conquest of a near future. So, walk on your path composedly, without worrying about the mockery of some and the crushed self-love of others. We are and will remain with you, under the aegis of the Spirit of Truth, my master and yours. (Erastus, Paris, 1863).
9. – Every day Spiritism extends the circle of its moralizing teaching. Its great voice echoed from one end to the other of Earth. The Society was moved by it, followers and adversaries came out of it. Keen followers, skillful adversaries, but whose very skill and fame served the cause they wanted to fight, calling the gaze of the masses on the new doctrine, and inviting them to know the regenerative teachings advocated by its followers, and that they derided and ridiculed.
Contemplate the work accomplished and enjoy the result! But what unspeakable effervescence will occur among the peoples, when the names of their most beloved writers will join the most obscure or less known names of those who huddle around the flag of truth!
See what the work of a few isolated groups has produced, most of them hampered by intrigue and unwillingness, and imagine the revolution that will take place when all the members of the great Spiritist family will hold hands, and will declare, with their heads up and proud hearts, the sincerity of their faith and belief in the reality of the teaching of the Spirits.
The masses love progress, they seek it, but they fear it. The unknown inspires a secret fear in the ignorant children of a society lulled by prejudices, that tries its first steps in the path of reality and moral progress. The great words of liberty, progress, love, and charity strike the people without moving them; they often prefer their present and mediocre state to a better, but unknown future.
The reason for this dread of the future lies in the ignorance of moral sentiment in many, and intelligent sentiment in others. But it is not true, as several renowned philosophers have said, that a false conception of the origin of things has caused people to err, as I have said myself - why would I blush to say it; couldn’t I have been wrong? - it is not true, I used to say, that humanity is inherently bad; no, by perfecting its intelligence, it will not give a more extensive development to its evil dualities. Get rid of these hopeless thoughts that are based on a false knowledge of the human mind.
Humanity is not bad by nature; but it is ignorant, and therefore, more apt to allow itself to be ruled by its passions. It is progressive and must progress to reach its destinies; enlighten it; show its hidden enemies in the shadows; develop its moral essence, which is innate, and only dozes off under the influence of bad instincts, and you will rekindle the spark of eternal truth, of the eternal prescience of the infinite, of the beautiful and of the good that forever resides in the heart of man, even in the most perverse one.
You the children of a new doctrine, unite your forces; may the divine breath and the help of the good Spirits sustain you, and you will do great things. You will have the glory of having laid the foundations of imperishable principles from which your descendants will reap the fruits. (Montaigne, Paris, 1865).
8. - After its first stages, Spiritism seasoned and freeing itself more and more from the obscurities that served it as swaddling clothes, will soon make its appearance on the great stage of the world.
Events move with such a speed that one cannot ignore the powerful intervention of the Spirits who preside over the destinies of Earth. There is something like an intimate thrill in the flanks of your globe, in childbirth; new races from the higher spheres are swirling around you, awaiting the hour of their messianic incarnation, and preparing themselves for it by studying the vast questions that are stirring the Earth today.
We see on all sides signs of decrepitude on uses and legislation that are no longer in line with modern ideas. The old beliefs that have been dormant for centuries seem to be awakening from their secular inertia and are astonished to see themselves grappling with new beliefs, emanating from the philosophers and thinkers of this as well as the past century. The degraded system of a world that was only a simulacrum collapses before the dawn of the real world, of the new world.
The law of solidarity, of the family, passed to the inhabitants of the States and then conquered the whole earth; but this law, so wise, so progressive, in a word, this divine law, was not limited to this unique result; infiltrating the hearts of great men, she taught them that, not only was it necessary for the great improvement of your world, but that it extended to all the worlds of your solar system, to extend from there to all the worlds of the immensity! This law of universal solidarity is beautiful, because this sublime maxim is in that law: all for one, one for all.
Here, my children, is the true law of Spiritism, the true conquest of a near future. So, walk on your path composedly, without worrying about the mockery of some and the crushed self-love of others. We are and will remain with you, under the aegis of the Spirit of Truth, my master and yours. (Erastus, Paris, 1863).
9. – Every day Spiritism extends the circle of its moralizing teaching. Its great voice echoed from one end to the other of Earth. The Society was moved by it, followers and adversaries came out of it. Keen followers, skillful adversaries, but whose very skill and fame served the cause they wanted to fight, calling the gaze of the masses on the new doctrine, and inviting them to know the regenerative teachings advocated by its followers, and that they derided and ridiculed.
Contemplate the work accomplished and enjoy the result! But what unspeakable effervescence will occur among the peoples, when the names of their most beloved writers will join the most obscure or less known names of those who huddle around the flag of truth!
See what the work of a few isolated groups has produced, most of them hampered by intrigue and unwillingness, and imagine the revolution that will take place when all the members of the great Spiritist family will hold hands, and will declare, with their heads up and proud hearts, the sincerity of their faith and belief in the reality of the teaching of the Spirits.
The masses love progress, they seek it, but they fear it. The unknown inspires a secret fear in the ignorant children of a society lulled by prejudices, that tries its first steps in the path of reality and moral progress. The great words of liberty, progress, love, and charity strike the people without moving them; they often prefer their present and mediocre state to a better, but unknown future.
The reason for this dread of the future lies in the ignorance of moral sentiment in many, and intelligent sentiment in others. But it is not true, as several renowned philosophers have said, that a false conception of the origin of things has caused people to err, as I have said myself - why would I blush to say it; couldn’t I have been wrong? - it is not true, I used to say, that humanity is inherently bad; no, by perfecting its intelligence, it will not give a more extensive development to its evil dualities. Get rid of these hopeless thoughts that are based on a false knowledge of the human mind.
Humanity is not bad by nature; but it is ignorant, and therefore, more apt to allow itself to be ruled by its passions. It is progressive and must progress to reach its destinies; enlighten it; show its hidden enemies in the shadows; develop its moral essence, which is innate, and only dozes off under the influence of bad instincts, and you will rekindle the spark of eternal truth, of the eternal prescience of the infinite, of the beautiful and of the good that forever resides in the heart of man, even in the most perverse one.
You the children of a new doctrine, unite your forces; may the divine breath and the help of the good Spirits sustain you, and you will do great things. You will have the glory of having laid the foundations of imperishable principles from which your descendants will reap the fruits. (Montaigne, Paris, 1865).
Stars will fall from the skyes
10. - Oh! how beautiful is the light of the Lord! What a prodigious brilliance its rays spread! Holy Sion![1] Blessed are those who sit in the shade of your tabernacles! Oh! What harmony is comparable to the spheres of the Lord! Incomprehensible beauty to mortal eyes, unable to see anything that does not belong to the domain of the senses!
A splendid dawn of a new day, Spiritism comes to enlighten men. Already stronger lights appear on the horizon; already the Spirits of darkness, seeing that their empire is going to crumble, are in the grip of powerless rages, and throw their last strengths into infernal plots. Already the radiant angel of progress is spreading its white variegated wings; already the virtues of heavens are shaken, and the stars fall from their dome, but transformed into pure Spirits, who come, as the Scriptures announces in figurative language, to proclaim the advent of the Son of the Man in the ruins of the old world.
Blessed are those whose hearts are prepared to receive the divine seed that the Spirits of the Lord throw to all winds of heaven! Blessed are those who cultivate, in the sanctuary of their soul, the virtues that Christ came to teach them, and that he still teaches by the voice of the mediums, that is, the instruments that repeat the words of the Spirits! Blessed are the righteous, for the kingdom of heaven will be theirs!
O my friends! continue to walk in the path that has been laid out for you; do not be obstacles to the truth that wishes to enlighten the world; no, be zealous and tireless propagators, like the first apostles, who had no roof to shelter their heads, but who marched to the conquest that Jesus had begun; who walked without ulterior motive, without hesitation; who sacrificed everything, to the last drop of their blood, for Christianity to be established.
You, my friends, do not need such great sacrifices; no, God is not asking you for your life, but your heart, your good will. Therefore, be zealous, and walk united and confident, repeating the divine word: “My Father, your will be done and not mine!” (Dupuch, Bishop of Algiers, Bordeaux, 1863.)
[1] Nicholas of Sion was a 6th-century Christian saint from Pharroa, in Lycia (Wikipedia, T.N.)
A splendid dawn of a new day, Spiritism comes to enlighten men. Already stronger lights appear on the horizon; already the Spirits of darkness, seeing that their empire is going to crumble, are in the grip of powerless rages, and throw their last strengths into infernal plots. Already the radiant angel of progress is spreading its white variegated wings; already the virtues of heavens are shaken, and the stars fall from their dome, but transformed into pure Spirits, who come, as the Scriptures announces in figurative language, to proclaim the advent of the Son of the Man in the ruins of the old world.
Blessed are those whose hearts are prepared to receive the divine seed that the Spirits of the Lord throw to all winds of heaven! Blessed are those who cultivate, in the sanctuary of their soul, the virtues that Christ came to teach them, and that he still teaches by the voice of the mediums, that is, the instruments that repeat the words of the Spirits! Blessed are the righteous, for the kingdom of heaven will be theirs!
O my friends! continue to walk in the path that has been laid out for you; do not be obstacles to the truth that wishes to enlighten the world; no, be zealous and tireless propagators, like the first apostles, who had no roof to shelter their heads, but who marched to the conquest that Jesus had begun; who walked without ulterior motive, without hesitation; who sacrificed everything, to the last drop of their blood, for Christianity to be established.
You, my friends, do not need such great sacrifices; no, God is not asking you for your life, but your heart, your good will. Therefore, be zealous, and walk united and confident, repeating the divine word: “My Father, your will be done and not mine!” (Dupuch, Bishop of Algiers, Bordeaux, 1863.)
[1] Nicholas of Sion was a 6th-century Christian saint from Pharroa, in Lycia (Wikipedia, T.N.)
The dead will come out of their graves
11. - Peoples, listen! … A great voice is heard from one end of the world to the other; it is that of the precursor, announcing the coming of the Spirit of Truth who comes to straighten the tortuous ways where the human spirit strayed in false sophisms. It is the angel's trumpet coming to wake up the dead to come out of their graves.
You have often read the revelation of John, and you have asked yourself: But what does he mean? How then will these amazing things be accomplished? And your reason, mixed up, sank into a dark maze from which it could not come out, because you wanted to take literally what was rendered in a figurative style.
Now that the time has come for some of those predictions to be fulfilled, you will gradually learn to read in this book where the beloved disciple recorded the things he was given to see. However, bad translations and misinterpretations will still bother you a bit, but with perseverance you will come to understand what, until now, had been closed to you.
Understand only that, if God allows the veils to be lifted earlier for some, it is not so that this knowledge remains sterile in their hands, but so that, tireless pioneers, they clear the wasteland; it is so that they may fertilize, with the sweet dew of charity, hearts dried up by pride and hindered by worldly embarrassments, where the good seed of the word of life has not yet been able to sprout.
Alas! How many see human life as having to be a perpetual party, where distractions and pleasures follow one another without interruption! They invent a thousand things to charm their leisure time; they cultivate their mind, because it is one of the brilliant facets used to bring out their personality; they are like those ephemeral bubbles reflecting the colors of the prism, and swaying in space: they attract attention for a time, then you look for them… they have disappeared without a trace. In the same way these worldly souls shone with a borrowed brilliance, during their short earthly passage, from which nothing useful was taken, neither for their fellows nor for themselves.
You who know the value of time, you to whom the laws of the eternal wisdom are gradually revealed, be docile instruments in the hands of the Almighty, serving to bring light and fruitfulness to these souls of whom it is said : "They have eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear," because having turned away from the torch of truth, and having listened to the voice of the passions, their light is only darkness in which the Spirit cannot recognize the road that leads him towards God.
Spiritism is that powerful voice that is already echoing to the ends of Earth; all will hear it. Happy are those who, not voluntarily covering their ears, will come out of their selfishness, as the dead would do from their tombs, and henceforth accomplish the acts of true life, that of the Spirit freeing himself from the shackles of matter, as did Lazarus from his shroud, to the voice of the Savior.
Spiritism sets the solemn hour of the awakening of the intelligences, who used their free will to linger around in the muddy paths whose deleterious miasmas have infected the soul with a slow poison that gives it the appearance of death. The Heavenly Father has pity on these prodigal children, fallen so low that they do not even think of the paternal home, and it is for them that he allows these brilliant manifestations, intended to convince that beyond this world of perishable forms, the soul retains the memory, the power and the immortality.
May these poor slaves of matter, shake off the torpor that has prevented them from seeing and understanding until this day; may they study with sincerity, so that the divine light, penetrating their soul, cast out doubt and skepticism. (John, the Evangelist, Paris, 1866).
You have often read the revelation of John, and you have asked yourself: But what does he mean? How then will these amazing things be accomplished? And your reason, mixed up, sank into a dark maze from which it could not come out, because you wanted to take literally what was rendered in a figurative style.
Now that the time has come for some of those predictions to be fulfilled, you will gradually learn to read in this book where the beloved disciple recorded the things he was given to see. However, bad translations and misinterpretations will still bother you a bit, but with perseverance you will come to understand what, until now, had been closed to you.
Understand only that, if God allows the veils to be lifted earlier for some, it is not so that this knowledge remains sterile in their hands, but so that, tireless pioneers, they clear the wasteland; it is so that they may fertilize, with the sweet dew of charity, hearts dried up by pride and hindered by worldly embarrassments, where the good seed of the word of life has not yet been able to sprout.
Alas! How many see human life as having to be a perpetual party, where distractions and pleasures follow one another without interruption! They invent a thousand things to charm their leisure time; they cultivate their mind, because it is one of the brilliant facets used to bring out their personality; they are like those ephemeral bubbles reflecting the colors of the prism, and swaying in space: they attract attention for a time, then you look for them… they have disappeared without a trace. In the same way these worldly souls shone with a borrowed brilliance, during their short earthly passage, from which nothing useful was taken, neither for their fellows nor for themselves.
You who know the value of time, you to whom the laws of the eternal wisdom are gradually revealed, be docile instruments in the hands of the Almighty, serving to bring light and fruitfulness to these souls of whom it is said : "They have eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear," because having turned away from the torch of truth, and having listened to the voice of the passions, their light is only darkness in which the Spirit cannot recognize the road that leads him towards God.
Spiritism is that powerful voice that is already echoing to the ends of Earth; all will hear it. Happy are those who, not voluntarily covering their ears, will come out of their selfishness, as the dead would do from their tombs, and henceforth accomplish the acts of true life, that of the Spirit freeing himself from the shackles of matter, as did Lazarus from his shroud, to the voice of the Savior.
Spiritism sets the solemn hour of the awakening of the intelligences, who used their free will to linger around in the muddy paths whose deleterious miasmas have infected the soul with a slow poison that gives it the appearance of death. The Heavenly Father has pity on these prodigal children, fallen so low that they do not even think of the paternal home, and it is for them that he allows these brilliant manifestations, intended to convince that beyond this world of perishable forms, the soul retains the memory, the power and the immortality.
May these poor slaves of matter, shake off the torpor that has prevented them from seeing and understanding until this day; may they study with sincerity, so that the divine light, penetrating their soul, cast out doubt and skepticism. (John, the Evangelist, Paris, 1866).
The final judgement
12. - Jesus will come in the clouds to judge the living and the dead.
Yes, God will send him, as he sends him every day, to render this sovereign justice in the immense plains of the ether. Ah! When Saint James was cast down from the top of the tower of the temple of Jerusalem, by the pontiffs and the Pharisees, for having announced to the assembled people this truth taught by Christ and his apostles, remember that at this word of the just, the multitude bowed down, crying: Glory to Jesus, son of God, in the highest heaven!
He will come in the clouds to hold his formidable foundations: isn’t this telling you, O Spiritists, that he is perpetually coming to receive the souls of those who return to erraticity? Go to my right, said the shepherd to his sheep, you who have done well according to my Father's views, go to my right and go up to him; as for you, who have let yourselves be dominated by the passions of Earth, go to my left, you are doomed.
Yes, you are condemned to begin the journey again, in a new earthly existence, until you are done with matters and iniquities, and you have finally driven out the impurity that dominates you. Yes, you are doomed; therefore, go and return to the hell of human life, while your brothers on my right will rush towards the higher spheres, from which the passions of Earth are excluded, until the day when they enter the kingdom of my Father by a greater purification.
Yes, Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead; the living: the righteous, those on his right hand side; the dead: the unclean, those on his left side; and when the wings sprout from the righteous, matter will take hold of the unclean again; and this, until they emerge victorious from the fights against impurity, and finally, forever strip themselves of their human chrysalises.
O Spiritists! You see that your doctrine is the only one that consoles, the only one that gives hope, by not condemning to eternal disgrace those unfortunate ones who have behaved badly for a few minutes of eternity; the only one, finally, that predicts the true end of Earth by the gradual elevation of the Spirits.
So, progress by stripping the old man, to enter the region of the beloved Spirits of God. (Erastus, Paris, 1861).
13. - Society in general, or to put it better, the reunion of beings, both incarnate and discarnate, who make up the floating population of a world, in a word, a humanity, is no other than a great collective child who, like any being endowed with life, goes through all the successive phases that takes place in each one, from birth to the most advanced age; and just as the development of the individual is accompanied by certain physical and intellectual disturbances that are more particularly incumbent on certain periods of life, humanity has its diseases of growth, its moral and intellectual upheavals. It is one of those great eras that end one period and begin another that you are given to witness. Participating at the same time in the things of the past and those of the future, in the systems that crumble and in the truths that are founded, be careful, my friends, to put yourselves on the side of solidity, of progress and logic, if you don't want to be pushed astray, abandoning the sumptuous palace in appearance, but vacillating in its foundation, and that will soon bury under their ruins the unfortunate ones, foolish enough not to want to leave them, in spite of the warnings of all kinds lavished upon them.
All fronts darken, and the apparent calm you enjoy only serves to accumulate more destructive elements. Sometimes the storm that destroys the fruit of a year's sweats is preceded by precursors that allow the necessary precautions to be taken to avoid devastation, as much as possible. This time it will not be so. The darkened sky will seem to brighten; the clouds will flee; then, suddenly, all the long-suppressed fury will be unleashed with unheard-of violence.
Woe to those who will not have prepared a shelter! Woe to the swaggers who will face danger unarmed and their breasts uncovered! Woe to those who will face the peril with a cup in hand! What a terrible disappointment awaits them! They will be struck before the cup they hold reaches their lips!
So, get to work, Spiritists, and don't forget that you must be all prudence and all foresight. You have a shield, know how to use it; an anchor of salvation, do not neglect it. (Clélie Duplantie, Paris, 1867).
Yes, God will send him, as he sends him every day, to render this sovereign justice in the immense plains of the ether. Ah! When Saint James was cast down from the top of the tower of the temple of Jerusalem, by the pontiffs and the Pharisees, for having announced to the assembled people this truth taught by Christ and his apostles, remember that at this word of the just, the multitude bowed down, crying: Glory to Jesus, son of God, in the highest heaven!
He will come in the clouds to hold his formidable foundations: isn’t this telling you, O Spiritists, that he is perpetually coming to receive the souls of those who return to erraticity? Go to my right, said the shepherd to his sheep, you who have done well according to my Father's views, go to my right and go up to him; as for you, who have let yourselves be dominated by the passions of Earth, go to my left, you are doomed.
Yes, you are condemned to begin the journey again, in a new earthly existence, until you are done with matters and iniquities, and you have finally driven out the impurity that dominates you. Yes, you are doomed; therefore, go and return to the hell of human life, while your brothers on my right will rush towards the higher spheres, from which the passions of Earth are excluded, until the day when they enter the kingdom of my Father by a greater purification.
Yes, Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead; the living: the righteous, those on his right hand side; the dead: the unclean, those on his left side; and when the wings sprout from the righteous, matter will take hold of the unclean again; and this, until they emerge victorious from the fights against impurity, and finally, forever strip themselves of their human chrysalises.
O Spiritists! You see that your doctrine is the only one that consoles, the only one that gives hope, by not condemning to eternal disgrace those unfortunate ones who have behaved badly for a few minutes of eternity; the only one, finally, that predicts the true end of Earth by the gradual elevation of the Spirits.
So, progress by stripping the old man, to enter the region of the beloved Spirits of God. (Erastus, Paris, 1861).
13. - Society in general, or to put it better, the reunion of beings, both incarnate and discarnate, who make up the floating population of a world, in a word, a humanity, is no other than a great collective child who, like any being endowed with life, goes through all the successive phases that takes place in each one, from birth to the most advanced age; and just as the development of the individual is accompanied by certain physical and intellectual disturbances that are more particularly incumbent on certain periods of life, humanity has its diseases of growth, its moral and intellectual upheavals. It is one of those great eras that end one period and begin another that you are given to witness. Participating at the same time in the things of the past and those of the future, in the systems that crumble and in the truths that are founded, be careful, my friends, to put yourselves on the side of solidity, of progress and logic, if you don't want to be pushed astray, abandoning the sumptuous palace in appearance, but vacillating in its foundation, and that will soon bury under their ruins the unfortunate ones, foolish enough not to want to leave them, in spite of the warnings of all kinds lavished upon them.
All fronts darken, and the apparent calm you enjoy only serves to accumulate more destructive elements. Sometimes the storm that destroys the fruit of a year's sweats is preceded by precursors that allow the necessary precautions to be taken to avoid devastation, as much as possible. This time it will not be so. The darkened sky will seem to brighten; the clouds will flee; then, suddenly, all the long-suppressed fury will be unleashed with unheard-of violence.
Woe to those who will not have prepared a shelter! Woe to the swaggers who will face danger unarmed and their breasts uncovered! Woe to those who will face the peril with a cup in hand! What a terrible disappointment awaits them! They will be struck before the cup they hold reaches their lips!
So, get to work, Spiritists, and don't forget that you must be all prudence and all foresight. You have a shield, know how to use it; an anchor of salvation, do not neglect it. (Clélie Duplantie, Paris, 1867).