Example 4 - Mr. CARDON, physician.

— He had spent part of his life in the merchant marine, as physician on a whaling ship, acquiring in that environment somewhat materialistic ideas; having retired to the town of J…, he there practiced the modest profession of country physician.

For some time, he had acquired the certainty of being afflicted with a hypertrophy of the heart, and, knowing the illness incurable, he let himself be cast down by the prospect of death, in a state of inconsolable melancholy.

He predicted the exact day of his passing, about two months in advance, and, when the moment arrived, he gathered his family to bid them their last farewell.

With his wife, his mother, his three children and other relatives gathered at the edge of his bed, when the first tried to raise him, he collapsed, becoming a livid purple and closing his eyes, by which he was judged dead. His wife then placed herself in between, to hide this spectacle from the children.

Minutes later, the sick man reopened his eyes; his face, illuminated so to speak, took on a radiant expression of beatitude, and he exclaimed: “Oh! my children, beautiful! sublime! Oh! death! what a benefit! what a sweet thing!

Dead, I felt my soul rise very high, but God permitted me to return to tell you: “Do not lament my death, which is liberation…”

Ah! that I cannot describe to you the magnificence of all that I saw, the impressions I experienced! But you could not understand them…

Oh! my children, always conduct yourselves so as to merit this ineffable happiness reserved for men of goodness; live according to the precepts of charity; of what you have, give a part to the needy…

My dear wife, I leave you in a position little to be envied; we have debts to collect, but I conjure you not to torment our debtors; if they are in difficulty, wait until they can pay; and to those who cannot do so, forgive them. God will reward you.

You, my son, work to support your mother; be honest always and guard yourself against doing anything that might stain our family. Take this cross, an inheritance from my mother; never leave it, and may it always recall to you my last counsels:

My children, help one another, support one another so that good harmony may reign among you; do not be vain nor proud; forgive your enemies if you wish God to forgive you…”

Then, drawing them to himself, he took their hands, adding: “Children, I bless you.” And his eyes closed, this time forever; his face, however, retained an expression so imposing that, until the moment of being shrouded, a numerous throng came to contemplate it, seized with admiration. . A friend of the family having furnished us these rather interesting particulars, we recalled that the evocation could become instructive to all of us, and useful to the Spirit himself.

Evocation: — A. “I am near you.”

The circumstances in which your passing took place were recounted to us, and we were filled with admiration. Would you have the kindness to describe to us still more minutely what you saw in the interval of what we might call your two deaths? — A. What I saw… And could you understand it? I do not know, seeing that I would not find expressions suited to the comprehension of what I was able to see during the instants in which it was possible for me to leave the mortal envelope.

And do you know in what place you were? Was it far from Earth, on another planet, or in Space? — A. The Spirit does not measure distances, nor know their value as happens with you.

Carried off by I know not what marvelous agent, I saw the splendors of a heaven, of those that only in dream can we imagine. This passage, through the infinite, was made with such swiftness that I could not determine the instants employed in it by my Spirit.

And do you presently enjoy the happiness you glimpsed? — A. No;

I would much desire to be able to enjoy it, but God should not reward me in such a manner. I revolted many times against the blessed thoughts that my heart dictated to me, and death seemed to me an injustice.

An unbelieving physician, I had assimilated in the art of healing a profound aversion toward the second nature, which is our intelligent, divine impulse; for me the immortality of the soul was nothing but a fiction fit to seduce the little-instructed natures, although nothingness frightened me, cursing the mysterious agent that acts perennially.

Philosophy had turned me away, without my being aware of it, from the comprehension of the grandeur of the Eternal, who knows how to distribute pain and joy for the instruction of Humanity.

Right after the definitive detachment, did you recognize your state? — A. No; I only recognized myself during the transition that my Spirit experienced in traversing the ethereal region; 2 but after the real death, no; some days being necessary for my awakening.

God had granted me a grace, by reason of what I am going to explain to you: My primitive disbelief existed no more; I had become a believer before death, after having scientifically and gravely probed the matter that tormented me, after having found, at the end of earthly reasons, only the divine reason, which inspired and consoled me, giving me courage stronger than pain.

Thus, I blessed what I had cursed, I regarded death as a liberation.

The idea of God is as great as the world!

Oh! what a supreme consolation in prayer, which softens and moves us: it is the most positive element of our immaterial nature; it was through it that I understood, that I believed firmly, sovereignly, and, for this, God, taking into account my acts, saw fit to reward me before the end of my incarnation.

Could it be said that you were dead in that first crisis? — A. Yes and no: the Spirit having abandoned the body, naturally the flesh was extinguished; meanwhile, retaking possession of the earthly dwelling, life returned to the body, which passed through a transition, through a sleep.

And did you then feel the bonds that bound you to the body? — A. Without doubt; the Spirit has a very strong fetter binding it, and it does not enter into the natural life before the flesh gives its last shudder.

How, then, in your apparent death and during a few minutes, could your Spirit detach itself suddenly and imperturbably, whereas the actual detachment was accompanied by disturbance for some days? It seems to us that in the first case, the bonds between body and Spirit subsisting more than in the second, the detachment should have been slower, just the contrary of what occurred. — A. You have many times evoked an incarnate Spirit, receiving exact answers; I was in the conditions of such as those.

God called me and his servants said to me: — “Come…” I obeyed, thanking him for the special favor he saw fit to grant me so that I might glimpse, understanding it, his infinite grandeur.

Thanks to you, who before the real death permitted me to indoctrinate my own, so that they may make good and just incarnations.

Whence came the beautiful words that after the awakening you addressed to your family? — A. They were the reflection of what I had seen and heard; the good Spirits inspired my language and gave radiance to my face.

What impression do you think your revelation produced on those present, notably on your children? — A. Surprising, profound; death does not lie; children, however ungrateful they may be, always bow before the incarnation that ends.

If we could penetrate the heart of children, beside a half-open tomb, we would see it merely throb with true, sincere sentiments, touched by the secret hand of the Spirits, who say in all thoughts: Tremble if you doubt; death is the reparation, the justice of God, 3 and I assure you, despite the unbelievers, that my family and friends believed in the words pronounced by me before death. I was, moreover, the interpreter of another world.

Saying you do not enjoy the happiness glimpsed, may it be inferred that you are unhappy? — A. No, since I became a believer before death, and this with heart and conscience.

Pain overwhelms in that world, but strengthens from the point of view of the spiritual future.

Note that God took into account my prayers and the belief placed in him absolutely;

I am firm on the path of perfection, and I will reach the end that was permitted me to descry.

Pray, my friends, for this invisible world that presides over your destinies; this fraternal exchange is of charity; it is the lever that puts in communion the Spirits of all worlds.

Would you perhaps wish to address a few words to your wife and children? — A. I ask all my own to believe in the powerful, just, immutable God; 2 in prayer that consoles and relieves; 3 in charity, which is the purest practice of human incarnation;

I ask them to remember that from the little one can also give, for the mite of the poor is the most meritorious in the eyes of God, of that God who knows that a poor man gives much, even if he gives little; 5 the rich man needs to give much, and repeatedly, to merit as much.

The future is charity, benevolence in all acts; it is to consider that all Spirits are brothers, without ever concerning oneself with the thousand puerile vanities of Earth.

You will have harsh trials, dear, beloved family; accept them, however, courageously, remembering that God sees them.

Repeat often this prayer:

— “God of love and goodness, who grants all things and always, give us strength superior to all vicissitudes, make us good, humble and charitable, small in fortune and great of heart. Permit our Spirit to be Spiritist on Earth, in order that we may better understand you and love you.

“May your name be the emblem of liberty, oh! my God! The consoler of all the oppressed, of all who need to love, to forgive and to believe.”

Cardon.”