Example 2 - THE FATHER AND THE CONSCRIPT.

— At the beginning of the war in Italy, in 1859, a merchant of Paris, a family man enjoying general esteem on the part of his neighbors, had a son who had been drawn by lot for military service.

Unable to exempt him from such service, the idea occurred to him to commit suicide in order to release the son from it, as the only son of a widowed woman.

A year later, he was evoked at the Society of Paris at the request of a person who had known him, desiring to ascertain his fate in the spiritual world.

(To Saint Louis.) Could you tell us whether it is possible to evoke the Spirit to whom we have just referred? — A. Yes, and he will gain from it, because he will be more relieved.

Evocation. — A. Oh! thank you! I suffer greatly, but… it is just. Nevertheless, He will forgive me.

The Spirit writes with great difficulty; the characters are irregular and ill-formed; after the word but, he stops, and, trying in vain to write, manages only to make a few indecipherable strokes and dots. It is evident that it was the word God that he could not manage to write.

Be so good as to fill in the gap with the word you failed to write. — A. I am unworthy to write it.

You said that you suffer; you understand that you did very wrong in committing suicide; but did the motive that led you to that act not provoke any leniency? — A. The punishment will be less long, but the action is no less bad for that.

Could you describe this punishment to us? — A. I suffer doubly, in soul and in body; 2 and I suffer in the latter, although I do not possess it, as one who has been operated upon suffers the lack of an amputated limb.

Was the carrying out of your suicide caused solely by the exemption of your son, or did other reasons contribute to it? — A. I was entirely inspired by paternal love, but ill inspired.

In consideration of that, my penalty will be shortened.

Can you specify the duration of your sufferings? — A. I do not foresee their end, 2 but I am certain that it exists, which is a relief to me.

A little while ago it was not possible for you to write the word God, and yet we have seen Spirits who suffer greatly do so: is this a consequence of your punishment? — A. I shall be able to do it with great efforts of repentance.

Then make those efforts to write it, for we are sure that you will be relieved.

The Spirit finally traced this sentence in thick, irregular, and trembling characters: “God is very good.”

We are pleased by the goodwill with which you have responded to our evocation, and we are going to ask God to extend His mercy over you. — A. Yes, thank you.

(To Saint Louis.) — Could you give us your assessment of this suicide? — A. This Spirit suffers justly, for he lacked confidence in God, a fault that is always punishable.

The punishment would be greater and more lasting were it not for the mitigating circumstance of the praiseworthy motive of preventing his son from being exposed to death in war.

God, who is just and sees the depths of hearts, punishes him only in accordance with his works.

OBSERVATION. — At first sight, as an act of self-denial, this suicide might be considered excusable. Indeed it is so, but not in an absolute manner.

This man lacked confidence in God, as the Spirit Saint Louis said. His action perhaps prevented the fulfillment of his son’s destiny; moreover, he had no certainty that the son would perish in the war, and the military career might perhaps have furnished him an occasion to advance.

The intention was good, and this mitigates the harm caused and merits leniency; but evil is always evil, and were it not so, one could, shielded by reasoning, excuse all crimes and even kill on the pretext of rendering services.

Would the mother who kills her child, believing she is sending it to Heaven, be less guilty for having done so with good intention? There is a system that would go so far as to justify all the crimes committed by the blind fanaticism of religious wars.

As a rule, man does not have the right to dispose of his life, since it was given to him with a view to duties to be fulfilled on Earth, reason enough that he should not voluntarily shorten it, under any pretext.

But man — since he has his free will — is prevented by no one from infringing this law. He is subject, however, to its consequences.

The suicide most severely punished is that resulting from the despair that seeks redemption from earthly miseries, miseries that are at the same time expiations and trials. To flee from them is to recoil before the accepted task and, sometimes, before the mission one was to fulfill.

Suicide does not consist solely in the voluntary act that produces instantaneous death, but in everything that one does consciously to hasten the extinction of the vital forces.

One cannot brand as a suicide the person who devotedly exposes himself to death in order to save his fellow being: first, because in such a case there is no intention of depriving oneself of life, and, second, because there is no danger from which Providence cannot deliver us, when our hour has not come. Death in such circumstances is a meritorious sacrifice, as an act of self-denial for the benefit of another. (The Gospel According to Spiritism, chapter V, items 14, 28, 29, 30.)